You think we look pretty good together.

Laura Ashley trench coat (old). Topshop print top: £24 (old). Vintage suede skirt: £8, charity shop. Bally bag: £9, vintage shop. Warehouse lace up flats: £29. Esie Belle necklace: £9.

There's just something about Oxford, isn't there? The city of dreaming spires is one that I don't visit all that frequently, but every trip leaves me feeling a little more relaxed and in love with this country. It may have its own tube (hoho), but this city is all about retaining its heritage and tradition, which comes as a nice break from fast-paced London's silicon roundabout, coremetrics, edialog and UAT. Of course, it did manage to tip it down for roughly 90% of our trip meaning that country air had a hint of raindrop to it (say hello to Yankee candle's new copywriter??), but in a ten minute break we managed to take advantage of smaller than usual crowds beneath the bridge of sighs. Oxford may be a far cry from Venice, but the eponymous (chicken? egg? Wiki'll tell you who came first, I'm sure) architecture is still pretty bloody beautiful, and it's almost enough to make me wish I'd tried a liiittle bit harder whilst revising for my A Levels and make it here to study full time.

As a hardcore His Dark Materials fan, we also headed up Carfax tower to experience Oxford from the rooftops. It might not have been a day for clambering across from building to building, but we definitely made the most of our trip among the spires. Spiral staircase aside (I'm writing this after a big bowl of pasta* - let's not think about all that twirling, unless it's spaghetti round a spoon of course), it's the best place to see the city from, and even better when the sun breaks through the seemingly impenetrable greys of a month's worth of rain in two days. We didn't head inside any of the colleges this time (remember when we bunked into Magdalen?), but from the little we could see from peeking in through the grand wooden doors there's plenty more to see inside. I mean, just look at the museum - and this is the new stuff!

*I'm currently oop norf and this post is scheduled, never quite managed to have pasta for breakfast. Yet.

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Still she sits, young while the earth is old.

Ruskin wax jacket: c/o Barbour. Vintage floral blouse: 50p. Oasis Isabella jeans: £27. Bally boots: £8, charity shop. Primark fedora: £7.

"So, what are you doing with your day off?"

"I'm off to the place I wrote my dissertation about."

Average Friday, really.

When Jazmine asked if I could get some time off work for a day trip, I always knew it'd be something a little out of the ordinary. Rather than spend it together in our pyjamas (however appealing that may have been), we were up early, breakfasting/hot chocolating in Paddington in some seriously special prints: we'd been invited to the Cotswolds to learn all about Barbour's William Morris collection, and said yes in less time than I've spent deliberating over which meal deal sandwich to go for. Since that visit to the William Morris gallery in primary school, I've been rather partial to his oversized florals, so there was no way I was going to miss out on this one.

Kelmscott Manor was Morris' Summer home; a place away from London, a "heaven on earth", and where supposedly he witnessed that bird steal its strawberry. London definitely felt a lifetime away as we were given an incredibly insightful tour of the house and grounds (and lunch - priorities, obvs). I had a little moment when I noticed the facsimile of Morris and Burne-Jones' Canterbury Tales, a subject for much discussion in my dissertation. My topic of choice had been the distinction between art and literature for Rossetti and, in turn, Morris - it was about time I made the journey! TL;DR, Rossetti was all about the two together being an experience, and in their separation they lose much of the creator's meaning. The dissertation may now be printed and bound, but the love lives on, so if you're as much a Rossetti fangirl as me, you'll be pleased to see that his painting "Blue Silk Dress" takes pride of place. Jazz and I made sure to get some quick snaps in our beautiful Morris-print clothes before heading home (how beautiful does she look in her Acanthus shirt?), and I'm going to be wearing my jacket every time the grey clouds show, to brighten things up a little.

I don't often talk about the "perks" of being a blogger here, as I don't generally feel like I ought to draw attention to it (for fear of being found out as a fraud! I'm still amazed anyone thinks there's worth in me taking a few snaps of their products and posting them here, but there you go), but I really do want to say thank you to everyone at Barbour - and Jazz! - for having me along. I honestly had a wonderful day, and it meant so much to have a little more insight into a subject I've loved for such a long time. Start playing that Oscar speech music before I get too into this. Hope you've all had a wonderful weekend so far!

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I've got another dream lover.

Luella blouse: ebay. H+M palm print trousers: £15 (can't find them online, I'm afraid, but only bought them this month so should still be in-store!). Bally boots: £8, charity shop. Cheap Monday sunglasses. Rotary watch. Topshop Really Ruby lipstick.

It may not be blue sea and SPF 50, but I considered my trip to Cardiff to be a little holiday, so when better to whack out the palm prints? H+M is a store that I never seem to find anything in (being over a size 6 woes, etc.), but a meander through from Topshop to the gym ended up with me making a little purchase I don't regret in the slightest. In lesson two of Don't Rely On Boys To Take Your Photos, I've paired them with my favourite white shirt, but Luke has inspired me to wear them on Mondays weekends with a slouchy sweatshirt.

Saturday was much sunnier, so we headed into town for a wander round the shops. Cardiff is full of tiny, twisting Victorian arcades, and Gemma recommended I head into Spillers Records (she had me at oldest record shop in the world) before I resisted a whole lot of denim-skirt-shaped temptation in Urban Outfitters. I'm sure it won't be long before I'm back, but do let me know if there any any places in the UK you'd recommend for a long weekend away - I'm fully intending to rinse my YP railcard for all it's worth before it expires.

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Torchwood.

Zara coat (old): £30. Vintage shirt: £2, charity shop. Warehouse denim skirt: £2, sample sale. Marks and Spencer bowling bag (old): £43. Bally chelsea boots: £8, charity shop. Rotary watch. Rimmel Kate Moss 08 lipstick.

Guess who was naïve? I headed over to Cardiff a couple of weeks back to watch the general election. I gave up around 4am (stellar effort, I maintain), yet the others made a night of it and didn't take all too kindly to me shoving a camera in their hands the next day, when the only thing they wanted to concentrate on was a pillow. Still, who could resist a backdrop like this? On a grey May afternoon Cardiff Bay was looking pretty spectacular, even if some of us weren't too keen to capture it.

On a more chronological note, I headed straight to Paddington from work and was in my friend's flat before everything kicked off, glass of Cava in hand, bottle of vodka in kitchen. You probably know what happened next, so we cheered things up the next morning by heading to Bill's on the way to the Doctor Who Experience. I found the latter pretty amusing, the ones on less sleep found it harrowing, but my fifteen year old whovian came to the fore and loved every bloody minute of it. That evening I headed into town while people recovered, and I met up with my main welsh babe Gem to explore what the capital had to offer. We headed off to a street food market for a catch up over meat, and would definitely recommend popping by for their words of wisdom.

Part two coming your way soon and, in the meantime, here's to making the most of the Bank Holiday!

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