The Vintage Cupcake Kitchen

I spent a lovely Sunday afternoon with my friend Kim at the Vintage Cupcake Kitchen in Uppermill, Saddleworth (for the uninitiated/ non Northerners this pretty little village is located somewhere between Yorkshire and Manchester). As the name suggests, this place does two things very well - vintage and cupcakes. The tea shop is decorated beautifully with floral fabrics, bunting, fairy lights and vintage furniture, and everything is served on delicate vintage china which is also available to rent for your own vintage tea party! And the cakes... moreishly moist and spongy with deep and distinct flavours, liberally draped with light and fluffy cream cheese frosting and hand decorated with fruit, chocolate and sugary treats. Needless to say after sampling the gingerbread and double-stuffed oreo flavours I left with a goodie bag of four adorable mini cupcakes to take home. Oh, and they make a decent brew as well. Check out their lovely website here 

Recently...

 

A few shots from the last couple of weeks - the happy little things in life. 1. The day my hair finally did as it was told 2. Raspberry cream sorbet 3. Peony fairylights 4. Summer nails 5. Veggie heaven 6. Vintage record player at a cafe I visited - inspired instant lust! 7. Topshop fringed fan print kimono jacket 8. Summer sunset

Details

A couple of weeks ago I started a new job as a marketing and promotions assistant, which is good for two main reasons; 1. the savings fund for the World Tour has now become significantly healthier, and 2. I can buy stuff again! Predictably the first thing purchased was the BEAUTIFUL shoes in picture four, which actually make me want to weep they're so perfect and somehow magically make my 5"3 frame look more like 5"7. Starting work has also prompted a week digging out some semblence of a work wardrobe, which I struggle with as I am generally drawn to sack-like garments paired with various incarnations of leopard print and/or leather - surprisingly not appropriate as office wear. Since my desk-friendly garment count is currently low, I've been relying on some staple accessories to smarten up and pull together. 1. Red lipstick and cats eye sunnies 2. Studded collar and marl sweater 3. Colour pop clutch, printed pencil skirt and boyfriend watch (Michael Kors) 4. Blush suede wedges (Topshop, available here ) 5. Gold triangle hand chain and black nails.

IIII

Images via Russh, Hardly, Reasonstobreathe, NYC Dauphine

Seasons?

As though to illustrate yesterday's point - the world when I woke up this morning. Playing out in the snow in a Topshop cape and boots.

Sculpted

Managing to make the most of the weird premature weeklong summer before the sleet and ominous clouds arrived - pretty standard for British weather I think. In the space of four days I've gone from picnic blanket and denim cutoffs right back to cozy waffle knit jumper and a brew by the fire. Random. But I did get a day in at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park last week, complete with frisbee in the park and a sculpture of an amply breasted bunny rabbit cut in half. As you do. Finished the day with a huuuuuge apple pie and ginger ice cream and lusting after Jonny Depp in The Rum Diaries - bring on British summer round two! 

Great Man Theory // LIVE

I've been meaning to post about this amazing band for aaaages now; these photos are taken from about three gigs that I've been to in the last couple months. Their sound is bluesy, rock and quite heavy with a metal influence, and they swing between anthemic rock tracks with old-school 6 minute instrumentals circa 1971, accoustic based rock ballad vocals and high tempo blues influenced tracks. Based in Newcastle, they are well worth a listen if you have the opportunity to go to a gig ( and I'm not even just biased because my brother is the drummer, they actually are rock stars!) They also give me ample opportunity to play with grungy band photos, which I'm always ok with. You can find Great Man Theory on Facebook here.