NYC: Mack's Back | Macaulay Culkin's iPod Party June

Fear not my friends Mack is back!  Younger bro Rory Culkin has been holding the fort at LPR NYC on their once Thursday a month party but the real deal will be plugging his ipod in this week, on the 13th June, for what's set to be one of his most outrageous parties yet.

LDN: Monday Monday Monday | Tegan & Sara

Tegan and Sara are in town tomorrow for their gig at the Troxy, Shoreditch, so it seemed only apt that we begin the week with their track Monday, Monday, Monday.

I've been a fan of these two indie rock chicks since I went to college in Massachusetts.  They're very rarely in the UK and for very little time and so I managed to finally get to a gig of theirs back in February, in NYC at the Beacon Theater, fearing they'd never make it to UK shores again.  A couple of months down the line and they're bringing that gig to LDN.

Great set and humourous banter from the girls.  Tickets are £25.50 and you can purchase them from Tegan and Sara's site.

So from Tegan, Sara and I, good luck with the rest of your monday, monday, monday. 

NYC: Cocktail Crushin' | The Wayland

The Wayland, a quirky bar in Alphabet City actually has a very Brooklyn vibe to me and I'm sure it wouldn't be out of place on Bedford Ave in Williamsburg.  But, down on the corner of East 9th and Ave C, sitting silently and unobtrusively is this watering hole.  The simple exterior, with little indication as to what's inside apart from a paper sign letting you know it's cash only, is the perfect cover for what is actually a rustic, candlelit, cosy and atmospheric drinking haven.  You'll often see co-owner Jason Mendenhall behind the bar and if he's the one making your drink, all the better!

Happy Friday Y'all | Girls Just Gotta Have Fun

At just 10 years old, Essex born Sophia Grace has more swag in her little finger than I have in the entire of myself, 18 years her senior.  This girls tune, Girls Just Gotta Have Fun, to coin a Will.I.am phrase, is "Dope.  Mega Dope."  And it's the perfect fun feature for a Friday on To ELLE and Back.  Plus she smashes a cream pie in some boys face around 3:22, and who doesn't have a list of guys they'd like to do that to?!

Props to our girl, Sophie Grace, for this smile inducing, sick video and beat that's sure to get us all ready for a sunny weekend in both LDN and NYC.

Now excuse me, I've got my shades and a pink tutu to find, Sophia style.

Lavender Lullabies | Castle Farm, Kent and Other Purple Stories

Sat outside, awaiting our table at french restaurant, Buvette in NYC 2012, fellow blogger and North Carolina'n friend, Hayley of Tiptoes in the Kitchen, began to regale me with her dream of discovering an endless sea of purple in the form of lavender fields.  She had embarked on a European adventure with her mother the year prior and was adamant that she would be able to cast her eye wistfully on these fields in Provence.  Her search became difficult, I forget the specific reason, but nonetheless, just as she had given up they stumbled upon some purely by accident.  These Provence fragrant fields were everything she had hoped for and more and were made all the sweeter by the fact she was so certain her dream would have to be postponed for another year.  I, in hand, told her about Castle Farm in Eynsford, Kent, England.  This lavender farm is only a half hour journey from my family's home and is an annual visit for us in July amongst peak lavender season!

FOODIE | DIY NYC Pizza

London in comparison to NYC falls fairly short on the pizza front.  So I decided to create a pizza, at home in the UK, that incorporated some of my favourite food experiences of NYC.  Enter my pizza blanco with pulled pork!

LDN: Hermes Festival des Metiers | Saatchi Gallery

Run your hand across the luxurious leather of the birkin bag, watch as a glimmer of a diamond is set amongst a heavy gold stud, dust your fingers delicately along a rail of printed silk scarfs.  Hermes Festival des Metiers, recently showing at the Saatchi Gallery for just one week, transported you to their work space in Lyons and gave you the opportunity to learn first hand just how magnificently everything is made. 

Love that Dirty Water

You never fall as hard or fast as you do for your first love and for me that was Boston.  I've been visiting the city since I was 11 years old and lived just outside it for a short time in 2005 and yet my heart still has butterflies every time my plane lands at Logan, or my Greyhound drops me at South Station.  It has a special place in my history and as much as I've grown to love the incredible city that is NYC this last year, New York somehow still never stirs the same feeling inside of me as Beantown does.  There's nothing quite like the warmth I feel as I wander it's streets, as the sun hits the Common and as my hands freeze whilst clutching my french vanilla iced coffee from Dunks in sub zero temperatures.

When I heard the news on monday, via twitter, my initial reaction was shock.  Shock that anybody would want to hurt this city in particular "it's the friendliest city in the World", I thought.  Not that any city in the US deserves this kind of act of terror but the fact that it was Boston seemed to really confuse me.  After reading A Boston Food Diary's post, Boston: My Town, My Love, My Community, I realised why I was regarding this city as if it were a human being, because as this fellow blogger explained, "Boston...It's a personality."  And what a personality it is!

A lot has happened this week and as we all begin to rest our heads on our pillows in preparation for yet another monday morning in which the daily grind shall begin all over again, I just wanted to reflect on how much bigger and stronger my feelings have grown for my first love and it's people, some of whom I am  so lucky to call my friends.  Your spirit has been unfailing and your personality unfaltered.

Here's to meandering down Charles Street weaving in and out of boutiques and cafes, to Beacon Hill as you silently make your way through the elegant passages of brownstones, to the beauty of Boston Public Garden as it stands in unison with the more understated common, to the italian sausage stands parked as usual outside old Filene's Basement, to that golden dome that watches over us in confidence, to the Prudential tower as it smiles back at us whilst taking the red line across the Charles to Cambridge, to the twinkly lights, sparkling like magic at dusk on Newbury, to the hustle and bustle that is never angry or selfish on Boylston.  To Boston.

Return Journey

View from the walk home from Newport PATH Station
Newport Town Square, Newport, Jersey City, NJ

Secrets and Lies

Speakeasy, Little Branch
7th Ave, Leroy and St Luke's Place, NYC