Author: Simonette

A year and a half ago my husband and I moved to Korea. I wanted to write about my life and experiences in Korea along with my current interests. Initially we came to Korea to use it as a stepping stone to immigrate to another country. But now since we’re here we are thinking of making it our new home even if it is just for the next few year as no one knows what the future holds. If you told me ten years ago I will be living in Korea now I would have called you out for bullshitting me. My brother always quotes Robbie Williams by saying “I sit and talk to God and he just laughs at my plans”. This is absolutely true. We have made so many plans with our lives but in the end its not up to us, no matter how much you try to take it into your own hands. So… here we are in Korea, living it up

5 Delicious Paleo inspired recipe’s for everyday use.

October 20, 2016December 8, 2016Leave a comment

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Kebab

One of the easiest recipes ever. All you need is some chicken breast cut into cubes and streaks of bacon. Spice with some salt, pepper and any of your other favourite spices. Wrap the bacon around the chicken breast cubes and bake until the bacon is crispy. This wonderful recipe and picture is from ifoodbloggger.com, check out their blog for more awesome ideas.

Paleo Taco Pie

Another really easy and equally delicious recipe at Paleoleap.com.

INGREDIENTS

Pie Crust Ingredients

1 1/2 cups almond flour;
1/4 cup butter, or clarified butter, melted;
1 tsp salt;

Pie Filling Ingredients

1 lb ground beef;
1 tbsp Paleo cooking fat;
1/2 onion, chopped;
1/2 cup homemade barbecue sauce; OR any of your favourite sauce.
1 cup lettuce, chopped;
1 red bell pepper, sliced;
1 avocado, chopped;
Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste;

Pecan chicken

This is one of my favourite recipe’s and my husband also loves it. It’s quite fast to make and you can add any side dishes you like. This recipe and picture is from Sally’sbakingaddiction

INGREDIENTS

3-4 chicken breasts cut into strips.
1 Cup Almond flour
1/2 crushed pecans
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup olive oil
paprika, parsley and dijon mustard

Mix the almond flour, pecans, paprika, parsley, mustard and salt in a bowl. Mix the Honey and Olive oil in a separate bowl.

Dip the chicken strips in the honey mixture. When covered dip it in the dry mixture. Cover well. Lay the covered chicken pieces in a baking dish and bake until golden brown or until well done.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Vegan, Paleo and low cal. Recipe Here, also from Paleoleap.com

INGREDIENTS

1 or 2 butternut squashes (1 is good for about 3 good portions); ( can also go 1/2 and 1/2 with sweet potatoes.
1 or 2 cans of coconut milk, depending on the number of squashes you prepare. (you’ll find it in most grocery stores and at your health food store, look for organic without any other ingredient except maybe guar gum);
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste;
Any fresh or dried herb you’ve got laying around;

Banana Muffins

Full recipe here, recipe and picture from thankyourbody.com

INGREDIENTS

4 ripe organic bananas, mashed
4 organic cage-free eggs
½ cup organic almond or coconut flour
2 tablespoons organic coconut oil, melted (where to buy)
1 teaspoon organic real vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground organic cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground organic nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground organic clove
¼ teaspoon ground organic ginger
1 teaspoon aluminum free baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
Optional: 1-2 Tablespoons organic honey or maple syruP

Personally I always just use the banana’s, 1 egg, almond flour and honey and it tastes great all the same 🙂 If the mixture seems dry I usually just add more banana.

Black and White Wedding/Ball ideas

October 19, 2016October 21, 2016Leave a comment

Flowers

Black flowers aren’t the easiest thing to find. There are basically 3 types of black flowers you could use and their more purple than black. Arum lilies are in season mostly in December, Dark purple tulips are only in season during spring but you could possible import them at a very high price. The third option is black roses or black morning glories, but it’s more like a dark red than a black

Bridal bouquet.

Instead of using black flowers you always have the option of adding black ribbons, organza and feathers.

Table arrangements

Predominantly White

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Predominantly Black

Stripes

Decor

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Some more flower ideas

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The cake

The Dress

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The wedding party

Why The Lack Of Body Diversity In Street Style Photography Is Offensive

October 18, 2016October 17, 20162 Comments

Fashion is about expression, it shouldn’t be homogenised

Article by Billie Bhatia- Elle Magazine

Fashion week isn’t just about the clothes coming down the catwalk anymore. It is also about the hectic furore outside the show of street style photographers frantically snapping show-goers.

Street style photography shouldn’t be homogenised
Street style photography has become a mad circus of flashbulbs, shouting, scrambling and people genuinely can’t get enough of it. The demand for street style pictures is bordering on outrageous – to see what these supposedly ‘real’ women are candidly wearing. These are the images that are supposed to inspire us in the way we get dressed, the way we can utilise our wardrobes so they feel fresh, unique and fashion-forward. We want to see real women like us getting it right, not models – we have the catwalk to fulfill all of those needs. But what part of that is actually real?
Dressing for fashion week as a non sample size-girl is already tough enough: there is the mandatory break down on Thursday night when exhaustion has set in and I find myself buried under a sea of white shirts and black roll necks sobbing that I have nothing to wear. Once the tears have subsided and I have managed to scrape together an outfit in which I feel ‘fashion’ enough to be accepted by the bludgeoning mob, I remember I am about to pitted against my peers in the fashion week extravaganza and it all comes crumbling down again.
Not only am I, and my body shape, dismissed with a certain disdain by street style photographers I am deliberately pushed, tripped and shunned whilst racing to capture someone slimmer, someone deemed much more stylish than me.

I hardly deserve the crown of ‘Most Stylish Woman Of The Year’ (because I get it wrong at least once a week), but I would like to think working for the biggest selling women’s magazine has imparted some sense of style.

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What ELLE Wears to Work: 21 June 2016 | ELLE UK
This is me, in a What ELLE Wears shoot
VICTORIA ADAMSON
Agreed, I am not in the same league as the Chiara Ferragnis and Miroslava Dumas of the world, but I thought the point of the street-style photography was that it was real?

ARE PLUS-SIZE GIRLS NOT REAL? SHOULD WE NOT BE REPRESENTED?
It appears street style, which was intended to be the modern lens of fashion has been disillusioned into thinking it is capturing something different and new, in its essence. In fact, it’s falling into an eye-rollingly old trap.
On the Sunday of London Fashion Week I happened to stumble into a beautiful girl wearing an almost identical outfit to myself – lace edged skirt, grey cashmere roll neck and bomber jacket. We smiled at each other and before I knew it the photographers had come running.

Here it is, the outfit in question, in our What ELLE Wears to London Fashion Week gallery
VICTORIA ADAMSON
For a split second I thought, ‘Ha! They have seen we are twinning and want to get a picture of it.’ Don’t be naïve, Billie. As I was quite literally pushed to one side, it was all too apparent that the picture they sought was of the tall, slim brunette because she was aspirational and I was not…despite our style being the same.
I thought that street style was supposed to be a point of difference from the girls coming down the catwalk, but it’s not different at all. In fact it’s worse, because it represents an unconscious bias that we still have sitting there always in the back of most people’s minds.

At least in most of the shows, there is now pressure to be a little more diverse. Now, more than ever, designers are making sure to use a cast of different skin tones. And when they don’t, they are being pulled up on it.

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Paris Fashion Week Fails To Champion Diversity
But among the photographers snapping away outside of the shows, there isn’t the same pressure to be consciously diverse in choice of subject matter. Which means old paradigms about what is attractive and beautiful come to the fore.

Where are the women representing style in their 30, 40 and 50s? As according to the images out there style only surfaces either in the under 30s and the peppered over 75s that have been deemed icon worthy. If what we are seeing is all one woman, how does that match who are?
We have some amazing photographers that shoot our street style on ELLE – namely Victoria Adamson and Georgia Devey-Smith – who have always made me feel part of the team when they take my picture, when I have nailed the outfit they tell me that I’m owning it and when I haven’t they aren’t afraid of telling me that either. But as I sit here and research street style trends for the coming season, the one trend that is painfully obvious is that girls with curves are irrelevant.
Style doesn’t equate to a body size, it doesn’t equate to a shape, age or colour. It transcends all of those boundaries. At a time when female empowerment is at its peak, I think it’s about time we stopped judging and started embracing difference.

Witchy Business

October 17, 2016October 16, 2016Leave a comment

As an English teacher in Korea, one of our key responsibilities is Halloween. Coming from South Africa we don’t really celebrate Halloween except for the odd dress up party at the malls or theme park.

Last year was our first year in charge of Halloween. This year we’re having a Ghost house that span’s over 2 classrooms. My husband opted to be the witch as that confuses the children. If they know that it’s only their teacher in a costume then they aren’t as scared. When they are scared they usually say your name, if you respond then they know its you but if you stay mute then you freak them out a bit more.

For my husband’s Witch room we had to make some props which included a witch house, a scary tree and some books and bottles. We’re not finished with everything yet but here is what we’ve done so far.

This was the initial tree, my husband built a cute little house out of boxes and stick on bricks. We built the tree out of a refrigerator box and some paper mache arms. I later decided that we had to make the tree look a little scarier

And this was the result.

For his entrance I also tried to make a tree looking door, which didn’t come out as I had hoped , but it looks OK for the purpose. It’s not done yet… but I used newspaper, liquid glue and some polystyrene balls cut in half to make the eyes.

For props I remembered ‘THE BOOK’ from Hocus Pocus

I made this from a box using a small rectangular box, tissues, tissue paper, liquid glue and some salt-dough clay and cream ribbed paper for the pages. I used this tutorial

…..and this one too

I’ll share some more of our decorations as soon as we’re done 🙂

How adventurous are you??

October 14, 2016October 9, 2016Leave a comment

Last week I came across an ‘adventurous test’ on Psychology today. I have always wanted to be adventurous instead of ordinary and boring. According to the test results however…. I am only 53 percent adventurous, which isn’t adventurous at all.

Since I am just average I have decided to spice up my life a little and to try and be more adventurous. This is how I plan to do it.

Try something new.

One of the first things I can do is get a mountain bike. This will add some adventure to my life but that is not the kind of adventure I was thinking of.

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Set foot on each of the seven continents.

I want to travel more, I am absolutely in love with nature an at the moment I’m not seeing much of it.Out of the 7 continents, I have only been to 3. My plan is to save some money and by this time next year I would like to visit one of the other continents. Cold weather isn’t my strong suit, so Antarctica will have to wait till last…

Try more adventure sports

i love sports and although I only go to the gym I would love to lead a more active lifestyle which includes some adventure sports. First on my list would include, cliff jumping, cave diving and river rafting.

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