Pretties

Top Shop bird cage necklace ~ Vintage mint green flower dish from a flea-market ~ Diptyque Bougie Parfumée Orange Épicée candle ~ Vintage miniature hand painted gold frame from a flea-market ~ Glass carousel horse (gift) in front of Musical carousel from a car boot fair ~ Caitlin Shearer print in TK Maxx black frame ~ Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume ~ Top Shop black & gold ring ~ Annick Gouttal Mandragore perfume ~ Gold miniature chair & dressing table trinket boxes (gift) ~ Pink lampshade tea-light from a church fair ~ Pink seahorse from a flea-market in Barcelona ~ Ladurée gift boxes ~ Eiffel Towers from various flea-markets & Etsy

Take 10 ~ ASOS

My second challenge for the Take10 Project is this camel cape from ASOS. I think we were all pretty excited to receive this. It's a beautiful piece that will work through many seasons. I see myself getting a lot of wear out of it with both dresses and trousers, I am a keen fan of swathes of volume so this cape gives me just that. And it has a certain Britishness to it in style, almost Burberry-esque, so I saw the traditional British Royal Mail Post Box as the perfect accompaniment. See below how the rest of the girls wore theirs - MJ ~ Sarah ~ Sabine ~ Sherin ~ Jazmine ~ Vicki ~ Adele ~ Jen ~ Ellie

ASOS cape ~ Zara dress ~ Next faux fur hat ~ Top Shop leather gloves ~ H&M black velvet & gold wedge shoes ~ Tabio black 110d tights ~ Chanel Coco Rouge Gabrielle lipstick ~ Top Shop Pillar Box nail enamel

I Shall Only Buy Pieces I Truly Love

For one who does not make New Year's Resolutions, here is my second aim for the year. I have dreamed of owning a dress by Charles Anastase for many years but could not justify the cost to myself. Finally, I found a piece that was (almost) in my price range. Only to discover upon it's arrival, a missing belt and a hole in the sleeve. My quest continues.

Seaham Hall

Today, due to other obligations, I am missing out on tea with my ladies. So it seemed appropriate to post these pictures from our last visit, taken before Christmas. I met my dear friends at Seaham Hall in County Durham for Afternoon Tea. There are some lovely places in the North East of England to go for tea, we are very spoiled for choice. It's a beautiful place serving delicious food. And I couldn't help but take some shots of my friends' accessories too.

Guest ♥ 2 - A Day in the Life

Welcome to my second guest in my Life in Pictures series. Many of you I know, will already by familiar with Nicolette Mason. As I keep telling her, she is living my dream life in Brooklyn in New York, USA. She travels extensively to my dream destinations of Tokyo, Berlin and most recently Bali. She writes for Vogue Italia. And of course, she wears my dream wardrobe, filled with designer pieces with a lot of sparkle. So she seemed like a very obvious choice to ask to be part of this series. I am quite fascinated with her life and I'm sure you will be too. Here is a Day in the Life of Nicolette...

On Friday, I started my day with a single-egg omelette, a piece of toast with truffle butter, and a cup of Earl Grey Tea.

After breakfast, I migrated to my computer to devote several hours to writing. I managed to complete an article for Vogue Italia about Crystal Ren's rapid rise, as well as an essay for my own personal body of work.

With several hours of solid work under my bed, I finally mustered up the courage to properly get dressed to venture outside to run several errands. A simple task turned daunting when the weather is absolutely frigid! I settled on a black wool Marc Jacobs dress worn with thick tights under a faux fur coat.

The walk through my neighbourhood was chilling, so cold that the nearly week-old snow could still be found everywhere!

After a stop at the post office, I headed to my first real destination: Brook Farm General Store, an adorable shop in Wiliamsburg that sells everything from soap to miniature chalk boards to dog collars. As I've been using rose water as a toner for years, I decided to try out Robert's Rose Water, and brought a bottle home with me.

The shop owners have an amazing and expansive collection of vinyl records. Friday's playlist was Amy Winehouse.

Brook Farm is also home to the most wonderful beagle puppy, Nutmeg!

By this time of day, I had worked up quite the appetite, so my significant other and I set out to try La Superior, a Mexican restaurant in my neighbourhood that neither of us had been to.

We tried a sampling of tacos (chipotle shrimp, grilled fish) and had a side dish of corn.

After lunch, I stopped by my local book shop, Spoonbill & Sugartown. Spoonbill has a really fatastic selection of independent periodicals and magazines that I love browsing for inspiration.

My final stop before heading home to do more work was to Brooklyn Charm,a jewelry supply store where patrons can make necklace and charm bracelets. I was there for anothr purpose, however - to buy yards of metal for my own accessories line, Prey for Dawn.

With more work to do and a necklace to make, I took my supplies home and devoted another few hours before the S.O. and I would meet for dinner at Rye, one of our favourite restaurants in NYC. I had a beautifully prepared free-form lasagne with mushrooms. It was incredible, and managed to put me right to sleep!