Friday Favourites

1. 365 Days At My Desk (38/365), 2. Lead me home., 3. 141.365, 4. Just Reminding You, 5. We toast the fallow furrows that we sow., 6. Canopy Bed, 7. Mustaches, 8. late Spring clean!, 9. Untitled

List 8: things I heart about summer

I'm not really a summer loving gal. (not summer loving in the Grease sense - just loving summer) Being pale-skinned means I burn easily so can't be out in the sun for too long. Also I have a ridiculously low tolerance for heat, and tend to get really whiney and want to sit down when the temperature goes above about 21 degrees celsius! But for all my complaining I do love so many things about summer, and these are just some of them....

1.wearing dresses without tights
2. avocados are in abundance - I love them just mashed up on toasted ciabatta
3. summer is family BBQ season, which means homegrown tomatoes, grilled halloumi, and new potatoes (yes, for me the perks of summer are almost entirely food-based)
4. picnic dates
5. sitting in the garden reading books
6. hearing the ice cream van
7. long walks in the park with my dog
8. blowing bubbles
9. visiting the seaside - my favourite things to do are sitting in deckchairs, buying really cheesy souvenirs, playing in the amusement arcades, eating chips covered in vinegar, and taking photos of the sea.
10. bubble tea
11. putting up fairy lights in the back garden
12. blue skies
13. drinking cider sitting on the pavement with my Carnaby Street girls
14. putting my collection of sunglasses to use (last count I had 31 pairs)
15. birthday cake (my birthday is in August and almost every year I get a double decker red velvet cake from Hummingbird Bakery)
16. sitting on the roof (not the proper roof - we have an extension and you can climb out of my bedroom window onto the roof of this) at night wrapped in a blanket looking at the world
17. mojitos. and lots of them.
18. endless days of sunshine
19. iced coffee
20. being outdoors as much as humanly possible
21. lying in bed at night with all the windows open
22. huge bowls of ice cold ripe cherries
23. smelling lavender growing in our garden
24. pick your own fruit farms
25. driving through the countryside with all the windows down
26. walking around the house in bare feet
27. visiting fun fairs
28. ice cream every single day
29. hearing seagulls outside
30. getting to use my wicker picnic basket

Lazy Oaf x Instax Mini

As some of you may remember from this blog post I recently did a photoshoot for Lazy Oaf, styling up some of their clothes on my friend and fellow Oafette Dee. It was so much fun, and I got so excited about showing you all the photos, that I completely forgot I also took some instax mini pictures to remember the shoot by. So here they are.... there are even a few looks which I didn't blog about previously, and a guest appearance by my pupster Jasper in the first photo!

 

Apologies for the not so great quality of these photos. I photographed the instax photos using my digital camera.... better than scanning them but still less than perfect. Anyone have any ideas for home to get better quality images?

Mixtape Number 6

 Here is my July mixtape. Another slightly random mix - note the Beyonce in there. I could have made a whole mixtape post just from her songs. I'm all over that lady right now, although unfortunately not literally. Enjoy folks and, as always, please hit me up with any musical recommendations you may have. Y'know how I love it.

1. Jumpers - Sleater Kinney
2. Bigmouth Strikes Again - The Smiths
3. The Modern Leper - Frightened Rabbit
4. Such Great Heights - The Postal Service
5. Black Balloon - The Kills
6. The Captain - Biffy Clyro
7. Countdown - Beyonce
8. When I Grow Up - Garbage
9. Very Loud - Shout Out Louds
10. Song for the Sea - Hannah Peel
11. Silver Lining - Rilo Kiley
12. After Hours - We Are Scientists

Friday Favourites

1. occasionally, 2. If I was young I'd flee this town., 3. 124.365, 4. Owly tea for me, 5. Face Off - Imperial Camera vs. Polaroid SX-70, 6. Untitled, 7. 147.365, 8. bookshelfboy, 9. 97.365

the sea is a good place to think hard about the future

 (yes, those are Los Campesinos lyrics. yes, this post should have been written several weeks ago - took me forever to get the film developed!)

A rather lovely day trip to Brighton, with a rather lovely lady by the name of Diane Littlecloud. I booked some super cheap train tickets, and we set off on a mini adventure. Here's what we got up to...

knitting on trains (well I watched whilst she knitted)

 photographing feet

 searching for the elusive 'art'

 lusting after a turquoise camper van

 wishing we lived in a house as beautiful as this one

ogling walls of vintage shoes

 eating lunch at a cafe with checkered tablecloths (I had apple juice and sweet potato fries)

 spotting cute graffiti (dog graffiti is my new favourite thing ever)

 hanging out on the pier

 taking instant photos that look like ghost images

 staring out to sea

 hunting lions

 more photographing of feet

 wishing we could go on the carousel but amusing ourselves with simply taking photos of it

 getting as close as possible to seagulls before they spot us and fly away

 and a little bit of posing for an impromptu photoshoot....

Thank you Diane for a lovely day by the sea - we must do it again very soon <3

List 7: films I could watch over and over again

Everyone has them, right? Those films you will never tire of. You already know every word to them and, if we were still living in the age of VHS tapes, your copy would be showing signs of extreme wear. Here are mine... (please forgive me, some of these are highly embarrassing and lots of them are films I have loved since I was a teenager!)

1. Bring It On
2. Clueless
3. Amelie
4. 28 Days Later
5. Waitress
6. Saved!
7. The Little Mermaid
8. Elf
9. The Royal Tenenbaums
10. Some Like It Hot
11. Cruel Intentions
12. Josie and the Pussycats
13. My Neighbour Totoro
14. The Usual Suspects
15. Memento
16. Legally Blonde
17. Edward Scissorhands 

It's funny - although lots of these movies are movies I really love, only a couple would make it into my top twenty favourite films of all time. It's strange how our favourite movies aren't necessarily the ones we watch all the time. What movies could you watch on repeat?

Creighton's Chocolaterie

One of my best friends, the uber talented Lucy Vanilla who you may remember from previous blog posts... she is the amazing lady who made me my very own gingerbread beach hut plus a cake version of burger and fries. A few weeks ago she, along with her family, opened a chocolate shop in Leighton Buzzard called Creighton's Chocolaterie. I decided that a visit was in order (partly to see the shop, but mostly because Lucy moved back to LB nearly two months ago and I haven't seen her since.) The shop is housed in a listed building, and they have made it so cosy and welcoming...

I got a huge bag of this milk chocolate with pretzels slab, and it vanished within a day...

my personal favourite - moustache lollies...

 if you've never tried salted chocolate then DO IT - it's the best thing ever

 love that the chocolate is arranged in rows of colour

 these would make such an ace gift - next time I will be stocking up!

 repping up the LB!

 they have tasters of the different types of chocolate they use on the counter....

Lucy bought these weighing scales when we went car booting together - they weighed a TON (no pun intended there)

 As part of my visit I got to help out making chocolates! They make all their chocolates in store by hand, which I personally think is AMAZING. So much nicer than buying from a huge commercial company. Here is Lucy tempering some chocolate...

 I decided to make some moustache lollies from dark chocolate to take home as wee gifts for some lovely people... here are the moulds all prepared...

.... and filled with chocolate (there is an art to getting it in neatly, one that I obviously have to master!)

 I also 'helped' dip some truffles ready for sale in the shop

 (yeah that's me looking pleased as punch with my effort)

If you live in  the area then do go and visit, but if not then you can always order online from their website.

thrifted finds

Think I'm going to make a weekly feature of this - what do you all think? I love reading about other people's thrifted finds, but not so sure if other people enjoy reading about mine! So any feedback would be greatly appreciated! As I mentioned last week the thrifting has been very good lately - I've had more stuff than I can carry to the shop so the backlog has been piling up, which isn't good as it means my mum gets stressed, and I end up falling over stuff (it's stored in my craft room currently) and wrestling items from my dog's clutches. He's learnt how to scale the bags in order to reach choice items that are piled up high. Part dog, part mountain goat.

As usual all this stuff, plus lots more, is available in Ayoka Charity Shop Boutique on Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green. Please do go and check it out as it's such a lovely shop with lots of great finds (not just mine!)

loving finding these jug and glasses sets - perfect for summer drinks on the patio

I do love a good pair of vintage weighing scales and try to snap them up whenever I can - practical but also very nice to look at

 these coffee and tea storage canisters were one of my favourite finds

 love this little desk organiser - it's the perfect colour, but is also functional which makes it a definite winner in my book!

 these hand stitched bird pictures would look amazing in a living room or a bedroom - one is embroidered and the other is cross stitched, and both are very detailed.

 I hit the mug jackpot - these three are my favourites, but I got about ten in total!

a wee pyrex jug with yellow details, ideal for a vintage kitchen

 this nearly stayed with me as part of my Eiffel Tower memorabilia collection - but I already have one very similar (it used to hold perfume but I love the decorative bottles just on their own.)

a Russian made room thermometer from the 1970s - love the little ship illustration on it! (it was a hot day as you can clearly see - 28 degrees, scorcher! oh, and excuse the fact you can see my reflection in the plastic - I was photographing it outdoors!)

who doesn't need a ceramic Charles and Di trinket pot?

 although it is a bit battered this giant box of matches won me over with its bullfight image, and the fact that the matches are black with white tips!

 tiddley winks anyone (also, I always thought it was 'tiddlywinks' but maybe I've just had it wrong all these years!)

 this cat looks huge in the photo but is actually dinky - would make the perfect 'good luck' gift to someone special

an adorable 1950s sewing aids booklet - inside it has all manner of essential sewing notions but I don't think I could ever use them!

 these vintage Mandy for Girls annuals make for great reading - they are so funny, and have the most random things in them! Strange to think how different they would be if they were published now...