gold & grit // cremorne Posted by Helena

Part two of my photoshoot with Gold & Grit. (Profile photos for everything forever!)

friends on instagram // ulrich Posted by Helena

If you've followed my blog for a while, you know I like to gush about my friends and how ridiculously talented they are. So I decided to start featuring some of my friends' Instagram accounts. To kick it off, here's Ulrich's account. Every time he posts a photo I seem to like it, so I figured it was a good place to start! Follow him here: @ulzzz.

music // laneway festival 2014 Posted by Helena

Laaanewaaay! Well, it was a darn tootin' boiling hot in Melbourne. We arrived just after lunch to make sure we didn't have to stand around in the heat for too long, but it was still a case of sweating-while-standing-still unless you were in the shade. Thank goodness that Melbourne heat goes away when the sun sets. As I predicted, I bumped into so many people I knew and got to see friends perform - yay!

My housemate missed out on a ticket before it sold out, so we were on a hunt to find her one. At the eleventh hour (almost literally since it was about 10pm the night before), I put one last post on Facebook to see if anyone was selling one, and got a message from a friend in London who happened to be touring with Savages and they had a spare guestlist spot! Needless to say I made her pay for my food and drinks alllllll day!

So we saw Savages, Cloud Control, Chvrches (well I saw a couple of songs before going to Cloudies' signing to catchup because I couldn't get in touch since everyone's phones didn't have reception), Haim, Lorde and The Jezabels. I was so stoked that none of the artists I wanted to see clashed. I would have liked to see Vance Joy as well, but I wasn't that committed.

My friends also did an hour DJ set at the official after party, and the super nice Laneway driver guy picked us up, then said we were going to be doing a swapsie - we'd be getting out and Haim would be getting in. My eyes nearly bugged out of my head and I had to restrain myself from asking for a photo. So I got out of the car to have Baby Haim smiling at me. Mini swoon.

ladies who lunch // ledbury Posted by Helena

I've got a few more posts to make from, erm, last year (whoops!) and here's one of my favourites. Everyone who knows me knows I love my food and as a special treat to myself before I left London (literally the day before I left), I went to The Ledbury for a long lunch. It's only the 14th best restaurant in the world doncha know. Now... Let me relive the best meal of my life (not kidding - every dish was amazing).



Goats curd on squid ink cracker

Cheese and bacon brioche - this was mind blowingly amazing and I had to stop myself from eating all of the bread every time they brought the bread tray around.

Amuse Bouche - quail egg on mousse (was it mushroom?)

Ceviche of hand dived scallops with radishes, seaweed and herb oil and frozen horseradish

Flame grilled mackerel with avocado, celtic mustard and shiso - one of my favourites!!

Hampshire buffalo milk curd with saint-nectaire, Iberico ham and a broth of grilled onions

Fillet of brill with sweetcorn, razor clams and ginger - this was another favourite!

Breast of quail with walnuts, cepes and figs

Short rib of ruby red beef (cooked for 8 hours) with baked celeriac, bone marrow and grated english wasabi

Pre-dessert - somewhat like a mandarin Eton Mess. Mandarin granita and ice cream and meringue yum yum yum.

Mille-feuille of mango with kaffir lime ice cream.

being an extra // british india Posted by Helena

Last month I was an extra on British India's latest video clip for Blinded. While one without much experience would think it's quite glamourous, in actuality it's quite exhausting! We were required to dance vigorously to the entirety of the song and then do a lot of screaming. The storyline was a band playing at a prom and then they start going crazy, spit lots of blood and the real British India come out of their bodies. The band wanted to create a really C-grade horror video and I think it turned out really awesome!

So while we started the day like this...



We ended up more like this about 4 hours in...

music // wilderness festival Posted by Helena

One of the best festivals I've ever been to was Wilderness Festival in Oxfordshire last year. It was big enough to feel like a festival, but small enough to feel friendly, with some wicked food and artists. I also got to go with some of the best peeps I know!