Homemade Macaroons

Today, In a break from crochet in front of the Olympics, we made our own macaroons! We fell in love with macaroons a little while ago in London, so thought that we'd make our own. We used the recipe for 'Mocktail Macaroons' from the Great British Bake Off Book which gave three different flavours, mint and lime, cranberry and orange and pineapple jam. This was the first time we'd made macaroons so it was somewhat of an experiment! However, they worked really well and were just the right gooey consistency in the middle. The cranberry and orange macaroons worked the best, as they stayed in beautiful circle shapes but the tastiest were easily the mint and lime ones! Lovely! We are rather proud of them, they look wonderful...and taste wonderful too!

Breakfast at Liberty (and other London adventures!)

After the success of our last trip to London, we decided to go back again (although this time it was Friday 13th). This time we wanted to have breakfast at our new favourite haunt, Liberty London. Now, after the worldwide obsession (particularly on Instagram) with Macaroons, it seemed ridiculous that neither of us had ever tried one, so we did! At Café Liberty we had toasted teacakes with marmalade and jam, then a trio of the most delicious macaroons! They were utterly beautiful and we are now completely in love! After leaving Liberty we walked down Oxford Street, something that was impossible last time due to the great British weather! We made a quick stop in Forever 21, a store we discovered last summer on our travels in New York and adored the prints of the fabrics. We love how refreshing the fashions are in comparison to the shops we are all used to.

Following this, we made our way to Covent Garden, to the Tatty Devine store. We have coveted Tatty Devine for a while now, and we were really excited when we heard that they had installed an in-store laser-cutter which meant that we could get personalised name necklaces done while we waited! A went for a crafty-inspired 'Thimble' in tortoiseshell perspex and C went for the rather fantastic 'Harrumph!' in black. We love them and are so pleased to have our own Tatty Devine pieces!

After our visit to Tatty Devine, we made our way over to the Tate Modern to see the Damien Hirst Exhibition. It was fantastic! We were particularly taken with the butterfly series and his cabinets of industrial diamonds! They were beautiful yet disconcerting at the same time. The butterflies were still stunning even after their death and that was striking. We also adored the live butterfly exhibit. It was incredible to be that close to huge, tropical butterflies, to see their beauty alive! It was magical.

We had a truly lovely day and can't wait for our next trip to London!

Graduate Fashion Week - A & C go to London!

Yesterday, C and I chose to go to London to see Graduate Fashion Week 2012. We went last year and loved the dramatic, wild and sometimes drastic fashion created by fashion's future stars. We had tickets to the Northbrook College/ AUCB Graduate runway show in the afternoon so decided to spend the morning in Liberty, the most beautiful shop and a heaven for any sewing enthusiast. The building itself is just incredible and the content of the shop is just perfect, not too much that you get overwhelmed. We spent hours on the haberdashery floor! It was pure heaven! Here are a few of the images we took...

 

After we finished in Liberty, we intended to walk down Oxford Street however the British weather changed that, with the weather being the worst we have seen in months! Instead we headed back to Victoria Station where we had lunch and even managed to pick up this month's copy of Mollie Makes!

  

We then travelled across London to Earls Court 2 to Graduate Fashion Week. We looked around all of the University stalls which, as always, were spectacular! After AUCB's brilliant stand last year, we were looking for something of the same standard. This year's favourite was University of the West of England's stand, particularly the work of Eleanor Cox, a BA Hons Fashion and Textile Design graduate. It was  her 'Tea Time Debutantes' collection that caught our attention. Her delicate use of cupcake and teacup motifs against pastel colours was adorable! At 4pm it was time for the catwalk show where we got brilliant seats, despite being near the back. We were on the aisle which meant that we had head-to-toe views of the models. 

 

We were equally impressed by the work of both Northbrook College and AUCB, especially as both showed examples of abstract, tribal-style prints and also strong, sharp tailoring. This year was easily as good as last year! We loved it! We were so impressed and had a brilliant day! You have to love London!