Things I love and some great links...

It is miserable and wet outside here in Leeds (which isn't really a surprise) so I thought I would cheer myself up with some of my favourite things from last weekend!

This little pup... I love how his little leg sticks out!

and incidently my pj's and yellow cardigan I am wearing in that photo as well.

oh and the glimpse of my Mum's knee at the bottom...

Watching fuji instax film develop, its far too much fun!

Funky wellies!

Deedee, my diana mini and an amazing charity shop bag

(it fits two cameras and my massive purse, huzzah!)

I'm also loving:

1. all of these beautiful yellow images
2. polaroids from Paris (here and here)
3. the beach in the sunshine
   (and more fujis from a diana instant back, love!)
4. Cute little kittens
5. these tea bags!

Is it bad that my feet are in nearly of all the photos..?
Have a great weekend!

Any questions..?

Last week, Mollyhill asked if I had any advice for new bloggers and Ruth said she would be interested in hearing how I built up my audience in one year.

So... I was wondering if anyone else had any questions about blogging (be it anything from giveaways to less pixely images) or if people would be interested in me writing a post with little bits of advice from my blogging experience so far?

I feel a little bit silly asking as I always forget that I have a bigger blog now - I still see myself as a fumbling blogger with perhaps 20 followers struggling to think of posts everyday - I obviously don't have all the blogging answers and I am sure some people's opinions would differ to mine but I would love to help people out if they need it...

So if you have a question then pop it into the comments on this post and I will put together an answers post next week.

Giveaway winner and tumblr!

{ Fallen Glory by HolgaJen Photography}

Yeay, I do love giveaways and I am still especially excited about this one, I've been slowly planning my mystery parcel in my head for the past fews days :)

First a big thank you to Jen at HolgaJen Photography for agreeing to take part - I have admired her work for a long time now and its always exciting when people you admire turn out to be genuinely great people as well - don't forget to check out her amazing blog and shop - you know, just incase you missed something wonderful.

So, the winner of the giveaway is: Meghan from The Perfect Compilation Tape!

Well done Meghan, I will email you asap! And take a peek at her cute blog, I love it!

A roll a week!

Do you ever see something that is such an amazing idea and

wish you had thought of it yourself?!

The lovely Amy from No. 15, who took the most amazing photos for the photo swap has started a blog featuring one roll of film a week
how fantastic is that?!

(and how had I not seen this sooner, shes already at week 6!)

Check out A Roll a Week - I can't wait to see more of her photos!

I love the beach... even in the snow!

On Sunday we went to Cromer... and it snowed! I have never seen snow at the beach before (I don't think...) and despite the cold as it started to clear up it did look rather pretty with the snow on the cliffs.

As it was quite cold, it took alot longer for these to develop, but watching them was absolutely fascinating and I can honestly say I am hooked on this camera!

Doesn't my sister's pose look amazing in the photo above - she wasn't doing that until I actually took the photo, I think the waves caught her by surprise :)

These last two pictures were taken by Boyfriend (as I am in one of them) Harry is also in it too - he wasn't meant to be but he ran in apparently... you can kind of tell that he's being dragged out again, haha!

I love how there is a slight bleed of purple on the right hand side of these photos - I still have no idea why but it definitely adds something to them!

p.s. don't forget about the giveaway, you have one more day to enter!!

Feet love around the world... week 1!

So you know that I completely adore Nicole from My Teacups in Peony (you read the interview right!) and I honestly think she is after my blogging heart.

Feet photos... weekly... I am there, I love it!!!

Luckily I took a great feet photo with my fuji instax on the beach so I have one to share today, yeay!

Don't you love how you can see my Diana mini there as well? And the wellies have daisies on them - I loved them!

I am definitely going to be doing this every week!

p.s. I really love my fuji instax mini - 100 photos is not enough, I'm going to need more!

Just a quick hi!

Just a quick post today as I am about to hop on a train back home to Norfolk (yeay!) I can not wait to see this little guy! I'm taking my Diana mini with me, so I'm hoping that I finally get a great (unbroken) roll of photos from it.

Also I wanted to say that I have been featured on Bonbon Rose with two of my favourite girls - Nicole and Adele - I seriously love these ladies! Check out our interview here!

(Huge thanks to Kristin for putting it together - I also adore her!)

Have a wonderful weekend and don't forget about my amazing giveaway! x

p.s. thank you for all your amazing comments this week - I will be catching up with everyone next week!

One year and 300 followers giveaway - Closed!

As promised another giveaway! I'm so excited!!

Once again I would like to thank all my amazing readers who have been so incredible this past year - this giveaway is for you.

Today's giveaway is from the amazing Holga Jen Photography!

I seriously love my holga camera and you can tell that Jen loves her too as she takes the most beautiful photos with her 120 format holga. I am so excited for the winner already.

As well as having an amazing shop on etsy, Jen also has a great blog which showcases her lovely photos. She also interviews other toy camera photographers (which I find fascinating) and has a great Holga on Etsy feature - if you love toy cameras, its a perfect blog!

So... you can win... a 6x6 copy of the print below

Fallen Glory!

I love the colours and the soft lighting, just beautiful!!

And... as we're celebrating two exciting blog milestones today, the winner will also get...

a mystery package from me

I have no idea what to put it in it yet but I'm sure there will be some yellow, maybe a variety of photos (i do have alot of cameras) maybe even some chocolate... I don't know, but I can't wait to put it together!

How to enter: Check out Holga Jen's shop and let me know your favourite in a comment below! Simples.

The winner will be announced Thursday 24th February.

This giveaway is now closed!

Thank you so much again for reading my blog, it really amazes me how far it has come in such a short space of time and thank you to all of you who entered the giveaway!

So....

{May all your wishes today come true, by Toomy☺}

...tomorrow is my little blogs one year birthday/blog anniversary thing

and today I just reached 300 followers

how amazing/ridiculous/fantastic/bewildering/exciting is that!!

I'll be honest, my blog started off pretty rubbish - I've never done anything like this before and it took me a good couple of months to get into the swing of it but now I am incredibly pleased with it, with all the amazing people I have met through my blog and some of the great projects and swaps* that I have been involved in through my blog.

Tomorrow I have a great giveaway planned which I am so excited about, so I thought I better get the gushing, teeny bit of crying and amazement out of the way today :)

A massive thank you to everyone who reads my blog - I probably wouldn't have continued to blog if Jessica, Jamie and Amy didn't start to follow my blog way back when. I always try to read everyone's blog and reading other blogs is definitely an inspiration for writing mine.

Here's to another year!

*talking of swaps, have you seen Megan's stationary swap? I love stationary, what a great idea!

London...

After posting these photos from London, I started to feel more and more nostalgic for our first little home together! Here are some of my favourite pictures from our time in London - I still can't believe it was four years ago!

And despite living there for a year we still managed to always get lost :)

Much love Monday: Red

I love Anna's projects and I am becoming quite fond of hearts because of them :)

I also love wandering around taking photos and cooking homemade pizza with boyfriend on Valentines day, yum!

Fill in the blank friday and things I've learnt...

I looooved reading everyone's 'fill in the blanks' last Friday

so I decided to play along today this week :)

{wonderfully inspired by Lauren at The Little Things We Do}

1. I am hoping my Valentine's day this year includes quality time with boyfriend playing on the xbox and making some yummy food.

2. My biggest guilty pleasure is pepsi max preferably but i've been drinking quite a bit of diet coke lately too

3. I am most proud of my little blog - its kept me sane when other things couldn't.

4. If I could choose one outfit to live in it would be Um, a cute black vest, a yellow cardi, some expensive jeans (they would have to last) and those Seychelles shoes (I'm obsessed, still haven't found them in my size, I must have big feet)

5. People are annoying at the moment - especially people on buses.

6. I would rather go to the beach than be at work today

7. I love my life more than strawberry pie.

and here are some great links for this week (I didnt do any last week, oops!)

1. I love these polaroid hearts!
2. and these tea postcards.
3. I can't wait to go back to Paris one day.
4. These drawings made into photos are amazing!
5. More polaroid love...
6. Oh and cutest valentines ever!!

I hope you all have a great weekend and a lovely Valentines day, though we don't do much to celebrate it, I am looking forward to the time with Boyfriend, yeay!

A rather amazing giveaway!!

I love finding new blogs but I especially love when bloggers find me and lead me back to their amazing blogs!!

I've just recently started reading Laura's blog The Madness of Mundanity

but I am already smitten, here are few reasons why

Laura lives in London

(I heart london)

She works in a vintage camera shop

(oh my, I want to visit so bad)

She has just started a Vintage Camera Project, eep!

(I might borrow this idea with my cameras, brilliant!)

She has some amazing charity shop finds

and

she is holding a fabulous giveaway!!

I was hugely tempted to enter but really, I already have a lomolitos camera and some lomography photo clips and we're not eating sugar so no Haribo for me... but I had to share it!

(the polaroid brooch is super cute though...)

And I also wanted to fill out the blanks, so here goes!

I always:

Oversleep

Skip breakfast

Kiss boyfriend goodbye

Cry at sad films (alot)

I sometimes:

Wear heels

Forget to take my glasses off when I fall asleep

don't text back

sing in the shower

I never:

wear skirts - I have the best intentions but it never happens

have warm hands or feet

remember to take my camera when I really should have brought it

stop getting excited about getting to go home.

Photoswap Update!

I have finally uploaded all the photos so far onto the photoswap blog, hurray!

I can't decide if the photoswap has been a success or not -as you will see over half of the photoswappers photos aren't there... Nearly half of them are though and the ones that are there are really amazing! I'm still so excited by them.

However I am aware that some people have been disappointed with the swap and I can only say that I am as disappointed as you are - I've tried to email everyone but there is only so much chasing you can do... so...

1. If you have developed your partners photos but they are not on the photoswap blog then please email me so we can get them on there.
   
2. If you have sent your photos but not received any then please email me...

I really want to wrap this up by the end of the month so I can start sorting out another one!

Sometimes...

I really miss London and riding the tube...

(Photos taken by me in Sept 09)

Little letters...

Cute Mimi the Pug heart card by Cuore

Dear Sugar,
It's been over two weeks now without you (or processed foods) in our diet now and I'll be honest, I do miss brownies and cookies... however I love feeling healthy, sleeping better, eating more fruit and vegetables and the fact that the bags under my eyes are not as dark anymore.

(woo, I still can't believe that benefit)

Dear mixed seeds,

You are my new favourite snack... yum.

Dear polaroid camera,

I'm still engaged in the poloroid film debate in my head but I promise I'll let you know the outcome when I know.

Dear followers....

Hi!! Yeay that you're here, you are awesome!

Dear AutoCAD,

Stop crashing.

(please...)

Dear Seychelles Footwear,

Please deliver to England...

(without costing me a fortune)

Dear Spring,

Hurry up, I want to go out and take photos in the sunshine!

Dear future pug,

I'm working on convincing Boyfriend that you are seriously cute and we should get you

(he's working on us buying a kitten still... he'll probably win...)

Dear future,

Once again, I am very excited about what you may hold...

I can't wait for the rest of this year!

{as always inspired by the beautiful Naomi from Rockstar Diaries!}

The best weekends...

{This one is for Summer!}

Consist of:

...a plastic mustache...
...some of your very best friends*...

...a fuji instax mini...

...amazing homemade curry, chapattis and pakoras...

...a mushroom that looks like a snowman...

...a mushroom that looks like a snowman wearing a plastic mustache...

...a box bottle of wine...

...trivial pursuit (I won!)...

...a yellow cardi...

...lots of fun...

Hurray!

*they both read my blog but I would have written that anyway...

especially as I didn't take any of these photos, they did :D

Oops...

I forgot to do my 'things I've learnt post' and now I'm at home enjoying a nice glass of red wine without any links and playing Mass Effect 2 (oh, its so good!)

I'll catch up with it on Monday and hopefully I'll have some fun pictures from my weekend with my girlies! Have a great weekend! xx

p.s. thanks for the great comments about the shoes! :)

Shoe crush...

Is it wrong to dream about one pair of shoes for two months...?

I briefly mentioned a pair of yellow shoes here and I honestly haven't been able to stop thinking about them/searching for somewhere to find them in the UK/crying (well, in my head, I haven't cried over a pair of shoes... yet...) over the fact I can't find any... sob.

They look so lovely with the navy and orange tights (love) in Keiko's amazing outfits. (Another shameless crush, what a great blog and such a pretty lady!)

Does anyone have any clue where I could find them over here? Would I have to order them from the US and pay a bomb in delivery...? Would it be wrong to get them in all three colours?

I think I have a problem...

All photos: Keiko Lynn

Shoes: Her Majesty in Mustard, Seychelles Footwear

The rest of the lomolitos photos...

Although it was tempting to take photos of everything with the yellow flash - the sun was shining on Sunday and the sky was a beautiful blue. Perfect for a walk along the canal.

The water was frozen, you can just about see it in the photo above.

The photo above is the old forge - they're going to knock everything down and build houses apparently, which makes me a little sad.

We could just make out the top of Kirkstall Abbey from where we were... it looks an awful lot smaller in this photo...

I think my favourite thing about lomography cameras are the colours - I love how the sky blue contrasts with the burnt orange in most of these photos!

Shades of Yellow

I love the little lomography disposable camera! It was great to take out with us as I didnt worry about it was getting damaged or if the lens cap had fallen off - it was study and reliable - and any further use I get from it is a treat from now :)

This one above is actually half yellow and half not, can you tell? The yellow plastic was really loose and kept moving everytime I moved the camera - I ended up holding it in place with my thumb.

As with my holga, it wasn't until you got outside that the camera took on a life of its own!I particularly love the photos below - though Boyfriend said they looked dirty with the yellow lol.

Yeay for toy cameras and a weekend of taking photos! I can't wait to take more with it this weekend :)

Just a couple of things!

My lovely Nicole is starting a new project! A pen pal project!!

Are you excited? I am!

I've never had a proper pen pal
(I was a lazy child lol)

Head on over and join up!*

Secondly, Diamonds is back!

We had an unplanned break through January (oops) but today is my first featured blog of the year and we also have some exciting news! Yeay! Check it out!

*Micaela, Belen and Megan, this looks perfect for you :)