Happy Hawaiian birthdays!

Now, if you've read my last few posts, you may be starting to notice a trend in my summer activities, namely, a penchant for picnics.

Continuing with the theme, I attended another picnic last Sunday - this time to celebrate the birthday of two lovely friends of mine!

Birthday girls Ellen and Sasha!

I have attended so many birthday celebrations this month already, and this also happened to be the second Hawaiian themed one, the first of which you may recall from a previous post, earlier in July.

There was Hawaiin music to transport us from Primrose Hill to a tiki paradise, as well as lots of colourful outfits, and an abundance of food and drinks.

There were also games!  Frisbee, badminton and....lemon jousting...

Every tiki party needs a tiki...

And every birthday party needs presents!

Ironically, despite the tropical temperatures that we have been experiencing lately, a short sprinkle of rain threatened to interfere with our fun...but luckily it stopped quite quickly and the sun came out.  Hooray!!!

It was a lovely day of celebration and fun, and to continue with this theme I have lots more birthdays coming up in August (including mine)!

A cheeky tiki photo with the birthday girls!

Incendiary Blonde...now in Red!

Welcome to the new look Incendiary Blonde!

If you follow me over on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, you will have probably seen my posts about my blog makeover - the first, since I started the blog over three years ago....it was about time, don't you think?

I have to say a huuuuuuuuuuuge thank you to my clever and talented sister Andrea who took on the task of redesigning it all for me.  Also, thank you to loverboy who drew the initial sketches of me, which were used to make the blog header.  I am so lucky to have such creative, skilled and brilliant family members to help me out!

A revamp has been on the cards for a while now, especially as I wanted to incorporate my own personal makeover to a redhead, since 'Incendiary Blonde' doesn't exactly fit anymore!

Bye bye old design!

Soooooo...what do you think? Do you love the new look as much as I do? Is it preferable to the old look? Do you like the addition to the title? What do you think of the little social media icons?  

I would love to hear your thoughts!

The great outdoors

The glorious summer continues to make London warm, sunshiney and exuberant, and I am loving every minute of it!  Seriously, this is the best summer we have had in years, and consequently, I have been spending as much time outdoors as possible.

Parks, parks, more parks, bbqs and garden parties have been on the agenda since my last post, and the weather forecast predicts at least another week of soaring temperatures, so you know where I'll be when I'm not at the office...

Talking of office, we had a work picnic last week...

A nice way to break up the work week, although it left me longing for the weekend to roll around sooner !

Once the weekend finally arrived, we started it off by meeting up with one of my sisters and my niece.  We met up at 11.30am on Saturday morning, by which time it was already scorchio!

 Can you guess which bridge this is?

After lunch, we headed to Jubilee Gardens on the Southbank, which is small, but bustling, and boasts views of the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament.

In the evening, we went to celebrate a friend's birthday, with her annual tiki themed party!  I had a really fun time - wonderful music, friends, great dance floor and a big garden (not to mention the coolest 1950s decor) - what more could you want?!  Oh yes, it was also within walking distance to our house!

  With the birthday girl, Verity of The Vanity Box!

Sunday was spent just me and my husband out on a date day in Hyde Park with a picnic.  There was a concert going on in one part of the park, so our picnic was accompanied by live music...

 Spot the very masculine blow-up dolls in the window...

I absolutely love the Serpentine - it's so nice to sit and people watch....and swan watch...

Sunday is the time to get your skates on, and you always see big groups of people roller skating to music in Hyde Park on Sundays.  My favourite was watching them do the Electric Slide...it was so cool that is almost made me want to learn to skate...almost...

This was only a few of the roller skaters who were out that day!

We also swung by the Kensington Palace Green to look at the flower gardens - this part of the park is so pretty and well-manicured!

Last night we stopped by some flower gardens nearer to home, on an after dinner stroll through Gladstone Park.

We are so lucky to have such a big, beautiful park, right on our doorstep!

In the past, I have taken to running in the park, but haven't done so in the last couple of years - quite simply, because I don't like running very much!  However, now that I have a training buddy, in the shape of the hubs, I think we will make the most of this amazing weather and go running once or twice a week in the evenings...maybe....

Oh, we also went to our first BBQ of the season this week!  We had a lovely old time feasting away on delicious food with excellent company, hosted by the lovely Miss Turnstiles.

My photo is a little fuzzy, but if you look closely, you can spot the fabulous Snoodlebug, Greyhound Vintage, Minnie Moons, and of course, Miss Turnstiles.

All in all, the perfect week of summery fun and frolics....now bring on the weekend!