December 2012

Hey everyone!

Wow, it has been soooooo long since I last blogged! I have had the best intentions but the Christmas season ran away with me and with that, New Year and jumping in with both feet to a brand new job in the first week of 2013 - here we are!!

So... a little catch up of the last month to say goodbye to 2012, the year I started to consider blogging properly and spending some time on it. And then onto 2012, baby!!

Liv x

The cake I baked for my grandma's seventy-somethingth birthday...

I won the gorgeous & lovely Gabriella Not So Basic Fashion's Sanctuary Spa giveaway!! So pleased! Can't wait for a trip to London & a pamper in the Spring!

 

 

 The Birdcage, Bristol - possibly the best hot chocolate I've ever had!

  

The opening of the Spiegeltent, Bristol Harbourside

Face of the night: Eyelashes Eyelure Double Lashes, Lipstick Rimmel Kate Moss 107.

First Degree Burns at the Spiegeltent

 

 

New Years Eve with my ladies!

Summer days, drifting away...

This Summer has just flown by.

At the end of August I took myself off to my parents Place In the Sun - a gorgeous little town called Mojacar, in Spain.

For 10 days I caught up with old friends and lounged by the pool and lay on the beach, enjoying swims in the fresh pool water and the calm, clear sea. This was my view most mornings, as I lay by the pool reading a book.

 

During the trip I got the chance to (finally) read the Hunger Games trilogy, and I also read two of the Fifty Shades books! These were the subject of a LOT of discussion between the women of our neighbourhood so after hearing rave reviews I decided to just read the damn things! My review - I don't really see what the fuss is all about!

Some days we ventured off to other towns to check out their weekly markets for yummy food, fruit and veg, and *ahem* sweets...

 

And took a trip to Carboneras, a gorgeous little seaside town.

 

Road trip to Carboneras - isn't that view absolutely stunning!

 

 

We bit off way more than we could chew when we accidentally visited the most expensive seafood restaurant in the area in search of a tapas and a beer - the above photo is us hiding after we made our excuses and left!

 

 

There is a little community of us who have been going out there with our parents since we were kids, and whenever we get together each year we always have so much fun! We had one big night out while we were there, starting in Lua, a gorgeous beachfront cocktail bar

 

 

and moving along the beach front to a club called Moma Beach for even more drinks, dancing, and lots of silliness.

 

 

We also had some gorgeous meals at some of the most fabulous restaurants, including La Muralla - a truly beautiful restaurant in Mojacar's Old Town which is situated right on the edge of a cliff!

 

 

While we were there it was Fiesta time - the streets were all lit up and we stumbled upon some dancing!

 

 

Our last day was especially fun - as a group we got up at the crack of dawn (okay 9 am, but we were on holiday!) and met at the beach to fly a Solar Airship! We were completely unsuccessful but it was a brilliant group activity to end the holiday.

 

The meeting point at 9 am... coffee was needed!

 

 

One last dip in the sea :(

 

 

Step-bro's wedding...

Last month, my step brother got married, and it was beautiful.

I attended with my mum, sister and step-dad (not pictured).



My dress is from Cara, shoes from Primark, bag from River Island. Mama Smith's dress from TK Maxx, Alicia's dress from Boohoo.com, bag from Primark. Excuse the windswept hair!!

Geeky pics en route to the Church! Rocking my new Missoni's in case I cried.

He and his wife were married in Redland Parish church, which is just across the way from the tennis club he and my sister and I have been going to since we were kids, so we were very familiar with this gorgeous church.

It was a small wedding of family and a few friends, made ever so slightly confusing by all the half- and step-family members present! Thats modern families for ya I guess! The service was traditional, with the vicar's speech made extremely topical by references to Team GB's Olympic success in relation to the future success of Mark and Karen's marriage, and raising Karen's beautiful little boys Connor, 6 and Oliver, 4. He even gave the new family chocolate gold medals to wear which the bride and groom very gamely did!




Married! Their whole family.



Confetti time! Oh yeah

My beautiful mum and sister

From there we all went to Goldbrick House on Park Street for the reception. The room we were invited into for the wedding breakfast was gorgeous - kind of how I envisage my table decorations at my wedding!! Like that's gonna happen!!!

Excuse the terrible photos, they're (broken) iPhone photos!





The Groom!

Step Uncle Graham and his lady friend Viv

                                            My mama and step dad

We all had a gorgeous, emotional, totally fabulous day.

Congrats again to my step-bro and his new wife

<3





The Help

I recently went to see The Help, an adaptation of the bestselling book by Kathryn Stockett. Having read the book I was excited to see the film, but a bit dubious of how it would translate to the big screen. The book is based in Jackson, Mississippi, before the Civil Rights Movement when white families employed black women as nannies and housekeepers, and racism was, for most, a completely normal and acceptable way of life. The book is told through the voices of Aibileen and Minny - the Help and 'Skeeter' - a young white girl who secretly defies the racist attitudes of her town, and with Aibileen and Minny's help writes an anonymous book, telling all about the terrible way black people are treated in Jackson by the women who employ them.

The film, starring Emma Stone, as Skeeter, Viola Davis as Aibileen and Octavia Spencer as Minny, with Jessica Chastain as Celia and Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly, was fantastic, a well told adaptation of the book. It wasn't sugar coated at all, which I thought it might be, and each of the characters was very well cast, particularly Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly who does evil fantastically, and Emma Stone as Skeeter.

I don't think the film has been promoted particularly well which is a shame, as I think it is a very important time in American history, told from the point of view of the Black women living through it, so I would definitely recommend catching it in the cinema if you can!