To Venice With Love

 I'm back from my short (five day's) but very sweet trip to Venice, it's my second visit to the city of luurve and being a non car driver, it's actually nice not to feel in the minority for once, as all of life pretty much happens on the water. Being a bit of dreamy person its very easy for me to get lost in the pages of Venice's fairy tale setting, twinkling blue water, bobbing boats and many palaces. If you read my previous post here, you might know I was fortunate enough to book a stay in a small but perfectly formed boutique hotel that is actually an old palace, the Palazzetto Pisani.

It was an amazing experience, I'm a bit geeky when it comes to loving opulent historical buildings and there have been more than a few moments in my life when I have wondered what it must be like to sleep in a four poster bed or to strum the harp in the music room of some VIPs stately home and now I found I really had chance to eat, sleep, bathe and dress in the rooms previously lived in by the seventeenth century 'royalty' of Venice. If I'm honest  I was a little dubious if the hotel would live up to what I had read on the website, happily for us it did.

Destination Handbags

 

 

 

Since planning to go to Venice this August, I have had a few marketing emails that relate to Venice catch my interest, one of them was from a company called Cutey, sadly my wardrobe lacks anything pink, fluffy or Cute, although I do love me a bit of cartoon kitsch I can be a bit of Tom boy and as sad as it sounds I feel a bit lost without a pair of my ankle boots on. Despite the lack of sweet outfits I seem to gravitate towards hearts and now have a variety of them punctuating my walls at home.

 Cutey have just launched a leather handbag collection, each bag is named after a city from around the globe and they all come with mark of a Cutey bag, a smooth shiny heart shaped lock in silver or gold, another nice thing is the design of their handbags, simple clean designs that are easy to wear and the colour palette includes both neutrals and more sunny tones like the red which is a tomato shade and a yellow that reminds of home made lemon curd.

 

 

 I have been on the look out for a good black handbag for ages and oddly enough I like style of Cuteys small black shoulder bag the Venice, which has a wrist strap also, which I would probably use more. I like to walk and swing my handbag's brief case styley rather than wear them hooked over my arm or on my shoulder.

 So the question is which destination handbag would be next on my list, not sure if this is all becoming about the power of suggestion, since New York is the next city I hope to visit but I do really like the lines of the New York bag which has a sweeping v shaped design that I can imagine Joan from Mad Men reaching in to, to pull out her favourite red lipstick for a quick touch up.

 Oh I nearly forgot to mention that 10% of Cutey profits in their first year will go to Breast Cancer Research, if you want to take a look at their newly launched collection you can find it here.        

  

Step Into A Blue Suede Shoe

Fair Trade dress - Topshop

 

 

Thanks to the birth of the royal baby boy, the colour navy blue is back on our fashion radar for A/W 13, as you know I have a bit of thing for wearing this colour a lick of it changes me from care free to blue blooded siren in minutes and works to whiten up my eye balls and perk up my skin if I OD on pizza the night before or miss out on a few hours sleep and although blue is soon to be in again, as a classic it’s never really out, like some hybrid colours I could mention, like Tango orange, I’m just saying.

 My favourite look I have spotted for winter is wearing a dark slick of petrol tones, using a combo of shiny textures in dark green, navy and black worn with a crisp white shirt. Right now I’m on the lookout for a navy pair of silk shorts and matching PJ top and a blue print Kimono to wear as a dress so if you spot either of these on your travels I would love to know, are you a navy addict like me or is the only blue worth having your denim collection?     

 



Shade Attack | Tame Those Shades

 

 

 



runway-behavior.tumblr.com

 

www.sierrachantal.com

 

whatchathinkaboutthat.tumblr.com

 

  I never thought I would complain about a lack of rain, but man it's hot!! I'm hooked up to a permanent drip of ice cold ginger beer, the backs of my legs are sweating so much that I keep getting suctioned to my chair. My mantle piece is littered with sunglasses of various shades and prints rather than my usual nick nac's which have now been tossed into the nearest draw, they look like shiny over sized exotic beetles some on their backs with their legs splayed out helplessly in all directions, not neatly put away in leather cases like they should be, cleverly resisting scratches and smudges.
 
 Oh well, I do have some thoughts on how to generate that mysterious, expensive aloof style that happens when you bring together the right sunglasses with the right look even if I am pretty careless with my own. Believe it or not, I think even expensive shades/sunglasses can look cheap and usually this happens when you choose a pair that totally over powers your look a bit like a bling ring. Even if you couldn't give flying frog about co-ordination think back to classic looks they become classic for a reason, they work with you. I've fallen happily in love with the classics over at shadestation.co.uk . 
 By now you probably know which shades work for your face shape, I wrote a guide here if not, the most important thing to remember when choosing and wearing sunglasses is the context needs to be right too, take the first image I chose, the models high blonde hair and bleached out features are the perfect back drop for these winged encrusted beauties she's wearing, because if she was minus these shades we all know that she would be wearing huge faux eyelashes to amp up her eyes.

Bling Slippers And Venetion Palaces

 

 

 

 

So I have snuck back onto your screen, hoping you have not noticed that I vanished for a short time, I'm in the middle of some life changing stuff and it's been hard juggling everything so I decided to just focus on a couple of things, rather than do lots badly. I'm planning a trip to Venice on the 10th of August for five days with A, we have decided to be a bit posh and spend more on a shorter holiday, so we are staying at Palazzetto Pisani Boutique Resort an old small palace, there are quite a few palaces that have been converted to hotels in Venice. The hotel has a water door into the building which means if we want to arrive at our hotel entrance via the canal we can, I love the idea of stepping onto a boat and gliding up to the hotel door. 

 

 

 

 The first time I went to Venice was as part of our Honeymoon and even though we only stayed for three days, It really felt like more than just romantic, I liked the mix of tranquil canals and the bustle and mystery of Venice. I wore my bargain pair of silk ivory wedding slippers I picked up to go with my wedding dress, heavily embellished with beads and sequins.

 

 In Venice the concept of being over dressed doesn't really exist so me and my bling slippers blended right in and when a super stylish local Venetian women told me she loved my slippers and then wanted to know where I bought them, it made my day. I've changed my attitude to shorter holidays since my first trip to Venice, I decided I hate the whole packed itinerary of must see tourist destinations. So although I still make sure I know where the good stuff is now, I prefer to let the place I'm visiting reveal its secrets to me and then just wander aimlessly through the city streets, up and down alleys, pressing my nose against shop windows until something catches my eye.
 

 

 

 

One thing I'm not leaving to chance is where to eat, lots of visitors to Venice complain about the cost and bland nature of food, I had a laugh when when I came across a blogger that had dedicated a whole blog to her experience of breakfast in Venice, to help others avoid dodgy brioche and watery coffee, but thanks to her I can save myself hours hunting down a good coffee shop.
 

 

 I have done a little bit of research into favourite restaurant's and cafes where the locals go to eat and have discovered where you can get the best meatballs, pizza gelato (ice- cream) and Jewish pastries shaped like horns filled with a creamy almond paste. Are you off on a adventure this summer?     

 

 

 * Images courtesy of Palazzetto Pisani Boutique Resort *

 

Sodium Lauryl Sulphate Free Options

Image courtesy of apartment therapy

 

So I'm on a bit of a mission at the moment to eradicate Sodium Lauryl Sulphates from by  bathroom, after trying all kinds of tooth paste and range of natural solutions that involves everything from sea salt and cooking oils like sunflower and olive oil, which nearly had a friend of mine throwing up on my shoe. I am finally happy to reveal the winning cheap as chips friendly flexible formulae is ta da! Baking Soda!

 

 Minty Toothpaste Not So Slick

 So how do I use it and have I found any other magical uses for these cleaning crystals? I shall reveal all the secrets of this humble product right about now - well in terms of use I like to mix about a half a teaspoon with a table spoon of warm water till it's dissolved and then dip my electric toothbrush into the liquid, swish it around and brush my teeth, I admit after covering your toothbrush in a thick slick of minty toothpaste it does feel a little lacking and there is no foam or dramatic frothing of the mouth, but remember that's because your not chomping on any nasty SLS and my breath is not minty fresh but just clean, which suits me. I'm sure you already know the gory details, but most oral germs live on the tongue so as long as you clean your tongue, floss and clean your teeth daily, your mouth should smell pretty fresh.

 

 

I Like The Ritual Of Using Dry Toothpaste - It's Like Cleaning With A Sherbet Dab

 Another big plus is you can give yourself a simple teeth whitening treatment to remove any stains about twice a week by dipping a damp clean tooth brush into a pile of this snowy whiteness, I keep it to about that other wise you can literally scour your tooth enamel to nothing which kind of contradicts things.  

 

 

 

 Victoria Secret DIY Hair Care

So what about any other uses I discovered, well as I have been looking at exchanging my shampoo, conditioners and hair dyes with SLS to SLS free options. I came across some possibilities, some really expensive and others tested on animals and finally I read this article that explains a Victoria Secret diy hair treatment that uses a combo of Baking Soda and Apple Cider vinegar as SLS free way to wash and condition your hair and leave it full of body and condition, it works well, if you can get over having no rich lather and spending under £4.00 for a healthy shampoo and conditioning treatment. Want to educate yourself about SLS products? Check this article. 

 

 

 

Graduate Fashion Week - The Northern Connection

Cartoon Graphic Prints

 

I was lucky enough to see some of this years London graduate fashion week on my door step at a viewing at UCLAN in Preston which is currently ranking amongst the top four most prestigious Universities to study fashion. I thought some of you might like to check out the talent. Last year UCLAN fashion students scooped four awards at London Graduate Fashion Week including the Zandra Rhodes textiles award. After my initial minor embarrassment of my sharing my appreciation of what I thought were baked bean head dresses with my neighbour when they were in actual fact plaits that had been photographed I recovered quickly and got visual goose bumps as a some incredible pieces whizzed out from behind the curtains. I was fascinated by the edgy cartoon graphics and quality street wrapper inspired pieces.The skill and talent of the students was evident as models sauntered down the runway wearing inspirational cuts and heavily embellished collections that with out doubt Susie Lau of Style Bubble would trade some of her coveted wardrobe for, you can read her coverage here and check out some much better images too!

Quality Street Wrapper Colours

 

Mexican Mash Up

 

 

Peruvian Inspiration  

Cartoon Retro

China and Metalics

Plaited Head Dress

Mexico and Lots Of Beading

80'S Does Jocky Strip For Women?

Metalics And Menswear

 Inspiring Menswear

 

 

The Making Of Harry Potter - Warner Bros Studio Tour, London

 

 

 

 I think there is one occasion when it's pretty acceptable to proclaim your a geek and confessing that your an adult fan of Harry Potter is it! I finally managed to get to see the making of Harry Potter at the Warner Studios in Leavesden, after first reading about it through Jen at Little Bird Fashion in 2012! It was worth the wait, I often get goose bumps listening to music but rarely about visual things but in this case I did!

 

 

 I liked the fact that the tour was not full of bossy tour guides and that you were free to take photos when ever something caught your eye, which was a lot!

 

 

 The detail and the talent that goes into making the Harry Potter sets is breath taking, I was a little worried the tour might take away from how special the films I have seen are, but in reality it was the exact opposite, seeing everything close up in all its detail was an incredible feeling and very magical.

DIY Festival Attire

                

 

 

 

 

 

Lately I seem to have been involved in overseeing a fair amount of festival packing for friends, but I have to confess to feeling a little bored with what has become a bit of a uniform. So I went in search of some stylish fashion DIYs that reflect my approach to statement festival dressing, they should have an element of fun but be cheap enough to allow you to cavort with wild abandon with out worrying about damage to your fashion purchases, at the same time I wanted to find unique pieces rather than copies of expensive fashion lines in magazines, these type of fashion DIYs are often of the up cycled variety and lean more to style than trends.

Get The Customer Service You Want

 

Getting The Customer Service You Want

From parcels that don’t turn up, to cleaners that damage your garments, to dentists that terrify you and drs that belittle you, In my world service is service whatever angle your coming from and how little or many initials you after your name, if your seeking help and advice or a product, how people deal with your needs as a customer or client or patient either on or off line should be just as important as the outcome.

Although A teases me for acting like the queen and never carrying hard cash I don’t believe that I’m particular demanding as a person, I’ve have been known to embarrass friends by helping clear plates at restaurants when I have seen the waitress struggle. I've done my fair share of plate pushing so if I can help a sister out I will. Good service makes your day go smoothly bad service can ruin at least a couple of hours of your day, statistics show that we human beans (this is not a typo) remember the bad things for much longer than good, so I guess there's an argument for business and services to help make people feel really cared about, special and help them achieve what they need to with minimal effort and when something goes wrong to see it as an opportunity to win back your confidence quickly.

 I hate with a vengeance when the speed and pleasure of purchasing on the Internet is undone, if something goes wrong with a product and you have to spend hours and hours of time on the phone being passed from one person to another before things can be resolved. This is an area where buying in store can be a better option. I've experienced my share of the good, bad and ugly sides of customer service,  I thought it might be useful to share some of my experiences and some advice on how to get a better result when things go wrong.