FAVOURITE | places of 2010

WE'LL BYPASS the intro on this one. You know the drill by now:

Vail, Colorado - Who knew skiing and all the hoopla around it was so much fun? Erm,  millions. I found out in December 2010 what a friggin' blast the whole ski thing and corresponding culture is. Plus, Vail and the surrounding area are breathtaking. Why winter in a frozen, hideous tundra (Chicago, Minneapolis) when you could do it on two planks of speedy goodness down the side of a snow-covered enchanted mountain? Followed by a hot tub soak, walk, apres ski drinks or any other number of fun things?

Hamburg, Germany - Sweet city with a central park that's packed with former Yugoslavs playing petanque even in a snow storm. Wander around and you'll stumble upon design studios that peer right out to the street on even the most residential thoroughways, wonderful beer halls, tiny cafes, coffee houses, hilly green spaces. I like it. A lot.

Blackheath, London - Live in London your whole life and you'll probably never see 80% of it. True story. I stayed with the wonderful BritishBeautyBlogger on Black Heath in October and the sweet village center was like Highgate Village, my former home... only better. Would move there with a young family in a heartbeat.

Savannah, Georgia, USA - Do everything from swill pina coladas poolside in a local's backyard while perusing the wares on offer at their Saturday morning garage sale to kayak with Dolphins in the Moon River. The old houses, Spanish moss and lazy pace of life are really attractive to anyone who lives a 24/7 life.

Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA - Actually, it's just outside of Santa Fe that's best, specifically Ten Thousand Waves Spa and the Santa Fe State Park area. Japanese-style spa with accomodations in the same manner. Get up early for a soak before hiking up a peak just a mile down the road. Peaceful and removed from the super-touristy center of the town.

Vermont, USA - The US's best-kept secret, in my mind. Although the state can call everyone from the late Rudyard Kipling to Tata Harper residents. Still pretty wild and country, the towns are adorable, there's loads to do. Nature's almost totally unadulterated, even in the capital. Wonderful year round and most glorious during Leaf Peeping season in the fall. The majority of the state residents are transplants from elsewhere because it's just that alluring. 

Reykjavik (Keflavik) Airport - Probably the grooviest airport in the world. The cafe in the terminal is cooler and more stylish than any coffee shop I've come across in America and, well, probably the UK. And everything's more design-led too. There's even a shop dedicated to just design. Plus, the Icelandic woven wares on sale are hard to pass up. I would happily pass a multi-hour layover here over virtually all other airports.

FAVOURITE | tunes that defined my 2010

AS WITH the list of favourite sites and blogs of 2010, many of these tunes might not be new. In fact, some might be ancient (in pop culture terms). Nevertheless, they musically defined my 2010.

Somehow I found them, or they found me, and we were thick as thieves. I put a song I love on a loop until I can't bear to hear it again for years (RIP Amy Winehouse's Back To Black).

Holla to my sistas who fall into the same category of song listener as I do (I'll pour a little out for all those songs we've lost over the years by playing them to death. Word).

FAVOURTE SONGS OF 2010 (AKA SONGS THAT I HAD ON REPEAT THROUGHOUT 2010)

Maps and Soft Shock by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. '80s, electro-grungy(ish) goodness. Soft Shock is not unlike Goldfrapp a la 2006. I actually prefered working out to these two songs more than any others in 2010. Strange, I know.

Intro by The XX - Oooh, if ever I were on some sort of mission in life - maybe something seriously melodramatic - THIS is the song I would have playing in the background. It's just so cool. If Clint Eastwood coulda been turned into a song when he was 26, this would be it.

Little Bit by Lykke Li - A sugary sweet voice. It's just so good and the chorus is catchy. This is the sort of song, I just know in my heart of hearts, that Japanese women (and business men) are totally after for their private Karaoke jags. 

Bulletproof by La Roux - Certainly not a 2010 hit (in fact, it might even be 2008) but one that makes me bop around wherever I am when it comes on, dignity be damned. Electro-synth pop fabulosity. Happy mornings when this comes up on Pandora.

Such Great Heights by The Section Orchestra - I'm eternally sad I didn't have the live jazz trio at our backyard wedding play this while I walked up to meet my man pond side. Me in black-embroidered white chiffon at cocktail length minus two inches topped with a Russian-netting fascinator. He, dressed not entirely unlike Tony Montoya of Scarface. First time I heard Such Great Heights was a lifetime ago, at about 2am, while playing drunken Boggle at a friend's flat on Petticoat Lane. It's been on repeat since and I would give my eyelashes to go back in time and get this magical number going for my nuptials.

Only Girl (In The World) by Rihanna - Boy oh boy, did I ever pump this up and roll down all (yep, all four) windows when tearing down a winding back road one crisp November morning in the Sonoma Mountains. En route to a client meeting, the whole time tapping the beat and bouncing in my seat while keeping an eagle eye on on the edge of the road for wily wild turkeys and indecisive deer. I didn't actually know it was Rihanna until the male (I repeat male) winemaker we were staying with handed me his iPod to DJ while he drove at some later point. He's a big. fan.

Aicha by Taha, Khaled, Faudel - It's the audial part to my memories of eating dodgy late-night kebab outside the Camden tube with fellow SSEES graduate students in 2005. The purveyor played this jam quite regularly. It's certainly not a 2010 hit but a little Aicha thrown in the mix is always good times and delighted my Algerian brother-in-law at our 2010 Christmas party.

Remind Me by Royksopp - This is our song. By our, I mean the collective song of my marital unit. My husband said it reminded him of me (he did, afterall, come visit me in England a couple times before we could even fathom that we would end up smooching one day, let alone get meh-wwwwied). 

Superstar by Lupe Fiasco - It was played at a now-divorced friend's wedding some years back, and somehow found it's way back into my heart, iPhone and party mix. It was one of the last songs to play as us stragglers still swayed, arms linked, on the wooden dance floor set up under a billowing canopy in a field that night. We were blissfully unaware of how close we were teetering to the edge of a cliff that gave way to nothing but adulthood. Married adulthood. Kids adulthood. Jobs-we-hated adulthood. Divorces adulthood. Scary stuff. And a Lupe Fiasco song defines that moment for me. Go figure. Welcome back into the fold, Lupe.

Cosmic Love by Florence And The Machine - Florence is my doppelganger (or I hers, I suppose). Ginger, fringed and forever in brilliant red lipstick. Our similarities stop there, though, as I don't often wear black lace dresses, nor have I such a voice, talent or kitchen drawer rammed full of awards. She came to Chicago early in 2010 and played the House of Blues, a small venue and testament to the observation that Americans really don't hear most non-American music until it's about as new as your grandmother's dentures. She played to a packed house. It's the best live show I've seen in years.

Avalon by Juliet - Yes, yes, more nostalgia. Walking by open air bars in Hvar in 2008, warm sea breezes carried this club tune my way, somehow making it feel like summer the way it use to feel like summer when you were a kid -- a tangible, humid, languorous beast that we stalked all school year. I cling to this tune when I want to shut my eyes and pretend I'm sunbathing on the rocky shore of the Adriatic without a care in the world (like on horribly cold winter days). It helped with my weepy feelings on moving back to Chicago during the hellish month of February in the Midwest.

Something Good Can Work by Two Door Cinema - Sounds a bit like we should be dancing the conga line with a bunch of sunburned, paunchy holiday goers at a Sandals resort, but just enough to make it totally awesome. I can't help but to bust out the air maracas everytime I hear it and watch my husband wince as I dance around with 'em.

GRAB THIS PLAYLIST (or just listen to it instantly) ON GROOVESHARK HERE. No account required.

Sadly no have access to Spotify here =0(

What were your favourite tunes of 2010? Do share!

Won't you stay tuned for more of our favourite lists from 2010?

FAVOURITE | sites and blog finds of 2010

AND WE'RE back.

Yep after a long, wonderful, dreamy, snow-filled holiday in 2010. And maybe a few false starts in early Jan (loathe to let the holiday go). It was unapologetically, completely removed from my life online. for. once.

I learned how to Alpine ski (laptop nowhere to be seen), snow shoed, fell on my face (once... and on video), drank far too much, wore far too many sequins, snuck into one too many hot tubs in Vail, slept more than a toddler, wore red lipstick (Rouge Bunny Rouge courtesy of Zuneta) on the ski slopes (for a dash of flair), waxed my own underarms for the first time ever (the second done many days (and drinks) after the first. Ouch). Generally I relished that stage in life where I'm old enough -- and sometimes financially stable enough -- to enjoy the finer things and don't yet have kids to cover said finer things in a film of stickiness.

I cringed when I logged on today to see the unpublished backlog of (many) posts from 2010. Erm, Intraceuticals, Cowshed Spa, heavenly Alpha-H, a tour of the Burt's Bees factory in North Caronlina... all. sorts. Instead of getting on with that (which I will, promise, one day... soon... ish), I thought a recap of 2010 in order.

Thus here we go, starting with a list of amazing websites I found, stumbled on, clicked through to via other blogs I like, etc., etc., etc. in 2010. You  might already know them and love them. You might think they're shit.

Either way, these are the sites that I obsessively check when my eyeballs aren't surgically attached to the Daily Mail website (or, as I call it, web crack).

FAVOURITE WEBSITE FINDS OF 2010

La Tartine Gourmande - Mouthwatering recipes and photography. Taught me what to do with a Kuri squash.

Earth to Alys - Helpful videos, cool host, adorable sidekick (Jack Russell in a jumper). Makes me lust after the allotments in Queen's Wood by my old place and has caused me to put a Storm Kettle on my Christmas List for 2011.

Beauty and the Bullshit - Former beauty industry insider (on the corporate side) giving a no holds barred account of what happens behind The Wall of Silence.

Save The Words - Because I'd rather see Brochity than Frenemy in the dictionary.

Bodyrock.tv - Because I don't leave the house unless I have to after it goes below freezing (thus leaving me with the need to do something active within these four walls), and I detest the dreadmill and human hamster wheels (read: cardio machines) at the gym.

The Daily Connoseiur - Reminds me of lessoned I learned during a summer in Paris, and various other cultural observations that seem to confound non-French peeps sometimes (not to, erm, generalize the actions of an entire city of people).

Isabelle Dexter English Girl In Paris - Pithy love letter to Paris even with its many (comically described) faults.

A Model Recommends - Pretty dope model dishing on beauty. Great voice, particularly her post to Burt's bees.

But You're Like Really Pretty - 'Cuz. it's. awesome.

VitalJuice.com - As they say, like Daily Candy without the calories.

Inchmark - Former staffer at Martha Stewart has a blog. This is it. Visit for the crafts.

Stylist.co.uk - The weekly mag is a commuter godsend after the folding of London Lite and the London Paper eons ago. The site's just as good and makes it easy to quickly load the music they suggest to...

Groove Shark (or Spotify in Europe) - Free basic service lets you listen to, pretty much, any song for free.

Anti Duckface - Puts a name (and extensive gallery) to the voiceless, intense hatred I was feeling for the sexy pouts in pictures this visual travesty.