Staycation: London
This one is for those of you planning a little London stay cation. Even though I live in London, there's always so much more to explore, so here's some of my best bits.
Sleep:
The newest to the Citizen M hotel family,
this little gem couldn’t be more well situated for a weekend in London. Think
affordable luxury and you’re there. The
Citizen M is one of my favourite hotels. It’s designed incredible well and is
really workspace friendly too, but without that corporate feel…in fact, there’s
nothing corporate about it. The rooms are small, but what they lack in size,
they make up for in a seriously ‘teched out’, free films, mood lighting,
streaming from your laptop and an ipad that controls the lot. The rooms boast
the biggest, most comfortable bed I’ve ever stayed in., too, which is a big
deal for me.
Breakfast is always gorgeous, full English or
continental, they just do it so well.
Prices start from £139 per room per night.
Coffee:
I adore Grind. This was the first time I'd been to the Shoreditch one. We walked in and there was some old school R'n'B blaring out and it was such a great vibe. Coffee and brunch is amazing. Must go!
STK are the business. I’ve been to the one
in Milan and Las Vegas and they’re pretty fantastic. Perfect for a special
occasion. Always get steak! The staff were incredible, and recommended the best
sides and wine pairing. The atmosphere here is really upbeat, especially at the
weekend.
Eat, reasonable:
What a restaurant this is. Incredible
interior and a menu that’ll knock your socks off . Gorgeous British food that
allows you to get stuck in to sharing plates or have a large main. As always,
we ordered way too much and could barely walk afterwards…it was the crumble
that got me. Staff are wonderful and super helpful too. Try the non-alcoholic
lemonades….in addition to your wine of course!
Shop:
Redchurch Street
Head to Redchurch Street in Shoreditch and
I promise you, you can’t go wrong. Mens and women’s shopping for the style
conscious, and those looking for something that’s opposite to high street!
My favourite is Modern Society.
I hope you've enjoyed reading this little guide to some of my favourite London spots! If you have any other questions at all- please get in touch.
xx
Getting techy with the Lenovo Yoga book and Moto Z
We arrived for lunch and were introduced to two wonderful teams; one for the Lenovo Yoga Book and the other for the Moto Z phone and Moto Mods.
The Yoga Book is honestly like nothing I've ever seen or experienced before. Sure, it's a tablet, but a tablet that has a 360 degree hinge which allows so much flexibility in terms of use. There's a keypad on one half of the device that can be turned off at any point too. For us, our day was about finding some inspiration through art and creativity so we were shown how to sketch and bring our ideas from paper to screen. You can draw/sketch/write on the tablet itself, and in addition, which blew my mind…you can attach a notepad to the side where the keypad would show, change the mode and draw with pen on the paper, only for it to appear on the screen. Absolutely incredible.
The Yoga Book has four modes: browse, create, type and watch.
Browse mode demonstrates a compact tablet enabling you to save and search for images/inspiration.
Create mode offers the best drawing experience available on a tablet. It allows you to draw with one hand and select a variety of different tools with the other and it comes with different nibs too.
Type mode takes you from simple tablet to a mini laptop, so if old habits die hard and you prefer a type pad, then this doubles up wonderfully.
Watch mode means that the 360 degree hinge comes in nicely here. You can stand the tablet up in a 'tent' shape to view the work you have done and even replicate it onto a blank canvas.
In addition to the Yoga Book, we were given the opportunity to document our day with a Moto Z phone and snap-on Hasselblad True Zoom Moto Mod. I don't know where to begin with this phone because it is just SO INCREDIBLE. Let's start with the Mods; the clip on extras that make this camera so darn smart.
Interchangeable Style Shells: Tailored to suit your style, in a wide range of colours and textures
Battery: Added 22 hour charge with the charger mod
Hasselblad true zoom: 10 x optical zoom, flash and all around hero product
JBL Soundboost speaker: Music is my vice, and the snap on JBL speaker is honestly incredible
Let's go back to the battery life; 30 hours as standard. How amazing is that though really, especially when we're all so obsessed with our phones, and/or have them surgically attached to us at all times. The team pointed out that we'd never be caught with extra cables from portable chargers hanging out of our pockets! Imagine going to a festival with 30 hours in your pocket, THEN popping the Incipio Offgrid Power Pack Mod on and making it 52 hours. Dream!
My absolute favourite feature on the Moto Z though, has got to be the Insta-share projector. On the back of the phone is what looks like the standard camera, but it projects anything you could think of, onto walls, ceilings etc. That's basically a big screen TV, in your pocket. The quality is amazing too. I could happily watch endless Planet Earth 2 on it!
For the next part of our day, we headed to the Royal Academy of Art in London to draw inspiration from the Expressionism exhibition, so we took our Yoga Book's and Moto Z complete with the Hasselblad True Zoom Moto Mod to capture anything that inspired us to create our own piece of art later in the day. The exhibition was beautiful, I don't often visit galleries so it was really special for me! The art was interesting, vibrant and simple, which I loved, and managed to get a feel for what I wanted to paint later on in the day, quite quickly.
Next was to head over to the space where we would put our creativity and inspiration to work using the Yoga Book and Moto Z phone, to paint it onto a blank canvas. We arrived to a beautiful light space, each kitted out with painting apparatus. I haven't painted since I was at school so it was very novel and also very therapeutic! I sketched my idea first, onto the Yoga Book, in create mode, using the paper and pen,then popped it onto watch mode so I could keep referring to it as I transferred it onto my blank canvas. Very, very cool.
I'm no monet…but I gave it a good go and it really inspired me to try. The Yoga Book was the perfect companion for channeling creativity and making it easy every step of the way. The Moto Z phone, and especially the Hasselblad True Zoom Moto Mod with its incredible zoom feature took some of the most amazing photo's I've seen that weren't shot on an SLR. And obviously, the battery life stayed strong all day, which really is a selling point for me. I'd go so far as to say that when it's time for my upgrade, I'll be investing in a Moto Z.
I hope you've enjoyed reading all about these two incredible bits of kit- they honestly were amazing to use. Please feel free to ask me any questions about any of the specifications.
The Scandinavian Edit with French Connection
Last week, I headed into French Connection HQ London to talk all things minimal and Scandinavian. I chose a Scandi inspired outerwear look and we went out to shoot some street style and the wonderful Hannah at FCUK interviewed me about how I put myself, my look and my hair/ beauty routines together over coffee and cake, obviously.
This was one of the most exciting projects I've worked on. In my younger days, ahem, that's longer than you might think…French Connection were my 'party dress' go-to, sequins galore, and to be honest, I've still got a couple that I'll never part with. Fast forward a few years to the cool, minimal, quality of the French Connection brand as it is now, and you'd never know. French Connection has evolved so beautifully, right down to their basics, the quality of the pieces is just incredible. I also got an influx of friends and family sending me a screen shot of my face, in the French Connection newsletter, which was absolutely amazing.
I chose three key pieces to make up this look. I still love a relaxed feel to my style, so when I spotted these velvet track pants, I made them my focus pretty swiftly. They're so comfortable I can't even explain to you….and really easy to style because effectively, they're a basic with something a little special about them. I wanted to try some layering with knitwear and I really love the neck of this grey chunky knit, it splits in the middle so if you're rushing around, as I often am, there's a little ventilation! A good leather jacket is an absolute wardrobe staple, whether its black or oxblood, a biker style leather will never not be on rotation. I love this jacket because it's soft, has great details and I like that it's cropped so you can layer your knitwear and not feel too bundled up.
Hannah and I chatted about how I achieve a minimal look and I thought you might like to know how I tend to work….
-The key is to make done, look undone. Don't try too hard but pay attention to the details. Good basics, minimal design, clean lines.
-Hair…I always stick to an 'undone' look here too, sea salt spray is my best mate! Use sparingly though, or it'll make your hair sticky.
-Makeup is something that's evolved so much for me over the years. I keep everything neutral, and wear coppery tones on my eyes. I'm a fan of highlighter and lengthening mascara, but no eyeliner.
-Key pieces that should be on rotation in your wardrobe have to be: a leather biker, clean white trainers, a long line coat and some great mid/light wash denim.
You can shop my entire edit over here:
And read my full edit with French Connection on their blog here.
Thank you so much for reading as always. You're amazing you lot!
xx
This post was written in collaboration with French Connection but all opinions are my own.
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