sydney

Apparently it's Blue Monday, so thought I could cheer things up by sharing some photos of gorgeous Sydney! This blog post has been a long time coming... there were so many photos to sort through! And yes, I'm going to attempt to sum up Sydney in one massive blog post, ha. Just look at that blue sky and clear water. Let's just say I really bloody loved it, it's suuuuch a great, fun, stylish, creative and beautiful city. No wonder so many people end up moving over there. I was there for 10 days and saw so much, but also felt like I barely scraped the surface! I guess it's a bit like London in that respect, soooo many places to go and things to do!

Yeah it's a pretty great place, I recommend it times a million. It is far far far away and pretty pricey but I guarantee you'll like it. I want to go back already. Some of my absolute favourite things in Sydney were...

+ Shopping and brunching and drinking in Surrey Hills.
+ Swimming and sunbathing at Wylie's Baths.
+ The coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee. (Sculpture by the Sea was on whilst we were there which was an extra bonus.)
+ Getting ferries across the harbour, past the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.
+ Ricotta hotcakes at Bill's! 
+ Shopping in Koskela, ohmigosh I wanted to buy it allllll. I didn't 

Photos - mixture of lumix DLSR and iPhone 5 + vsco cam.  

noosa

After a nice relaxing few days in Byron Bay, we drove North up the coast to Queensland. I drove, in an automatic, weird, through The Gold Coast, crazy, and then past some gorgeous coast line into The Sunshine Coast. It was pretty fun really, and we ended up in Noosa with high hopes of seeing koalas. Noosa was like two different worlds in one place; some of the shops and restaurants on Hastings Street were way too fancy for our shorts and flip-flops vibe, but very lovely all the same, and let's face it, who doesn't want to try salted caramel popcorn ice-cream made by the magic of liquid nitrogen?! And then 1K down the beach in Noosa National Park we were surrounded by dense forest, deserted beaches, turquoise sea, white sand and crazy wildlife. I did not get along with the wild turkeys. It was gorgeous though, we walked for miles and just kept stumbling upon the most incredible beaches. I loved it, it's a gorgeous bit of coastline, go go go if you get the chance!

Photos - the camera gods were against me in Noosa and something went crazy with my camera, so most of these are iPhone 5 + vsco cam.  

byron bay

Byron Bay was the first stop in Oz. It was exactly as I'd imagined it, beautiful beaches, loads of surfers and a very chilled out town. A pretty good way to start the holiday, especially after the 30 hour journey! It was laid back, calm and beautiful. The sand squeaked and the sunsets were spectacular. A highlight has to be Tallow Beach which was a short walk through the bush from where we staying - a huge, completely deserted white sand beach. We explored it at sunset and it was stunning. 

+ Claire shared some of her pics of Byron Bay and Tallow Beach here + here. 
+ Follow me on bloglovin' here. 

Photos - mixture of lumix DLSR and iPhone 5 + vsco cam.

australia

Well I'm back from Australia and had a bit more of a blogging break than originally intended, thanks to some serious jetlag, a good friends birthday + some awesome celebrations. Oh and there's also the fact that I took seven million photos and still have a bit of sorting out to do! I'll be back soon with plenty of photos of my favourite Australia days. For now though, here is a mash up of some of my favourite iPhone snaps from the holiday. Look at those blue skies, sigh, take me back already....! 

+ Follow me on Bloglovin' here. 
+ A few more snaps of Oz on my vsco grid. 

VSCO grid

I realise this is a bit late in the day, and I've mentioned it a few times already, but I just wanted to share a bit of love for the fabulous VSCOgrid. I got mine quite a while ago, so it’s filling up nicely now... 

And I absolutely frickin’ love it. I am a huge massive fan of my iphone, mainly because of the camera, and then when VSCOcam came along I was like, whooooo! Those filters are SO gorgeous. And now the GRID! It’s beautiful, it makes me really happy, and one of my favourite ways to kill time these days is to look through other people’s lovely grids. Yep, really. I love the responsive design, I looove the white space, and I really love that your photos aren’t restricted in a square frame! It's a beautiful way of displaying your favourite snaps. 

Let me know about your grid if you have one, so I can spend time looking through them too!

Some grids I'm loving at the moment -  Nicole Franzen / Emily Goater / Monica Moraru / Kate Kipley / Emilie Ristevski. 

clifton

This past weekend I headed out of London to Bristol for a weekend with my sisters. It was exactly what I needed and mostly involved loads of chilling out, catching up over good food and wine, a bit of shopping, a bit of crafting and a lovely sunny afternoon and a picnic in Clifton. 

Ahhh, Clifton is such a gorgeous place. If I ever move out of London I could imagine heading here! This coming week is going to be pretty crazy, but will be ending with a long weekend in Budapest, yes, cannot wait! Wishing you all a lovely week ahead! 

Photos taken on my iPhone 5 + vsco cam. 

those peonies

Those peonies I bought from Columbia Road Flower Market the other week. Enjoying the last of the Summer sunshine. They weren't the best peonies in the world, but they were still super pretty. 

Photos taken on my lumix DSLR. 

shoreditch

On Sunday last weekend I met up with my lovely friend Claire and went for a long overdue visit to Columbia Road Flower Market. It was super packed as always, but was nice to mooch around in the sun, catch up and pick out some pretty peonies. From there we walked over to Redchurch Street to check out all the street art and had a lovely long lunch at The Albion. I love London weekends.  

THAT WALL! I loved it. Thanks also to Claire for my new sidebar pic!  
I have very few plans this weekend. Looking forward to some serious relaxing and hopefully booking a holiday! Whoo! Hope you all have fab weekends. 

Photos - mixture of lumix DLSR and iPhone 5 + vsco cam.  

hampstead

Having homework free weekends still feels like a total luxury. It’s been soooo nice to be able to properly catch up with friends and family, enjoy this gorgeous summer weather we’ve been having and get out and about in London again.

On the ‘last day of summer’ we headed up to Hampstead Heath for a nice long walk followed by lunch in the sunshine in Hampstead Village. It was a completely gorgeous day, totally relaxed and un rushed, and followed by some reeeeeeally good food and wine at home with a film. It was so lovely, also, I really want to move to Back Lane. I hope you all had wonderful weekends!

Photos - mixture of lumix DLSR and iPhone 5 + vsco cam.

cornwall

Last weekend Nick and I headed out of London, borrowed a car from home home and drove right down to West Cornwall. We went for a friends wedding on the Saturday, which was beautiful, but thought we'd make the most of it so booked to stay three nights. We stayed in an adorable fishing harbour village called Mousehole (pronounced Mauzel!) and managed to explore quite a bit of West Cornwall. It was a pretty perfect weekend away, and brilliant timing having just finished my course! I hadn't been that far down in Cornwall for years and years - it's ridiculously pretty, hard to believe that it's England at times! We explored Sennen Cove, Mousehole, Newlyn, St Levan, Treen and St Ives, had lots of pasties and seafood, and stayed in a lovely little B&B right on the harbour. I definitely recommend this little part of the world if you've not visited before! Photos taken on my Panasonic DSLR & my iPhone, edited with the vsco app.