Online Temptation...

Pashminas and Pearls has just started writing a fortnightly blog on SheerLuxe.com. It’s a fabulous website full of goodies and ideas about shopping online whether you're shopping for fashion, for your home, for your children or even your pets! There's a great daily email with all that's hot too. Keep reading for Pashminas and Pearls’ first post!

LK Bennett was made for Pashminas and Pearls. A shoe or boot for every occasion, be it a wedge espadrille for a summer’s afternoon at the beach or killer heels for a drinks party, you need look no further than LK Bennett’s website.

The perfect outfit can be ruined by teaming it with the wrong shoes. However lazy or poor I’m feeling, Pashminas and Pearls will go to all lengths to find the ‘right pair of shoes’ to complete a look. Now, I can be lazy, save my newly pedicured tootsies and view an endless supply of shoes from the comfort of my sofa or, heaven forbid, my desk at work - LK Bennett has now gone online! Gone are the days when you’ve got to sit and wait your turn in a hectic shoe shop on a Saturday morning. The site is slick, simple and easy to use with great images of their shoes and boots, giving you the ultimate temptation.

I’ve got a wedding in a couple of weeks – found the perfect dress (was really rather spenny) and needed some fabulous to go with that weren’t going to break the bank and were going to still be on my feet by the end of the evening.

These are what I chose:

And these are what I’m getting next!:

The downside? Making it even easier to succumb to yet another pair of shoes!

Chinese Heaven...

After a long day of packing (redecorating my little flat isn’t quite as simple as I’d first envisaged…) a visit to the newly reopened Mao Tai on the New Kings Road was in order. Over exerting oneself at the weekend deserves a reward in my opinion, and given that Green Fingers is going to be landlord for the next three weeks (yes this could be make or break!) I thought he deserved a thank you too.

Fulhamites are blessed with a fantastic array of delicious eateries, so there’s really no need to leave the Borough – a relief after a stressful day! (When I started planning a face lift for the flat I’d had visions of me browsing Oka Catalogues over glasses of wine in the evenings…hadn’t reckoned on having to completely pack up, lug boxes and move out.)

Anyway back to supper… No Chinese restaurant compares to Mao Tai, although Green Fingers argues that a particular take away gives it serious competition. In my view, I tell him (and you too reader), that there’s nothing more fun than getting dressed up and going to a yummy restaurant with good company – Green Fingers goes silent at this point, realising he’s about to dig a very deep hole if continues this debate.

Anyway, after popping in on some fellow Fulhamites for pre-dinner bubbles (a great way to curb the carb cravings), we arrive at Mao Tai. Feeling a little envious that they were off to Tom’s Kitchen, (another Pashminas and Pearls fave – there she’s often to be found lunching with a girl friend and partaking in a bit of celeb watching), I was quickly picked up by a delicious cocktail and the mouth watering aromas wafting from the kitchen.

And feeling very much at home surrounded by many a girl in her pashminas and pearls, we promptly devoured unbeatable Chinese (the lettuce wrapped duck is quite simply to die for).

A great evening had by all. Didn’t know dining out with one’s landlord could be so fun!

Dilemma...

The age old dilemma of ‘what to wear' never seems to go away, though the wardrobe and credit card bill still seems to grow. The trauma of what to wear to this week’s wedding, Ascot or a summer drinks party is enough to drive you to drink!

Shopping’s always been a huge weakness of mine; I blame my mother for passing on her excessive shopping gene. I can walk into LK Bennett with the best intensions (one pair only) and then leave half an hour later with three! (Though Pashminas and Pearls couldn't possibly be seen in only one new pair all season – what would people think?)

The week’s shopping dilemma was a new wedding outfit. After perusing the old favourites and deciding they were so last year, I came to the conclusion something new and fabulous was needed; the credit card was going to be stretched once more.

Harvey Nics, where else I hear you say, didn’t know what’d hit it. Arm in arm with fellow Fulhamite/old school chum/personal shopper, we ploughed through concession after concession. (Girls in pearls aren’t known for their adventurous fashion sense, twin sets being more the norm!)

After four hours, thirty odd dresses (I could have bought the whole of DvF) and only a couple of foot stamping episodes, ‘the dress’ was finally found. The fact it was one of the first I tried wasn’t at all frustrating for anyone…!! Teamed with, you guessed it, pearls and a pashmina, we completed the look and our achievement for the weekend. (New pumps from French Sole were perhaps a little unnecessary but very useful and go perfectly with my new pash!).

The day was finished in true Pashminas and Pearls style with cocktails and pomme frites in Sophie’s Steakhouse. The steak is to die for, but who needs chateaubriand when you’ve got strawberry daiquiris and mojitos! Within spitting distance of ‘the Borough’ what more could you want?

Any dream will do...

Being an avid fan of ‘Any Dream Will Do’, I could barely contain my excitement when my Joseph tickets dropped through my letterbox. Daddy’s contacts certainly come in helpful in desperate times like these! It’s booked out until next March don’t you know…well the decent tickets are anyway.

Accompanied by ‘Green Fingers’ (if his friends ask 'I was dragged kicking and screaming'), we left the comfort of ‘the borough’ - Fulham, just to recap, on our latest cultural trip to the West End. It’s times like these when I remember why I rarely leave ‘the borough’. The stress of hordes of people – mostly tourists snapping their cameras and generally getting in the way, almost sent me over the edge. Until I found the safety of a cheap and cheerful Italian restaurant for a much needed sharpener.

Revived after a drink or two, we ventured into the theatre.

Despite the rustling of sweet wrappers and crisp packets (you’d have thought we were in the local cinema not a West End theatre) and the wolf whistling at Lee Mead in a loin cloth and not much else – which I must admit put a smile on my face, Joseph was brilliant and well worth the hype and effort to get the gold dust tickets.

…until the beginning of the second half when the stage broke. Our fellow theatre goers erupted into booing and moaning. I felt the same, but girls in pearls don’t heckle or jeer! Luckily for us (and the cast who I think would've been lynched by a disgruntled audience at the stage doors, particularly the chap in front of me who’s blood pressure seemed to have risen dangerously by the puce colour his face had gone…), the show did go on, albeit in concert style at the front of the stage.

And there finished our West End outing - a black taxi was quickly hailed - public transport twice in one day was far too much to deal with! I’d highly recommend Joseph – if only to oogle at Lee Mead’s freshly waxed and delightfully toned chest!!

Welcome

As this is my first blog I thought I'd give you a bit of background about me. Then you can see what kind of person I am and decide whether my life seems vaguely amusing / interesting / entertaining and whether it's worth the odd few minutes every now and when in need of a distraction from everything on the to do list.

Would love to hear all your comments...

Like any true pashmina and pearls protogee my younger years were spent at a typically sloaney prep school in Sloane Square, followed by boarding school in the Home Counties (the same one that a certain Princess has since attended) then University at Newcastle (should have been Bristol but I chose my social life over my A Levels - according to my father!!).

Fulham has been the borough of choice practically from birth. Membership of Hurlingham is as good as the country pad but without the tailbacks on the M3 or M4 on Sunday evenings. My sweet little two bedroom flat off the Fulham Road has been home since leaving university, (apart from a brief interlude ‘South of the River’ - Clapham you guessed it - that's too distressing to dwell on). My flatmate's a great friend from school (isn’t everyone’s?!) though half my time's spent at ‘Green Fingers’ – but more on him later!!

After University I starting working in the offices of a rather well known estate agent, where girls in pearls fit in best. Despite the social excitement of working with like minded people (there werent enought at Uni - even in the Toon) and five years of fun, I decided to seek my fortune, expand my horizons and use the brain cells which my friends say I have, and moved into the world of finance – where I'm still waiting to make my fortune and broaden my horizons. The office is only two moments walk from Harvey Nics though so that's a bonus in itself!

My ‘significant other’ or ‘Green Fingers’ as I like to call him, has been on the scene for six months now – based in Fulham as well, naturally, and setting up his own business as garden designer. Life in the 'borough' (Fulham) consists of dinner parties, drinks parties (the odd trip out to Ascot, Henley and the like) and eating out at our favourite SW haunts as well as trying out the newest eateries. Culture has a habit of slipping in now and then, usually involving bribery on my part! The phrase ‘I’m telling people you’re dragging me there’ is often used…!

So that's me in a nutshell. Hope you'll tune in for the next installment with Pashminas & Pearls.