Style Tips -- 1st December 2007
[ 1 December 2007 ]
Photo key:
1. French flag, 2. picture of a picture of me, 3. I miss these !!!!, 4. Last day in Paris, 5. French Women don’t get fat, 6. Impressive French moustache, 7. Leonie Powder Revisited, 8. quant, 9. Paper Sighs & Candy Highs
...Style tips with a definite French flavour! Miam miam!
Start a silly project, just for fun. My latest project is bedhead documentation! I’ve made a set on Flickr & I’m going to take regular photos of my “morning glory”, hee!
One of my mother’s amazing skills is that she is a brilliant window-dresser. At home, we had stacks of books on world class window displays, which I always pored over & adored. Window shopping in France is called lèche-vitrines — the literal translation is “window licking”! It’s a good thing to develop an appreciation for. Windows at Christmas, especially in high-end boutiques, can really knock your socks off. Indulge in it. Soak it up. Love it!
Maintain your language skills. After a few years, the French/German/Japanese/Spanish conversation skills you learned in school start to fade, especially if you don’t practice. Having a good handle on other languages opens you up to millions of people & a gamut of opportunities — as well as appearing totally cultured & sexy. Look into casual language classes. A lot of them involve eating regional food & nattering away, which is a fantastic way to meet new people as well as brush up on your skills!
Call your friends to tell them how much you appreciate them, instead of just emailing. It means so much more, & it always brings the recipient unreasonable amounts of excitement!
Go out & practice your kissing.
Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala
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OK, “lèche-vitrines” has totally made my day. :-D
Me toooooo! I love it! Makes me so happy.
Whatever happened with the advice contest? Which sweet cookie (the American version of nonpareil) won the gift basket? I would love to know whose advice you chose.
My current silly project is a “French Movie Festival” I have a list of 20 french movies that I have been renting and watching over the last couple of months. It’s fantastic fun and I’m getting thousands of ideas for my wardrobe.
I totally fear the depletion of all my language studies! At one point, I was tri-lingual… Now I’m… 1.5-ish lingual… Not okay!
I’ll pick up my books, I think!
xoxo.
oh oh I should take pictures of all the New York window displays before the streets get too crowded and then paste them ALL over my walls while playing nonstop holiday music; thanks for the great idea, Gala! ;D
Bien sur Mlle Chéri (c’est Darling en francais),
A really good way to keep up your lingo skills is to listen online to language specific radio stations ie, if you’re learning french in this case, tune into as many french radio shows as you can! I’d suggest trying to find ones that aren’t Paris based as the Parisian dialect is not strictly the Queen’s English of the french language. Also, on the food tip, if you can get to genuine national cuisine restaurants, owned, managed and run by natives, do book yourself in for dinner and try to speak their language, even if it’s only a few sentences. They’ll appreciate your attempts (no matter how good or bad they were) and the positivity from that will give you confidence to carry on with learning.
I think learning a language is actually easier when you’re a mature student. So, the adage of ‘its never too late to learn the piano’ now has a sister in ‘its never too late to learn a new lingo’
Gala, fancy doing something with my windows?
They’re boring as sin!
i hope to keep up my language skills but i’m extremely worried they’ll disintegrate after uni.
my spanish is already way below what it used to be and i can only hope to keep my japanese… this is a scary thought..
happy december!
i read about a cute little project that i want to start from today, but just for a month. the girl took one polaroid of every day for a year!
I totally agree with the last one!! :D lol. My bf and I hadn’t kissed for months (I was sick and didn’t want to pass it on…), and boy, was I out of practice! hehe. And how very French to practice one’s skills… ;) rofl.
I find a fun way of maintaining a language you learned in school is to randomly talk it with your school friends who did the same language.
I just ordered this book on how to sew skirts, so my new project when it arrives will be making one that’s faintly wearable! The most I have sewed before was a button. Wish me luck!!
Oh yes, I totally have to improve my foreign language skills…I’m thinking about learning a new language like Swedish or Dutch.
And I love those beautyful window displays in the christmas period!! Those must be especially gorgeous in New York…wanna go there…NOW
i use iCiNG to improve my foreign language skills, cause im a native spanish speaker.
=)
I do bed head documentation! It’s so easy with my Macbook! However, I only take pictures on particularly epic days.
Gala, I ask this question in all seriousness. Have you ever considered writing a book? I was thinking today about the books I’d like to ask for for Christmas. Usually I’m drawn towards ones written by people I admire, so I started jotting a list of people like Victoria Beckham, Tim Gunn and..Gala Darling. I love reading iCiNG, but I’d also love having a book of your work to pull out whenever I wished or show off to my friends. If you had a book of any kind, I’d do anything within my will to get my hands on it! :]
I like that these “style” tips are life-style tips, when we usually use style to exclusively refer to fashion. Very nice ideas.
I’m totally going to start re-learning french and I’m going to buy Amelie and try to just listen to it instead of reading the sub-titles and I’m going to visit Montreal with my sister this christmas…and as far as window displays there is this fabulous little boutique called Pom-Pom here in Ottawa who’s chistmas window display is glittery and fabulous and the three maniquins in the window have hats with angel wings on them …absolutely fabulous …have a great weekend
Je t’aime.
Practicing language for only a little bit every day is pretty easy too! At the very least, you can end up talking to yourself in whatever language and hopefully come off as charmingly eccentric?
Another thing I love to do, and ends up being pretty helpful is translating music! Aiyiyi. I just want to go completely dork out now!
Language skills totally come back after a short while though – I went to Berlin for a few days and though I haven’t spoken any German for 4 years, it came back. Understanding will stay too, the speaking/writing is the hard part.
I’m itching to practice my kisses especially on men who have wonderful French moustaches. ^_~ I also need to brush up on my Spanish and German. I’ve been thinking of either getting some books and re-teaching myself which wouldn’t be hard because I can incorporate that into my writing.
I still haven’t made a dress out of the delicious cherry fabric I bought, or finished sanding and revarnishing my desk, so I have lots of projects to go on with, but I hurt my back and can’t stand up or sit for too long :( Poor me. I hate lying flat on my back.
My friend Casey is bringing me a Russian language cd-rom he never uses anymore, so I can start getting a feel for it. Everyone that has already learnt Russian tells me it’s easy to learn, but I don’t see how!
And Gala, I had a naughty dream about you last night :) Just proof that iCing has integrated itself into all aspects of my daily life, including my sleep! You were blonde again in my dream though.
I would love to be able to wander about muttering in French or Italian under my breath in a charming manner, but sadly I never seemed to be able to pick up any foreign languages even after four years of instruction. I would also love to spend a summer in Helsinki if I could learn the language.
I would also looove to practice my kissing on bitter men with polished sneers, arched brows, walking canes, and flowing capes. Oh, and accents too. Mmmmdelicious.
PS, I have a couple of quotes for you!
“What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.” – Marcus Aurelus, Meditations
“We, people’s hearts seldom say much about those treasures because people no longer want to go in search of them. We speak of them only to children. Later, we simply let life proceed, in its our direction, toward its own fate. But, unfortunately, very few follow the path laid out for them—the path to their Personal Legends and to happiness. Most people see the word as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.” – Paul Coelho, The Alchemist
what language did you do in school?
I’m doing french. Cest tres fantastique!!
Lou — The winner was Meredith but I am naughty & haven’t publicised it!
Pinup_Girl — Well, kind of. This site is basically a book waiting to happen, but I think that if I get anything published via conventional methods, it will be a little bit further down the track, when more people know who I am. Sorry to keep you hanging ;>
Song — Oomph! Tell me what happened in the dream, it sounds saucy, haha!
de Profundis — Nice quotes. I especially like the Coelho one. It becomes more obvious to me every day that the only reality we see is the one we believe in.
lady jade — I studied French & German. I adored both of them. I wanted to take Japanese as well but there was a rule that no one could take three languages… snore!
hello gala.
i found a recipe ( even know i know you dont think your that flash at cooking) in the Sunday Telegraph this morning for white chocolate and almond macaroons.
im giving them a go now, they are currently in the oven if they go well ill give you the recipe it was actually very simple, id say cupcakes would be harder.
Love katrina
Here in Brazil an usual term for “window-shopping” is “namorar vitrine” which would be something like “window dating” :D
and see? I’m practicising my english… altough it’s the only language I know besides my own :(
I LOVE these style tips! They make me smile! The last one makes me blush.. hehe I practiced my kissing with a very pretty boy last night!! And talking of very pretty boys I saw Patrick Wolf the other night!!! swoooon
I like Polvore it’s like pretend window dressing, although I appreciate that real life 3d window dressing is much more complicated. I hear that the best Jenga players are window dressers and surgeons, a steady hand and an eye for balance.
The Brazillian window dating and the French Window licking are much better terms than window shopping, gosh darn my infuriating Britishness.
Hey Gala! I love your site, I have been a lurker on it for quite a while, but I just recently made a blog of my own (you inspired me, thanks so much) and I linked you—is that okay?
Just wanted to make sure.
By the way, you’re so right about the language thing! I took French for four years before and I don’t remember a thing anymore!
Gala, I would lovee to learn Japanese, too! It’s soo hard to learn though, and I have no idea when I’d use it!
But I’ve taken Spanish and German, and love them bothh. _
Uggh! You beat me! I was going to document my bed-headed self! (as well as going about my day without doing anything about it)
I’m just going to have to go on with my other project: documenting myself living for a week without an opposable thumb.
“Gala, I would lovee to learn Japanese, too! It’s soo hard to learn though, and I have no idea when I’d use it!”
In reply to that, I’m learning Japanese and I’m finding it challenging like any language but surprisingly it’s easier than I thought.
It’s actually pretty simple, it’s just that it’s so different to English. People think it’s difficult mostly because you have to learn a whole new alphabet but I’ve found that i’ve picked it up quite quickly. Me and my friend have found that flashcards are the trick! Write the symbol on the front then ka, wa, i, (lol add another i to that list, say it out loud and it’ll mean cute! That was totally accidental I was just picking at random!)
Also I’d recommened getting classes or getting a Japanese friend to help you out because it’s much easier when they explain it! Plus if it’s your friend you can send each other letters and e-mails in Japanese, a great way to learn new words and have a wee chat!
It’s a great language though, you can sound super sweet when your using it or if your angry it’s also great!
xx
Madame Darling, je parle un petit peu de francais mais je n’ai pas le temps pour pratique. C’est trop mal!