Sapphire Jean is a 20-something writer from Brisbane, Australia who enjoys gallivanting around the globe, good grammar and the odd cocktail or three with friends!

Things I wish on dandelions...

1. For my sick friends and family to return to health
2. For world peace and the changes that can lead us closer towards that goal (hey, those dandelion seeds can fly far and wide)
3. For a super fun day ahead
4. For chocolate to appear in my hands as soon as I finish wishing
5. For forgiveness
6. For children in need
7. For wondrous opportunities to arise in my favour, and for the awareness to see them and take them
8. For a glamorous tropical holiday where people wear heels with their bikinis and impossibly large sunglasses to shield their eyes from all the white yachts
9. For what I want for Christmas (here in Australia, we sometimes call dandelions Santa Clauses for their gift-bringing properties!)
10. For love – huge waves of sparkly, energising, encompassing love for everyone!

What are your wishes?

Looking back over the last few years I have had a range of jobs, some of them quite unconventional...

1. An empty shop at a mall. My sole task was to tell people to go to the new shop around the corner!
2. The office at a men's prison. Every morning I would put on some latex gloves and open the prisoners' mail to check for illicit drugs and pornography.
3. On the road. While working as an event organiser I spent a couple of weeks each year on tour delivering a regional event for schools.
4. A sex expo. This is more innocent than it sounds! I was fully clothed and working at a desk processing payments.
5. In my pyjamas. I worked from home for about six months and loved it!

What are the strangest jobs you've had or places you've worked at?


Posted by Bridey

1. When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Sh*t Gold - Atmosphere
2. Heart On - The Eagles of Death Metal
3. I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too - Martha Wainwright
4. Yours Truly, Angry Mob - Kaiser Chiefs
5. I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass - Yo La Tango
6. Death By Sexy - Eagles of Death Metal

Posted by Sarah Von

Freya works in words. By day she is an editor for a publishing company, and by night she writes daily missives about life's better qualities on Fish nor Fowl. She loves cheese, Russian literature, and automatons.

• Two My Little Ponies from McDonald's
• Desk lamp covered in Vespa stickers
• Office phone
• Curel lotion
• Giant plastic spider
• Altoids tin full of change
• Edward Gorey "Mystery" mug
• Foam "stress reliever" cookie
• Six-month old sticky note starred beyond recognition
• Mac mini and apple monitor
• Silver glitter stars
• Stack of bubblegum pink rewritable CDs
• Postcard of the largest working waterwheel in the world
• Piles of paperwork
• Empty Sweetriot tins
• Sugar cookie scented Softlips chapstick
• Purple hair elastic
• Pink, green and blue highlighters

What can be found on your desk?

I grew up in New York, on Long Island, but four and a half years ago, I moved to a little town in East Texas called Nacogdoches. While the first few months caused a bit of culture shock, and while I often long for things I can't get here (decent bagels, good theater, vegetarian restaurants) I've come to appreciate many things about the place that I now call home. Here, in no particular order, are the best things about my town!

1. The Blueberry Festival - the only state-sanctioned blueberry festival in all of Texas, this yearly event features a pancake feast, a street fair, and a ride to a local farm where you can pick all the blueberries you can carry.

2. Tonkawa Spring - a swimming hole with a rope swing. The best way to cool off during the sweltering Texas summers.

3. Sushi Y'all - our special name for the surprisingly delicious sushi place in town.

4. The Pine Knot - a monthly event where local musicians perform foot stomping tunes in an old church, for free. It's always BYOB and even if the music were terrible, being able to drink beers in church pews would make the night worth it!

5. Lanana Creek Trail and Pecan Park - a 5 mile trail that passes through the biggest, best park in town. It has a really fun disc golf course, which is a great way to spend time outside with your friends and your dogs.

6. Mild Winters - see that picture at the top of the page, of the tulips? I took that last February. Yes. February. Kind of makes the sweltering summers worth it!

7. Friends! - a place is nothing without people, and my town has some of the best ones I know!

If someone were visiting your town, what would you take them? What would you do? What are the best things about the place where you live? I can't wait to find out!

Posted by Chrissy

I love new projects and learning practical skills, and always have a big list of things I want to make someday:

• A terrarium
• An archery target
• Lots of macaroons in different flavours
• A loaf of bread from scratch
• Natural cosmetics
• A photographic study of abandoned houses
• Clothes - but I have to learn how to sew first!
• An extensive herb garden

What about you?


Posted by Bridey

The first message from the Secret Society of List Addicts is being sent out tomorrow. So if you would like to receive a copy now is the time to sign up!

Just enter you details in the form located in the sidebar and join in the fun!

This monthly communiqué includes membership information, highlights, a sneak peek at future lists, plus more secrets that you will only find out by subscribing...

A bit of a girly one today! We all have things we like to splurge on, for me, as with many women, it's cosmetics. I love buying beauty products and when there's something new available I just have to try it. More often than not however, I end up falling back on old favourites, products I use all the time and so far, can't be matched. These are my favourite cosmetic products, the ones I swear by.

1. L'Occitane 20% shea butter hand cream - I have terrible circulation that leads to really dry hands, especially in winter. I've been through lots of different hand creams and this is the only one I've ever found that works for a long time and doesn't leave my hands greasy. 
2. M.A.C. Fafi Eyes 1, sadly limited edition, these colours are perfect on me! Suffice to say I'll be buying them separately when it runs out!
3. The Body Shop Vitamin C SPF 15 Daily Moisturiser, it's light and non-greasy, and it works really well! 
4. Boots No. 7 Protect and Perfect serum, I can't testify to it's wrinkle-reducing capabilities, but since starting to use it after sunburning my entire face at an air show a couple of years ago and becoming totally paranoid about my skin prematurely aging because of it, it makes a really nice base for makeup. 
5. M.A.C. Studio Fix powder in NW20 - a light dusting of this is all I need on a "good skin" day, and I wear it over a liquid foundation on days I need a little more coverage. 
6. Perfume! I'm addicted to perfume and I'm a Chanel No. 5 girl at heart, but I find it a little "heavy" for during the day. Currently I wear Vera Wang (the signature fragrance), Christian Lacroix Rouge, M.A.C. MV2 (probably the one I wear most regularly as the bottle is a good size for my handbag), or Demeters Sugar Cookie fragrance when I want to smell like a bakery!
7. Batiste Dry Shampoo - it works just as well as all the expensive ones, and is an absolute lifesaver when I sleep in and don't have time to wash and blow-dry my hair. 
8. Make-up removal wipes - great for travelling and great if you're lazy, like I am! I must admit, I usually buy whatever brand is on offer!
9. Avon grapefruit peel-off face mask, I love how fresh and clean this leaves my skin, and I also love trying to peel it off in one piece - I was one of those kids who'd paint PVA glue on my hands then peel it off. 
10. Mary Kay Timewise Microdermabrasion Set. Mary Kay's not a brand I hear much about in the UK, but I received a few free samples of this and it's become a firm favourite of mine. 

What are your all-time favourite beauty essentials?

Posted by Vixel

+ Two x "ladies golden ticket" -- The Bank Club @ Bellagio
+ Pure nightclub VIP @ Caesar's Palace
+ Phone number of some guy called Mike -- starts 562
+ Single ride Metrocard
+ ATM receipt, HSBC Paris
+ British passport
+ Card for gogo wireless inflight internet
+ Card for a free manicure at QQ Nails & Spa, NYC
+ Business card for dry-cleaners on West 4th Street, NYC
+ Oyster card
+ Two x credit cards
+ Las Vegas Monorail card
+ Frequent flyer card
+ Business card for tattoo shop in Paris
+ Business card for my attorney
+ Fortune: ":) You never hesitate to tackle the most difficult problems :)"
+ Fortune: ":) You display the wonderful traits of charm & courtesy :)"
+ $20 note
+ Exactly $9 in change


What's in your wallet?

One of my many official and unofficial New Year's Resolutions is to read at least 25 books in 2009. Naturally, a list seemed like the best way to kick things off, keep me focused and ensure success! And so, in the spirit of kicking ass, I give you the next five books that I plan on reading.

1. American Wife. (A fictionalized account of America's current First Lady, Laura Bush.)
2. Dangerous Laughter. (A collection of short stories "united by their obsession with obsession.")
3. Strike Sparks. (Selected poems by Sharon Olds.)
4. The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. (2008 Pulitzer Prize for fiction!)
5. Eclipse. (Rationally, I know the Twilight series is terrible and silly. And yet I can't stop reading them!)

What are you reading next? What books do you recommend? It's a long way to 25 and I can use all the help I can get!


Posted by Chrissy

For a few short weeks they were the coolest thing ever, a collective obsession shared with every kid you knew which took up every spare minute of your day. But before long every craze had to end, replaced by the next big thing.

Here are some of the passing fads that I remember from my childhood:

• Roller Skating
• Hopscotch
• Elastics (also known as Chinese Jump Rope)
• Knuckle Bones
• Chatter Rings
• Roller Blading

What crazes swept through your life when you were growing up?

Posted by Bridey

1. We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it, than we have to consume wealth without producing it. - George Bernard Shaw
2. The way we see the problem is the problem. - Albert Einstein
3. The soul should always stand ajar,
   ready to welcome the ecstatic experience. - Emily Dickinson
4. Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself. -Harvey Fierstein
5. My father still reads the dictionary every day. He says your life depends on your power to master words. - Arthur Scargill
6. To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance. - Oscar Wilde
7. The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. - Marcel Proust
8. To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform. - Theodore H. White
9. I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity. - Gilda Radner
10. Indifference is the strongest force in the universe. It makes everything it touches meaningless. Love and hate don't stand a chance against it. - Joan Vinge
11. .. and one more for luck: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye. - Miss Piggy

Posted by Vixel

Naturally, I have a lot of lists. I have a weekly to-do list outlining when I'll go to the gym; a list of 101 goals to complete in 1001 days; a list of milestones I'd like to reach career-wise. But I think my most important list - the one that really keeps me focused and enriches my life - is my Things To Do Daily List.

The Things To Do Daily is, quite simply, a list of things that I aspire to achieve each and every day. While my level of success may vary, knowing I have this list to fall back on and strive for makes life seem more manageable and - dare I say it? - more fun. Give it a try - you might be surprised to find how big a simple series of small things can make you feel. <3



Posted by Chrissy

I love the thought of being multi-talented, and there are so many skills that I want to learn:

• How to speak Spanish and French. I wish I had started learning these years ago, it would be so handy for travelling!
• How to sew. At the moment my sewing skills are limited to mending and replacing buttons.
• How to play the harp.
• How to do an illusion
• How to surf
  

What strange and unusual skills do you most want to have?

Posted by Bridey

Suffering from the January Blues? Is it freezing cold outside and all you feel like doing is huddling under your duvet away from it all? The New Year might be the time everyone starts a diet, but sometimes a little comfort food is just what's required to cheer us all up on a gloomy day! My top comfort foods are:

1. Chocolate, what else?! Scientifically proven to increase seretonin levels and therefore make us feel happier, chocolate surely has to be the ultimate comfort food, and the high cocoa stuff is actually good for us! 
2. Cupcakes! Delicious and pretty, cupcakes always make people smile, and come in so many different varieties that there's something for everyone!
3. Pies! Savoury or sweet, again, something for everyone and they have the "stodgy" factor, so important in comfort food, covered. 
4. Mashed potato! A personal favourite, great with cheese mixed in, or perhaps some wasabi, a plate full of mashed potato is a fantastic comfort food!
5. Hot chocolate! I know I've already covered chocolate itself, but the hot drink variety deserves to be on its own, for it is amazingly comforting in so many other ways that normal chocolate in bars isn't! Make it with milk and it's soothing and helps you sleep, there are really low-calorie varieties if you're worried about the effect all this comfort eating will have on your waistline, and it's just about the best thing to warm up with on a cold evening!
6. Soup of all different varieties! Leek and potato is one of my favourites, as is tomato and basil, and the non-creamy potato-free ones are often again, really low-calorie comfort foods. (unless you dip loads of bread in them like I do!)
7. Roast dinners! Having them made for me reminds me of being a child, making them myself makes me feel accomplished and good about myself, and really, roast dinners are fabulous!
8. Smoothies - more of a summer comfort food to me, they're delicious and make me feel like I'm consuming something really healthy!
9. Cheese - all sorts, I love cheese! It would be very hard for me to be a vegan! 
10. Hash browns - I could eat whole plates of them for 3 meals a day and never get tired of them!

What are your favourite comfort foods?

Posted by Vixel

• Adventures. Every time I hear something referred to as an adventure it makes it infinitely more appealing!
• Arranging books by size. This includes other people's books when they're not looking...
• Journals. What started as an innocent yearly search for the perfect organiser has escalated into a full-blown obsession (I currently have six journals which I am carrying around the world)
• Having back up plans.
• Google. Every time I don't know the answer to a question my immediate response is "I'll just ask Google"

What secret obsessions are you willing to admit to?

Posted by Bridey

Happy New Year! It's 2009 and naturally, we're each ready, willing and able to attack our Resolutions with gusto, right?

Er. Well. See. There's this great holiday called New Year's Eve, and naturally we had to celebrate it - you know, see 2008 out properly - and, well, I've got a bit of a headache.

In that case, this list is for you. Together, we can banish that "headache" and show 2009 who's boss.

Push ups. My boyfriend swears that push ups can cure a hangover, but any sort of physical activity will do the trick. A morning yoga class, a brisk walk, even a bit of hanky panky and you'll be feeling like yourself in no time.

A huge glass of orange juice. Possibly with a splash of vodka. Trust me on this one.

A Flight of the Concords marathon. There's nothing like breaking in the New Year with some old friends and big laughs.

Starting the New Year for real on Monday, January 5th. I think I like this idea best.

Sharing your hangover cures with all your Internet friends in the comments on List Addicts. So hop to it, and feel better!

Posted by Chrissy