Marc Jacobs Unveiled As New Creative Director Of Diet Coke

Posted on March 17, 2013 by Frostie

DIET COKE & MARC JACOBS

LAUNCH ‘SPARKLING TOGETHER FOR 30 YEARS’

LIMITED EDITION COLLECTION

Diet Coke announced that leading visionary, Marc Jacobs is their new Creative Director exclusively for 2013. The partnership will be an exciting element of the ‘Sparkling Together For 30 Years’ campaign, as the brand celebrates its milestone 30^th Anniversary.

Marc Jacobs brings his unique vision to the brand, by creating a limited edition collection of must-have bottles and cans, uniting the stylish and light-hearted personalities of both icons. Inspired by the three decades, the chic designs will capture the rise of female empowerment through the ‘80s, ‘90s, ‘00s, with a whimsical twist – true to Jacobs’ signature style.

One of this generation’s hottest and most influential designers, Marc Jacobs’ designs exude a youthful spirit, with provocative artistry – the perfect partner to collaborate with Diet Coke. With this exciting appointment, Diet Coke will build on its impressive heritage of fashion collaborations.

Marc Jacobs commented, “I feel very privileged to be the new Creative Director of Diet Coke and put my stamp on the 30^th Anniversary campaign. Diet Coke is an icon… and I love an icon.”

‘I Heart ‘80s’ embodies the rise of the empowered woman in all her 1980s glory. Marc Jacobs captures her in a timeless and classic style, with a strong rebellious current, which also portrays the designer’s love of theatre. The bow tie and shining lights of Broadway incorporated into the design, also reference the spectacular launch of Diet Coke at Radio City NYC, where the world’s first diet soft drink made its US debut in 1982.

The ‘I Heart ‘90s’ creative is a dynamic reinterpretation of the decade, showcasing the extravagant attitude of the era where fashion, music and art collided in a glamorous exploration of strong femininity and daring attitude. Marc’s signature swallow motif adds a romantic element to the design and features iconic ‘90s fashion accessories including the exaggerated couture trilby hat and treasured stiletto heel.

‘I Heart ‘00s’ design is a playful and lighthearted illustration of the sporty-cool decade, embodying humour, sexiness and energy. The evocative silhouette is directly inspired by the Marc Jacobs Spring / Summer 2013 runway show and features his signature red polka dot motif – a hallmark of his early collections. The stripes and geometric patterns detailed in the graphic also bring to life the youthful exuberance and the eclectic mix of inspirations that make fashion in the ‘00s so diverse.

The exciting Diet Coke Sparkling Together with Marc Jacobs limited edition collection will be available across cans nationwide from 25^th February. These cans along with contour bottles and multipacks will also feature an exclusive code for the chance to win a Marc Jacobs tote. The ultimate fashion accessory to be seen with this season, everyone will be in with a chance to win as a bag will be given away every minute*. The tote features Diet Coke’s iconic red and silver colours with a quirky Marc Jacobs twist of red polka dots.

The limited-edition bottles and Collectors Cases will be available exclusively from Selfridges from 12^th March for 4 weeks. Selfridges will also host a pop-up themed area, dedicated to the three designs and which will invite Diet Coke fans to immerse themselves in Marc Jacobs’ vision.

Women turn on their heels this season

Posted on March 16, 2013 by Catherine Balavage

– Two thirds of women ditch heels and join SJP in a flats revolution –

According to a recent poll of SecretSales.com members, two thirds (62 per cent) of women are planning to ditch their heels for a more comfortable flat shoe this season.

With recent news revealing Sarah Jessica Parker and Victoria Beckham have developed long-term foot damage due to wearing high heels, wise women are deciding to mix up their wardrobe and leave the old adage ‘beauty is pain’ behind them.

Despite continuous health warnings, there are some stylish women who just cannot bear to be parted from their beloved stilettos; with a quarter (27 per cent) saying they would not feel confident wearing flats every day.

For those women thinking of mixing up their flats to heels ratio, Chelsea boots, as sported recently by Victoria Beckham, or glamorous pumps, worn by Alexa Chung and Sienna Miller, are a must for this season.

Ballet pumps were the staple flat shoe for British women, followed by Chelsea boots in second. The least popular flat footwear of choice were moon boots, with one in five (19 per cent) fashionistas saying they would not be caught dead in a pair.

Top five flat shoes:

Ballet pumps	32%
Chelsea boots	23%
Brogues	19%
Trainers	16%
Loafers	10%

Helen Kaye, Head of Editorial at SecretSales.com says “Flats can be a great addition to a cute skirt or skinny jeans. They are essential in any wardrobe and can make an outfit look more relaxed and playful. Swapping the heels on occasion can help save your feet and add some fun back to your style and wardrobe!”

To rock the stylish flats look for less, SecretSales.com is offering a 60 per cent discount on Missoni flats from Wednesday 20^th March. Members of the site will be able to snap up the £163 shoes for £99.

The Princess and The Pranayama By Cheryl MacDonald

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Catherine Balavage

By Cheryl MacDonald BA Hons E-RPYT, Perinatal Yoga teacher and Childbirth educator

The now glowing Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge has given up her punishing exercise routine in wake of her pregnancy and is now practising yoga to help ensure a natural, drug free birth for the pending heir to the throne.

Why yoga during pregnancy?

Yoga is being hailed as THE form of exercise of pregnant women everywhere, allowing mother to remain fit and flexible while building a strong mind and body to prepare for childbirth. The focus of yoga during pregnancy works on relaxed stretching (asanas), yogic breathing (or pranayama) and deep relaxation or savasana. Yoga during pregnancy and also post-partum with baby can decrease the incidence of antenatal depression and has been proven to actively encourage mum and baby bonding, even while in utero.

Where do I start with prenatal yoga?

I highly recommend if you are completely new to yoga, then you should join a special prenatal yoga class with a properly qualified perinatal yoga teacher (200 hour yoga teaching qualification with specialist perinatal yoga training a minimum.) If you are a yoga newbie and do wish to practice yoga in the first trimester, look towards relaxing poses and deep breathing, focusing on meeting and getting to know your baby.

Five safe yoga postures for pregnancy

Here are some easy to try yoga postures to try at home. Remember that unless you are an experienced yoga practitioner with an existing practice, you should not undertake yoga until 14-16 weeks gestation.

Cat Curls (Bidalasana): Bidalasana helps relieve lower back pain and to release the length of the spine, a common problem during pregnancy.

– Get down on your hands and knees with hands placed directly under shoulders and knees under the hips.

– Inhale and lift your heart, stretch back through your tail and concave your spine.

– Exhale and roll your spine, lowering the head, pressing through the hands back to straight back.

Cat Curls in pregnancy differ from your normal cat curl as we don’t curl the abdomen towards the floor, after curling up we simply return to flat back or table top. Repeat following your breath – Inhale as your curl the spine up and exhale back to flat back.

Childs Pose (Balasana):

– From any kneeling position, sit your tail back toward your heels.

– Take the knees as far apart as you need to to make your bump comfortable.

– Sit back as far as is comfortable and rest your head toward the mat. If you can’t reach your head to the mat, rest your chin on your hands. You can stack your fists and rest your forehead there or use a block if you can’t quite get down. Otherwise, you can stretch your arms out long in front of you and lower your head all the way to the mat.

Avoid balasana if suffering from sciatica.

Bound Angle Pose (Baddha Konasana): Baddha Konasana is a classic pregnancy yoga posture and is excellent for helping to open up the hips and pelvis in preparation for birth. This is a posture that be practised at night while reading a book or watching TV and is especially important for the later stages of pregnancy in the third trimester.

– Sit on your mat with the soles of the feet together.

– Bring your heels as close to the groin as possible and pull the shoulder back and down away from the ears to straighten the spine.

– Hold the feet with the hands and (with a straight spine) begin to gently bend forwards from the hips – only as much as is comfortable – please do not squish your baby!

– Remember to breathe in and out through the nose.

Downward Facing Dog (AdhoMukkhaSvanasana): Downward dog can be practised with feet wider apart than normal to accommodate your bump, although ideally no further apart than hip width.

– Push into the palms of the hands and pull up on the hip bones.

– When and if ready, takes the heels to the mat. It’s fine to keep the knees bent when pregnant and focus on stretch from hands to hips, lengthening the back.

Only hold any inversion for 5 seconds during pregnancy and if you feel dizzy or nauseous at all, come back down onto the mat and into child pose and relax.

Yoga Squats (Malasana): Squats are great for building strength and stamina during pregnancy and in preparation for birth. Many women like to squat while birthing. As you get bigger in pregnancy, use props such as blocks, bolsters or a rolled up blanket to rest your bottom on. Focus on relaxing and letting your breath drop deeply into your belly.

– Stand facing the back of a chair with your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart, toes pointed outward.

– Squat toward the floor as though you were going to sit down in a chair.

– Contract the abdominal muscles, lift your chest, and pull the shoulders back and down. Most of your weight should be toward your heels. This can be done against the wall for support.

Remember to avoid wide legged postures if suffering from pelvic girdle pain or PSD.

Cheryl MacDonald is the founder of YogaBellies which specializes in perinatal yoga and natural birth preparation. She created the Birth ROCKS natural birth preparation method and has trained over 70 YogaBellies teachers across the world and has been working with birthing women for almost ten years. She is mother of one lovely three year old buy and lives with her husband in the west end of Glasgow.

Rihanna wears Selim Mouzannar for Annoushka

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Catherine Balavage

Selim Mouzannar, Guest Designer for Annoushka as seen on Rihanna!

18ct gold and diamond Crossover ring by Selim Mouzannar for Annoushka £7,500, Elle Magazine April 2013

A decade on since FTSE 100 hit bottom at 3,287

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Frostie

A decade on since FTSE 100 hit bottom at 3,287

– FTSE 100 returns 93% over 10 years

– Technology sector is best performing returning 369%

Adrian Lowcock, Senior Investment Manager at Hargreaves Lansdown, looks at how investors have fared over the last 10 years.

In the last 10 years the FTSE 100 has risen 3,074 points or 93% since the low of March 2003, although it remains a little way off the high point of 6,732 reached on 15^th June 2007. Whilst the market has risen over the last 10 years there have been some big winners and losers during that time. The Banking sector has been the worst performer over the last 10 years and the only sector to post a negative capital return with the FTSE All-share/banks returning -20%. The Technology sector posted the best performance with the FTSE All-share/Technology returning 369%, recovering from the lows seen in the years following the Dotcom bubble.

Performance of FTSE Sectors from 12 March 2003 to 28th February 2013

All Share Sector	% Growth
FTSE All-Share/Banks CR	-20.25
FTSE All-Share/Financials CR	22.81
FTSE All-Share/Health Care CR	78.02
FTSE All-Share/Telecommunication CR	100.11
FTSE All-Share/Oil & Gas CR	110.22
FTSE All-Share/Consumer Services CR	112.91
FTSE All-Share/Utilities CR	179.25
FTSE All-Share/Basic Materials CR	280.44
FTSE All-Share/Consumer Goods CR	346.31
FTSE All-Share/Industrials CR	360.45
FTSE All-Share/Technology CR	369.08

Adrian Lowcock says;-

“The technology sectors strong performance over the last 10 years highlights the contrarian nature of the stock market. However, it is difficult for any investor to go against the trend and take such risks. Instead investors should focus on their long term investment goals and invest whenever they can afford to do so.”

“It is time in the market not timing that counts. Even though the FTSE 100 remains below its all-time high (6,930 on 30^th December), if you had been invested all that time, with dividends reinvested, you would have been up 44.73%. In addition picking the right funds can transform your portfolio and make the nominal value of an index meaningless.”

Recommendations

Schroder UK Alpha Plus – Richard Buxton takes a long term view and is able to spot some opportunities before others – a distinguishing feature of all great investors. Having the conviction to back them is equally important and Richard holds only 30-40 companies in his fund which means each idea has a significant effect on performance. You will never see his portfolio padded out with mediocre holdings just to make up the numbers. This fund has the potential to deliver superb returns, in a variety of economic conditions.

JO Hambro UK Equity Income – The managers believe the UK economy is performing better than most commentators expect. The fund continues to have a bias towards more economically-sensitive companies and has performed well recently as a result.

Gillian Anderson launches charity’s children’s competition

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Frostie

Award-winning American actress Gillian Anderson has launched a national school’s competition to raise money for Children with Tumours.
Gillian, the star of critically-acclaimed drama series The X-Files, will judge the charity’s annual Christmas Card Challenge which is open to all primary schools.
Children with Tumours (CWT) is the UK’s first “no frills” charity which launched last year to help raise funds to provide holiday camps for children affected by the condition Neurofibromatosis and to contribute towards vital research.
More than 25,000 people in the UK are affected by NF and every day a baby is born with the condition. NF is more prevalent than Duchenne muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s Disease combined, but as yet there is no cure.
Gillian’s younger brother Aaron suffered from the rare condition and died from a brain tumour when he was aged only 30.

She said: ‘I’m honoured that CWT have asked me to judge the competition. I think it is such a good idea and I’m sure everyone who enters will have great fun designing their cards.”

The Christmas Card Challenge is open to children of primary school age and there will be six winners. Schools are encouraged to hold an internal competition to choose an individual, overall winner or two winners depending on age (8 and under, 9-11) and then submit them to the national competition.
As a prize, the winning individual will receive six packs of cards of their own design. Packs of all six winning designs will be available in the Autumn on the charity’s website www.childrenwithtumours.org
Schools are encouraged to choose their own theme but suggestions include: The Colour of Christmas, the Joy of Christmas, Christmas decorations and Through a Window. The finished cards will be printed in a 15cm x 15cm size so a square design is essential. Designs can be drawn, painted or computer graphically produced.
To register visit http://www.childrenwithtumours.org/Pages/ChristmasCardChallenge.aspx or for further enquiries email takepart@childrenwithtumours.org.The closing date for entries is 31st May.

Chris de Winter of CWT said: “We are delighted that Gillian is judging this year’s Christmas Card Challenge. All the money raised from the sale of the cards will be used to provide care and support to families with children with Neurofibromatosis.
“Building confidence and giving hope are our two key statements in making a difference to the lives of children with tumours. We aim to build confidence through social networking in the UK and overseas and giving hope to our children and families by funding the science that will make a difference to the lives of those affected.”

Call Off The Search by Anna and Andrew Wallas Book Review

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Catherine Balavage

The Modern Day Wizard. Call Off The Search is part self-help book, part relationship confessional. Written by real life couple Anna (formerly Pasternak) and Andrew Wallas. Andrew is a spiritual psychotherapist and Anna is a renowned journalist.

First of all let me say that I enjoyed reading the book. I am not a big fan of self-help books, although there are a few that I think are good, but I do like to read about other people’s relationships. Although I am not single I found that some of the stuff Andrew said made sense in an I-should-have-thought-about-it-way. I do think that most self-help books are just common sense written down. Life gets busy and you forget what you should know. I like how the book has been written, they respond to each other and then their is a checklist at the end.

Anna is known for being controversial but must be given credit for being so honest and open. You do get the feeling that she likes pushing buttons and creating debate, but it takes courage to write down your thoughts honestly and truthfully. Most people would never do this, nor be able to deal with the criticism. Indeed, the book has been marketed as the ‘most controversial book of the year’. While I am not sure if it is the most controversial, it may be the most honest.

Anna says: “I truly believe that behind every hardened feminist there is a women who is looking to be loved and saved by a man”. To be honest, who does not want love? Anna and Andrew have been together since 2010, which is when I met my boyfriend. They do seem very much in love. If I were single I would find this book helpful, but even as someone who is in a relationship I still found it interesting. I am not keen on the yurt stuff and have never been a fan of ‘new age’ things. I don’t have to find myself because I know who I am (or where I am), but this book is enjoyable and a good read. With lovely snippets of knowledge along the way. The book says that you should be honest with your partner and feel your emotions instead of denying them. This is good advice. There is also a chapter on ‘core wounding’, finding out what affects you and makes you angry.

Anna Pasternak shocked the British public by exposing the Princess Diana and James Hewitt affair, and subsequently startled readers with her Daily Mail article entitled Sorry, But My Baby Bores Me. Now, along with her New Age therapist-husband, Andrew Wallas (aka. The Modern Day Wizard) she has written an explosive, game-changing account about their struggle to find true love and intimacy.

Anna hated her life as a single mother until her friends suggested that she meet spiritual psychotherapist Andrew. What followed was an intense spiritual awakening as Andrew uncovered her inner loneliness and showed her that she was going to find true love. That this true love was to be with Andrew himself, then married to his wife of twenty-five years, was a huge surprise to them both. They have now written about their relationship, confronting taboos such as sexual jealousy, revenge, hatred and power struggle, to convey their experiences from the front line of true love.

Call Off The Search is a brave examination of the nature of all modern relationships – the messy, bonkers and painful alongside the inspiring and enlightening – unlike any other self-help, spiritual or relationship book.

It is set to be one of the most controversial reads this year.

‘She’s prepared for the backlash, but with her 20-year search for true love now at an end, Anna Pasternak is ready to share her secret. “I truly believe that behind every hardened feminist there is a women who is looking to be loved and saved by a man”.’ Scotland on Sunday

‘I get emails from women who admire my honesty. Like when I wrote about motherhood. Of course I love my daughter. But that doesn’t mean I can’t acknowledge being at home with a new-born is boring. I got hate mail for that. One woman said I should have my child taken away. But I find it difficult not to speak the truth and that doesn’t always make me very popular.’ Daily Mail

‘I honestly didn’t think I was going to find an interesting and solvent man over 40, ever. Now I’m the poster girl for hope.’ Daily Telegraph

Buy Call Off the Search: The Modern Day Wizard here

Ashleigh & Burwood Launch Historic Royal Palaces Collection

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Catherine Balavage

Frost Magazine attended the launch of Ashleigh & Burwood‘s Historic Royal Palaces collection, at The Banqueting House.Their Home Fragrance Collection smells absolutely divine and the packaging is beautiful.

	“A truly majestic home fragrance collection encapsulating the essence of our magnificent British heritage”
www.hrp.org.uk

The Palaces

The gardens of Historic Royal Palaces were for hundreds of years the playgrounds of kings and queens. At Hampton Court Palace the 60 acres of formal gardens and 750 acres of royal parkland, represent four centuries of the finest landscape design. Opened to the public by Queen Victoria in 1838, the gardens are famous throughout the world and have been the inspiration of expert perfumers in developing this unique home fragrance range.

The Range

Diligently crafted perfumes remain true to the horticultural heritage of the royal palaces and their gardens, in creating a range of authentic traditional fragrances. These are complemented perfectly by the intricate graphical depictions featured on the product packaging, which have been inspired by architectural elements of the palaces.

Ashleigh & Burwood’s range is available from Amazon UK.

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