Aloha from Maui

Over Easter break, I holidayed for two weeks in stunning Hawaii on the island of Maui. I was there for a very intimate and special wedding of one of my longest and best friends. We stayed in the Waliea resort, and the wedding was held mid-break at the Grand Wailea Waldorf Astoria hotel.

The chapel at Grand Wailea

We had the most delicious food and idyllic views of the Wailea sunset at the Hotel’s five star restaurant, Humuhumunukunukuapua’a.

Maui is a stunning place with lush greenery and exotic flowers everywhere. It’s easy to spot wildlife too, we even saw a mongoose (mistaken for a meerkat by one of the camp). Most days were spent lazing round the stunning pool of the Ho’olei Villas Resort.

Our view in the mornings from the balcony

Grand Champions…

We stayed at Grand Champions, where there was gorgeous wildlife and amazing views all around…

^^ Outside Grand Champions ^^

Shops in Maui were great. They’re very different from what we’re used to. Our favourite places were the Enchantress Boutique, Sand People (in Grand Wailea and Lahaina), Sophie Grace Jewelry and Lappert’s Ice Cream and the Honolulu Cookie Company. Lahaina’s quaint shopping high street had a mixture of souvenir shops with old-fashioned shop signs, similar to New Orleans.

Sophie Grace Maui was a little stall in the Grand Wailea. Bracelets can be made to order with whatever inscription you want and any colour combination.

Our Bracelets…

The Sand People sold beach side plaques, beaded bracelets and cute seaside accessories.

Most of the souvenir shops sold ukeles, quintesential to Hawaiian music. It’s the national instrument (we weren’t sure what our national instrument was). Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow was the sound of our holiday.

The Honolulu Cookie Company sold delicious shortbread available in different flavours and coverings, all shaped as pineapple (Hawaii’s national fruit)

Almost everyday we went to Lappert’s Ice Cream at the shops at Wailea. We went so much, that we became friendly with the staff who lvoed our English accents. We were lucky enough to meet Maui resident, Steve Tyler from Aerosmith and American Idol fame. He is clearly a fan of Lappert’s too! After our picture op, he headed to Enchantress Boutique. We loved this over-the-top shopping haunt, where you got rolled over with glitter on arrival by the owner.

Steve Tyler!!!

From Enchantress Boutique…

 

We ate out most nights. Maui has some amazing restaurant with delicious food.

Ruby Tuesdays

– Cheese Burger Island Style

– Bubba Gump’s

Post wedding, we took a boat trip to Molokini. Some of us saw turtles and on the way back there was a whale sighting!

Nearing the end of the holiday, we decided to take on some water-sports  Jennifer Aniston style, we went paddle-boarding. Not as easy as it looks, but a great way to pick up the rays!

Jen showing us how it’s done

Chilling on the beach after our strenuous exercise…

A cool down after the beach…

It’s safe to say…

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 2,300 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 4 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Confection Heaven in W11

West London has all the best places to go to satisfy a sweet tooth.

Melt on Ledbury road are sugar connoisseurs, with quirky famous quotes on the star item: chocolate written on the wall. They often hold chocolate testing evenings.

Melt, Ledbury Road

I loved these tiny red velvet cupcake bites.

Myla Cupcakes – Vogue’s Fashion Night Out

The newly open Biscuiteers on Kensington Park Road has an icing cafe downstairs.

Slightly outside of W11, but a place to go for a reasonable and delicious afternoon tea is the Orangery in Kensington Gardens.

I love this quaint Italian deli on Clarendon Road. Melograno do the most amazing cannoli and during December, they decorated their window with hanging panettones.

Ottolenghi is good at all food, but they’re salted caramel brittle is amazing.

The original Hummingbird Cafe on Portobello Road has come a long way since it first started. My favourite branch is still this one in West London. No one can beat their cupcakes. There Christmas cupcakes are so beautiful!

The Little Black Jacket

I finally made it to the Little Black Jacket exhibition on it’s last day at the Saatchi Gallery. I loved all the pictures by Karl Lagerfeld – my favourite being the one of Anna Wintour. It’s amazing that she is so identifiable from behind. The exhibiton (which was free) gave each visitor a free poster! Georgia May Jagger dons mine, I don’t think it will be good for my self esteem if put it up in my room.

Here are my other favourites from exhibition…

❤ Karl

Daheim II: Oktoberfest comes to East London

Staying in London for Oktoberfest needn’t hold you back from the Bavarian celebrations. Last Sunday, Daheim, the German pop-up café returned following the success of the previous instalment. Due to popular demand, Julia Zeidler repeated the fun all over again. Daheim (meaning ‘At Home’ in German) converted G. Kelly’s old pie shop on Bethnal Green Road into a German homely cafe. Last time, I was simply a patron of the pop-up cafe. This time, I was a ‘serving wench’ (as Time Out put it) dolled up in a traditional Bavarian dirndl, serving homemade German food to the masses of East London.

Arriving at 8am on the Sunday morning, the Daheim crew set the mood for a nostalgic Bavarian dining experience, with old German records playing in the background, and homemade gingerbread hearts garlanded around. We got the German coffee brewing and by half 9 we were ready to go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting back to her Munich roots, Julia ensured that Daheim’s menu was reflection of authentic Bavarian home-cooking. From roasted bread dumplings with mushrooms and meatloaf to free range oven roasted parsley chicken, it’s all about celebrating genuine Bavarian cuisine. The Oktoberfest Platter with homemade walnut bread, bretzl sticks, roast pork and homemade Bavarian Obazda cheeses was a complete sell-out! And what would Oktoberfest be without some beer? Some lunch dishes came with a free pint of Munich’s Löwenbräu.

Head chef Jo cooking up a storm

Black Forest Gateau Cupcakes – A sell out!

The Oktoberfest Platter

The whole event was a complete success. It wasn’t just down to the amazing food – it was the pleasant and bubbling atmosphere that made it such a hit. Families, friends, food-lovers, journalists, cool hipsters, and local pirates all turned out and were a pleasure to host.

The Daheim Team at the end…

Due to Daheim’s growing success, there will be another edition at Boxpark, Shoreditch. Stay tuned…

Photography by Francesca Z.A.

A Big Thanks to Julia for my thank-you present! We love Chanel bags.

A Day on the Southbank: Wine and Cheese Festival

  

One of the cheapest and nicest things to do in London is to take a walk down the river. On a crisp autumn day, with family in town, we did just that. From Big Ben, over the Millennium Bridge, we ended up by the Southbank. The usual Farmer’s Market had been taken over by a Wine and Cheese Festival.

There was so much choice and so much good food. Instead of wine and cheese, we opted for Prosecco and Cheesecake. Oreo Cheesecake to be precise, it tasted amazing. The Sweet Tooth Factory make all manner of cakes from cupcakes to brownies and taste as good as they look.

We tried out Grays and Feather’s Italian Prosecco. It went down so well and was such good value for money we had two bottles (nothing to do with us being lushes). It’s good news they have a website, as a batch Christmas order might be an idea.

On the way back…

Where wanderlust meets fashion: style-passport.com

Over the past two months, I have been interning for the growing e-tailer, style-passport.com. Because the company is in it’s youth, it has been great for me, as an intern, to step in on these early stages and see all facets of the business, from buying and merchandising to editorial and social media. As exciting as it would be to intern for web giant Net-A-Porter, I doubt I’d be sitting in the same room daily as the MD of the company! And that is what I have loved about my time here.

Speaking of the MD, Sarah Walter, has had an extensive fashion career starting at British Vogue and becoming the youngest editor in the fashion room. Later, Sarah worked at Harper’s Bazaar then Marie Claire before changing fashion lanes completely and embracing brand development at New Look and River Island. Sarah was the one who got Giles, Lily Allen, Luella Bartley and Katie Hillier involved at New Look. If that wasn’t enough, I’m amongst fashion pros who’ve come from WGSN, moo.com, New Look, Dune and Pied a Terre to name a few.

Most of my responsibilities have revolved around assisting the team with buying and merchandising admin, updating content onto the website, and assisting on fashion shoots. On the first shoot I worked on, the deputy editor and stylist spotted a nearby painted house out and about on location. It was the perfect backdrop for this season’s Chinti and Parker star sweater.

Style Passport are leading the way when it comes to holiday fashion. Here are my picks from the site:

The team work hard and play hard, holding two events since my duration. The first being an event specially for bloggers, the Big Summer Blog Spot. We got to meet the faces behind the websites, pose for pictures in our beach shack photobooth and some of our favourite brands contributed to the evening’s goody bag.

This week, s-p hosted a networking evening exclusively for female professionals at the Groucho Club. It was a productive night of fashion brainstorming. Since it was my first time there, I was awestruck by the atmosphere and the Twinkle champagne cocktails.

Tracy Emin at The Groucho club. Image from Mr and Mrs Smith Instagram

I first found out about s-p after my sister bought me an Anya Hindmarch gadget bag from them as my Christmas present. It was for my epic backpacking trip around the world. After travelling for the best part of this year, I was so happy to work for a site that is passionate about travel. The holiday wardrobe edit can be so stressful (I started packing in December for my trip the following February) and here is a site that does all that for you. My style-passport journey ends next week.

London 2012

It has been an amazing few weeks in the city of London. There is no place anyone else would rather be. In the huge build-up to the frenzied Olympic fortnight, most Londoners were sceptical and negative about the effects the event would have on the city. This bad mood seemed to genuinely dissipate come the day the Torch arrived in London. I arranged my lunchbreak specifically around the Torch parade coming down my road. I felt an odd sense of pride seeing this international beacon on the street I walk down everyday!

Lakshmi Mittal on Holland Park Avenue

And if that didn’t get everyone in the mood, then Danny Boyle’s Opening Ceremony certainly did. A fabulous concoction of all things British from James Bond, to David Beckham, from Dizzee Rascal to the Queen, and let’s not forget Mr Bean’s rendition of Chariots of Fire.

On the following Sunday, I met with one of my best friends, who luckily had just returned from a five-month backpacking trip in time for the games. We met in central London where I saw all the flags for the first time.

We had a much needed catch-up over lunch in the fabulous Venetian restaurant, Polpo off of Carnaby Street.

The Australians aren’t doing as amazingly as they usually do in the Olympics, but they do a brilliant Flat White.

Flat White – Berwick Street

I have wanted to see an Olympic Banksy since the pictures got released. On Thursday, I met my friend visiting from Canada on Broadway Market, and coincidentally stumbled on this one!

My favourite Olympic images…

The Women’s marathon – photo by http://uslan.co.uk/

Nail Art! Victoria Pendleton

More Nail Art – Laura Trott

Andy Murray

The Mobot and the Lightening Bolt

As an avid Spice Girls fan (yes I went to the reunion concert, and yes, I have tickets for the musical) I cannot wait for the closing ceremony tonight. Geri had better wear her Union Jack dress. Sad to see it all end! Well Done Team GB.

Global Finds

Whilst on my travels, I picked up some colourful purses along the way.

In Vietnam, I bought from a local merchant in Hoi An, these amazing woven purses, each slightly different in design.

In Luang Prabang in Laos I sought out these pretty neon embroidered purses.

If you like fair-trade fashion and the global traveller look, these purses are available to buy from as little as £10 from the Cross in Holland Park.

A Taste of Germany in London

Yesterday, on a gloomy and drizzly Sunday morning, I took a trip down to Daheim. Meaning “at home” in German, Daheim was a one-day only pop up restaurant in the heart of London, on the Bethnal Green Road.

In the usual spot for pie and eels, G. Kelly, we found a buzzy and warm welcome, and if there were not enough tables to go round, random strangers simply shared. We really were at home.

The food was exceptional. I had a Flammkuchen, a pizza bread topped with cream, speck and chives. My friend had Nürnberger Bratwurst served with sauerkraut, bread and mustard. This was all washed down with homemade lemonade.

Flammkuchen

the idea of this restaurant was to introduce a different side to German dining, as opposed to the beerhouses we are used to, which London is definitely lacking. Hopefully there is more to come from Daheim