Wordpress blog EN

Hello my sweethearts,

 I would like to talk about a sore point (just a little) and I thought that discussing it could be a good way of starting 2013, and also I want to be honest with you. Last month I was lucky enough to appear in an article of "M du Monde", smartly written by the awesome Lili. The article talked about professional bloggers - without being critical - and about the role of blogs and how they are more and more important for the marketing of luxury, fashion and beauty brands. The article tries to define the different ways of earning money with a blog, like a new economic model.

 I started this blog almost a year ago. At first it was more like a hobby, I tested different things and little by little, driven by the desire to do better, nourished by the several images, I wanted to progress. But it meant a huge time investment, and a lot of work more than you can think of. However I don't feel like a "professional" because I have a job, okay since recently I'm working as a free lance so the line between all my activities is blurry, and as I show you pretty much everything here (almost), the blog has become a work tool like an interactive portfolio.

But if tomorrow I have the opportunity to be free of all my contents, of the choice of my partner and to be paid to do it, I'd to it without the slightest hesitation. Is it bad to make a life out of what you love? If I can still be honest and keep my editorial policy but also earn a living, even a good one. Today I have a lot of offers from different brands, and I say no to a lot of them, but when I feel like the project might worth it and I have the free rein to create without being a big ad, I do it. Lure of profit is not what drives my and quality will always take precedence over money, you can trust me on that. I'm well aware that thanks to you - who come here everyday more numerous - I have now acquired a sort of privileged status, and in less than a year. And that's why I won't fool you by forcing you to buy or click or anything like that. As Mai says it very well in her article about the very same topic, if I do or did this kind of operation with some brands, I'll always say it my mentioning a collaboration. I advise you to read Mai's article by the way, she talks about it with a lot of delicacy.

I know that publicity is here, but I hope that after you read these lines you understand how I feel about it... And be sure that the DIYs, the recipes and the nonsensical sentences will always be the biggest part of Make My Lemonade... 

My kittens...

I'm back in a great shape, more than that you'd die (almost)... I was on small holidays with my family and on small holidays with my lover in Amsterdam. A nice break but it was quite hard to let it go, I'm a bad at bumming around, you know when someone asks you "Aren't we good here, doing nothing?" I answer "Yeah sure..." but deep down I think "Flee! My 10 fingers are numb, let's quickly do something!" It's precisely one of my resolutions for 2013: getting to know how to enjoy my break times to really have break times. Quasi existential that kind of resolution, I know. But in the list of the things I want to do, to achieve this year, there are as well:

• - Be organized x 10 000,
• - Party more often,
• - Find a new flat,
• - REALLY go to the gym,
• - Read more,
• - Quit the sunday night's McDo,
• - Buy a bike (Thank you Amsterdam),
• - Push my boundaries,
• - Stop being too lazy to do the dishes,
• - Stop washing my laundry three times in a row because I'm too lazy to hand it out,
• - See more exhibitions,
• - Stop being behind in my emails,
• - Learn to let go sometimes,
• - Keep working my heart out as much as in 2012...

 You might have get it, I'm full of good will. I'm currently in my sweatpants on my way to sit-ups (true!). I wish you a wonderful new year 2013 full of projects, love, encounters, money even (it kind of helps) and lot of DIY, I kiss you much and may 2013 starts here...

 PS: I'm sorry I didn't get the time to answer your last comments, but as of today I am here, and for those of you who are asking about my 3 fingers silver ring, I had it done in India... But maybe in a few months it will be available on the Etsy boutique, fingers crossed!

What about you my sweeties, what is your number one resolution for 2013?

For this first Happy Friday of the year I'm wearing colors, I missed it green and pink, it's complementary and good for your mood... And I'm giving you my I-am-comfortable smile... I'm wearing my military jacket which is one of my favorite basics, a dickey necklace from Baruckelloa crazy Acne pink sweater, a DIY dress (my favorite dress made out of Crêpe de Chine with Monnet print remember?) and some adorable Mellow Yellow boots but remember them because soon you won't recognize them!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! I'm gonna kill two birds with one stone here, Christmas and 5000 likes on Facebook! One more time I want to say THANK YOU - thank you for your comments, thank you for your love e-letters, thank you for always being there, thank you for your enthusiasm when you come across me in a magazine, on the street or at Fil 2000, thank you for being more numerous here every day. THANK YOU - 2012 was a craaazy year and it's really thanks to you guys... Sooo to say thank you, I prepared a little DIY contest: I'm going to show you how to make a belt or a head band with the handle from a bag. Yes yes, I'm being serious - don't worry I haven't gone completely mad...but I am fed up of constantly yanking up my trousers and I have a poor selection of belts, so BINGO, let's go! 

To do this DIY belt / scarf / head band you will need:

• - A bag strap (you probably recognize my strap My Suelly...).
• - A silk scarf measuring about 70 x 70 cm
• - Some thread and a needle
• - And a pair of scissors. 

To start, choose a brightly colored scarf (or not, whatever takes your fancy!) Unfold it, fig.2 and then fold it in two in a diagonal direction. Then with the help of your scissors, cut it into two triangles of the same size, fig.3&4. Take the tip of your first triangle, and roll it up towards the inside, fig.5&6 until you get to a few centimeters away from the edge. Then using an iron (at a medium temperature) create a fold to finish off your rolled up scarf, fig. 7. Then with the needle and thread, or with the help of your sewing machine that you got for Christmas, sew along the whole length in order to close up the rolled up scarf.

To finish it off, thread the scarf through the buckle of your strap, and fold it in two in the middle, fig. 1&2. With the help of the needle and thread, fix the scarf together just underneath the buckle on each side, fig.3. Then start all the steps again with the second triangle piece of scarf, and TA-DA! I really want to make myself a belt/head band with a bandana as well...

Play play play, and win a scarf or even two - I'll pick 2 winners out of a hat. Leave me a comment and tell me, what's the worst present you've ever received in your whole life? I'll pick the winners on the 31st of December at 2 p.m., and I promise I'll publish their names at the end of this article!

And the winners are Charlie les Yeux Bleus and Duffaux - thank you girls! You gave me a good giggle in a week full of thank you!

I'm sure you're into bolduc and wrapping paper by now, but just to take a break, I wanted to show you a project that's been on my mind a lot lately. And I told you it was for a good cause... A few months ago, Milk, the children's fashion magazine, asked me to set the scene and run a creative workshop for the annual Milk et Chanel tea party, in the jewelry boutique on Place Vendôme. What can I say? I didn't touch the floor, like, at all. I worked hard, I didn't sleep much, I crossed my fingers that it would last, that the kids would be nice, and it was wonderful, if not worse. The kids could make a little house ( remember ) or a head band of paper flowers and white chanel camellia, and all around this tower of babel of a house, hot chocolate and half a ton of candy... Encore! I'm ready to have a school bus full of kids ( well, it's an image...) I could go on for lines and lines about this tea party, but I think I'll leave you to watch the little making-of video...I just wanted to say thank you to my girlfriends! Alexandra B. and Justine B. for helping me and my lover for being so demanding and pushing me to the top! I hope you enjoy this and wish you all the best for the holidays, but stick around, I won't be far away... 

MILK-CHANEL-MAKEMYLEMONADE from Make My Lemonade on Vimeo. 

the photos in the article were taken by a great photographer, Charlotte Evrard, and as a super bonus I'm attaching the video that Mai made of the event, to die for... 

Milk x Chanel Christmas from Supertimai on Vimeo.

 Hello everyone! 

I'm very happy to present this little video, because I've been thinking about it for months, looking for a good angle, someone to film me etc... and this is my Christmas present from you to me. I know dozens of you are asking me what brand of sewing machine I have, and how I do this or that, or can I take lessons, is it difficult at first? Yes and No. Yes, because it's the unknown. For example, I don't want to take my driving test, it scares me and seems insurmountable, whereas in reality, I'm sure that most of you have your license and are laughing as you read this. And no, it's not that complicated, because if you're up for it, you'll see that it's very simple and downright addictive. So don't panic, in this little video I'll show you, with a little explanation, the basics of the basics, because the right words. And every time I make a sewing DIY, I'll remind you of this video. Don't worry, we'll keep on sticking masking tape on the walls, but every now and then I'd like to show you that if you master a few tricks, you can work wonders... Christmas gift 1/3 Check... 

Make my lemonade DIY sewing essentials from Make My Lemonade on Vimeo.

Thanks to Axel Tardieu for his work and patience and thanks to Canon for lending us their latest camera, the EOS M, to make this video. 

I hope you'll enjoy this little video. I'm not making anything, but I'm showing you some simple "essential" actions for getting by with sewing.

For example:

• - "pinning",
• - "make a simple seam",
• - open" a seam,
• -make a gathering,
• -notch" a curved seam (for necklines, armholes, etc.) and slide it. 
• - hemming" (easy with an iron).
• -how to "make a right angle" with the sewing machine,
• -sliding" (a cushion, scarf, comforter or other item...)
• -free" angles (as in painting). 
• -drinking tea with lipstick or having a lazy cat are optional... 

 Happy Sunday, my little cats! 

I've had a good look at your comments, and haven't had time to reply yet, but I've seen how worried some of you are that there are fewer recipes and fewer DIYs around here these days. But to be perfectly honest, I'm swamped, and looks are the things that take me the least time to make (although...). So rather than radio silence and disappear from the digital horizon while I finish my projects, I'd rather send you news from the front with looks. Well, rather than offering you Christmas recipes, because that's really not my thing, and other people do it so well. So I'm here to counterbalance and give you some champion recipes for running to the stores, the last stretch of the gift-giving race, and I'm lightening the calorific bill for December with this recipe for a sportsman's breakfast with a strong Vietnamese accent. Note to self, going to clubmed gym in 2013, but really... 

For this recipe, you'll need ( for 2 people ):

• - 200 ml low-fat coconut milk,
• -3 tablespoons milk,
• - 1 banana,
• -100g tapioca beads (Asian grocery store) or also known as Japanese pearls (pretty, isn't it?)
• - and a piece of ginger the size of a grape.

Have a great start of the week!

A little gift post for me, but especially for you! I'm very happy to tell you about it, because along with 3 other bloggers, or rather 3 other people with websites, we've been contacted: Bao, the materialist, Timai and myself to tell you about a rather special Etsy contest... I hope you'll play along, because it's worth it and I find the principle original and innovative. I no longer need to introduce you to Etsy, which I've been using since the start of the Make My Lemonade adventure, because I'm an Etsy "seller", I'm also an Etsy "buyer", and I'd even say I'm an Etsy "hunter", but the question is, are you too? 

So to find out, go to Etsy facebook where the magicians of the famous platform have developed an application to find"my perfect gift". You're beginning to know me, and I've given Etsy a few headings/tracks to guide you too... So the principle is simple, you go on facebook, on the famous application. Browse through the various sections: "Vintage tableware", "Head band flowers", "iPad cover" etc... And vote! Vote for the gift you think best suits me, the one that makes you think "that'll make her happy"! In a week's time I'll receive the list of the 20 gifts that have received the most votes. I'll choose one (and hope it's still available...) and Etsy will randomly select 1 winner from the voters of the gift I've chosen. The winner will receive a 200-euro gift voucher to treat their loved ones, or themselves! Happy treasure hunting to you all! Big hugs and kisses, and see you soon! 

  It's with barely contained emotion that I'm going to tell you about a project that I loved making with my friend MaiYou're getting to know us now, and we're both a pair of little Care Bears... A few months ago, in July to be exact, Mai came to our house and told me the story of an NGO in Viet Nam that takes women out of forced prostitution and teaches them the trade of dressmaking. "FAIR FASHIONwhich she had already met the year before, and which she would love to put to work... Two minutes of ping pong of ideas later, we decide we've got to make something. It's going to be a bag, a sort of diamond-shaped tote bag, a bit of a concept, all that... The deal is that we'll have the bags made by this NGO, customize them with our own little hands and sell them, giving the proceeds to another association, a sort of infernal loop of love... And the association that will receive these donations, your donations indirectly, has been chosen in a not at all arbitrary way, because it's my dad's association. "BASB which builds and renovates schools and orphanages in Africa, and more specifically in Benin. I'll let you discover these actions on his website website. It's a bag to please, to please yourself and to do a good deed... If you've run out of ideas for a Christmas gift, visit the boutique ETSY shop of makemylemonade  where you can buy 13 bags, all different, or for Parisians, there will be 13 more on sale this weekend at Galerie Simone, all "blank", which you can customize with us in a small DIY workshop. More info here for the Simone gallery.

I'll let you discover MAi's wonderful video... ( she's too good, isn't she? ) 

Bags Of Love, by Lisa and Timai from Supertimai on Vimeo. 

Bonus gif of all the bags for sale on Etsy... 

Hello my little cats, 

Here we go, you can start popping your advent calendars... And whoever hasn't eaten all 24 chocolates in the first few days of December, throw the first stone at me, but around here we're going to talk about Christmas. I haven't always been very Christmassy, or rather I used to say I wasn't "very Christmassy", and seeing all those decorations everywhere made my head spin, but then I stopped fighting it and I can tell you: "I love Christmas", I love the excitement of finding the perfect gift for everyone, the ever-growing to-do list to make everything perfect, the lights, the snow (I dream of it!) and the Christmas shop windows. Ever since I was a little girl, I've had the absolute fantasy of going to see the Christmas windows of Parisian department stores, and believe it or not, in 6 years of living in Paris, I've never been, mainly because the only time I could go was at weekends, and strangely enough, going to the boulevard Haussman on a Saturday made me fantasize a lot less in my twenties... And this year I was lucky enough to go to the inauguration of the PrintempsI'm telling you this because in Bordeaux (where I'm from) there are also Galeries Lafayette, and what made me dream was something I didn't have: "le printemps". At the time, I had it in my head that all the women who went into this store were dressed like Parisian women from the 40s, very new look, with a strangled waist, a big hat and bright colors... So when I discovered this year's Dior Christmas windows, so new look, so beautiful, I was, I confess, a little moved and I squealed like a child when Marion Cotillard cut the ribbon for the inauguration (I'm sorry I don't have any images of the actress, due to the human tide and general excitement, which only made me take blurred images or Marion from behind, level -15 of information c...). In short, I'd advise you to go and feast your eyes on it. Doll-phobics should stay away, but for the rest of you, enjoy it and let yourself be carried away... 

I've been preparing this post for some time now, having started talking beauty with Nailmaticbut this time I'd like to do things right and do them in style. Since I left home at just 18, my mother made me promise 3 big things: - Not to come home too late at night, on my own (like being walked home, she didn't push me to bring home a different guy every time I finished a party late...) - Always have a pair of ballet flats in my bag. - And the third, and now most important, is to remove my make-up every night. So there you have it, the survival kit for Parisian life... thanks, Mom. And I must admit that for a long time, I didn't remove my make-up very well, and I had no idea what I could put on my skin, so until a year ago, I used to remove my make-up with Biactol, truth be told, I remember Nelly's face from Make my beauty when I told her about this... I'm often asked to test new products, so I wanted to tell you about them, but also to let you benefit from them. So I waited a while to test the products over the long term (the end of the jars...) and to give you my little TOP of make-up removal products. I hesitated to start with a "make-up" kit, but I decided that for me, the most important thing was to have beautiful skin first, and then to embark on the art of make-up removal.... 

So, to begin with, I'm going to tell you about my favorite product, the make-up remover cleanser, Stri VectinAt first, I read "soothing", a term that's always made me smile on a cosmetics bottle. What do you mean, soothing? it's going to comfort me, console me? give me a cuddle? but believe it or not, well yes, my skin is cuddled every time, the texture is really like that of a thick cream, the product doesn't lather much, but once it's removed, I never have that feeling of skin pulling. After washing, I just apply a little toner. Nuxe to tighten the pores, a nice fresh feeling all over the face and a to-die-for rose scent, I love it!  

On to moisturizing with a little organic cream Fun'ethic on the bottle it says "day cream", I don't think you're going to stay awake if you use it in the evening, but I use it in the evening and it's a treat, a nice orange blossom scent, for me who has combination skin (yes, it's not glamorous I know) but it's good for the evening because I find it a little richer than the one I use in the morning (which matifies), and it's perfect for a good night's moisturizing. And the body oil Fun'ethic it's a bit of a bonus, it's the product I finished first because I must admit, the smell of coconut drives me crazy and before going to bed I spread it all over my body from head to toe (great on dry feet, by the way), this product is still great for the evening because it's not a dry oil and I'm a bit "sticky" for a while after using it...  

 And the products Vichy products on the eyes... which are an absolute must because I must admit I wear a lot of eye make-up and I'm quickly a panda by the end of the day, so for a long time, out of laziness, let's not mince words, I did it half-heartedly, but now I feel I have fewer lashes (I'll come back to this later) I do things right and the products Vichy are a real pleasure for my sensitive little eyelids and still a rose scent to roll on the floor, I even use it in the morning sometimes to wash my face, before my shower, just for the joy of smelling that scent... 

 And the latest products M2They're a bit of a gimmick, but their promise makes me want to make the effort to remove my eye makeup completely, and not just once, but twice. In fact, as I was telling you, I was finding that I had fewer eyelashes due to my habit of not removing my make-up. And then, when I was offered the products M2 products, which activate the growth of your eyelashes. These products are to be used as a duo, the serum on the base of the lashes, then the revitalizing transparent mascara to fix and stretch the serum... After a few weeks of daily use, I must admit I can see a difference, and I'm not paid to tell you that! I don't know if it's the length or the volume, but something is definitely happening, and it's forced me to adopt a killer make-up removal routine... 

I'm sure that not everyone can afford all these products, which is why I'm offering you the chance to win them, a sort of Christmas before its time... but I also know that without buying a whole kit with top-notch products, a little splurge now and then to do yourself good never hurt anyone... Hugs and good luck with the competition. To enter, all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me what your make-up remover fixture is? As you can imagine, it's eyelashes... I'll draw the winner (who knows?) on Tuesday at 12pm!

PS: I'll get back to everyone tomorrow <3 

 Happy Saturday! 

And so this little diamond-themed week comes to a close! As I hope you've gathered by now, rhinestones are my friends, but my favorite thing about them is their geometry, and I can't even begin to tell you how I feel when I come across matte ones... I hope you've enjoyed this little week, and I can't wait to see you tomorrow for a little beauty surprise!!!! I'm worse than a girl sometimes, it's impossible, I get so enthusiastic about things I can't even imagine. lame the worst I've ever done was an advent calendar before the Lanvin and H&M collection, I'm not proud of it... Or waiting for a new mascara to come out like the arrival of the messiah, yes yes. Worse than a girl, I tell you, essential oil of a chick or worse, exile of a chick... A big kiss! 

 1# Metal diamond Analeena 330 € ( OK it's overpriced for a metal stone but good for inspiration!) - 2# Sweat shirt Zara rhinestone 49€ - 3# Reine Rosalie bow necklace on Brand Bazar 90€ - 4# A merry mishap ring on Etsy 24€ - 5# bulb diamond lights 35€- 6# Nishe diamond heart dress on Asos 31,35€