Bloom & Wild Tiny Tree Pop-Up at Boxpark

Just when I was wondering how I would fit a little festive cheer into my small loft-style flat, let alone drag said cheer up four flights of stairs, the flower delivery peeps at Bloom & Wild came to my rescue. Their little elves (I imagine) posted one of their 40cm tall Tiny Trees through my letter box last week and solved my current Christmas conundrum.

HOW Bloom & Wild manage to fit a miniature pine tree, a waterproof collapsible pot, a box of ‘ickle baubles and a string of fairy lights in a letter-box friendly parcel I will never know, but magically they can. 

Despite being equipped with everything I needed to style my tree and infuse some Christmas spirit into my apartment, I decided to personalise my tree with some H&M Home Gold Pineapple Ornaments (£6.99 for two), some golden giraffe I found on Etsy and my orange kikoy - I guess you can take the girl outta Africa…!  

The results? The cutest touch of home away from home, and I couldn’t be happier when I return each evening to see the sparkling ornaments by my fireplace.

Today Bloom & Wild are launching their ‘Tiny Tree’ pop-up in Shoreditch’s Boxpark where you can not only handpick your own adorably pint-sized tree (priced between £25.00-£33.00), but also stock up on lots of cute decorations to dress it up. My own Africa inspired tree will also be on display until it closes on Sunday.

Bloom & Wild at Boxpark (Tues 6th – Sun 11th December 2016)
Boxpark, 2-10 Bethnal Green Road, London, E1 6GY

In collaboration with BLOOM & WILD

Literary Death Match

Given that this week is International Book Week, I thought it was appropriate I write about a recent awesome evening at  Literary Death Match, performed at Shoreditch’s ‘Concrete,’ under Pizza East.  Established in 2006 and hailed as the “most entertaining reading series ever” by the Los Angeles Times, Literary Death Match is hosted by it’s quite brilliant co-creator, my dapper friend, Adrian Todd Zuniga (usually wearing a three piece suit and bow tie no less).   This live show features 4 authors each reading from one of their novels for 7 minutes in front of an all-star panel of 3 judges and a usually quite rowdy audience!  Critiqued in the categories of literary merit, performance and intangibles, two chosen finalists compete in a comical finale for the Literary Death Match medal. 

At this particular Literary Death Match the authors included John Niven, Sathnam Sangera,Nuala Casey and Polly Morland.   The judges, Louise Doughty, Sarah Morgan and Bunny Suicide's Andy Riley chose Sathnam Sanghera as our winner.  I am really looking forward to reading Sathnam's book ‘Marriage Material,’  which he so brilliantly read from.  Occurring regularly in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and London, the show frequently tours around the world and it really is worth checking their website to see if they are visiting a city near you as a truly random, original and hilarious night may await you... ‘The pen is mightier than the sword and ink will be spilt.’