In which there are magic horses, but not one darlek

 
A couple of years ago I lived by the beach in Wales. Whilst I like my life here in London now, the longing for the sea has never really gone away. It was so wonderful to have it always there, always incredible - thrashing storms or barbecue days. So as yesterday was mine and Andy's five year anniversary (and one whole year since he proposed) we decided to head to the beach! We went to Brighton which neither of us had ever been to before and it turned out to be the kind of place we wished people had dragged us to before!

Brighton has some really interesting stuff going on. A good beach - although a bit pebbly -, an arcade, and lots of interesting shops. The only disappointment of the day was our complete failure to get a cuddly darlek in the arcade! We tried so many times on the Doctor Who themed claw machine and 3 whole times picked it up! 3 times! Only to watch the darlek slide out of our grasp and fall down again. I had to be dragged away in the end with slow sad feet, leaving those squishy darleks behind. :(

However the day was still awesome. We had the most expensive dinner we've ever had together (oops, but hey we work now so it's okay... right? ) at a lovely Japanese restaurant. I completely forgot to take photos of the main course, despite the fact that it came in a lacquered box and incredibly arranged plates. Possibly the best sashimi I've ever had and then we had plum liqueur ice cream. Mmmm. Totally worth it.

The famous Brighton pier.

 I absolutely adore carousels and to be honest, I cannot take enough pictures of them. I love the colours, the beautifully painted horses, the old fashioned lights and the magical tranquillity of them. It doesn't go fast or do anything special, just round and round of those beautiful horses. I always feel that a time machine shaped like a carousel would be wonderful, round and round and step off somewhere new.

Looks really sunny and it was so bright I was squinting all day - but I also never took my jacket off! Deceitful British weather! *shakes fist*

New addition to my pocket watch collection!

Cider on the beach!

Postcard-style shot of Brighton from the pier.

Didn't even have time to go in! Next time.

These guys know how to ice cream.

PS. I know Google Reader is going, but is GFC going soon too? As in, no more list of who you follow on your dashboard? Boo. I don't really like bloglovin.
Hope you had a good weekend!

In which the sun has come out

 We actually have some spring here in Britain at last! We are at temperatures when you can leave the house without a winter coat. It has honestly felt like the longest winter of my life. There seemed to be no end to days of snow (and I still have snow pictures to show you) but now the cherry tree in our garden has blossom on it, the conference I was organising at work was a success and now that it is actually stretching towards summer our kitchen floor is covered in newspaper for all the crafts we are doing for the wedding. The last few nights of the week, making a change from being drained from work, I have been energetically making things for the wedding. We have 100 origami tulips now! Only about another 30 to go...

Plus there are chalkboard signs to paint and source, and tons of ebay purchases - just bought 100 bottles of bubbles and 100 turquoise straws! Sometimes it really all feels like madness but at least day is a step closed to being married to Andy. :)

These photos were taken a week ago when we were still having pretty chilly weather but there was a little break of sunshine so we went for a walk in the local park in the early evening.
Would have been perfect except we got chased away by a car alarm which pierced across the entire park! If I ever get a time machine I am going back to stop the invention of car alarms! I don't know how many times I've been woken up by one in the night or heard one even in the countryside. Grr. And my parents never had a car alarm and their car didn't get stolen so I don't see why they are necessary! : P

 

I love the little rose shaped buttons and the steampunk feel of this shirt. It's one of my favourites, but doesn't go with a lot of my stuff.

Outfit details
Dress: Little local boutique
Shirt: Second hand
Satchel: New Look
Ear muffs: Christmas present
Bangles: Random shop in Edinburgh

In which there are micro pirates

I have bought a ridiculous amount of toys lately so it is about time I shared some of my new delights.

I recently came across this Micro Playmobil series. It takes Playmobil children and has them playing with micro-Playmobil figures! Each set comes in a little box with a boy and a girl and a landscape pictures inside, plus a series of tiny magnetic figures attached to a magnetic board. How utterly awesome. I literally want to buy every single one in the series! There's a farm and two castles and an adorable Noah's ark and a harbour... so cute.

What I really like most it though, isn't actually the utterly miniature Playmobil, but the children figures that you get with it. They will go so well with existing series' that I have. I bought this amazing pirate set and I already have lots of pirate figures and even some zombie pirates - but now I can have little pirate cabin boy and girl to join the crew! I am also so pleased that these sets are not sexist - both the boy and the girl are active figures, the girl is wearing trousers and not some Elizabeth Swan figure, some prize to be won. She is playing too!

 

Set when closed

The same equality is true for the knights set which I am definitely going to buy next. The boy and girl are both playing at being knights, at being active - not one boy-knight and one girl-princess. The little boy and girl knight dress up go even better with all my medieval sets because I want to make a training school in the style of the excellent Tamora Pierce books and have boys and girls training to be knights. I already have lots of figures that could fit into the Tortall world so one day I want to do a little stop motion video of one of the books using Playmobil and have Kel and Alanna and all the others.

And on a separate note I also watched Moonrise Kingdom last week. I know, I am a bit late to the game - but how awesome is that film? I love the touch of darkness, although it never got quite as dark as I thought it would be. If you haven't seen it, I really recommend it. Moonrise Kingdom is a whimsical coming of age film with stunning cinematography.

And in honour of it Andy and I made a Lego version of the narrator:

 

Hope you like it! 

In which David Bowie makes everything better

 A lack of inspiration has meant that I haven't blogged in a little while but I'm back! To be honest I've been feeling a bit depressed and that makes me want to be closed off or aggressive. I wrote a couple of angry draft-posts about life frustrations and they helped me a little, but that isn't how I want this blog so they don't get posted. However, the four day weekend has been really good. I'm not looking forward to the mountain of work and stress to return to but it was inspiring and I got things done.

I was feeling down even about my outfits and fashion, like I was just re-wearing the same things over and over, so I set myself a challenge of finding a way of wearing one of my dressiest of dresses in day time to get myself out of a rut. I love asymmetry but so far I have only worn this for special occasions, all done up with heels and my classiest accessories, it was so much fun to go round London in a dress like that all day, especially a windy day with it floating out behind me.

Plus I wore it to go to my favourite museum, the V&A, to see an exhibit about one of my favourite artists: David Bowie. I feel all art-refreshed now. The exhibition was fantastic:, original costumes, clips of Labyrinth, music supplied on headphones for you to listen to as you walk and original artwork. Just what I needed!

It was actually snowing at the same time as taking these so we only got brief flashes of sunlight. When that little bit of light arrived all the visitors rushed outdoors and got out picnics, and there were kids playing in the water, even where the temperatures were still around freezing. I think everyone is longing for it to actually be spring at last and have real sunshine again!

 And oh David Bowie, how I love you.  Noel Fielding and Lady Gaga would be nothing without you.

 

 

(My) Outfit details: 
Jacket: XXI
Shirt: Andy's, borrowed
Dress: Inlovewithfashion
Tights: Two pairs layered over each other, black spots and turquoise from H&M
Shoes: Office