London Getaway

Ross and I booked tickets to Jurassic Park in Concert waaaaayyy back in early spring when they were first released, and planned a short break to London thinking it would be this years holiday for us. We were very fortunate this year and Ross started a great new job and so we were actually able to fulfil our dream of visiting Barcelona over our wedding anniversary in August, but it was great to have a little winter break planned to look forward to too!

The concert was incredible, it was packed and all people around our age who were just as excited as we were to see this childhood favourite brought to life by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was an emotional experience!

You know I love baking, and you know I love instagram, and so I planned to visit some of my favourite bakeries, patisseries and food places while we were in London, and we managed to get to most of them!

I had a very detailed (but not strict) itinerary made up in excel (I know... I'm a loser) to make sure we could fit in all the places we wanted to go, leave ourselves time to enjoy and not get lost! Of course it didn't work haha. We ended up rushing about, walking the feet off ourselves and being generally simultaneously stuffed and exhausted from exercise! 

But we managed to visit;

Shops

Liberty - for everything patterned and beautiful - wait til you see the hanky I bought!

Fortnum & Mason - for fudge, biscuits, turkish delight and Christmas coffee

Taylor of Old Bond Street - for the fancy shaving cream that Ross loves

Broadway Market - for the Meringue Girls stand! (more below)

Mac in Heathrow Term. 5 - Twig for less than £12? YES PLEASE!

The gorgeous Christmas decorations on the main Fortnum Staircase

My new Liberty hanky!

Look at all those bits and bobs! I love it!!

Books in Portobello Road Market

We stumbled across The House of MinaLima by accident, when we were looking for Barrafina on Thursday night, and I'm so glad we did! A wonky, bright, fascinating place tucked away on Greek Street, filled with incredible artwork and Harry Potter paraphernalia. It's only open until February, so check it out if you get a chance!!

Renegade Craft Fair, The Old Truman Brewery, Brick lane - to meet the lovely Ella Masters and have our portrait painted! - I wish I'd planned more time here, it looked like a great fair with loads of amazing artists!

Food & Drinks

Selfridges food hall - for Angés du Sucre, Meringue Girls and more

Sketch - for a look about, but we didn't book a table and didn't fancy a cocktail - slightly regretting that now! I'd read online that you could just drop in for a cocktail or coffee in the Gallery but apparently its bookings only! #gutted

Barrafina - We visited the Frith Street Barrafina on Thursday evening, and from reviews, we knew we would have to wait for a seat, as it's a first come - first served tapas place. We waited for over an hour, but there was a bar along the wall and the waiting staff were lovely and we were able to order drinks and olives while we waited. Plus it built up our appetite!

I have to say, the food way totally worth the wait. We ordered several dishes to share and a couple for ourselves, the one which I loved the most was the Jamon And Spinach Tortilla - this is honestly one of the tastiest things I've ever eaten! I would definitely recommend a visit to Barrafina!

Zebrano Soho - Happy Hour! I looked up the best happy hours/ cocktail offers in Soho before we went, and Zebrano was top of the list. They have half price cocktails Monday - Wednesday 5pm -10pm

Thursday - Saturday 5pm - 9pm, and bear in mind that for London, the cocktails are already fairly priced! We ended up having quite a few!! See the menu for yourself here, we tried and would recommend; The Kiwi Cooler, Lynchburg honey, Jaffa cake martini, Lychee martini. Great drinks, good atmosphere and really lovely staff!

Granger & Co. - OMG guys, if you get the chance, and can be bothered queuing, get to granger & 

Co! I had googled 'Best brunch near portobello' and Granger & Co. Notting Hill featured highly on many lists and for good reason. Timeout also mentioned how popular it is with Notting Hill natives and to expect to wait for a table, so when we walked up the road to see a long queue of gorgeously dressed people with enviable bone structure outside a canopied building, I knew we'd arrived!

I had the Poached Eggs and Sourdough with added avocado and rose harissa - which was delish, Ross had the Ricotta Hotcakes with Honeycomb Butter which was DELISH! (no pics- he ate them to quickly!)

10/10 would recommend - just take a brolly and comfy shoes!

Maître Choux - I'd followed Maitre Choux on instagram for quite some time and drooled over the pictures of their sparkly, sumptuous eclairs. As it seemed within walking distance of The Royal Albert hall (if you don't mind walking!) we decided to head there before the show on friday after an early dinner. It was nice. Yep, nice. I wasn't mind blown by the experience, the shop/cafe only had two small tables and the counters were empty (although they didn't close until 8pm, some time later) and the eclairs were much smaller than I expected. We paid £17 for two eclairs and an americano and I savoured every morsel. Tasty but perhaps more beautiful to look at through the window than to actually experience! Maybe I'd built them up too much in my mind!!

Meringue Girls stand Broadway Market - This was something I'd looked forward to for a long time and after frantically running up and down all the market stalls looking for the signature WOW of the rainbow kisses and not seeing it, i called the number on the Meringue Girls site and Alex (possibly the Alex Meringue Girl??!) gave us directions.

We found it and it was b-e-a-utiful. I bought a mixed box of 9 for us and a box for Ella Masters.

Exploring

Ross and I have both spent a fair bit of time in London for both work and leisure before, and we've visited most popular areas, Portobello, Camden, oxfor Street etc but neithe of us had been to brick lane before, or Hackney and this happened to be where Ella masters and the Meringue Girls stand were on the Saturday we were there, so suitcases in hand we went exploring!

I love street art generally, and always try to snap pictures of pieces I really like because of course, who knows how long it will be there for!

Below are some snapshots from around Bricklane, Portobello Road and Notting Hill, and a few colourful snaps of other things that caught my eye!

Where are your favourite London spots? Let me know any suggestions you have for our next trip!

Love,

Lindzi x

The Lust List - March 2015

Welcome to (a VERY late) March lust list!

It's been a crazy busy month with housey stuff (yey) and workey stuff (boo)

As well as mother's day this month, it was also my little sister Zara's birthday, and she moved to Greece!!! (I'm very jelly)

This month a project in work meant I was in London working for a week, though I didn't have a chance to shop, the hotel I was staying in was in St Pancras station which had loads of amazing shops to look in the windows of - so lots of stuff to lust after!

Here's what I was loving and lusting this month ;)

Lord Ludo U. Maritimus

I was feeling very ill a couple of weeks ago and my Dad and sister were out in Belfast so came to pick me up to take me home, on the way home my dad stopped at the On the Square Auction House for a nosey, it was very cool (pun intended).

 This dapper lad was in the window. I wish I could have taken him and his top hat home. (And those chairs too!)

Mirror Mirror in the Hall

 If you know me, you know I love shopping in charity shops and junk shops. Sometimes I buy total cr*p, and sometimes I find a hidden gem which I love forever. This is one of my favourite gems so far :)

I've seen mirrors like this in magazines and on pinterest and I really love them, especially over a console table in a hallway, which is hopefully where this beauty will end up in our new house!

I'd wanted a mirror like this for ages, and thought if I ever got one it would be after searching high and low and paying over the odds for one in Laura Ashley or somewhere like that. But instead, as I was dropping off some clothes and bric-a-brac we can't bring to the new house, I spotted this lovely in the charity shop window and snatched it up for just £5. I'm am VERY happy girl.

P.s. those dried flowers in the mercury glass globe? That's my wedding bouquet! :D

A Look around London

This was the view from the front of our London office (terrible pic, I know!), I really didn't get much of a chance to enjoy the city, but this was one area of the city I'd never really seen before as I usually stick to Camden, Portobello Road, Brixton and Oxford Street (of course!) 

Leaving the office the first day I was over, the sun was just fading and London bridge looked beautiful. Because it's been such a busy month I haven't had a chance to go for a beachwalk which I really need regularly to keep me calm, so the cool breeze and sound of the water was lovely after a long day of travelling and work!

I managed to get to Camden for dinner by my lonesome one night and had AMAAZING tapas in Jamon Jamon which I would HIGHLY recommend, I picked three dishes and a glass of yummy sangria and got an actual MOUNTAIN of olives!

LITERALLY EVERYTHING from Fortnam & Mason

Cruelly, there was a Fortnam and Mason right beside the entrance to my Hotel in St Pancras Station. I wanted to taste, smell and buy EVERYTHING. Their chocolates, their coffee, their biccies and even their tea (I hate tea- sinful I know) BUT I didn't get a chance to look! 

I knew there was a F&M in Heathrow on the way home though and managed to sprint to it in time to pick out some treats from their confectionery counter and a tin of coffee to keep for Saturday mornings in the new house :)

 I bought Ross and his mum a box of vanilla fudge each and bought myself two little boxes of beautiful Turkish Delight, one rose and one lemon. It was gorgeously wrapped but did not survive long enough to take a good photo...

This is the coffee I bought us, it was pretty pricey but a nice treat and if it's good enough for Betty Windsor, it's good enough for us!

That's about it this month! I'll be more on the ball next month and try to share my lust list before the month is over! -_-