Travel Dreams And Absolute Scenes

Press event // I was kindly invited to an evening of cocktails, food and entertainment by eShores.co.uk but all opinions are my own.

Growing up America was never high on my travel wish list. Speaking of, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to have any sort of travel wish list because as soon as I hear someone speak about somewhere new/see photos on Instagram I immediately decide I'd like to go. 

But yes, growing up I was very keen on seeing a lot of Europe and much less enthusiastic about seeing anything else of the world; in fact I'll shamefully admit I many a time uttered the phrase 'I'm not really bothered about America'. It's safe to say I can now eat my words as that's well and truly changed, with not only a lot of America, but also New Zealand and Canada being fairly high on that extremely long list.

It just so happened that a week or so after discussing how dreamy a West Coast America trip would be I was invited to an event hosted by eShores based on their USA multi centre holiday to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas (ello there's a £100 discount for you if you book a holiday with them quoting USA/LeedsEvent you're welcome).

Now, I could tell you all about the tasty food we ate (tofu satay you were amazing) or talk you through the ingredients in our cocktails or I could tell you want really happened at the event (heavily featuring Violet and Ashton sorry gals).

16.40 // Each armed with one heavily overpriced drink from the station shop, we got on the train from Hull. I was that annoying person painting their nails and filling the carriage with fumes, Ashton was that annoying person doing her makeup on the train and Violet...well Violet just filled out a survey for the train guard so that's quite nice of her really isn't it.

18.00 // Arriving at Lambert's Yard we were told to 'drink drink drink' by the lovely Jennie because it was free cocktails for an hour. Violet and I politely obeyed and guzzled enough gin to make us do things such as...

18.30 // ...imagining that our main girl crush Chloe Plumstead had turned up to the event and proceeding to poke a little fun at ourselves by doing fan girl impressions of us meeting her. You don't want to hear them.

19.00 // Heading upstairs for food and realising there was wine served with it a bit of bartering and a scuffle ensued before a gin and wine swap was agreed between myself and Violet (am obviously joking about the scuffle but she is feisty so who knows what could have happened).

20.00 // I held my spoon in my pudding for a very unnatural amount of time so Ashton could take an action shot of me eating it. #forthegram

20.30 // I pretended I was sober enough to actually pay attention to the magician. I believe he made Victoria's engagement ring appear out of a piece of fruit?

21.30 // We decided it would be a good idea to take outfit photos on the station platform, resulting in us almost missing the fact our train had changed platforms.

22.00 // Well fed, bleary eyed and content, we were much sleepier and less annoying on the train ride home.

Amy x

P.S. Quick shoutout to Jennie for always organising such fab and fun events. 

Second shoutout to Elouisa for the photo of Violet and I boomeranging.

The Happy List // 4.0

The seaside.

Doing something that scares you.

Making travel plans.

Granola.

Cooking a meal from scratch.

Days and nights that provide you with endless funny anecdotes.

Cheese with more cheese.

Crisp, fresh mornings.

Eating outside.

Lie ins.

Lovely lazy Sundays.

Running.

Being productive.

Not needing to paint your nails for weeks because gel.

Clear outs.

Writing for the sake of writing.

Pizza, always.

The Power Of An Outfit

This post contains a gifted item. ANGELEYE has a beautiful range of wedding guest dresses as well as lots of other gorgeous clothes.

Dress - ANGELEYE (here) *gifted // Shoes - Converse (here) // Bag - Urban Outfitters

A love of clothes and fashion is often seen as superficial, shallow, even a little vain, but it's undeniable that clothes can make you feel good. It's also undeniable that your choice of outfit will make some sort of impression on the people around you, whether you want it to or not.

In my opinion the impression you make doesn't necessarily come from the physical clothes you're wearing; it comes from you and how wearing said clothes makes you feel.

And that's where my own love of clothes and fashion stems from; how wearing certain clothes makes me feel, how an outfit can completely transform both my mood and my confidence, how an appreciation of style can actually enable you to judge people less because aside from the actual outfit you're able to see the confidence it inspires in someone.

With the rise in awareness of the damage that fast fashion has on the environment, I think we're all trying to be a little more mindful of our purchasing habits. I know I could certainly do much better, but a small step I'm making on my way to change is only investing in outfits or garments that have a powerful impact on my mood and confidence.

Realistically, why would I wear a frivolous sale buy that may be 'on trend', but may also be a size too big or something I'm just not 100% comfortable in when I could wear something that I feel my absolute best self in?

From now on I'm only here for outfits that have the power to make me feel confident, comfortable and just darn good.

Amy x

AD // Interior Snapshots: My New Home

This post is in collaboration with LionsHome, but all opinions and photos are my own.

I had planned to start writing interiors posts again almost as soon as I moved into my new house, but time flies and rooms get messy and photos don't get taken and all of a sudden I've been living here for over three months and I'm only just getting round to writing my first one.

So without further ado, welcome to my new home! It's a very small two up two down house, which was actually marketed as a 'cottage' (I'm not sure why because it's actually terraced, but I assume it's just because it's quite cute).

I thought I'd start the interiors posts simple and just give you a few snapshots of the space, how I've styled it and a few new purchases (hello bright yellow sofa) I've made. So feast your eyes on my best attempts to make this small rented house my home...

L I V I N G  R O O M

I may as well call my living room the cats' bedroom because it's incredibly difficult to get a photograph of this room that doesn't include one of their many beds #spoilt.

There are some really interesting features in this room, such as the cute wooden door leading to my stairs and a handy built in shelf running along the top of the fireplace. It was a tricksy one to style because there isn't all that much wall space, which meant the positioning of my sofa (which was on offer from Argos here FYI) was pretty much decided for me, but it works and I love how it looks next to the mirror and big plant by my front door.

My other favourite thing in this room is my desk area, where I created a mini print wall and which is where I do most of my blogging (unless I'm being lazy and using my laptop in bed *ahem*).

B E D R O O M

I do adore this bedroom; absolutely stuffed to the brim with clothes anywhere I can put them (yes I have a problem), it gets loads of evening light and I have a lovely view of a church out of my window. All in all, very zen.

I started off with every intention of being very hippy cool and just having a mattress on the floor to sleep on; sure, it looked nice and it was alright for a bit, but in the end I decided that I needed a bed because getting up off the floor just ain't as easy as it used to be.

As much as I'd have loved a fancy metal bed frame like one of these from LionsHome, I opted for this one from IKEA, which despite deciding to build it on the hottest day of the year has been a very wise and comfortable investment.

I won't bore you with the bathroom or kitchen because we all know they're fairly bog standard in rented houses and in all honesty I've not done much to them in terms of putting a stamp on them, but there you have some snapshots of my new home (finally).

Amy x

Call Me Monthly // AUGUST

Oh HELLO it's that time of the month where I bore you all with a round up of my life; hats off to me for actually managing to read a book this month and now that Love Island is over I've filled my evenings with much better quality telly.

Clothes-wise there hasn't really been a theme this month; I've dug out some old favourites and put together some pretty good outfits if I do say so myself.

And that's about it; enjoy folks (or don't, that's up to you really).

Liam Gallagher // Once

Bastille // Another Place

The White Stripes // Fell In Love With A Girl

The Maccabees // Toothpaste Kisses

The Beatles // Golden Slumbers

Liam Gallagher // Chinatown

Lana Del Rey // Doin' Time

Tilly and the Wall // Beat Control

Listen on Spotify

Line of Duty // After not exactly being blown away by series one we had a bit of a Line of Duty hiatus before starting series two, and already I'm so much more into it than I was the first series. Stick with it guys and gals.

Killing Eve // I finally finished the second series of Killing Eve and obviously bloomin' loved it. I know a lot of people said it wasn't as good as the first series and I have to say I do agree, but Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh are just my absolute favourite actresses. 

The Brighton Mermaid by Dorothy Koomson // I really got into this whenever I picked it up, but then seemed to be able to leave big gaps in between actually doing so. I also found the ending a little far fetched and disappointing (but at least I finally got to the end after about two months). 2.5/5

Amy x