♥ 5 Things

Just a few things that have made me smile this week.

Fresh seasonal fruit

Getting backstage passes to the Enrique Iglesias concert at the 02 last Friday. Literally within touching distance...

Experimenting with nail colour

Tools of the trade: OPI in Siberian Nights & Rimmel 5 in 1 Nail Treat - Base and Top Coat

The fallen chandelier - a night out to see Phantom of the Opera in the West End

The new copy of Glamour I just received in the post

Mint Lemonade

It was so sunny and warm last week that I was in the mood for some chilled homemade lemonade. Unfortunately, it's been nothing but cloudy and rainy this week but I've still got some left over to brighten my day. I'd never made it before but I don't know why because it was unbelievably quick and easy. I'd seen a recipe on River Cottage (Channel4) that included mint as well so decided to try it out. I served it with burgers, crispy potatoes and salad for lunch followed by a banoffee pie for dessert on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Makes two large bottles

Parachute Silk

The inspiration for this post actually came from the daily net-a-porter.com email I subscribe to but I thought I would take the idea and show you exactly how you can wear it.

PARACHUTE SILK
From Mathew Williamson to Chloé, billowing silk has been shown all over the catwalks for Spring/Summer. An elegant, feminine trend which always looks beautiful but is not always practical (or cheap!). I've created 3 looks - day, evening and occasion - to show you that you can wear it from day-to-day.

DAY

Rolled-sleeve t-shirt - Splendid @ fashionbeans.com, pleated silk maxi skirt - Tibi @ net-a-porter.com, black leather clutch - Alexander Wang, suede sandals - Prada, black and gold watch - Michael Kors

EVENING

Silk organza dress - Valentino, patent wedges - Lanvin, black leather clutch - YSL, knotted bracelet - Lanvin

OCCASION
Iris-print silk-chiffon gown - net-a-porter.com, skull diamonte embellished clutch - Alexander McQueen, Palais pump - YSL, gold and blue agate cuff - maxandchloe.com

Ok, I know, they're all stunning pieces but not exactly accessible for the recessionista. But I'm now going to show you with just a few tricks, you can create these looks on a budget.

DAY
Take that canary yellow maxi skirt. I know for sure that with a little bit of rummaging, you can find one similar in a charity shop. It may not be the exact colour but if you spend a few pounds on the skirt and another few on some dye, it's hardly breaking the bank, is it?

And the Prada suede, black platforms. They look fairly similar to these Topshop heels.

EVENING
Now I would agree that the Valentino dress is a little harder (if not impossible) to emulate but a dress similar to these will still create the mood you want.

Left: J.Crew @ net-a-porter.com (£120). Centre: French Connection (£150). Right: French Connection at John Lewis (£135).

And if you layer a black lace body underneath, it adds a little more uniqueness.

Lace body - Topshop (£30)

And as for the Lanvin shoes, a simple pair of black stacked wedges will do the same job. Adding some cheap satin ribbon and tying it in a bow around your ankles will make them look extra sweet.

Wedges - ASOS (£40), scissors - totally my own creation. I would take off that boring ankle strap and instead thread a length of ribbon through.

OCCASION
This look is just that little bit more special/eye-poppingly expensive so it takes some creativity.

The McQueen clutch could be emmulated by starting off with this cheap box clutch and decorating with glue-on diamontes from a haberdashery. Now it would take patience and time but ultimately look glittering at the end of it.

Clutch - Kurt Geiger (£19)

ASOS is a great place to shop for occasion/evening dresses and I found this one for £60. Not too dissimilar, I don't think.



So that's it. My attempt at trying to show you that you can wear what you see on the catwalk and in designer shops, you just need to be a bit smart about it.

Images - Polyvore.com

Nautical

It definitely feels like Spring now so I can finally bring out the skirts and shorts I've had hidden away for months. Unfortunately it's not quite hot enough to wear them without tights but wearing only a short-sleeved t-shirt and light trench coat on top made me feel rather seasonal.

If I owned them, I would have paired this outfit with a pair of nude, patent ballerina-loafers (as I like to call them), like these. But unfortunately I don't, so I opted for a contrast colour ballerina pump instead.


T-shirt - Pepe Jeans, skirt - H&M, tights - H&M, shoes - New Look, watch - my Grandmother's, necklace - Tiffany & Co, studs - Next.

Also, click here to join the Maria's Gaga Facebook page and click here to follow me on Twitter.

Banana Cake

I actually made this recipe last week but didn't want to overload my readers with too many recipes and not enough fashion.

The cake turned out rather well although the only bananas I could find were not quite ripe enough. So all I would say is make sure to buy really ripe bananas. Oh and I baked it for about an extra 10 mins than the recips suggested and it was perfect. I also found that it gets better day by day - the flavours get stronger - and if you store it in an air tight container it lasts nearly a week (unless you eat it before!).

Grazia Online

As I said earlier in the week, I have a project to write a piece for internet. I chose to write for Grazia so ventured out on Tuesday to try to find some street style inspiration.

From looking at all the outfits we photographed, I decided to write about fringing after seeing this awesome jacket. Here is the final layed out piece.

Sunshine and Glitter

Glorious sunshine, 16 degree warmth. Why can't England be like this all the time? The weather was beautiful today so after going out with far too many layers on and dashing back home again to take some off, this is what I wore. Sadly this photo was taken in the evening so you can't fully apreciate how light it was today. Nevertheless, it is what it is.

Grey glittered top - Dunnes Stores (Marbella) but I'm sure you can find a similar one in M&S. Jacket - Vero Moda at House of Fraser, jeans - Mango, lace footsies - Tezenis, heels - New Look, bracelets - Swarovski, necklace - Tiffany & Co



I am also sporting these rather sweet little lace footsies I got from Tezenis yesterday. They have some lovely long ribbons at the back which you can tie around your ankles. I thought it added an extra bit of intrigue to my outfit.






The wild flowers growing outside Euston station

Call Yourselves Fashionistas, London?

Myself and Leonie from FatFreeYoghurt went into London today to try to find some street style for a project.

I have to say, we trailed the whole of a 2 kilometre radius of Oxford Street but were surprisingly disappointed with what (or who) we found. You think of London as being one of the most stylish cities in the world but it was slim pickings today, I tell you. There was a definite lack of sartorial-worthy outfits and most of the people we photographed were not even from the UK (the Asian girls definitely took the title). Never-the-less, here are my picks of the day. You'll have to wait until later in the week to see my favourite as I plan to use her for my write-up.


Classic. I love that she wore knee-high boots and a dress without tights on, strangely I'd never think to do that. I really like the ensemble of neutral shades and layers.


English heritage meets colour pop. You don't normally pair bright orange with indigo but it really completes the outfit.


You can never go wrong with black and paired with a camel cape and structured bag, it's a fail safe outfit.


I like the use of the scarf here. It picks up the colours of the individual pieces and brings them all together.


Jeans, heels, blazer, patterned scarf. Always a winner in my eyes.


Something a little effortless but still put together well. I like the addition of the Louis Vuitton bag to a "thrown on" look.

♥ 5 Things

I had a weekend extremely lacking in fashion but it was most definitely full of delicious food. We went for lunch at Yo Sushi on Saturday and I didn't think to take photos so I unfortunately don't have any to show you, but I guess you all know what sushi looks like anyway. I also made a banana bread on Friday so I'll post that recipe later this week too.

These are the 5 things that made me happy this weekend.


The extremely over priced but delicious chocolate dipped strawberries from Godiva. With berries once again coming into season I plan to dip any and every type into melted chocolate for a tasty treat.


My new Lily flame candle curtesy of my other half.


Ceasar salad with homemade croutons


Sour Jelly Belly beans


Replacement MAC cream foundation in NW15

Rosemary and Sea Salt Foccacia

We were stuck for dinner ideas for tonight and since I had some time, decided to attempt to make an Italian foccacia bread. I'd seen Lorraine Pascual make it on Baking Made Easy on BBC2 a few weeks a go so found her recipe online.

It turned out pretty well, even if I do say so myself. Especially delicious when fresh out of the oven and we even have enough left for breakfast tomorrow. I simply served it with cold meats, strong cheddar cheese and marinated anchovies.