Well he could buy you a diamond ring, or he could get you anything

I've been home alone today, and after sleeping right through my zumba class this morning (I definitely should have set an alarm...) I decided I needed to make sure the rest of my day was at least a little bit productive. I saw a tweet when I'd finally woken up a little about the Kirkstall Deli Market being on in the grounds of Kirkstall Abbey today and got a little too excited. I've been trying to go to the Deli Market for absolutely ages (I'm a food stall's worst nightmare- I can spot free samples a mile off) but with it only being on once a month I'm very rarely free on the right weekends. The market didn't disappoint, I came away with cheese, a steak pie, chorizo and a whopping great slice of rocky road. Plus I ate an unholy amount of chocolate brownie samples from a few different stalls and couldn't resist trying some sticky toffee flavoured cheese which was actually pretty tasty! 

Today seemed like a good day to try to break in my beautiful new shoes properly since I eas going to be doing a bit of walking but would still be close to home if my shoes didn't agree with me. I treated myself to a new pair of brogues last week after I began to realise that I really needed some flat shoes that weren't Converse or Vans. I think I've fallen in love with these Office beauties, and the fact that they haven't given me blisters despite being made of quite stiff leather gives them extra brownie points.  

top: Pull and Bear, skirt: Topshop, shoes: Office, socks: Topshop

Also, these are my first outfit pictures from my new room... its made me think my bedroom door was designed for Borrower sized people- I definitely look taller than usual stood against it! 

Fred Astaire- San Cisco

And she's always gonna be there in the back of your mind

I always like to take a bit of time off right at the end of the school holidays- most of the team I work with get the whole six weeks off (lucky teachers...) but there's a select few of us who work all year round and we find it a bit torturous when everyone else comes back into work fresh from weeks of relaxation. A week off isn't quite the same but it does ease the jealousy slightly. I went home to see my parents for half of the week as my Uncle was down from Edinburgh for the Bank Holiday and so we decided to go somewhere a bit different to the usual wandering around Liverpool. And so, bright and early in the morning we got in my Dad's car and took a horrendously higgledy piggledy route (thanks for that one sat-nav) to Portmeirion in Wales. 

I'd only been to Portmeirion once before when I was a lot younger but I could still picture the beautiful brightly coloured buildings really clearly. It didn't disappoint a second time around as we escaped the grey sky and drizzle of Merseyside and ended up in what could easily have been somewhere in the Mediterranean (both in terms of the buildings and the weather!). If you're ever around North Wales I'd definitely recommend a visit; I came away from the trip feeling as though I'd had a mini summer holiday! Just what I needed to fool myself into feeling like I'd been somewhere exotic in my precious few days off work (plus it was a great way to stop my Leeds Festival envy- no mud anywhere to be seen over on this side of the country!).

shirt: Topshop, pinafore: Topshop, necklace: River Island, shoes: Vans

California Daze- Peace

You gave me magical, I gave you wonderful

There are a few places I always seem to waffle on about on my little piece of the internet. York is definitely one of those places. Its been a firm favourite as one of my top UK cities since I was a nipper, it was always somewhere we came to year after year for Christmas shopping and usually a trip to the National Railway Museum to keep Papa T happy. Last weekend, my Mum and Dad came up to Leeds for a visit and my Dad fancied yet another trip to see the trains (apparently they've got a bit of a special collection on show at the moment!). My Mum and I don't quite share my Dad's enthusiasm for locomotives, but I can spend ages looking at the old passenger carriages and posters for holiday destinations from the past- I love thinking about how people spent their holidays and went on long journeys before cars and aeroplanes started taking over!

Anyway, it was a beautiful, sunny day on Sunday so it was perfect for meandering around the town after my Dad had taken thousands of pictures of the engines so I thought it'd be rude of me not to share a few snaps! 

shirt: Forever 21, dress: Primark, shoes: Topshop

This is one of my favourite pictures of the day. Most of you will probably be drooling at the Mulberry outlet in the shot, but not me- for starters I don't really understand the fascination with uber-expensive handbags (although maybe if I had endless amounts of money I'd feel a little differently...). For me, it has always been a bit of a family tradition on our trips to York to have a good chuckle at Back Swinegate as it reminds us so much of my Nan. She was such a sweet little lady who never really moaned about anything but would always, always make a point of telling everybody who came to visit her "ooh my back's a swine today".  We took a picture of the street once when I was younger and showed her and the rest of the family- she couldn't help but find it funny with the rest of us in fits of giggles around her.

Biblical- Biffy Clyro

(this weekend I'll mostly be trying to pretend that I'm not actually riddled with jealousy about everybody watching Biffy and Co at Reading and Leeds)

Is your bed made? Is your sweater on?

Yesterday was an incredibly jam-packed day of fun with one of my new housemates. We started off the day with a pretty impressive run (I definitely can run further than I thought- it just took a running buddy to give me the motivation to push myself a little further) followed by a hilarious game of tennis in our local park- I'm not sure you could really call it tennis when we spent 90% of the game running after the ball after missing our shots. We decided to leave on a high when we'd managed to get over 10 successful consecutive hits going...I'm embarrassed to admit how long that took!  

Later on, we took a trip into town via the magical world of Hobbycraft to buy some green food colouring paste for the baking we had been plotting for the evening (I'll post about it soon and the reasoning for the green paste will be revealed!). We couldn't resist refuelling before heading back into town with a quick brownie pit-stop at one of my favourite cafes, Out of The Woods in Granary Wharf, as we passed- we'd definitely earned it after all of our exercise earlier in the morning! 

A few hours of shopping later (I seemed to get most of mine done in the time my housemate spent buying a new phone- I'd like to think I'm a speedy shopper but in reality it just showed how long phone shopping takes!) and we headed home just as the rain began to pour- thankfully it held off for most of the day as you can see from the photos below I'd been a tad optimistic with my bare legs (I'm just determined to get as much wear out of my sandals as I can before Autumn creeps back in!). 

Hope you're all enjoying your weekends too!

dress: (c/o) Clothing at Tesco, belt: Topshop, shoes: Topshop, necklace: River Island

Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa- Vampire Weekend

Sing along and it might just get you through

Since moving out of the city centre at the start of July, I've been very much enjoying having a longer walk to work in the mornings. Not so much on days where I've spent ages just sat on my bed listening to the radio, or have been too busy rearranging my bedroom to bother with getting dressed quickly and end up having to power walk up the huge hill on my route, but the rest of the time my walks have been far more relaxed and an ideal time for quality time with my iPod. Few things make me happier than when I'm listening to music, and listening to new favourites (and old favourites too... I have an unwritten rule that I have to reserve one morning walk a week for a bit of Pulp!) is the perfect way to put myself in a good mood for the day. Anyway, I thought I'd share a few songs that have been creeping their way up my most played list since I started my new walk to work.

Do I wanna know? Arctic Monkeys

I always try to maintain that I'm not a big fan of the Arctic Monkeys (I think I like to see myself as a little less mainstream indie than that, unless I've had copious amounts of vodka...) but this song slipped right through and caught me by surprise. I've not been able to get this song out of my head for almost two months now, and I'm not in the slightest bit ashamed to have it blaring out of my headphones.

Beach San Cisco

I've fallen head over heels in love with this band. They're from Australia, they're really summery and fun, plus they've done an awesome cover of Daft Punk's Get Lucky (if that doesn't make you love them then I don't know what will).

Pushing it The Family Rain

One of my only regrets from Latitude was not getting to see The Family Rain. I knew I really wanted to but Eddie Izzard was just too funny to leave (plus leaving was impossible as there were so many people crowded into the tent), his set over-ran plus the Comedy arena was the opposite side of the site to the little stage that The Family Rain were playing on. The odds weren't in our favour really. They're playing in Leeds in a few months time so I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get to see them then instead.

Lovesick Peace

Peace are a band that I literally haven't been able to stop talking about for over a year now. I waited patiently for their album to come out in March and I just haven't tired of it at all. Its not everyday you find an album like that. Lovesick is one of my favourites from the album so if you ever caught sight of me walking through Leeds, there's a very high chance that this'll be this song that I've got playing. 

Let me know if you like any of the songs I've included in this, and if you've got any recommendations of songs I can update my iPod with to vary my morning routine a little then let me know! 

Common People- Pulp

You make my dreams come true

Elaborate plans to have a picnic and a catch up with two of my favourites at the weekend were scuppered slightly by our old friend British "summer" making an appearance. Grey sky and a looming threat of rain may have meant that instead of lounging about on a blanket for hours, we were forced to huddle around a picnic table under a little gazebo in Kirkstall Abbey. Despite the lack of blue sky, the company was still just as lovely and we had a good giggle at a horrifically chavvy wedding party taking pictures in the grounds of the abbey who's outfits certainly brightened things up a bit.

 I love Kirkstall Abbey, its only a little walk from my new house so I really need to make a habit of going there more often since I'm so lucky to have it practically on my doorstep. Plus it made a nice change from our usual wanders around town when my old Uni buddies are around (although I'd be lying if I said we didn't pay Topshop a visit later on in the afternoon), since we don't all get to see each other as often as we'd like its nice to find somewhere pretty to sit and have a good gossip. It was a lovely, relaxing way to spend the day before we were reunited with our other old friend, Sailor Jerry. 

I played about with the colours on these photos just because the dull grey sky was causing me too much distress after BBC weather lied to us about what Saturday had in store, but actually it seems to have been a blessing in disguise- the black and white adds a good bit of atmosphere to my snaps. TAKE THAT SUNSHINE- WE DON'T NEED YOU (but please come back now, ok?). 

You make my dreams- Hall and Oates

(we were horrendously slow at getting ready on Saturday night because we got far too distracted after discovering that 500 Days of Summer was on the telly)

There's this tune I've found that makes me think of you somehow

On Thursday I felt like a kid in a sweet shop (actually scrap that... I'm usually more excited in a sweet shop than any child could ever be) after getting two films worth of photos developed in Boots. My fish eye camera has been on some great little adventures in the last few months- Liverpool, Latitude, Leeds (apparently I only like places beginning with an L) to name just a few. My little pink lomography camera even got turned into a birthday cake a few months back as you may have already seen back here. 

Anyway, here's a few snaps from the huge pile I'm currently sat around trying to shortlist for my new photo frame. As soon as I'd ripped open the envelopes after picking up my prints I raced straight to Wilko's to buy the biggest frame possible to display all of my snaps in (laughing all the way there at some of the more drunken photos amongst the lot- I decided to save you the trauma of having to see those!).

If you enjoy playing around with lomography cameras then link me up- I love being nosy at other people's snaps!

Do I wanna know- Arctic Monkeys