Oh, I could kick myself for not bringing that Jackelope!

Evening all, my pretties! I hope you've been having a good day and that you had wonderful weekends. I had a great weekend but an almost completely sucky Monday. Work was so very stressful today that I ended up crying more than once, and right up until I got home I was in a thoroughly rotten mood. It's mainly work that's stressing me out - in my line of work this is a very difficult and busy time of year - but of course stress like this triggers anxiety for other reasons and I've been a bit of a wreck today. Sorry to bum you guys out, but I've been feeling really blue today. Still, I'm at home now and have a nice evening ahead of me and I'm sure I can pick myself up a little bit. Also, I had a lovely, lovely weekend and I think writing about it here will cheer me up too! Self-indulgent, I know, but whatevs.

I was working from home on Friday (which, work-wise, was another pretty sucky day) and one of the main perks was being able to pop out at lunchtime to see Lucy and Asher at Stone Monkey for a coffee. It was good to get out of the house and into the daylight, and I was rewarded with good company, good chats and a present from Asher:

One of the reasons why Asher is one of my favourite young men

To cheer me up (and to distract me from my angry ironing) Nic took me out to dinner at Kayal. I know I've written about Kayal here before, but if you live in Leamington, Nottingham or Leicester (and they might have a branch in Birmingham, as well) it's so worth a visit. The food is Keralan and it's delicious.The service is excellent and the staff are wonderful - I shouldn't have moaned before about Leamington not having any nice restaurants, because Kayal is amazing. I want to eat every meal there, basically!

Nic and I were off to London on Saturday. He had a meeting with his fellow Silkworms to discuss, among other things, their recently published collection of essays on Nick Cave. They were meeting in the East End, so I had a few hours to kill around Spitalfields Market, Brick Lane and Shoreditch. It was bloody cold, but it was lovely indeed. Although, the East End definitely looks nicer when the sun is shining. There are lots of pretty boutiques and vintage shops and markets and, while I didn't spend any money, I very happily window shopped and browsed away a few hours:

Old Spitalfields Market. I really love this building, and the way the newer buildings behind it fit in so well. This is a great place to while away a few hours.

My first stop was the Collectif shop, which had a mega sale on and a sample rail! I took a ruck of clothes with me to the fitting room but wasn't in a dress-buying mood - most unlike me! The clothes are fab, though, and the reductions were very tempting!

 The mannequins in this car outside the Traffic People shop freaked me out a bit, but I did like the car!

I think Dolly Dare may be my favourite ever shop. Or at least, it would be if I was fabulously wealthy. I wanted to buy every single thing in this shop and loved the way they displayed their enormous collection of Irregular Choice shoes! Next door was Author shoes, another place where being filthy rich would be a distinct advantage.

From there I dandered across the road to Brick Lane and browsed the many many vintage shops. My one regret of the day was not buying the amazing floor length wedding dress crinoline that Rokit was selling for £10! It's criminal that I left that baby behind.

 Street art off Brick Lane

I stopped for pie and mash at Square Pie before going to find Nic in the Pride of Spitalfields. He hadn't eaten so I took him to one of the places I spotted on my travels - Poppie's of Spitalfields. I was full of tasty pie, but who am I to resist a 50s-themed chip shop?! I loved how the waitresses were dressed in matching headscarves and pretty floral aprons, and while my photos don't do it justice, the decor was fabulous.
 

We stopped off at Angel on our way back for a browse around in Camden Passage before everything closed up for the night, then hopped on the train back to Leamington. I was tired out after a day of wandering around and so, so cold - but it was really good to go to London for a reason other than work!

Sunday was a day of chores and grocery shopping, but Nic and I had an enjoyable potter around town. Having pretty much devoured The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins on my train journeys to and from London, I was keen to get going on the other books in the trilogy and as they didn't have them in the library (I borrowed the first one) I had resigned myself to buying them in Waterstone's. I hate spending money in Waterstone's, so I was overjoyed to find all of the books on offer in The Works. For £6 I managed to get all three books AND a copy of The Return of Captain John Emmett by Lizzie Speller - neat-o. I also indulged a bit in my latest addiction - Lego Minifigures:

 Eskimo Dude!

Sassy Zookeeper. Although, I don't know what a little monkey is going to do with a banana that is bigger than he is.

I thought I'd save another pair of shoes while I was at it...

Jasmine Guinness Queen of Hearts dress, yellow cardigan from H&M and Irregular Choice Flick Flack shoes

I hate this photo of me, but I adore these shoes so, so much. Just look at them:

I mean, aren't they incredible? Just on the border of fabulous and hideous, which is what I like. I ended up giving the dress to a friend, though. I love it in theory, but I just don't think it works on me. It's just a wee bit too long, but it will look amazing on my gorgeous, tall friend.

I spent Sunday evening tidying the wardrobe and sorting out my charity shop bag, before going to the pub for a drink to round off the weekend. Just because, here's a wee shot of the wardrobe:

Anyway, Nic has just cracked open the champagne I gave him to celebrate passing his viva, and I've bored you with enough photos. Onwards and upwards, right? With any luck, this week can only get better! Oh, thanks to all of you who commented and emailed about the V&A meetup - I'll be emailing you all soon with more details. Goodnight, all!