A Beach Morning.

31 Jul 2014


A day or two before the wedding (mentioned here) we went to East Wittering beach for the morning. The weather was just beautiful and if there hadn't been stones I would definitely have felt like I was abroad.

Though stones may be painful to stand on barefoot, there is something really quintessentially British about it that I really love. However, stones crashing into your ankle when the tide rushes in? Not so fun! The water was soo cold and literally so refreshing. It made me wish I lived near the sea so I could do this more often!


Finishing off with a lunch of Mussels was the perfect end to our mini seaside trip!

For the first time in my life I'm now seriously considering a life by the sea instead of London. Theres something so rejuvenating about even an hour or two on the beach. For now though I'll just get onto planning my next seaside trip!

Aimée
Xxxx
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A Summer Wedding.

29 Jul 2014


Last Saturday was Craig's brothers wedding on quite possibly the hottest day of the year. We spent about five days down in West Sussex before the big day, so stay tuned for some more picture-postcard posts this week!

I didn't take many photos of the actual day as I really wanted to just enjoy it, and their photographers took about 2000 anyway and thats enough pictures for anyone! It was a really traditional ceremony set in a beautiful church right on the harbour. I can't wait to see what their pictures look like!

It was a very British affair with a Pimms and G&T reception, and a Cheese Cake as well as a proper tiered cake. And when I say Cheese Cake, I mean savoury - layers of crumbly lancashire, smoked lancashire, gorgonzola and more. Definitely my kind of wedding! Unfortunately the proper cake only had about 5 minutes of glory before it was returned to the fridge as it was so hot the icing was literally melting off it.


As it was so hot they had an ice cream van on standby by the waters edge which was a godsend! Though it did just make me jealous of anyone actually in the water! The evening consisted of many drinks, a lot of cake and cheese (oops), a Ceidlh which me and Craig actually participated in despite the heat and a sweetie table which was crowded with adults and kids alike!


It was a such a good day and was lovely to see how happy the newly married couple were! I also definitely enjoyed seeing Craig all dressed up - there really is something about a Top Hat and Tails that makes men look so lovely.

Let me know if you're going to any summer weddings this year!

Aimée
Xxxx
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A weekend in Thornton Village.

20 Jul 2014


Two weekends ago Craig and myself went to stay with his family in his childhood home of Thornton. Thornton is a little village within Bradford and as you can see from the photo above, looks beautiful in the summer sun.

Whilst there we saw the start of the Tour de France in a village called Addingham, which was definitely an experience! I don't think I've ever seen so many cyclists going past at such speed! There was also the rather alarming and amusing moment where the sponsers drove past, including a Yorkshire Tea van that threw boxes of tea from their vans at about 40mph. A lady near us quite literally had tea in the face...!

We found a waterfall type area in Addingham, and saw many horses in Thornton, including a foal which caused the 5 year old in me to squeal with glee! We ended it all with a super yummy Roast, a tradition that I feel you couldn't leave Yorkshire without partaking in!

As a confessed Londoner, I've always loved the countryside and was quite in awe of what a beautiful place Craig grew up in! Though I think the sun shining over the fields may have slightly helped my love for it, I hope you enjoy all the pictures.


Aimée
Xxxx
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Maddy's Fish Bar.

18 Jul 2014


Yesterday evening after work I had planned to spend some serious time writing up new posts and getting my blogging mojo officially on. However, when I got back to the flat the boys were mixing up a vat of Pimms and were formulating plans for us all to finally head over to Maddy's Fish Bar. So, I took the executive decision that living in the moment should always come first, and hey its new content right?

Maddy's Fish Bar is on New Cross Road and quite literally opposite our flat. It opened up a few months ago and we've been meaning to go ever since. Isn't it funny how the closer you are to something the longer it takes you to get there?

Anyway, it was definitely worth the wait! I opted for the classic, Haddock and Chips. The Fish was really well cooked, and the batter was infused with Dill which was a really nice addition. I had tartare sauce on the side, which definitely tasted homemade - always a win! The dish also came with a Cabbage Slaw which we all noted had a definite Japanese influence. It complimented the fish really well though and was a much nicer addition than a regular 'slaw side. The Chips were also super tasty, and were just the right ratio of crispy and fluffy.

Because I was clearly not full enough after that, I had Ice Cream. Don't judge...


If Salted Caramel is on the menu I can't really ignore it. Its becoming a problem really! They also had Cornflake Ice Cream which Will and Bastien tried - it was strange, like a thick breakfast shake... I'm not selling it well, but it really was nice! Very much an acquired taste I'd imagine though.

Finally, we had a few beers in the bar next door and I had the very brilliantly named:


Yep. Wu Gang Chops The Tree. Brilliantly named if you ask me, and it was really tasty! For some reason Fish and Chips always brings out the beer drinker in me!

If you're in the South East London area definitely give Maddy's a try. Not only is it really good food, but its Fish and Chips in London that actually won't break the bank! Crazy I know.

Aimée
Xxxx
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Hair Refresh.

14 Jul 2014

From this:

To This:

My hair has been in dire need of a refresh for months now, so I was superrr excited to finally have it done on the weekend! I went to Colour Nation just off of Oxford Street and had a lovely relaxing afternoon.

At the moment I seem to be salon-hopping in my quest to find the perfect salon for me. ColourNation isn't perfect location wise and was at the top end of my budget, but I did love the cut and colour I got there. Even the boyfriend said it was the best cut I'd had a in a while - high praise let me tell you!

I actually went in asking for a refresh of my ombré. Only to be told that because of how subtle the graduation in colour is in my hair, what I really have is balayage. Aside from being hard to say, I'm okay with that! I've always been very fearful of having an obvious split of the colours in my hair, so if balayage means 'more natural' then I'm all for it!

I had Senior Stylist Kristina working on my hair and aside from being really lovely, she really listened to what I wanted and checked every step of the way if it was all okay. Thats something I haven't really found before. Usually you have a brief consultation at the start, and thats it. You're left at the mercy of their hands!

I wanted the colour to stay quite ashy rather than a bright 'in your face' kind of blond, so she added a toner whilst washing my hair. Cut wise I didn't have anything drastic, just a trim off the ends and a bit of layering to frame my face more.

I realise the pictures above don't make my hair look toooo different, but I really just wanted a refresh of what I already had. The ends of my hair look so damaged in the top picture, so I'm soo glad I've had that all chopped off now! I also am a little windswept in the 'after' pictures, but I wanted to show you it fresh from the salon!

What do you think? :)

Aimée
Xxxx
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Sister Life.

12 Jul 2014

Our Saturday Breakfasts
If you are a fan of A Beautiful Mess you may recall their Sister Stuff post back in June. Its such a simple concept, but is so effective in showing off your personality. They said at the bottom of the post to steal the idea, soooo thats what I've done! I roped in my sister Katie to take some photos of her own and voila! Can you guess which is me and which is Katie, left or right?

Our Current Book
Our Current Shoes 
Our Glasses
Our Favourite Drink and Favourite Mug
Did you guess?? I'm on the left :) Though as a family we are big Jane Austen fans, I was quite surprised to see that we were both currently reading an Austen inspired book! Not a surprise that we both chose tan shoes to picture though, as they seem to be a running favourite for us both. You can tell mine are loved by how battered they are too - oops!

I hope you liked this little picture series, let me know if you do it too! :)

Aimée
Xxxx

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The Lunch Break Post: Office Eating Culture.

8 Jul 2014



Working in an office is bad for your health.

This may be a bold statement, but in my case for someone with zero willpower its entirely true. Office's breed comments like "I'm just popping out, do you want anything?", "Is 11am acceptable for lunchtime?" and "There's birthday treats on the sharing table!". You can't escape from the food, because we all know the 4 o'clock slump means its definitely time for tea and a choccie biscuit.

You turn into serial snackers, until you only stop eating to go 'out' for lunch...

I may have resigned myself to the snacking, but I am at least trying to be healthier with it this week - note my packet of raisons and cashew nuts. Un-note my lurking pack of McCoys...ahem.

Please tell me I'm not alone in this? Serial snackers unite!

Aimée
Xxxx
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Date Night: Ping Pong

6 Jul 2014



After stating that Craig and myself were going to establish a weekly date night, we have royally failed. I won't lie to you. We seem to have been ridiculously busy for the past month or so and have only managed to have date number two this week! Oops!

This time around it wasn't a fancy pop-up, but a favourite haunt. Ping Pong is known for its amazing dim sum, cocktails and chinese tea. They have quite a few locations around London, but last week we visited the St. Paul's spot!

As you may be able to tell by the quantity of food in the pictures, we totally gorged ourselves! I have to say though, in defence - dim sum is quite small...!

I might also add that dim sum definitely doesn't photograph well, so even if you're thinking 'that literally all looks disgusting' please do try it! It definitely tastes 100xtimes better than it looks.

Myself and Craig both loveee seafood, so we chose literally everything with prawns, scallop and crab in, but they do have a pretty varied menu. My favourite had to be the brilliantly named "crispy prawn ball". Also, how cool was my flaming passion fruit cocktail?! I won't lie though, it was ratherrrr alcoholic!

We finished off the evening with a glass of wine overlooking the Thames. All in all, it was a delightful evening! Hopefully our next date night won't be too far apart this time!

Aimée
Xxxx
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Glastonbury: "The Best Festival in the World"

5 Jul 2014


Glastonbury, the so-called "greatest festival in the world" was.....basically the best festival ever. No word of a lie, everything about it is just awesome and I can totally see why it sells out in a matter of hours every year!

It may be muddy, the toilets (and by that I mean pits of death) may be grim and you may smell by the end of it but its absolutely worth the trouble! I thought I'd do a little round up of my experience for those of you interested in going. I have a few photos to insert, but I didn't manage to take many as I was trying to save my phone battery.

We arrived on the Wednesday and pitched up quite near the coach entrance. It was actually really nice and chilled there, rather than the campsites right on top of the stages which were awful. They got soo trashed by Monday morning, so the extra 5 minute walk to our campsite was definitely worth it.


Note in the picture above how clean all the wellies are....that didn't last long. Everyone talks about the glastonbury mud, but oh my you don't truly get it until you experience it. Its ridiculously sticky yet somehow still slippy. Seeing people coated head to toe in mud soon became a regular occurrence, but luckily for us we didn't have any casualties.


We went as a group of five, although we were originally meant to be around the seven mark. From going to Bestival last year as a three, I definitely think bigger is better. It was so handy when we wanted to see different people to be able to split up and keep everyone happy. Also, more people equals more lols which is always a plus!

On that note though, I would say having a working phone is a godsend when trying to meet up with everyone again. This year EE sold festival power bars which meant you could charge up your phone and exchange it on site when it was dead for a new fully charged one. If you get to go next year, buy this!! Best 20 quid I spent.


Aside from all the amazing music going on there was loads of cool things to do in the day too. We went to the top of the Ribbon Tower on the Friday and could literally see for miles across the site. It was so cool, although properrr windy! The food at Glastonbury was amazing too. There were so many stalls to choose from; a highlight being the pulled pork and bacon jam sandwich in a brioche bun above! It was from a stall called HotBox which I'm hoping I'll be able to find again.

Another note to add, everyone at the festival is SO friendly! We met so many people over the weekend and they were all lovely, if slightly high/drunk too. You can definitely tell the original hippy vibe is still lingering at the festival, and everyone is more than up for a chat.


Music wise, my highlights were definitely John Newman, Ellie Goulding, Imagine Dragons (above!), Ed Sheeran, London Grammar, Lily Allen, Lianne La Havas, Foxes, George Ezra, The Kooks (surprise set!), Arcade Fire andd Elbow.



This is a really long post, but I really wanted to express my love for Glastonbury. At its core, Glastonbury is a performing arts festival and its really apparent in the range of things going on over the weekend. From comedy acts, cabaret, raves, acoustic sets and pizza making classes to american diner's and a speaking tree book stall, Glastonbury really does have it all. We were there from Wednesday to Monday and we were still finding new places to explore. I feel like we didn't even scratch the surface of the festival.

So with that in mind, on the morning that the 2015 tickets are released you'll be able to find me continually refreshing my computer screen. Let me know if you went this year, or are thinking of going next year! :)

Aimée
Xxxx
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