This sterling silver Twinkle ring set by British company Dower and Hall features a 3mm round aquamarine on a wavey band, a marquise blue topaz on a plain dotty band, an oval white topaz on a granular dotty twinkle ring, a plain dotty ring and a 3mm white sapphire on a wavey peapod band.  What I love about these rings is that they are so versatile. Wear on their own, or stack them how you wish for a fashion statement.

Taking care of your garden can be a long and arduous task. If you don’t keep on top of it, then the jobs you need to do can become so big that you are reluctant to get started on it. Work, family, life, in general, can often get in the way and certain jobs around the house and garden fall by the wayside. Perhaps you need some tips to help you take care of your garden whilst also saving you some time. Here are five top time-saving tips to help you to take care of your garden.

1. Ditch the lawn



Well, maybe not entirely. So many people are now opting for the best grass solutions for their needs and this often includes getting rid of their real grass and opting for an artificial alternative. It is becoming ever more popular as artificial grass requires such little care, attention and time spent on it compared to real grass - no mowing needed, no hydration or food for the grass. Many artificial kinds of grass these days look more realistic than ever. All you need to do is choose the best solution for you and your household.

2. Make it smaller



Whilst a large space may be just what you wanted when you moved in, sometimes our needs and requirements change. If you are finding it hard to keep on top of your garden, perhaps consider adding a patio or a bricked area to break it up a little. Or create a seating area for you and your family to enjoy, knowing that you haven’t got so much garden to look after.

3. Choose plants that need limited TLC


Be picky about the plants and flowers that you choose. Choose flowers that don’t require dead-heading or pick those that have long bloom seasons to minimise the amount of upkeep you need to do, aside from the general watering. Consider planting disease resistant plants. If you are not sure which ones are, nursery employees and fellow gardeners can help you identify the best or most resistant varieties of many plants. Succulent plants are long-lasting and can be the perfect plant for the non-gardener.

A simple way to save time is to water less often but for longer - a deep soak once a week is better than frequent more shallow waterings but this can depend on the soil. You can even grow perennials that return year upon year, saving you time replanting.

4. Make sure your tools are easy to access


When it comes to gardening, the worst thing is when you’ve made a start on it and have to keep stopping to go and get something else. Ensure your garden tools are organised and easy to access when actually in the garden and make sure they are stored together. You don’t want to be running all around the house or searching the shed constantly for those different tools you require.

5. Make it simpler for yourself by taking advice



See what your neighbours do in their gardens - do they only plant certain flowers? Do they have decking and a limited amount of garden space? Have they switched to an artificial lawn? Taking advice from family, friends and neighbours who love gardening will surely help you come up with some ideas to keep your garden to a standard that you enjoy but that doesn’t take you too long to maintain. Neighbours with gardens will know what the soil is like and the best plants to nurture and grow, so ask their advice.

Knowing what works and doesn’t work in a garden for someone who doesn’t want to take too much time out of their day is important. Make it simpler on yourself by asking those in the know.

One of my favourite ways to see a city is on a food tour. Combing local history with delicious food, I think there is no better way to get at the heart of what the city is about and taste its local cuisine. On a recent trip to New York to celebrate Mr W's birthday we were given tickets for the Nolita and Little Italy's Secrets food and culture walking tour by Foods of NY.

Foods Of NY have a variety of food tours including Chinatown, Chelsea and the Highline and the best of Brooklyn but the Nolita and Little Italy's Secrets food tour sounded perfect for us, due to the combination of food offered and the history we wanted to hear about.

New York's Nolita area is also known as North Of Little Italy. It's a neighbourhood in the borough of Manhattan, with an upscale vibe. Looking forward to some great food and history of the area, it was with some excitement that we met at the meeting point - the Little Cupcake Bakeshop. Our guide Jordan was early and with big smiles all around, he introduced himself to the group. Our group was made up of between 10-15 people from all as far away as New Zealand, and South Korea to even some local New Yorkers.




We were given a bottle of water for our tour, which was very welcome as it was a warm day, and before long we were onto our first tasting - a Brooklyn blackout cupcake from the Little Cupcake Bakeshop.

This moist little cupcake with a chocolate sponge was filled with a delicious chocolate ganache and topped with a smooth and dreamy chocolate buttercream. This chocolately delight was every sweet tooth cake lovers dream and I can see why it was hailed one of the best chocolate cakes in the US by Food and Wine magazine. 


They also looked pretty too and were devoured in seconds!


After a brief interlude, we were onto our next stop Emporio Ristorante. This Italian restaurant was the sort that seemed unassuming from the outside, but what a gem it was. We were led into the back and told stories of how stars such as Leonardo di Caprio have been spotted here. This restaurant is known for its Roman-style pizzas and we were delighted to be shown how a good pizza from Rome is made.   




A simple medium thick base, topped with cheese (no red sauce) and the freshest ingredients, it was popped into the hottest pizza oven for less than a couple of minutes and voila! Topped with rocket, Parma ham, more cheese and cherry tomatoes it was a great pizza.






If you are ever in the area, I recommend you stop by to Emporio Ristorante as well as good food you could spot a film star!

Before our next stop, Jordan our guide talked about the area. When he moved here 15 years ago he was almost scared to go out, now the area is gentrified and is a lovely place to live, consequently, the cost of houses has gone up immensely. I guess that's the challenge of living in a big city and having safe areas to live but also affordable housing, which should be available to everyone.  



Our next stop was Tartinery. This super cool spot was amazing inside and so was the food. Their signature offering, tartine - which is an artisan bread topped with scrumptious ingredients is the base for every meal. Rocket or arugula as they call it in the US, amazing deli style slivers of beef with parmesan shavings and all topped with a smothering of truffle oil made the simplest ingredients a mouthwatering sensation. 



A glass of red wine accompanied our tasting and was the perfect foil to the dish.




While we were here, Jordan pointed out the artwork on the wall worth thousands of dollars, by street artist Invader. covered over to protect it.




A shabby chic cocktail bar was next, we stopped at Oficina Latina for cocktails (at our own expense) and braised short rib arepa.


Arepa is a type of food made of ground maize dough or cooked flour prominent in the cuisines of Colombia and Venezuela. The short rib was delicious and it was in a bun made of the maize similar to polenta. Now I am personally not a massive fan of polenta and did find this bun a little heavy but ate all the short rib none the less. Mr W enjoyed his classic margarita cocktail for sure.

Then we walked to our next spot, Tacombi, passing by where Martin Scorsese, the film director used to live. Jordan told us the story of the local butcher now well into his 90's that still works opposite Martin Scorsese's old house. Martin was sent to the butchers by his mum every week and the butcher became almost part of the family. Although now moved out of this area, on a recent birthday Martin Scorsese closed the street and held a party in honour of this butcher and family friend. How lovely, and what a great community spirit! 



Tacombi with 4 locations in New York shares authentic Mexican taco culture from taquerias in Mexico. Our tasting here was Mexican roasted corn topped with a spicy mayonnaise. This was incredibly tasty but a little too hot for me, although Mr W lapped it up. If you needed more spice, hot sauce was available on the table, and watermelon juice if you needed your mouth to cool down. This was gorgeous and a great little taster to accompany the corn.
Nolita and Little Italy's Secret Food Tour
Foods Of NY
PHONE: +1 (855) 223-8684
HOURS: 6am – 11pm EST, 7 Days
https://www.foodsofny.com/foods-ny-tours/nolita-noho/

For a monthly cost, speciality arabica coffee from over 17 different countries are selected for your taste preference, hand-roasted and delivered to you.



What I like is that you don't have to have a box every month, so you are in control. This is perfect for someone like me that adores travelling and whose plans change from one day to the next. However, the boxes are also letterbox friendly so you don't have to be in to receive the parcel.


The coffee is ethically sourced direct from the farmers, so there is no middleman taking all the profits, so you know the farmers are getting a decent price. That is always good to know.



You can order a bag at £7.99 a month or a box of three bags at £16.99. Delivery is always free. You select how your coffee is prepared - beans, cafeteria, dripper and espresso.  You can even send it as a gift, which can be a thoughtful idea for all your coffee-loving friends, especially at Christmas. You could also try it in a machine for cappuccino. 

It's that time of year again when you and your partner start to argue about whether you should get a real Christmas tree or an artificial one.

I personally think there is something special about the smell and look of a pine tree. If you do get one though always look for a tree that has been grown sustainably and has an FSC logo showing it is from a well-managed forest. If you want a tree that's certified as organic as well as pesticide-free, get one that's Soil Association approved.




If you go for an artificial tree be sure to keep it for as long as possible to reduce the environmental impact of it.  You may think that artificial trees are better for the environment but many trees are made in China so have a large carbon footprint. If you are fixed on getting an artificial tree why not find one secondhand from Freecycle, eBay or Free Ads?

Many families like decorating a tree together as part of their Christmas traditions. Whilst this is fun, you may not want your children handling the Christmas tree lights out of safety. An idea would be to let your children choose a number of decorations that are theirs to decorate the tree with, or maybe they could make a decoration each year to add to the tree. I know I still have decorations my son made in nursery added to our tree each year and now he's nearly 21!

So when is the best time to put your tree up? Traditionally it was Christmas Eve but many people put up their tree any time from the 1st of December. Some feel that the appropriate time to put up your Christmas tree is at the beginning of Advent which is the religious name for the period coming up to Christmas. Advent covers the four Sundays before Christmas and this year will begin on December 3rd. There is also the option of waiting until 12 days before Christmas to put up your tree, this means December 13 will be the day you turn your home into a magical Christmas wonderland.

I hope this guide has been helpful. If you have just moved into your first home, are not sure on how to decorate a tree or want a refresher, check out this infographic below on how to decorate your Christmas tree from Amara.  Tell me how do you decorate your tree? Do you go for a real tree or artificial?

*PR collaboration 

This week Stella McCartney and Ellen MacArthur have called for radical changes in the 'incredibly wasteful' fashion industry. The designer is backing a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation which claims half of High Street fashion is disposed of within a year.

The call for fashion sustainability highlights some important points, but what does fashion sustainability mean?

Sustainable fashion is about producing clothes, in environmentally and socio-economically sustainable manners. It is also about more sustainable patterns of consumption.

In today's 'throw away society', where clothes can be incredibly cheap, it's easy to change your fashion look almost instantly for a fraction of the cost in my parent's day, but is that a good thing? We could do with adopting their attitude to clothing, buying the best that you can afford, and mending clothing if holes appear. For example, who remembers patches on your jeans? I do! Rather than buying a new item of clothing, we could do with thinking of customizing it, adding beading, sequins or a trim can really give it a makeover.




Of course, this needs sewing skills, but with shows like The Great British Sewing Bee, it had become 'on trend' to go back to adult education classes and learn and update your sewing skills.

Manufacturers also need to take responsibility for the sustainability of fashion, breaking away from the disposal nature of clothes, improving the recycling of leftover materials and making effective use of resources and renewables. All this will help improve the environment. In a recent survey by consultants, Kantar Futures, the BBC reported that 80% of respondents said they would pay more for products that lasted longer. That's reassuring to know that consumers really want better quality sustainable clothing too.

To get an insiders view of the fashion industry, I spoke to Tom Lovelace, CEO of Hawthorn, a clothing manufacturer that helps fashion startups, about why sustainability is so important. Winner of the Drapers  'Fashion Supplier of the Year' award 2017 here is Tom's interview.




1) Tell us more about Hawthorn. What makes you unique?

Hawthorn is a clothing manufacturer based in the City of London. We specialise in helping new startups in the fashion industry create their collections of everything from casual wear to tailoring. One of the challenges that a lot of startups have is that manufacturers have high minimum order quantities which mean they spend a lot of money on creating just one or two lines, however, we are able to offer very low quantity, fully custom manufacturing meaning that without limitation we can help startups begin their journey in the industry with as many products as possible for their budget.

2) Why do you think sustainability is so important to the environment and to your business?

Sustainability is important to everyone not just in the fashion industry, but in the world. The fashion industry is, however, the second most polluting industry, behind the oil industry, and we believe that as manufacturers it is our responsibility to do as much as possible to help the environment in any way we can. Because we work with start-up businesses, we have developed sustainable fabrics which can be supplied at low order quantities, meaning that brands no longer have to make very large orders to be able to achieve their sustainability goals.

3) What are you as a company doing to help the advancement of sustainability in the fashion industry?

In developing new sustainable fabrics which can be produced in low quantities to help small businesses in the fashion industry, we are helping to bring new brands to the market who either deal in all sustainable or part sustainable clothing. Over the past year or so since we have been developing these new fabrics and offering them to our customers, we have seen the % of brands we work with who use sustainable clothing rise from around 5% to over 30%; These are brands who would have otherwise had no choice other than to use traditionally farmed fabrics, which can be harmful to the environment.

4) Are there any exciting new developments in fabric design to watch out for?

Fabrics are constantly developing, however sustainable activewear is something which we're starting to see a trend for. Traditional activewear brands are certainly on the rise in popularity, however, some brands are now incorporating sustainable elements. For example, Organic Cotton and Elastane blends are coming into the market, being chosen by brands who may have usually had no choice other than to use Polyester, a fabric that is not kind to the environment at all.

5) What can consumers do to help the sustainable cause?

Arguably, consumers are on the front line of sustainability because of supply and demand; brands will always strive to meet the demand of their customers and as trends start to show that more customers are switching to sustainable fabrics, the brands and manufacturers will be forced to change their ways also. When this happens there will only be a positive environmental impact.



Tell me, have you thought about sustainable fashion? Is the environment important to you?