Chalice Well, Glastonbury

On Wednesday Matt and I both had the day off, on these rare occasions we like to make the most of the day and do something interesting. As Matt's car was booked in for its M.O.T we were stuck in good old Glastonbury, so we decided to pick up our cameras and go for a walk, stopping at Burns the Bread for a cheeky bite to eat! Matt had a cheese twist and a sausage roll and I had a cheese and bacon savoury with a small slice of ham and pineapple pizza, although i couldn't finish them so I gave them to Matt.. (Top girlfriend points...)

"Chalice Well is one of Britain's most ancient wells, nestling in the Vale of Avalon between the famous Glastonbury Tor and Chalice Hill. Surrounded by beautiful gardens and orchards it is a living sanctuary in which the visitor can experience the quiet healing of this sacred place. For over two thousand years this has been a place where people have gathered to drink the waters and find solace, peace and inspiration."

I will warn you now there are quite a few photo's as it was my first time taking proper photos with this camera, so I was playing with all the features, I hope you don't find this post too boring..

 The photo above was taken without any zoom...

... and this one was taken zoomed in half way. I love the zoom on this camera, although you can zoom in very far it doesn't make the image blurry! :)

When we left Chalice Well we decided to go to the Blue Note Cafe for a drink. We both ordered a large hot chocolate with whipped cream, malteasers and a flake.. YUM! It was well deserved after all the walking we had done.. :)

(This image was only taken by my phone..)

I'm really pleased with the photos I ended up with, I have always loved taking photos and now that I have a decent camera I will be able to carry on capturing little snippets of my life :) 

Have you been on any adventures recently?

Amy x

New Camera and up-to-dateness!

This week has been a good week so far. I haven't really done anything special as such but it has still been good! Yesterday and today I went to placement at my local nursery and we have been starting Christmas crafts, is it too early? I don't think so! Anyway so we started preparing for our seasonal board weeks ago but only got around to actually putting it all together yesterday and we managed to finish it by the end of today, pretty good going I think when you have 2 year old children asking you 'what's that?' every 3 seconds!!

The finished board! (bad quality phone photo though..)

I am also so so excited because I have a new camera! Well I say 'new camera' but it's not brand spanking new as it was my boyfriends mums old one that she doesn't need, but it's still amazing and new to me :-)

I've never had a decent camera before, I usually just take photo's on my phone, so I'm new to the technology world, if you will. It will take me a while to get used to all the buttons etc but I'm sure I'll pick it up in no time at all.. (It helps having a camera-obsessed boyfriend!)

This is my new baby. It is a Fujifilm S5800, and it takes pretty decent snaps if I do say so myself.. Obviously this photo wasn't taken by the camera, it was taken by Matt's big boy camera, a Canon EOS 1100D. But it was taken by me, after trying to figure out how to turn on the bloody thing! So I am going to take credit, sorry Matt!

I would absolutely love a DSLR one day, but for now this little piece of tech is perfect for me.

I'm hoping to upload more blog posts now as I should be taking more photo's haha. Tomorrow Matt and I are hoping to go on a little adventure, so we'll just have to see what happens :-)

Here are some snaps I took...

Have you bought or received anything recently? I'd love to know!

Amy x

Christmas Adverts!

Melted snowmen cookies! (Image from Pinterest)

As we know it's that time of year again when companies bring out their Christmas adverts. I always look forward to seeing them on the telly as it always makes me feel so festive! John Lewis, Marks & Spencers and of course Coca-Cola are all known for their different Christmas adverts each year, never failing to please us.

However after watching Sainsbury's advertisement I couldn't help thinking that they are giving out the wrong impression... I will link the advert below if you haven't seen it but it is basically a mixture of different 'home videos' at Christmas and how they spend the holiday. Don't get me wrong it is all really heart warming, seeing all these families celebrating Christmas in their own unique way, but there is one specific clip I am referring to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49sKKbmuQCg

The clip at the end where the family is making a video for the father in Afghanistan is really lovely and I have to admit it, it brought a tear to my eye! But I can't help thinking that it's giving out the impression to families with young children watching it, that Sainsburys can bring them home in time for Christmas.. Especially as the advert ends with:

"The moments that make Christmas special, brought to you by Sainsbury's"

Hmm, it may just be me reading way too far into it as it obviously is intended to be a completely harmless advertisement, but I just thought it was slightly misleading and insensitive. I suppose you could say that all Christmas adverts are in some way or another..

On a slightly more uplifting note, the John Lewis advert is beautiful! They always manage to out-do themselves every year and this year was no different. I'll leave a link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqWig2WARb0

What are your favourite festive adverts? :-) 

Amy x

5 WEEKS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

'You scumbag you maggot, you cheap lousy faggot!'

Me and my little brother, Henry

Christmas is definitely my all time favorite time of the year and always has been, ever since I was little! The whole aspect of Christmas just makes me feel warm inside, from decorating the tree to giving presents to friends and family. I am an extremely festive girl and I am not ashamed!

The run up to Christmas is my favorite; shopping for presents, going for festive meals & drinks and having cosy nights in front of the fire, watching films with a hot chocolate of course :-) As I am getting older each year Christmas is always slightly different. Sometimes good sometimes bad. Nevertheless I still enjoy waking up on Christmas morning excited to see if Father Christmas has been!

This year will be significantly different as I won't be spending boxing day with my Nan as she sadly passed away in August, RIP Nan - love you always. Christmas always used to be such a huge family gathering, with Nan bringing us all together. It won't feel the same this year..

I'm super glad to have Matthew in my life though, I don't know where I'd be without him today. He has been my rock. I love him to pieces and we're determined to make our first of many Christmas' together a memorable one.

Here are some snaps of my last couple of Christmas' :-)
sorry they're bad quality, they were only taken on my phone! 

Hope you enjoy!

Nan's tree on boxing day

Looking slightly unimpressed (or hungover?)

Surrounded by food and alcohol and you can't see my face, but I like this snap of myself..

Henry, looking young. Christmas 2010

Some of the presents I gave :-)

Mum's table..

Boxing day at nans, 2012 (I think..)

Lush boxing day lunch!

My gorgeous Nan and dad. Love and miss you always Nan xxx

Henry opening presents...

... 

What do you love best about Christmas?

Amy x

Cornwall - The perfect getaway

Gorgeous blue skies in Cornwall

My attire for the journey - Aztec trousers from Peacocks - Similar style can be found here!

Matt's driving face.. haha

Our lounge and dining area..

We decided that rather than filling the fruit bowl with fruit, we'd fill it with quavers? :-)

Our balcony leading from our master bedroom..

Our own hot tub! However it wasn't the most private...

Ducks outside our home!

On the first morning we went for a romantic stroll around the grounds...

Boscastle was just beautiful. Although slightly over-run with school children on trips! However it didn't spoil our day out, I managed to find a cute little shop and purchased a gorgeous fishing boat tea light holder :-)

Capturing the waves at Tintagel..

Lanhydrock Entrance

Lanhyrock House

Jelly fish at Newquay aquarium!

A cute 'shy eel' (he was smaller than my pinky!)

He however was huge! I'm stood directly under him in a tunnel as he swam past..

Cheap drinks at the onsite bar.. cheeky!

Castle Drogo unfortunately was under serious rebuilding due to water leakage and will be for the next 5 years! 

On our last night we watched a firework display, before going for drinks..

After a busy week I was knackered, apparently!

We all need a break every now and again. Matthew and I decided in August that we deserved a holiday, so we began looking into places to stay in Cornwall. After searching through what felt like hundreds of holiday parks we discovered Hengar Manor! 

It sounded ideal, the perfect holiday. So we went for it and contacted them, with the intention to book a 'Park Villa' for 4 nights. However, they were fully booked! Thankfully they were able to upgrade us to a 'Park Villa Plus, + Hot tub' :-) (which was amazing btw!)

Finally September 23rd came and we happily left Somerset for the week. We were as excited as children are on Christmas morning, we couldn't have been happier! After stopping numerous times for loo breaks and sweetie buying we arrived in Cornwall around midday, so decided to go check out Bodmin Jail. Spooky as it was, it was very interesting to see all the old cells. ooohh! 

Still with time to spare before our 4.00pm check in, we drove around Bodmin looking for something to do. Unsuccessful, we ended up at Lanhydrock. A stunning National Trust owned Victorian House and Garden. 

As myself and Matthew are National Trust members, our entry was FREE! Winning.

Finally 4.00pm arrived and we were able to check in to our Villa. Excitement and nerves overwhelmed us, well mostly me (I had stupidly read reviews on the Park and not all were positive), as we picked up our key and welcome pack. 

On entering our home for the week, we both ran around excitedly looking in all the rooms (3 bed, 2 bath) and began unpacking. Luckily our particular villa was faultless. It was amazing! 

Although we were only there for 4 nights, we absolutely loved it and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a quiet, chilled out holiday. The on-site bar and restaurant was unexpectedly reasonably priced which was a massive bonus :-)

We managed to go to quite a lot of places during the week including

• Bodmin Jail
• Lanhydrock
• Boscastle
• Padstow
• Tintagel
• Newquay (aquarium)

I've probably forgotten some but you get the idea, :-)

Have you been on holiday this year? If so, where? I'd love to know!

Amy x