Crafting Out A Fashionable Week

We were celebrating at the weekend with Team GB picking up their first ever medal on snow - we had a few White Russians ironically.  Go Team GB!

We're loving the coverage on NY Fashion Week from IT girl of the moment Rita Ora to David Beckham's selfies of him and the kids on the FROW of VB's fabulous show.  It's getting us well in the mood for London Fashion Week as are Fenwick of Bond Street's windows.  EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW! #DavidDownton sketches key #designers making BIG statements at #LFW @FenwickBondSt @TeleFashion pic.twitter.com/ZLMrRS32yN

We're super relieved that it looks like the Tube strike is cancelled so that all our crafty guests can still join us at the Hobbycraft press show at Homemade London on Thursday.  We'll be joined by Kirstie Allsopp who is launching a new range of craft kits at Hobbycraft.  We'll be hanging out with Kirstie on Google + as she hosts a hangout with those bloggers and press outside of London who aren't able to make it to the event. We've also planned to make our Valentine's Day cards and gifts at the event too so that we can earn lots of homemade brownie points on Friday.  Talking of brownies have any of you entered the Taste off Competition on ITV's Lorraine Show for a chance of your 'sweet treat' of choice ending up on the patisserie counter at Waitrose?

If your love needs some hints and tips for Valentines other than a personalised hand made card you could always persuade him to pop in to Fenwick of Bond Street before Friday to pick up an item or two from the divine Helena Christensen's new lingerie range for Triumph.

Looking ahead to the weekend and early next week we'll have a watchful eye on the red carpets at the BAFTA's and the BRITS - oh the glamour!  The Superdrug team will be pulling together the beauty 'get the looks' at a fraction of the cost so that we can all look red carpet glamour ready.  Let us know whose look gets your vote next week.

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A real British Cuppa

Now you can enjoy a cup of the nation's favourite blend which has been home grown as Waitrose becomes the first supermarket to stock British grown tea from a plantation in sunny Cornwall.  We're celebrating with tea and cake today as Superdrug's B. brand celebrates its first beautiful birthday.  Happy Birthday B. Check out the new fabulous get the look videos by make up artist Cassie Lomas, http://happybirthdayb.co.uk/ and tweet your feedback @bsocial #happybirthdayb.

Sticking with beauty, the fabulous Sarah Stacey and Jo Fairley are launching their latest Beauty Bible book, the Ultimate Natural Beauty Bible and we're delighted they've chosen Fenwick of Bond Street for the launch of their latest book.  Reader evenings with You Mag are taking place at Fenwick stores across the country in March so be quick if you want to book a place as tickets are selling fast.

Now that we're in February we're turning to think about how to treat our Valentines this year and we're thinking handmade cards and gifts this year for the real personal touch.  We're delighted to hear that the Great British Sewing Bee will be back on our screens this month so not only will we be baking our way through Feb, we'll be sewing too.  Some of us were lucky enough (or old enough) to have learned how to sew at school and if you think sewing should be back on the national curriculum why not sign Hobbycraft's petition at http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/british-government-put-sewing-back-on-the-national-curriculum

It's a busy start  for Feb with events in the next couple of weeks including Hobbycraft's press show taking place on 13 February at Homemade London with special guest visitor Kirstie Allsopp and on the evening of 12th February our friends from GOSH cosmetics will be showcasing their new make up launches at the Hospital Club.  We're feeling fabulous about February!

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Vlogging our wares

Another of the key trends set to continue this year is the rise of the Vlogger from vlogs such as Sorted Food to Zoella.  These vloggers are becoming celebs in their own right and we're loving them.

We had fun vlogging ourselves this week as we filmed our new how to videos for B. at Superdrug to celebrate the first anniversary of the launch of this fabulous skincare and cosmetics brand at Superdrug.  Watch out for our video posts coming very soon.  Sticking with the birthday theme, as Superdrug gears up to celebrate its Fiftieth birthday we're planning some very special celebrations ... more on these to come very soon.

Meanwhile, it's been a white out at Fenwick this week with the launch of its fabulous white concept at Fenwick of Bond Street - a very refreshing start to the year - check out the Vintage white Chanel bag!

Finally, this weekend don't let the thought of Blue Monday drag you down - we've been relying on mini-eggs this week to get us through the week!  Nothing like a healthy start to the year hey but we've been balancing our diet with Waitrose's Love Life range and tips from their nutritionist so plenty of kale, beetroot and green tea!

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Casting Off

Well we're almost at the end of our first full week back and we've had an uplifting start to the year with our clients.  The week has included Waitrose announcing sparkling Christmas sales and Fenwick turning its windows and new carrier bags white this morning.   We're all juicing and eating Kale as Lakeland launch its new juicing machine and sales of kale are up at Waitrose.  Maybe next week we'll make some veggie cakes too when the hotly awaited Mary Berry baking range launches at Lakeland.  Finally how are you doing with those new year new hobbies?  Have you vowed to master knitting, sewing or baking this year?  Hobbycraft has some fantastic starter kits and is running crafty clinics this month in store.  That's it we're casting off!

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More on 2014 trends

We promised to keep you posted this week with updates on our ten for 2014 trends to watch and here are today's tips.

It’s no wonder with the iconic global festivities taking place this year we’ll be celebrating a renewed spirit of exploration as we travel to experience these events but also seeking ‘unsocial’ destinations too.  Destinations where we can have some genuine ‘switch off time’ from the always on society that we now live and work in.  Stressed out families and executives are seeking destinations and venues that offer genuine unplugged switch off time.

Speaking of time as we all have so little of it we’re welcoming the new fitness craze, Tabata interval training that packs a punch in a small package meaning we’ll be much more efficient with our training regimes this year.  On your marks, get set, go .....

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Tuesday's trend for 2014

We promised we'd keep you posted with our tips on trends for 2014 and here is today's post:

Anyone fancy a White Russian as Brazil is not the only one of the BRICS to be centre stage this year with the Winter Olympics being hosted in Russia this February. Think romantic, snowy, Narnia like fantasies. Surely a better fantasy than the storms battering us right now!

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The Return of the Blog

2014 Welcomes the return of the ZPR blog and to kick the year off we thought we'd share our thoughts for what we'll be doing and seeing during 2014.  Watch out for our regular posts and we'd love to have your feedback on what you enjoy reading about.  We'll be posting our ten trends for 2014 over the next few days. Here's the first ...

We’re going nuts for all things Brazilian and we’re not talking beauty treatments here we’re talking the most successful international footballing country hosting the 2014 World Cup.  Expect to see Brazilian influences in food, drink and lifestyle trends.  Make ours a Caipirinha.  We can't wait for the carnival of football to kick off.  

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Christmas comes early for B&Q team

Christmas arrived last week for the ZPR girls with the B&Q press show over the skyline of London.

 

We took over the 31st floor of Centrepoint building to preview our new Christmas and autumn winter decor ranges, launch our new energy saving offer as well as showcase a range of new and innovative power tools to over 120 journalists. We also had the lovely George Clarke make an appearance as he took a sneak peak at what’s new at B&Q.

 

This year, we challenged journalists to tweet the best photo of the show to us for the chance to win a fabulous prize. The entries exceeded our expectations, with the winning picture, chosen by the lovely George Clarke, being of the taxi bauble flying over London.

 

 

Though it would seem Christmas is a longtime away we are definitely starting our Christmas countdown at the ZPR office early!

 

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