Life Style

Cinnamon buns are a Fika favourite in Scandinavia, and are fast becoming a close contender for most popular bake after banana bread here. However, if you've not yet honed your skills in making the winter treat yourself, why not take one of the Hampton Manor Bakery’s workshops. Those who attend will get to make dough and cinnamon butter from scratch and they leave with a copy of the recipe. Workshops at the bakery, which has been a favourite since it opened its doors in 2020, are running through to the end of March. Source link

When I first began to register Stanley cups and their kin, I thought they were a distinctly lower-end-of-Gen-Z thing. My 22-year-old friend, who we all call “baby”, has one, which seemed fitting. But then the other day, in this very adult office, I noticed not one but two co-workers sporting the grown-up equivalent of a sippy cup. In the boardroom! Now I see them everywhere. Fully grown men and women chain them to their hands with wrist strap add-ons, the kind you’d typically reserve for a £600 iPhone or an unruly Wii remote, lest you break your £1,000 TV screen. They sip on them constantly, in a display of oral dependency so barefaced it would drive Sigmund Freud buckwild. Source link

In the shadow of regal 16th-century country house Avington Park, a new collection of lakeside lodgings – Avington Lakes – will open in early 2024. The eclectic mix of romantic shepherd’s huts, lakeside cottages and multi-bedroom retreats will be catered with daily breakfast, lunch and dinner hampers; that is, if you don’t fancy strolling to the estate’s own village pub or shop. A new cafe and spa, opening at Easter, will join an activities line-up including fishing, electric biking and clay pigeon shooting. Source link

In adorable Lunar New Year news, for its latest Friends of Fendi series the Italian superbrand has partnered with Hiroshi Fujiwara for a Pokémon-infused collection. Find his playful dragon-type motif scattered whimsically across jacquard FF logo accessories, silk scarves and other sweet ephemera. ‘I first met Hiroshi Fujiwara in London in 1999 — and what can I say? He’s one of my idols and I love him,’ said Fendi artistic director Kim Jones. ‘He’s an instigator of the Japanese club scene, its youth fashion scene and its streetwear scene. I have been in love with Japan for a long time; its influence on me and what I do is huge — Hiroshi is a major part of that.’ You’ll find the collection in a month-long pop-up at Selfridges too, complete with a giant dragon character for good luck and Inst...

These are all squint-inducing prices, sure, but it is doesn't even touch on the collectables. On Farfetch, a pair of Air Yeezy "Net" sneakers are listed for £16,090; the Jordan x Dior Air Jordan 1 Retro High sneakers for £13,123 and Louis Vuitton Air Force 1 Mid "Virgil Abloh - White/White" shoes for £11,100. Last year at a Sotheby's auction, Michael Jordan’s 1998 NBA Finals ‘Bred’ Air Jordan 13 pair sold for a record breaking $2.2 million. All makes Affleck look like a bit of a bargain hunter. Source link

The following day, at Wales Bonner — the brand by British designer Grace Wales Bonner, who is the brain behind the sell out adidas Originals collaborations — sent Timberlands out studded, peeking under baggy slacks. In London last season rapper Skepta, who founded fashion brand Mains in 2017, championed the boots, making a bespoke navy pair “which we styled really undone, laces loose with a little white sock in them — so it looked like you had just chucked them on,” says Jessica Skeete-Cross, ES Magazine's Style Director, who worked on the show. Source link

In aid of its message that the brand is for every body, it's also released highly successful ensemble campaigns spanning generations. Most recently, Hari Nef, Kim Cattrall, Coco Jones, and Nelly Furtado were shot for a video directed by Vanessa Beecroft. In 2022 there was the Icons campaign starring supermodels Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Candice Swanepoel, as well as Kim herself as a last minute addition ("It was too iconic" not to, she said). Source link

Anyway, my point is January in a noisy, wet and expensive city like ours can feel bleak. People are short-fusing, prices are spiralling, daylight is fleeting — we can’t even have a New Year clear-out on eBay without HMRC coming for us. There’s enough doom and gloom, so we decided to compile a list of 124 Reasons to be Cheerful about 2024. Like what? I hear you moan. Well, for starters: Yoko Ono and an AI Elvis are coming to town, Larry David is back and so is the dodo, Hammersmith Bridge is reopening (definitely maybe), broissants are a thing, Jude Bellingham, Soho’s renaissance, influencers out/ dads of Instagram in... oh, and the general election. Source link

Despite his Michelin pedigree, Certain’s aim has been to keep it “very traditional” with the menu — in other words, proper pub food: fish and chips, steaks, haunches of venison, a prized burger, though the likes of confit duck are not unusual. As at the Lodge, most of the meat served is “all estate produce”, with local suppliers used elsewhere throughout and listed on the menu. Scallops, from Brixham, are an outlier; the rest of the fish is closer to home. “We’ve got the coast, so we do a lot of fish. The guy gets off his boat and says, Olivier, I’ve got this. And so that’s what we do.” Source link

The thing is, unlike most megastars, Kate doesn’t seem weighed down by her fame; she just gets on with it. Last year, when Madonna was in town kicking off her world tour at the O2, I was lucky enough to be invited to an intimate after-show party hosted at a photographer’s home. Not many invites would get me out of the house on a Sunday evening — sorry but Antiques Roadshow is an essential part of my weekend wind-down — let alone a party starting at midnight but, hey, it was Madonna. The great and the glamorous of London were all there, from Edward Enninful to FKA twigs and Kate, naturally. Source link