The delights of Shoreditch...

So Saturday was the day we took our inaugural trip on the new London Overground line. Crystal Palace to Shoreditch in under half an hour, that is as long as you're on time for the one hourly train! I felt as though I was re-living my teenage years in Lincolnshire when there were only two buses a day to the nearest shops. Anyway, we made it there & it all felt very civilised in our blissfully air-conditioned carriage.


To be honest, since being happily ensconced in the vicinity of Crystal Palace for almost 6 years & being well accommodated in terms of eating & drinking establishments, we've rarely ventured far from home during the weekends. I'm ashamed to say that I don't think we've been out in Shoreditch more than a couple of times since we moved from the Hackney/Whitechapel area back in 2003.


So we headed first to The Queen of Hoxton rooftop bar on Curtain Road where we drank Pimms & ate lovely & reasonably priced barbecued fare- £6 for grilled halloumi, veg, couscous, salad & coleslaw, £6.50 for a burger. Other options included jerk chicken with dirty rice & fruit salsa. Now, being a public toilet cleanliness freak, I was somewhat dubious about venturing to the rooftop loo. However I was pleasantly surprised & loved the fact that each loo was a garden shed with a brightly painted door & window boxes outside.


Here are a couple of pics...

By the way, if you're a fan of watching films outdoors (at a height), there's a rooftop film club five nights a week from June through to September. More info here http://www.rooftopfilmclub.com/

A good time was had by all, but by 7pm it was time to move on to the next venue, Lounge Bohemia on Great Eastern Street, which by the way is by appointment only. Apparently it's a favourite of Loewe's Stuart Vevers.


You could very easily miss this place, as the entrance is nestled between a kebab shop & an off-licence. Once you head downstairs, the interior is full of mid-century furniture & dimly lit with a jazz soundtrack in the background. 

This bar is overseen by Paul Tvaroh, who's originally from the Czech Republic (& reminded me of Toulouse Lautrec. See what you think, pic below!) 

Complimentary jugs of water & canapés arrived instantly as we perused the concoctions on offer. The menu was extensive but our selection featured, amongst others, this little line up (apologies for the vague descriptions, as I couldn't track down a copy of the menu). All were priced at £7.95:

• Sgt. Pepper- A refreshing vodka based cocktail, finished off with cracked black peppercorns on the outside of the martini glass
• D'n'B float- A dandelion & burdock reminiscent ice-cream topped wonder which arrived in a cone-shaped glass perched in a wooden stand
• An apple pie, cinnamon infused delight- I could even taste golden, rich pastry!

One we didn't try but will definitely be going back for was a Gypsytini, consisting of rosemary vodka, honey liqueur & prunes.

To finish, I noticed what I can only describe as a candy floss tree go by! Here's a pic...

This was closely followed by a "Holy Smoke" cocktail, which combines leather-infused cognac with frankincense & myrrh smoke. 

Overall a truly Heston Blumenthal style feast of the senses...

The Sunday recipe slot...Strawberry lollies!

The simple fact is that today's wall to wall sunshine has made me crave a lollipop. Not one to take the easy option, I decided to create my own.


So here's my little recipe for yummy strawberry yogurt lollies. Of course, if you're feeling indulgent you can swap the yogurt for double cream!


All you need is:


1 x 400g punnet of strawberries
1 x 500g carton of natural yogurt
250g caster sugar


All you need to do is:

• Hull & halve the strawberries
• Pop the strawberries, yogurt & caster sugar in a blender & whizz until smooth
• Pass the mixture through a sieve
• Pour into lolly moulds- There should be enough mixture to fill 2 x 8 hole moulds (my mould was courtesy of Poundstretcher, a bargain at just 99p)
• Leave the lollies in the freezer to set for 4 hours then enjoy!

The Wedding outfit...plus a bit of sale shopping

I'm sure you'll all heave a sigh of relief to know that I've chosen my outfit for the impending wedding party! 


Now, for those of you who know me well, you'll be expecting me to tell you about the entirely new outfit & accessories that I've purchased, but alas in these times of reduced spending, I've gone all thrifty. This is not a word not usually associated with me when it comes to wardrobe decisions, however in these austere times, a changer of tack has been required.


So a decision has been made & I must say I'm rather enjoying hunting out a bargain these days. I've always been an avid Ebay buyer & seller as well as, I think we can say, a compulsive internet shopper, but I've never been one for camping out on the high street for the first day of the sales. How times have changed...


On Wednesday I happened to pop into Croydon, purely for banking purposes. Somehow on the way back to the car park I was drawn into Zara & as soon as I entered the store I noticed that the clothes were not beautifully displayed in ranges as is the norm, but that the racks were crammed with current, last season & it has to be said, some archaic garments. Staff were plentiful & the whole store seemed to be a hive of activity & luckily almost customer free. It didn't take much to work out that the summer sale was on the horizon, although nothing had yet been marked up as being on sale. 


After scouring the shop for anything of interest (of course firmly focused on a wedding outfit & nothing else), I headed for the fitting room with my armful of garments. I proceeded to try & glean some sale information from the staff member there. I could see her mind ticking over whether to tell me when the sale was actually starting & of course she more or less denied all knowledge of there being an impending sale!


So I made a mental note of where the items I was interested in were situated & left the store, not before asking another member of staff when the sale was starting. She parted with the information with ease & Thursday was etched on my brain.


Although I had a long to do list planned for Thursday morning, I somehow found myself in the car at 10am & en route to Croydon again. So with military precision, in the now bustling store, I picked out the clothes I'd had my eye on (all but one item was still there), bypassed the fitting room queue feeling smug that I didn't need to queue up & paid for my items. To top off a fruitful trip, I also managed to get a lovely current season botanical floral printed navy silk & jersey tunic at a reduced price, which had accidentally been marked up at sale price!


To get to the subject of this post (sorry about the inane rambling to get to this point), Zara came up trumps in providing me with a dress, a sale item to boot, for the July wedding party we're going to. As soon as I saw it I knew I already had a suitable bag & shoes to complete the outfit. So here it is...

Here's a sneaky peek of the other things I picked up as well...

Wonderful Wedges...

I've been doing a bit of shoe research recently, all in the name of sourcing a wedding outfit & I've stumbled across some mighty fine wedges. So here they are...

KG by Kurt Geiger

Carvela @ Kurt Geiger

Miss KG @ Kurt Geiger

Dorothy Perkins

Dorothy Perkins

Dorothy Perkins

ASOS

River Island

Top Shop

Top Shop

The rest of Resort 2012

It's not really the weather for thinking about the resort collections given the constant rain & the fact that I'm sat here wearing a woolly wrap in June. However as I'm hibernating indoors, it's the perfect time for a new post.


So here are some of my favourite looks from the remainder of the Resort 2012 collections. All images courtesy of style.com.

BCBG Max Azria

BCBG Max Azria

Burberry Prorsum

Carlos Miele

Carlos Miele

Carolina Herrera

DKNY

DKNY

Douglas Hannant

Monique Lhuillier

Rebecca Taylor

Yves Saint Laurent

Z Spoke by Zac Spoken

The Summer wedding outfit dilemma...

As a decidedly non-seasoned wedding goer, I don't have an on-hand wedding designated wardrobe, so when I do receive an invitation my mind often draws a blank as to what to wear to fit the occasion. Plus these days choosing an outfit isn't as straightforward as it used to be. Gone are the days of being certain that it'll be a traditional church service type affair.


I currently have the dilemma of choosing an outfit for a wedding party, which is the day after the actual wedding.  It's a barbecue do at a pub but we've been asked to dress in wedding attire. Sounds simple, but how wedding-ish should I go? 


My initial thought was that I should go for a lovely summery floral frock, gorgeous wedges & a corsage in my hair, but if I'm honest, I'm not really a feminine frock kind of girl. I'm not blowing my own trumpet, but I can do sophistication, it's just a shame that I don't get invited to any glam city weddings.


We attended a marquee in a field country wedding last summer, to which I wore a blue jersey grecian style maxi dress with a wide leather obi belt & accessorised with chunky turquoise jewellery & a feather headband. It just didn't feel right given the surroundings (& needless to say the outfit went onto Ebay). Everybody was floating around me in diaphanous tea dresses & Boden type bouquet floral shifts.


So my mission is to find something "suitable" for said impending July event whilst still retaining my own style...Any suggestions will be gratefully received!

Charleston House...

As a long time admirer of The Bloomsbury Group the day finally came over this last weekend to visit Charleston House, their East Sussex enclave. It didn't disappoint.


As a fan of their printed textiles ever since basing an A-level textiles project on them, I was in my element perusing every room in awe of the decoration on show. Every room had been attacked with creative vigour, even the light shades were painted ceramic colanders! As Andrew Marr quoted "Charleston is one of the most intensively decorated homes in England." 


As a keen gardener, the walled garden excited me as much as the house itself. It's a beautiful, seemingly untamed haven, full of typically English cottage garden rambling flora. My mind was racing, wondering how I could translate this type of planting into a south London container garden!


Here are a very small selection of the pictures that I took on the day.

As ever, I was drawn into the shop where I bought a couple of cards featuring these fabulous prints. Images courtesy of collections.vam.ac.uk

Pamela, 1913

Attributed to Duncan Grant

White, 1913

Attributed to Vanessa Bell

Here are a few books which may be of interest...

Charleston

The art of Bloomsbury

Beyond Bloomsbury

Omega and after