These photos were taken on our break to Scotland last week, which was a much needed detox from the stresses and strains of London life. Both of us have been very busy balancing work with work, with a little bit of play sprinkled on the top. We were exhausted, and arrived happily at the beach with Lopez for an evening stroll. I thought these pictures of pure bliss were the perfect backdrop to a recent new discovery...


A few months ago I was asked to go and review a Chinese Medicine practitioner. I was dubious. Having really been put through it the last few years health wise, I had visions of someone trying to encourage me to look at the stars whilst chewing monkey genitalia and chanting. I really didn't think it would help me in any way whatsoever. How wrong I was.

Firstly, when Katie opened the door I was pretty surprised. Wash away all preconceptions of the type of person you'd expect to do this kind of thing - Katie is the type of person you'd want to know where she gets her blow dries as much as you would want information about health and wellbeing. Her own journey to Chinese Medicine is a fascinating one, and more importantly to me, entirely logical. She watched western medicine continuously fail those around her and looked for alternatives.

In simple form, the Chinese believe that every human has a unique balance in their body controlled by 5 core organs; liver, lungs, digestive system, heart and kidneys (note that the brain isn't one of them...) and that your balance is set based on when you were born - down to the time of day and position of the moon. It does make sense - if you think that the moon controls the tides of the world's oceans we'd be ignorant not to consider it has some pull over our bodies too, no?

When I saw Katie I was in the thick of a frustrating process with our health system. Having had a cocktail of digestive issues, the NHS was really struggling to know what to do with me - despite having seen the top people in 3 departments across 3 hospitals. Katie instantly gave me a perspective on my health history that had never been thought of before - connecting my brittle asthma to my tumour in a simple and matter of fact fashion that left me feeling somewhat daft to not have considered it before. In a weird way despite still feeling sickly it gave me a huge sense of calm - feeling like I knew what was going on. As Katie says "sometimes a diagnosis is half the cure."

There are years worth of books on Chinese Medicine, but Katie vehemently believes that simple yoga-like practices each day can ward off the majority of illnesses. Stress causes a huge % of  health problems, and so making an effort to calm and relax the mind and body each day can make the world of difference. Two months in, I'm hastened to agree. Katie has just launched Hayo'U as a way for people to benefit from her 1 minute methods online. Take a look at them here.

If you (like me) are a bit of a sceptic, I challenge you not to feel the benefits after a week. After a month, despite still being stuck in "emergency waiting lists" through the NHS, the Hayo'U practises are massively helping me stream a balance between feeling unwell and managing to work, and play. I really do recommend you take a look, full information here.

I'm taking you back to Italy in this post - have been itching to put this content up for weeks! Whilst we were visiting the Amalfi Coast one hotel kept on being mentioned - Hotel Caruso. When availability came up for a night we literally rearranged our holiday plans to make the visit, and were not disappointed to do so AT all.

I mean, you only need to look here to see how unique and incredible this hotel is - give me another place in the world with a view like that? We arrived and went straight for a dip (how could you not) before enjoying a bottle of bubbles in the room overlooking the very same view - here is a picture.

It's very much a boutique hotel, so even when at full capacity (which it invariably is, unsurprisingly) it doesn't feel crowded and guests have their own patches of grass by the pool overlooking the view and right by the extremely relaxed bar. In the evenings you can dine inside the hotel or at the incredible Belvedere restaurant - we did this and were blown away with the quality of the food, service and, of course, the views.

When you're somewhere as special as this, you need to dress for the occasion. I got this Zimmermann dress a couple of weeks before the trip and was dying to wear it. I'm not usually a girly girl, as a kid I was the one with the mullet hair cut wearing blue and playing with my train set and Lego, but this really brought out an inner princess I didn't know I had. It's so comfortable, the cut out is in just the right place so I felt amazing in it... If you make one special purchase this summer, let it be this (totally get its expensive so put a couple of similar high street ones at the base of this post).

The shoes you've seen before and thats because I live in them. Such a brilliant purchase. Look designer, cost nothing. I could run around all day in them too...They're from Mango here, but look like absolute copies of the Chloe ones here. They're now even cheaper than when I bought them - £12.99, do it (I'm itching for the black ones, here)!

I really cannot recommend the hotel enough, it was a highlight of our trip. From start to finish it was absolute perfection. Our room was gorgeous, the bathroom was the size of my flat (we spent hours in the tub drinking champagne watching Entourage #thuglifechoseme) and little finishing touches like chocolates on your pillow before bed really make it the luxurious stay you'd want...

As part of the #makeitpop4 campaign with Alcatel (check it out on Instagram here) I was asked to go and explore Berlin for 48 hours. Having visited the city on business before - so only getting a glimpse of what was to be seen - I was so keen to go back and jumped at the chance. Dragging Emma along for the ride, we caught a very early morning flight with Norwegian (they have wifi on board, perfect for trip planning) and landed in Germany in time for breakfast on Monday morning.

Berlin is a city so rich in history and culture it's difficult to know where to start. We decided that we'd concentrate on two districts, Kollwitzkiez and Mitte, and really mine them for all they had. Having inhaled our avocado and eggs at Soho House (we're bloggers, what else do we eat for breakfast!?) we decided to hit Mitte first, as it's so great for shopping and we had a fix that needed, errr, fixing.

Mitte has a unique offering for shopping that I really don't think you get anywhere else. There are several really strong independent boutiques that are genuinely a joy to spend time in. The pieces and designers the store owners find are incredible. Using my phone (the POP 4, obviously) as our guide, we found all the shops we were looking for really quickly - we'd been recommended Rebecca, The Store, Isobel Gowdie and April First and were not disappointed.

I bought a few things (oops), discovering labels like Leon and Harper as well as getting my fix of Maison La Biche with an exclusive tee from a collaboration with Alex Eagle, here. We also strolled into stores you'd find in the UK like And Other Stories and Urban Outfitters - which seem so much better stocked than at home - finding bargains like this gorgeous bag for the equivalent of £12.

Food wise, Berlin has so much to offer and really needs more credit for the surplus of cool bars and outdoor settings for you to grab a bite. We stumbled upon an incredible burger place, but in truth if you stick around streets like Linienstrasse and Alte Schonhauser Strasse you really cannot go wrong.

In the evening we stuck to Soho House so we could catch up on emails and enjoy the rooftop view. New for the hotel, it also has an infinity pool looking over the city with brilliant views of the major monuments like the Reichstag. Bose Museum and the infamous Fernsehturm (essentially like our BT Tower in London, but better).

The next morning Emma got me up bright an early promising a day of graffiti exploration and book trees. Street art really cannot be ignored in Berlin as it's absolutely everywhere. I wish I'd done more research as you could spend days on the hunt for the famous artists' work - we tried to find the Banksys and failed miserably... That said we did discover some amazing work by artists like Dede and C215. Even if you aren't into art as such, I challenge you not to enjoy going on a bit of a bear hunt for the stand-out pieces.

All in all, you just have to go to Berlin. I'm already planning my next trip back - it was that good. We didn't touch on the historical elements of the city which I'd really like to do; the older buildings in the centre of the city and by the river look absolutely incredible, and locations like Checkpoint Charlie are very much on my bucket list...

I used the POP 4 for the whole trip - it was fantastic - everything from the camera (super strong, especially in the midday sun) to the maps and planning options made it the perfect city break partner... Please don't forget that anyone who buys the POP4 handset this summer gets return flights to one of nine cities in Europe, so if you're looking for an excuse to get away to have a break like this this could be your answer. Discover more here. 

Outfit Details
white t shirt, Alex Eagle x The Stores / striped tee shirt, Boden / jeans, Topshop / denim jean shorts, Topshop / white sandals, Birkenstock / blue jumper, LK Bennett London / tortoiseshell sunglasses, Fendi / red sunglasses, Gucci 

As most of you know I've recently moved house, back to the north side of the river in Hampstead. We spent a long time looking for our new home and had this one not come up I think we might have given up after a couple of real disappointments. The flat isn't very big so we have to be incredibly creative with the space, and when La Redoute got in touch to ask how we'd furnish a dining/study room it came at the perfect time...

If you're anything like me the brand La Redoute reminds me of good old fashioned French catalogue shopping. I had absolutely no idea they did homeware, even if I have since discovered that friend's amazing interiors are made up of pieces from them. I am determined not to have any Ikea in the house (one sneaky shelving unit has made it's way in, but it's days are numbered) and wanted proper furniture without the mammoth price tag. For that, La Redoute is absolutely perfect.

We wanted to keep the room light and airy and have furniture that worked for me to use an office and for entertaining (ourselves and groups!). The table and bench combination work really well as the bench can be stored underneath for space, and also comfortably sits 2/3 people (or often in our case, 2 and a dog). I love the white metal legs, and whole thing has a really cool industrial vibe which perfectly fits our home...

We picked two extra "normal" chairs as benches don't work for everybody and they're handy to have around the home. I'd had my eye on these for ages, they're such a classic style. The floors are already a lovely natural wood but we wanted something soft to walk about on. The boy picked out this rug which initiatively I wasn't all that keen on, but when it arrived I fell in love with it - the simple pattern is a really nice addition.

But the big thing for us, like so many people, is storage. We needed cupboards to keep the surplus crockery from the kitchen and my necessarily large candle collection. Traditional cupboards can look bulky and take up a lot of room so we went with these wire mesh containers as you can see into them creating an illusion of space (I also snuck a copper one in, here).

Accessories wise, I've tried to keep it light with pops of colour - my Tom Ford perfumes look great in my (meant for a bathroom) ceramic holder and Percy the polar bear is loving his new life on the window sill. Lots of you ask about my laptop cover; it's from Etsy here and after a year is still going strong...

We snapped these photos early this morning, apologies for the lack of make up and wet hair. It sums up the start to our weekends quite nicely. As a blogger, weekends are the perfect time to organise ourselves and sort out some content, so I usually start going through emails and sorting my calendar before Lopez gets up for a cuddle. 

Lastly, my dress is from Millie Mackintosh, lots of you probably already know of it as everyone was trying to get their hands on one last month - it's just come out as a mini dress here and also as the same maxi in blue here. Hurry up if I were you....