Brunch spot: Ozone

Green Sweater – COS. Jeans – James Jeans. Bag – Kurt Geiger. Leather knot bracelet – COS. Gold coral ring – Michelle Oh. Watch – Sekonda. Slingback heels – Zara. Tartan shirt – Motel Rocks. Bar necklace – Kirsten Goss Urban Edge.

While the first half of my twenties can be illustrated with cheap pleather shoes of varying glue smells and £4 Covent Garden jacket potatoes, the second half is decidedly turning out to be a compulsive, obsessive hunt for the best weekend brunch spots in town – as if life depended on pancakes. That and deleting emails like it’s a sport. Life does depend on pancakes, what am I talking about. There’s also the worshiping of coffee – as if I know what ‘good’ coffee is meant to taste like. Apparently the more it tastes like Chinese herbal medicine the better, where you cringe at the sip but nod ferociously like you know what it means… although, in my book, vending machine coffee is pretty agreeable too so I guess anything with caffeine is a winner. Ozone in Shoreditch has been our latest sweetheart spot for weekends, dedicated mainly to roasting and brewing sustainable, artisan coffee but also does a mean eggs benedict. Plus, the open kitchen also means brunch usually becomes more of a bLunch after a few ‘can I have whatever he’s making’. Despite the name that sounds like a 90’s underground club, and the exterior that doesn’t promise much of an interior, it’s definitely one of those Londoner’s secrets that hide in plain sight.

Floral print-cami – Topshop. Sunglasses – Celine. Flower garland – Topshop

Hat + Dress – Topshop

Top – Topshop, Skirt – Kenzo. Clutch – Kurt Geiger

Look 1 (Crop-top): Linen crop-tee, Coulottes – Topshop. Rope belt – DIY. Bracelet – Saught.

Look 2 (Floral patchwork Dress):   Dress, straw boater hat – Topshop. Bag – Bottega Veneta. Heels – Zara.

Look 3 (Maxi-skirt):  Printed strappy-cami – Topshop. Basket-weave skirt, Tiger bracelet – c/o Kenzo. Clutch – Kurt Geiger. Loafers – Hudson. Leather bracelet – COS

The classic British Summer is here – hot, muggy, air-just-shy-of-armpit-consistency, one cloud away from November degrees. I’m not complaining though, at least not on Thursdays and Fridays. See, I’m trying out a new career path where I now professionally complain part-time and the rest of the week I focus on freelance weather forecasting, because apparently in this country you don’t need a particular degree to read the weather. Here’s the secret: a rusty slot machine at the BBC does the job for you – the reels groan a bit and a series of icons forecast the weather. Today I played with a few pieces from the new Topshop Reclaim to Wear collection, in which disregarded prints from the previous seasons got upcycled into airy, summery pieces. The slots pooped out a perfect weather for this: Fog – Cloud- Sun, 28 degrees, humidity 2,000%; there also may or may not have been a Tsunami looming but unsure as the icon for it is a Bucket of Water. They’ve been using the machine since the 70’s after every single barometer/thermometer in the country quit and left for Spain. I’ll leave for Spain sooner or later, I predict.

Thank you Charlie for helping with the shots! 

Lancôme x Alber Elbaz

Fashionary x Swash journal

Colour palette – Pink

Hypnôse, Hypnôse Star, Hypnôse Doll Eyes

Lancome x Alber Elbaz mono palette

Turtleneck crop-top – American Apparel. Flared skirt – Zara (similar). Shoes – DIY satin ribbon on Whistles with help from Kit. Lip bag – DVF (similar in gold). Encrusted chain bracelet – Topshop. Tiger bracelet – Kenzo (similar in Silver). Mock-pearl earring – Topshop

We all know it doesn’t take very much to excite the hamster inside my head, but pretty packaging is definitely one of those things. That and pizza. Sometimes one thing comes in another (i.e funky Domino’s pizzabox design) and that’s when it gets wild up there. There’s a chest under my stairs full to the brim with old food packaging, jewellery boxes and gift wraps – yess, I’m one of those annoying people that take forever opening presents because hello, the paper needs to be archived and stored. Is this also considered hoarding? My significant other routinely brings home fifteen cans of tuna ‘because honey, they were on sale‘ and yes if zombies take over then we’d survive for about three days on tuna and peanuts, but I’m not sure what my stash of beautiful packaging would benefit us other than to paper-cut myself to death refusing to eat another tuna can. Sometimes I go full Sheldon Cooper on the packaging – especially for beauty products – and keep the products too in mint-condition, which was my intent for these beauties from the Lancôme x Alber Elbaz collaboration before this damn blog thing said no.

No, I had so much fun shooting this – all loosely inspired by the Lancôme Hypnôse video, where Alber Elbaz puts on a show dressing four iconic Lancôme mascaras. I fell right in love with the illustrations of the ultra-chic frow with heels + bows, and while I did manage to mimic the bows with an impromptu DIY, the ‘chic’ was promptly crushed after being kicked out of the V&A for jumping in the Music Room. I kid, but I am wearing a wig, so there, #ChicToAbsolutelyNoLev.

Photos with help from the lovely Johanna Lees, Editing Park & Cube; Collaborative post with Lancôme.

‘Come at me, bro’

Sunglasses – Celine Audrey via Sunglasses Shop

Comfortably getting into more punching-fights over the last ham baguette sandwich at Pret because now I have these Celine sunglasses to cover up possible black eye. Round, oversized beauties, that provide instant Audrey-like lady-factor, especially to those who’ve chosen meat sandwich over manners. (Celine Audrey via Sunglasses Shop)

Tile of my loins

Clockwise: Bag – Zac Posen Americana. Watch – Casio. Friendship bracelets – DIY & Lucy Folk. Necklace – Noemi Klein. Sunglasses – Celine Audrey. Bracelet – MyFlashTrash. Nail Polish – Chanel. Skirt – Claudie Pierlot. Lace shirt – MotelRocks. Heels – Alexander Wang. Mini perfume – Marc Jacobs Daisy

Picked up this beautiful, embroidered skirt at the Claudie Pierlot pre-sale over the weekend, the pattern is what I hope my kitchen tiles would look like when we buy a house. I’d happily be a full-time sandwich-maker and better wife if that’s ever case. Speaking of Claudie Pierlot – is it weird that I’ve only recently discovered that they actually have stores in the UK? Here I thought it was to be one of those French treasures (Ladurée being one) limited only to those living in France… The store on South Molton st is packed with goodies, and a little bird tells me the UK sales start on the 12th!

Arden, the illegitimate

Heels – Kurt Geiger

I’m always suspicious of my toys coming to life the minute I leave the room, but it looks like my chairs do it too. My two neon chairs had a child and they called her Arden – those two must have some fiercerelationship because that kid is feisty.

Optical Prime

Preferred eye-makeup for those days when I transform from WTF to OK and remember to draw some eyebrows: Skinny liquid eyeliner (feels like graffiti on your eyelids with a felt-tip pen) and Brow Gel by Eyeko, and Golden Aura eye palette by Topshop.

Hey Missy, you so fine..

Mini Missy – Neri Karra

…you so fine you blow my mind, hey Missy! I met the ever delightful Neri for coffee and cakes at the Rose Bakery at the top of Dover Street Market the other week, and after we’d dusted down carrot cake from our chins she slid a small box over that held this little baby inside. I made this noise similar to a car brake and now I can’t go back to that cafe.

If I were a boy

Skull necklace – Maria Nilsdotter. Bar necklace – Kirsten Goss Urban Edge. Watch – Casio Sheen. Leather laptop case – Scotch & Soda.

If I were a boy, I’d put Jennifer Lawrence as my phone wallpaper and not get weird stares from strangers. My affinity for silver accessories/jewellery is growing with each time I steal something out of my husband’s wardrobe. You got to agree, an oversized shirt and nothing on your wrist but a solid silver watch sounds pretty liberating when you’re on your period and everything is simply arduous.

Souk style

Flats – Reiss

Gazing at Kit’s Morocco visual diary and realizing this is as close to a non-IKEA carpet I will ever walk on this year.

Iconia A1

Pouch – Kurt Geiger. Tablet – Acer Iconia A1

At just over 8 inches long, this little tablet by Acer seems to find its way into any otherwise inadequately sized handbag I own these days. I’m building quite a large collection of magazines – dust-free, naturally – via Play Magazines, and have downloaded my entire summer reading list into this 1cm-thick thing. Jamie Oliver teaches me how to cook meals under 20 minutes while I burn some water, and my bank app constantly reminds me how much money I don’t have. The device processor is quad-core, which apparently means it’s responsive and runs smoothly, but I love it most for its compact size and the fact that it is a digital Mary Poppins’ bag, in essence.

Recipe for a happy weekend: Bikes, cakes, denim skirt and the flower market

Leopard Sweatshirt – ASOS (similar in red). Denim Skirt – ASOS (similar here). Shoes – Nike Free Run. Bag – Marc Jacobs. Sunglasses – Celine via SunglassesShop. Cashmere scarf – Johnstons. Watch – Sekonda. Friendship Bracelet – Lucy Folk. ‘Oui’ ring – Street Bauble. Outfit photos with help from Charlie.

Speaking of good weekends, I’m steeped into World War Z by Max Brooks at the moment and having a blast ignoring off the sun and sitting inside a makeshift tent made out of blankets and pillows while the hubby slides in chicken and cous cous every few hours. I shove out the empty plates, and another one with jell-o gets pushed in. I have a good husband like that. He’s into his online games, and I’m stuck on a zombie book, we’re both happy and apparently the sun is out so technically that ticks another box in the Happy Weekend form. Who knows, tomorrow I might cycle down to the flower market to pick up some blooms for the week and maybe see a friend or two for coffee and cakes. What are your plans for the weekend?

By the way, do check out that book, it’s the best take on the zombie apocalypse I’ve seen/read so far – none of the overdone, emotion-led, soppy stories involving an enigmatic lead character and the journey to a Disney end of humankind, but a clever compilation of interviews and stories by survivors, interlaced with politics, military and all manners of science on a global scale. Everything seems so plausible that it’s terrifying – I keep re-telling some of the stories to my husband as if all of it really happened, it’s that good. Make sure to put it on your summer reading list!