Pixabella

Shopping for new lingerie is so exciting because now I can look and feel sexy wearing European lingerie. My first sexy lingerie set was from an Italian designer and all I can say it's like you're wearing nothing.

I like lingerie that complements my figure and hugs to the contours of my body. I don't do uncomfortable nor do I wear items that ride up or cripple me. Shopping can be endlessly amusing, as it never ceases to amaze me the number of women who have bra and pantie issues.

How on earth can you look feminine when you're picking panties from your butt or trying to relocate a bra strap. Trust me ladies it's not a nice look, you seriously need to buy new lingerie.

Don't be shy go to a lingerie store and ask if they have a free measure up service. They are usually very friendly and can fit you up and give you sound advice on what styles best suit your figure.

I find getting measured up at least twice a year is sufficient enough and allows me to shop online, for example at Prima Donna Lingerie. I love European lingerie because it's not just delicate laces and silk. One can still look feminine and comfortable wearing cotton without looking like a fashion disaster.

Last week when we were at the Supermarket I bought myself some Strawberry Jam (jelly for my American readers). I love Strawberries and I absolutely love Strawberry Jam, it's my favourite. So of course I have this rule about Strawberry Jam or any jam for that matter. It must be flavoursome, contain loads of fruit and not overly sweet.

Having a jam criteria requires a little patience and light reading at the Supermarket. This usually means I send the man off to start the shop and in the meantime I can compare the list of sugar verses fruit, size of jar, and price without being nagged to hurry up. Did you know that some jams contain more sugar per 100grams of product than fruit?

I find this quite alarming, consumers think they're buying jam and in actual fact they're eating sugar with a bit of colour and fruit thrown in. If you're going to buy this type of jam you may as well save your money and sprinkle sugar on your toast.

Don't get me wrong sweet jams have their place just not on my toast. If I happen to buy jam that's too sweet I use it as jam filler in biscuits, cakes and slices. When I make jam on toast I like it to be warm so the butter can melt and mix in with spreadable jam. I love how the aroma of the toast and freshly brewed coffee fills the air, and makes for a wonderful breakfast knowing your jam will taste devine.

I feel good about reducing the amount of sugar in our diet and I get more fruit for my money. For brand name sake I am not going to mention the name but I will share the info about the fruit verses sugar content so you can be sure to buy real jam.

The sugar verses fruit content for a 340gram jar of jam will be something like this;

Sweet Jam
45g fruit per 100g of product
60g sugar per 100g of product

Real Jam
60g fruit per 100g of product
44g sugar per 100g of product

If you would like to make a difference to your family's sugar intake, take your time and read the ingredients label, you'll be surprised.

Koalas are one of my favourite creatures on the planet, in fact years ago living in Australia I had Koalas living in some Eucalypt trees at the bottom of my garden. They would visit for a few weeks then disappear to some other part of town where fresher leaves were growing.

So you can imagine how sad I was to read that their only source of food, the eucalypt leaf is starting to become poisonous to them because of global warming and the increased percentage of carbon dioxide in the leaves.

These gentle little creatures have evolved into a really special little animal that never fails to generate excitement in everyone when you spot them in the trees.

To think that they could quickly become endangered because of lack of food is terrible, and I guess if this is true and continues then at some point they may be restricted to zoos and sanctuaries where eucalypts can be grown in controlled conditions with artificial air. Its very sad, I hope scientists can come up with some way to protect the Koalas.

Gold, glorious gold, its my favorite jewelry, I only wear gold, especially since I have an allergy to silver, no seriously, I can only wear gold, or jewelry that is mostly gold, especially anything around my neck so I need real gold chains. Its a medical condition but also a great excuse.

Of course only wearing gold can be a bit of a problem, sometimes my purse feels a little light, and of course the other half wouldn't be happy if I had to change my wardrobe, I mean everything I have is designed to go well with gold, all my rings and ear rings are gold so I have to match them with gold bracelets don't I?

I've mentioned before how much I love browsing online jewelry stores, with most of my friends being overseas its the only way we can go window shopping, and actually the prices of jewelry online isn't really any different from high street shops, and are often cheaper.

I've always like the traditional styles like in the bracelet you see here, and I tend to wear very plain chains around my neck, and my best friend always picks the more chunky or contemporary pieces, but she tends to be very fashion conscious. I just like looking stylish.

I love strawberries, fresh from the plant, with cream, or just on their own, it doesn't matter much I love them so much.

So you can imagine my delight this morning when I looked out the window and saw my first strawberry ready to eat. I've been watching the flower grown and blossom for a couple of weeks, and the last week has been agonizing watching the fruit grow and progressively change from green to pink, to red.

I planted my strawberries a lot later than some friends and my first batch of seeds didn't take but the second batch from a few weeks ago has. I think I'll have a handful of strawberries to eat in the next week but then I might have to wait another 2-3 weeks before I get another batch.

The photo you see here is the strawberry as I saw it this morning. Isn't is glorious. I can't wait to taste it but I might leave it till tomorrow before I pick it.

I love shopping, ask my other half and he'll roll his eyes and try to hide or pretend he didn't hear you. Consequently he puts up a fight anytime I want to go shopping, which is why I love Internet shopping sites so much.

Savings.com is one of my favorites just because they don't try to sell anything, the whole site just lists coupons you can use like the Orbitz promo codes that I use when we do a long drive anywhere and need to book a hotel.

Actually its really funny. I hate junk mail filling my snail mail postbox, but give me half a chance to get it in my email and I'm all there, I know, its really stupid, maybe I'm a gullible buy anything type eco-warrior princess, lol!

Anyway, what I love about savings.com is you can vote for discounts so I always vote for the best deals, it keeps the advertisers on their toes, they have to keep giving good discounts or their ad gets buried. In my mind I have this image of cemetery workers shoveling soil over their beautifully crafted banners, its weird but it makes me feel good about burying bad offers.

But to be fair, most of the time any discount is better than none at all isn't it? I mean who wouldn't grab an offer if you're going to be traveling somewhere anyway and the offer is there. Just for example look at the cost of car hire, its already expensive enough so $20 off means an extra $20 in my purse for other things.

I have a new hero, Maria Soledad Vela, a lady in Ecuador who is part of the group of people rewriting their national constitution, and who has proposed an amendment making it a right for a woman to enjoy sex.

Well I couldn't agree more, we're not just baby-making factories you know, which is exactly what she's campaigning against.

Of course a certain part of the Ecuadorian population is not very happy and is calling her names, some have even joked that men might even be charged with human rights abuses if they can't give a woman an orgasm, but that's the kind of typical response you'd expect from people who don't like change.

Maria has said they've taken the amendment right out of context, she just wants women to have the right to make their own decision without being pressured, and she wants women to have to right to learn about contraception and responsible sex.

Ladies we are so lucky living in the western world where we can take equal rights for granted. I'd love to visit Ecuador but I'm not sure I could live there if those are the restrictions women face. Go Maria!