And then came the storm...

Hello all,

So this weeks adventure on the Cornish coast took us to a very stormy and adrenaline filled afternoon in Kynance Cove down by the Lizard. Kynance is one of those beautiful landscapes owned by the National Trust that brings back some great memories for me, from Ben's twenty first birthday to walking the dog during the heat wave summer we've had and generally one of my top five beautiful places to visit in Cornwall. The news had been threatening us with a raging storm and Ben and I decided to find out for ourselves. Just a few words of advice: when the BBC tells you there is going to be a storm, just listen to the clever people on the news! It was cold, wet, windy and of course, miserable but great for some photography! After a slightly nerve racking drive to the stormy coast we got to Kynance, all dressed up for the weather. As a photographer and keen surfer, Ben loves going storm hunting by the coast and in all fairness it is mesmerising (and damp). Although I enjoyed our little adventure, the wind was getting stronger and the rain harder. The storm was coming fast and I'm glad to say we did not get stuck on The Lizard, phew! 

Kynance Cove

Photographers were out in force for the wet and stormy weather trying to take the eye catching moment that the over grown waves hit the cliffs. The contrast between the dark grey skies and green landscape was beautiful and when I could get my camera out of my bag, I took some snaps of some of the people standing still against the strong winds. My pictures don't do the weather justice with waves reaching 10 to 20 feet at times and the white water crashing against the rocks. I'm also a very amateur camera user (yes, I can't even say word photographer when i'm talking about myself)

 Brave photographers out in force 

Ben braving the water spray from the crashing waves

Passer by 

After our wet adventure Ben came back up the cliffs from the sea front to head back to the car. We stopped by the side of the road on the way out as he wanted to take some pictures of the country side filled with Autumn colours and long wild grass in the scenery. I chose to wear jeans and a cotton jumper to go out in this weather and I would not it advise it to anyone! As much as I love my Zara jeans and they've lasted me years i'm not sure they are the waterproof trousers that people should have in mind when battling with a storm. Another word of advice: when getting ready to go storm hunting, layers are great but waterproof layers are better! I was thinking more warm than dry and it was a crucial error! I've added a little taster below of some "real" photography by Benjamin Rutherford below that actually captures how brutal the waves and weather were today.

   

                Photography By Benjamin Rutherford

Although the Cornish winter weather is rather gruesome and damp, the country side is ever more amazing and worth a look at! Has anyone else been out in the damp weather or had any epic storms lately?

Hang on, do we need to buy a hat now?

Hi All,

So as you all saw from my last post, I went on a little bit of a shopping spree last week in Exeter. When I was in H&M, I came across this rather gorgeous/ trendy bowler hat so I decided to try on every single hat I could see. I went through all the hats before deciding on the one I wanted (the winter twist on the sun hat). After I bought it I did think, am I really trendy enough to wear this? (O dear, am I trying to be a bit too "cool"?). I had a little rummage online to see how to outfit my new hat and came across the Cosmopolitan feature on the new hat trend- Hang on, do we need to buy a hat now?! (Yey, I am slightly cool after all)

Now, I'm not nearly as glamorous and trendy as these gals above but I like to think I look okay-ish in it. I've outfitted mine very simply with black skinny jeans, a long sleeved black top and black heeled ankle boots (I know- very black) but then I find black very flattering as i'm not quite as petite as most girls my age.

Has anyone else recently bought the new winter sun hat that's been in all the high street store this month?

Little adventure through Devon

Hello all,

It's been a few days since my last post but soooo much has gone on! So lets start from the beginning. We drove to Exeter to see Ben's mum and help out around the house/ do a bit of shopping ;). This is a little bit of an adventure post and little bit of an outfit post. We arrived Friday night after work and Saturday I hit the town to go on a well deserved shopping trip. So I started off in some charity shops, with no success, followed by Zara. there were some amazing pieces in Zara I was desperate to buy this jacket! (Not enough money, sad face).

For the last few weeks I had been filling up shopping baskets on various websites with the hope of eventually buying all of it. H&M is my all time favourite shop at the moment. My virtual shopping basket was full to the brim and I went into the shop to see all the amazing things I wanted to buy. I tried all of it and yes... bought most of it, oups!

So lets start with item number one: the red dress. Beautiful material and amazing for going out with the girls, work attire and walking through town doing some shopping. My version of this dress is a deep red. Item number two is a smock style, white top with lovely tribal embroidery. Item number three is a warm, snuggly but smart coat, it's one of the best pieces of the day! So down to the serious business: my first pair of casual heeled, black, leather ankle boots. These are sophisticated, smart but still a bit trendy. I'm the youngest girl in my office surrounded by people who are married with kids and settled. I'm seen as the youngster, so I thought coming to work looking a little more sophisticated and grown up may help with the "kid" image people see me as. I've posted a picture below, let me know what you think!

Jacket- H&M

Boots- H&M

Sunday afternoon we went for a family lunch on the outskirts of Exeter where we had a nice home cooked meal and went for a walk. It started raining and the kids loved running through the puddles and picking up acorns, leaves and other bits and bobs in the woods. 

We spent Monday morning in the beautiful Exmouth. It was my first time in Exmouth and it was stunning. This may have been due to the beautiful Autumn light but the view was gorgeous and the town was lovely and cosy. Ben's auntie Emma owns this lovely, little crafty shop in Exmouth with lots of gift ideas and decorations (my dream shop). The shop was filled with Rob Ryan pieces, cool little notebooks etc. It was my first time in the shop and I could have spent thousands of pounds there. Hopefully my house will look like her shop one day!

I had such a lovely, relaxed week end!

What have you guys been up to? Any adventures?

The Helford

Hello all,

Our latest adventure has taken us to Helford in Cornwall, a beautiful scenic place in the depth of the celtic county. Ben and I don't get many chances to go for nice walks which is quite sad considering we live in what I think is one of the most beautiful counties in the UK. Helford is a place I had only been to once in my four years here. We went to a little beach to walk the puppy we were doggy sitting. This time, we went to a forest. Yes just some woods... At first I thought: WOW! (Sarcasm) I get to see trees (things I see a lot of) but no, this place is completely different to anything I've seen before. We walked through these woods to find out that they stopped on the sea front. I got to walk, hike, climb, it was fantastic!

We started by walking (or if your me: falling) down a hill through the woods and took a pew on the rocks by the sea. We took some lovely pictures, which I will share with you in just a tick. To get back up the big hill i fell down, I have to hold on to ropes attached to trees to pull myself up. It was such a beautiful, fun and childlike experience, something I haven't had for a while, everyone needs to act like a kid once and a while!

When we got back up to the top of the hill we continued working around to the little town near by. The sun was starting to set and the scenery was gorgeous. The old school sailing boats were out in force and we picked blackberries with the intention of making a lovely blackberry pie (they are in the freezer, so no blackberry pie a the moment). We found this little private beach with a green shed where we sat for a while to take in the view before going home to the real world and getting our lunches ready before work the next day.

One crucial mistake on this little adventure: I decided to wear a dress! Ben did warn me that this could possible the worst idea ever but I've been determined to pay more attention to the way I look at the moment and unfortunately it back fired on me, BIG STYLE! On the plus side, the sunset on the wya home was more than beautiful.

 

        

                         

Dorothy Perkins dress

H&M jacket

                                  

So have any of you had any little adventures? This week has made me realise how important escapism really is.

Newquay

Hello all,

As you can see I haven't been online for a while with starting work and starting a new e-learning course with the Learning People. So before I bore you with the info on the new course, I wanted to share some pictures and bits and bobs about my week end away in Newquay!

So... For my friends 23 birthday I took her to Newquay for a spa week end away. We stayed in a very smart hotel with a sea view called The Esplanade. 

We arrived in Newquay to be greeted by rain. This didn't drown our spirits as we decided to go for a walk along the beach and make a sand castle. This is a picture of my friend Rosie, below. She is always the more stylish, petite one out of all of us so I try and get snaps of her when she looks all glam. (She hates it!). PS: don't you love her poncho/jacket (Sainsbury's my friends)?

The weather cleared up and we sat on the beach soaking up the view. We decided to head back to the hotel to make the most of our luxurious spa facilities for which the pictures on the site were slightly misleading. Although the pool, sauna and jacuzzi were available they were not particularly well kept and could do with a little TLC. After spending hours in the pool we went back to our beautiful sea view room to make the both of jacuzzi number 2- in our bathroom! WAOo! (Highlight of my trip)

A bit if pampering later and we headed down to the bar for some cocktails, champagne and a three course dinner. The staff were fabulous and the cocktails were amazing and sooo yummy! 

The food however was once again described as something it wasn't. I found the meal experience quite tasteless and certainly not home made. As disappointed as I was in the value for money this was compensated for by all the friendly people who work there. 

Overall I would rate it at a 6 out of 10. The experience was good but I'm not sure whether this was because of the company rather the hotel itself. It was an incredibly expensive night stay and if I was to visit Newquay again for a spa retreat I would most likely try somewhere different.

So does anyone have some stories to share about girlie week ends away??? Keep in touch!

Homemade full english breaky

Hey all!

So... I love cooking! I spend quite a lot of time working out how to make lovely cheap meals. the other day we made the most amazing full english breakfast ever. So here is lovely picture with instructions and ingredients on how to make Sarah's full english

Sarah's full English breakfast: (serves 2)

4 X M&S own brand sausages, 4X free range eggs, 1 tin smart price bakes beans, 2 slices of seeded toast, 4X rashers of smoked bacon and 2 X M&S blueberry muffin

- Grill the sausages with salt and pepper for around 20 minutes at low heat

- Bring a saucepan of water to the boil with grated lemon zest and a tablespoon of white wine vinegar

- Cook the blueberry muffins in a pre heated oven for 15 minutes at 150 degrees

- Bring the eggs to room temperature and reduce the temperature of the water

- Swirl the water and crack the eggs into the flavoured water, leave for 5 to 7 minutes

- Grill bacon

- Pour a tin of baked beans into a saucepan, add a tablespoon of paprika and a tablespoon of "proper" butter

Get your toast ready, chuck it all on a plate and boom you've got a fry up with some amazing flavours!

Alternatively, with the baked beans you can lightly fry a red onion in a heaped tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and then add you beans to the mix.

I wish I could get away with eating this sort of thing every morning, unfortunately my metabolism says otherwise :(

I know some of it sounds a bit odd, but honestly give it a go and oooo... let me know what you think ;)

xxx

CAKE!!!

Hello World, Todays blog is all about cake! Since my first birthday my mum has always made me amazing birthday cakes that have always followed a theme. Normally they are about something that I'm obsessed with for that particular year. So Let's start from the beginning, well not the beginning because i can't remember the first 10 birthdays or so but when I was eleven I loved Ballet so she made me a white cake with pink frosting and a ballerina made out of icing sugar to decorate it. On my thirteenth birthday I loved my Daffy Duck toy so she made me a cake in the shape of a free standing bath with a Daffy Duck swimming in it (all out of icing sugar), and the list goes on.

She told me she would stop making me these amazing cakes every year on my twenty first birthday so for my twenty first the theme went to owls. I love owls, yes i know a little weird! My Mama (who I posted about previously) has always had a thing for owls and I guessed i just followed in her footsteps. When I turned eighteen, my best friend and I thought i would be a really good idea to go and get tattoos. I always said I would get an owl, might I add hat this was the worst idea ever and my tattoo is kind enough to be hidden away as often as humanly possible! So yes, I went and got a small tattoo of an owl between my shoulder blades- again, worst idea ever- but none the less it reminds me of my school years and my grand ma and there is nothing I would want to be reminded of more.

So, back to the cake! She made me this huge marzipan, sponge and icing chocolate cake in the shape of a tree with a big owl in the middle. My friends were gobsmacked! I've put a little picture below (if you need any cakes making she's the person to ask)

Naturally my brother got the same treatment. His cakes went from a pair of squash shoes to a set of golf clubs etc etc. My mum and I were always the more creative ones in the family (although i say that but my brothers are pretty amazing at drawing, designing etc.). When I moved away from home, I started making my own pretty cakes. I started with yummy cakes rather that aesthetic ones. I then went on to my make Mama's 90th birthday cake (my masterpiece), and my best friend Rosie's 22nd birthday cake. I love baking but don't get much chance to do it. I'd love to see anyone's amazing creations so please do share some links with me :)