brooklyn

I was lucky enough to visit New York for a week in March, and it was sooo fabulous. We had the most brilliant, fantastic and hilarious holiday! I hadn't been for a decade, and loved it so much more this time around, partly I think because we were staying in Brooklyn, which is definitely much more my vibe than hectic Manhattan! We stayed in Greenpoint which was completely perfect for us. The photo above was taken the night we arrived - we fell for the area pretty quickly! I loved how laid back, arty and cool Brooklyn is; we often felt like locals there rather than like tourists which I think is definitely the best way to see a place. For some reason it's taken me an age to share my photos, but better late than never hey? It's nice to look back on them...

I really recommend staying in Brooklyn. I really think the craziness of Manhattan would have gotten to be a bit too much 24/7, and also, there are just some reeeeally cool places over on the Brooklyn side! Some of my favourite things in Brooklyn were...

+ That swoony view across to Manhattan. 
+ Shopping in Williamsburg. I loved the area around Bedford Avenue and Franklin Street running back up to Greenpoint. I could have shopped here for days! 
+ Coffee and design at Budin NYC. 
+ The Box House Hotel. We booked this place after a recommendation and some brilliant reviews which it really lived up to. This hotel is awesome!
+ Drinks and brunch at Coco. We loved this place so much we went back! 
+ All that lovely street art. 

I'll be back soon with some photos of Manhattan! 

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

this was good friday

Pretty much every four-day Easter weekend I go down to the Jurassic Coast in Dorset for a little holiday with a load of family and friends, and I’m talking 70+ people! It has become a bit legendary and gets bigger and better each year. This year was the 25th anniversary, and so we celebrated at sunset at the top of a cliff, with speeches, champagne, fairy lights, bunting, sparklers, a bonfire, singing, fireworks and a whole lot of love. It might just have been one of the prettiest and most magical nights of my life!

I hope you all had lovely Easter weekends! I'm hoping to get back to more regular blogging soon, I have a few fun projects on at the mo which are eating up all my free time, but feel like I have so much to share on here so will be back soon! 

Photos - iPhone 5 + vsco cam. 

copenhagen

I saw March 2014 in in a very cold but beautiful Copenhagen, and it was sooo lovely! I already told you how great the bikes and beards were, but did I tell you that Denmark was the thirtieth country I've visited?! Yep, yeaahhh! I have love loved travelling for a really long time, and when one of my good friends started a 30 before 30 challenge I decided to join her and give it a go too! And I actually flippin' did it, yeeeee! I'm so super impressed by how many of us have managed it! It has been a really fun and motivational way of seeing and exploring so many different and interesting parts of the world, and has definitely made me finally make the most of all the lovely European destinations on my doorstep! Copenhagen was definitely one of my faves, and here are some of my favourite snaps...

The freezing cold and foggy weather meant we spent lots of out time hanging out in cafes drinking hot drinks, (which was ok by us, because maaaan there were some amazing places to eat!) it also made for some pretty Turner-esque sunsets which I thought were pretty great! I'd love to go back to Copenhagen, but maybe in the Summer next time, ha, and explore some more, but some of my favourite bits from this trip were... 

+ Those gorgeous colourful buildings in Nyhavn.
+ Our big Saturday night out in the Meatpacking District - such a cool area! 
+ Frederik's Church in the sunlight. 
+ Those street lamps!
+ The street art in Nørrebro.
+ The best pastry of my young life in Lyst Cafe. Ohmigosh. 

Photos - all taken on my lumix DSLR. 

cykler i københavn

That’s bikes of Copenhagen to you and me. Although I can’t be sure; I used google translate. There is something quite lovely about the Danish language, it sounds really friendly and I feel like I understand it, even though I clearly don’t. I blame Sarah Lund and The Killing. (I was fairly convinced I was fluent by the end of series one. I wasn’t.) Anywaaay. I went to Copenhagen on the weekend! It was lush! Definitely one of my all time favourite European cities. There are so many things about Copenhagen that made me think I should just pack up and move there. The beautiful design shops, the architecture, the cafés, the beards, the smørrebrød and all the bikes. Yes please!*

*Not sure I could actually stand the bitterly cold winter for more than three days though. I was wearing tights under my jeans, three jumpers and two scarves and I was skipping around like a crazy to keep warm. Also, English breakfast tea doesn’t seem to exist in Denmark, which was a bit of a shock to the system. Whaaat?!

I’ll post some non-bike photos soon too and share a few of my favourite places!

Photos taken on my lumix DSLR. 

life & co | around the world

A few weeks ago I was contacted by the super lovely Nia, of Life & Co who asked me if I'd like to put together a blog post about London for her new Around the World series. I was so honoured, and it sounded right up my alley, so I've pulled together some photos of my favourite parts of London. It's been good to get out and about with my camera when the weather has allowed it, although some of the snaps are from last Summer because let's face it, blue skies are significantly prettier than grey torrential rain!

If you've not come across Nia's blog before you must check it out, it's full of completely beautiful wonderfulness, and she organises amazing and really fun around the world parcel swaps (which I joined in with at Christmas.) Thanks for having me Nia, can't wait to follow the rest of the series! You can check out my post on Life & Co here. 

+ photo of Shrimpy's at The Filling Station, Regent's Canal, King's Cross last Summer. Photo - iPhone 5 + vsco cam.

the blue mountains

Whilst in Sydney we did a day trip up to the Blue Mountains, I thought they deserved a blog post for themselves. Ever since Claire moved over to Australia I have been pretty amazed by how gorgeous these mountains look, her instagrams and blog posts have had me swooning. So I was so glad we managed to get up there, and on a super gorgeous day too. Those mountains are bloody spectacular, and they're actually blue! It is quite breathtakingly beautiful, I couldn't get enough. The light and the colours were amazing, it smelt pretty great too and I of course took a ridiculous amount of photos. Here are some of my faves...

Aaaand that's the end of the Australia photos... Maybe I'll get back to blogging about London sometime soon!

Photos - mixture of lumix DLSR and iPhone 5, some edited with vsco cam.  

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.