Luscious Lingerie: If You Please

YUM.

That was the first word that popped into my head when I stumbled upon If You Please. Full of super sexy brands - What Katie Did, Fred & Ginger and the wonderfully risqué and fabulous Yes Master. (They're the company behind that digital print lingerie set, which is easily the most fabulous set I've clapped eyes on this year).

Let's have a look at what else they've got to swoon over. (It's more likely that I'll be swooning and not spending and I'm very sad about that.)

This silk slip is by Dirty Pretty Things. Gosh, that's such a fabulous name for a lingerie brand.

Oooh hello, fabulous sale items. I can afford this blue ruffle set by Lucy B - the brand is totally exclusive to If You Please and totally divine and a whole ruffled load of sexy.

I don't know who Miss Crofton is, but she's got ace taste in pants.

And here's a little bit of Mimi Holliday, because she's in the sale and I just can't get enough of her.

I certainly can't afford everything on the website, but some of the pieces start at £20 and there are a lot of sale bargains to be had as well. If You Please is a gorgeously designed website and a joy to shop on. I've quite enjoyed spending this morning in a bit of a fluster over sexy lace and silk.

Discount duvets

The summer sales are well and truly on us, so it's time to give one of the best places in the home - the bed, of course - a special treat. Duvets, and sheets and pillowcases, are going super cheap with something for all bedroom budgets and tastes, so there's no reason (other than an over-fondness for your Snuzzle pony) for you still to be sleeping under your My Little Pony cover. There also seems to be quite a lot of old stock still hanging around so if you liked any of the bedding bargains we featured here and here, it's probably worth checking back to see if they've been reduced in price any further.

The decadent Lanna design shown above comes courtesy of Anthropologie. It's seriously lush, usually with a serious price tag to match. A double duvet was selling for £198, it's now £59.98. That's the reason I'm only allowed to look at Anthropologie at sales time. 

This tasteful blue seer duvet cover comes from Zara. It's only £29.99 leaving you lots of spare change to put towards Zara shoes or dresses or whatever else you fancy.  

Roses on bed linen is one of my favourite things (coming closely behind whiskers on kittens). This Couture Rose range from Laura Ashley is ridiculously girlie and I love it all the more for it. Another reason for general love is the reduction in price - while the duvet would have set me back £70, it's now a more reasonable £42.

If all that sweetness is making your teeth rot, the more restrained Falling Leaves duvet from the John Rocha range at Debenhams could be a good alternative. The duvet is reduced to £52.

And if you like to dream in technicolour, how about the Bianca range from John Lewis? Bold and beautiful, the duvet is yours for only £30.

Jonathan Adler's Sausage Dog Butter Dish

I promise that I don't actively search for sausage dog paraphernalia. They just appear, as if by magic. No other dog has its own Domestic Sluttery (dog) tag and no other dog would look quite as wonderful as a Jonathan Adler dachshund butter dish.

I've never even used a butter dish before, it implies that butter lasts longer than two days in Sluttery HQ, which is most certainly doesn't (have you seen how much butter goes into this baklava recipe?!) but I do really want a sausage dog dish to be part of my life. Perhaps I could put him on my dressing table and hide my jewellery in him?

The downside to Jonathan Adler's quirky pretty is that this little ceramic wonder is £68. That's not on, JA. We've spoken about this before. Perhaps I'll buy this bowler hat butter dish instead. It's by Maxwell & Williams and only £11 from Heal's.

Take note Mr Adler, quirky pretty stuff under twenty quid will win my heart over any kind of sausage dog silliness. But when it comes to ridiculous giraffe table lamps, I throw all reason right out of the window.

Take my money, take it all.

Dream Dress: Sexy, sparkly shoulders from Dorothy Perkins

Shoulders are the part of a dress that's all too often ignored, but they really shouldn't be. Shoulders are sexy. They're sexy when your jumper just ever-so-casually falls and flashes a bit of skin as you walk past cute office boy (yeah, you keep pretending that was an accident), they're sexy when you're wearing a demure dress and have a little bit of a cut out. They're not sexy when they're sunburnt, so don't forget your sun cream.

They're very sexy when they've got a little bit of sparkle on them.

I love this pink chiffon dress and can't quite believe that it's from Dorothy Perkins. It's so very simple and classy. You'd out dress Kate Middleton if you turned up to a party wearing this, but it's not so fancy that you'd cry if you accidentally threw your cheap wine all over it. Sexy sparkly dresses that I can get drunk in without worrying are basically my favourite.

It's £42 and it's definitely a pay day dress. Your shoulders will thank you.

Build Your Own Safari

Following Siany telling us about safari in Kent, we decided that giraffes would make the best pets largely based on how awesome they'd be to ride into work instead of getting the train or bus. Imagine if everyone commuted by giraffe! Sadly, this isn't really possible. What is possible though is building your own little safari out of plywood. 

These slot-together kits are aimed at kids but why should they get the fun of building a giraffe and painting it ridiculous colours? I'd quite like a purple and yellow giraffe. And maybe a blue polka dot rhino. You get a giraffe, elephant, rhino, camel and what I think is supposed to be a lion which is a good start to your own little menagerie.

Want to build your own safari? Of course you do. The kit is £39.95 and available from 95% Danish.

Sluttishly Vegetarian: Guacamole

Making guacamole is much like roast potatoes, everyone has an opinion on how to make it and every method is slightly different. I like to make up large bowls of guacamole for barbecues, not that we are getting many of those at the moment (darn rain) but it is also the perfect dip to munch on during a Sunday afternoon movie session. So come rain or shine, guacamole is here to provide ultimate comfort food happiness.

Quite a few elements of guacamole are optional so do experiment to find what flavours work best for you. Some like to chuck in some fresh diced tomatoes, others like some finely diced red onion, I have even seen some sour cream drizzled through the guacamole. I, however, like some spring onion, a touch of chilli and a truckload of coriander.

Guacamole (serves 1-2 depending how generous you are feeling)
You will need:

• 1 avocado
• 1/2 lime, juice only
• 1 spring onion, finely sliced widthways,
• 1tsp garlic puree
• 1 small red chilli, deseeded and very finely chopped
• large pinch of sea salt
• handful fresh coriander, roughly torn

optional

• 1 tomato, skin removed, finely chopped
• 1 small red onion, finely chopped

Make it!

• Remove the stone from the avocado, scoop out the green fruit into a small-medium sized bowl and give it a bit of a mash with a fork. try and leave it a bit lumpy though for a textured dip.
• Add the lime juice, spring onion, garlic and red chilli and give it all a good mix
• Sprinkle the salt and coriander, give it one last stir
• Refrigerate for at least half an hour to let the flavours do their thing and start working together
• Serve with a giant bag of tortilla chips

Pantone and Perfumes

I know I shouldn't just smellies by their packaging, but I can't help it. This weekend I admitted that I could be swayed into buying a toiletries brand because of the design. Compagnie de Provence have always had a nice look about them - bold typefaces, bright colours - but they've outdone themselves with this trio of soaps that I spotted while reading a copy of Fabulous magazine that someone had considerately left on the Jubilee line at Southwark.

There's something very Pantone about the design, which I love. The three soaps are the exact scents that you'd expect from the paper colours - violet, Mediterranean sea and wild rose. They're the ideal mix or modern design and classic perfumes and much classier than that bar of Imperial Leather you've used right down to the last scrap.

Usually toiletries with swish packaging is super pricey, but you can pick up this little soap for for £11.80 from Rose & Grace.