Someone had a Birthday

I’m not usually one to put lots of pictures of myself or people here on my blog, but I thought I’d share these shots as they are a little bit special and really do capture what I’ve been up to. Last weekend was Miles’ birthday, the weather was glorious and we headed down to kent to see our family. We had lots of cake, Miles got lots of pressies and we had a yummy BBQ in the sun. It was perfect photo weather and I managed to snap these pictures of Miles on my iPhone using the Hipstermatic app.

We spent Miles’ actual birthday in London. A trip to Hackney City Farm, some yummy food at Trullo and lots of lounging in the sun – then topped off with the World Cup final. A lovely day, made even better knowing that we are heading off to Paris together in just a few weeks. This was my present to Miles, well it seems quite modest compared to his trip to America that he planned for my 25th. I’m so excited about visiting Paris for a second time – macarons, cakes, parks and lots of beautiful buildings!

If anyone has any helpful tips, hints or suggestions for things to see and do in Paris I’d love to hear them. As it stands I’ve been reading some great Parisian blogs and using the great Design Sponge city guide for Paris. I’m so excited – a long weekend in the city of pretty!

Sunshine and Stamping

Sorry for the super long delay between posts. Miles was away for ages and took with him the camera that we share since mine decided to give up and die a year after purchase (boo). He’s back now and so too is the camera – Hooray! It’s been a busy few weeks here, sweltering in the summer sun, working and all the day-to-day stuff that seems to take up all my time. However, I did get a little time to make these new gift tags with my Russian doll stamps that Miles got me for Christmas, yes I’ve waited since Christmas to get some free time and inspiration to use them. They are from the very lovely Make Lounge – I think? They are hand carved and pretty cute even if I do say so myself.

The Paris stamps were a birthday gift from Miles again, he knows I love nothing more than a beautiful rubber stamp! I was very lucky today, I hit Islington’s Upper Street for browse of the summer sales and one of the local design shops, Aria had this Orla Kiely note book for £3 reduced from £9.95 because it has a little mark on it (I’m not fussed). They also had this great Wallpaper guide to Bilbao reduced to £3.50 – which was a stroke of luck as this is where I’m off to on my work holiday on Thursday. You may remember me blogging about previous work holiday’s to Barcelona and Athens and this year we’re off to San Sebastian near Bilbao, Spain. Looking forward to relaxing in the sun and hopefully seeing some lovely sights.

I really loved how these two books co-ordinated in colour and once I made my labels they seemed to match so well too. Fresh, yet muted summer colours are just what I need right now as every where feels so bright and sunny. This weekend is mostly going to be spent spending time with Miles (catching up and hanging out after his sky diving adventure). We’ve spent hours in the park reading, with a butterfly landing on Miles back several times – amazing! Looking forward to catching the England game tomorrow, fingers crossed for a win! If anyone knows the San Sebastian area and have any good tips please share them, I have done very little research and it doesn’t seem to be a place that many have visited. Have a great week!

In the Pink

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend? Mine was spent with friends and family, which is always lovely and a real treat. On Friday I spent the evening with the lovely Holly, who was full of tales of Australian travel and loaded with awesome gifts. She gifted me a copy of the very cool Frankie magazine, which  I’m now hooked on! I love the writers tone and the amazing photography. She also introduced me to the Australian favourites, Tim Tams and I can safely say I am hooked on those too – shame my packed just ran out! The tip of biting the ends off and sucking your tea up through it, like a straw is genius (messy, but genius).

Then I was treated to a lovely visit from my parents, which always brings a huge smile to my face as those guys make me laugh so much. We had cakes, pizza, biscuits and showed them all the news bits I’d bought for my lounge. Overall, a very productive weekend ending with a lovely brunch with Miles at the delicious new brunch hotspot, Caravan. Man, those guys make a mean baked eggs and don’t even get me started on the cakes! The pictures of my strange, pink, milkshake potion is just one of the concoctions that I blend up daily for my morning feed. I’m back riding my bike to work everyday so a power smoothie before I hit the road is advisable, otherwise I end up wanted to eat my own arm by the time I arrive at work. Today I stuck a paper straw in, the colours really jumped out at me and made me smile –  and reach for the camera!

Magic Morsels – Pierre Herme Macarons

As a really big macaron fan I have was just a tad excited to find out that Pierre Herme was opening a concession in Selfridges! This is his first English outlet and do feel rather lucky that it’s in London and so close by. I love, love, love Laduree macarons to bits however, as their popularity grows in London the choice of flavours seems to diminish a little. Now these little morsels don’t come cheap, at £2 a go they are quite a bit more expensive more than Luduree, however, they do offer  some fantastically different flavours and are quite a bit larger. My favourites were the passion fruit and milk chocolate, rose and quince and the lemon and hazelnut praline – yum!

The packaging was fresh, exciting and pretty cute. The box was adorned with French doodle-type drawings depicting Pierre himself and the locations that he has stores in. They looked so perfect in their little yellow box, perfectly sealed and accompanied by a menu – this really help you remember which flavours your selected! By the time I got home I was struggling to remember – the choice is quite vast.  Overall, I think I’ll be back to pay the Pierre Herme counter another visit, in fact I know I’ll be back. Next time I’ll try new flavours and hopefully they’ll last a little longer (I ate 6 in one go). He,he! Have a lovely week!

February Itch?

Is anyone else getting the February itch? You know the one, where you start to tell yourself that spring must be on the way when really it’s no where near. You start to optimistically wear one less layer, feel the need to buy fresh flowers and browse through spring fashion collections all day long dreaming of the weather to wear this and that? Well I’ve got the february itch bad. I am blooming sick of chunky knits and long sleeve t-shirts – scarves and gloves be gone! I want sunlight to take pictures and some sunshine to bathe in, I think my serotonin levels are at zero! My morning, banana and match soya shakes keep my happy though, every glass is a little fresh glass of energy heaven.

I love this green and blue combo, these shades look so fresh and zesty together, exactly how I’d like to feel right now. I always get my Matcha from Tea Pigs and the table runner with apples on is from Habitat. Loving the new Charlotte Gainsbourg album right now along with the amazing new Orla Kiely collection (clothes that dreams are made of). I hope everyone has a lovely week, we are predicted more snow so I think I need to put my spring hopes on hold for a while – I guess I’ll just have to stick with my Matcha remedy.

L-O-V-E

Happy Valentine’s Day 2010 everyone, I know I am 1 day late. It just seems to be the way I’m operating lately, constantly running one day late. I hope Cupid was kind to everyone this year? I received a lovely bunch of flowers and a cute card from my Valentine. It was all pretty low key year this year with our April holiday adventure coming up – must save money for those San Fran shops and cupcakes! These are a few photos I took just after my Birthday, however they seem very suitable for Valentine’s. The glass bon bon jar was a gift from Miles (Zara Home I think). and the Sweets were from the glorious Hope and Greenwood. The book was a sketch book covered by me and the pom pom was left over from Christmas.

I didn’t leave the house all day on Valentine’s for feeling ill, I don’t know if anyone else is experiencing this but I have never been so poorly as I have this winter – so strange? These little felt hearts cheer me up they are great for decorating things and recently I gave two of them in a little gift box with a voucher to my cousin for her wedding present. Miles and I celebrated Valentine’s early this year, well Thursday to be exact. We went to Rich Mix to see Stornaway and Beth Jeans Houghton, both of which were brilliant! Stornaway are one talent band that make very beautiful music. It was a lovely evening, one to make me realise how lucky I am living in London, having such great access to such fun and inspiring things. Another inspiring thing is the The Book Club, where you can eat brunch and then play free ping pong in a pretty cool hang out. London, I love you!

Happy Birthday’s and Future Holiday’s

So on the 14th I turned 25, a quarter of a century. It’s been a little bit hectic between being rather poorly and Birthday celebrations, hence why this blog post has taken so long to get written. I had the most lovely Birthday, it was incredibly special as I got to see and celebrate with so many great people. I took two days off work and Miles and went for afternoon tea at The Langham – which was lovely. During our tea we were greeted with celeb appearances from Amy Winehouse and Fern Britton – I had no idea it was such a hot spot for the rich and famous?! We then had dinner with good friends at Pizza East in Shoreditch, which is super yummy and feels very New York. The next day (my actual Birthday) was spent curled up on my Mum’s sofa in a blanket relaxing with my lovely sisters and Dad – bliss.

I was so lucky when it came to gifts, again the thought that people put into what they buy me is really touching. One gift that I can’t get over is Miles’ collection of lovely treats (in the photo). Not only did he buy me my favourite things in the world; pajamas, a knitted cable blanket, Paris stamps and macarons. He also surprised me with a holiday to the west coast of America. We fly into San Francisco and will be traveling down to LA exploring all the different towns and cities en-route for 2.5 weeks. This was the nicest gesture and we are already having a blast planning the route, all the places we want to visit and all the food we want to eat!  I received so much cake for my Birthday that I could have opened a shop! From home baked cream cakes from friends and hand delivered cupcakes from colleagues I was totally caked out! I loved it of course, however, I have no idea what made them think that I like cake?

Robot Story

Seeing as I am about to turn 25 in just a few days time I thought I would put a little childish post up, while I still can get away with it. The light in the living room was great yesterday, the sun was shining and the whole room was flooded with bright light. There’s something about bright light that makes everything look fresh and inspiring and this made me reach for the camera and snap everything around me. As you can probably tell from my last few months worth of posts, I’m a little bit in love with blue of late and when I saw Miles’ pale blue robot staring out of the cabinet at me yesterday I really wanted to capture the colour.

I think when it came to capturing the colour the child came out in me and I grabbed my new Dala horse and put the two together, just like a child would. The juxtaposition between the soft decorative swirls on the horse contrasts strongly against the right angles and straight lines on the robot, it’s almost a bit surreal. It’s sort of like the robot is the cowboy and the Dala is his trusted horse – ha,ha! You can tell I’ve not been out much this weekend! It’s still snowy, dark and freezing here in London and although we go on about the weather a lot here in the UK at the moment it’s mostly because January is a bit of a depressing month. Lack of money to do things, lack of day light hours to do them in and lack of motivation to commit to those new year resolutions. Pah!

So, this is the end of my childish robot story I think they ride off into the sunset, get the girl and save the day! Well, you need a little optimism on a dark day like today. I think for now I am going to focus on the exciting week ahead, my Birthday, my family, my friends and most of all Miles. I’ll get to spend 2 full days with Miles, uninterrupted and doing fun things – Yay! Also, if anyone is interested in design, Miles’ is taking part in Design 365 where he creates something each day for a whole year! You can check out his latest designs here.

Halloween Zombies

Look away now if you don’t like gore! Sorry if you were expecting cakes and flowers, not a trip to the dark side. Miles and I dressed up as zombies for Halloween this year and managed to scare quite a few people when we headed out for drinks and dancing. However, it’s kind of funny as I am the least dark side person there ever was, my fave colour is white and pale blue and I love cakes and Cath Kidston! We went a bit to town with the make-up and I ended up looking like Helena Bo Carter mixed with the guy from The Horrors. Anyway, it was a good fun night and no necks were really hurt when making Miles’ costume. Normal posts will resume now!