Escape to the Country: A Weekend in the Lakes

Hey,

Today I've got a bit of a mish-mash of pictures from last weekend. February is pretty special for us as it's when we got together (a whole nine years ago now!) and also when we got engaged, on Valentine's Day two years ago.

At Christmas, we got a really thoughtful gift from Chris' family of a one-night getaway voucher. If you follow me on social you might've seen that we recently booked New York for our wedding anniversary in July so we thought it'd be nice to use the voucher for a little break between Christmas and the big trip!

Even though I'm from North Yorkshire and fairly near the Lake District, I've never actually been for longer than a day trip. We'd been saying for a while that it'd be nice to spend a day or two up there so it seemed like the perfect opportunity!

We found the perfect little base at the wonderful String of Horses Inn about 15 minutes from Carlisle - a great location for the North Lakes.

As we couldn't check in until 3pm on the Saturday, we headed into central Carlisle for a few hours first.

Now, I have been to Carlisle a few times before and I wasn't really sure what we'd have to do there...

We decided to head to the castle first but having set off later than we wanted to, it had just closed by the time we got there! We had a little wander along the castle walls as you could walk all the way around the exterior.

You might be getting the impression by now that we hadn't planned this trip particularly well...

I was under the impression that Hadrian's Wall ran near enough through the city centre too but after trekking up and down a few of the trail paths, we realised that it was probably a few miles before we would reach anything resembling the wall.

With that, we gave up and did what we do best - went for some food and a beer! We came across the brilliant Dutch Uncle, tucked away within Carlyle Court, not far from the castle grounds.

This casual bar/restaurant was just what we were looking for with a small but interesting street food-inspired menu, cocktail list and great beers at good value.

We shared a Nduja, Prosciutto and Rosemary Pizza with a side of Dutch Truffle Fries with Garlic Mayo which was insanely good!

With that, we headed to the hotel.

The String of Horses is based in the small village of Faugh, Heads Nook, just outside of Carlisle. It's a traditional coaching inn; I LOVE old pubs, especially having worked in one back home for around 6 years.

I must say, I didn't know what to expect of this one as a hotel but it completely blew me away! Our room was so lovely and the whole inn itself has so much charm - with proper oak panelling, brasses and ornaments lining the walls, wooden beams, leaded windows, open fires, winding corridors and low ceilings.

Satin duster jacket - Lavish Alice (sample sale)

Off-shoulder choker tee - Tobi*

Green tassel earrings - H&M

Leggings - Tobi*

Polka dot socks - Joanie

Gold holographic sandals - ASOS

Our voucher included a meal so we chilled out in the room a while before getting a little dressed up for some hearty pub food for dinner!

I've been living in these black moto leggings from Tobi lately! I teamed them with my off-shoulder choker tee - I love that it shows off my new roman numerals shoulder tattoo.

Sunday was earmarked for exploring the Lakes. Being at the north side of the area, we chose Keswick for our day trip.

Our minuscule amount of research took us to Derwentwater, a three-mile long lake in Keswick, surrounded by dramatic peaks.

We weren't really equipped for much walking so we parked up by the lakeside and strolled around the water's edge and took a little trail up to the Friar's Crag viewpoint. Even though it was on-off raining/snowing, the views were beautiful!

A brief stop in Keswick town centre for lunch and we were off to our last activity - something I booked in advance and was really excited about!

I can't remember how I came across Alpacaly Ever After (great pun), I think it was on Tripadvisor, but it was such a good shout!

We spent Sunday afternoon with Farmer Terry (super friendly and knowledgeable) and his rescue alpacas - even getting to feed them and take selfies with these cute and goofy animals. A perfect day!

I'd love to go back with some proper hiking gear in the summer and do some further exploring.

Have you been to this part of the Lakes before?

Just this 'n' that...

When I was blogging about my trip to Kendal, I completely forgot to mention an awesome little shop I found.

I spotted 'THIS 'N' THAT' from accross the road. I couldn't discern anything much from its name and the shop front's design left a lot to be desired (note use of half-peeling vinyl stickers), but I could see some interesting bits and bobs in the window.

This shop appeared to be the weird and wonderful love child of a charity shop and an antique shop. The prices reflect this too.

The shop was mainly filled with antique bits of furniture- at lower than expected prices. I managed to take a couple of quick pictures in the back room whilst nobody was around.

Everything is crammed inside in no particular way or well-thought out order- perfect if you like a good rummage like me!

In this room there was loads of old pictures, frames, books, records and more. This table with a set of four tapestry-covered chairs was only £50!

My favourite things in the shop were these big boxes of old teasets. You can pick these up at most charity shops but rarely such a large, complete set. You can just about make out the pricing- not bad for the amount of stuff, the one on the right is Limoges porcelain.

Speaking of tea-sets, on the way to Vintage Revival, I passed a fabulous tearoom-style cafe. They don't have a website but I found a picture on Flickr for you- it's copyrighted, so I can't steal it for your viewing pleasure but you can check it out on the link here.

The window is stacked with cool teapots and an extensive list of amazing icecream sundaes on offer. Yum.

I also took the liberty of creating this google map for you, should you ever decide to visit Kendal.

View Kendal, UK- Points of interest to vintage fans in a larger map

 All the places I've mentioned in this post and Monday's are marked, as are all the charity shops google maps would allow me to find- which again, isn't many.

I recommend taking a stroll up to Wildman Street where Vintage Revival is, it's an old street littered with antique shops and goes over the river too- lovely!

Kendal kicks

So as I mentioned yesterday, I went to Kendal today, a town in Cumbria.

I actually used to go to Kendal a lot (I spent one night a week humilating myself at the town's dry ski slope for some time) but haven't actually been for a few years.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted a vintage shop on the drive in- not what I expected to find here!

As my bearings are difficult to establish in areas I frequent a lot, I already had a pretty poor chance of finding the shop once parked up in the immediate town centre.

After much walking, a near heart attack and a bit of google maps, I found the shop- which was closed!

Yeah so apparently the shop opens between Tuesday and Saturday. It looked pretty interesting so I'll definitely be remembering it for next time.









Vintage Revival has an online shop which meant I could still have a browse.

Some pieces are a bit pricey but on the whole, it's pretty reasonable. It was duly noted that the shop offered student discount- hope this transfers to the website too!

So onto the charity shops...

I actually didn't find many, four or five I think, although I didn't have a great deal of time to explore.

I bought this blue, embellished batwing jumper from Scope for £4.95.





I'm not so hot on the colour, but I like a good batwing style top and the sequin and bead embellishment is really intricate and pretty- so I bought.

I also bought this bag from Age UK for £3.50.



I can't decide whether the bag looks cheap or not, but I liked the gold metal detail on the straps.

I bought the dress today too, it's from Topshop and was £35. A rare treat as I don't buy too many new clothes nowadays but this one's for a night out.

I also got this unusual long necklace from Oxfam for £3.99.



It's a porcelain pendant on a long, gold tone chain. The face is dark blue and has a victorian looking couple on the front.

It's marked with 'La Reine Limoges Porcelaine France' on the back. I've been trying to find out a bit about this mark but without a great deal of luck.

From what I can tell, they are an old reputable porcelain company who took over another manufacturer.

I've found my piece and similar ones elsewhere like one on ebay which I'll be watching to see how much it makes. Maybe mine's worth something!

On another note, I bought some bright red hair dye (Live Color XXL in 43 Red Passion) as I'll be attempting to dye it red once again- goodbye black hair! (If all goes to plan...)

Burgundy- best left to 1970s news anchors?

First things first, I ended up working this morning so sadly no car boot trip BUT I have managed to wangle a rare day off tomorrow so plan to journey up to Kendal, where I believe many charity shops lie. I'll report back with any finds.

So why am I alluding to a popular Will Ferrell movie? Because I have some new burgundy shorts!

It all started with a new pile of vintage deadstock jeans I was given a few days ago.



Some of these look pretty old, especially the brown coloured pair on top.



These aren't particularly nice, or particularly big for that matter (23" waist!) but could possibly hold some value- check out the label above; retro!

Sadly, the only pair that fit were a rather unattractive, wide bottomed burgandy pair. One saving grace was the fact that these were only a size 27- pretty chuffed with that!

A few chops later...



... and these are what i have:







Not sure I carry them off but might give them a go on holiday. I think the colour might render them more appealing in autumn worn with some black opaque tights.

Speaking of denim shorts, rember those Levi orange tabs I found in a charity shop recently?

Here they are after being chopped into cut-off shorts:









What do you think? I didn't want to cut these too short- I figured they can always be turned up.

Did you notice the top I was wearing in the first pictures?







It's an old vest of my Dad's that he picked up in Rhodes before I was born. I ripped off the bottom to make it cropped.

There's a few of these types of tops around on the high street at the moment; although less so as the autumn stock is coming in.

This one is currently in Topshop at £16:



This London top, also from Topshop, definitely channels the 'tourist' theme of my vest. This one is in the sale at £10 (was £18), which isn't bad- mine cost nothing though!