Weekend in York with Lee

At the beginning of April Lee and I went away for the weekend to York. I'd been looking for a cheap hotel in Chester or Liverpool, but couldn't find anything cheap enough, maybe because it was the beginning of the Easter holidays in some places? It was still too early for camping so instead I asked my mum if we could use her caravan in York. It's a tourer van, but it lives there year round and the site owner takes it out of storage and puts it on a pitch whenever my mum wants to go. The site is adults only and it's really quiet but also really handy for York. There's a busy that goes from just outside the site right into the middle of York for £3.20 return! Bargain!

So Lee and I set off at about midday on Friday after going to the supermarket, so we got to the caravan at about 1pm. It takes a little bit to get everything set up, but once everything was set we then decided to go to Monks Cross because I wanted some storage drawers things from W H Smith. We then drove round to the designer outlet to go to the Thornton's cafe. The weather was gorgeous and honestly we were just both happy to be away together for some peace.

We met my friend Jacqui, who lives in York, for tea, at the Toby Carvery near the caravan site. It was so hot and busy in there, but it was nice enough food. Afterwards Jacqui came back to the van to have a drink, and then we took her home.

I've got just a few photos from Friday, to show off our relaxation!

Watching TV before we went out in the afternoon

It was warm so Lee stuck his feet out of the window to cool down a bit

In the evening I drank the last of this creme brulee liqueur from Marks & Spencer. My friend Amy introduced me to this, she drinks it instead of Baileys as Baileys isn't vegan. It's got gold glitter in it which is just so much fun, and I'll definitely be looking for another bottle this December.

And here's Lee in his pyjamas in the evening, just before we made the bed up in this space!

What I Wore 26th March

26th March was Mother's Day, so we went out for a meal with my mum, stepdad, and grandma. We went for tea at a pub near Wakefield - it was cheap but the food was only so-so. Oh well, it was nice to see my mum and grandma for the day. I bought them both an Easter egg and some jewellery for my mum.

Beforehand, Lee and I went to Leeds to see Logan at the Everyman cinema. It's a gorgeous cinema with comfortable sofas and stuff. You can also get food delivered to your seats. The film was fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though it's really sad too.

I needed an outfit that would be comfortable enough to wear to the cinema but nice enough to go out in, so I ended up pulling out this dress from New Look. I've only worn it once before, but it's really nice. The sleeves are sheer and I love the bows on the end of them. I paired it with my grey Joe Browns leggings, which are maybe slightly longer than I'd like them to be. They're comfortable though. Then I wore these new shoes I bought from George at Asda. I love them - a cute colour, with funky straps, and really comfortable to wear. They were only £12, too!

Photo An Hour March 18th

March 18th was Photo An Hour and I happened to be in Swansea. My friend Kirsty and I have written a zine about gender and other social justice issues in crime shows, and it was time to put it together. I stayed with Cath and Daf, and Kirsty did too. Cath was working on a Buffy the Vampire Slayer zine so it was full of scissors and glue!

We started on Friday evening, printing things out and starting the sticking. We went to bed at a reasonable hour and then got up quite early to carry on sticking. We did eventually leave the house for a bit, and went down to the seaside. Here's my photos!

Awake in Cath's spare room. 9am ish

This was what the dining table looked like for hours and hours. That little red box was for paper scraps. 10am

Pages were drying on the floor, we all had to keep stepping over them all. 11am

I took some rubber stamps to do some of the titles with. Noon

Cath! Looking gorgeous, and she was actually dressed by this point (I was still in my pyjamas). 1pm

I really liked this rose wallpaper and used it as a backing paper. I love selecting papers which will look good when they're photocopied. 2pm

We set off out in Cath's car to go down to Mumbles Pier. Not exactly 3pm, probably closer to 4pm.

I thought I'd share my photos of the beach just because they're so pretty, a bit desolate and lovely.

A selfie to prove we were all there at the same time

Let's call this one of Mumbles Pier 5pm. Shortly after this we set off back into town to go to the dessert restaurant.

We went to Kaspa's and met up with Kirsty's housemate. 6pm

I think at this point we'd finished sticking all the content! The sheer number was just overwhelming! We were so proud of us! 7pm

This is the front cover, isn't it beautiful? If you'd like a copy let me know! I did this, Kirsty was pretty happy to let me have free rein on it. 8pm

Kirsty numbering pages. By this time we were slightly hysterical and just needed it to be finished.

I was drinking pink wine. 10pm

This is the tired and mad face of a zinester who has put together a 64 page zine in a day. Go team us! 11pm

I ended up back where I started - in bed! Midnight. 

The end!

Weekend in Derbyshire - Day 3

On our last day in Derbyshire we got up and had pancakes. Sam made them and they were beautiful - thin, crispy, delicious. I have mine drizzled with golden syrup, but we had lots of other toppings too. Then, sadly, Sarah and Jacqui had to leave us. They both had to work on Monday so needed to get home.

Steph took this photo of our breakfast table

After we'd said bye to the others, the three of us decided to go to Ashbourne. Again it's somewhere I've been before, so I knew there was a delicious cafe for lunch and some shops to have a look around in. There were also loads of cute gift shops and some charity shops, so we had a good poke round.

Steph took this picture of Ashbourne too.

Here's me squinting in the sun.

On the way back we stopped to take a photo looking down over Matlock Bath. 

We then went back to the cottage where we all got in our pyjamas by 4pm and spent the rest of the day watching rubbish films. It was a quiet end to a lovely weekend! I feel so lucky to have such amazing friends in my life who like the same things I do - peace, relaxation, alcohol, slumming around in pyjamas! It's pretty great. 

And finally, here are all the books I bought. The bottom two were from the British Heart Foundation shop in Ashbourne. I read the Star of the Sea years ago so I'm looking forward to rereading it. I liked Jane Shemilt's other book, Daughter, which I read either last year or 2015, so I thought I'd give this one a go too.

Weekend in Derbyshire - Cottage based mini hen do

On the Saturday evening of our weekend away, we threw my friend Sarah a mini hen party. She's getting married in October but I can't make her hen party in June, so we decided to incorporate a mini hen party into our weekend. I asked the others, and we decided we would:

a) have cocktails (always)
b) have hen party favours and so on
c) eat penis shaped pasta
d) watch wedding themed films
e) play stupid games

We each got changed and sent Sarah upstairs while we stuck up ballons and banners and decorated the table. I bought the gift bags on eBay, which is a treasure trove when it comes to hen party stuff. They come flat packed with a few things to put in each, so I did that at home and brought them in a box. I added some sweets and stuff too. They were fun bags.

The bags on the table

Balloons

And banners!

 

Me waiting to go upstairs to give Sarah her bride-to-be sash

And Sarah looking surprised! Haha

eBay is a wonder.

Do you like our super classy penis straws? This cocktail had blue curacao in it and god knows what else. It tasted nice though.

I love this photo of Steph

Me and Jacqui blowing bubbles

And I love this one of Steph and me. 

Jacqui before she actually was drunk

I also bought penis shaped pasta on eBay and Jacqui and I made a sort of lasagne bake with it. We had it with garlic bread and salad and afterwards we had cupcakes. again. Last year for my birthday Jacqui bought me this huge bottle of prosecco which is two standard bottles. I hadn't drunk it because I couldn't drink it all by myself, so I took it with us so we could share it. And it was lovely! 

We took lots of selfies and silly pictures and I think Sarah had a good time.

Oh yeah, glowsticks. I bought loads, I'll be wearing them forever.

But aren't they fun?! We brought the feather boas, too. They shed everywhere and we were careful to clean them up before we left on Monday!

Wearing a crown of glow sticks.

Then I made it a necklace. I reall like this photo of me and Jacqui

The hen! She had a tiara and a sash!

Sam brought these deely bopper things, I loved mine

I was channelling Lolly in these glasses, they're fabulous!

Sam brought a streamer cannon thing, we went outside to do it. You can just see the streamers on the right

Me and Sarah

This is what happens when you throw someone a surprise mini hen party

Cheers!