Unable to resist the urge to re-watch one of my all time favourite classic Brit-flicks, alongside the offering of Pimms and nibbles, my friend Roxy and I popped on up to Kilver Court last night for the Aubin & Wills screening of Four Weddings and a Funeral! I’ve always wished for a cinema to be opened up in my town, and so my dream half came true last night…

Spending time at Kilver Court is one of my favourite summer past times, and this year will be no exception, hopefully! With new additions to the Designer Emporium springing up left right and centre, one of the brands that has really caught my eye since setting up shop, is Aubin & Wills. With an understated richness to their designs, as well as some great staple pieces and prints, Aubin & Wills is certainly more ‘me’ than I expected it to be; having known sister brand Jack Wills for some years now, I wasn’t sure what to expect to begin with. I have to say, too, as an appreciator of fantastic graphic design, I very much love the design of the bag my goodies were presented to me in, and will no doubt be keeping the bag out on display in my room somehow so as not to let it go to waste!

Nothing quite excites me like the combination of Fashion and Film, particularly a good ol’ British romcom, so you could say that lounging around on soft woolen Aubin & Wills picnic blankets, munching on cupcakes and sipping Pimms whilst watching a good comedy is pretty much an ideal evening out as far as I’m concerned! I was also really impressed to learn that Aubin & Wills has its own ‘Aubin Cinema’ in Shoreditch, London… not many brands can say that of themselves, right?! Love it. Perhaps I smell something in the pipeline for Cherry Humbug in the future… haha : )

If any of you are ever in the Somerset area, I would definitely recommend a visit to the Kilver Court Designer Emporium. There are an increasing amount of brands to be shopped, and that outlet discount never goes amiss, right?! Set alongside tranquil, beautiful gardens, farm shop and Harlequin Cafe (that serves the best carrot cakeever!) a little trip to Kilver Court is always welcome in my book, come rain or shine!

“A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen.” – JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

To the undiscerning eye, this photograph looks like any other outfit post, outside any other house… but in true keeping with the essence of the magical world that JK Rowling has created, you have to be in on the secret to know that I am in fact standing outside number 4 Privet Drive; home to the infamous Dursley family, and temporary residence of Mr Harry Potter! No biggie.

Infact, this was kind of a biggie. Having spent the majority of my childhood and teenage years falling in love with the books, films, and of course, the characters, being able to spend a day looking around the sets at the Warner Bros Studio Tour really was a dream come true! I’m aware of how cheesy that sounds by the way, but I think the fellow HP fans out there, at least, will let me off because they probably share the same sentiment!

You might remember the exquisite centrepiece above from the Yule Ball scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – it really does go to show the incredible amount of work that goes into creating set pieces that may only feature in the film for a few minutes or so! I was particularly impressed and excited buy the idea of one day having something similar in my house, for party and entertainment purposes… that’s if I ever get a house (or castle… ooh!) big enough to fit it in, of course!

Being able to look inside sets such as Hagrid’s Hut, the Gryffindor Common Room, and Umbridge’s Ministry of Magic Office, as well as being able to step onto the Knight Bus, and sit inside the flying car that Harry and Ron smuggled themselves into Hogwarts in, in their second year of Hogwarts was a real delight – and being able to take photographs with them made it that much more fun! Also, I found myself eyeing up some of the dresses in Luna Lovegood’s costume rail (that girl has great taste!) and am somewhat compelled to try to recreate a couple of the garments at home on my sewing machine, so I too, can pretend I’m going along to a Slug Club party!

Needless to say, the experience wouldn’t have been complete without trying some Butterbeer, which I found to be delicious! Carrie and Miguel didn’t quite agree with me on this, which meant that I got more than a taster, and ended up drinking their share as well, yummy! I’ll have my wizard robes in XXL please? Luckily, despite its name, Butterbeer is non-alcoholic – had it been otherwise the rest of the tour could’ve gone a little differently!

I don’t want to give too much away, because I know how excited I was about going… but one of my favourite parts of the tour was seeing the Hogwarts Castle 23:1 scale model! I actually found myself a little choked up, firstly because it was so beautiful, and secondly because Hogwarts has come to mean so much to so many of us! Also, with the addition of some lovely lighting and music from the films, it really added to the experience and definitely made me appreciate all of the hard work that has gone into turning the books into a kind-of reality for us to enjoy.

And even if you take nothing else away from it, I guarantee you will have a blast looking around the gift shop at the end! Nothing spells Potter fever quite like the uncontrollable urge to spend all of your money on frog shaped chocolates, light-up plastic broomsticks, and various Gryffindor memorabilia. Also, the fact that three 21 and 22 year olds could be jealous of children playing with their £25 a pop wands, was enough proof for me that we are well and truly in over our heads when it comes to our slightly-nerdy, borderline obsessive love for Harry Potter… but also, that we wouldn’t want it any other way, because our lives so far have been a lot more magical for it!

P.S Thanks to Miguel for being our tireless photographer for the day, and to both he and Carrie for letting me use a few of their pictures after my camera died!

I think it’s fair to say that British beaches aren’t exactly known for their tropical charm or exotic beauty… (and only in England could you sit on the beach in the summer, wearing a bobble hat!) but whatever they may lack in this regard, they definitely make up for in character! One of my best friends invited me along to Weymouth on a coach trip his mum plans every year, so I finally got my much needed summer beach visit, yay! I’ve always found it hard making beach trips in my Summer holidays because I’ve usually been working a lot of the time, and particularly this year, now I have no car, I gave up hope that it’d ever happen. During the summer, I put on my best ‘Yes! Man’ cap and have been lapping up all I can before I go back to university. I love going to places I might not usually consider, and I am definitely having one of the best summers, to date! (Hence my lack of blogging, sorry guys!)

The last time I went to Weymouth was when I was much younger, and able to enjoy a donkey ride! Unfortunately, this time I was a bit too big to be going on… so instead, I watched jealously as all the little kids had their fun. Ever since my riding days ended, I’ve really missed having that kind of closeness with horses, so I couldn’t get enough of the donkeys when we saw them on this trip and couldn’t resist going over and giving them some affection after they’d been working hard!

Unfortunately I wasn’t gutsy enough to brave the sea; sand stuck between my toes is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, too! I’d say that a UK beach day is more for playing around in the sand than taking a dip in the icy cold sea, unless you want to catch pneumonia you should come equipped with lots of towels and warm clothes – which I wasn’t. I was quite keen to rent out a pedalo, but my friends thought otherwise, booo! I also took the opportunity to pig out a little bit and buy some chips, which I feel is kind of a seaside tradition over in Britain! We were very lucky that although it wasn’t the brightest or sunniest day of the year, the rain held off and we managed to stay warm in our deck chairs for most of the day – always a plus! : )

I’d definitely recommend a beach trip to anyone who may be visiting England in the summer! The weather may not match up to the kind of thing you can enjoy in the Mediterranean, but it is nonetheless a great day out and a chance to see things a little bit differently. Oh, and be careful not to get sand in your fish and chips, of course! There was a great little coffee and snack shop close to where we were sitting, which served slush puppy cocktails – great, if like me, slush puppies were <i>the</i> drink of your childhood, love it!

P.S you will be pleased to know that I have finally had my roots done, they are looking particularly bad in these pictures! But hey ho, haha : )

Last Thursday I headed into London for what was a welcome and much needed ‘fun’ trip to Oxford Street! With university being as demanding as it has been this year, and with my only trips being in aid of work experience or market research, it was a breath of fresh air (ironic that I would say this about what is undoubtedly a ‘smog’ filled city! Haha.) to be able to spend the day in London doing whatever I fancied! It’s at times like this I get really excited about the prospect of moving to London properly, and living and working in the buzz of the city, I can’t wait!

I met up with the lovely Lily before we headed on up to the Motel event in the evening, stopping off at Selfridges along the way to torture ourselves by looking at expensive handbags, as well as a much needed break at Starbucks which conveniently helped us to dodge some of the summer rainfall… only in England, eh?

It was great to meet some more bloggers at the event, and to catch up with some lovely girlies I’ve met before! Paula, who works for Motel was lovely and spent some good time chatting and getting to know us, whilst we waited in line to get our nails ‘Wah’d'! I opted out in the end because my nails were already (badly) painted, and I know how impatient I am when it comes to allowing my nails to dry – I thought it better that someone else, who wouldn’t smudge the pain stakingly intricate designs, got theirs done instead!

My favourite piece from the evening was the wonderfully crazy green fur coat, which reminded me of Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street! Haha. There is certainly nothing ‘grouchy’ or hobo-ish about this coat though, amazing…

I can’t wait to get my 550D so my pictures will be a bit sharper! Eeek. 18 megapixels of pure camera-ey goodnedss, coming my way soon I hope! It’s such a tease for me at the moment that my trusty old 400D isn’t cutting it for me anymore quality wise *sob* technology moves so ridiculously fast that this was inevitable, really!

I hope you’re all having a good week, things have been a bit quiet lately because I’m back in Somerset again and have been gallavanting around my home town all week making the most of the sun I’m loving it! See you soon! xxx

A big hello to you all! I’m pleased to inform you that we finally have internet installed in my new house – yay! So, from now on, blogging will be a lot easier, phewee. I finally got some new shoes… from Primark, even after I swore not to buy cheap again. Ok, so I got two pairs, and a hand bag too… what is wrong with me? The brogues feel much more sturdy than any other shoes I’ve ever seen in Primark, so I was sold, and got them in two colours, for around £30 for the two – not bad eh? The problem with Primark clothes is that you see them on everyone, which is why I decided to accessorize the bag with a vintage scarf. Simple, but effective! Although brogues are everywhere right now, and not in the slightest bit ‘original’ anymore, I kind of like them because they remind me of Mr Men shoes! Ahhhh nostalgia, how I love you.

I had a couple of things to do in London today, so whilst I was there I caught up with Carrie. We fine dined in Nando’s, which is now officially my new favourite restaurant simply because the menu doesn’t cause my blood pressure to rise the second I open the menu. Being a vegetarian, I often find restaurants have limited choices available, which can sometimes be quite stressful, so it’s nice for once to have an option which isn’t vegetable lasagne or pizza! I think some of you non-veggies should give a veggie burger a go sometime – take it from me there are some really good ones out there!

We also headed to Hyde Park, which was my first official visit. I felt quite at home lounging on the grass for a while. Having been amongst the hustle and bustle of the city, its the best feeling ever to be able to sit down in a huge wide open space, with lots of grass, especially for someone like me who grew up in the countryside; the ultimate refreshment! We even saw some people exercising (suit-clad doing pushups…) in work clothes, which we found to be a bit strange, but hey, each to their own! Haha. I’ve noticed lately that whenever there are ducks, swans or geese around, I get a little bit obsessed with taking pictures of them… so much so that Carrie had to shimmy me along from the lake so we could go and meet up with our friends, oops! Haha. What can I say?

Hopefully my posts will become a little more regular from now on! Its been a shame to lose the internet at a time when I’ve really been enjoying blogging. Whilst I’m on that note, if there’s anything you’d like to see on the blog – please feel free to comment with suggestions, any and all ideas are welcome : )

As for me, all that tube-ing and the millions of flights of stairs I’ve clambered up today have just about finished me off. Nighty night! x

P.S I got to meet and hang out with some wonderful bloggers at London Fashion Week, one of which was Kirsty – you can check out her pictures over at Fashion Champage!

Having spent a day visiting monkeys earlier on in the week, and an afternoon in the park watching ducks (and puzzling over ducky-related facts) I must say I am feeling rather nature-tastic right now! Haha. When I was a little girl, I had a big obsession with ducks. I had the toys, the ornaments, and maybe the t-shirt too but in my old age I’ve lost track… and so my love was reignited today when Carrie and I stopped off by the pond for a leisurely chat to discuss our Mulberry must haves and whatnot. We also ‘befriended’ (if you can call it that…) one little lady duck who had a withered leg, poor little thing – we’re going back to feed her tomorrow, because all of the other ducks were being crazy when bread was getting thrown in, and her little bad leg stopped her getting any treats whatsoever, how unfair!

Back onto the subject of Mulberry… The one redeeming feature my town possesses, on the fashion front, is its Mulberry factory shop; which has become our little ‘default’ spot to visit on any occasion when we need a little fashion fix! That’s not to say we run on up (we drive, actually… there are far too many hills in Shepton Mallet!!) and burn out our cards on whatever we can get our hands on – we are students after all… but it makes a change from sitting around the house, and also how could we resist, having such a place on our doorstop?! It’s nice to dream, too, that one day, we might have enough money to go on a bit of a spree in there – but for now, we enjoy a little fantasy every now and then!

I found it particularly hard to leave this time since one bag had really caught my eye, aaah! I’ve checked and can’t spot it on the website, which isn’t surprising because the majority of pieces in the store are from previous seasons – but take it from me, its yummyyummy, and in my favourite colour (jade/emerald green) which gives it automatic bonus love points, it’s very ‘me’!

Also, I’m wearing one of my new Barry M nail varnishes today, Berry Ice Cream! What do you think? I love it, it reminds me of Parma Violets… which coincidentally, I don’t love all that much at all, but hey! And the blazer I’m wearing is my mum’s from the 90′s – what a delightful era, with delightfully huge shoulder pads to offer, so it seems… rugby player sized shoulders = tres chic!

I’m finally going charity shopping tomorrow for my party costume, lets hope I’ll find something good! I’m hoping to embrace the 90′s some more and do a bit of a Courtney Love slipdress and ripped tights look – we’ll see how that one pans out, hmmmmmm : )