Saturday 13 August 2011

I love me some Beachin' and New Yorkin'


Yo! I had quite a fun week! Went to the beach with my brother and so mates, had a bit of fancy Asian Fusion food at a restaurant called Teak and I went to NY yesterday and oh such fun! I met up with some friends from my previous university in Philadelphia and met some new people and had a loverly time.











*The bartender gave me such grief when I ordered a coke with lime juice. If you know me at all, you know I love lime. I often ask for lime cordial with my coke when I'm in England and get crazy looks there but it usually ends up getting me free drinks for being so odd and I even got a bartenders phone number once? Random, right? But meh, that's one of my favorite drinks I order it when I can! The bartender at this restaurant called me fancy pants :( Let me enjoy my beverages with a splash of citrus in peace! Try it, it's good. Trust.

Crazy shoes right? I followed her for a block trying not to look like a creeper while taking a secret picture of her heels. Wish I got a better picture, but I'm glad I got something!







Hellooooo All Saints! It was good to see the store in the city :D I haven't seen so many vintage sewing machines in one place in my life. They had at least 4 walls covered from the ceiling to the floor with sewing machines. Insanity.


These I must recommend. They're called Pink Bulldogs = Pink Lemonade Margarita with an upside down mini bottle of Corona (Coronita, as it says on the bottle! It's so cute!) One of the best drinks ever considering I usually hate Corona or any beer in general! Don't have too many of them though because you might die a bit the next morning, but if you're ever in NY, go to Blockheads! Or the bar that's exactly the same as it that is on the other side of the fountain...You'l have a good night. Especially if you're in the company of Asians, Germans and Russians. Woop woop!

Tuesday 9 August 2011

The Grove


What else is there to do when it's too hot to go to the beach? Why we go to the Grove and shop, of course! My bezzie mate Kathy and I went off on a spontaneous shopping trip to one of the nicer shopping centers in the area. It's a nice open plan outside and it was nice shopping with all the doors open in all the shops...although they were ALL wasting electricity which I hated but... America, eh?

Check out the random snaps of the afternoon.




How sweet is that!? Umbrellas for the public to take around when it rains! Aw!
And they match with the colour scheme of The Grove, yo!



We went to Anthropologie! It's kinda the way more expensive and whimisical version of Urban Outfitters. We could NOT afford anything in there, but Kathy did try on these fab shoes! How cute are they? I'm loving the wooden wedge and the assymetrical design! Nice nice! But at nearly $300, we thought they would look best on the display for now...





What a clever way of reusing wine bottles! They were filled with bubble bath soap. Mhmmm and the nice item underneathe was felted soap! They just put a nice knit around the bar of soap and felted it. ...simple but clever cos they you can reuse it and it lathers up the soap for ya! Neat!



More afforable wedges from Old Navy. Comfortable. As. Hell. Just sayin'. I usually hate anything with height to it, but these work for me. :) I want to wear them with over the knee socks and my new Terracotta paper bag shorts that I got on sale from Urban Outfitters! Woop!

I love shopping. Be smart and sensible with your money though, ya'll! x

P.S. Everyone in England stay safe with all the rioting going on! It's appalling that the youth feel the need to destroy everything in sight for no good reason...-_-

Wednesday 3 August 2011

Shop at CLIC Sargent’s Shop on Gloucester Road!

Hello all! I thought I'd enlighten you with what I do with my free time.

Seeing as it's the time of year for students to be packing up their things to move to new accommodation or back home, what a better time to go through their wardrobes and see what things can go to the local charity shop!

Now since moving to England, the British have most definitely opened my eyes to the wonderful world of second hand clothing. Don't get me wrong, there are most definitely charity shops in America...we just call them thrift stores. Not nearly as an attractive name, but it's what you do; You thrift! And most of them smell vile. Anyhoozle...

I totally love charity shopping now! Especially since it's all about the recycling now and I've surrounded myself with people who really believe strongly in sustainable fashion in the past 3 years so it's only natural for me to jump on the bandwagon! I love that the money made in the shops go right to charity! Just amazing.

Bristol's quite good for charity shopping, especially Gloucester Road! Man, oh man! It's just shop after shop after shop and it's BRILLIANT! I found an absolute gem of a charity shopping partner and her name is Sarah Noon. She always finds the loveliest things and goes to the greatest places and that in itself is a gift.

One afternoon whilst making our way down Gloucester Road, she pointed out this one charity shop that she said was one of her favourite. If it's on Noon's favourite list, how do you say no? That's right, you don't! ...Especially if you're shopping with Noon.

What's the shop, you ask? Why, it's called "CLIC Sargent’s Shop on Gloucester Road" - clever, huh? This particular shop is part of the CLIC Sargent charity, which helps children and young people with cancer. Check them out! There are several CLIC Sargent charity shops around Bristol but this particular one is the charity’s first specialist shop Bristol. Oh yeah. Specialist shop, baby.

THEY SELL THE MOST FABULOUS VINTAGE CLOTHES AT THE MOST FABULOUS PRICES.



Walking in that shop just makes you smile because the atmosphere is so lovely! The decor inside is made up of the items they sell including a lovely array of teacups and all sorts of china, various hats, shoes, bags, paintings, oodles and oodles of vintage dresses and oh everything a girl (or boy!) could ever dream of.








My mate Charlie, who I recently found out works there, promptly whisked me around the shop to show me all the new additions to the rails, her favourite pieces and she also proudly showed off her window displays as well as others she had done around the store. She was even amazing enough to model some outfits for me!


As Charlie went between helping customers and showing me things, she managed to tell me a bit more about what she loves about volunteering there. She explained that Shop was really creative and different to all the other charity shops on Gloucester Road. She mentioned that the BBC had come round not long ago to buy some vintage things from the show "Casualty." Crazy huh?





Mazing, aren't they?





My mate Stacey also came along to try on some things too. There's nothing quite like playing dress up!







I even tried some stuff on, but shh. I don't usually do the whole "lets model clothing thing" But I happened to like the casino inspired playsuit, I had to have it and at £15? Bargain. Oh I can hear the taunts from my mother now on how she used to have something like it and blah blah blah. But that's what vintage stuff is all about right? Riiight!

So after spending a nice time browsing and stuffing my guilty (but awesome! why do I always spend money though!?) purchase of my new playsuit into my bag, Charlie pointed out that everyone should be buying picnic hampers* at the moment. Go on picnics in cut-off dungarees* or 70's maxi dresses*, people! That's the fun thing to be doing this summer, trust me.

*all of which can be purchased at Shop! Quick, go get em before they're all gone, ya'll!

So when you do that whole thing where you make those charity shop piles, why not donate to CLIC Sargent? Every donation helps children and young people with cancer, so trust me, they and their families will thank you. Oh and all vintage-mad, charity shop people who shop at Shop will thank you too. I know I will, blates.

Peace! xx