I take recycling very seriously, in fact I have just been in the garden organising my stuff for collection by the recycling guys.  The only things I put in the bin are those that can’t be used in their current form by anyone else.  Old clothes and bags go to the charity shop, leftover materials from Home Renovation and Building are offered to Freecycle, you get the picture. Read more »

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Over here in the UK we have a tradition of letterboxes in our front doors, where the envelopes and parcels are pushed through a small slot into the hallway.  If you have an excitable dog this often means that the items are thoroughly chewed before you can get your hands on them.  If you are ordering designer goods this may not be very convenient.  Read more »

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When you are writing blog posts or website material sooner or later you will need to choose a way of including images in your pages.  The internet is a place where we devour pictures and photos of the highest quality, and a site that looks shabby or amateur will not last very long.  There is a very good site that provides thousands of hours of images in subjects like people stock footage if you want to include human interest on your site. Read more »

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Things I never thought I would be shopping for – well, Lockers are quite high up on the list.  When I was at school I do not recall taking much notice of them – for years I was using School Lockers to keep text books, notebooks and sweets in.  None of that was valuable so the lockers didn’t need to be very sophisticated. I have horrid memories of the heavy Wood Lockers that were installed at my secondary school.  They were dark, covered with graffiti and didn’t close very well.  I still had no valuables to put in them, so it didn’t matter too much. Read more »

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In the teeth of a recession based around the housing market, you would think it would be simple to get a competitive moving quote, wouldn’t you? That is what I thought when I recently needed to move our possessions from London to Sussex.  I naively picked up the local yellow pages and rang around – the first company told me they could come round and quote in two weeks’ time.  Read more »

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I love buying clothes online, as it can save a lot of time, money and energy compared to trailing round dozens of shops.  But shopping for clothes online can take just as long if the site is not set up to help you find just what you want. To help all the fashionistas here is news of a brand new fashion search engine that allows you to view only the garments in your size.  How often have you pounced on the most gorgeous pair of Shoes. Read more »

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Watching Victoria Beckham’s arrival in London last week it was quite clear that she enjoys carrying the very best designer handbags. The Hermès Birkin is just about the most covetable handbag around, and it has been for a very long time. You cannot simply walk into an Hermès boutique and buy a Birkin Bag – oh, no! That would not make it desirable, would it? There is usually a waiting list of at least a year to buy an authentic Hermès Birkin direct from the company. If you are lucky enough to reach the top of the list your bag will cost around $8000. If you do not want to wait, then you will have to buy your Hermes bag from a reseller. The price here ranges from $12000 on the auction sites, up to $17500 from a reseller like Createurs Deluxe. The Hermes Birkin Handbag is available in sizes ranging from 25cm through to 40cm, which is the size Posh was carrying. That is an ideal size for carrying on to a plane with the essentials that you will need during the flight.

The Hermès bag illustrated here is the 35cm Fjord Birkin in black Veau Fjord leather, with 18 carat gold plated hardware. This goes some way to explaining the cost of these handbags, which are hand made in France. Another element in the price is the time taken to craft a Birkin leather bag – at least 48 hours highly skilled work. The interior is lined with fine goatskin to match the exterior colour of the bag.

The key to the Birkin lock is enclosed in a type of leather lanyard called a “clochette”. This is looped through one of the handles and the Birkin locks by closing the bag’s top flaps over all buckle loops, wrapping the buckle straps, and closing the lock on the front hardware. Not exactly something that can be done in a hurry!

On the base of the Hermès Birkin are four metal feet at each corner to protect the leather when the bag is rested on tables or other surfaces. As long as you buy from an established retailer you should get an authentic certificated Birkin, but here are some pointers to help you confirm the bag’s pedigree.

* Even stitching

* Gilt or blind stamped in the front face under the tap: “Hermès Paris, Made in France” – shown in the photo,
* Craftsman’s marks and letter year of manufacture stamped in a square on the reverse of the right belt.
* Interior leather zipper tag parallel with zipper hardware, not perpendicular.

Apart from Victoria Beckham, here are some of the other famous fans of the iconic Birkin tote.
Actresses Sandra Bullock, Jodie Foster, Katie Holmes, Lindsay Lohan, Demi Moore, Sarah Jessica Parker, Nicole Richie and Julia Roberts. Singer Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson, models Kate Moss and Elle Macpherson.

The Hermès Birkin was named

after Jane Birkin, the British singer. It was designed especially for her after she told Jean-Louis Dumas, boss of Hermès, of her problems in finding a good leather weekend bag. A week later she received a parcel from Dumas containing the original Hermès Birkin handbag. The rest is fashion history.

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I learned something today that could just help me in the future – I now know what CD rates are. I also now know that I am classified as a lazy investor, but that is not actually a big surprise to me.  That means I am the type who cannot be bothered ploughing through the newspapers on Sunday to find out about Certificate of Deposit Rates, even though they affect the return I receive on my savings. Read more »

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