Epic Adventures Through The Country Park!

Despite the weatherman predicting rain at midday (completely unfounded, the weather was gorgeous!) me, my sister and Rufus - my parent's black labrador - embarked on a little adventure in the beautiful country park right on our doorstep. It's incredibly hilly as it the country park covers the valleys and cliffs from Hastings to Fairlight and beyond, but it is totally worth it if only for the views alone...

Walking up the initial hill with the Old Town in the background...

There were some wonderful flowers around and about including some blackberries and wild blueberries that we stumbled across.

*FETCH!!*

Quite a few steps! The only thing about going down them all to the see the sea, is knowing that we'd have to go back up them all again!

So pretty!

We found a picturesque little pond for Rufus to have fun in... he LOVED it!

Swwwwiiiiim!

Splish, splash, splosh!

After an epic walking adventure... all that remains is to enjoy a well deserved ice cream!

*I'm Walking on Sunshine and Don't it Feel Good!*

What absolutely glorious weather we are having! I don't know about you but all this sunny weather puts me in such a good mood! I've got endless amounts of reading, essay-writing, exam revision, job applications and interviews to prepare for, and yet I've still got a smile on my face as there is sunshine and a big blue sky! I hope you are all able to enjoy it? What better way is there to enjoy the sunshine than take Rufus out for a walk in the beautiful country park. Here are some of my photos from our walk...

Rufus loved his walk, especially when we bumped into a lovely golden retriever, I think Rufus made a new friend :)

One of my favourite views in the country park. It makes walking up all the steps and steep hills worth it!

The white blossom and yellow gorse flowers were beautiful!

It still makes me sad to look at the poor burnt-out pier :(

I love living in the Old Town, everywhere is so pretty and the perfect walking distance from shops, bars and restaurants.

How have you been enjoying the sunshine?

Dollydagger - Gorgeous Retro Style Dresses - Floral, Forties and Frills!

I just love Dollydagger, I love their retro styled dresses and their cute and quirky accessories. They stock a range of vintage inspired styles from the forties style Stop Staring dresses to 80's style prom dresses and a little bit of fifties Rockabilly in between! Here are three dresses that I am currently loving from the Dollydagger website...

I absolutely LOVE this dress!! Scarlet English Rose Dress for £130 Apparently the skirt has a whopping 5m of fabric to give it that beautiful very fifties shape. Love it!

Cherry Red Obsession Dress by Stop Staring for £163 I love the pleated waist-band and curve-hugging skirt... even if those two things don't necessarily love me! Even though it doesn't suit my body shape, it doesn't stop me loving it.

Red Star Print Party Dress for £55 this adorable dress comes with detachable straps (which is good for me, I can't wear strapless dresses) and in 5 different colours. Perfect for an upcoming party! I love the look of the this dress with a gorgeous frilly petticoat peeping out of the bottom.

Double Dose of Polka Dots: Luggage

This Monday's double dose of polka dots to kick-start your week have a holidaying theme. It's the summer holidays and most of the UK are taking their family holidays abroad, going camping or visiting family, and lets face it, we have to travel in style! I've got two wheel-around cases, both are polka dot, one big, one small, and I couldn't travel anywhere without them!

I love my red polka dot case, it was only £25 for the set (including a hand luggage bag as well) from Argos. Bargain!

What better to accompany your gorgeous polka dot luggage than this cute polka dot luggage tag from Daisy Shoppe for $12.95

Tesco's Clothing - Fabfrock's Summer Wedding Outfit Competition!

I am an avid follower of the Lovely FabFrock's blog and I've also been following her on Twitter for a while as well... So, when she posted about a competition, I entered right away!

The hopeful entrants must create a summer wedding outfit from Tesco's Clothing, but with a catch, it must cost under £30! The lucky winner will win £30 to spend at Tescos. For more information on Fabfrock's competition, and to enter, visit her blog. I love a bargain, I love creating outfits, I love summer and I love a little challenge! If you do too, I suggest you get your calculator out, browse the Tesco Clothing website and get creating!

Here is my entry!

Tesco - summer wedding outfit by abbiehayden on Polyvore.com

Holiday dresses fit for Italy!

I am a very lucky young lady, I'm off to Italy for two weeks! This time on Monday I will be in Rome and I am incredibly excited. It is my first holiday in about four years, and it is definitely much needed! My aim for this holiday, is to pack nothing but pretty dresses (aside from the swimming costume, naturally) nothing makes me happier than gorgeous dresses and sunshine!

As soon as my last exam was over I decided to go into Leeds and treat myself to a nice dress or two! I have got quite a few casual day dresses so I splashed out on this gorgeous floral dress adorned with pearls from Dorothy Perkins. Perfect for a nice meal out in Rome!

I have been totally lusting after this beautiful blue floral dress from Peacocks since I saw online, I went into the shop with the express wish to add this little beauty to my collection of dresses... but to my dismay they had totally sold out of my size! So I will have to admire this lovely dress from afar...

Trainee teachers just a-wanna have fun!

Seeing as the weather has been so lovely, and I'm turning 23 on Sunday, I decided to have a little soiree in my back garden. My fellow Leeds friends and I are all trainee primary school teachers, and are all big kids, so naturally we decided to have a children's themed birthday party...

Every good children's party... and any other kind of party for that matter!... needs cupcakes!

For that sugar-high, lots of cherryade, cream soda and lemonade was had by all.

Scrummy burgers and sausages! Delish!

We played party games and pass the parcel, and of course, we all had party bags filled to the brim with sweets and a party blower :)

Even the bunnies got to join in with the fun :D

Summer Garden!

I have been inspired by the beautiful weather to write a summer garden blog post. To prepare for the summer weather I have given our garden a good tidy and sort out. I started thinking... there is definitely something missing from our garden... colour! For me summer is about bright colours and sunshine. But my garden, (lovely as it is) is green, green, and more green. So I made myself a little visual wish list on Polyvore to help brighten up my garden this summer.

Summer Garden by abbiehayden on Polyvore.com

I love the mini BBQ perfect for a garden that is short on space, and of course no BBQ should be without this gorgeous floral apron!

Garden tea party by abbiehayden featuring Dahlia dresses

What I am looking forward to most is tea parties in the garden this summer, and what tea party is complete without cupcakes, tea pots, cake stands... and bunnies!

Summery florals and sunshine!

Is the summer finally here!? I'm not going to waste any time and I'm going to make the most of the sunshine while it's here... after all who knows when it will show it's happy face again!? So I have put on a floral summer dress, pretty little bow shoes and I'm going to put on some sun cream, go out and enjoy the sunshine! I suggest you all do the same! Here is my summer outfit for today:

Pretty floral buttoned dress from River Island for£21.99

Cute black polka dot bow pumps from Debenhams for £12

Sunshine and Cake in Wandsworth Common

I am visiting my lovely sister The Style PA in London for two weeks while I am on placement at London Aquarium. It was my first day and the weather was gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky and definitely T-shirt and shorts temperature! So me and Jenny headed along to Wandsworth Common and stopped off at Crumpet for an icy cold Coke and a slice of cake.

Icy cold Coke and scrummy carrot cake!

close up... the lemon icing was lovely!

To finish off our afternoon and to enjoy the sunshine to the fullest we spread a blanket in the common, ate olives, and did crossword puzzles... what can I say? we live life on the edge!