I love my new black suede shoes that are decorated with golden spikes. They are little controversial when you wear them with a skirt, but I like that they make you look and feel super cool as soon as you slip these bad boys on. The spikes are not too much in your face, but you can definitely see that they are not just golden spots attached to the top material. They stand out just enough to give your OOTD an unexpected edge.

As people are always interested to see what others are wearing (either in the hope of getting ideas what to and what not to wear themselves), I have intentionally been following people's expressions since this morning. I do have to admit that it has been funny to watch how some have taken double takes because they are not 100 per cent sure why my shoes look slighly different than your average pair of black slip ons with golden studs on, others have completemented on them whilst others have clearly not agreed with my the day's shoe choice at all. It is interesting to see people's reactions.

I have also nick named this pair as 'the tourist killers'. I said to Matt this morning that if anyone purpously gets too close, on a way or does not give enough room I just walk really close to them with my spiked shoes until they realise to move :) Hahha, an amazing game plan we thought.

Look at these pretty tea sets! I think they are breathtakingly beautiful. So delicate, so perfect. I'm in love.

Both of the sets here are by Vera Wang. The first one is called Lace Gold collection made from fine bone china with delicate gold banded lace trim.

The second collection goes by the name Gilded Weave Range. The collection is also made from fine bone china and inspired by the Greek and neoclassical styles. The set is decorated with a broad boarder of woven platinum and gold and edged with a thin golden line.

ah <3 so so beautiful

Good morning my lovelies.

It is me writing from the other side of the screen. Let's have our customary Saturday morning chat, shall we? Breakfast has been eaten but there is still some coffee left next to me on a mug. In fact, this mug is a special one. I got it from my grand mum the last time I visited my her and grand dad in Finland. She had bought the mug for me so that every time I long back home I can take that mug out, make myself a nice cup of coffee or tea and let the drawings painted on the mug make me smile. I thought that was such a nice thing to do. I will snap a picture of the mug at some point and post it here so you will see it too.

I have been on a summer holiday in Finland and Åhland for the past two weeks. I was really lucky to have my hols now since the weather was amazing and there were no rainy days at all. Another great thing was that there was one particular sentence I kept on repeating throughout my two week stay "I feel so relaxed, I'm so happy". It actually still makes me content to recall how that good feeling took over me every single day. I reckon that shows that my holiday was a successful one indeed.

I hope you all have had at least some time to enjoy the summer this year too. I mean even a few days can be good. I don't necessarily believe that you have to have a six week holiday in order to feel relaxed. Of course, it is nicer the longer you can take off from work and concentrate on other areas of life. You have a possibility to travel a little bit further away and see more things and still spend some time home too. On the other hand, short holidays can be quite tricky too. If you have, let's say only  four days to spare, your holiday may indeed become more stressful than not having one at all.  The key is to work out a balanced between taking it easy and being active and doing something nice. I reckon that one of the biggest dangers on short holidays is not necessarily the limited number of days that we have, but instead is the mindset that people often adopt. You see, quite often when you only have a few odd days off you can easily think that 'ok I'm on mission now, I must relax quickly and do everything in a rush since I need to be back to work/school very soon'. Then you start stressing about how quickly your holiday will fly by without you realising it, how you don't have enough time to do all the things you were planning to do when you finally were on a holiday or you might worry how you probably end up feeling you didn't have any time off at all. This is often because most of the things you do can easily become forced actions as you try to get the most out of everything you possibly can. Hehh not exactly very tempting holiday mood setter, is it? :) But think about it, if you desperately try to cram your two week holiday in those four days, it is no wonder that you might feel more exhausted even by the thought of going on a holiday. Hence, I recommend that you take things as they come. Don't plan too much. Just go with the flow.

Cecil Carlstedt a Swedish drawing and painting artist from Stockholm is someone whose works I'd like to introduce to you. Cecil has done her BA in Graphic Design and Illustration in London and an exchange year in NY.

Her most well known customers have been H&M, Swarovski, Esprit, Martini Gold, J Lindeberg , Paul Smith, Victoria's Secret, Elle, Vogue, W Magazine, London Fashion Week, New York Time and the Sunday Telegraph. So she is definitely someone to know.

Personally, I like her artistic style. It is unique and she has wonderful drawing skills. The colours she uses are also pleasant and in a perfect harmony.

Yesterday turned out to quite an eventful day. I think the theme word was extempore. Many things happened on the spur of a moment without or only some forethought. For instance, after having written that little happy note I put my gym stuff together and headed to my nearest fitness centre for a double class. First one was a bikram yoga class and the second class was advanced pilates. Liked both of the classes a lot since they were very demanding. Bikram was very fast phased and we switched from one position to another without pauses letting our in and outward breaths dictate the speed of movements. Pilates, on the other hand, was a mixture of fun and hard work. The instructor was an older Italian lady how pushed us hard and corrected everyone's position in every single moment. This clearly took time which meant that we did not end up doing more than ten to thirteen different exercises but because she took her time correcting everyone's position we had to do more repetitions than usually. I liked it though. There is a real potential for these classes becoming my early Saturday afternoon signatures.

After coming home and having had lunch, we decided to go for a bit of browse and coffee. It was nice since Ken had just came back from Taiwan so we had Starbucks and watched people playing table tennis at the shopping centre square. Hah, there were a few Chinese ladies who were impressively good at it and Ken, bless him, really wanted to go practice his table tennis skills too. However, Reiss and summer sales got the best of him so he settled  with only sitting in Starbucks' sofas sipping his coffee and watching the others. 

By the time coffees were drank I wanted to quickly pop into a phone shop to ask if my they have international phone call deals I could bundle up with my current contract. I have been receiving ridiculous phone bills lately which is why something had to be done and quickly, since in my mind, putting £70 on calls is just a stupid waste of money. Thus, I go into the shop and the assistant and I start talking and he shows me different options I could consider. Then one thing leads to another, I mention that my BB has been crashing a lot lately and has not been working as it should, we start looking at phones, we talk about a little bit of upgrades and then half an hour later, I leave the shop with a really good international  phone calls deal added to my contract and new Sony Xperia in a carrier bag! :D

Towards the evening I started to feel a little tired and uncomfortable.  I was cold and felt really heavy, so yes, by the time we started watching the sex and the city film around 8ish in the evening, I had started to feel really feverish. So for the rest of the evening, I staid under the covers on the sofa, munching paracetamol and occasionally falling asleep and then waking up and laughing at Samantha's comments. And now, I am full-on ill. 

Peaceful Saturday morning, just right amount of warm breakfast filling my stomach, sitting in the lounge in silence whilst the other ones are still sleeping and gazing at the continuous movements of the Thames river water. I am so happy I almost want to cry. I have finally had my peaceful weekend mornings back and that just makes me mentally so satisfied and content.  It gives me energy and recharges my batteries. There have been months when I have gone beyond the point of missing these moments, I have forgotten these moments exists. I have forgotten how important these moments are for me and most importantly how they made me feel. Now, when I am again connected to the feeling I remember what I have been missing and it makes me appreciate them even more. Happiness is little things.

We visited the Barbican Centre this week. Even though the main reason for our visit was to check the 007 James Bond exhibition, I was fully enjoying the interior of the centre itself. I would highly recommend everyone to pay a visit. Barbican Centre is visually very interesting place and seems to have a good atmosphere to it too!

picture here

picture here

Florence + The Machine - Spectrum

Florence + The Machine does not seem to be able to disappoint with this song either. Love it!

Happy belated Birthday: Yellow gold, rose gold and rhodium plated crystal pendant and earrings set.