Clare Maxfield

Where Image Matters

  • Services
    • Women’s Style and Image
    • Men’s Style and Image
    • Personal Colour
  • Blog
    • Women
    • Men
    • Colour
    • Personality
    • Quotes
    • Corporate
    • Video
  • Products
    • Books
    • Cosmetics
    • Consultations & Gift Certificates
  • What’s My Type Quizzes
    • Women’s Clothing Style Personality
    • Men’s Clothing Style Personality
    • Why you choose the clothes you do Quiz
    • Colour Personality and Style Quiz
    • What does your Lifestyle look like? Quiz
    • Personal Branding IQ Quiz
    • Soul Style – The colour in your stars
  • Courses
    • 31 Days of Transformational Style
    • Style in 7
    • Branding and Presentation skills for Men
    • Branding and Presentation skills for Women
    • Reading Faces
    • Image Consultant Training
  • About Clare
    • Media
    • Testimonials
  • Contact

Dec 06 2016

Stain Removal, nice and simple home solutions

With so many parties coming up it is always handy to have a simple chart on hand to treat any unexpected stains that you might end up with on your clothes.

I realised as I wrote this that it does reference a couple of brands, that might be Australian only. I am sure you can find local products that are quite similar.
Stain Removal Guide

I would highly recommend printing out this chart and popping it up in your laundry cupboard, or keeping a copy on your phone, so you know what to do, really quickly, should you be caught out and find yourself covered in red wine, ink or coffee. Just to name a few.

There is a stain-removal-guide which you can download. To see everything which is covered, I invite you to read on.

Home remedy stain removal guide

  • Beer – paint a paste of an oxygen based prewash stain remover such as Napisan™ Oxygen on the stain, leave 15 minutes then wash
  • Beetroot – put a blob of glycerine on the stain before washing
  • Blood – wash fresh stains in cold water ASAP.  If it’s set, use cornflour and water, for older stains try soap and cold water
  • Chewing Gum – put the garment in the freezer or harden with ice, scrape as much off with a blade then soak in prewash or baking soda, and sprinkle talcum powder on the gum to absorb it and work at it rubbing in circles
  • Chocolate – soap and cold water followed by soap and hot water
  • Coffee/Tea – Work glycerine into the stain then wash as normal. If it still doesn’t come out try soak in prewash or baking soda followed by normal wash
  • Deodorant – soak in prewash or baking soda, rolled up pantyhose
  • Egg Yolk – cold water and soap, then wash in the machine on a warm wash
  • Fruit Juice – normal wash and hang in the sun to dry.  For Apple and Stone fruits try glycerine on the stain before washing
  • Grass – soak in prewash or baking soda
  • Grease – dishwashing liquid on the stain before washing in a warm wash
  • Hair dye – dry-cleaning fluid or kerosene, or hairspray
  • Ink – rotten milk (Really – who has this?)
  • Lipstick – soak in prewash or baking soda, or Sards™ Wonder Soap
  • Nail polish – acetone then wash normally
  • Paint – Water based paints use methylated spirits, Oil based paints use turpentine.
  • Rust – CLR (more likely found in the garage than the laundry) or lemon juice and salt
  • Permanent Marker – Hand sanitiser
  • Sap – soak in prewash or baking soda
  • Shoe polish – Methylated spirits then wash normally
  • Soft drinks – treat as fruit juice
  • Sweat – Napisan™ Oxygen paste, leave on stain 15 minutes, or try Sards™ Wonder soap
  • Tar – baby oil or kerosene
  • Wax – freeze item, scrape off as much as possible, then soak in prewash or baking soda (see gum).
  • Wine – Fresh red wine – vinegar, Old red wine – glycerine, bicarb and detergent, White wine – vinegar

Have a very Merry Xmas, a Happy Hannukah and very festive holiday time.

I hope you don’t need to use these little hints, but if you do that they get you out of a sticky mess.

Written by Clare Maxfield · Categorized: Etiquette, Men, Style, Women · Tagged: clean, Lipstick, stain removal, Wine

Nov 19 2016

Who and How to propose a toast during a meal and the wines to use.

toast eyeHow to Propose a Toast

1. To begin

Stand where you can be seen.

Make sure that everyone has a full glass of something – alcoholic or not.

Hold your own glass in front of you – angle your arm up from the elbow not above your shoulder though..

Introduce yourself briefly, if you aren’t already known by everyone present. Say something about why you’ve gathered. Are you celebrating a successful project or period of time? A recent win? A newly formed partnership? The achievement of a big goal? Or are you honoring a particular person for what he or she has done? Say so.

Keep these introductory remarks brief — no longer than a minute to a minute and a half.

2. The Hope or Desire

Raise your glass to eye level.

State a hope or a wish for the future of the person being honored or for the parties gathered at the event. Use the subjective form, “May…”

Make it no more than two or three sentences. Keep your remarks in the spirit of the event, appropriate to the mood of the gathering. Don’t be light and breezy at a formal gathering or stiff and serious at a casual event.

3. The Toast

Raise your glass overhead.

Look the person in the eye.

In three or four words name the person, persons, or occasion being honored, “To…” If you keep it short, people will repeat the toast.

Drink.

4. An Example

“X, As your friend/colleague, I’d like to propose a toast to you.

Achieving what you have in such a short time is a testament to your skill and your commitment to excellence.

So here’s my toast. May your success be ongoing. May your future be assured. And may the work you do continue to touch the lives of many. To X”

Tips to remember

Compliments to the host: If you are invited to dinner at someone’s house, always remember to compliment the host and the magnificent meal. If you are having trouble complimenting the host on their magnificent meal, you can always compliment them on their house or the presentation of the meal or even the time it has taken them to prepare it. Always remember that it is a special privilege to have been invited so thank them for the privilege.

Toast the host—don’t get toasted: The first toast is generally given by the host. Raise your glass and take a sip. In the event there are multiple toasts being given, remember you can toast with soft drink (soda) or water to save you the embarrassment of finding yourself completely inebriated by the end of the evening.

Never toast yourself: If you are the object of the toast, when everyone else is drinking from their glass as a toast to you, you do not take part in the drinking.

Know your stems:When you are drinking red wine you hold the bowl of the glass, yet when you are drinking white wine you hold it by the stem so as not to warm the wine.

It is not a crime to say no to wine: If you are attending a daytime function, or you don’t drink alcohol, or you don’t feel like any wine with the meal, when the waiter comes around to pour the wine don’t turn your glass upside down, just place your hand over the top of it to indicate that you do not want any.

Look them in the eye. No matter if you are proposing a toast in front of an auditorium or clinking a glass with one person, always look the person in the eye.

Basics aspects of wine

The Whites

Chardonnay is a very versatile wine grape: Big in the 1980’s and coming back. It’s flavour and aromas are easily influenced by where it’s grown and how it’s made. Fruit flavors range from apple and lime in cooler climates to tropical fruits in warmer places. When barreled in oak, it takes on a richness characterized by honey and strong butter flavors. When barreled in stainless steel, it often retains more mineral flavors and comes across as fresher on the palate.  Chardonnay is a favorite with seafood. Minerally versions, like those from Chablis, France, pair particularly well with oysters.

Riesling is a crisp, clean wine with green apple, pear and lime flavors. The best offer pleasing mineral qualities as well. With age, Riesling takes on honey flavors and attractive oily aromas. Riesling pairs nicely with spicy foods, poultry and pork. Try it with Thai food.

Pinot Gris is made from grapes that generally produce different styles of wine depending on where the grapes are grown and how they’re handled in the cellar. Pinot Gris typically makes rich wines marked by a bit of spice. The Italian style (Pinot Grigio) tends to be fresh, crisp and refreshing. Sample either style with seafood and pasta dishes, vegetarian food and poultry.

Sauvignon Blanc is a fresh, crisp, aromatic wine with grapefruit and grassy flavours.  Sauvignon Blanc is a food-friendly wine that goes well with many seafood, poultry and vegetable dishes.

The Reds

Rose, the lightest red. Best served chilled. The primary flavours of rosé wine are red fruit, flowers, citrus, and melon, with a pleasant crunchy green flavour on the finish similar to celery or rhubarb. It is versatile enough to go with Meditterean foods, but also Asian-inspired dishes, Indian cuisine, tapas, BBQ and tex-mex work well too.

Pinot Noir, a delicate wine that tastes of red fruits like cherries, raspberries and strawberries. With age, flavours and aromas become more complex, developing earthy notes like mushrooms and decaying leaves. Pinot Noir is a versatile food wine, great with poultry, salmon, meat and vegetable dishes.

Merlot is a soft, supple wine with nice fruit flavours of plums and blackberries and occasionally mint, chocolate and eucalyptus flavours and aromas. Typically, it is ready to drink earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon, which sometimes needs a few years for its astringent tannins to mellow. Merlot is very nice with meat dishes like beef and lamb.

Cabernet Sauvignon is more assertive than Merlot, with more tannin and greater ageing potential. It can have flavours of blackberries, plums, black currants, and cassis. Aged in oak, Cabernet Sauvignon can take on flavours of vanilla, cedar, chocolate, and coffee.  Cabernet Sauvignon is very nice with meat dishes like beef and lamb.

Shiraz (Syrah) Australian versions are typically big, bold and spicy with jammy fruit and aromas of leather and black fruit. Shiraz is a very versatile wine that pairs well with a wide variety of foods. It’s terrific with grilled meats.

For other dining and etiquette tips you can download my Etiquette and personal branding workbooks for men and women. Do the Etiquette IQ quiz to see how you rate.

 

Written by Clare Maxfield · Categorized: Etiquette · Tagged: drinking wine, etiquette, toast, Wine, wine guide

Jul 15 2015

Interview with Glenn Ridge 3MP – discussing Wine Etiquette

 

Clare Maxfield with Glenn Ridge_2606

G: 11 to 10. Image consultant Clare Maxfield joins us to talk about wine etiquette.

How are you Clare?

C: I’m really good, Glenn.

G: I would have thought wine etiquette would have been that if we are talking wine you would have brought some wine in?

C: Do you know what? I was considering that, but I was considering the hour of the day it is. I thought, maybe not.

G: 12 o’clock somewhere.

C: I know it is. Not here.

G: Not the right time. It’s got to be somewhere.

Wine etiquette. Now this is a very interesting subject.

C: Wine etiquette has been around forever. It’s almost one of the first etiquettes to start because it is all about how we exist and you know, work with each other but it is still very important today.

G: What are you talking about here? Are you talking about for example, my idea of wine etiquette is if I go to someone’s place, I always take the worst bottle of red because I have to get rid of it somehow.

C: And you know how I was having you out for dinner next week? I think we’re going to cancel that one.

Wine etiquette for me is about when you take a gift to someone, what kind of gift and what you have to expect them to do with that gift or not do. It’s also what glass to put it in, how to serve it to someone, where to pair it with meal.

So there is a whole lot around wine etiquette. It’s not just the case of popping down to the local Bottle O and picking up a bottle of wine.

G: I disagree. What if I take a good bottle of wine and think – “this would be really nice” and so I taste it with some friends and then they don’t open it. Do I have the right to say this “Listen, I want my wine back home.” I’ll come and get a bottle of Ben Ean (moselle – a popular wine in the ‘70’s),and replacing it during the week, would it be nicer that way?

C: Well, you are going to struggle finding a Ben Ean. No. And you don’t want to be taking it back. But what I would be recommending, if you’ve found a bottle that you think is absolutely exceptional…

G: Yeah

C: And you’ve taken along, and let’s say, it’s a really heavy red and they are doing a nice light fish dinner that requires a nice light white (wine) then what you might say at the end: “look, can we just try this, because I brought this along to share with you guys. I really want to share it with you.” So there’s nothing wrong in having that approach of explaining you want to share and not saying: “I can’t stand what you’re drinking, can you open mine?”

G: Please, quickly. What about for example, if you have what you think is a good bottle of wine and you take it there and when they opened it, it’s gone off?

C: Well then it goes…

G: Should I be embarrassed or should I think: “Oh well, that’s luck of the drawer.”

C: If it has a cork in it, and not many wines have cork in them anymore, there is a chance it may go off.

G: Uh-huh

C: And so that is almost the luck of the draw and that’s just unfortunate. If it has got a screw top which doesn’t have the same finesse in opening it, but it keeps the wine better longer and it doesn’t taste any good, well that’s just bad choice.

G: Okay, so that is bad luck.

C: Yeah.

G: That’s just the way it goes.

C: Yeah.

G: What about glasses? What should we serve – wine in?

C: Okay, now.

G: They are changing all the time though. Youngies, they are doing it differently now.

C: They are. And in fact, I was reading an article the other day where some of the regions in France on champagne, some of the big houses are actually taking wine to more of a champagne more of red wine stemless glass. Interesting. I am still studying more on that.

G: So vegemite glass are we talking about there?

C: Well, more than a vegemite glass. Maybe a Nutella. But what you want to have is your red wine glass.

What you want to have is a really big bowl to it because you want the aromas to go on the glass in the very small opening so that your nose catches all those flavour.

For white wine, you want it more kind of a tulip shaped and your champagne, very long and skinny to grab all those carbonated bubbles.

G: Yeah. Is there anything wrong with putting a straw in a champagne bottle? A couple of straws maybe?

Hey, on a serious note, what do you think…? So how do you take a bottle of wine to someone’s place and it’s a nice dinner and everything…, nice night, they don’t get to open your wine and then all of a sudden you invite them back to your place a couple of weeks later and they bring your bottle of wine back – It’s that having being a cheapskate

C: No. You know what? I actually got some friends of mine who do something similar to that. If I go to their place with the wine that doesn’t get opened, they will put my name on a tag, and when I go there, they will pull it out because – they’re you go, I want to share it with them.

I sort of say, if they will bring it back, yes you could sit there and go “it’s a little bit tight.”But If I’ve taken a wine, it’s a wine I want to drink. So, I’d be happy to see it come back.

G: But if it’s a wine I want to get rid of, then, I’d make sure we would not open that one on that night and take it back. We could have this wine taken back between couples for…

C: It would be a bit of a boomerang wine for a while there.

G: Alright. Well, we got to keep our eye. There is etiquette and it doesn’t have to be snobby to have wine etiquette then?

C: No, no. And look – you sort of see people who are tasting with wine. And you think “what are they doing? Slurping and sucking it and spitting it out?”

And uhmm… So all that they are doing is just came to know the wine but taste it. And do you know the most important thing is drink what you like.

G: And if you enjoy, do it.

C: Yes.

G: See you Clare.

C: See you Glenn.

[wysija_form id=”1″]

Written by Clare Maxfield · Categorized: Etiquette, Interviews, Personality · Tagged: 3MP, Clare Maxfield Image, Glenn Ridge, Image, melbourne, MyMP, Wine

  • Services
  • Blog
  • Products
  • What’s My Type Quizzes
  • Courses
  • About Clare
  • Contact
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn

Copyright © 2022 · Altitude Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in