Five of the Best

How dreadfully lazy I have been, 8th of December was the last post..three weeks and a day ago. The work wind down, running away to the Shire, family, eating, Christmas, then Christmas recovery, it all takes time!  Now it is New Year's Eve Eve and I'm curled up writing this and listening to the Possession omnibus on iplayer (one of my favourite novels of all time).  Santa Claus has been wonderful to me and I still have a few days left of holiday, so what better time than to look back at the favourite bits of 2011, so I thought I'd do five 'top fives'.  Snooze..EVERYONE looks back at the best and worst around this time I know, but it is a good opportunity to do so, so why buck a trend?!

Thank you to every single one of you who has read me this year, it means the absolute world to me.  Every single time I get a comment and it's not from a member of my direct family, it brightens my entire week.  I skimmed over the first year anniversary of the blog back in February because..truthfully..I forgot.  It's so enjoyable writing it that I've rarely paid attention to dates except now when I've just had a wee skim through the old posts so thank you, thank you, thank you all again. I hope you've had a superb Christmas and a happy New Year is just around the corner.....x


Five Best Fashion Purchases - not in order, that would be far too hard.

1.  Black leather shorts from Topshop - they've taken me from day to night and Summer to evening, they are also the ideal not too slutty length

2.  Black suede Yarra Desert boots from Clarks - the perfect wedge heel and so comfy, it's like wearing slippers..still haven't got round to suede-proofing them though.

3.  Grey mid length coat from Zara, first mentioned in my Autumn purchases post.
4.  Cotton sundress from Cos (actually in black and mint with large white polka dots, I know that's two really but this is my list so there!) These were fantastic for both work and play and SO hard-wearing and stylish at the same time.
5.  Over sized Mulberry Alexa in Oak - my wonder bag, since it arrived in my life in February, it hasn't left my arm.

Alexa..and the Alexa

Five Best Beauty Purchases (these are not my handbag staples, but new ones I've discovered!)

1.  Laura Mercier tinted moisturiser - yes, I'm late to the party but I couldn't live without it now.

2.  Lucas' Paw Paw Ointment - awesome for pretty much everything, including the odd spot!
3.  MaxFactor Falsh Lash Effect Mascara - I still love my DiorShow but for a budget substitute this cannot be beaten.
4.  Floris Night Scented Jasmine - I love this fragrance, it hasn't replaced my Jo Malone Orange Blossom or Acqua di Palma Iris but it is an incredible bath foam and moisturiser.  The scent is unlike anything I have ever smelt before and transforms your bathroom.
5.  Temple Spa - pretty much every product I've tried so far but special mention going to the Palm Balm hand lotion, Quietitude mist (amazing on long haul flights) and Peace Be Still, a wonderful body balm.  All available from Victoria Health and Harrods.

Five Best Reads

Terribly difficult to pick five out, fortunately I keep a record of everything I read and see at the theatre or cinema or I'm sure I'd start losing track.  I know a few of these are cheating as they are whole series but it was almost the first book that hooked me!

1. The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Laurie R King
A Sherlock Holmes spin off but much much more. Mary Russell, his young apprentice will draw you in and seduce you with her spunk and good humour, plus a constant stream of damn good mysteries!


2.  Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Needs no introduction after the film version this year. A book I didn't really get when I first tried to read it a few years ago but when I tried again, I couldn't put it down.

3.  Gone With the Windsors, Laurie Graham

This brilliant novel is the fictional diary of Maybell Brumby, a wealthy American widow who arrives in London in 1932 and discovers that an old school friend is in town: Bessie Wallis Warfield, now Mrs Ernest Simpson. A corking read and an absolute delight to those intrigued by the enigma that is Mrs Simpson.

4.  The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
I cannot wait for the film of this to come out! After scoffing at all the people reading this and dismissing it as trashy teen fiction, I ate my words after reading it in desperation why I ran out of books on holiday.  Edge of the seat stuff, make your life easier and buy the entire trilogy together so you don't have to leave your armchair between books.

5.  Must You Go? My Life With Harold Pinter, Antonia Fraser

A wonderful peek into the life of one of the most famous literary couples of our time and a heart wrenching love story. A book I shall definitely be re-reading as it is so chocca full of details, I know I will discover new ones each time.

Five Favourite Films - I adore going to the cinema and again, these couldn't possibly in order.

1.  The Kings Speech - not a particularly original choice but I make no apologies for that.

2.  Hanna - It blew me away, Saoirse Ronan's performance, the Chemical Brothers soundtrack, the weird fairytale elements of the story. Awesome.

3.  We Need to Talk About Kevin - Loved the book and was worried about the film despite the wonderful pedigree of Lynne Ramsey and Tilda Swinton

4.  Midnight in Paris - a beautiful bubble of a picture that I randomly saw in New York with the Boy on a romantic night out. Allen back on form but also fab for anyone who adores fiction, the Left Bank and well..Woody Allen.

5.  Shame - It's not a 'favourite' as such but it has haunted me and compelled me to tell everyone to see it. I was fortunate enough to see it before it was released at a BAFTA screening. Seriously..I'm still thinking about it, but be warned, it isn't an easy watch.



Five London Moments

1.  Moving into my new flat, not something you can all share perhaps but definitely a highlight!
2.  Hanging out with deer in Richmond Park with two dogs and one best friend on a beautiful sunny day.
3.  Various suppers at Moro, Hix, The Wolseley, The Duke of Cambridge and Les Trois Garcons.
4.  Watching Madame Butterfly on a giant screen in Leicester Square whilst it's playing live from the Opera House with a plastic bucket of Pimms.
5.  Again, not a 'favourite' but certainly one of the most memorable moments of the year was attending a memorial service for the incredible Josephine Hart at Westminster Abbey. A service and a lady that I will never forget.

Watch Your Wallets - Sample Sale alert

You’re going to need a schedule to hit all of these goodies today: pick up some sculptured shoes, fluoro dresses, sexy under-garms, ready-to-wear Erdem, and a Lee Broom statement lighting piece all in a day’s work. For maximum benefit it would be good to have a stringent timetable and a willing chauffeur…also a ma-hoo-sive wad of cash.

• Nicholas Kirkwood, 10am-8pm (and Fri 8am-8pm), The Music Room, 26 South Molton Lane, W1K 5AB 
• Christopher Kane, 11am-9pm, Mercer Street Studio, 16 Mercer St, WC2H 9QE 
• La Perla, 10am-6.30pm, Hornvale Ltd, 22 Newman St, W1T 1PH 
• Erdem, 1-8pm (and Fri 10am-6pm), The Future Gallery, 5 Great Newport St, WC2H 7HY 
• Lee Broom, 3-9pm, 93 Rivington St, EC2A 3AY

Different Hat

"All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts...."

So I have swapped hats..one from love to another like the floozy that I am.  Recently guest blogged on the fabulous bible for theatre goers that is Sans Taste.  If you fancy a change from fashion musings, do check it out! Bit late posting about this but that's what moving house does to a girl..brain melted.

The Wire fancy dress reunion had not turned out as planned..

Bookworm

Sometimes you read about something that just makes you happy..and as it's Friday I thought I must share it with you.  I wasn't going to update until next week with part 2 of my Autumn purchases blog but along with clothes (and food!), books are the one of the things that make me happiest.  The Guardian is launching its six-week autumn books season with a book swap by distributing 15,000 titles in various public locations around the country this weekend.  What a super idea!!

Thousands of books were gathered from publishers and authors and will be left where readers are likely to chance upon them, from stations and coffee shops to galleries and museums. Participants are asked to insert a bookplate sticker into the front of their book, write a message for the finder, then leave the book somewhere it will be picked up.

And not a million miles away in concept, World Book Night have finally released their top 10 titles. Did your choice make the cut? The Life of Pi made it into the top 100 (a book I've been reading to read for aaaages) as well as Neil Gaiman's Coraline and some absolute classics like The Great Gatsby, Cold Comfort Farm and Great Expectations to name but a few.

Get involved! Also do let me know some of your favourite books..a handful of mine are listed in the right hand column.  Have a lovely weekend!X

UPDATE: Here is the map for the bookswap so you can find them!

All illustrations by the fabulous Quentin Blake..my favourite illustrator.

What a Day!

Oh lovely readers, I am off on my Summer jollies for the next two weeks so posting may be rather sporadic..if at all! Before I go though I wanted to flag up a smashing piece of news about the late and great Corrine Day who died in the UK on Friday August 27 last year due to complications relating to a brain tumour. She was only 45-years-old.  Her iconic work is set to be showcased at a dedicated exhibition, opening on September 1st at the Gimpel Fils Gallery in London.

The display will feature the late Vogue photographer's earlier pictures, with subjects including Kate Moss, Rosemary Ferguson and George Clements.

Curated by Day's husband, Mark Szaszy, her long-standing agent, Susie Babchick and Alice Corriea, the exhibition revisits Day's work for iconic magazine The Face.  The exhibition will run from 1 September - 1 October.

 

 Gimpel Fils, 30 Davies Street, London, W1K 4NB.

Rampant Rabbit

Hugh Hefner and Carrie Leigh, by Helmut Newton

There’s nothing like a sexy slice of nostalgia to put a bunny-hop in my step on a Monday morning, and that’s exactly what's happening now the new Playboy Club London opened on Saturday. Launching on what was once the Rendezvous Mayfair Casino at Old Park Lane (just a stone’s throw from Playboy’s previous incarnation), the new club – all Mad Men chic, with red checked sofas and bunny silhouette posters – comprises a cocktail bar, dining room, lounge, smoking terrace and barbershop. But its undisputed crowning glory is the casino, found upstairs, open 24/7 and containing no less than 18 tables on which to splash the cash – American roulette, blackjack and poker included. Naturally, bunny girls shimmy throughout – all dolled up in too-tight satin bodices, collars, cuffs, cottontails and requisite bunny ears – and are either manning gaming tables, serving drinks or entertaining gentleman gamblers with their womanly ways. Naturally, feminists have been up in arms about London's return to full-bodied form, but I think it’s a retro nod to the glamorous days of yesteryear when it was all done in good fun. I haven't been yet, so let me know if you have, just hope it isn’t a trashy flash in the pan.

Some very young Stones and a Bunny

Summer Loving

Any excuse to work a Grease number into a post is surely the start of a good day.  Aaaah, how we have enjoyed the London Season and we are swiftly sliding into holiday territory where everyone buggers off from the capital and pegs it as fast as possible to glamorous retreats near and far.  I myself will be absent for most of August spending a week or so without technology in Cyprus (major tan-age, eating, swimming, more tanning, hanging with the Boy) then to Biarritz avec ma famille et mes amies; slightly more stressful possibly but still, clearly, NOT work and therefore bags of fun even if it chucks it down.  Following that I will follow the Boy to Paris where he does Paris Art Fair and I attempt to break into the couture shows.  Without wishing to wish my jollies away, I am starting to get very, very excited about the prospect of Autumn/ Winter- tights, gloves, fabulous coats, I just find fashion in the cooler weather easier to get to grips with, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

This post was meant to be about now, the Summer, the heat, NOT getting excited over the forthcoming cold and rain.  Here are some things to get hot under the collar about...

Judith Leiber (her of sparkly bags fan..remember that SATC episode where Big buys Carrie one? Or the gross cupcake one that is in the first movie?) is coming to Dover Street Market.

Christies is holding an auction of vintage Hermes bags. Drool.

If you haven't got there yet- Selfridges' pop-up shop curated by creative director Alannah Weston, Elle Deco Editor Michelle Ogundehin and Paul Smith selling 'forever favourites' like Burberry trench coats and Levi's 501s? Plus 'well-loved' books and Hermes scarves? Sounds like the retail version of those 'top 20 fashion classics' articles we always relish and the shop of my dreams.  It truly is.

The Film Four Summer Screen at Somerset House. Go see the premiere of the new Cruise/ Diaz film, 'Knight and Day' which looks like a right giggle, ooze chic and geekiness in Woody Allen's 'Manhatten' or grab a Minnelli moment from the classic 'Caberet'.

Too hot to handle? You need sweets in the city, the best of those being ice cream! Yeah so fro-yo is great and doesn't have that much fat in but engage your tongue in some good old fashioned gelato! Covent Garden favourite Scoop opened up on Brewer Street this summer and was swiftly joined by Gelupo, Bocca di Lupo’s sweeter sister. We love the gelato stuffed cannolis and twisted take on ice-cream sandwiches in brioche buns. Then there’s Dri Dri, the brand new Portobello parlour opened by a Harvard Business alum, with the chicest cone-clad door mistress we’ve ever seen (now that’s good marketing sense). Flavours include Biscotto (cookies and cream), Nocciola (hazelnut) and Stracciatella (chocolate chip), with ingredients sourced from the finest suppliers and containing less fat than your bog-standard 99er.

And finally..now you have your Hermes bag, your outfit from Selfridges, you're in the mood for romance and maybe have a bit of a tan from sitting outside at the Summer Screen and you're full of gelato..you need a cocktail.  Head to the bar with no name.  Ashamedly, I had never been to this place that is in my hood and couldn't believe that such a gem lurked under my nose.  With its team of lab coat-clad bartenders this Islington hideaway seamlessly combines old-school charm (‘30s jazz, faultless service, the odd bow tie) with a full lab upstairs. Take the apple garnish that’s magically infused with the scent of hay, the Martini stirred with ‘dry essence’ or the tequila-based Gonzales with ‘honey water tuberose hydrosol’.  Just what you need on a hot Summer night.