Count down to Christmas Lanky Girl’s Advent Calender Days 1-4

So there are less than 21 days left till Christmas, and to be honest it has snuck up on me this year and I have been slow to embrace the cheer. However it is never to late to get in the spirit! For the next 2 days I will be providing you with things to buy, do or eat in London this December! I’m calling Lanky Girl’s Advent calendar. Now let’s just say you are the kind of naughty child who likes to open all the doors at once…. see below for days 1-4 and you can do just that 😉

Day 1 – first day of Christmas – time to get your decorations up!

It’s okay if you haven’t done this yet, if you’re serious about decorations then you have to head down to my favourite shop Liberty. You can find all that you need in their Christmas shop, from racks of the most loveliest baubles to liberty print crackers. You won’t want to leave empty-handed.

If you are feeling thrifty then try making your own! The National Trust has a really cool and easy bauble making how to guide.

Day 2 – Go Ice Skating at the National History Museum Ice Rink

You know it’s Christmas when the ice rinks re-open around London. Every year for the last 3 years I have been skating at the National History Museum. For me it is one of the prettiest since it is surrounded by decorated trees and its never too packed. They also serve the best hot chocolate!

Day 3 – Buy tickets to the Nutcracker – English National Ballet – 11 Dec 13 – 05 Jan 14

It wouldn’t be Christmas without performances of The Nutcracker. Those who are yet to experience the magic of this ballet are in for a treat. The costumes are alwasy spectacular and the ENO house is a beautiful building to in enjoy it in.

Day 4 go and see the Upside Down House on Blackfriars Road

The weird and wonderful Upside Down House is the Grande finale to MERGE 2013, artist Alex Chinneck has created a large-scale site-specific work on a building due for demolition on Blackfriars Road. The currently disused site has had its façade turned upside down with a design that considers and celebrates the history and life of the building. The building, which dates from 1780, is due to be demolished as part of a much-delayed development of 23 and 42-storey towers.

 

Take Part In The Summer Streets on Regent Street: The Street is My Catwalk

Calling all fashionistas! Get your best glad-rags on this Saturday and join a public catwalk show on Regent Street. On Sunday 21 July, Regent Street, London, will be unveiling a 100m catwalk in association with the V&A for the third consecutive traffic-free Sunday this month as part of the “Summer Streets” programme, in partnership with the Mayor of London.

The public  will be invited to take part in six catwalk shows throughout the day, each with a different theme: Streetwear, Sportswear, Elegance, Wedding, Sunday Best and Anything Goes. The catwalk shows will be stage managed and accompanied by music to offer budding models and fashion enthusiasts the opportunity to show off their own style and experience being part of a professional runway show.

Everyone who joins in will be photographed on the catwalk and can choose an image to be sent direct to their social media page. There will also be a pop up exhibition of stills photographs from the catwalk every hour in the Photographers Gallery. Each show will be watched by a panel of judges from the fashion industry and the best five looks from each show will be given a goody bag of prizes.

For more information please visit: http://www.regentstreetonline.com/summerstreets/21july.htm

Lanky Girl Attends Regent Tweet 2013

Recently I got to attend Regent Tweet, a day where bloggers from around the globe descend on Regent Street to enjoy talks, workshops and freebies galore from Regent Street brands. I had a fantastic day out, made some new friends, learned how to ice cakes, watched talks at the apple store, ran amok collecting different goodies from each of the sponsors and came home with a hairstyle courtesy of Toni and Guy. See if you can spot me in this short video.

Regent Tweet 2013

After registering at Regent Tweet HQ the day started with breakfast at Titbits (which I missed) before listening to two talks at the Apple store:

Superblogger Susie Bubble talked about how she got into blogging and how sees blogging community developing in the future.

Professor Chris Riley gave a talk about how the microchip is responsible for the development of twitter.

Professor Chris Riley at Regent Tweet

Then it was time to hit Regent Street with my partner in crime My Daily London. In no particular order we hit the shops hunting for treasure!

My haul of goodies included:

Some of my goodies

• Sweets and a teddy bear from Hamleys.
• Some hand lotion from Crabtree and Evelyn
• A Nikon point and Shoot Camera from Bose

Nikon Poin and shoot from Bose

• Some Molton Brown Bath gel
• Folli Follie Makeup Bag
• Sebago Polo top and belt
• A scent Library from Penhaglion’s
• Ren Skincare samples from Liberty
• Some eye shimmer from The Organic Pharmacy
• A Guess bracelet
• Gift Vouchers from Regent Street, Superdry and Hollister

We stopped byWholefoods to meet Cat and The Cream who gave us a cupcake icing Class

Step 1 – Lay out your cupcakes:

Step two -ice those bad boys!

You can mix flavours if you wish

Step three: Smother them in melted chocolate …hmmm yummy!

Next we paused for a delicious lunch at Mash Steak House Resturant on Brewer Street

Argentinian Steak At Mash

Got to have those greens…

After this we learned how to make cocktails at Dirty Martini

Learning to make Cocktails at Dirty Martini

Then we raced along Regent Street to get our hair done by Toni and Guy where we  ran into fellow London Blogger JaimeLondonBoy

How do I look?

Lanky Girl goes for an audrey hepburn inspired updo

The last part of the day involved going back to Mash to enjoy cocktails and canapes and mingle with other bloggers.

Spitalfields Saturday Style Market to launch Saturday 15th June 2013

 

One of my favourite places to shop is Spitalfields Market in East London, it has lots of boutique shops and stalls selling clothes you won’t find anywhere else. It’s where all the cool kids go ha! A new fashion focused Saturday Style Market will be launching in Spitalfields E1 this weekend on Saturday 15^th June.

The Saturday Style Market will run from 11am to 5pm every Saturday with original clothing, accessories, homewares and ethical goods, coming from designers including, Edwyn UK, Amaya London, Reclaim Bags, Conquer, Kiwi Sumo and Bamboo Bay.

To entertain shoppers there will also be there will be a regular programme of exciting and varied events including, Spitalfields Music Free Lunchtime Concerts, Okinawa Day in June, Spitalfields Arts Market, classic car shows, the East End Film Festival in July and annual Christmas celebrations. The Royal British Society of Sculptures will also be showing pieces in the space.

Get down there this Saturday and check it out! 

Lanky Girl heads to an Illustration workshop at Charlotte Taylor’s Pop Up Shop shop, Sloane Square

Charlotte Taylor Pop up shop

Charlotte Taylor is one of my favourite designers, her lovely vibrant silk print blouses, scarves and dresses have me going gaa gaa! Her designs take inspirations from her love of penguins and her life growing up on the Isle of Wight. Previously you could only buy her designs online, however she recently launched a pop up shop for 5 weeks just off Sloane Square and Jaeger is now selling her designs. Last night I popped down to attend an in-store illustration workshop by designer and artist Holly Maslen. Holly’s eye-catching illustrations cover the interior of Charlotte Taylor’s shop. During the evening we were encouraged to be as creative as we can decorating postcards and a small mug. We all left with a little goodie bag courtesy of chase vodka and our hand decorated mugs.

Charlotte Taylor’s pop up shop will be running until 7th June so pop in if you find yourself in the area.

Holly Maslen’s Illustrations

Illustration by Lanky Girl

Charlotte Taylor’s silk print designs

On the way home I decided to go for a long jaunt along Sloane Street up to Knightsbridge. This part of London is definitely one of my favourite parts of town. I enjoy nothing more than pottering along peering into the luxury shop windows. It looks like the Chelsea Flower Show has spilled onto Sloane Street. Check out some of the beautiful floral arrangements I spotted on my walk.

This Topiary elephant is by the @elephantfamily charity to highlight endangered Elephants

It also looks like the Koffman’s Topiary pig has been spruced up with some gorgeous red flowers.

Koffman’s Topiary pig designed by McQueens Florist

Monochrome is trending

So even though the weather isn’t very spring-like at the moment I am determined to introduce some new bits to my wardrobe. Apparently this season it’s all about monochrome! Celebrities have jumped on the wagon and on the runway at fashion week we saw, spots, line, stripes, it was all black and white! Anyone can pull off this trend and luckily for us gals the high street has followed suit.

 

MONOCHROME-TREND-SPRING 2013

Here are my picks from the high street this spring…brrr.. cardigan may be needed!

 

Left to right: Aldo Maria – two tone block heeled shoes – £75.00 With their glossy finish and block heel, these sandals are statement makers.

Cat shaped bag – Ebay – £19.99 – tres cute and just a little bit kitsch this  bag can be carried as a clutch.

Asos Bold stripe Midi dress – £32.00 – If you love the fifties then you’ll love the shape of this flared skirt. Swoosh!

Chiara Fashion – £ 8.95 – Monochrome Striped Print Long Sleeve Crop Top – this season it’s all about crop tops – only for the brave!

What do you think of my picks?

Lanky girl’s high street looks for Spring 2013

With the temperature creeping up a few degrees, I have been looking at items for the spring to add to my wardrobe. I love all the lovely bold colours and monochrome inspired collections that we are seeing on the high street. This season’s ultimate investment piece for me has to be a shirt dress, this is a versatile item that can be dressed either up or down and worn with leggings for when the weather isn’t as kind.

Check out my picks of great things in the shops at the moment:

spring-2013-look 1

• Iris & Ink – Orange Crepe shirt dress – The Outnet – £145.00
• Brookline Vintage Clear Glasses Black – £12.50
• Aldo Grumney colour block sandals – £60.00
• Zara Two tone Geometric necklace – £19.99

spring-2013-look 2

• Zara Polka dot print shirt – £39.99
• Mango panel leather leggings – £27.99
• Aldo red wedge trainers £70.00

Lanky Girl’s Advent Calender: 6th, 7th, 8th December 2012

Apologies for lack of posts I am playing catch up after having computer problems the last few days so this is going to be three posts rolled into one.

December 6th 2012: Buy Christmas inspired clothes under 50 pounds – to get into the spirit of the season.

River Island grey long sleeve shirt
riverisland.com

Knit pants
republic.co.uk

Slipper shoes
£17 – topshop.com

Treetopia – Biltmore Pine Artificial Christmas Tree
treetopia.com

Pluto Scented Candle Snowflake
nelly.com

LSA International LSA Bar Champagne Bucket
occa-home.co.uk

December 7th 2012 – Make  A fresh and fruity
Mandarin and Marscapone cheese Tart.

Here is the recipe if you would like to make it at home:

Ingredients:

1. Shop bought pastry case – 99p from Tesco.
2. 250g Marscapone cheese
3. double cream
4. 1 egg (separated)
5. 8 mandarins
6. 2 tablespoons of caster sugar
7. 2 drops of vanilla essence

Instructions

For the filling, place the egg yolk into a bowl with the caster sugar and whisk together.
Add the mascarpone and beat until thoroughly combined. Stir in the vanilla essence.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg white with a clean whisk until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed from the bowl. Gently fold the egg white into the mascarpone mixture.

Whisk the mixture together and fold into the pastry base. Use a spatula to smooth the mixture evenly.

Piece the mandarins and starting on the outside arrange in a circlular fashion until you reach the middle. You can even mix fruits add cherries for a more christmasy look.

Leave to chill in the fridge for 2 hours.

December 8th 2012: Watch Barney’s New York &
Disney goes High-Fashion with “Electric Holiday”

If you can’t be bothered to leave the house this weekend because it is just too cold! Then, amuse yourself by watching this very cute Christmas animation from Disney. I just love it!  Watch as Minnie embarks on a fantastical fashion adventure in Paris, where she walks the runway in Lanvin and look out for cameos from big names in fashion such Linda Evangelista, Daphne Guinness, Naomi Campbell, Lady Gaga and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Date For Your Diary – The Secret Emporium Pop-up Christmas Market, 15th -16th December 2012

The Secret Emporium returns this December to present its very special Christmas Market, showcasing the best of British independent designers.

Lovingly hand selected and carefully curated, Secret Emporium will be showcasing 44 of these independent British designers in a 2-day market, taking place from 10.30am – 8pm, on 15^th & 16^th December at Factory 7, Hearn Street, Shoreditch, EC2A 3LS.

Secret Emporium was born from a love of costume culture and independent, original fashion. SE aims to seek out designers who do something left-of-field, to catch them when ideas and ambitions are fresh, creative and exciting, when designs have not been commercialised or sold out.