The Staples #1: The Leather Skirt

Topshop sweater / Zara pink sweater / Topshop fitted black skirt / Warehouse leather skirt / Zara grey boots / Topshop black shoes / Leather purse / Casio watch / ASOS necklace / The Cambridge Satchel Company bag

For me, staple pieces are all about versatility.  You can take a simple leather look skirt and wear it so many different ways - dress it up with some chunky heels, a cropped top and a statement necklace or keep it casual with a slouchy knit and some ankle boots. It's a stylish update to your average black mini or pencil skirt and works perfectly teamed with another texture, whether it's a floaty silk cami, soft cashmere jumper or plain cotton tee.  And if like me, you often find yourself in all-black everything, a leather skirt can add another dimension to your outfit whilst making sure you stay on the right side of 'hairy bikers chic'...

The Trend: Autumn/Winter Pink

Topshop grey shirt / Zara white shirt / Whistles black jacket/ Topshop black skinny ankle jeans / Witchery white mini skirt / Maison Martin Margiela pink skirt / Zara mocassin shoes / Dorothy Perkins black leather ankle booties / Michael Kors watch / Tom Ford lipstick / Primark Pink coat / Céline Black bag

After rediscovering Polyvore and unleashing my inner primary school child, I've spent the last couple of hours exploring the website, playing dress up and using their endless catalogue of images to create mood boards, or 'sets' as they call them, of outfits. As a self-confessed Pinterest addict, I'm sure this can only mean terrible things for my productivity...and probably my bank balance. Woops. 

Normally, I'm all about the monochrome and neutrals for Autumn/Winter and the most adventurous I get is a good burgundy or berry tone, but since pastels seem to be a big trend this year, I decided to play around and see if I could find a way to make it work for me. I struggle to think of a single item of pink clothing in my wardrobe, but this blush pink oversized Primark coat really caught my eye and I went from there - unsurprisingly, everything else bar the skirt is black, white or grey...baby steps...

I think pastels run the risk or becoming slightly Emily Bishop-esque if you don't toughen them up a bit, so some leather-studded moccasins or heeled ankle boots and a vampy lip would be my choice. You could even layer a leather jacket with the coat (if it's Primark, chances are it won't be the warmest...) and have the lapels peeking out at the front. It might sound a bit odd but I actually have quite a similar shaped 'coatingan' (in grey, shock horror!) which is unlined so popping a jacket under it not only adds some warmth but also changes the style a bit to give you a completely new look. Mixed material coats are all over the shops, but why splash out on a new one when you can work with what you already have?! I'd also layer up the Zara shirt with the Topshop jumper if it was very cold, and add a chunky knit scarf to really wrap up warm.

Now the true title of this post should be something like 'Autumn/Winter Pinks if I had an unlimited amount of money' because we all know those Céline bags in particular are mighty expensive! But sue me, a girl can dream. A similar lip colour that I do actually own and would be much more affordable is the Rimmel Kate Moss lipstick in number 107, but the Tom Ford packaging is just so sleek I had to use it for aesthetic value if nothing else (shallow much)! 

So I can't promise I'll be returning to my 8-year-old self and donning a hot pink snakeskin jacket any time soon (yep that happened), but it's fun to try out some new ideas in the comfort of a virtual world and consider some new ways to inject some colour into my wardrobe.

Byron, Liverpool

For me, celebrating birthdays (or celebrating anything in fact) always involves some good food and this year was no exception.  Having read so much about Byron and their burgers on The Londoner,  I was really excited to see that one had opened in Liverpool recently, so I made the most of the occasion and went for an 'early birthday burger' on Friday.  I don't think a 'birthday burger' is actually a thing, let alone an 'early birthday burger', but it definitely should be.

After much deliberation, I went for Le Smokey which is only on offer until the end of October so snap it up quick!  It was your classic BBQ sauce-cheese-bacon combo and it has to be said, it hit the nail on the head.  I went with their recommendation and had it cooked medium - any hint of pink in red meat usually grosses me out a bit, but I thought I'd throw caution to the wind and let them do what they know best!  It was definitely the right decision.

My burger was really delicious - juicy and flavourful with a bit of a kick from the sauce, some crunch from the pickle and a really good bun.  I definitely think the bread can make or break a burger so I was glad theirs lived up to my expectations as well.  As a whole, it was nice that the burger wasn't swimming in cheese or dripping in fat and didn't leave me feeling like too much of a gluttonous pig, just comfortably satisfied.

Having said that, we also had chips, coleslaw and courgette fries on the side...yep, we went all out. You would think that by this age I would know me own limits, but unfortunately I still act like an 8 year old in an ice cream shop and have eyes 10 times bigger than my stomach.  The sides almost pushed me over the edge, but I still couldn't stop eating them because they were so good!  The courgette fries were especially nice - I'm going to continue to lie to myself and believe that they were healthy because you could still see the green peeking through the crispy, deep-fried coating, and green means vitamins in my book.

The service was very good and the food came quickly, but you could tell it was really nice quality and very freshly cooked.  The interior was really interesting as well - it definitely looked like something you'd find on a Pinterest board! It had a kind of industrial, wrought iron, exposed brick thing going on but at the same time felt very relaxed and welcoming.

They do veggie burgers too so whether you're a meat eater or not, I'd definitely say you should check out Byron.  I for one can guarantee that won't be my last visit, just next time I won't be able to use the birthday excuse... 

Four days in Paris

The past few days have been a bit of a holiday comedown for me. This time last week, I was in beautiful Paris, sitting in a park by the Eiffel Tower, devouring a massive baguette (probably with mayo on my chin) whilst the locals strolled along with their dogs and groups of tourists sped ahead on segways.

Our long weekend away really was brilliant - we did pretty much everything you could possibly manage in the time we had! We saw all the usual sights, visited an abundance of museums and galleries, ventured to every corner of the city and spent our evenings on a cruise along the Seine and at a cabaret show a stone's throw from the Moulin Rouge.  Something which we found really worked in our favour is that if you're an EU citizen and aged between 18-26 then you get into a lot of the museums and galleries for free - just flash your ID and you're in, no questions asked!  Also, if you're in that age bracket and visiting over a weekend then the metro day tickets are vastly reduced in price, which was perfect for us because it meant that we could just hop on and hop off at whichever stops we fancied without having to worry about how many journeys we'd made. 

Whilst we were there we also took the opportunity to sample as many French delicacies as possible, ie. we ate a lot.  I'm all about a good pâtisserie and freshly-baked bread, and when there's an offering on literally every street it can be difficult to resist!  But hey, when in Paris, eat like a beast (or something similar). 

Having been lucky enough to spend four spectacularly jam-packed days in the French capital, I thought I'd share some of my favourite snaps from our time there.

The Returned

I think the last time I paid any real attention to a soundtrack from a TV programme was the mixes from The OC.  The music played a huge part in the programme and any episode which featured a performance at the Bait Shop was always a winner!  Fast forward a few years and I've found myself listening to another soundtrack to another programme I really enjoyed - Les Revenants or The Returned, a French thriller shown on Channel 4 which finished a few weeks ago.

The soundtrack is just by one band this time, Mogwai, and is perfect for those times when you want something chilled and heavily instrumental.  Apparently, the producers asked them to start writing the album before they began filming so that it could be used as inspiration and this definitely comes across - the haunting melodies do a lot to generate the atmosphere on screen and their impact is not lost when you're listening to the audio alone.

I really enjoyed the series and would highly recommend you give it a watch but if you're not one for subtitles (or dead French people...), you should definitely still listen to the soundtrack.  I, for one, am really looking forward to hearing what accompanies the next series.

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

There's something about the combination of sweet and savoury that I really love - give me salty sugared popcorn or a brie and cranberry sandwich and I'll be a very happy lady.  One of these kinds of contrasting flavours which seems to be quite in vogue at the moment is salted caramel.

A few months ago I was in the supermarket, probably supposed to be buying washing up liquid or something equally uninteresting, and ended up doing my usual trick of getting distracted by things I don't need. I found myself on the aisle where they have all the ice cream related bits and bobs, standing in front of the wafers and sprinkles and things with E-numbers that are really bad for you, but really really good for you at the same time.  I made an impulse purchase of a jar of salted caramel sauce (living life on the edge, I know), but this was quickly relegated to the back of the cupboard when I got home and forgotten about until I was inspired to do some baking by the newest addition to our household...drumroll please...a Kenwood Chef food mixer.

Now, this might not be exciting to you, but to me it's pretty special.  Having spent, I kid you not, 3 and a half hours making a red velvet birthday cake last weekend, the prospect of being able to shove the ingredients into a shiny new machine and whip up some cake batter and frosting in minutes without having to clean up after a cloud of icing sugar was very exciting!  So, I decided to put the long neglected jar of salted caramel sauce to good use and knock up a batch of cupcakes.

I followed the recipe from this website, adapted from a Hummingbird Bakery book, but used a quarter teaspoon of vanilla extract rather than the cocoa powder as I fancied having a plainer sponge to make the caramel the main flavour.  I also baked them on a lower temperature for slightly less time as our oven is a bit dodgy and seems to get ridiculously hot, very quickly.  Luckily, I've had enough practice now to know how to save things before they cross over to the wrong side of well done - just call me the oven-whisperer.

When it came to making the frosting, I used this sauce but if I did it again I'd probably boil up a can of condensed milk and add salt to make my own salted caramel. This one does taste really nice, but was a bit runny for me to put inside the cake or drizzle over the top like the recipe advises - I did try! It ended in a bit of a sticky disaster and more of a blotchy mess on top rather than the polished swirls on the Hummingbird version! I think if you had something slightly thicker it would be easier to work with. After a couple of failed attempts, I decided to go with a classic white finish. 

It's safe to say I'm no Mary Berry quite yet but hopefully, with enough practice and after another series of the Bake Off, I'll be icing like a pro!  Next time you can't decide whether you're craving something salty or sweet, why not give them a go?

Milling Around

This bank holiday weekend we made the most of the beautiful sunshine and took a day trip a little further afield in search of something different to do.  We ended up going to Quarry Bank Mill where the Channel 4 series (also called The Mill funnily enough…) was filmed.  I haven’t actually seen the programme, but I reckon it must have been a good bit of publicity for the place because there were loads of people there!  Whether it was that or the lovely weather and promise of a cream scone which drew people in, I’m not sure, but it certainly made for a bustling atmosphere.

First we had a wander around the mill itself and saw some of the machinery in action before having a tour around the Apprentice House, where some of the poor and orphaned children working in the mill lived.   Sometimes I find those kinds of guided tours a bit slow-paced but this one was actually very good and did give you a nice bit of background without bombarding you with a load of facts! I was slightly concerned that our tour guide, or ‘the woman in the bonnet’ as I’d like to call her, was going to pick on me and say something along the lines of ‘You must be about 15…how would you have felt working here at your age?’ and then I was going to have to either go along with it and inwardly resent ‘the woman in the bonnet’ for the rest of the tour, or awkwardly explain that I’m actually 22 despite my youthful charms.  This is the kind of paranoia that sets in when you’ve been ID’d multiple times in one bar on the same night…yes I needed to prove I’m over 18 to get in but why not humiliate me yet again when, God forbid, I order something other than a Fruit Shoot?! Not that I’m bitter or anything.  Anyway, the scenario with ‘the woman in the bonnet’ didn’t happen, you’ll be pleased to hear.

Even if you’re not really into history I’d still really recommend going to the mill just for the gorgeous surroundings.  There are acres of beautifully-kept gardens to stroll around and the river flowing through the estate makes for a really picturesque setting, something I wasn’t really expecting when I imagined the location of an industrial factory.  Before heading home, we had a little walk down to the weir.  It felt very Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, even though we were actually in Cheshire and there were no fish in sight.  But never mind, any opportunity to feel a bit more like Emily Blunt is always a good thing!

I’d highly recommend Quarry Bank Mill if you’re in the area and whether you’re a fan of the TV show, a history buff or just fancy a walk around some pretty countryside, it’s got something for everyone.