The wonderful Alison from Silly Old Sea dog had posted all over Social Media about an event that was happening in Brick Lane last week, and it caught my fancy!

The Pin Up Pop Up was being held in the Truman Brewery, Brick Lane and involved several amazing companies including Silly Old Seadog. I knew it had been taking place over 5 days and decided very spur of the moment to pop down.

Driving into London takes around an hour, so Sunday morning I suggested a visit and into the car we popped.

Half way down, the rain started. And hammered it down constantly. All the way into London.

Parking up in St Johns Wood, we hopped onto the tube and hit Spitalfields first. Most of you will be aware its an area that I frequent a lot and know my way around pretty well. We walked through into Brick Lane and started hunting for the location advertised.

Eventually we found it and were given a huge welcome! The pop up was full of amazing beautiful items from Lady K Loves, Inna Box, 20th Century Cloth, Lady Jane Vintage and Love UR Look London.

I was in my element surrounded by pretties of all kinds – Hair flowers, dresses, jewellery, headbands and even shoe clips. Well, it was hard to resist!

Standing chatting with Alison, talking about all the upcoming events and the new lines that she is releasing was lovely. We spent a good 90 minutes wandering about, chatting, before purchasing a few of my favourite things and then wandering off to have another adventure!

I fell in love with quite a lot of the items that were on offer from a new company that I was introduced to – Nikky from the amazing Inna Box has some of the cutest earrings, pins, cards and more. She really does have some unusual and pretty cool things. Hopefully in the months to come I will be placing a custom order with her for a Merpuss brooch – watch this space!

So, what exactly did I purchase? Well, I couldn’t resist a pair of those cherry shoe clips, a beautiful stargazer lily hair clip and then this cute little bow that matches my mermaid dress. Well. I just couldn’t resist!

Although we have been to Brick Lane on many occasions, we have never walked down as far as the end, and given the Beigel shops a go. Watching a programme several months back (with the lovely Len Goodman) he recommended that the Salt Beef Beigels had to be tried.

Wandering down, we found Beigel Bakes and duly joined a massive queue. To be honest, the speed at which people were being served was amazing. We were only waiting around 5 minutes, before leaving with a big salt beef, mustard and pickle beigel, 1/2 dozen plain beigel and a jam doughnut.

I hadn’t ordered myself a beigel, as I wasn’t sure that I would like. However, stole most of the husbands pickles (they are my favourite) I have to admit, the Salt Beef was divine – It almost had a gammon like flavour to it!

Wandering back up Brick Lane, we popped to one of my favourite places, a huge street food place, which I have mentioned in previous blogs. I was really in the mood for a large portion of Mr Sausage!

Now, get your minds out of the gutter!

Mr Sausage offers huge sausages in baguettes. Topped with mustard, onions and pickles, it really hits the spot. And that is exactly what I fancied. £9.50 for 2 with all the works and ice cold coke. Not bad at all!

One Mr Sausage later, and I was full and happy. The rain had stopped, and in fact it was getting rather hot outside, and the sun was trying to peek through.

We popped into a couple of other places, and just had to stop at this stall and get a little box of goodies to take home! Fairy Pan Cupcakes offer the tiniest cutest bite size morsels in 6 different flavours. Oreo, Red Velvet, Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Salted Caramel and Tiramisu just all look absolutely amazing.

Fairy Pan was the loveliest lady, and we had a little chat about her goodies, before deciding on our purchases.

We bought an assorted box of 9 for Mum, at the bargain price of £5.50  and then decided to head back to the car to contemplate returning home.

We wandered back to Liverpool Street to catch the tube and decided that a visit to the pub before the drive home would be very much a good idea!

By this point, the temperature had really heated up. My fringe had gone all wavy and the jacket had to come off. I was still walking around with a large umbrella, but the sun decided I didn’t need that any longer!

In St John’s Wood, there is a lovely old fashioned pub called The Ordnance. We have been in there a few times previously, and it’s a lovely place to spend a couple of hours. It’s a Sam Smith’s Pub and all the drinks, even the spirits are made by Sam Smiths. It has a lovely Victorian feel about it, and two garden areas which were spot on given that the sun was shining and the temperature had risen considerably.

A lovely couple of drinks later, and I was ready for the journey home. As always, I promptly fell asleep in the car and woke up when we pulled onto the drive at home!

All in all, it was an amazing spur of the moment day. Thoroughly enjoyable and relatively cheap, we made the most of it all whilst spending very little.

Once we arrived home, our little Fairy Pan cakes were presented to Mum, to her surprise. I am very happy to report that she was over the moon and duly tucked in.

Her verdict?

I am happy to report that she loved every single one of them, declaring them amazing little treats. Just enough to enjoy without over indulging.

I was lucky enough to be offered one, and I chose the Peanut Butter one. Light, moist and very peanutty, I had to agree that they were the perfect little treat!

If you should find yourself down Brick Lane, definitely go and give her a visit, it really is worth it!

Do you go to this area at all? Are there any other hidden gems that I need to know about?
Till next time,
Txx