Stitches

You may remember the fabulous Lipsy dress I treated myself to a few months a go. I bought it with a friend's wedding in mind and as the big day is only weeks away I thought it best I try it on and check all is still well. At the time it fitted beautifully but I must have lost some weight as the dress was slightly too big!

Drastic action needed to be taken. Spending the day hitching my dress up would not be ladylike, especially whilst juggling my glass of wine, camera and handbag, all wedding essentials!

Several of the men folk at work have their suits altered at Stitches so I decided to give it a try. Apparently they have contracts with lots of the big designer stores so if its good enough for them I thought its good enough for the Lipsy lovely.

One lunch time I wandered over, taking my friend for moral support, and waited in the queue to 'try on'. The fitting cubicle is in their reception area so having to stand in my socks and dress was slightly embarrassing!

I wasn't stood for long though, the staff were fantastic and very quick! A lady pinned in my dress, checking all the time that I was happy and then I was told it would be ready in an hour!

I collected the dress, paid my £14 and rushed home to try it! I was so impressed, once again it fitted perfectly and you couldn't even tell it had been altered, their work was faultless.

Fireflies

On Friday evening the boyfriend took me to see Fireflies at The Lowry in Salford. What a fantastic, energetic, hilarious and heart rendering play! 

I'm not even going to try and review it, I doubt I would do it the justice it deserves, so please click on the link and see what the professionals have written. 

Red

I haven't posted in so long. My new job demands so much more of my time, gone are the long lunches when I could sit and write, find new recipes or search for pretty dresses on ASOS.  My normally tidy house and well stocked fridge have both suffered and I have even been guilty of buying the odd ready meal, albeit from Marks and Spencers, to save me cooking. The secretary is so busy she needs her own secretary! 

I did manage to find the time to escape to Edinburgh for my friend's hen do. It was a fabulous weekend filled with cocktails, gossiping and dancing! We hired a huge apartment which turned out to be a great idea, it meant we could all get ready together and drink wine with the X Factor on in the background before going out to try out Edinburgh's finest bars, then in the morning we sat in our pj's and ate mountains of toast. 

A previous guest, another hen perhaps, had left May's edition of Red Magazine. Red is not a magazine I normally choose but it kept me entertained for the whole train journey home, quite a feat.

I really enjoyed so many of their features, in particular an interview with Jodi Picoult. I am a huge fan of Jodi's work, in particular My Sister's Keeper (I stress, the book and not the film) and Change of Heart. In the interview she listed the books that were important to her, including Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes which was written over 20 years a go. In Jodi's words 'it's about a profoundly retarded man who becomes a human guinea pig for a procedure to reverse his condition'. This will be my next read, no doubt it will be a weepy. 

Another article that caught my eye was 'Making friends with food', a column written by food writer Joanna Weinberg. She writes so beautifully about the friendships she has formed over platefuls of delicious food. As someone who loves to cook, feed her friends and have people over for tea I read it nodding in agreement. Joanna tells us she isn't a host who executes four course triumphs but instead serves her guests simple stews with hunks of buttered bread and chocolate bars for pudding. She dreams of busy kitchens full of people stuffing their faces with their elbows on the table surrounded by empty bottles of wine. I dream of just that, once I have a kitchen big enough for the table! 

Next time I am travelling on the train I know exactly what to buy for the journey. 

I was so proud of my Yorkshire puddings I wanted to show them off for all the world to see. 

To me a Yorkshire pudding should be both crunchy and chewy, not too dissimilar to a meringue and golden in colour. Perfect with roast chicken or dipped in treacle for pudding! 

New Shoes

After whining on about my struggle to find work shoes that are comfortable, long lasting and most importantly cute, I never thought I'd find a new pair with such ease. 

The pair from Next I posted about a few months a go have served me well, they are comfortable, look great and the heels have held up well against heavy footfall to and from work, but no shoes last forever. They are starting to look slightly worn and a new pair needed to be sourced. 

On Friday my best friend visited for a pre-birthday (I turn 25 tomorrow) lunch and shopping trip. We met my friends in Piccolinos for a long and lovely lunch where I had seafood risotto, minus any evil parsley, and and two glasses of mega expensive wine (£7 a glass!). Then we headed to Marks and Spencer to find my friend's boyfriend, sorry Fiance, some winter gloves. A quick detour around the shoe section saw me cooing over the red lovelies I have pictured above. I tried them on expecting to be disappointed so was surprised when they fitted perfectly and at only £25, they were a bargain! I headed to the till impressed with my find. 

On Monday I will be pairing them with my new black pencil skirt from H&M and heading to work with happy feet!

Lily Cole

Lily Cole is beautiful. I would very much like to be her friend but after reading that she achieved 5 A's at A Level I fear I wouldn't quite cut it. Instead I will admire her from afar. 

Redhead Day

My sister sent me this link and I read it feeling rather proud! Coming from a family of redheads I find it fantastic that somebody would want to celebrate us in such a way. For years I have been saying how special we are and to read there is an annual ginger gathering and ginger-only modelling agencies surely confirms this.

All those bullies were just jealous, I'm sure of it.