Santa Monica & Beyond

1. Santa Monica palms, 2. On Venice Beach boardwalk, 3.Lunch at the Sidewalk cafe, 4. On Santa Monica pier, 5. The original muscle beach, 6. Beverly Hills, 7. True Blood set at WB studios, 8. On Rodeo Drive

It is day three of my Californian roadtrip and it has been amazing so far! Lovely weather, delicious food, beautiful surroundings & fun touristy activities.

Yesterday we spent on Venice Beach boardwalk & at Santa Monica pier, which was so much fun. There were so many interesting (& crazy) people to watch!

Today we drove into Beverly Hills and ate lunch at Nate 'N Al's deli. Best tuna melt sandwich EVER. I swear! Then we went into full on tourist mode and went on the Warner Brothers Studio tour. It was fantastic; it lasted two and a half hours and our guide was full of interesting facts and stories. We saw the back-lots where so many famous movie scenes had been filmed (I think my favourite was seeing the building that is the orphanage in Annie, because, seriously, Hard Knock Life is always in my head hehe) and we saw buildings used in current shows like Shameless US, Pretty Little Liars & True Blood.

I love my favourite TV shows almost as much as fashion and I am a huge True Blood fan so I was rather excited to be standing outside Merlotte's bar, next to Sheriff Andy Bellefleur's car!! Later on in the tour we found out they had just started filming a scene!

We leave Santa Monica to drive up the coast towards San Francisco tomorrow, so I will update soon! :)

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Read, Write, Do

[Ruffled blouse - Primark a few years ago, Jeans - Topshop, Leopard print pumps (these are my new favourite comfy shoe) - H&M]

Pre-holiday stress has taken over my life.

Today's dilemma is about what books to take with me. I'm pretty sure I'm not even going to get much time to read since I'm not going on a typical "lie beside the pool all day" kind of holiday (if I was I'd need to take at least five books!), but the plane journey takes 11 hours so I will probably read then at least. I may have to take a last minute trip to Waterstones on Sunday!

Aside from clothes shops, I think Waterstones (a UK bookstore) is probably my favourite other shop, even if I don't purchase books there that often.
I just love browsing the whole store (especially the travel writing section, and the recipe books and all of the fiction...) and being surrounded by all of these works that people have spent their time and energy and passion completing. It is very inspiring!

Aside from clothing stores, what is your favourite type of store to visit?

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We Are (Very) Handsome

I am still on my epic search for the perfect holiday swimsuit, and it is not going well. A few of you kindly reccomended New Look & when I checked out the website there did seem to be some nice pieces. So today I popped into my local store and it had none of the pieces I liked on the website in stock. Just lots and lots of the ones I didn't like... Just my luck, eh?!

When I arrived home, I decided to torture myself further by browsing the swimwear section on Net-A-Porter and drooling over things I can't afford. And that is where I came across We Are Handsome's amazing swimsuits & bikinis. L-R The Los Angeles swimsuit, The Vermillion bikini
The Arabia bikini, The Sirin swimsuit

The Los Angeles swimsuit would be a particularly relevant purchase for my up-and-coming Californian roadtrip, plus it is my absolute favourite of the selection that Net-A-Porter has in stock (and as of this moment, top of my I-would-like-this wishlist by far). I would clearly find excuses to wear it on all occasions and at all opportunities; whether it would be an appropriate clothing choice or not!

Another relevant purchase (slash second most desired piece of clothing at the moment) would be the Yosemite swimsuit shown below right, as I am also visiting Yosemite National Park for a few days during my trip! Plus, anything with a soaring eagle emblazened on it gets an A+ in my eyes!

The Kinaree swimsuit, The Yosemite Swimsuit

I wish I could afford to splash out on the Los Angeles or Yosemite (which are both £190 on Net-a-Porter), but sadly my last swimsuit, which I loved, lasted approximately five weeks before I lost it whilst on holiday. Don't ask how I lost it, because it remains a mystery to me (don't worry, I wasn't wearing it at the time!), but the sad fact of the matter is that I did.

And therefore the hunt for a cheap-&-cheerful swimsuit that I can afford to accidently lose continues! Wish me luck!

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Sunshine & Bellinis

[Leopard print blouse - H&M, Belt - vintage]

I wore this out for drinks with friends on Thursday night. We had the most delicious Peach Bellinis! The weather right now is rather uncharacteristically sunny and warm at the moment & I'm loving it! It was 23 degrees yesterday and I spent most of it lying in the garden & then at a BBQ to celebrate a friend's birthday. Perfect. Today, however, I have to go to work and miss the sunshine. C'est La vie I guess!

Still on the holiday clothes hunt; focusing on finding the perfect swimsuit right now. I already have a leopard print bikini from H&M that I love, but I'd like a back-up swimsuit too. Anyone found any nice ones recently? :)

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