A fleeting visit to Somerset House last weekend.

Well, if 2 weeks back in Midlands over Christmas didn’t bring me to insanity due to an excessive amount of boredom, then 48hrs spent snowed in did. Armed with only a Moleskine sketchbook and my new Chloé dupes (see previous post), I travelled all the way up for what was going to be a weekend of champagne, pizza and other classy birthday shenanigans. Here in Grande Bretagne, and especially in obscure Midland towns, we generally have a rule of halting all public transport once someone has spotted a single snowflake falling from the sky, which resulted in Friday afternoon being spent trapped in my childhood home, forcing me to endure my younger sister’s addiction of Jeremy Kyle.

Luckily, I still get all my post sent to my mother's house, so I arrived back to a stupid amount of parcels from a wee bit of online shopping, as well as this gift off Glamour Magazine. I've been a member of their reader panel for years and I honestly can't rave about it enough. Providing you submit a decent review to them after, they'll send you a plethora of items to trial for them. From endless boxes of Special K to yet-to-be-released make up, it's always useful things too. They sent me through a bottle of Rimmel foundation not too long ago and I've actually been quoted word for word on their advertising campaigns, haha. Anyway, for those fellow blondes out there, this is by far the best shampoo I've came across for maintaining colour. Evidently, my eyebrows tend to give away the fact that I am obvs not a natural blonde, so getting my hair colour to stay platinum blonde without turning into a horrific shade of grey can be somewhat a  laborious and expensive time waster. The smell's not too amazing, but this conditioner is the best thing since buttery sliced bread. Okay, nothing beats buttery sliced bread, but I've spent loads on hair products to maintain the colour, and this is by far the best coloured hair conditioner I've come across yet.



I'm also doing my bit to make sure that Moleskine aren't affected by the economic climate by continuing to spend stupid amounts of my salary of stationery. I just had to get one of these bad boys for my trip to Amsterdam in 6 (!!) weeks time. For what is essentially a small notebook with a street map, these are a tad overpriced (rrp is £12) unless like me, you're planning to actually go on holiday without an enormous guide book. No one actually uses their entire guidebook on holiday, do they? By having a dedicated notebook for the city you're visiting, you get to pick and choose recommendations from books, friends and Google and compile them into your own tailor made city guide. What's more, it's encouraging me to research into the city more and plan it out properly. Previous holidays have always been on a whim, which is great now and then but with a mere 4 precious days in the Netherlands, I really want to make the most of it. You create your own tabbed pages in the notebook too, so in addition to the pre-made 'Restaurants/Cafés/Shops' tabs in the Moleskine, I've made my own little 'Museums' and 'Galleries' tabs too. Yes, even in my twenties, I still have an obsession with well designed stationery.





I'll try to keep Amsterdam-related waffling to a minimum over the next few posts, but I am so excited about Vermeer, Rembrandt and those adorable little houses that sit along the canals. Yesterday's tube journey consisted of drawing my own little Amsterdam house, which was quite an impressive feat, given the usual Monday morning claustrophobia that occurs on the Victoria line.

I wore trainers to a Valentino exhibition. Ultimate sartorial fail, I know.

I'm jumping on the first train to Liverpool after work on Friday and for once, it's actually going to be warmer up north. Mental!

Labels: Amsterdam, Architecture, Cinnamon, John Frieda Sheer Blonde, Moleskine Amsterdam City Notebook, Overreating, Snow, Somerset House, Tim Walker, Valentino