{London} Fortnum & Mason

My gorgeous little Maid of Honour has been in London for the past week visiting - and it's been lovely being a London tourist with her. We headed off to Fortnum and Mason in Picadilly - the store to end all stores. Before you even enter the store, you will have to stop and have a gape at all the amazing window displays - It's difficult to get the scale of these displays from the pics I snapped - but I really love how the buildings of Picadilly street in the glass reflection make these photos look a bit like they are double exposed film (a bit like this).




The shop itself has the most amazing interior - very luxe with red carpets and chandeliers. Because what store is complete without chandeliers? None. There are so many incredible (and delicious) things to look at in Fortnum and Mason - it is possible that we spent almost three quarters of an hour looking at the selection of exotic teas and gorgeous tins filled with fragrant tea leaves.


Above: the selection of honey. (Note: This picture has been cropped. There is way more honey to the left, to the right, to the top and to the bottom of this picture. Just saying.)


The shop displays and packaging of all their goods is gorgeous. And basically everything in this shop is packaged to make you feel like its dripping in gold.

(Even the random cabinets on the stairways are picture worthy)

Above: Wedding cakes yo! Aren't they absolutely gorgeous. I'm def putting my order in for one for April - and they are only two-thousand pounds! BARGAIN!

Yes. They had an entire section dedicated to gift wrap.

Then some young Fortnum and Mason Coffee Barista gave us a free coffee - because,
what are two pretty young ladies to do with no cappuccino?

The bakery and patisserie sections were phenomenal. 

We bought fancy Macarons.

Because,

Obviously.

 

And then we went across the road to Laduree

to eat more Macaroons.

Cause we're fancy like that.

xo

{Eat: Cafe des Amis}

When I was still living the dream in London, we went out to a little French Restaurant in Covent Garden called Cafe Des Amis. We shared some nibbling platters of breads, olives, peppered salami and garlic sausage. I had a steak with peppercorn sauce which was absolutely delish and The Warr had duck with prune sauce and roasted squash. Yum. The restaurant itself was packed and the wine bar downstairs was very warm and cosy with a well stocked selection of very nice red wines. (hello winter).

Now... this little French place knows what it's doing when they offer a "Chef's selection" of your choice of four (or six) desserts. Ahem.

There were four of us dining out, which is lucky since even if it were just The Warr and I, we would have ordered all four anyway and stashed the leftovers in my bag. 

i joke - we wouldn't have done that. 

What leftovers? 

oh hello Vanilla Cheesecake with Fig coulis.

I had the Soup au Chocolat with Black Pepper Ice cream.

It was really actually a soup of chocolate. (deliciouuusssss!!)

and black peppery-fire-mouth ice-cream.

And everyone had to have a "taster" because it was the best.

Obviously.

I even ate the mint leaf after this pic.

you know, 

for heart burn.

Cafe Des Amis has some awesome promotions and Christmas offer on now at their website.

{London: Rabot Chocolate shop}

If you intend on making a day trip to The Borough Market - (you should) you must definitely have a little stop off at the Rabot Estate Chocolatier. This is chocolate at it's finest. Their speciality are their savoury and sweet pancake wraps using cacao as a main ingredient. Some snippets off their menu:

Neal's yard Perroche Goat's cheese, Rabot Estate dark chocolate walnuts and dried cherries // Stilfield farm cooked ham, Montgomery Chedder, Seasoned Chocolate glaze & Creme Fraiche // Marche de Quartier Duck Confit, Rabot Estate dark chocolate, dried cherries, coriander, cacao nibs & Creme Fraiche

Uh. did somebody say chocolate? 

The interior of this store is very industrial and edgy with naked hanging lights, metal bars, wooden crates and wrought-iron finishes.

"Our menu philosophy is about harnessing the superfood power of cacao. For 2500 years it was primarily a savoury dish and has only become sweet int he last 400 years. We do both..."

Aztec chili liquid chocolate.

Warren and I had some indulgent hot chocolate. The Warr went for the chili hot chocolate and I went for the classic. Even in this picture you can see how luxurious and rich it is. In fact, if you put your nose close to your screen you can basically smell the chocolate-high from this photo. Each cup probably contains about 5000 calories. It's lucky that I could hardly finish mine. 

YUM.

incidental comics

Awesome witty comic site - incidental comics. You should click that link. 

Your deadline can wait.

The Phraseology Project

In my internet travels, I've come across this gorgeous typography site The Phraseology Project. You submit a phrase and if your phrase is selected - some awesome designers convert it into type. And there is an option to buy...






feast your eyes out here

New Math

New Math is one of my favourite clever/humour sites to waste time on.
Here I made some of my own:

Check out some more New Math - click here.