Full Speed Ahead

The third day of our city break in Copenhagen brought more sight-seeing and more importantly more muffins!

We stumbled upon ‘Emmerys‘ a great little organic cafe that sells the best freshly squeezed orange juice and the most amazing muffins (this time we sampled a banana on and a chocolate one) – we died and went to muffin heaven!  This is definitely a place to stop off for refreshments if you ever venture to Copenhagen.

After refuelling, we decided to browse some of the shops and large department stores along Stroget.  Our favourite store was ‘Illums Bolighus‘ where I literally could have lived in the shop because it was so full of gorgeous creative furniture, home ware and gifts of original designs.  I loved the wooden animals of Kay Bojesen (I hadn’t heard of him either until then).  Although I appreciate good craftsmanship and handmade products, I still felt they were a tad pricey for me (shame, as I would have loved to have taken the wooden elephant home with me).  

Another great department store was Magasin du Nord, again this was full of great furniture, lighting and home ware and gifts.  We did make a few purchases, but nothing too exciting, just some funky metal coat hangers (told you it wasn’t exciting) but they did look fab!  The Danes have a way of making everyday functional objects just look cool.

Great Danes – Great Design

The second day of our trip was spent cramming in as many sights as possible.  We started the morning off with a trip to see the Little Mermaid and the Gefion Fountain.  Although I love a bit of bronze sculpture and the Little Mermaid is on the list of ‘must-sees’ in the city, it is a bit underwhelming when you see her.  Also, she was inundated by tourists all wanting to pose with her.  We had got there fairly early too but still didn’t manage to avoid the crowds. (Doesn’t it frustrate you when people pose for pictures with monuments etc, for what seems like an eternity, hogging the view from everybody else to get their ‘perfect’ holiday snap?  Some people can be very inconsiderate.) I was lucky enough to get a couple of shots of her without random people in the background.

The Gefion Fountain although interesting was also a tad underwhelming.  The view from the guide book had made it look almost ‘Trevi-like’ in scale, but sadly it was not.  This may sound a bit harsh, but I didn’t feel my breath was taken away by it.

Copenhagen – We’re Here!

The day after our wedding anniversary we flew off to Copenhagen, Denmark, for a short city break.

We landed at the airport to a downpour of heavy rain showers.  After dumping our luggage at our hotel, we sought shelter in the Tourist Information Office which was nearby.  After having a quick scout round we decided to recharge our batteries with a drink and some muffins, which turned out to be the best muffins we had ever eaten in our lives. (This is by no means an exaggeration, as Danish pastries and cake do not disappoint by the way!) I had an apple and cinnamon one and Hubby had a blueberry one.  They were light, fluffy and moist and certainly gave us a much-needed energy boost after travelling.

We decided to jump on a sight-seeing bus to help us find our bearings in the city (as well as keep dry).  Thankfully the rain showers didn’t last too long and for the last part of our bus journey, the sun came out, so the driver opened up the roof so we could enjoy a better view.

Celebrating with Copper

Hubby and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary on 3rd August, swapping just cards, no pressies (as we set this precedent just before we celebrated our first wedding anniversary – it’s far less stressful and who needs presents when you’ve got love eh? Ahhh).

Now while we don’t give gifts to each other, my family do.  It was hard celebrating this years wedding anniversary, as it’s the first one without my wonderful Mum being here.  My Sis and Dad bought us a traditional gift of copper in the form of a pair of garden torches, which are now taking pride of place in our garden.

Our dear friend Julie also gave us a gorgeous copper tea-light lantern, punched with one of my favourite images, a stag. (Julie you know me far too well.)

If you like the look of it, check out www.coppercreations.co.uk.

Hubby and I always count ourselves lucky to have such wonderful family and friends around us to share the special times in our lives.

 

Wild and Free!

I’ve been so busy having jaunts out and about that I haven’t been keeping you all up-to-date with my adventures and for this please accept my sincere apologies, but sometimes you’ve got to live life instead of watching it go by!

My friend Julie and I had planned a day out with our cameras to have a day of happy snapping.  After much ‘googling’ of potential locations, I stumbled upon Knebworth House and Gardens and noticed they had an Open Air Sculpture exhibition on – perfect!

The exhibition had been organised by the British Art Portfolio.

The Price of Silver

Today, my Sis and I tried our hands at making some silver jewellery and I have to say I am very chuffed with the results.  I now have a whole new appreciation for the level of work, time and commitment that goes into making a piece of silver jewellery.

I have to admit that I didn’t have high expectations going in to this workshop.  I know I am arty and creative, but I have never been great with three-dimensional creations.  (Am currently having a flashback to my Art GCSE when my clay work didn’t go according to plan.) Being a bit (okay a lot) of a perfectionist really doesn’t help with this either.  Hence my low expectations could only be succeeded, right?  Also, I’m not that great with tools and machinery (again, flashbacks to secondary school with my CDT teacher Mr. Forbes trying not to be mad at me for breaking yet another jigsaw cutting blade.)

‘Hail to the Loser’? I Think he’s on to a Winner!

So far it’s been a week in to my six week Summer holiday (yes you heard me right, I did say six weeks) and I have been busy having lots of little jaunts out and about.  Since my wonderful Mum passed away (3 months ago now) I have tried to live each day to the fullest.

An old school friend contacted me the other day and invited me as her guest to attend a private viewing of an exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery.  (In the words of my hubby, ‘Oooh, very lardy dar!’) My friend and I had spent most of our Art GCSE and A-Level roaming around the galleries in London, but this was one we hadn’t happened to visit back in the day.  If we had, it may have opened our eyes up to a whole new world of artistic possibilities.  I have been to the Saatchi Gallery once before, stumbling upon a paper cutting exhibition by sheer luck! It is spacious like most galleries but there’s just something clean and cutting edge about it that I like.  Oh and the fact it is set within lovely grounds of the King’s Road helps a lot too.

Anyway, I didn’t know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Back Due To Popular Demand

Now I am refreshed and recharged after indulging in an afternoon tea break.  Thank you to the Holtwhites Bakery, Enfield, for my yummy cherry and pistachio croissant.

Recently, I have started baking my gingerbread biscuits again.  Usually I begin making these in the run-up to the festive season, but my Sis had requested a batch for a friend who was heading back to Canada, so I was inspired by the good old Canadian maple leaf. Her friend is also a photographer, so I had a go at baking some camera biccies.  I wasn’t so happy with the decoration of them but in the end apparently they all went down a storm.

Back on the Grid

Sundays, don’t you just love them?  Great for chilling out and lazing about, but not for me! Today has been set aside to allow me to do all things ‘crafty’ related, whether it’s updating my Pintrest boards, icing my latest batch of gingerbread biscuits or trying out some new paper cut designs.  Oh and not forgetting (most importantly) updating my craft blog!

I have finally got the chance to sit down and type a new blog post today, but I’ve been up to so much since I did my last one (way back in early June) that I don’t know where to begin…I’ve been paper cutting, sight-seeing and shopping in London and baking.

A window display made from paper!

Yorkshire Sculpture Park!

Whilst on my half-term break, Hubby and I headed up to see our in-laws in Matlock, Derbyshire.  I hadn’t been up there since Christmas and I was looking forward to escaping Enfield for a few days since the recent bereavement of my Mum to cancer.

My mother out-law (as she prefers to be known) had planned a day out at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) much to my excitement. I had always wanted to go there and today was my lucky day.  Off we all went with our cameras in tow!

A highly acclaimed American artist, Ursula Von Rydingsvard, (who I’d never heard of) is exhibiting some of her work as part of the Yorkshire Festival until 6th July 2014.