Homesick

Today I've had a busy day. I've been all around Willenhall and Walsall chasing Post Offices that have a biometric reader that works. It all sounds a little odd, but while I have everything else going on, I'm also in the middle of a citizenship process. Although born and raised in the UK, because my parents weren't married I'm not a British citizen! It's caused me few problems really, but I've been thinking about having dual citizenship for a while, so earlier this year I went for it.
In the meantime though I've been thinking a lot about my 'home country' of New Zealand. I've lived there a couple of times, but I alway end up back in the UK. That doesn't stop me daydreaming about returning though, particularly as a lot of my family are over there, and most importantly my sister and Mum. I miss them most, of course.
Looks like it will be at least another couple of years before I get to go back now though, what with my passport situation and more importantly for money flow, the house! So I thought I'd just post a few pics of the country as an excuse for me to look back through the photos I've taken over there the last two trips :x Hope you enjoy them too.

















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Project Wednesday ~Mallorca Travel Journal

Well, a couple of weeks ago I said I'd give you a peak into my Mallorca travel journal, so here we are x] I'm so bad at keeping up with travel journals as I either get back into the room exhausted or find the TV being on too distracting. I also don't want to be antisocial to write about what a great time I'm having hanging out with everyone...

I got this travel journal from my sister who sent it to me from NZ. How cute? x3 It was really well organised too, already containing a pocket for extras and sections for things to pack, stuff to do before we leave and at the back, mini review spots for bars, shopping areas and cafes. Oh a few pages to keep addresses too so I know who to send postcards to x3

I decided to use this book for both my week long Spanish-island trips I took last year, so the first half was for my Mallorca holiday with Face's family. Every page had really nice but muted backgrounds to keep things interesting, and the first couple of pages sets I only wrote on. I'd taken my instax mini with me too though, so those pictures got included in the journal more often than not, like this one of the view from our hotel room.

  I'm always on the lookout for things to include to add something different to the pages and although I usually will keep anything, this time I was aiming for a slimmer journal so I stuck to things that weren't so bulky. The monster/mallorca sticker I got from a souvenir shop but I also have a thing for keeping receipts, particularly if they are in another language or have the shop (or in this case, restaurant) name at the top. On this one I even wrote who had what!

This is something I really enjoying doing for travel journals but almost never find the time- little sketches! This page had a prompt for sketching so I had the excuse to sit and do it while Face watched TV one afternoon/evening. I sat on the balcony of our hotel and just doodled the view. I've never been good at realism so true to my style, it looks a little cartoony. As you can see, I also didn't get a chance to finish my sketch, but I think I got the more interesting part in, of the harbour :]

I also cut up a few leaflets from places we had visited to include more pictures for interest and context. On this page I also stuck in Face & I's mini tren tickets after a ride we took which toured us all around Porto Cristo and some other nearby beaches.
I did quite a few more pages than this, but I think these were the most interesting ones. Quite a few of the others were just text, but even just now I got caught up reading as I tried to type this, so I guess that works for me!
I did most of this while I was in Mallorca, not bad for me! I admit though I had to complete it when I got back :x On the other hand, I still have my Japanese travel journal sitting on my desk waiting to be completed...I always need more time for craft! So I didn't do a bad job to get this one all done before I went off on my next trip.
Do you like to keep travel journals?



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September Photo a Day ~Week 2

This week's photo a day. Not always very descriptive of what I've been up to, but just odds and ends I wanted to take photos of x3


09.09.15 Going around the garden again, I'm still taken with the onions hanging to dry in the greenhouse.


10.09.15 Wednesday was a day of good weather and we had strawberries and cream for pudding x3 I sat by the door to enjoy the weather as I ate.


11.09.15 OMG. O. M. G. Waiting for this album for 11 years. And here it is. I am dying. I need this on loop just plumbed straight into my head for at least the next couple of weeks.


12.09.15 Last week when I was out at West Brom I visited their local Tesco. It has a massive foreign foods section and I always have to go buy some seaweed crisps. I also couldn't resist buying this sake to try! I still haven't cracked it pen yet, but doesn't it look pretty?


13.09.15 I had a busy Sunday between my computer, town and visiting friends, but I had my mind set of catching some autumn colour somewhere along the way :]


14.09.15 Last night I finally started my Fantasy Life game on 3DS. I'd been waiting for a good day but I was starting to drag it out so I just played it XD So far it's looking good x3


15.09.15 Spyro is so cute! She is waiting to be fed here, look at the little tongue!
Next week I am away to Devon so I'm not quite sure how I'm going to be posting the photo a day, as I can't really schedule it! I do all my blogging/photo editing from my PC and I don't have a laptop to take with me, hmmm. Any ideas?



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Homey Inspiration ~Living Room

Well, I've been mooching around again and got a few more ideas, this time I turned my attention to the living room x3

So here's my future living room/sitting room/lounge/whatever you call it, and I think it looks pretty sweet! But I don't know about you but the first thing I notice is that awful carpet. OMG that thing...has got to go. When we went to talk with the last owners of the house, they showed us photos from when they bought it, and guess what? The carpet was in when they bought it, 18 years ago! It's a proper high quality name though, and apparently will clean up like new if a bit of effort is put into it, but I don't think it'll matter how much effort I put in, that pattern won't go away!
To the left is the dining room, but I'll talk about that another day. To the right are the patio doors, and I've got plans for lounging around there a lot x3


Andrew Martin A couple of years ago I decided that all I wanted for Christmas was an egg chair. I'd been asking for a couple of years before that as well, since getting to doss in one in an airport and deciding it was the comfiest thing in the world XD Being the spoilt brat I am, Face got one for me! <3 It turned out to be a LOT larger than I'd anticipated and wouldn't really fit anywhere in the house and it was far too heavy to get upstairs, not that it had anywhere to go when up there < /3 It's lived in the hallway since hen, taking up a large amount of space and generally only getting used in the summer when I don't want to sit in the sun (it's too cold to sit in the hallway in winter). Now I'm super excited to soon be able to use it. It's a little tatty but it is really comfortable and in time maybe we will get it reupholstered. This union jack egg chair I think is really awesome and I'm kinda thinking maybe the whole room could have a union jack theme...is that super tacky? Ah, who cares if it is XD Anyway, Face really wants to wrap the back of the chair with some sort of vinyl but I'm not convinced yet! I'm hoping to put it next to the patio doors so in summer and maybe winter the sun will shine in and I can read or play my gameboy in egg chair bliss.


Basset Furniture Talking of chairs I have big plans for a couch too, though I think I may need to save for a while to get what I want! For quite a while now I've been dreaming of a corner couch, until recently when I found out about U-shaped couches! Which I suppose are pretty obvious now I know about them...but doesn't decrease their awesomeness xp This one is just a pinterest find, but other than cost I don't suppose it would be too hard to put something like this together if you buy one of those couches that come in separate clip-together pieces...

 
World Stores & Not on the High Street Until then though, we have a hand-me-down suite from Face's parents. I don't mind that, after all, I don't expect to have everything I want at once, and it's our first home! You have to have everyone else's things XD The suite is leather so I have plans to have a throw over it for warmth, and in summer, not sticking to it xp This grey throw looks pretty cosy but what I would really like is to learn to arm knit and create a big chunky blanket throw...but I think that's gonna take a while, I didn't really pick up knitting so it may take me a while to figure out, nevermind find where to buy a wool that would create this effect! This photo is one for sale from Not on the High Street and is over £300 so for now the smaller throw will be fine!

 
Asda Direct & Izac Less on Tumblr Of course, a home needs some decoration around the place and I was super keen on this ram skull decoration from Asda until Face totally shot me down on it xp TBF a real one would be cooler, but I'm not sure where the line between creepy and cool is and where is too far :x On the other hand, the wifi sampler is the kind of thing I hope to be up to this winter when I want to stay indoors and not clean everything. Maybe I will also sew one with the access code XD
I have a lot of things to do to make the house more of our home, but I'm sure it'll be a fun process x3
what do you think to these items? Is there anything you feel a living room needs?



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Sunday a Little Different ~Beach Day in Wales

I thought instead of going through my week I'd rather just write about the bit I found most interesting- a daytrip Dad & I took to go to the beach on Monday!

Our first stop was Porthmadog, a beach town Dad hasn't been to in quite a while so we had a little look around, mooched the harbour and even saw the steam train come into the station across the main road (weird!). This is the view inland off one of the towns bridges.

We moved onto Criccieth and went to go look at the view from the castle, but you had to pay to go in and I was still dying of sleepiness so we just had a look over the walls there before looking further up the coast.

Our next stop was Pwllheli, where we stopped at the Asda and grabbed some lunchy snacks and then headed to the beach to watch the sea and eat, exactly what you're required to do when you go to the beach X3 I always used to dislike stone beaches when I was a kid as they weren't comfortable on the feet and you can't build much. Now I prefer them I think as I don't get sand everywhere and if there's a breeze you don't get whipped with sand! I also like building little piles of stones :x

We went off then to a part of the coast we've not been before, I can't remember the name of it now, but we went down this tiny road that led to the beach and found this bay area. The little village across from us looked so sweet tucked in front of the hills with the sea to look at. We tried to drive over the hills behind it to see if we could visit, but got totally lost on some back track XD It was a good tiki tour though!

It had got quite late by this point so after stopping for some dinner back at Criccieth beachfront (the breeze had got a bit nippy by this point so we ate in the car!) we headed back home. We went back a different way to normal though, past these reservoirs. We stopped at this one to look over it as the sun set.

We had a really good day exploring the coast, and the weather was stunning for the time of year x3
Where do you like to go to the beach?



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Scavenger Saturday ~Week 6

Well, we all know how this works by now so shall we check out a few of this week's finds?

A Piece of Red String / Smudge Something over it
I found this red string at the beach when Dad & I went earlier in the week. I guess technically it's not string, but it's so close, and it took me so long to find something red and string-like!
I 'smudged something over it' with watercolour paints. I was feeling a little rushed and this was all I could come up with :d

A Found Note / Add a Blob
Dad leaves me notes all the time and so when I had to find a note I thought not only was this an easy scavenge for an unlikely to find 'in the wild' task, but a good way of keeping the note x3
Dad found this shiny gold vinyl stuff while out on a bike ride and as it was his own scavenge I thought it was pretty appropriate when it came to the alteration x3

A Found Note / Add Something Shiny
  A few days after I'd completed the above page I went to the pub for one of our friends birthday. Our pub has tons of old books on shelves that no one ever looks at, but of course being a little drunk and with a bunch of people I didn't know, we started looking at the books, and in one I found this note! It was by the author to some friends he'd gifted the book to. Sadly, I can't remember the title, even after googling the author. Because it was so unusual I felt I had to put in a 50a page to include it!
I carried the theme on once I got the 'something shiny' alteration, cutting the something shiny into little blobs to put around the page XD

A Ticket / Combine with a Photo
This was the ticket for the Kast Off Kinks I went to see with Dad. This book seemed like an obvious place to put it :]
The alteration was to combine the scavenge with a photo, so I printed off one of the pics I took while I was there, even though I wasn't supposed to be taking pics :x

A Piece of Origami / Turn it into a Pattern. Repeat it.
I used to like placing origami around work. I'm not sure why, I just like leaving things lying around I think! So I learnt to make these throwing stars- I have no idea how to make them anymore, but I found this one in a bag I used to use for work a fair bit.
With the alteration, it made sense to me to try and carry on the pattern using the shape of the origami. I didn't practice it before I started doodling on this page so I was pretty pleased to find out it did form a sort of pattern xD
Are you using a Keri Smith book at the moment? I'm enjoying this one & how it doesn't seem quite as in depth as the others :x



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Autumn's Coming

Usually it gets to this time of year and although I count autumn as my favourite season, I just don't feel ready for it! Summer is swiftly catching up to autumn as a favourite now I enjoy sitting in the sun and warming my blood, and the sunshine really lightens my mood. But on the other hand there are autumn things that are just so hard to beat. I think this year I am ready for the change of season a little more than usual though.

There are things I'll miss about Summer though,

• Greenery
      Summer is just so colourful, it's not only greenery but all the flowers and life you see through summer. Autumn is pretty in colours, but leads up to a long period of brown and dull that I it find difficult to forgive it for ;p
• Warm Days
      What better than waking up in a morning knowing that you're not going to freeze to death while you're trying to get dressed?
• Following on from the above, Wearing Less
      Although there is a charm in wearing heavy clothes and feeling super comfy, I'm the kind of person who will wear trousers and hoodie until the temperature goes above 20 degrees :x In winter I just have to wear more hoodies or crank up the heating in the house, plus whenever I try and go for the 'oversized jumper look' I just feel ridiculous and go back to sitting by the heater for warmth.
• Long Days
      As much of a night person as I am I really like how the days are so much longer in summer, it reminds me of playing in the dusk as a kid and not even realising it was getting dark until you had to nip inside to get a drink or something. Good times. Now in my mind the best thing to do with long nights is sit out with friends and some cider, but lets face it, that never happens with my few-and-far-between days off and the irregularity of the English weather!


• Beach Days
      Living so far from the coast is tough, but when I do get to go I just appreciate it all the more! I love dossing in a sheltered spot and listening to the sea lapping the shore, throwing beach rocks at a target (usually a larger rock!), and eating fish and chips while watching the ocean. Of course, you can do all these things on autumny days, but it's just not the same as a good hot summers day!
• No frosty cars
      One of my pet peeves in the cooler months is finishing a long day of work only to have to go out into the cold to scrape solid ice off my car, then sit in the cold car while I wait for the windscreen to clear up enough that I can drive home. Urgh.

On the other hand there are some things I really like about autumn too:

• Changing Leaves
      Who doesn't like the leaves changing colour? And when they fall and all gather into piles for jumping in, yeah it's pretty sweet x3
• Photographic Opportunities
      Of course, with a new season comes new photographic opportunities, and autumn can be a lot of fun when the weather is right.
• Pumpkin Spice
      This is so american of me to say but I love pumpkin spice flavour! Here in the UK we really don't get a lot of it, but I'm hoping in the next couple of years we'll start seeing more. Until then, Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes and frappuccinos will have to do for me x3


• Fireworks
      I'm not really sure in my own mind if this is more of an autumn or winter thing, as it's usually pretty cold by the time fireworks come around, but I think technically it's autumn XD Anyway, I love watching fireworks, finding all the layers of clothing you can manage and then having a lovely hot mug of mulled cider while you watch. Awesome.
• Less Guilt for Staying Inside
      I get massive indoor guilt in the summer, even though I'm not naturally an outdoors type. I sit at my computer typing away, looking out thinking I should be enjoying the weather. And when I do go out I'm not sure what to do with myself beside squint at my 3DS screen or read a magazine XD
• Moving Home
      This is is just for this year, obviously, but I'm really looking forward to setting up my own home! I know it's going to be a challenge and I'll miss living at home like crazy, but it's time and it's come in the autumn x3 Only a couple more weeks and we'll be shifting boxes wishing it was warmer. Hopefully it won't rain while we move the biggest stuff!

So that's my list, what's your favourite part of autumn? Or are you more in favour of other seasons?



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The Big Hoot ~Round 3-Last Lot

This is the last of the owls I found. I even went out with Dad to Sutton Coldfield to find a bunch more, the biggest set of them outside Birmingham. Dad I had a really good day checking out Sutton Coldfield too XD We only missed finding one owl there. Unfortunately I'm not sure if I'm going to get a chance to find the last few, but I found 50 altogether out of about 80? So not a bad attempt anyway.

This pic is the last owl I found, and it was the Sutton Coldfield themed one x3 I hoped you didn't mind me going on about these guys, and apologies if another series come by near me cause you'll probably be seeing a lot more!



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