The Ivy - Chelsea Garden, London

 Famously known for filling the bellies of some very well known names, it has been on my list to visit for many years, so I finally booked a visit to The Ivy, Chelsea Garden!

Upon arrival we were greeted by a lovely lady who showed us to our table, I personally love the idea of being greeted at the door and shown to your designated table, its touches like this that make you feel as if they go the extra mile for your visit. 

Myself and Sarah both perused the menus, some beautiful treats were laid out before our eyes and I truly found it hard to choose what to go for, ever the cake connoisseur, I of course settled on the 'Ivy, Afternoon Tea".

Priced at £19.75, I thought this was absolutely incredible, especially for the area in which the restaurant is situated, and in comparison to other places I have eaten at, however it is only served between 3-5pm so do bear that in mind if you are planning a trip there and have a time frame! 

Served upon perfectly quaint silverware, the afternoon tea offers some delectable little savouries, namely the truffled chicken brioche, which was absolutely incredible and I could have devoured many of these, the smoked salmon, cream and chive on rye bread was also heavenly, however a very strong flavour so 100% pack some breath mints in your handbag that day ;) 

Onto the sweet treats, the warm fruited scones were literally pure heaven, they came with fresh strawberries, cornish clotted cream and strawberry preserve, you could tell they were freshly baked with each person ordering, as they were still warm when I finally got around to eating them.

Among the scones we were served a fresh raspberry cheesecake, a chocolate and salted caramel mousse, also heavenly and incredibly lightweight (these would be dangerous if placed in my fridge as you almost feel as if you are eating delicate chocolate air.. calorific, delicate chocolate air mind).

Lastly, a creme brûlée doughnut, again very lightweight and easy on the lips! 

Served with a selection of teas, infusions and coffees you are spoilt for choice, however a downfall is that you only had one choice of hot drink with the food, a shame as I felt like I could've sampled many different flavours and admittedly I have never come across this within other restaurants serving afternoon tea, namely the Sanderson, here you can choose from an array of teas and are unlimited to your hearts tea drinking content.

That being said, The Ivy Afternoon Blend was absolutely delicious, I would've just preferred slightly a little more.

Upon writing this review I felt impelled to explain something, the food at The Ivy is absolutely beautiful, you cannot possibly fault it, and if I was writing a review solely on the food I would rate it highly.

However, my recollection of the visit was left with a sour taste, the restaurant service is incredibly slow and poor, I felt as if the tables were overbooked and the staff over worked. 

It seemingly has a very relaxed vibe as you walk through the doors and this is very quickly diminished by the wait time to finally be served from your tables, don't get me wrong the staff weren't in anyway rude, just inattentive.

For the food alone, this place is definitely worth a try, just bare in mind if you are there for a relaxed casual dining setting then this will be perfect for you as the ambience is very relaxed, however if you are there for a lunch meeting, or to simply dine and leave then you may be there for a little longer than you bargained for!

I would definitely reconsider visiting again, however this time I think I would order a meal from the dining selection of the menu as I did find myself eyeing up many of the other tables around me, the steaks looked absolutely divine so I may give it one more shot in the future, however for now I would be happy to try out somewhere slightly different in London for more afternoon tea style lunches, than The Ivy. 

Frankie xo

Let's Go Through My Wedding Pinterest Boards!

                                  

      

                              

Going through my Pinterest wedding boards has been something i've been wanting to do for a while now,  and seeing as it is under a year until our big day, I thought now would be the best time to start sharing some wedding content with you over on here on this little corner of the big www.

To say I'm obsessed with wedding decor would be a huge understatement, blush tones are for sure creeping their way into the mix of beautiful clean crisp whites and greenery of foliage!

Im also loving adding subtle gold tones, especially in dining accessories, I just feel like it adds a really expensive element to the decor without being over the top or too tacky (I hope)!

              

        

Pinning wedding dresses with literally the first thing I did as soon as we got engaged, it's funny, if you go through the board from the beginning of our engagement and scroll to the top you can see the transitions of dress styles that I thought I would've gone for and pretty much everything I pinned is completely different to the style of dress i've actually ended up with! 

I absolutely adore the top dress in this post, the most beautiful Sarah Seven 2 Piece, the embellished crop top with the soft A-line bridal skirt is just the absolute dream, but unfortunately my world consists of far too many slices of cake and Starbucks frappe's so crop was definitely not the way forward in this girls world, therefore I started to broaden my outlook on styles and absolutely obsessed over more floaty feminine styles, tulle and lace are just perfect wedding dreaminess and this is something I will forever miss trying on.. gone are the days of swishing around bridal boutiques swooning over dresses, however I am very excited for the day I get to wear my chosen dress, can you tell? 

      

      

Flowers are a hard one, theres just so many styles to choose from & you have to then co-ordinate that with your wedding decor, dress, bridesmaid dress etc etc the list is literally endless and getting it right is what I've been trying to perfect over the last few months & I'm feeling like I'm potentially failing on this one right now, I really love the idea of tying the blush tones into the boquets using soft roses, peonies, carnations & mixing them with white tones and keeping everything minimal and delicate!

Another idea I've toyed around with is all white flowers which I just think looks so crisp and fresh, with just a little greenery on show from the stems, however I think its about time I bit the bullet and made an appointment with a florist to discuss my options rather than swooning over pinterest photos all day. 

        

... And finally, Bridesmaid dresses, how beautiful are the sequin gold dresses, I would absolutely love to have gone with something like this, but I feel like they don't sit right with the look of our day, however,  I still love them & looking through Pinterest my eye literally constantly gravitates to blush tones.

I love the look of blush with the soft white bridal tones and feel like everything will tie so perfectly together with this shade, however it is a pretty popular colouring right now and I'm always someone who likes to stray from the norm so this whole palette could change drastically overnight ahh! 

I really hope you enjoyed having a little look through my Wedding Day Pinterest boards, it feels so nice to share with you all some of the details of what our day might look like & if anyone else is currently planning their big day, leave me a comment so we can chat everything weddings as I feel like Sam may get sick of me before the day arrives haha! 

There is also a video version of this blog post up on my YouTube channel if you would like to see some more content like this..

Frankie x 

       

       

What its like to live with hypochondria..

So its been a long tough few months and I feel like right now is the time I should share whats been happening in my life.. 

Around the beginning of the year I started to develop some scary symptoms, sharp stabbing brain pains, constant nausea, loss of feeling in my arms & legs (completely terrifying) & feeling like I was so run down I could barely function.. fast forward to many doctors visits later and a diagnosis of chronic sinusitis, I thought a simple dose of antibiotics would clear it up and i'd be on my merry way, how wrong I was! 

Its been a long journey, with so many varying symptoms in the last five months that I have started to believe this simply couldn't be sinusitis, everyday seems like a battle as to how i'm going to feel that day & what the world could possibly throw at me, alongside this it has totally flared up my health anxiety and as a consequence has also flared my 'hypochondria' tendencies up along with it.

For those of you who are unsure what Hypochondria is, the definition is: abnormal chronic anxiety about ones health, to put it bluntly, it basically means my abnormally overactive brain constantly believes I have something seriously life threateningly wrong with me.

The reason why I wanted to discuss this on my blog today was because of the constant taboo that comes with hypochondria, i've had so many people laugh at me calling me a hypochondriac over the years & the fact its flared its ugly head once again, has made me want to step up and take control over peoples misconceptions of this, quite frankly, shit mental disease.

Anxiety is hard enough in itself, chronic anxiety is something else, imagine your entire days being filled with dread of what your mind might conjure up next, living day to day via Google frantically trying to find out what is wrong with you (this very thing could be how you ended up on this post) and believing you need to dial 111 at any given moment & imagine this being all completely made up by your overactive mind.

I want to give anyone out there reading this who may feel debilitated by this, hope, hope that there is a light at the end of a dark grey tunnel of cloudy judgement, hope that you will get through this bad patch of uncertainty, and finally hope that you will believe one day there is nothing wrong with you other than an over functioning mental state & that it will go away, I promise you will feel better with time! 

I also want to dedicate this post to those out there who have mocked hypochondria before and accept that sometimes the mental capabilities of your own brain aren't those of others and to be patient, kind and supportive, a little really goes a long way & we will thank you more than you can imagine! 

Frankie x

mask sundays

 

Mask Sundays is something that i've been doing for the past few weeks without even intending too, every weekend I go to my beauty stash and pull out the latest addition to my collection and slather it all over my face until I'm contempt that you can no longer see any actual part of my real face!

This week was a treat from the Lush Kitchen, the Oatifix fresh face mask, first things first, it smells absolutely delicious, you genuinely feel like you could pick this up and scrape it out as your sunday breakfast (post hangover?) and feel pretty damn happy with how good it tastes!
In all seriousness though DO NOT EAT IT!

Oatifix contains all the fresh goodness you would expect from Lush and is packed full of amazing skincare benefits including illipe butter which reduces redness, a HUGE problem I suffer with so this is straight up my street. along with bananas, crushed almonds and of course oats, these all combined allow you to have super soft and nourished skin.

The ingredients are also great if you are a dry skin sufferer i.e: myself, As many of you may know if you've read my blog or watched my YouTube videos for a while now, I suffer from really dry/flaky & dehydrated skin, something that I battle with on a daily basis and this was the main reason I picked up Oatifix & I can confirm it really does nourish and replump my lack lustre face, however I would say be very careful with how much you exfoliate this off after use as it did make my face a little sore as the almonds can be quite abrasive, especially if you suffer from sensitive/dry skin.

The actual feel of my face after using this was soft and supple, you could really see and feel the difference in my skin, after the initial soreness of over exfoliating this off had calmed down, you could really see and feel that the mask had done its work, my skin was much brighter and significantly soothed and less aggravated, makeup went on so much easier and lasted longer throughout the day too!

I would definitely recommend trying Oatifix out if you have similar skin to mine or if you are just looking for a great weekly mask that can be doubled up as an exfoliator too & the best part of it is the price, at £6.75 it is such an affordable product that its so worth heading to your local lush for!

Frankie xo

so, its time to plan your wedding

Myself & my Fiancé Samuel have been engaged now for a little over a year and a half, some may think this is quite a while, some may be thinking its way too soon to start planning a wedding, but hey were doing it and we have a little over a year left until the big day!

Once you have been engaged for a while the fuzzy warm feeling soon passes and the realisation that you have A LOT to plan, make, organise, do etc becomes very overwhelming and you may catch yourself in a huge ball of WTF, so before you find yourself drowning in taffetta and confetti, grab yourself a cup of tea, glass of wine, maybe even grab the bottle and have a read through my advice & tips for brides to be.. 

Theme

This might not seem like the obvious choice for where to begin your planning but it can actually help more so than you think!

We wanted a 'rustic barn theme' so that whittled a lot of potential venues down and made the start of planning a whole lot easier once we had decided a theme!

There are a lot of different choices and styles for wedding themes, personally we kept our choice true to our personalities, but if you are struggling for ideas, Pinterest is the best place for a whole ton of theme inspo! 

Venue

You've chosen your theme, this is where the fun happens and you can finally go and visit your potential venues!

We settled on the first and only venue we saw purely because it just felt right, but you may be a very indecisive person and struggle with choosing the 'perfect' venue, have a look at local venues to you, fitting within your theme: i.e 'rustic barn weddings in Kent'..

I suggest whittling the list down to your favourite 3-5 venues and view those only to begin with, just to not over complicate things.

Liase as much as you can with the wedding planners that are dedicated to those venues and search for someone who is helpful, yet assertive as you know she/he will get shit done on your big day! 

How you gonna do it?

Now this relates purely to how you are as a person, are you someone who loves being crafty? 

Are you a super organised person who has to have every single things absolutely perfect and wont have it any other way? 

Maybe you're super relaxed, yet know what you want and will happily hand everything over to a wedding co-ordinator? 

Having your decision on how your going to go forward with the whole experience is invaluable, personally I have struggled to decide how much control I want over the day, i'm a complete perfectionist & also very crafty, but how much homemade is too much homemade.. 

Budget

This is one of the most important aspects of the entire day, and will also help you decide the last section, do you have an unlimited budget and money is no object when it comes to your big day or are you a budget bride and saving every month to have the wedding of your dreams (yep I'm the latter)!

Sit down with your fiancé and grab a notebook and draft out every single thing you want to be a part of your wedding day and a rough estimate of how much you want to spend on each of those things, total them up and work out if that is an achievable amount for you to spend on the day itself, this is more for the bride who has a budget but it helps either way as it will just set you out for exactly where you need to be savings wise! 

Once you have totalled everything up divide this out over the number of months before your big day (minus the month before as most vendors expect payment upfront around 3-4 weeks before the wedding date) and this will be the amount you need to put aside every month! e.g £5670 ÷ 15 months = £378 per month!

With our estimation's we made them slightly more expensive then we would expect to be paying, therefore allowing us to save extra and then use anything left over to go towards our honeymoon, savings, houses etc etc!

Don't sweat the small stuff

I know this probably sounds so much easier said than done, so I went to Facebook and asked fellow brides and brides to be, the all important question, what advice do you have for us wedding planners?

The feedback I had back was invaluable and the majority of ladies said "not to worry so much over the day at hand & to enjoy it!

Don't worry about others expectations, who to invite (it really is who YOU both want there, not who is expected to be invited), who will and wont sit with who and all the other little niggly things we know and expect that come with wedding planning!

Instead celebrate the enjoyment of the build up, cherish the engagement photos with your partner, have girly evenings with a bottle of wine making table decorations, invites and bouquets, browse pinterest and dream up your perfect wedding day and then take all the inspo you can and turn it into your own take on those beautifully edited photos!

Wedding planning is hard, and hell i'm a long way off of even being close to the finish line yet, but i'm definitely taking as much advice and help along the way I can and I hope that i've helped you in the process too! 

Let me know about your own wedding plans, ideas & what you have in place already, i'd love to hear all about your stories and make some fellow wedding planning friends! 

the life of a twenty-something millenial

Did you ever hear your parents say "I wish I could go back to school, I wish id done enough" and think NAH, no you don't, and then hobble back to your bedroom with MSN nudges chiming in the background with a little giggle under your breath?

Well fast forward about 13 years later, sitting in living room of the flat I share with my wonderful fiancé & life partner of 9 years, the world at my feet & here I am saying those exact words my Mum mentioned to me when I was that aggy teenager and think "DAMN GIRL you were fucking right"!

My twenties have been a constant slur of feeling like *that girl* who's on a constant merry go round, waking up in the morning feeling like i'm going to own the world & be the next #GIRLBOSS, to then crying into my bubble bath, being a complete sap of life.
Its been a constant slur of emotions of negativity, positivity, frustration and pure un-adultness and not knowing exactly where I want to take my life, I have career aspirations, personal life goals and also the odd occasion of wanting to divulge an entire galaxy caramel bar and ngaf!

For those of you who follow my blog, you'll maybe also know that I make YouTube videos & this is something that is a HUGE passion of mine, I absolutely love it, but that also doesn't go without saying that is really bloody hard to feel a part of a community that you are equally so distant from, having a conversation with my mum the other day made me realise how much we have come to depend on instant gratification from the likes of social media 'influencers' alike and how we thrive off of a world we have absolutely no true understanding of!

I lay awake till sometimes 3am at night, scrolling my feeds & pulling my screen down numerous times every ten minutes, with the hopes of a new subscriber, a few more instagram followers and tweets in my notification box, realising i don't quite live the life of the other girls on my feeds, a holiday to the Maldives? YEP hand me the ticket please, Gucci Dionysus, i'll have one of those to make my outfit posts trend!

Life as a Millennial is a constant battle of trying to live your normal life and do you, whilst living your life through a lens of other peoples and constantly measuring yourself up with the hopes of living that life one day!
Now I'm totally not knocking this life, its the life I want, of course it is, I'm blogging for fun and I make videos for the love of doing so, but u wanna hand me a paycheque for that too so I can go shopping for some new Haul content, sure!

Its a constant battle of fear of never being good enough, even re-reading this blog post right now, I'm worrying is this content good enough?
Never matching up to those you aspire and follow every day of your life, never feeling quite like your content reaches that level like those bloggers you see in the hammocks on beaches on insta, but thats ok! thats really fucking ok!

We are human, we are normal everyday people, who live everyday normal lives and thats ok!
I want this post to be motivation for your day, motivation to get up and hug your partners, hug your cats/dogs, tell your parents you love them & love your damn self, love yourself so hard.
You are good enough, you will always be good enough, have your dreams & push them, push those boundaries so hard they might break, but know when to take a back seat and chill with that galaxy bar, in the bath if you really fancy and realise there is more to life then relishing in the lives of others achievements!
Realise how far you've come in life and how much more potential you have,  do you & do it well!

an affordable amazing cleanser?

If, like me, you are someone who spends a considerable amount of money on skincare and it all runs out at the same time, leaving your bank card sighing at the thought of yet another contactless payment being run through the till - sound familiar? 

Yep, well that was my life & I knew something had to give as my penchant for Space NK was definitely wearing thin! 

Being a 26 year old with limited funds, yet a love for high-end products left me wondering where exactly I could've taken myself and then one day I stumbled across a Liz Earle counter, now i've seen Cleanse & Polish many a time before, its a product you've probably heard every female and their mother mention atleast once in your lifetime, and you may have even own a bottle or 2 aswell, but me, nope, i'd never even considered trying it.

I have this thing where, if something is too 'hyped' up I just wont buy it, am I the only person who does this?

But something this time caught my eye, maybe it was the very significantly lower price tag or the huge bright flash of aqua running in columns along its counter, either way I picked up my bottle and headed over to the till with my bank card squealing with a happy face and brought my first ever bottle.

Now fast forward about 5/6 months and I've gone through around 3 bottles or so now & still loving it, however i'd been really wanting to go on a skincare splurge, but my ever relenting anxious stomach told me I couldn't, so off I trailed down to boots to pick up a fresh bottle of c&p, this time I thought, seeing as I fancied a change, to go for the Rose & Lavender and very excited by the prospect of feeling like I was trying a new product even though, really it was exactly the same just with a fancy new scent! 

Anyway, I'm totally digressing from the actual reason why you clicked on this post, are you bored yet? If not heres a snippet on the actual cleanser at hand.. 

For a start, the bottle is absolute genius, you literally pump it straight into your hands which makes it so easy and mess free to use, also no wastage which is a win win imo, the cleanser is then dispersed straight into your fingers and onto dry skin you massage the creamy cleanser all over your face, even on the eye area which is amazing for me, as, even though I luuvvvv my skincare, i'm also incredibly bloody lazy and I need a product that removes everything in one go, none of this extra eye makeup remover thanks, so, yes it works wonders with removing all traces of makeup/dirt in one cleanse, however I always like to go in with a second.

For me the ingredients in this product are just so perfect for what I need in a cleanser, the beeswax & cocoa butter help sooth my dehydrated and dry skin & rosemary oil helps repair, especially if I have a flare up of acne, i'm a picker, and this helps massively reduce the healing time and redness of the actual area - another reason I love it!

When removing the product, I like to use the (warm) muslin cloths that come with the product as they are gently exfoliating and great at removing any last traces of debris from my face without stripping it or making me feel as if I've literally rubbed sandpaper on my face, or 2-3 times a week i'll add in my Clarisonic for extra cleansing and the two work REALLY well together, my skin feels absolutely amazing, just like I've had a thoroughly good facial!

Now i'm aware this is a rather rambly post but I feel like this product really deserves all the praise it can get, I really feel like it has transformed my dull, lifeless face into one that is more healthier and radiant, which makes me one chuffed little pea!

I can safely say that I think Cleanse & Polish will remain a firm staple in my bathroom cabinet for a little while longer, maybe I should delve into trying some more from the brand? 

Do you have any recommendations? Not that I need to add anymore products into my home, but a few more can't help surely? 

Frankie xo

Soft Grey Luxe

So with beautiful weather impending on us comes beautifullly light soft hued linens and fabrics to adorn our bedrooms this summer.

Soft greys and pale heather tones are the pallete of choice, making these colours sumptous and inviting for the long warm nights ahead of us! 

When choosing the perfect linen for summer make it a higher thread count for maximum luxury and immerse yourself into the soft sheets with a lighter tog duvet, 4.5 is the ideal of this time of year keeping you cool and allowing the body to breathe.

Opting for a lightweight throw, the silk chevron heather throw is the perfect one for adding a touch of colour to the grey tones and is light enough to use as a cover for those warmer nights.

The linen is the perfect soft grey hue, with the jacquard weave accentuating the design and accompanying grey paisley cushions add a touch of design and darker colour to the palette to tie the look together, the linen is a 470 thread count, making the bespoke bedstead really stand out in its shade of soft lilac/grey Zinc. 

The look is neither feminine nor masculine, making it the ideal for couples who love luxury and elegance but with simplicity to there bedroom design! 

Adding the white linen cushions softens the look making it easier to dress up or down, depending on what sort of look you want to go for! 

Adding these beautiful grey and glass lamps, they are the perfect companion for the high headboard of the bedstead, not too outlandish for the design, the soft grey shade looks beautiful lit for a warm tone, or left alone to show the depth of the grey against the bedstead, the glass adds an elegant touch and definitely one of the accessories you would want to show off to welcoming guests! 

What do you think of the soft grey & lilac design, personally I love it! Let me know :) 

Lots of love, Frankie x 

* Paid for post in collaboration with Feather And Black