Ocean Drive Living Winchester

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Sarah Bacchus

Ocean Drive Living is a fabulous haven for beautiful, fresh and contemporary items for your entire world. From house to garden with kitchen, dining and entertaining being the main focus. Think style and you have it here in a nutshell. The shop has stunning textiles pilled all around, glorious cushions that will have you bedside yourself with joy. You won’t be able to resist a purchase I am sure.

Ocean Drive Living Dog lovers will smile at the array of cute tea towels and fun offerings. Mugs, jugs and all sorts of fun, amazing and very practical gadgets are on display. Its a perfect place to pick up a truly amazing gift for someone special.Stunning non drip candles….Yep non drip candles you heard right, and the designer wooden sunglasses have to be our favourite items we discovered.

Instantly you feel carried away on a holiday to the Caribbean and at the same time the beauty of the New Forest seeps through. Winchester couldn’t ask for a more tremendous, sophisticated and oh so à la mode new lifestyle shop. Its distinctly New England but has a touch of warmth throughout the entire well merchandised household boutique. This is interior design at its best.

Handpicked and ravishing accessories for you, your home and your garden are just a hop skip and jump away if you live in Hampshire. Ocean Drive Living only stock the top brands such as Skagerak, Culinary Concepts and By Nord blend with up and coming names such as Fenella Smith, Lily Matthews, Finnsdottir and Scantilla.

One place to defiantly visit if you are craving that perfect clean, fresh and opulent lifestyle you have always dreamt of.

Ocean Drive Living, 71 Parchment Street, Winchester, SO23 8AT. Tel: 01962 864 111 Follow them on Twitter @ODLWinchester or Instargram Ocean Drive Living

For more from Sarah Bacchus visit www.slbstyle.com and follow her on Twitter @sarahbacchus

Easy Lentil Soup

Posted on April 11, 2014 by Sarah Bacchus

Lentil soup has to be the best thing since sliced white bread with lashings of butter and sprinkled with fresh ground black pepper with a hint of rosemary to make it pop. This is really healthy, really simple and tastes wonderful. If you are looking for simple meals to cook for one just reduce the ingredients. This recipe will feed about 3-4 adults with some left over for the next day. It can also be frozen and reheated very quickly. Perfect for students looking for meals on a budget, or for a very quick supper when the larder is low!!

So very easy to do, this one pot magic takes about 25 minutes of chopping and cooking and eating time.
You will need

3 large carrots chopped into small chunks
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 cup of lentils
1 onion chopped up
3 celery stalks sliced thinly
3 spring onions sliced up
3 garlic cloves
salt & pepper
3 sprigs of rosemary finely chopped up
2 pints of water

Chop up the onions and lightly fry with the finely chopped rosemary and add the crushed garlic just before you add all the other ingredients so not to burn the garlic. Then bring to the boil for about 15-18 minutes. Or until the carrots are cooked though.Using a hand blender thin out the soup. Make sure most of the large lumps of carrot are blended and simply serve with crusty bread and garnish with a little rosemary.

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Molly’s Den Hampshire

Posted on April 9, 2014 by Sarah Bacchus

If you live in Hampshire you are in for a treat of the enormous kind. We where invited to visit Molly’s Den and its grand opening recently. Molly’s Den is a new vintage and antique warehouse in New Milton, I for one jumped at the chance to find some goodies.

We got in the Nissan Figaro and sped off on the hour trip to New Milton via the new forest. It was a perfect little adventure for such a horrid drizzly day. Traveling in a perfect retro car for a retro day out!
We arrived at lunch time and it was alive with swarms of people looking around the 250 little vintage booths. Packed with pretty, unusual and quaint items. Some had handmade upcycled children’s clothing, some had jewellery and others had beautiful vintage furniture but all where a feast for the eyes. Everywhere you looked you saw an abundance of classic and distinctive items. From vintage picnic hampers to blue and white Willow china sets, individual lost and lonely items longing for new homes will catch your eye. Each and every unit had an array of wonderful prime items.Now this I believe wasn’t the oldest item in the place but made us have a giggle. The Yoda Throne was a little dazzling and we dare you not to want a perch your bottom on this little number.Wearing my upcycled Celine shirt, Zara necklace, VERO MODA Women’s Skinny Fit Jeans Ben Sherman trench coat and Pretty Ballerinas Womens 35663 IPNOTIC NEGRO Ballet Flats with an oversized tan leather bag.

This was stunning and made us gasp…”oooh that would look amazing in a bedroom reupholstered in a stunning fabric. Check one of our restyled finds here is a link to give you some inspiration.
We where torn between these two!!! Yep an actual boat in the warehouse all ready to be taken home and loved… Lifejackets anyone!!
If you don’t fancy the large boat, how about this one? You would need a big bath for that!! Now how we didn’t take this home is beyond us. We blame moving to London soon and having to think about not knowing where we are moving to. It would look good in our office or studio though, but it broke our hearts to have to leave it behind. They do deliver so if you find something that particularly takes your eye you can rest assured it can be carefully sent to where you need it.

Molly’s Den has really thought of everything. Dogs welcome….ample parking, coaches by appointment, tea rooms, open 7 days a week and the best thing is they have a play bus for the kids. So Mum’s and Dad’s you can browse at your leisure knowing the kids are not getting bored or more importantly they are not running around breaking valuables.On our way out we spotted this little baby…she would have come home with us if she’d been an electric version. We know they can be converted but we are after a beautify restored and serviced Singer sewing machine 201K for photo shoots and to have in the studio. With heavy hearts leaving 2 beautiful things behind we traveled home in the rain after a fab afternoon.We could have spent all day pottering about visualising fun tea parities, beautiful picnics and times gone by.

Its a great day out for all the family with Gardenware, plants, stoneware, fun and fantastic items everywhere you look!! Its a must if you live in Hampshire thats for sure.

Molly’s Den is situated at 5-7 Queensway, Stem Lane, New Milton. BH25 5NN they also have another one at Unit 9 11-15 Francis Ave, Bournemouth. BH11 8NX Tel: 02037338100

Email hello@mollys-den.co.uk or pop over to Twitter and say hello!

For more from SLB Style hop over their site here and follow Sarah on Twitter here.

Body Shape 101

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Sarah Bacchus

Now to get the most out of any wardrobe or any shopping experience you need to know what body shape you fall under and understand some very simple rules. Following on from my DIY Style Capsule Wardrobe from last week here are the key elements of shape for the 5 main body types and how you can dress to enhance, conceal and fake the perfect silhouette.

Their are 5 basic shapes the Pear, Inverted triangle, Rectangle, Hourglass and Apple with the Hourglass being the most desired. Or the most balanced shape that every stylist will tell you is the shape you need to aim for or fake if you can.

The Pear has a tiny top half with a heavier bottom and thicker legs. Loose fluid trousers and long maxi skirts should be sort after, an empire line dress works wonders for the pear and dive into the belt section to really accentuate that tiny waist. Avoid puff selves and skinny jeans at all costs. You will just be adding on the pounds and not realising it. Skirt lengths need to kept below the calf too. If you are searching for the perfect shape then you need to be careful that the hem falls around the thinnest part of the leg, or just where it starts to become thicker. Hems that stop at the thickest part of the thigh or calf are a huge No No! For any shape for that matter!!

The Inverted Triangle has a larger torso and arms with slim legs. Stay away from the puff selves ladies. You will be bigger busted too so it’s a good idea to avoid polo necks. This will just make your bobbies look 10 times bigger. V necks are perfect for you. Long necklaces to draw the eyes down in nice lines. Slightly fitted crisp shirts over pale coloured jeans with darker colours always on the top to balance the figure out. Avoid at all costs the dreaded large patterned tops and pale jackets. You will need to find fab tailored jackets with no shoulder pads, or take them out! Then wear skinny jeans and flat pumps to create your chic silhouette.

I’m a Rectangle i.e. the Banana and that basically means I am straight up and down with a slightly thicker middle. Now this shape is harder to dress than you would think. We need to be very careful we don’t accentuate our middles too much as we could look a little lumpy! We have slim arms and slim legs so skirts that fall around the midi calf length will make our legs look like they go on forever and a day. We can wear minis in abundance but not too short! When thrift store shopping we need to look out for dresses that can be shortened and have a slightly gathered waist to create the impression of curves. Flared skirts, jeans and trousers will make the waist look slimmer but avoid thick waist belts. This will only enhance the bigger waist. Darker colours should be worn near the mid section and large statement necklaces to bring the eyes away from the waist. This in turn will also give the impression of a larger bust, thus balancing out the shape.

Now the Hourglass has a tiny waist, perfect curves in all the right places. Some hate their larger bottom but all you need to do is find Aline skirts, or fuller 50s style items. Little cropped jackets that nip in at the waist. Belts of all descriptions are perfect for you. Master the are of the dart on your sewing machine and you will be able to create an abundance of stunning outfits. Avoid the tube mini skirts and baggy unfitted jackets as all this will do is make you look disproportioned.

Brightly coloured fabrics and draping looks sensational on the Hourglass. Just think Jessica Rabbit!

The Apple body shape has slim arms and legs with a more rounded tummy. Slim trousers with no pleating is needed here and stay away from the double breasted jackets. Opt for clean long lines down the centre of the torso avoiding belts around the middle as this will enhance what should be concealed. With the Apple it’s important not to try too hard to fake the hourglass figure as all you will do is bring attention to your larger waist. Pay more attention you your lovely slim legs and arms. Wear long necklaces that draw the eye downwards. Just think nice long lines. Keep jackets longer and always keep them open to create the illusion of a slim figure. Long line Waistcoats are a must so search for single breasted jackets that the arms can be removed.

Fashion is fun and sometimes the rules are there to be broken so if you see something you like just try it. If it works then that’s amazing, if not think about adapting it. If you can’t do the DIY Styling yourself then find a seamstress that can. Most dry cleaners offer an alteration service, but just keep in mind things can fairly easily be made smaller. Not so easily made bigger.

Happy DIY Styling ladies and for more styling looks and DIY advice hop on over to SLB Style or follow Sarah on Twitter here.

*google images

The Capsule Wardrobe

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Sarah Bacchus

I have worked with amazing stylists and many you will be familiar with, one in particular was Nicky Hambleton-Jones of 10 Years Younger. All the stylist at NHJ Style are taught to carefully look at the clients wardrobe and break it down into sections.

The only way you will get the wardrobe you have always wanted is to do the same.

The Capsule Wardrobe is one phrase you must have heard of? If not its basically the main items everyone needs and should have to hand.Like a black biker jacket, a well fitting pair of jeans, black court shoes, a pencil skirt and a beautiful white fitted shirt. Along with an essential little dress for those nights out. All of these can be worked with in multiple ways.

A really good sort through of the things you own. You might feel inspired or the you feel a little flat. Either way you need to do this every few years.

I tend to advise my clients that any unworn items just hanging in the closset that haven’t been worn for more than 2 or 3 seasons need to either be revamped, refitted, sold or donated to a charity shop. There is a reason they haven’t have the pleasure of being worn by your beautiful self.Go through your wardrobe and anything that doesn’t fit either give away or have altered. If it makes you feel good for a particular reason then keep it as long as you know you will wear them again.

Sort out the clothing into 3 piles. The first pile should be clothing you love that makes you feel good and fits well. The second is for items you are not sure about that may need reworking or altering and the third pile will be for items you need to throw away, donate or even burn!! Now decide what suits you and what needs to change.

Fashion and style changes so chances are that you are holding onto unattractive and misshaped items, that could do with a bit of TLC. Now look at what you have left and decide if they work.

Time to make a list of what’s missing and what you would like to add.

Here is a list of what I think are the essentials for every wardrobe.

Leather biker jacket
Classic Pea coat
Navy trench Coat
Fitted Black Blazer
White and black well fitting, good quality T-shirts
Breton top or stripy top
Black and white Vest tops
Black Pencil skirt
Leather shorts or leather mini skirt
Cream or white shorts
Black Maxi Skirt
White Jeans
Fitted white shirt
Oversized jumper or Boyfriend cardigan
A well fitting pair of jeans
Cut of denim shorts
Perfect LBD
Black and nude ballet flats (French soles are perfect)
Black court shoe
Ankle boots
Fedora hat
A classic Scarf
Sunglasses
Waist belt
Patent clutch
Statement necklace
Everyday handbag
Red lipstick

Now Sort out and arrange your wardrobe so it’s really easy to find the things you are looking for. Almost merchandise it too, by this is mean colour coordinate it into sections. Place outfits that work well together and have things at hand like shoes in clear boxes to make your mornings easier. A little bit of preparation will go a long way.Now all you need to do is fill the gaps in the wardrobe with good quality items. Always quality over quantity.

Check out Vintage or thrift stores for classic items that have been well made, then have them altered as these will be far superior in quality…they don’t make them like they used to!For more Style and DIY Style advice visit SLB Style for more information and follow Sarah on Twitter @sarahbacchus

MyLash by Sarah Bacchus

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Sarah Bacchus

Hello everyone I’m one of the new writers for frost magazine and I wanted to share with all of you the most amazing product ever. Its literally changed my life and it could change yours. It will boost your confidence and make you feel truly beautiful.

Now I had the shortest lashes on the planet and trying to find a mascara that actually works in aiding my pain has been a life long ambition, Every singe new mascara or lash fibre product that comes out I rush out and purchase in the hope that this one will give me lashes I have always wanted. Sadly all this has done has made my wallet lighter and a little more disappointed every time. Until now… MyLash is a prescription only product that is a miracle in a little bottle. I called the company and they kindly sent me a bottle to review! So this is kind of a sponsored post that’s turned into the love of my life product I can’t live without!

I am going to share with you my lash journey from day one right though to the 12 week period that they suggest you use daily at night time for the best results and after that use every 2 days to have lasting effects. This product is not cheap and I was kindly sent a sample to try. I can tell you Im so impressed already and I think this has to be one of the best beauty products ever developed. So ladies here are the pictures of my lashes from week 1 to week 12.

The active Ingredients of this product is bimatoprost which is a prostamide agonist. This means that it activates receptors of hair growth cycle. Using this product you increase the positive signals to the hair cycle and in turn increasing the rate of growth.

Here you see my original lashes…totally dreadful. you can see they are short and stumpy. I have never had long luscious lashes like I longed for. I never thought I would until a little product came into my life called MyLash

This was week 4 above and Im seeing great results

Week 7

Can you imagine my excitement and happiness at week 7!! They are amazing…. Outstanding visible results. Pictured here with just one coat of mascara.

MyLash week 12 with one coat of mascara

AMAZING!!!!!! I am so happy. This product works. Hands down. Proof is in my pictures. No other product has ever helped me.

Here is how to apply your MyLash

Choose a time of day to apply your treatment. Most people apply Mylash at night before they go to bed. This allows them to integrate Mylash into their daily routine. Try to apply Mylash at the same time every day. Remove all of your makeup by cleaning the area. If you use any makeup remover then wait until this has dried before proceeding.
Take an applicator and apply the smallest amount of fluid possible to the tip. The product is very potent and a small amount is all that is needed. Applying a large amount each time or applying it more than once a day will not give you better results – it will just make you run out quicker!
The best way to transfer a small amount from the bottle to the applicator is to hold the bottle upside down or at a downwards angle. This will cause a droplet to appear at the nozzle without having to squeeze the bottle. Take an applicator and touch the tip onto the droplet. This will cause a small amount of fluid to transfer to the applicator. This will be enough to do one complete lash line.
Apply the liquid to the skin at the base of the eyelashes, moving from one end of the lash line to the other.
Most people apply the treatment to the top and bottom lash line, giving a total of 4 transfers of fluid from the bottle to the applicator.
Many people find that the bottom lash line doesn’t need as much fluid to cover the complete line and use the excess on any points on their eyebrow that they wish to thicken

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pD9I3oJYDM?feature=oembed]

Don’t apply the product more often than once a day. You will not achieve better results and the growth will not be faster.

Have patience – the growth cycle for an eyelash hair is between 12 to 16 weeks so the best results can take months. The first results will be visible within 4 to 6 weeks but persistence is the key to the best results.

Most people find that one bottle will last 3 to 4 months. After 4 months, when the eyelash hair cycle is complete, you can drop down to applying the product every second day. This will maintain your eyelashes at their peak length and make all subsequent bottles last longer.

Take a picture of your eyelashes before you start and after your third month – you will be delighted with the results.

* If you ever run low on applicators then they will send you more free of charge.

Here is the link to the consultation page

Totally worth the money at around £100, its not the cheapest way to get amazing lashes but its by far the best! Im hooked. One bottle should last the 3/4 months initial growth period and then you would only need to purchase 2 bottles a year thereafter. I bet I have spent much more on silly expensive branded mascaras that don’t do a thing!

For more articles form myself you can visit my website SLB Style.com and you can follow me here on Twitter @sarahbacchus

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