Welcome to my bubble

Firstly, apologies for my lack of blogging in recent weeks. Alike so many Londoners, I feel it necessary to move every few years, and in this particular situation, once a year.

Having lived in the delightful Wood Green and surrounding area of Turnpike Lane for four years, I finally decided to leave my comfortable little burrow and seek out a new and more peaceful dwelling. 

My feet landed in West Hampstead, and what a glorious little bubble it is to live in. I feel like I've stepped out of London and now live in a fantastic little village, filled with quaint stores and friendly people.

Gone are the days of endless police sirens, instead I hear the twitter of birds, the buzz of bees and the occasionally sound of the over-ground thundering by.

After living in Turnpike Lane for some time, I had learnt to watch my back, always remaining aware of those around me. I'm no longer concerned that the man crossing the street is going to rob me, instead he wishes to smile and wish you a nice day.

I no longer feel the London call to walk quickly, avoiding bumping into a steam of others who wish to walk directly into you if you do not get out of their way immediately is no longer a concern. There is simply no-one to collide with, those who you do meet will shuffle out of the way and continue with their casual pace. A casual pace that I too find myself adopting just days after moving here. I am content with simply wandering and no longer feel the pressure of the crowds to reach my destination quickly and efficiently. 

For those of you that have never visited West Hampstead, I suggest you do so now. Aside from it's great location, West Hampstead has a lot to offer. Just today I went out on a little meander into some of the shops. 

If like me, you love thrift shopping then the main high-street is the place to visit, there are endless charity shops to explore.

My favourite of them all was run by two loud Italian gentlemen. The store was jam-packed with goodies. It was a treasure trove spilling with vintage items, all for under £10. Unlike many charity shops in London, this shop was oozing with character, with stuff thrown everywhere and covering every surface. The best thing about the place; was it's vintage section, which was by no means small. Each vintage item was priced at £5 and under! And all were genuine vintage, minus the usual ludicrous price tag attached. 

That's all from West Hampstead today. I plan on selling heaps of clothing, new and vintage next weekend so I will let you know how that escapade goes in the following weeks.

I'll leave you with some pictures of the gems I picked up today, and the view from my bubble...

Vintage tea-dress £5

This dress has wonderful straps, the photo does not justify them

A timeless white blouse

Adore a good collar

Window bliss

I feel fancy...

The fellow Kirsty Broadmore, and consequently my sister-in-law, has invited me on a little business venture.

It is aptly named English Home-made Fancies. The premise of this lovely idea is the creation of traditionally made individual pieces ranging from beautiful hand-made totes to lovingly made jar labels.

As part of her franchise, Kirsty has decided to hold thoughtfully planned out workshops so that others may learn how to make her home-made fancies.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to partake and assist in her first cake-pop workshop, in which we taught a group of 8 girls the skills to make beautiful and delicious cake-pops.

The workshop was a great success and once the girls decided to pay attention we were left with a wonderful result. The girls lovingly designed and created their first ever cake-pops....

We are hoping to hold many more of these cake-making work-shops over the summer. We won't just be teaching the skills of cake-pop making, but the classes with showcase a variety of home-made skills. Such as cupcake classes, embroidery and dress making. 

Please take a look at the following links and help us to promote our little venture.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/English-Homemade-Fancies-Childrens-Parties/344693508944331

http://www.facebook.com/EnglishHomemadeFancies

http://www.etsy.com/shop/HomeMadeFancies?ref=si_shop

The classes will be led by Kirsty, a clarinet teacher and home-made connoisseur. Look out for in the near future at Camden Market where she plans to showcase some of her designs. What out for future updates.

Fifty times popular

I for one, can admit to contributing in the sales of over twenty million copies of Fifty Shades of Grey, worldwide.


Available in both copy and e-book, Fifty shades is the fastest selling book in the UK, all within just three months of release.


Those who have not succumbed to the temptation of purchasing said book are continually asking those of us who have devoured all three parts in less than two weeks; "what's with all the hype?". And having read and enjoyed the series I find it impossible to answer this question.


I can think of only one reason why we have endured our work-mates, family and friends constantly discussing Christian Grey, and that is, we love reading about sex.


The British are surprisingly coy when it comes to openly discussing ones sexual endeavours. We prefer to keep any discussion, if we wander into one, very p.c. and we decide to change the subject somewhat promptly.


Whereas E L James has taken the sordid sexual fantasies of a seemingly normal "innocent" and a obsessive control freak, and thrown them in our faces where they cannot be ignored. And the truth of the matter is, we do not wish to ignore them.


Although we do not wish to discuss our own sex lives, we love to hear about others. And when as explicit and exciting as Anna and Christians, who are we to blame.


It however begs the question, are we all so deprived of sexual excitement and imagination that we can only witness it from a distance in the form of an unrealistic fantasy?


For some, you may believe I'm making a sweeping generalisation of why we have swooned at this book. However when I consider whether the book should receive much merit, I think not.


When I begin to think about it the book is not particularly well written. Those of you gasping at my proclamation can take a minute to listen to my reasoning.


Firstly. present are only weak plot-lines in all of the three books. We barely touch on any excitement outside of the bedroom. And when we think something exciting might finally happen (Anna or Christian getting shot by the ex-sub for example) the anticipation is diluted and nothing ever happens.


Secondly, the continual repetition of certain traits and sayings. This was the one thing I really hated about all three of the books. Under the assumption that those reading the second or third book have also read the first, we do not need to be reminded that Anna bites her lip at every turn! We get it, she bites her lip, Christian loves it.


We also do not need to hear for the thousandth time that Anna like the way Christians jeans hang in "that" way. And if I ever hear the supposed endearing term "Mr Grey/Mrs Grey" I might shoot myself.


For those of you still claiming you read the book because it was interesting and the characters had redeeming qualities. Try imagining the book without it's explicitness, imagine that when things were about to heat up all that was given was a simple .... and we woke up the next morning sort of thing. Not such a gripping book huh? you still want to spend every night with Christian Grey now? I think not.


All complaints aside, I cannot deny that I loved the book, And the underlying reason is as discussed, I love reading about sex. I'm British afterall....

Oh J.K

Now that I have my first "new" post out of the way, I can present you with this little treasure.

Miss Rowling we salute you

Our much beloved Harry Potter creator has unearthed the cover of her newest novel. It is obvious from this cover that we will struggle to rate her current work with that of her previous much loved series. 


The audience of this title will I'm sure present itself as a mix match of ages, consisting of those Potter fans hoping to capture an essence of their youth. And those adults who never quite "got" the Harry Potter series and are looking to get their own piece of Miss Rowling in this new adult "black comedy".


Although the cover looks interesting, it gives little away. I believe the only reason it captured my attention was owing to Rowling's name on the cover. I imagine many will read this in the hope that it will share some similarity to the style of the Potter series, however they may be poorly disappointed. 


The book is centred around a small country town, with it's residents at war with each other, a far cry from her original work. The book is set for release worldwide in September. 


I imagine it will be hugely popular as Rowling has a vast following. However I struggle to believe this work will have credit where it is due. The public are too focused on her previous works, and will either love or hate this new piece. It is going to be difficult for Rowling to move away from the genre which we are so comfortable and familiar with her fitting in to.


I for one will read this book on the basis that I am a Harry Potter fan, but I wonder how easy it will be for those of us to forget the voices in our head that still tell us to search for that little bit of magic. 

Inspire yourselves

My blogging as of late, has been lacking. 

However, thanks to the lovely Amelia Edmonston, I now have a blog to be proud of. Having spoken with her recently, she has inspired me to continue with my love of writing and beautiful things.

So, Amelia, this first new post is dedicated to you....

Inspire yourself...

Special delivery

Two posts in one day? why not, Amelia Edmonston, you inspire me.


I came home to this little treasure on my door mat last night...

It's a postcard from the boy, featuring a photo I took last Sunday when we made American pancakes for breakfast. What a lovely idea!


The website http://www.touchnote.com/ enables you to upload any photo and send it as a postcard.


Why not send one to someone special, it'll make their day x

Feeling fruity

I think it must be something to do with the impending summer and the glimmer of hope that the February sun has given us all, that perhaps, the winter is finally over.

As a means to welcome summer, I find no better place to start than my wardrobe. I have recently added two new dashes of colour. A delicious mint blue cardigan, which I plan on swapping with the bottle green of winter cardigan. And a second, just as beautiful bright green cardigan. 

These are both offset with my new summer hair, which is currently a very fiery shade of orange, I believe Loreal describes the colour as mango burst, very fitting for my fruity summer.

My next purchase is one I have dreamt of making for weeks, ever since I realised H&M had a homeware department. I am in love with these lemon print sheets and matching cushion

What says summer more than these little delights? So there we go. These are my first little grasps towards the summer sun.