Camping 7th August

As I said previously, we went camping over the weekend of the 7th with my mum, stepdad, aunt, uncle, and cousins R and P. We went here, which was an extremely peaceful and beautiful campsite, I would definitely recommend it and would love to go again.

Lee and I have recently bought ourselves a new, big, tent. It's a five person, supposedly, but it's got a lovely big porch area and a similar size sleeping area, and it's full head height which is great for getting dressed etc. It's really fantastic, and will have room for all our stuff even when it's raining, but fortunately the weather was fantastic.

We had a great time together cooking and relaxing. Here's a few photos:

It's our tent on the right, then my mum's, then my aunt's. 

Lee and my mum and I playing bowls, good camping fun!

On Saturday evening my mum's cousin G and his partner A came for a barbecue, so here's a photo of everyone!

What I Wore 7th August

Over the weekend of 7th August Lee and I went camping with family, it was a lot of fun and I'll share some more photos soon. Here's what I wore on the way down, though.

This tattoo style print top came from New Look, I think it was only £7 ish, I love it!

Young Adult Lit Conference

In July I went to the Young Adult Literature Conference in London. You can read more about it here, on my author/book blog. I had a really amazing day, and I'll definitely go for the whole weekend next year. I thought I'd share the photos I took here though.

This was what the main panel area looked like. 

And the reading area, where I spent a lot of time when I wasn't in a panel!

Here's the books I brought home. I have read Music & Lies (the review can be found on my other blog), but none of the others yet. They're all so beautiful! 

Films of the Month - July 2015

I didn't watch many films in July due to being quite busy, but here's what I did watch:



Stand By Me - because I read The Body (the novella upon which the film is based) on holiday I thought I'd watch this. I thought I'd seen it before, but I'm not convinced I had. I enjoyed it, Wil Wheaton and River Phoenix are both excellent.



The Goonies - I was sort of on an 80s kick so I watched this - didn't like it ONE BIT. Sorry!



The Lost Boys - I was still on the 80s kick, haha. I've definitely never seen this, I loved it. Kiefer Sutherland is to die for.



Life of Brian - Lee and I watched this one weekend, it's always funny.



Clueless - our friends Bettie and Jen came over to hang out so we watched this, because 90s.



The Faculty - We kept the 90s theme the same day by watching this.



The Fault In Our Stars - I read the book back in March, so thought I'd watch the film. I really liked it, I thought it was very good adaptation of the book, and I liked the actress playing Hazel. I think the sex scene is one of the best in YA literature and it was very nicely done in the film too. Loved it.

And that's it!

Books of the Month - July 2015

I can't believe it's August already! When the reminder came up to write this post, I was like noooo it can't be time again already, but it is!



1) The Mystery of Claw Mountain by Paul Moxham. This popped up on Kind of Book as free, so I got it. It's trying to be Enid Blyton and fails miserably; there's no substance at all to it.



2) Never Look Back by Clare Donoghue. I picked this up in a charity shop, I love crime novels and I enjoyed this. The main detective was pretty good.



3) Devoted by Jennifer Mathieu. This is a Young Adult novel about a teenager in a fundamentalist Christian cult. I really liked it, definitely seek it out if that's your thing.



4) Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray. I really enjoyed this, once I got into it. You can find a more in-depth review on my other blog here.



5) Music and Lies by Gill-Marie Stewart. I picked this up at the Young Adult Literature Conference in London, because it was about a music festival. I didn't hate it, but it had problems.



6) Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. I absolutely LOVED this, it was everything I'd want in an LGBT Young Adult novel. Please do read it.

Taking Shape shop in Sheffield

A few weeks ago I was in Sheffield with a friend for lunch. We ate at the utterly brilliant Blue Moon Cafe, wandered through the continental market that was on, and went through to Orchard Square, which is a fairly new development with a Starbucks, a Waterstones, an Evans, a TK Maxx, stuff like that. There used to be a shop called Evolution in there, which sold weird and wonderful household stuff like a mobile I have in my window, which is a rainbow heart from which flow rainbow ribbons (it's amazing). I had heard that Evolution had closed down, but I wasn't aware that Taking Shape had opened up in its place.

Taking Shape does sizes 14-26 and although I didn't try anything on, certain things certainly seemed to go bigger than a 26. I would say that their style is for an older person than me - a lot of their stuff seems to fit for a woman aged 50+ - there's a lot of classic lines, colours, and fits. The prices are quite high but from what I saw quality was excellent. Their website has a sale section, too. I could imagine finding something for a special occasion like a wedding in here.

There were 3 friendly members of staff inside, all wearing Taking Shape stuff. One chatted to us, but wasn't particularly pushy. I was impressed by the fitting rooms - they're huge. One would have been big enough for a wheelchair user, and all of them had comfy stools inside.

The store is clean, bright, welcoming, and has quite a lot of space between racks

The changing rooms are huge and bright

I loved the print on this swimming costume

And the weirdness of the pleats in this tunic

These tops would be perfect office wear for me - I'm tempted by the blue one!

*I was not compensated in any way for this post - I simply liked the shop, took some photos, and wrote the post.

What I Wore 31st July

31st July was the birthday of one of my stepcousins, so we headed over to Doncaster celebrate. I wore the Scarlett & Jo skirt I wore on holiday, and also a new georgette type top from Evans. The woman in Evans actually gave me this when I tried the skirt on, but I didn't buy it at the time. I regretted it, so I got it! I think it looks ace tucked into the skirt; it looks like a dress (one of my cousins actually said "I like your dress" and I didn't correct her!). I also put on my black New Look shrug.

Photo an Hour 18th July 2015

I was happy when I realised 18th July was Photo An Hour because it was the wedding day of one of my oldest and best friends! I have known Gillian since we were at 6th form college together in 2000-2002. There's a group of five of us who are still friends; we meet up every Christmas, and sometimes twos or threes of us get together. We all managed to be at the wedding which was so amazing. I love these girls, I trust them so much.

The wedding ended around 4pm as Gillian and her new husband Tom are Mormon and went across to the Mormon temple in Preston to have part of their wedding there. I then went to Sheffield to get a train to London, where I was staying ahead of attending the Young Adult Literature Conference on Sunday. It was a busy day!

9am post-shower shot. I think all my Photo An Hour posts start like this

10am, on the way to Huddersfield on the back roads.

11ish - slightly late as 11am was spent in the church, where no photography was allowed. This is the beautiful bride and several of her army of small bridesmaids.

Noon ish and these are my Greenhead girls! (That's the college we went to). Michelle, Amy, Gillian, Ailsa and me. Ailsa was one of my bridesmaids.

1pm and here's Lee and I during the meal.

2pm, Amy had been playing in the photobooth and was very taken with this hat 

3pm and here's the bride and groom on the bouncy castle!

4pm and this is on the way from Huddersfield to home...

5pm ....where I got changed very quickly and then headed out to Sheffield.

6pm and here's my train!

7pm and I was working on my cross stitch while listening to several men talking for HOURS about Barnsley FC

8pm, blurry train shot

9pm and I was at my hotel in Earl's Court. It was simple, cheap, comfortable enough. The blind didn't work though, which meant the sun flooded in early.

10pm and this was the view from my room. This was very expensive part of London!

11pm and I was reading my book before I went to sleep. I couldn't get into it so had given up on it, but when I concentrated I actually really enjoyed it!

Last holiday post, I promise!

On the Friday of our holiday we went out again, to a restaurant down by the river. This is what I wore

The skirt is a size 22 from one of those outlet mall places, it fits me fine and I love the colour and the fact that it's dip dyed. My mum bought it for me just before the holiday. Even the lining fits me!

The top came from New Look, it was only £7 or something. Elephant print forever!

And here's Lee and I, looking suntanned and happy :)

Wearing Scarlett & Jo on holiday

A few evenings on holiday we went out to eat, which was a chance to get a bit more dressed up. I had recently bought this Scarlett & Jo skirt so I took it with me. Since I was on holiday I wore it with bare legs, which is a huge deal for me.

Scarlett & Jo skirt, unlined so really cool for hot weather, and New Look v-neck top

Lee's dad and stepmum

My mum and stepdad

Me

I didn't realise when the waitress took the picture that you can barely see Lee's stepmum! This was before Lee's mum and stepdad arrived, by the way. This was a very nice restaurant called Plein Sud, in a place called Martel. The waitress complimented my excellent French!