lady luck

I had planned to post about the Country Living Spring Fair this weekend but, rather stupidly, I forgot my camera so I only have a few pics that I took on my phone!



Photos taken via Hipstamatic for iPhone

 
It was a really lovely day though, and my Mum and I really enjoyed browsing all the stalls. I picked up a cute horse print greetings card from Petra Boase; it was only £1 and is now sitting rather proudly on my dressing table like a piece of art! I also got some colourful bird-print fabric from Beyond Fabrics which I'm going to attempt to make a cushion with! For those of you that live in London; definitely check out their website as they have a great shop on Columbia Road where they stock heaps of lovely fabrics, and even run fun sewing workshops!

I also picked up this absolutely stunning tortoise ring from one of the stalls. I'm not sure if it's a one-off piece or not, but I had to add it to my collection of hugely over the top rings! I absolutely love it.

(You can kind of make out the card I bought in the background - will try and post a clearer photo soon.)

How is everyone else's weekends going? I went out for a scrummy Mexican dinner last night with a friend, and one too many mojitos, and popped to the local market this morning where I managed to pick up plenty of new reading material...and all for under a fiver!

Looks like I'll be spending the rest of my weekend curled up on the sofa reading, and attempting to bake Peanut Butter Pecan Biscotti (yum!), from the lovely elliand blog.

en provence

Last night I enjoyed a lovely evening at the L'Occitane boutique in Islington, courtesy of L'Occitane and YOU magazine. For those of you who aren't aware of the brand, L'Occitane is a French company who use lots of naturally sourced ingredients to create beatifully fragranced and luxurious feeling products. I have had a few bits and pieces in the past, for Christmas and birthdays, and absolutely love everything I've tried in the range.

(Image taken from uk.loccitane.com)

The evening began at 6.30 where we were greeted with champagne and lots of lovely edible goodies, before being offered mini hand massages. The beauty therapist cleansed my hands first, using a lavender hand gel which I made sure to purchase later in the evening, before massaging them using the 20% shea butter hand cream for dry skin. My hands felt amazingly soft afterwards so I would highly reccommend the hand cream! I think the full sized product is quite expensive but you can pick up a handbag sized tube for about £7.

We were then left to wander around the store and try out all the gorgeous products. The staff were incredibly helpful, without being pushy, and had plenty of advice and testers for everybody to try. Although there were heaps of things I wanted to buy, I eventually settled on the lavender fragranced 'Clean Hands Gel', and the 'Rose 4 Reines' eau de toilette; which has a very similar scent to the new Chloe Rose fragrance but with a slightly cheaper price tag.



The products from our lovely free goody bag!

 As we left the store we were all handed a bag packed full of lovely freebies to enjoy! The free products, shown in the picture above, included; Rose 4 Reines Body Milk, Verbena Shower Gel, Very Precious Cream, Verbena Extra-Gentle Soap, 5 Essential Oils Shampoo, 5 Essential Oils Conditioner, Almond Shower Oil, Shea Butter Hand Cream and Shea Butter Foot Cream.

I can't wait to test them all out!

I also treated myself today, although I really shouldn't have been spending anymore money after last night, to a few products from the Topshop make-up range. I have been debating over whether to purcahse the skin tint for a while now, but after doing a bit of research and my friend giving it a rave review I decided to go for it! I have yet to test any of the products out properly, apart from the  pretty useless back-of-the-hand test whilst in Topshop, but will let you all know how I get on!




Images from http://www.topshop.com/

I purchased; Skin Tint in Fair (£10), Lip Stick in Coy (£7) and Blush in Nutmeg (£6). I particularly love the coral colour of the lip stick which will look lovely in this sunny weather we have been having! I just hope that the creamy consistency transfers well to lips.

I'm off to the Country Living Show tomorrow so fingers crossed I should have some lovely snaps to share with you all later in the week!

white blank page

I have been enjoying a wonderfully lazy Sunday; finding lots of lovely new blogs to follow, catching up on the lastest magazines, listening to Mumford & Sons, and cooking a yummy dinner for my family.

I made involtini from Nigella Lawson's 'Feast', another of her amazing cookery books - I often read them in bed like novels!

In the words of the wonderful Nigella; '"Involtini" just indicates that something is wrapped - turned - around something else. I always use aubergines as the casing rather than, say, courgettes, partly because you can get more in, and partly because I think it's the best possible use of an aubergine.'

Despite not being much of a cook, the aubergines turned out beautifully. They were stuffed with a delicious cheese based mixture (feta, mozzarella and parmesan - this is definitely NOT a recipe for anyone with a dairy intolerance!), covered in tomataoes and more cheese and baked in the oven. Heaven.

I also enjoyed flicking through the Spring/Summer 2011 edition of Company High-Street Edit. The magazine looks amazing. It's full of fashion spreads that have the visual style of Vogue couture but featuring clothes from the high street. There is something about the matte pages that make the whole publication seem very expensive, too.

I loved the minimalist feel to the 'Cut me some slack' style shoot; the city shorts and sharp blazers were given a contemporary twist by being juxtaposed with cotton tees and string vests.

In contrast, I was also inspired by the inspirational key pieces feature in this month's Elle magazine which was a riot of floral prints and denim - my usual summer wardrobe. I loved the silk dress by Paul & Joe, but will be seeking a high street alternative unless I happen to stumble across £960 any time soon!

My freelance writing for the home interiors website is still going really well, I absolutely love writing and it would be the icing on the cake if I could find somewhere that would pay me to do it! I'm really grateful for the opportunity at the moment though, as it's a really great website to be involved with.

One of the perks of writing, in any capacity, is being able to nab a free ticket or press pass every now and then. I was lucky enough to get hold of a press ticket for this month's Country Living Spring Fair, and a complimentary one for my mum! We usually go along to their Christmas Fair to browse all the lovely craft stalls and eat as many free foodie samples as we can manage, so I'm really excited to go along to this on the 23rd. I'm planning on doing a post about it, if the exhibitor's don't mind me snapping a few pics of their products!