What I Like About Photographs Is That They Capture A Moment Thats Gone Forever, Impossible To Reproduce.

I've decided to do an Instagram post.
In the past I've heard people go on about how dull they are, and how people fail to see the point in them... Well, with an attitude like that, what's the point of having Instagram at all? Surely the whole idea is to show people what you've been up to and the pictures you've taken while doing it.
Anyway, I LIKE THEM. So there :) I love nosing at what people have been up to and I especially love a good instagram. (My best friend's fail safe of getting me to go places with her is now "You can Instagram it!" haha)
If you fall into the demographic of instagram-blog-post haters, I suggest you depart now, you have been warned!

 

 

 Last weekend we went to Northallerton for some late lunch. We hadn't realised it, but there was a Beer Fest going on which had a Continental Market attached to it. They had an amazing stall with bowls upon bowls of Turkish Delight, Olives and Pastries like Baklava which I absolutely love! I also bought some macaroons whilst I was there which I've never had before but always wanted to try. They're delicious! Will definitely be buying some again.

I found the beautiful blue velvet shoes in Topshop. I don't usually go for velvetty things (I'm not keen on the feel of them) but these were just so gorgeous with their sparkly heel and platform. They were £75.

Me and Morag also found those rather fetching police headbands out shopping. Aren't they attractive! Haha!

Obviously there's another photo of my beautiful Bobby sleeping on the sofa. She looks quite big there but she's still only a kitten. So cute!

 

We have finally been re-visiting our beloved Tea House this week! Now that the Autumn months are creeping in and the temperature is dropping we've really felt the need for some nice warming tea! On that day we had an array of Fairy Princess Tea, Spiced Orange Chai Tea, and Rose Bud Tea, all of which were delicious!

The top right is a photo I took at Rushpool Hall. We visit it regularly and I actually had my 18th Birthday there years ago so it has some lovely memories for me.

I've been having some more Autumnal walks which I really enjoy. I love it when the ground is crisp and crunches under your feet!

Has anyone tried the new Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks? I bought my first one at the beginning of last week and didn't know what to expect... I'm now on about my fifth, so you can assume I loved it! It's very seasonal and warms you up on a chilly day!

 

We had a lovely meal at Pizza Express the other weekend and my favourite bit was definitely dessert. I had the Semi Freddo Reale and a Tia Maria coffee. Delicious!

This weekend we went to York for a big surprise birthday celebration, which was great fun (and, amazingly, all came together in the end!) we had a gorgeous meal at Rustique, a small French restaurant on Castlegate. There was a Kinky Donuts stall (that made me giggle), the York Eye, and of course a Hotel Chocolat, where I couldn't resist getting some goodies!

Then after arriving home on Sunday evening, my best friend asked if I fancied a trip to the beach (she used the old Instagram line) so I got a lovely photo of the pier all lit up at Saltburn.

So there you have it, my fortnight in Instagrams! I hope you liked it and it wasn't too "dull" :)

What have you been doing lately? And how are you liking the Autumn coming upon us?

Take care, Lots of Love, Taz x

London 2012: When Our Time Came, Britain, We Did It Right!

NB: Please click on the photos to view properly, this new layout is playing havoc with them!

 

Last weekend I went to the London 2012 Paralympics and it was hands-down one of the best experiences I've ever had. The atmosphere was amazing all through the Park and all of the Gamesmakers were so happy and helpful.

  We were seeing the Athletics so were in the Olympic Stadium and it was completely electric. Having seen it so much on telly, I thought I had a good idea of what it would be like, but I was wrong. I expected the view from our seats (the middle price category of 3) to be quite restricted and to only see the Athletes as little dots on a miles-away track, but the view was fantastic! We could see everything, track and field.

The best moments for me were; first, seeing Richard Whitehead win and receive his Gold medal. The place went insane when he won, and I have to admit to emitting noises and screeches I never expected I had in me! Singing the National Anthem as a crowd of 80,000 was just unreal!

We saw 6 GB medals in total!

 

The other stand out moment was seeing Houssien Omar Hassan, an Athlete from Djibouti running the 1500m. He's the one in blue on the above photos. When the pistol went, all of the runners set off and it quickly became clear that he wouldn't be in the running for the medals. He was lapped twice by the other competitors and was still on his first lap when the group had finished. But the most inspiring and humbling thing was that as he went round, barely faster than a stumble, the entire stadium stood up and cheered him on as if he was in the lead. A mexican wave-style round of applause greeted him from every stand as he went by. Even the commentators, whose speech was audible only to the TV Broadcast for all other events, came back through the speakers to will him on and all the screens you see on the photos lit up with "MAKE SOME NOISE!". It was a very emotional 11 minutes and as he crossed the line, the cheer went up as if he'd just won gold. He certainly won something.

I hope you all enjoyed the Olympics & Paralympics, tell me about your favourite moment in the comments below :)

Take Care, Lot of Love, Taz x

To Many People Holidays Are Not Voyages Of Discovery, But A Ritual Of Reassurance.

Afternoon all!

I got back from my little holiday last weekend so wanted to show you what I got up to.

However, after reading through some of my past posts, I've realised I do have a tendancy to 'waffle'. So for this post I'm going to try and summarise a bit more and let my photos do the talking.

We stayed in a little cottage quite near York, and it was small but really cosy. Bijou, if you like! And the view was beautiful.

Just down the road was Yorkshire Lavender which I didnt really expect to enjoy that much. But there was actually lots to see and do, including some cute little deer and an interesting cricket game sculpture.

We also had some amazing things to eat, like Lavender Ice Cream, Lavender Tea and (yes, you guessed it) Lavender Shortbread!

We also visited Malton, Hovingham and Gilling, which are all beautifully picturesque villages, and the gorgeous Benningbrough Hall where we had tea and lunch before looking around the house. 

The weather was great all week and the most spectacular thing was the clear nights. Because of being out in the countryside there was absolutely no light pollution. I took a few photos just on the off-chance of them picking something up. After filtering and HDR-ing the hell out of them, this was one of the results;

Finally, on the day that we left, we decided to take a trip over to Castle Howard for lunch. We were seated by a family who were all laughing and chatting, when an older gentleman turned and smiled at my mum, greeting her with a happy "hello there!" and then we realised it was Michael Parkinson!

He was visiting on his way to do a show at Scarborough theatre, and had stopped for lunch with his family. He was a lovely man and chatted with us throughout lunch.

It was a lovely relaxing week. Hope you're all having wonderful trips this summer. Tell me about them below!

Lots of Love, Taz x

Every Summer Has A Story

Wow.

It's been such a long time since my last post, and for that I am eternally sorry!

I should probably catch you up on what I've been up to.
I got my Uni results for this year back, and came out with an overall first, which I'm very pleased with.

Since Summer began I haven't had a minute spare (hence the total lack of blogging) but I spent a lot of time seeing friends and catching up. And drank a fair amount of cocktails too :)

First week of the holidays I was cat-sitting for my God Parents. They live by the sea and luckily a lot of friends (& my big brother) live over there so I got plenty of beach time (and more cocktails) in!

One day we went over to a place called Sledmere House, which was beautiful!

And another we headed to the Forge Valley. It was really stunning!

My godparents cats are gorgeous and still only really small so they would come for cuddles all the time. So adorable!

Paige - we were watching Lovejoy at this time! We know how to live.

Bobby - she spent every night just gazing at me from my lap!

 While I was shopping over there, I came across a little sweet shop which did some amazing stuff I'd never seen before. There were a lot of American sweets & drinks but I was taken in by this giant block of Equador (I think) Hot Chocolate which you break a bit off and drop it into milk. It's meant to be the tastiest thing ever!

The Sweet Shop on Bar Street

Leading on from that, I am on a determined health kick!
(I didn't buy the hot chocolate... sob!)
Perhaps spurred on by the Olympics, and all the outrageously beautiful people that went with it, I'm really trying to cut down on the bad stuff. I have a few healthy but tasty recipes to post, hopefully not in the too distant future!
My main downfall is alcohol.
I just can't part with my mojitos and wine. Does anyone know any nice alternatives I could give a try?
My friend and I are also going to start swimming regularly. (Mostly to try and bag guys who look like Michael Phelps or Ryan Lochte!)

Speaking of the Olympics, wasn't it fabulous?!
I enjoyed every minute of it and really think the whole event did us, as a nation, proud!
After a gruelling SIX HOURS (Yes, SIX) at the computer I finally managed to get Athletics tickets for the Paralympics so I will certainly be blogging about that!

I've been working hard at our various Halls and Castles since I got back and will post lots of pictures in another post.

Hours of hard work but I finally got the library in order!

There's a lot more to tell you but I'm very aware of not waffling on(!) so I will leave this one here for today. Here are just a round up of pictures I've taken over Summer so far.

Our friend's Jayne & Tony got married and I took this photo outside the church.

Our hotel we stayed in for the Wedding Reception.

Our GOLD post box! 

Thanks for bearing with me! Until next time, take care!

Lots of Love, Taz x

The Liebster Blog Award

The Liebster Blog Award is given to upcoming bloggers. Thank you Niki for tagging me :) 
 

The Rules:

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves. 

2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you and create eleven (11) questions for the people you've tagged.

3. Choose eleven (11) people and link them in your post.

4. Go to their page and tell them.

5. Remember no tag backs!

11 things about me:

1. If you include individual tealights, I own over 100 Yankee Candles.

2. I get cranky if I don't have a minimum of 3 cups of tea a day and one of them has to be Chai.

3. My bedroom in my parents house has been the same since I was 12.

4. My favourite person in the world is my mum.

5. I used to walk to uni and pretend I did it to be healthy - it was really so I had more money for booze.

6. I have a biased love for things beginning with T.

7. I have more jewellery than I could wear in two years if I changed it every single day.

8. I've adored Harry Potter since I was 9, and always will!

9. I own a piece of land and therefore my legal title is 'Lady'.

10. I have a whole youtube channel of my videos that is set to private, and will never change.

11. I once got so drunk at a pre-lash, I was taken home and put to bed before we even left the flat. Embarrassing.

11 questions from Niki:

1. Favourite make-up brand (expensive)? I love Clinique, but only as a treat.

2. Favourite make-up brand (budget)? I'm not fussy, usually Rimmel, Maybelline or No. 7 at Boots.

3. Which country would you most like to visit? Without a doubt - Morocco.

4. What made you want to start blogging? To share things from my everyday life with like-minded people :)

5. What one make-up product do you never leave the house without? Foundation.

6. Favourite skin care product? Botanics body cream.

7. Dresses or skirts? Dresses, then there's less faff trying to match up!

8. Favourite food? Sushi, mmm.

9. What's your favourite shopping website? I love ASOS, H&M, and New Look.

10. How do you care for your hair? Deep cleanse shampoo, conditioner, and use a hair mask once a week.

11. What's your diet and exercise routine? It doesn't exist!

11 questions from Me:

1. What are you most proud about?

2. How many different countries have you visited?

3. If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?

4. If someone gave you a million pounds, how would you spend it?

5. Are you an Optimist or a Pessimist?

6. If you could go back in time, what era would you go to and why?

7. What thing do you wish you had invented?

8. If you brought out a beauty line, what would you call it?

9. What is your favourite product?

10. Which is your favourite season and why?

11. If you could be any fictional character, who would you be?

I tag:

Julie

Bethanie

Liz

Morag

Sophie

Kat

Hannah

Ruth

Angela

Haldis

Georgia

Now all you guys need to do is fill out the things about you, the 11 questions from me, and then ask another 11 questions and tag 11 new people to continue the chain.

Much Love, Taz x

What If The Hokey Cokey Really Is What It's All About?

Hello All!

I've decided to do a HAUL post on things I bought at the MetroCentre in Gateshead. 

I don't go there that often, not since I left Sunderland, but I went a few weeks ago with the girls and got some great stuff. 

So I decided to go again this week and, since one of my best friends lives about 15mins away, we drove over on Monday. 

I'd heard about this American Candy place opening up and the week of it opening there were apparently queues out the door, so I was excited the check it out.

Well, evidently the reason the queues were out the door were probably because its smaller than my bedroom! It's a tiny place, for anyone who knows the MetroCentre it's in that little village set-up between the green & blue malls, so only teeny.

They had a few nice things, but my friend went to America for a couple of years and would send loads of stuff back so there was nothing that really stood out to me. I did get a couple of cans of Mountain Dew though because I've never had the proper American stuff, just that energy one you can get over here.

I also got some, more, candles. If you follow my blog / twitter you'll probably know I have a bit of an addiction to candles, and a quite substantially larger addiction to Yankee Candles...

BUT, in my defence, the Nature's Paintbrush is one that I've been after for ages!

 

Also, the Christmas Tree tealights were super reduced from Christmas so that's okay, right?! 

The Pink Rose one just looked pretty, and smelled nice.

And was only £1.50 from Primark. Bargain.

I have to admit to totally going off Primark in the last few years, and if I'm being honest, I got a bit snooty about it, thinking it was just cheap tat. BUT, I think they've really raised their game recently and although you can't expect to compare the quality against the more expensive shops, they do have some nice stuff.

The only clothing I bought from there was this Roxy Music top. It's really short so probably good over denim or high-waisted shorts maybe? 

I also got some stuff from the Home department, I really like some of the things they have on offer...

I loved this cushion, I'm redecorating my room with a neutral walls and colourful accessories set up so for £7, I thought this would fit in really well.

I also got these pillowcases, because they're so pretty, but mainly because they were only £2 for a pack of 2!

I got a huge bag for half price at only £5 which has a bright orange lining, and I was after some quite plain summer flats so I went for these nude snakeskin pumps for £5.

From Topshop I just got a couple of bits of jewellery...

The cross rings were £8.50, but the other ring was in the half-price sale so was only £2!

We went into That's Entertainment on the way home and I got some DVDs and some posters...

I'm not even embarrassed about the Avengers poster! It's only a mini one but I still unashamedly LOVE it :)

The DVDs, if you can't see them, are Three Kings, Tropic Thunder, The Office Series 1 & 2, Dogma and Pearl Harbour.

I also got two other posters which I havent put up yet, but they're big ones in the style of the "Keep Calm And Carry On" signs, but one's movie quotes and one's song titles. (I'll take snaps of them when they're up!)

I got a vest top from New Look for £8.99. I love the design.

Finally, I got a wooden sign for my room...

I like inspirational stuff like that.

So that's what I bought! (& spent far too much money on!) 

If there's anything you like that I've forgotten to say where it was from or how much then feel free to ask :)

I'm gonna sign off with something that me & my friend both absolutely adored but at £14 couldn't justify buying...

It tickled us anyway!

Anyway take care, Lots of Love, Taz x

Sally The Camel Had Two Humps...

Sloe Gin, aztec spice chocolates, and a camel...

Well, I was supposed to stay home and clear my room ready for redecorating, which in itself is an epic task and most likely to take weeks, so naturally... I went out.

Luckily for me, the mother was also avoiding the same task so we decided to drive aimlessly around for procrastinations sake.

After filling up as much time as possible exploring the countryside for castles and stately homes (yes, that's literally how we spend our lives) we ended up at a farm shop off one of the main roads.

Driving down the driveway to the shop we were admiring all the cute calfs. We were so busy discussing how cute and fluffy they were (think "it's so fluffy im gonna die!") that we didn't even notice the eight foot - two humped - eff off CAMEL that was in the opposite field.

I'm not even playing with you.
It was a camel... In the middle of County Durham.

(For those playing the "pics or it didn't happen")...

Anyway, just when my day couldn't get better - went into the shop to find they have a WALL of alcohol.

Now I know not all of us are fully acquainted yet but, simply put, there are three things in this world that I have an integrated magnetic pull towards...
DVDs
Jason Momoa
And ALCOHOL.
(and not necessarily in that order)

Long story short I walked away with 6 bottles of bizarre flavoured liquer, some apple wine, aztec spiced chocolates (I can only assume they taste of that well-known flavour 'Ancient Civilisation'..?) and numerous photographs of a 2500miles lost camel.

Welcome to my life! :)

Take care, lots of love, Taz x

“Your Birthday Is A Special Time To Celebrate The Gift Of 'You' To The World.”

Hello all!

As some of you will know, it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago and I was absolutely spoilt rotten, so I wanted to show you a few of the lovely things I got. 

I woke up to breakfast in bed, which was gorgeous and so thoughtful... and then went downstairs to find an actual pyramid of presents! Along with a bottle bag for good measure (and anything in a bottle is certainly good measure!) 

 

 I had a chilled out day where we went for a picnic and saw friends. Then in the evening we went out for a slap-up (I do hate that phrase!) meal, again with my nearest and dearest. Two of my best friends got me a box full of gorgeous stuff (pics will be at the bottom) and my auntie and uncle got me some lovely jewellery.

 We had a great meal, I ended up taking half of it home with me... even though me and Sarah couldn't resist getting dessert, which was a snickerbockerglory. Kinda like a peanut butter sundae! Nommmm.

When I got home, a cute giant cupcake was waiting for me off my mum and dad, and a mysterious envelope which, when I opened it, was a voucher for a weekend away in a Manor House including Spa, Facial and Massage! It was so sweet of them, especially after how much I'd already got!

The Jacquard throw is what I bought with some of my birthday money because I love being cosy and snuggly - it's absolutely huge!

I also do a lot of writing so the Paperchase notebook was perfect, it's much bigger than most other I have. 

The photo in the middle of the three is what my absolutely beautiful girls from uni got me. We went out for a meal just after my birthday and they surprised me with a huge bag of stuff! There's a Floozie make up bag set, a scented candle, some lip glosses, a spa set and some earrings from Topshop that I'd been gazing longingly at for weeks. It was so thoughtful of them and I nearly cried into my TGI Fridays!

 

 I am a self-proclaimed geek and I do love things to do with the Universe. It's going to sound SO sad but I just love looking at the pictures of how big the galaxy is, it sometimes really puts things in perspective knowing there's so much more out there than my problems!

 This is our hotel we stayed in...

 

 Apparently, King Henry VIII used to stay there! So I was hoping for some creepy, haunting activity... but unfortunately I was left disappointed! Although there was this big old chest that, when we opened it, had a picture of a demon in... So chances are, we've unleashed some curse on the place for the next visitors!

 

Finally, these are the presents from my besties! There were some gorgeous Teal earrings (my favourite colour), a lovely scarf, other jewellery including some adorable teapot earrings, a cupcake keyring and a teacup with a Soy candle in it!

It's like all the things I love in one box!

 

So there's my birthday in a post! I hope I haven't bored you!

Thanks so much to everyone who sent birthday messages, and also thanks and big love to everyone who's gifts have appeared in this post! 

Will post about my Vintage Venture soon!

Lots of Love, Taz x