Marc Jacobs Daisy Chain

The impact of social media on everything at the moment is amazing, every single company you can think of has now got a Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. Marc Jacobs is pretty clued up on this, finding his last campaign model on instagram and is clearly making the most of up with his tweet-shop!

In return for tweets, mini fragrances and key chains were being given away. There was also (pretty good) complimentary coffee, macaroons and manicures! 

Me and Louisa aren't ones to turn down helping out such a lovely brand..

Especially when there's macaroons involved! 

The Covent Garden shop was decorated amazingly, with daisy fields and swings available for you to lounge on and tryoutforthenextcampaign  sip your coffee. 

Thank you very much for our treats Marc! xx 

KERB Ice Cream Adventure

KERB is something constantly on my radar, as they are a daily changing food market located in central, showcasing some of the best street food around. So of course, when I saw a couple of weeks ago that they were having an ice cream market (in addition to their normal fab traders) this was pretty much the best news I'd ever received. Until I turned up last Saturday, ready for some ice cream sandwich lovin, and had apparently turned up a week early.

The disappointment hit hard. But we found Batch Brownies in Camden, which more than made up for it - their brownies are like nothing I've ever tasted.


Anyway, this week was the week. And when we turned up this Saturday, we were suitably greeted with a wide range of stalls offering up their best ice cream treats. I LOVE ICE CREAM, incase you can't tell.




I took Dima along, who is pretty much the best person to take to any food market, as he is easily swayed into buying things that look/smell/are nice and isn't stingy at all (basically I steal all his food therefore calories don't count - best boyfriend ever). So as his palette is much more savoury than mine, we started off with a Bleeker St burger (on the Londoner's recommendation). It was a very good burger, him and Danny were both particularly enamored by the fluffy, incredible brioche bun holding the mountain of blue cheese and perfectly cooked meat together. I seized on this awe by taking big bites =D
Dima rated it as 'fucking amazing', I would say it comes in a very, very close second to Patty & Bun (the best burger of all time).



Next stop was 'Born and Raised' pizza - amazing. The simple toppings of tomato, mozarella and a dash of basil worked perfectly, one of the best pizzas I've had.

Dima picked up some shaved ice with elderflower, surprisingly pretty amazing! Him and Danny then proceeded to recreate it as soon as we got home, so must have been good, and it's virtually 0 calories!

The ice shaver looks pretty dedicated!


All of these are all very good and well, but I came for one thing (mainly).


And that is Batch Bakery's idea of heaven: a salted caramel brownie ice cream sandwich, cookie dough scoop, chocolate fudge sauce and oreo crumbs. 

It did not disappoint.

At all. I could eat this all day everyday for the rest of my life, but Dima and Danny found it 'too much'. Pathetic! >:D

They opted for alcoholic ice cream instead, which was also quite good.



Next port of call was working off our calories by standing in the rather long queue for You Doughnut's doughnut sundae. We were all getting quite full and walking was becoming a bit tougher.

so obviously a doughnut ice cream sundae would sort us out!


This was quite good, but not as good as the other offerings in my opinion. It went unfinished (have to save room for more food - its a cut throat business), just a little bit too sugary.

Are you sick of ice cream yet? Are you reading this thinking, ok they must have tried every single possible stall there?!? 
No.


Dima was easily persuaded by a 'jolly nice' chap to purchase two of his finest scoops - 'bar and nuts' and 'gooseberry and elderflower'. 
(Please ignore my awful nails - biting off my nail varnish is a disgusting habit!)

The bar and nuts flavour was surprisingly amazing, it tasted vaguely similar to rum&raisin mixed with beer. I don't like beer, but this one was guurd.



The ABSOLUTE LAST stop was souvlaki. We were all impressed by the kebabs presentation - growing up around some of the finest kebabs in the world (Cyprus) it is difficult to find a comparable standard in England.


This one looks a lot like Nostos, kebabs we used to scoff down greedily after a night out dancing on (and falling off!) bars at the ripe old age of 15. Shout out to my 15 year old metabolism. This, from the Grilling Greek, was pretty good in my opinion (proper kebab pita is a plus) and the Tzatiki was also not badd but it unfortunately wasn't on the same level as Nostos. I suggest adding chips in there along with some good old taramasalata.

We have finally reached the end of our Kerb Ice Cream Adventure - and what an adventure it was! One of my longest posts, if you finished it without salivating then give yourself a good old pat on the back. My fashion week diet starts today, which means I get to eat none of the deliciousness above for a month or so :(

Hawksmoor Humpday

So it's midweek, my boyfriend and I don't have any real commitments in the form of a job yet... and we have a month-anniversary to celebrate! It be coming up to 48 now, things getting serious - this calls for somewhere special.


Hawksmoor is more than special - their food is amazing. This time we passed on the lobster and rather fabulous steak for an easier-to-book breakfast. Seeing as it's only available during the week we are pretty much obligated to try it out before we have to enter the real world and no longer have such free time to flutter away!



First stop is a cornflake milkshake (Dima went for one of their breakfast cocktails, not something I can face before 10am). This was really good and basically tasted like a tasty cereal bowl mashed up into a thick milkshake. I really wanted to try their banana and bacon milkshake but couldn't persuade Dima to go for it!



I rather sensibly went for the scrambled eggs & salmon breakfast, at around £10 not the cheapest but one of the best I've had.

Dima, however, decided to go for the Hawksmoor breakfast.


Costing a whopping £35, it is meant to be shared by two people but Dima decided to take it on himself. He did a pretty good job, conceded the waitress. (I do like a man that can match my eating talents!) This ginormous breakfast consisted of: bone marrow, fried eggs, huuge mushrooms and tomatoes, a BACON STEAK, sasuages, black pudding, home made baked beans (in a BBQ sauce, interestingly), bubble & squeak and gravy in it's own boat. Oh, and there was unlimited (excellent) toast.



He looks pretty happy with himself, as he should be! Cooked breakfasts aren't really my thing (I'm definitely more of a cookies/waffles/pancakes for breakfast kinda girl) but this was quite impressive if they are yours.



Overall a pretty fab midweek pick-me-up. Dima managed to finish off about 80% of his breakfast, citing the bubble and squeak as his favourite part and the baked beans as his least favourite. Extremely indulgent, but worth it if you have a supremely special occassion worth celebrating, and the spare time/money on your hands to go on a weekday!

Personally I'd stick to the steaks (for dinner!), given the absolute mass of breakfast we have on offer in London, but still a pretty amazing breakfast from Hawksmoor.

St Albans

I love London, but what I love even more is discovering new little boroughs of London which feel like you are in the countryside, with a village feel that leaves you feeling like you've been on holiday! Some family have just moved down to St Albans, a 20 minute train ride away from Kings Cross.

It is one of my favourite places I've ever been in London - it feels like you are in a town with every thing you could need (hello Topshop, Wagamamas etc) alongside independent shops and restaurants, giving a proper village feel complete with friendly faces and pretty, narrow alleys to get lost in. 

First port of call was obviously food, we (Dima) cooked up an incredible BBQ as all of the meat was organically sourced from the local market in St Albans, which was massive. One thing you definitely notice as you leave central London is the dramatic fall in prices of general things - my aunt and cousin are paying very cheap rent to live in a cosy, pretty house which is the equivalent of the rent I paid for a single bedroom in a broken down flat on a council estate in East London. (Also very excited about moving next week to Shepherds Bush!) 

I also discovered an amazing shop called The Pudding Stop - basically they have a giant range of puddings, drinks and board games. Sounds like my ideal night, and I forced Dima to go back the next day before we left for more salted caramel ice cream and carrot cake! Definitely need one of these in central please! (Although I hear a board game cafe is opening up pretty soon..) 

We explored the local park/giant forest and I tried out my new 'Runtastic' running app (now that I have almost finished Homeland the treadmill becomes less appealing). It was huge and very easy to get lost in. 

We also made a stop off at the Park Inn, which had one of the best sasuage rolls I have ever had the pleasure to steal from Dima! 

We ventured on a giant climb up the bell tower, at £1 it was well worth the amazing views and interesting bits of history as you climb. 

and made a stop off at the beautifully huge cathedral.. 

St Albans is a lovely place to get away from the bustle of London, we had a great weekend there relaxing in the sun and will definitely be back :) 

Any other ideas of escaping London locations? x

August

It's funny how the epitome month of Summer can also feel like the beginning of Autumn - especially with the weather we have been getting recently! I've still been up to a few summery adventures though, mainly featuring food..



Recently discovered Amorino ice cream with Lisa - the most incredible ice cream ever, they let you pile on as many flavours as you can into your 'flower' of heaven.

Of course I went for a modest amount - chocolate, coffee, mango, coconut and lemon... and of course working it off by climbing to the top of these rocks ;)



The weather has been so nice recently (up until now..) that the treadmill has lost it's appeal and I've started playing football and frisbee with Dima most days in the park!

That's the nice thing about London - although there's not often enough room for a garden, there are so many parks around that there's really no excuse for not getting out in the sun!


We invested in a spiralizer.. 
I convinced Dima we need one in our lives - mainly so that I could make The Londoner's slutty pasta! Definitely worth it, and it's so nice being able to eat big bowls of 'pasta' without the guilt!


I also recently discovered Crussh - a really healthy cafe chain which I had never ventured into before. Their food was amazing and this smoothie (the fatburner) cheered up my day nicely.


August is quite a quiet month in the fashion world, so there has been rather a lot of lazing around with cocktails - the above are Watermelon concoctions at Eclipse in Kensington, their cocktails are divine! The watermelon martini is an absolute must :)



We also ventured up into Camden recently, to try out Camden Lock market on the weekend. I found the most amazing wrap from a stall called Chia - chicken and halloumi wrap with all different kinds of healthy nuggets in it such as pomegrante and purple cabbage - worth going back and fighting the crowds for!



The real winner of Camden though was Batch Brownies. I had heard of them and they did not disappoint - they exceeded my wildest brownie dreams. They had run out of their brownie stuffed cookies but we picked up a salted caramel and smores brownies. They were literally the best thing I have ever eaten. Ever. 




It is worth sourcing out Batch Brownies wherever they may be just for the salted caramel brownie. It surpasses any sort of brownie you have ever had, promise. I think they're mostly at Camden but feature at Spitalfields on a Wednesday, dangerously only around the corner.


Another important development this August is that Dima's mum randomly forced him to bring back a breakfast in bed table from Cyprus. This was actually a very good idea, because I get lots of breakfast in bed now!

Other than my recent fat-adventures, I have been in the process of packing up my life into boxes slowly in preparation of moving to Dima's in a couple of weeks. After four years it is probably about time we lived together rather than on opposite sides of London, the only thing I am seriously worried about is where to put all of my clothes!

What have you been upto this August? xx