#nyLDNmeet / Cocktails in the Capital

My first stop on arrival was the Carnaby Road Benefit Boutique to have my hair and makeup done… but more on that later in the week! Afterwards, I made my way down Little Argyle Street doing little mad dashes between sheltered shops to avoid the rain!

I needn’t have worried though as I soon struck up conversations with the people next to me in the coat queue. If there was ever going to be anywhere that I could find people with
similar interests, it was going to be in a room full of bloggers.

I kept spotting people that I thought I knew, but all that kept whizzing around my head were Twitter handles and blog names! I got chatting to a girl I recognised by her scarf which I’d ‘liked’ on Instagram (it was fab in real life too by the way!). She was Laura of LolaandBehold. We soon established that we were both ‘Little Lauras’.

After picking up some cocktails, we were offered a henna art treatment by Henna Bhavsar of designedbyhenna. Laura went first and a flurry of girls suddenly appeared around us to take photos. I could tell I was going to enjoy the afternoon – it was socially acceptable to spend the day taking pictures of everything – hoorah!!

Then I dashed off to the presentation of a new beauty line being launched very soon in the UK by the brand MooGoo. Whilst we sipped cocktails, the ladies from MooGoo explained that the brand was established in Australia and specialises in all natural body, skin and makeup products, suitable for very sensitive skin and treatment of all kinds of skin based complaints.

I had to dash off before the end as I’d signed up for a cocktail making and realised that I was late to my slot. I rushed over to the bar where I found another girl in the same predicament – she turned out to be Mel of melswallofmirrors whom I’d also been chatting to on Twitter – welcome our third inductee to the Shorties Club!

The staff at Bitter Sweet were kind enough to give us our own little slot since we’d missed our group. We were shown how to make a cocktail and then stepped behind the bar to try it for ourselves. At this point we both realised that we hadn’t really been paying intention to the directions and giggled our way through each step.

First you pummel the cucumber to a pulp, which splatters all up your arm – cue giggling!

This concoction goes into a cocktail shaker with a helping of ice cubes.

Strain it into a glass…

…then add an artfully rolled up sliver of cucumber. This takes serious concentration!

Finally, top it with Prosecco – the master touch in my opinion!

I should also mention the lovely Philippa of justphilippa, who offered to take pictures with my camera as we made our drinks and helped us to prop up the bar afterwards. Laura rejoined our little group and we chatted away until it was time for the raffle to be drawn, taking selfies and then roping in the bar staff to do it for us!

MooGoo freebies were passed around and Laura became the lucky owner of their signature cow!

All too soon, the official event was over and goody bags were handed out. And oh my what goodies they held… but I think I’ll save that for another day too!

We piled into Byrons Burgers for some much needed refreshment. As each plate of food came out we chatted away whilst snapping each morsel with our cameras. There is no need to apologise for this sort of behaviour when you’re all bloggers!

I had a veggie burger: Goats Cheese, Portabello Mushrooms and Peppers in a brioche bun. It was so tasty! I’m not actually vegetarian but I quite often eat veggie meals!

We ducked into Liberty to lust over all on display at the luxe beauty counters. Then, with promises to stay in touch, we headed off in separate directions to journey home.

So that was my first blogging event. Would I go to another one? Yes! Am I proud of myself for flying solo? Yes! Am I still addicted to Twitter? Yes… and Instragram now too – whoops!!!