Wednesday 17 August 2011

"Don't sweat the small stuff" Richard Carlson

I know that I am guilty of worrying about the minutiae a lot of the time, and sweating the small stuff. I believe that some people would refer me to me as 'anal'. But I'm not particularly keen on that phrase. Generally worrying about minor details is not conducive to a having a nice day, however I have discovered lately, that thinking about small details where a Wedding is concerned is BRILLIANT and makes for a very happy day indeed.

Despite so far, only having put down the deposit for my dress and having nothing else sorted for the wedding, I am really enjoying thinking about all the small details that I'd love to have on the day. Also despite the fact that we will (probably) be designing and making our own stationary, I got in touch with the guys at Austin Press about their beautiful Letterpress Designs. Some people are just too creative.

http://www.austinpress.com/

Yesterday I  also ordered a few things from the States via BHLDN yesterday, my new favorite website which is the Wedding Department of Anthropologie. It has some beautiful dresses, accessories and lots of interesting items for general chucking around the place (table numbers, vases, decorations etc etc). I absolutely could have gone bonkers ordering things from here but I am  having to be very mindful of the cash situation since my pathetic wedding budget projection doubled last week when I received some venue quotes.

http://www.bhldn.com/

http://www.anthropologie.eu/uk/page/home#

Without giving too much away, one of the things I ordered was this biodegradable confetti. I had no idea how much I needed this small thing until I saw it.


Talking of small things, on Saturday night I ate the smallest scallops I've ever seen. Reflecting on them now, I'm not even sure that they were scallops. They could have been fishy broad beans for all I know. They certainly looked like fishy broad beans. The Wig, our two friend's and I visited a BYO 'Pop Up' restaurant in Chapel Market, Islington. I have read a lot about things popping up lately, bars, shops and restaurants but had never been to one. Also, I wasnt really sure what one was, until Saturday.

The 'pop up' restaurant we went to is called Bonnie + The Wild and it is based in a Grade II listed building that houses a Traditional Pie + Mash shop (M. Manze). The Pie and Mash shop is closed on Friday and Saturday nights so Bonnie + The Wild move in and use the premises. What a great idea! Bonnie + The Wild refer to them selves as a 'part time restaurant rather than a pop up' but I think they are just splitting hairs.





The setting was great, although the seats were a bit hard and narrow for my wide arse, and the company was excellent, the only thing that was a little disappointing was the food unfortunately. It cost £29 for 3 courses which would have been good value had the portions not been so mingey.

For starters we shared Crab on Toast (too much toast, not enough crab) and Wood Pigeon and Black Pudding on Rocket. The pigeon was delicious and probably the best option from the entire menu. The mains were a Gurnard with Scallops (I've seen bigger Guppies than the Gurnard and the Scallops, don't get me started on those) and Venison. Sides were £3.50 each and we shared Chunky Chips (rather pale and not chunky enough according to one of our party) and Courgette slices (fine).  Finally, the third course was very inconsistent. on the one hand the Chocolate Tart  with Raspberry Coulis was huge but on the other hand, the cheese board was almost invisible. I've seen bigger cheese portions on a Chiropadist's foot file. (Rather annoyingly it was too dark to take any photos of the food but I did manage to get a snap of the complimentary bread and oil).


In conclusion, it was a great night with great company, the venue was great, the staff were great but the food was a slight let down. Its definitely worth a visit, although you will probably need to book fairly far in advance and I am going to score Bonnie + The Wild 7 broad beans out of a possible 10.

Finally, as we were leaving Islington to go home we spotted this awesome car in the car park.  I'm not really into cars and I loathe Top Gear with a passion but even I can appreciate this is a pretty special set of wheels. I would love to know who it belonged to.





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