The Month of May

The end of April and the month of May are full of birthday celebrations in my family- starting off with my sister Sophia's at the end of April. This year she turned 21 and had a lovely birthday dinner at my parent's holiday flat in the Cotswolds. It's located in a beautiful old stately home that's now been divided up into flats- we had a wonderful meal in the orangery above. My sister Phi managed to find a replica of the dress from 'How to lose a guy in 10 days' on ebay- she looked incredible in it. And I made her a headdress out of flowers from the garden! Apologies for the lousy quality of some of these pictures- it was a bit too dark for my ipad!

We're incredibly lucky to have access to this beautiful property- it's a gorgeous place to get away from it all- truly in the middle of nowhere. There IS a bus stop in the village but the bus only comes once a week! Some of the flats are available to rent- but that's probably only practical to do if you have a car! My mum is also in the process of doing up our flat so one day we'll be able to rent that out - will keep you posted.

Phi and our brother Jack.

Our other sister Florrie!It was then her birthday on 3rd May.

My sister and me- my dress was also a vintage find from ebay!

This was the necklace my parents got Phi for her 21st- it's a gorgeous vintage charm necklace sourced by the wonderful Annina Vogel. She'd been sourcing the right charms for it for a few months under instruction from my mum- so there were charms that corresponded with all areas of my sister's life, from ballet shoes (she's a dancer) to scales (she's studying law). I honestly can't think of a better present!

So May was a month of a cake- which meant I was actually quite relieved that I missed out on the gorgeous Patisserie Valerie cake Phi got (above) as I had to get back to London. I made the cake below for my boyfriend's birthday on the 2nd May- it turned out a touch more effeminate than I'd planned, but it was still delicious! I used this recipe for the cake- though my layers didn't really work- and then got the idea for decoration here.

My boyfriend then got me this Snow White cake for my birthday- I'd seen it in a cake shop in Dalston months ago and said it was my dream cake! However, I'm not going to link to the bakery, as it actually turned out to be a bit of a disappointment taste-wise, and from what I gather I think it was pretty expensive too!

On my actual birthday I spent the day at Porchester Bath Spas, and then went on to have a birthday champagne tea at The Haymarket hotel with my mum. All the food was delicious, but I thought the scones were particularly good. Just when we thought we couldn't eat anymore, they also brought me a special extra slice of cake with a candle! I was caked-out by the end of the day!

At the weekend my boyfriend and I went to stay at the Pelirocco hotel in Brighton- we've stayed there before and love the themed bedrooms; this time we had the 'Soul' room which included a retro record player and a load of vinyl. 

So now May is over, I've JUST about got back to my pre-birthdays weight and the house is finally free of cake- I actually used the sponge from my Snow White cake to make great cake-pops. Summer diet starts now...!

All wrapped up in Casablanca

 Here's the final post on my trip to Morocco- I probably should have started with a map like the one above (from the movie Casablanca) to show you where we went- you can see both Casablanca and Rabat on the north coast of Morocco. I can't resist sharing a few more stills from the movie- if you haven't seen it, what are you waiting for? It's the ultimate classic.

Ingrid Bergman's clothes are so beautiful- I'm a huge fan of her headwear. Morocco is actually a very relaxed Islamic country, so there's no pressure to cover your head, but I actually love to wear hats, turbans and headscarves on holiday; partly because I love the vintage style, and partly because I have very fine hair and get a sunburnt scalp very easily. With my new short hairdo, it's also really useful to cover up my hair when it's newly washed and I've put it in pincurls.

Here's a photo of my style icon Elizabeth Taylor wearing a very chic headwrap.

And here's me at the Magazan beach resort, actually just outside Casablanca. Below I'm relaxing at the Sofitel in Rabat, wearing a vintage turban and a playsuit by Traffic People.

Here are a couple of my lomography photographs from the trip- taken on my Diana F.

Below are some of the lovely bloggers from the trip- Alex, Kate, Kate and Lela, outside the incredible Hassan II mosque.

And here are some headscarves that are on my wishlist!

Swimming Pool silk scarf from Culture Label.

Heirloom silk scarf- recognise Mary from Downton Abbey?!

Silken Favours- I love their whole collection.

 And finally, here's a lomokino film I shot in the souk in Rabat- it was very hard to keep a steady hand as it was really packed!
You can see a few more of my lomography shots over on the Freya blog too.

I was a guest of the Moroccan Tourism board and Royal Air Maroc- with thanks to Sofitel Casablanca and Rabat, and the Magazan Beach Resort.

Reaching for the Moon

It's wonderful when you come across something from your favourite artist's back catalogue that you haven't seen before- I just stumbled upon this beautiful film made by Wendy Bevan for Italian Marie Claire back in 2010. There's even a pug in it! The voice is Wendy's too- you can find my review of her show The Pain of Desire here- as you'll read, I was totally blown away.

You can also check out interviews I did last week with fantastic singers Kate Nash and VV Brown. Have a great weekend!

Morocco: Oranges and Roses, Earth and Water

The Gardens at Sofitel Rabat: Jardins de Roses

I'm a huge nature documentary fan, so I adored the recent BBC programme 'Africa'. What I found most interesting about it was that many of the habitats we saw were not what we'd automatically associate with the continent- there's so much more to it than just deserts and savannah. Similarly, Morocco doesn't feel like you might imagine Africa to feel- both in terms of the architecture with all it's mediterranean and middle-eastern influences, and in terms of the landscape itself. It really felt like something of an 'Eden', with gardens and water celebrated everywhere; roses in the hammams and real freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast every day. Orange blossom water was even added to our mojitos one evening for a Moroccan twist on the classic cocktail recipe, and it's also a standard ingredient in local beauty treatments, like the argan oil below that you can get from Essence of Morocco online.

In traditional Moroccan riads, the rooms all open onto the central atrium space where there would usually be a few orange or lemon trees, and a water feature. The water not only acts as a natural air-conditioning mechanism, but it also absorbs some of the noise, which was useful when more than one family was sharing a riad. These days, even modern hotels have incorporated this traditional feature into their reception areas, gardens and hammams. We often found roses floating in these water features too; rose water being another common ingredient in both the cuisine and the beauty products in Morocco.

       Sofitel Rabat

Magazan Beach Resort- you can get Moroccan Rose body butter here in the UK at The Body Shop.

    The spa at The Sofitel Rabat

This blue and green hammam at the Sofitel in Rabat was my favourite- the tiles everywhere in Morocco were so beautiful- Kate was particularly good at instagramming the best ones which you can see on her blog here. They made me really want to invest in some good prints- Charlotte Taylor's pieces would have looked perfect in Morocco.

Charlotte Taylor dress

More oranges in the gardens inside Kasbah des Oudaias in Rabat

The first hotel we arrived at in Morocco was the palatial Magazan Beach Resort- my fellow blogger Alex got much better pictures than I did which you can see on her blog here. To be honest, it was all a bit huge for me- I like my hotels to be more intimate and homely- but one lovely element of it was their farm- yes, this hotel has its own farm! It was a beautiful site where children visiting could go to play with the baby animals (we saw chicks, lambs and bunnies- see a lovely shot of them on Lela's blog here!) and grown-ups can pick the mint for their mojitos!

 Back in Casablanca, we stopped by the stunning Cafe Maure which had a beautiful garden and tiled water feature.

More gorgeous tiles in the Hammam in Sofitel Casablanca

The Hammam in Hotel & Spa Le Doge- a gorgeous boutique hotel with themed rooms- including  'Josephine Baker' and 'Coco Chanel' suites and an intimate rooftop garden.

I'm now saving up to indulge in a hammam treatment here in London- The Spa in Dolphin Square has some lovely sounding Moroccan rituals.

The hammam below the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca

You can also have your own hammam at home with a block of rose Hammam soap from Toast (one of my favourite companies, who now have a flagship store in London. I particularly love the Toast Travels blog ) and the now famous Moroccan Oil. I've always steered clear of the latter because I have such fine hair that gets greasy very easily but I've been told the light version is perfect for that, so I'm going to be giving it a try soon!

I was a guest of the Moroccan Tourism board and Royal Air Maroc- with thanks to Sofitel Casablanca and Rabat, and the Magazan Beach Resort.

The Kasbah in Rabat

One of the things I really loved about Morocco was the mix of cultures; sometimes I felt like I was in Africa, other times Spain, or the Middle East, whilst everyone spoke French. Then there was the kasbah in Rabat; which looked like it had been plucked off a Greek island and placed on the north coast of Morocco!

I've said this before, but I'll say it again: I love how interesting even the most mundane things are in other countries- I thought this street sign was beautiful.

Apparently they use the colour blue because mosquitos hate it!

One day I'd love to have a blue and white kitchen with beautiful Moroccan tiles in it. I'm saving up for these books:

New Moroccan Style: The Art of Sensual Living

Morocco Modern

Living in Morocco: Design from Casablanca to Marrakesh

If you're interested in Interior Design, you should definitely check out  Fabric of my Life by Kate Baxter who was also on the trip.

I was a guest of the Moroccan Tourism board and Royal Air Maroc.