As always, I couldn’t visit Brighton and not do some serious shopping! I like to try and save up some cash just so I can have a splurge while I’m there. As well as all the usual high street shops I love browsing the various independent shops in the Lanes and North Laines and of course I always make a visit to Infinity Foods and Taj as well as Wholefoods while I was in London. Here’s what I got!

Chocolate! Moo Free Caramelised Hazelnuts Milk Chocolate, Mr Popple’s 88% Strong Raw Dark Chocolate, The Raw Chocolate Company Dark Raw Chocolate with Mint, Montezuma’s dark chocolate turtles, 75% dark chocolate buttons and 54% dark chocolate buttons

The Raw Chocolate Company raw chocolate covered raisins, mulberries and goji berries, raw cacao powder and coconut palm sugar

Cashew butter, Raw Health Cacao Brazilnut Bliss, Carley’s raw almond butter and raw dark tahini

Spiru-tein protein powders in chocolate chip cookie dough and cookies and cream flavours, chocolate almond puddings

Raw Health crisp breads in Intensely Italian and Provençale varieties, Living Food Kitchen raw apple and cinnamon granola, InSpiral Loveberry raw granola

Taj spicy roast chickpeas, organic blue corn chips, green chia tea and sweet chilli tea

Goji berries, cacao nibs, dried mango and lemon salted almonds

Kabocha Squash!

I was chuffed that I found some kabocha squash in Taj to bring home with me, its been far too long! I actually got a few boxes of those teas as they were on offer and several bags of the cacao nibs as I’m snacking on them all the time at the moment. I’m very happy with the things I picked up, pretty much everything is something I’ve had before and know I’ll enjoy eating. The only experimental things I got was the coconut palm sugar which I’ve never tried before but have heard lots about, and the chocolate almond puddings which sounded nice!

Fashion wise I was looking forward to getting a few things in a bigger size (see this post as to why I’m trying to gain some weight) to reinvigorate my wardrobe. I also needed some make up as it is quite frankly embarrassing how long I’ve had some things in my make up bag!

Accessories – star bracelet: Silverado, heart pendant, statement collar necklace and pink jersey infinity scarf all Topshop

1940’s style floral vintage dress: Beyond Retro

Simple floral dress: H&M

Blue polka dot dress: H&M

Floral patterned blouse: Oasis

Slouchy pink jumper: Topshop (sale)

Purple slouchy vest top: Topshop

Black mid calf length boots: Oasis (sale), coral satchel: H&M, Bobble water bottle (on the recommendation of Tam): England at Home, Benetint cheek and lip stain, ‘they’re real’ mascara and brow powder and wax all Benefit, Tisserand deodorant roll on, Lush ‘angels on bare skin’ scrub

I also got some plain black slim leg pants from Zara and a sports bra and workout top from Sweaty Betty. I was so happy with the things I bought, that vintage dress is amazing! I usually never find anything vintage that suits me but the dress is perfect – the length is spot on and it has the best little lace up detail on each side of the waist which cinches it in to give a more hour glass figure. I was also chuffed to find that H&M had some knock off Cambridge style satchels – I had been eying up the genuine articles of these brightly coloured bags at a much higher price so to find one at £15 was great!

Suffice to say I will not be clothes or health foods shopping for a long time while my finances recover, but it was so worth it! Do you ever treat yourself to shopping sprees? What was the last treat you bought for yourself?

Hi everyone, hope your having a great weekend! We’ve had a fantastic time in Brighton this week. We had been planning on coming home yesterday but we decided to stay another day as we were having so much fun! I haven’t enjoyed the weather very much though, I don’t think I’ve ever been so cold as I have this week!

The Royal Pavilion

We travelled the 330 miles down to the south coast on Monday night so woke up Tuesday morning feeling refreshed and ready for our holiday!

Tuesday

Me and Tam and tasty food from Aloka

I met up with the gorgeous Tam who very kindly took me to my first ever Bikram Yoga class. I absolutely loved it! I’m so sad that no where in the North East does Bikram Yoga, I would definitely be a regular if I had the opportunity. After the class we went for lunch at the wonderful Aloka. I had a big plate full of the delicious dishes available, the red lentil, tempeh and cashew cheese lasagne was incredible! We couldn’t resist the raw desserts either, and I had a tasty raw cherry and pistachio macaroon. After that I met up with James again and we hit the shops – I made a beeline for Infinity Foods of course!

We finished Tuesday by going back into Brighton for a few drinks with some of James twitter pals which was a lot of fun!

Wednesday

Vegan scone and strawberry jam for breakfast, tasty treats from InSpiral cafe and Wholefoods

We decided to make the trip up to London on Wednesday so we got up early and I enjoyed a delicious vegan scone I’d bought from Infinity Foods the previous day, it tasted so good! We got the train to London and headed to Camden for a look around. It was so cold we didn’t do much looking around the market but thanks to a tweet from Emma I knew that InSpiral Cafe was close by. James warmed up with a latte but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to get a Green Goddess juice and a slice of the amazing chocolate peanut butter pie! I had a look at both the Camden and Soho Wholefoods as well as some of the shops on Oxford Street before came home. I got a totally lush salad bar box from Wholefoods to eat on the train which I also enjoyed with a huge vegan and gluten free peanut butter chocolate brownie that was to die for! Once we got back to Brighton we went to Fat Leos for an Italian meal and more red wine!

Thursday

Me looking half decent for once after getting my make up one at Benefit, Vanilla spice latte, chocolate chilli sorbet and a delicious Indian meal

On Wednesday we had a walk back into Brighton and had a big shopping day! I wanted to get some make up from Benefit and the staff wanted to show me some of the new products so I basically ended up having my whole face made up! We also stopped by Starbucks for about the 8th time that week to get a Vanilla Spice Soya Latte to warm up between shops. For lunch we stopped by Aloka again so I could get a take away box for lunch, but not before heading to Boho Gelato (thanks to Christina for the tip!) for a vegan sorbet. I got the Chocolate Chilli and my god that stuff had a kick, but it was very tasty! For our evening meal we came back into town and tried an Indian buffet restaurant. I had rice, tarka dahl, saag aloo, onion bhaji and naan bread, it was yummy! We also had more red wine:

We had found a bottle that we really liked in The Mesmerist so decided to go back and enjoy!

Friday

Tasty simple breakfast, Falafel sandwich from Infinity Foods Cafe, apple and maple cake and coffee from Iydea and an early valentines day gift from James

We had a nice lie in and I had a simple breakfast of banana, apple and peanut butter before we made our last trip to town. We got some gifts to bring home as well as stopping at Iydea for the most gorgeous apple and maple cake and a almond soy latte. The icing on that cake was incredible! I’d had a huge craving for falafel so we stopped by Infinity Foods Cafe and I got the Falafel sandwich with chilli hummus, tahini and red onion with salad which was lush. While looking in Montezuma’s chocolate shop James bought me an early valentines day gift of some dark chocolate hearts with cacao nibs and dates which were so delicious! Later in the day we had a walk around Hove and got some flowers for my Auntie before getting in an early night ready for our 5am alarm this morning so we could drive back and beat the traffic!

It’s lovely to be home but I am really going to miss Brighton! I feel like all I’ve done this week is drink coffee, eat vegan cake and guzzle red wine! Apart from the Bikram class I haven’t worked out at all, although we must have walked at least 4 miles a day just back and forth between Hove and Brighton! I did bring my running gear but it has been too cold to even attempt it. Overall I’ve really indulged myself this week, I’ve eaten delicious food with abandon, haven’t worried about exercise, and apart from a bit of twitter action I’ve been pretty unplugged from the internet too. I think its been just what I needed! Of course a lot of shopping has been done too, shopping haul post coming up soon! Now I’m just happy to start getting myself back into my routine again.

Hope you’ve all had a great week and are enjoying your weekend!

• Simple but delicious birthday breakfast of strawberries with almond butter and a vanilla bean green smoothie
• Waiting for the train to Newcastle – OOTD: denim jacket: New Look, cream vest: H&M, emerald green vintage style skirt: Urban Outfitters, gold necklace: Warehouse, trainers: Converse, cocktail ring: Topshop, tan bag: Mango
• Lunch at Las Iguanas: free birthday Mojito which came with a candle in it! incredible Coconut Squash Taco for starter, Superfood salad for main
• ‘Dessert’ – Venti Mocha Frappe with soy from Starbucks
• Cocktails at Popolo…
• Then more cocktails at No 28 chilling out on the day bed
• Remainder of my fabulous raw birthday cake after dinner at my parents with my aunt, uncles, cousin and grandma. Base made with dates, almonds and coconut oil, cacao avocado coconut oil agave mousse topping and strawberries, so so good!
• Presents! I really was so spoilt, my Aunt and Uncle from Brighton bought me a huge haul of goodies from Infinity Foods, Cath Kidson Mugs, Liberty Print notebooks, Pimms, Philosophy shower gel and Montezuma chocolate covered coffee beans from my amazing Sister, perfume and Hotel Chocolat goodies from my parents, things I bought with birthday spending money – Lindt chocolate, Regina Spektor album, Topshop ballet pumps (£5 on sale), H&M metallic pumps (£7 on sale) and necklace (£1)

Hi everyone, hope you are having a brilliant Sunday, I thought I’d quickly do a post to share with you some of the things I did on Friday for my 30th Birthday! Thank you so much for the lovely comments and tweets! I had an amazing day, in fact the whole weekend has been awesome. Without a doubt the best Birthday ever :-) Last night was the big party and it was better than I could have ever imagined, needless to say I’m feeling a bit worse for wear this morning! Right now I just feel so lucky to have such amazing friends and family, I’ll have to sort out a post on the party in the next couple of days, the costumes were great and we put on a delicious buffet too!

After I’ve pulled myself round today its back through to my parents for round three, can’t wait! How has your weekend been? What was your favourite birthday and why?