i've got love for the mountains

Saturday, 23 August 2014

· birthday camping vibes ·

Good Evening!

So, on Wednesday, 20th August it was my 24th birthday! Alfie took me away to Pembrokeshire for our first ever camping trip together, which I was super excited about. For my main present he booked a whale & dolphin spotting boat trip for the morning after my birthday. Unfortunately, on the Thursday morning the wind was too strong for the boat trip. We re-organised it for the Friday morning, but again, the wind was again not on our side so we were unable to go on the boat. We were both really gutted about it. Alfie has been before on that trip, but he wanted to go with me. So we both had sad faces, however he is going to organise something else as my present instead.

That aside, I had an extremely lovely time! Firstly, I got to spend my birthday with Alfie, which I'm extremely grateful for. As I get older, birthday's aren't the same anymore. Plus my parents live in North Wales, so it's not so simple to see them! We'll both be going to the Lake District next week with them for a late birthday trip so it's not all bad! Secondly, I got to go camping. I grew up camping as my parents were scout leaders. The first time I went camping, I wasn't even a year old! I was brought up spending time with the scouts in different areas of Wales/England and I absolutely loved to camp. In rain or shine, it was one of my favourite things. So it's literally been years since I've done it..so to camp on my birthday was such a lovely feeling. Thirdly, the weather was truly on our side. Minus the horrendous wind conditions, spoiling the boat trip, we still got to go on long walks without any weather problems. My forehead did burn quite a bit (now sporting some very attractive peeling!) and the wind on the walks meant I had to go the whole way with my hood up as it was freezing. The sun did shine about 90% of the time!

We first got an early train to Haverfordwest from Cardiff, and then a bus to St David's, which by the way is such a cute little city (I thought it was a town, but it has a Cathedral! Who even knew!). Then from there we took another bus to White Sands, where we took a little pit stop. From there it was about a 2 & 1/2 mile walk to St Justinian where we were set up our tent. To our dismay, when we turned the corner into St Justinian, right in front of the camp site was a mighty big crane! Not cool! They were doing some work by the boat area, but it wasn't great for views. We managed to get a spot that didn't interfere too much with the crane. It was a lovely little camp site, even had a place with showers & toilets! So clean as well! I didn't bother showering as I didn't want to catch a cold with the wet hair etc. However lovely facilities! I recommend it muchly.

As we couldn't go on the boat the next day, we walked to St David's in the morning for some lunch and then caught a little bus to Pontyclais. Again, such a lovely little area. From there we took a 5 mile walk along the coastal path back to our camp site. Thats where these photo's are from!

All in all, I absolutely loved my camping trip & I'm super lucky to have Alfie take me there.

I was super exhausted at times which made for a grumpy & snappy girlfriend - but the fact that I was so comforted and happy being outside and with the outside & natural world, those feelings took over.

Here are some of my favourite photo's I took from the trip and I'll also be putting up a project on my behance profile & here's some of my Instagram posts from the last couple of days.

Hope you enjoy these photo's & look here if you want to head to the same place :)

We also became super seal watchers :) we kept seeing their little heads popping out of the water in some remote areas, and I was so excited about it! Alfie got some shots of them as he had a longer lens so I hope they've turned out ok! Love those little dog faces!

Night night everyone,

elfums x

Tuesday, 19 August 2014

· Photo an Hour: Monday 18th August ·

Hello loves!

Just before I go camping tomorrow for my birthday, I thought I'd do this little post.

I nabbed the idea from Lyzi from 'Being Little' and it's the 'Photo An Hour' post. Here is her's if you want to have a little looky: · Lyzi's Post · I wasn't doing much yesterday of much importance so I occupied myself & decided to do it myself!

· time to wake up · face of the day · ootd · house details ·

· clouds through my skylight · silly lunch · camping list ·

· starting to pack · dressing for autumn in summer ·

· in the car with rich & steve · new walking boots & coat ·

· time to watch jumanji with the gang ·

It was actually quite hard to do this! A. to actually remember to take a photo every hour of the day, but also to find something to photograph. I did manage to do it between 9am & 7pm however when my friends were round, I was busy scuttling around making cups of tea, dinner etc etc.

Anyways! I hope you enjoyed these little snap shots of my day :)

I'll be back soon with a few posts I'm sure - including a packing for my camping trip post!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

elfums x

Monday, 4 August 2014

Hello, Nash Point

Happy Monday everyone!

I've just got back to my own flat after having a super lazy day with Alfie and suddenly had the urge to write a blog post before I eat my dinner.

A couple of weeks ago, Alfie & I took the train to Llantwit Major, about 40 minutes away from Cardiff. From there we took a nice long trek to Nash Point. We followed the coastal path most of the way there, but also traipsed through lots of reeds and bushes and bits of forest. The views a long the way were incredible and it was so nice to be out and about and not feel close to a city one bit.

On the way back we mostly walked a long the beach and pebbles, also finding ammonite fossils on the way which always makes us happy. The weather was very strange this day but thankfully, even with storm clouds above us, it hardly rained. We walked for miles and miles and we definitely felt it.

Our feet were killing, I wore the wrong kind of back pack because our little trip was a bit of a spontaneous one! I didn't have any walking stuff with me at Alfie's! Lesson learned.

I recommend going to Nash Point if you're ever in Wales. There is a spectacular lighthouse there, and some really nice secret places to venture to overlooking the sea. It's amazing when the tide is in! Also, as I mentioned before, many an ammonite! I love finding them!

Hope you enjoy my photo's from the day! I didn't take many on my DSLR as I wanted to explore more than photograph that day, but Alfie sure did. Speaking of him, he's recently started up something a long side his own work on Instagram called 'Explore Wales' - when you go on an adventure or somewhere you think should be shown off, then hashtag #explorewales and he might put it up on the feed! Plus you get to see some really great shots of our beautiful country.

Hope you all have a great week :)

elfums x

Wednesday, 2 July 2014

fossil finds & escaping the city

Good evening, everyone!

I've just moved house & I'm now starting a new adventure living on my own.

It already feels nice having my own space, my own things everywhere and my own breathing room.

It is a little weird, but it's going to be great, I just know it.

So now that I've pretty much finished unpacking & there's only few extra maintenance bits that my landlady has to do, I thought I would write a little blog post.

I've stuck on a girly film, eating some fruit salad and enjoying the sunset out of my window.

A couple of weeks ago, myself & Alfie went on a day trip to Penarth & Sully.

As you know, I rarely get a day off with him - plus I REALLY wanted to go to Penarth with him.

Especially as he said there were fossils on the beach - LOVE.

We were going to go even further but we were pooped so we're going to do that another day.

Also, I got super burnt.. really, really burnt.

Anyways, here are some photographs from our day!

Have a wonderful evening!

Now - Alfie went to this area a couple of days before and took some photographs which he has on his website at the moment, so I'll leave the link to that right here :)

You may say I'm biased, but even if I was a stranger to him - I would still find his work mesmerising.

Thanks for stopping by!

elfums x

Tuesday, 24 June 2014

welcome to youtube

Hello everyone!

Again, I have been quite absent from my blog recently. It's moving time and quite frankly, I've been super stressed. This time, I will be moving in to a flat of my own. I've lived with someone for the past three years, so it's a big shock to the system already. It's quite important to me to get my independence back as I feel like in the last few years I've lost it. I'm super nervous but also quite excited! My own space. My own time.

A couple of weeks ago, myself & some friends filmed a video just for fun.

We all work so much, and rarely get chill time together anymore so we thought it would be a great change to what we usually do and have some fun with it.

So, this post is short and sweet - video below is our 'Chubby Bunny Challenge'!

Go and watch - like & subscribe if you'd like to see more of the sillys!

Have a great week :)

elfums x

Tuesday, 3 June 2014

'everything is going to be ok'

Hello everyone :)

I haven't posted in a while, life has been busy and hectic, and most of the time I am quite tired - too tired to sit in front of my laptop after a long day at work to write a blog post.

However, today I have been inspired. It's a new month, and pretty soon, things are going to change quite a lot. At the end of the month I will be moving into a place of my very own, which scares me quite a bit, but it will be amazing for my confidence and I can start being super confident again, something I have missed quite a lot. Also, today I said goodbye to my best friend Paris, who is leaving Cardiff to work in London. I realise that London isn't that far away, but to not have her just up the road anymore is going to take some serious time to adjust to.

I'm not going to go into too much detail but the thought of moving, people leaving and working so much has made my brain feel like jelly the last couple of months - it's time to take control, get some PMA back into my system and fight those negative demons into thin air!

It sometimes takes reacting in certain ways, people telling you what you've done wrong, things physically happening to you to finally realise you need to make a change.

Even though I'm feeling quite sad today, my brain is telling me to think positively about all the things I'm thinking. Even though Paris is moving away, I keep thinking how lucky I am to have her and to have not lost her in the almost five years we've known each other. Distant won't mean anything to our friendship - so it will all be ok :)

The fact that I will be moving in to a place of my own, as daunting as it is to me, will be a very good change for me. My own space, my own place to relax, switch off, rules of my own, no stresses and quite frankly, a chance to get my independence back. It will be so much better for me.

Work is work - I have a dream, and I will get there. Work is just there to allow me to live. My beautiful Mumma Birkett is always in my head, every day saying 'You work to live, not live to work'. Until I get to my dream, that will be the case, and as much as it drains me, that's ok.

At the end of the day, funnily enough, like my doctor and my boyfriend has said to me this week, the first step to making it better is realising there's a problem. It can only get better from there if you deal with the issues at hand.

Nothing I can't handle! :)

I really want to start blogging more throughout the rest of this year. I don't have a proper desk space at the moment, just my dressing table, so it's difficult to motivate myself. When I move, that's one of my main focuses - a space to work on my course & work on being more creative.

After writing this, I feel SO much better - so now it's time to have some healthy lunch, stick on an episode of the O.C *Seth Cohen - swoon!* and then crack on with a lot of Geography work.

Negativity gets your nowhere, so I'm going to start to train my brain away from that!

...easier said than done I know, but you can't run away from it.

Have a wonderful day everyone, whatever you're doing :)

elfums x

Sunday, 27 April 2014

escape the hustle and bustle

I'm sure you know that I flippin' love a good adventure. I also equally love a good adventure with my super handsome one, Alfie. As I work full time & have work to do outside of that, I rarely get a chance to escape the city of Cardiff. All around this city are fields, mountains, areas of spectacular beauty that we all forget is there. I tend to think about it too much instead of forget about it. I crave it. The thought of walking through trees, getting my feet stuck in mud, finding little creatures, having a little picnic lunch, getting a chance to use my camera, being in the middle of nature, hearing nothing but chirps and the wind.. that's my idea of heaven on most days. I was so content.

So, a little while back, Alfie & I had the same day off for once and decided it was about time he took me to Garth Mountain. It's literally just 10/15 minutes away on the train and then a good old trek to get to the top. As soon as you step off the train, you can see your destination and you just get this instant feeling of wanting to walk, walk, walk and walk some more until you're there.

Needless to say, I loved the entire day. It wasn't bad weather, but it wasn't sunny either. There was this bizarre haze for the entire day and quite humid. I'm glad it didn't rain on us! We would defiantly have had soggy sandwiches. I got to see Cardiff from a very different angle and it made the city look teeny tiny and like I was on top of the world. So here's a few snaps from our little adventure. Enjoy!