Karen Karn

Norwegian physician and professor of public health, Per Fugelli has enriched the lives of many people with his life-philosophy. Here are six of his top tips. 1. We put excessive demands on ourselves and those around us, so much so that they can never be met. This makes us unhappy. A good prescription for a good life is to give a little less of a fuck. 2. Fugelli has introduced the term "the Enough Point." The book of the same name is a "gameplan written for the incomplete man and the generosity of the community." Here Fugelli writes, for the sake of our own happiness, we should say we're satisfied with "good enough", an almost revolutionary concept in today's materialistic and achievement driven society. 3. Stop Worrying! As Norway became rich in oil money, discontent grew. The Wailing Wall of everything that is bad has grown high because of the abundance and increasing expectations that we can afford everything, and therefore are e...

Posted by popular demand!  Ingredients Dry 1 ¾ cups flour,  whole wheat (or 2 cup whole grain spelt) ½  cup sugar 1tsp baking powder ¼ tsp baking soda (1 tsp cinnamon, optional) (1cup chopped walnuts, optional) Wet 100g butter, very soft or  melted 2 eggs, beaten - optional * 3 over ripe bananas, mashed 1 tsp vanilla extract (can be substituted with 1 tsp vanilla sugar) (1Tbps molasses, optional) Method Heat the oven to 175 o C. Grease and flour a loaf tin (23cms x 13sm, approx.) Combine dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients. Add wet to dry and mix to combine. Do not over mix, as this will make the bread tough. Bake for 35-45 minutes or un til a skewer comes out clean. Serve warm or allow to cool.  This doesn't keep well in warm weather, so store it in the fridge. * The bread in the picture is made with eggs. Bread made without eggs is also delicious, but will not rise as much. ...

I've been doing this all wrong! I've been looking for a handbag which will satisfy all of my handbag requirements. One I can use every day, never have to swap out for a smaller, bigger, shinier, more casual bag. The fact is, handbags are like shoes. It's necessary to have more than one pair of shoes. Necessary, I say! Pretty The plan now is to have a system (something I lack in the shoe department). I will organise the contents of my handbag, have a box or a shelf where I'll store my purse, keys, glasses case, etc. Then, when I'm going somewhere, I will choose, as I do with shoes, the right bag for the outfit. I also need to find a way to store them, (and my shoes) in a suitably minimalist fashion. More like this... ... less like this. I can't believe it's taken me so long to figure this out. I need to try it out for a while, of course. I have already tried having one of those handbag organisers. It may have been that it was a low q...

In   a recent post , I was very enthusiastic, almost evangelical, about my new motto,   Have less, But Have the Best . I would rid myself of all unnecessary belongings and start investing in high quality pieces that would stand the test of time. They would crystallise the aspects of me that I want to pin down and keep, and help them to shine. I also wrote about the bag that would be the first pin in my quest. It would be my barometer - a high quality, soft leather tote. Very minimal, with raw edges and no hardware. I ordered after many hours of deliberation. I scrutinised all the photographs and eventually decided on the mustard yellow. Well, the bag arrived a few days ago and it was a bitter disappointment. It wasn't the bag in the photographs, it's not the same colour, it doesn't have the same finish, it's hard and stiff with a plastic seal around the edges of the leather (something I would never choose), the straps were too short and, until yesterday, ...

Along with your Personal Colour Analysis comes this invaluable little colour fan to take with you when shopping for clothes and accessories. You can also use it to reduce your wardrobe. This is my Dark Winter colour fan. I've just used to sort through my nail colours. Winners on the right, losers on the left.