Apothecary Cabinets and Vintage Furniture

I absolutely love apothecary cabinets. I think it's something about all those drawers, it's just so practical and functional. I could imagine storing all my art and crafts bits and bobs neatly away in a beautiful antique apothecary cabinet. Think about all the buttons, sequins, ribbon, beads and pretty things I could store away in those drawers!

I was coveting a gorgeous old apothecary cabinet in a local junk shop, much like the one pictured above from Linda Rosen Antiques But one day when I was merrily walking home from work... it had disappeared, much to my dismay. I'd like to think it has found a happy home somewhere storing away life's little essentials...

In my search for beatiful antique apothecary furniture I came across a lovely website, The Old Cinema, that sell antique, vintage and retro furniture, home accessories and jewellery. Although it is far from cheap and cheerful, they do have some really unique and unusual items that I would love to have in my home... like this 19th Century Collectors Chest.

Vintage Painted French SideBoard

Industrial Vintage Bank of Drawers

Upcycled Vintage Industrial Bank of Drawers

The Alternative Village Fete - Frozen Yoghurt, Music, Cupcakes and Creativity

Last weekend I attended the Alternative Village Fete on Southbank in London, a "sideways slant" on the traditional family day out. The programme for the weekend included performances by dancing troupes and live music, Morris dancing, make-do-and-mend, the British Gent stall, tea and cake, 20's style workouts, gentlemen's grooming and etiquette, hill billy barn dancing and yummy and scrummy treats! Everything a vintage-loving lady or gent could possibly need!

There were come gorgeous knitted (and polka dotted) things for sale on the many stalls.

Love this cute little mini tea set!

All over the square that the event was held in there were people getting creative with needle and thread, material, buttons and bows! I loved how everyone got really involved with all the creative activities.

The Pictotronic was a huge cardboard box that "magically" drew pictures for you: if you put a suggestion into the Pictotronic, after a short wait the illustrators living inside the cardboard house drew your picture! I've never seen anything quite like it before, it's brilliant!

Naturally I gravitated towards these delicious looking cupcakes! But I resisted... if you peek at the picture below you will realise why...

My new obsession is frozen yoghurt! I love the tartness of the flavour, and how well it goes with raspberries, one of my favourite fruits. At the Alternative Village Fete the very first thing I stumbled across was a little frozen yoghurt van. It was incredibly yummy! I went for my natural choice of rasberry fro yo, and Jenny went for blueberry. The fruit was blitzed in a blender then added to the frozen yoghurt machine and the flavour was amazing.

The raspberry frozen yoghurt

The wonderful Hot Potato Syncopators I thoroughly enjoyed the set by these dapper, utterly charming and amusing chaps! They played tunes straight from the 20's, 30's and 40's and the act comprised of ukeles, a tea-chest bass, musical saw, comedy moments, stage theatricals, acts of ear and eye defying balancing, bang bells, hooters and pop guns. The act was brilliant, thoroughly entertaining, and had the whole audience laughing. I enjoyed them so much I bought their CD that came with a fantastic little book with a "history of the band" and various bits and bobs in the Chap magazine style.... speaking of which...

...One stall was selling Chap Magazine

Overall, it was a totally enjoyable event, and if it is all repeated next year I will definitely be attending for some retro fun, and I suggest you all do the same!

A Weekend in Dresses... Floral and Vintage

I spent the bank holiday weekend visiting my lovely sister in London, we visited Camden Horse market, the alternative village fete on Southbank and Notting Hill Carnival - blog posts on those fantastic events will follow. But first, here is a weekend in dresses!

My favourite vintage floral dress!

Black rose print dress from New Look.

Black floral dress from Dorothy Perkins.

Floral Tunic from Zara.

Vintage dress from Marhsmallow Mountain.

Floral dress from Blue Inc.

Sister Act Starring THE Whoopi Goldberg!

This week, on Tuesday, Me and my sisters were fortunate enough to get tickets to see Sister Act at the Paladium starring THE Whoopi Goldberg! She was only starring as Mother Superior for a limited time only, for three weeks, and the whole theatre was packed out! The atmosphere was absolutely fantastic and the show was outstanding! I heartily recommend you go and see it! I was smiling like a maniac throughout the whole show and I left the Paladium singing the tunes, and spent the train journey home with them firmly stuck in my head!

I can honestly say that every single member of the cast were brilliant! I wish I had bought the programme so I could tell you how fabulous each and every one of them were, but instead I'll just have to give you a brief overview (after all I don't want to spoil it for those of you who havn't seen it!). Simon Webb played the role of "Shank" he was surprisingly great! I didn't know quite what to expect, but he was great, he sang well and provided comedy too. Sister Mary Lazerus was hilarious, as were the rest of the nuns. Deloris Van Cartier, blew me away! She was brilliant! If I didn't already know, I would never have guessed that she was the "stand in", definitely a star in the making!

Naturally, one of the highlights of the show was the amazing Whoopi Goldberg! Me and my sisters were saying how surreal it was to be actually seeing her in the flesh! We loved the Sister Act films and Whoopi starred in so many of my favourite films from my childhood that we were all so excited about the show. Whoopi came on stage first for a small part of narration, and she couldnt speak for a solid 5mins due to the applause and whooping! The atmosphere in the theatre was truly amazing and needless to say the show was finished off with a standing ovation from the whole audience.

The original score was written by Alan Menken, whose credits inclue, Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Enchanted, all of which are favourites of mine!

The only thing that remains to be said is that you simply MUST see this show! They are booking up until 30th October at the moment due to the big move to Broadway, so go get your tickets now!

Channelling Chanel with leather accessories

(Photgraphy by Will Epps, check out his online portfolio here)

So, I wasn't intentionally channelling Chanel but when I saw the last photo I couldn't help but draw comparisons to their S/S 10 collection with clogs and a barn... The only differences are these shoes are from Office (again, I know...) not Chanel, they're not technically clogs and I'm not in the most fashionable barn in the World.

But anyway, back to the rest of the outfit, this wasn't really an outfit suitable to post, more just something to wear to show off the leather accessories, but it is made up of my Charity Shop cut off shorts and a black trapeze cut top from New Look Kids section, that place is a bit amazing at the moment.

The bag is one of my absolute favourite accessories, yet I never use it because I never really know what to put it with. It was from a teeny, slightly weird shop on Portobello Road in London.

Once again, these photos are taken by the lovely and very talented Will, check out his online portfolio here.

P.S. I'm flying home tomorrow, yay! I'm in Singapore at the moment, I've just had Singapore Slings in Raffles Hotel and thrown peanuts on the floor, a fitting end to they holiday I think you'll agree. I'll be back to normal blogging in a couple of days and I PROMISE to reply to all your comments and emails, it may take some time...

London Aquarium - my best bits

After Easter I spent two weeks at London Aquarium on placement, completing some research for my university course. I had a wonderful time there, and everyone made me feel really welcome and I got a lot out of the experience. I initially visited the aquarium a few years ago, and it has changed a lot since then, and for the better! They have given the whole aquarium a refit and it has made the world of a difference to the place. It is a brilliant place to visit - if you like fish of course... I am not a good photographer by any means, and my camera is average, but over the two weeks that I was at the aquarium I was able to take some photos in my spare time. I thought I would share those photos with you all...

The aquarium at County Hall right next to the London Eye

A friendly little fella from the rock pool

some more little critters from the rock pool, starfish and beadlet anemones

One of my favourite fish in the aquarium, Ed, the giraffe-nose catfish. I was lucky enough to give him a stroke, he was very friendly.

Mister Seahorse

Georgina, the biggest fish in the aquarium. She was a whopping 3ms and the big boss lady of the Pacific tank!

What I love about horseshoe crabs is that they are so very odd looking, like little prehistoric alien-like creatures, they love scuttling around attached to each other.

The female African Dwarf Crocodile - very cute

one of the lion fish in the tropical tank section

London Times: Meeting Fashionistable

This is the last of my 'London Times' posts, after all, I was only there for a day...

Before I left, a little meeting was arranged between me and fellow blogger Dvora of Fashionistable. Neither of us had ever had an intentional blogger meet up, though after a little chat, we had actually met a fair few bloggers between us including some of the big guns. After our elderflower juice, I love elderflower at the moment, we had a bit of a photo session, a sneak preview of which you can see above but the full post, along with interview, will be on Fashionistable next week.


Fashionistable is easily one of my favourite street style blogs at the moment, not only does she manage to capture the personality and style of that days' muse but she also accompanies each post with an interview and insight into their life.

Make sure to check out Fashionistable and Dvora's lovely work!

I am wearing: Topshop jacket, Topshop striped top, Henry Holland for Debenhams shorts, Office shoes and Vintage bag from Portobello Market which was only £1, win!

I think this is the least amount of photos I've ever posted, strange! Also, my trip has been re-booked minus Thailand, we're going in two weeks so hopefully everything will stay ash-less and peaceful!