NYE LOOK

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 

I wanted to share some of my fave New Year options from the high street at the moment. This outfit combo will be perfect if you are keeping it low key with a meal or dancing the night away. Whatever the occasion you will be full of glitter and in style. The glitter heels from Topshop are my faves and make sure you capture all the moments on you camera as you will want to remember the night in the morning.

I will be heading to Cabo with my family so make sure you keep watching me on Instagram @FionaLouisekay and Snapchat: Time2Gossip

View Full Post

How to create a Light Dining experience

Recently I had Adams family over for a mini Christmas partay before I jet off to Houston to see the fam. I do not host many dinner parties as my lounge only really fits four, comfortably and I was going to have 6 adults, 2 kids and a cat and....I had to make my lounge as party esq as possible along with a beautiful dining experience - challenge accepted!

The only thing that would work for this many people in a small small would be light dining, buffet style I also had the fun challenge of including the new flavours of PoPChips new flavours into my recipes:

Sea Salt, Garlic & Rosemary

Sea salt, caramelised onion & thyme

I dotted the new flavours around the lounge for people to snack on. on a separate note I am loving the new packaging, looks like it has been created with watercolours.

Decor

If nothing else, always buy flowers, they brighten up the roo and always add a fresh scent,I brought some white flowers to match the season and had lots of candles dotted around the house including my favourite Noel candle from Crabtree & Evelyn. I also scattered these beautiful silver glitter stars from The White Company. To keep in with the light dining theme I used fun paper plates from Selfridges which has fun words embossed in metallics like Jolly and Happy which I just thought was adorable I kinda didn't want anyone to use them so I could keep them on display.

So what did we eat...

- PoPchips new flavours Sea Salt, Caramalised Onion & Thyme and Sea Salt, Garlic & Rosemary.

- Peppers stuffed with goats cheese.

- Tiger bread & biscuits with a selection of cheeses including my favourite Caramalised Onion. 

- Salad: mixed salad leaves, pomegranate, roasted walnuts, Camembert & apple.

- Gammon,boiled in 2l of Coke and honey glazed.

- Caramelised onion, goats cheese & Thyme tart with a sprinkle of sea salt (Tip: Caramalised onions always taste better when you make it yourself)

- Sea salt, garlic & thyme roast potatoes cut into cubes.

What did we drink

For this late lunch, Piper-H Champers had to be served from my new DIY bar cart.

With music, catching up and gifts to keep the little ones busy it was a great afternoon with delicious food. I need to put on more parties next time a more sophisticated sit down meal is on the cards with four people max!

View Full Post

Christmas Competition: Christmas Movies

The countdown is on, there is not long to go till Santa climbs down the Christmas tree and to get you into the festive mood Time2Gossip or me are giving away three DVDs from Warner Bros to get you in the holiday mood:

1. Elf Buddy's Magical Christmas: This is one for the whole family combining the famous film (that I watched the other day) with the musical. This new film re-tells Buddy's story in a heart warming animation - the kids will love! 

2. The Polar Express: Based on a classic Christmas tale this lovely film with Tom Hanks will get you in the Christmassy mood. Follow the journey of a young boy who boards a mysterious train to the North Pole.

3. Get Santa Last but my no means least is Get Santa, this film is perfect for a comic family adventure about a father and son reconnecting and discovering the magic of Christmas. 

All you have to do it re-tweet my pinned tweet!!! www.twitter.com/time2gossip

This competition is only open to UK residents and ends on Saturday 19th December. 

View Full Post

#OOTD: Winter Warmer

Whilst is Paris I couldn't miss an opportunity to do an impromptu outfit shoot with the beautiful wintry scenery. With winter settling in, layers are definitely a must but you have got to keep your style coming through amongst the layers of warmth and this is why today’s #OOTD is all about feeling warm yet stylish. I do love the holiday season and being able to cozy my outfits up is so much fun, although when it pours with rain, not so much…

Starting with my brand spanking new simple black coat with a faux fur collar, which was a bargain BTW only £35, thanks America for Black Friday. I sneaked in a fun sweater from Markus Lupfer – warm yet cute with paw prints and I teamed this with a simple denim skirt and my (I wear them every day) Ted & Muffy boots. To keep me extra warm I have added a faux fur ear warmer which I think makes the whole outfit look a tad more designer esq.

Talking of designer I have finished the look off with my Phillip Lim mini satchel which is amazing for how much stuff it can fit in it, I am talking camera, phone, money and even makeup.

Stay warm yet stylish this winter lovelies.

Have a fab day!

Outfit: 

Hat: | Coat: Miss Selfridge (similar one here) | Jumper: Markus Lupfer (similar one here) | Skirt: Topshop | Boots: Ted & Muffy (Old Style) | Handbag: 3.1 Phillip Lim from Monnier Freres 

View Full Post

Finding the perfect gift for a Friend

I don’t know about you but Christmas Shopping can sometimes be a little bit tiring and blah and I give up and buy something for myself. Sorry, not sorry. I get fed up of hearing the family say ‘I don’t need anything’ or ‘Can I have Money?’ FYI I never give money as a gift! When it comes to buying for your Friend it’s a whole other ball game, it’s another version of yourself as you like the same things. So you’re a basically shopping for yourself…although you don’t keep ALL the gifts, just a few ;-).

When tasked with buying Christmas gifts for a friend, I brought the beautiful Ellie from The Elle Next Door with me. As it’s a friend I wanted to be quite creative with my gifts, no cliché gift cards today, you want to buy your bestie something they will love and that means something – BEST FRIEND OVER HERE!

So Ellie and I headed to a store that literally has everything, Debenhams flagship on Oxford Street. It resembled Santa’s Grotto with all the Christmas decorations and with the #foundit signs, which can always be seen from the corner of your eye, I knew I was in the perfect place. Now although shopping for a friend is more fun, I never said anything about it being easy and Ellie is as indecisive as me, even after roaming through 5 floors of lust worthy products I couldn’t quite decide, on a more positive note our legs got a good workout. Whilst perusing around the store I really wanted to ensure that I stuck with buying creative gifts so I decided that I would split the gifts into categories as there was so many to choose from: Fashion (have you checked out Ellie’s blog she has incredible style so knew whatever I brought she would make look fabulous) Beauty, Accessories and then to explore Home Décor, pass me something rose gold quick!

Tips to buying your friend the perfect gift:

1.    Put their personality into the gift: make a list of everything that reminds you of them e.g. sweet tooth and then match a gift with each trait you have written down. 

2.    Bring back the memory: Take a look through your Facebook friendship feed and see if you can get the gift that relates to ‘life moment’. Did they recently get a degree? If so I see a fab coffee table book in their future. 

3.    Check their Instagram / Pinterest feed: stalk to your hearts content.

4.    What is missing from their wardrobe: Does your bestie have lots of woolly hats but no fedoras? The answer is simple!

So what did I get Ellie? Ellie and I have pretty similar tastes so some of our gifts actually ended up being the same but I think I found the perfect gifts for her with a two tone fedora hat from J by Jasper Conran, an oversized plaid scarf and an aztec print cardigan by Ben de Lisi from Principles and a few beauty bits but I got them as well so I will go into more detail now about what I received as gifts that I am still swooning over.

The first gift I opened was me down to a tee, the phrase ‘nailed it’ comes to mind. I have a huge sweet tooth so a selection of milk bottle sweets in milk bottles was perfect and after they are all gone (in a few hours) I can fill the milk bottles with flowers or use them as drinking glasses. Do check out the Sweet Shop range at Debenhams as they have lots of retro sweets which do make the perfect gift for any age.

Next, remember how in Tip 4 I mentioned that someone may have lots of woolly hats, well I may have been talking about myself, totally comfort over style ATM. So when I opened a black fedora hat it automatically became a classic wardrobe staple. Planning on going really chic and wearing it to the airport in a few weeks, I might get mistaken for a celebrity ;-).

As my gifts move into fashion, I fell in love with this patterned wrap from Red Herring which has a retro feel. I wouldn’t normally choose a wrap for myself but I am so glad I got it as a gift as it’s really versatile and keep you looking chic and warm at the same time. I am not going to lie I do wear this at home snuggled on the sofa. Blogger cliché over here now, I love a good statement quote and from recently coming back from my trip Paris this ‘Je Ne Sais Quoi’ tee reminded me of the trip. If you want to pick up one for yourself it’s from the NINE collection by Savannah Miller the whole range is just lush and I am glad I also got a maroon roll neck jumper the detail of a star print on the elbows is just too cute and its made of Alpaca wool which is luxurious and looks great with jeans and heels.

The next two items are from the beauty department in Debenhams, Flowerbomb by Victor and Rolf, this fragrance takes me back as I used to use it when I was at university and to this day I think it’s my fave. The floral scent lingers for ages and strangers always comment and ask what I am wearing also at Debenhams its discounted to £45 for 50ml – I know this because I brought one for Ellie, great minds think alike. 

I have been complaining about needing a new mascara for a while as I have a really bad habit of playing with my eyelashes so sometime they fall out (enter crying emoji) so I wanted something to make them look really full and thick and not the fact that some of them are missing and TA DA the Dior Diorshow Black Out mascara provides amazing volume and adds loads to the length. Make sure your try it next time you are in store, you won’t leave the store without it.

X
This post is in collaboration with Debenhams but love of buying gifts for my besties is all mine. 

View Full Post

What to visit with 24 hours in Paris

Just the other week I headed to Paris for 24 hours and it's beautiful with so many places to visit I thought I would share what I got up to and where I recommend you visit. As a warning, this blog post is jam packed with photos. 

What I did in Paris for 24 hours

My trip began at Kings Cross to meet some other lovely bloggers and the Crabtree & Evelyn team, and then we headed to Paris on the Eurostar. I couldn’t quite belive the journey was only 2 hours going to Paris more often has made my New Year resolution list. The reason we were visiting Paris was to visit Crabtree & Evelyn at the Feel Unique pop-up store, themed; The Best of British Beauty, promoting the launch over Feel Unique in France. Crabtree and Evelyn were, of course, featured as one of the core brands for British beauty showcasing some of their key products like their hand therapy creams, Noel candle as one for my faves from the Christmas range and many others. There was also free hand massages and manicures, I went for something quite festive with gold leaf and the Crabtree and Evelyn nail polish in Cardinal. So to all my readers in France head to FeelUnique.fr and get your hands on Crabtree & Evelyn goodies.

 

If you are in Paris for just a Day I recommend saving a tiny bit of time for some shops, unfortunately, I didn't get time to pop in but they have a one of the largest Sephora’s I have ever seen and I visit Texas annually. I also really wish I had time to visit some of the incredible bakeries. If you are looking to do a quick tour of Paris you can rent little cars or get the bus, some must see tourist attractions are:

 Louvre Pyramid
         Pont Des Arts or Love Lock Bridge
         Champs-Elysees
         Eiffel Tower

If you are looking for a spot of lunch head to Le Dome du Marais it's so Parisian and has beautiful interior look at the ceiling!!! I had the salmon and a pretty extravagant chocolate bomb dessert that melted away after hot chocolate had been poured over it - lush!

Have a lovely Tuesday lovelies
X 

View Full Post