I apparently really like the unusual goods. So here is my items selection from Fred & Friends brand. They choose daily goods to change them into something unusual. My favourites ones are : the zipper bag as a glass candy jar, the salt pot inside the salt pot and the Pac-man oven glove. A lot of stores are selling these products in the United States and in Canada. If you leave in another part of the world, you can find that brand in the nine online shops which are selling their items.

This week, no geek item but two links. If you can read French, have a look at the Stiletto blog post about how she's living in a video game. A very funny and short article which isn't really wrong. ^^ And a geek contest which ends the same day as my girly contest (August, 4th). Just leave a comment under the contest post at the Miss Geekette blog. There are 30 items to win ! =)

# Girly : my favourite discovery

After showing you a lot of Esty shops, I'll now present you Dawanda shops. These online shores are full of wonderful handmade items, waiting for you. Many original accessories that you're almost sure you won't see 10 girls a day with the same necklace as yours. But you also have to spend a lot of time looking at these so numerous shops if you really want to find rare and cute things. This is a small shop selection to help you. ^^ Ohmiroir is full of jewells - and many other accessories like pocket mirors (as the one at the top of the article) - in a romantic and vintage style. I love it. Allyshop presents cute and colourful items as I like them. *-* And Playground, is an online with not many items, but with some very lovely things, like the cookie mirror or the colourful sweet necklace. ^^

Here is a nice shop, design3000, selling a lot of different things : office stationery, jewellery and even home furniture. Cute, unusual and useful goods. ^^ I like very much the chocolate muffin necklace, the files with four big cities photos and the retro floppy disk notebook. Covers are made up with real floppy disks.

# Extra discoveries

Address and phone numbers book are outdated ? Not this one. With such a SIM card style, the notebooks could go back in our electronic society. =p

If you often read some French blogs, you must have heard about the brand : Crazylibellule. But even if other girls wrote something about it before I do, I really wanted to write a post about these absolutely cute perfumes. Except that it had started badly with me. I first won the Tamara Charleston stick thanks to a contest. The packaging was enough to make me happy to win it. But I didn't really like the smell of it.

Then, I've got the chance to choose three sticks from "Les Garçonnes" range to know more products of this brand. This way, I learnt that :

- Theses perfumes are alcohol and paraben free. Such a good new for my skin. (In short, my skin is allergic to everything that can be put on it. So alcohol and paraben are prohibited.)
- You can imagine the smell of the perfumes thanks to "Etoile olfactive" (it means olfactory star) under each Crazy stick description on the website. (Such a good idea !)
- You should at least visit the website for the cute layout and the little song. =p

Anyway, these are the sticks I chose :

Pompon Gardenia : Fresh and flowered are the two words to best describe this perfum. The smell is neither too light nor intoxicating. That's like being surrounded by thousands of flowers in a garden during the springtime. Gardenia, lime and mild tobacco are the three aromas which the "Etoile olfactive" highlights.

Chère Louise : I think that this fragrance pictures the name of "Garçonne" ( = flappers ) this product range has. There's like a light scent of male perfumes. Storax, rose and saffron are the three main aromas according to Crazylibellule. The fragrance is stronger, but still without being intoxicating.

Rose à Saïgon : Such a bewitching perfume ! And a caress for the none. As sweet as a hot bath surrounded by flowered aroma candles. A mix between passion fruit, rose and guaiacum wood, for the main scents. An heady fragrance as a beauty cream.

I also received their new perfume : 26 Juin, île d'Yeu, which is a Cologne stick. If you like the fresh and light scent of Cologne, you should like it as I do. Orange, plum, rose and peach are the four main and fruity aromas of this stick. A sweet caress of perfume for the night ? =)

If I had to choose my favourite stick, I would say I prefer the "Rose à Saïgon" one that I'm wearing today. ^^ But I intend to wear the four fragrances and change it according to my daily mood, because I really like all the sticks. So choosing by the "Etoile olfactive" is really a good idea. ^^

I wrote a blog post about the Sims 3 release in May, telling you what EA Games promised us with their new game. Up to now, I haven't told you anything more about this subject for the main reason that until yesterday, I haven't that game. I've now got it : the Sims 3 are installed on my laptop. So I started to create my first character : Maïly. Contrary to what I used to do when I started playing Sims 1 & 2, I decided not to create a Sims with my nickname or my wardrobe - which is mainly pink colored. Maïly is actually wearing colourful clothes, like the blue dress at the top of the post.

I like :

- The so many ways to give your Sims and its house a personal touch. You can almost change everything : clothes / Sim's face / all the furniture - colors and material... You can even choice your Sims voice between 3 ones. Such a good astonishment.
- That you can buy a furnished house or not. A very handy option when your Sims starts its life with not enough money to buy the furniture it really likes. (We all know that : a Sims always want furniture too expansive for its purse.) So the free house customizations are very welcomed.
- Moving in the city without being obliged to wait many minutes of loading.
- The new interface. I had to play a bit before adaptating to all the changes. But after the adaptation time, it's very good.
- That every Sims is different and has got different character. That's a good thing that you discover who they are by talking. It makes the game more real.
- To choice how my Sims will behave when it works. My Sims works in a theater. I can choose to meet musicians, to have an easy time or t work very hard...
I don't like :

- When a stupid ( =p ) Sims says my Sims is dull even though it's friendly, has the sense of humor, is always very excited and likes art... this stupid sims doesn't like art. That's the point.
- Wainting the add-ons to come. =p Hope that they will be as good as the Sims 2 ones.

I'd like :

- More neighbours. Either I will add new Sims in the house around mine, or I will make my Sims organize a night party to meet more people. Even if its house isn't really optimized for that.

On the second pic, that's my favourite outfit : apple green pyjama and slippers. xD I know my Sims shouldn't walk outside wearing a pyjama. That's just to take the newspaper. =p

As I told you, I've gone to the cinema yesterday to watch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Pottermaniac for many years, I've always reservations about the movies. So I begin my article with some generalities, not to spoil the persons who haven't see the movie yet or the ones who haven't read the book. The part of article with spoilers is announced by the text "Spoilers ci-dessous". ^^

Synopsis :

Harry Potter starts his sixth year studying at Hogwarts. Dark arts are everywhere : muggles and wizards are both the victims of them. Disappearences / deaths / several attacks / an empty diagon alley... Lord Voldemort is definitely back. His deatheaters try to enter Hogwarts. Are the pupils still safe ?

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, in short :

Many laughing scenes during at least the first half of the movie . The whole audience laughed a lot. We sparingly felt the story tense for a big part of the movie, and that's only at the end that tense was really present. There was very beautiful scenes, but the war subject was too rashly shown on the screen. The teens loves matter too much in the film. The book also relates it, but when reading it, we can't forget the war background. When the book highlights this dark part of the story, movie highlights love. Even if I liked the movie, I found it difficult to feel the stakes of the story.



Okay, I'm very critical towards the movie, but that was obvious.
To change with the not so nice review above, I will start with the positive points. At first : the casting. I liked very much Helena Bonham Carter, as in the 5th movie. She perfectly portrays Bellatrix. Exactly the way I imagined her when reading. Her staggering arrival at the Burrow is one of my favourite scenes. To go on with the actors, I still like very much Evanna Lynch - as Luna Lovegood. The way she plays her unusual character is amazing. The new actors in the saga, like Jessica Cave as Lavander Brown gives her the perfect ninny image we certainly all imagined / Jim Broadbent really convinced me, and the two Tom Marvolo Riddle (Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Franck Dillane) were very good too. I've preferred the 11-year-old Tom, but there both fit the role. Anyway, I' wasn't disappointed by the casting.

There were also some wonderful scenes. I've already told about Bellatrix at the Burrow one. But there are also the flight in London at the movie beginning - which was just breathtakingly great, the crowd of witches and wizards, standing their wand up in front of Dumbledore's corpse... And my favourite scene : Dumbledore and Harry on the big rock in the ragging sea. It really pictures what the story is : a wild wizarding world.

But it also seems as if the director misses some scenes. Potter and Malfoy's confrontation in the train was just empty. A kick on Harry's face after casting him a spell and that's all.

I won't take the scene one by one - even if I could, so I'll try to be as short as it's possible for me when Harry Potter is the post subject. Another scene didn't convinced me at all : Dumbledore's death. Such a dissappointment. And I'm uncompromising because :
- Reading the book makes me cry twice / not once with the movie.
- Dumbledore is my favourite character. His death is one of the most moving part of the book. And that's also one of my favourite scene because of that / not in the movie.
I well understand that everything can't be the same both in book and movie if we don't want to watch a 5-hour-movie. But why do they change some things that don't need to ? Harry could have stayed immobilized next to Dumbledore under his invisibility cloak. It would have given a real helplessness to Harry. So there were too many different shots, always moving, between Harry at downstairs, Snape's arrival, deatheathers and then, Dumbledore. In these conditions, that was almost impossible to feel the tense that should have been present in this scene.

After Dumbledore's death, deatheaters should have met few pupils like Hermione / Ginny / Ron. Nothing. They just met an Auror who was apparently wandering in the corridors castle.

As I must finish this post one day or the other, I will tell you my last big disappointment : the phoenix lament. This is the second book part which makes me weep. J.K Rowling wrote it very well. The phoenix should have sung a last heartbreaking song. In the movie, we just saw him flying. It could haven't been there, it would be the same.

I said I'll finish, so very quickly : what a pity there was no explanations neither about the pictures of muggle world (it would have been important for the ones who didn't read the book) nor about "who's the dark-haired-girl next to Remus" because I'm sure that eveyone didn't recognize the former-pink-haired Nymphadora Tonks.

Even if I said a lot of negative things, that's a good movie, very funny at the beggining. But I do hope that the two movies for the 7th book will highlight the dark part of the story. At this point, the books are not only for teens, but also for adults.

Between my day trip in Valence, the bamboo forest one and the contest preparation, there was no article about my discoveries last week. Here we go again. ^^

This friday, I wanted to present you some unusual things. If you have ever dreamed of being in Alice Wonderland, furniture of the brand Dust Furniture can make your dream come true. I find this wonderful personally. I may not decorate my whole house with this twisted furniture, but why not to put one or two in a room ? More unusual : socks for your chairs by Chris & Ruby. The online shop will be soon available, so if you're interested in, watch out for it. To my mind, it could be useful when you've got a wooden floor. ^^

Because you can't change a Hello Kitty fan : I love the new Hello Kitty notebook by Epson. First, I really like the white laptops (mine is pink, but pink is even better =p ) so with Hello Kitty head on it... that's just very nice. *-* Now I regret my laptop is only one year old. =p (Just a joke. I do like my pink laptop. ^^ ) I owe Esghalis my second geek discovery. This is the Warner bros website which permits you to cast a spell - the Harry Potter ones - on your Twitter friends. I don't tell you more about : let's try !

A new Etsy shop makes sheep's eyes at me : Zygomatics shop which presents a few very beautiful handmade accessories. As the little rabbit broach you can see at the article top. ^^ There are also some new Hello Kitty products in the Silhouette collection which I really like. There's now Mimmy - Kitty's twin - on the collection draw. You can watch it here et there.

That's always the sales in France. You can still profit from it on P'Home d'Amour, an online shop I discovered thanks to Fleur de Cerise. Many different products, "cute and vintage" : accessories / stationery / small furniture / linen / [ ... ] I particularly like the Paris wallet. That's almost a decorative item I think. ^^ You can order everywhere you are on the earth.

Really unusual : a notepad to make pellets. As I don't really know how to explain what is it more precisely, just look at this. 48 sheets and 8 different design. A frenzied notepad which costs 17,80 $.

Waiting a package is a true ordeal for me. Especially when I don't know its tracking number. If I had it, I would content myself with checking ten times a day where it is, to see whether it moves from the sorting office during the weekend. But when I can't spy like this, I start a postman hunt.

Every morning, since almost a week, I hope... in vain. Every time, that's the same :

- I'm always trying to convince myself that I won't receive my package today, because if I'm sure I will, I will be too disapointed when it won't be brought by the postman.
- My auto-convince tries are definitely doomed to fail. So I'm vainly hoping, mentally repeating to myself that my parcel won't be here.
- Time goes by. The postman passes between 9 and 10 a.m. If he's got a package for me, he'll ring the doorbell (I live in an apartment.) 10:15 a.m by my watch : he might be late. 10:30 a.m : no more hope. Package isn't here.
- Except if... the package fit in the mailbox. Then, I'm waiting the mailbox key keeper (aka my mum, because we only have one single key. v.v )

Sometimes, there are some variations. This morning for example, I saw the yellow postman car. I tried to see whether there's a package on the passenger seat (the view plunges down to the inner car when you live at the 4th floor). Apparently : nothing. But it could be hidden under the letter heap... A new fruitless waiting starts, ending with a vanished hope. The last vain hope of the day being the parcel in the box.

No package for today. And that's not a try to convince myself : the mailbox key keeper passed at home earlier than usual. All there were in the mailbox was adverts and... my admission letter to a Master 1 in Lyon 3. =D After the e-mail, the paper model. I'm just waiting for the tablets and I send them everything by carrier pigeon.

Yesterday I went to a bamboo forest in Anduze (Gard / France) with my boyfriend and his family (parents, grandparents on father's side, aunt). It was a sunny and clear day. Such a good thing. And so my digital camera was with me. Then, a new photo gallery appeared on my Flickr. ^^

However, before telling you it was great, that I saw many beautiful things and that I could have though I fell into a spatiotemporal vortex as it seemed I was no longer in France, so before telling you that, leave me tell you how a plot tried to stop us going there. At first, we wanted to go to Anduze two weeks ago. Everything was ready from departure hour to picnic food including my adventurer outfit. But the day before we learnt that there will be traffic jams all day long. We decided to go to Anduze another day. This sunday seemed to be the perfect day. The weatherman said that it would be a shinny day and traffic would be light. But weather went wrong. In the night between thursday and friday, there was a big storm, and friday was a very wet day. What's more, one of my boyfriend's aunt colleague lost her sister. As his aunt works in a hospital, someone would have to work instead of this men. And apparently, it would have been his aunt. Despite all these things, we've gone. Weather was clear again and the men wasn't off work - or someone else replaced him.

In the bamboo forest, I :
- Bought two chopstick pairs ;
- Knocked on bamboos waiting they tell me "Come in !" and secondarily to see if they were hollow ;
- Hit a sequoia because when I was in primary school, we were told that we can't be hurt by hitting it ;
- Stroked bamboos because it's strangely smooth ;
- Nearly fell in the lotus pool ;
- Learnt that bamboos are sly. They grew up everywhere if the weather and the ground is nice for them. So to get rid of bamboos, there's only one solution : to attack them with a pickaxe.

Then we took the Cevennes steam train, in which I breathed lot of black smoke. It permits me to think I was Dr Queen taking an old train ( xD ) and to imagine Marie Ingalls saying goodbye to her family by the train window (except that there was no pane for ys. Of course not, otherwise we couldn't have the luck to breathe smoke. ^^)

I was in Valence (France) on Thursday. I spent a big part of the afternoon in the swimming pool of my childhood. In short, one swimming pool which belongs to my family. =) Armed with my digital camera, I let my finger push the button... And the result is : 7 new shots in my Flickr. =)

This has nothing to do with the previous subject, but it seems that I didn't speak about my job in a McDonald restaurant since a long time. And yet, there are so many things to say. We must admit that's not tomorrow that the Drive-in customers will stop waste our time by asking their 7-year-old kid to count their Euros. They won't learn that they really shouldn't spend 5 minutes to put their credit card in their little card holder, then in their purse which will be put in the first pocket of their handbag either. (!!) Neither did I stop to be clumsy... it would be such a good new that it can but be a dream. Only this morning, I scratched myself, wanting to open the lid of a raspberry coulis bottle. I also gave a real head but in the Drive-in window, thinking it was opened. ^^"

But this morning, I also tried something new : the crumble hunt in its natural background (at least -15 ° celsius). The crumble is an impish food which is hidden very deep in this iced forest. That's why, only armed with my bravery and XXXL-sized-anorak, I go through the cold to hunt it. It would be so funnier if there was a large way that, of course, it was full of fries boxes. When I finally saw the Graal, or where the crumble should be, I fiercely looked after it, hopping that I will be rewarded for my bravery. A boxes collapsing made me to barehanded climb it. Then, I found the Precious among the fake ones (the other cakes with no importance for my hunt).