A trip to Canterbury

Just to warn you before we get started, this post has pictures from mid November. Just in case you were confused by how quickly my hair seemed to be growing!

Anywho, I forgot to post these pictures a little while ago, so I though I'd share them now. I took a trip to Canterbury with the in-laws, I've never been there before, but I felt it was probably worth a visit now I live in that neck of the woods.

I have to say I really like that old style architecture with tudor style cladding, white paint and beams. It is closer to the style of my home town that somewhere like Brighton is so I feel quite at home there. I think its probably why I like Tunbridge Wells so much too. 

Naturally, this post will have quite a few pictures:

Here is me and a wonky door...

I really liked the look of this bread shop, but I have to admit that I find the little robotic baker figure in the window a little bit scary.

HOW COOL ARE THESE LEGO MINIFIG NECKLACES!

Giant sweets...

My very best attempt at an arty shot...

Dare I say, that any town that has plastic Monks in the streets is asking for a little bit of horse play.

Of course in this city of great pilgrimage we couldn't not go to the cathedral. It was rather magnificent I must say. I've never seen such a big cathedral!

And here is what I decided to wear. It is a dress from M&S, late 80s/early 90s by my reckoning and it has a really cool tropical print to it which manages to brighten up a dull day. I wore it with my trusty black M&S coat and a vintage chunky knit cardigan, that you can't really see. This was the first day that it was cold enough to break out my Morlands boots too. I was told that they were from the 1960s, although it doesn't really matter to me, I was only really interested in the lovely fur lining and water proof suede. I've really struggled to find good warm boots for the winter, so hopefully these will be it!

Dress: M&S via eBay

Coat: M&S via eBay

Neck Scarf: Salvation Army

Boots: Morelands via eBay

Oh, we also went to Patisserie Valerie on the high street. I had an ice cream sunday - it was beautifully delicious!

One last picture of the lovely view of the cathedral all lit up.

Brighton Pride 2013

Well well well, what a way to come back to Brighton - for Pride weekend! After living in Brighton for 4 years I managed to miss pride every year, mainly because it always fell in August which was when I seemed to end up taking annual-leave during my PhD.

Not this time though! This time I managed to hit it about right, time wise, however I have been living out of a suitcase so I didn't really have the wardrobe resources to be able to truly dress for the occasion. I think Pride is a great excuse to celebrate how far LGBT rights have come, but are also a reminder that there is further to go.

Overall though Pride is a great opportunity to get dressed up, to dance in the street and celebrate diversity and equality. It is great to know that so many other people are able to happy to celebrate too - including cafes, shops and individuals. I loved seeing the shop windows all done up - especially choccywoccydoodah! With their Friends of Dorothy cakes, they looked so good!

I absolutely loved this boutique window with the wedding dress accompanied by rainbow shoes!

Of course, then there was the parade! There were lots of different floats, and many people on food too, I couldn't really get close enough to take amazing pictures, but I wanted to show my favourite floats:

Since I didn't have a rainbow dress I had to make so with a red and blue multi stripe dress that is Per Una at M&S via eBay and cost £9.99. I also got some new sunglasses from a stall in Brighton and they had an exaggerated vintage wing style which I really liked the look of.

I put my hair up in lots of twists on the top of my head which I think worked quite well and helped keep it out of the way in the summer heat.

Have you ever been to a Pride event?

Cotton Tail Club Brighton Blogger Meet

Back in Brighton I was invited to the Brighton Blogger Meet Up at Cotton Tail Club and hosted by Hayley of Vintage Vessel, Sadie from The Vanity Case and Matt from Southern Retro. The event was held at the regular night Cotton Tail Club at Above Audio in Brighton and I felt lucky to make it back to the south just in time to go to the meet up. In my experience Cotton Tail Club is a fairly relaxed night with good half price cocktails and lovely tunes spun by resident DJs The Gin Slingers.  

I was really really stressed about what to wear (cue complaint about living out of a suitcase...) and in the end I chose a dress from Monsoon that I felt had a bit of a 60s vibe to it. Sadly I had to spoil the outfit with a cardigan as this was the one day with bad weather in the last two weeks. I'm not really sure what happened to my hair that day, for some reason it ended up being huge! Which is one type of achievement, but not exactly what I was after with this outfit... oh well, I got rained on anyway so never mind.

Devil Horns?

A special for the bloggers meet meant there were a few stalls including some rather lovely hats from B Millinery and some extra special discounted cocktails containing Bootlegger WGS (my favourite contained Amaretto and Blootlegger and was called Flaming Boot).

I got chatting to a few bloggers and vintage specialists including Liz from Advantage in Vintage who has a great vintage eBay and Etsy store (and a love of Laura Ashley!) and another Liz aka Miss PeelPants.

A trio of vintage DJs

Upon entering we were each given a raffle ticket for a cocktail and an entry into a draw to win a bottle of the Bootlegger. And guess what? I won! Here is a picture of me with Ginger Fizz of the Gin Slinger and the, beautifully presented I might add, prize. There are some really good recipes on the Bootlegger website here so I am going to experiment with those later - thanks Cotton Tail Club!

I also got some sunglasses from Bobby & Dandy's stall and a lovely scarf from Beyond Retro who were giving them away with a handy tote bag.

I do love a good blogger event, hopefully I'll get to go to another soon!

A Red Sun Dress for the Durham Miners Gala 2013

And the heat goes on (haha, that was a pun... sorry).

The week before last I went to the Durham Miners Gala. It was a beautiful day for it, but I can't imaging how hot some of those people playing in the brass bands or carrying the banners must have been.

If you don't know the Miners Gala is a event that occurs every year in Durham, it is a chance for all the different workers unions to get together as a celebration of unity and a little bit of socialism I suppose. I don't really know enough about the history of the pits and the gala to give any in depth explanation of the event, but it seems to be something a lot of local communities get involved in (more info here).

It was super busy as you can see from these photos (taken by my Dad)!

 

 The different groups bring banners and bands through the roads in Durham and march towards the racecourse where I believe they have political speakers and a bit of a party. My family and I ventured into town to and looked at the banners and listened to lots of the bands.

I did manage to steal away from the crowds to have a moment of quiet and a photograph in a fairly desserted back street.

I decided to wear a red sun dress from Monsoon - one of this seasons anniversary collection that celebrates 40 years of the brand - and reminds me a lot of those boho dresses from the 1970s. Perfect for a hot summer.

Here's a closer shot of the dress too:

I'm just about finished work and packing for now until I move back to the south so I am very grateful to have a bit of time to relax in the sunshine...

Fabulous Folly in Forbidden Corner

My husband and I went on a little day trip to the Forbidden Corner in the Yorkshire Dales. It is a garden folly set against the beautiful backdrop of the countryside near Middleham. There is a lot to explore, with classical statues and fountains, lovely gardens, strange underground lairs, hedge mazes and a lot of areas to get completely lost in.

You can find more out about Forbidden Corner here.

So for a day exploring I chose my comfy standard casuals with my Vivien of Holloway jeans, Wonder Woman Converse and since I was going with the slightly rockabilly look, a classic red and white stripe tee.

Upon entering the labryrinth we were given a non-linear map filled with picture clues to guide us on our journey. We were also given a sheet with blank circles so we could do brass rubbings of secret panels hidden throughout the park. By ticking everything off the map and getting all the brass rubbings, you could be (almost) sure that you had seen everything.

We snuck through the entrance door straight into the mouth of a belching castle - charming! But beyond this there were so many other things to see:

A beautiful herb garden with a dancing frog fountain and secret doors:

Some bears playing poker, many of them cheating, badly:

Woodland walks:

Classical architecture, underground secrets and passages and stepping stones with a super soggy surprise:

There were a lot of statues and carvings, and while you may be tempted to think that this place is probably for kids, there is a distinct undertone of adult humour to the whole place... naughty!

 Oh yeah, there were also a lot of ducks and ducklings in the picnic area - so cute!!!