FRIDAY FAVOURITES

Last weekend was the Oscars and my two older sisters came round for a very late night to watch it live. We had a great time snuggled up in blankets, eating yummy snacks and drinking bubbly. I haven't managed to watch the Oscars for a few years so it was great to watch it live again. It's really exciting watching the awards but I particularly love the red carpet and seeing what everyone's wearing.
Here are a few of my favourite outfits from the night...

 Margot Robbie's whole outfit was definitely my favourite followed closely by Naomi Watt's. I think their dresses were simple but stunning and also a bit different. Their choice of jewellery and make up was perfect and matched with their blonde 'lobs' (which apparently is a word now) they couldn't have done it better.

The other two outfits that I loved were Emma Stone's and Jennifer Aniston's. I really liked the embroidery/beading on both and think they picked perfect dresses to suit their figures and style. I don't think I could imagine anyone pulling off a lime green dress but somehow Emma Stone does it and does it beautifully! ♥

VALENTINE'S BAKING

For valentine's I baked a double chocolate fudge cake with white chocolate buttercream icing. It was delicious if I do say so myself and was the perfect excuse to use my heart shaped cake tin. Here's where I found the recipe. Happy Valentine's Day! ♥

A WALK THROUGH THE WOODS

I have recently found a new love in my life...parks. Now that might sound a bit weird but when Rob and I were living in London we lived very close to Greenwich park, a huge park in South East London. We loved spending afternoons walking round it, evenings dog watching (a favourite park activity of ours) and summer days soaking up the sunshine. Finding a park is a great way to get away from the stress and busyness of the city and to get your little dose of nature, especially needed being country bugs (people who grew up in the country? ha) as we both are.
When we moved to Leeds, to our great surprise and delight we ended up renting in an area just around the corner from Roundhay which is home to one of the biggest city parks in Europe, Roundhay Park. We soon went to explore and if Greenwich park was huge then this is gigantic!
It's just a short drive from our house and is one of our favourite ways to spend a free morning/afternoon. We go for runs around it, walks exploring new areas and again some dog watching! The other day we headed to the park and ended up adventuring through some new paths we hadn't stumbled upon before. They took us through the woods, through a lot of mud (not so great for Rob as he wasn't in the best footwear) and we walked to the edges of the park along what I don't think were even paths, more the edge between trees and a wall. But anyway we had a lot of fun and we found a lot of interesting little spots including the streams running into the lake, cute bridges and paths with a view down onto the lake through the trees. It was late afternoon which at this time of year is when the sun starts to set (a bit too early for my liking) but it really was beautiful and although I hadn't planned to I ended up taking a lot of photos and I really like how they all turned out. It's so calm and peaceful when you can get out into nature where you can't hear the roads and busyness of living in a city and the world does look beautiful at that sunset time of day. Although it was very very cold and Rob's hands pretty much lost feeling for a bit, it was definitely worth it for our little adventure through the woods.

I hope you enjoyed these photos and if you get the chance definitely take a visit to Roundhay Park, but even if you're miles away go exploring near you and see the little spots of beauty you can find out there. ♥

ANNIVERSARY

Last week Rob and I celebrated 7 years of being together by heading over to Harrogate for the day. It was a beautiful but very chilly sunday and we walked around the town then got some lunch at Carluccios, a little Italin restaurant before driving back home to some more good food, drinks and cuddles.

♥

FRIDAY FAVOURITES

It's friday again! This week I thought I'd share with you a few of my favourite quotes. Quotes can be great little reminders of what's important in life, a new way to look at something or even just a small way to feel motivated. But mainly I just love to find quotes that make me think of things in a different way and when words are put together so beautifully to describe something, it makes me want to print it off and put it somewhere so that I can read it over and over.

'Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.'
Henry Van Dyke

'We are all ordinary. We are all boring. We are all spectacular. We are all shy. We are all bold. We are all heroes. We are all helpless. It just depends on the day.'
Brad Meltzer

'It was my life - like all lives, mysterious and irrevocable and sacred. So very close, so very present, so very belonging to me. How wild it was, to let it be.'
Cheryl Strayed (Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail)

♥

INSTA-JANUARY

My little instagram diary for the month of January. This month was filled with yummy food and birthday celebrations. ♥