Made in Shoreditch is the newly launched, start-up lifestyle magazine, focusing upon on one of the vibrant arts and cultural caplitals of East London. The magazine is made by and read by Shoreditch lovers, who use the magazine as the ultimate guide to fashion, culture, innovation, events and dining in Shoreditch.

I'm slightly obsessed with the area, it's only one bus ride away from where I live, in London can mean anything. I've decided to join my two passions together and I've recently started writing for the magazine online. My first article is a review of the recently opened London Pleasure Gardens, it's all very exciting.

This week is the Shoreditch festival, on Saturday the street will be alive with a eclectic mix of activites including live music, dance, theatre, story telling, a vintage picnic, exhibitions, and a boat ride along the Regents canal.

The whole of London is getting ready for the Olympics, only a matter of weeks to go. This summer you will find me hanging out in Shoreditch avoiding the typical tourist traps of central London.

There has never been a better time to embrace and celebrate your Shoreditch, inspired, creative spirit. I'm happy to be part of Made in Shoreditch magazine. The full listings of all Shoreditch events can be found in the magazine online or you can pick up your own copy in selected Shoreditch venues.

Bonjour Mon Amour

 J'adore

 Every year my best friend and I celebrate our birthdays within a day of each other, we decided to be extravagant this year and booked two tickets to Paris for the day, in search of the worlds’ finest macaroons, inspired by a mutual obsession of Goissip Girl. I used to live in Paris for three months before I went to Uni and I hadn’t been back to Paris since, so for me it was a real treat. Determined to arrive in style we travelled via Eurostar, leaving St Pancreas International at 8.30am, armed with a mini bottle of champagne, juice and croissants we arrived into Gare Du Nord at 12pm, casually dressed in floral dresses, ready for a day full off French culture and cuisine. The first stop was the home of Tim Burton's 2012 Parisian exhibition, Cinematheque Francaise we had prepared well, watching Alice & Wonderland the night before; we arrived the day after, to find the Museum, closed. Fortunately we quickly laughed off this unfortunate moment, we had previously checked the website sadly, when travelling always triple check. Instead we headed back to the Metro, on to the next stop Musee d'Orsay.

Musee d'Orsay

Surprisingly, it was our first time at Musee d'Orsay despite being massive fans of impressionist art, that the gallery is well known for. We couldn’t believe our eyes as soon as arriving outside, we were confronted by a massive queue, it was so long we couldn’t see the front. We took our chances and joined the back, we happened to get nattering to a girl, who was travelling the world and quit her job back in Hong Kong. Her next stop was London and she wanted to know the best places to go shopping in London, she also kindly complimented us on our outfits, telling us interestingly, British girls are known for their style in Asia. She had to ask us if we drank eight cups of tea a day and we replied yes to truthfully, we are so British.

The Cakes Inside Laduree

At this point time was passing too quickly, as we finally made it to the front of the queue. The interior of Musee d'Orsay is beautiful as it’s a converted Parisian train station, we were very eager to explore however very conscious of the time, we were only there for one day and it was already 2.30pm. Luck finally blessed, we saved money on the entry fee to the gallery, as we’re under 25. This meant we could buy more macaroons, later. Inside the gallery, we admired some of Van Gough’s stunning paintings and were hoping to see some of Monet’s, one of our favourite artists’; unfortunately his collection happened to be on the 5^th floor of the gallery… Charlotte has a fear of heights and the gallery was open plan that didn’t help the situation.

Yum, Yum, Yum!

The world famous French patisserie Laduree, the birthplace of the macaroon, was next on our agenda. We visited the branch on Champs-Elysées, on route, we got a little bit lost due to lack of iPhone satellite navigation and it also started to rain. As we got closer to Laduree, it appeared to be closed for refurbishment. It was safe to say we were having an unlucky day, we were in such a good mood as we were in Paris and found the fact everything seemed to be closed/going wrong, amusing. Outside the Laduree was a temporary store luckily we were still able to purchase a box of macaroons, in addition we prior to the day had dreamed about sitting down and eating a lovely French cake in Laduree. Across the road we spotted the patisserie, Paul luckily, were still able to devour a Tarte Au Fraises and Café Au Lait.  Confidently we can say everything we planned went wrong, but everything we didn’t, went right.

Charlotte Was Happy to Finally get her Macaroons

Montmartre was the final destination of the day, it’s the vibrant area known best for the Moulin Rouge, Sacre Cour and forms the back drop to the French film, Ameliee, as soon as we arrived we made a quick dash to the supermarket to stock up on wine, cheese and the boulangerie to buy a baguette, obviously! Charlotte and myself previously did a fantastic tour of Montmartre, when she came to visit me while I was living Paris, four years ago, which is must do if it’s your first time to Paris.

Montmartre

I had arranged to meet my lovely French friend for dinner, we meet outside the Metro station Abbess. As a resident of Montmartre, she took us to her local French bistro, Charlotte is a vegetarian and I’m not the biggest meat eater, so luckily my friend, ordered for us, thank you Anais! As a result we got to experience, delicious French food had a proper catch up before we headed back to Gare Du Nord our train back to London left at 9pm.

Birthday Cheese

 There were so many memorable moments of our trip to Paris including, listening to Charlotte randomly speaking Spanish instead of French was amusing to say the least. Eye-witnessing a lot of Parisian pigeons fight for bread outside a French patisserie who could blame them? 

Happy Ladies

Finally I was able to speak French this time people magically understood me, result thanks to my new French App, god bless the iPhone. I really don’t know how next year’s birthday could possibly compare. The best bits really were getting spend the day with my lovely best friend and finally catch up with my amazing French friend and finally getting to visit Paris. I feel like a very lucky girl despite everything going wrong, everything turned out really well. 

Hello Life!

Hi, welcome back... I am alive! My life has changed a lot, since my last post. 100% for the better, I'm now living back in London, thank god. I moved back to London for a great job at a well-known magazine in September. I was so happy to finally get a good job however on my first day I had that sinking feeling in my stomach and It was only a matter of time before things changed.

The plan I'd had for 6 years was completely, shaken. It made me question my life plan. I stubbornly quit my job in magazine publishing to embark on my new journey. I completely changed my goals, I'm still deciding on my perfect career that will come with time. I know right now, I want to do something I love and for me, it's got to be travel.

To fund my dream, I got a new job in sales. Normally sales is evil, I'm lucky to work for a lovely, Italian family run company who provides equipment to the catering industry. It pays well, it's a 15-minute walk from where I live in London and I work with an amazing bunch of people so I'm incredibly happy. Its not my plan forever, I have a few other ideas, up my sleeve but for now it works.

The only thing I know, for sure is that at some point in the near future I will be sunning myself on a heavenly beach and this makes me smile. Until then I have some epic summer plans, next week is my birthday; my best friend and me are going to Paris for the day. It will be the first time I've been back since I lived there, I really wish I had started my blog when I lived there as it was a blast. Fear not, I will fill you in on all the best places to go even if your only there for 8 hours like us. My life has felt empty without writing my dissertation/blog, I'm so happy to be back. I've missed you guys!

Words Can Not Express How Much I Love You America

 NEVER UNDERESTIMATE HOW MUCH ORGANZATION GOES INTO WRITING A 

DISSERTATION & AT THE SAME TIME PLANNING A MONTH LONG TRIP

 Happy Independence Day! I thought mark the occasion with a return after my 8-month absence shameful, I know however It ‘s been a crazy time, as I have completed my Magazine Publishing with Creative Writing degree achieving a 2:1, spent a month travelling in America and moved back home to Brighton while searching for the perfect job in London.

So less about me, more about America! My entire trip to America was inspired by my best friend Jess, who was studying on a year abroad in Californa, Santa Barabara & I travelled for most part of a month with my Uni friend Abbie. We decided it would be a great way to motivate us through our dissertation hell & celebrate the end of Uni while visiting Jess in Santa Barbara and my cousin in New York plus I've always wanted to travel just never had the opportunity. My itinerary was New York, LA, Santa Barbara, San Francisco & Las Vegas it's hard to know where to begin, there is so much to tell as I noted EVERYTHING down in my Moleskin travel journal that I received as a gift for my birthday. I would highly recommend investing in your own as it really is an essential for anyone who is passionate about travelling, it has individual sections for Planning (budgeting, timeline), Weekends, Short Trips, Long Trips & a Wish List!

I feel as though I could literally type for the rest of my life & I still wouldn’t finish writing all my stories. What I will say about America that I initally believed to be similar to England, in terms of culture, the only thing, that's the same, is the language, saying that in LA a lot of Spanish was spoken making me feel as I really should have attempted to brushed up my terrible GCSE Spanish, more about that later….

My Wonderful World of Fashion

I got this for one of my close friends birthday recently, which she liked luckily! It has lots of cute half crafted illustrations images, encouraging inspiration for finishing the designs off or colouring in them. This would make a great Christmas present as it's guaranteed to keep anyone occupied over the holiday season with collection of illustrated clothing, handbags and jewels. This is definately one for Santa's list!