The Sneaky Magpie

Archive | Fashion RSS for this section

9 February, 2013

Chocolate chip and banana cookies and some roomy dresses

As you can see I am changing the look of this site but it’s all very fiddly and I still have few things to do.

Yesterday I went to see a friend who just had a baby and knowing how much energy does one need to deal with a newborn, breastfeeding and a toddler I decided to come loaded with sugary goodness. Chocolate chip cookies were the obvious choice but not having enough chocolate at home I added some diced bananas and the end result was pretty good, like small chewy banana breads. The original chocolate chip cookie recipe came from here and I just substituted a cup of chocolate chips with 2 ripe bananas.

All this cookie eating calls for forgiving dresses and yesterday while shopping in Kingston I saw few that I had to stop myself from buying. They are all from Whistles and I would die for the top row combined with some Hanne Holm style oversized scarves.

30 November, 2012

Friday’s Favourites

The Killing is back so I thought it appropriate to make a selection of statement jumpers Sarah Lund would approve of. Do you watch the show? I am hooked on the 3rd series at the moment and loving the fact that I missed the first two so have something to look forward to.

Top row from left: J. Crew, Isabel Marant, Miu Miu

Middle row fro left: Acne, A.P.C., Sonia by Sonia Rykiel

Bottom row from left: Isabel Marant, Marc Jacobs, Joseph

31 October, 2012

H&M and Unicef

I am absolutely loving the new H&M collection All for Children which is a collaboration with Unicef. The goal is to improve lives of the little ones in Tamil Nadu, India, a massive producer of cotton and Dhaka, Bangladesh, one of the largest garment industries in the world. The project focuses on most vulnerable children aiming to prevent the causes of child labour, provide education and improve access to health care and good nutrition.

The collection is lovely and really well made using beautiful fabrics like cashmere or merino wool. The cute girls’ dresses are all sold out online unfortunately but there are still plenty of other bits available. I only wish I found that bunny hat and glove set earlier, would be a perfect Halloween outfit for F.

12 October, 2012

Friday’s Favourites

I love jewellery but hardly ever buy it or wear it, actually since having Freddie I don’t put my wedding and engagement rings on every day for fear of scratching the babe (ahem, a toddler so not that scratchable anymore!). One of my favourite pieces is the Birds and Nest ring but it is so tricky to wear, I keep catching fabrics with it, can’t put gloves on and it needs to be sent back to the workshop for reconditioning. I miss wearing it though, and looking at it, it’s so pretty and special. This brings me to the designer of the said ring, a pure creative genius, Alex Monroe. Every collection has got something covetable, whimsical and surprising so this bicycle necklace from Best of British collection jumps right to the top of my wish list.

21 September, 2012

Friday’s Favourites

This post has been sitting in my draft folder for a long while, in fact it inspired this series. House of Hackney is one of those decadent luscious luxury brands that I love. The label is based in East London, the house of everything that’s trendy (mind you, apparently Peckham is on their toes!). The people behind this label manage to incorporate the history and tradition of the area into their designs with a modern quirky twist.

They make furniture, bed linen, china, wallpaper, fabrics, cushions and lighting. The lamp shades are so stunning it would be hard to ever switch the light off and I have been drooling over some of the fabrics for my bedroom curtains for some time. I might just start with some cushions, the goods are actually well priced given the quality and specialist skills that go into making them and the fact that everything is made in UK but it’s still bit expensive. Here are few of my favourite pieces.

On top of all of this interior goodness they also design clothes which are as fabulous. These two pieces would be a perfect addition to my winter wardrobe.

Also available at Liberty of London (aka the best shop in the world).

14 September, 2012

Friday’s favourites

I decided to make a new regular feature, the title sounds strangely familiar so if I have nicked someone’s name please scream!

With The Newsroom over I am still obsessing about all the shirts Emily Mortimer’s character wore. I call it the MacKenzie shirt. Here is a small selection of nicely made good quality shirts perfect for work and weekend, I love how we never see the bottom part of Mac’s outfits because it’s always a black pencil skirt or black trousers, she always looks chic and professional and most importantly comfortable.

Shirts from top left corner clockwise, all from net-a-porter.

L’Agence

A.P.C.

J.Crew

Vanessa Bruno

Equipment

Sonia by Sonia Rykiel

Raquel Allegra

Vince

Splendid

11 June, 2012

by The Sneaky Magpie
in Books, Coffee, Days out, everything and anything, Fashion, Film, Food, Gardening, Museums and Galleries
Comments ( 3 )

June things

The rain is pouring down and I am happy to be inside sipping a cup of coffee after getting wet earlier today. There are many exciting things I have been enjoying in the last couple of weeks:

first crops from our garden: mizuna, rocket and spinach, sadly the rain makes slugs eat everything and all my courgette and patty pan plants are almost gone!

continuing the healthy eating/detoxing lark with a small dose of cake

good coffee and home made sourdough

visiting Petersham on warm and cold days, the boy loves their cakes

catching up with these three lovely ladies, what a great afternoon!

visiting three gardens yesterday (more soon) as part of the NGS open days, and planning more visits

discovering film crew on the Common and spotting the following names on trailers (heart racing): Charles Dickens!, Mrs Ternan, Nelly – The Invisible Woman, a new BBC production about Dickens’ lover starring Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas

upon further research discovering that the film is shot in Southside House, a wonderful stately home near me that has reopened to public and I will be visiting very very soon

at last read Cold Comfort Farm which instantly became one of my top favorite books, followed by Conference at Cold Comfort Farm – not as great but still pretty funny, I will be starting Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm soon. I can be very obsessive so needless to say I also watched the very good BBC adaptation

being a big fan of Nancy Mitford I squeezed in Love in a Cold Climate with Rosamund Pike as Fanny – brilliantly adapted two great novels, this mini series combines the above title with Pursuit of Love

I am fearing the last episode of Mad Men series 5, I might have to re-watch it from the beginning, or go back to The Wire or Six Feet Under

watching Girls which is realistically brilliant

really looking forward to this cookbook by the wonderful Katie Quinn Davies

I spent a fab afternoon at V&A visiting the Ballgowns exhibition and fell head over heels in this Vivienne Westwood dress (reminded me of Miss Havisham), I was also very happy to see Lady Diana’s Elvis dress

The month has just started and it’s looking very busy indeed!

9 May, 2012

Raincoats big and small

Continuing in the rainy mood, here are some cute raincoats.

Classic Petit Bateau for adults and kids, Freddie had the yellow one last autumn and has got the blue version for this year. They are fantastic especially the yellow one, such great colour.

Some fashion choices: fabulous Barbour capes I am hankering after; yellow Burberry and black All Saints jackets follow closely.

And lastly some great baby choices, red Zara, lots of options from Polarn O. Pyret (Freddie has got a green one and it’s the best jacket ever), Barbour and J.Crew.

7 May, 2012

Jolly brollies

I have had enough of this weather as probably everyone else but instead of moaning I will embrace it and focus on some rain related fun. The rain is meant to stay for the whole of May so it is sensible to invest in decent weather gear.

To start with, what’s better way to make a grey wet day more cheerful than a fab umbrella? Here are my picks:

Umbrellas from Marc by Marc Jacobs, Rob Ryan, Cath Kidston, Orla Kiely, Pierre Vaux, Liberty of London and John Lewis.

3 May, 2012

I want

I was supposed to moan about the never ending rain but then I thought that writing about summery things would be much better. This post is mainly about shopping and dreaming about heat and sun and cycling and traveling to Cornwall…or Normandy for example. One might prefer Cote D’Azur but one should not be too demanding.

First off I always see girls with fabulous bags and every time I ask it happens to be Zara, there is the classic camel shopper which I really want but after a glimpse on their website I came across some sweet colourful perforated leather mini ones and large woven beige shoppers. Aren’t these adorable?

If we talk about bags we also need shoes, I am really into wedges, a little lift with shorts and so much more grown up (and interesting) than sandals. How cute are these? I am particularly loving the blue J. Crew and the beige Jeffrey Campbell at the bottom. Two top rows J. Crew, bottom row Jeffrey Campbell.

And of course we cannot stop there, the whole look: Petit Bateau tops, Liberty scarves, Globtrotter suitcase, Bensimon shoes, H&M shorts, J.Crew basket.