Q IS FOR BEAUTY (THE UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING)

MY favorite letter of the alphabet is definitely the letter Q! I mean the English alphabet, coz we don't have Q in the Greek. In the Greek language, the sound and use of "q" belongs to the letter "k" (kappa, Κ).

So, why Q? These are my three reasons:
1. Q is for questions and queries. There is nothing better than a good question. "The unexamined life is not worth living," as Socrates would always say.

2. The shape of Q is so beautiful and feminine! If letters have a gender, Q is definitely a female. The circle and the lovely little curve is pure perfection.

3. Though Mary Quant is not my favorite designer, she is a designer pioneer, and I simply LOVE her surname!!!! In her autobiography, she recognizes that her unusual surname contributed to her fame.

I have the Q in a figurine letter on my desk. I love it so much!

Have a good start to the week!

xxx

LET'S PLAY MASTERS AND SERVANTS (AS DEPECHE MODE WOULD SAY)

I just love my snake bracelet, gift from a friend!!! I love snakes, especially those on a bracelet. Who can forget the Minoan Snake Goddess, powerfully holding the snakes with her bare hands???

Generally, in the pics I am wearing everything I love. This includes my amazing Stradivarius tiger shawl, a fantastic off white sweater from Mango, and the most comfortable combat trousers from Pineapple. Not to mention the just dyed blonde hair!

I love to dress and I love fashion. Though I have a minimal budget I try to look good and wear the fun things I love. I hate it when people say that fashion makes us unhappy and is restricting. Fashion is there to help us look good. Like everything, it is a good servant but a bad master.

Have a great weekend!

Xxx

NO WAY I COULD RESIST

THERE WAS no way I could resist posting pictures of this amazing Berlin wool work! The canvas is a family handiwork, at the house of a friend!

What makes it more amazing for me is also the subject, which is female beauty and art!

The type of embroidery called Berlin wool work was very popular in the Victorian era. Victorian women excelled at producing all sorts of crafts, including embroidery, lace work, knitting and crochet. 

For the middle- and upper-class female, precluded to work by class rules, handicraft and embroidery was a way to fight boredom and the long hours at home. For the working class woman, who worked out of necessity, embroidery was also important: it showed that she was a good housekeeper who took care of her house and family.

Nowadays, embroidery is studied and honored as part of women's history and cultural production. 

I really love this beautiful canvas. How I wish I had time to do some Berlin wool work myself!

xxx

... YET I ALWAYS WEAR LIPSTICK

CAN you believe that I almost took these pics WITHOUT wearing lipstick?????? This is, of course, unacceptable in a blog called The Lipstick Papers. Luckily, I realised that I was posing with no lipstick and remedied the situation. I rarely wear make up, yet I always wear lipstick!

Kalliroe Parren, Καλλιρόη Παρρέν (the famous Greek journalist and intellectual) used to say that you must choose book authors as carefully as you choose your friends. Writing in the 19th century, Parren argued that books must be good for us. I would say the same goes for lipstick! It is, and should be, a careful choice. Lipstick is a lady's best friend.

About book authors, I am not so sure. There are authors who, in my view, have written only one good book. I would choose the book, but not the author. An example, for me, is A.S. Byatt's Possession. It is one of my top books, but I don't like anything else Byatt has written. On Beauty by Zadie Smith, the same. I only like On Beauty from Smith; nothing else.

So I believe that Parren's saying should be modified to go from book authors to the books themselves.

Have a good Tuesday evening!

xxx

APHRODITE, OUR HOME GODDESS

HOW TO focus in periods of great pressure? You have to concentrate on the things that make you happy, as a good friend told me once. For me, these are my nature walks, getting new tattoos and the simple luxuries of life -- like going to the hairdresser's!

Cyprus is unique geologically, because it has risen from the bottom of the sea. Maybe that's why our home goddess, Aphrodite, is also sea-risen and called, in Greek, Αναδυομένη (literally meaning sea-risen).

Geological expeditions come to Cyprus each year from all over the world, to study the mountain geological strata which are, in reality, ocean geological strata. So amazing!

Nature walks were made fashionable by none others than the Romantics and also my beloved Victorians. Another great past time is, for me, to go to the hairdresser, and have my frizzy and unruly hair made beautiful. And the other great past time is, of course, getting a new tattoo!

xxx

LIPSTICKS, COLORS AND BITS OF GREEK WISDOM

Losing a favorite lipstick is like losing a friend!!! One of the greatest worries of a lipstick fanatic, is to hear that a favorite color has been discontinued. Estée Lauder seems to have stopped fuchsia fever and I'm so upset!

I did find another pretty lipstick to buy from Estée Lauder, the lipstick called poppy love, but it is not the same as fuchsia fever. You can see me trying and finally wearing poppy love in the pics.

Though new colors take the place of older ones, I am always a little heart-broken to say goodbye to a favorite lipstick 💄😢:-( Like the famous Greek writer Gregorios Ksenopoulos (Γρηγόριος Ξενόπουλος) used to say, there is a soul in the soulless, material, item of everyday life!!! 

:-)

Have a great weekend xxx

BRIGITTE BARDOT MEETS APOLLO THE SUN GOD

If you have a new, fantastic pair of sunglasses, you should wear it, even if there is no sun out!!! I had been saving for some time to buy this amazing Valentino pair from my friends at Istyle optical!

When I wear these glasses, I feel as if I am at Cannes festival, off for a frappe with my style and beauty idol -- the one and only Brigitte Bardot!

A protective form of eye goggle existed in Inuit cultures since antiquity and in China since the 12th century. But eyeglasses as we know them today were invented in 20th century USA and made popular by Hollywood.

You know that I love the sun more than anything! The sun is actually Apollo the sun god traveling across the sky in his chariot (Artemis Diana, the moon, is his twin sister).

Today is a dark and cloudy day, with color nowhere. Can't wait for Apollo to come back! When the sun shines again, it will be for me a good day.

And of course I will be wearing my new sunglasses 😎

Xxx

A HIDDEN TRUTH

WORLD BOOK DAY is on March 3 in the UK and Ireland, and here I am browsing my friend Mario's book collection! Mario is as much of a book collector as I am ;-)

I think my favorite book scene in literature must be from Possession, where Ronald Mitchell finds the mysterious letter in Randolph Henry Ash's personal copy of Vico in the British Library. (Or is it the British Museum?) Then a long quest begins for a hidden truth!

Another favorite book scene must be where little Jane in Jane Eyre reads Bewick's British Birds. How much happiness books can bring in the little child's gloomy life! Dickens spoke also about this, when the boy David reads adventure books to strengthen himself against abuse from his horrid stepfather (in David Copperfield).

How much I look forward to the World Book Day!

xxx