princessdeia

February 5th 2013
Filed under General

My knitting mojo has been missing lately hence the lack of updates, but when Jason mentioned he with all this colder weather he wanted a hat. This was a major deal really as in the last 7 years that I have been knitting regularly I have only made Jason three pairs of socks. It’s not the boyfriend curse, he just isn’t the sort of guy who wears sweaters or scarves.

When I pressed him about the hat, he said he wanted it to be like Stan’s without the pompom (did I mention he’s a huge South Park fan), he also said he liked the feel of my Gretel, as it wasn’t scratchy like normal wool. I hunted on the Malabrigo website, I found the right shades of red and blue, Vermillion and Azul Bonito.

October 30th 2012
Filed under General

With the 50th Annivesary of James Bond this month and the latest installment being released in the UK, I thought I would share with you some of my favourite things linked to 007!

1. Best Of Bond – James Bond £10.00 from Amazon.
   What is a Bond film without a killer theme song. Over the years there have been some classic themes, from Carly Simon’s Nobody Does it Better to both of Shirley Bassey’s offerings Diamonds are Forever and Goldfinger. This album collects all the tunes in one place (it doesn’t have the current Adele song on it) as well as some other memorable tunes from the films.
2. Skyfall in cinemas now.
   You can’t mentioned the past 50 years of Bond without a shout out to the latest film – Craig is back in the tuxedo and his licence to kill! I will leave it spoiler free – but suggest you all go and see it.
3. James Bond 50 Years of Movie Posters £19.25 from Amazon.
   This amazing book has all 23 of movie posters from around the whole, including some rarer posters like a version of Licence to Kill under it’s original name Licence Revoked, and the teaser poster for Skyfall. A must for any classic movie fan.
4. OPI The Man With The Golden Gun £29.99 John Lewis.
   It seems I am not on the only one who loves 007, my favourite nail varnish brand has also gone Bond crazy with a collection of colours inspired by each film. Without a doubt this is my favourite an amazing top coat with flecks of real gold! Not just a a glittery top coat, but confetti style gold flakes.
5. Sipsmith Vodka
   Like Bond, I love a good martini! Over the summer I became obsessed with Sipsmith Vodka (and their Summercup), this vodka is actually distilled in a house here in Hammersmith using barley, giving it a lovely smooth taste.

October 2nd 2012
Filed under General

There’s no “Things I Love” post this month, instead I am going to do another Fall Bucket List. We had a lot of fun last year, baking, eating and celebrating, that I thought we should do it again this year!

1. Make Pumpkin Spiced Muffins.
2. Attempt to make Fudge (again).
3. Knit an Autumnal Hat!
4. Work our way through the Starbucks Holiday Menus.
5. Decorate the house for Halloween.
6. Have a Halloween themed meal for my birthday.
7. Watch a Scary Movie.
8. Make a Bonfire night feast.
9. Go to the Guy Fawkes Celebration in our local park.
10. Go for Thanksgiving Dinner in London.

I’m also taking part in Fat Mum Slim’s Photo a Day Challenge for October, you can follow my photos on Twitter, Instagram or Flickr.

September 7th 2012
Filed under General, The Things I Love

1. Orla Kiely for Uniqlo (Prices Vary)
   I adore Uniqlo for my basics – t-shirts, cardigans and coloured jeans, This year they have done a couple of interesting collaborations, with Laura Ashley, Lulu Guiness and Orla Kiely – so my t-shirts have suddenly become very colourful. This week, they launched their Autumn/Winter Orla Kiely Collection, which is just amazing, long sleeve t-shirts, tunic dresses and scarves all in the classic Orla Kiely prints!
2. Bloglovin - Free (just have to register online)
   Ever since Bloglines closed a few years ago, I have been hunting for a new RSS reader, I tried Google Reader for a long time and it seemed to be working, then I discovered Bloglovin which is clean, easy to use and has some amazing extra features, like buttons to post to twitter, or pinterest, and a plugin for Chrome to tell you when you have new posts to read.
3. Revlon Just Bitten £18 from Boots
   Normally, when it comes to make-up I am a MAC addict, but recently I was out sans lip-gloss so had to find a colour from the High Street. In Boots, I discovered this new lip balm from Revlon, with a minty tingle and a pop of colour, perfect for moisturizing your lips in the autumn.
4. Downton Abbey - N/A (Season 1 & 2 on Amazon).
   I think I am the last person to discover this show! A friend loaned me the DVD’s early in the summer and the box set has sat on the side gathering dust over the Olympics, but in my post-sport blues I thought I would give it a go. It was the perfect antidote to the intense Olympics, a nice relaxing period drama. I can see the new season becoming part of my weekly routine, relaxing viewing on the Sunday night to wind down after the weekend before the work week begins.
5. Cool Lime Refresha – Varies from Starbucks
   For each season, I have a Starbucks drink, Gingerbread Latte’s for Christmas season, Vanilla Spiced Latte for the rest of winter, Mocha Frappuccino for the Summer – although they are amazingly high in calories, so I love their alternative summer drinks, like the Lemon Frappuccino from a few years ago. This year, there drinks are Refresha, low-calorie pick-me-up  coffee drinks without the coffee flavour, instead the Cool Lime version tastes like a virgin Mojito.

August 16th 2012
Filed under General

So for week two of the Olympics, Jason and his friend went to watch the Beach Volleyball at Horse Guard’s Parade and I met up with them afterwards to check out BT Live at Hyde Park. Which was lovely, five screens all showing different events although everyone was just focused on the 100m Men’s Final.

The next day, was a big one of us – the day we got to go to The Olympics Park! Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go to the Stadium, as we had tickets to the Basketball. We did however, get to see the US “Dream Team.” Now I did joke on twitter before hand that “everything I knew about basketball was from One Tree Hill“ So I got a little primer from Jason to the tube.

I won’t bored you with my squealing about wonderful the park is, but I will mention that is was huge! When we first entered the park, the sign said it was a 20 minute walk to the Basketball Arena – which we thought was an over exaggeration, but it was, in fact it took us a lot longer as we kept stopping to take photos.

The next few days, I settled into a routine of watching trails in the morning, stopping for lunch, housework and fresh air and then back in front of the TV for the evening sessions. When Jason has a day off, we did head back to Hyde Park – you guessed it to sit in the park and watch more sport!

Our final event of the Olympics, was the Football Final – back at Wembley. As Team GB got knocked out early on in the competition, we were excited to see Brazil and Mexico play and attended the game as neutrals – although I think I was secretly supporting Mexico as we went there on holiday. To be honest, all I wanted to see was a Medal Ceremony – it was almost as exciting as the game.

I can’t actually believe it’s over! What an amazing 16 days, I am so proud of my city and country!

August 9th 2012
Filed under General

A year ago (was it really that long ago), Jason and I both applied for several lots of Olympics Tickets, we opted for a lot of football games, beach volleyball, basketball and the Opening Ceremony. We didn’t get Opening Ceremony tickets – did anyone? But we were successful with the other events.

So, like most the country we sat down on a Friday night and watched the Opening Ceremony on T.V.- those of you following me on Twitter/Facebook will know that I adored the Opening Ceremony, it made me so proud to be British! I sung along to all the songs, joining in with the dancing and generally taking in all the amazement!

The next afternoon, still on a high from the night before we took to the streets with thousands of others to watch the Road Cycle Race. I have to admit, a lot of our photos were a blur (this was one of the only decent ones). After the racers whizzed pass us we headed into a local pub to watch to the end of the race and find out who won.

Sunday afternoon was spend at Wembley, watching two games. Although, we have been there many a time, there was something amazing about being their for the Olympics. Especially, if you remember the stadium was used for the the 1948 London Games.

On Monday evening, after work rather than sitting at home, we decided to soak up the Olympic atmosphere some more and headed out to Potter’s Field – just over the river from Jason’s work to sit in the park, enjoy a drink and watch the big screen. Since then I have to admit I have clocked an awful lot of time in front of the T.V. becoming engrossed in all sort of new sports, swimming, cycling and even rowing!

July 9th 2012
Filed under General

One of the things I am most looking forward to about the Olympics was seeing the Olympic Flame, after all it is the symbol of the ancient games, when the route for the torch relay was announced a few months ago, I remember hunting the listings for our home town. Unfortunately they were not planning on releasing the route for London until nearer the time. So next I looked for other local places and discovered the flame was passing very close to my In-Laws house in Stevenage, it also happened to be the weekend closest to my Mother-in-Law’s birthday, so we planned a little trip to visit them.

So on Sunday morning in the pouring rain we stood around and watched the procession of sponsorship van and cars pass, before watching Sarah Gosling (a former Olympic Gold Medallist) carrying the torch along Stevenage Old Town. We were amazed with the atmosphere, hundreds of people lining the street, the police on bike hi-fiving the crowds, the sponsership vans getting the crowd to dance, everyone was joining in.

In the afternoon, we had an indoor barbecue for my Mother-in-Law’s birthday, I had decided to make a cheesecake for the event. When browsing on Pinterest last week I saw this Olympic Pizza Cake, I thought what I great idea! Instead of just covering the cake in strawberries, I could create some themed Olympic Rings

The recipe, is the Baked Cheesecake from Hummingbird Book, the only adjustment I have made is to make the base, I find the one in the recipe a little thin and prefer more crust to my cheesecake.

Base

200g plain flour
75g butter
75g soft brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg

I then just decorated the cake with blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, banana and kiwi. I know the rings should be interlinked – but I didn’t have the patiences to mess around with that and plus we all know the Olympic Rings are copy-written and I didn’t want to get in trouble.

July 3rd 2012
Filed under General, The Things I Love

1. Suits Season 1 available from Amazon
   I watched a few episodes of these series when it aired earlier this year, and brought the DVD on a whim, however I was quickly hooked – yes it is yet another law room drama, but it also features whitty chat, hundreds of movie quotes and a pretty good soundtrack. Oh and Harvey Specter is the Man!
2. The Stone Roses Available on CD/Digital Download
   Often when asked I will always say 1996 was the best year for music, in my opinion so many great albums where released in that year, it was also the year one of my favourite bands split up. For the next 15 years, me like many other Stone Roses fans waited for reunion, every few years a rumor would appear, and just as quickly it would disappear, until last year! Within the space of three days, the reunion was confirmed, a tour was announced and tickets went on sale. Well that amazing concert was last weekend – and luckily we were there, in anticipation of the concert I have been listening to this album all month.
3. Song Pop (Free app).
   A few weeks ago, I friend mentioned this addictive new app, which was a “name that tune” type game, I pointed out I knew nothing about modern music, but then he said out you could pick an era or genre to guess from. So I downloaded it, and I was hooked. The game is like Draw Something, you take turns listening to music and trying to name the artist or song.
4. The Lizzie Bennetts Diaries (Free)
   This is a new love (as in yesterday when someone sent me the link), Have you ever imagined what if in Pride and Prejudice was written today, and Elizabeth Bennett kept a v-log explaining her meeting with Darcy and subsequent adventures? Well now you don’t have to. Hank Green and Bernie Su have done it for you, these humorous videos by Lizzie and Charlotte (which occasionally feature her sisters), give a modern spin to Austen’s classic tale.
5. Samba Swirl Several locations in London, prices vary.
   Regular readers of this blog will know I love FroYo, (no trip to Selfridges is complete without a trip to Pinkberry), when I discovered this place near our house I had to give it ago. They work a little differently from traditional stores, as it is all self service. They have up to 6 flavours to try from (and these change each day), then you can add your fruit, sweets etc. Finally the whole thing is weighed to determine the price – just like in the pick and mix. So far, I have tried the Pistachio, Cookies n’ Cream and White Choc Macadamia – and keep going back for more.

June 27th 2012
Filed under General, Project Day Zero

As a belated birthday treat for my sister yesterday I organised a non-shopping Fashionista Day!

For those of you following my on Twitter/Instagram you will know this started with a trip to the Design Museum to see the Louboutin Exhibition, this is a must for any shoe lover (which my sister is). Much like the Grace Kelly exhibition at the the V&A a few years ago, for me this is a must for anyone in London that loves fashion.

You can’t take photos inside the exhibition but these shoes suspended in hoops in the stairwell show the mix of shows and fun that the exhibit is. As you will expect they celebrate the designers life and designs, but the addition of his work with David Lynch and the carousel shows the showmanship of the designer. Oh and if you go make sure you catch the Dita Von Teese show.

So where in London do you go for a non shopping Fashionista afternoon? Why the Pret-a-Portea at The Berkeley of course. Readers of this blog will know I am obsessed with Afternoon Tea, what they might not know is my sister actually started that addiction, so it seemed like the perfect little treat for her.

The Pret-a-Portea takes it’s inspiration from the current catwalk shows, each dessert is themed around something for on of the big fashion houses, be it a bag, shoe or dress like this white chocolate crème de menthe and raspberry mousse which was inspired by a Mulberry Summer Dress.

So what does one do in the evening after walking around museums all morning and then eating your weight in desserts, why she comes home watches a girly film (Crazy, Stupid, Love) and knits her Afternoon Tea shawl.

June 16th 2012
Filed under General

Earlier this year another of my lovely knitting friends had a baby – a gorgeous little baby boy – so of course this meant I would have another chance to knit Elijah! Well doing through my stash I didn’t have any appropriate yarn, so I though maybe I could adapt the pattern and make it using sock yarn.

Remember in my last post how I mentioned I was always knitting with the same yarn? Well I figured Sokkusu Original, would be perfect, great stitch definition and soft enought for baby’s little hands. As the pattern originally calls for DK yarn on 3.25mm needles I figured sock yarn on 2mm would create a tight enough fabric. What I didn’t could on was the awkwardness of knitting so few stitches (for the arms and trunk) on such small needles, let alone the picking up of stitches.

However, it was a really quick knit! So I figured as I hadn’t made anything for the little boy’s older sister, why not do another one (this time in pink). Well when I was working picking up the stitches on the second leg, I managed to completely bend the needle (it was almost semi circle), But I figured I would be alright, afterall I could manage this with 4 needles (as these a pack of 5), but of course I couldn’t find the final needle anyway, so somehow I managed to knit the leg with a bent needle and without having to buy more needles.

Luckily, I have now found the other needle (in another project bag) and both Elijah’s are now safely in the arms of their new owners.