Summer Garden Parties

With the sun beginning to shine on a more regular basis, I have begun to get excited at the prospect of cute little garden parties. 

Believe it or not my new house does in fact have a tiny little garden. We won’t be able to entertain the masses or hold any raves but I can definitely picture some nice summer BBQ’s.

In my last post I mentioned a shop called Anthropologie. It’s quite literally my favourite place at the moment.

Anthropologie's home section.

Last weekend my friends and I popped into one of their London stores and these just grabbed my attention.

The psychedelic patterns are just amazing and I immediately pictured them laid out on the garden table with the sun shining.

Personally I think it’s all about going as colourful and as fun as possible.  So why not add these steak knives and glasses into the mix. 

Interior Design Fun

So it's confession time. Along with the Daily Mail online, (it’s just a must for your daily gossip fix) I do spend a lot of my free time trawling the internet looking at interior design stuff. With this weekend being the official move into my new London pad, I thought I’d share with you all a few of my favourite items.

Bed throws.

Now I must admit finding the right bed throw is a challenge. I have spent hours trying to find one I love and I think, courtesy of Anthropologie, I may have it.

I hope you all agree it's a rather nice quilt. I literally cannot wait to move in and see how it looks. Here are a few more bits I've found, sadly none of which I can afford to buy. 

Both found on: www.grahamandgreen.co.uk

You can't go wrong with a bit of classic monochrome from Kelly Hoppen. http://www.kellyhoppenretail.com/ 

Finally some nice fun posters to tie it all together. These were found on http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/ 

Audrey Hepburn quote to make you smile.

So exciting news people… I am officially moving into London! Loving London life already, so actually being here full time is going to be even better. Whilst getting rather excited by cute interior bits and bobs I stumbled across this lovely wall sticker.

"I BELIEVE IN PINK.

I BELIEVE THAT LAUGHING IS THE BEST CALORIE BURNER.

I BELIEVE IN KISSING, KISSING A LOT.

I BELIEVE IN BEING STRONG WHEN EVERYTHING SEEMS TO BE GOING WRONG.

I BELIEVE THAT HAPPY GIRLS ARE THE PRETTIEST GIRLS.

I BELIEVE THAT TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY AND I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES."

Audrey Hepburn

Sadly I don’t think the landlord would be best please to see a string of words stuck onto the wall but it really does make me smile.

I love how a simple phrase or quote can leave you feeling in good spirits and an all round happier mood. Thanks Audrey/www.notonthehighstreet.com.

The Guardian.

I can't think of a time where I have seen a newspaper really promoting itself through TV commercials but the latest attempt by the Guardian is just brilliant. 

The main story line is taken from the 3 Little Pigs nursery rhyme and has been adapted to relate to the 21st century. 

The storyline is based on real life day to day issues but in a satirical way - I even found myself laughing when the poor pigs were struggling to keep up with their mortgage payments! 

During the commercial you also see the Guardian highlighting the impact and influence social media has on current affairs and news stories. 

The power of social media (twitter/blogs/facebook) has become an increasingly important tool in journalistic practices. 

BA - Olympic's commercial "The Race"

So once again BA have put together a brilliant commercial - this time round inspired by the forthcoming Olympic Games. 

I love the use of traditional sports commentary to track the luggage.

"and they’re off"/"this is anyone’s race at the moment"/"neck and neck"/"the world champion blowing away the field" and "the favourites the USA" - even BA can't deny that when it comes to the Olympics they often are. 

It may be based around luggage but hearing the commentary instantly gets me excited about London 2012. Certainly an exciting summer for the UK.

Carling Cup Final

Wow the Carling Cup Final really was exciting - 2-2 at the final whistle, 2-2 at the end of extra time and then finally a penalty shoot out. To add to it all in the penalties Steven Gerrard was the first to shoot and he failed to score – shock horror and quite possibly tears for the thousands of Liverpool supporters. It was incredibly tense.

The match really was quite an eye opener. Firstly there was the tube ride into Wembley Park. I know commuting can be stressful and horribly busy but this was another level and somehow to the delight of my Welsh relatives we were on a train full of Cardiff supporters. I was thrilled to see that my rather “on trend” electric blue jeans meant I blended right on in and was presumed to be a Cardiff fan too. Although unsurprisingly I didn’t know any of their chants and even if I had, the Welsh accent was proving quite overwhelming. As far as I was concerned it was a lot of tone deaf males shouting what they hoped was something similar to their friends/fellow supporters.

I have never wholeheartedly supported a sport with that same devotion football fans do. It's one of those sports you don’t support because you play it, you support because it's in your family…its expected of you…it's in your DNA......I looked around during the game and it was certainly nerve-racking but my goodness it looked like it was a matter of life or death to the supporters. When one set of supporters was celebrating the others were holding their head in their hands!

I had the luxury of sitting in Club Wembley with a combination of supporters from both sides. As a result it has a strict no football shirts policy and is theoretically “neutral” ground. Well I can certainly say that everyone’s allegiance was well known from kick off! This was unmistakably highlighted when goal numero 1 was scored. Now Sunday was a bit of a family outing as my cousins from Wales came especially for the match and WOW if only I could have filmed their reaction when Cardiff scored the first goal. For starters I think they were quick to realise the majority of Club Wembley surrounding them were Liverpool supporters. I imagine I’d show a similar reaction if I won the lottery but this was simply the first goal. As they jumped for joy, spun around, pumped fists up in the air, high fived one another and hugged it was clear they were Cardiff fans and there was no disguising it.

So that’s fine they are guys but when Liverpool finally won and I turned around to determine where this ear piercing shrieking was coming from, I was shocked to see a rather well dressed 20 something girl behind me who was in fact crying. I mean is this really necessary? And why was her reaction like so many this dramatic?

I get sport and I love it but this whole football craze does shock me and I find it a bit scary. The money people spend to support their teams is huge. Maybe the players should be using some of their HUGE salaries to help fund their supporters supporting costs? It's not just the costs but the time and distance people travel to go watch to. Liverpool fans were even having to get on replacement buses due to the trains being cancelled!

Anyways despite the rant I loved the game and it goes without saying the atmosphere at Wembley is just fantastic. It’s an extremely well managed venue and a wonderful experience being there for such a big event.