Dear Winter… I’m off. See Ya.

… um… in a weeks time.

Having a holiday at the very end of Summer (Summer?! When?) is good in theory as you can have one last chance to ward off the rickets with a little vitamin D injection before the long, cold winter sets in.

What’s not so good is not having the time/money/inclination (or all 3) to do any holiday shopping until the day before you jet off (and when I say “the day before” I have to leave my flat at 4am tomorrow, so it’s really the same day) and all the shops are filled with knits, dresses and COATS for autumn.  Whoopsie!

Oh and if anyone knows where I can find a cheap, small, blue striped suit (bit of fancy dress fun) in the Central London area in the next couple of hours, shout!!

But enough whinging (there can never be too much whinging!), this is what I’ve got to look forward to: 

The sea!!!  

Sunshine so bright and hot that I have to block it out!! (Yup, never happy!!) 

Pretty restaurants…

 

Chilling with chums!!

Definitely a little incentive to get myself through a panicked after-work shopping trip!

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I’m not cold, I’m not cold, I’m not cold… repeat to fade.

I know it’s only September and the clocks haven’t gone back yet but I’m cold.  I’m usually cold from October through till May, so this is not good.

What I need is an “I’m not cold” survival kit…this is on my list:

Heady

Option 1

Cute knitted pom pom beanie from Oasis

£14

Option 2

Pom pom trapper from ASOS (I’m such a pom pom fiend)

£18

Option 3

Woollen, owl hat with ear flaps by Soul Cal

£12.99

Handy

Option 1

Owl shaped reuseable hand warmer from Amazon

£7.99

Option 2

Polly push lock leather gloves by Mulberry

£149

Cosy

Option 1

I know I didn’t go to Harvard, but I really, really, REALLY want an Ivy League hoodie

£48

Option 2

Oversized knitted cardi by Topshop

£42

Option 3

Hooded duffel coat by ASOS

£80

Yummy

(The only option!)

Mulled wine is one of the ONLY things I like about winter.

And if all that fails, I’ll just hibernate.

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Forever Bun

I quite like my hair. It’s really thick despite the fact that I seem to moult like a cat (hair everywhere! All the time!!!). And it’s pretty curly although not so curly that I could do an Annie Mac.  Straightening does takes forever, but I think I’ve grown out of all the faff anyway.

My 2 main hair dos are:

The Cone (I didn’t nickname it btw)

A rather conical moment!

An easy, messy, beehive which gives a bit of volume and shape, without having to go crazy with the kirbys and hairspray.

The rest of the time, it’s up in a bun.  The bun is also a bit of a fav, as I’m too lazy to wash my hair more than three times a week (I actually mean twice a week. Yes I know, I’m a grotbag, but a busy grotbag!).

Lazy hair for a lazy (Ahem.. I meant gruelling..) day

But as convenient as the bun is, I think it might be time for a change.  What I want is hair like this:

Messy-ish but not too big…

Bit of a fringe, wavy, not too styled…

And blonde would be nice!

Although my eyebrows might give me away…

Any suggestions? A hairdresser recommendation? A hot new up-do? Eyebrow dye? Send them my way…

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Sweet tooth.

If you think a dull and rainy Sunday is depressing, try a blustery and wet Tuesday!!

There’s no hiding in doors, painting nails and bingeing on Gossip Girl when you’ve got to be at work… (and there’s no hope of frizz free hair when your office is over an hour away from your flat!)

This was my Sunday pick-me-up treat:

Whittards white hot chocolate in a pretty V&A tea cup, with a chocolate and oatmeal digestive. Wow.. sugar overload… but it worked!

I’d quite like one now, but a 2 hour round trip to retrieve a teacup might be a bit over the top. I guess I’ll have to settle for a hazelnut latte instead…

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Late bloomers…

I’ve had a lot of surprises in my garden this summer (mostly of the 8-legged variety… those little buggers pop up where you least expect it, such as hanging from a thread of silk attached to nothing in the middle of the garden. I’m serious! It was attached to nothing!). A much nicer surprise is when you come home from a wet walk in a (probably) haunted arboretum to find that your puny and frail looking clementis has suddenly bloomed!

There’s nothing like the expected sight of a brilliant pop of blue in the midst of some yellowing summer flowers to warm your soggy cockles.

Now it’s shown some promise,  I just need to keep the bloody thing alive over the fast approaching winter… Can’t be that hard can it? Got any gardening tips? They’d be most welcome!

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“Vintage Treasures” for less

One of the perks of living in the smallest flat is Camden was being 10 minutes walk from Primrose Hill. Fifteen minutes if you wanted to get to the top (although there might be breathlessness involved, depending on fitness levels). Twenty minutes if you needed to pick up some houmous and wine on the way…

But those days are long gone. No more shoebox flat just off Chalk Farm Road, no more 75 second walk to one of the most popular/hyped pubs in LDN town, no more fighting through goths on Saturday when doing your weekly food shop.  Instead I’ve shipped out to one of the safest (apparently… if all of the coverage on the  *whisper* London riots are true…) parts of N16.  A little garden, space to walk around the furniture, pubs where you aren’t 13 years older than half of the people there… there are a lot of perks. But one of the most recent and most smug-inducing occurred just days ago.

Bank holiday weekend called for a jaunty cycle to Primrose Hill with Olly. Perhaps I wasn’t quite so jaunty at the thought of it, but I’ve finished paying for the bike on the Ride2Work scheme, so it’s probably time to start riding it! After a 30 minutes slog (you wouldn’t believe what an exercise dodger I am!), some of which was ever so slightly up hill, we made it to the lovely Gloucester Road at the base of Primrose Hill where I tottered off on tired and wobbly legs to have a much needed and restorative cream tea. Earl Grey, scones and jam. NOM!  And then came the really good stuff…

You can’t go to Primrose Hill without having a little peep around the shops. There was no point looking at overpriced Greek Salad in Shepherd’s as I was already full of cream tea, so I dragged Olly into a shop (which will remain unnamed) which specialised in “vintage treasures”.  How can you not be interested in “vintage treasures”? I set to work looking for some exciting feature piece for the flat while Olly rolled his eyes in the corner, but it wasn’t long before I was eye rolling too..£27 for a teacup, a saucer and a side plate?!  My whole set which included FOUR of each (they actually chucked in 2 extra cups and 1 extra saucer), and wouldn’t look out of place in a “vintage treasure” store cost £15 on ebay!

But before I could leave in a faux disinterested (it’s not that I didn’t want any of this stuff… I just wouldn’t pay for it…) huff, a little pale green jug caught my eye. Tinted glass, a moulded pattern and a deco handle. Almost worth the £30 price tag… if I hadn’t paid £5 for an identical jug in burnt yellow glass just a month before.

True a second hand shop in Dalston doesn’t sound quite as nice as a “vintage treasure” emporium in Primrose Hill, but a price tag that’s a sixth of the price makes up for it.

I plan on filling it with Gerber Daisies and using it as a vase. That’s if the DIY is ever completed to the point when I can actually invite dinner guests around… Oh well, one step at a time.

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