I'm a city girl at heart and I love my home town of London so much. I spent three years away at university in Wales and now that I'm back for good, I have rekindled my love for exploring the city's plethora of steets and quirky places that are not so well known.

Now I love a Starbucks as much as the next person, but I can't help feeling that, with the rise in popularity of large coffee shop chains, little cafes are getting forgotten about. When I pop in to Costa or Starbucks, it's always so busy in there and I often have to wait for a free table or sofa - sometimes you just need somewhere quieter, calmer and just a bit more homely - especiallly if you work from home as I sometimes do.

So, I've decided to make it my mission to discover some of the interesting and lesser known tea shops and cafes of London and share them here on my blog :) I'm a bit of a tea snob who also likes a flavoured or spiced coffee now and again and also a huge fan of herbal teas so I'm looking for somewhere with quality bevarages but also atmosphere and something unique to it. Over the next few months I'll be posting about my successfull and unssuccesful trips here and there, hopefully with a few pictures too!

Insta-update #1

The First of the snow//Gorgeous pink sunset on the way home from work//An old film photograph of mine,

Yummy predrinks//M&M world!//Adorable handmoade owl pincushion,

Cuban bar in Camden//Getting ready for NYE//waiting at the bar on NYE.

My Etsy Shop

Firstly, Happy New Year all :) hope you had a wonderful Christmas and festive break. It's back to cold/icy reality for most of us which means more work and no more mulled wine and chocolate *boo*. However, for me, the New Year has brought a fresh start with a lot less stress. Now that I'm no longer working 3 jobs at once, I finally have some free time to focus on the things I love.

I've had an Etsy shop for a couple of years now, and have miraculously made a couple of sales on there - despite hardly putting any time or effort into it and rarely creating any items to actually sell. But recently I've had the time to update my shop and start to come up with ideas of new things to sell, which I find great fun :) I can also now explore the myriad of quirky and innovative handmade products on the website - I could spend all day on there! Much better procrastination than facebook... ;) You can favourite items or shops and make 'Treasuries'; lists of similarly themed items that you can create and share with others. It's a hive of creativity and so inspiriting as an artist.

If you haven't heard of Etsy, or are thinking of starting up an online shop, check their website out, it only costs about 20 cents to list an item and see your items get favourited or bought is incredibly rewarding, it just takes a bit of time to get it all up and running!

Here are some links to a few of my recent favourite shops:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PoofyDove

http://www.etsy.com/shop/metamorphosing

www.etsy.com/shop/POAST

http://www.etsy.com/shop/NightjarBooks

http://www.etsy.com/shop/melodyseal

And mine:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CalmShores

Christmas gift ideas

Most people have probably already started their Christmas shopping by now, I however am slightly less organised and have only sorted a couple of presents so far - ahhh! I've been doing alot of my gift browsing online rather than on the highstreet this year due to being so busy but also it being so damned freezing! I thought I'd share a favourite website of mine filled with individual and cute gifts for any of those stuck for present ideas for their friends/family:

Ohh Deer is a beautifully designed website with a wealth of illustrated items to choose from, a variety of artists have produced items for sale meaning there is something to everyones taste on there :) My favourite are the cushions, I would love to have at least ten of them brightening up my room! I own a gorgeous notebook of theirs which makes writing notes for work much more exciting (I'm a bit of a sucker for cute stationary) and I've got a couple of prints or maybe a sweater in mind for my sister's xmas present. Have you seen anything you like on Ohh Deer?

Follow Ohh Deer here and like them here :)

Lately I've been listening to...

 

1. Young Lion - Little Night Terrors

2. Scavenger - School of Seven Bells

3. Bad Blood - Bastille

4. Form - POLIÇA

5. Miracle - The Temper Trap

6. Talk Through The Night - Dog Is Dead

7. Feels Like We Only Go Backwards - Tame Impala

8. Two Fingers - Jake Bugg

9. Sun - Two Door Cinema Club.

Instagram

I'm loving the new Instagram online profiles :) Although it does tend to highlight the low quality of some of my photos seeing them on a larger screen! Nevertheless Instagram is fun and as an arty person I love the idea of sharing photography with others :) Check mine out here: http://instagram.com/vanillaa
And send me yours! x

Exciting news!

I currently intern with the UK team of a touring International Theatre company and have been given the amazing news that they want to employ me officially in January. It's very exciting and also relieving for me as a recent graduate I have been worrying so much about finding a full-time job, what with the atrocious state of the job market at the moment. Part of my job next year will involve touring with one of the acting teams and the company's Director for two months in The Netherlands which I'm really looking foward to. I have been thinking about travelling since I left university and now my wishes have come true! So hopefully - as long as I have time - there will be lots to post about it all on here in 2013 :)