A La Folie

Chez Nous Christmas Sale was on last week Saturday, 26th of November at a private home in Cascade. After ditching our beach plans, the boyfriend and I decided to take a trip there (mostly on my persuasian/nagging) becuse a few of our friends were featured vendors and I needed to grab some goodies as last minute (ha! almost all my shopping is done so I can show off) Christmas presents.

The venue itself was lovely, though it was hot as hell in the afternoon sun. Spotted a few noted vendors there, including Meiling and some brands that are sold alongside hers at The Gallery in Long Circular Mall, like SMAKS Bespoke Teas and Sumptiously Organic Tomato Chutney (tried some, it was delish!). Del Mano Pestos, Phillip Arthur and a lot more pop up shoppes were set up for perusal.

I looked at some Janice Derrick jewellery but since I'm partial to gold and all she had that I could see was silver I didn't make any purchases. Her jewellery was really impressive though, interesting and intricate designs.

In the end I came away with three bags:

Immortelle Beauty, which is founded and run by Kathryn Nurse, had 'Foot Rehab' spa packages on sale. Each package included standard pedicure tools, an Immortelle Beauty Foot Soak, an Immortelle Beauty Sugar Scrub and and an Immortelle Beauty Foot Cream. Not entirely certain who's getting this. It's likely to be the boyfriend's mom. But at $300, it's a great gift that I can give to a number of people who I'm sure would appreciate the gesture. I'm afraid to even open them and smell them because I'd probably end up keeping it all for myself. (Found an old-ish but nice review of Kathryn's products over at CFStyle Journal)

Next booth was Keegan Simon's 1ndividual Aesthetic Pop Up Shoppe which is always a fun one to visit. His colours and designs are just what the cool kids wanna wear these days. I'm not a T-Shirt kinda gal or else I'd definitely be rocking his graffiti-esque and pop art designs 24/7. I bought the shirt below ($150) for my little (he's 21 years old) cousin. He would appreciate this kind of one-of-a-kind clothing. My only grouse is that these shirts don't get small enough. Haha. Josh (the cousin) is quite tiny, so I hope the small fits him well enough.

And now, the icing on the cake and the whole reason I initially wanted to go to the Chez Nous sale: Denise Hendries earrings! She does other jewellery as well but when I saw her earrings featured on the Chez Nous site I knew I had to hunt down her booth and buy something. That something turned out to be these shoulder-grazing purpler and orange hemp beauties. I'm on a super statement earring kick these days and I'm in love with this woman's designs. These were reasonably priced at only $120 so I had no choice but to scoop them. I don't wear a lot of colour so I'm glad I can have the pop in my accessories. By the time I got to her booth a lot of her pieces were gone, but she promised me that she'd be making more and selling at the UpMarket sale at Woodbrook Youth Facility on December 10th. I will definitely be there (and early too) to make sure I can grab a few more of these gorgeous earrings.

With the proliferation of street fashion blogs like FaceHunter and The Sartorialist, it's no surprise that everyone (myself included) feels a burning desire to jump on the photo blog bandwagon.

Street fashion in Trinidad is nothing remarkable, so I'm not sure exactly how much material I'd end up with in the end, but I have a much bigger problem with roving day to day photography...and it's one that has plagued me through most of my teen and adult life : how the f*ck do I carry my big ass Canon SLR around with me every day without looking like a tourist?

Now don't get me wrong...I am handbag banton to the tenth power, and BIG handbag banton at that. I am notorious for illogcally large bags, and, naturally, having everything one could possibly need in them: Flashlight? Check. First Aid Kit? Check. Manicure set? Check. Family of four? Check. Camera? No check! Why? Because even I, through my large handbag-hued haze can tell that if I throw a camera in there too, my back will be shot to hell and I'll be spending a fortune on deep tissue Swedish massages sooner than I should be. Also, there's always the horrifying prospect of scratching my camera lens, if the lens cap were to become dislodged. So no...the one thing my bag is lacking is a SLR

Anyway, so the problem presents itself...how do I manage to get featured on The Sartorialist's "All The Pretty Photographers" Series?

Well a swanky camera bag would do the trick I think. Something I could carry solo or in addition to my gargantuan bags. Ideally it would have a separate pocket for my essentials like cash/cards/phone/keys so I could choose to leave the collossus home if I knew I was going out to shoot.

Here are some really stylish and pretty designer camera bags I dug up from the depths (not really) of the interweb. Naturally I can't afford any of them, but who cares? I don't...