We love you, Brighton.

Last weekend to celebrate Moon's 25th (lolz) birthday, we took ourselves down to Brighton. After being incredibly disheartened by the crazy hotel prices (it's the beginning of March, what even?), I took a gamble with airbnb.

Looking back on it, I definitely take back the feeling of it being a gamble because it actually worked out really well for us, it meant we could stay the night and not feel guilty about it, plus our host (we rented a room rather than a whole place) was really accommodating and friendly, but more on that later...


Brighton really is one of my favourite cities, it's a big toss up between it being because it's by the sea or because it has so many cute, unique shops, but I just really like it there. Brighton makes me feel like going back to city life wouldn't be so bad, then I remember that I quite like the quiet and time marches on.

We didn't really see anything new so you've probably seen all these kinds of photographs on here before but it was just so nice to have the sun back in our lives for a bit - how nice has it been this weekend? I hope the weather is here to stay! It really gets me ready to get stuff done when the sun is shining.





Utility might be my favourite Brighton shop, everything in there is just so satisfying; the décor, the products(!!!) urgh, it's just all feels like it has so much purpose.




We stopped in at a café called Bertie's for lunch, it was mainly because it was the first place we saw before we got distracted by something else, but boy oh boy are their sandwiches delicious.






Obligatory West Pier scene.




Pizza 7 was our Saturday evening meal of choice. We had set our sights on Meat Liquor but after being told we would have to queue outside to wait for a table (sorry mate, no restaurant is worth that kind of hype) we took our business elsewhere. And I really am glad we did because the Pizza 7 staff were really lovely and it felt like a really unique experience. Their whole thing is artisan beer and stone baked pizza (very hipster but it was kind of Moon's birthday meal so I wouldn't have expected less) and a lot of the beer I wanted was pretty elusive which meant I was able to try new things. What more can I say, pizza and beer is a combination you just can't fail with. ♥




We spent two full afternoons in Brighton, on Saturday we explored The Laines as we always do, while on Sunday - Moon's actual birthday - we headed down to the Marina (I wouldn't really recommend it) for a our first carboot of the year, neither of us got anything but it does make me look forward to carboot season really getting going in the coming months.



We were pretty unimpressed by the Marina, it definitely could be way nicer than it is, but then when it's competing with the likes of more well-known Brighton tourist destinations that are more central and clustered together, it's easy to see why things are quite as thriving round there as they could be - free table-tennis though.





The Marina's chilli shop was a redeeming feature, we tried chilli chocolate brownies, banana chilli jam.
Some of the hot sauce ratings were pretty terrifying though. 40/10 for heat D:


We've been lacking Mexican food since our beloved Taco Shop closed down in Newbury and while we promised ourselves some wonderful Foodilic, Tortilla was just too hard to resist. Honestly the best burrito I've ever had - would definitely recommend their chicken one, my word!







I always try and stop in at Cloud 9, their one of the bakeries that I see as worthwhile when it comes to spending money on cupcakes.

I can't believe it really was over a year since my last trip to Brighton, that was so fun too, I guess we just got caught up in visitors and closer attractions. I hope to try make some more time for the seaside this year, can you believe it's March already?

I feel like I talked about food a lot, but if you're just here for photographs, that's fine too.

Oh, Home!

I feel like I've actually been back at my Mum's a whole lot recently, I guess because we were only there for Chinese New Year at the beginning of the month and before Christmas I wasn't visiting that regularly.

It's quite nice to use the visit as an excuse to get up to London and have a good ol' change of scenery that you and I both know I enjoy. And London sure was looking great in the sunshine on Saturday.

My sister was back home which was the main reason I went up and treated myself to a long weekend with a half day on Friday too! We made homemade nachos and watched two really bad films on our first night, like bad bad, not good bad, would definitely never recommend Magic Mike to anyone, it's appalling - the nachos were great though!




We had hopes of leaving early in order to make it to The Breakfast Club in Spitalfields but I wayyy overslept. With the amount of great places to eat around Spitalfields, I pretty much outright refuse to queue to get in somewhere on a Saturday afternoon, I might be missing out but I'm okay with that.






After leaving Shoreditch High Street station and getting distracted by Box Park and some neat street art just across the road, we mooched on over to Spitalfields where we high-teched the hell out of getting a table for two at The Diner - they have an iPad and text you when the table's ready, thing of the future.

Film Club 2014 | January.

I've had this planned for quite a long time, for the last couple of years I've tried to keep a list of every film I've watched, which is much trickier than it sounds. Then I discovered that I actually could have some kind of real use for Pinterest and it became easier.

I know we're well into February now but I thought, as watching films is such a big part of my life, my watching habits are something that I wanted to share on here. I'm so pumped for the Oscars and have enjoyed all parts of the Awards Season so far, finding out how right (and wrong) I get to be with predictions and taking in the celebration of film.

I think 2014 is going to be a really interesting year for movies, with new films I've seen already making it into my favourites of all time. So here are the films I watched in January, a combination of very new and not so new, a pretty fine start if I do say so myself.

1. The Terminal
2. American Hustle
3. Carrie (2013)
4. Uncle Buck

5. Sound City
6. 12 Years A Slave
7. House at the End of the Street
8. The Wolf of Wall Street

9. Her
10. Inside Llewyn Savis
11. In A World...
12. Last Vegas

13. We're the Millers
14. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
15. The Hunt
16. Filth

17. Dallas Buyers Club

Favourite: 'The Wolf of Wall Street' – Believe the hype. Leo is fantastic, the whole film is an assault on the senses and despite tipping the 3 hour mark, it's fast-paced, funny and has more than enough to keep you interested. Plus, Jonah Hill's teeth, omg. ♥

Second Favourite: 'Dallas Buyers Club' – It's a film about aids, I don't know how they made it fun but it works. Matthew McConaughey really shows that he's a great character actor and actually allows you to see the softer side to homophobic degenerate, Ron Woodroof. If you miss out on this, not only will you be missing out on a touching story, you'll also be missing out on the resemblance between Jared Leto dragged up and the beautiful Zooey Deschanel - I can't unsee it.

Less Favourite: 'American Hustle' – I DO NOT GET IT! It's pretty, everyone in it is very good, the soundtrack is alright but it's a film with no middle. The beginning and end are strong, I like Christian Bale's potbelly and Jennifer Lawrence is brilliant but there was a big lack of any 'hustle' to maintain my interest.

Least Favourite: 'House at the End of the Street' – I'd heard good things about this but I can't for the life of me work out who from. This was a 'just pick anything' move from Netflix when round my friend Laura's house, I regret it. I generally hate slasher films as I just don't find them scary but on top of a really overshadowed motive, this one jumped about so much it made hardly any sense. J-Law is good, but even she couldn't save this one.

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How I 'do' Film Club: I'm defining Film Club as any film I can sit more than halfway through, including ones I watch on TV, I'm amazed at how many great films I've discovered super late at night on BBC Two - Grey Gardens, anyone?

You can keep up with my recent watchings with my Film Club 2014 board on Pinterest.

I really am hoping this is something I can keep up with and not just flake out on like numerous Photo A Day projects I've tried and failed at. I think with monthly updates it's much less intense, let's give it a go!

I'd love to keep up with what you've been watching too and if you have any recommendations I'd love to hear from you.

Welcome to the UK, Smiggle!

I was pretty excited when I was asked to look at some Smiggle products ahead of their first UK store launch at Westfield Stratford on 20th February. Firstly because it was my first ever PR sample and secondly, I can't get enough of cute stationery, I just wish I had more time to put it to good use.


I've always got time for a mechanical pencil and those highlighters are scented. ♥
An amalgamation of 'smile' and 'giggle', Smiggle was born in Melbourne, Australia in 2003, and they're all about fun pens, notebooks and gadgets. With their first UK store opening in a matter of days and stores in Reading, Brighton and Kingston due to follow by the end of March, Smiggle are looking to make stationery exciting again!




I was really impressed with all the products I was sent, without a bad word to say about any of them really, even if that cute mouse calculator seems to have run out of batteries (I really wanted to write boobies on it for the photos). How great is that gel pen case? Definitely brought me back to being 10 and my obsession with smell gels, it was a bit of a shame that the gel pen in my favourite colour was a leaker but I think that's kind of part of the nostalgia too.




My favourites were easily the headphones, I wasn't expecting much but they're actually brilliant. Maybe I don't know too much about audio but I know everything I've listened to with them has been clear with the just the right amount of depth, making any song from Kanye to Taylor Swift (plus artists and bands I actually listen to) sound great.

I'm really willing Smiggle to do well, I mean, I still have love for Paperchase but it's nice to see a change and I'll definitely be heading to their Reading store once it opens if I can't make it to Westfield Stratford before then.

What do you think of Smiggle? Are you a bit of a stationery-fiend too?

You can keep up with Smiggle on all the usual social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Instagram ahead of their big launch on Thursday and if you can't wait until then, you can have a preview of their products over on their Australian site.

*All products sent as a PR sample for review; views are my own.

Win with Moonfruit!

I used Moonfruit a few years ago when I took a brief trip into the world of web design for my Ma's restaurant and I have to say I was pretty impressed.
If I hadn't been drawn in to Digital Photo Gallery when I started up my portfolio and had had more time, Moonfruit is definitely the builder I would have gone with.

With their swanky new revamp, they're looking very swish indeed and they now provide everything you need and more to have the best (and prettiest) web presence at the click of a few buttons.

Getting suckered into their beautiful new website aside, their price points are super reasonable, whether you're on a budget or have a bit more to spend. I was also excited to learn that just by signing up you can be in the running to win a face-to-face consultation with a top web-designer to create a bespoke website, as well as getting a FREE 3-year subscription, sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me.

Whether you're a blogger, a photographer or a business, Moonfruit seems to me to be a great, simple way to give your web presence a kick start so if that's something you're looking into, I'd definitely recommend that you give it a go!

Click here to register and find out more.

*This post contains affiliate links but additional views and comments are my own*