An impromptu photoshoot...

Thomas and I rarely have our photo taken together, he hates it, I don't pester... (well, too much.)

So I was very excited when my sister and her husband (ha, so weird) gave me a CD with photos from February (at the barn and Heysham) with these on it!

{Photos by my sister and her husband}

We like to collect things...

I often get asked what my boyfriend Thomas thinks of all my cameras around the house... and here's the great thing - he can't complain as he collects something too.
Records.
I brought Thomas a record player as a present about 5 years ago but its only recently that we've had the space to get more records and yesterday Thomas brought 4 boxes of 50 and 60's rock n roll records for a crazy bargain price.
Perhaps I have a bad influence on him...
(remember by box of cameras? Oops)
In case you were wondering, Thomas now has over 200 records... which makes my nearly 40 cameras seem quite small in comparison.
So really, people should now be asking me what I think of that :)

For Thomas...

As I mentioned before, Thomas and I don't really do anything for valentines day... so this is my little gift for him - he doesnt really look on my blog or ever at Etsy, so he probably won't see it but I think it's a pretty perfect selection for him :)

I was inspired by Diana's treasury For Him... and it was probably the fastest treasury that I've put together yet. Maybe Thomas isn't so difficult to buy for...

Can you guess some of his favourite things from this? I tried to include lots...though I'm pretty sure he'd prefer a real cat to a print.

Happy Valentines weekend lovelies, I hope you all do something amazing with someone (anyone) that you love, even if it is just making homemade pizza!!

p.s. you've seen the giveaway right? It ends soon!

Thomas takes amazing photos!

As part of the photo swap, Thomas sent his photos to the lovely Allyn from All Things Ami and these were the result. I'm so delighted they turned out as last year his film disappeared which he was disappointed with...

I'm definitely making him take the Yashica Autofocus to Poland with us, I love his photos and that camera is a dream...

You can see the rest of his photos here and nearly 700 more in the flickr group, its my new favourite distraction!

p.s. eep, I love him, just thought I should say :)

The oddest looking SLR you'll ever see!

{It's a Yashica Samurai x.30 half frame camera! How cool is that?!

Thomas always finds the most amazing things in charity shops!}

Talking of cameras - I put together a camera inspired anti treasury for my amazing photoswap partner Lindsay - I'm mildy obsessed...

Have a great weekend!!

p.s. I also put together a guest post for the lovely Erin who is over here right now about Berlin, I've been busy for someone on a break!

Happy Birthday Thomas!!

So first, Boyfriend's name is Thomas...
(you were hoping for Kosmo, werent you?)

And today he turns 25!!

To celebrate I decided to make him an adventure scrapbook - just like the one that Ellie has in the film Up. We both adore that film and I found loads of old photos last time that I went home that I wanted to use to make something special.

Happy Birthday Thomas!!

I love you

p.s. the photo on the page is nearly 7 years old now, how crazy is that... the cat is timmy and the card is the first valentines card he ever got me...

Woohooo!!!

First I just have to say that Boyfriend is a legend! He managed to find the one thing I have been searching for for months... a polaroid camera in a charity shop for under £5!!!

(please excuse my cosy hoody and messy hair :D)

He earned some serious brownie points when he surprised me with this baby!! (though he already maxed out the counter ages ago)

Now here begins the great poloroid film debate in my head - is it really worth spending £20 on a pack of 10 photos? What if I mess them up? Can I afford them?

I know deep down I want them - as much as I wanted the camera in the first place but my sensible side is crying at £2 a photo!

Photos, film and the Photoswap!

This past weekend was rather photo orientated and I loved it!

First I finally put up my own lomography wall. I have had those clips for 4 years and I didn't realise they were lomography ones until now - I love finding out things like that and I love how it turned out!

(though sorry about the rubbish photo...)

Then Boyfriend took his film for the photoswap using Helga (the holga) whilst I walked around with Deedee (the diana mini). Watching him take photos was so much fun, he sees completely different photos in places than I do, that and he is cute!

Unfortunately the first film from my Diana was totally ruined - it completely split in half whilst I was winding it back on. I'm devestated as I took some pretty pictures in Whitby with it - I'm hoping somewhere will try and look at the half of the film still left...

and finally today is the deadline of the photoswap! (I shamelessly stole this photo from Micaela's blog of her with her photoswap camera - isn't it great!) I am so excited about seeing everyone's results and putting all the photos together!

7 Years today...

(This is one of the first photos that we ever had together...

its still one of my favourites!)

7 years ago today:

I was running through to my parents bedroom shouting...

'Mum... Mum, I think Thomas just asked me out!!'

(by a text message I should add)

I never imagined we would still be together now

loving each other more and more everyday!

Dear Boyfriend...

Everything will be ok, don't worry. I love you

p.s. Thank you for letting me bully you into taking this photo - its my fave

*There will be more Wales photos tomorrow, I promise. A sore ankle (too much walking in the Wales) mixed with some bad job related news (bah) for Boyfriend has left us feeling a bit low so just a short post today.

Weekend Love...

I love love love unplanned weekends - they are always the most relaxing and fun. There are no worries about where you are meant to be when or who you are meant to be with. Just Me, Boyfriend and whatever we want to do.

Whatever we wanted this weekend seemed to involve lots of yummy food and drinks - which isn't really a surprise. On Friday night we went for Tapas and cocktails with friends where we shared so much delicious food.

On Saturday we went for a pub lunch - I had risotto, which I am obsessed with at the moment and Boyfriend had a Ploughman's platter.

All of the food was amazing and the condiments were delightful especially the onion marmalade - I think I'm going to have to try making some. I especially loved the wallpaper and the old men playing cards with their pints!

p.s. please ignore my fascination with our feet everywhere we go :)

20 Facts about Boyfriend and Me...

I saw this at A 'Cheery' Disposition and inspired by Adele's 'Things that Make Ian and Adele, well, Ian and Adele' I decided that now was the time to share a few snippets about us!!

I was originally going to do ten but as I got my 20th follower (oh my gosh...) I decided to celebrate!! Thank you so much to everyone who follows (and reads!) my blog - I really can't believe it! Hope you enjoy these facts!

1. We met at College
2. We were both very shy and had to be coherced into talking to each other
3. He was the coolest boy from his high school and I was one of the geekiest girls from mine
4. We went to two different universities
5. I had a bit of a Bella breakdown when he first went away (not my best moments...)
6. ...which is why I'm on team Edward!
7. We spent 3 years long distance
8. Now we struggle with a couple of days apart
9. We have been together longer than all of our friends who are getting engaged/married...
10. We have had 4 homes together
11. and we have loved each one!
12. He loves cats and I love dogs
13. I love High Fidelity because it reminds me of when Boyfriend made me mix tapes
14. We still have the first ones in my Hifi
15. Now he makes me mix CD's
16. He is great at getting up in the morning... I really am not!
17. I still get excited when I get a text message/email/phone call of him
18. We love going out to eat (possibly too much)
19. We are both addicted to Rock Band
20. He is better at it than me...

Hi especially to Gabby and Shelby! Check out their blogs!

Bubbles bubbles bubbles!

{images from Izismile via Flickr}

Imagine that said like the fish off Finding Nemo - I love that film :) Boyfriend sent me these pictures yesterday and I had to share them!

I've got such a busy day today, my parents are popping up for a mini visit so need to clean clean clean!! They're also bringing the Puppy (he's 2 now, but still...) which I'm very excited about!

p.s. Hello to my new follower Lauralee - check out her cute blog Love the Life that you Live

Here's to Happiness (Boyfriend)

To celebrate my 10th follower (I'm into the double figures now, wow!!) I bullied asked Boyfriend into thinking up his Here's to Happiness list - I think he may have put the first one in for my benefit but it still makes me all glowy :)

Boyfriend's Here's to Happiness List:

1. Spending time with Rhianne
2. Seeing cats and dogs out and about
3. Eating lunch in the park when they've just cut the grass
4. Going to concerts
5. Finding a cool t shirt or record in a charity shop
6. Watching a Norwich City match (his favorite football team)
7. Yo Gabba Gabba!
8. Going to ATP
9. Playing on the xbox.
10. Going out for a nice meal

So my two latest followers are:

Adele: Poptart
I stumbled onto her blog a few weeks ago and its lovely, so excited to have new blog friends in England.

Katie: Leeds Grub
I think I have followed this blog for almost as long as I have been blogging - we love food so a blog focusing on just Leeds is extremely handy and brilliant (I found Bon Bons through this blog and also got a free coffee, yeay)

p.s. I have to admit Yo Gabba Gabba would be in my top ten as well - we have been watching it alot! Have you seen it? Its amazing!

Dear boyfriend...

I'm sorry I steal your camera when you want to be the one taking photos - especially as I worry think you might be a better photographer than me... I adore both these photos of me - thank you.

p.s. I'm also sorry I'm rubbish at getting up in the morning and I snap at you when I'm tired/hungry/annoyed... etc

'Its Wednesday... I'm in Love'

{perfect picture - fountaincoke on flickr}

I've lost count of the number of times I've fallen in love with my boyfriend... just as I think I can't love him any more he says or does something that makes my heart flutter.

If he didn't already have my heart yesterday I would have thought that he was a man after it!

We were sitting on the couch talking about weddings (happening a bit at the moment, which is bizarre as neither of us really want to get married yet, I blame all our friends getting married!) and I said that I loved the photobooth idea and he said...

"Wouldn't it better to have someone go round with a polaroid camera? Then people could write things underneath the photo and we could stick them on a wall."

Eeep!! Yes it would! That sounds perfect to me :)

(I hope he doesn't read this now - its a bit embarrassing when you get caught gushing...

how cute is he for coming up with that himself though !)

The perfect summers evening!

I honestly can't believe that it is June already - where has the time gone? I can believe that it is Summer though! The sun is shining, the evenings are long and the flips flops and pumps are out... (yeay)

Yesterday boyfriend and I had the loveliest summer evening - we baked bread (well, all we had to do was add water to a mix and put it in the oven) which smelt amazing and we had home made potato salad with cold sausages... yum!

We also finished off the last of the Norfolk ale and sat on our front door step in the sunshine...

It really was perfect!

p.s. I love him :)

Reasons I love Leeds #1

Its funny how life turns out...

Around about a year ago I got offered a great job at an Interior Design company. Unfortunately the job was in London and having spent a year in London with very little money I really wasn't comfortable with the idea of moving back (especially for the pay they were offering). Also we had friends in Leeds and a lovely home. It was a tough decision but I decided to turn it down. I've never regretted that decision but occasionally I do think what if... especially as the job that I am doing now is not interior designy at all.

However yesterday totally blew all the what if's out of the water!

Reasons I love Leeds #1: Secret gigs in tiny bars!

The Hold Steady at Mojo, Leeds (photo from Mojo Website)

I have never seen my boyfriend so excited about going to a gig before. Every what if and struggle we have had since we decided to stay in Leeds was totally worth it

just to see him that happy!

Of course we didn't see anything as it was packed, but we did hear it, so its all good. And we were there, which only a few can say...

The Real Ale Shop

Last week we went to the Real Ale Shop near Wells. I had no idea that it was there or that there are 18 brewaries in Norfolk! Amazing!


We got 6 ales between us - here are mine and the boyfriends choices:


First I tried the Reedcutter from Humpty Dumpty Brewary in Reedham, Norfolk and the boyfriend had Black Beauty Coffee Porter from Wagtail Brewary, Old Buckenham, Norfolk.



I don't really know alot about Ales, but the Reedcutter was delicious - very fresh and light with a malty taste that sat delightfully in the throat. Wagtail's Black Beauty was alot tastier than I expected - very smooth with only a hint of coffee which was intriguing rather than overpowering. Although not as throaty as the Reedcutter, the taste sat comfortably at the back of the tongue. Both the boyfriend and I felt very smug sitting in Norfolk supping on Norfolk Ale's, it must be said :)

P.S. I really wanted this ale from the Elveden Brewary. 1. because it is made by Elves (obviously) and 2. because I love the bottle! Was £6 though - doh!