Grey Skies and Vintage Books | Lifestyle

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

It's Friday, which means Great Big Lifestyle post. Hurrah!

Last week Matt and I visited some old friends in Market Harborough who I hadn't seen since my school days. I talked more about that HERE. I knew I wanted to take snaps but thought I would see if my little compact point and shoot camera would be up to the job of Friday Lifestyle standard photographs. It turns out, it wasn't. 

I carried on regardless and tried to make the best of a grey day with a camera not up to the job I wanted it to do, but ultimately I regretted not taking my big girl Canon 600D with me. It's big and heavy but it really does have much better results. You live and learn I guess. I'm looking into buying a pancake lens so that it's that little bit less chunky to tote about so I'll update you on that if it happens.

Pity party over, let's crack on with the visuals. 

After we left our friends we spent about an hour mooching about at a moochy pace. Market Harbourough is a lovely little village packed with charity, second hand book and arty shops. I'm an absolute sucker for vintage books and am growing quite the collection for Baby Glitter's nursery. I look forward to doing a tour of that soon for my YouTube Channel!

I'd love to say this was a perfect, wonderful, everybody smiling morning but it just wasn't. Darcy waved her brushes (latest obsession) round like crazy and hit her own face twice, the weather was a bit grim and really, we wanted to get home and retreat a little. 

I toyed with the idea of painting this lifestyle post as a magical experience but then that's not really lifestyle is it? Sometimes life is sparkles and butterflies and sometimes it just is grey weather and squarky kiddies. That's alright. By lunchtime we were right as rain and Darcy was tearing round the back garden sans lethal hairbrushes and the sun had come out- hurrah once more!

Have you had any days like this recently? Where you expected amazing and came out with average? Comment them and console me! Haha x

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Toodlepip!

xx

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My Beautiful Liverpool

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

A couple of weeks ago Matt and I took Darcy to Liverpool to see family and enjoy our favourite city. Liverpool is where I found my happy self (to clarify, life was very volatile until I left home at 18 to attend university, which is where I finally felt free and joyful), where I met my most stable group of friends and where I found my wonderful husband.

I owe a lot to that city. It often gets talked down but if you ever have the chance, take a weekend to explore it and try not to fall in love. You'll struggle.

Whilst we were out and about on one of the days, I took a few (ahem, a lot) photographs with my big girl camera. I wish, wish, wish my canon was lighter and smaller so that I could take it everywhere with ease. I'm looking into buying a camera bag disguised as a handbag so that I can tote my machine around more. Until then, it's days with the buggy or husband only haha.

 Yep, tiny people up on a big sheer hole. Cool, non?

 Darcy showing Daddy her new handbag from Monsoon Kids.

Little LouiseFact for you here. Ever since I was little, drinks with bubbles and ice and all things nice have excited me. I love watching them the way people like to watch giant tanks of tropical fish. I kind of get sucked into a bit of a dream world of magic. Something that you drink being a different colour each time and having tiny spheres of gas moving about and rocks of solid freezing ice in it? Blows. My. Mind.

Things that shouldn't be. Like floating gold boxes stuck onto old brick buildings.

See all those buildings over in the background? I used to live over there. Live, socialise, study, everything. A huge mess of brilliant exciting memories. The path Matt and Darcy are walking down is one I used to walk every day when I was 18 and living not in the buildings you can see. I could never have envisaged coming back years later and having my Daughter walk the very same paving slabs as me. It's funny what life brings to you.

A young me used to sit on these steps with my girlfriends. Now an even younger Darcy sits there with her Daddy.

The Natural World Museum is a must for exploring hands and interested minds. It's free but asks that you donate at your discretion.

Birdseye view of Liverpool One, my favourite shopping area.

What a day!! I'm SO glad I documented it because so many of those moments could have been lost. It was one of those days where you feel you are in the right place with the right people and feel completely safe and protected. I'm the type who feels very easily unsettled so it was great to feel so at ease for so long. 

I'm hoping we can fit another weekend in before the Summer is out and I can photograph more spots for you. I am also working on a vlog from the trip for Sprinkle of Chatter. 

I also wrote an Outfit Of The Day (OOTD) post for the clothes I wore that day, which you can see HERE. 

What is your favourite city in the world? Tell me why you love it and why someone should visit it. We can be like mini travel agents in the comments today! 

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Toodlepip!

xx

This month my Ultimate Advertiser is It's A Blondes Life. If you would like to find out more about advertising on this blog, click HERE.

This page contains links to outside sites, including affiliates. Click on the 'Sponsor' tab to read my disclosure policy.

Our Harry Potter Experience

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

If you follow me on Twitter or watch my secondary YouTube Channel (Sprinkle of Chatter), you might know that a few weeks ago, Matt and I had an amazing day at Warner Bros Studios visiting the Harry Potter Tour. 

We weren't paid to attend or to vlog/blog about it but we were given the day free of charge. Just thought I'd be transparent about that. I remember when I started this blog I thought it was amazing that bloggers were sent samples of beauty products. Now, I'm going on spectacular days I feel like I'm living the dream! I'm so grateful for the opportunities this blog and my channel have afforded me and really I have you to thank for them, because without your readership and support, there would be a lot less of this loveliness. So, Thank You. You are so very valued and thought so very highly of by both me and Matt.

On to the photos!

A glamorous moment at the station. 

My Crookshanks cat. Man I love cats a lot. 

In the films I didn't notice the details on the tableware, like curly handled forks or hogs head jugs. 

Crackerjack who plays Crookshanks. Little fact for you- he wears kitty extensions. To make these his carers brush him as you would any Persian cat, collect the hairs, rough them up a little to make them look wildy and make tiny hair pieces. They are then attached with pussycat friendly glue and voila, extra crazy haired cat ready for his close up! 

Zoe + Dobby = Twins.

The Gang!

From left to right :

Matt - Husband, Daddy, light bulb changer, nerve calmer, drink fetcher, provider, biggest fan and best friend. 

Me - You know the score.

Zoe - Best chummy, Phone chatter, skype companion, infectious laugh, conker head.

Maddie - Always smiling, accessorises beautifully, organises amazingly, lovely gal.

Katie aka 'Snooksie' - Not called 'Snoozey', spunky, bloody loves mentos, hangs out with Brad Pitt (seriously).

Lucy - Supports more than she knows, kind hearted, hardest worker ever, blogger, vlogger, internet knowledged goddess.

Alfie - Nandos lover, caring, sharing, Darcy's bf, YouTube obsessive, suitcase panic saver!

Joe - Thatcher, funny, cheeriest chappy, sloth impersonator, snapchat genius. 

Jim - Giant ball lover, master vlogger, spideyfan, snitch enthusiast.

Tanya - Makeup artist extraordinaire, cookie baker, skater skirt lover, all round sweetiepie. 

I think you can see from the photos what an AMAZING day it was. Funnily though, it wasn't the props and displays that impressed me the most though, it was the staff.

If you think you are a potterhead, you're not. They. Know. Everything. Every little details about every little scene of all the films and all the books, they know. They were more than happy to answer any questions you have and to discuss all the things you want to chat about- for me, it was the differences between the books and the films because I'm ocd like that. For us, they made the experience. 

Matt and I have decided to revisit the tour at the end of this month because we loved it so much and want to be total geeks and read all the signs and watch all the videos they have playing as you walk round. We may even take our wands. 

If you would like to explore their official website, click HERE. 

Phewf that was a longie! What do you think? What is your favourite Potter moment in either the books or the films? Let's be nerds in the comments! Squeee!

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Toodlepip!

xx

This month my Ultimate Advertiser is It's A Blondes Life. If you would like to find out more about advertising on this blog, click HERE.

This page contains links to outside sites, including affiliates. Click on the 'Sponsor' tab to read my disclosure policy.