A Brecon Day trip

We feel really lucky to live in easy reach of some wonderful places and depending on how we feel we can drive over the boarder to Bristol for some city fun or explore West and Mid Wales when we fancy some fresh air and countryside views. Mr A has been asking for a while to visit the The Regimental Museum of the Royal Welsh in Brecon, as some of you may know he is fascinated with anything related to the Military, Scouts, Bear Grylls and basically anything outdoors. I have to be honest and say  I'm not such a fan of the Army but I want to allow my child freedom to explore his interests and as the museum is located in the quaint historical market town of Brecon in Mid-Wales and I thought it would make a nice day-trip. We arrived late morning and enjoyed a walk by the canals, watching the narrowboats and enjoying the fresh air. We then stopped off for a bite to eat at the waterside cafe Tipple n' Tiffin where I opted for a delicious organic green salad ......

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A day trip to Narberth

During our recent stay at Bluestone, which is located in a beautiful part of West Wales, we decided to jump in the car one morning and go exploring. We had been wanting to walk the village streets of Narberth for a while as both my mother and I had heard about good things about the this chic and stylish village with it's cute cafes, independent interior stores and friendly atmosphere and we were not disappointed. For such a small welsh village it has a lot going for it, with some lovely boutiques, a wine and cheese deli, art centre and quirky little shops we felt spoilt for choice. The parking was incredibly cheap at 70p for 5 hours, in Cardiff 70p wouldn't even get you 30 minutes parking. What was also amazing is that we picked up a piece of coffee and homemade cake for £2.50 each from a cafe that had been opened inside an old court house. The staff were so friendly and happy and with large windows letting so much light into the large open interior it was a wonde......

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Exploring Cowbridge

So after a few miserable and rainy days it was so refreshing to see the sunshine, even though the temperature has really dropped we took the first opportunity to spend it outside having fun and thought what better than a little road trip to the beautiful historic market town of Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan. It has a lovely Physic Garden and outdoor spaces to explore as well as one of my favourite vintage indoor markets called Happy Days, where we stopped of for lunch in their quaint little cafe - I highly recommend the homemade vegetable soup by the way. The little man has also recently discovered things like The Scouts and Bear Grylls and as much as I have a total dislike to guns (I really distain them) he enjoyed pretending being an outdoor ranger with his little rifle, protecting all the plants and animals. Cowbridge has some beautiful shops, interior stores and florists and I always feel really inspired after a day out at this chic little village. It was o......

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Rise and Shine

Early morning light is so beautiful  I have mentioned on the blog before that we are not always the best at getting a good nights sleep which often means getting up late and in turn means pretty much running late for the rest of the day so I was super excited to be asked to be apart of The #EarlybirdChallenge by Free Office Finder . On average we all basically have around 25 000 mornings and most of mine are fairly groggy but it's proven that it's better for your physical and mental wellbeing waking up a little bit earlier than usual as it makes you far more productive and by doing some simple changes you can make huge improvements to your sleep routine and giving yourself more time in the morning for some peace quite and de-stress downtime. Love having time to make French toast with bananas in the morning So how did walking up earlier benefit me in the past few weeks? 1. Being able to enjoy a quite cup of coffee before the little man gets out of bed, which......

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Vegetarian food guide for on the road

A vegetarian feast in France It's no secret that we love to travel and what is more we love to try out new places to eat and drink while on the road Even though John eats meat (i'm veggie) when we travel we both stick to a vegetarian diet as this makes things a lot more simple and also ensures that there will be something for everyone to enjoy and allows me to have a few pre-planned options for when we are travelling. Luckily we get to visit London often through work and it's such a great city for alternative and veggie/vegan delights we are always eager to try a new place out as well as stick to our two favourite places to get a healthy bite to eat - the Wild Food Cafe near Covent Garden and Inspiral London in Camden, both of which are highlighted on the House Trip Vegan and Vegetarian food guides. Wild Food Cafe - one of our favourite places in London The house trip guides are really useful and cover three major cities - London, Paris and Berlin. What I ......

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Dutch Interiors and Travel inspiration

 So of you may already know but before having Mr A I lived and worked in the wonderful city of Amsterdam for a few months. I have always loved this city, especially since my best friend from school was Dutch and visited with her as well as my family on serrate occasions before moving there. Each at a different age in my life and seeing the city from different perspectives every time so I am over the moon to be going there again for a short break very soon with KLM and this time with John and Mr A in tow - it's going to be great showing them around this lovely city and walking past my old apartment which was a very small studio flat right in the centre. I always loved the interior and fashion style of the Dutch and really miss the view from my old tiny but character filled flat. The view from my Flat The Dutch interior style is similar to that of the Scandinavian - less is more and well design pieces are a must with a splash of colour. The pair European style and practica......

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A blissful day in St Regents Park

Last week we were lucky enough to have an amazing family trip via eurostar to Brussels (lots of posts to come soon) and on our return we arrived back in the UK during the bank holiday weekend and spent a night in London. We had the whole of sunday to enjoy the sun in the capital and since we where stay in the Travelodge Euston we decided to walk to Regents Park and what a blissful day it was. I never really understand why some people say that inner-city kids in London don't have a chance to explore the outdoors. Whenever we have been to London as a family we have never had any problems finding amazing places outdoors to explore and I cannot recommended Regents park enough - with beautiful gardens, a boating lake, allotments, cafes, cycle tracks an football fields you could easily spend all day here. The little man loved running around and smelling all the flowers. The boating lake was beautiful and we decided to take a little ride around the lake, which the li......

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Dogs don't do Ballet - Theatre Review

Mr A ready for the show At the end of the last month the little man and I were lucky enough to have a little trip to the theatre at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama to watch The Little Angle Theatre puppet production "Dogs don't do Ballet" and we were hooked instantly just by the name, it's screams out curiosity and fun. It can sometimes be hard to find age appropriate shows but this one was perfect for toddlers and children aged 2-6 yrs old. The story is based around a dog called Biff who unlike ordinary dogs likes music and walking on his tiptoes and is convinced he is not a dog but rather a ballerina. This is brought to life through beautiful puppets, ballet music and comedy and it had a lot of laugh out loud moments for both toddlers and adults. It mixes puppets and performers together with the show starting with one of the performers taking the role of the ballet dancer and getting the children to do some ballet moves in their seat, which......

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Drink Coffee for Charity!

If your looking for something AMAZING to do, why not pop down and join in with the UK's biggest Coffee morning, happening all across the UK on Friday 27th Sept, all in aid of the very deserved charity - Macmillan Cancer Support . If your in Cardiff, M&S Cafe on Queen Street are holding an action packed coffee morning starting at 10am, hosted by Welsh Actress Siwan Morris and Olympian Helen Jenkins. The day will include - Cake decorating demonstrations Hand Massages from the M&S beauty team Children's cupcake decorating Close-up magic and Balloon modelling As well as face-painting So something for the whole family to enjoy, although I never really need an excuse to have a cuppa and some cake. The customers coming into the Cardiff Queen Street store will be joining over 5 million people across the UK who are expected to take part in coffee mornings on the 27th - that's such an amazing number and hopefully a great boost to the charity which helps so ma......

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