What We Did This Week | 25th April - 2nd May

Just because we are running here, there and everywhere, we're going to start a round up of everything we have been up to each week. Since the UK Blog Awards 2015 we have been busy ladies (and loving every minute), so here's the low down...

Press Days

Radley AW15
As you may have spotted from our post on the UK Blog Awards, we carried our essentials in beautiful Radley clutch bags. We both love championing British brands, so it was a real pleasure to work with Radley and we loved our clutches! Newly modernised, it's a brand that has been synonymous with your Mum or even your Grandmother... but the new Radley is clean, modern and classic, with youthful and playful elements too.

The AW15 collection is art inspired, with paintbrush charms, nods to architecture (Radley's founder, Lowell Harder, is a trained architect), beautiful capsule collections in various colours and even a painterly splatter thrown in. We loved the giant pencils, beautiful quality and their collaboration with Liberty Fabrics, using the Strawberry Thief print. We can't wait for the first few pieces of this gorgeous collection to drop in July, you won't be disappointed.



Ted Baker Beauty
You may have spotted more than one Ted Baker product on our pages, and that's pretty much down to Lauren. Ted Baker is hands down Lauren's favourite brand in the whole world, so the beauty relaunch 'A Touch of Luxury' was a gorgeous event for us!

We went to the stunning Kensington Roof Gardens and the lovely Sophie from KMI introduced us to the two new scents (Mint and Pink) and the full range (lotions and potions aplenty), which is exclusive to Boots. Both collections featured a shower gel, body lotion, body soufflé, lip balm, body spray and bubble bath (with hand wash and cream in Pink). We both took home a selection from the event in a watering can (it doesn't get much better than that, and yes, reviews to come soon!), but suffice to say the two fragrances are practically Summer in a bottle, and we'll take both.

Superdrug 'Super Exclusive' Summer Update
After a quick coffee, we popped over to Superdrug as soon as the doors opened at 8:30 to get an update on their exclusive brands for Summer.

Our usual favourites - GOSH, MUA, B. - shone, and we loved a new collection called Lottie London, a cute brand with popping colours and gorgeous brushes. A special highlight - a DNA test that analyses your ancestry and tells you all about it, and how you can adapt your diet to your chemical make up. Totally awesome.

Krispy Kreme Choco Late
When an invite from Krispy Kreme made its way to us offering an intimate and exclusive insight on their new Chocomania range which launched earlier in April, we did what any sane person would do and jumped at the chance. The event was hosted at the stunning Ham Yard Hotel in Soho, and the setting was a long dinner table with places set for those lucky enough to have been invited.

The experience was multi sensory - we even had chocolate fragrance to spray before sipping cocktails perfectly paired to each mouthwatering chocolatey doughnut. It couldn't have been more yum... We then took our places for the feast; a 4 course tasting menu, each presented beautifully which defeated us totally.

The four courses were Krispy Kreme Chocolate Hazlenut Kreme doughnut (Felicity's favourite), followed by the Chocolate Krispy, a signature glazed dipped in chocolate and sprinkles (lighter than the first), then the Krispy Kreme Triple Chocolate Cake doughnut (more cake than dough) ending with the white Chocolate and Honeycomb. Incredible, filling and the stuff of dreams. Four doughnuts and four cocktails later, we were tipsy and pretty high on sugar! We even got to decorate our own doughnuts (awesome) and took home a dozen of the new range. Suffice to say, we may never eat again after that, but it was so much fun! You can find the Chocomania range at your nearest Krispy Kreme and see a little more here.

Art, Culture, Music & Film

Lauren: Theatre | Ah, Wilderness!
An invite to see the newly opened Ah, Wilderness! at the Young Vic Theatre in Southwark left me super excited and reminiscing of my school and uni days. It is so easy to get caught up in the big show off productions in London, so taking a step out to look at the other things to see on stage is really refreshing.

My inner poetry and literature geek adored the plot, tied closely and interjected with lines and quips from some of the greats, as well as a harrowing storyline which was not afraid to be wholly truthful to real life. A snapshot into the lives of members in a dysfunctional family set in 1906, the performance felt very honest in expressing emotions, dynamics and relationships.

This play is frequently performed in America, however, appears to have lost its way a little in the UK, so it was fantastic to see it revived at The Young Vic so brilliantly! The cast of Ah, Wilderness! certainly did the plot justice with young George MacKay nailing the role of  troubled teenager Richard Miller. There is a fabulous interview with him in The Independent, and his performance was so commendable that I will certainly be keeping an eye out for him in the future. The set was also stunning- all sand and wood, it felt utterly immersive- I barely shifted an inch during the 1hr50minute performance.

Ah, Wilderness! is at The Young Vic, just a stones throw away from Waterloo station. You can see it between now and the 23rd May and can purchase tickets here.

Felicity: Cinema | Far From the Madding Crowd
After she abandoned me for France last weekend, it was lovely to spend some time with my Mum last night and go and see Far From the Madding Crowd, starring the ever glorious Carey Mulligan as the heroine Bathsheba. I love a period drama (why oh why is Poldark over? Why God why?!) so this was a great balm to soothe the sore Poldark shaped hole in my heart.

Far From the Madding Crowd was absolutely gorgeous. The cinematography was absolutely stunning, and Matthias Schoenaerts is a serious contender for Aiden Turner. Just let that sink in.
All joking aside, it was a beautiful film with lots of slow burning, smouldering passion. Juno Temple, Tom Sturridge and Michael Sheen are all faces you'll recognise (and were equally fantastic in their parts), but Schoenaerts and Mulligan shine. Mulligan's Bathsheba shows her prowess as a truly diverse and talented actress - the film is worth seeing for her performance alone. If you don't know the story already, I suggest you take your favourite girlfriends/Mum for the more refined 'chick flick' (I went on a Friday night and there were 10 people in the cinema. Amazing).

Favourite bit? Aside from the obvious wonderful ending, a stupendous line from Bathsheba following an upturn in fortune:

I shall be up before you're awake, I shall be afield before you are up. 
In short, I plan to astonish you all.

Health, Fitness and Wellbeing

We're both making an effort to overhaul diet, exercise and general wellbeing, and not doing too shabbily either! If you read our New Years post, you'll know that it has been a consideration since January for both of us to prioritise health and happiness (hence taking a break for a little while last month).

Lauren: Finding a great new running route was the perfect way to inspire me again- living in London isn't the best for exercise in my opinion however, being a stones throw from Olympic Park means lots of well surfaced roads with few cars are at my disposal. I've found a 4K route and took to it last Saturday and Sunday and again last night (Friday). On Thursday, one go at Davina McCall's Fit in 15 workout - perfect for a time poor city gal like me meant I have squeezed in more exercise than I have done in a very long time this week! In terms of diet, a fortnight of sticking to  a Rosemary Conely regime meant I kicked the evil stone of weight which was making me most unhappy. I now follow elements of the diet where possible, but do allow myself the odd macaroon or min-croissant at press days- and it is working!

Felicity: I managed a 2.5 mile run with my boyfriend last Sunday(his idea, ugh), a heavy gym session with my Sister-in-Law-to-be on Wednesday (again her idea, but it was actually really good!) and I squeezed in a run today too. Throw in a load of walking around London and I've done ok - Krispy Kreme was my big splurge, but YOLO la dough-know, you're not going to turn down doughnuts are you? Next week I'm trialling Savse smoothies and committing myself to 5 very healthy days. I'll be tweeting, instagramming and then updating you all next weekend. See you on Monday!

If you have any questions, recommendations or thoughts then do comment below or tweet us @prettyposhomg!

Felicity and Lauren