My Birthday

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birthday, Blogger, eating out, Ginger and Peach, Hotel Du Vin, southsea, Southsea Coffee Co

Last month I celebrated my 33rd birthday, my last birthday as a Miss and as a Lowman…

I hadn’t made any huge plans (with all the saving and busy diaries) so instead I spent the day with my fiancé and the evening with the lovely Mr & Mrs Zissou at one of our local faves.

The day started how all lazy birthdays should start, with a lie in and being made breakfast. After some dippy eggs and some cards in bed I returned from my shower to find my awesome pressie from the boy. He had made me a huge (and I mean HUGE) pair of Vegan Buffalo Horns. We’d been keeping an eye out for some for ages to decorate the door of the wedding barn and not wanting to spend a fortune, he instead thought he’d make me some, Carved from a huge piece of wood they certainly make and impact!! (I’ve yet to take a proper photo as they’re so big! haha)

After that, and because the weather was horrid we gave up on plans to stroll round Mottisfont and instead headed to Winchester for afternoon tea at Hotel Du Vin. What we had was lovely (so much cake) but very lovely (although I must admit I was a little disappointed I didn’t get the promised candy floss! haha) Sorry all the pics are a bit grainy, I left the big camera at home for the day…

There was so much food we smuggled out what we didnt eat and took it with us to the Everyman Cinema. If you’ve not been to an Everyman before go! We got a Sofa (still cheaper then VIP seats at VUE and you can even take in alcoholic drinks and proper food!

We watched the lost land of Z and as an unexpected film (thery only have 2 screens) I was super impressed and we enjoyed it muchly (we would have gone to see Beauty and the Beast but had already watched that a few nights previously on our 4 month count down! – It’s so good, if you’ve not seen it yet, go!)

After that we headed home and had just enough time to freshen up then we strolled down to Southsea Coffee Co for our first raw supper club.

This was amazing (isn’t it always) The tables had all been jiggled round and with low lighting and candles it utterly set the scene for an intimate nights eating.

Communal tables (although we bagged the only table of 4) meant you had the opportunity to meet new friends and share foody tales between courses.

On arrival we were given a virgin peach bellini which set the tone for the evening. From there we had 4 courses of incredible raw vegan food which was all inspired by Italian cuisine (will share the full menu below). I even ate tiramisu and I hate coffee so that’s a testament to the quality of what we were given!!

In a weird way, being that no alcohol was served, we all felt slightly intoxicated, something Ginger & Peach owner Tara assured us was normal and due to the amazing benefits of a raw feast! weird, but good!

We finished the meal with a Limone drink and with full bellies and a happy heart we then headed home and I started my 33rd year of life content and filled with love.

I was utterly spoilt throughout the day by wonderful caring words and well wishes from my nearest and dearest, it’s enough to make a girl feel oh-so-very lucky!!!

And there you have it, another birthday done….<3

Ps, In case you’re interested the full menu was as follows:

VIRGIN BEACH BELLINI

PIZZA – Tomato, basil, cashew cream cheeze and smoked cheeze, fig, red onion, coconut bacon

SPAGHETTI DI ZUCCHINI PESTO – courgette noodles, pesto, smoked tomatoes, ‘parmesan’

POLPETTINE, SALSA MARINARA DI POMPODORA – Raw vegan style dehydrated & fresh tomato sauce with no-meat balls, “roasted” squash, garlic mushroom crisps, kale, parsnip, sweet potato and fresh Italian herbs

TI-RAW-MISU

LIMONE

You can Follow all the latesr from Ginger and Peach here (facebook) and here (instagram) you should also probably check out their website whilst you’re at it too!

2 Doors Down

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2 Doors Down, eating out, review, southsea

Over the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend Maxwell and I had a rare Saturday night out and checked out one of Southsea’s newest bars; 2 Doors Down.

From the guys behind the fantastic 6oz Burgers, 2 Doors Down is located, as the name suggests, 2 doors down from its sister restaurant along the foody hotspot that is Osbourne Road!

We enjoyed a couple of drinks ( a beer for him and a cocktail for me) and a few nibbles… apart from a bit of extra seasoning we had a fab time there and throughly enjoyed the nosh and drinks!!

Well done for another fab addition to our little seaside town, I look froward to going back again soon with some meat eaters to enjoy a wider selection of the menu!

Lake of Lights

Tags

Christmas, family, grief, lake of lights, southsea

I haven’t publicly said this anywhere yet but last week I lost my wonderful grandad. I’m struggling with my grief at the moment and am stuck somewhere between being ok and wanting to break down. 

I woke up super early this morning from a horrible dream where my bellybutton was falling apart. After a bit of research into dream interpretations I discovered the following…

Seems about right… 

An annual Rowans Hospice event which is hosted very locally to us each year caught the attention of both Maxwell and I given the recent events and also as the date marks another sad anniversary in Maxwells family. 

So armed with a flask of hot chocolate and warm coats we walked to the end of the road and attended my first ever lake of lights service. 

It was lovely, we donated to the charity for a light each for my grandad and Abi and after some carols and a short service we added our lights to the floats and sent them out into the lake. 

In a moment of silence, with tears rolling down my face I tried to say goodbye to a man I dearly loved. 

I won’t go on (typing and tears don’t mix) but instead will share with you a few photos…

Wedding Series #12

Tags

Bride to be, couple, engagement, engagement shoot, Hayley Savage, love, Pre wedding shoot, southsea, uk bride, wedding, wedding blog series, wedding photography

First things first, apologies for the lateness of this post. I won’t go into it now but it’s been one of those months.

So we find ourselves another month on and another month closer to our ‘I Do’s’. As promised this post is going to be all about our engagement shoot with our wonderful wedding photograper. I mentioned in my last post that Hayley Savage (photographer extraordinaire) offered us a pre wedding shoot and having seen the images we got back, I am so so happy we said yes!

Hayley and I chatted before the shoot and discussed what we were after. We had a secret Pinterest board which you can see here (it’s no longer secret) and I think this was so very helpful as we both went into the photoshoot with a really clear plan in mind.

Prior to the shoot I’d done a little location scouting around Southsea and I’d chosen 3 locations to base our shoot around. The grassy beach lands near Eastney, The Rose Garden & the Hotwalls. We also managed to sneak in a few little extra spots along the way like under the pier and by canoe lake.

We did the shoot on the 23 Nov, a couple of days before our 8 month count down (where we celebrated with Italian food and Fantastic Beasts) and it was a lovely way to celebrate our now monthly date nights.

I can’t express how happy we both are with the photos. Hayley has managed to capture ‘us’, I had the hardest task choosing which ones to share with you all as there are so many lovely ones. I’m not the most confident in front of a camera so to have this many images of myself that I not just like but love is astounding!

I’m stop waffling on now and I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

If you’re looking for a photographer I can’t speak highly enough of Hayley, and if you’re engaged and wondering wether to do a pre wedding shoot or not, do it!! Definitely, 100% do it! Not only do we have these beautiful mementos to treasure forever but it’s made me so much more relaxed about the real deal photos!!

Anyway I hope you like them… Please let me know what you think!! I’ll do another post soon about the invites, suits, rings and other things we’ve been thinking about in the last month! p.s., final warning… there’s a lot of images!!

A G.Daughter Sleepover Part 1

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Day at the Beach, girls, god daughter, god sisters, goddaughter, Godparent, Lifestyle blog, making pizza, playing mum, sleep over, sleepover fun, Summer fun

I have three pretty special God Daughters; Lottie aged 11, Juno aged 5 and Lilly aged 2. These girls mean the world to me and whilst I’ve had the girls separately on their own since they were wee babes, I’d never had them collectively meaning they’d never met their god sisters (a term they seemed pretty happy to adopt) Lilly is still a little young to join in the fun so during the summer break I organised to have the other two girls for a couple of G.Daughter sleepovers. I thought it would be fun for them to meet, especially as they’re all part of my mini maid crew.

The plan was simple… home made pizza’s and a movie on the wednesday eve followed by a day at the beach… simple right….?

We started the evening by making some pizza’s; a fantastically messy experience if you’ve never tried it before with two excited young ladies! haha…. All went well though and yummy individual pizza’s were made by all.

Once my bomb-site of a kitchen had been cleaned slightly and the pizza’s were in the oven it was time to choose a movie…. 

Whilst the pizza was a huge success trying to get these two little ladies (a Leo and a Scorpio I should point out) to agree on a film was slightly harder then I anticipated… With neither agreeing we had our first dissagreement and something which I hadnt anticipated.. We finally got there but I officially had a first glimpse into the eyes of a parent of two (kudos to you mumma’s) Lesson learnt (don’t offer a choice) and finally film chosen, we all settled down into the sofa/airbed and with staggered bedtimes we finally has a sleeping household. 

The next morning thankfully the sun was shining! yay!

After a lazy start and with both girls dressed, fed and clean (no small feat I assure you) we gathered supplies (blankets, games and snacks) and walked round the corner to grab ourselves a good spot on the beach.

The beach is a great place to take children regardless of age…. The nice thing is with the sea there to paddle in and stones to play amongst they could occupy themselves and the age difference which was quite a difficult thing the previous night didn’t matter so much. Juno (with shell necklace on) was happy to be master of the sea and spent a good and happy hour feeding it rocks. Where as I was able to teach Lot the fine art of friendship bracelet making.

It was lovely spending some quality time with them both, Exhausting but totally fun!
There was lots of giggling and dancing and fun… Some fine qualities I hope they will always associate with their God Mumma. So there you have it, a few snaps from our first successful god daughter sleep over…. Call me crazy but I also booked in a second double sleepover! haha… I’ll share some more pics soon! x

Victorious

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Festival, Festival Vibes, southsea, Summer Time, Uk Blogger, Uk Festival, Victorious, Victorious Festival, World Music

Victorious is a relatively new festival in my home town which happens every year, now on the glorious Southsea Seafront.

The festival is a one weekend, non camping kinda festival which has a selection of brilliant live music across multiple stages. Due to it’s location a ticket will also include free entry to the Seafront Attractions which include D- Day museum, Southsea Castle & Southsea Skate Park. There is also a huge free kids area to keep the youngsters entertained (a sure sign that everyone’s growing up and having babies) as well as lots of bustling markets stalls, real ale tents and a selection of bars and catering vans.

Over the last few years the boys behind the festival have been working hard to grow it and it’s getting better and better each year…

The addition of the World Music Village this year was our favourite! It’s where we spent most of our time. It was full of the best and quirkiest folk, hippies, the snazziest mini dancers, best food and colourful decorations.

Not being drunk or ‘young’ we much preferred the smaller acoustic stages rather then the main stages…

Throughout the day we could be found sat on the ground (yay for no rain) in front of the RMA Tavern stage, Rhino AV Acoustic stage or the world music stage.

The food was also amazing this year and we enjoyed some top notch nosh (try saying that three times quickly ha)

As the sun began to set we enjoyed a bit of bangra dancing, a few bigger stages and the general late night festival vibes….

One thing we particularly enjoyed was the wishing tree! We saw it earlier in the day and it was super pretty with wishes hung amongst the branches… Amongst the serious ones for a loved ones health, world peace and good weather all weekend there were a few amusing ones, Our fave being a Harry Potter esq wish (which let’s be honest we’d all kinda like that wish to come true)

So there you have it! Another year… Roll on next year already!!

Hotwalls

Tags

Alice Hume, Artist Studios, artists, jewellerys, Laura Bennett, maker studios, Old Portsmouth, portsmouth, southsea creative scene, Studios, The Canteen, The Makers Table, The Scared Obscene

Portsmouth and Southsea is a hotbed of creative folk. I know so many seriously talented artists and makers that reside on this small island so when a new creative hotspot opens up; a gallery, an art shop or studio… an excited buzz happens and people flock to check out the new creative quarter.

The Hotwalls Studios is the newest addition to our area and I had been anticipating it’s launch since the first whisperings of the project… Working at Making Space I have a thing for studio spaces and The Hotwalls Studios promised to be something quite special. Lynne, our lovely director also sat on the selection panel so I was privy to a sneak peek of the new tenants… all very exciting!

Making use of the old artillery barracks (or arches) in Old Portsmouth which, whilst good for a photos opp and the very much loved pop up free art shop were for the most part unused and a waste of a good spot (if you ask me… apparently some of the local residents definitely didn’t agree). The arches have been transformed into 13 beautiful working studios. They have been done so well… As the architecture is a listed property the builders weren’t not allowed to make any big changes to the structure so whilst conserving the much loved historic buildings they’ve also given a massive boost to local creative businesses. Double Yay!

Walls as left as they were, grafitti, exposed brick, pipework etc and it’s these unique qualities which give the studios their character and personality. A feature we loved was that the arched walk ways which connected the arches we left in place, an rather the bricking them up windows were put in which connected the studios together, a lovely feature which allows the tenants to connect with their neighbours whist still having the separate spaces.

In addition to the new studios, they have also built The Canteen, which I experienced the other day and loved (I’ll do a proper post on this soon!) But tucked away in the corner, with an amazing terrace literally on the edge of the sea, it’s going to be a new eating favourite I’m sure! I’ve yet to take Maxwell but I’m thinking an early evening spot outside and sharing platter for 2 might be on the cards!!

 The transformation is amazing and Maxwell and I enjoyed the excitement and buzz on the opening night! Almost all of the studios were open when we visited (which was lovely) and there is a varied and talented mix of artists/makers who have made The Hotwalls their creative home…

You can check out all the makers here, but I’d like to share with you all a few of my faves/friends as I’m especially proud of them!

The first studio we checked out was of my lovely friend Alice Hume… You may recognise her name as I did a weaving course with her back in 2015 (and wrote about it here)

Alice creates the most beautiful and tactile navajo inspired weaves. Her studio was full of looms and yarns and big ol’ proud smiles from her lovely parents.

The next studio that really caught my was Alex of refold who makes “Slow Sustainable Handmade Furoshiki”. A furoshiki is a versatile Japanese wrapping cloth – a square piece of fabric which can be folded and knotted into various bags or used to wrap gifts for special occasions.

Alex is passionate about environmental sustainability her beautiful work features geometric patterns and stitch and her dyed sample sketchbooks were beautiful!

 

After that was the lovely ladies of The Makers Table. A collective of three contemporary artists; Sarah Radford, Ruth Lacey & Emma Plato whose influences stem from vintage design and their immediate environment.

Between the three of them they create silver jewellery, mixed media sculpture and artworks, surface design, print, watercolour, drawing and textiles!

Next up was the studio which I wanted to move into, Home of the amazing Scared Obscene. A partnership of two traditional creatives on an exciting new venture. Purveyors of fine textile interiors, grand décor, art installation and apparel, The Sacred obscene take an interdisciplinary approach to contemporary craft.
With a focus on utilising the new space to experiment with large scale projects; The Sacred Obscene intend to create a dynamic and diverse work and show space. Creating functional and beautiful pieces using a range of traditional techniques, such as hand-weaving/upholstery/furniture restoration/embroidery and print making.

(I nabbed that from the website as I couldn’t have worded it better myself)

There studio was the stuff of creative dreams. Evert surface a collection of beautiful and gorgeous trims, flowers, textiles, spools, printing blocks… Talk about studio envy!

Moving on we encountered ceramicists, printmakers, artists, textile artists and photographers…

We ended our visit in the shared studio of Emma Nicol (who creates the amazing machine embroidered textiles above) and my awesome talented friend Laura Bennett.

Inspired by nature and organic forms, Laura’s ranges of beautiful hand-made jewellery are sympathetically composed from the combination of precious metals and precious / semi-precious stones. She works instinctively, exploring the natural qualities of the materials used, the collections celebrate the fragile forms found in nature, creating beautifully delicate pieces to treasure.

I have always loved Laura’s work and am so proud and happy that she’s finally got a proper studio space, she’s destined for big things this lady!!

So there you have it… My little review of the new Hotwalls Studios and what a marvellous review it is! A real treasure in Portsmouth & Southsea’s creative crown and somewhere I am sure I will check out regularly!

Well done all and congrats to all the makers!

A day at the seaside

Tags

bandstand, Day at the Beach, days out, family, friends, goddaughter, icevream, mini golf, southsea

I love living where I do. I know most people in Southsea feel the same way too. When friends come to visit for the day, a simple walk to the end of the road is all the entertainment that we require. No entertainment, toys or gadgets required… just a stretch of beach and a bit of mini golf!

A couple of weekends ago I was joined by a few special people for a traditional Southsea Saturday… We rode a giant swan, bounced around for a while, drew photos in the sand, enjoyed some ice-cream, danced at the bandstand, ate a cone of chips, paddled in the sea and had the worlds longest game of mini golf.

I snapped some snaps as I normally do so here’s a few…

 

Birthday BBQ for my Bestie

Tags

BBQ, friends, Gardens, southsea, summer

Last month it was one of my beautiful besties birthday. We took advantage of the beautiful British sunshine and enjoyed a BBQ in her recently done up garden!

Anna is my most colourful friend and her garden is no exception… Little pops of colour everywhere, miss matched patterns and prints, oh and kitties, some pretty special kitties.

I snapped some pics of food, friends and garden I thought I’d share with you. (ps the food was v.good… apologies friends, there’s a lot of mid eating pics!)

 

Southsea Food Festival 2016

Tags

blog, blogging, Food Festival, food market, Shop Local, shopping, southsea, things i do

Every year I make a point of trying to get down to the Southsea Food Festival. You can read previous posts here and here.

As mentioned in the previous re-uni-on post, we paid a quick visit with the uni gal crowd on Saturday, but not being able to have a proper rummage I went back again on Sunday and had another look around.

Unfortunately not all the stalls were the same (I had some amazing spring rolls from a little family run stall on Palmeston Road which weren’t there second time round) but I still managed to buy some nice cheese, some herbs, a bit of paella for lunch and some arancini balls for dinner!

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon… I even took myself a cheeky little tequila frozen cocktail home… hey it was hot!