Pink Julep Eats: Black & Blue

Last night we headed to Marlyebone to have drinks and dinner with friends. We went to Black & Blue and I was so excited because I've been wanting to go there since I saw it. The wine was nice and the steaks were top-notch, especially for the price! Each steak comes with a choice of sauce. I chose the garlic & herb butter and it was divine!

Photos: www.blackandbluerestaurants.com

Though we'll definitely go to Black & Blue again, I will say the service wasn't that great. But I can put up with bad service for the best steak! If you live in London or will be visiting London soon, try Black & Blue. There are six locations around central London. You'll love it!

Random Weekend

Friday I was doing my makup when this appeared in my window!!! I nearly died of a heart attack! hahaha He was singing opera and then later he started singing Celine Dion... apparently he was putting spikes on the window ledges to keep the pigeons from coming into the apartments and sitting on the building...

Top - Dorothy Perkins, Denim Mini - Uniqlo, Tights - TK Maxx, Suede Wedge Boots - Aerosoles, Earrings - Accessorize

This was my OOTD on Friday. I had some errands to run and figured we go out on Friday night for a least a pub night so I decided to walk on the wild side with some leopard print. This is the first item of animal print besides fuzzy slippers I've bought and I love it.

As it turns out, we did go to the pub and had a great time playing this touch screen game called Papparazzi... I'm totally addicted!

Saturday night we had dinner at Cafe Rouge... to be honest, it wasn't great. But we had a great time anyway. The wine was very nice and they do a fabulous Fougasse with garlic butter and melted Gruyerre cheese!

This morning we brunched at Cafe Continente and it was amazing! After brunch we went for a stroll through our neighborhood and found this lovely little memorial park. It would be a lovely place to sit and read in the summer!

It commemorates the damage done to the Kensington area during WWII. It's gorgeous!

I hope you've all had a great weekend! I know I have! xo

This Artist is an Inspiration

You've never seen pictures of my son's room,

and there's a reason for that :)

We've ended up with an entire matching ikea set - remember the robin series?

We bought him the bookshelves at our last house,

then my brother offered us his son's desk (same series)

then D's sis offered us her son's bed and nightstand.

Crazy.

Although it's functional,

the sizing is becoming a little small for him,

and it's a bit matchy-matchy for me.

A plan is slowly forming,

and yesterday I was cruising around looking for pics of reclaimed wood accent walls,

and found the most inspiring, amazing blog.

It's called Brooklyn to West,

written by Ariele, a builder/sculpter/furniture maker living in Brooklyn.

Sounds interesting already, right?

Ariele drove acroos the country with her business partner and friend

collecting wood and antique chairs,

where she spent five months designing and building

a restaurant from reclaimed and salvaged materials.

She is truly passionate about her work, 

and her phenomenal photography perfectly captures the beauty of her designs.

If you ever wanted to read about an artist living their dream,

go over.

Some of the magic...

Thank you, Ariele,

for re-igniting the artist in me.

x

Random: Shopping, Dining, OOTD & More

So much going on these days so I apologize for all the mixed bag posts, but this is the only way I can share at the moment! We're just about to jet off to Ireland in a couple of hours so as you can imagine, I've been busy! Hubby got a job! He starts on Monday! Yikes! So we set out shopping on Wednesday at Westfield to get him some work clothes... I couldn't resist taking a tour through Dior while we were there... I nearly died of gorgeousness overdose!!!

It's official that Mr. Julep has become a Pink Man! Thomas Pink has the best shirts for men ever! And now, many of their styles don't require ironing!!! AMAZING! They are a bit pricey, but so worth it!

After a day's shopping, I treated hubby to a steak dinner at The Meat and Wine Company, which was soooooo good! The steaks were amazing! The service was not that great, but the food was worth a bit of waiting around... Pictured above is a Puzo Rose, which has Absolute Citron, Cranberry Juice, Lime wedges, Elderflower Cordial, Rose Water and Ginger Ale... it was heavenly!

I finally found a cute pair of wedges on a sale rack!!! YAY!!! These are Nine West, super comfy and much cuter than this picture shows... I also found coats, which thrilled me! I've been looking for the perfect coat for 2 weeks and liked nothing. Finally, when I found one, I found two!

This is a random photo of the zen garden situated in the courtyard of our building... I just thought it was pretty.

Yesterday when I woke up, I realized we had no available luggage for our trip... so we set out to buy some. This was my outfit.

Argyle V-Neck Merino Sweater - Uniqlo

Dark Wash Denim Mini - Uniqlo

Grey Tights - H&M

Bag - Esprit

Black Ring - H&M

Boots - UGGS (pictured below)

Cameo Earrings - Dorothy Perkins

We headed to Selfridges and on our way, we stopped here for lunch:

It was great! Kind of like a diner!

I had macaroni & cheese...

with a side of mashed potatoes... YUM!!!

Selfridges had an art exhibit. I wasn't impressed by most of it, but I liked this one. A shark's jaw dripping with magnetic tape... interesting. You know, like the ribbons out of cassette tapes!

Hubs has to do some travel with his new job so we got him a fabulous Tumi suit carrier that folds up into a cabin size rolling case! Fab! I had to get something fab too... it's only fair! So I settled on this Longchamp beauty... it also has a suit bag inside as well as a bag for your shoes! Awesome!

Now we're all packed up and ready to go! I hope you all have fabulous weekends!!! I'll be posting photos of our family weekend in Kilkenny when I get back! xoxo

Shopping, Burritos and Chocolates, Oh My!

We are feeling a bit tired this week, but there is construction next door with lots of banging so we had to get out of the house. I thought tooling around the mall would be good since there are restaurants, stores, cafes and a cinema there so we headed back to Westfield for round two... one week later. It's so big that you could literally spend about a week there!

We started off with lunch. THis time around we did not go to a sit down restaurant, but opted for the upscale food court instead. Hubby ate a chicken pie, but I opted for Nineteen Ten Mexican Kitchen. It was delish! It's pretty much exactly like Chipotle, though to be honest, it's not as good and more expensive, but it definitely did the trick!

We shopped and shopped all day and after all of that, a coffee was in order. We stopped at Butler's chocolate cafe.

I couldn't resist having a few chocolates! Butler's chocolates are amazing! They are like the equivalent to Godiva in the UK.

The cafe was very cool and pretty! It reminded me of an old fashioned soda shoppe or something like that.

All the shops are starting to put out their Christmas gift boxes. Seems a bit early, but if you know me, you know I would be happy if it was Christmas every day!

I had a latte and hubs had a cappucinno. Then we headed on our way back home. We had to change stations at Hammersmith, so we picked up some groceries there for the house. There were all sorts of super cool kids hanging out and cops everywhere... we figure it must be a concert since a man was asking to pay people for any extra Mumford and Sons tickets they have to sell.

We're so tired now and I feel as though I could be coming down with a cold. Will be sticking close to home tomorrow for sure! I need to do some laundry and just get some rest. I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far. What are your plans?

Good Fun, Good Food & OOTD

Last night we headed out to Marlyebone to meet some people we made friends with in Cayman that came back to London a year ago. We went early and explored the neighborhood a bit and on our way there, we found this Belgian Food Company stand. I had a waffle with milk chocolate and hubby tried one with syrup. What a delightful snack! I wouldn't eat them all the time by any means, but it was certainly warm and yummy, a great combination in the cold!

Here's my OOTD from last night:

Cowle Neck Sweater Dress - H&M

Ribbed Tights - Hanes

Suede Boots - Aerosoles

Black Ring - H&M

Silver Leaf Earrings - Accessorize

Sunnies - Armani Exchange

Bag - Coach

Me met our friends at The Marlyebone Pub, a lovely establishment where we enjoyed some lovely glasses of wine! We then headed over to Union Cafe, a quaint spot with minimalist interior that reminded me of restaurants in downtown New York City. I ordered a steak and we drank Merlot. The food was great and the atmosphere very hip! We really enjoyed it!

We then went to have one last bevy at a cute little pub called The Beehive which I thought was a super cute pub and we had much chit chat about London, Cayman and upcoming events! It was so fun!

I will definitely be checking out more of the Marlyebone scene at some point... there's a place there that looks fabulous called La Fromagerie. It's a gigantic cheese store! I love nothing more than cheese!!! Happy Friday!

The Best Steak in London

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The Pantechnicon Public House & Dining Room is one of the best places I've had dinner since I moved to London and the steak there is the best I think I've ever had! The atmosphere is relaxed, the service is fantastically attentive and the menu is great! It's laid out so that there's a bistro/pub downstairs and a dining room upstairs. The atmosphere is cozy and relaxed - it's everything you'd want for a great family dinner or a chilled dinner date out.

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If you're a fan of filet steak and you're going to be in London, you simply must try the Pantechnicon! I love a medium-rare filet and though I'm very picky about my steak, I was not at all disappointed!

Do you have a favorite restaurant in London? I'm always looking for recommendations!

Pink Julep Eats: Ciao Baby Cucina at Westfield London

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Yesterday we ventured out to the White City area of London to the Westfield Mall. Oh my word, I've never in my life seen a mall so huge! Westfield London features all the favorite UK shops, many of the favorites from the US including Gap, Hollister and the Disney Store and also has The Village, a whole section devoted to luxury shops such as Jimmy Choo, Louis Vuitton, Thomas Pink and Miu Miu among others. It was overwhelming to say the least and we came home with bags o' plenty!

There are several eateries and food court areas and one section called the Southern Terrace Restaurants features several sit-down restaurants for tired hungry shoppers. We took a break to enjoy lunch and toast our arrival at Ciao Baby Cucina and it was fab! We enjoyed a lovely bread basket and glasses of wine. Water was served with lemon and it was refreshing! I had the spaghetti alla bolognese and hubby had the pasta carbonara. Both dishes were delicious! The Valpolicella wine was superb and the service was fantastic! The best part, our bill came to only 31 pounds including tip! We will definitely be going back to Ciao Baby Cucina and I can't wait to go back to Westfield for Christmas shopping!!!

The Best Venue in NZ - a Treehouse Restaurant..

Magical.

The Yellow Treehouse Restaurant

The challenge put forth by the NZ Yellow Pages: build a restaurant in a tree

The result by Pacific Environments Architects: stunning architecture

If I ever become independently wealthly (read: win the lotto!)

 I think this is where the bubbly will be poured. Please come :)

This beautiful structure sits unused, at the moment..

but it has soared onto my destination wish list.

Spectacular, isn't it?

til next time..

A Tented Ceiling of a Different Kind.. NYU Restaurant

What do you get when you mix an old liquor factory and some serious ingenuity?

The Beirut bar/restaurant MYU, created by Architect Paul Kaloustian.

Two vaults, covered in translucent black fabric define the restaurant and bar spaces,

 with a window between for a visual connection-

clever and so original.

The lighting can be dimmed to increase the feeling of enclosure later in the evening..

such sultry ambiance.

Cocktails, anyone?

til next time..