Merlins beard, London Fashion Week has arrived!

Okay so London Fashion Week is like one of the worlds fashion Meccas.

To be honest when living down in Cornwall this event has often passed me by in a blur of news snippets and crazy outfits, which I’d only see if I scraped together the £3.99 for Vogue 🙂

My face when I got a magazine as a kid. Although it was actually really never Vogue, usually something to do with important kid stuff like jumping and custard

However this year I was in London, and however much I find it weird to tell people, I am a model! (Still bizzaro!) So this year it certainly hasn’t passed me by.

I wasn’t really expecting too much for myself at #LFW, I’m generally a tad too short for catwalk (5’8.5″ yes we count half inches now 🙂 ) and a bit more athletic than many of the willowy catwalk models. However a handful of people changed my London fashion week experience from pining passive to interactive!

So this is my experience as a ‘not actually walking’ model in #LFW 🙂

My story begins with Sophie. Sophie loooves Lego, so much so she sent the Lego chaps an groovy idea for an interactive Lego experience. Although skeptical the guys said they were looking for someone to create a dress. Sophie and her mate Yueer jumped at the idea!

Sophie REALLY loves LEGO, so much so she replaced water with these little cuboid chappies….

Yueer got in on some LEGO bathtime action

So Lego hired the two innovative young designers fresh out St. Martins fashion college and they got oooonnn ittt!

After hours and hours of work the Lego dress was complete and I headed over for my first fitting. The dress was huge! An amazing array of 5000 bricks! So much work had gone into it and I was well proud to wear it for them, and so happy they had chosen me to wear it!

A work in progress!

So my #LFW experience was awesome. It incorporated glamorous and erm not so glamorous elements (don’t you go thinking all us models are permadonnas!), and I think may have given me the modelling bug.

Righto! Our pre-LFW shoot meant a 5.30am start on the Thursday, where a cheeky taxi (not public transport? what is this!?) picked me up and took me to my overnight Travel Lodge accommodation, where the make-up artist managed skillfully to turn me from tired and drawn to fresh faced and perky! I have to admit it was no mean feat 🙂

So then it was dress time. The designers creation was colourfully inspiring, a nostalgic mix of childhood and high fashion. However putting it on required some artful maneuvering 🙂 So after contorting for a hairy 10 minutes I was in, dress intact. So a few patches and some funky nails later we ready to roll. City set here we come, how did I get there? Standing in a taxi 🙂

Luckily we had a LEGO umbrella to hand!

We arrived on time 7am to meet the photographer, and well it was pissing it down. But we all sucked it up, gave it beans and managed to get some pretty jammie pics. The dull weather actually made a great stark contrast with the vibrant dress (getting down with the fashion lingo!)

The grumpy weather made the dress look well cool!

Oh and we had the help of some inquisitive commuters 🙂

Haha inquisitive commuter 🙂

The designer was so lovely, she took off her coat and gave it to me stating that it is only fair she feel my pain 🙂 But I told I was okay, I’m a country girl, a bit of rain is nothing we surf in the winter!

Big wheel headdress….

Shiver a bit, dance on the spot….then pose 🙂

So by 9am it was a wrap, and we all headed back for a bit of well earned brekkie. I sat in pret with my porridge and hot choc and watched the world go by like nothing had happened.

I did the healthy thing and went for porridge, good choice it was warm and scrummy!

Next morning, 7.30am start. The first day of LFW and it was time for action! Hair, make-up and getting in the dress was a lot smoother, we were like a well oiled machine by then! This time the foyer of the Travel Lodge was much busier, some Italian chaps took photos and a few others even took snaps on their phones! This was preceded by a sleek and sophisticated ride to Somerset House squatting in the boot of a taxi 🙂

Our hair, make-up and dressing port of call

But from there it went a bit insane. I stepped out of the taxi and wandered along the street to the entrance where the cameras went CRAZY!!!

Erm okay, totally act like you do this all the time….

It was the mnost bizzarely-brilliant out of body expereince. Cameras EVERYWHERE! So we walked, talked and posed our way round the arena, and I just tried to pretend like I do this all the time and it was no biggie. BUT WHA!?

awww sophie held my umbrella 🙂

Team LEGO!

We definitely stood out 🙂

Okay so the wierdest thing is seeing yourself in pictures, and as it was LFW they went everywhere!!! BBC News, ITV, blogs, magazines, newsnight, the internet, tagged on facebook & flickr. Merlins Beard.

Just hanging out in the rain, with me LEGO specs

NEWSNIGHT! Bloody Newsnight….

Newsnight was the one that got me, my mate Lon’s parents facebooked me, my aunt etc. I couldnt believe it! It was like the face of LFW! Ahhhhhhhh!

Just chilling 🙂

I’m so happy it went viral, the designers really deserve to do well. I’m mega glad they chose me to be park of what they created. And after all the saving the pennies as a kid it even went on the Vogue website 🙂 (sadly it didn’t go in ‘Thunderbirds’ the other magazine I used to buy….)

So this is my unconventional ‘non-walking’ LFW model perspective. And one groovy bit? Tbh no one takes any notice of the model (unless you are Cara Delevingne) so one minute you are standing having your pictures taken, next you are sat in Starbucks sipping your mocha. Unless people are really looking they just see the clothes, which I actually rather like. You can have like 2 personalities 🙂

Think I’ve got the modelling bug, I’m rather enjoying myself. I do hope some more comes my way 🙂

London Love

xoxoxo

p.s Hats off to all that made LFW. Desingers, models, organisers, caterers, cleaners, make-up & hair artists, PR plus more than I can event imagine. It’s one hellofa week.

p.s p.s No I lie this is the pic that got me, mummy g sent it to me when I was off galavanting in Thailand………

Outside Morrisons back in Bodmin Town, that was the best bit 🙂

http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/

http://cycleinheels.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-lego-dress-for-fashion-week.html

Dead Mans Hand

Heey!

I know it’s a tad out of date order but I thought I better blog this groovy event last month! Hosted by ‘A Door in a Wall” events The Nudge website once again came up trumps……………

So right you know I’m into all this signing up for bizzaro stuff and then roping along my unsuspecting friends? Well on the 6th May I did this to poor Pac Sam. Hence we headed down to the Grand Union (@grandunionbars) by Smithfield Market, Farrigndon, for an evening or murder, mystery and apparently dodgy poker.

So Pac Sam and I entered the downstairs ‘poker den’ only to bed pounced upon by a female bouncer! She was pretty on it, prying to see if we had bombs or drugs in our bags….asking us if she could have any of our drugs……after gaining her seal of approval we headed in and were greeted by Chip’s poker den……..

Chips poker den, where it all began……

So as there were only 2 of us, we teamed up with 2 cool girls. The team ‘two of a kind’ became ‘2 x 2 of a kind’, thank god we did because we’d have been absolute shite otherwise 🙂

So after collecting our detective pack we were hushed by chip the (cockney?) bar owner.

Our mission?

Find Jack Spades killer.

The suspects?

Only 3. Paul, Brian & Misty. All linked to the victim. All with a motive to kill him. Follow the clues.

You have 2 hours. Go.

We did get very explicitly told NOT to take photos of the table. Tha’s NOT Abi. ‘Oh okay cool I wont’. Yea don’t do it, its not important at all. Then I click…..

So with the help of our extremely attentive teammates (luckily as saying ‘help’ makes us sound like we were any sort of use at all… 🙂 …..) we spent the next 2 hours roving round Farrington.

I have to say the clues were really pretty damn cool.

Best sign ever made I was slightly disappointed….

Our first clue….

The clues lead us everywhere! From interrogating den employees about the murder weapon by myself wearing a TV satellite as a chastity belt, Sam pretending he was from Hogwarts with a microphone as a broom and one of our teammates wearing a moustache……

To playing golf with a crazy guy and attempting to discover the 3 suspects card hands (they were playing with Jack the evening he was murdered and someone won the car with the golf club murder weapon in)…………..

The most fast paced, hyperactive game of golf ever!

Misty’s hand, I definitely nearly missed this

And even performing surgery!!!

A crazy polish lady and her assistant Igor…..he was VERY friendly to one of our teammates 🙂

More clues! Sam was well into it by then, so excited 🙂

The caliber of the clues were awesome, each one led on to another part and created like a daisy chain of clues! You had to be ON IT to get them, but that was good it made it challenging but not impossible.

Card clues in the top of a lift….

to cryptic letters!

I think some of the best bits were a creepy care bear that had a voice message inside and having to text a fishy fellow who then phoned us in a red telephone box! I proper felt like Sherlock Holmes, well Watson I was definitely the kooky sidekick 🙂

Sherlock Sam is on the case

They even had a clue where you had to log on to Instagram and pick the right sayings from the Holborn Mural, epic!

Due to our fanny arsing around we didn’t get to one clue, so we dashed back tail between legs to make the 8.30pm curfew. However our team and I filed our report and actually got the right killer! In a nutshell Jack had been blackmailing one of them for money so he knocked him off. The only problem was our reasoning had been slightly patchy and skewed. So despite not winning the whole evening was a booming success! Sadly the winners didn’t buy the next round however we met some ace new people and had a whole load of murder mystery fun. The evening was topped off with some fab food and a couple of drinks after which we wandered home at a respectable hour.

I’ll definitely be looking out for A Door in the Wall’s future productions! Hats off guys to some kooky acting and head scratching clues.

http://www.adoorinawall.com/

London Love

xoxoxo

Rating:

Price: £25 for an evenings entertainment, not too bad by London standards soo….  3.5/5

Atmosphere/Acting: Really great atmosphere, the actors involved you and made you feel welcome. Also helped you along with clues! The clues were also really awesome. Some of the acting was quite eccentric and the accents a little dubios but I think it was suppose to be, it made pretty lighthearted! 4/5 and 3/5

Booking: Booking was easy, had to do it a reasonable way in advance but then it was busy but not rammed when we were there which was fab! 4.5/5

Venue: I liked the Grand union, actually looked like a poker den downstairs. Severed food and drink till late even on a bank holiday, good size busy but no stuffy. Farringdon was perfect for clues and interesting places. 4.5/5

London Love

xoxoxo

The periodic food shop – A new take on the supermarket sweep

It’s time for the weekly food shop and we all know the story. Down to the local supermarket, oooh mangoes 2-4-£1, beef half price and milk £1 for 4 litres!

Okay food environmental and ethical issues have been brought to light in the media recently, with numerous angles to consider. Clocking up air miles from overseas produce transportation has to be weighed against importation creating diverse economy and supporting livelihoods, deforestation, the horsemeat scandal (I’ll never look at IKEA meatballs the same….) to name but a few.

However I am not here to preach/judge or anything of the sort. I am sure you guys can make your own mind on each topic. I’m just here to inform you about off the beaten track adventures, and I’m afraid to say supermarkets are definitely ON the beaten track 🙂

So if supermarkets are off the menu, where else I hear you ask?

Recently on a jolly down to Cornishland I took a trip to both Rick Steins (a large consumer of local food produce and creator of taste bud tingling cuisine) and Cornish Gouda (suppliers of milk, gouda cheese and guardians of happy cows).

Rick Stein (@Rick_Stein) has a few chomping shacks down our way, actually he basically owns Padstow!

Rick Steins Cookery School!

He sources from local suppliers, we nipped along to his cookery school where the mackerel handled were so fresh they were still stiff! Rick endeavours to use fishmongers that receive day boat, hand line and hand dived fish to maximise sustainability. It didn’t just stop at the fish, they source the best in local produce from Warrens meat to Roddas cream, the local economy is always supported.

The freshest of fresh mackerel, I actually cooked this one!

Down at Cornish Gouda (@CornishGoudaCo) the Speirings family own and run their dairy farm, where the cows have access to everything from water beds to a robot milker (which the cows choose to go into, they love it!). Son Giel has set up ‘Cornish Gouda’, a self sufficient cheese making business which utilises 1/5th of the milk the farm produces.

After receiving a tour of the farm it was apparent how passionate Giel is about his cheese.

The cheese maturing shelves

From the ingredients…..

Cheese in the brine for 3 days

The way the cheese is manufactured (using an eco friendly wood burner, where the only electricity consumed is a 15 minute a day cooler and the lights!).

Cheese making doodad

To the clients he produces for.

A couple of varieties, honey and clover on toast = yum ‘posh dinnerparty’ cheese on toast

It also made me feel terrible that in many cases supermarkets pay less for milk than its costs the farmers to produce it. So we need to embrace all farmers markets and local shops we can, let’s support these guys whose livelihood depends on our custom 🙂

Back to London! Next time you think ‘supermarket shop’ take a little time considering the guys that supply the big cheeses, and instead support them 🙂

Here is an overview of farmers markets and local shops.

London Farmers Markets WITH MAP!

Tuesday: London Bridge, South Kensington (SW7)

Wednesday: Swiss Cottage (NW3)

Thursday: Bloomsbury, Whitecross (EC1), Hammersmith (W6)

Saturday: Balham, Ealing, Notting Hill (W8), Parliament Hill (NW5), Pimlico Road (SW1), South Kensington (SW7), Twickenham, West Hampstead, Wimbledon (SW19), Hampstead Community Food, Stoke Newington (N16), Broadway Market (E8), Oval (SE11), Stepney, Partirdges Food Market (SW3)

Sunday: Blackheath (SE3), Brixton (SW9), Islington (N1), Marylebone (W1), Parson’s Green, Queens Park (NW6), Walthamstow, Alexander Palace, Brick Lane Sunday up-market (E1), Last of each month Dulwich (SE21), Herne Hill (SE24), 1^st & 3^rd Sunday Swaffam (PE37), Chiswick (W4),

Miscellaneous: Benwick Street (W1) Mon-Sat, Wed-Sun Greenwich, Mon-Sat Borough Market

A salivating sausage from the guys at @bostonsausage in Borough Market

Oh and I know how you all enjoy restauranting. So take two seconds to ponder where the food you’re served comes from. Do you know? Would you like to? Its something I will try and think more about now!

A beef burger from @flatironsteak, I know owner Charlie is super hot on the quality & care of the cows that make up his menu! Tell you what its apparent to the super super food 🙂

To conclude, this year due we’ve had a dry June and now it’s turned a bit……….wet, the hedgerows are fruit galore!!! Get picking those blackberries (anywhere there are brambles), apples, sloes, damsons and elderberries!

My apple and blackberry cake, with some errr icing ‘surgery’ on the side

Blackberry & Apple Jam!!!

Rick Steins

http://www.rickstein.com/

http://www.rickstein.com/Food-Heroes.html – Producers Rick has visited, categorised by food type and region.

Cornish Gouda

Talvan Farm, Lanreath, Cornwall

http://www.cornishgouda.co.uk/

01503 220 194

giel@cornishgouda.co.uk

Boston Sausage

Flat Iron