Not your Everage style icon...

Happy New Year!

The ShopCurious style icon for 2012 is Dame Edna Everage – for the following reasons:

1) Dame Edna is most admired for her unique sense of style, which has been much emulated. Margaret Thatcher adopted her hairstyle - and her flamboyant clothing and accessories have been widely copied by Madonna and Lady Gaga. A curious trend is that, in 2012, almost everyone will be after a copycat pair of Dame Edna’s trademark curiosity glasses…

2) Edna is knowledgeable on all manner of issues - from fashion and beauty, to gardening and politics – and she's not afraid to speak her mind.

3) She's also a vintage treasure. (Never underestimate the advantage of age – after all, old is the new young).

4) Edna loves flowers too, especially gladioli – and floral inspired fashions are another key trend for 2012.

5) She also has a great sense of humour, which is just what we need in these times of economic uncertainty. Dame Edna’s down to earth opinions are the perfect antidote to political correctness, technocracy and spiritually debilitating celebutarditis.

6) Unlike Madge Allsop, Dame Edna is naturally beautiful, and would never subject herself to plastic surgery or artificial enhancement. “I'm beautiful inside. I think it’s what I radiate that people love. There's an inner beauty there,” she explains on her website.





7) She’s curiously clever as well - according to Wikipedia, “Dame Edna has transcended her modest origins as a satire of Australian suburbia to become one of the most successful, best known and best loved comedy characters of all time.”

Dame Edna is not just a living curiosity with stupendous spectacles, she genuinely has style with brains…

Do you?

A curiously Happy New Year from London 2012

Trafalgar Square, London - Happy New Year - 2012 xxx

Is that clock right?

Are you?

Does happiness have a price?

Curiously, the Royal Academy of Arts isn’t making too much of a fuss about the Haunch of Venison Gallery's Krug Happiness Exhibition. Leading designers and celebrities are donating items for sale - all proceeds going to the Academy's coffers (and all publicity to the sponsors and donors).

So is happiness really a pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes? Is this what we are striving towards... the stuff of our innermost dreams and desires? Really?

With global economic problems affecting all of us, we may not think there’s much to look forward to in 2012. But the New Year is a time for resolutions - and making the right changes can help us to live happily ever after... yes, even without the luxury designer trimmings.

It’s not just our financial system that’s changed dramatically in recent years, social structures have been smashed up too – without recourse to moral or familial ties. Rules and responsibility don’t seem to exist any more. We feel like we’re victims… but aren’t we actually the culprits?

Why can’t we be accountable for our actions? And why don’t we work together to help make the world a better place for all of us (so long as we can agree on exactly what that entails).



It’s never too late to start over again, but changing directions is always going to involve taking some risks. And we have to be brave…

I’ve read a lot of personal development books in my time and, after a while, they all start to sound the same. However, this book (left) takes rather a unique angle – helping us to develop “the habit of curiosity.” Did you know that curiosity is both a cure for boredom and the key to discovering what we really want? Georges Philips' book is full of useful ideas and exercises to help us crystallize our ideas – and, most importantly, to put our plans for the future into action.

For those curious to become happier and more successful, we’re giving away a signed copy of this life-changing book. To enter the draw for a free copy of a signed edition of Georges Philips’ transformational book, simply email us at info@shopcurious.com, quoting Change Directions by 31st December.



Oh, and do take a look at the Action for Happiness website too - their video says that, in terms of happiness, we're stuck in the '50s - well, I suppose we can always sell our memories:-)

Will you?

PS I’ll let you know shortly what new directions ShopCurious will be taking in 2012…