The Posh Gurl becomes a Honeybun

It has happened... I am officially a Mrs! 

 Mrs. Honeybun

What ever is said about weddings it is the most difficult, stressful, and political time in planning. But none of that matters because on the day itself none of the little stuff matters! It zooms past and you hardly have time to breath!

After an afternoon of running around the village looking for clues on the "Honeybun Hunt" fantastically set up by my family! We went to a village restaurant The Crown and were greeted by all our family and friends for a delicious rehearsal dinner. 

The Outfit: Banana Republic Dress, Coach Heels

Then it was the Big Day...

The Dress: - Astrid and Mercedes 'Lovely' Gown

The Veil: - Vera Wang

The Shoes: - Jimmy Choo

The Bag: - Vintage (my Grandmas)

The Earrings: - Tashi

The Necklace: - Boutique Bought

The Bouquet: 

Peonies and Sweet Peas tied with ribbon and pearl pins

AND THEN IT WAS ALL OVER AND WE WERE OFF TO ITALY!

(Sorry for the bad picture below it's not an official one!)

Outfit: Kate Spade Dress and Jimmy Choo Shoes

Thank you to our amazing photographer: - Martin 

And our awesome videographers Steele & Coe

The Book Review ~ My Brilliant Friend

Ratings: - 5/5

On honeymoon I took three books, but once I started Ferrante that was it. What a commanding voice! A fully absorbing experience from the intriguing opening to the cliffhanger ending. 

The characters are what drives this book. The narrator is compelling to the point where you do not want her to stop talking to you. Yes, she is unreliable. Yes, she is opinionated and bitter but you cannot wait to hear what she has to say next. 

There is not much I can say about plot or storyline without giving major elements away, (especially as I am already on the next instalment and plot lines are blurring)!

Just read it... the publicity around this series is well placed. It is a masterpiece. 

The Book Review ~ Villa America

Rating: 4+/5

I had no idea what Liza Klaussmann's new book was about. After "Tiger's in Red Weather" I saw this on the shelf of my local charity shop and grabbed it especially as it was on honeymoon reading list. However, I started it and then I left it on the shelf and its spine didn't crack until three days ago when I realised it was still unread and the honeymoon was only a week a way. I had been so excited to pick a book to take and fill my Kobo with some delights that I didn't want to take Villa America so I cracked the spine again, and I didn't put it down for the next 72 hours. 

Liza Klaussmann's writing is all absorbing. The characters and the settings just pull you in and they don't let you go until you are done. This particular story I had read before. Post World War 1, Europe and the artists. I had read 'Z' and "The Paris Wife" loving them both. Now was the turn of the Murphy's and their lives during this time and how it interwove with the Fitzgerald's and the Hemmingway's. This beautifully written semi-biopic book about the tragic love triangle of the Murphy's in the first half of the novel. Liza captures the age and the characters with utter perfection. I loved it which makes the last third of the novel so disappointing. 

The writing turns to correspondents among friends as the Murphy's story unravels into chaos. It is interesting, but it seems rushed. As if Klaussmann ran out of space and needed to close everything down. It got the job done. As in it closed the book down, but it lost its power. 

THEN, she pulled it all back with the most phenomenal ending that just broke your heart! The mystery trip that the characters continually mention during the heartbreaking times is finally revealed, and it is worth the wait. Klaussmann pulled it back from the brink and the rough middle part was forgotten. I just cannot wait to get her next book! 

It all Begins!

I cannot believe this is happening! The countdown has officially begun! 
In TEN DAYS time I will be getting married!

 After chatting to my work colleagues about not having a Hen Night my amazing manager put together a great night with wine tasting at Love Wine in Woodstock, a delicious dinner at the Woodstock Arms,  then a bottle of prosecco in the King's Arms and cocktails closing down the crown! 
A true Woodstock Village Hen Night!  Thank you Ladies!

It was the first event so what did I wear?

Outfit ~ Pedlum Dress by Maurie & Eve with LK Bennet Black Heels

Makeup ~ Laura Mercier Mineral Powder, Nars Blush and highlighter, Laura Mercier Mascara and Blake Lively Loreal Lipstick.

Special Thank You to Cyrus Mower for photographing the Wine Tasting

The Posh Gurl Rewrites

Firstly, I want to thank everyone for their emails. I received messages from friends and strangers and I am happy to say that despite the upset I won't give up just yet! 

Thanks to specific friends who reminded me that what I write is my art, and like art it is easily subjective. Therefore, what you think could be a personal attack is instead a social observation. Please don't take what I write personally. My blog is not my diary it's my art form. If you don't like it you should probably just not read it! 

Just for ABK I will repeat myself with her favourite line. Life is always ready to give you lemons, and its up to the individual to turn them into lemonade... not the annoying Beyonce kind but the yummy refreshing drink kind!

Wedding Dilemma Deepens...

Apparently taking life onto a blog and letting it all out doesn't work in real life. Carrie Bradshaw can write endlessly about her sex life and bad relationships without any sort of comeback. Me, I write about the cultural  pressures of planning and living the perfect wedding and it bites me in the ass! Maybe its just the British ... they don't understand blogging and its rules. Maybe its just the fact people read what they want to read without seeing a point being made. I don't know what it is, but its close to censoring me out. 

After a hardcore Pilates reformer class and a bar of Galaxy chocolate I took it to the amazing ABK for advice! She calls for a clarification rather than a retraction so that is what this is. A "Clarification" for all those who need it in S I M P L E terms. What I was trying to get across in yesterdays post was cultural pressure and how it can take a perfect day and make it disappointing. How reality is completely skewed  by media representation. You don't need a Vivienne Westwood wedding dress to be a beautiful bride. You don't need the plaza hotel in New York for the perfect reception. Even though we know these facts we still let the reality of not having those things effect our reflection on the day, and  it can make us crazy with disappointed and ungratefulness. I am not saying everything will be perfect, (I once went to a wedding where the bride cried because the tablecloth on the desert table was ivory and not white) nothing ever is that is not what life's about, but it is the cultural expectation that it should be perfect that drives the bridal unrest, the ungrateful lashings out and the unhappiness. Instead, as brides we should just look at the day and all the preparation and pre-events and go, "Yes, this is not a clipping from Bridal Magazine, but I love him and this is what it's all about". Another amazing lady I am honoured to call my friend told me at the start of the wedding prep, right after we got engage to always keep in mind that this is about the marriage and not the wedding. 

So, going back to yesterdays post. It was a blog written to comment on the social pressure of wedding planning, and how the 'dream' of things put in your mind with movies, books and magazines actually gets in the way of you being super happy with what is objectively a great situation. No malice, no back-stabbing, just a cultural observation with a bit of real life thrown in. Hopefully this post will CLARIFY what I was getting at, and ease the mind of some readers who took offence. 

P.S. I will not be censored so if your offended get used to it or stop reading cause The Posh Gurl ain't gonna stop writing! 

Expecting the World and Getting ... Not Much

CENSORED

UNFORTUNATELY THIS BLOG HAS BEEN CENSORED



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Jeans, Jeans Everywhere but Which Ones do I Pick?

I own exactly three pairs of jeans. 1 pair of distressed skinny boyfriends by 7 for all mankind, 1 pair of super skinny Kenneth Cole Reactions and finally a pair of J. Crew boyfriends. I want to clarify that by distressed I mean a few holes, but they are all patched, no skin peek-a-boo holes. Since when did jeans become so naked. Yesterday I was in a Banana Republic and a girl walked in wearing a pair of black jeans with large rips at the knee and calf. I could see her entire leg. The holes gaped so big she might as well have been wearing a bathing suit. I don't understand! I freak out when my Kenneth Cole's ride too low. In fact I only ever wear those jeans with my oversize tees that hang right over my butt just in case my Hanky Panky's come into view. And, yet there in the middle of a shop a girl was wearing 'jeans' but was pretty much naked. When did distress denim become something to cause distress! 

On the train home I picked up some fashion magazines and had a flip through. Inside my eyes were drawn to an article on the new denim trend, patchwork. I know all fashions tend to resurface but I was hoping the nineties would stay away. First there was the repeat of mom jeans and now patchwork. What is the world of fashion coming to that we are reusing trends that should never have been trends in the first place?

I really don't understand it, and yet I am strangely drawn to it! Fashion does weird things to a person. To me patchwork badges are best suited to a back pack of some grungy teen not the legs of a pair of designer jeans. 

What am I missing here? The cut of the jeans looks bad, the rips look bad, even the colour is bad. How is this a trend that is being ogled at and adorned over? Isn't it just bad taste. Which brings into question when does bad taste circle back around and become good taste again? Does taking something completely tacky and selling it at high prices mean it's suddenly stylish? 

I thought jeans were hard enough to buy with the multiple fittings, but now there is multiple styles completely throwing me. What should jeans be? I've always made sure to have a dress up and a dress down pair. One to wear for a casual dinner and one to wear when you want to run around London shopping! Now brings into question should I have an extra pair for 'trend'? What is the occasion that you would need or it would be appropriate to wear a pair of sequinned jeans stating to bow down? For me I think never! So I am just going to sit this one out!

The Best Shopping Excuse Ever

I am a shopaholic. I wouldn't call myself Becky Bloomwood... perhaps during my early twenties! Now however, I know my style and there is nothing I love more than indulging. 

Over lent I purged my closet and now have a very minimal set of clothes. Mostly it is Lululemon sweaters, Banana Republic skirts and shirts, and a pair of 7 for Mankind jeans! ~ For work there is a pair of Michael Kors pants and a two 10 by Crosby tops, (both of which will meet the bin when I leave in July as they are pretty much covered in coffee stains)! ~  I loved purging my closet. It was the nicest feeling walking into our local Blue Cross Charity shop and handing it all over... a full car load to be exact. It was an amazing feeling. The minimalism of my closet has really helped me hone in on what I love and what I hate. On my days off I enjoy getting girly. My pleated Banana skirts with a nice fitting shirt is great for a lunch, but if I am feeling more casual I grab jeans with one of my long sleeve t-shirts, (I bought two gorgeous ones from Nordstroms by B when I was home). 

Living in the UK has definitely upped my enjoyment of winter clothes... there really is not much else to wear as you are pretty much in them 24/7 10 months of the year! So as I unpacked my summer closet from its winter hibernation spot I realised just how low my summer supplies had fallen. One very basic bikini, three tank tops, two t-shirts, a cardigan and three dresses was supposed to see me through a honeymoon in the south of Italy and then a move to Vancouver in August (where FYI they do get a summer)! So with that in mind... and to stop myself from splurging too much I wrote a list of what was needed. What the purge had taught me about my style was that I needed something casual to match the tops with a few girly extras to pad out the extra days. I would need Banana Republic, J Crew, Anthropologie and of course Victoria Secret, (what Honeymoon would be complete without a sexy bikini). Cross referencing this ideal with the knowledge that there would be two additional outfits to acquire for the wedding, (rehearsal dinner and morning after) I had it down packed. Exactly what I needed and the best shopping excuse ever!

I AM THE BRIDE!

Let's be serious about this. When one shops it is incredibly easy to fall into shoppers remorse. Especially when buying a number of outfits. Surely one dress can fulfil the purpose of three. If I get just this one I can wear it out over the summer. What is summer anyway it is over in two-three months! We have all been there. I fall into that state too. My sister taught me to shop. My mother taught me to feel guilty about it. Hence the best shopping excuse ever! Call me old fashioned but I plan to get married once. Remaining married to this one TidyBoy for the rest of my life. So when else can I grab my best walking shoes, jump on a train and blow some serious cash on the streets of London! Am I right?

When I returned from London the guilt did come into play, but it was easily averted. I had an excuse. I had a reason to shop. However, to ease the guilt I put in a stipulation. Everything I bought has remained in the wrapping paper, in their bags on the bed of our spare room, (except the dresses which are hung in a garment bag on the back of the spare room door to avoid creasing). Guilt avoided. Everything was bought for a purpose and shall remain unworn until that purpose has come into play. Which is in two very long weeks at the moment! I am Juliet rolling around on her bed lusting after Romeo talking about dresses... except I am lusting after dresses and not Romeo, (sorry TidyBoy).  This wedding cannot come quicker. My heritage denim Banana Republic shorts and floppy Anthropologie hat call to me daily from the gap under the spare room door. I can smell the scent of new cotton leaking from its garment bag... we won't even go into the leather of the new Coach mules I bought to accompany said outfits. 

I have found the best shopping excuse ever but implemented it with the worse strategy ever... Waiting! 

I am going to leave it there before I give away too much about my newly bought outfits for the pre and post wedding events!

The Bridal Spotlight

I love being the centre of attention. In fact, when I told my sister one of our wedding surprises she said, "oh of course! Didn't expect anything less! Always the centre of attention!' Ask my best friend and she would tell you the story of drama audition when I was dancing around a hall pretending to be a cat and reciting T.S Eliot.

It is true. I will agree with both of my ladies and say yes I have never been one to shy away from the lime light. However, this wedding malarkey is shaking my confidence. There is no reciting poetry, or pretending to be a cat. It is time to show how I am truly feeling. When I stand centre stage at the wedding there can't be any pretending its just me as I am, will I be enough?

Every wedding I go to you are there to see the bride. Everyone wants to see the bride. What will she wear? How will she have hair?  I don't want to disappoint! I am terrified of disappointing! Every pimple that appears, even if it is under the skin I panic... running to the bathroom to cover it in toothpaste! Without fail my retainer is in my mouth from 21:00 onwards. I have even put faith in a ridiculous Italian commercial and bought Blanc X in an attempt to whiten my teeth!

The dress, the hair, the makeup, the jewellery, even the stick on bra and stomach holding in panties! I am preening and waxing, reforming and power walking. I feel like I have done more preparation for this way then for the sportive I did last year! 75 mile bike ride is a piece of cake compared to this.

The scrutiny is petrifying, and I haven't even mentioned my hands yet! Manicures, cuticle cuts and moisturising every second of every day. How many people will be taking note of my nail shape, my polish, the softness of my skin. Everyone will be looking at my left hand. And then there are my lips... I must have used four-five tubs of LUSH lip balm and the wedding is still 18 days away.

Before going to bed there is the parade of the creams! Eye cream, wrinkle cream, lip cream, foot cream, hand cream, nail cream, hair cream! How much does a girl need to do to impress! ... Apparently, when your the bride... a lot!

So on the day... please don't judge me.

#gettingmarriedsoon - that's soon but not soon enough!

Breaking news... life moves fast. It is ridiculous how fast. One minute you're getting engaged in the rain and talking about emigrating, filling in the forms. Then the next it is 19 days till the big day you have spent your entire life dreaming about and only a few months before you pack up and set sail to the 'big V'. This Sweet 2016 is rushing by and I am stood gasping for breath. How do I deal with it? I watch Sex and the City back-to-back, (that's after I have packed up the entire apartment five months before we are actually moving). So with many deadlines approaching, panic onsetting all I can do is sit in my pyjamas and watch TV! I ask you what the Hell am I doing?

I am waiting... waiting sucks! I have been waiting to use my new Nars and Laura Mercier makeup since January! Waiting to wear my new clothes and shoes that I bought on our shopping spree in London two months ago. Waiting to have a hair cut since February and it gets worse! Now I have to wait to get a wax, a manicure and my hair dyed all because of timing. Everything is down to a fine art of planning and I can't do anything to throw it off. An unscheduled wax could lead to a misshapen eyebrow in the wedding photos! Although everything seems to be rushing towards me there is nothing to do! The wedding is planned. I can't find a new apartment in Vancouver as the rentals for August are not released yet. And this waiting game is sucking me dry. Waiting that has lead me to the penultimate episode of SATC season 4 which interestingly is about Carrie starting afresh with "a new do" and a new job at Vogue. Jealousy stirs within me! 

A Letdown? Writing... Writer... Perhaps... Perhaps Not? 

One of my besties recently wrote an amazing article for an equestrian magazine and talked about the difficulty of writing after our degree had ended. Sure some people had other people to fund them for a few years allowing them to write constantly and get published... not that I am jealous or anything! In fact seeing a window display in town for a fellow classmate filled me with joy and totally did not make me feel like a failure! For me working in a job that is not my dream... or anywhere near my dream, planning a wedding and a move abroad makes me procrastinate happily. Yet I can't help but wonder am I letting myself down, or more to the point letting down my fiance who fell in love with a keen, aspiring writer and now has a boring barista who naps at midday and watches sex and the city all evening? I want to be a writer but I can't finish anything. Perhaps this is to do with the waiting game. I am waiting to become a writer, waiting for my new business to off and I seem to have packed all together into the idea that once I am married and moved everything will fall into shape. The real questions is will it though? Once I am married and living in Vancouver will I not just find more things to fill my time. Most likely... if my pinterest is anything to go by decorating our newlywed apartment! Oops. The beginning of the year had started out so well I was listing and ticking off that list daily and I had started a great new short. Now I am at Season 4... season 4! How did I get here? Even as I am writing this I can hear myself saying, 'when I get to Vancouver'!! This waiting game is messing with my head. I am waiting for literally everything... if you guys have any ideas on how to shake this up let me know!

Grab the Positives

So far this blog has been about the negative. How I am a record stuck playing the same phrase over and over again! 30 years old and it is the same day dream. However, there is one area of my life that I have finally got moving in the right direction! After two years of obsessing and a few fitness phases (cycling and alike) I finally found the figure I have always wanted through exercise I actually enjoy! After weeks of looking at the two beautiful "I want to be them" women who frequent the coffee shop I asked one for Pilate's classes, (don't panic she is a trained professional). Turns out she has a reformer studio in her house which is just across the park from me. So four weeks ago I started and I am MADLY in love! It is so much fun and what's more I am beginning to get some abs and my ass looks great! Once a week I go to the studio, (walking there and back for a warm up and cool down) and then at home I use my nifty Pilate's app 3-4 times a week. I am officially ready for honeymoon... however... guess what... I have to wait for that too, (well until 2nd June)! Another reason for this new figure is of course the limbo we are in. For about two months now TidyBoy and I have lived on a diet of bread and pasta with olive oil! Our schedules are so out of whack with each other that we are never around to eat together or shop together. So what do we do? I just don't really eat! He just eats junk food as he travels around teaching! 

What to do in the now?

Everything we don't use I have packed into boxes. Everything we do I have categorised and is ready for packing. I have planned a car boot sale and the items attending it with us. I have booked my Ottawa-to-Vancouver shipment, booked in the cat for her passport appointment and every private school and community centre in the lower mainland now has my business proposal. So what is a girl to do in the now when everything around her is in limbo? I feel like Matthew McConaughey in "Interstellar" as he falls into the black hole. He can see everything and knows everything but can only do so much. As 19 days turns to 18 I can see the light at the end of my black hole. Do I wait for the spaceship to gently pass through, or am I done with procrastinating?

Didn't Chanel say, "A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life". My change is booked to start on the 8th June 2016! But perhaps tomorrow I can open my Laura Mercier powder - small steps. Its all about the small steps... especially when considering the height of my new Jimmy Choos. 

The Book Review ~ The Silkworm

Rating: 4.5/5

I am so pleased I didn't give up on Galbraith after "The Cuckoo's Calling". This second instalment is a gorgeously twisted masterpiece. It was supreme! 

The slow-start is clearly a Rowling thing. However, by page 200 the plot is steamrolling, twisting and turning keeping you guessing until suddenly all the subtle clues come together and it all makes perfect sense! 

The last 300 pages I consumed. I loved the characters and the plot! 

Properly getting to know Strike and Robin seems to have moved the book to a whole other level. You want to read about them not just read about the murder! 

Bring on number 3!

The British and their Leggings

Sometimes one is baffled at the fashion sense of the Brits. I am not talking Kate Middleton, Alexa Chung or Poppy Delevigne. I am talking the everyday, run of the mill, M&S loving British public. The ones who believe and commit to the legging. Once again I am not talking Lululemon/Sweaty Betty pant or a Kenneth Cole jegging. I am talking fake jodhpurs, primark addition legging. The type that everybody type loves to flaunt everyday life in. 

Every time a pair of them walk past my shop front I want to run out and shake the person wearing them and scream - "What are you doing? Have you seen your butt in those?" Unlike a good pair of lulus or some perfectly fitting jeggings that support your legs and to some extent hold in your flabby bits - the fave of those Brits, to put it frank do not! No material cupping the bottom half allowing the ever familiar sag to occur. This is especially frequent on those stylistas wearing them in their twilight years! For many the fashioning of these wardrobe staples are socks into which the leggings are tucked into adding an extra factor to the Wow Factor."WOW! I cannot believe how awful that looks!" 

In a day and age when fashion is so evolved with colours, fabrics even technologies - clothes can tuck, tug, pull and pimp yet in this old land people have missed the fashion revolution. Clinging instead to the very misguided conception that leggings are a complementing item to wear at any size and any age, and... seemingly in any colour. My villages personal favourite options are baby bile yellow, or cow-pat green. 

I just really wish someone would stop stocking leggings and bring Britain out of this unfortunate legging disaster taking over all its streets. 

The Book Review ~ Life after Life

Rating: 5/5

WOWZA!!!!

It took me one evening and two afternoons to complete Kate Atkinson's masterpiece. I consumed it hungrily. I have not been so excited about a book since Boyden's The Orenda. What is so brilliant about this book is not just its unique concept but the fact that its plot and characters stop it from getting bogged down in the 'high fiction' premise.

The story of Ursula Todd and her family enduring the two wars was material enough to keep one page turning and interested. Ursula is a riveting character. She is so weird. Observant, intelligent and yet socially awkward, she doesn't fit into the strong stereotypical roles society would place on her like her fellow brothers and sisters. She fights the norm. Even when she conforms it is not fully and there is something interesting about her take on it - whether it be working as a secretary but sleeping with the married higher power. BUT, it is not just the fiction that keeps you turning. It is the premise - the idea of giving one multiple choices at life.  Ursula has the gift of reincarnation. We watch as she dies and returns again to the same moment that shaped her death only to take a different path. Over and over again she dodges deaths and returns reliving the events of her pasts only to react slightly differently and veer off in a different direction to face a different fate. AMAZING!

I began reading on Saturday afternoon. Exhausted from a day out I went for a nap. Picking up the book to read a couple of chapters before dozing off, but dozing off never came. I read and read until I was prompted to change for dinner... needless to say I was pissed off at the intrusion. So when Monday came... a day off... no visitors... the house quiet I dove into the book on the sofa at 2 and didn't move until 7! INCREDIBLE! The only reason I didn't avoid TidyBoy and escape with the book under the covers on Monday night was because I wanted to keep the enjoyment of reading Ursula for longer. Going to work on Tuesday I was literally counting down the minutes. I skipped out of work and into the apartment and cracked the spine. I was only disturbed as Ursula hit old age and the sun streamed into the lounge making me feel guilty! I grabbed a jacket and took the last few chapters to the park where I gorged on the final words and the sun. 

So I found the only fault with the book in the last 20 pages. Atkinson had perfectly formed every section of Ursula's life. Every scenario, every death, every path taken was perfect and fully formed and completely enveloping. However, the last few scenarios were rushed. They seemed thrown together and brushed over. I wanted more. I wanted each of those other scenarios to be fully developed and once again fully enveloping which they weren't. But I guess... a novel has to end somewhere... I just feel like Atkinson could have stopped 20 pages earlier. 

I cannot wait to start "A God in Ruins"!

The Book Review ~ Shopaholic to the Rescue

Rating: 4/5

Welcome back Sophie Kinsella! 

So Becky Bloomwood had gone missing in Shopaholic to the Stars but is back and playing the chick-lit top players in her latest adventure. Sure the plot is a little impossible and quite unrealistic, but it's funny and the characters are back to being loveable!

There is just something so nice to slipping back into a comfortable situation with characters you fully know and love. Today - (at work) - as I finished the last two chapters of the book I had to remind myself where I was and what I was doing. Kinsella had magically wrapped me up in her world of Becky and her ridiculous shenanigans - I was happy to be back there!  

The book is a follow on to the cliffhanger left in the last book.  Tarquin and Graham have run off to Vegas with the evil yoga dude leaving Becky, Jane, Luke and Suze wondering where they were and how they were ever going to find them! So the novel starts off with them running into the desert to find them with only one clue... Brent! 

It twists and turns through the story of Becky's father who had travel around America one summer with his three friends and together they had developed a ground breaking spring which had financially made one a millionaire. The more they learn the more the plot unfolds and the closer they are to finding the boys. However, when they find the men they are no closer to completing the 'task' and so Becky takes the helm and steers them all towards victory. 

Funny. Sweet. Unrealistic. BUT BECKY!

From Porter-to-Porter

"God. The New Yorker. I have been carrying it around in my purse for 20 years."

~ Sex and the City 2 

My choice of magazine is slightly more heavy than The New Yorker but the sentiment is the same, (plus The New Yorker takes ages to read and comes out way to regularly)! I have been searching my whole 'adult' life for a magazine that grips me and takes me page to page. I have tried so many... and every time there is a twinge of guilt as I put it in the recycling bin knowing that some pages have not been written. Being a fanatic reader I wanted a magazine that I want to read cover-to-cover. 

Finally last December I found it. The holy grail of magazines! I had purchased it as a guilty pleasure at the airport on my way to Ottawa for Christmas (Emma Watson was on the cover)!  By my second day in Ottawa I had read the entire book - all 300 pages of it and had put a reminder in my diary for the next issue. The second time round I paced myself! Reading and savouring every detail and it was just as good as the first. Engaging, thought provoking, empowering and compelling. Something I had to read all of!

Broken into sections the magazine has it all. Fashion, beauty, but I am not talking the normal buy this and look amazing - these are articles that talk about healthy beauty not just makeup. I love the last issues straight up myth busting article on how much a person should really drink. 

There is the personal opinion articles, the cover features all of which draw specific attention to women. Their power; their attributions to society, real heroes of our generations; figures who make you proud to be a woman and make you want to be a better woman for the generations that will follow. (There was a fantastic article in the last book which focused on the artistry of photography, specifically female visionaries acting in the field.)

So my addiction begins. It comes with me to work, it comes on the bus and for walks around the park. It is a permanent... heavy fixture in my bag and I love it! 

Who knows maybe I will go the way of Carrie and appear in Porter magazine in 20 years... or maybe not!

p.s.  Latest Issue came out on Friday...  you won't be disappointed!

London Calling

With a new line direct to Maryleborne from Kidlington in under an hour it was a lot easier to convince TidyBoy to accompany me on a London 'Honeymoon' shopping spree. It was a little dangerous with my paycheque just hitting the bank account! So early on Saturday morning we were London bound with a brunch booked in Soho with my cousin and then an afternoon of shopping hopping!

I love London. I love London when I am actually shopping which has only happened twice in my lifetime! Once for Christmas and this... this being the best! I was shopping for ONLY myself and TidyBoy! London rocks my world. All my favourite shops in close proximity punctuated with coffee shops. It is Heaven (this side of the ocean).  Vancouver is of course the best location to shop in whether it be Mall or street! 

So how does one, especially one on a budget get what they need and not get distracted?

First of all... let me put it out there I got everything on my list and nothing more... although it was slightly more expensive then I had planned for. 

My secret is lists... after clearing my closet. Pulling out my summer clothes and stripping back on those too I went to London knowing all that was at home was a maxi dress, shirt dress and mini, two t-shirts and a cardigan. Knowing exactly what is in ones closet is essential. 

Since January I have also been pairing. Making sure every item I have matches with a sweater, pants of skirt so that an outfit is always available when you pull out what you want to wear that day. 

With all that being said the lists come in. With what I had I knew there was something very obvious missing... a pair of shorts. To complete the t-shirts look this was essential. I headed to my staple for everything waist and below Banana Republic!

With that noted I moved onto where we were going and what for! For the answer to this I headed to the blogs: Honeymoon Packing.  

It begins and ends with Victoria Secret! With a week in Italy and a hotel by the beach with a pool the number one thing missing from my closet was a bikini. I have never felt good in a bikini so I had to try on like a million but I found the perfect one (and a spare)! Then there was the Honeymoon lingerie... enough said on that. 

Then there was the accessories! I have the sandals and the gorgeous new shoes I blasted onto instagram because I am so in love with them! So what was left? 

For me it was the hat! I love the hat and have one for every occassion. The quest took me to J.Crew, Liberty, Banana Republic but the winner was discovered on the third floor of Anthropologie (budget gone). I was in love after trying on about a zillion, abandoning TidyBoy's 'I dunnos' opinion for a shop assistants one, and I walked out with a giant floppy one perfect for the Italian coast!

After grabbing my rehearsal dinner outfit - a cute little number I had been eying up online (Banana Republic) which looked just as good on me as it did on screen. I have to say... slushy moment coming up... there is nothing like shopping with TidyBoy. He gets this doe-eyed look and cheeky grin whenever I come out a dressing room and he thinks I look good. It was that look that made me... and I mean made me buy the 'morning after' Kate Spade dress and 'rehearsal dinner' Banana dress! - I ended up at the Mother Ship aka LIBERTY'S! 

This was a pure WEDDING STOP! 

I love makeup which is why I have decided to do my own makeup on the big day - that is with a little help. Over Christmas I visited an artist in Nordstroms and got made-up! With a list of exactly what I needed we headed to Liberty's Make-Up Room and the Laura Mercier and Nars counter. My lips and eyes were done so it was simply a matter of collecting. However, a little assistance on my face was needed. With some playing around I headed out completely broke and completely satisfied. 

I had done it. I stuck to the list and everything was ticked off. 

A successful London trip... plus TidyBoy got some tidy pants and shorts!