Brighton: A Day of Running and Cheering (Mainly Cheering...)

Brighton: A Day of Running and Cheering (Mainly Cheering...)

One of my best pals lives in Brighton (oh hey Simon *waves*), so it doesn't take much for me to jump a train to the beach. This time, I was going with a purpose - head cheerleader. Simon was running the marathon for the second year on the trot and wanted to beat his personal best.... challenge accepted - I grabbed my pal Milla, warmed up my vocal cords (and northern accent, cheerleading switched me into full northern mode 'go on love, you can do it') and went to shout words of encouragement very loudly.

I suppose pom poms would have been more appropriate attire, but I went with pink velvet boots - let my feet take part in the action, you know? I loved the whole day, marathons bring out the best in humanity. Everyone standing on the sidelines was cheering (genuinely) for every single person that had made it to the last mile and you could see it in the runners face that it made every bit of difference. We saw one guy who looked completely ruined but the determination to finish was driving him on, we all started chanting his name and it was like he had been re-fuelled! He started running again like a complete badass.

Simon conquered the marathon and managed to beat his personal best (we obvs made it happen), we ate a lot of chips and I managed to locate the coat of dreams in the Brighton Marks & Spencer. The day was a good'un.

Top - & Other Stories, Jacket - Missguided, Pants - Topshop, Boots - ASOS, Earrings - Toujours Toi Family Affairs, Ring - Made be ME!

Fool For Love - The Dress of Dreams

Fool For Love - The Dress of Dreams

...You are picking apples on an orchard in Woodstock with your sweetheart, you carry your bounty back to the wooden cottage you are staying in and get started on apple pies and an afternoon nap...

Wear the Fool For Love dress with a big straw hat and a bunch of daisies .

Who could not fall in love with this dress after reading this description?

This dress has been waiting patiently for the right amount of sun, grass and happiness to tease it out of the wardrobe. Myatts Field Park opened its gates for the 'Camberwell Arts Festival' delivering delicious food, reggae bands and shaved ice. SHAVED ICE? Possibly the most magical discovery, ever. Not only does it look ridiculously instagrammable but it's a delight to the taste buds.

Two of my housemates were judging the 'Camberwell Bake Off' - they appreciated my offer of being 'chief taster' before gracefully pointing me in the opposite direction... The bandstand was transformed to host a pretty spectacular reggae band, did you know that sunny days are made for reggae music?

Toujours Toi Family Affairs is one of the most beautiful brands, with one of the loveliest people behind the helm. Me and Nina discovered that we have a mutual love for what each other creates - skill swapping was the only way forward. Skill for skill, dresses for paintings.. but more on that soon!

Camberwell is starting to feel like home.

V&A Italian Glamour Exhibit

V&A Italian Glamour

I had a visitor from the North (what is a blog post without a Game of Thrones reference?...) so I planned a full day of Southern activities, first up  the V&A Italian Glamour Exhibit.

I am always the annoying person at an exhibit who has to read every annotation and whilst being annoying I discovered a pair of kindred spirits in the form of two older, ridiculously cool ladies. I began to lurk where they were looking because their insight into the exhibit was fascinating.

Videos featuring glimpses into catwalk shows dating back to the fifties were located around the exhibit and I was interested to see the models used were shapely and looked 30 - 40, I wonder when the change to young / teen models happened, and why? Google surely must know... Fantastic exhibit anyway, I could have just stared at all the beautiful outfits all day - if you are in London you must go and witness the growth and boom of Italian Fashion.

I felt completely smug about my outfit choice when a well-dressed gent approached us to tell me I was fabulous and looked like a walking part of the exhibit... he must have been mad or not looking at me obviously... but I felt vainglorius nonetheless. Deserved.

This dress is perfect, there is always a story but I will save that for another post.

After we had soaked in our fill of culture and beautiful fabrics our stomachs directed us to Jackson + Rye for butter chicken (BUTTER CHICKEN) and cocktails. Jackson + Rye has been on my list of places to devour everything for a while and I was not disappointed, everything was beautiful down to the awesome illustrated menus designed by Bjorn Lie. His work is pretty brilliant all the time but I think his style fit so easily in with the Jackson + Rye brand.

Chicken was shortly followed by cocktails / cider at Harvey Nichols.. we were rolling big time.

London is awesome, but it was especially awesome this day. We both decided we wanted cheese and we both decided we wanted champagne - I typed these stipulations into google and London delivered. Fromage and Cheese in Covent Garden. The champagne was reasonable and oh so tasty and the cheese was just ridiculous. The waitress found out what type of cheese we most loved and designed our board around that, I cannot gush about this place enough - maybe a whole posts worth??

Anyway after eating everything, all day we slumped home to drink prosecco and eat take out pizza - a luxurious and well needed / deserved day I say.

I vlogged the while weekend on my YouTube channel so if you are remotely interested in hearing / seeing / witnessing more that have a look at that HERE!

I have just opened a Depop account and listed my first item (username - ashleyfauguel) I can see this app becoming and addiction!

Dress - Toujours Toi Family Affairs

The Weekend Vlog 03

The Weekend Vlog 03

Do three vlogs a vlogger make? It at least makes a slight habit.... anyway - I am rather enjoying documenting and I enjoy watching what other YouTubers document, so that means its worth doing... right?...

This weekend was a rather great one - I had one of my friends over from the North (yes the Game of Thrones reference is necessary) and we went wild in London town. When I say 'went wild' obviously I mean that we went to an exhibit at the V&A, ate a months worth of food, drank cider, drank champagne, shopped and gossiped.... Wild eh?

Blog posts with outfits and more waffling to follow, but in the meantime I have a few more videos HERE, crazy.