Balmy Evenings at Camden Lock

The hubster and I were wandering around London town a few days ago, and found ourselves in this peaceful spot, the beautiful river bank alongside Camden Lock, with serene floating boats moored at the edge against pretty cafes and restaurants. We managed to make the most of the warm evening and enjoy the gorgeous view for a while (until we got hungry and ran off to have a meal!)

I love finding spots like these around London which don’t feel like London – serene, beautiful spots which take you away from the ordinary moments and give a little peace for the day to think about things : )

Nostalgic Decor at Proper Burgers

My friends know by know, that when you take me to dinner, I’ll always love a diner with quirky decor, good food and even something to remind us of the 90s and our childhood. So when my best friend took me to Proper Burgers in East London, and she told me I’d love it, I was happy to find she was right – the food was great, decor was fab and the restaurant was something I did love!

The most striking thing about this restaurant is the statement wall – an entire wall of cassette tapes stuck to the wall that I loved. My friend also took her little children on a previous occasion to the restaurant and told me they didn’t know what the cassettes were, which I thought just shows how times move so quickly!

This wasn’t the only decor which I loved, there were dramatic prints, art-deco style lamps, light-up pineapples and quirky pieces like typewriters and vases of flowers, which all brought together a very friendly atmosphere. I also liked the fact that the restaurant wasn’t cluttered – there were mostly simple seating and clear spaces which is great for families (especially big ones!)

This is what we ordered, I ordered hte Proper Burger (classic quarter pounder meat) while my friend ordered a veggie burger with mushrooms, both with a side of chips (my friend ordered cheesey fries) as well as a lemon and vanilla milkshake.

Because these were gourmet burgers, they were a pretty decent size, and the meat patty used was a decent quality. My friend’s veggie burger was well cooked and each burger came with plenty of filling, salad and cheese with a generous dollop of sauce. The lemon milkshake was also lovely, although a little subtle in taste, which went well with the burger and fries.

This is a great place for a casual meal with friends (or family!) and the service was great too – we got served quickly and the staff were very friendly. I particularly liked the fact that they stopped to tell us about our food, as well as about the restaurant, which is nice to know about, and they also encouraged me to take more pictures of the restaurant!

I’m sure I’ll be coming back here again, I loved the decor and it’s always nice to find something like this in the heart of east London. I’ve been keeping an eye out for more places like this, so let me know about any suggestions:

OVERALL:

Food: 7 / 10
Decor: 8 / 10
Atmosphere: 8 /10
Cost: Around £20 for 2 people
Halal status confirmed

Neal’s Yard

My sister and I were making the most of the gorgeous (and long-awaited!) sunshine today and had a wander around Covent Garden, coming across this gorgeous spot hidden away in the alleyways. I love finding places where you can sit and enjoy the surroundings like this, which look much more prettier in life, but I’m sure you can see how vibrant this place looks!

Rainbow buildings, flowers and plenty of sunshine for this weekend!

Weekend Pretty…Easter Sunday Trees

The weather has been slightly more schizo than lately, but we’ve been lucky enough to enjoy the rain (and hailstones!) from inside with this lovely long bank holiday weekend! I’m sure you know I have an obsession with trees (and chocolate) so naturally I took the chance to take a picture of these today when rushing out to the shops to buy snacks for a lazy Sunday!

Enjoy the weekend all!

xxx

White flowers against white

I’ve been noticing the flower‘s which are budding, the sky getting lighter in the evenings and the brisk air getting warmer by the afternoons these days, which means spring is on it’s way, along with (hopefully!) warm weather, colourful gardens and lots of grass in my garden which will all need cutting.

So here’s some blossoms to start the week with, symbolic for new beginnings, fresh colours and a promise for the rest of the season : )

World Hijab Day…2016

I love that there’s an official celebration for hijab every year, and the message that World Hijab Day tries to promote. While the event tries to promote hijab and show the various fashionistas, business women and pioneers of hijabi women, I think that it’s also more important in showing the non-hijabi women out there what it’s like and how empowering hijab can be, rather than oppressive.

I’ve seen a lot of fabulous hijab stories out there already, and it’s amazing to see them come from countries all over the world – for me it just proves that modesty and hijab can be a universal concept, rather than just restricted to the idea of a piece of fabric covering your head. I have said before that I believe it’s important to send an important message to our younger generation of girls – hijab is not something to be ridiculed, ashamed of or misunderstood, and that there is nothing wrong with wanting to cover. If there are questions about it, we are always happy to spread awareness and show the reasons why we cover.

I have heard it said that us ‘hijabi’ bloggers can get a little obssessive over the hijab and tend to write about it too much – while I agree that we see it as part of our identity, perhaps we write about it so that we can get others to understand how we feel and who we are. I do think that the hijab brings out a lot of our inner traits which we may not necessarily be confident about if we were too focused on the way we look – in today’s Facebookin’, Intagrammin’, Twitterin’ generation, this is becoming more and more important to us.

But I’ll leave you with something a little more light-hearted – perhaps we love our hijab so much because it allows us to show women’s beauty and what we love about ourselves –  I certainly think it helps me enhance my bright lipstick of the day!

An Evening Walk

Every now and then, I’ll find something unexpected when walking around, even if it’s just in the local neighbourhood around where I live. During an evening walk with my husband recently, we found this beautiful mansion nearby, which I’ve been meaning to visit – the Eastbury Manor House. This is a beautiful large house which was apparently built in Elizabethan (the First!) times, although I’ll admit, as an avid watcher of Downton Abbey it reminded me of the TV show first!

I loved the beautiful, peaceful feel to the house, and the ethereal surroundings of trees and quiet roads, with the glowing lights – so naturally I couldn’t resist from stopping to take a few pictures.

I mean to visit Eastbury Manor House again soon (in the daytime this time), hopefully for tea and a tour, so hopefully will post pictures of the actual grounds, which is meant to be lovely as well!

Happy New Year!…2016

Happy New Year everyone, I hope it’s a beautiful one for you all!

Can you believe it’s that time already? I’m not really one to make resolutions at the New Year, but one thing I have resolved to do more of is drawing and painting, which I have neglected, and I took the chance on the first day of 2016 to play around with colouring pencils, pens, felt tips and water colours – here is one of my results below. I love the different media and colours I can mix and it’s always fun feeling like a child colouring in again (I think I need one of those grown up colouring books!)

So although I say it every year, I’ve come again full circle to make the most of my free time and see what I can come out with! What do you want to do differently this year?

 

Gathering of Small Favourites

As it gets closer to the Christmas break, I’m going through my things and piling together things I love doing – I’ve managed to find my gorgeous colourful pens (i do love my pens), notebooks and paints which I’m hoping to play around with – don’t they look lovely?

A mess of cookies…

When you have so many cookies on the table you can balance a platter of cheese on them. Here’s some sugary goodness to start off the week!