Showing posts with label picture heavy. Show all posts

Exploring Slapton Sands in Devon...(PICTURE HEAVY)

Last weekend, Mark and I headed down to Devon to spend a few days relaxing with my in-laws. We stayed at The Old Torcross Hotel which was converted into apartments and it was the perfect location, literally 20 steps to the beach with the most amazing views. I have always loved being by the sea and I could feel the stress lifting as soon as we stepped out of the car.


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When I fell in love with Barcelona... (PICTURE HEAVY)


A couple of weeks ago, my friend Meera and I went to Barcelona for a long weekend and I absolutely loved it. It was such a great city and all I wish is that I could have had more time to spend there! I loved the hop on hop off bus, very touristy but it meant that we saw more of the city than we could have covered on foot. I took over a thousand photos (!) and I'm sharing some of my favourites here...

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A family day trip to Croome Court... (PICTURE HEAVY)

Apologies for the radio silence recently, I have been super busy with work and have been finding things a bit overwhelming so blogging has had to take a back seat. Luckily, our families had something planned to get me out of the house and despite me being super tired, it was super fun! You know how much I love going on little day trips (yes I am already an OAP!) and Croome Court was ideal as it is just up the road from us. It is one of the closest National Trust properties to us and we used to visit a lot when we were kids but it has been a while (last time we went, my 4 siblings and I managed to fit into a hollow tree trunk, that's how log ago it was!) so I was interested to see how much had changed since then. 


We had really lovely weather and the estate looked beautiful. I love visiting stately homes and swanning around pretending to own the place, I definitely could live as a lady of leisure! ;)


Croome was a little different though as it is currently undergoing significant restoration at the moment. 


I mean you can see it in these pictures, there were flagstones pulled up, walls exposed and scaffolding covered the outside of the house. 


The beautiful decorations just made the contrast even more stark...


The Long Gallery was probably my favourite room, it was fairly bare but had loads of cool art in which was apparently inspired by Croome...


I mean, isn't this cool?!


I'm not sure when these tiles date from but they look super 1970s to me!


There were originally some beautiful French tapestries in this room but they were sold off when the estate ran into difficulties. The dominant colour was this gorgeous raspberry pink- I bet they made an amazing feature wall!



There was a really cool interactive display in the basement; a miniature Croome Court! The original house was hidden inside the walls by 'Capability' Brown when he redesigned it in 1751. I loved this display and it was super fun to take it all apart...


A dizzying look up the staircases (this house is huge)

The dining room is amazing, the fruit plasterwork dates back to the eighteenth century but the house was used by Hare Krishnas between 1979 and 1984 and they painted it all in these vibrant colours. It's a bit of a controversial topic but I love how colourful it is, even if others aren't so sure!


As you saw, there is scaffolding enveloping the entire house at the moment and there's a cafe 12 metres up there at the moment. We didn't buy any food or drink but the views were worth the climb, even if I was too scared to go anywhere near the edge. Luckily Mark took this video for me so you can get an idea of how amazing the views were!



Apparently the house and parkland were Capability’ Brown’s first commission and he transformed it from marshland into this beautiful estate. 



This beautiful bridge is a replica of the Chinese bridge which stood on the same site in the eighteenth century but was lost to decay. Luckily a £200,000 Sainsbury Trust grant meant that the National Trust were able to reconstruct the crossing and this opened properly earlier this year.

Playsuit: Marks & Spencer, top: H&M, shoes: French Sole c/o Spartoo, bag: Clarks
I asked Mark to take a picture of me and I didn't realise that this woman was looking at me so scathingly, her face is priceless!

 

Beautiful views along the culvert...



There was a kite flying event on and although we had limited success, it was very very fun!


A look back up the hill towards St Mary Magdalene's Church, Croome D'Abitot.


 This was built in 1763 and is absolutely beautiful inside. Unfortunately the camera had run out of battery by the time we got back up the hill so you will just have to imagine it, or look up some photos! ;) This was such a lovely day out and I would definitely recommend visiting Croome if you are in the area...
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#GeniusJeans from George at ASDA...

This post contains items that were sent for review

You all know that I am a massive fan of ASDA's clothes and when they asked if I was up for a challenge, I readily agreed. Picking out what to wear is a total nightmare for me at the best of times so as you can imagine, I'm absolutely awful at packing for a weekend away. George at ASDA challenged me to pick out some of my favourite pieces from their website for a 'capsule weekend wardrobe' and although it was pretty tough trying to find pieces that would all work together, it was also a lot of fun!  Mark and I have been spending a lot of weekends away recently and I wanted to inject some summer into my wardrobe and I will be sharing how I style up my picks when we visit Oxford and Portishead over the next few weeks :) Seriously, I cannot wait to show you how gorgeous this seaside print dress is!




I have been pretty ill over the last few days so this outfit was the perfect way to ease myself out of pyjamas and back into society. Apologies for the squinting in these photos, it was surprisingly bright and I couldn't find my sunglasses, haha! I felt really good in this outfit, who would have thought that jeans would end up being my outfit of choice?! This zipped pair really impressed me, they fit really nicely, even accounting for the ridiculous size difference between my hips and waist- not bad for a mere £14!

 All items c/o George at ASDA: top, jeans and shoes
This top could have been made for me: stripes, lace and embellishment- what more could you ask for? The fact that it is ridiculously comfy is just the icing on the cake! I picked this Korres lip butter stick up recently and it has been soothing my chapped lips a treat. It is supposed to be tinted but I haven't really noticed it. I imagine it would be a bit more obvious over a lip tint?


Yes, I have committed the ultimate fashion faux pas: the shametuck but it was for a good reason, I promise ;) I really love the zip detail on these jeans and wanted to show it off. You can also see the gorgeous lacy detail on this top in this picture too- it could be overkill for some but I have never been a fan of minimalism!


It was really difficult to photograph these shoes (#firstworldproblems) but they are a pearlescent off-white/cream and have a slightly metallic sheen. The material is super soft meaning they are absolutely lovely to wear and I know I will get lots of use out of them with my summer dresses and skirts this summer.


Would you wear supermarket jeans? Are you a fan of George at ASDA?

P.S. I was sent these items to review but if I didn't love them, I wouldn't feature them!
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#AmyandGarrygetmarried... (PICTURE HEAVY)

As you may have seen from the many messages on Twitter and Instagram, the lovely Amy and Garry got married at the weekend and it was just the most wonderful day. The reception was held at Lamb's Tavern in Leadenhall Market and you couldn't have asked for a more beautiful location. I was so thrilled to be invited to the wedding and we had the best time- blogger friends really are the best! I never had many girl friends growing up but blogging has given me some amazing, smart and beautiful women that I am proud to call my friends and being part of their lives is an amazing thing. 


I mean, just look at that beautiful ceiling! 


You can't beat a cobbled street either...


Sadly all of our photos from the evening came out pretty blurry but you can definitely feel the love here- the lovely couple during their first dance. I'm not ashamed to say that I cried, Amy just looked so beautiful and I can't resist a couple in love!


There was lots of dancing... 

Image from the lovely Sarah
...especially with this beautiful lady! Sarah is one of my favourite ever blogger friends and it is so nice to spend the evening with someone you just click so well with. 


Unfortunately none of these photos were in focus but I think you can see how much Mark and I were enjoying ourselves!


The books hanging from the ceiling were amazing too- I just wish you could pull them down to read!


I really loved this starry ceiling, I just need to persuade Mark that we can paint ours like this! 


As the evening went on, we went down into the depths of Old Tom's bar, named after a gander who escaped slaughter in the early 1880s and lived to the grand old age of 37- not bad for a goose!


This rather cute 'Shanghai Shaun' the sheep provided much hilarity throughout the evening, as well as plenty of photo opportunities! 


You may recognise the wonderful work of  the very talented Sarah here too. We all added our fingerprints to this beautiful illustration rather than signing a guest book- isn't this such a lovely idea?!


This garden was tucked in by the New Court and was so beautiful. We did try and get some pictures in front of it but as it was a bank, a security guard told us that taking photos was forbidden and we had to scarper!


I have to say, the City is not an area of London that I know very well but it is absolutely beautiful, even if everything is shut at the weekend!

Dress: Coast, shoes: New Look, bag: ASOS
I wore this beautiful Coast Kampia dress (which is now on sale for £19!) along with my bargain New Look shoes and ASOS bag. Coast make the most beautiful dresses and are my 'go to' for occasion wear although I realised that I had committed a bit of a faux pas when I got to the wedding as they dress was a similar colour to the bridesmaids' ones- oops!


I fell in love with the inky blue/violet of this dress and these gorgeous embroidered flowers. As the dress was so elaborate, I kept my hair and make-up pretty simple and went for Essie 'Spin the Bottle' on my nails which may be my perfect nude shade!


We stayed at London Central Bank Travelodge which was gorgeous- way prettier than your average and super convenient too! The City may not be your first choice of places to stay but it was beautiful and it is pretty darned fun to wander around and pretend you are rich enough to live there!
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