Sparks, spas and shoes!

By Lisa Butcher on 12 Oct 2010 No comments

Welcome to my first ever iVillage blog!

Wow, it's been a very busy week. I had a flying visit to Tarifa to shoot the latest Long Tall Sally catalogue. The ancient seaside fort is famous for kite surfing, but thankfully there wasn't  too much wind as I had to do a shot riding a beautiful Andalucian horse bareback. I didn't fancy being bucked off a spooked kite shy animal, particularly as this one was rather big.

I arrived back in England to host my very first live event - The Sparks fashion Show. Sparks is a fantastic children's charity which aims for all children to be born healthy and stay healthy. As a mother of two beautiful, healthy children, I appreciate how important their work is and I was honoured to be there.

I also roped my friends Dr Linda Pappadopoulos, Carole Malone and the drop dead handsome Jeremy Sheffield to help me out on the fashion show and strut their stuff on the catwalk. It was Carole and Linda's debut performance and they got the biggest cheers of the night! Prior to the show Carole was giving me autocue advice and in turn I attempted to teach her to walk like a supermodel, which I might add, she did brilliantly.

I think this could be the start of a new career for them both! Being a short-sighted dyslexic the idea of auto cue wasn't overly appealing. Luckily after a small tipple, my nerves didn't get the better of me.  Let's hope we raised lots of money for this brilliant cause.

The following day, Linda and I went out to celebrate the success of the show by going shopping! Linda had been on at me for ages to do a 'What Not To Wear' on her, (not that she needs it mind you).  I think she'll be loath to ask me again as she now has to fess up to her husband, that we might need to re-mortgage both of our houses to pay for the bill. Girls do not go to the shoe gallery in Selfridges if you have a shoe weakness, the temptation is just too great. It's almost rude not to buy a pair.

We popped into Donna Ida - one of my favourite shops in London - and I persuaded Linda to buy the Gryphon Sherlock Cape £575.  She looked amazing and it's bang on trend. She also bought some J brand coated leggings in mocha at £220, I don't usually like leggings but these looked like skin tight leather trousers but with the comfort of leggings. Perfect!

While I was online today, I was really excited to discover that Warehouse are launching a new collection of limited edition dresses.  They will only be sold in five shops and online. The  Dip Dye Embellished Maxi for £250 is super cute. Warehouse is one of my favourite high street shops - last season I got the most amazing Bellmanesque jacket, and it had the advantage of being much lighter - the original was so heavy on your shoulders it felt like you were weightlifting!

The kids, Carole, Linda and I had an hilarious spa evening, chez moi the other night. The Royal Day Spa in Tunbridge Wells www.royal-dayspa.co.uk kindly came to us. Our night involved two boxes of Krispy Kreme's, cup cakes, a few bottles of wine and I made my famous macaroni and cheese ( which  unfortunately had a slightly glue like consistency, Jamie Oliver would not be impressed!).

I'm currently on the hunt for the perfect pair of winter boots. Being 6ft tall, I stay away from the soaring stilettos even though they are far more flattering on the leg. I still haven't found the perfect pair, but as I've hurt my back and am stuck lying horizontal for a few days, at least I'll have plenty of time to shop on my laptop!

Hasta la vista x