Party Season

Tokens of appreciation

It's a busy time of year for most people and there are usually plenty of events to attend in the lead up to Christmas.  Work functions, barbeques, family reunions (eek!) and, if you're brave, you throw your own party!

Attending this whirl of activity can get expensive, new clothes, the food, the wine but it is often the gift that causes the most anxiety.  A small token of appreciation is an appropriate way to thank your host and wish them all the best for the season, but it's picking out something a little different and a little easier on the waistline, that can be a challenge for some.  

Here at Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez, you have a vast range of all natural, vegan soaps, hand-crafted right here in Adelaide, to select from if you are looking for an inexpensive gift.  Take a look here:

There are 19 soaps to choose from!  Each soap comes packaged in a lovely box, ready to gift, and only $7.50 per bar!  This is good value when you consider the luxurious oils used to make the soaps, designed to cleanse your skin without making you as dry as a biscuit.  Each bar is scented with essential oils - oils extracted from flowers, leaves and fruits - which provide you with an authentic, natural sensory experience without being bowled over by tenacious synthetic fragrances.

Visit the shop by clicking the button above.  Have fun and let me know if you have any queries.

One Fine Summer - Remix

A tweaking of a favourite soap

Having sold out of the first batch of One Fine Summer, I quickly whipped up a new batch.  I have kept the same oil content as the first batch, as this is a wonderful, creamy soap and I wanted to keep it that way.  I have, however, switched the green to mica and added a splash of rose red (a mix of French pink clay and red oxide).  

One Fine Summer still has that glorious scent - so hard to describe but it's like a citrusy floral, green and sweet.  Here is a snap of the soap just poured into its mould.  The colours will be be more subdued in the cured soap, of course, but how promising!  Four long weeks to wait for this one, but let me know if you want to reserve a bar or two as this one gets snapped up quickly!

Of Worthy Advice and Bad Art

Book finds

While being a lovely sunny day, there is always time to pop into second-hand bookshops and dig up some treasures from dark and dusty shelves.

My recent finds include "The Practical Way to Keep Fit" (ha!) by Harry Roberts and "How to Write, Think and Speak Correctly" (I know what you're thinking, reader) by C.E.M. Joad.  Both are part of Odhams Press Ltd's quaint range of self-improvement books for the Everyman, probably from the 1920s and both have the same lovely endpapers. 

Knowing how to write, think and speak correctly is all very worthy (an' all that), but the guide to keeping fit is my favourite of the two, mainly for its illustrations.  The text is ponderous and preachy and reminds me of being trapped at a party by a perfectly lovely but deadly dull guest.  The illustrations, however, are a bit of a hoot.  They range in quality, staying on the dark side of mediocre for the most part, but some are really very bad!  Some have quite funny captions and others are just, well, inexplicable.

 

You're telling me it does!

Well, that's all very well for him!

 Not even trying.

Gift Buying For Him

A selection 

It's coming up to that time of year again and the (sometimes) painful task of buying gifts is here!  I have noticed over the years that the people who are the least frazzled by gift buying seem to follow a few simple rules:

1. buy early;
2. buy thoughtful; and
3. buy small.

I think buying for men is particularly difficult for some people, but here at Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez, I have a few solutions for you:

Top Row
The Emperor's Chai  delicious cardamom
Mister X...               green and earthy vetiver
Lemon Meringue       lemony may chang

Middle Row
Smokey Joe             sophisticated smokey cade
Evening Star            aromatic star anise and basil
A Siberian Wood      a dry wood

Bottom Row
Spearmint Julep       fresh spearmint
St Clement's             zesty sweet orange and may chang
The Fez No. 1          the gin and tonic of soap, lemongrass, may chang, juniperberry and
                              wormwood

Each soap is available from the Shanghai Lil and the Scarlet Fez shop for $7.50, plus postage.  Each soap is hand crafted from all natural ingredients, vegan and without palm oil.  Packaged and labelled in a range of beautiful boxes, these soaps make a thoughtful (relaxed gift-buying person's number 2 rule) and small (relaxed gift-buying person's number 3 rule) gift for men.   Buy now and I can help you with relaxed gift-buying person's number 1 rule too!

My further advice is, if you have to buy a gift for a fellow like curly-locks below, I'd suggest Smokey Joe.  He looks the type.

Photo from Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez collection.

Chim Chim Cher-ee Chincheree

What do you get when you mix Mary Poppins with an African lily?

Chincheree!  Beautiful and long lasting, chincherees are the perfect cut flower!

Blackbird, Fly

...super hyper mega fun.

The Blackbird, Fly is a twin lens reflex camera.   The viewfinder is on the top and you look down into it - one of the lens is for the viewfinder, the other to capture the image on film.  It's made of plastic and comes in a range of bright colours.   I haven't taken mine out for a spin for some time, so I might get some more film and experiment.   

Here are some snaps of some 60s architecture in my local area, taken with the Blackbird, Fly.

Mater Dei, Woodville Park and Ukraine Catholic Church, Woodville.

And some other brightly coloured snaps:

Mini Golf at Semaphore and Kingston Park beach.

When in Rome

Breezing along on a breeze

I have just released a new soap - When in Rome.  This wonderfully aromatic basil and spearmint scented soap will be fresh start to the day and put you in the mood for scooting around town with the wind in your hair!

Packed full of excellent quality oils including olive oil, olive pomace, shea oil, rice bran oil, meadowfoam seed oil and a dash of castor oil (for that silky skin feel!), When in Rome is a treat for the skin and the senses!

Sophisticated and youthful, When in Rome is all natural, hand crafted, vegan and contains no palm oil.  Now available in store!

Top photo: Detail from the cover of "The New Target Book for Girls".