Hobbycraft Haul

Some of you may know that I keep a scrapbook...I use it to document things in my life, rather than having a memory box I chose to document things in a book! I am in process of putting together a blog post of what is inside my scrapbook so I will go into more depth on why I started it and what sort of thing I put in it. This haul is made up of stuff from my recent trip as well as things I got given for my birthday.

Hot Glue Gun - I got this for my birthday and I can't wait to try it out!

Squares of decorative paper

Some Graduation stickers! - I have been planning a graduation page for a while, I actually happened to get given the same pack of stickers for my birthday

When in need of some cute universal stickers these are the ones!

Some generic travel stickers!

I was given these for my birthday, I love the polaroid frames and have so many ideas of how I could use them outside of my scrapbook and for decoration using those glass photo frames.

Some more travel stickers! - I came across these when I was looking for some Greece/Athens themed stickers but apparently these don't exist...WHY NOT?! So these were my next best option.

Again because I haven't found any Greece themed pieces I have decided to get super crafty and make miniature greek flags on cocktail sticks so I picked up this white pen to do the lines.

You can never have too many letter stickers, as you will see in my next post I actually don't have any and I like to put titles on my pages so it will be good to finally have a few options. I love the map print stickers as these will be great for when I travel.

Some Grace Taylor decorative scrapbook page sheets... I have a very bold overly decorative pack of pages at the minute and so I wanted something that was a lot more minimalist...

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A Trip to Prior Park, Bath

So you will probably know, if you live in the UK, that the past few days have been scorching!! If your not in the UK then I imagine you will still know this because of how crazy we brits have been going on social media about this mad weather. In a moment of stress and depression because I was not out in the sunshine and I was instead inside doing the last piece of work for my degree I decide to take a day trip to Prior Park. A National Trust landscape garden on the outskirt of Bath, for the three years that I have lived here I have wanted to go there and today was that day. Now our trip started off badly, we discovered that actually...we were terrible at buses so ended up getting on the right bus route but in the wrong direction so a 10 minute trip actually took almost an hour. At a small cost of £7.50 the gardens was definitely a place worth visiting as it had a gorgeous lake and it was able to offer us some amazing views over the city. On that note, here are some of my wonderful photographs for you to enjoy...

If you've reached this far then great! My next post will be a recipe for some of the most delicious millionaire shortbreads!!!! Very easy to do so come back on Friday to find out how to make them!!!

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Two Gigs In One Week: Adele

*Voiceover lady* "Previously on Two Gigs In One Week...Sammy went to see Little Mix in Cardiff" Ok so to continue on from my previous post the following weekend I went to London to see the legend that is Adele at the O2 arena its gonna be a long one so grab a cuppa tea and get comfy. We made the most of the weekend and spent a couple of nights there, the hotel/apartment place was awful other than the amazing view and brilliant location which was right across the river from the O2.

We arrived late Friday night and then spent Saturday exploring London. We had breakfast in a Weatherspoon's on Grace Church which ok is nothing special but when you walk into the building it looks amazing! Honestly, it looked like the inside of Gringotts bank from Harry Potter with grande ceiling to floor pillars and the room was massive, if your a lover of spoons then I recommend a visit. If your from the outside of the UK then Weatherpoons is essentially a chain of British pubs with cheaply priced food and drink. We then walked through Leadenhall Market which was completely empty with everything locked up, somewhere I imagine would normally be very hustly and bustly in the middle of the week. 

A very empty Leadenhall Market

The Shard

The Tower of London

We continued our walk seeing the Shard and the Gherkin building before ending up down by The Tower of London which was an area that was full of tourists. We decided to visit the Tower Bridge exhibition which meant climbing the many many stairs up to the top and walking along the bridge where we got some incredible views over the city.

The Tower of London

View from the top of Tower Bridge including St Pauls Cathedral, I particularly loved the cranes that you can see because they were all different colours and for some reason in my head it looked as if they were dancing around each other

When walking down the otherside of the river we came across Borough market which was another incredible experience. You name it and I am sure that they sold it...Lobsters, Meat, Flowers, Fruit, Vegtables basically everything! There were so many people shouting about their produce to the overwhelmingly busy crowd as we pushed through between them, I had never seen anything quite like it. Yes I had been to a market before but not one like this, it reminded me of something that you might have seen in Oliver.

We then took a boat down the river (like one of the ones you can see in the picture above) before then taking the cable cart over the river before hopping onto the DLR to get back to where we were staying. I was super nervous about the cable cart as I've never always kind of feared anything like it or flying etc but it was really cool getting to see everything around you from a different perspective and it was really smooth as well. Quick stop for a shower and a rest before heading back out, this time to the O2 as we had booked a table at All Bar One prior to the show. The food was great, I had the Fish Cakes and then shared the Churros with my sister for dessert which I can not rave enough about because they were mindblowingly delicious! 

Our trip to the O2 made us all slightly nostalgic as last time we had all been to the O2 together it was when it was still called the millennium dome back in 2000, I was 4 and my sister would have been 2. 

Just a coincidence that my dad was wearing red in both of these images...
2016 and 2000 - Jas, Dad, Me in both photos

So Adele was absolutely incredible, I can not emphasise enough how powerful her voice is live and she brought everyone in the room to tears. For me the tear jerker was Someone Like You and when she sung Make You Feel My Love which I completely forgot was a song that she sung and apparently Jas had too when she turned to me right at the start to say "I was not prepared for this". Adele sung all of her hit singles including Skyfall, Chasing Pavements and Rumour Has It whilst hopping between the main stage and the B stage, she interacted with the audience pulling individuals up on stage for photos. There was also some story about dolphins and how they rape each other or something... random but completely hilarious. 

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View from Block 418 Row M

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Why I love The Range

Anyone that knows me can tell you that I absolutely LOVE homeware! The Range is a chain store in the UK...if you don't know it then think of Ikea but smaller and more home accessories as oppose to flatpack furniture and it is so affordable. My room is full of stuff from The Range and even being sat here now I'm looking at my rug (thats under a pile of stuff) and thinking yeah that might have come from there too...I've lost track but here are a few things that I have purchased in the past year from there, they don't rotate their stock too often so they may have a few of these things still if you see something you like.

1- Pack of 2 White wicker baskets with a blue, fish covered lining. I don't have much space in my student room so its all about temporary storage and different ways to organise things.

2- Cushions, all four of these cushions are from from The Range, I actually brought two of the white fluffy cushions and left one back home because they are so soft

3- Fake Flowers, just something to brighten up the room a little bit.

4- Colourful bins, I keep these three on my windowsill with all my bath bombs from Lush in them - NOT Bath Melts...I learnt that the hard way and had to share a bath with the pink bin

5- White old looking watering can with some more fake flowers in them

6- Floral Bunting

I can't wait to get my own place as I will be spending an awful amount of time in The Range.

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My Favourite Places to Eat (UK)

Is it possible to like food too much? If so then I think I may like food too much...in particular brunch although that may just be the time of day that I can deal with rolling out of bed...

Heres a list of 5 of my favourite places to eat in the UK!

1- Bills - This is definitely my absolute favourite place to go for Brunch! I say brunch because...well...who's ever up early enough to eat breakfast out. My local Bills always tends to be particularly busy as it is fairly small, the atmosphere is lovely with a slightly 'hipster' feel to the place and your sat practically in what is also a shop where they sell all sorts of lovely food and drink related goods.

I recommend The Blueberry and Buttermilk pancakes with Banana, Strawberries, Streaky Bacon and maple syrup.

2- Giraffe - Now I wouldn't say that I am much of a fan of burgers, if ever I order one then I ask for it without the bread (yes I am THAT person) and Giraffe has a lovely menu filled with all sorts of goodies including a section specifically for bun-less burgers. My local Giraffe is one of the smaller branches and it again has a slightly hipster interior and loud music creating a great atmosphere. All of the staff are helpful and friendly and it can be very amusing to sit watching some of them sliding down the stairs whilst eating your meal.

I recommend The Classic Burger (with no bun), a simple straightforward burger with tomato, lettuce leaves and some delicious fries.

3- Daniels Fish and Chips - I am a girl from a coastal town who absolutely loves her Fish and Chips (or in my case battered sausage and chips). There are many fish and chip shops to choose from in Weymouth however Daniels has to be my favourite with my order being Jumbo Battered Sausage with chips and some curry sauce. You get a massive portion of chips even when ordering small, enough to share between 2 people. I am yet to find a decent chippy in Bath so its always something to look forward to when at home.

4- TGI Fridays - TGI's is an American style grill (is that the right word?) again spoiling us for choice with a massive menu. I struggle to choose just 1 dish as my favourite however their Jack Daniels Ribs are pretty on point.

5- Valerie Patisserie - A small and busy atmosphere, I would perhaps consider take away next time but they have a massive selection of a whole range of cakes.

I recommend The Lemon Cheesecake

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