Revenge Friday- Girl Dinner Special, what I have been up to and Notting Hill

 Hello darling, 

I hope you have had a lovely week. I thought this week I would share with you my favourite girl dinner and also like what I have been up to and reccomendations.

What I have been watching/ been up to +recommendations

Gentleman in Moscow- This is quite a sweet show. It is basically about a gentleman who has been forced into like a sort of exile in a luxury hotel. It is set in Russia from 1917. It is quite a charming show and (it feels wrong saying) it is quite easy watching- it is a nice show to watch in the evening. The last episode is out soon and I look forward to watching.

Sargant and Fashion (Tate Britain)- This was such a good exhibition. It is the exhibition of portraits by John Singer Sargent and they were really gorgeous. I went a few weeks back and I defo recommend going- it is on until early July. Btw if you are under 25, you can get the tickets for £5 and you just have to make an online account.

Ezra Collective- I went to see the Ezra Collective at the British Library which was such a nice evening. I had seen them play once before and they are so good to see live; they are so joyful and fab. I had never gone to the British Library before and I sort of want to visit properly at some point.

Peckham- I met up with my friend in Peckham and we went to Il Giardino which is an Italian restaurant just off of Peckham High Street. It's a really quaint restaurant. I had the walnut pasta which was really good. Then we went to a cocktail bar that I hadn't been to before and it is called Zapoi. It has such a romantic and quirky ambience; I really want to bring my partner. The cherry bakewell cocktail was soo good. I would say though the toilets were character building because when I went upstairs there were no lights on and so I was shining my phone torch and there were like dolls, masks and curiosities everywhere. I was so freaked out.

The People's Piazza: A History of Covent Garden (BBC Iplayer)- This is a bit random but I watched this documentary on BBC Iplayer which is basically about Covent Garden and it was really interesting. So i recommend watching it.

Girl Dinner

I thought I would share with you my favourite girl dinner components. In my family we call this sort of dinner 'pick up', like 'lets have pick up for dinner'. Sort of embarrassing when I say it in front of people. Anyway here are my favourite components:

Homemade Hummus- I love how easy it is to make hummus and it is just far better than buying shop brought. It is also made of things I normally have on hand anyway; it is tinned or jar chickpeas, lemon, garlic, olive oil and tahini + whatever spice you fancy such as zatar or paprika.

Raw vegetables- Cucumbers, carrot batons and Avocado

Sauerkraut- This is soo nice. At home we always have sauerkraut in the fridge. It is really good on top of crackers, as a side, in salads. If you are not familiar with it, it is fermented cabbage. The brand we get is Vadasz which you can find in the fridge section at the supermarket.

Cottage cheese on crackers- I used to take cottage cheese and crackers as my pack lunch to work (I would pack them in separate containers to avoid sogginess) so often. I sprinkle Everything But the Bagel seasoning on top and it is soo good.

Omelette- I don't know why I don't make omelettes more often- they are so easy and tasty. I also love trying out different cheeses inside, like I like having it with gruyere or Ossau Iraty which is really good.

Marinated Artichokes- for the marinated artichokes you can find them in the fridge section at supermarkets. They are soo good. I did used to have an artichoke recipe on my blog which was for boiled artichoke and a marinate- it was a family recipe and I gave the most chaotic instructions.

Revenge Friday

I relaxed in the morning; I was making a gift for my partner. In the evening I was meeting up with my partner for early dinner in Notting Hill. So I got there in the afternoon and it was such gorgeous weather. It was actually nice to go when all the shops were closing and the tourists were sort of leaving for the day.  My partner had driven round for about an hour and a half looking for a place to park, meanwhile there was miscommunication and I had walked up and down Portobello Road several times lol. We did meet up and we were both overheated so we just had like a leisurely stroll.

We actually wandered and window shopped along Westbourne Grove (it is just off Portobello Hight Street) which was really nice. I want to go back next time I am in Portobello because they have some boutiques such as Love Shack Fancy and Reformation. The restaurants on Portobello were so busy, we eventually found a Chinese fusion place which was really relaxed. I had a really good evening and I am pleased I went out because it was a really lovely weather that afternoon.

Also I fucking missed the eclipse- I totally did not get the memo.

Also apologies that I didn't post last week- I had a cold. I had a fun craft day at home which I felt so much better for and then I went to Oxford at the weekend. Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed reading slightly chattier blog. Let me know whether you try any of my recommendations. 

Love, 

Happy Hippo

Revenge Friday- PoMo bike tour and second hand purchases

 Hello darlings, 

I hope you have had a good week. As part of my like revenge life, I am trying to do more like culture things and tbh I will go and do what I like regardless if anyone wants to come with. So yeah Thursday night after work I went for dinner and to a small exhibition opening for Close to the Hedge. It is an exhibition of photographs of bushes/hedges and it was in Deptford at the Gareth Gardner gallery. Defo if you are in Deptford the next week, check them out. I would say do not go out of your way because it is only small. I went for dinner beforehand at this really nice Italian restaurant called Marcella. It had quite a small menu of small plates and pasta- it was relaxed and I was on my own so I was just sat at the bar chatting to the lovely staff. So that was good fun.

Second Hand Purchases

I have recently made a two second hand purchases. I picked up this camisole from the charity shop. It is actually nightwear but I think it is actually really cute and I will probably wear it with (surprise) jeans and some ballet flats. I like the way it cinches at the waste. I was actually examining it when I got home and the fabric has some text printed on it which says 'I'm in demand because I am never late, to start a job or keep a date'- huh?

Then I brought a dress on vinted. It didn't look like much in the images on Vinted- it didn't convey how lovely it is. I had a google and I found a picture of a runway model wearing it to the 2017 Victoria Secret show. She looks gorgeous in it. 

Image Source- FASHION Magazine

It arrived and I am so pleased with it. I quite like that it isn't too fitted or short- it looks more relaxed. I love the lacey bits on the shoulder, so fun. I will wear this with a pair of black heels in the evening or some summer sandals for a day look.

The brand is Club Monaco and the body of the dress is 100% silk. Both items totalled to under £20 (£3.50+£16) which is quite fair.

Revenge Friday

So my dad has recently been organising and researching a bike ride architecture tour. He wanted to do like test run on Friday and because I couldn't be there on the actual day of the bike ride I thought I would join him on the exclusive preview. We started in Bank/ City of London, went across the river and along the south bank to Greenwich and back to Tower Bridge via Isle of Dogs. It was loads of fun.

We had to skip over a lot of the buildings from Greenwich because we had gotten so side tracked that it was actually getting late.

Here are two of the buildings we looked at...

So China Wharf  (the red building in the image) was one of the buildings on our ride this was built around 1986-8

I used to walk past this a lot as a child and I never noticed that one of the balconies is a boat- such a revelation.

Then this the Isle of Dogs Pumping Station- its basically a sewage pump built 1986-1988.

Then after the bike ride, I had like 20 minutes at home to get ready and then I had to go out again to go to an event at the Barbican, it was author Kate Atkinson doing readings accompanied by BBC Orchestra. So yeah I really enjoyed my day.

Lots of love,

Happy hippo x

Revenge Friday- Hols, Zara boycott comes to an end and results x

 Hello darlings x

I came back from my holiday to France on Tuesday afternoon and I have been home relaxing. I got my university results and I achieved a... 2:1. I am happy.

I hope you have had a lovely week and you have been loving the summer x

Revenge Holiday Continued…

It is obviously really warm and busy in the south of France at the moment, so it was sort of difficult to get out and about. I just sort of relaxed at the beech and went for ice cream and browsed the old town most days.

I did a bit of shopping on Sunday. I wanted to get a bra because it’s so hot in Nice and I did not bring enough bras. Like not to be tmi, but it’s the sort of temperature where you can only wear items once before having to wash them. 

Anyway I got some underwear from Etam. If you are in France, Etam is a great place to treat yourself to underwear for a French Girl Glow Up. I also like Princesse Tam Tam- I have a lovely bikini from there. My sis and I also like Tezenis (technically it’s Italian) and Undiz. I will do a big list of all my fave boutiques and places to go in Nice- or just send me a message on Instagram if you want recommendations.

I also met my sisters dog, Azar. He’s so sweet; he has such a lovely nature.

Zara Boycott over:

I have mentioned this before on my blog but I had been boycotting Zara for the last five years (if my memory is correct it had been over 5 years since I had purchased something from Zara). Long story short, a member of staff was rude to me. 

However Zara is my sisters favourite place to shop and so I do get dragged in but I always resisted buying anything- it felt too soon lol. However, on Sunday, after over 5 years, I felt different like I actually felt ready to forgive. I brought myself a really chic dress and I am going to wear it in my new era of forgiveness. 

This isn’t the most flattering photo tbh. With ballet flats or heels or sandals, it looks nice.

New purchase

I got this Fiorucci tracksuit second hand… I am hoping it’s legit. I got it because it’s been sort of shit weather this summer and I have been wearing the same grey hoodie, so I just sort of fancied an upgrade. I love Fiorucci; we love an Italian vibe. This sweatshirt came with adorable matching shorts.

I feel a bit cute. It just needs a wash with a bit of fabric softener.

What I am watching

Ultimate Wedding Planners- Let me preface this by saying I do not recommend this, I just want to complain about it. I don’t normally watch shows like this but I tuned into the first episode one evening when I didn't have anything to watch and I have been watching it ever since. Basically there are like several contestants who work in the wedding industry (in some form of another) but would like to make it like big and to turn it into their career. They have to work together to organise a wedding and they have like a couple of days to do it and £10,000. This show is awful. The first episode it is shocking how horrible they were to each other- it’s actually like bullying. But the show is a bit addictive because its so tense and I am a bit gripped.

DIVA

My mum kindly invited me to join her and her friends to the V&A, I actually felt bad for intruding. We went to the exhibition Diva. I loved the concept of this exhibition at the V&A but it just fell short for me. I can’t stand the exhibition space it’s in; I will get so hyped for a V&A exhibition and then I find out it’s in that space and my heart actually sinks. The exhibition explored the history of the Diva, it’s a goddess but the word also comes from Opera. They had some very famous dresses such as the stunning Swarovski dress Rihanna wore for CFDA 2014, a few Cher outfits and a little black dress worn by Edith Piaf. But it’s on till next year April if you want to go. It was a really lovely day and we all had a chit chat in the cafe after.

Whose wellies are these?

Have a lovely week!

Love 

Happy hippo x

Day Out in St John's Wood

 Hello x

So today I went to St John's Wood. Yesterday I went to the V&A with my mum to visit the Menswear exhibition. The exhibition was really good actually, very interesting. They had loads of interesting things on display and loads of paintings as well which were really interesting. Anyway, it was while I was in charity shop on Kensington Highstreet yesterday that I had the idea to go to St John's Wood today. St John's Wood is a really nice area to brows the boutiques and charity shops and grab some lunch.

I picked up Kate Atkinson's Case Histories in Oxfam. I was looking for it in my house this morning but could not find it and just concluded that we had given the book away, so yeah it was lucky I picked it up in the charity shop because I wanted to read it next.

Then I browsed another charity shop and tried on a dress but was not quite sure because I thought it made me look quite pale. Anyway I thought about it over lunch (ice coffee and a feta and spinach pastry from a deli) and decided t buy it. I also picked up some really cute crystal bowls in the shape of flowers, I only picked up two but there were twelve there and I really regret not picking up more than two because it turns out my mum actually collects these bowls. I did think I recognised them.

The bowls are 1960's Dartington and I paid actually a good price I paid £3 for each but yeah I should have got four because they are really cute. The dress is really gorgeous it is a silk slip with lace. I paid more than I like to admit for the dress (£24) but to put it into perspective one might pay that on like a bad quality fast fashion dress. I know I will wear this.

Then I went to Regents Park where I had some raspberries and a drink. Yeah it was really chill. I walked down to Marylebone where there are more charity shops. I was soo tired by that point I was sort of done with charity shopping.

I then headed down to oxford street because my sister wanted me to look for a particular dress for her at Urban however I couldn't find it. Honestly it was so chaotic in there and soo warm.

I also popped to a haberdashery because I wanted to look for some bias binding. So I was making a top out of some fabric last week when I realised that I would have a lot of fabric left over, so therefore I decided to make two tops but as a result I wouldn't have enough fabric to make the bias binding. Therefore, I was looking for some bias binding in a solid colour but somehow I managed to leave the house without my fabric swatch and yeah I just could not find a colour that would match. I will go back again with the fabric swatch and hopefully there will be a match. It was a really lovely haberdashery, although I felt a bit intimidated because there were lots of studenty, fashiony people looking at fabric.

I apologise for that boring explanation. Here is a picture of my very nearly completed tops- they do not have the straps which is made from the bias binding. They look really adorable, one is for myself and one is for my sister if she wants it. I am planning to make a few more things this summer (weirdly all tops) so if you would like to see a blogpost of my sewing plans and/or my completed garments, let me know. 

Anyway, yeah I had a really lovely weekend. I definitely enjoy doing that charity shop route (St John's Wood to Marylebone) if there is an occasion I need to buy a dress for- you can pick up something for a good price and the likelihood is it has only been worn once before (there have been surveys on Christmas Party Outifts and statistically most outfits are only worn once).

See you later x

Weekend in London: Tiffany, Hightstreet and Rolling Stones

hello!

I am currently on hols in the south of France which is really lovely. The weekend before I went away I was in London because I am between uni houses at moment. It is actually so stressful coming back from uni and having nowhere to put your stuff ugh it drives me so mad. I have no room for anything so I just leave everything in their boxes.

 feeling a bit adorable. ☆

During the week I met up with my friend a few times and we went to Shoreditch. It is actually nice because I feel like I have someone in the same boat as me, as although we were in different academic years at school, we both started University during the pandemic. I don't know if that made any sense but yeah starting uni during the pandemic was actually quite a nightmare so yeah it has been really nice to catch up with her. She just gets it. Shoreditch was fun- we just had a browse and then took some drinks to the park.

On the Friday I went to the Tiffany exhibition at the Saatchi. It was free entry which was quite good. Sooo busy though. In one room it had the jewellery displayed by decade with the coordinating original catalogues- so it was like a timeline. There was another room dedicated to like diamond jewellery where they also had on display the tiara worn in the 2013 Great Gatsby film.

 

Also they had a room which was Breakfast at Tiffany's themed which displayed the Givenchy dress Audrey Hepburn wore and the Oscar awards the film won, along with other stuff connected to the film. 

The tiffany diamond was displayed in another room. Yeah it was a fun exhibition, there was a lot to see. 

My mum and I picked up some lunch after and had a wonder around the King's Road.

Then on Saturday my sister came home. We went to get some Nandos on Sydenham Highstreet which actually really hit the spot. 

Then we had a look around the charity shops. I picked up a really chic dress actually, it is a red houndstooth print with long sleeves and a sort of handkerchief hemline. I also popped into Superdrug where my sister and I picked up some nail polish. I got a Little Miss Fun one which is a coral colour.

I really like this dress- I am so glad I purchased it. I got it for £5 but they originally had a tag on it for £10 but it was in the sale. 

Then on Sunday my family and I went to a Rolling Stones concert in Hyde Park which was really fun actually. They have a great energy. It was really chill just to people watch and just relax. We got one of them Santander bikes back to the office.

Unfortunately I am now on hols with covid. Please send me advice on recovery. I had sort of long covid when I had it back in March (?) 2020 and I totally do not want that again because it made me sooo unproductive and tired. I look forward to chatting with you soon. There are going to be some great blogposts this summer. I really want to help my readers have a lovely summer x

ciao x

A Day in Soho...

 Heyy xxx

Nothing is being posted chronologically at the min but just bare with. I have such a backlog of blogposts but I do not have a lot of free time at the min because of Uni work. But anyway guys, I thought today I would post about a day out I had in Soho. I sort of decided to take a break from studies and go to the Francis Bacon exhibition at RA.

The night before the exhibition I listened to a few podcast episodes about his life.

I had some sushi beforehand.

So yeah, I went to the exhibition. In the first room it sort of, I guess, pointed out the links between his work and the coronavirus, as he painted a lot of caged animals- which I thought was very interesting. One room was really amazing too because it had three paintings of bullfighting scenes and it was the first time that they had been displayed together and they were really amazing. There were other really fab pictures too. He painted some pictures of his boyfriend after he had died and they were very moving.

Then after I went to Soho. I got some coffee for my bf x I also went to the chocolate shop in Liberty to get Easter chocolate for various people.

I also sat in that park in soho for a bit while I was waiting for Happy Hour to start. I cannot stand that park in Soho there are sooo many pigeons and men trying to chat you up. Then I went to a bar called Ruby's and yes I did go because it has my name. I had a really yummy raspberry martini, wrote my postcards and then went home. Yeah I had a really nice day and unfortunately the exhibition is closed now I went in the final few days, otherwise I would recommend it.

Anyway guys. Love you lots x

Ruby