Maple and Oak Designs

Hello all,
Once again I disappeared. I'm having a very hard time fitting my blogging into my life somehow. Whether for lack of time, inspiration or content. However today I'm back with a post (as you very clearly can see), and it's half-outfit post, half-introduction (to a company).

Without further ado, I want to introduce you to Maple and Oak Designs.
Leonie, the creator, owner and designer of Maple and Oak, and I have been Instagram friends for some time, and I have secretly admired her company of fun and unique accessories. So when Leonie contacted me about a collaboration I was very happy indeed.

Leonie kindly sent me one of her rockabilly headbands from her shop, and I love everything about it. First off, red is probably my favourite colour to wear. And secondly, and more importantly, polka dots! Polka dots people! I do love me some polka dots.

This headband instantly lifts any outfit with it's vintage inspired design. It's so cute, and effortlessly so. Gosh it's adorable!

Maple and Oak's accessories are hand made from vintage, reclaimed and retro fabrics, to reduce the strain on the planet, and it came from all the way over in Canada.

In August Maple and Oak will relaunch their website and shop. You can check it all out here.

Also, check out their Facebook page (here) and Instagram (@mapleandoak). I will let you in on a little secret too. If you follow Maple and Oak, there might *wink* be a coupon code coming in time with the relaunch of the website.

They ship internationally (yay) and have a whole myriad of wonderfully funky, quirky accessories. I've personally got my eyes on the hood scarves and felted ponchos (as well as the rest of their rockabilly headbands).

Headband: Maple and Oak Designs (here)

Blouse: Miss Patina (old)

Dress: Closet via ModCloth (old)

Shoes: ModCloth (here)

I love when you can feel the heart that goes into a creation, and with Leonie's Maple and Oak the love, hard work and fun is tangible.

Hope you're all doing great.
Much love,

Looking back

Hello everyone!
Thought I'd disappeared for good?

I am finally back to blogging after more than a week of silence, and really there hasn't been much to it other than that life happened. I've been ridiculously busy with life and work and blogging unfortunately took a back seat. But now I am back, and I will work hard to try and post regularly.

It has been a tough week for the world, with terrorist attacks in various countries around our globe. The attacks have not left me untouched and my heart goes out to all the people affected. The attacks that really shook me was the ones in Paris. An attack on Paris is not just an attack on France, but on Europe. It is an attack against the democratic way of living that we have in the west and it is an attack on freedom, justice and brotherhood. I don't pray, but my thoughts are with the people of the world! Here's hoping for peace in our lifetime.

I took these pictures more than a month ago, when the leaves were still green, and autumn had just about begun. I bought the dress when I was in London from House of Fraser, which is such a magnificent place if you like clothes the way I do. We spent a good couple of hours in House of Fraser, and I managed to find this dress that I had seen on ModCloth from Yumi in the sale section, so I instantly bought it even though it's original mustard belt was missing. I am however on the look out for a mustard coloured belt, so if anyone knows of any place that has a mustard belt, please let me know!

Dress: Yumi from House of Fraser (old)

Cardigan: H&M (old)

Belt: Asos (old)

Tights: Primark

Shoes: Ecco (here)

Take care of each other! And keep love and hope alive!
Much love.

Understanding Cancer - The Cancer Series part 6

It was a while ago the Cancer Series made an appearance, so let me refresh your minds. In the latest part of the Cancer Series (part 5) we learned about oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes. As you recall, oncogenes are like the gas is stuck on a car. Mutations in oncogenes changes the appearance of the protein the gene codes for so drastically that the protein that is supposed to turn it off cannot recognise it anymore. So the oncogene is stuck on "On" and tells the cell to grow and grow and grow... Tumour suppressor genes are like the brake of a car. They tell cells to stop growing. However mutations in tumour suppressor genes is like losing the brakes of the car, so suddenly there is nothing that can stop the cell.

There are many different types of treatments against cancer though. There is no real cure, because as you remember in part 3 we discussed how all cancers are unique. However there are different methods, with varying preciseness that exist against cancer. I thought we'd talk about the treatments that are used in this part.

The most obvious way to treat a cancer is to cut the tumour out of the body, which is called resection. Resection is not always possible, the tumour might be growing in a way where it is impossible to cut it out. And even when it is possible to resect the tumour, it is difficult to know if every single cancer cell has been resected, and cancers can grow back.

The next step of treatments are chemotherapy and radiation. Starting with chemotherapy; it's different types of drugs that is injected into the bloodstream and therefore affect the whole body. It's a very blunt and unprecise method. Chemotherapies affect all cells in the body that are growing rapidly. Which means that cancer cells are targeted, but also normal healthy cells that grow rapidly, for example hair cells, and cells inside the gut. This is the reason for the many horrible side-effects of chemotherapy, with e.g. digestive/intestinal symptoms and hair loss.

Radiation is also one method of treatment that is quite blunt. The radiation used for cancer therapy is ionising radiation. The way it works is that it tears DNA to pieces. The DNA in the cancer cells gets so mangled up that the cancer cell can no longer make copies of the DNA, which means it can no longer grow or divide, so it dies. However radiation does not target just cancer cells, but all cells it "touches". The radiation is of course aimed right at the tumour, but nearby healthy cells will be affected.

This time we discussed the methods of treatments that are available against cancer. We discussed how they are all quite blunt and unprecise methods. In the next part I will tell you about the new generation of treatments that are just starting to be used, and that has/will revolutionise cancer treatment!

On to the outfit...

This dress makes me smile because it's got all the things I love in a dress. It's got long, lovely sleeves, a cute little collar, beautiful pleats and the cutest polka dots! Also, it's pink, so you've got to love that too. And it's a nice mellow shade of pink, so I don't feel too "Barbie" wearing it, even thought it's terribly cute in every other way.

Dress: ModCloth (old)

Tights: Primark

Hope you have all had a lovely weekend!
Much love