OOTD: Shades of grey

Outfit:
Grey waterfall coat: Miss Pap*
White shirt: Boohoo (similar)
Black skinny jeans: M&S (similar)
Silver glitter sock boots: ASOS (similar)

Miss Pap got in touch just before Christmas to help me spruce up my winter wardrobe and this coat was one of the things I was very kindly gifted. It's great to help jazz up a simple outfit and I love it paired simply with a crisp white shirt and statement boots. Speaking of boots - how lush are these? They were a surprise Christmas present from my parents and I'm so in love with them. Sparkles are not just for Christmas!

I can't quite believe we're in the third week of January already. I'm now the grand old age of 29! I feel like I've been non stop but I have been kept busy with the best things so I can't complain too much. I had a wine and cheese night as an early birthday celebration with friends, we've been trying to give everything a place (as much as we can) in our new home and I've been excitedly planning our trip to Bordeaux at the end of the month. So far all I really have are restaurants, the wine museum and wine bars - I don't really need much else do I?!

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Four tips on how to style your kitchen shelves

Since I've moved out I've discovered I REALLY like rearranging shelves. I love giving all my useless but pretty trinkets a place and seeing it all come together. A couple of weeks ago my dad very kindly made me some shelves out of scaffold boards with the handmade brackets from eBay for my kitchen. It's probably my favourite corner of the house. Here are some tips on how to style kitchen shelves, in my very humble opinion of course!

Use colour
Originally I wanted to have all my glasses on the shelves but it didn't look right. It was too monotone against the white wall. It really needed some colour to help make it pop. I found that cookbooks are a great option for this as they're naturally colourful. Try not to put too many block colours together and break up any white products.

Store things you need
We've popped our coffee cups and our jar full of coffee pods on the shelf. It makes a lot of sense as the coffee machine is underneath it so we won't have to keep walking to opposite end of the kitchen to use it. You want it too look pretty yet practical. Otherwise what's the point? I did want to put all my grains and pulses on it but it makes much more sense to display these bits and bobs near the cooker.

Put the least used things on top
There's nothing worse if you're a lazy girl like me then having to keep stretching up to the top shelf for the things you use the most. So you'll want to put infrequently used bits on the very top. I decided to put my favourite cookbooks on top as they're something I only dig out at the weekend. The sugar, flour, cups and coffee pods are often used everyday in some capacity.

Improvise with bookends
Need somewhere to put those random decorative pieces you bought because you thought they looked nice? They work great as bookends. I treated myself to this gorgeous copper pineapple ice bucket from Oliver Bona with a birthday voucher from last year. I won't ever use it as an ice bucket but it looks really nice on display, it's pretty heavy to keep books up straight too.

What's on my shelves?

Red retro scales: Wilko (similar), copper pineapple: Oliver Bonas, gold and glass jars: H&M (similar), grey handleless coffee mugs: H&M (similar), Linen small candle: The White Company*,  selection of cookbooks: Amazon, brown glass candle: Earl of East*, swan measuring spoons: birthday gift

Do you have any tips on how to style kitchen shelves?

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Restaurant review: Tandoor Chop House, the Strand, central London

Tandoor Chop House has been on my to-try list since forever. I'm a massive fan of Dishoom and I had heard it was pretty similar. Offering more of a 'street food' Indian food option rather than the bog standard curries you get in a British curry house. I love those curries as much as the next person but I love the more authentic Indian dishes even more.

My birthday proved to be the perfect excuse to try it out and I booked it for lunch on my day off. Hannah and Sarah had been a few weeks before so I already had a good idea of what I was going to order. Tucked down by Trafalgar Square, the menu is meant for sharing so we order four dishes between us. Two mains, two sides and a naan bread.

First up was the House Tandoor Chicken. Devilishly tender, full of flavour and incredibly Moorish, this was my favourite dish. In fact, I can't stop thinking about how juicy the meat was and wishing I could recreate it at home. Now I wouldn't normally opt for a vegetarian main course but I'd heard great things about the whole tandoor roasted cauliflower. Perfectly charred around the edges, it has a drizzle of a coriander chutney, crunchy roasted chickpeas and pomegranate jewels to add a much welcomed sweetness to the dish. The gunpowder fries had a great kick to them and the black dahl was deliciously rich. Whilst the bone marrow naan was cooked well, I feel like it could have had a bit more flavour it it. But it was great dipped into the dahl.

It was well worth the wait to visit Tandoor Chop House. I'd go back in a heartbeat and I'm dying to try everything else on the menu. I just wish we took the plunge and ordered the lamb chops. Next time for sure!

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