princessdeia

January 31st 2012
Filed under General, The Things I Love

1. Sherlock – N/A (Box Set are on Amazon).
   One of my guilty pleasure has always been repeats of crime dramas on a Sunday afternoon, eating cream cakes, knitting and trying to work out whodunnit? Marple, Poirot and Sherlock Holmes – your years Holmes for me was always Jeremy Brett – until 2010, enter Benedict Cumberbatch! What can I say about this show, the modern interpretation, the witty dialogue and of course and amazing chemistry. I love this show and cannot wait for the next season.
2. I Heart Vegas – from Amazon
   This is a real guilty pleasure book, like the Shopaholic series from a few years ago. The I heart books, are the same diabolical scenarios, lovable characters and of course the style – Angela has an obsession with her Marc Jacobs handbag. I read the first two books in this series on vacation in Mexico a few years ago and over Christmas read this latest installment.
3. Vanilla Spice Latte – Varies from Starbucks
   I have made no secret of my Starbucks addiction, and as Gingerbread Latte season ends I am on the hunt for another drink to be obsessed with until the summer. When I saw the boards advertising this drink I thought I would give it a go – after all I like Vanilla and I love the other spiced drinks (Pumpkin as well as the Gingerbread), so it was worth a try, right? And as a result I have my new post Christmas drink.
4. Nail Envy £18 from Boots 
   Normally, I talk about the latest nail varnish shade I am in love with, but lately my nails have become a little brittle and rather than just cover them up with colour, I opted to look for a treatment. So for the last week I have been applying the treatment every night – and so far they are looking great.
5. Timehop – Free (just have to register online)
   This is the most amazing service, every wonder what you were tweeting about this time last year? Or what photos your were taking on instragram?  Well this is the site for you, after you link for social networking site, each morning you receive an email showing you all your updates from the previous year – I found this great fun over Christmas seeing that I was going to the same places and also tweeting similar things!

December 20th 2011
Filed under General, The Things I Love

As I haven’t done one of these posts for a while, I thought I would create a list just before Christmas of all the things that have been helping me get in the festive spirit (with only a little alcohol involved).

1. Gingerbread Lattes – Varies from Starbucks
   The run up to Christmas seems to start earlier and earlier each year, for me there are two key events that marks the beginning of Christmas, the Coca Cola Trucks advert and the Red Cups at Starbucks! As the days get colder one of my favourite ways to unwind on a pre-Christmas afternoon off, is in Starbucks reading a good book and sipping a gingerbread latte.
2. Crimble Crumble – Varies from Pret
   I’m not a huge fan of most the Christmas desserts, I don’t like Christmas Cake or Pudding, but I love Mince Pies. Obviously, homemade ones are the best, however when I need refueling whilst out Christmas shopping, I love the Pret slices, a mince pie with a spiced crumble topping, perfect for the Christmassy pick me up.
3. Love Actually – N/A
   I know there are hundreds of Christmassy movies out there, but this is a film I like to watch a few weeks before Christmas to cheer me up! The inter-connecting love stories, the getting ready for Christmas and of course all of set in London.
4. Philosphy’s Gingerbread Girl Body Lotion from £18.00 available from Boots
   As I mentioned I love Gingerbread, to me the smell just reminds me of more recent Christmases, probably all the Lattes I have been drinking. This time of year I have to add more lotion into my beauty regime – to make up for the chapped skin from the cold and central heating, so if I have to apply loads of cream it might as well be my favourite Christmas scent.
5. Winter Wonderland – N/A
   Whilst I do love the idea of a Dickens Christmas in London, we all know the snow here is that horrid grey slush, or the Thames will never freeze for us to ice skate on, so instead we need fake snow and man-made ice-skating rinks. Winter Wonderland is an amazing mix of little market stalls, places to eat and drink and hundreds of fun things to do – from ice skating to the circus. For a lovely evening you can sip alcoholic hot chocolate or mulled wine in the heart of Hyde Park pretending you are in for ski chalet in the Alps.

October 12th 2011
Filed under General, The Things I Love

1. Kate Spade Store – N/A 1-4 Langley Court, London WC2E 9JY
   I have been a huge  of Kate Spade for years, her shops are always one of my first ports of call when we travel Stateside. So when I read she was opening two stores in London I was over the moon. So far I have only been to the Covent Garden one, but I just loved the space (I adore the way she experiments with colour), not to mention all the bags! If any members of my family are reading this, I would love the Essex Scout bag for my birthday at the end of the month.
2. Great British Bake Off – N/A, some episode still available on iPlayer.
   For the last 9 weeks every Tuesday night I have been glued to my set watching the amateur bakers, cook their way to the finals. Who would have thought the drama of a fallen cake could keep me amused. After each show I would have a look on the BBC website and see which recipe I could try at home, currently the Coffee and Walnut Batenburg is our favourite.
3. Ravelry Unread Replies - Free
   One of the great things about the Ravelry forum pages it the list of unread replies you have waiting for you at the top of the page, however what if your not on Ravelry, or you are browsing at patterns you don’t know that there is a message waiting for you, until now. This handy little code works with Chrome as displays the Ravelry logo and number of messages for you right there in the toolbar.
4. Wollmeise Lace-Garn – €35
   Okay so this is a bit of silly one, because I have been adoring Wollmeise for ages, but it is only recently I have actually started knitting with my Lace weight yarn. First my Granny Smith cardigan and now a newer navy cardigan I am planning. All I can say it I love this yarn, even more than their sock yarn, it is been an absolute pleasure to knit with.
5. What Would Emma Pilsbury Wear? – N/A
   As I have mentioned once or twice before one of my guilty pleasures is Glee. One of my favourite characters is Emma, mainly because I love here clothes. A few months ago I found the site WWEPW, which I adored, it is full of great tips about Emma’s style and advice on where to buy her clothes. I use to resist visiting the site as it does contain spoilers, but with Sky showing the epsidoes that same week as the States it is now my favourite place to go for inspiration.

September 6th 2011
Filed under General, The Things I Love

1. Mad Men from £9.99 on Amazon.
   I am a little late to the game on this one, as I only watched the first episode last month, but my August days have been full of people smoking and drinking at work, wheeling and dealing and of course all the fabulous 1960′s clothes. I literally watched a season a week over the month of August already for season five next year. It seems I am not the only one obsessed with this show – have you seen the Mad Men collection in Banana Republic!
2. One Day by David Nicholls from £3.99 on Amazon.
   Again, I think I am a little late to this one – am I the last person to read this book? I spend all of the 1990′s in London and this book just reminded me of everything I loved about that time in my life, post-pub T.V., saving up for a Karen Millen dress (just after I got my first job),  and of course the music. This book is not only a modern day love story it is also a great trip down memory lane for anyone living in Britain in the 1990′s.
3. Crayons, available everywhere!
   This is an odd obsession, When I was finally getting around to sewing all the squares on my blanket together I drew a little diagram writing the yarn type in each square and making sure the same yarn type wasn’t touching. Well I got into a terrible mess so brought a mini pack of crayons to help me visualize the blanket. Around the same time the infamous crayon pin started appearing on Pinterest, so I did a little more hunting around for crayon crafts and I found loads (enough for a whole board).
4. 70′s Pleated Dress £17.99 on New Look.
   I know no one wants to admit it, but autumn really did arrive in London during August! So I had to start looking at the clothes in my Autumn/Winter wardrobe and being a typical woman I hated everything. So it was time to hit the high street and look for some new clothes, and again as I typical woman I hated everything out there apart from this vintage looking dress from New Look. Unfortuately I have been getting a lot of wear out of it at the moment – oh where did our summer go!
5. Foursquare - Free.
   I actually gave foursquare a shout out in my first ever Things I Love last year, but it has changed so much in the past 18 months that I think it deserves another mention. It seems to the be social networking site with a bit of a bad rep. People thing it just gives out your location allowing people to rob you. Well most of the other sites seem to do that without asking your permission! To me it is a travel guide, review site and game all in one. The recent addition of “Lists” has meant that when in a new town I can get advice of where to go from local experts or friends without hunting on numerous websites or reading guidebooks. It is all there in my pocket.

April 4th 2011
Filed under General, The Things I Love

This is a little late due to our mini vacation last week.

1. Health Month – Free.
   I actually joined this website a few months ago, but March was the first time I joined a team (which of course I found via ravelry)! The idea is simple you set yourself rules for a healthier lifestyle, each day you check in via the website. If you break a rule you lose a life point and if you stick to your rules you gain fruit. Fruit can be traded for extra life points or sent to friends to give them more life points. So far I’ve completed two months in the yellow and orange (the lowest) brackets, I’m taking the next mont off but next time am hoping to complete a month in the purple bracket.
2. MAC Cosmestic’s Wonder Woman Collection from £9.00 available at MAC.
   I have mentioned before that I am a sucker for MAC’s limited edition collections, so when I read that they had teamed up with DC Comics to do a range based on Wonder Woman I was first in line to buy a few lipsticks (to add to my growing collection).
3. Dishoom- N/A, 12 Upper St. Martin’s Lane London WC2H 9FB
   Alice, first took me to this restaurant last year, and since then it has become my go to place to eat when in Covent Garden. I have to say I am a huge fan of their breakfast menu (the Bombay Omelette and chai chocolate) is the perfect fuel for a days shopping in the West End! Last month, I popped in there to have a  cocktail with the knitting ladies and I have a new favourite item on the menu, the St, Martini!
4. iPad 2 – prices from £399 at Apple.
   I am addicted to my iPhone, Jason brought a second generation iPhone over 3 years ago after seeing how amazing it was, I soon joined the ranks! When the iPad was announced last year, I really wanted one. However, a little research and I concluded it wasn’t quite what I needed and brought a new laptop instead. However, the second generation iPad with the addition of the cameras did tick a few more boxes so once again I joined the queue and turned to the dark side. Since then, it seems to be attached to my hand!
5. Marbella Beach Resort – N/A
   I have been working on a secret project for the last few months (hopefully, I will have some news to add about this soon), but as a result, I have been really stressed out and felt extremely drained, so we decided to have a mini vacation earlier this week. The flight was a little stressful (we had to be at Gatwick for 3,30AM), but overall four days in the sun, drinking sangria and eating tapas was just want I needed to unwind and catch up on my reading!

February 28th 2011
Filed under General, The Things I Love

I haven’t done one of these for a while, and they are one of the more fun lists I get to make, so here goes some of the things that I have adored over the last 28 days.

1. Pinterest – Free with an invite.
   The last thing I need is another website to waste time on, but that is exactly what Pinterest has become. Marketed as an virtual pinboard to collect and share inspirations ideas you find on the web. For me it has become the place I collect ideas and make yet more lists
2. Jamie’s 30-Minute Meals -£13 on amazon
   I do enjoying cooking but always moan I don’t have enough time. This book seems to be designed with moaner like me in mind. The major of meals include a dessert (something I would never dream of cooking during the week), at the moment I seem to be working my way through the pasta recipes. I will confess they are taking more like 45 minutes to cook – but still two course in under an hour is great in my eyes!
3. Nails Inc The Thames - £11 from Nails Inc.
   I have to admit, normally I love OPI nail varnish, but this Christmas I was given the Greige Collection by Nails Inc, included in the pack was The Thames, there Dark Grey shade, which has become my shade for February, it seems to have matched the sky here in London this month!
4. Red Dress £30 from Next.
   As I mentioned before I am obsessed with Red at the moment, but it is a colour that is lacking in my wardrobe, so for an instant fix I added this little number. Red really is the perfect colour to brighten up your day.
5. Sky Atlantic – part of the Sky Entertainment package.
   I know some people complain all they seem to show in TV is repeats, but sometimes you want them to repeat a show that you loved. or that show you should have watched the first time around but never got to, The Sopranos, or Battlestar Galactica, well Sky Atlantic are showing them from the beginning. Plus during the days they show, ER, Thirtysomething and The X Files, what more do you want!

October 12th 2010
Filed under General, The Things I Love

1. Bloodlines Sock Club, from £50.00 see website to register.
   I am so excited about the Sock Club, Alice and I are putting together! Three Kits each themed around one of our favourite shows (Twilight, True Blood and Supernatural). I have spend the last few months making contacts, hunting for suppliers, and dreaming up interesting goodies. Alice will be designing the socks and hand-dying the yarn, I can not wait to see how it turns out!
2. MAC Cosmestic’s Vemonous Villians Collection from £9.00 available at MAC.
   I am a sucker for pretty packaging when it comes to make-up, I know it is such a waste of recourses but put anything in a sparkly box and I will buy it. Every so often MAC will do a limited edition collection (they have done Barbie and Hello Kitty in the past), and I will have to buy something to add to my collection, normally it is hard to find something to suit my skintone (the Barbie collection included a lot of pale pink lipsticks), but the new Disney collection seems to have something for everyone.
3. Haruni, Free available on Ravelry
   As the weather has gotten colder, it means I can start wearing all my shawls, socks and hats! Of course it means I can also knit more! Over on the Socktopods board on Ravelry we are having a little KAL where we are all making Haruni, wish is the perfect opportunity for my to use up some of the stash acquired at Knit Nation.
4. Green & Black’s Ultimate: Chocolate Recipes: The New Collection RRP £16.99 available from amazon
   There isn’t really a lot to say about this, Green and Blacks Chocolate and a recipe by the wonderfully talented Bittersweet Bakers - sounds like the perfect cookbook!.
5. Goodreader Lite, £0.99 Available at the itunes app store
   Whilst at the Ravelry Talk at Knit Nation, Casey mentioned this app as a way to view your Ravelry library on your iphone. As someone who never remember carry their knitting pattern with me, this seemed like the perfect tool. I downloaded the app during the talk, but didn’t bother doing anything about it until this week, following the instructions on Ravelry, I have now synced they both up and I always have my knitting pattern with me, great whilst trying to follow a lace chart like I am with the Haruni.

September 1st 2010
Filed under General, The Things I Love

This is a little feature I used to have on my other blog – that I am hoping I can keep up on here… The Things I Love!

1. Evernote, Free see website to register.
   When it comes to blogging, I get inspiration from a variety of source, and it is often hard to keep track of all my ideas, Evernote is a handy little program that helps. Available as an app on most phones and a program on your computer you can add any notes, bookmarks, or pictures from both the web and real life. Then they can be tagged for searching at a later date.
2. Lemon Frappuccino from Starbucks.
   My one weakness is coffee, especially frozen coffees, as soon as the summer arrived I am in Starbucks for my regualar fix of a Frappuccino, when I saw the new Lemon drink advertised in store, I had to try it. Although doesn’t give you the caffeine hit from the coffee based drink, this lemon drink has
3. Philosphy’s Melon Daiquiri from £15.00 available from HQ Hair
4. As the weather can’t decide which season it is at the moment, I am doing everything I can to fit off the winter blues! This shower gel, the perfect reminder of all things summery! I love these Philosphy Shower and Bath Gels are great as the double up as a bubble bath when you have more time or a shower gel and shampoo for those wash and go days.
5. Reebok Easytone from £75.00 available from Reebok.
   Like most people I know I should exercise more, unfortunatly I am not motivated and I hate going to the gym, so instead I walk. We are luckily enough to have a park near our home and so it is easy for me to strap on my trainers and head out for an hour doing laps. These trainers are the perfect addition to my routine,  as for if they work only time will tell.
6. The Inbetweeners, soon to re-start on E4
   I have no idea why I love this show, four teenage boys and their experiences at school is not the kind of show I would expect to watch, but for some reason I love this show! All year I have been waiting for the third series to start and now we have some trailers, so I am guessing the show will start soon.