Spanish Sun| Holiday outfits

*Outfit 1- Dress- New Look, Blazer- Pull and Bear, Sandals- Stylist Pick*

*Outfit 2- Dress- River Island, Belt- Primark, Sandals- Stylist Pick, Bag- Ebay*

*Outfit 3- Dress- Dorothy Perkins, Sandals- Stylist Pick, Bag- Ebay*

*Outfit 4- Shorts- Primark, T-shirt- H&M, Sandals- Stylist Pick, Bag- Ebay*

As you may of read I was lucky enough recently to have been on a little holiday with my boyfriend and his parents, to their apartment in Eastern Spain. While we spent a good deal of time relaxing by the pool, sunbathing on the sun terrace, and having lazy boozy lunches, we still crammed in some culture and visited Valencia for a couple of days. I have not previously been before but have been eager to go as heard the old town was beautiful; which it was. However there is a great mix of old and new architecture around the city, so it was very picturesque and interesting. For those not into architecture and history, there was plenty of shopping and bars to keep yourself busy with.

The biggest challenge with this holiday was that I was only allowed to take hand luggage with me, as we did not pay for hold luggage, so cramming two weeks of clothes into the tinniest suitcase was a big ask. As you can see from the pictures above it did severely restrict my collection of shoes and bags, so much so I only took one handbag, and 3 pairs of shoes. The rest of my luggage consisted of 6 dresses, 1 playsuit, 2 t-shirts, 1 pair of shorts, and 3 bikinis, not forgetting my workout gear… yes I was good and still went running while on holiday! When I was on holiday I felt quite restricted to my outfit choices, however I have previously travelled Europe for a month with only a small backpack, so I should be used to it by now.

Outfits 1 to 3 are from when I was off out for dinner and drinks, so they are some of my dressed up looks while on holiday. Outfit 4 was my tourist outfit for wandering around the streets of Valencia… not much style just something cool and comfortable. I very rarely get dressed up on holiday and never really wear heels, I much prefer to keep it more casual, and with so many pretty sandals and wedges around I don’t feel the need to take my party heels with me. During the day as I mentioned I choose comfort over style... is that a crime for us bloggers? Especially if I am going to be wandering around a city for hours on end in 40c heat I would much prefer to be comfortable than sweating it out in a pretty ensemble.

So my question for you is, do you keep it stylish on holiday? Or do your take a break and keep it comfortable?

Fun in Finland

Well this post is a little bit late, seems I went on holiday a month ago, but I wanted to share my trip with you lovely ladies anyways.

As many of you know, I was lucky enough to travel Finland and Lapland at the beginning of June. Many ask why Finland? We decided to go to Finland as we have friends there who we studied with while we were in France, so it was an opportunity to meet up with them. I went with my two friends from university, and had a great time.

We managed to travel and discover 1158 miles of Finland in 10 days, so we definitely got around a lot! The country itself is beautiful and different to what I expected, as at the time I was unaware that 85% of the country is covered with forests, and there are 187,888 lakes in the country! I’m not going to bore you with every detail of my trip but will just share my highlights in order of their occurrence;

• Realising upon arrival that we didn’t know a single word of Finnish (we picked it up on the way).
• Paying 36 euros for a bottle of wine, and 8 euros for a cider… expensive!
• Going on a boat trip around the Islands of Helsinki and a bird pooing on my friend… cruel but funny.
• Eating street food from a market in Helsinki, and not getting food poisoning.
• Taking lots of pictures of the famous Cathedral in Turku, to then realise it was just a church.
• Eating the best burger of my life on one of the many boat bars in Turku.
• Having a bbq with a Finnish family and eating smores.
• Sharing my sleeper cabin on the night train with an old Finnish lady who kept shouting at me in Finnish.
• Staying in a log cabin with its own private sauna.
• Whitewater rafting in the Midnight Sun… unbelievably beautiful and fun!
• Trecking in the Lapland hills, unfortunately not seeing a reindeer.
• Meeting the real life Santa Claus at the Arctic Circle! (He even ho ho’d)
• Having to bribe the conductor on the night train back to Helsinki so he wouldn’t kick us off the train. Then getting off a stop too early!
• Seeing Sting perform at a festival in Helsinki.
• My boy send a bottle of champers to our hotel room to celebrate our trip.

So as you can see, I had a very busy 10 days, am crammed a lot in, but it was a once in a lifetime trip!

Where has been the most unusual and interesting country you have visited?

Fashion over Food| Haul

I’ve actually had this post lined up for a while, as these are the clothes which I purchased for my holiday, so I bought them about three weeks ago. I literally got paid and then went straight into Newcastle city centre and spend half of my wage in about two hours…whoops! It felt amazing at the time… huge feeling of retail theropy, but within the next few days after bills started to come in I did regret it a little bit. But like I said to my boyfriend, I can’t go on holiday naked…I needed new clothes!

As I went on holiday to Finland and Lapland, I found shopping for holiday clothes more difficult than usual, and a little bit more boring, as some of the clothes were for activities such a hiking and rafting, not pretty bikinis for posing by the pool.. my normal holiday attire.

The three tank tops, hoodie and shorts that I bought were worn for hiking, so they were more practical buys than fashionable, but I still wanted to look a little bit cute. The bras were completely necessary! I swear these Wonderbras are the best bra you will ever buy. They are strapless but completely supportive, comfortable and give an amazing cleavage.

The more interesting buys were the denim dress, which is from H&M, it cost me about £20, so was cheap and can be worn with anything, dressed up and down. The pink dress was from River Island and was £25, it is quite low cut so I kept it for nights out in Helsinki, as its a bit more dressy, but you could dress it down with a cardigan and flats. The striped dress was from H&M again and is great for just throwing on with a cardigan, very comfortable and easy to style. Finally the white shirt was from Primark and was about £10, I actually wore it as a cardigan over the top of casual dresses, which made the outfit look more dressed up.

Overall I am impressed with the Spring and Summer collections in store at the moment. I was especially surprised at Primark, as normally I walk out of there empty handed.

Which stores are you loving at the moment? Have you bought you holiday clothes yet?

Easter Week Through the Eyes of my Blackberry

*All packed and ready to go* *Me and new dog George* *Archie Relaxing* *Bargain sofa in Next* *Breakfast in bed courtesy of my friend*

*My Friend's mad dog Lola* *Signed my boy up to Graze box also* *Dominos rubbish attempt at a half and half* *Back on my smoothies*

*A gifted Laduree bag, if only it was filled with macaroons* *New books to read* *Reached 10,000 views*

I’ve had quite a busy few weeks, despite them not being productive, I have clocked up a few miles of travelling. I decided to treat myself to some quality time with friends and family before I start back on my university assignments.

Firstly I visited my home in the Lake District with my boy. We haven’t actually spent much quality time there together since Christmas, so it was great to catch up with my Mum, her partner and my Grandparents, along with all the animals, all six of them. The weather was not great, but we still managed to take a nice walk with the dogs one day…its these simple pleasures that make me happy.

When I arrived back in Newcastle from Cumbria I then took my first visit to Sunderland to spend some time with my friend whom I lived and studied in France with. We had a night of beautifying and cooking, then spent the next day leisurely shopping. It was great to finally see where she grew up and to meet more of her family. I have only worked since returning form Sunderland, so no excitement there, especially since I will be moving back into the library for the next two weeks again.

It was also a big week for my blog this week. I finally hit 10,000 views, so many thanks to each and everyone of you who dropped by to read my ramblings. I hope you continue to read, and maybe even follow to ensure you don’t miss any posts.

I hope you all had a lovely few weeks. How did you spend your Easter weekend?