Diverse Barbies

http://jezebel.com/5390353/dear-mattel-this-is-how-how-you-make-barbie-more-diverse/gallery/4

I absolutely love these dolls! Check our more of Loanne Hizo Ostlie's designs over at her site, Tabloach Productions
I realy wish I had some Barbie options as a child. Not that I was a massive barbie fan, but what little girl didn't have at least one in her toy cupboard? Many an Ultra Hair Barbie argument could have been settled with these. The last pic is exactly what my own hair is like!

Kisses!
Chantelle

Christmas Presents

OK, so I am obsessed with Christmas. In fact, all my Christmas shopping was basically done by the end of September. Excellent, right?
Wrong. Oh so wrong... Because from now until the 25th December every week the retailers will be putting more and more novel Christmas gift ideas onto their Impulse Buy racks, and lord knows I'm not one to walk away from a great impulse buy!

The great thing this year, is that I will be flying down South Africa to join friends and family for Christmas. This is making gift buying super easy and fun, because half of the retailers here in England are just not available in sunny SA!

Here are a few of my favorite finds, so far, for Christmas 2009:

Am totally getting these adorable London Cookies from biscuiteers.com for the Grandparents!

D&G baby grow on sale £15 at Asos, Wear it Pink mouse and mouse pad at Debenhams, Personalised Christmas Bauble at gettingpersonal.com

2010 Diary, Topshop

Sequined animal bag, £2 at primark

Loving all of them, can't wait to hand them out! Only 9 weeks to go!

Kisses!
Chantelle

Day 1

Welcome to day 1 of what I hope to be many post filled days here at Arb Garb!

Honestly, this is all brand-spanking new to me (behind the times? some might say so...) so any suggestions and help would be welcomed and most appreciated!

So maybe I should start with a little bit about how I come to find myself writing a blog for the first time at this stage in my life:

A Portuguese, South African living in England, I am currently freelancing as a style and trend consultant to some clients back in South Africa, with a few Australian contacts on the back burners (holding thumbs!). Until the beginning of this year i was an accessory and Lingerie buyer. After a bunch of years in the industry, I had to get out of corporate,and decided to quit the day job to do some traveling!
Now I'm based in England, and because of the economy have all this free time to research trends and shop online, and having discovered some amazing blogs earlier this year (Gala Darling blows my mind), I've finally sat down and gotten to some blogging of my own.

I'm still struggling with the most important concept for this blog, but have decided not to waste any more time procrastinating. Rather, I'm hoping that this blog with develop organically into something that can fulfill my creative side.

I can tell you where I'm going to start, and that is with my current interests, obsessions, crushes:

Fashion
Trends
Bargain shopping (times are tough, OK?)
Interior design
wedding planning (sigh... i made a pact with myself to be honest here, even if it is cringe-worthy!)
Christmas
Coca Cola!

And a whole lot of arbitrary (get it?) things that catch my interest. Right now, I'm on the hunt for the perfect 80's costume party outfit... wish me luck!

Kisses!
Chantelle