For my part, you may know, my partner and I bought a house, so my little holiday allowed us to continue the landscaping work. Yes, Yes, Yes, I have the landscaping I always dreamed about! But we did things that were less enjoyable, like plumbing. And since we did not over spend on the project, we had a chance to quietly to enjoy a little time, with our parents at the lake. To occupy myself, I had planned some long overdue knitting, though I only got a little sewing done!

If you are a diligent and loyal reader (I you), you may remember that I am a beginner seamstress, with two dresses planned (adapted from a free pattern I got), some cushion covers and purse with a zipper that has caused me a lot of learning induced headaches!

Still During the time off, I attacked a much more difficult (for my level) project. A "simple" set of dresses with pliers, gathers, zipper and facings… A few months ago (I don't remember actually when), I had started a dress with my sister, who is super-big into sewing. Except that it had not been completed and that since then I have never had the courage to continue. Just the bodice seemed insurmountable when I was accompanied by my sister, so imagine, continuing on my own!

There is a world fabrics out there at I have barely begun to explore. Still I had already spotted a lot of beautiful fabrics that I wanted to try! I had taken a number of test pieces without thinking and now here I am, ready to launch (again) into some new projects!

My first solo attempt (a super simple dress) was a catastrophic experience! So I have chosen to ignore the attempt pretend like it didn't happen and will simply learn from the mistake.

I made my first attempt in a super smooth fabric, which had much to do with its failure, for that I learned not to complicate the task! I cried several times, my cat will testify to that!

So now I have decided to start over, with a new plan and avoid:

• Super smooth fabric
• I had planned a quick cut
• I installed the hooks on the back upside down
• I misunderstood the explanations of the facmenture
• I did not pay attention, by overstitching then made it worse by trying to cut it open with scissors
• I screwed up the installation of the zipper, which only opens about four inches out of twelve and was absolutely not straight

It sounds bad – it is not that bad, honestly, at least not in my eyes – just don't look too close!

This time will be better.

It allowed me to progress and learn from my mistakes!

The instructions on the pattern blog are helpful but they only add value if you are estimable, they don't seem to be written for beginners. The step by step for assembling the dress feels like pieces to a puzzle, which I still struggled to conceptualize the final result. Now I have followed along one and I understand better how the pieces fit together in relation to each other.

I don't think I'll ever install a zipper upside down again! In fact I watched a couple of videos which focused on sewing zippers in and one about replacing them, which I might do. It's embedded in my little brain!

Now I am ready.

In fact it is very motivating to set up a project a bit more complicated than what we know how to do, for one I find it much less boring!

Comeback soon for the continuation of my adventures in sewing!

Jeanne Devolles had five other children: Julia-Berthe (18826-1912) — who, by making her self-indemnity, would have left a son, André Palasse, whom Gabrielle was to take care of as if she was the seamstress's own son, — Alphonse (1885-1953), Antoinette ( 1887-1920), Lucien (1889-1941) and Augustine (1891-1891). Very little is known about Chanel's childhood, of which she spoke very little, other than that she found herself in solitude and did not feel loved by her embittered father, who blamed his wife and children for preventing him from leading the life of success of he dreamed about. This did not prevent Gabrielle from devoting true adoration to this gruff, fickle and often absent father.

Coco's mother died on 6 February 1895, in Brive, at the age of 33, exhausted by successive pregnancies, tuberculosis and the work she was doing in the Paris markets in the cold.

She was only twelve years old at the time.

Around 1907 and 1908, the very courted, Chanel chose not to share the anonymous fate of the her mother suffered, and sought a better future for herself. She frequented the Grand Café, a chic place of millian life where she met officers of the 10th Regiment stationed in the Bourbon capital. Today the former barracks houses the National Centre for Stage Costume. She followed them to another café-concert in the city, the Rotunda. Soon, she dared to push the performances and began to dream of work in a music hall. Twenty-four years old, she performed in front of the officers who nicknamed her "Coco", because she has a habit of singing "Who Saw Coco in the Trocadero?"

Convened by many wealthy or titled young boys, she seduced the rich Étienne Balsan, an officer, and a man of the world who had just left the army to devote himself to horse breeding and racing. He introduced her to the life of a mistress at the Royallieu estate near Compiègne, which remained famous for its history during the Second World War; if Balsan was perhaps not always her lover, he was always her friend.

For almost a year she learned the requirements and practices of high society, but this idyll lasted only a few months: she realized that she no longer loved him, she was bored and cried often. She's twenty-five years old and had nowhere to go. Her first dress revolution, she invented it with the equestrian outfits she wore on horseback and tie and headband in her hair.

The attendance of Balsan's relations, however, led her to meet the Englishman Arthur Capel, nicknamed "Boy"; she became his mistress in 1909 and followed him to Paris, where he offered her her first shop. Capel was a businessman who then made his fortune in coal freight during the Great War, and a horseman with a polo stable. It was to be an irregular love (he was still married to an Englishwoman) yet it lasted ten years, until a car accident in 1919 to which he did not survive.

Gabrielle Chanel, however, did not remain inactive after the death of her lover. Drawing on the basics taught at Moulins, the handling of the thread and the needle and the initiation given by Lucienne Rabaté, famous milliner of the time, she made small original hats that she placed very low on her forehead. To attend the worldly horse races, she did not wear the dresses of the great couturiers but her own creations. A charming young woman with a quirky style, sometimes a schoolgirl in a sage black and white outfit, sometimes a boyish woman who does not hesitate to wear polo, cardigan, jodhpurs and trousers, she is already inventing a new style, a new look that would change the world ofhigh fashion forever. His avant-garde creations, very sober, contrast with those worn by the elegant ones of the time.

In 1909, on the advice of Boy Capel, her craft began on Boulevard Malesherbes, in the Parisian bachelor pad of her lover Étienne Balsan. The hats she offered her clients are variations of those she made for herself and which, at the Château de Royallieu, near Compiègne, seduced her friends, half-worldly people who frequented the place. Balsan didn't believe however that Chanel would find commercial success.

Having no technical training or manufacturing tools, Chanel first bought the hat shapes in department stores and then filled them herself, before selling them. The novelty and elegance of her style meant that, very quickly, she must call on her cousin Adrienne and her sister Antoinette to assist her. Her hat creations, bore the large feathers of ostriches or other voluminous frills began to be appreciated for their simplicity and sophistication.

As early as 1915 she began to cut sports dresses from jersey knits for the soldiers, which she had long adopted. Freeing the body, abandoning the waist, Chanel announced this "new silhouette" that will earn her her reputation. To conform, women strive to be "skinny like Coco," who becomes one of the first women with short hair to create simple and practical clothing, inspired by a dynamic and sporty life and playing with the feminine/male codes in all of her work.

In 1916, she used Adrienne as a model in Deauville, which was then a fashionable resort. She herself walked around, testing her new outfits under the eyes of European aristocrats, covered in pageantry and held in rigid corsets, contrasting with their simplicity and comfort. The shortage of fabrics due to the First World War, as well as the relative lack of domestic labor created new needs for women in this environment, and Chanel perceived these needs. She bought Rodier whole pieces of a jersey used at the time only for men's underwear, and launched the sailor.

In 1918, immediately after the war, she gradually began to build one of the most important fashion houses of the time, employing more than 300 workers, and finally repaid Boy Capel, refusing the status of a maintained woman. After the war, Boy had to take a wife, according to the rules of the English aristocracy, and Chanel felt an unbearable humiliation. But, like her mother, she will accepted this situation and continued to love Boy. On the night of December 22, 1919, she learned that he had killed himself the day before at the wheel of his car. "When I lost Capel, I lost everything," she confessed 50 years later.

While the war did not move her much, the death of her lover deeply affected her, and, not to sink into grief, Chanel clung to her work. This attitude will pay off, as the success of her catalog grew and encourages her to further develop her house.

As early as 1921 in Paris, next to the luxurious Place Vendôme, Coco Chanel annexed, in a few years, the numbers 27, 29 and finally the 31st of Rue Cambon. An address where the famous fashion house that bears her name is still located today. It also has its own fabric factories in Normandy and is partnering with the owners of the Bourjois brand — the Wertheimer brothers — to commercially distribute its perfumes.

Her male liaisons often give her inspirational motifs, so she creates slavic-patterned dresses when she has a romantic affair with Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich of Russia, cousin of the last Russian tsar in exile who is said to have inspired the shape of the bottle of her famous No 5 (based on the vodka flask of Russian troops). She was also the mistress of the poet Pierre Reverdy, who edited aphorisms and quotations from the seamstress, before the seamstress, increasingly mystical, retired to the abbey of Solesmes. Her lover Paul Iribe worked for her as a furniture designer while her friend François Hugo, Great-Grandson of Victor Hugo, designed her fake jewelry including the metal buttons.

She housed Igor Stravinsky and his family from the fall of 1920 to the spring of 1921 in Garches.

In the autumn of 1924, Coco Chanel became an intimate of Hughes Richard Arthur Grosvenor, second Duke of Westminster, reputed to be the richest man in England. She borrowed elements of men's suits, such as sweater, pelisse, sailor's beret or tweed jacket. She then adapted them to the feminine clothing panoply, which she wanted to be modern and dynamic, combining comfort with elegance. During this period, she became a privileged visitor to Woolsack Castle, on the shores of Lake Aureilhan, where she stayed until 1930 to regain her energy and drive.

During her stays in Mimizan, she offered her duvets and models a few days of vacation in the Pylon colony, a few years before the introduction of the first paid leave.

She was one of the first to launch short hair fashion, and strongly opposed the sophistication advocated by Paul Poiret (who accused Chanel of turning women into "undernourished little telegraphists"). According to some sources she countered by saying that she did not want women who looked like "slaves escaped from their harem", referring to the Orientalist fashion of the time. Chanel favored a very studied simplicity, practical outfits, such as pajamas, to wear on the beach as in the evening; the first trousers, the short pleated skirt, the tailor adorned with pockets. A fashion inspired by the sportswear of seaside places (golf, tennis, beach, boating). It featured jersey knit cardigans on short skirts, all topped with a bell hat. Similarly, the low-waisted evening gowns stopped above the knee, which can be associated with the popularity of Charleston dances between 1925 and 1935.

In 1926, the famous little black dress was created (a color previously reserved exclusively for mourning); a straight sheath with no 3/4 sleeves, black tube in crepe from China, perfectly match the fashion "boyish" erasing the shapes of the female body. Repeatedly copied, this "Ford signed Chanel" referring to the popular American car, as it was to be called in Vogue magazine. Who predicted that it would become a classic of the women's wardrobe of the 1920s and 30s.

Rejecting the term "poor gender" often attached to her creations, Chanel wanted to distinguish sobriety from stripping: if the women's wardrobe must be simple, it must instead be embellished with accessories. Chanel used, for example, fake jewelery mixing semi-precious stones, rhinestones and false pearls, as well as bracelets decorated with a "Malta cross" motif, or Byzantine-inspired brooches or motifs of animals, flowers or shells. Étienne de Beaumont, Paul Iribe and, above all, between 1929 and 1937, Fulco di Verdura, gave these fake jewels a recognizable identity.

In 1927, Gabrielle Chanel built a house in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin called La Pausa. She asked the architect Robert Streitz to draw it by incorporating some elements, the staircase and the cloister, recalling her childhood at the orphanage of Aubazine. It was furnished mainly with English and Spanish furniture from the 16th and 17th centuries. It is home to the Duke of Westminster (who financed the construction), Jean Cocteau, Pierre Reverdy, Paul Iribe, Salvador Dali, Luchino Visconti; part of the house was recreated at the Dallas Museum of Art during the donation of the Reves collection. Its furniture is now housed in the Dallas Museum of Art.

At the same time, Chanel was the first seamstress to launch her own perfumes. With the help of her perfumer Ernest Beaux who designed: No 5 (1921), who achieved worldwide fame with the creation, but also No 22 (1922), Gardénia (1925), Wood of the Islands (1926) and Leather of Russia (1926). To distribute her products internationally, Chanel drew on the commercial experience of brothers Pierre and Paul Wertheimer who since 1924 own 70% of Chanel perfumes. Their descendants Alain and Gérard Wertheimer own the entire Chanel house today.

From 1927 to 1944, Chanel regularly stayed at the Château de Corbère-Abères in Béarn to continue her work with her cousettes. She adapted to the changes of the 1930s, during which she had to face both the social demands of her workers and the rising star of Parisian Haute Couture that is Elsa Schiaparelli. Preferring a more refined silhouette, Chanel presents in particular light and transparent evening dresses in chiffon, tulle or lace lay, most often in falsely neutral colors (white, black or beige), sometimes embroidered beads or rhinestones. Featuring a combination sewn inside, the very simple cut of these dresses allows the woman of the world to dress without the assistance of a servant. A little later, she created the first dresses with balconets, then in 1937, the "gypsy" style.

Chanel never traveled without its pearls, and had a very pronounced taste for jewelry. In 1924, she opened a costume jewelry workshop. Étienne de Beaumont and then Duke Fulco de Verdura contributed to the development of the house's jewelery.

But it was in 1932 that Chanel made headlines again. At the request of the International Diamond Guild, Chanel created "Diamond Jewelry", its first collection of high jewelry. The diamonds are mounted on platinum, an extravagance after the crash of 1929. The historic jewelers of Place Vendôme are insurgent, accusing a "seamstress of her state" of improvising herself as a jeweler. In 2011, Chanel found by chance a 1932 film showing this collection. However, it was not until 1993 that Chanel created a jewellery department.

In 1939, she was the head of a company of 4,000 workers, which fulfilled 28,000 orders a year which would later waiver and close in the wake of World War Two.

In 1954, at the age of 71, Chanel agreed to reopen her house at the insistence of her sponsors, the Wertheimer brothers, whom she had tried to dispossess during the Occupation and who relied on her presence to revive the sale of perfumes. She returned to creative process but her first collection was not well received, as it was at odds with Christian Dior's style. Faced with the balconies and puffy shapes that marked the success of this post-war style, Chanel wanted to impose again dresses close to the body and an androgynous silhouette.

The tweed suit, complemented by a silk blouse, two-tone shoes and a gold chain quilted bag would make up the new Chanel style and become a classic, often copied.

Chanel clothes were worn by the actresses of the time, notably Romy Schneider and Jeanne Moreau in Les Amants (1958) by Louis Malle, and Delphine Seyrig in Last Year in Marienbad (1961) by Alain Resnais. Jackie Kennedy wore a pink Chanel suit when her husband John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

In 1957, she received an "Oscar for Fashion" in Dallas. Marilyn Monroe contributes to this consecration by stating that she wears only "a few drops of No. 5" at night.

From 1954, Robert Goossens was entrusted with the creation of jewelery. At the same time, new perfumes were created under the impetus of Henri Robert, the new "nose" of the house, who launched Pour Monsieur (1955), No 19 (1970) and Cristalle (1974).

Chanel received her acquaintances and clients in the two-room apartment on the second floor of her fashion house, but resides in a suite at the Ritz Hotel, located next to Chanel.

The 1960s saw the emergence of the fashion of the miniskirt, popularized by Mary Quant and André Courrèges, but Chanel opposed it and did not raise the skirt above the knee, because she thinks the knees are ugly. She will not touch her classic tailor with skirts below the knee, and remained insensitive to the fashion of the time and to the Anglo-Saxon influences conveyed by pop music.

The haute couture shows take place in the salons on the first floor of 31 Rue Cambon, where Chanel follows them sitting on the steps of the staircase leading to the upper floor, from where she observed the reactions of her clients through the mirrors that line the walls and stairs.

With the events of May 1968, the hippie wave changed the fashion game all together.

Chanel claimed that fashions were only good when they took to the streets, not when they came from them. Chanel became tyrannical, locking herself in a world made of fittings, fashion shows, models and courteles. Edmonde Charles-Roux writes: "Chanel never liked to admit that her way of life was made up of recipes borrowed from Sert. The violence she brought to deny it denounced her. Dry and stingy, she is very lonely, accompanied in her later years sometimes by Jacques Chazot and especially by her long-time confidante, Lilou Marquand. She hates youth in miniskirts or blue jeans, spits on feminism. She suffers from intimate wounds never healed that mask her reputation as an "iron woman" not showing her despair. Aimée de Heeren was a faithful friend, with whom she shared fond memories of Duke Hugh Grosvenor.

On January 10, 1971, at the age of 87, she died of old age in her suite at the Ritz Hotel at 15 Place Vendôme in Paris. Salvador Dali, Serge Lifar, Jacques Chazot, Yves Saint-Laurent and Marie-Hélène de Rothschild participated in the memorial service in the Madeleine church. She is buried in the Bois-de-Vaux cemetery, Section 9, concession 129-130-131, in Lausanne, Switzerland, in a grave she herself designed, made by Jacques Labrunie, husband of her great-niece Gabrielle Palasse-Labrunie, her only descendant Direct. In his will written on 11 October 1965, Chanel bequeathed his fortune (estimated by the press at the time to be $10 million) to the Coga Foundation (initials of Coco and Gabrielle) administered by Gabrielle Palasse-Labrunie and Swiss lawyers, responsible for pay annuities to loved ones, employees or artists.

I have developed past that now, but sometimes cooking gets stressful.

One reason is because I feel overwhelmed when it comes time to choose a new recipe to try. There are just so many options out there.

Because nothing is perfect, I systematically modify recipes with certain ingredients and that be either a success or a flop. Though the flops are less frequent now than they used to be. When I got married we took turns cooking. My husband has never admitted as much, but I think he agreed to cook because he wasn't so impressed with my skills. But I guess we'll never know since he is happy to just eat now.

On top of that I've eliminated all dairy products from my diet. I am not lactose intolerant, though the change has had a dramatic positive effect on my waste line and overall health. Still I needed to replace them, I use "soy cream" and the various milks. To replace butter I only needed to pick out a good margarine that didn't have added milk products.

These changes also required me to adapt to the different ingredients and there were some mishaps, but only small ones. One thing that I noticed was that the amounts were drastically different when you remove dairy from your kitchen.

By going a different direction I was able to reinvigorate my interest in cooking. When I was growing up it was meat, potatoes and a hardy helping of fat either in the form of cheese or heavy creams.

All of my brothers still love their heavy meals but my sister and I have both switched up to a healthier diet. My husband was already further along than I was – one of the reasons he was willing to take a hand in the cooking department.

It was all about finding a balance and understanding what goes into making the task both enjoyable and rewarding.

When I was growing up it was a chore. When I was married it was hit or miss and I often felt like I just didn't know what I was doing, which made the whole thing stressful. Once we grew together and I found that balance things got enjoyable. Cooking for a child further strengthened my love of cooking

Our daughter was a pleasure to cook for, my son was a bit of a picky eater and it required further balance that I found with a little work.

I may share some of our favorites but every family is special in their tastes and you certainly have your favorite dishes.

More to come!

It is easy to prepare you only need: three cheeses, wine, bread and you're done. The only trick is not to drop your piece of bread which is a fondue faux pas so be careful!

It is easy to make and I have learned a few tricks along the way which I will be sharing with you in just a moment. While you can make a good fondue with just about any cheese there is something that can bes said about a well selected blend that makes the whole experience more enjoyable.

But first the tips.

Rub the garlic on the inside of the pan so that the cheese does not stick afterwards. I learned this the hard way in the beginning and once I tried the garlic trick things got so much better. It is amazing how much this simple step does to improve the fondue.

Cut your cheeses into large cubes. When I first started it seemed like a good idea to make everything as fine as possible. So I grated my cheese. It was a chore but while being under the impression that it was better one that I was pleased to handle. Later I learned that it was better to place large pieces of cheese in the pot and slow cook them over low heat so that they had a better chance to melt together.

Stir, when the cheese begins to melt add the white wine, 1 teaspoon of nutmeg and continue to mix this allows the spice to really bring the flavor out and mix with the cheese.

Remove the fondue from the heat when your cheeses have completely melted and the texture is well mixed.

As for cheese there are a number of different styles of fondue to choose from. Here, thanks to wikipedia, are the most common types of mixtures based on the region.

Swiss

• Vaudoise: Gruyère.
• Fribourgeoise: Vacherin fribourgeois à fondue, wherein potatoes are often dipped instead of bread. This is the only cheese fondue that does not use wine. The cheese is melted in a few tablespoons of water over low heat.
• Moitié-moitié (or half and half), also called Fondue Suisse: Gruyère and Fribourg vacherin.
• Neuchâteloise: Gruyère and Emmental.
• Innerschweiz: Gruyère, Emmental, and Sbrinz.
• Genevoise: Gruyère (preferably of several stages of maturity) with a little Emmentaler and Valais cheese. Sometimes chopped sautéed morels are added.
• Interlaken: Gruyère, Appenzeller, Emmental.
• Appenzeller: Appenzeller cheese with cream added.
• Tomato: Gruyère, Emmental, crushed tomatoes, and wine.
• Spicy: Gruyère, red and green peppers, with chili.
• Mushroom: Gruyère, Fribourg vacherin, and mushrooms.

French

• Savoyarde: Comté, Beaufort and one or two other local cheese like Reblochon, Abondance, or French equivalent of Gruyère.
• Jurassienne: Mature or mild Comté.
• Auvergnate: Saint-Nectaire, Cantal and Fourme d'Ambert

Italian alpine

• Valdôtaine (French: Fondue à la valdôtaine or Italian: Fonduta alla valdostana): Fontina, milk, eggs, and truffles, typical of the Aosta Valley;
• Fonduta piemontese in Piedmont.

Enjoy!

Sice I love lemons and have never actually thought about using it was a facial cleanser … I gave it a try.

There are two ways to do this: either by using the juice itself or by gently using the peel; everything is useful and delicious when it comes to lemon.

By spreading the juice mixed with water on the face or rubbing the rest on the face (avoiding all sensitive places such as lips and eyes) it seems to clear the pours.

I have cleaned my face in the morning with a lemon and its pulp. The lemon juice can help if you have acne which I did when growing up. We tried all sorts of remedies but e never tried this. Nor can I attest to the usefulness of the cleanser/mask.

For people who have greasy faces it might help with exfoliation.

Here is how I used it. But you may come to better ideas. First, squeeze lemon juice on to a cotton pad, add a few drops of olive oil and apply them to your face.

I wonder if the oil could help with my wrinkles. I have experimented with using it in the when I am getting ready for bed, mainly as a cleanser to remove the rest of my makeup. One thing that I noticed is that it helped with unexpected pimples.

My sister mentioned that her friend uses it in her masks to fight acne since the acid is effective in cleaning the pores but I haven't tried that. Though you should really use lemons in moderation, as the acid can be harmful if you use too much which is one of the reasons why I only apply it gently and then rinse it off. A mask seems like it would have the potential to be too intense.

Though I have just experimented with it so far it may find a place in my beauty routine.

Who knows?

Motorists can be such car elitist.

Due to my professional and private situation, the range of my driving ranges/has ranged from the Dodge Rams to even a Bentley (though that is a story for another day). In fact I was in everything from the compact to the Porsche convertible. With all the vehicles, I play the game of connecting green lights.

People generously forgive all these small and bigger sins when you're sitting in an less expensive vehicle (not the Porsche and Bentley).

Honestly!

You're one of them; the hodgepodge of Fords, Chrysler, and cheaper imports. I mean I virtually never got honked at, someone has surely honked, though it was extremely rare. Compare this to the gestures and honking when I was sitting in an old vehicle, or one with a lower price tag than the average while indulging in my little driving sins.

Compare this to the Porsche and Bentley, this is very different. And it is something that I noticed when the steering wheel in my hands belonged to an upper-class model or even a luxury class. The hatred and envy that was regularly unloaded in the form of honking, close up, pejorative gestures down to the middle finger and a few times even in pieces of paper on the car, which were supposed to be funny but were actually just ugly. It was not about parking, but about the type of car that stood on the white line and did not properly two inches next to it. Basically, a small car is also there to allow you to merge into bottlenecks faster.

Why are we so envious?

Why can't we nod appreciatively when a particularly nice car drives past us, as in the USA?

Personally I left the trucks on the farm. I also don't buy that big of cars any more, because I love my compacts, which has everything that makes me happy about a car. The Bentley was nice, the Porsche was fast, but what they didn't have my compact does. Take seat heating, air conditioning (okay, the others had this too, but AC in a convertible is nonsense), it's practical, and it has a good sound system, which is important in any car which I own, because I need beautiful music when driving, that's more important to me than the satisfying sound from the exhaust pipes and from raw horsepower. But that is just me.

I have bought all but two of my cars. My indulgences included.

But what did people think of me when I was sitting in them (my indulgences):

• who do you think she has to sleep with so that she can drive this car?
• how much time of her life did she have to sacrifice and what did she do without for her career so that she could afford this car?
• what a creep, she has to wear a suit now in middle of summer, I wouldn't want to swap the fattest business car for that!
• does she still a lot of payments to make so that she can continue to drive beyond her means?

Sometimes I just think … Wow… What a great car … I can rejoice just in the sight, it is like a flower, beautiful architecture or other optical enrichments.

But I don't look at the driver and judge them by the horsepower and list prices, I don't think little of them or overestimate him.

It's just sheet metal after all, … One is more expensive, another cheaper and in every car sits someone who, like you and I, has grief, worry and hardships, who is happy when you're nice to him.

I was always the same person in every car and received so many different reactions. Tolerant, colorful, the lovers and haters.

Too bad, actually

The best thing is that I tell you my little story.

I remained without a needle until 2013 I think. It was after many years of wishing I could sew. After a lifetime of envying my sister because she could – I made the plunge and began. I bought my first sewing machine to make curtains, simple pillow cases … Then when I was waiting for my second child I resumed knitting from there everything follows. By then I had invested in a sewing machine which sat unused for the majority of its life. I really only had the courage to try when my sister would help me.

Recently that has all changed. Mishaps and blunders aside I have been able to achieve a number of (for my skill) complicated projects. Did that they turn out perfect? Of course not. But they didn't need to either.

That is the point of practice. It makes perfect.

For me that would have been easier if I wouldn't have picked out expensive material. My sister kept saying that I should try with something less exquisite but I find that when going material shopping the really nice choices jump out at me and I just can't keep my eyes off of them. They are so beautiful. You are hard pressed to find similar (affordable) options when you go shopping.

Before you jump to conclusions this isn't why I wanted to learn to star sewing.

What drew me to it, beyond the enjoyment of home crafts was the thought that the clothes I would be wearing didn't come from the factory, they weren't disposable fashion, that they were made through thoughtful choice of fabric and patterns etc.

I discovered that this appealed to me more than anything else.

In short, a return to the roots that allowed me to decompresses from the stress of the day and the week when they have been hectic, I simply get behind my machine and not think about anything!

It makes me proud to see that what seemed once unthinkable to me. I get so much joy from making a shirt with collar, a dress, or a pair of pants…

My clothes are not 100% perfect and I don't know if they ever will be!

But I'm learning and I am having fun.

Isn't that what counts?

But what about the violence that takes place behind closed doors? Unfortunately, there was plenty of that growing up. But at least the so-called "public" space, my community was a protection zone that spanned as far as my young life could appreciate.

With few exceptions, I cannot think of anyone that even swore. You weren't accosted by drunks or aggressive people, there were no brawls on the weekend. You could move anywhere in the public as a woman, as a child, as a disabled person or an elderly person. We knew the rules, whether it as at events, on the streets, in the school yard, actually everywhere people met … And best of all, they have been largely preserved.

If someone was lying on the ground in an altercation, they were not brutally kicked in the head. People actually even has something like respect for police officers and whoever dared to resist arrest or intentionally hurt them quickly regretted that, too.

What I am saying is that anyone who was attacked in the public could expect help, I would not rely on that today and, even worse, I would also not advise anyone in good conscience to provide help because every day there are reports of people who only wanted to help. And they themselves become the victims of brutal violence.

Those inhibitory thresholds I spoke about have started to, if not entirely disappeared for some, the courts are overloaded and if even police officers are afraid for life and limb, everyone should consider whether they risk serious injuries or worse if when the various groups engage in unrestrained violence. They used to be simply called "criminals." But seriously we as a nation have gone beyond that haven't we? In the US we have problems, but above all we have a huge problem with violence. One which runs through all strata, age groups and areas and a new form of brutality and inhibition is spreading, which frightens me and which particularly affects the weaker.

It meets children, women, the elderly, frail people, animals, but it meets all of us; though it prefers the weaker, which are an easy target and the people who want to help them.

I do not want to go into where the increasing violence comes from, it has long been glossed over in statistics, but in the meantime the figures speak for themselves, and it must be clear that the number of uncommon cases is unevenly higher and frighteningly high. These are crimes against citizens. Animal cruelty is not even included in most statistics. War is now raging out there, and few, mostly rural areas, have so far been spared. Those safe spaces I spoke of earlier are now our safe havens.

But we're catching up fast right now.

I was still taught to resolve conflicts peacefully, I learned to dance and paint in my spare time but I would have preferred to have spent that time studying martial arts, shooting or other options of self-defense. It never seemed necessary, our lives were different before social values shifted, education shifted, family became a marginal – only on weekends type of thing – borders opened; the judiciary system has become weak. This allows things to became normal that would once have led to an outcry in all the media before. Violence is now more of a side note, too much of it in too many places.

So those who have children, animals, old people or other vulnerable … Maybe yourself too … Those who want to be able to defend themselves and others today feel defenseless and stunned. Times have changed, our society has changed, our whole country has changed.

I think it's time to teach our kids to adjust to these changes … They need to learn to defend themselves and others when it matters, and from an early age.

Most martial arts not only convey discipline and values, but also enable effective defense when the worst are actually coming. They also allow women to effectively counter, teach how to disarm and avoid injury in falls. Exactly what our children need right now when traveling alone, on their way to school, in the city or in the evening. At some schools, they already need it on the playground.

Peace and Love, the message of my generation is unfortunately only lived by a minority.

In addition to love and a good education, give your children the chance of self-defense and protection. If they want to protect themselves and others, then they need to learn how to do that.

I never thought we would have to think about things like that, not today in 2019. But we should when we care for our children

Tolerance overcomes borders, true, but society needs to defend it itself: It must prevent the intolerants from exploiting the tolerant society to turn it into its opposite.

The creator? Coco Chanel.

The dress is the feminine dress par excellence; a symbol of elegance and sophistication. The beauty of Chanel's creation is that it can be worn on any occasion and for this reason it takes the nickname "passepartout".

The Little Black is the quintessence of chic at the time and even today the iconic imagery of Audrey Hepburn in the dress hold true to the dress' origins. At the time it was a "must have" garment for most women's wardrobes.

Coco Chanel made the first black dress in history for the funeral of her lover Étienne Balsan.

Though the most famous black dress is undoubtedly the one worn by Audrey Hepburn.

It plays an unforgettable in the opening scene of the film, where the wonderful Audrey Hepburn gets out of a taxi on a deserted Fifth Street at dawn, and approaches Tiffany's windows, wrapped in a little black dress signed Givenchy, illuminated by a cascade of pearls.

The model, worn by Audrey Hepburn, sold at auction for 410,000 pounds in 2006.

I love to combine outfits, it is a hobby and passion since I discovered clothes could be both functional ad fashionable all those many years ago.

I love dresses and I have started to make my own creations, but one question has arisen in my mind …

Has it become cheesy to match the colors of a dress?

To this crucially important question I will answer: No! And luckily! The harmony of colors is an essential part of the composition of an outfit, but you have to respect a few small rules. Which I hopefully will be able to lay out in the next twenty minutes as I have an appointment and hate coming back to my unfinished posts.

Adopt a color to the primary focal point.

A cameo is an assemblage of shades of the same hue. For example, you can wear a turquoise top with an electric blue jacket and raw jeans. On the other hand, you will have to choose different colors for shoes and accessories.

To match the color of the clothes to those of the accessories, or to match the color of the accessories to each other, is a fashion faux pas. In our grandparent day, it was fashionable to match the colors of the main pieces of an outfit with the accessories or to match the color of the accessories: navy skirt, red top, red bag, red shoes, red varnish, red mouth… today this has become dated and is one of the beginner mistakes people often make. To stay in an area of modernity, we will choose more than two elements of the same colors, so long as it is not the main piece (bag and shoes; top and bag; jacket and shoes; etc…). We will avoid matching the bright colors, especially when the contrast of the outfit is important: we will avoid for example wearing shoes – bag – pink jewelry blurred on a black outfit that we preferred to match with elements of different shades of pink and purple. It was preferred to tune in to dark or neutral colors. Another trick to avoid contrast is to match two visually close pieces: for example bag/top or pants/shoes. Being close, it will give the impression that they are a single piece of the outfit.

• Just say no to monochromatic outfits, except for black, white (a wedding dress) and grey. But beware, in this case we preferred to play with shades to build up accents.

• Make sure that you choose accessories whose color contrasts with the rest of the outfit is a great way to boost a look! The only small exception is black: if your accessories are black you can match them, it's classy.

In a classic style, if we still important to combine bag and shoes or belt and bracelets – though never more than two elements – we will choose to trust the designers so that the color and the material are the same.

Just say yes to the combination of details. We love those little reminders! An accessory that recalls the color of a pattern of the top print or shoes matched with lipstick is top, but make sure that no other element of our outfit is the same color or the effect will be lost.

But then, how do I pick the right thing to accent? First, avoid the carnival effect (as I like to call it) with the rule of 3 colors, this is the sacred commandment of the fashionista, to apply for the full outfit, bag and shoes included.

The best thing to do is to choose neutral colors (beige, camel, navy, black, white …) and match an element of a bright color (for shoes or bag for example, but not both).

This is easy and stylish! And professional designers use this often combined with other techniques.

We want to use those techniques too. The basics are not enough and we want to be more daring, we will play with complementary colors, neighboring colors or, as already seen above, the shades of the same cameo. I suggest that you pick up a small chromatic tool to better understand this theory and help you make the right picks when you are designing an outfit.

As a quick rule of thumb:

• The opposite colors of each other is how you define complementary colors. It's also ok to choose colors that aren't exactly the opposite.
• The colors that lie to the right and left of the chosen color defined neighboring colors and are the perfect choice not to create too much contrast.

Alright that about covers it. Time to run.