My Roaccutane Story - The Beginning

This is a new topic on here and something I've never really talked about on my blog before. It's not as glamorous as travel, or design, or art, or photography but right now I just have this feeling that this journey is something I want to document. I'm hoping it might help somebody going through the same thing, but I'd also like to record my thoughts and feelings over the months to come too.

The Film Roll I Thought Was Destroyed

2017 has gotten off to a pretty unforgettable start for me. I celebrated my 21st birthday on the 18th February and was lucky enough to go away with my boyfriend and family to Iceland. We spent 3 nights in the Reykjavik area, touring the Golden Circle and dipping into the blogger-famous Blue Lagoon. The following weekend, I was blown away with being surprised by my boyfriend with a weekend in Paris! We travelled down on the Eurostar from St Pancras and had a wonderful couple of days exploring a few of the main sights and exploring a little off the beaten track. While Paris was a surprise, I had planned to take some 35mm film with me to Iceland to capture some of the memories. After doing some research into whether my film roll would be damaged by passing through the airport x-ray scanners, I concluded that for my purposes it would be ok to pass through the hand baggage scanners a couple of times (once on the way out and once on the return journey). Apparently the x-rays they use for checked luggage are far stronger and so it's advised never to put film roll in hold bags. I knew that I may experience some fogging but I wasn't too concerned. What I didn't account for was Paris. Given the security situation in the city, most museums and attractions required me to put my camera though an x-ray machine. Add this to the security checks for the Eurotunnel, I thought that my photographs would be all but destroyed by the time it came to developing. I estimate that this particular film roll passed through x-ray scanners around 10 times, and since the damage cased to film by x-rays is cumulative, I didn't have high hopes. But I have been pleasantly surprised by the results. Of course the x-rays have had some visible effect on the photographs, but there's something quite lovely about it. I thought I'd share a little mixture of photographs from the two trips.

My 2017 Reading List

Ah, reading. I have such a complicated relationship with you. On the one hand, I love books, I see tremendous value in reading, I love book shops and I always have a never ending list of titles on my to-read list. On the other hand, I am quite possibly the slowest reader of all time, which makes it very difficult for me to make a dent in even the smallest portion of my list. You may have seen in my 2017 resolutions post that one of my goals for the coming year is to start waking up much earlier, which got me thinking about how I might spend my extra hours in the day. Reading was one of the first things that sprung to my mind. I always seem to have some sort of reading goal on my resolutions list which normally goes something like "read X amount of books this year". And I fail every. single. time. This year, I'm scrapping the number and just focusing on making more time to read. On my 2017 reading list I have quite a range, from design, to health and nutrition, to beauty, fashion and more...

2016 Highlights

Happy New Year everybody! So I think we all know that 2016 wasn't peoples favourite year, and probably with good reason. But all that negativity aside, it's always nice to look back on the positives from the year just gone by. On a personal level, 2016 was actually a brilliant year for me, potentially the best of my life. As some of you might know, I spent the last 4 months of the year living and studying in New York City which was obviously an incredible experience. But I was also lucky enough to travel to some other beautiful places, meet some wonderful people along the way, plus we welcomed a new puppy into the family! Here are some of my highlights from 2016...

The Best Of Dreams and Colour Schemes 2016

Something that I really love doing each December is rounding up the 'best of' my blog from the year just gone by. Weather it be posts I really enjoyed writing, posts that proved popular or just content I'm particularly proud of, it's always nice to look back and re-share content from the year gone by that some of you may have missed, or new readers may never have seen. Hopefully it may even give some of you some inspiration for your own blogs in the new year. So, here's what I've been up to in 2016...

My 2017 Goals

So I won't lie, I've been slacking heavily with my blogging recently. I won't go into excuses, but one post I always really enjoy putting on my blog each December/January time is my goals for the year ahead. I find making a conscious effort to write down my specific hopes for the new year makes me feel a whole lot more accountable to making them happen. I've published my resolutions for the past couple of years and I've been so much better at keeping them for doing so. This is what's on my to do list for 2017...

Why Fall Is The Best Time To Visit NYC

I've been living in New York for over 3 months now, and I've been lucky enough to see the seasons changing from beautiful scorching hot summer days, to crisp cold winter mornings. The wonderful thing about New York is that there's always something going on, no matter the time of year. But the season I've really fallen in love with out here is fall, so here are all the reasons why you should make your next tip to the big apple an autumnal one...

5 Things To Do Alone In NYC

There's no doubt about it, New York is an amazing place to explore with friends and family. I mean, doesn't everybody dream of having their Carry Bradshaw moment, swanning around the streets on Manhattan, hand in hand with their girlfriends? But New York is just as great when explored solo. Having moved to London and then New York City, I've gained some experience (and a soft spot) for getting to know a city companionless! And though of course I've met some wonderful people along the way who I have shared some amazing experiences with, I still enjoy taking the time to enjoy my own company in the city. So here are my favourite things to do alone in NYC...

10 Things I Learnt In My First Year At University

So I found this post while browsing through my drafts. I had almost finished it but clearly forgot all about it and it never got published. Though it's been about four months since I finished my first year at university, I thought it might be nice to put this post out anyway since there's a lot of people just beginning their time at university around about now. So, here's the post that got lost...

Typography Of New York

If you didn't know already, I'm a bit of a geek for typography. 'Helvetica' is potentially my favourite film ever, I believe there's nothing more elegant than a well designed ampersand and I laugh a bit to much at comic sans jokes. I just love type, and New York has it in abundance. There's nothing I love more than seeing type out in the environment, so today I thought I'd share some of the lovely examples that I've photographed while exploring the Big Apple (p.s. don't you just think the above picture sums up life in Britain perfectly?!).

Upstate New York: The Catskills & Woodstock

As much as I love living in Manhattan, it can get a bit overwhelming at times. With over 8 million people rushing around the big city, it can feel impossible to get a bit of peace and quiet. Luckily, there's so much more to New York than just NYC. North of the city you can find vast areas of beautiful rural land, towering mountain peaks and incredible waterfalls. This week, my boyfriend and I ventured out of the Big Apple and into the historic small town of Woodstock in the beautiful Catskill mountains.

7 Things I Learnt In My First 7 Days In NYC

Just less than a year ago, I was sat at my laptop writing this very same post about London. I'm no stranger to moving to a new city, and unlike my best friend Hannaah, whom I am on this great New York City adventure with, I'm no stranger to the USA either. But each city I visit, move to or live in has a very unique dynamic and with that comes an adjustment period. Sure, most big cities have some things in common - noise, lack of personal space and an abundance of McDonalds, but there's always new customs, etiquette and lessons to learn along the way. One year ago I began my post by saying "So here they are, the musings of a northerner stuck down south, week one", so without further ado - here they are, the musings of an english girl stuck in the Big Apple, week one.

33 Things I Want To Do While Living In New York

It feels strange to think that exactly this time last year, I was writing this very same post about moving to London. I wanted to make a sort of 'bucket list' before moving to the Big Smoke, so that I always had something to do and so that I remembered all the great things I had been looking forward to. The list served me very well in my first year living in London, so I thought I'd write a new one for my four months living in the Big Apple! You might notice that a few of the 'big ones' such as the Empire State aren't on my list - that's because I did many of them on my first visit to New York City last summer. That's not to say that I won't be doing them again this time, but I thought I'd save my list mostly for new adventures! So with less than a week to go before I fly away from England, here's what's going to keep me busy until Christmas...

My BIG News: New York, New York

I have some pretty big news to finally spill in this post. It's been in the making for a while now but it hasn't felt like the right time to blog about it since I wanted it to be 100% official before announcing it here (I feel a bit self obsessed using the word "announcing" by the way). But now my flights are booked, I have accommodation and my visa has been approved, I have come to realise that this is actually happening. So, here goes... I'm going to live in New York City!

Burano Island: A Sanctuary Away From Venice

Who doesn't love Venice, right? Perfectly Pinterest-able canals, gondoliers and venetian masks see the floating city pull in 27 million tourists annually - not bad for a city with only 60,000 local residents! Venice has been described as an outdoor museum, since almost everything you see around has some kind of historical, artistic or cultural value. It's no wonder so many people flock to beautiful Venice. But what if you want to get away from the crowds of cruise ship visitors? If you prefer something a little more secluded and untouched, I may have just the thing.

How I Spent My One Day In Milan

I have just returned from my holiday in Italy with my boyfriend, and I had such an amazing trip! If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen that we stayed mainly at the southern end of Lake Garda, while making day trips to the surrounding areas - and one of these was a whistle stop tour of Milan! I was so looking forward to going to Milan for the first time, as I always fall head over heels in love with Italian cities. Here's what I got up to in the fashion capital...

London Pop-Up: The Magnum Pleasure Store

So, it's been a while hasn't it? I can't really think of just one reason why I haven't been blogging recently, it's more of a combination of things. I'm still working away trying to wrap up my first year of uni while enjoying my last few weeks in London for a little while. I just seem to have been super busy, along with the fact that no ideas I had for my blog felt good enough. I haven't even been reading too many blogs recently either which is so unlike me!

Anyway, today I've decided to just jump right back into it again and what better way to do that than with a food related post, amirite? This is one for any Londoners, visitors of London or ice cream lovers! Magnum are back with their 'Pleasure Store' pop-up this summer, this time located on South Molton Street, close to Bond Street. I moved to London last September, just as Magnum were shutting the doors on their 2015 pop-up in Covent Garden, so I was more than a little bit excited to hear they were opening up again this summer.

My #The100DayProject Picks

For those brave enough to take on #The100DayProject, a third of the challenge is now complete! We're quickly closing in on day 40 and so today I thought I would share the projects that I'm really enjoying following. If you don't know what the 100 day project is, it's basically a creative challenge where an action is repeated every day for 100 days, with the results being shared on Instagram. I really admire everybody I'm about to mention, along with anyone that's keeping up with this demanding challenge!

Dirkon: The Fully Functioning Paper Camera

It's always nice to have a little side project on the go, something creative that you don't have to do for work or study, but something that you want to do. In many ways, I find that this sort of work can often be the most beneficial in aiding creative growth. Today I'm sharing my side project of the moment! And it's this - the seriously adorable Dirkon paper camera.

April As Told By Instagram

Do you ever get those times where you're just feeling your own Instagram? Like you have a good run of photos and you think to yourself "damn girl, I would follow me!". No? Is that just me? Maybe it's because I'm gradually edging closer to the 1000 follower mark, but I've been putting quite a bit of effort into my Instagram lately so I thought I'd tie that in with a little life update for April! Here's what I got up to last month...