Puttin' on the Ritz!

Ok, it's a terribly cheesy and unimaginative Blog title I know. I did ponder 'Crackers for the Ritz' and 'Ritz a Wonderful Life' but the obvious one seemed the least cringe-worthy!


To the post!


2 months ago I went for afternoon tea at the Ritz in London, with my Aunt. I'd bought her a voucher for tea for two there a year earlier to celebrate her 50th, and because I'd been living in Hampshire with little funds to transport myself back to LDN for a whole eight months, yes, you heard right - eight months - the day we did eventually go was the last day we could do so before the voucher expired! But oh my - twas fabulous...


We met up at Bond St. station after our working/interning day was over, and had a little drinky and a wander around some shops before heading to Green Park tube station. We were still a little early however - for some odd reason afternoon tea runs from 7.30p.m. until 9.30p.m. Actually, thinking about it they do several slots a day and that was the most convenient time for us both... sirry me!


So we waited in the Rivoli Bar, and not wanting to be rude and order a £15 glass of wine I settled for a bottle of posh elderflower presse. I'm not much of a big drinker, I usually go for a beer but I didn't think that would seem very... Ritzy. Although saying that, I did nab the plush paper coasters they gave us as a souvenir! The staff were wonderful and it made us feel like celebrities! They served mini cheese twists and olives so we had a nice nibble while we waited. We both felt quite underdressed, as other attendees were in more formal attire that you might see at a wedding - but a lot of other tables were birthdays and special occasions. And I think we would have both looked quite silly beforehand, going into work in outfits more suited to a day at Royal Ascot!


I nipped into the loos before we were seated at our table, and was blown away again by the glamour and magnificence -from a toilet!


Observe: 

Plush seats, murals, pink details AND jewellery cabinets!!

The washbasins were so girly, and instead of paper to dry your hands there were baskests of soft white fluffy flannel-sized washcloths! And a hamper to put them in - it did feel a little wasteful, but I can't imagine a hot-air hand drier in an establishment with these levels of extravagance!


The string quartet began playing softly, and we were seated at our table. We were right next to the catering entrance, beside a screen - maybe because we were not so exquisitely outfitted as the other patrons...


But we didn't care because the food was delicious and the surroundings were fabulous! Here's me sipping on some Jasmine Blossom Tea:

 You got to pick from a list of yummy blends and had your own teapot - I had trouble picking one, I could probably have had several pots! Here's my Auntie, check out the yummy cakes and all the wonderful features...

And a final view of the room. 

We had a variety of teeny sandwiches cut into rectangles, such as smoked salmon, mature cheddar and of course cucumber, with staff replenishing them as we ate. They were small, but very filling! Then we were served hot scones with jam and clotted cream - absolutely heavenly. The top tier of our stand was reserved for tiny desserts. My Auntie was stuffed by then so I got to try them- including a gorgeous Macaron - I should have asked who it was by as it was delightful! *mouth waters*


The time went quite quickly and we thoroughly enjoyed the top quality treats and girly gossip. I'd definitely do it again for a special occasion. I can't think how much it would cost for me and Tom to get married there though...


...but imagine it! Wouldn't it be just perfect?


Ta-ta for now!


Swaf


xxx

Hello Kitty Teaspoons and a massage chair!

I went shopping in Bluewater with my Bestie Emma yesterday - well, I was actually there to hand out CV's as I finished my internship and am looking for full time work. But as Tom has applied for uni and won't know if he's got in for a while, I don't know which county I'll be living in for the next year so it seems a bit pointless. So I did a bit of shopping on the way...

I hunted down some sunnies that I'd been trying to get my hands on in Punkyfish - only £8, so retro.

Next stop was to see my old colleagues in Sanrio (Hello Kitty!). Had a lovely catch up and of course I had to buy something... these teaspoons won me over!

SO CUTE!

and the cuteness extended to the schweet lil bag:

Originally £4.95 each but lucky me got given staff discount - even though I haven't worked there for 3 years but shhhhh. I'm too loyal/obsessive. Can't wait to use them with my teacup collection! They also had dinky little forks, reminds me of the tiny cutlery Liz Hurley used to take with her. Perfect for afternoon tea with scones!

Speaking of afternoon tea, I had a voucher for free tea and cake for two in John Lewis. I had a cinammon twist and Em had a lemon tart, yummy. I wangled my voucher when I was doing my internship in London, I'd ordered something for the office and when I went to pick it up from customer services they took longer than anticipated so a member of staff gave me a voucher! Sweet deal considering I was quite enjoying just chilling away from the office...

We saw a delightful cake shop called buttercup on the way, but our tummies were too full! Looks delish though.

Bumped into my glamorous old friend Hannah in Juicy Couture, which was luvverly.

Wandered into Menkind where Emma had a slight orgasmic moment on the massage chair...

Last purchase was this ah-may-zeeng cat ring from accessorize, £4. Love it love it love it!

Oh and some sushi.

I'm getting a massive bruise on my leg from when Emma accidentally kicked me - we went for a late night swim to round off the day and the pool was unusually cramped, so we ended up swimming into each other all the time!

Ta-ta for now, Swaf xxx

Turning 21!

Well I've been meaning to try out the blog for ages but I've only just got round to it, so best to start as I mean to go on - with lots of FUN!

My name is Sophie and I live in Kent, which is very close to London in England. First of all can I just say that like many of you I am obsessed with Hello Kitty. I love her. So with this blog I hope to share with you the Hello Kitty related things in my life! There will also be a lot about Jewellery and Cakes I imagine as these are some of my other passions! And I will probably tell you lots about my boyfriend Tom as I will be moving to the south coast of England to live with him later this year when I finish university. He is one of those special men who put up with Hello Kitty being everywhere and is even ok with the fact I am going to take over the house with it! But more about him in another blog. I might even tell you some things about when I used to work for Sanrio!

But today’s post is all about the tenth of may. For many of you in Europe and across the world this would mean Mother’s Day, but it’s also my date of birth, and this year I reached my milestone 21^st birthday! In the United Kingdom Mothering Sunday is towards the end of March.

I awoke to find many PINK presents wrapped and waiting, and lots of cards too. I thought I would share some of my cute gifts with you (especially the Kitty ones!) – want to see?

First of all was the best balloon I have ever seen in my entire LIFE.

If you live in the UK then you can get it from MATALAN and it comes with stickers so you can spell out your desired name. It is a foil balloon made by anagram so I suppose you can get it elsewhere too!

I didn’t get loads and loads of Hello Kitty presents this year, but I’m not complaining because all my gifts were wonderful!

It’s a tradition in the UK to get a key on your 21^st birthday – I don’t know about anywhere else. I think it comes from receiving the keys to your first adult home, I’m not too sure. But seeing as nobody really gives a house as a 21^st birthday present anymore, we usually give a giant plastic silver key with 21 on it! Which of course I got. I also got my Mum’s heavy brass key that she was given on her 21^st birthday – I can’t believe she kept it for so long!

you will have to excuse all the cups, plates, food and kitchen stuff in the background here – we are having our kitchen rebuilt and we had to move it all to our lounge!

One of the Hello Kitty presents I received this year was also a key, one that my parents had brought me all the way back from Miami!

It’s too pretty to put my keys on though. I like the enamel diamond shaped pendant and diamante charm. Very cute, and quite grown up, too!

I also got this great little keychain, which came from Miami as well.

Sorry about the picture quality – it’s a birthstone key ring in Emerald (plastic of course).

I got some great presents from Mum and Dad. There was a lot of cake related stuff too:

A special electric mixer with rotating bowl and detachable handheld whisk section!

And this box was full of cake making goodies like tins, cooling rack, cookie cutters and piping back, apron, cupcake cases – there were lots of little bits and bobs all lovingly collected! And some excellent recipe books too – I can’t wait to get making (although at this point we still have no kitchen, therefore no oven!).

Then there was my Harajuku Lovers fragrances from Gwen Stefani’s label!

Mum bought them as soon as they came out, when I mentioned that I wanted them weeks before! How sweet – and again I can’t believe I got all 5 of them!

They all smell amazing and G reminds me of Hawaii. Although the bottles are small you don’t need to spray loads so as a set, if you chop and change, they will last a long time. And how adorable are the bottles?

One of my favourite labels is Betsey Johnson. Every time I am in the States I try and get to one of her stores or a concession – I just love it so much! It’s so quirky and girly. So how lucky did I feel when I got some of my coveted pieces this year?

Stripey make up bag and polka dot with pink bows see-through handbag (which I am using already). Sooooo gorgeous!

But then, combining two of my favourite things; cake and jewellery…

How beautifully kitsch is this set? Although the ring on the left is a little big – I will get a rubber grip to tighten it up. These are by far the best Betsey Johnson jewellery pieces I own now! And all the BJ presents were from Miami too.

Keeping with the jewellery theme I also got some beautiful elegant birthstone earrings.

They are emerald and Swarovski on silver, although they look blue in the picture they are actually VERY green. Also hand made from Miami!

Speaking of Swarovski, look what my best and oldest friend Emma got me!

So pretty! AND IT’S PINK! You can’t really see it but the central pink stone is flower shaped.

And there is the trademark swan logo as a charm on the clasp with more crystals (not pictured). I love Swarovski! It’s also much much sparklier in real life…

Speaking of sparkly things, my wonderful boyfriend Tom gave me the most romantic and unique gift I’ve ever had:

That’s right, he named a star after me! Isn’t that so sweet? What an honour! The pack came with a certificate, maps of where my star was, a tool to help you find the star, and a book on stars and astrology. The best bit was his personal message, which made me cry happy tears:

We’re going to look for it when I move to his town where the skies are much clearer. He is my soulmate!

And being the attentive and observant boyfriend that he is, he made sure he include the second instalment of my Hello Kitty Gift Quota:

We saw these Hello Kitty fragrances when he took me to Southampton last time I visited him. Luckily he is patient and doesn’t mind me going mental over Hello Kitty things that I see in shops! We think I have an in-built radar, I can trace HK from miles away and hone in on it like a magnet. It’s very weird, almost psychic. Anyway we saw these and lots of other pieces and being the complete sweetheart that he is he wouldn’t let me leave until he’d bought me something. He got me a gorgeous pyjama set and some lipglosses but I was having trouble deciding which set I liked. Because he is clever and always knows what I want he went back to get the other set for my birthday but they had sold out, so he got me another one which was equally as gorgeous (I’ll take anything with Hello Kitty on it but it was especially nice). Unfortunately I’ve worn it and it’s in the wash so I don’t have any photos of it, I will do a blog one day about my Hello Kitty pyjamas! Oh and I bought the other set later at my local H&M with my birthday money!

Although I had a lot of birthday cards instructing me to become inebriated to the point of damaging my health, I had a very quiet and reserved birthday. First came the cinema – Tom, Emma, her fiancée Alex and I went to see Coraline in 3D at our local cinema. Absolutely stunning and very charming characters – please go and see it if you haven’t already! Oh and then Tom bought me a Hello Kitty magazine. Then we went to the pub where we chatted in the sunshine

[Emma and Alex, she’s still wearing her 3D glasses!]

[Tom and I, he’s wearing my glasses! Which had to be pink – obviously!]

and played musical chairs when Tom got a round in.

[where have they gone?]

Then we met up with Mum and Dad again and went for a meal!

[l-r] Emma, Alex, Tom, Me

note delicious chocolate Thornton’s cake!!

Quite boring to some people, but I had all my most important people around me so I couldn’t have been happier. I had a great time. Plus it was in the middle of a huuuuuge pile of university work, so I will be partying in a month or so to make up for it!

Thank you to everyone who made my day so special!