Egypt || Summer 2016

On August 16th I had the please of going to Eygpt for 10 days. It was a family holiday and was honestly one of the best experiences I have had. We stayed in a lovely hotel that had lots of waterslides, cute cats (all of which we named) and really polite and helpful staff. There were also a few neighbouring hotels that were all owned by the same person, meaning we could go and use the other hotel's facilities too! Unfortunately, we didn't realise this until the second half of the trip, but we spent the last few days enjoying the neighbour hotels massive pool! 

Our hotel had the better waterslides, nicer grounds and was a lot less crowded meaning you really felt like the staff personally knew you. We really enjoyed that aspect. One night we went to the Asian restaurant. Our hotel was all inclusive and there were a couple buffets, where we usually ate. However, you could book a table at these specific restaurants for a more formal dinner. The Asian place was not only the best food but the staff were incredible. They spent the night joking with us and even took us back into the kitchen, where one the staff jumped out and scared me! It really felt like you were friends with all the staff and made such a difference to our trip. 

The Beauty Of Instant Photographs.

It's no secret that I love photographs. I am always snapping up pretty pictures of everything and in the whirlwind, that is technology, the beauty of a physical copy of a photograph often is forgotten. In the last year, I have been making much more of an effort to print off physical photographs of my favourite images. I typically use an app to get my photographs sent to me, meaning it is a super easy process and I get the beauty of having a physical copy of my photo's. I absolutely love it! 

Taking a photograph digitally is great, don't me wrong. You can take a million and one photo's just to make sure you get the right one, can't do that with instant photos. You can edit an image digitally, can't do that with instant photos either. However, there is just something about capturing a specific moment in a single unchangeable image that I just love and that is something you just can't get from digital photography. 

So, after many years of wishing and wanting, I finally decided to get my hand on one of these wonderful instant cameras. (When I say that I mean my lovely mother got me one for Christmas) I decided to get the Instax mini 90 as I really like the more 'old fashioned' design it has over the more modern models. 

The only trouble with these is that the film is pretty pricey but in some ways that make the moments you do use it, even more special. The fact that you only have a certain number of images you can take, kind of forces you to really think about what you are taking and makes the actual image even better. 

Along with all of that, they just look so cute! I decided to hang mine up on my bookshelf  and I am obsessed with how it looks. It makes my room feel so pretty and cosy and I love having little memories lying around my room. 

I understand that things like this are not for everybody but personally, I love it and just HAD to share it! I totally recommend it for any photography lovers because I have become obsessed.

Thanks for reading! Does anybody else have an instant camera?

Holly X

Puppy Christmas Photoshoot.

A couple of weeks ago we had the pleasure of dog sitting this little cutie. I am quite the dog person so I was beyond happy when I discovered we could have this little guy for just over a week. He is still a puppy (although kind of a big puppy now) so he had the most perfect puppy eyes that you just fall in love with. On top of his complete and utter adorableness, he was so friendly and just so cute! I could of dog napped him for sure! (I am joking ;D)

So I had this idea of doing a Christmas inspired photoshoot with a pet for absolutely ages and I was just dying to make it happen. Unfortunately, my chinchilla wouldn't sit still for more than 0.5 of a second so this little puppy was just perfect. 

I set up a little seat in front of the Christmas tree (with the lights on) and with a little treat persuasion it worked! He was such a good dog, letting me put the hat on him and posing for the photos. I was so so happy with the outcome. I also used a white blanket on the seat for a couple of the images. 

Having taken the photographs, I then edited them on photoshop. I changed the background to look more professional and adjusted a few settings such as the contrast. I was really really happy about the way this all turned out and had a great time with this little cuties. So, without further ado, I give you my finished photographs! 

Did you like them? I think they are so cute! 

I hope you enjoyed looking at these images. Does anybody else like messing around with photography? I think it is so fun!

Holly X

P.s- I can not believe that it is only 1 week until Christmas ! 

There is something about a red cup.

There is something about a red cup that makes me very happy. Now I am not talking about the typical 'party red cup'. I am in fact talking about the red Starbucks cup. There is just something about it that screams 'CHRISTMAS IS COMING!' and that brings me an immense amount of excitement. That and they look so cute in photographs right? 

I love creating cute little set-ups like the one in this photograph. In fact lately, I have actually been into learning more about photography and things like that . I find it all so exciting and I can't wait until I am well enough to go on little adventures and take some more exciting photographs. 

Anyway, that's all for today's brief post. I just got very excited when my mum brought me this Starbucks home the other day, and of course, I just had to share it! 

Happy Holidays!

Holly X

Not so summery summer walks.

Hello and happy hump day! Fun fact: it wasn't until a year or 2 ago that I realised that hump day actually meant the middle of the working week and NOT a slightly saucy day. Mean girls makes way more sense now. 

Anyway, on with today's post. So this time last week we had some family friends down for the day and decided to go for a lovely walk at Westonbirt Arboretum. I have mentioned this place a couple of times in previous posts, but basically, the Arboretum is pretty close to where I live so we often take advantage of this and go on walks. However, British weather being as unreliable as it is, decided that despite it being summer, it was going to be rainy and a little chilly too. Typical.

However, we still had a lovely day and I enjoyed every minute of it. I took numerous amounts of pictures on our walk, with such photogenic surroundings its hard not to, and thought I would share some of my favourites for today's post.

We found these BEAUTIFUL flowers that I loved. Look how nice they are! Definitely made me feel all summery, despite the weather.

There are tonnes of trees (obviously) but this one was huge!

My sister and I with our matching rain coats. I am 1000% obsessed with my coat and was actually pretty happy that the rain gave me an excuse to wear it.

I am not entirely sure what this plant is but it looks pretty cool.

My phone was full of photographs like this because it is just such a beautiful place. Despite my numerous attempts, it was practically impossible to fully capture how gorgeous this place is.

One of my favourite pictures I took. 

On this particular day, they were doing a little family trail things that we took part in. It was a great idea to entertain the children (and the slightly older children like myself) and helped to give them some extra knowledge too with the quiz!

At the start of the trail, you got given a worksheet and a pencil. On one side of the sheet, there was a map that told you where the quiz answers were and little pictures that you had to find along the trail and tick off. There were little pictures (like shown above) that we had to keep an eye out for along our trail.

On the other side of the sheet, there was the quiz. There were about 9 questions in total to answer. Around the trail, there were bigger signs attached to the trees that gave you some information about trees. You then had to use this information to answer the given question. I thought this was a great idea to help the children gain more knowledge in a fun and entertaining way! The trail was aimed at children but I personally loved it!

My brother (Alfie) exploring the plants.

I am not entirely sure what I am doing here but I thought it was too funny not to include. I think it's the serious face that makes me laugh.

Here is my outfit that I wore for our walk. I wore my boyfriend jeans, stripey top, raincoat and trainers. It was a very comfy and practical outfit and I don't think it looked too bad at all.

Some of the trees were different colours which reminded me of Autumn! The arboretum is a great place to go in the autumn with all of the gorgeous colours.

Another fancy photo where I tried (and failed) to capture the beauty of this place.

We finished off our walk with a yummy hot chocolate from the cafe. Not your typical summer drink eh?

So that is all for today's post. I had an absolutely lovely time and hope you enjoyed the pictures too.

Have a lovely day!

Holly X

Start of summer with the squad.

As spring begins to fade and summer starts (although you wouldn't believe it with this British weather lately) there are more and more opportunities to create memories, and what better way to do this than with friends. 

Having a week off from exams, (most of) the girls and I decided to spend the day together at Corsham Court. We each prepared some food and set off for the day with our picnic bag and blanket. Now, since none of us can yet drive, we decided to walk. This took a little longer than we had previously thought but was a lot of fun and full of hilarious memories.

The entire day was so much fun and packed full of hilarious moments that won't soon be forgotten. We chatted and laughed and played games (getting a little competitive) the entire time and it was fabulous. The perfect break from our exam stress. These few pictures are from our walk to the Court.

Overall, we all had a fabulous day and can add this day to our many memories together.

Holly X

Autumn walks

One of my favourite things about the season of Autumn is being able to go on walks and enjoy the scenery. 

I am very lucky to be living near to the Westonbirt Arboretum, and we as a family have season passes so we get to come here a lot. We often take our dogs here for walks and its a really nice place to go.

 We went around mid-afternoon and the weather was lovely. We had a very enjoyable walk and I took this opportunity to test out my new camera. I took quite a few snaps that I thought I would share. I really love the colours and this is one of my favourite places to be during the Autumn. This also makes it ideal for photos.

Enjoy!

My little brother hugging a tree.

Me looking rather tired.

Beautiful colour!

More lovely colours.

Alfie climbing trees again.

The colours reminded me of a traffic light.

Alfie with one of our dogs, Bella.

Me and Alfie with a stunning background,

Being artsy.

HOLLY!

I just love the colours in this!

Wonderful weather.

Alfie with the dogs.

We really do live in a beautiful world.

Thought this was pretty cute.

Trees. Trees. Trees.

More trees.

This colour is gorgeous.

Sunset on the way out.

After our little walk, we stopped at the cafe for a delicious hot chocolate before heading home.
I had a lovely afternoon and really enjoyed taking some lovely photos.

Thanks for reading,

xxX Holly Xxx