PHOTO FRIDAY - WELL GROOMED

Tree outside a mortuary in Kyoto, Japan.


Two women in Kyoto, Japan.


Topiary trees in Osaka, Japan.

Your creations...

Hope your having a great weekend. Lots of you will now have received your new rubber from our first release :-) or will receive them any day! Lacey, myself and the rest of the team would LOVE to see your creations! If you make a card or project using Wags 'n Whiskers Rubber stamps please do leave a link using Mr. Linky below so we can come and visit you at your blog.

If you don't have a blog by all means email a picture of your card to me so I can show it here.

nichola.fairbairn@googlemail.com

Be sure to pop back next Friday, 6th November when our weekly challenges will start!

BANGKOK - the face hunter night, tenface, 10/30/09

More Bangkok atmosphere here.

NOW IN TOWN: JULIA JOHANSEN

Welcome to London to beautiful Julia Johansen. The 20 year old from Finland will be meeting London clients for the next few weeks, and with those pretty freckles and perfect pout we're sure they're going to fall for her straight away!

ONE TO WATCH: KELLY MOREIRA

ANOTHER amazing girl from Elite Model Look? Yes please! Meet Kelly Moreira, who sent her photos in for the contest just 3 months ago. When the SS10 show season got underway she was preparing for the Elite Model Look France Final, and by the time the circus rolled into Paris she was the must-book new face of the season, racking up appearances at Lanvin, Yves Saint Laurent and Dries Van Noten. Absolutely one to watch, and we can't wait to see her in London soon...

Kelly rocks Lanvin in her debut season

Fall Upstate New York - Holga

Every fall I have numerous discussions with friends and strangers about this year's fall leaf colors. Tourism is a big in Vermont and the numerous leaf peepers who visit contribute to our economy want to see wonderful color. Fall colors were just okay this year and bright red colors were seen only here and there. Folk wisdom says this is because we had so much rain this summer. Who knows. I had fun riding around taking pictures.


An old railroad bridge dated 1909.


A closer view of the bridge. The right hand track is still in use while the left hand track runs into some bushes.


One of the few bright red bushes I saw this fall.


Some but not a lot of color at this local park.



Again not a lot of bright color in this run on photo. I like the one orange leaf at the bottom.

BANGKOK - demo & central world, 10/29/09

To see more of Bangkok, click here.

AMY for NIVEA

Hot on the heels of her work with Bourjois, The Body Shop and Avon, Amy Hanson's latest beauty campaign is for Nivea's cosmetic collaboration with luxury lingerie giant Chantal Thomass. Our very English Amy pulls of this very sexy campaign in style... and we love that trademark Chantal Thomass wig!! Have a look at the print campaign on Nivea's mini-site HERE and see the TV commercial below.

BANGKOK - central world & wanglung, 10/27-28/09

Now Shipping!!!!!

The Wags 'n Whiskers Rubber Stamps are NOW IN STOCK and will be shipping this week!! Yeah! If you have already pre-ordered your stamps, they will be shipped out ASAP!

If you haven't ordered your stamps yet...what are you waiting for? Go order them now here...

Be sure to come back to look at some of the awesome creations the Design Divas have come up with this week...

We have some great news to share too. We will be starting weekly challenges here next Friday 6th November. Nikki, myself and the team are looking forward to seeing your creations too!

Inge - Sweet Danni and Bella

Karen - Furry Friends

Lacey - Ansley's Surprise

Jeanette - Angel Whispers

Jeanette - Zoe and Gemma's Snow Fun

Tina - Sweet Danni and Bella

Danielle - A Good Book

Kristine - Zoe and Gemma's Snow Fun

Be sure to click the links on the right to take you to the designers blog. There they will share more details on the products used on their creations.

A BIG NIGHT IN CHINA

ELITE MODEL LOOK WORLD FINAL

The contest started with 350'000 worldwide applicants... the final 70 spent two weeks at model boot camp in beautiful southern China and after were eventually whittled down from 70 to15. On the night of the final show, the top four new faces for the Elite network were named... congratulations girls, and especially to our Emily!

The girls can look forward to an exciting future at the very top of the fashion industry, after all they are following in the footsetps of supermodel greats Cindy, Gisele, Christy and Linda, who all got their big break at ELITE MODEL LOOK. And current campaign queens Sigrid, Constance and Denisa all started here too... the future looks bright!

Maria Sharapova goes down to seventeen year old American Melanie Oudin

Seventeen year old American rising tennis sensation, Melanie Oudin, ousted media darling and reigning tennis glamor queen, Maria Sharapova, from the 2009 US Open Tennis Champships. Cheered on by the excited crowd Oudin forced a third set after taking the second set from Sharapova who won the first 6 games to 4.
In her post match interview Sharapova was asked if she agrees with Jelana Jankovic’s assesent that Oudin doesn’t have many weapons and isn’t very impressive though she’s beating top-ranked players. Sharapova called Jankovic’s remarks shocking and said of Oudin’s play:

"I thought she played really well. I thought she has many weapons. You know, she certainly held her ground. I mean, you know, I still feel like I had my chances, even though it wasn’t my best day. You know, when you let those chances go, it’s just frustrating. But, I mean, got to hand it to her. She really stuck to her game plan. She played solid. She made me hit a lot of balls. She moved really well around the court, yeah."

TAIPEI - east district & ximending, 10/25-26/09

To see more Taiwanese exquisiteness and a few images of The Face Hunter Night, click here.

BLANKA'S AUTUMN TV CAMPAIGN FOR DEBENHAMS

We love our beautiful brunette Blanka's slinky new TV commercial for Debenhams, currently airing across all major channels....

Maria Sharapova, New number 2!

Maria Sharapova, continues to gain strength on tour and in our polling. Maria, after a slow start, generated 16% of 2nd Quarter voting, second only to Paula Creamer at 17%.

At the end of 2Q 2009, our highest vote total ever, Paul Creamer remains atop our hottest babe's list. Paula is extending her 2008 domination of our list midway through the 2009 season.

Current rankings for year to date performance:

2009 Rank	Player	Total	2008 Finish
1	Paula Creamer	27.81	1
2	Maria Sharapova	15.85	3
3	Ana Ivanovic	14.49	2
4	Natalie Gulbis	13.95	5
5	Maria Kirilenko	11.90	6
6	Maria Verchenova	10.89	10
7	Elena Dementieva	9.83	4
8	Cristie Kerr	9.18	7
9	Anna Kournikova	8.41	14
10	Daniela Hantuchova	5.16	11
11	Anna Rawson	3.99	9
12	Alona Bondarenko	3.50	12
13	Sophie Sandolo	2.74	15
14	Kim Hall	1.02	8
15	Ashley Harkleroad	0.91	13

ASIA PARTY TIME

I'm looking forward to meeting all of you...

Friday, October 30th
The Face Hunter Night, Bangkok
@ Tenface Hotel, 81 Soi Ruamrudee, 2 Wireless Rd., Pathumwan Bangkok
Start 7pm.
Live music performance by the pool: Yellow Fang, The Diet Pills and The Keylookz
Fashion show from emerging Thai designers.
Free drinks, free entry.
Please RSVP on the
Facebook event page.

Saturday, October 31st
Toontown Horror (Halloween party), Kuala Lumpur
@ Barsonic (Zouk), 113 Jalan Ampang
Start 10.15pm.
Facebook event.
RSVP here.

PS: I'll have a fete in Jakarta as well and probably one in Cape Town!

Sharapova getting back to her best

TOKYO — Maria Sharapova says she is getting back to her best and enjoying herself after a long injury lay-off that forced her out of top 10 for the first time since July 2004.

"As far as being back onto the court and playing tennis and hitting a tennis ball with a tennis racket, I say, I went out of the tunnel," said Sharapova after regaining the Pan Pacific Open title on Saturday that she last won in 2005.

"Because that was taken away from me for a long period of time. It's a big part of your life and it was taken away.

"It's a strange feeling, but you've got to do everything you can to get out of the situation, to be back in life, enjoy what you love. I'm back on the court, I'm playing again, I'm competing," said the Russian.

In October last year, Sharapova had an operation on her right shoulder and then pulled out of the Australian Open in January with the same injury. She only returned to action in May.

On Saturday in the final against Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, Sharapova found herself 0-40 down in the opening game, which she lost two points later, hitting a backhanded drop shot wide.

She then went 0-2 down before moving into top gear, hitting an array of power-packed strokes and aggressive service returns to take the following four games in a row.

Jankovic, who needed court-side treatment to her right arm in the semi-finals on Friday, took a medical time-out for the same injury at the beginning of the eighth game.

But Jankovic abandoned the match when she went down love-30.

It was Sharapova's fourth title in Tokyo out of her 20 singles titles worldwide. Tokyo is the place where she captured her first WTA singles and doubles titles at the 2003 Japan Open on the same centre court here.

"I just have really good memories from playing on this court. It was a different tournament, but the same arena. It's very exciting. This is a place very close to my heart and I always want to come back," said Sharapova.

The 22-year-old Russian, the winner of the 2004 Wimbledon, the 2006 US Open and the 2008 Australian Open, is already looking forward to the next season in which she believes she can do better than before.

"I have one more tournament left in Beijing. During the off-season, I'll be training and working on my game. It's going to be really a good time for me to create a good base," said Sharapova.

"Actually I have a good enough time to prepare for the next year. I'm really looking forward to the period.

"Certainly I worked hard to play tennis. That's what I tried, because I know I can be better, making it better than I've done before. And the fact that I'm back and that I'm hungry, that's something I proved," she added.

ELLE RUSSIA - november issue