thursday filler

I'll be honest, it's been quite a few days since actual Thursday so I can't remember what I had planned to blog about when this day actually happened haha. I can remember being very excited for the weekend and so planning lots of bits and details and doing some boring ironing and odd house work jobs.

I went into High Wycombe's town centre after work as it's their late night shopping night on a Thursday and picked up a new midi length body con striped navy dress to wear over the weekend which I treated myself to with some left over birthday money. Then I picked up a house warming present and card from House of Fraser and Marks and Spencers for my visit to see Matthew the next day. Here's a photo of the gifts and the dress.

New Look Midi Dress

Thursday was also finally the big pay day I had been waiting for. I was pretty stretched and skint the whole month over January after spending a little toooo much on presents over Christmas, so I couldn't have been happier to check my funds after work. Ker-ching, back in the game.

Lots of Thursday filler love,

Becca xx

finishing touches

Wednesday I had a quite strange day. I had a very unexpectedly awkward morning when my boss sort of opted in on the idea of me sitting in on a client meeting which didn't really involve design but would be beneficial for me to learn about.

Here's an instagram post of the finishing touches to my outfit that I guess passed the test as meeting friendly despite not being planned. The Kate Moss and Urban Outfitters "B" earrings are both 22nd birthday gifts. The Rotary watch and pearl Thomas Sabo bracelet are gifts from my 21st birthday which I have barely had off since my birthday last year.

I obviously would never want to damage my career by saying anything I shouldn't on my blog but let's just say the client didn't particularly match in personality to the way that our team work and behave and so after a couple of hours my boss invited us all down to the pub for a few recovery drinks and some chips and cheese to nibble on.

It was my first real experience of something difficult cropping up in my career so far, but I think it was a really worthwhile experience to watch and learn from.

Lots of moving forward love,
Becca xx

"I think I need a tactical vom."

Today my friends has been alllll about the rocky road.

This all started last week when I bought in a tub of M&S rocky road bites as part of my office cakes for my birthday rather than baking (I quite like my job so home baking was too risky an option... ). My close friends, particularly the uni crowd all know that my mum makes an incredible batch of rocky road so when an office friend declared that his partner makes an incredible batch too, we challenged each others master bakers to a Great British office bake off!

I got straight on to the phone to Mum to brief her on the situation and it was game on and she brought the famous batch down with her when she visited at the weekend. It wasn't until today though that we were able to commence battle.

To make it fair we had a blind taster panel and dished both portions up next to each other, which actually both looked very similar. The only real difference in appearance was quantities of edible glitter and stars! They did taste quite different though... my Mum's recipe (which I have treated you all to below) is done with coconut biscuits rather than ameretti biscuits which the opposition had used, so this made the overall flavour different in that sense but both teams even if I do say so myself were delicious.

It was actually a draw amongst the office with an equally split decision so both parties won. Although a client from the oppositions company came in later in the afternoon and actually chose his partners... but we're not counting an outside opinion... cheers.

It made for a very fun little afternoon treat though, although I have spent the rest of the day crippled with a sugar come down headache, a slight tummy ache and a strong feeling that I have put on at least a stone. If you do try these at home. 3 pieces is more than enough for one sitting. I recommend 2 at most.

And here it is the famous recipe written by my mother herself:

Mum's Rocky Road

125g dark chocolate

75g milk chocolate

90g unsalted butter (I use marg!)

2x tablespoons golden syrup

100g amaretti biscuits (I don’t like these so usually use coconut biscs)

75g chopped brazil nuts (or any other kind of nuts you like)

75g glace cherries (I also like to add some other dried fruits such as sour cherries and dried cranberries)

60g mini marshmallows

Edible glitter (optional but looks nice ☺)

Method:

• Melt choc together with butter & golden syrup

• Separately crush biscuits into lareg & small pieces

• Mix all ingredients together

• Put in baking tray and refrigerate for 1-2hrs then cut into bite size pieces

• EAT!!

Happy Baking!

Lots of Rocky Road love,

Becca xx

a nothing day

I meant to whack up a quick post before I went to bed on Monday night but I was feeling really gross with a bit of cheeky post weekend illness so I chose snuggling up in bed from about 9 onwards rather than any more computer hours.

I had a pretty standard day on Monday really. A bit stressful at work trying to sort a job out to go to print, but the client ended up complimenting me to my boss for my help with it all, so that was nice.

Other than that, I just spent the evening recovering from a non stop weekend.

I was reading: Diamond Star Halo by Tiffany Murray
Listening to: Benjamin Francis Leftwich and Dido (I hear she's bringing out a new album, I wonder what that will sound like... cough.)
And I caught up on that ITV documentary that everyone had been going on about on Facebook with Trevor McDonald discovering more about death row.

I'm so anti-capital punishment that I spent most of it being really angry although it did at one point make me question my opinion. I thought the programme itself was quite barbaric. I think if I was on death row I wouldn't want to be questioned about whether I like the man who will eventually kill me. I also thought that the man who performs the 'terminations' calling himself a Christian and believing that God is forgiving him for ending lives is completely outrageous and wrong too, but anyway that's all very much my personal opinion and far too political and deep for my little old blog.

It was nice to not have much on in the evening to think about and good to get some sleep after a busy weekend.

Lots of nothing to report love,
Becca xx

sunday lovin'

My mum stayed over after our 12 hour stint in London on Saturday. Hilariously this was a huge deal for her and she bought an over night bag the size of a week's luggage and had even packed it a day before coming down.

But it meant we had a nice sleepover feeling on Sunday as she was still around for more chats, coffee and brunch the next day. We went in to High Wycombe and had a wander through the shops to the M&S cafe for some of their amazing toasties.

Then she left me mid-afternoon and I had a nap and cooked up half of a M&S Dine In for 2 meal and a few solo left over glasses of Cava before the new boy came over for chats and cuddles. We caught the end of Marley and me and had a good laugh despite both being exhausted and hungover.

It was nice aswell to have someone to keep me company that evening. Because it's always a bit sad when you look forward to an event or guest coming so much then you get the blues when its all over. And this new guy is definitely an attractive distraction!

All in all a very nice end to a perfect weekend of girly drinking and bitchin,' dinner and whole day with the mother, cocktails, lots of shopping, chilling and cheeky time with a man.

Let me know if yours was better than that. Bragging over.
Show me what you got next weekend?
Lots of weekend love,
Becca xx

Marry Me?

Saturday was my big proper birthday celebration day.

My mum came down early morning to High Wycombe and after opening a few presents that she couldn't get in the post - a clutch bag, a Jamie Oliver soup crockery set, a Joules shopper and umbrella and some new pjamas - we headed into London for a day of shopping, coffees, lunch, more shopping, dinner and cocktails.

It was so nice that we celebrated it this way instead of me going back home as this has been my birthday treat most years now since I was 15. Mum used to take me into London for either a day trip or the weekend for it and it was such a big deal back at that age. It was less of a novelty seeing as I had been in London literally the night before this time(!) but its still really nice to spend the day in the city with my Mum.

Anyway I was spoilt absolutely rotten. With a mixture of tokens and my mums bank card, I got a new handbag - which I am in love with, an oversized jumper, a laced crop top, some thick leggings, a pair of new black flats, a Urban Outfitters neclace and really cute "B" earrings (yes, it stands for Boobs.) and a black cardigan and belt from my new fave Forever 21.

I was going to put pictures of all of these birthday treats up, but because its been such a busy weekend I'm working my way through 4 posts tonight, so will have to show you all on some outfit posts in the future.

We also had a wander around Liberty's which is the first time I've actually been inside to see how pretty and amazing the building is. The wooden central hall bit is beautiful. Also we had a snoop around Selfridges. The Quiet Room project they've got going on at the moment is really interesting but we had most fun laughing at some of the tops that would be perfect for my tragic love life. This one is a definite potential for reunions with exs or days when I'm being an absolute whiney psycho  (pretty much daily then?)

Unfortunately the Wild Fox price tag was a little bit steep for a Junior Designer having a laugh.

Anyway after all of our shopping which went on until quite late, we headed over to a Pizza Express on Bow Street for a 3 course feast and a bottle of Rose. I love a good pizza express meal, sometimes its so much nicer and relaxed to do that anyway rather than a fancy fancy restaurant.

We did make up for it though as at the end of the night we headed over to Browns in Leicester Square for some fancy cocktails to end the day trip perfectly. Again my tragic life was played on when I spotted this on the leaflet on the table... hmm...! But it topped off a lovely day. Obviously we did have a bottle of Cava chilling in the fridge that we had to crack open when we got home too, but thats beside the point ;)

All in all a perfect birthday day out with the mother. And hopefully we'll be doing exactly the same for a few more birthdays in the future.

Lots of London shopping love,
Becca xx

bring your hose?

On Friday I had actually a really nice chilled out day, which should be the vibe that Friday day times have really.

I had quite a short day at work as my boss came back after a client lunch in a very happy mood and asked us whether if our work was done would we fancy taking an early finish and going home for the weekend. So of course I skipped out of the office in a flash and actually he drove me down in the Merc to jump on a train into London as I was heading there in the evening anyway to meet Francis.

As I got to London quite early I decided to head down to Chelsea, my new favourite obsession and had a coffee and some late lunch/dinner in a cafe in South Kensington. Rubbishly my kindle started dying as soon as I sat down in there so after about half an hour of people watching I headed over to the V&A for an hour or so wandering around.

I've been to the V&A so much since I moved down here. It's one of my favourite places. This is the first time I'd been in the evening and I found it such a moving atmosphere strolling along the corridors with not many people around. It was about 7pm by the time I left and although the lobby was packed with people attending some workshop event, the upstairs corridors were so peaceful. Also the Raphael collection hall never ceases to amaze me.

Anyway then I went over to Sloane Square to meet Amy for a few drinks on Kings Road which actually turned into 3 large glasses of Rose wine, lots of corporate bitchinn' and sharing explicit stories about 'films' and 'hoes.' If your reading girl, loved our catch up! Very entertaining London drinks :)

Lots of Friday love,
Becca xx

"To love another person, is to see the face of God."

There's not a lot of time left this evening to blog post today, so quickly throwing up a few shots of last nights film (which I am completely musical fan-girling over still) and the trailer. I've been humming along to all the songs all day today. Not that appropriate for a whole morning sat with clients going through print approvals. Whoops.

Tomorrow I have plans to see Amy Francis after work. Then my mum is visiting for the weekend from Saturday morning onwards for lots of birthday shopping treats along Oxford Street. So whilst I promise you will still get a daily post. The next few days posts may all magically be back scheduled and appear at the other side of the weekend.

Until then,
Lots of miserable love,
Becca xx

"At the end of the day you're another day older"

"Happy Birthday to Me,

Happy Birthday to Me,

Happy Birthday to Meeeeeee-eeee

Happy Birthday to Me."

As you probably all know it was my 22nd birthday yesterday!

It kind of snuck up on me a bit and I never really thought it would happen as usually my birthdays are quite ridiculously built up occasions, but people are right... they do become less of a big deal as you get older. I had 4, yes 4 birthday events last year. So I almost felt obliged not to really celebrate it this year! Although saying that, I had the most perfect low-key affair.

During the day I had to work. I didn't see much point in taking it off to just sit around all day for the sake of an excuse of a holiday, but actually everyone at work were so sweet and lovely I was actually really pleased I was at work. My boss came in late morning with a big bunch of beautiful pink flowers and a chocolate birthday cake and then at lunch time he took the whole studio out for a really love lunch at The Swan and we had a really nice hour or so just chatting and all having a laugh, so that was really nice. I'm so lucky and greatful to work somewhere where we can do that and everyone is friendly enough to do that for someones birthday.

Then I left an hour or so early and headed into London to meet Steph and Matt on Kings Road (very appropriate for my current obsession for Made in Chels.) Unfortunately my journey was a bit of a nightmare so didn't really get there that early but managed to squeeze in a catch up glass of wine at the Cadogan Arms before going to see Les Mis at the cinema over the road.

I don't even know where to begin with Les Miserables. It was epic in every sense. The acting was all spot on. The music was incredibly moving and the whole way it was directed and filmed was superb. I was slightly anxious that everyone had built it up too much for me, but it lived up to it completely. I was fairly moved from the word go, but from Jackman singing Bring Him Home onwards, it was tears in the eyes and holding back the floodgates.

I definitely recommend it. Once I have pulled myself together from the emotional ordeal of the first viewing, I am definitely going to go again. Also mum is so keen to go to see the stage show so as soon as the demand dies down a little we're gonna go later on in the year. I will be an absolute mess listening to Empty Seats at Empty Tables live in a theatre. Lord.

Anyway thank you to Matthew and Steph for coming along and providing excellent company on my birthday evening and also a massive thank you to everyone who sent me messages, texts, calls, cards and posts. I really loved reading them all. It makes you realise who really cares.

Lots of elderly lady love,
Becca xx

twenty something.

Today I woke up with an overwhelming feeling of this being my last ever day of being 21. Such a horrendous thought. I've so enjoyed being 21, I think it's up there was one of my most fun years of life so far... looking back it has been an incredible year. But I said all that at New Year, so I won't get all soppy and sentimental again.

Anyway, another pretty standard day. Getting to work and home again fills me with actual fear. It's now so cold that the snow thats all been trodden and crushed down into a thin layer has then frozen. It's like literally a 15minute layer of ice to contend with to reach the studio. Then when I got it in was a pretty standard day, nothing new to report. Not quite the live-it-up last day of being a 21 year old I ought to have given myself really.

Whilst I was doing some social media marketing for the agency, I "accidentally" stumbled on so many articles and pictures on yesterday's Chanel Haute Couture Paris Spring/Summer 2013 show. SO so good. Before I knew it I had wasted a good half an hour just clicking through it all.

 

I didn't want my blog to be all fashion-y posts. But I can't resist just posting these, mainly for selfish inspiration reasons, so I have them here to look back on.

The make up and hair is so beautiful. I love that Lagerfield has made the gothic and outrageously over the top couture effect look actually quite romantic. Also I think this so matches the actual fashion too. It's obviously couture so designed as an art form rather than ready-to-wear, but I think it still looks beautifully elegant and romantic beneath the absurdity.  There's literally just the right mix of delicacy and grunge.

Chanel consistently blows me away. Maybe when I'm 22 I'll get on a plane to Paris to see next year's Paris Fashion Week. Please.

Tomorrow I have really fun birthday plans, so I promise it won't be so fashiony.
Lots of couture love,
Becca xx

"blue monday"

Apparently today is meant to be statistically the most depressing day or something like that. To be honest i've been quite happy, no complaints this end. I felt worse at the beginning of January, but I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel (!) and it's almost my birthday and lots of other events in the pipeline mean I have so much to look forward to and be happy about.

Today was actually quite good at work too. I was 1 in the 2 of 8 who actually made it in to the studio today. I'm practically a snow warrior darling. It meant it was a really quiet and chilled day and I had a load of work to get through so I just knuckled down and just got on with it. Sometimes its nice just to have days like that. I haven't had any food in my house either so started off the day by heading into Costa early for a honey, greek yoghurt and granola breakfast with a skinny vanilla latte. Hello.

So no drama or complaints from me this evening. In my spare time i've been forgetting there is a world outside of my Kindle. I'm currently reading The Half Life of Hannah by Nick Alexander which I've almost finished in 2 days, so it's a pretty good read. Also I've realised that 4od have finally put all the episodes of series 4 of Made in Chelsea up. I was gutted to miss all of the last series so i've been absolutely binging on it. It's SO good.

Ok so this next bit I guess is a bit of bait... I want to run past this trend to see if I get an overly negative reaction before I go for it... Watching Made in Chels so much has made me really want to try the big framed glasses trend. Question is, is it acceptable for normal people?

I do actually have to wear glasses in real life, as you know, but choose to wear contact lenses. And I do have some really nice sort of tan Ray Ban prescription frames. But if I am gonna dip into this trend I'd just get a pair of the fashiony ones and wear them over contact lenses.

Here's a few images of what I'm talking about - i.e inspiration from the fashion world, inspiration for the Chelsea world and some frames I've got my eyes on. (if you'll pardon the pun ;) )

 

1. Jeepers Peepers Vincent Tortoise Clear Lens Glasses 2. AJ Morgan Clear Glasses 3. Halifax Eye Glass 4. Trudel Eye Glass 

Lots of possibly jumping on the frames bandwagon,
Becca xx

snowed in

Today has been quite a chilled out boring day. I literally have nothing new to report or blog about.

Here is a photo I took looking out my window this afternoon. I quite like my room's 'vintage' net curtains and dark furniture. It was a bit weird at first, but now I'm telling myself it looks a bit edgy... haha(!) You can't tell from the photo, but it's been snowing non-stop all day. But not really very thick and heavy snow so I'm not sure if much has actually settled throughout the day...

Then this evening because I haven't had any soup in which I've been crash dieting on since about November, I actually went back to cooking with some random ingredients I have lying around in my cupboards... I made some beautiful meatballs in a red wine, italian tomatoes, onion and chilli sauce with rice. I was actually quite impressed with myself. Although, it's not lasting. Nowhere near the dream goal weight yet, so back to the soup as soon as I can brave walking down the hill to the supermarket haha.

Also in my boredom today I finally joined this massive Pinterest hype. It's actually really fun. There's absolutely no point in it at all, seeing as I don't really have a wedding to "inspiration board" plan over or have a house to "inspiration board" decorate. But I guess its like a substitute for the hours I waste looking at people's Tumblrs. And I've found some nice images and a nicely designed app for my kindle. I'm gonna' build it up and maybe throw in a few of my daily 'pinned' images onto my posts every day.

 

   

I think you can follow me if you have Pinterest on: http://pinterest.com/rebbuchanan/

And thats it today,
Lots of snow bore love,
Becca xx

work hard, play harder

On Saturday after almost completely caving in to the idea of having to be stuck inside because of the snow all day, I found out that Clo had made it into London and my trains were back running again so I headed into the city for an afternoon of "playing out" with her and Matthew.

We met in Costa's on Oxford Street for a coffee and catch up and Clo gave me an adorable Lola's cupcake for my birthday from the Oxford Circus flagship Topshop. So cute!

Then we headed over to the National Portrait Gallery for a little bit of culture. I'd heard a bit about the Marilyn Monroe photography exhibition there and after seeing My Week with Marilyn a few months ago I was quite excited to see it. But I was really disappointed when we went that it was a really small exhibition that was a bit over crowded and badly designed. We made up for it though by seeing the new Kate Middleton portrait downstairs, which I actually quite liked.

It's quite dark and I think all the criticism about her looking old is just because of the amount of detail around the eyes and mouth, but theres been quite a lot of photo-realistic painting going on in the art world so I think it's just the artist being reflective of that.

Anyway, then after seeing at most 5 paintings, Hains was exhausted with too much culture so we retreated back to the cafes of London for food and more catching up. We found a really cool little EAT cafe around the back of Leicester Square which had a quite trendy basement level with a ping pong table. So Clo and Matt had a cheeky tournament and I gave it a very failed attempt at any kind of sporting activity.

I then hopped on a train back over to High Wycombe, with a bottle of wine in tow for a nice chilled evening with the new love interest watching a film and chatting 'til late. 

All in all a perfect Saturday that managed to not be beaten by the snow.

Lots of play day love,

Becca xx

"you've even gone a bit too far to get your message home"

Eugh, so the blizzard came, I've had a bit of a nightmare day.

When I woke up there had been literally no snow all night, so I got up and ready and left to go to work and literally whilst I was walking to my train the snow came down. We therefore had to move forward our meeting, which was actually a really good meeting and all exciting prospects for the company (can't tell you too much information but it's potentially an exciting 3 year contract.) But all through it I couldn't help looking past the potential partner and out the window at the blizzard occurring in the background.

Our meeting only lasted an hour and half and within that space of time about 4cm of snow was now lying on the ground and Chiltern Rails had kindly cancelled all my trains home. Fabulous, so we panickly (is this a word?) packed up and left to work at home. What is normally a 15min drive down the road turned into an hour long crawl back from my work colleague. Absolute nightmare!

So I have worked from home in my bedroom this afternoon but now I've got cabin fever and I am completely bored with sitting in this room on my mac. There is probably about 8cm currently lying out there and I live on a massive hill, so it's looking very likely i'm going to be stuck in this room all weekend. Fantastic. All plans of going to London to play out with Clo and Steph and then another evening in with the potential new love interest have been placed on the cooler 'til we see how the weather turns out tomorrow.

Cheers mother nature, you prick.

Anyway, so that it's not too much of a boring post, here's me being all fashion-y and putting together an inspiration board of wish list items I want for my birthday this coming Wednesday. You know, just as a subtle hint.

1. Whistles Jumper  2. Topshop Cream Handbag 3. French Connection Dress 4. Warehouse Colour Block Dress 5. Rebekka Ted Baker Purse


Lots of fuck off snow love,
Becca xx

preparing for the "blizzard"

This is my current evening.

I got taken out for a lovely pizza lunch at Pizza Express by a work friend earlier so I have literally just crashed straight through the front door and into bed this evening.

All the news stories and media are talking about an 18 hour blizzard heading our way over night tonight. It's more ridiculous than my life dramas. So far we've not even had enough snow to cover my drive, let alone everyone making plans this afternoon to maybe have to stay at home tomorrow... but we'll see what happens over night. I have a client bizzznezz meeting tomorrow, so I can't really whine and work from home anyway.

Anyway, i've just finished my book on my Kindle Fire that I got for christmas. I am hands down a legitimate nerd now. I genuinely forget that I don't watch tv, because I spend all my spare time reading books on my little tablet. Bleurgh, who knew. Don't tell anybody. Here's what I've read so far...

(all trashy chick-lit that win no awards for grammar or sophistication, but I am a designer.)

Why do fools fall in love? Louise Marley - bought purely for the hilarious title.

You Had me at Hello - Mhairi McFarlane - completely recommend this girls, such a nice uni love story

Yours Truly - really liked this too, really unrealistic but fun

I think i'm gonna buy something a little bit more intelligent next. I should really get a bit more adventurous. Who'd have thought I have an English Language and Literature A Level...

Lots of book nerd love,

Becca xx

classy girls don't kiss in bars you fool.

Okay so Wednesday night I was a little too busy as excitingly I had a (sort-off) new first date!

I'm so excited about this, as most of my friends know (/the whole of twittersphere) ... I have been a bit hung-up about a certain ex-romance and so it suddenly felt so exciting to meet someone new that I  could get excited about and really stop me feeling so rubbish about all of that.

We met on Saturday and we decided it would be nice to meet up for a few drinks on Wednesday, but this weather completely put a halt on plans, because it was just too cold to even bare being outside. So in a completely non-slaggy way we just stayed in and had a night on the sofa chatting and watching a film.

It sounds like a really odd "date" but it was so relaxed... and so refreshing after the state I worked myself into with previous romantic meetings recently. So i'm excited to see if this goes anywhere, but I guess more importantly, it helped me realise that things can be a lot more relaxed.

Perhaps the end of my hysterical hash tags, haha!
Above are a few outfit pictures before I realised we should just stay in because it was too cold.

And the trailer to what we watched... it was actually a really fun film. Tatum is an absolute hottie.

Lots of new year, new romance love,
Becca xx