Ruby Rocks

Whilst I was away on holiday I took a few outfit posts which I thought I'd share with you interspersed with other bits over the next few days.  You might have seen most of the things in this post already, except for the wedges which are a new wardrobe addition, and I am head over heels for.  This H&M top is becoming a bit of a wardrobe staple as it can be dressed up or down and I adore the colour and lace detail.  I like the way it fits with the neon trend without being too 'in your face' or looking like a giant highlighter pen.

The wedges were kindly sent to me by Barratts just before my holiday.  I was allowed to pick something from their site and I fell in love with these Ruby Rocks wedges.  As I've mentioned before, I love black and gold together and they are so comfortable to walk in.  The laces are ribbon too which I think is a really cute detail.  I think they look okay in a more casual outfit like this one but I also can't wait to wear them with a little black dress.

top: h&m [instore] | necklace: ebay | shorts: vintage/DIY | wedges: ruby rocks at barratts* £35

Looking at these photos now it feels like Rhodes was about a month ago when it's actually under a week since I got back.  It's probably the British weather washing away any memory of sunshine - even my tan is peeling off now too (gross!) Luckily I only have to wait a couple of weeks and then we're going on holiday again, this time to France.  A bit different from our Greece holiday, this time we're going with Tom's Mum and Dad and will be doing lots of exploring, touring and staying in some beautiful holiday homes - as well as lots of eating and drinking (that bit's the same!) I just hope the sun is kinder to us than it was in Greece, I do not want to see more clouds and thunderstorms thankyou very much!

I hope your weeks are good so far - I went to a Body Pump class at the gym last night and I am pretty ache-y today so my Tuesday night is going to involve a glass of vino, a long bubble bath, catching up on last night's Made in Chelsea and maybe tonight's episode of The Valleys (my real guilty pleasure) - I find I spend the entire time I'm watching it feeling utterly horrified at their behaviour but I can't take my eyes off it, proper car crash TV!  I will also be doing a bit of online Filofax hunting, I decided today (despite already buying two diaries as options to replace mine that runs out in a couple of days) that I need a Filofax in my life and now I have all sorts of difficult decisions to make like, what size, what pages, and so on... I guess there are worse things to have to deliberate!

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Christchurch Food Festival - Bake Weekend

Are there annual events in your local area that you look forward to year after year? A particular market, festival or fair that gets marked in the calendar well in advance? For me it's the Christchurch Food Festival.  For two weekends and the week in between, Christchurch gets taken over by markets, stalls, cookery demonstrations and events at local eateries all in celebration of local food.  I was somewhat disappointed when I discovered we'd booked our holiday to be away for the opening weekend, and more disappointed when I discovered that the street market wouldn't be on for the second weekend - sampling all of the yummy foods cooked fresh on the street is the highlight of the event.  Instead, the second weekend was dedicated to baking, and cakes.  As I am quite the cake fan this somewhat took the dent out my disappointment but sadly when we got up on Sunday and got ready to go, it started absolutely pouring down.  We braved the rain to see what was on offer.  A slightly gloomy looking helter skelter stood tall above the fair...

We warmed up with hog roast baps and drinks from the Hop On Inn - a double decker bus converted into a bar.  I decided that there could be nothing more British than drinking a Pimms in the pouring rain!

Of course the main event was the cakes.  As part of the Bake Weekend there'd been a competition with different categories and age brackets.  These cookie monster cupcakes were highly commended in the under-16 category and I thought they were brilliant.

This was the overall winner.  Isn't it amazing? Just... wow!

Tom wanted to eat all of the cakes in the competition so we went next door and treated ourselves to some that were actually for sale.  We headed straight to the Fox's Cupcake Co stall; they're a regular at the food festival and their cakes are always amazing.  I went for Oreo and Tom went for Mint Choc Chip.  Don't they look divine?

We didn't stay much longer as it really did start pouring down.  We visited a friend for a cup of tea and then we might have gone to Waitrose for more snacks and treats - I always think once you've crammed a few naughty things in you may as well continue in the same vein! :) By the way, Hannah at Baileycakes took some amazing photos of the first weekend whilst I was away, so if you want to see those go here.

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Weekly Bookmarked Wishlist

Yet again I seem to have been bookmarking some rather summer-y items this week.  I'm going through a casual stage at the moment and I'm feeling acid wash, dungarees, vests and espadrilles in particular.  I love the full length dungarees from ebay but I'm not sure I could pull them off, they look awesome with the Converse in the photo though I think! What have you been eyeing up this week?

1.  Heart cutout playsuit | Lashes of London | £502. Bustier playsuit | Missguided | £24.993. Acid wash playsuit | Topshop | £364. Straw clutch | Lollipops | £69.995. DC Shoe Co Anchor Vest | Clothing at Spartoo | £19.996. Espadrilles | Eleven Paris / Shoes at Spartoo |  £42.997. Dungarees | ebay | £19.99

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