Homemade Matcha Green Tea Cheesecake With Pistachio

I have always been a fan of green tea, but my addiction for the bitter goodness was heightened when I was kindly sent some high quality matcha powder from my dear friend Laura at Cherishing The Cherry Blossoms. From cookies to lattes, matcha powder can pretty much be incorporated in any sort of food. But after the home oven annoyingly broke, my baking options became limited and I scoured the internet for non-baking, dessert ideas to feed my sweet tooth. Enter my new favourite easy-to-bake green tea cheesecake!

Loosely based on a basic no-bake cheesecake recipe, I created my own green tea version and made small tweaks to the traditional ingredients to give something different and slightly healthier (with a particular emphasis on the ‘slightly’). So here is my matcha green tea cheesecake with pistachio…

Base:

– A handful of crushed pistachios
– Original Digestive biscuits, crushed (about 5 biscuits fills the base of two ramekins)
– Small nob of butter

Filling:

– Low fat cream cheese (1 standard pack fills two ramekins)
– Icing sugar (as much as you desire to satisfy that sweet tooth)
– One teaspoon of matcha powder dissolved in warm water (about 10-15ml depending on size of cheesecake you intend to make)

Finishing:

– Sifted matcha powder to dust on top

Directions:

I used ramekins for my cheesecakes, as I felt this was the easiest way to control my portions and I think they look good for presentation purposes. But you can use any container you wish.

1. Roast the crushed pistachios in a pan for a few minutes until a little brown. I feel that this helps to bring out the pistachio flavour more intensely. Add the butter and crushed biscuits, then stir until all well combined.

2. Dish the above into the ramekins and press down neatly with a spoon.

3. Mix the cream cheese and icing sugar together until a well combined mixture forms.

4. Add the dissolved matcha to the filling mixture and mix well. Make sure the match mixture has been dissolved completely before adding to the cream cheese, otherwise you will see lumps of green. The final mixture should be a very pale green colour and still quite thick in texture. If the mixture falls off your whisk or wooden spoon easily then it is too liquid and will not set in the fridge.

5. Spoon the mixture over the bases in the ramekins and smooth the top

6. Pop the ramekins into the fridge and allow the cheesecakes to set for at least and hour.

7. When you are ready to eat the cheesecakes, dust some matcha powder over the top just before serving. If you do this before you set the cheesecakes in the fridge, the powder will sink into the filling.

8. Enjoy!

Have you tried cooking or baking with matcha powder before? Please feel free to share your recipes!

& Other Stories: An Exciting Shift For Retail

Magazine editorials have been showing us for years how to put together outfits. ‘Editor’s Picks’, ‘1 Dress, 5 Looks’, ‘Stylist Recommends’… the list of familiar article headings go on. There are not many shoppers, fashionistas or beauty addicts that do not like seeing how catwalk looks or even celebrity trends can be ‘copied’ or ‘inspired’, particularly those articles that pull together such looks on a high street budget. So why stop at the static publication? Why not bring these to life? And I don’t mean virtual life. Don’t get me wrong, I believe E-Tailers are truly powerful in making online shopping experiences more and more ‘real’ with virtual fitting rooms and video streams of models wearing the outfits, making online clothes shopping easier and more enjoyable than ever before. However, I’m talking about translating this concept into a physical retail store. Why not, place that pillar-box red lipstick by that military jacket, next to a stack of rose gold arm candy? And let’s not forget those suede, over-the-knee boots with that cute, studded, leather satchel to accessorize.

That’s exactly what & Other Stories, the latest venture from Sweden’s retail giant Hennes & Mauritz Group, has done. I can’t express how refreshing I find this. To me, the stagnant retail industry has been crying out for someone to be daring enough to take this risk and put a spin on the traditional retail model. Since the 2008 recession, the government has been trying to revive the UK retail industry with initiatives spear-headed by retail expert Mary Portas herself. I am a huge fan of the Portas myself, but honestly I think what the industry needs, is to see a large enterprise really take the leap and step out of the ‘comfort zone’ first, before making any changes themselves.

The Regent Street store in London opened in March this year and I can’t believe it has taken me this long to pay my first visit. If you haven’t had the chance to check out & Other Stories yet, you can expect to be quite overwhelmed when you first step in. There are so many ‘concepts’ presented to the shopper upon first glance, I found it rather difficult deciding where to look first! However, as I made my way through the store it became apparent that it is the many individual displays, collections and ‘stories’ with ‘navigation signs’ that made shopping in there such a captivating and exciting experience. What story am I going to stumble upon next? What nail polish does the store recommend I use with this look? Oh, and there’s a his and hers bathroom sink where you can test toiletries and cosmetics. This really is visual merchandising on another level. Displays that invite you to touch, test and team together different pieces. Even the fitting rooms are filled with quirky displays and more ‘stories’ (I guess in case there’s something there you think could go with the maxi dress you’re trying on).

Think Anthropologie meets Muji with stripped-back Scandinavian cool. The clothing echoes the billowy shapes, clean structures and strong fabrics of top designers such as Phillip Lim, Proenza and Isabel Marant. Imagine Cos classics and minimalism designed through the eyes of a style blogger. It’s how I would imagine Jessica Stein (of Tuula Vintage) would be if she was a pop-up store. Prices aren’t too bad either. Nail polish starts at £5, buttery lipsticks at £12 and a whole range of colours to give Dulux a run for their money too. Leather belts from around £19 and suede jackets go up to around £140. Most knitwear is around the £35-£60 mark, which is not far off from what you would find in Zara or Topshop.

I would say however, that the general styles are probably not to everyone’s taste. As you can imagine, whilst ‘model-like’ style bloggers can carry off fringed leather boots and make any shift-shaped outfit instantly cool with a floppy fedora – I’m not too sure the design of the clothes will be easy for everyone to wear. Having said that, it’s definitely a haven for finding those unique jewellery pieces that are often only available at expensive, independent boutiques or inaccessible American brands like Anarchy Street. New, up-and-coming young designers are also given their own showcase areas with a short bio on display. It’s great to see a retailer pushing the boundaries on the shopping experience with a bit of re-organisation, good old ‘pen-on-paper’ signs, a few clip-board pegs to pin up fashion looks (just like we did at school for mood boards and now as grown-ups on Pinterest) next to each concept. Whilst other retailers are championing the digital push in-store (i.e. Nike and Burberry) to transform the retail model, & Other Stories is making a shift through more understated means. These ‘stories’ change regularly in the store, which is more than enough incentive for me to visit every time I am in London town. And with H&M’s Isabel Marant collaboration about to launch in November, I predict a nice and steady rise in some Hennes & Mauritz stocks…

Have you been to an & Other Stories store? What do you think?

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Online Fashion Explosion: The Growth of Cheap & Cheerful E-Tailers

Boohoo.com’s recent expansion into menswear under the brand of BoohooMan marks a pivotal point in the industry for low-end, fashion e-commerce. The launch comes only a few months after being named the UK’s second largest ‘online only’ retailer/ ‘e-tailer’ after market leaders ASOS. But it seems Boohoo.com is not the only e-tailer enjoying extremely fast year-on-year growth.

For me personally, it was only in the last 6 months or so did the rise of cheap and cheerful online fashion really start to make some significant inroads. From TV adverts, to blogger endorsements and entertainment sponsorship, these e-tailers are becoming the favoured places to feed the market’s addiction for fast, disposable, but highly on-trend fashion.

Turn back the clock to only about 3 years ago and Primark was perhaps the sole, go-to place for these cheap purchases. Now even Primark is using ASOS for its online channel. The traditional stigma that online shopping can be a hassle due to varying fit of garments and products looking starkly different to its images (a particular issue when it comes to cheaply-made clothes), has certainly made a critical shift in consumer perception. But why has this changed? What has increased buyer’s confidence in online shopping for cheap fashion? Is it the increased marketing and exposure through celebrities and bloggers? Is it because e-tailers are getting better at providing quality online shopping experiences? Well, it’s both. But I must also tout the power of social media in particular as a key driver behind these two factors.

Above: TV presenter Laura Whitmore posts Instagram photos of herself wearing dresses from Motel and snapped in Motel at a red carpet event.

We only have to look at Instagram to see the hundreds of fashion hashtags and tagging of ‘people’ in posts to see the impact of this. Ingeniously, companies can now be ‘tagged’ in Instagram photos, which means users can be taken directly to a brand’s Instagram account, therefore directing traffic towards the final shopping sites and increasing potential sales. As a fashion and business enthusiast myself, I believe this is only the start of an exciting emerging area of the market. This opens up incredible digital monetization opportunities and the need for new analytics tools to be deployed. RewardStyle for example, has already eyed this concept by offering a digital marketing tool that does exactly this, for top-tier publishers. You can see the tool in action on Olivia Palermo’s blog site.

What companies will have to bear in mind however, is the over use of web tools that could clutter a user’s social media experience. Whilst it’s convenient to provide customers with a way to instantly shop for clothing they like, from the moment they see it on a friend’s/ style blogger’s/ celebrity’s photo; users also like following images and blog posts for the simple reason of appreciating photography. And if photography becomes overcrowded with tags and ‘what-not’, the user experience could potentially be negatively impacted and back fire.

Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how this exciting explosion of cheap and cheerful fashion e-tailers develops in the near future. Whether the fast growth is only for the short-term, I think we can expect a definite change in future shopping habits and social retail media experiences.

Here is a list of the most popular e-tailers and my verdict so far:

• Boohoo – I have only purchased 3 dresses from here so far. Quality is on par with Primark, but on average the dresses are cheaper and the styles are much better in my opinion. Primark has a knack for making garments too ‘on-trend-heavy’. I love this Paisley ‘Liberty-esque’ printed shift dress (purchased in blue/green):

• Missguided – the fabric of most of the dresses and tops are very thin. But their basics collection in particular is very good for stocking up on staple minis, vests, crop tees and those easy-to-wear skater dresses. I particularly like the ‘Sweet Deal’ Missguided is currently running, with items from £2.99.

• Pretty Little Thing – this is very similar to Missguided in not just the website feel and layout, but in terms of categorisation of basics and trends. But personally I think it lacks in design and originality (of course all these sites follow the same ‘trends’ but some do manage to design items with a slight twist and less predictability) in comparison.

• Glamorous – this also sells higher-end dresses from boutique brands, which is great if you are looking for something different but don’t want to risk that high-street, Topshop clash with someone at the party. Dresses and basics here are generally extremely cheap (£4-£15 average) and the trend edits are particularly good. Keeping with the popular cami trend, I recommend some of these cross-back, printed styles:

• Motel – this is by far the best in terms of quality, however it is slightly more expensive than the other sites on average (£40 for a dress rather than £20-£25). Motel has actually been around much longer than the majority of these other clothing brands and technically is not an online-only retailer. Its clothing is also sold in boutiques across the UK. My favourite pick of the week:

And just huge thank you to Millie Mackintosh’s amazing style diary for redirecting me to some of these great e-tailers! If you haven’t discovered Millie’s inspiring fashion blog yet, where have you been? I love how it is testament to my belief that fashion is all about being able to pick out the right pieces – no matter your budget, the brand and where you buy it from. It’s also great to see a style icon mixing high-end with low-end, despite clear financial advantages! Some of my favourite Millie looks, incorporating cheap fashion e-tailers are below:

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Patty and Bun, London

After reading a lot of blogger coverage on Patty and Bun, I thought it was time to pay a visit myself and give a personal verdict. Touted as one of the hot, ‘must-try’ burger places in London right now (now seeing the new entry of Shake Shack which officially opened in Covent Garden last Friday) with queues that average at 30 minutes in off-peak hours, I was certainly expecting a special bite.

So we actually arrived at Patty and Bun around 5.45pm, mainly because I knew that queuing would be inevitable. Tucked down the end of James Street and not without passing the bustle of St. Christopher’s Place, Patty and Bun looked every inch a pop-up restaurant already packed with ravenous young adults; each one making their burger chomps worth every minute they’ve waited for that seat. From the outside, it is very easy to dismiss it as a regular fish and chip/ fast food stop, as it is very small and ‘temporary’ looking. But just look for the pillar box red sign amongst some curious diners hanging around (mostly trying to figure out whether you need to go inside to inform the waiter that you want to put a name down, or whether you should just join the queue immediately outside) and you should not miss it.

Just to clarify, if you just join the queue a waiter/waitress will come outside and take names from everyone in the line. There is also a menu outside for you to have a good browse at during your waiting time – which admittedly I completely ignored and probably wasted some of the staff’s time in their table turn-arounds when we finally got seated. I am not joking when I say literally 2 seconds after we were handed the menus at our table, the waiter asked if we were ready to order! I guess in such a busy and high turn-around environment, customers are expected to know what they want, eat (enjoy briefly) and get out. So if you’re in a big group of friends looking to dine somewhere for a big catch up – this perhaps isn’t the best place. But if you’re a big foodie like myself – team with another who equally appreciates hyped up good food and happily dine.

I opted for the Smokey Robinson burger: ‘beef patty, cheese, tomato, lettuce, mounds of caramelised onions, bacon, ketchup, smokey P&B mayo, brioche’ and although it sounds just like any other bacon and cheese burger – I can honestly say this is the best bacon and cheese burger I have ever tasted. Perhaps it’s the crispy strips of bacon which really had that freshly chargrilled smokey taste. Perhaps it’s the gooey melted cheese merging into the sweet caramelised onions. Or maybe it’s the toasted brioche that sandwiches all of this together with a perfectly juicy, medium-rare beef patty. Oh and I forgot to mention the hand-cut chips seasoned with rosemary salt – just simple and awesome. I just wish I hadn’t already filled my stomach so much earlier that day with an incredible brunch at The Breakfast Club (review coming soon), so I could also try some other sides.’Winger Winger Chicken Dinner’ was definitely calling for me!

The great thing about this place is that they also do take-out, so if you are lucky enough to drop by James Street on a lunch break, I would definitely work my way through all 6 burgers on the menu. I think just from the name alone, ‘Lambshank Redemption’ burger already rewards Patty and Bun another visit from me sometime in the future.

Atmosphere: 4/5 – because of it’s location, not far from Oxford Street and surrounded by the bustle of other cafes and restaurants, combined with the whole burger hype in London – there is no doubt a great buzz about eating at this place. Although seating is very tight inside (only seats 30 people) and I did feel like I was in a typical Asian street cafe where sharing tables with strangers is the norm.

Service: 4/5 – we didn’t actually have to wait that long, considering the whole burger-hype thing. The waiters were efficient, payment wasn’t too slow and despite the super busyness, staff were nonetheless attentive and enthusiastic.

Food: 5/5 – Beef was juicy and thick, (maybe a bit crumbly if I was to be extremely critical) and all other parts of the burger were cooked and seasoned perfectly for my taste. Fries – wish I had more!

Price: 4/5 – reasonably priced, pretty much on par with any other burger chain like Byron or GBK – but these burgers are actually very good and not as dry as crisp 90% of the time. So in that sense, I guess its even better value for money. High quality produce at an affordable price.

But like I always say to my friends, don’t take my word for it – just go and try it!

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That Wedding in Singapore

The sun beamed with intensity as we walked under a pure, blue Singaporean sky towards Marymount, to attend the morning tea ceremony of my dear cousin and his beautiful bride. It was a bright morning. Just like every other one had been in Singapore, where the sunlight was strong all you saw was white. And the soaked backs of men’s shirts was a reminder of the usual humidity.

But despite the unbearable heat, the groomsmen and bridesmaids successfully conducted the traditional Chinese ‘gate crashing’ in style and the bride nevertheless emerged in the most stunning ‘kai po’ I have seen to date. The tailor-made dress had an incredible lace back (think the high quality crochet type) which fitted her perfectly. Of all chinese kai po’s I have seen, this one is the closest to the stunning design worn by Hong Kong model Kathy Chow. Needless to say, I immediately noted down the name of the tailor!

 

Several hours after the warming buffet at the bride’s lovely home, where some of the best local Singaporean food was served (although 90% of it was super hot and spicy, and by this point of my holiday I was desperately craving something that wasn’t) it was time to get ready for the main wedding ceremony held at the great Raffles Hotel.

At first it seemed doubtful that we would watch the happy couple get married in the courtyard, with the indecisive rain clouds hovering and causing a stir. The hotel staff were constantly on guard and ready to stack up all the chairs as soon as a couple of drops came down. This happened at least 3 times, before it was decided that Plan B had to be implemented. But this plan certainly wasn’t secondary in terms of impact. Taking place on the sheltered stage in the courtyard and looking out onto the beautiful lawn, we watched the groomsmen, bridesmaids and super cute nephews and nieces walk up the rich, red carpet. Not to mention the dramatic and emotional music in the background – it was safe to say I was already sobbing after one minute!

 

So the big moment came, the bride arrived. An elegant, one-shouldered white gown, with light ruffles that were so airy they almost looked perfectly ‘under-styled’ – of course it was Vera Wang. From Vera Wang’s lower-end collection, this gown not only had a fantastic price tag, but the upmost quality and grace that only a designer gown would bear.

As for myself, I wore a simple, fitted skater dress in dusty, pale blue by French Connection, teamed with nude courts and accessorised with a statement necklace I purchased from a local Singaporean boutique.

 

Have you or will you be attending any summer weddings this year? Please share all your wonderful experiences, I hope you have enjoyed reading mine.

Dress Shopping That Pays Off

It may not feel like May in the UK right now, what with all that erratic change of weather from hail one hour to blinding sunshine the next. But many of us have had to start planning early for summer party occasions nonetheless. Whether it’s that senior prom, University graduation ball, you’re heading to ASCOT or perhaps like myself you have a family wedding coming up – shopping for the ‘perfect’ dress can quickly become a stress. And the last thing you want to do is resort to the leftover party dresses on the ‘last chance’ rack in Topshop. Or even worse (and probably an all-too-familiar situation for most girls), you end up frantically buying any dress you see online that has your size. Then, either it doesn’t arrive in time or you realise it looks awful and end up resorting to that safe LBD that already has over 200 tags on Facebook. So what can be learnt from these experiences?

(Image via Sphere.)

This year I’m lucky enough to be able to attend a wedding abroad and will be jetting off to Singapore for part 1 of my cousin’s special day. Part 2 will take place a week later here in the UK. So not only did I have to shop for a dress for a big family wedding, I had to look for two – one suitable for humidity and one that is ‘rain-safe’! And after scouring the market since March, I’ve not only managed to find two dresses that I absolutely love, but I’ve even bagged myself a bargain party dress which can be worn at upcoming occasions for later in the year. Here are some useful tips for organised dress shopping:

Timing – As soon as the first batch of Spring/Summer collections are launched online/ in-stores, have a look what’s there! It’s very easy to think that it’s too early to look at summer party wear in February, but if your dress size sits on either end of the spectrum it is likely that your size will be out of stock very quickly.

Buy it, decide later – if you’re dithering over more than one dress and not sure which one to buy. Purchase both and try them on again at home with different heels/ accessories etc. which will allow you to make a more informed decision on which one you prefer. Also, you then won’t be gutted if you go home and realise you’ve made the wrong decision, only to go back to the store and find the other dress gone!

Do your research – sounds intense, but essentially that’s what you’re doing when you’re shopping around anyway. It’s helpful to bookmark pages or take photos in store (obviously when the sales assistants aren’t looking) and keep a log of the styles that you like. It is much easier to then go back and compare everything that you have seen.

Know what suits you – there’s no point wasting time looking at dresses that you a) wish you could wear, but “think you need to lose 10lbs before going there” b) will only wear once because it is too over-styled and only appropriate if you get invited to a red carpet event and c) know you can not afford! (Well, to be fair I’m rather guilty of the latter myself and it does actually make you see everything on the main high street in a very negative light – so be careful!) By all means, try on as many different styles of dresses to find what you like and see what suits you if you’re not sure. But I have found myself wasting entire shopping trips because I was looking at the wrong things before!

Budget and be realistic – I think this one will come hand-in-hand with doing your research. If you don’t want to be spending anything more than £35 on a proper party dress, you have to know that you will struggle. Generally a dress for special occasions will average at around £60-80 on the high street. Having said that, more and more low-end, very on-trend online clothing stores are popping up. Besides the wonderful world of ASOS, the following sites have some extremely cheap party dresses, with new designs in every 2-3 weeks: boohoo.com, misguided.co.uk, meemee.com. I would also advise going on the dedicated websites of the concession brands that retail at Topshop and Newlook such as: InLovewithFashion and AXParis.

The two dresses below are the ones I have chosen for the Wedding. First one is a skater tailored, fitted dress from French Connection in a gorgeous summery blue £120 (though I don’t think the photo does it justice). The second is a bodycon ASOS midi-dress (although I had mine shortened) in an amazing tattoo print £35 (bargain!).

I absolutely love this strapless black dress from H&M’s Conscious Collection, which priced at £49.99, I think is a bargain! It has delicate organza details around the bustier and comes with an arrangeable, couture-esque feature. The only downside is that the fitting isn’t quite right, with the bustier section being on the tight side and the skirt too baggy. Perhaps this is why this was the only dress out of the collection with plenty of sizes left! Nevertheless, I will be taking the skirt in at the side seams for a better fit and I’m hoping I will not have to bend around too much when I do wear this dress – as I do love it so much. I think when I find a dress on the high street that could easily be a product of a Parisian fashion house, I am willing to do anything to ensure I keep it!

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Do you have any dress shopping tips you would like to share?

‘Clean Eating’: just for health freaks?

So I realised it’s been a while since I’ve blogged about anything food related – pretty rubbish since I’m supposed to be dedicating the ‘scoff’ part of this blog to eating! But I do have a valid excuse, I swear. Today marks exactly 30 days until I jet off to the beckoning shores of Bali, where I get to experience my first Far East paradise and I am determined to get myself into a relatively beach-confident state. (Admittedly this has always been the ‘plan’ every time there is any imminent holiday, but have never really been completely successful). Until this time round, I hope…

In the last 4 weeks I have been the most strict on myself in terms of eating ‘clean’ (except for one cheat day a week which I have to allow myself, otherwise I will go crazy since I have such a sweet tooth), avoiding any processed foods and increasing my intake of fruit and fibre. To be fair, I’ve never really been a massive fast food junkie anyway and have managed to cut pasta pretty much out of my regular diet, since my final year of University 2 years ago. And believe me, if you suffer from IBS like I do, pasta is such a big culprit to that and not eating it as part of a regular diet has made the biggest difference to my life. When I do have that cheeky seafood linguine on the rare occasion, I prepare myself for the 2-3day bloated discomfort. So in general, it’s not like there were any drastic changes I needed to make for this beach target.

But I can’t help being sucked into all this health business, where I’m learning about super foods and discovering words I never even knew existed. Words like ‘kamut’ (apparently pronounced ‘kay – moot’, although I’m still yet to find someone to say it out loud in a conversation to validate this. Much like my relationship with the word ‘Quinoa’) which comes ‘puffed’ and is supposedly a super low calorie cereal alternative. I have found myself addicted to following not only yogis and aspiring yogis on Instagram (yes, I have now committed to taking up Yoga seriously and following pretty pictures of yoga poses on the beach is unexpectedly inspiring), but also clean-eating-bloggers who are all on their individual journeys to, well, health. Graceful_Health instagram pictures are the prettiest clean eating meals I’ve seen:

I tried to look up the proper definition of ‘clean eating’ and was inundated with a spectrum of views and methods for following this concept. Essentially its about cutting all (that’s the ultimate aim) processed and refined foods from your diet and eating completely whole foods. This is particularly hard for individuals who are obviously very accustomed to eating ready meals and non-fresh produce on a regular basis, however what I was particularly surprised about the high number of people who have said it has completely changed their lives for good, they are now apparently eat nothing but ‘clean’ food, with newly changed taste buds too. But surely you would still like a chomp on a bit of that Ben and Jerry’s chocolate fudge brownie every once in a while? No?

Can someone really hand on heart say that they are happier with their diet like this?  Just imagine going through every single meal of the day and having to think about whether the chicken I bought from the market is organic or not, would surely become a bit of a headache? And I have always believed that cutting all ‘bad’ things from anything is essentially – bad, in its own way. Much like the notion that if a kid was always protected from most harmful germs of everyday life, he or she is more likely to fall ill once they move out of that environment because their immune system has not been developed to resist such minor viruses. So this really begs the question of how sustainable clean eating really is. Perhaps it is specific to the individual? I know my personal answer to that is a straight no. And I’m simply following small ‘elements’ of clean eating to help myself get a little fitter and healthier. But I have to say, my relationship with food is too major to suffer like that.

I am not saying clean eating cannot be tasty either, but there is only so much ‘rabbit food’ (to put it politely) a real foodie can take! So perhaps my inner will power is just not strong enough to follow this through and maybe clean eating really is only for the extremely committed health bods? But for now, I am happy to do this temporarily and the results of it combined with regular yoga and pilates, is definitely looking promising so far! So if you are also looking to tone up and give yourself that bit of confidence boost in the sun, I would recommend the two together!

On the note of Yoga, http://www.yogabycandace.com is a great place for easy-to-follow videos. And if you are an Instagram addict like myself, Christine_Kay posts some cool poses in random sunny locations to really get you motivated:

What are your thoughts on clean eating?

Bedroom Transformation

So after several weeks of manual labour (after surprising myself with my physical strength!) with lots of help from the mother, my bedroom transformation is finally complete! Well, 90% there at least. Barring a few tweaks with light switches, tidying up jewellery storage and framing a few pictures for the wall, I am so happy with the results!

In my last bedroom overhaul update (here) I posted a couple of pictures of inspiration, particularly for the open closet section and in terms of the colour palette I wanted to apply. Given I don’t actually have a walk-in wardrobe (one day…) I wasn’t sure how this open closet concept would work and whether it would make my bedroom look more like a store room by having all my clothes ‘on-show’. And since I already had fitted wardrobes, the biggest battle was re-arranging storage. But I am so glad I went ahead with the idea. Strangely, although there’s now a huge custom wardrobe in the room, the new composition and layout seems to make the bedroom much more open.

I am now pleased to share my before and after photos with you all! Of course, if money was no question I’d also strip out the carpet, change the doors, add intriguing vintage ornaments of some sort… but I think I did the best job I could on a budget! I am still yet to sort out the shelf next to the wardrobe and also the shabby cupboard under the noticeboard, but once I get round to all those finishing touches, I will share those photos too. If you have any lovely ideas, please feel free to share them!

Before… A mixture of everything accumulated since the age of 7. The keep, donate and bin process started…

After…

There are actually more bags stuffed and hidden at the back!

 

It is weird to feel satisfied at the look of neatly folded trousers??

Practical and cheap: an accessories hanger from Ikea…

A vintage-inspired worn frame from good old TK Maxx…

Some tins I have yet to find any fundamental use for. But they look pretty and they’re from Paris!

Re-using a dusty pink shoe box to create different height levels and displaying other objects. I don’t actually use the Miss Dior Cherie perfume anymore, but it’s too pretty to throw away… I also love my lucky Mulberry bird randomly perched on the end!

These shelves have been sitting in a mess for weeks now! But the aim is to have one shelve dedicated to jewellery and the next just for beauty products. Next point of action: de-tangling jewellery nightmare…

Another set of practical and cheap buys: velcro show boxes from Ikea. Although you will need to bear in mind that any pair of heels taller than 3 inches will not fit upright inside.

Temporary window sill display… Ralph Lauren Home fragrance diffuser and a ceramic gift token.

What’s on my bedside cabinet…

Cute dish (from Ikea again) for those everyday bits and bobs…

New chandelier from BHS…

Two shelves that need further organisation and thought…

I hope you have enjoyed reading about this project, if you are doing something similar, please share your link and I would love to have a look!

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America Photo Diary

So I have been lacking lately due to a trip to America, coupled with a snowballing amount of work and looming deadline. But this week I’ve managed to take some chill time and finally getting to post some travel pics! This trip was an incredible experience for me in terms of overcoming many ‘firsts’ – first flight alone (I have always been able to share my travels with at least one other person), first time in Dallas (admittedly it was only the airport!), first visit to Austin, first time in Arizona, first time leading business meetings independently… Basically a lot! And although many if these were initially unnerving, it was a positively challenging experience and I loved every minute of it.
My first stop was to Austin, Texas for 3 nights where I took a drive by tour of quirky Austin, met some super friendly locals and worked with lovely colleagues based in the office out there. What I was most impressed about Austin was the variety of food. It is clearly a hub for upcoming street food as we drove by streets of people swarming and queuing for the latest food truck delights. Wurst Tex and Vietnamese Mexican were just a few concepts I spotted. If I had more time in downtown I definitely would’ve liked to waste away the day trying everything! All in all I would definitely recommend anyone to give Austin a visit, for it’s super friendly, chilled atmosphere and intriguing eats.

Scoffandstyle on Instagram

As I know I won’t be available to blog as often as I would like, in the next couple of weeks or so (due to a business trip in the US), I thought I would remind you guys that you can follow my travels and happenings on trusty old Instagram. Here are just a few from the past month :), without repeating any already shared on this blog. You can follow me here.

Keep your eyes peeled for an Instagram log of my travels to America in a few weeks time – although I will do a full photo diary for you all here as soon as I get back!