Kyoto Kitchen Winchester

Posted on April 17, 2014 by Sarah Bacchus

Kyoto Kitchen is one of the best places to eat in Winchester. The staff are wonderful, attentive and they make you feel like you are the most important people to ever eat at this incredible Japanese restaurant.

The sushi, maki and sashimi are fabulous especially the tuna with poppy seeds, they will make you think you are in heaven. Every morsel will melt in your mouth and you will be pleasantly surprised, if you have never eaten raw fish or sushi before, you will be hooked. The scallops are always the main event for us as they are so jaw droopingly amazing, you will revel in the memories of their succulent and delicate taste for weeks on end after you have visited.

In actual fact the miso soup is on another level, you would be hard pushed to find anywhere that could possibly compare to this astonishing array of dishes. You will be blown away by the service and the food.

We ordered a few dishes, Tuna crusted with poppy seeds, Miso soup, Edamame beens, plain steamed rice and the chefs sashimi selection, washed down with a nice glass of merlot, a sensible glass of water and a tasty drop of mango juice.

This face was a picture….oooh just look at all that delicious, tasty and amazingly well presented platters. I was more than happy to dive in and savour every mouthful.

The flavours will send shivers down your spine and you will feel like an extra on master chef…Its that good!!

Every mouthful of every meal I have ever had there has been exquisite. The decor is tranquil, serene and beautiful, the staff are wonderful and the whole experience will make you want to take all your friends along for a festival of a feast.

We thoroughly recommend this fabulous restaurant!

Book a table now!

70 Parchment Street | Winchester
Hampshire | SO23 8AT
Tel. 01962 890895 | info@kyotokitchen.co.uk

For more info on places to visit, tons of Winchester delights and loads of fabulous fashion advice visit www.slbstyle.com and Tweet Sarah @sarahbacchus

Winchester Street Style

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Sarah Bacchus

Fashion design really starts with street style. Everyday people out and about have no idea they could be the inspiration for the next big trend in fashion and style. Getting spotted doesn’t necessarily mean being featured on a runway or being asked to model for the latest campaign. Designers are constantly looking at everyday life for their next collections visual muse.

We decided to hit the streets of Winchester to see all the fabulous fashion that it had to offer. Winchester is becoming very well know for its Fashion Week. The last one was at the beginning of April and was a huge success. It is now a key date in the calendar in the South East. Also one of the most talked-about fashion events outside of London.

Seeing that the city is steeped in history and it used to be the former capital of England it needed some real fashion savvy reporting. So with this is mind and a camera in hand it was high time to snap away, not the models…No we wanted to see the real people of this beautiful city. The people that are more commonly known as Wintonians.

This rather fabulous lady was elegantly gliding her way down the High Street, we just had to stop her for a snap. Totally fabulous in every way possible.Casual and so very polished. Matching accessories even when dressing down. Casual outfits done to perfection. Real understated style and oh so preppy. Red trousers are the essential style statement to any truly fabulous man’s wardrobe. Those shoes below…the most stylish looking lady. Cool, trendy and radiant from head to foot.We are loving the distressed jeans.We took a scenic wander around the Cathedral and spotted cool, stylish and effortless fashion everywhere.Fun, young and confident style was found in bucket loads too! Even the fashionable dogs in winchester have stylish owners!

Colourful accessories are not just about a vibrant scarf and cute shoes. This young lady below was strutting her flamboyant, dazzling and beautiful self along the street and we jumped at the chance to picture her. We have to say Winchester you are spectacular in every way possible!

For more style and fashion form Sarah head over to www.slbstyle.com and follow her on Twitter @sarahbacchus

Tan Organic

Posted on April 15, 2014 by Sarah Bacchus

Are you loving being on the pale side at present, embracing the lighter side of life. Not being one for sunning yourself and do you wear factor 50 all year round. Like many you may have found our skin is so much plumper and heathy looking without the Summer sun damage.

So when we do want a little bit of a glow what should we reach for. Well here is a tremendous tanning lotion called TanOrganic Self Tanning Oil.

This Eco certified oil is ultra moisturising and perfectly subtle, you will look astonishingly sun kissed in a very natural way. It contains 8% DHA so this basically means its fairly light and perfect for the face and body. It was voted the best facial tan in 2013 so you can’t really get better than that now can you.

It will last about 4 days on well looked after skin thats been exfoliated and cleansed prior to application. You can focus on your legs to give them a little hint of colour and gradually build on layer by layer. It will last very well and didn’t fade in patches either.

They state you don’t need to apply it with a mitt so I was understandably a little dubious about this…I did 1/2 with a tan mitt and the rest with my bare hands. Just remembering to wash my hands afterwards! I don’t know what on earth I was worried about. No staining and no clothing was harmed during this trial either!

It glided on and made my skin feel very hydrated. It left a nice citrus fragrance behind that I loved as most of my perfumes I am wearing at the moment have citrus undertones. Citrus works so well with all scents, you can’t really go wrong. The oil vanished almost instantly and felt fairly dry to the touch so its a good idea to moisturise your skin a little before you apply it.

The bottle has a little dropper in the top to help with application and spillage issues…I’m a clumsy one so this was a god send!!

Application is recommended every 2-3 days to keep a nice glow and you can re apply it after 6-8 hours to intensify the shade. I loved the little bit of colour this gave me and I was astonished at how little you need to give a nice even, blended and perfect cover of colour. Now I used to teach students to do professional tans and I have to say this is a really easy home tan.

Sunbeds are so bad for you and I think they should be banned. Tan Organic is the Worlds first and only Eco Certified Self Tanning brand and I am loving it. With 64% of what we apply to our skin getting absorbed into our bloodstream, I am never using products that are not certified ever again. Hey ladies if this tan can be applied while your pregnant, yes pregnant then thats incredible!

This is going to be in my bathroom cabinet for a long time!This was a PR sample but I have fallen in love with it. I only share what I love here with you guys. So if I don’t love it you won’t get to read about it. I know tons of you like to hear the bad things, but I feel its way more beneficial to not mention bad products. This is a great product…off to top up right now!

Follow Tan Organic on Twitter @TanOrganic for more from myself Sarah please follow me on Twitter too!! My main website is slbstyle.com go say Hi there too. xxx

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.

Follow Sarah on Twitter here for more updates. www.slbstyle.com

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

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