Glittering Gifts

At my job we are very lucky, we can send our Christmas wishes to our boss, who then buys our gifts online. She also wrapped them beautifully and placed them under a palm tree, which she hadn't decorated though. We were all very curious for a week.

Can you guess what I wished? Nail polish of course ! :) I have wanted these three Deborah Lippmann colours for very long and now they're mine!
From left it is Across the Universe, Ruby Red Slippers and Glitter in the Air. I cannot wait to try them.

For once my men hadn't asked each other what they gave me and guess what I'm now the lucky owner of? The complete OPIs Muppet glitter collection:

And perhaps you all think it is very long time ago I last showed you my nails, and you wonder if I don't do my nails any longer? Of course I do, but it is difficult to take some decent photos with flash. This time of year it is dark most of the time in Denmark. But here are my Christmas party nails:
I wore a fabulous blue sequined blouse and tried to make my blue nails Christmassy with a star made of rhinestones. Unfortunately, it looks like my top coat has made them matte, ouch. The blue polish is from a local dollar-shop and the glitter polish is OPI "Simmer and Shimmer", SO lovely.

And my Christmas nails was a copy of the Nail Nymphs' Christmas design:My plan was to make a reverse version: green nails with red glitter tips, but the day before I made this design on a friend's nails, since she was wearing a red skirt to a Christmas party, and then DH almost begged me to make mine exactly alike hers. I am sure the sweet Nail Nymphs don't mind being copied.

I also want to show you what I gave DH:A pinup picture of myself and my car. I ordered it at Johanna Ost in August when she had a half price campaign. She came up with the motif, she is indeed very talented and I'm very pleased with it - I'm sure DH is too.

Well, I gotta run, I have to test my glitter polishes. It is really a glittering Christmas this year.

Monroe Mondays

Merry Christmas to You All

My Collection of Glass Ornaments

As mentioned son gave me some fabulous glass ornaments as birthday gifts. I LOVE glass ornaments and since I was a little girl I have dreamed about one day being able to decorate a tree solely with glass ornaments - I can do so now. When I moved together with DH about 30 years ago, I started collecting. I bought a few every year since it is so expensive. My collection has a lot of colours, shapes and it all glitters. I could never have an elegant magazine Christmas tree in all white or silver or blue. It has to have lots of colours, be fun and different.

During the weekend I took twenty (!) photos without tripod, so I am sorry that some of them are not 100% sharp. I didn't have the energy to pull out my tripod, but I think they are all quite OK.

Much of the ornaments are ready to be hung on the tree.

Lovely golden acorns.

I'm married to a VW mechanic, so we have to have
some beetles on the tree.

A delicious ice cream with lots of glitter.

Here DH has made a polar theme with the polar bear
son gave me, an Eskimo, and a snow ball.

An albino peacock - I didn't know they existed.

A very nice stag.

Baby Jesus in his crib.

A Trabi, the nickname for the German car Trabant.

My other Marilyn ornament, not that wellmade.

And who's that? Elvis himself.

A cell phone so we can call Santa.

The long pink ornament in the middle is new. I had got
a gift card to a home decoration shop.

I don't have Danish flags on my tree, since it is a tradition
from WWII, and I'm not THAT old. But I do have some
nice ornaments in patriotic colours like this onion.

And this big ornament with painted flags.

I love vintage glass ornaments and have a small collection

like this funny pearl thing. I thrifted it at my MIL some
years ago and repaired it and she comments it every year.
In the background you can see a nice old green tea pot.

Mickey Mouse in Santa suit, which my SIL
has brought home from Disney World in Paris.

I also got Minnie at the same birthday.

DH always says that he never has time enough,
therefore I bought this rabbit from Alice in
Wonderland. I can hear him say: "Too late, too late!".

And here is a photo of my lovely tree. The elf, who
comes alive a night and decorates the tree, is called
Holger, after af famous Danish singer great-granny
thought looked like him.

Monroe Mondays

Christmas DJ: Crooners

It's not a big secret anylonger that I love the crooners from the fifties. Last year I played Christmas DJ to get you all in the right Christmas mood, so today I have gathered a Christmas Crooner collection for you all:

Nat King Coles "The Christmas Song" is my favourite Christmas song, it is simply the best. I just LOVE his voice:


But Mr. Cole has song other Christmas songs and this is perhaps one he shouldn't have recorded. Oh Tannenbaum in GERMAN:

I imagine the Germans laughing out loud.

This is something else. Here we have Nat back as we want him to sound: The Little Christmas Tree:



Frank Sinatra is another of my favourite crooners, here we hear his version of Jingle Bells. I cannot help singing loudly when I'm home alone:


Ol' Blue Eyes has song many Christmas songs, in fact there exist uncountable Christmas albums with his songs. I own a single (or two) of his Christmas albums. This song is really great: Mistletoe and Holly:

Try listen to the text - a.o.: Over-eating, merry greetings from relatives you don't know. He's into something.


Dean Martin is wonderful. Here is my favourite-Dean-Christmas-song: Let It Snow:


And I also love this different Christmas blues song - listen to Mr. Christmas Cool himself:


Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. :)

Monroe Mondays

Great Gifts

About two weeks ago it was my birthday and it was a great day - even the gifts were great. I got everything I wanted although only two of the gifts were on my wish list. My family knows me well since they give such great gifts. If I want to share the gifts with you? Of course I do.

DH gave me a drawer for my nail polish collection:
My brother sent me a text asking "if a drawer was a little overkill for nail polish?", "Not if you have many!" I answered back. Many nail polish addicts in blogland have a Helmer drawer from Ikea, but DH didn't like it, and I don't complain. This one was the last one in the shop so he bargained the price and also bought me an Advent calendar:

I just LOVE Advent calendars and he knows it.

Son gave me this completely overwhelming gift:

The most beautiful glass ornaments bought at a museum for a fortune. A rhinoceros, a polar bear and a bee. I was truly touched. So now a rhinoceros will hang on my Christmas tree.

My parents gave me only reuse gift which they had found at different flea markets, and it was the best gifts ever. A.o. this fabulous pair of shoes:
And they fit perfectly.

My best friend, Jesper and his sweet fiancee, gave me this picture of Marilyn, which I - youwon'tbelieveit - don't think I've ever seen before:
Now I just have to find a nice place to hang it.

Monroe Mondays

I am a Lipbalm Addict!

Yes, I confess – I am a lipbalm addict! I LOVE lipbalms, lipsticks and lipglosses. I have a lipbalm in every room, in every pocket, in every purse, and in every car. And I keep buying new ones – a lovely scent or a funny tube - there’s always something I simply have to try. Since it is such an inexpensive little gift for myself and since I use them all the time, I think it is OK to buy them.

At Etsy you can buy the most delicious homemade lipbalms. I got a “sweet deal” at this seller: GreenNymph. I bought a.o. Cherry Pie, Vanilla Latte, Crème Brulee, and Caramel Apple. Yummi, they are delicious.

And the other day this Christmas collection hopped into my basked and typed my PayPal password – ooops, how can it happen!?!
Now I even cannot convince myself that I need more lipbalms.

Monroe Mondays

Happy Birthday to Me!

Cruel Books

I’ve read some cruel books lately. I read a lot of different books – thrillers, fiction, I love non-fiction books and I read books with subjects I don’t understand, because I’m curious. Once I read a book about anorexia and another about a man who had a sex change operation, because I don’t understand it. I am and will always be interested in Holocaust, because it is so cruel and the strangest thing that has ever happened and it must NEVER happen again. Therefore, we have to read books about it and therefore I recommend two books (one of them unfortunately only in Danish), because we must NEVER forget:

“The Last Jew of Treblinka: A Memoir” is written by Chil Rajchman, who as a 29 year old was sent to the extermination camp Treblinka. He has never told his family about it, but after his death some years ago, the successors found a manuscript with his memories. Rajchman survived gassing by pretending he was a “hair dresser”, he cut off the hair of the women before they were gassed. Later he pretended he was a “dentist”, he pulled out artificial teeth from the dead. Rajchman survived ten month in the camp and escaped after a revolt where only 57 out of 300 survived. An expert has judged that approximately 900,000 died in Treblinka, but today that number is judged to be way too low. About 1,500,000 is judged to be much more realistic.
This book is very different from other Holocaust books, because it is the captive’s own words and not an interview book written by a journalist. Chil has written his memories right after his escape and I guess it was his way to get rid of the horrible memories. I can promise you that this is the most cruel, horrible and disgusting book you have ever read and will ever read. It is so incredible horrible that I did not get any pictures in my head. It is so surreal that I cannot imagine anything - my luck, because I don’t think I would have slept for 14 days after.

The other book is an interview book about Arlette Levy Andersen’s year (yes, a year) I Auschwitz. It is only in Danish and is titled “The Girl from Auschwitz”. By coincidence I saw her on TV and was immediately sold, I simply had to read that book. Arlette is French, a lovely elderly lady, who finally tells about her past.
Arlette Levy Andersen lived a year in the extermination camps Birkenau and Auschwitz at the end of WWII. For 40 years she did not tell even her own Jewish family what happened from she was arrested by Gestapo at a French university till she in May 1945 came home by train to Paris, where her parents picked her up.

In the book she opens up to the cruel experiences, because she feels she has to. “Soon there will not be anymore left to tell what happened.” as she says. It was that sentence I heard on TV and was sold. In the book Arlette tells about her childhood in Paris, the arrest, the deportation in cattle truck, and her stay in the extermination camps. After the liberation, Arlette travels to Denmark to study and falls in love with a Danish man, whom she later marries and thereby becomes Danish herself.

It is also very worth reading. It is much more quiet than Chil’s book, but it is still cruel. Since it is written by a journalist it includes are much more facts. I would love to hear her speech about her past.

But now I really need to read some superficial chicklit.

Monroe Mondays

It Gets Harder!

I’m watching the Danish version of “Dancing with the Stars” every Friday night. I love it! It is perfect Friday night entertainment – beautiful dresses and lovely Dancing. But now there are only three couples left, and they are all great dancers:

Patrick and Claudia – He is a professional boxer

Tommy and Marianne – he is a famous Danish actor

Sofie and Silas – she is a professional skier

I wish they all could keep on dancing the rest of the Winter! :)

Monroe Mondays

Nail Art 2.0

This Tuesday we had a Nail Art 2.0 event at my home. Yes, I work in the IT business. :) It was such a great evening. We had some lovely food from the local chinese restaurant:

Note the Marilyn Monroe napkins.

We had some really good laughs and a lot of talking going on:

After all the nice food we moved to the sofas, drank tea and coffee and threw some chocolate in our thoats, meanwhile the Konad plates were studied and designs were planned:

Here I'm stamping a dear colleague's nails:

I'm sorry about the missing focus, DH is not the best photographer, but it was very nice of him to take some photos of all of us.

Here are four sets of nails I made. The first is my brand new light blue holographic polish from Makeup Store (called SIW). Everybody fell in love with it and it is really very nice. I stamped a butterfly on the thumb nail and star-like flowers on the other fingers:

The next set of nails are my new blue polish from Sally Hansen, which I hadn't even tried yet, but do I love it!? I have stamped black flowers and put a single rhinestone in the ring finger nail:

The next set of nails are proof that you should keep your polishes in the fridge. This nice purple colour is at least 25 years old and still going strong. :) I have stamped black flowers on all nails and put a clear rhinestone in the middle of each flower, very nice:

The next set of nails have a neutral base, her zodiac sign (sign of the lobster, haha) and a turquoise Nfu-Oh flake polish on top:

THANKS to my great colleagues for a lovely evening! :)