De-Clutter, Tidy Up, And Keep Your Home Beautiful

One of the absolute best books I bought this year was Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. 
You need this book in your life.

I've been trying super hard to streamline every single thing in my home this year. It actually hasn't happened as quickly as I would have liked, due to the fact that I have basically worked almost every day this year. At the time of writing this post I am pseudo enjoying my first day off in 50 days. (I say pseudo enjoying because instead of lying around with a good book and variations on cups of Teavana tea or glasses of wine I was working on decluttering and organizing....)

I did however get fast-tracked on the project the day I came home from this past Glam Italia Tour when my home flooded. Walls were cut out, floors came up and the universe nudged me into  
de-cluttering my bedroom and bathroom.
I'm in love with my new floors and walls, but more importantly am absolutely in love with my bedroom and bathroom being completely de-cluttered. As in most of my stuff is stacked up in my front room, but whatever - I'm finally getting to it! 
It's amazing how much better you sleep, relax and focus in a completely de-cluttered environment. It really is magic!

My facialist talked me into buying the Crystal Decor 6" to 14" Inch Dimmable Hand Crafted Natural Himalayan Salt Lamp On Wooden Base - 7 to 8 inches on Amazon.com, which was actually difficult at all, because you can talk me into buying pretty much anything. 

I really love it. The Himalayan Salt Lamp cleans the air, makes you sleep better, energizes you - it does so many fantastic things! It also looks really cool glowing away in the room. If you get one make sure you get one with a dimmer switch on it. (by the way they make really gorgeous gifts).

Today while working on moving things back into my bedroom I went to my favorite place, The Container Store, and bought some more of their Elfa mesh drawers. I have some in my office and they are brilliant so I decided to put some in my closet too.

This is not my photo - at the time of writing this post mine are waiting for me to assemble them

I wound up buying many more things than originally planned, but I don't feel too badly about it because everything is getting so incredibly streamlined in the process. Also everything I buy there is so functional and has such clean lines both of which I am sure contribute to the magic of being organized and feeling sane while de-cluttering and tidying up.

I'm also super excited about a company I just found out about called Handy.com

image from Handy.com by Catalina Kulczar

I was talking to one of the girls at a PR firm I work with about how I'm not sure where I'm going to get the time to get my house Thanksgiving ready, being that I don't have a cleaning lady at the moment and I'm working non stop. I have new floors and new walls, Himalayan Salt Lamps and Elfa mesh drawers, but I don't have a cleaning lady :))

She told me that they do business with a company that specializes in cleaning homes called Handy.com. The link she sent me (and I've linked for you) has a New York landing page, but you just put in your zip code and it routes you to your area. I checked their reviews online and they were really good. I also clicked around their website and found some things that single girls will love. 


Handy.com not only does cleaning but they also have options for help with hanging things on your walls, putting furniture together, painting, plumbing and even electrical services! I always want someone else to come clean my house and I always have lists of things that need doing, so I'm pretty excited to be able to fast track some clean living thanks to Handy.com. Excited enough to tell you about it!

Buy yourself the book, invest in a salt lamp, book a house cleaning and have yourself a happy, clean and de-cluttered week!

XO

3 Fabulous, Chic, Fashion Books To Add To Your Gift List

Over the holidays I absolutely love to curl up with a great book.
My regular life is so hectic, sometimes working 7 days per week for weeks on end. (at the time of writing this post I have been working 48 days straight)
Just the idea of days off, a couch, and some great books borderline makes me giddy!

One of my favorite things is to spend time with fashion based coffee table books, getting inspired and just loving the art form.

To date my favorites have been The Little Black Jacket: Chanel's Classic Revisted Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (Metropolitan Museum of Art), and Carine Roitfeld:  Irreverent

This year my gift list is being populated with gorgeous fashion and lifestyle books, written by some of the biggest bloggers and social media presences in the fashion arena.
These make sensational gifts for girls who love fashion, business gifts, and gifts for yourself! 
I've had trouble finding them in bookstores, so have linked each of them to Amazon for you.



Garance Dore is the epitome of chic, french-girl style. Her website Garance Dore.com is a must see compendium of beauty, fashion, and lifestyle. Her book  Love Style Life is all this and more.  It makes a super chic gift.

Girl boss and Nasty Gal blogger/fashionista/influencer Sophia Amoruso's second book Nasty Galaxy is a gloriously illustrated visual collection of her style and the style of her brand Nasty Gal. Its actually a mixture of many things. Short essays, photos, inspo-journeys and her philosophies on relationships, work, friendships, balance - everything Sophia.

Instagram superstar, fashion blogger and interior designer Aimee Song (Songofstyle.com) has written a fabulous book! Capture Your Style: Transform Your Instagram Images, Showcase Your Life, and Build the Ultimate Platform is all about how to craft your voice and story on Instagram. If you have seen her insta feed you appreciate how beautiful, well thought out, and powerful it is. 
Instagram is an incredibly important business tool and platform, and Aimee has built an enormous brand following on it. Her book tackles everything from building your following, styling food, travel and fashion images, which filters to use - you name it.
And the photos are gorgeous!

5 Ways To Manage Stress

image by Kelly Cappelli

It's been a week since the election - how stressed out are you?

Everywhere I go it seems that people are majorly stressed out. Trump fans are mad that the haters be hating, Trump haters are stressed out that he even got elected let alone that he is going to take office.

The world is stressed out that God only knows what will happen, and today I even heard Trump voters stressing out that he is putting Steve Bannon, the white supremacist in the White House.

I have been super stressed out that this has happened to my adopted country, meanwhile a massive earthquake hit my home country, which has me beyond stressed out.

Add to the mix working the past 44 days straight, AND having a major flood in my home and frankly it has been a stressful few weeks.

The thing about stress though is that it doesn't achieve anything. Well, nothing positive anyway. The trick is to find ways to manage your stress so that it doesn't manage you.

 5 Ways To Manage Stress

1. Do Yoga

Even if you just do a few sun salutations each day, yoga is a fantastic way to manage stress. The focus on your breath, the stretching, the flow from position to position make yoga the ultimate stress buster.

If you can't get to class just roll out your yoga mat and do some sun salutations with a you tube yoga guru.

Don't have a yoga mat? Check out Manduka.com for all kinds of yoga wear and yoga supplies. I'm ordering a new 5mm Eko mat and a new bolster to replace those that got lost in the flood.

2. Take a walk outdoors.

Fresh air and nature are wonderful stress relievers. A long walk with no distractions, just you and Mother Nature, is food for the soul.

3. Sit and reflect by water.

Looking out over the ocean or watching the waves are instant stress busters.

Watch, breathe, repeat.

4. Meditate.

If you can still your mind meditation is an amazing stress-buster. It calms you, helps you focus, helps you sleep better. Most of the super successful people that I work with in my real life (makeup artist) meditate for 10 to 20 minutes per day. I figure I can find 10 minutes somewhere each day so I just downloaded an app called Headspace that offers 10 minute meditations, but there are plenty of meditations available on You Tube.

5. Get off social media

Social media can be fun, but it can also be a huge source of anxiety. Whether that anxiety comes from comparing your life to others and feeling inadequate (remember no-one's life is as good as it seems on Facebook!) or whether its people being contentious and going all attack-dog over issues (hello Trump) the dark side of social media can be very dark.

Give yourself a two or three day total break from all social media, and then when you go back don't look at any social media in the first 30 minutes after you wake up or the last hour before you go to sleep

Let It Glow, Let It Glow, Let It Glow! 3 Products For Luminous And Radiant Winter Skin

image by Kelly Cappelli

During fall and winter your skin tends to look a little flat and dull.
Bronzers typically look orangey and somewhat odd on winter complexions, and most highlighters look shimmery or glittery and make your winter skin look crazy.

On my speaking tour for Luca Magazine I talked about adding glow to your complexion, and I've had so many messages from ladies in my audience asking me to go back over the products I talked about.

I posted last week about the gel bronzer that I use every single day,
read about it here. Today lets look at the three products I swear by and use both myself and in my pro makeup kit to make the complexion glow:

3 Amazing Products For Luminous And Radiant Winter Skin

Charlotte Tilbury Wonderglow

I'm crazy about this product! When I want an all over glow to the skin, not as a wet look, but a healthy gleam that looks like sunshine beaming out from within, I use Charlotte Tilbury's Wonderglow. 
It doubles up as a pre-makeup primer, or on days when I don't feel like wearing makeup I wear it alone. 
Available online at CharlotteTilbury.com $55

Marc Jacobs Glow Stick Spotlight 700

I love this one for running highlight along cheekbones, collarbones and shoulders. Highlight shouldn't be sparkly, it should illuminate and radiate, and this product makes the skin luminous and glowy.
The stick form makes it easy to swipe it across the skin, but I prefer to use a duo fiber makeup brush. You can apply the Marc Jacobs Glow Stick Spotlight 700 either before foundation or after, (or both!), and can make it a subtle glow or ramp it up to a super sheen - you're in charge!
Available online at MarcJacobsBeauty.com $42

Radiance Glow Hydrating Starter 

At  half the price of the others the Pony Effect Radiance Glow Hydrating Starter brightens and illuminates the skin, giving it a gorgeous glow while hydrating it and minimizing fine lines and wrinkles. It also acts like a primer, smoothing the skin and readying it for foundation. You can wear it alone or under makeup.
This product sells out quickly. If you like it order a second one sooner rather than later.
Available online at Memebox.com $21

11 Things You Must Do In Matera

This past September I took my Glam Italia tour to one of the best places I have ever been. Deep in the heart of Italy's south, in the region of Basilicata there lies one of the three oldest and most continuously inhabited cities in the world, Matera.
Matera has been populated since paleolithic times.

You can read more about Matera here

Matera needs to be on your bucket list, and while there you absolutely MUST do these 11 things:

1. Walk

In order to understand this amazing city you need to walk. And walk and walk. Up and down and around the rabbit warren that is the Sassi. 

When you walk the Sassi you will discover that it is an optical illusion - it's actually quite disorienting! Things look far away, but in fact they are quite close, it's just that the Sassi is so vertical

2. Take a tour of the Sassi

You can't come all the way to Matera and not take a guided tour of the Sassi. On the Glam Italia Tours I use Antonio Manicone from Matera Tour Guide. Antonio is the top rated tour guide on Tripadvisor, and with good reason. He is fantastic! I use him for my Glam Tours and I sincerely recommend you use him too.

No guide book can give you the insight into Sassi life that a guide will give you. Antonio's grandparents lived in the Sassi until they were relocated by the government to the apartments on the other side of Matera. His stories about their life in the Sassi and the social fabric of the community brought an entirely different experience to the tour.

Without a tour it would be incredibly difficult to understand the structure of the homes, and the brilliance of the design of the communities.

You can find Antonio here

3. Visit a Rupestrian church

Santa Maria di Idris, Matera

The Rupestrian cave churches of Matera are sensational, both for their design and for the spectacular frescos inside. In a country overflowing with church art, these take you to an entirely different place. The art is largely Byzantine in style even though much of it was painted in the Middle Ages. The frescos in Santa Maria di Idris and in

will take your breath away

4. Stay in a cave hotel

Staying in a cave hotel was such a fabulous experience! We stayed at the beautiful Le Dodici Lune where the ceilings are high, the decor is beautiful and the service is wonderful.

sitting room area inside our cave hotel in Matera

Hotel specialist Alex Polizzi says that you should always know where you are when you wake in a hotel. Most hotels are very much alike and sitting inside that room you could be anywhere. When you wake in a cave hotel in Matera you know exactly where you are. And it's magical.

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5. Eat in a cave restaurant

Le Dodice Lune has a world class restaurant on the property, in yet another giant cave. The visual is fantastic, second only to the food itself. Local cuisine is fresh and flavorful, and really just sensational! 

The staircase down to the wine cellar at Le Dodici Lune in Matera

Pair it with local wines from the Basilicata for the most perfect experience ever

Book a table at Le Dodici Lune

6. Walk through the Sassi at night

The Sassi is spectacular at night. Take time to stroll through the labyrinth streets after sundown. The city shimmers like a jewelry box, and it's beautiful!

In the 17th century a man of the cloth wrote that every evening it was customary for every home to put a candle in the window. With so many doors and windows it would look like a sea of light reflected in the stars above. Dalle sassi alle stelle / from the stones to the stars

7. Cross to the other side

From the Sassi you can walk down the gorge and cross a bridge to the other side. There are caves to explore, an unobstructed view of the Sassi, and incredible views of the countryside.

8. Go to a cave house

The cave house of Vico solitaire in Sasso Caveoso gives you insight into the life of the average family living in the Sassi. This cave home housed a family of 11 and their animals. See how the cave was set up as a home, where the kitchen was, where everyone slept, where the animals lived - it's fascinating!

Train Tickets and Schedules  

9. Visit the crypt of the original sin

This is one of the best things I have ever done.

Outside of Matera in the middle of nowhere, along the wall of the Gravina di Picciano gorge you will find the Crypt Of The Original Sin, a heavily frescoed cave church that was abandoned in the late 9th century, became overgrown with moss, as was used for centuries as a shelter for shepherds. 

Rediscovered in 1963 this cave church holds a fresco cycle that comprise one of the most important examples of early medieval painting in the Mediterranean. The painter is unknown, simply referred to as the flower painter of Matera, but his work is hauntingly beautiful. 



The apses depict saints, and the entire back wall tells the story of Genesis.

If you are someone to whom art speaks, you will understand me when I tell you that when they slowly raised the light on these paintings I had tears rolling down my cheeks.

Photography is forbidden, so images have been sourced from Google. I will be writing a separate post about the crypt.

10. Explore the art galleries

Matera is a delectably artsy town, and is full of cafes, restaurants and little art shops and galleries. It has been named the European Capital of Culture for 2019. When planning your trip to Matera factor in an afternoon for aimless strolling and wander into as many local haunts as you can.

11. Visit The Palombaro Lungo

One of the things I found incredibly fascinating from Antonio's tours is the Palombaro Lungo, the largest of the sassi' incredibly clever cisterns dug to capture what rain water the area got. An intricate system of tunnels, caves and water channels captured rain water to be drinking water for the locals. Eels kept the water moving so that it didn't become stagnant and lime kept it safe to drink.

You can walk 17 meters deep into the cistern which was dug by hand into the rock.