Saturday, July 30

we're off on an adventure











Tomorrow morning, nice and early,
Ollie and I are off on our short London break.
We only have three days so we've planned to make them
as jam packed as possible.

Included in our plans is a trip on the London Eye,
a river cruise down the Thames
a trip to the theatre and a meal at a fancy restaurant.
And the one I'm really looking forward to,
afternoon tea at a little shop.

But most of all,
I can't wait to spent three whole days with my fabulous boyfriend!

Friday, July 29

i'm no beauty queen, i'm just beautiful me

I've fallen in love; the instant, head over heels kinda love.
Who's the lucky one?


Well, it's Selena Gomez & The Scene.
The other day I happened to watch a Selena Gomez special on E!
and since then I've slowly become obsessed with her music.
I spent most of yesterday playing her songs on repeat via youtube,
and today I bit the bullet and bought them on iTunes.

Now for me this is a big deal,
I'm not a huge downloader and I only purchase songs I really love
(In fact I was given a £15 iTunes voucher for Christmas
and before this I was still on £10.05!)...


I love how the songs are girly and floaty
and sing about the things a teenage girl is concerned with
without being full of angst like some songs can be.

I have three distinct favourites, in this order;
"who says", "a year without rain" and "round & round".
It's these three in particular because Selena is singing about love
and there are some amazing original lines in them.


For example, in "a year without rain" this is my favourite bit
I'm missing you so much, Cant help it I'm in love
A day without you is like a year without rain.
I love this line so much, because as clichéd as it sounds
it's exactly how I feel when I can't see Ollie.


So, love me or hate me for my latest declaration of love,
but I have a feeling I've found my latest sound for summer.

I thought I'd leave you with the video for my favourite song,
hope you enjoy




how to have a better day...


The littlest brother is now done at school for the summer,
consequently I've lost the mornings that I usually have
one my own until the middle brother surfaces around 3.

The initial joy of not having a job has worn off
and my days are just starting to bleed into one another.
I feel like I need a project to occupy my days,
as I feel like I'm just wasting them.
Might get back into scrapbooking,
but I was wondering if any of you lovely ladies
had any wonderful suggestions?
They would be much appreciated!!


Monday, July 25

lazy sunday reading


This was my evening yesterday;
reading Harry Potter by the late afternoon sun.
Even though it was past 7 o'clock, the heat of the sun
was still so warm on my bare skin.




I'm trying to finish reading the last book before my next viewing
of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
I'm going to see it for the fourth time with Emily on Thursday.
So far I'm still in the first film, but I'm slowly getting there.

The first time I read the book I got through it in one day,
but now that I have other things to do around the house
I don't have the leisure of doing nothing but read!


Reading in the Garden is such a lovely experience;
with all the flowers opening up the whole garden
smells just divine.
My favourite has to be sweet peas;
they make me think of my childhood as my Grandma
would always send me home from her house with a huge
bunch for my bedroom.


What are you spending your summer evenings doing?
Sunday, July 24

sale bargains: a sneak peak in my wardrobe

Even though I'm supposed to be a poor student
and I haven't managed to find a job this summer,
some how I have managed to find the money
to hit the summer sales!

I thought you might like to have a peak
at my latest bargains, some were quite a steal!


Stretchy Cardigan - £5 was £25 - Republic

This is the only new item that I'm not quite sure about.
I like the colour and the fact that you can tie the top in a little bow,
but the fact that the material is stretchy puts me off.
However, as Mum said it was only £5 so can't really go wrong!

Maxi Dress - £15 was £25 - Republic

I am in love with this dress.
I'd seen it in the shop numerous times, I even tried it on.
I couldn't budget in it, I said to myself.
However, with the £10 knocked off the price tag
I couldn't really say no!

Pleated Skirt - £10 was £30 - H&M

Saw this little baby when shopping in Worcester with Bria.
I don't seem to have very many skirts at the moment,
so I couldn't resist.
I love the length; just above the knee.
Very flattering in my opinion!

Knee Length Skirt - £10 was £35 - Next

Close up of skirt detail

Along the same vein, this is another skirt to add to my collection;
however this one is slightly more formal.
All my other formal skirts were school ones that are now a little old.
This has a gorgeous ruffle detail running diagonally down
the front and one the sides.

Peter Pan Dress - £30 - Republic Online

This one isn't technically a sale bargain, as I bought it full price.
However I just wanted to include it in this post
because I think it's the most beautiful dress!
Saw this in the shop when I was sale shopping,
but they only had teeny tiny sizes in stock,
so I had to track it down on the Internet.
But I'm glad I tracked it down,
and I'm planning on wearing it on my upcoming trip!


Have you been sale shopping recently?
I'd love to see what you've bought!
Saturday, July 23

the perfect picnic


On one of Ollie's rare days off we went on a little picnic
to a beautiful little spot called Wenchford by the Forestry Commission,
called Blakeney Straights by the locals.

There are so many ancient, old oak trees
which throw dappled light onto the little stream
that trickles through leading into a paddling area.
(Don't I sound like brochure).


It's one of those places that I've been going to for years.
From being a tiny little tot running around in my jelly shoes;
to being a gangly child scraping my knee running through the stream;
to a teenager surveying the stream for a geography project!
Now that I'm supposedly an 'adult', my boyfriend is driving me there
and we're going there for romantic picnics.
Adult picnics with Pimms in a can (fabulous invention!)




I was worried that the weather wasn't going to hold out,
however we had a lovely sunny day in the end.
Warm without being too hot; perfect.
I managed to get my pasty legs out,
hopefully they'll start to brown soon!

With any luck Ollie won't be worked to the bone this summer
and we'll be able to have more days like this soon!
Friday, July 22

hidden gems

I have found the most gorgeous hidden gem in Gloucester.
It's a little shop out of the way of the main high street
and it's called Chez Rose.

The front of it just grabs your attention straight away
with all the things that are draped in the windows and on the outside.
There's even an old bicycle propped up and overflowing with flowers!


Inside there is just so much stuff that you don't know where to look first.
Hidden away in every little nook and cranny is something
interesting and beautiful and captivating.

I've taken some photos of the things around the shop
that caught my eye the most.






I think I have fallen in love with Chez Rose.
It's amazing.
It's like one of those little French boutiques!
I could have spent a million pounds in there.
I will 100% be visiting again!
Sunday, July 17

visiting the big capital!



Ollie and I are planning to take a trip to London
for a few days at the end of this month.
Seen as we are both broke students it's also a trip on a budget.

We have a whole three days, and want to fit as much in as we can.
Aside from touristy things (which I have done to death)
I don't really know London very well.
So what I'm asking if for suggestions for some where nice to go.

Anyone able to help?

Thursday, July 14

brownie guide campfire




Over the years Mum has set up a Rainbow unit,
then Brownies, Guides and most recently a Ranger group.
She a one woman guiding machine,
and I'm so incredibly proud of her!

Last night was our first annual guiding campfire.
It was with all the girls from all the units.
We set up Nigel's firepit in the middle of the school playground
and kept it fed with lots of logs.
Then we all gathered around with the girls
and sang both old and new Guiding songs,
such as "This little Guiding light of mine"
"Kookaburra" and "High Dee".

We then partook in some wonderful hotdogs,
which weren't cooked on the campfire sadly
but were tasty all the same!!
Wednesday, July 13

good friends live in worcester






The other day Nigel went to visit his son,
who lives in Worcester.
And I suddenly thought "Ah! Bria lives in Worcester!"
So we met up for an impromptu shopping trip
and caught up over coffee in costa.
Well, at least Bria had coffee. I had raspberry iced tea.

I've never been to Worcester before, and I really liked it.
It's a very picturesque city full of beamed pubs
and red brick buildings and tree lined high streets.

The only thing that was odd was the weather,
it couldn't decide if it was hot or cold, still or blowy.
Picking an outfit was the hardest thing to decide!

Seeing Bria was lovely,
especially as my uni friends are off travelling this summer.
Sometimes I feel like counting down the days until I go back.
But then I remember that I have great friends at home.
Monday, July 11

old english fête





Last weekend Mum and Nigel (Mum's fiancé) and I
all went to a village fête in Hereford.
It was all terribly quaint, set in the grounds of this huge stately house,
with a magnificent garden and a pond that can only be described as a lake.
In fact the lake was so big it even had a family of swans living on it,
standard for any English manor house I'm sure!

At the fête there were games such as wooden skittles,
the well known Coconut Shy,
and the less well known 'Welly Wanging'
in which the aim is to throw a Wellington boot as far as possible!



It didn't take very long for Mum and I to track down the stall selling Pimms.
This is of course a staple in any self respecting English event.
It wouldn't be worth going to if not!

So we had Pimms, served to us by these lovely old men,
who spent forever faffing around trying not to give us fruit in our glass,
when actually, we rather like fruit with our Pimms.
But oh well!



Another staple of the British fête is the cream tea,
which consists of a scone, strawberry jam, cream and a cup of tea.
Nigel and Mum had a dispute as to which order the jam and cream go on your scone.
Traditionally it goes scone-jam-cream.
Nigel's goes scone-cream-jam.
But Nigel was defiant, and adamant that
a) his was right and
b) his tasted better!
My only opinion on the matter was that Mum's looked prettier!


The highlight of the day was the falconry display,
during which I was foolish to admit that, yes, I did have a camera.
So, the 'falconer' (to use the proper terminology!) called me into the arena,
he then explained how he was going to make the kestrel fly into the tree
and then land on his arm which he was going to place just behind my head.
And I was supposed to take a picture of it.

Now, whilst he was trying to make this happen,
the bird had other ideas.
First it flew off to the right and landed on the head of a two year old child!!
Second it flew to the left and landed on the head of an elderly man!!
Obviously this bird likes to land on heads,
and here was this guy encouraging it to land on mine!!
I was scared!
And when it came down to it, I panicked,
and the above picture is my effort at trying to photograph the bird in flight!

But that was not it. Oh no. He called me up twice more.
Firstly to demonstrate that the bird can pull it's huge wingspan in
whilst flying through trees.
How was this done?
My making the bird go in between my legs!
I closed my eyes!

And secondly, this was my supposed reward for traumatising me earlier.
He called the Hawk (which was called Dave) in to land on my arm,
which was actually pretty amazing.
For such a big bird it was incredibly light!
And even though I was a little scared, getting the opportunity to do
these three things was really fantastic,
and not something that everybody gets to do!!
 

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