Tuesday 31 January 2012

My Lamp! And other teatime favourites! x

Okay, so my obsession with afternoon tea goes further than just my day trips out. There are hints of my love for all things tea-related all over my home! :-) Mainly, with my beautiful Teacups Lamp (from Next) ... which was one of my most favourite 'buys' of last year! 




My gorgeous 'Teatime Terrace' Mug! Absolutely love this - and was a bargain at £2.85 from Tesco.

 My doorstop in the living room :-)

 Our kitchen cabinet, a new addition to our kitchen, with my bargain £5 teapot from Wilko's, my Laura Ashley jug, my Kilner sweetie jar and my beautiful Cath Kidston mugs, a gift from my friends Josie and Kerry. Also our very large cheese box (from The Cheese Kitchen, Castle Road, Bedford), our beautiful champagne glasses (again from Josie & Kerry) and my deco-patch cupcake, which I made in an art class. 

 Our tea/coffee/sugar pots from Tesco

My gorgeous cupcake hooks, a christmas gift from my lovely sister! Adorned with my (perhaps over the top!?) apron collection! :-)

I love being surrounded by things that remind me of my favourite things (tea, cake, vintage, baking, sparkles etc). They don't need to be expensive, or designer, or pretentious, I love finding little bargains, sometimes in surprising places. Or making things myself! :-)

My Obsession with Afternoon Tea....

My Afternoon Tea Obsession

The BEST place I've ever been for afternoon tea locally is the wonderful Luton Hoo, Golf and Spa hotel in Luton. It is a beautiful manor house, in amazing surroundings, and their afternoon tea package is incredible value for money @ £26 pp. If you chose to go on a day with great weather it is well worth doing a beautiful long walk in the grounds as well! Stunning. 

Here is the Menu from Luton Hoo:

Afternoon Tea Menu

A Selection of Finger Sandwiches:
Free Range Egg Mayonnaise with baby cress.
Smoked Salmon with lemon cream cheese.
Roast Casterbridge Beef with creamy horseradish.
Croxton Manor mild cheddar with spiced pear chutney.
Seasoned cucumber.

Freshly Baked Raisin and Plain Scones
with Devonshire Clotted Cream and Strawberry Preserve

Assortment of Home Made Afternoon Tea Cakes and Pastries

Inclusive of a Pot of Tea or Coffee of your choice
Please refer to our list to make your selection

Sandwiches replenished charged at £6.25 per person
£26.00 per person

 The Afternoon Tea Room
 Our Afternoon Tea
 Our photo go the Hoo
 The Hoo Gardens
 Waterfalls at The Hoo
 Me and the Mr at the Hoo
The best scones EVER! Yum

It's making me want to go back right now!! :-) 

Monday 30 January 2012

My Fave Shopping Websites....

Okay, so if anybody knows me well, they will know that I love shopping! For me, my Mr, my friends, family - whoever! Clothes, home stuff, presents, anything. Pretty things make me smile! Here are some of my favourite websites....

1. JEWELLERY 

My very favourite Jewellery designer is a lovely young lady called Alyssa Smith who makes the most beautiful bespoke jewellery partly inspired by her love of social media (Twitter/Facebook etc). My absolute favourite piece by her is the beautiful Tweetie necklace, which I bought last year as a special treat :-) This isn't a perfectly clear picture, but you can see me wearing it below...


Alyssa has just designed a beautiful Valentino Tweetie, which I might have hinted quite heavily to my Mr that I'd really really like! :-) 


Its sooo pretty! 

Please take a look at Alyssa's fantastic website, all products can be ordered online, and her delivery is fast and reliable. You can also follow her on Twitter @AlyssaJewellery


2. CLOTHES / HOMEWARE

Okay, so there are millions of clothes shops and styles I love, but in particular I love the wares of the following...





3. GIFTS & GADGETS

The first websites I usually check when I need to buy lovely gifts for friends and family are the following...

The Gifted Penguin - http://www.giftedpenguin.co.uk/




Spineless Classics - an amazing gift for a lover of literature or a specific novel - http://www.spinelessclassics.com/

Just these websites alone will give you hours of browsing! And will I'm sure give you some awesome ideas for your next big shopping spree! :-)

My Latest Purchase! 


I'm hoping that my latest purchase arrives tomorrow - I have ordered a beautiful navy and red polka dot dress from Cath Kidston. I'm hoping so badly that it fits :-) Will actually be the first time I have been able to fit into CK clothes as they only go up to a size 16, and I have previously been bigger than that, so will be a great way to reward my loss of 2.5 stone. 




Our wedding...Vintage China....today's bargain! x

Our wedding theme is all things vintage, and so for the wedding breakfast we're having a vintage afternoon tea party, with a mismatched collection of vintage china, which I've collected over the past few months (and am still collecting now!) I have found some major bargains at charity shops, car boot sales and vintage shops. Its so fun! And I'm totally in love with some of the pieces I've found. Especially a teapot I found today in a gorgeous vintage shop in Bedford called Rose Tinted Vintage http://www.rose-tintedvintage.co.uk/ It's a lovely Sadler teapot in white and gold, and I got it for an amazing £8. All you Bedford-based ladies must get down to RTV for a rummage! :-)


And here are some of my other pieces....



















New Blog, New Year, New Me...

I'm so excited about starting this blog, I've really got 'into' reading blogs since joining Twitter, and have finally decided to start my own proper blog. Full of my thoughts, ideas, inspirations, loves, likes, dislikes etc.

This year is an exciting year for me, I'm getting married in August to my gorgeous boyfriend, and so I expect the blog will be full of wedding-related ideas etc. I'm also a new member of a local WI for young women in the area (we're called 'The Scone Roses') and so I hope to write lots about what we get up to at our meetings and what crafts I'm doing. I have a huge love for food, so I'll no doubt blog endlessly about what I'm eating/cooking or thinking about eating. And expect to see all things vintage/beautiful/cath kidston/laura ashley among my posts as well. Plus lots of dreaming about the future....wedding, honeymoon, and hopefully one day soon...babies!

I always say I was born in the wrong era, and should be a 50's housewife. I'm 25, live in Bedford but come from Surrey originally, I have recently bought my first house with my gorgeous boyfriend, and am so happy and settled here now. I work as a Drama Specialist at a Primary school for children with severe special needs, I love my work, its hard but extremely rewarding. And my days are filled with beautiful smiles of the beautiful children. I'm a lucky lady!

I have a gorgeous British Shorthair kitten called Pickle who is 7 months old, and spoilt rotten. I take an extremely silly amount of photographs of her, she's amazing! :-)

The main and most important 'life journey' I'm on at the moment is weight-loss, its my biggest goal that I'm desperate to achieve this year, mainly for my general health and well-being, so that I can be a fit and healthy mum when we start trying for a baby, but also for my wedding day - I want to feel happy, confident and at my best on the big day! :-) I've lost 2 and a half stone since Sept 2011, and am hoping to lose another 2 stone by the wedding in August. I'm using the iPhone App called MyFitnessPal and Nike+GPS to help support my weightloss journey - I'm using a combination of calorie counting and lots and lots of walking, and so far its working :-)

I hope this blog will be interesting and inspirational for lots of women, and I'm sure it will help me to organise my thoughts, and share all the things I love! :-)

Loads of love

Luce xxx

^^^
This is me! On a throne in a castle at my cousins gorgeous wedding! 

^^^
Me and my gorgeous Mr-To-Be :-) 


^^^
This little munchkin is my beautiful kitten Pickle :-)




These pretty much sum me up ^^^^



These are some gorgeous photos i found today that I just LOVE....heaven...




I am a girl who loves luxury and sparkle! 


And finally, here is our W.I logo - 


its all pretty new and exciting times for the Scone Roses, as we've only been formed for a few months, I've been a member since December and am just having a marvellous time! :-)