artist | judy rodrigues

I was in Bristol over the lovely sunny bank holiday weekend, and visited some artists’ studios on Spike Island which were open to the public as part of Bristol Art Weekender. I was completely inspired by all the beautiful art, prints and studios; I seriously hope that one day I’ll have a space where I can be as creative and messy as possible! Anyway, by far my favourite discovery of the visit was artist Judy Rodrigues, and her beautiful mixed media paintings. They’re some of the prettiest most dreamiest paintings I’ve seen, and the one pictured above I literally couldn’t stop staring at! Inspired by nature Judy uses a variety of media (including neon highlighters!) to evolve and layer her paintings. The results are just swoony!

In completely unrelated news, I've started a facebook page for my design work. Gargh! A little scary as I don't often use facebook, but I've been spending more and more time doing freelance design work so thought it was about time! You can follow along here. 

First photo - iPhone5 + vsco cam, all other images from here. 

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. 

nice pins | 5

I feel like I'm being bombarded with inspiration at the moment, I've been away a lot recently, which I think is why - getting out and about and visiting new places is definitely the best way to inspire my creativity. But for rainy Sundays in London, there is always pinterest...

1 | Those instagram marshmallows, as cake toppers. So silly it's bloody brilliant. 
2 | I pretty much love every aspect and tiny detail of this home in Gothenburg, swoon! 
3 | These photos by Chris Ozer for the new NYT app are stunning - that New York skyline... take me back already!
4 | Oh hi most lovely beautiful typography in the world. Designed by Jessica Svendsen. 
5 | Above my desk, which is now all tidy and lovely - a perfect space for getting creative. It makes all the difference!
6 | These please. 

Follow me on pinterest here. 

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. 

the grand budapest hotel

I know I'm not the first to blog about this, but have you guys seen Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel yet? If not, please go and see it soon, it's one of the best films I've seen in ages, and also, a total visual treat for your eyes! I've been excited about seeing it ever since I saw that gorgeous pink hotel in the poster, and the trailer just made me even more excited. I'm a big fan of Anderson's films; The Royal Tenenbaums, and The Darjeeling Limited are two of my favourites, and this new one was right up there with them. Absolutely hilarious, gripping, so well acted (Ralph Fiennes is just brilliant!) and also, just really flippin' beautiful! All the way through the film I was swooning at the staging and the beautiful symmetry, the colours, the costumes, the typography of the chapter headings, even the branding of the cake company, Mendl's. (I found an interesting interview with the film's graphic designer - what an awesome job!). Anyway, hope you enjoy this beautiful film as much as I did. I want to go and see it again now please. And I want that poster on my wall. 

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.

photographer | emily blincoe

I’ve long admired the work of Emily Blincoe through her gorgeous instagram stream. Her creativity, her amazing imagination and brilliant eye shine through in her photographs and I just love everything about them. I somehow only just discovered her vsco grid though, which is of course completely gorgeous as well as being varied and really fun!. I think her photographs are so super inspiring, I could probably look at them them for hours, so just wanted to share a few of my faves here…

I love the use of colour, styling and creativity. This grid is definitely one of my favourites at the moment! 

Let me know if you have a VSCO grid so I can follow along!
+ You can see my VSCO grid here. 

portobello road

Last weekend I had both my sisters staying, and in the few hours of sunshine we got on the Sunday, between the storms, we headed to Portobello Road in Notting Hill. I hadn't been for ages so it was lovely to have a wander around. We mooched through the market stalls, treated ourselves to cupcakes for later, bought daffodils and blood oranges, and ate yummy falafel on our way down the road. We really did luck out with the weather because the skies opened up just as we were getting back on the tube. It was a pretty gorgeous and colourful few hours though! 

Photos - iPhone 5 + vsco cam.

*One of my instagrams from this day was chosen for the first #sfgirlguide round up - yeah! 

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.