So that you'd leave me alone in Leeds again

On Saturday, my buddy and I tried to have a little road trip to Ilkley lido to make the most of the rare outdoor swimming pool friendly weather we've been having. Alas, we got there to find out they'd stopped letting people in at 12.30 as it was so busy (it was 12.35 when we arrived...). Instead we went for a wander and an ice cream whilst we formed a back up plan to keep us entertained for the afternoon.

So we hopped back into Betty, my awesome new car, and drove to the fruit picking farm in Horsforth (with only a slight detour thanks to the satnav thinking that the farm was down a residential street in the middle of a housing estate...).  All that was left in the fields was raspberries as the strawberry season had just finished so we set off on our merry little way to the raspberry fields. The man at the stand told us that the raspberries were becoming harder to find but that there should still be plenty for us to fill our basket with. He was right, but we did have to keep disappearing into the depths of the bushes and branches to find anything worth picking- hard work when the weather was so crazily hot! We were very proud of ourselves when our dedication finally paid off and we wandered back to the man with a basket full of yummy looking berries. There's just something far more satisfying about picking your own fruit than pulling it off a shelf at the supermarket, and they definitely taste better too!

On Sunday, I realised I had a humongous box full of raspberries sat in my fridge as we'd not managed to make a real dent in them yesterday. Worried that they were going to quickly go past their best, I sarted plotting ways I could make something exciting and raspberry based.  I decided to experiment with ice lollies as it was far too warm to be slaving over a hot oven. With no recipe in front of me I tried to turn my lovingly picked fruit into tasty lollies. And actually, they seem to have worked pretty bloomin' well! And being the kind-hearted soul that I am, I'm going to share my secret recipe so that you have an excuse to go and pick your own fruit too!

Raspberry Lemonade Lollies

Ingredients:

250g raspberries

juice of one lemon

1-2 tsp honey

1tsp caster sugar

about 100ml lemonade

To make:

Weigh out your raspberries and mash them together until it forms a liquid. 

Seive the smushed up raspberries to separate the juice from the seeds (I then added some of the seeds to the bowl to make the lollies seem a bit more 'natural' without it being totally overrun with seeds but that's just personal preference).

Squeeze the lemon juice into the bowl of raspberry juice, add the sugar and honey and mix together well.

Pour the mixture into ice lolly moulds (I got mine super cheap in Primark!) so that they're about two-thirds full then top up each mould with lemonade.

Put in the freezer until frozen then sit out in the sunshine and enjoy :)

  

If anybody has any more summery ice lolly recipes then let me know- I'd love to try out more ideas!

Fallout- Catfish and The Bottlemen

I sit and pine for wasted time

Over Easter weekend I took a trip back to The Wirral to catch up with my friends and family. We had some looovely weather (some of the time at least!) which made a bit of a crazy contrast to Easter weekend last year where I had a day trip out in the snow with my Mum and Dad. English weather, you're full of surprises.

We spent a lot of Good Friday travelling around about a zillion car show rooms as I've decided that after passing my driving test six years ago its probably about time I actually invested in a pair of wheels. After a few hours, my Dad decided we needed a stop off for lunch which I'm fairly certain was really to stop him from having a minor heart attack every time a salesman uttered the words "fancy a test drive?" to me. Having not driven properly since passing my test all those years ago, my Dad was clearly having vivid nightmares about me being trusted behind the wheel of a shiny test car (can't say I blame him... I can barely remember which pedal is which!). 

Anyway, we ended up in New Brighton for our little pit stop. Back when my Mum and Dad were young, New Brighton was a thriving seaside resort complete with an outdoor pool, but for most of my life I've known it as being a bit of a depressing, run down place that had lost all of its appeal and visitors. Over the last few years, they've really put a lot of effort into redeveloping the Prom and there were just people EVERYWHERE. Normally, I get a bit fed up if somewhere is absolutely chock a block with people, but actually this was a pretty lovely sight and it was great to see that the town is regaining some of the glory and atmosphere it had lost over the years.

 (Oh look, that Primark playsuit I keep rambling on about is making another appearance on here already!)

Did you manage to make the most of the sunshine over Easter weekend?

Overdone- Bombay Bicycle Club

And if I recover, will you be my comfort?

During that brief, unexpected period of sunshine we had last week, I had a sudden burst of motivation to start looking at summer clothes online. Sadly, the sun disappeared before I'd had a chance to actually buy anything but even so I've carried on having a nosy at the holiday collections in the shops as for once I can actually guarantee that I'll see at least a little blue sky and sunshine this year when I go to Corfu with two of my friends. I haven't been on a proper non-festival based holiday (festivals definitely don't count as a 'holiday' anyway as I always feel like I need a week to fully recover afterwards!) in a few years now so I'm extra excited for this one. I've never been to Corfu before, so if anyone has any recommendations on things to see or do there then hit me up! So far, my only requirement for the trip is to go to a water park because I appear to have similar interests to a 12 year old when it comes to keeping me entertained.

Since I've not been on a proper holiday for a while, I'm fairly certain it means I'm entitled to some new summer clothes. When I'm just staying in England I never really see the point in actually splashing out on real holiday clothes as there's such a brief window where you can wear them, especially when that window inevitably seems to happen when I'm stuck at work, melting at my desk. As much as I want to fill my suitcase with pretty new clothes, I don't want to spend much money as by the time August rolls around I'll be on the cusp of becoming a poor PGCE student living off my student loan (gahhh, those two words make me feel a bit ill whenever they creep up on me). Luckily, Primark and New Look are looking as though they'll save me as there's loads of cheap and cheerful gems in their holiday collections. Perfect. 

Here's a little selection of some of the stuff I've got my eyes on for all you nosy people out there.

1. playsuit 2. crop top 3. giraffe print bikini 4. sunglasses 5. floral dress 6. tan sandals 7. chino shorts 8. black and white playsuit 9. polka dot bikini 10. black sandals

Recover- Chvrches

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

Smiles of the week: Who's gonna catch you now?

Can't believe its Monday again already (and Monday's nearly over now too...), where oh where is this year going?! Time really does seem to whizz by so much quicker now I'm a sort-of adult. Its pretty bloomin' scary! Now its getting towards summer, I'd quite like time to slow itself down ever so slightly so that we can all enjoy it that little bit longer. 

Its been a busy old week for me, but one of the best I've had in a while. So I've had no trouble whatsoever putting together my little round up of the last seven days today! Here you go lovely people (be warned- its been quite a food filled week...)

Spending my evenings sat outside sipping teacup cocktails and cider whilst eating lots of lovely food.

Falling asleep in the sun (again). 

Making the most of the Leeds Love Food festival over the weekend, I had a list as long as my arm of stalls I wanted to try, three days just wasn't enough time to eat my way through it all!

Drinking gallons of old fashioned lemonade at the festival. Best stall by far.

Getting all excited about becoming the new 'proper' photographer for Iron Cupcake Leeds next month when my delightful friend Charlie takes over running it. I feel its a good excuse to make cake so I can 'practice' taking decent photos of it!

Signing for the most beautiful house to move into next month after a hilarious day of house hunting. I can't wait to make it all homely and pretty with the other girls. 

Celebratory cupcakes in the park when we realised we'd found THE ONE.

Finding the prettiest teacup whilst browsing the local vintage shops and getting far too excited that Headingley will soon be on my doorstep once again. 

Beach- San Cisco

I need it, I need it today

Image: Pinterest

Isn't it amazing what a bit of sunshine can do for our general happiness and enthusiasm for life? Even just sitting in and watching the telly becomes far more pleasant when you can look out of your window and see gorgeous watercolour skies like the ones above. I've been snapping away of an evening when the sun has started to set because skies like this bring such a massive smile to my face.

 I love wandering through outdoor spaces during the summer and seeing people radiating happiness, there's something about the blue skies and sunshine that makes everybody so much friendlier and sociable, filling up beer gardens and city centres whilst catching up with friends. Sitting in a park full of people sat around on blankets with barbecues, cider and music makes a place feel like a real community- something which the winter rarely brings us as everybody is too busy hibernating and rushing about in an attempt to keep warm.

 Summer is a time to say a massive YES to everything that comes your way, nobody wants to miss a second spent out in the gorgeous weather since we never know how long its going to last. In fact, as I'm writing this, the sky outside has turned horrifically grey after a beautiful week of soaring temperatures. I rest my case. 

Need It-Splashh

Smiles of the week: I'm a human elevator

Today, all of the teachers I work with were gushing about how good their week off over half term was. All well and good for them but I'm not lucky enough to get school holidays off like they do. Last week it was just little old me and my partner in crime who works with the younger kids in the hospital spending a week in our eerily quiet office. To make up for the lack of human contact, we turned to youtube and spent the week dancing around the office (which actually did wonders for our motivation... not sure how our co-workers would feel if we made this a daily occurrence  but quite frankly a daily boogie on the way to the wards would do us all the world of good!). 

Unconventional working weeks aside, I've had a very lazy relaxing week. For all you nosy people out there, here's a bit of what I've been enjoying over the last seven days.

My Mum's astounding technological abilities via Facetime. She was all set to write her iPad off as broken and send it back to the shop because the camera on the back of it wasn't working. After about five minutes of my Mum getting concerned about how it had broken my Dad pointed out that she had the cover over the camera. Whoops.

Taking every possible moment to sit out in the sun. I fully believe in making the most of the sun whilst we can... you can never guarantee how long its going to last for! Plus its a great opportunity to actually spend some quality time with a good book (or three) and my iPod.

Finally downloading the A Beautiful Mess app (about a month after the rest of the world) and spending hours prettying up all my photos.

Having a barbecue with my bestie and eating my own body weight in grilled aubergine and halloumi after already having eaten two burgers. 

Smelling somebody's takeaway pizza in the lift on my way home from work and deciding that we NEEDED to order pizza the next day. This was an exciting decision in Kazland. I can probably count the amount of takeaways I eat in a year on one hand.

Rewarding myself with an afternoon off work (see, my week at work really wasn't that traumatic...) and ending up at the opening of the new Joy in Leeds (which I whittered on about a few days ago here).

Sampling the delights of the Leeds Farmers Market in town on Sunday. Stall owners cower in fear when they see me approaching to eat my body weight in their samples of cheese/brownies/chocolate/olives.

What's made you smile this week?

 Human Elevator- The Cast of Cheers

Smiles of the week: Sally Cinnamon, you're my world

Whoever came up with the idea of Bank Holidays really was a genius. When I was younger I never appreciated them particularly- it was just another day but with a lot more crowds and less frequent public transport. Now I'm a grown up working person, having a free day off and still getting paid for it is the BEST feeling in the world, especially because lots of other lovely people are off too so its the perfect excuse for lots of extra fun. Or lots of extra time to recover from a two day hangover as may be a more appropriate description of my extra day off! 

Since the weekend lasted an extra day, I decided this post could wait until Tuesday after realising in last week's post that daydreaming about the fun of the previous seven days was a great way to brighten up my first day back at work. That in itself makes me smile as this week's first day back at work is practically the middle of the week anyway. I LOVE FOUR DAY WEEKS (apologies to those of you that don't get Bank Holidays off... you're probably ready to hit me right now...). 

Anyway, here we go with a couple of my highlights from the last week. 

Spending a few hours with my Dad after work last Wednesday. We went to an out of town shopping centre to escape the rain and he even let me drag him around the shops without a single complaint whilst I tried on approximately 618 pairs of jeans. 

Realising that my Dad spent the entire trip humming Daft Punk's Get Lucky. What. A. Legend.

Nattering away for an entire evening to one of my oldest friends who I somehow hadn't spoken to properly since March. 

Wearing a proper summer dress, eating the BEST sorbet and accidentally falling asleep down by the canal in the sunshine. 

Having two of the women from work shouting lots of rude words across the office in response to a particularly nasty phone call I'd just had to endure. Nothing like a 50 something year old shouting "WHAT A BEEPING HORRIBLE BEEP BEEP" to bring your mood back up!

Spending an evening soaking up the remaining rays of sunshine at a beer festival. I'm not sure how we'd decided a beer festival was a good idea as we don't like beer, especially as they'd already run out of the nice ciders before we'd arrived so we had to endure some interesting flavours before moving onto pale ale. Despite hating all of the drinks, we spent the entire time laughing hysterically and it was a really good way to spend a summery evening.

Surviving two nights out in a row (just about). Exactly why extra days off are sometimes necessary!

Listening to a little old welsh lady on the train to Manchester giving the person on the other end of the phone instructions about the knobs and flaps on something in her house. I'm not sure how it was only my friend and I who were having trouble keeping our giggles quiet. Mature as always.

Making plans for the weeks ahead. Mostly looking forward to an upcoming trip to Birmingham for a visit to Cadbury World (I've never been before and am FAR TOO EXCITED) followed by a bit of dancing and merriment. I've heard good things about Birmingham's nightlife so I've got a feeling it could be a very, very good weekend.

Hope you've all enjoyed the last week and the sunshine (shame its disappeared already though...)

Sally Cinnamon- The Stone Roses

Smiles of the week: We're up all night to get lucky

Well done Britain, you really did bank holiday weather perfectly. After months and months of wondering whether the sun would ever rear its head again, it timed its first real appearance absolutely perfectly. I spent most of my bank holiday Monday sitting in various parts of Leeds just staring at the sky, then most of the evening staring at the clock just across the river from my balcony in disbelief at the 20C temperature it was displaying. I was beginning to forget that temperatures like that actually existed.

The main highlight of my week (and possibly my year so far) was Live at Leeds which I talked about in my last post but even without that it was a pretty decent week. Here's a few highlights for you nosy people out there.

-Booking tickets to see Bastille in October. It may be months away but that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to be a little bit over-excited already

-Finding a new pair of sunglasses that don't make me look like I should be holding a white stick or a guide dog.

-Last week's episode of New Girl. Normally Halloween episodes of American shows can be a bit terrible but this one was brilliant. Although I'm starting to get a bit distressed by Jess and Nick still not getting together.

-Being a good person and getting one of those 'healthy' pizzas from Pizza Express. It made a nice change having the salad in the middle and still managed to fill me up- winner.

-Having a hysterical night out which involved my friend's boyfriend wearing a giant poster for a club night as a dress when we took a brief trip to the night's rival venue.

-Actually having a brilliant time in the queues for Live at Leeds and time between bands because of the hilarious company I had.

-Sitting in a beer garden before The Vaccines. Briefly. Then after being offended by the lack of ANY cider and the insane prices for all other summery drinks ending up sitting in a basement bar drinking cheap bottles of Kopparberg. We may have missed a few hours of sunshine but at least we gained some decent drinks. Plus we avoided bankrupting ourselves in the name of alfresco drinking.

-Getting into bed on Sunday night after two nights out, another attempted night out, hours of queuing, walking miles and miles between venues and jumping around to lots of bands. My legs had had enough and were incredibly appreciative that they had finally earned some time off.

Get Lucky- Daft Punk ft. Pharrell Williams

Smiles of the week: Let's get up off the floor and use our feet for hands

This week has been one of those that's just ticked over without much to sing and dance about (although I did make a point of jumping ecstatically off my train earlier this evening after having to endure two hours of being squished into a tiny corner of the train by a group of loud, irritating, lager drinking women on their way back from a birthday weekend...). Despite this week being quieter than the last, there've still been lots of little moments that have brought a smile to my face. 

Buying myself a new notebook completely unnecessarily just because it has moustaches all over the cover. 

After buying said notebook, discovering that this week is National Stationary Week and so my purchase was entirely justified as an act of celebration. 

Spending ages in the steam room at the gym relaxing and inadvertently listening to strangers' gossip. I'd quite like to know how that girl's relationship dramas pan out...

Enjoying some quality time with my iPod on the train back to Liverpool and getting a bit too excited for a music filled few days at Live at Leeds next weekend.

Watching my Dad ceilidh dancing at my cousin's 40th. Literally the only time I can recall ever seeing him dancing. Voluntarily (and sober) too... not sure what had got into him!

Having a few families from work saying thank you for all of the help I've given them. I don't do my job to get thanked for it but its nice to know you're appreciated and have made a difference to somebody every once in a while! 

Being greeted by blue skies when I arrived back on the Wirral. It promptly turned to wind and rain as the weekend went on but at least I had a nice sunny welcoming.

Messaging a friend to ask how she's been and ending up organising a long-overdue meet up instead (I didn't actually end up finding out how she's doing since we got so overexcited at the prospect of seeing each other but at least I'll find out soon enough!).

Feet for Hands- Everything Everything