Melbourne: Shopping

Naturally, I did lots of wonderfully cultural things in Melbourne, but to strike a balance, a lot of window and actual shopping took place too. This post is about some of my shopping highlights.

Cotton On is a great, good value store with branches everywhere, similar to our H&M (there's no Hennes in Australia). While I was there I got some great items, including two gorgeous jackets, Zino and Claudine (I got my Claudine in mint green, I can't find it on the site). Zino was marked at $40 but was $20 when  got it to the till, and now the site says it's $5! Claudine was also $20 but is still $40 on the site. I am tempted by Zino in red too, as I've just found out they ship to the UK for $40!

This snood/scarf in khaki was also offered at $5 along with any purchase which is super soft and comfortable and was very useful to retreat into when we landed at 6am in London.

Claudine

Zino

Cotton on Body is part of the group, but usually a separate physical store selling underwear and sleepwear, there I got some gorgeous PJ shorts including these sailing boat cuties for $10, and another couple of pairs at 2 for $30.

Typo is also part of the Cotton On group, selling cute stationery and gifts, you'll find branches all over the place. I also heart kikki.K, which falls into the same category.

Some of the best shopping in Melbourne is on Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. There I got this gorgeous lasercut wallet from i.d.s. It's a wallet with a chain strap, so can be used as a bag for a night out too, it'd look great with an otherwise plain outfit. I love it!

i.d.s wallet

Also on Brunswick Street were loads of quirky gift shops and some huge clothes warehouses including Clear It selling tonnes of discounted Alannah Hill dresses. I fell in love with one, and now I am seriously regretting not buying it, although I've just found it on eBay...maybe I will enquire about postage costs...

Alannah Hill Everlasting Love

Hours of trawling to be had on Brunswick Street

There was also loads of vintage wares to be had at Hunter Gatherer, if only I'd had a bigger luggage allowance!

Hunter Gatherer Vintage

I also fell in love with T2 teashop, visiting the stores on Brunswick Street and at Melbourne Central, an awesome shopping centre. I asked one of the shop assistants and he said that T2 is hopefully coming to the UK in the next year, with a store opening at one of the London Westfield centres. When it does I am buying ALL DAT china, I am in love with the Casbah Collection! I make a point of buying some tea in a nice tin wherever I go, so treated myself to Babi's Brilliant Blend, pictured below. I love the cute tin, I would have bought the whole range!

Afternoon Tea

Casbah

Babi tea

There's also Chapel Street, a reeaaaally long street in Prahran/Windsor, which is chocka with opp shops (charity shops) where there are many cheap treasures to behold. There's Chapel Street Bazaar, a haven of antiques and vintage clothing for all price ranges. We went to Chapel Street on day one, still up to the eyeballs with jetlag, but as soon as I clapped eyes on the Bazaar and the opp shops, I knew I was going to love Melbourne! Chapel Street is also chocka with restaurants and cafes, but that's a whole other post!

Chapel Street Bazaar

Melbourne Central

My Directory:

For vintage and charity shops: Chapel Street

For alternative fashion and cool gifts: Brunswick Street

For High Street stores: Melbourne Central

For Designer/Top End gear (not featured much on this blogpost as it ain't my budget baby!): David Jones, Myer, Collins Street

For souvenirs: Queen Victoria Market, cheaper than the souvenir shops on Swanston Street!

Melbourne: In my Beauty Bag

I have just returned from a wonderful holiday in Melbourne, and this is the first of many posts about my trip. I returned yesterday morning, so am still a little jetlagged, so lets start with the basics: what I took with me!

I've probably mentioned before my efforts to destash my bathroom cabinets, so I bought as little as possible for my trip, choosing to take with me a few half finished goodies so that I could throw them out once and for all. This resulted in an empty L'Occitane Precious Cream and one Eucerin Hyaluron Filler Day Cream, both lovely rich face creams. I particularly like the Eucerin product because it contains SPF15, but I am not particularly loyal to any one brand when it comes to moisturiser so will continue to hunt around for the best for me. I've still got my Ainhoa and Avon night oil to work through for now but am always looking for recommendations for a good all-rounder, so do let me know if you've got any tips.

Just before my trip, I popped to the Boots Get Out There (#Bootsgetoutthere) event for bloggers which gave a great overview of the products on hand from Boots this summer, that are there to help you look and feel your best this summer s that you 'get out there' and enjoy yourself in the summer sun! It was a great showcase of the products available to help you feel confident and safe this summer. I took away with me some Soltan Protect & Tan Ultra-Light Texture Suncare Spray to trial on my trip, and I have to say it's a great product, completely non-greasy, easy to apply, with real protection, and it's half price at the moment along with some other great products in the range! Its slimline bottle also meant it was easy to carry around for reapplication during the day.

Soltan goodies on display

 Another favourite of mine was the Boots No7 Stay Perfect nail colour in Stand Back, which I applied on day one of my trip. It actually did 'Stay Perfect' well into the second week of my trip, and the fun shade also went fabulously with my sandals (Primark 2011)! A steal at £6.

No7 Stand Back

When I wear sandals or flip flops for the first time after a few months of hiding my feet away, they are horribly prone to blisters again, no matter how comfy those same sandals had become the previous year. When we landed at Melbourne, my toes were horribly blistered already from the ancient flip-flops I'd been wearing. The weather wasn't so hot on that first Sunday so as soon as I got into my hotel I wrapped them up in my Converse and let them heal. When I wanted to wear sandals again, I sprayed my feet quickly with Boots Blister Prevent Spray for the first couple of wears, and remained blister-free for the remainder of the trip. I'd definitely recommend this spray to keep the blisters at bay, at £5.49, it's worth it to save that agony!

These are some products that will be sticking with me all summer, I am looking forward to hearing about more great products that have impressed you this summer too....

Weekending

After a mental week at work, 3 days of which were spent at a trade show with loads of booze and naughty food, I was ready to crash this weekend. But I already knew that this wasn't going to be the case, owing to a girl's night out we'd planned ages ago.

In an attempt to spend some time with the Boy before I go to Australia (5 days and counting), we went to Angel in the morning to do some shopping. I needed some toiletries for my trip so popped to Boots and got some L'Oreal Elvive Full Restore 5 shampoo and conditioner, which were half price for the 400ml bottles, and some Nivea Happy Time shower gel, which was just 97p a bottle, so cheap and cheerful for me as always. We checked out a couple of opticians, I'd had an eye test the day before at Specsavers and had been told I need new glasses so wanted to shop around.. Below are my current favourites, although I also want to check out the Orla Kiely range at Boots.

Karen Millen 12

We spotted a branch of Bill' on White Lion Street, I didn't know it was there so I think it's fairly new (they seem to be popping up all over the place). I've wanted to check out Bill's for a while, so we popped in and got seated straight away, and told that breakfast was being served til 1pm (it's 12noon on weekdays). I opted for the vegetarian breakfast and Boy had the sausage sandwich, with a side of bacon and cauliflower cheese from the main menu.

Bill's vegetarian breakfast 

Bill's decor, Islington

I loved my breakfast. I am not a vegetarian, I am generally very carnivorous indeed but the description got me (poached free range eggs, tomatoes, hummus, mushrooms & guacamole, sweet chilli sauce, basil 

& toast) and I was not disappointed. I got additional bubble and squeak with mine, and we got a coffee each too. The bill came to just under £25 including 12.5% service charge which we were happy to pay as the service was great. A nice touch at Bill's is that they give you a carafe of tap water without it having to be asked for, I get so fed up with snotty looks elsewhere when you request tap water. Bill's branches have selection of handpicked deli products in store, all of which can be bought online too, along with the cookbook Cook Eat Smile which I now have my eye on after flicking through it in the store, it's a beautiful book.

Cook Eat Smile

We also went to H&M, where I got two great tops for just £9. This black number was £7.99, but 50% off (also in white, khaki and blue).

Black lace top, £7.99

This beautiful cream glittery top was marked down to £10, but when I got it to the till it was just £5! I can't find it on the website, so here's my picture below. Two tops for £9, I am still marvelling!

Mega bargain top

After shopping, I headed home and started working on my hair. I have long straight brown hair, which I wear in two styles. Up (in a ponytail). Or Down. I wanted to try something different, and inspired by Sienna Miller, I went for a plaited headband approach. An hour and many kirby grips later, it was achieved, here's me with my friend A. I wore the new black top with a blue boob tube top underneath, with black jeans and flat pumps

A and I had an amazing night at Koko, Camden. It was a Guilty Pleasures night, so the music was loads of amazing cheese and we had a really good dance. I loved it, though had one two many Skittlebombs and Jagerbombs. Taking all those kirby grips out on the night bus home was a wonderful feeling!

Today should be a lazy day, but I never sleep well after booze, so awoke around 7:30 (didn't go to bed til 3:30, ouch) then wandered to the shops again. I needed some new sunglasses so picked up some £5 jobbies from M&S, I am forever breaking them so I don't spend a lot of money on them, I have been known to get through 5 pairs in a month. I popped to our local car boot which is on every weekend and got 5 of the Game of Thrones books for 20p each for the Boy before going to Tesco to stock up our fridge. I am currently baking the Hummingbird Bakery Buttermilk Pound Cake and the chicken is marinading for tonight's Starlight Spicy Chicken Wraps. Who said hungover Sundays had to be dead time?!

The Look of Love

I've had a bit of a blog hiatus for the last couple of weeks...I was ill, then was out every night for a week and a half, it's been lovely catching up with friends and family, but tonight, a night in front of the sofa after a long day at Earl's Court with work, I finally have some downtime! Last night, we went to see The Look of Love which was fantastic, and inspired me to finally update my blog!

The film stars Steve Coogan, Tamsin Egerton and Anna Friel and is about the life of Paul Raymond, who was Britain's richest man, who is an "erotic entrepreneur" but absolutely not a pornographer, so he says..... The women are gorgeous, Anna Friel as Jean Raymond, Paul's long-suffering wife, Tamsin Egerton as his lover and Imogen Poots as his daughter.

I've only seen Egerton in St Trinian's before, and dismissed her as a bratty teen actress and didn't think I'd be seeing much of her again, but in this film she is incredible as well as beautiful. Anna Friel is stunning and glamourous as always (I love Pushing Daisies!), and Imogen Poots is gorgeous and tragic all at the same time. There are tonnes of other famous faces, Simon Bird, Stephen Fry (he who gets a gazillion retweets no matter how inane his 140-character rambling), Sarah Solemani and Shirley Henderson to name but a few.

Imogen Poots

Anna Friel

Tamsin Egerton

Queen Dusty

There is a LOT of sex, and a lot of boobies in this film, but despite the content and theme, it's actually all pretty tasteful. The styling is also brilliant, from the show costumes, minimal as they are to the outfits that Friel and Egerton strut around in, I am truly seventies-inspired now, with the Dusty Springfield filled soundtrack going on and on in my head!

As an aside, holiday countdown: 10 days til i fly to MELBOURNE!!! I saw Royal Brunei Airlines poster for the London - Melbourne route earlier on the tube and nearly died of excitement, in no time at all I am going to be On That Flight. EEEEEEEEK!
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Tired of London...As if

Spring has sprung, the sun is out, I am as happy as can be! Yesterday I had an absolutely lovely, lovely day with one of my besties, Laurel. After a leisurely start to the day with the boy, and a trip to the post office to post my latest book swaps and get him some Euros for his trip to Belgium, I headed over to Liverpool Street to meet lovely Laurel and check out Judy's at Spitalfields to check out the wares. We didn't buy anything on this occasion but did grab an amazing peanut butter cupcake from Betty-Lou's Bakery which we devoured between us, simply stunning! The next Judy's at Spitalfields is 4th May.

Pillow fight in Trafalgar Square

We got the tube to Temple and had a coffee, before heading to the National Gallery via Trafalgar Square where there was a massive flash-mob pillow fight going on! Much fun to behold. We soaked up some culture in the National Gallery, we'd never been before, I didn't know how the stunning it is inside with its glorious ceilings, we got told off for trying to take photos, but here's a snippet from Flickr....check it out!

We wandered up to the Japan Centre, then checked out Paxton and Whitfield on Jermyn Street, one of the oldest cheese shops in London, which is incredible. We then spent a good hour in Waterstones on Picadilly ogling the fiction, art, travel and craft books.

The main reasons for getting together this fine weekend were to go to Judy's, and then to go to the Clueless Quote-Along at Prince Charles Cinema, so we grabbed our tickets before enjoying a Cafe Rouge dinner complete with vino. There's currently a deal on O2 Priority Moments to get one main meal and a second for £1, so we took advantage of this, I had their Poulet Breton and Laurel the Aubergine Gratin, delicious! On the subject of the O2, there's also a deal to get a free bag of Percy Pigs in Marks and Spencers, just buy showing them a code, get them before they're gone!

After more wine at LVPO (happy hour 5-9!) we headed to the cinema, full of excitement for the film. We met two other like-minded ladies who kindly took this photo of us (below), and Laurel and Jess took part in the competition they had at the start, where Laurel came away with Stranger Than Fiction on DVD. The film was amazing, if you're a Clueless fan (and who isn't?!) I would highly recommend going along to the next one on 31st May, so much fun! Next on the list is Anchorman.

Whatever...

Today I checked out Capital Car Boot in Pimlico, it was a lovely day for it. I didn't buy anything, but I would go back. It's £1 entry and there's a decent split between traders and people genuinely clearing out their homes, so while nothing to catch my eye this time, there were plenty of bargains to be had. It was such a nice day so I wandered around and ended up at the Southbank where I text my boss to tell her how aaazing Clueless was, and she invited me around for a cuppa as she only lives down the road. We ended up going straight back out for a spot of brunch at Ev's nearby which was incredible. We both had a eggs with feta, soooo tasty, it comes with a coffee and delicious bread so was a snip at £4.95, highly recommended.

Eggs at Ev's

It's so easy to get stuck in a bit of a rut in life and falling into the trap of going to work, spending the evenings at home and wasting weekends away. Now that it's summertime (sort of) I am determined to make the most of the extra hours sunlight, and being in London. We talked a lot yesterday about all the things we wanted to do this summer, like go to Burger and Lobster, check out the Museum of Childhood, go on a boat trip along the Thames, spend an afternoon in the bookshops of Charing Cross Road, head to Kew Gardens and Richmond... What's on your to-do list this summer?

A foodie Easter

Easter and the week leading up to it has been a lazy one. I still had the remainder of a bad cold last weekend when I locked myself out on Sunday afternoon when doing the food shop (Boy went out while I was out shopping, I hadn't taken my key), so two extra hours in the cold made my cold come back with a vengeance. I worked on Monday but was good for nothing, so spent Tuesday and Wednesday in bed, dosed up with Day Nurse, chicken soup and as much Vitamin C I could soak up.

I've been trying really hard to eat better in general and look after myself, so I am less susceptible to these things. I've recently been obsessed with The Londoner's recipes. Rosie's Skinny Shrimp Curry, Skinny Spaghetti and Epic Fish Tacos were all on the menu this week. All really easy to make, honestly, the prawn curry is the first curry I've ever made and not stuffed up. I served it up with bulgar wheat, a lower-calorie, higher-fibre alternative to rice.

The skinny spaghetti recipe is basically chilli con carne served with cabbage as spaghetti, which sounds lame but actually works really well and will be something I do a lot more often to save myself from the bloat . The cooking times for that recipe are long, I didn't read it right so had already started cooking when it said "leave for an hour before chucking in... and then leave for a further hour". I didn't. It was already 18:30 and I was already ill, hungry and just wanted to eat. I reduced those times to 20 mins each and it was still tasty as anything. Maybe I will try for the optimum marinations when I have more time. I also made this with turkey mince rather than beef, lower in fat and usually cheaper. The fish tacos...are well, epic. We are having them again tonight, for the 4th time in about 3 weeks, I love them. Cannot get enough, if I was to recommend any of these recipes over the others, it would be that one.

The Londoner's Skinny Shrimp Curry 

 Luckily I felt better on Thursday, well enough to go back to work, albeit with Day Nurse by my side. A lot is going on at work at the moment so it was hectic, but I made it through the day and came home to make some Easter cookies. My friend had bought me some Easter cookie cutters years ago which I still hadn't got round to using, so we whipped up some biscuits according to the Hummingbird Bakery recipe for Sugar Cookies, and iced them in green (because green was the only food colouring I had).

On Good Friday, we hopped on a train to Burton-On-Trent, to see our friends who recently moved there. Tasha and Martin met through us two years ago, and got married last October. I was a bridesmaid, and the Boy an usher at their wedding last year, but time and distance means we don't get to see each other nearly enough. This Easter, we rectified this with a lazy weekend of food, drink and laughs in the Midlands.

Nacho preparation, accompanying Fajita Friday

Martin's incredible burgers.

The best roast dinner I've ever eaten.

Besides eating, there was much drinking to be done, and napping, and watching Disney films (Fantasia and Beauty and The Beast were our choices). We caught up, snuggled, played Cranium and laughed til our faces hurt. Luckily Martin and Tash have this furry fella, Roger, otherwise we'd not have moved at all all weekend.

Roger

The River Trent at Washlands

A walk along the canal (finished off with a pint or two of course)

 We've just got back to London, and I feel relaxed and rejuvenated, but also indulged and a little bit chubbier. Back to walking to work tomorrow and a little bit of holding back to deflate my waistline! Easter brought with it the start of good old British Summer Time, and while there's still a definite chill in the air (and in some parts still snow on the ground) when I turned myself to the sun yesterday I definitely felt some warmth and it felt good. I had even come out in freckles by the time I go to a mirror! Time to stop hibernating and get outside and start living!

My skincare routine

I've built up an enormous stash of beauty bits, makeup and toiletries, and at the moment I am trying to work through what I've got, destash, and streamline the amount of products in my cupboard, I've got far too many half finished bottles that I want to finally finish. My Boots expenditure is being kept to a minimum, I went today and bought only what I needed, cotton pads and deodorant, even though I had a purse full of No7 vouchers which I was tempted to use. Aren't I good?! Here's a bit on my current routine.

Exfoliating face disc - Sephora

I usually wash my face in the mornings when I shower with No7 Beautiful Skin Foaming Cleanser for Normal / Oily Skin, and recently have started using it with this Sephora exfoliating disc which I think is making a real difference to my skin, it certainly seems better than normal. I bought this on my recent trip to Paris so unless you're off to France soon, it's going to be a pain to order online so while I was in Boots today I looked for an alternative and found this Soap & Glory Face Massage Mini Mitt for £4. You are welcome.

At nighttime, I use makeup wipes to take off the day, and have been using No7 wipes for ages, but have recently switched to Champney's (currently 1/3 off), followed by DHC Make Off Sheets, available from BeautyMart. I find these 3 are the best at actually removing all your makeup including eye makeup. The DHC ones smell quite strongly of alcohol though, which might be something that puts me off buying them again although I will continue to monitor how I get on with them. The No7 wipes can be bought for as little as £2 a pack as Boots so frequently give away £5 off vouchers for the No7 range.


I also use No7 Eye Make Up Remover to remove stubborn eye-makeup that just won't come off. It's an oily one that you have to shake before use so that the two components mingle. I find it one of the best out there, and at £8.50, it's affordable.

One I've caught onto a little too late is the Avon Planet Spa Japanese Sake & Rice Luminous Face Treatment, which smells absolutely amazing and is definitely playing a part in the improvement of my skin condition of late. Unfortunately, it's no longer available through Avon, so when I'm finished with the current bottle and I've worked through the rest of my stash of products, I'm going to have to seek it out eBay. Has anyone else tried it, or do they have access to

While I was in Paris, swooning over Sephora I was given some sample sachets of the incredible Base Lissante/Smoothing Base. It felt amazing on my skin during and after application and had a lovely texture. It's only €10.90 for 15ml, and I was gutted I didn't try the sample whilst I was there otherwise I would have bought some. Oh well...maybe another trip is in order...

Triangle Initial Necklace


Off the subject of skincare, I treated myself to this sweet little Triangle Initial Necklace today from Urban Outfitters, only £8 in the sale! It was all I could do not to buy all the jewellery in there, there's a lot of goodies in the sale, but still three days til payday and I really should be putting some money aside, only 6 weeks til I go to Melbourne!