A GOOD STARTING POINT (THE LIPSTICK PAPERS BOOK REVIEW)

CRAFTS are no less a part of history than wars and major political events; the material conditions of life are now a large and new field of study. This is The Lipstick Papers Book Review, and we have Lost Crafts, by Una McGovern! With instructions on how to make all the basic knots, this is a book Christian Grey would find useful!

Lost Crafts is lovely and rich, divided in numerous sections, which cover all sorts of craft: farming, gathering, food and drink, home and garden, decoration, etc. I love the illustrations and photographs, which are plenty and in color, and I also love the way it is written. There is the history of the craft, plus basic instructions. How to make strawberry jam, how to make cheese, how to start on weaving, how to shear a sheep!

The only one problem (and it is technical) is that the fonts are too small. Maybe it was to save space for the amazing illustrations and pics --still, it makes the book a bit difficult to use.

I would recommend Lost Crafts to anyone who loves the history of crafts or to read about the home and housekeeping. Also, to anyone interested in learning a craft --it's a good starting point! 

Have a good night and be well xxx

REACH FOR THE STARS

Here I am today with my new stars tattoo on the leg!!! It's my third tattoo, I also have my beloved collie's name on the other leg (my collie died seven years ago) and a pretty rose on the arm. All these perfect tattoos were done at Easyrider in Larnaca Foinikoudes!

For me, the tattoo is a lovely accessory that I can take with me everywhere. I am now on a quest to find the absolute shape to do on the right arm. I have looked at lipstick tattoos (lipstick being my favorite object), books, clocks, the compass, needles, Dolphins, Suns, moons, scissors! All these are things I love. One day I will find it. Also, I plan an owl tattoo for the shoulder.

I think a tattoo is a way to exercise control on a body we don't really have much control over. It can also be a perfect way to hide scars and marks left from treatment.

Bye for now, be well! 😎

THE STUFF OF ROMANCE

STOCKINGS are the stuff of romance ever since Mr Darcy fell in love with Elizabeth Bennet the moment he saw her arrive at his friend's house with red cheeks, flashing eyes and dirty stockings after a long walk in the rain!

Here I am in one of my favorite places on earth, a Calzedonia store! You probably know by now that I am the perfect shopaholic -- my very identity is closely associated with specific shops and consumer goods, and I am happier than happy when I shop! Yes, I am a shopaholic and not ashamed to say it. My shopping doesn't have to be anything expensive, but it has to be pretty and make me experience a "spark of joy". (As the esteemed Marie Kondo would put it, about items we have in the home, in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying).

Hosiery and stockings is another love of my life, right after books, beauty products and clothes. I love Calzedonia, the Italian shop which makes a sparkling addition to the Cyprus shopping experience! Not only the actual products, but also the whole package is coquettish and pretty. I feel more feminine just by stepping into the store.

Victorian women had to be able to mend stockings -- it was an important housekeeping skill. No wonder then that Ginevra Fanshawe, my own favorite Victorian character, is useless at it!

Luckily, nowadays stockings are too strong to need mending. Living in the 21st century certainly has benefits.

Have a good night and be well! xxx

BOUDOIR ITEMS

The little note paper holder in the shape of a powder puff is one of my most prized possessions! Note I said prized, not expensive. I don't have expensive possessions, and soon my car will qualify for an antique. Beauty and aesthetic quality have nothing to do with money!!!

The note paper case comes from a Marks and Spencer series of desk accessories which were made to resemble boudoir items: powder puffs, little cases, heeled shoes. The series was amazing, and included key rings, diaries and coffee mugs! You cannot imagine how much I loved it. Marks and Spencer, bring it back!!!

My art journal is another prized possession. Here is a drawing of Brigitte Bardot! Bardot is my ideal of female style and beauty and I never tire to draw her. Did you know that she is the face of Marianne, the official personification of the French Republic?

Have a good evening and be well xxx

NOTHING BEATS THE SPANISH ROSE

OBJECTS are a way to put order into the chaos of life, Thad Logan says in The Victorian Parlour: A Cultural Study. She is absolutely right! The object that makes life less chaotic, for me, is, of course -- the lipstick!!!!!

No matter how bad life is (and I have learnt the hard way that it can be really nasty) a slash of lipstick always makes things better, brighter.

Especially if, like me, you are in love with specific lipsticks. Here I am today buying my favorite, the FR Spanish Rose Clinique lipstick! NOTHING beats the Spanish Rose!

Victorians collected objects that gave them a sense of belonging in an era of urban and industrial development: they collected paintings of domestic life, embroidery, art pieces made of parian marble, magazine annuals with articles about fashion and the home life. An era's favorite objects have a lot to say about that era's loves, obsessions, fears and concerns.

Lipstick is, for me, the ultimate object and the only thing I probably love as much as I love books. 

Buying lipstick, new or an old favorite, makes me happy!

Have a good evening and be well xxx

THIS ONLY ADDS TO THE MAGIC (THE LIPSTICK PAPERS BOOK REVIEW)

THERE ARE no better accessories than a hat, a book and a tattoo, and I got all three! OK, I got two tattoos, but this only adds to the magic.

Hello and welcome to The Lipstick Papers Book Review -- tonight we have Women Only, a collection edited by Sotirios Bahtsetzis!

This is a bilingual book, in English and Greek, issued on the occasion of a female art exhibition in Amphilochia (Αμφιλοχία), Greece. 

I love Women Only. It has very useful chapters on gender, which I have used for my own papers. Especially I loved the introduction, written by Angela Dimitrakaki, who teaches at the Art History department of Edinburgh University. I used some of her ideas on domesticity in one of my own papers on embroidery!

Apart from the essays, the book features pictures of the artworks themselves, most of them groundbreaking and interesting.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in gender studies, art, female art and history of feminism. However, because it is a special edition, I believe it may not be widely available. So I will give you the ISBN number too: 978-960-6654-79-4.

Have a good night, always with beauty and a book! xxx

THE FAMOUS SPOT

Reading Madame De La Tour Du Pin's memoirs, I have reached the famous spot where she cuts her long, golden hair and throws the curls at sea! Lucie (that's her name) was a French aristocrat who escaped to Boston, US, after months of hiding, thus avoiding the guillotine.

In the US Lucie did very well as owner of a farmstead, selling produce and home-made butter in packages which she decorated herself! I will tell you more as I move into the story. I do know that the husband, who was obsessed with his aristocratic roots, insisted to return to France. It seems (from remarks made by the older Lucie, who tells the story) that they kept their titles but lost their money.

I don't know, but the husband seems to me to have been a spoilt prick. He was a military aristocrat, and had fought wars, but Lucie seems more determined and powerful than he (the escape to the US was her idea).

I find it a bit sad that long blonde hair was associated with frivolity. However, Lucie herself admits that she had been frivolous and spoilt before the Revolution.

You can see in my sketch the attention I give to women's hair. There is going to be a new essay collection out on women's hair, as mentioned in a New Republic article. So excited!!! ❤

THE INVENTION OF A BARBIE LAND WAS MINE (THE LIPSTICK PAPERS BOOK REVIEW)

ONE OF THE FIRST stories I ever wrote, was when I was 8 years old, for a school composition. I imagined a visit to Barbie land: my Barbie doll had come alive and we travelled together to her world of beauty and blonde! Note that in Cyprus we had the Barbie doll, but not the Barbie paraphernalia for many years: the invention of a Barbie land was mine.

I never grew out of my love for Barbie and toys. Today, my research involves dolls and the impact they have on female and girl identity. That is why I was happy to buy this small collection from Agra publishing house: it's called Dolls and Toys (Κούκλες και Παιχνίδια) and features little texts on dolls and toys from authors like Rainer Maria Rilke, Charles Baudelaire, Umberto Eco and others.

Agra is a good publishing house, which brings to the Greek-reading public works of contemporary importance and of some peculiarity, which more "conventional" publishers would not have ordinarily thought to translate. Examples are a work on shadows in art, which began as a museum catalogue, a lovely monograph on angels, feminist books by Marilyn Yalom and so forth. If you are Greek or Greek-speaking, I would recommend Agra.

This book I don't like too much, to be honest. The texts (though I have not read them all) seem to me to be missing something. The chapter on dolls, for instance, failed to catch my attention, and I consider myself a doll researcher. 

However, the book is a good effort, and certainly unique among works published in Greek.

Have a good Sunday and be well! See you again soon :-)

STAY TUNED

WHO can forget the hairdressing episode in Charlotte Bronte's Villette, where Lucy Snowe does not recognize herself after a hairdresser has worked on her hair? Lucy is one of the most eccentric characters in literature -- she rejects beauty and beauty rituals, then complains that she is plain!

Having grown bored with the white in my hair, I decided to pursue my lifelong dream of becoming blonde!

Also, I decided to start gradually, with a light chestnut color and eventually move to a shade of white-gold blonde which I like very much.

There I am, in the pics, starting the process and then with the eventual result!

This first shade seems to me to be a coppery bronze and, to tell you the truth, it's not me. I want either my dark natural color or the blonde. This, I don't like too much.

I hope to finish the process in a few months. It will get lighter from month to month. Stay tuned! xxx

THE PERFECT EXFOLIATOR

NOONE can go to the beach without remembering the excursion to Lyme in Jane Austen's Persuasion!

On the beachfront at Lyme, Anne Eliot's faded beauty comes back; this happens for many reasons, but mainly because Captain Wentworth is again near her, AND he is feeling jealous because another man has been courting Anne! Also, Captain Wentworth is taught a valuable lesson, after Louisa Musgrove's accident. Persuasion is one of the most beautiful love stories ever written. I totally recommend it to anyone who hasn't read!

Here I am on the lovely Ayia Napa beachfront, with the white sand and the clear blue green water. The Ayia Napa-Protaras-Ammochostos triangle have one of the most beautiful sea fronts of the Eastern Mediterranean.

I loved the day, because the sunshine was subdued; clouds hid the sun, but still it wasn't dark -- there was a soft, pale light which was kind on the eyes and the skin.

Plus, the sand is the perfect exfoliator for the feet!

Bye for now, and be well! xxx