Between being home in Atlanta for the holidays and moving to a new flat in East London (hollla!), it's been a pretttyyy prettyyy busy month. Here's how we spent our time:
Walking around Central London on cold winter Saturdays...
having dinner in Kensington with these fine fellas and some family visiting from South Africa...
finding (and drinking cocktails at) new places in our neighborhood...
...and looking a little sad, serious, and pale while we did it.
And finally, we stopped by the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, where one of the best things to ever happen was filmed...
Still to come: getting the flat to a point where it looks/feels like home, exploring more of East London, trying not to buy pointless £7 shirts in the post-holiday sales at H&M, and making a few upgrades to the blog.
Gooo team!
A nice ol' western photo from Desert Air, lovely leather luggage from 79 Ideas, freakin' awesome packaging from Dribble, a cactus painting(!) from Sophie LeCuyer—who also has a really great name, and the always amazing Yves Klein.
Have a nice weekend, folks. In addition to maxin' and relaxin' I'll be headed to Ikea to get some things for our new flat, watching some movies, and hopefully going to see this exhibit.
Meanwhile, look at this photo of me!
Just kidding—that's not me, but I wll be wearing a version of that outfit.
Enjoy, gang!
From here!
So it's a new year, and we're all getting back into the groove of things. A healthy way to ease that pain (and nearly any pain, for that matter) is via retail therapy.
Over the past seven months since I made my move from New York to London, I've come across a wealth/shit ton of new stores—some in London, some in New York, and some who strictly operate online.
To help you satisfy that resolution of shopping more, I'll be sharing some of these new shops over the next few weeks. All of these stores are totally unrelated aside from the fact that they're all independent and they're all awesome, so there will be a nice variety to help keep you from away from the ledge during the Worst Months of the Year.
Without further ado, I give you our first awesome Store You Should Know About, and that's London's own Labour and Wait.
Labour and Wait is the kind of store that makes you feel clean, but that kind of clean that you'll never really be and can only aspire to. (Similar to the feeling you get when you shop at Whole Foods.)
Whether I'm in their East London store or just browsing their online shop, I'm always overcome with the urge to throw out everything I own and focus only on classic, salt-of-the-earth design.
Labour and Wait originally opened in East London in 2000. The store was created with timeless, functional design in mind, which was a response to the cheapened, mass-produced products that were beginning to saturate the market. It only took the rest of us about 15 years to catch up to this idea but boy, I'm sure glad we did—I got one of those snazzy little mugs from my husband for Christmas and man, it's good:
Labour and Wait has two brick and mortar locations in London—one in Shoreditch as well as one in Dover Street Market. And should you find yourself in Japan, check out BShop—you'll be able to find Labour and Wait at 13 of their locations.
Thanks to Poppy Talk for taking a great picture of the swoon-worthy brush collection, and Dwell for their ballin' shelf photo.
Well, here we are in January and I can only hope you folks had as nice of a break as I did. Photos and all of that to come, but in the meantime, here's a little beach inspiration to get things moving, or at least get you daydreaming of somewhere warm and sunny...
Amazing blond hair from Models Gone Wild, a beach I'd like to be at courtesy of Optical Fixation, ughh a perfect dress from Clover Canyon...so good, and classic white Cons from London's own Park & Cube.
Because I like to make things as stressful as possible, we've decided to move to a new neighborhood in East London two days before I head home to Atlanta for Christmas.
Despite the fact that 1,000 things need to happen before Monday, I've somehow found plenty of time to look at blogs and movie trailers and pictures of Obama on my laptop. In fact, right now I'm doing the moving equivalent of Sloan Crosley's attempt to clean out her room in I Was Told There Would Be Cake.*
Needless to say, as soon as I have the energy to get up, I'll be offline for a few days. If you need me, I'll be wearing a similar outfit and falling asleep sleeping standing up from a food hangover like this Erin Fetherston girl.
Happy holidays!
*Note: if you haven't read Sloane Crosley's I Was Told There Would Be Cake, you should do it right now. Here's an excerpt that made me laugh out loud the first time I read it:
The day I get shot…will in all likelihood be the day before laundry
Sunday and the day after I decided to clean out my closet, got bored
halfway through, and opted to watch sitcoms in my prom dress instead.
Whether you love or hate the holidays, you're probably pretty over hearing about them at this point. We're entering what I'll call Phase II of the holiday season, which begins as everyone starts to realize Oh, shit—that's about a week away.
So, whether you've chosen to acknowledge the holidays up to this point or not, here are a few holiday activites that seem obnoxious but are completely worth the effort:
1. Light candles—A good-smelling house is a priority. If you doubt that, just remember what it's like to walk into a room that smells bad. Holiday-scented candles are especially awesome and will also make you feel nostalgic.
You should probably try this LAND by LAND candle in Cedar:
2. Make cookies—'Nuff said. Remember that cookie decorating never hurt anyone so don't forget to go that extra mile, folks. We're talking sprinkles, icing in a tube, etc.
You should maybe make these gluten free chocolate chip cookies:
3. Listen to holiday music: I know, holiday music is everywhere you go, but a nicely-curated playlist can really hit the spot. A few highlights (with the videos to match):
Wham! Last Christmas Side note: this video actually makes me kind of sad. Can't you just feel their unrequited love?
Band Aid - Feed The World This song is ridiculous and doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's one of The Best in my opinion
And a new spin on an old classic: dreamboat Jimmy Fallon* and The Roots do Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You Included: actual Mariah Carey and a kazoo
4. Turn on some lights—Unless you have a migraine, holiday lights will improve your mood. And that is the end of that conversation.
You should probably steal this idea from the Merchants Cafe, as posted by Miss Moss:
5. Do one (seemingly annoying) holiday activity: Hear me out on this one. Doing things like buying your own in-house menorah or advent calendar may seem fruitless, but continuing with traditions like this will make you feel better than you expect. So, see the Nutracker or go ice skating. It's totally worth it.
Here's a really nice and non-annoying holiday photo by Carissa Gallo from Kinfolk Magazine:
And if you don't feel up to any of these super-fun holiday activities, keep in mind that all of this will be over in two weeks. Happy holidays!
*If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and listen to Jimmy Fallon on Fresh Air
I live in London with a teddy bear named Bowtie. Before this, I lived in Brooklyn. Before that, I lived in Atlanta. I work in fashion and eat a PBJ every day for lunch, so that makes me quirky.
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