Farewell Leeds!

Horsforth, Leeds

Our new flat building, Central London

Today is my last official full day in Horsforth, Leeds. While I've mostly enjoyed my time in the north, I cannot wait to get back to London and so my fiancé and I can begin our new life.

To look or not to look?

I've been busy with my mum coming over from the US to visit for most of the month of September! It was so great to see her, and we had some excellent adventures in flat hunting in London (the most competitive thing I've ever experienced), shopping in Leeds city centre, and playing tourists. It was great!
She also brought me over my wedding ring, which I love and am so excited about. The wedding is only 54 days away, and is coming up so quickly. Sometimes, when I find myself tidying up our bedroom, I take it from it's hiding place and admire it. Or, I admit, put it on and admire it. I just can't wait.

The closed box taunts me. 

Voila! 
Does anyone else nerd out over their wedding ring and try it on constantly before the wedding day? I can't be alone!

Alternatives to Peanut Butter

While I was at Whole Foods in London last weekend with my fiancé, I discovered a miracle in the form of sunflower butter.
As a former vegan, I used to eat all kinds of different nut butters besides peanut butter. My top two favorites were almond butter, and cashew butter. Both are so much better for you than regular old peanut butter, and livened up any sandwich or toast.
Unfortunately, for some reason I became very allergic to tree nuts and ground nuts after about 6 months of being vegan, and had to give up my favorite tasty, healthy snack.

When I found sunflower butter at Whole Foods, it was like the world had opened back up again. Alight - a bit dramatic, but I loved my peanut butter sandwiches and peanut butter toast.  I highly recommend it, and it's perfectly safe for those with nut allergies!

What other alternative types of nut butters and seed butters do you recommend?

Laura Marling at Royal Albert Hall

Since moving to London two years ago, I've purchased tickets three times to see Laura Marling. On Saturday, July 7, the third I purchased tickets I finally got to see her at Royal Albert Hall in London.

What kind of (former gig!) photographer doesn't bring her camera on a a weekend trip away, especially when going to a concert? A very tired one. I have been suffering on and off from glandular fever since the end of May, and after a trip to London the Wednesday before where I had relapsed a bit, I didn't want to lug around another bag when it was supposed to be a nice weekend with my fiancé.

But I digress.

Laura was brilliant, though the sound at Royal Albert Hall was dodgy. My fiance and I started out in the stalls, sitting. Laura played in the middle on a circular stage, turning to each four miss so that her back was only to one part of the audience audience a quarter of the time.

She began the night singing the entirety of her 2011 album A Creature I Do Not Know. She said she was nervous and had "never felt so alone", but every time she began a song she sounded confident and clear.

There was a brief intermission, and she came back to sing other tracks off her other two albums, as well as two new songs.  During this time my fiancé and I snuck down to where people were standing up around the stage, where the sound of the concert was much better. Laura informed the audience she didn't do encores two songs before the end of her set, and the night ended around ten pm, as she was the only act.
It was a pretty lovely experience, and even though the sound of Royal Albert Hall is historically bad, it is a really beautiful and historic venue.





Photo couresty of Katie Sara Anderson via flickr.
*edit*

The fiancé in front of the stage after the gig.

Me in front of the stage after the gig. 

Book Reccomendation

I've been busy alternately reading dissertation materials, and also the amazing book The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. It's part of a series - or a cycle, as it states in the beginning of the Prisoner of Heaven.

I first read The Shadow of the Wind, the first released book in the cycle in 2005. It instantly went to the top of my favorite book list, and has stayed there ever since. Here's the book description from Amazon.co.uk.

Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the 'cemetery of lost books', a labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles that have long gone out of print. To this library, a man brings his 10-year-old son Daniel one cold morning in 1945. Daniel is allowed to choose one book from the shelves and pulls out 'La Sombra del Viento' by Julian Carax.
But as he grows up, several people seem inordinately interested in his find. Then, one night, as he is wandering the old streets once more, Daniel is approached by a figure who reminds him of a character from La Sombra del Viento, a character who turns out to be the devil. This man is tracking down every last copy of Carax's work in order to burn them. What begins as a case of literary curiosity turns into a race to find out the truth behind the life and death of Julian Carax and to save those he left behind. A page-turning exploration of obsession in literature and love, and the places that obsession can lead.

It's such a beautiful novel, and the translation from Spanish to English is absolutely seamless. The language in the book is beautiful to read, and the story is absolutely fantastic. I re-read this book probably once every year and a half or so, and end up appreciating it in new ways.

The other two books take place in the same world of the cemetery of forgotten books, one being a prequel of sorts.

The Angel's Game.

The Prisoner of Heaven. 

The BEST Scone Recipe

I didn't end up making it down to London this weekend due to financial reasons (it would have been £125 for two rail tickets, with rail cards, which is insanity). But before I knew that, Friday I made two batches of my all-time favorite scone recipe to bring down to the barbecue.

Scones are perfect - eat them for breakfast, as a snack, for desert. Butter, jam, clotted cream or plain they suit for all occasions. This recipe doesn't use eggs, and is so simple and quick.

Ingredients:

225g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
30g caster sugar
55g butter
55g raisins or sultanas (optional)
150ml milk

-Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar in a bowl, then rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the raisins or sultanas, if using.
-Bit by bit, add 150ml milk until you have a firm dough. Turn out onto a floured work surface.
-Pat the dough into a circle about 1 1/2 cm thick and cut out the scones
-Put onto a non-stick baking sheet and brush the tops with milk. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Serve with butter, or jam and cream.

I find usually that I tend to have some milk left over at the end, and it's not necessary to use it all. I just use the excess milk to brush over the tops before popping them in the oven.

Recipe from BBC GoodFood.

Dissertation Beginning

I'm a post-graduate student in Library Science at City University London, and the books I've ordered for pre-reading have finally come in. I'm going to try to complete most of my dissertation in July, as I'll be flying back to the states for all of August for surgery on my foot.

I guess these will be keeping me company for a long time!

I've had a bit of wedding dress drama. I thought I was ready to commit to the dress I found in this last post, but my mother has told me that she has found a designer who is willing to make me any dress I want, for the same price. I'm so distraught over this. It's true that the other dress is a bit formal, but I really love the back bar bit. I just have always pictured myself in something shorter because it's going to be a civil ceremony at a town hall.
I'm in desperate need of advice! Should I stick with that dress, or go down the route of designing something I won't be able to see in person for another two months?

Completely off-topic, but a bit wedding related-I found this cute little blog article asking if it is annoying to call someone your fiancé. Relevant, because I always find myself questioning using that word.

I'm off to a busy London weekend tomorrow, be back Monday!

Zucchini/Courgette bread step-by-step

I had the promised dinner party as yesterday, which was basically just Dan's former housemate coming over for a meal and to catch up. But any excuse to try out a new recipe. I made the zucchini bread from Proud Italian Cook as planned. And it was simple, impressive looking, and tasted beautiful!


I know this is a photography blog for the most part, so I want to apologize ahead of time for the terrible quality iPhone photos of this step-by-step bit.

Ingredients are two zucchinis, halved. Cherry tomatoes, halved. Crushed garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Optional ingredients are bread crumbs, and manchego and parmesan cheese. But those can easily be left to make the recipe either gluten free or vegan.

I started out by scooping the seeds out of the zucchini halves with a teaspoon, and was left with little zucchini boats.

I crushed the garlic, chopped the tomatoes, and got out a bowl for the olive oil/garlic/salt/pepper mixture.

Assembled the zucchini by spreading around the olive oil/garlic mixture in the indent from scooping out the seeds, and placed the tomatoes slice end up. I sprinkled bread crumbs over the top.

Set an alarm on my phone for 30 minutes. (Our oven lacks a timer. And also, temperature labels, so it's all guess work.)

Prepared the manchego cheese and got ready to shred the parmesan, which I put on after they'd been in the over for about 25 minutes.

I poked bits of manchego between the tomatoes, and shredded parmesan on top, and baked for another 5-8 minutes.
Voila! Not as pretty as the photos on the Proud Italian Cook page, mostly because Dan had taken them out of the oven and served them before I had a chance to take a proper photo of them in their finished state.
They tasted amazing, and were so simple to make. I definitely recommend this recipe, especially to people who'd like to eat healthy. It's so versatile and easy to make either gluten-free or vegan.

Dinner party Tuesday!

Tonight Dan is having his former housemate over our place for the first time for dinner. He's in charge of the main course, but for a starter I'm planning on giving this amazing recipe for zucchini bread (or courgette bread) a go!

 Recipe (and photo) courtesy of Proud Italian Cook. How amazing do those look?!

Wedding Dress Shopping Round 3

After a completely mental and fun weekend at Radio 1's Hackney weekend (helllllo Jay Z!), I got back from London just in time to watch the England v Italy game, and get to bed. I crashed out early because I had a special shopping trip planned this morning with my future mother in law at The Harrogate Wedding Lounge.

So it was time for wedding dress shopping, round 3. I previously bought my other dress for my American wedding at the wonderful Kleinfeld. Besides my ordering over the internet disaster, I had tried dresses on at a few other shops but hadn't quite found what I was looking for.

My future mother-in-law and I had a wonderful time, and I tried on quite a few dresses - roughly 8 or so, before finding one I really liked.

The dress I ended up with was called Caprice, a Maggie Sottero dress, with the most dramatic back bar.  I wasn't planning on finding anything, and was really surprised when I couldn't stop thinking about it. It's totally different from my American wedding dress (a very lacy number), but so classic and lovely. I think it will work well for the town hall wedding!

Just goes to shows that sometimes what you end up picking isn't always what you have in mind when you start shopping!
Have some photos of the model with the dress, and one of me with the sample size dress on.

Saltaire, West Yorkshire.

A few weeks ago Dan took me to Saltaire, a Victorian model village near Bradford. I found it absolutely charming despite getting caught in the rain during a walk around the park and having to spend a few hours in a pub, waiting for it to let up.
After picking up a parcel in Yeadon yesterday, I asked if he could drive us to Saltaire again to take a more successful walk in the park. We watched the cricket game for a while, and of course it started to rain. This time I came prepared with an umbrella in my bag, but I had to put the camera away. Eventually we ended up at this great bar, Don't Tell Titus, and had a great dinner together.

Online Wedding Dresses & Ordering Internationally

I'm getting married...twice! First (and legally) in London this November, and then next year in May in the US so I include all my friends and family from home. I decided, with consultation from my mother who is handling the wedding budgets and funds, that I am going to get two dresses. I found my first dress at the lovely, iconic Kleinfeld in Brooklyn in April. It's a Marisa gown, and I would absolutely post a picture of it here but there seems to be no photos of it in existence online. That's for the beach wedding in the US in May 2013.

 Here I am, less than six months before the actual wedding, with no dress! I think what has really limited me so far is the fact that I had my heart set on a short dress. The majority of short dresses available are tea length, and just didn't have what I wanted-too much tulle, and ending at the calf which is an unflattering length for me. I ordered a dress from my favorite online bridal shop, BHDLD. It was a Sarah Seven number, and totally gorgeous online.

Because it was a US site, I expected an extra shipping charge. It was roughly around $80. Fine. But when the dress arrived, I got hit with the UK VAT charge (£121.32). And after that, when I decided the dress wasn't for me after all, I had to pay £69 in shipping to return it because the company required shipping it a method that they could track.

 All in all, I ended up losing out on about $480, or £300 in fees, on a $750 dress that I will never get credited for. 

 To their credit, BHLDN was very upfront about the shipping charges and return aspects on their website, so I can't fault them at all. When there was an issue in the begging with ordering the dress, their customer service department was lovely and prompt and sorted things out with one phone call. I would definitely recommend BHLDN for their wedding dresses and accessories.

 What I wouldn't recommend is ordering a wedding dress from a company outside your country, and to make sure you're highly aware of fees and taxes that your gown may be subjected to.

Unexpected Change of Plans.

I tried so hard today to get to the gym. Locating my workout leggings was a challenge, but it proved that locating my trainers was an even bigger challenge. They're not proper trainers - more like pumps, with flowers all over them. And I only found one. So, no gym for me today. I'm going to shower, put away laundry (I sound like I'm the married housewife already - gah!), and then head to the park to take some shots because the sun is shining, and Leeds is beautiful with a bit of sun on it. Have some more photo's I took yesterday as I walked back from the gym on Town Street in Horsforth, West Yorkshire.

 
Flower Shop.

The Beginning

I decided to make a photography blog for the pictures that I take while I'm out and about. I used to be a gig photographer, but since I've moved to Leeds with my fiancé and out of London, that's been put on hold. So scenery photography it is!