Office Florals

Summer may or may not be here. All I know is that for one day, it seemed pretty summery and black tights and a coat no longer were required in order to leave the house for work.

Dress: M&S, Shoes: Louboutin Simple Pump 100

"Summer workwear" presents a minefield of issues which I will save for another post as the tights have now come back out. This dress was a £20 bargain in the M&S Christmas sale - it may be black but the floral panel makes it summery enough and the material is really thin so definitely one to save for a sunny day. I've seen a lot of dresses with this symmetrical front panel detail - I like it and think that it's quite flattering so a couple more may work their way into my wardrobe.

How are you coping with the seasonal limbo we're facing at the moment?

Ted Baker: Summer Style Picks

I was recently contacted by "Ted" about their spring/summer blogger competition. Here is my entry and favourite picks from their collection. This summer for me is definitely "wedding season" (how am I old enough to have friends getting married?) so the style challenges of dressing for friends' big days have inspired my choices:

Vember Lace Colour Block Dress. 

This dress is so pretty - the demure neckline and hemline definitely make it wedding appropriate and I love the pop of red lace. There seem to be a lot of "rules" around wedding dressing, don't wear black, don't wear white, don't upstage the bride...I'd also recommend finding out what colour dresses the bridesmaids are wearing to avoid being mistaken for one if you're not!

Meeda Double Breasted Blazer.

For church weddings (and for the good old English summer weather) a jacket is definitely needed. I was torn between the pink and ecru but as its summer the pink won out. I really like how a classic piece has been taken out of office territory with the cropped sleeves and bright colour. After wedding season I'd wear this with casual outfits (and maybe to work if I were feeling brave).

Whicket Colour Block Bowler.

Finally, a bag. Weddings are often all day affairs so you will need all your essentials, plus an umbrella, tissues for any happy tears and some flats to deal with any walking-over-grass situations (or for when it gets to midnight and you've been wearing heels for twelve hours). A clutch bag isn't really going to cut it. Stash your confetti in the front pocket and please, please but your phone on silent.

Treat Eats: Burger And Lobster

I've been wanting to visit Burger and Lobster since the first restaurant opened in Mayfair. The inability to make a reservation, talk of long queues and a minimum spend of £20 for a main course made me hesitate about paying a visit. Burger and Lobster now has four branches, including one in the city on Bread Street which was perfect for an impromptu mid-week "oh go on then" meal with my friend P on a Tuesday evening (despite the fact that B and L probably falls more into the "treat eats" category):

The weights and prices of lobster are displayed daily. If there's a large group of you, you can pick an appropriate sized lobster which is served with unlimited sides. I guess you'd have to be pretty hungry go to for the £195 fellow.

The lobsters sit in a tank, labelled with their weights. I wouldn't bring any of my vegetarian friends here, least of all because they wouldn't be able to eat any of the amazing food anyway!

Diet Coke and a frosty glass.

Our super friendly waitress ran through the food options with us. There are no food menus as there are only three choices - lobster (steamed or grilled), lobster roll or a burger (with optional cheese and bacon at no extra cost). After giving us plenty of time to decide, we opted for sharing the burger and the lobster roll so that we could try both. Our waitress was clearly used to this and offered to cut both in half for us - perfect!

The burger is huge! We chose to have the optional cheese and bacon to get the full burger experience. We ordered it as rare as they would cook it and it was perfect. I am not a big meat-eater but surprisingly like my burgers nice and pink. The chips on the side are perfect - super skinny and super hot. There is nothing worse than warm, fat chips in my book. The salad is light and fresh and makes you feel a little bit better about the amount of carbs on the plate.

Our spread.

The lobster roll contains as much lobster as when you order the lobster option, it's just already been taken out of the shell so saves you from that fiddly task. The lobster roll is a soft brioche bun with Japanese-style wasabi mayonnaise inside.

A cross-section of the burger to show you. Possibly a bit of a challenge to bite through. I always go for the deconstruct-and-eat-with-a knife-and-fork method as I am terrified of making a mess.

Burger and Lobster did not disappoint. The food was amazing and the atmosphere of the restaurant and friendliness of the staff made for a great evening. Several of the tables seemed to be celebrating birthdays - I know where I'm tempted to go in September. We didn't try the desserts as we were too full but two are offered - one being a rather tempting sounding peanut butter and jelly creation. We finished the meal with Americanos resulting in a bill of around £30 each, including the service charge. Burger and Lobster may be a little pricey but it's well worth it for the food and the experience.

Have you been to Burger and Lobster?

Insta-Updates: Summer (At Last)

1.Vita Coco is my current beverage of choice. Even if I feel like one of those people drinking it.

2. Stumbled across a Henry Holland sample sale on Brick Lane. Couldn't resist this star print tshirt for £15.

3. The first Frappuccino of the year officially marks the start of summer. I'd obsessed with the coffee light ones.

4. Although hot drinks are still a necessity sometimes - mocha and cappuccino.

5. Favourite salad in Nandos with my parents.

6 and 7. Jalepenos and nachos at Chico Bandito.

8. Making the most of 3 for 2 on Seventeen. I keep dropping these powders on the floor and smashing them, it's getting quite annoying.

9. Salmon sushi salad in Giraffe while catching up with my friend C.

10. Ready for my friend's I's hen do - vintage blazer and Joy dress.

11. OPI gel manicure at Lisa Shepherd. Having nice shiny nails makes me more happy than it should do.

12. Dinner at Refuel at the Soho Hotel - a lovely end to a day of hen do-ing.

13. My flowers wilted. I did water them, I promise!

14. Pinkberry at Selfridges. Plain and strawberry flavours.

15. Brunch at Caravan, Kings Cross. Coconut bread, lemon curd cream cheese and rhubarb - far nicer than it sounds!

How have you been celebrating the start of summer?

Mid-Week Eats: Kimchee

There's always a huge queue outside Kimchee on High Holborn. I visited back in 2011 when it had first opened. Easter Monday was the perfect chance to revisit as my parents were wanting to try something new and there was no queue for once!

A choice of utensils.

We started with some sides to share. This is the vegetable mandu - lovely light dumplings with a soy dipping sauce.

Next up was the jap chae - vermicelli noddles with stir-fried beef.

Lastly, and my favourite, yang yeum prawns - spicey giant prawns in an edible rice paper basket.

For my main I had chicken dolsot bibimbap. Don't be scared of the raw egg - you mix everything yourself with red chilli sauce and the heat of the pot cooks the egg.

A cauldron of food. The pot is super hot so the food stays warm until you've finished it.

My mum had the beef dolsot bibimbap. For those wanting the true authentic experience, there is also an option with raw beef.

I'd definitely recommend a visit to Kimchee - there's a reason for the long queues but after going back a week after this visit, the queue moved fast and we were seated and served quickly. The prices are reasonable - my main here was around £8 and there are lots of smaller dishes which are great for sharing with friends. For £2.50 you can try some traditional kimchee, a delicacy served with every Korean meal - it's definitely an acquired taste but one that you might as well try!

Do you like Korean food?

Spring Working Wardrobe

Jacket and Skirt: M&S; Bodysuit: ASOS; Shoes: Louboutin Simple Pump 100

So, finally it's warm enough to finally put away the winter clothes. I bought this M&S jacket and skirt with a Christmas giftcard but have only just got around to wearing them - I don't see the point in wearing new clothes when they're going to be covered up in multiple layers.

The jacket was £29.50 and the skirt £25, pretty good value for work pieces and in good ol' M&S fashion are machine washable. I am done with dry cleaning (mostly because I am too lazy to actually take my clothes to the dry cleaners in the first place). I've always been an M&S fan and despite every season throwing up a few style clangers, there are always some hidden gems (especially in the shoe department).

I think the jacket may be my new favourite piece. Its smarter than throwing a cardigan over my work dresses but the soft jersey fabric means that its still really easy to wear. Also, it feels nice to wear a jacket without straying into "boring suit" territory.

How are you updating your wardrobe for spring?

April Empties

What's in my basket of empties this month?

1. Palmolive Pampering Touch shower gel - I love anything coconut scented and this was only 99p. Can't complain!

2. E45 Cream - not very glamorous but this is one of the many products I've tried to sort out my dry winter skin. This did the job until I discovered Waitrose's Baby Bottom Butter which deserves a post in itself and will be my saviour next time winter comes around.

3. Caudalie Vinexpert Eye and Lip Serum - this was a free sample with a Feel Unique order. I was a bit skeptical that the same product would work eyes and lips but this really impressed me. It's a great lip moisturiser for using before lipstick as it isn't greasy or shiny. As an eye cream it absorbs really quickly and made a great base for concealer. Something to add to my wishlist as its pretty pricey.

4. Jemma Kidd i-define mascara - this came free with Elle (I think). Full review here. This was an ok mascara, it did the job but I wasn't overly keen on it and it dried out pretty fast.

5. Weleda 2-in-1 Cleanser and Toner - a GlossyBox sample. I only got two uses out of this which I don't really think is enough to really tell whether I like a skincare product. This did a good job at removing my face make-up and did leave my skin feeling clean and soft. It had a strong herbal smell as Weleda products are made from natural ingredients which was a bit off-putting at first but I'm intrigued about the rest of the range enough to have a browse next time I'm in Wholefoods where I've seen it stocked.

6. Abi-O Soft Sun Self Tan - I went to use this recently, only to discovered that it had turned bright green. Twitter tells me that this means it has gone off, I had no idea this could happen. It's a bit of a shame as this is the best fake tan I've tried so far (in my rather limited experience of fake tanning it must be said). It doesn't have the "biscuity" smell, that alone should be reason enough to try this.

7. Vanilla Coke Lip Smacker - a Primark in-queue impulse buy. I still can't resist a flavoured lipbalm and do love my Diet Coke so for £1 this was a pretty good purchase. I try to use lip products with SPF in them during the summer so this ran out at a good time.

8. Bioderma Crealine Lait - a purchase from a French pharmacy last summer. This is very different to the micellar water cleanser. This product is more suited to drier or sensitive skin as its a milky cleanser. I found it great for removing my eye make-up and for swiping over my face before using a facewash. I think this bottle was around £8 which is pretty good - I definitely want to try more from the Bioderma range. Trip to France soon, please.

What products have you finished this month?