Ascot Ladies Day 2013

August 19, 2013Leave a comment

It’s my much-delayed report on Ladies’ Day at Ascot 2013! I had a blast as usual – and we even won big in one race when we bet on the Queen’s horse to win, and also scooped the second and third place runners too – but somehow, the shine is wearing off of this event for me. Maybe it’s the fact that I had my foot crushed by a rather large middle-aged lady who was completely smashed out of her mind during the Bandstand Singalong (and it still hurts now, two months later) or maybe it’s the fact that the dress code standards have slipped again, but there’s just something about Ascot Ladies’ Day that is wearing a little thin on me now. But, this post is to concentrate on the positive!

The theme this year was floral (my friends and I try to match – last year’s theme was obvious and awesome at the same time!), so I spent a lot of time hunting out the perfect floral dress. It had to be flared and with a ’50s style vest-shaped top. I found the perfect dress in French Connection’s Maggie Lou. However, I had a massive crisis of confidence when my usual dress size didn’t fit me, which prompted me to go on an epic, short-term weight loss plan, which I’m pleased to say was successful. I am certainly not the size I’d like to be, but I did fit into a size 10 again!

Once I found my perfect dress, I needed a hat or fascinator to go with it. I had always planned to get something made, so I commissioned the fabulous Marissa Fleur from Etsy to create a bespoke headpiece based on the colours of the dress.

Floral Headpiece, commissioned from Marissa Fleur via Etsy / Disc Stud Earrings with Aqua Chalcedony Stones, Azuni / Maggie Lou Dress, French Connection / Wrap, Monsoon / Natalie Clutch, L.K. Bennett / Black Patent Maddox Wedges, L.K. Bennett

Here’s what the headpiece looks like flattened out, and below is the finished product on a headband, which is how I wore it on the day!

We booked afternoon tea at the event and wound up being incredibly late thanks to some atrocious traffic on the way. I think we were stuck for at least an hour and a half. It wasn’t the best of ways to begin, I have to say, although the tea was lovely enough to make it worth the wait:

At first I was slightly disappointed, as I thought the pork pie, tarts and fondant fancies were shop-bought, but upon thorough investigation, they seemed to have been made by hand – and they were certainly tastier than their supermarket counterparts!

The tearooms were a bit corporate feeling, but the mismatched china gave it a cool look – although, obviously, it’s much cheaper to fill a tearoom with mismatched china sets! At our table there was even a set that matched my colour scheme!

The afternoon tea cost £24pp and was honestly worth it for not having to go through the drama of fighting for a table at one of the kiosks or in the Bandstand restaurant. The food was very decent, and there was certainly enough! I think we were stuffed by the end! And anywhere with tea on tap is fine with me, of course.

For dinner, we went to Heston’s Hind’s Head in Bray again, but I think I’ll save that for another post. In the meantime, here are a few more pictures of the day…

Next year, I think I’m going to try out a few different race meets. I’m thinking Epsom and Goodwood for 2014!

The 1953 Vintage Diet: Day One

January 9, 20131 Comment

Today was the first day on the 1953 diet, and I’ve already made quite a few changes to the suggested menu – mostly swapping things around. I had to wait for my food shopping to arrive at one, so instead of a fairly substantial breakfast of 1/2 grapefruit, a boiled egg, a slice of toast with butter and a cup of tea, I just had the tea and toast (with Flora). The original breakfast would have been approximately 271 calories. I then had my tomato juice for a snack, and had some off-plan blueberries (my goodness!) to tide me over until the shopping got here.

For lunch, I had the soup (using a tub of chicken broth powder, very economical), plus 45g of wafer thin ham, two leaves of romaine lettuce, the boiled egg from breakfast, and a fruit salad. The original lunch would have been 362 calories, and mine was near enough there. The fact that it actually turned out to be a three course lunch was pretty darn good, too!

Dinner as set down in the menu should have ended up being around 316 calories, but I swapped my baked apple out for the fruit salad, and also swapped out the tomato juice. With 120g of roasted (not poached) chicken breast, 100g each of carrots and green beans, plus a Bramley apple baked with 30g of maple syrup, that brings my dinner to 486 calories. I mashed the carrots so I didn’t miss the carbs as much… It kind of worked…

As I’m a massive caffeine addict, I also allow myself tea and coffee (with sweetners and a total of 2 tsp demerara sugar) so my total calorie intake for the day was 1146. I also ended up drinking my Alibi Pretox drink instead of the milk, as I drink a fair bit of milk in my tea already…

I may or may not have eaten some white chocolate buttons ‘to finish them off’. I’ll leave that up to you to detect…

All in all, it’s not going too badly so far – this lunch was actually pretty good, but there are some challenges ahead for the midday period for the rest of the week. In order to stave off hunger, I’m also taking psyllium husks, to keep me feeling fuller for longer, I definitely recommend them to anyone who is on a low calorie diet to prevent those empty tummy pangs.

The 1953 diet previously posted at the Tuppence Ha’penny blog.

Vintage Clothing at Green’s Home Interiors

December 30, 2012December 30, 2012Leave a comment

Just up the road from my in-laws’ place is a great little antiques warehouse called Green’s Home Interiors, which is full of furniture, books, homewares, and a great vintage clothing section with jewellery, dresses, jackets and accessories. I decided to pop in and have a post-Christmas mooch around!

There were some truly amazing vintage jewellery sets there – check out these beauties!

I loved those giant golden bubble earrings from the ’80s at the front!

And check out this awesome red anchor necklace from the ’40s in this photo – it’s enormous!

They also have racks of real fur shrugs, jackets and stoles on display as well. My sister in law picked up a faux fur piece here once, but all of the older items seem to be real.

They also have a giant rack full of sequinned tops and jackets – very Dynasty! Or, Rita from Corrie…

Most of them were from the ’80s, but I found this amazing full length white dress from the ’50s – what a show-stopper!

I also found a really great ’70s cape and evening dress set – I actually loved this, which is weird, because I don’t usually go much for ’70s clothes, but this is just so unashamedly of its time that I couldn’t help admire it!