Tag Archives: Australia

Style me fabulous with @aveboutique #fashion #style #womenswear #richmond #kingsroad #popup #clothes

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If you’re looking for something a little different to fill your wardrobe for 2014 then hidden in one of the beautiful lanes of Richmond is a real gem of a find. Just right of Kings Street is Avenue Boutique, a small but exotic collection of clothes that can change your perception of fashion in one visit.Screen Shot 2013-12-20 at 10.17.19

Founded and fronted by the hugely talented Faye Hayward, she looks after each and every customer, alongside her brilliant assistant Alice, making you feel like a million dollars and finding something to fit that you only dreamed of playing dress up with.

What’s really unique about this shop is its far reaching collection from suppliers around the world, from Denmark to Australia the latest and quirkiest fashion is here in Greater London, with lots to offer.Screen Shot 2013-12-20 at 10.29.44

Yes the price points are a tad on the squeaky side, with only a small selection of items priced below the £100 mark, but rest assured that each and every garment featured and bought at Avenue Boutique is most definitely an investment piece and there IS something for everyone in this stunning selection.

What we loved especially about this shop and Faye’s personal approach to her customers, is that she is your personal shopper, its lovely when looking at high end clothing or jewellery that you don’t get the snooty “Pretty Woman” effect where the shop attendant looks down her nose at you judging whether or not you have enough money to even be browsing. At Avenue Boutique, the vibe is warm, inviting, caring and friendly.Screen Shot 2013-12-20 at 10.22.23

One of the great quirky elements of the shop is that its actually part of a house, with tenants living upstairs! It might give you a little shock when you’re on your way to the dressing room but regardless, it just adds to the look and feel of this unique boutique.

Now obviously it’s every girls dream to have a designer wardrobe at their disposal, and for us, we thought, if we couldn’t have one ourselves, we’d have to borrow Avenue Boutiques and play dress up! So ready to start the New Year with a bang, Faye helped us to pull together the top day and evening wear selections to make sure you WOW at every occasion.Screen Shot 2013-12-20 at 10.34.25

POP UP SHOP – NOW OPEN FOR BUSINESS!!

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Now if you cant wait until New Years for a new wardrobe, or if you think you deserve a Christmas treat, then Avenue Boutique has a pop up shop on the Kings Road running until Sunday! So make sure you head on down to meet Faye and her team and check out some of these fashion forward delights. We visited it last night and were not only in ore of the stunning collection of clothes, but Faye really has managed to turn this empty box space into a cool, chic clothes shop which certainly belongs amongst the clientele of the Kings Road. Well worth a visit and the perfect place to get those last minute party dresses for the big party on December 31st.

You can follow Avenue Boutique on Twitter @aveboutique

Check out their website for all the latest collections www.avenueboutique.co.uk

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Bees mean business and we find out how much in @morethanhoneyuk #film #beekeeping #bees

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We all know there is a problem with bees. They have been reducing rapidly in numbers over the last fifteen years. We don’t know what has caused this to happen, but what we do know is that depending on the regions of the world, between 50-90% of the bees have disappeared!

Now either they are starting one mega colony which actually, we should all be scared of, or they are vanishing into thin air. The latter is much more likely. What we’re seeing is that billions of bees (for some unknown reason) leave their hives never to return. Here in the UK as well as other parts of Europe, this is being dubbed the “Mary Celeste Phenomenon” after the name of the of the ship who’s crew vanished in 1872.

In More than Honey, director Markus Imhoof uses this topic to shoot a global film to discover the lives of bees from around the world and the bee keepers who look after them in a number of different ways, shapes and forms. This film isn’t just observatory, it also looks at each of the bee keepers attitudes towards the decline of the bees and also how they are going for and against nature to maintain their on colony – whether this be right or wrong.Screen Shot 2013-09-02 at 08.46.23

What is fascinating about this project is that you really learn so much about the intricacies of the bee community. Imhoof goes from the idyllic Swiss Alps to visit Fred Jaggi who maintains an age-old tradition of bee keeping in the way his father and his fathers father did. There is passion and also ruthlessness in which he maintains the best of his beehive by taking fearless measures such as decapitating the queen bee when she is seen as ‘lazily’ breeding half breed stock!

On the other end of the spectrum, from one man to a million machines, in the US we follow John Miller who maintains a schoolboy like level of excitement for his bees. Beyond all this however we learn how bees pollinate the trees that start the process for a multi million dollar almond business, and how the use of mixed chemicals to keep the trees ripe and fresh cause havoc amongst the bee community killing them stone dead once sprayed, something that could be avoided altogether if the process of the machines could change to night instead of day. However, John himself is not a big enough voice to make change happen alone and at the end of the day, as much as he loves bees, he loves his job more. Screen Shot 2013-09-02 at 08.46.10

These are only a couple of examples of the protagonists Imhoof meets on his journey, from Arizona to Australia and China he has travelled around the world in search of the secret behind the bees decline. Although he hasn’t quite unraveled the answer, what he has done is create a compelling set of stories which can open the eyes of a wider audience to the importance of the bee community around the world. With John Hurt narrating, you feel (particularly during the expertly filmed close ups of inside a hive) that you are watching a mix of Attenborough’s ‘Life’ and an intimate portrayal of human passion and dedication to a species taken too far for granted.

More Than Honey buzzes into cinemas on 6th September and is on limited release.

4 Stars