Lifestyle - Saturday, April 11, 2026

A recipe for a cafe-quality iced latte, the best chargers and more This story was originally published in the Filter US newsletter on buying fewer, better things. Sign up here to get early access to it Each week the Filter newsletter cuts through the noise to bring you smart, practical recommendations on how to live better – from what is worth buying to the tools, habits and ideas that actually last. I have very specific coffee preferences. The mere thought of a weak brew or bland beans is enough to send a shiver up my spine. I’ve all but perfected my at-home coffee, which I make in my trusty moka pot . Recently, I shared how I use it to make a delicious cup of iced coffee . Over the course of a week, I saved more than $40 compared with what I would have spent at Starbucks. Continue reading...

This tangy, green Mexican simmer sauce is a smart shortcut to dinner.

From catwalk versions to online vintage finds, the workwear staple is being recast as a marker of laidback cool In many wardrobes, the thick, checked shirt is usually found among the gardening clothes, or it might be worn as an extra layer on a bitterly cold day. But, in 2026, for the first time since the 90s, it’s becoming a bona fide fashion item. Flannel shirts have recently been worn by fashion editors and stylists on the front row, by the models Adwoa Aboah and Emily Ratajkowski and the Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola. Brands including Marni, Chloé and Chanel had versions in their recent shows. And more significantly, this week comes the much anticipated new series of the Gen Z drama Euphoria, stills from which show Jacob Elordi’s character, Nate Jacobs, wearing a Bottega Veneta “flannel” shirt made of leather. Originally from the spring/summer 2023 collection, and worn by Kate Moss on the catwalk, it costs £4,600 in the shops. Continue reading...

Carb your enthusiasm. The post 19 Vegetarian Recipes That Are Surprisingly High-Protein appeared first on Camille Styles .

Let's take this al fresco. The post The Best Affordable Outdoor Furniture That Looks Designer (But Isn’t) appeared first on Camille Styles .

It’s a barbecue favourite, but which halloumi is firm, salty and satisfyingly squeaky and which is a milky mess? • The best (and worst) supermarket feta I used to get through about 300kg of halloumi each summer at my festival cafe. Our halloumi wrap was a bestseller, filled with superslaw (sprouts, cabbage, raisins, parsley and seeds), tahini sauce and broad bean falafel. Halloumi is a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) product that has to be produced and packaged in Cyprus, and be at least 51% sheep and goat’s milk (cow’s milk can make up the rest). The curd has to be cooked and folded, which gives halloumi its characteristic shape and texture. This is why the block sometimes splits during cooking, a sign of authenticity that’s often mistaken for lack of quality. No preservatives, colourings or milk powder are allowed, either. Continue reading...

“He enjoyed it,” said the owner of Bebe the parrot, who has also come along for skydiving, skiing and 500-mile bike rides.

As a young mother, Tareena Shakil fled with her toddler from the UK to Syria and joined Islamic State. Now she’s giving dating advice on TikTok. How did she get here? If you met Tareena Shakil today, you would have no idea that the person in front of you had served time in prison for terrorism offences and holds the dubious distinction of being the first British woman convicted of joining Islamic State. Now 36, Shakil is glamorous, heavily made-up with long, tousled hair. When we meet at a plush hotel in Birmingham, she wears a sharply tailored dress, waist cinched in with a wide leather belt, and carries a Louis Vuitton handbag. She is bubbly and warm, with a disarmingly open demeanour. In short, this isn’t what springs to mind when you hear the words “terrorism conviction”. What Shakil actually looks like is an influencer – which is fitting, because that’s what she is trying to be. She has gained most traction on TikTok, where her profile has about 50,000 followers. She gives relationship advice, usually sitting in her car and talking straight to camera. Her content is a mix of humour (“Muslim men who go to the gym while fasting – brother, the world needs more people like you”) and advice about the dating game (“Men are natural born hunters … they love the chase” in one video; “When they block you, it’s a punishment because they know it’s going to hurt you” in another). In among this are videos that hint at something darker (“If your partner hits you, you must leave, it doesn’t matter how much they cry or say they’ll never do it again”). She never directly references her own complicated past but, she tells me: “There’s an element of my own experience in most of the videos I make.” Continue reading...

The language teacher was running in the desert in Arizona when he saw this enormous, oddly human-looking plant Joseph Cyr works as a language teacher at an American secondary school. He was born in South Korea, and spent his childhood living across Germany and the US, in Georgia and Arizona. “As an adult I have lived in Seattle, Paris and Nicaragua before moving back to Arizona,” he says. “I took this in Saguaro national park, on the edge of Tucson. It’s about an hour north of the US-Mexico border.” It was a school holiday, so Cyr was doing a trail run when he took this image. His route was quiet; he saw only a few people on horseback and this saguaro cactus. The largest cactus in the US, it grows only in the Sonoran Desert, where the Saguaro national park lies. Continue reading...

Neighbor “makes it a point to tell me that she and her husband have an investment portfolio worth $1 million-plus.”