Side Street Style: September 2012

Our Amsterdam Style

28/09/2012

So a few years back I lived and worked in Amsterdam for an amazing 9 months and will always be in love with this creative and stylish city. As a couple John and I have yet to visit the city together and is on our list of things to do, so when I heard Easy Jet were running a blogging competition I knew we had to enter it. Amsterdam really does have it's own sense of style, with a mix of european and bicycle chic. I have put together a little pinterest board of some of my favourite looks for the city and when we visit one day this is what we will be wearing (hopefully) - this is our "My Amsterdam city break look for easyJet holidays competition"

I am big into quirky accessories and love big round glasses and lots of rings and feel they would work well when I am walking through the flower markets in the city.

My bags of choice would change depending on the occasion - the satchel would be perfect for cycling around the city taking photos and enjoying the fresh air, the tote shoppers would be for picking up interesting bits and bobs at the local markets and the Vivienne Westwood bag would be perfect for a night out having cocktails

I love Europeans effortless style and often try to add that flair to my own personal outfit choices, here are two of my favourite looks from my own wardrobe that I would like to wear on the streets of Amsterdam

Witht he changing of the seasons it's a great time to mix and match and wear some light shoes with big knits and combined scarfs with pretty summery dresses. Here are a few more items and looks that sum up to me the Dutch style.

Of course one also needs to make some homage to the bicycle culture in Holland and I of course would pack my bicycle print skirt for a little ride around the city.

Johns look would be inspired by house boat living, being outside with vintage and natural colour tones. John loves jackets and formal touches such as pocket watches and ties.

When we think of European mens style we think of simple but effective, well cut and interesting and this is the look the comes to mind when we think of Amsterdams gentlemans fashion

Well made, excellent design and practical shoes for walking over all the canal bridges.

European cut suits are always the best and John would love to have a vintage suit. The image below is a picture of John taken in London and we feel this look captures what we think about Dutch style.

We would love to stay at Convent Hotel which is set in a 13th century monastery in the heart of Amsterdam, I couldn't imagine anything more interesting for a stay in a creative and fascinating city

Interview on Village

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Really excited about this great little interview about Side Street Style on the amazing Village blog. The Village blog is run by the very creative and chic Krystal, who lives in Switzerland and oozes European style.

27/09/2012

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So I am not going to go too much into Mr A's birthday but instead just highlight our day. We decided to go with an native American Indian theme as his main present was a tipi, which he loves and spends hours in - money well spent! I also have a pet-hate against children birthday parties where the food only consists of sugary treats, now not to say we didn't have some treats but I did spend the nights in the run up making healthy wholemeal gingerbread men, spelt flour brownies and sugar free banana and organic apricot muffins - which all went down very well. I have to admit though I am not much of a supreme cake maker but I do have a go and this year went for a strawberry victoria sponge that was by no means perfect in shape but tasted yummy so I was really happy with the outcome. It's always great to have a big party with friends and family and it ended up being a great weekend.

Gingerbread and yummy cake

Mr A's new favourite den

It's crazy how time flies by

The Birthday post - Part 1

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So it's been a super busy week - as it's been birthday time all round in our house - with Mr A and I only a week apart. Mine is first and since having Arthur mine seems somewhat less important as I am running around like a mad person trying to sort out his party. John always surprises me with something to wear and I was not disappointed with my new Joules winter jacket with beautiful floral lining. He also booked me in for a haircut, which I really needed. My mother gave me a vintage leather bag that she picked up on a recent holiday to Italy and I absolutely love it.

Wearing - Joules jacket, Forever Tee, Vintage bag, Topshop trousers, Dozzy and Dee brogues

Even though I have still be under the weather John and I finally got to spend some quality time together - we had an amazing veggie meal at one of my favourite places in Cardiff - Milgi Bar - who also happen to make super tasty cocktails. After supper we had a rare night out visiting 10 feet Tall, Soda Bar and all the regular Mill Lane bars. As I was not in favour of either of use being a desinated driver - even though I am quite boring and don't really drink that much - we decided to stay at Sleeperz - a super chic and stylish hotel that is not budget breaking - amazing- wish every city had this chain.

Our room at Sleeperz, Cardiff

In the morning we finally got the chance to try out Pettigrew Tea rooms in Bute park - it was just what we needed in the morning - freshly ground coffee, fresh orange juice and crumpets - although we didn't exactly warm to the 4 wasps that seem to take interest in my crumpet, they seemed to like the food as much as I did.

Me at Milgi bar the night before and John at Pettigrew the morning after

I cannot believe my little one is two, the time has flown by and what a crazy couple of days it has been, we had an amazing native american indian themed party - which will be shared in the next post.

19/09/2012

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So I stumbled onto this really cute rings and just had to share them with you. I have been under the weather the past 2 weeks with a really bad cold - the type that leaves you so tired and exhausted that you can't even think about getting out of bed and with a toddler that can be really hard, so hence the lack of blog posts but I am glad to say I am now on the mend so when I saw these little rings they made me smile and just had to do a quick post about them.

They are all handmade in Italy and are designed by Chiara Bello of PigChic - she is a very busy lady being a designer, architect and creative director and now jewellery designer. They all retail around £80

06/09/2012

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Every now and then I like to highlight a fashion brand that not only looks good but has pretty green credentials to boot. Please note I have not been asked by AG to do this post - this is simply a brand I love and want to share with you. Annie Greenabelle is a women's ethical clothing company using mainly organic and fair-trade cottons and only use factories that comply with the Ethical Trading Initiative. I love there Mod and vintage feel and I think there A/W collection is very accessible - they also use real people to model there lines. Here are some of my fave new pieces

I love this sixties style dress

Thanks for reading Side Street Style

05/09/2012

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So anyone who knows me knows I love healthy yummy food. Anything fresh and interesting, I'm not vegan but I love vegan food and the effort that goes into making something like dairy free cheese cake that actually tastes creamy and just like cheesecake - amazing - I don't see why healthy food needs to be boring so when the lovely people at Good Natured invited me to do a review I couldn't wait. At my local supermarket I picked up some good natured peppers and baby plum tomatoes to add to a yummy salad. Good natured produce fruits, veg, salad and herbs and it's all pesticide residue-free and best of all my baby plum tomatoes were grown in Cardiff, so my food miles were minimal - win win. I also feel a lot better about putting peppers in Arthurs omelettes that don't have pesticide residue on it and I also made a very yummy egg salad, which is a night light main meal after a long day and I always feel revitalised and topped up with reaching my 5 a day.

I love healthy food!

Yummy egg salad

This past week I also made Arthurs and Johns favourite healthy wholemeal Spelt Apricot and Banana muffins and thought I would share the recipe with you. I originally found a similar recipe in an Annabel Karmel book but it had quite a lot of sugar and white flour and felt I could make it that little bit better for you.

Wholemeal Spelt Apricot and Banana muffins (baby and big people friendly)

45g unsalted butter - softened
35g fruit sugar - fruit sugar is a healthier alternative to caster sugar and it's naturally sweeter meaning you can use a third less than normal - the original recipe has 100g caster sugar.
1 Free range egg
2 large bananas - mashed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
125g Wholemeal Spelt flour ( good for digestion)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
55 chopped organic apricots

1. Preheat oven at 180c or gas mark 4

2. Beat butter and sugar then add the egg, bananas and vanilla and beat for 1 minute

3. Sift over the flour, baking powder and bicarb and beat.

4 Divide batter into muffin cases and bake for approx 15mins until they are golden, risen and firm to touch. Cool for 5 min - you can also freeze these muffins - bonus :)

Also I am announcing the winner of the Nica Bag by rafflecopter - the winner is Sarah Anguish of Boo Roo and Tigger too blog -go check it out :)

02/09/2012

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Is seems like summer never started...and having recently read in the news that this year has been the wettest for 100 years no wonder. We have had the odd warm day...as if only to remind us of the long summers we had in our youth. Whenever it's dry we try to head outside and we decided to explore the local area this time, walking past fields, over the railway and up near the mountain on a very pleasant route which allow Mr A to run around and be the silly energy filled toddler he is. You can already start to see the change of season in the leaves which are now starting the fall to the ground. The walk also gave us a change to wear somethings we haven't had the chance to wear - John rocked a Bathing Ape t-shirt and my little man was stylish in a Ben Sherman Polo and some new jeans form John Lewis and I got to try out my new Moroccan Bazaar bag