A Year In Pictures

Hello! If it's still acceptable to say it then, Happy New Year! I hope you all had some lovely time off and didn't have too many work burdens like me to deal with over the festive period, hence my absence in posting, it seems only right to make 'time manage better' my no.1 resolution.
At the start of this year I took some time to reflect on 2014 by putting together a year in pictures, something I recommend everyone should do. I went from initiating with 6 pictures which soon grew to 12, and I could have had so much more! Looking through all my captures of the past year made me realise I'd had a way more productive year than I thought, which put me in a perfect mind set for 2015, something that we could all benefit from don't you think?  If you're thinking 2014 was not your year, well this could also work in your favour being be a useful tool to help bring out all the highlights. On the other hand if you are simply in need of a fresh start, do what I did last January and get a new haircut, take a trip, pick up a hobby. Or, do something I did this January and give your blog a new do, and if you don't have one why not start one?! As you can see it is a fab way to document things like this.

From right to left; My first internship of the year at a fashion suppliers, my new year do when my hair got the chop, a lovely trip to Amsterdam with my boyfriend, moving to London and starting my internship at womenswear designer studios, According to Ellie's first giveaway, learning Italian and discovering new restaurants in London, mine and my boyfriends birthday spent at the Waldorf Hotel, just in time for the races I taught myself how to make fascinators, working at London fashion week with designer Zoe Jordan, fashion illustrations of the collection I helped work on during my internship, my favourite OOTD taken in the beautiful Florence, and a Christmas jumper i made for the designers I interned at that was auctioned of for charity.


What are your 2014 highlights and new years resolutions?
I would love to see your photo montages, post your links below!

Ciao for now!

Ell

   

OOTD: When In Florence...

I couldn't of asked for a more lovely way to start the autumnal month of October than in the north of Italy in the beautiful city of Florence. Although we arrived to worse weather than England, the days following we couldn't of asked for better as temperatures reached 28 and the sun was shining over the Florentine skyline. As I have recently been taking a night class in Italian i was very excited to practice the language. I have visited Italy a few times but no where like Florence, the city itself felt very chic, yet traditional, and full of culture and beautiful people. To those of you who aren't familiar with Florence might like to know that Florence is also a great city to visit for fashion as it is home to many famous Italian fashion designers, including Gucci who has in recent years opened a museum there, a great place to see an archive of the designers greatest designs. Not forgetting, if you are a fan of leather pieces, Florence is THE place to go for a genuine leather article, with almost every other shop and or market selling the most gorgeous selection of leather bags and goods. So as I was in fashionable surroundings I thought it only right to an outfit of the day post. My most recent shopping spree involved me hitting the H&M sales and grabbing a bargain or two. This including the new love in my love at the moment, my black duster coat (similar to one in my wish list post below); which I was surprised was in the sale as I have noticed this style of coats just becoming a popular trend. I teamed this lightweight with more H&M both old and new, along with some H&M sunglasses that I bought especially for the trip. In fact, I think the only thing I was wearing that WASN'T H&M was my sandals, a Topshop purchase a couple of years that I absolutely worn to death i am pleasantly surprised with how long they have lasted! See below for some similar options of the older items.

The beautiful Florence itself...

Duster jacket H&M was £29.99 sale £15

Top H&M full price £14.99

Shorts (old) for similar click here

Sunglasses H&M full price £6.99

Sandals Topshop (old ) for similar click here

I think it is safe to say that this OOTD post is the last one where I will be seen wearing shorts for a while as on my return from Italy i decided the season of coats has finally arrived!

Have you got your winter wardrobes ready?

Keep in touch!

Ellie

Discovering London: Shoreditch, Spitalfields & Brick Lane

It's a new month, and for me, a new home, job and city as last weekend I ventured 5 hours south from Yorkshire London to start another internship in the fashion capital of the country. Whilst settling in I have done my fair bit of exploring, some of it unintentional due to the amount of times I've already got lost! However, intentionally, last Sunday I decided to go for a wonder through East London to discover the well talked about it, Shoreditch, Spitalfields and Brick Lane.
Door to door through Shoreditch and Brick Lane you will find a mixture of stylish independent shops that I spent my entire afternoon browsing in. Brick Lane and its surroundings has the greatest selection of quirky and cool vintage shops with so many iconic pieces and retro trends that you could easily fill your wardrobe of nostalgic items.
The gem of Shoreditch I would say is Boxpark, a unique pop up mall home to a number of fashion, arts and tech retailers that I felt were not so mainstream so it was refreshing to visit somewhere different. For all us beauty bloggers, you will be happy to know that Beauty Mart, a fab store selling a wide range of cosmetic brands that, has a pop up store there so you can pick up a great product for your next review! The upper level of Boxpark allows you to eat, drink and enjoy live music in the open air dining area which is gorgeous in the sun.
Even though I only spent an afternoon in the area I already feel like I have visited almost every market in London! Both Shoreditch and Spitalfields are renowned for their markets and I was interested to know why. Before long I found myself in a vast indoor space that was Spitalfields Old Market, which was full of individual market stalls with an eclectic variety of amazing hand made crafts, interior design, art, jewelry, and clothing, all perfect for a unique addition to your wardrobe and also a great for meaningful gifts, I left feeling inspired! And as if I wasn't content enough admiring all the crafts I was soon drooling over the array of cakes, chocolates and range of worldwide cuisines and delicacies. I can guarantee your mouth will be watering at the sight of it all!
After what seemed like 30 minutes, was actually 4 hours, and it was time for me to catch my train home, but I can safely say I will be returning and if any of you reading this who live near the area and have not yet been or those of you who are hoping to visit London soon, I really recommend you pay a visit if you have the time. You could most definitely spend most of your day, eating, drinking, browsing, and buying in this incredibly interesting area that I believe is a must do in East London.

Beauty Mart, Boxpark

Beauty Mart, Boxpark

Handcrafted leather watches, Shoreditch market

I thought these ice cream spoon cupcakes were so cute!

Quirky hancrafted jewellry, Shoreditch market,

Spitalfields old market

Look at the size of those meringues!

The prettiest chocolate I've ever seen

...and some more scrummy chocs

This place was queuing out the doors!

Brick Lane street art

Vintage galore, Brick Lane

Hanging decor stall, Brick Lane

Have you ever been to any of these places?
What did you think?

   Ellie

If only I could spend every weekend in Amsterdam

Last week me and my boyfriend took ourselves off for a few days to enjoy a city break in Amsterdam, and enjoy we did! Despite me being a bad flyer, I love to travel, visit new places and experience new cultures and Amsterdam is a great place to discover as it is so different to any other foreign city that I have been to. Firstly, the architecture, in terms of its lopsided and banana shaped buildings, Amsterdam is completely unique. Apart from boat houses, you will rarely see stand alone houses as it is completely jam packed of terraced housing, each building a different colour with quaint wooden window shutters and balcony's, my dream home!
The food! I'm a big foodie and with breakfast being my fave meal of the day I was thrilled when I came across all the breakfast cafes, little patisseries and bakeries where I ate some of the best pancakes and apple flap, or turnover as we Brits call it, that I've ever eaten. Famous for it's cheese, I was in my element surrounded by shops offering tasters of Amsterdam's finest cheese in so many different flavours; red pesto being my fave! Although we did eat at 3 different Italians 3 nights in a row (oops) I feel like we made up for it with the amount of their cheese we ate!
And of course, the sights! We had done a bit of research prior to our trip and there was so much we wanted to do in the space of just 4 days but we managed to cram it all in. If you ever get the chance to visit the city you must pay a visit to the Heineken museum, Amsterdam are renowned for this beer and there wasn't a bar that we walked past that didn't serve it. It was a great atmosphere, a learning experience and you also got some free beers along the way!
We also visited the Van Gogh museum which had hung on its walls many of the artists original paintings, although I was little dissapointed that some of his most famous paintings were on loan to other galleries so I felt a bit short changed of my 15 euros, but still a good museum to visit if you are a Van Gogh fan. And from admiring elegant centuries old paintings to blushing over erotic imagery and bondage costumes, our next visit was to the sex museum. An interesting experience to say the least and probably the most value for money out of all the museums for only 4 euros, so a worthwhile visit. One of the places I was most looking forward to seeing was the Anne Frank house, I had some knowledge of Anne Franks story and had always been extremely fascinated by it, but until going to the museum I had no idea of the depth of the young girls thoughts and it was quite emotional being in the house where she went into hiding and wrote her diary. It put a lot of things into perspective. I have not yet read her diary in full but I will be making sure I do, a must see in Amsterdam! And again from one extreme to another, we couldn't of visited Amsterdam without sussing out the red light district, as I imagine many other tourists are, we were very curious to see it. It was bazaar how we were walking past restaurants followed by coffee shops, a few sex shops and only a few steps away from a number of the red lit windows, some with stunning women in, was a church! It was strange how laid back the atmosphere was as this is obviously the norm in Amsterdam, so not what I was expecting but this made it feel quite safe, and not seedy which is how some people who have not visited may portray it. It was certainly fascinating, so definitely worth a walk through.
 Typing this I cant believe how much we actually managed to cram in as on the last day we also made time for a luxury canal boat cruise and a trip to Artis zoo! The canal cruise was a fab way to see the city by boat, with many narrow canals running round the entire city, it felt very Venice like and also meant you were able to see lots of the area. We had seen some huge tour boats on the main river but you were all boxed in by a glass roof, but we managed to find the most gorgeous little open air boat that had huge comfy cushions, rugs and heaters so it was super cosy! We were also served  with complimentary wine, and hot chocolate by the very friendly owners, I felt like a bit of a celeb! Definitely great value to say it was the same price as the bigger, less glamorous boat tours! As for the zoo, I'm a sucker for letting out my inner child so I had a fab day, I had never been to a zoo where some of the animals enclosures are surrounding you so we had monkeys swinging and birds flying above our heads whilst lizards were crawling past you on the floor. We thought it was a bit pricey for 20 euros but we spent a good 2 hours there as there is so much to see, from butterflies to elephants, sea lion shows and an aquarium! I wouldn't say to put this at the top of your list but if you have any spare time it is a fun visit!

Mmm we could not resist!

 Everything Amsterdam, in a picture

Best pancake ever!

 The cliche photograph

Any guess as to where this was taken?

Getting cosy on our canal boat cruise

Some gorgeous boat houses

Marcus not impressing the birds at the zoo

So by now you will be able to understand why I'd love to spend every weekend in Amsterdam, if only!
Have an of you ever visited the city?

   Ellie