Summer Breeze, Makes me Feel Fine

 Having listened to promises of an impending heatwave, and waking each day to grey skies through last week I must admit, I thought it was going to be yet another weather flop. I went off to get my nails done during my lunch on Thursday. I wasn't sure what to get, so I'd asked Little Miss for a suggestion during school run that morning. Of course, her suggestion was turquoise blue, because that's her favourite colour. Actually, when I got to the salon it was the colour that took my eye too, so I did go for it. 

Thursday was starting to show signs of cheering up, but by the time Friday arrived it was glorious. I was stuck at my desk of course, but was heartened by the fact that I was trying to wind up all of my loose ends and finish my holiday handover before taking a week off. The day got very hot, very quickly and by the end of it we decided to forgo our usual Friday dinner of fish and chips for a large salad. Something about the hot weather makes it a lot easier to eat healthily and I've found that salads and healthy lunches have been much more present in my diet the past few days. 

Top to bottom: Salmon fillet with baked sweet potato and salad. Scrambled eggs, mushrooms and avocado on toast. Roast chicken salad

Friday evening, I finally finished the top I'd been crocheting. I'm thrilled with how it turned out. I have a few more projects lined up (Little Miss is desperate for me to crochet her a creeper from Minecraft for one thing) but I definitely think I'll make a few more versions of this top. 

Saturday morning I actually went to the gym. I'll give you a second to get over the shock! I felt quite smug afterwards. Then we took a trip over to Whitby. Being slightly further North than us, and positioned on what seems to be a wilder point of the North Sea (there are reportedly around 530 shipwrecks off the coast off Whitby) it's always a little bit cooler than Scarborough, and when it's as hot as it is at the moment, that's welcome. 

Sandals - Dr. Martens, Skirt - Flamer Heritage, Top - Homemade

It was the perfect opportunity to wear my newly finished top, paired with a Falmer heritage skirt I picked up on Vinted last year. It's a very comfortable top, I'm very pleased. 

Stalls in Whitby

We had a potter around the antique shops, and the bohemian and gothic clothing shops where I always fall in love with so many of the clothes. Then we walked down to the harbour. and bought a fish from the famous Magpie fish and chip shop. We ate them outside on a bench near the lighthouse, careful not to get mugged by one of the many seagulls waiting to swoop. It was really starting to feel like summer had arrived. 

Sunday, the mercury continued to rise. The weather had certainly delivered on its promises. During the afternoon a nearby hotel was holding a family fun day in their grounds. Live music, cold drinks and a bouncy castle for Little Miss sounded perfect. 

Sandals - Dr. Martens, Dress - Kharibu, Bag - Caudalie free gift, Hat - Max Mara weekend

I decided to give my summery Kharibu dress its first outing of the season, and I was thrilled to find that the yellow tote bag I got free with my Caudalie skincare order the week before was the perfect match. 

Perusing stalls at the family fun day

Soaking up the vibe

At the fun day, we met up with my friend and her daughter (little Miss' friend), and set up the picnic rug in a shady spot by a tree. The children were thrilled to spend most of the afternoon bouncing around on the bouncy castle. Every now and again they'd reluctantly come off to cool down, get a drink and a snack and play snap on the picnic rug. 

Selfie stick's out! 

We stayed there for pretty much the whole afternoon and it was the epitome of a perfect summer Sunday afternoon. 

Bank holiday Monday arrived and, unbelievably, an even hotter day. We wanted to go to the local waterpark. Little Miss has pretty much learned to swim and now she just loves being in the water. Alas, it seems everyone had the same idea and so it was fully booked until early evening. We opted to hop on the train and head to York instead. 

It may have been a crazy idea and is the first time I've ever completely worn the battery out on my portable fan, but we had a great time. We walked in by the river, enjoying ice creams along the way and pondering what it would be like to own one of the boats moored there. One was for sale, but at £27,000 it was more than a little bit out of my price range. 

Drooling after the boat with the blue roof

Sandals - Dr. Martens, Dress - Urban Touch, Bag - Fairfax and Favor

Wouldn't it be fabulous to live on the river all summer, and then move back to your home come Autumn? I'd love that. The good thing about York is getting to peruse shops that we don't have in Scarborough, like Monsoon and Urban Outfitters. I saw so many things I loved in those shops. I bought me and little Miss a new summer hat each in Monsoon. 

Little Miss spent her pocket money that she's been saving in the toy shop, and we enjoyed lunch at Black sheep coffee. Iced coffee, of course, and a chicken wrap. 

We finished up with a drink at Thor's tipi, watching the world drift by before tackling the hot walk back to the station. "See, we'd be home by now if I had that boat" I exclaimed as we passed the boats on the river again. We were exhausted by the time we got home, so we just had a quiet evening watching Jaws... again! 

I can't believe how perfect the weather has been for the first bit of my week off work. I just hope it holds out for the rest of the week. 

On Saturdays we Steampunk

 Last Thursday, the weather finally started to buck up. This made me happy since it was an office day. As a Costa regular, I had a free coffee to cash in, so I decided to treat myself to one of their new Vanilla cherry iced whipped lattes. I'm obsessed at the moment, and was devastated the other day when my local Costa had run out of the cherry syrup. I digress.  

After work, I met the chap and we went for dinner. He'd asked me where I fancied eating, and for some reason, around midday I got a real craving for Spaghetti Bolognaise, and I desperately didn't want to go to one of the many chain restaurants that are all over York. In the end we plumped for a local restaurant just over one of York's bridges that we'd never tried before, Enoteca. 

It was perfect, exactly what I'd had in mind and it wasn't long before it started to fill up with locals also in search of a some good midweek Italian food. I got my bolognaise, and some wine too. We'll definitely be making a return visit.  

When the chap walked me back to the train station, I totally bullied him into trying one of those vanilla cherry iced whipped lattes, and despite him really not wanting to admit I was right, he enjoyed it! 

Friday evening, I took Mum and Little Miss out to a local pub for dinner. Me and little Miss tried to teach grandma how to play Crazy 8s while we waited for dinner, which for me was a delicious vegetarian Thai Green curry. Tell me you love food without telling me you love food! 

The previous week I'd seen an ad for a Steampunk weekend at nearby Filey. We'd once stumbled upon this before, but decided this time we'd go intentionally. I didn't need to buy anything special for the occasion since my wardrobe could be classed as eccentric at the best of times. I opted for a black Victorian style skirt that the chap bought me in Whitby a couple of years ago, a black top with a Joules tweed waistcoat that I've been wearing for at least the past 10 years. A beautiful velvet jacket from Monsoon, also a gift from the chap a couple of years back. My Ralph Lauren boots, Irregular Choice cat handbag which was a gift from my Mum a good few birthday's back and I topped it off with my Christies red bowler hat which I've also had for years. 

I had hoped to pick up some steampunk goggles to add to my hat, at the market, but alas there were none. There was, however, an abundance of people in various types of Steampunk attire. Little Miss took charge of taking the photographs and confidently asked the people who's outfits she liked if she could take their photos. 

She did a great job, and everyone was so very friendly towards her, and in general. We finished up our day with fish and chips and set off for home as the sun began to set on the days activities. 

By Sunday I was looking forward to a peaceful and restorative day. The chap came across. My gym (that I rarely visit) has a pool, jacuzzi, sauna and steam room. He bought a pass in to join me, and we spent a couple of hours swimming, relaxing in the sauna and just generally having a chilled and laid back day. 

Afterwards we went down to the sunny and bustling sea front to get some dinner. Then we did some of the touristy things. Played in the arcades, enjoyed a big cherry flavoured ice cream and finished off listening to some fab live acoustic music in a seafront pub. All in all it was a perfect end to a lovely weekend. 

Wholesome

Friday afternoon I rose from my desk to be hit with some pretty bad pain through my back, hip and whole right leg. Dr. Google suggested sciatica. I’m always cautious about my back after slipping a disk about 10 years ago, and so I took this a sign that I needed a quiet weekend after all of the exciting things I’ve been doing recently

Saturday’s weather was very supportive of doing nothing. It was grim, so aside from venturing out for some toiletries we needed, dropping off a bag of donations at the charity shop and getting some chips for dinner, I wasn’t really tempted to do anything else.

Sunday, I had a very lazy start to my day. I stayed in bed and finished ‘Goodbye to Berlin’. Set in Berlin in the lead up to the rise of fascism, I think there are so many comparisons to be made with current events in the UK. Last week’s election results would most definitely point to this.

This is a fab book, another like 1984 that had me questioning why we didn’t read these at school. These would have been far more useful than Thomas Hardy, if you ask me. Often I donate books to charity after reading them, but this one will be going into a pile of books that I’ll encourage little Miss to read when she’s older, along with 1984 of course. 

Pancake with banana, Greek yogurt and honey

After finishing my book, I made pancakes for breakfast. I always make pancakes on one day of the weekend. They are little Miss’ favourite breakfast.

Then I thought it wise to tackle the garden. Little Miss helped me as we pulled up weeds, replaced fallen down trellis, trimmed back honeysuckle and nipped to B&Q to buy a stash of flowers to fill our pots and her fairy garden with.

Weeds everywhere (before)

Somehow a pumpkin plant has sneaked in, and we’re going to try to grow little Miss a pumpkin to carve in our raised beds. Whilst the end result was so fulfilling, paracetamol was my friend afterwards as I tried to dull the pain I’d reignited with all of the garden activity. 

And looking so much better afterwards 

This evening I will be soaking away my pains in a bath, and getting ready for the week ahead. 

D.I.S.C.O

 I hope you’ve all had a delightful long weekend. I love this time of year, successive Bank Holidays make four day work weeks feel like the norm. As usual I crammed my weekend with activities, and it was great fun.

As is often the case, when you have children you make friends with some of the other Mums. Our little group decided that we wanted to go to a Daytime Disco, which is infinitely easier when you need to arrange childcare etc, and sounded like an absolute blast.

Outfit selfie in the pub mirror (pub looks empty because everyone was soaking up the sun in the beer garden)

The day for that came around on Saturday. A 70s, 80s and 90s disco at the Spa. We met up beforehand in a local bar for some cocktails and food before heading down to dance the day away.

It was so much fun! There were some characters there, like this dude who was fully kitted out in a light up suit. The vibe was great, and honestly we can’t wait to do it again, I think we all felt like we were in our 20s again!

The next day my feet didn’t work. Hours of dancing in high boots, I’m definitely out of practice. The weather was absolutely awful, cold with pea soup fog. The chap came across and chopped up an old chair for me to take to the tip, then we went to the arcade. He seemed to win all of the tickets from the 2p machines. They’re now in little Misses bag of tickets to cash in when she has collected enough of them.

Afterwards we had fish and chips. It was the laid back kind of Sunday I needed after the excitement of the previous day. 

Monday, the sun was out but the mercury was staying stubbornly low! It was also Thelma’s 5th birthday. May 4th, I call her my Star Wars Dog. 

She was thoroughly spoiled with a nice dinner, toys and posh biscuits. What a lucky Pug she is!

We ventured across to Malton as we had tickets to see the Michael Jackson movie. Little Miss loves Michael Jackson, so she was thrilled and I have to say, it was a great production. It reminded me just how good Michael Jackson’s music was. 

Much more wrapped up for a visit to Malton

Just like that we’re into the throes of another week and I’m back at work. I’ve had a very exciting delivery today though. As a long time collector of scarves, a Hermes has been on my wishlist for a long time. We visited the Hermes store in Paris last year, but there is no way I would spend over £500 on a scarf.

After much saving (because even vintage ones are pricey) and much watching many different options on Vinted and eBay, I finally bought one. I had it verified, which means delivery takes longer but gives me peace of mind, and it arrived today. It’s a thing of beauty and I’m so happy with it. What a way to start the week!

Joining with the linkup at Nancy’s Fashion Style

Shipwrecks and Lighthouses

 You may remember a few weeks back, the chap and I made what felt like an expedition to see some shipwrecks just south of Whitby. I shot some film while were there, and in Whitby itself. I’ve had the images back for a while now but life has been hectic at the moment, so I’ve not had a chance to share.

I’m so pleased with the results. I’m definitely going to be continuing my love affair with film photography. I’ll start with one of my favourites, which a number of other people have declared to be their favourite too, Whitby lighthouse.

Of course, no amateur photographer can go near Whitby without capturing the gothic splendour of the Abbey.

Then Saltwick bay, and those fascinating shipwrecks. 

Not only was it a fabulous day out, but I managed to capture some good images too. 

None of these have been filtered, the only editing they’ve had is a small crop here and there, all of the results are from the camera work.