Recently I’ve been...

Eating - the blackberries growing in my Mum and Dad’s garden, whilst I’m staying here for the week cat sitting. This also means I’m without my trusty camera so I’m relying on phone pictures for now.

Reading – the latest issue of Mollie Makes outside in the sunshine. I adore the rose and heart cross stitch that came with it. Can’t wait to start that!

Painting –this old mirror for our flat. I found it in my Mum and Dad’s attic a few weeks ago and was given permission to paint and keep it – love free stuff! So far I’ve removed the mirror and sanded down the pine frame. It’s going to be white with a shabby chic finish; well that’s the plan at least. That’s the cat making an appearance there.

Loving – our new tea towels. I brought these in Marks and Spencer last week, just £4 for three in their sale! The colours match our kitchen perfectly and the plate and tea cup illustrations are so cute that I’m almost tempted to frame one.

St Michael’s Mount

This is the last post from my adventures in Cornwall earlier in July and I really loved our morning spent at St Michael’s Mount. It’s a castle on a very small island just off the beach – at low tide you can walk across the sand, but at high tide a boat is essential (the tide comes in fast too as we watched one couple discover!).

Like most historic buildings it’s full of amazing furniture and atmospheric rooms, my favourite pieces were undoubtedly a blue sofa, sat on by Queen Victoria on her visit to the Mount in the 1800s and a model of St Michaels Mount made of corks by the family’s butler in the 1930s and presented to the family. Can you tell I love objects with a story behind them?

After looking round the castle we stopped for tea and scones (well, I had scones the boyfriend had soup) at the cafe overlooking the mainland. Before browsing a few shops in Marazion, the nearest town, it had picturesque streets like most places in Cornwall and a good number of vintage shops – the best looking one was closed though – boo.

Speaking of vintage we picked up a few bargains for the flat at a car boot this weekend and I think I might have become slightly obsessed, but more on that in another post!

The Eden Project

Whilst in St Ives we spent a rainy Tuesday at the Eden Project, this it turned out was an idea had by pretty much everyone else in Cornwall. Nevertheless after a slight traffic jam and ticket queues that luckily looked worse than they were... we were in!

It had just stopped raining as we arrived so we spent some time looking around the outside of the domes, I don’t know much anything about plants but it was nice to wander all the same. We came across sculptures, interesting facts about the Cornish landscape and lots of wet flowers as well as some exciting views of those famous domes (biomes).

We headed into the rainforest biome first and it was definitely tropically humid in there, my camera lens went foggy and there were a lot of people. The Mediterranean biome was much calmer and there was space to sit and admire your surroundings (something you could do outside if you visit on a day without torrential downpours) they also had a really good looking restaurant.

It was an nice day, I wasn't overwhelmed but I did like some of the sustainability and fair trade messages you come across as you go around – it really made you think. They also upgrade your ticket into an annual pass if you gift aid, which is good as the entrance fee is fairly steep for a day trip.

Adventures and Tea Parties competition win

Firstly, don’t you just think ‘handkerchiefs’ is the strangest word – the longer you look at it the odder it seems. Anyway on to more important things... how cute are these handkerchiefs from the lovely Joanna at Adventures and Tea Parties?!

I was lucky enough to win a set of three in Joanna's recent blog giveaway. They arrived packaged in little boxes tied with ribbons (I’ll definitely be reusing that heart ribbon soon!) each handkerchief is personalised with beautiful embroidered initials or a date, the two heart ones were pictured but the blue dotty one was a surprise and is better than I could have chosen myself.

Joanna also makes necklaces and brooches embroidered with everything from birds and butterflies to sewing machines and anchors.

Now then, I'm off to have a tea party... or an adventure... who's with me?

St Ives

It might not have been constantly sunny in St Ives but it certainly was stunning, we had a relaxing yet action packed four days of exploring the area. Our bed and breakfast was only a short walk from Carbis Bay and around a 20 minute walk from St Ives itself, perfect as it didn’t look a particularly car friendly town with it’s cute cobbled streets, abundance of tourists and limited pavements... 

The b&b was perfect with a comfy bed, nice shower and delicious breakfasts (fruit, yoghurt, cereals and fresh croissants for me, full English for him – I just can’t eat cooked food that early in the morning!). We spent the first day exploring St Ives and sunbathing on the beach, then when the rain made and appearance on Tuesday we headed to the Eden Project – along with quite a few others it seemed. The final full day we managed to fit in St Michael’s Mount, Lands End and sandcastle building on the beach!

For a touristy town St Ives manages to keep the tacky tourist shops to a minimum (well, from what we saw anyway) and there are plenty of local artists shops and exhibitions to look round, not to mention A LOT of places to eat.  We had a delicious, and huge, burger each on the balcony at ‘Hub’, homemade fishcakes at the ‘Hobblers Inn’ both on the main seafront and seafood pasta at ‘Casa Romano’ in Carbis Bay. I’d happily recommend them all and it’s a good idea to try and book a table earlier in the day as places fill up fast!

As expected the scenery in Cornwall was beautiful and I took over 500 photos, but here’s a few of my favourites... 

I’ll do a separate post on the Eden Project and St Michael’s Mount.

Hope you all enjoy the sunshine this weekend :)

Holidays and homes

I’ve got two pieces of very exciting news to share with you... firstly on Sunday I’m off to St. Ives for a few days for a well earned holiday (so need a break from work!) and secondly as soon as we get back the boyfriend and I are moving into our first flat together!

It’s perhaps not ideal that we’ve ended up going on holiday and moving house in the same week, but we get back from St. Ives on Thursday and then have three days to move and sort ourselves out before work on Monday.

So, as I’m just not organised enough to schedule any posts in my absence it’ll be a quiet week on floral and feather but I’ll be back the week after with holiday pictures and a sneak peek at our new flat! *Spoiler alert* it has a turquiose wall in the kitchen...

A picture from our idyllic holiday in Devon last year – I’m hoping St. Ives lives up to it.

Plus apparently google reader is disappearing while I'm gone so if you'd like to follow me on bloglovin you can find me here - http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3410443

Have a lovely week :)