Anchor & Hope - recycled womens wear and maternity boutique

When I started to think about setting up the Dear Friend workshops and this blog I received some great encouragement from a friend. This friend is Holly and we met when I first moved to London and have kept in touch since. Last year Holly followed her dream to set up a second hand maternity boutique, today it is a reality and is beautifully perched at 363 Roman Road, Bethnal Green!

Hello Holly! Photo via

Anchor and Hope is a brilliant shopping model, 'clients' bring in their good quality clothing to the store and receive 50% of the price it will be retailed at. Everyone is a winner!

I went to the opening not long ago and the shop is lovely, with extra big changing rooms for ladies with prams and children in tow. I left thinking maybe being getting pregnant now wouldn't be all that bad ;) One of my favourite touches are the hooks in the changing rooms, there are three; yes, no and maybe. What a great idea!

The clothes are very affordable (dresses for £15, yes please) and they have a great variety of items and styles. I wholeheartedly recommend this store. If you are in the area you won't regret taking a trip over! Find out more here www.anchorandhopelondon.co.uk

 Photo via

Photo via

Beautiful shop ey, let me know if you do visit :)

Im in essay deadlineville so apologise for any absence from this corner of the internet.

Have a swell Friday!

Easter on our iphones

Holidays are the best because it means Matt is home alllllthetimeeee. We get to see all the people we cant see on weekends and do some good ol' relaxing. The first week was spent with Matt's parents, they came here and we all went to see Billy Elliot together. I thought Billy Elliot was great, perhaps even the best show I've ever seen. On the Monday we had breakfast at The Shard. We heard you could have breakfast at the Shard, at a restaurant called AquaShard. Its only on the 31st floor but that is still higher than most buildings in London and it saved you paying the £30 to just get to the top. The food was reasonably priced considering, £17 for a full English and £4 for porridge. It was really yummy too!

Trying to see the top of the Shard

We then drove up to Derby. We had some important errands to run whilst in the midlands. To see some of our favourite people, Bethan and Aaron. Then Matt planned/hosted/attended his friend Adams stag do.

 

One of the stags, Steve.
They turned the church into a giant NERF arena. 

This is Bethan, isn't she beautiful!

.

We also did lots of enjoying Matt's mums cooking and relaxing

Morning light 

On Saturday we came home and so far this week have done a whole lot of relaxing. We did some spring cleaning which is something we have never done before. I used vinegar to get rid of the limescale and soap marks on the shower door, it worked like a charm, but now our bathroom smells like a chip shop. 

Matt cleaned the windows for the second time in 2 years.

And then we rearranged our living room- anther first.

Matt and I are doing the 3 peaks challenge later this year and Matt needs to break in his new walking boots. We decided to scout out green places nearby to do some walking in. We found Wanstead park, our friend Russell was with us and did that thing where you climb a tree and jump into another tree. We were impressed. Sadly, by the time we got home Matt's feet were really hurting.

Me in a tree

Russell in a tree

The next day we thought we would give the walking boots another try. We were aiming to do 20 miles but by the time we got to the end of our street Matts feet were hurting again so we turned back. Instead we went into town, ended up walking past Jessops and came home with the Canon 5D iii ( we had been saving for it but didnt realise we would give in so soon). One of the exciting things about this purchase is that we just got an Avios credit card, hello air miles!

Ready for action.

That evening I went to a friends house for a delicious meal and some Hen party planning. My head is truly in the hen party zone. Its also my best friends wedding in May so I have been doing lots of planning for that too. I looove weddings.

Then we found a local nature reserve, it was beautiful and overgrown. There is a lack of beautiful and overgrown places in London so it was a real treat. I also did 10 days worth of food shopping for £20. yup, really. That evening we had another workshop, we were making leather bracelets with poppers. It was a nice evening and the first evening we were able to have the doors open onto the garden. Hello summer!

Fresh air and warm evenings

We now have a packed weekend and then its back to 'normal' life.

I hope all of you who have Easter holidays have had a relaxing/invigorating time. Enjoy your bank holiday weekend!

Ps. If you want to follow along on Instagram you can @estherdearfriend

Picking blossoms

How to make Bath bombs

Bath bombs are really fun to make, it is also very easy to package them beautifully so they look as good as Lush. I did two bath bomb workshops last month and believe I have perfected the art. So here is how you can make bath bombs at home, great for gifts or a relaxing soak.

You need:
1/4 cup   Bicarbonate of Soda
1/8 cup   Citric Acid (Asian food shops stock this!)
3 Drops  Colouring
3 Drops  Essential oil/Fragrance
1 Tsp approx.   Witch Hazel (easiest in a diffuser bottle but not essential)
1 Tsp      Dried Petals/ Lavander (optional, tutorial on how to dry your own here)

A mould (nothing that will come into direct contact with food)
Something to mix the bath bombs in and with (preferably not what you eat with, old ice cream tub and plastic spoon works great)

I used 6 different colours and oils so each bath bomb would have a different purpose but it is just as good sticking with one :)



1. Preheat oven to the lowest temperature setting. Mix the Bicarbonate of Soda and Citric Acid together, make sure you get rid of all the little lumps at the bottom.
2. Add the colours and oils/fragrance. Keep adding drops for a stronger fragrance or more intense colour. Make sure the mixture is evenly coloured (no clumps of dye).
3. Spray/ pour the Witch Hazel into the mixture and mix. You mixture is ready when you can squeeze it in your hand and it will stay in a ball.
4. If using petals sprinkle these in the bottom of the moulds now, then put the mixture in your mould on top and firmly compact it (this is what keeps it together). I used the end of a rolling pin to properly compact it.
5. Turn the oven off and place the mould in there for 30 mins. After this time they should come out of the mould in one piece. Now you can package them beautifully!

I made these ones for my mother in law. I've been really getting into essential oil; Peppermint is great for curing headaches, Lavender for stress relief and Lemon is great for your skin.

Enjoy!

How to dry petals in the microwave.

Dried petals are handy for lots of things, confetti, craft, bathbombs...but you don't always have 2 weeks to lay them out somewhere warm or the length of time it takes amazon to ship some petals halfway across the world. This is where we introduce the microwave!

I had a workshop to run but had used all the rose petals so I bought these chrysanthemums from asda. Roses may have been preferable, but these did the job well :) 

You should start by picking all the petals and laying them out on a piece of kitchen towel on a microwave safe plate. Spread them out as much as possible so the towel can absorb moisture and if you are using a mixture of petals, the colours wont run. 

Different petals require different amounts of time, really thin petals only need about 20 seconds. So start by microwaving them for 20 seconds, these petals took about a minute and a half in all.

You will know they are done when they are really dry and there is no moisture left.

Have fun drying petals, they make the best confetti (and bio degradable!)

Meet Jen

 I wanted to share a bit of a story, just like Jonny and the Nightshelter. I love reading stories of people who are doing things to change where they live for the better, Jen is one of those people. She is one of my really good friends here in London and has real passion for life and for fighting injustice. She is also from Liverpool and therefore has the best accent. I invited Jen to share a bit of her story and why she does what she does.

.......

If I said I had been dancing since I could walk, I’d be lying. An old home video would show you pretty quickly that I was never blessed with coordination. So at the age of 13 when I told my mum I wanted to start dancing I can’t imagine what she thought! After my first dance lesson I came home and started practising in my living room, with one clean swoop I had knocked over a glass of water, a vase and offset the TV. But I loved it! I began to spend more and more hours in the studio. I wasn’t as technically good as the other girls but I was keeping up. In time I made my way “to the front” and tried to hide my grin. I once visited Ailey studios in New York, it was breath-taking. As we danced the high glass windows looked out over the city, we were dancing on the rooftops and I remember thinking one day I would own my own studio. I watched the other dancers, their dances would make me well up with emotion, how could they do that?! How could I do that?! I would spend hours trying to imitate it perfectly. 

I soon came to the realisation that if dance is just about getting the moves right then I believe we have well and truly missed the point. I often come across people who say “I can’t dance”, but to dance is to connect with people, to tell a story and EVERYBODY has one of those. I remember when I told a teacher I wanted to do dance, “that’s not an academic subject” he said, “people won’t take you seriously”. I stormed out of his office. Then, the day before my A Level  dance exam I felt a pain in my foot but x-rays showed nothing. The doctors were baffled but all I knew was I couldn’t stand, hobbling out of the hospital on crutches, I broke down in tears, years of training lost. That teachers words rang loudly in my ear. 

Four years on and I am so glad I didn’t listen to a word he said!

God really had it all worked out. I’m now a youth worker in East London and I run a dance studio! It’s no Ailey studios, the windows don’t over look New York (in fact there aren’t any windows), the floor is a little creaky and there is a snooker table in the corner, but to me it’s perfect. To dance is to become vulnerable; it’s to say a thousand words without even opening your mouth. There’s something amazing about seeing a young person begin to express themselves through movement when in society they don’t even have a voice. I’ve allowed myself to dream; what if we could tackle more through our creativity, what if more young people share about injustice in a way the world can’t ignore! In a way that captures our attention, breaks our hearts and yells in the face of injustice. It’s time we started using our gifts and passions for changing this world we live in, for empowering the voiceless and sticking up for those who are suffering!

....

Jen is truly living this and next year she is hoping to head to Brazil to work with a charity called Meninadanca, they work in an area of Brazil notorious for the exploitation of young girls. Their outreach is through dance and they help these girls to relearn how precious and valued they are. Have a read for yourself! 

Thank you so much Jen for sharing a bit of your heart. If you want to know more about her vision or to support her work get in touch HERE.

Have a great week all xx

Maybe I wish I was Indian....

I have always been intrigued by different cultures. When I was about 10 a friend of the family bought me a saree, I loved it. Whenever friends came round I would wear it, if we were going out somewhere nice I would wear it, I wore it until I couldn’t fit in it without it ripping. I then did my art GCSE on Indian jewellery. In general life I would be very excited to meet south Asians and hear their experiences of the country (sorry, I grew in a very white area!). It wasn’t just India I did this with, I had wanderlust from a young age. However,  I think south Asia probably wins on the pretty shiny things front. I live in East Ham now, right next to Green street, so I get a daily dose of gorgeous jewellery and saris. 

Last year I got the chance to actually go to India, I was in Kolkata and I loved it. My sister was also there at the same time but in Mumbai and then travelled further south. We both came back having stocked up on gorgeous bangles and loving the country.

Obviously I couldn’t talk about pretty Indian things without talking about mehndi/henna. I think tubes of henna came in handy during my teenage rebellious phase because its like a tattoo, and these were the days before quirky temporary tattoos. I still think henna is superior to most other forms of body art. I was never allowed to have the henna tattoos done on holiday because they were too expensive, the first tube I had was one a friend bought back from Spain when we were about 14. Obviously, now I’m in East London I can just pop down to the high street and buy a tube for £1 (so far its not poisoned me).

My sister and I thought we would try out using henna in a different way, drawing geometric shapes rather than swirls and giving it the look of a ring. I liked the idea of giving tribute to beautiful Indian traditions and a more contemporary twist. 

I cannot wait to go back to India, have you ever been? 

Thanks for reading, it gave us a good opportunity to play dress up!