shopping // present and correct Posted by Helena

Present & Correct is one of my favourite online stores and blogs. They have amazing vintage and no-so-vintage stationery and gifts and style every product brilliantly. Their blog is full of stationery and design related gems from old prints to cards to furniture. In other words, just go and check it out! I've bought washi tape and maps of NYC from them before.

fashion // marni for h&m - part 2 Posted by Helena

Does anyone else have the problem of not being able to sleep early when you know you need to get up early the next day? Well I definitely felt that on Wednesday night before Marni for H&M launched! My friend Jon is a veteran of these fashion events and under his tutelage (and very detailed email complete with a screencap from Google Maps), I managed to leave the house on time, and made it to Bond Street for 6am. I was blasting my iPod and powering up the escalator so I really didn't notice that Jon was yelling my name as he came up the escalator behind me. Whoops.

I'd lined up with Jon at the Knightsbridge store for the Lanvin H&M collection, but it was during winter, it was freezing and we waited outside for 3 hours. Yuck. We did get free gift bags with woollen scarves though, and I got my gorgeous yellow dress (above). Selfridges was a lot more civilised. The security guard who gave us our wristbands for the first group (hurrah!) kindly told us to go and wait in a cafe as we were guaranteed entry and wouldn't have to worry about coming back until closer to 9am. So we sat in Starbucks and had breakfast, then moved to another Italian cafe and had more hot drinks, before lining back up outside the entrance.

Once we were inside it was all a little bit mental with the amount of people grabbing clothes and boxes of accessories. I was getting things for a work friend too, but I somehow managed to grab the silk maxi dress and accessories I wanted. Thanks friends who held things for me! Here's what I picked up...

fashion // marni for h&m Posted by Helena

Here's my proposed new wardrobe by Marni for H&M! I wasn't much fussed with the Versace collection but I adore these Marni dresses and all of the accessories. When I moved to London, the Lanvin collection was released and I lined up with J from about 6am at the Knightsbridge store. I had just gotten a temp job at Harrods, so I lined up with coffees until I had to go to work - luckily just around the corner! It was definitely worth it since I got my gorgeous yellow dress... This will be the last H&M collection I'll be in London for, so bring it Marni!

nanoblock // grand piano Posted by Helena

Yes, I bought another nanoblock kit! You might remember my giant panda one from a little while back. I found out where you can buy them online and I think the Eiffel Tower might be next...

Next to a film canister for size... it's teeny tiny!

church street // stoke newington Posted by Helena

While Mon was here, we went for a long stroll to Church Street in Stoke Newington. It's a lovely little street packed with vintage stores and yummy places to eat.

This is Clissold Park where the snow hadn't quite melted.

That stuff is frozen water. Yup.

Orange, carrot and ginger juice at The Blue Legume and In the Sylvanian Store. Wall to wall Sylvanian animals!

Samples of cake and a cup of tea was just what we needed after a long afternoon walk, and I picked this gorgeous black dress up for £10 in one of the vintage stores!

Then it was off to Big Red for nachos before a spot of bowling... (another post to come and it includes a video!)

instagram // glasgow vintage finds Posted by Helena

Leopard print muff - £15. It has a little zippered pocket too. Probably for cigarettes, but in reality it'll be for my oyster card.

This will divide people, but I've wanted a vintage (ONLY buy vintage!) fur coat for a while, but never thought I could afford one. Here's my vintage rabbit fur coat I bought for £40.

60s hat - £16

instagram // my last two days Posted by Helena

My last two days in Instagram photos

I'm addicted to Instagram of late! Here's my last two days in photos.

Christmasy time in Covent Garden

Dinner at Jon's: Duck with cherry red wine sauce, truffle salt mash, honeyed carrots, Parmesan broccoli, and Letizia's starter of prosciutto mozzarella & rocket crostini.

Walking through the cemetery to get to the tube.

A BBQ Squared pork roll from Banhmi, and a soy latte (with Bonsoy!) at Broadway Market. It was featured in the first episode of Jamie's Great Britain and I had to try it!

Caramelised red onion and some kind of cheese quiche from Artisan Foods (owned by German Deli) at Broadway Market. They're also at Covent Garden Food Market! I'm a big fan already. They make German cheesecake just like my Oma makes.

I'm about to move house and gave away a bunch of books that I'd managed to collect since the start of the year and gave them to a second hand bookshop, LXV Books. They gave me some credit and I went nuts buying some old books, like this one of NYT front pages. Wrapping paper and DIY stationery here I come!

fashion // twin cat vintage Posted by Helena

twin cat models:chelsea aka bells, charlie aka dash & will, and mardi

my super talented friend sam sent me a sneak peak of her latest photo shoot for twin cat vintage. she roped her talented friends into modelling (chelsea is bells, charlie is one half of dash & will, and mardi is practically the face of twin cat). she's going to launch her brand spankin' new webstore tomorrow (!) and also launch her debut line of clothing (!!!). she's been busily designing clothing and accessories and preparing new packaging and press packs and it all looks fantastic so far.

on my last trip to melbourne i watched her shoot some pieces for the ebay store and checked out her office/wardrobe/stock room. it's packed to the ceiling with goodies! i also helped by ironing some pieces to be photographed. sorry sam, my ironing skillz aren't great!













twin cat collection - behind the scenes from chase burns on Vimeo.
here's the behind the scenes video that sam's boyfriend chase made.

friends // sophie @ finders keepers market Posted by Helena

on the weekend, i caught up with my friend sophie (hospitals for ghosts) and we walked along the river to the powerhouse for food nibbles, then drove (we couldn't quite face the walk!) to the finders keepers market at the old museum. we spent too much money on food and brooches, but it was a lovely day! sophie's one of my favourite people to photograph too because... well... i think the photos speak for themselves.

i also used pugly pixel's latest free download, scallop medallions! katrina often posts free clip art to download and i adore them all. you'll probably see me using them a lot in my graphics (when i can be bothered to make them look pretty).


















my new peacock brooch/clip/fascinator