It seems like only a few days ago I was thinking autumn had crept up on us, and now it's time for winter too. Despite the cosy crunch of leaves underfoot, a gentle tap on the head from a falling acorn, and the familiar smell of fallen apples, there is a chill in the air.
Saturday morning we set out on a gorgeous sun drenched morning, and despite looking cosy and happy (happy I was), I spent most of the day shivering. The first few days of cold always take me a bit by surprise. One minute you're swimming in the sea and sipping lemonade until the middle of the night, the next you're tucked up at six, huddling into a hot chocolate and having urges to knit about 10 hats. Or is that just me? Probably just me. I'm an old lady at heart.

Anyway, despite being a hermit as of late, this weekend called for an adventure. Leon's mum was down so we took a day trip out to the Lost Gardens of Heligan, which neither of them had been to before. I last time I visited was last year during summer, and then before that was about 4 years ago with my family. At that time I was planning to become a fashion designer in London, and now here I am being a little country bumpkin tree-hugging zoologist in Cornwall.
Funny how things change ;)
 The gardens were beautiful and still full of colour. There were bright squashes and festivities throughout the acres of land, and we even saw a few little witches and devils!
 Of course, my favourite area is always the flower garden, filled with roses, dahlias and chrysanthemums. Spring feels like years ago, so seeing a patchwork of beautiful colours and petals.  There was also still a variety of herbs growing that put my little windowsill pots to shame, and rows of beetroots, apples, chard and cabbages. I'm so excited to come back in spring to see how the gardens change each season.

 The last couple of times I've been, there are normally some chicks hatching in the barn, however being Halloween, this time there was tarantulas and stick insects. I've not included photos of those for my friends who despise creepy-crawlies, but here's a photo of some beautiful geese instead. Don't say I don't treat y'all ;)  There were also ducks, turkeys, goats, sheep, pigs and horses. 
 And finally, every corner of Heligan has something new to explore. My favourite sculpture is the 'Mud Maid' which was made in 1998, so she's the same age as me! She's made from timber and netting covered in mud, sand and cement. Her hair is planted with Woodsedge and Montebretia and ivy has been trained to clothe her. She's so peaceful looking, especially with the sun setting behind her, it's hard to feel stressed whilst you're in her presence. 

Emma xo

I had to sneak in a photo of Benny on our walk, he gets very excited about everything and is so photogenic. He's a beautiful rescue dog that we look after a few times a week whilst a friend is working!
  Emma xo

Long time no see! My AS exams are finally over, so I'll have more time to blog over the coming months with exciting content. To begin with, this post is about last weekend where I paid my first visit to The Dig for Victory Show, a 1940's themed festival on the North Somerset Showground (and if that sounds good, I can assure you it was even better in person!)
First up, the Victory tent. It may seem quiet, but this was just before opening time on Saturday morning once we'd set up our tent, so we were the first customers. The attention to detail in decorating was divine: bunting, vintage crockery and fresh flower arrangements made me feel at home right away, and the staff were so friendly and dressed up too. My parents and sister chose scones, Sam had a slice of New York cheesecake and I had a slice of classic Victoria sponge (it was agreed that they were all delicious!)
Throughout the day there was so much entertainment, from the Military Wives Choir to history talks and live music, the volunteers really pulled out all the stops. One of the highlights was a fashion show by Blitz Buddies- the commentator and all the models were so fun and enthusiastic about their clothes, many of which were originals with some modern reproduction garments. Vintage Gal did a lovely detailed write up with close ups each of the outfits, so be sure to check out her post HERE.
In the evening, Sam and I dressed up ready for the Victory Dance, where we had an hour of basic dance steps followed by music from The Marionettes, DJ UXB, The Goodnight Sweethearts and Ricky Hunter. The soundtrack of the night featured the likes of Glenn Miller, Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole- right up our street in music taste! Despite never having properly danced Swing or Lindy Hop before, we gave it our best go and had an absolute ball (excuse the pun) even though we tripped over each others feet and were out of time to the music quite a bit!
Around the showground there was plenty to see, from craft demonstrations, vintage stalls and classic cars and tanks. It was very interesting to see the progression of styles, but of course my particular favourites were the fellow Morris Minors and also this little cream Austin *sigh*.
On the field we also watched the tanks and skirmish, where actors dressed as soldiers and showed the audience how an attack would take place in World War 2. It was so noisy when even just 3 or 4 guns were firing at once, I can't even imagine how awful it must have been in reality. The whole weekend was very thought provoking and really made you think, not just about the fashions and 'vintage' aspect but also the reality of rations, war and make-do-and-mend which really wasn't as glamorous and come films make out. As well as this, the show raised £4,000 for Army Benevolent Fund and the Children’s Hospice South West last year and is run entirely by volunteers, so I really can't fault the weekend at all- the set up, entertainment and atmosphere was all brilliant.
 

Last week I started ticking off my New Year's bucket list by getting my own domain (!) and also attending my first classic car show. It's all very exciting feeling a bit more professional now, and over the coming weeks I'll be making a few small changes to my blog to hopefully improve this space a little bit!
So on the 1st of January the grey weather deter us from a drive across the countryside to end up at a car show featuring cars pre-1980's.. There were so many models, from Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang lookalikes to Beetles, Trucks, Austins and Morris Minors (there were three of us Minor owners!). I loved seeing all of the variety across the years, and thought the cream beetle in the above photo that parked next to us was probably one of the prettiest cars there. We seemed to be the only owners there that weren't part of a club, so feeling a bit left out we didn't stay long after having a nose around all of the cars, whoops!
After the car show, we drove to a nearby village where there was a huge antiques shop with a treasure trove of jewellery, clothes and home-wares. The stands and cabinets were piled high with jewels of every kind and were dazzling with rhinestones and beads of every shade of the rainbow. Who needs Aladdin's cave when you have shops like this?
I loved all of the little trinkets and quirky hidden areas, shops like this are just created to be explored!
After a browse we stopped by in the cafe section of the shop and had a delicious light lunch, and I was also so happy to see that there was a great range of vegetarian options (finding food is a bit of a nightmare sometimes!). I opted for the cheese and onion quiche with salad and scoop of coleslaw. the complete opposite to my dad's choice of the large full English breakfast!

Hello again! So today's post is bringing back a few whimsical, fairytale inspired photos I took last Summer for my online shop, which is one of my most popular posts (ever). Don't worry, I'm not bringing them back for vanity- the above photo has made it into the semi-finals of Whim Magazine's cover photo competition!
Now, I'm neither a photographer or model, so I'm sure you can imagine my excitement to hear that my photo had been short-listed. In brief, the competition is run through Facebook, where the photo with the most 'likes' wins, and becomes the cover photo for Issue 9 of Whim!
There are so many talented photographers entering beautiful images, so I'm humbled to have made it this far! Still, I just thought I'd quickly put a link to my photo HERE, so if you have a moment to pop over to the competition and 'like' my photo, that would be wonderful...thank you all for your support! <3