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Hello dear readers, how are you doing? Summer has well and truly begun and I've been enjoying the sunshine and hearing the birds chirping from the early hours. Rufus isn't enjoying either, but he's still his funny adorable self and makes me smile a lot. It's been a busy few weeks and we had a lovely surprise break when we spent almost two whole weeks on the Wirral, enjoying Mark's birthday and time out from work. We went to see Maleficent on Wednesday with my sister Willow and my niece Caitlin, it wasn't what I expected but I'd still recommend a watch! Here's a few of the little things I've been enjoying lately...
1. This jellyfish installation in Toxteth was overwhelmingly beautiful, it was
so soothing and calming, and slightly haunting. It was in total contrast with the
area of Toxteth, where we didn't feel safe at all. A full post with artist details
and where exactly the jellyfish are located is coming up in the week.
2. The 27th was Mark's birthday, hip hip hooray! We had the loveliest day after
a soggy start which ruined our Chester Zoo plans. We spent the day playing ten
pin bowling, air hockey, shooting basketballs and Mark trying to teach me how to
play pool. I won 2/3 games of bowling but lost miserably at pool!
3. I received my lovely package of stationery from The Idea Owl this week, a
full post including the lovely things I ordered will be up soon :)
4. I took part in Lauren's (The Emerald Dove) postcard swap! It was so nice
to receive a good old fashioned handwritten postcard this week, with a lovely
picture of Somerset on too. Such a fantastic idea!
5. Last but not least, today was the Summer Fayre at my little sister (Indigo) &
nephew McKenzie's school. Lots of fun was had, choosing plates of cakes, Kenzie
scoring goals in the shootout and winning lots on the tombola, (including a can
of corned beef, yes really!).
What have you been doing lately? Are you enjoying the Summer? :)
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Last Sunday, I finished work at 4pm and the sun was beautiful! Mark & I decided to head out to Thornton Reservoir and make the most of it. Thornton Reservoir is a 20 minute drive from where we live, and it's about 2.5 miles walk all the way around it. Being part of the National Forest, it's very pretty and there's a track through the woodland and all the way around the reservoir itself. We saw plenty of fishermen fishing, and a few other groups of people feeding the ducks, taking a stroll or enjoying an ice-cream.
Before setting off Mark chose a real (his words) ice-cream complete with sprinkles, strawberry sauce & flake and I chose a delicious cola lolly from the little ice-cream van parked outside. There are plenty of benches dotted around, including picnic benches - it's a lovely destination for a family picnic, and we'll definitely be returning sandwiches in hand!
There were lovely birds everywhere, including ducks, swans and many more. We saw a big fish leap out of the reservoir and horses in the adjoining fields. We decided to walk along the bike track for a little way, closer to the water and all the pretty wild flowers. I picked up as many pine cones as would fit in Mark's pockets (much to his dismay!) and enjoyed stopping at regular (perhaps too regular) intervals to point things out and take photos. Mark read out the information sign to me, just like our first date in the museum in Liverpool over four years ago, ahh!
When we were over halfway around the reservoir, and into the more wooded part of the walk, a lovely gentleman on a bicycle saw my camera and asked what I was taking photos of. Of course my reply was everything! He told us that there had been a swan nesting for a while now, and that she had not long had her little baby swans. He pointed out the route to us, which we ended up following him on anyway! When we reached the point where the swans were, we all stood and admired the swan and her 8 babies. The gentleman was very sweet and helpful, and we hope to spot him again on our next walk around as he's a regular!
We spent so much time cooing over the baby swans that we had to rush a bit around the last stretch as the car park closed at 7.30pm and we hadn't realised the time! We had a lot of fun, and saw baby cows on the way back too! We can't wait to explore more of the local villages and National Forest when the sun is shining.
Do you enjoy walking? Where is your favourite local walking spot?
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Hi lovelies, how are you? I've decided for now that my Little Five Friday posts are going to be fortnightly instead of weekly, I'm so busy studying/working at the moment that I'm not getting up to much exciting stuff in a week!
I've got a lovely nail art post for you today, featuring some pretty daisies and polkadots. Bare in mind, I'm not a professional and I don't even have proper dotting tools as you can see, I used cocktail sticks!! The photos are of my right hand, my left hand is wobbly so my right hand always looks a bit messy.
I chose my favourite nude polish, Dulce De Leche by O.P.I. (available here) for the base using just one coat, then dotted a few spots on each nail as a guide to where my daisies were going to be. For this I used a nail art pen I got from Topshop ages ago (Same here).
Next, using a cocktail stick and a big splodge of white nail polish (in a set here), I dabbed five petal shapes around each dot. None of my daisies on this hand look the same, but I think that just adds to the charm of them. You have to be quite quick so the splodge of white polish doesn't dry up and go gloopy. If it does, just wipe the cocktail stick clean and start again.
The last step of the daisies is the yellow middle. I did this using Barry M Yellow (similar here) and my cocktail stick.
The finishing touch to these nails is the little gold polkadots dotted around the daisies. This gold polish is quite subtle on the nude base, but it looks lovely when it catches the light and is one of my favourite polish combinations.
Would you wear daisy nails? I think they're lovely for Summer!
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One of my absolute favourite things about our time in the Lakes was the jam lady. I'm assuming the jam lady is in fact a lady, but for all I know she could indeed be a he; who am I to say men don't make jam?! As you can see in the photos, there's a little trolley outside the house with little pots of yummy homemade jams and marmalade for sale. There's also locally made honey for sale, and this visit there was even honey fudge and homegrown runner beans too. We always used to take jams home for our families, this time was no exception and I took my mum some marmalade (her favourite). I once painted a picture for the jam lady, of a bear holding a jar of jam. I left it on the trolley, I wanted to show my appreciation for such a lovely thing.
The views in Arnside are breathtaking. On a clear day you can see for miles. The particular route we take down to the village from the hostel is down a very steep hill with trees all down one side, running down was very fun but less so in the Winter when the leaves are slippy after the rain! There are benches all along the path running alongside the beach. We sat for a while and did some reminiscing. It was very blustery though, and very cold!
As I mentioned in my last post, one of our favourite things was sitting on the end of the pier at night. It's just as wonderful in the daytime too, and in true Suzy Bishop style we enjoyed putting twenty pence each in the telescope and looking out to sea.
This trip wouldn't have been complete if I hadn't brought Matisse (my lovely bear) along to the place where my painted bears were born. We had the most wonderful day, and I'm so happy we finally made it back to visit this lovely little village. I can't recommend it enough, and it's not too far from Lancaster town center either so it's perfect for a day out.
I'm in Leicester for a couple of nights now so I'll catch up with everyone in a few days. My Literature exam is on Monday, and I cannot wait for it to be over!!
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Last month, Mark & I ticked off another of my 25 by 25s and went back to the Lakes. This is Arnside, the quaint little village where Mark & I spent a lot of time together when he was working at the Youth Hostel in the last photos above. We'd spend our days wandering around the little village, eating cakes from the bakery, buying ice creams from the shop on the front and sending postcards to my family. When Mark was working I would sit painting, feeling inspired by how beautiful it is in Arnside (Arnside is where I first painted bears).
It was so wonderful to visit again, we loved spending time digging through the treasure in Past & Present, though sadly now it seems to have upped it's prices and become more of an actual antiques shop. It's still worth a visit, there are many curiosities to be seen. The binoculars had me at first sight, when I imagined myself as Suzy Bishop with them hanging round my neck. I resisted, just about!
The village itself is very picturesque, with the gorgeous houses and window fronted shops right on the front by the sea and the beach. We spent many hot (and very cold) days walking down on the beach, walking along the water's edge when the tide is out. One of our favourite things to do in Arnside was to go for midnight walks and sit on the end of the pier (windy as it was!), there's just something about being out at night in such a peaceful place (unless it's kicking out time at one of the two pubs!).
There's a lot of nature, and a lot of walking to be done if you're into that kind of thing. As our time was limited, we didn't venture out of the village but instead headed up to the Youth Hostel to relive the days we spent watching Coach Trip on a computer screen sitting on the single bed. Sadly, the Youth Hostel is up for sale and it may not be a Youth Hostel for too much longer. It's a beautiful building, with all the ivy growing over it and the old brickwork. It's certainly old fashioned inside too!
More photos & stories to come in part 2 :)
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