So its been a while since I've posted and been even longer since I've done one of these posts. My bad. Its been a busy few weeks and I've been up to lots of stuff.

1. I finally booked my holiday! I'm off to Crete in July for 10 days in the sun with Jared. I've worked hard to save for this trip and it feels so good to finally have it all booked and sorted. I've just got the car hire left to organise and then all that's left to do is get excited! I've already bought a new bikini and I'm constantly thinking about new outfits I want to take with me. I can't wait!

2. My sister Ellie got me this adorably cute gift just because. Firstly isn't that just the nicest thing? A surprise present for no reason at all? And its from Paperchase which is where the stationary gods place their gifts for me to drool over. A big thank you to her, the notebook lives in my bag so I can jot down random things I need to remember. So not only is it pretty but its also useful.

3. During the Easter holidays I pretty much just worked (in order to pay for uni next year and for Crete) but I did manage a weekend back in Southampton to see Jared. We wanted to go to the beach but it was raining so went off to explore Winchester. Its such a cute little place and as I've previously mentioned on this blog reminds me so much of Salisbury. The main thing we had come to see was the cathedral which is stunning and I had no idea it was *quite* that old. After a cheeky McDonalds we spent most of the afternoon in a second hand book shop which sorta made me feel like we were in a Match.com advert or something. I got a book on watercolour painting as a gift for Ellie, to say thank you for my notebook.

4. As we are now in the start of the new tax year I got some holiday pay. I wasn't expecting to receive this and it made an excellent contribution towards paying for my trip. Nice to get a little unexpected something extra.

5. Last weekend was a special occasion so Jared and I went away for the weekend to Exmouth in Devon. Although the weather was rubbish we had a lovely few days and watched a lot of films and ate huge amounts of food. We made an excellent playlist so the drive down was pretty fun as well.  After a stressful week full of deadlines it was really nice to escape to some fresh sea air.

6. As mentioned above I had a big essay due to last week and I am relieved to see the back of it!

7. A quick shopping trip turned into damn I need more lipsticks. I got these on a 3 for 2 offer and I am just loving the purple shades for Spring!

Winchester Christmas Market

Do I look like a tit? Probably.

Spent today exploring the quaint city of Winchester. Having only ever been there on a (stressful) trip to drop off my sister who was visiting a friend I was taken aback by how beautiful and quintessentially  English this little place is. The cathedral is simply breathtaking and the narrow, winding streets with historic buildings made me homesick for my own little city: Salisbury.

While I often rate Salisbury as one of the dullest places to live today I remembered why I love it so much. When visiting Winchester I looked at it through a visitors eyes and was immediately charmed by its comforting familiarity to home.

I visited with a group of friends from uni who mostly consisted of my housemates and after a quick 15min train journey (that only cost £4.50 for a return!) we arrived.

Our main reason for this trip was to visit the Christmas market as Southamptons is a bit shit and it did not disappoint. We've had such a lovely festive day browsing the little shops and admiring all the lovely things that we couldn't afford haha.

All the pretty things...

We've also had some festive food which for me included one of the creamiest hot chocolates I've ever had and doughnuts drowned in chocolate sauce and sprinkled with cinnamon. It was literally heaven. The others had everything from mulled wine to roasted chestnuts.

I meant it when I said they were drowned in chocolate!

I've also fallen slightly in love with the fur headband pictured above but can't decide it I look like a moron in it or not.

While we were there we decided it would be super cute for us to pose in the nativity scene and that we would look cool as opposed to ridiculous. But still, it was fun.

Looking like knobheads #whocares

Winchester, I will definitely be back. There are lots of delightfully preppy shops (ie. Joules) that scummy Southampton does not have and a wide variety of really nice looking cafes and bars to visit.
Also go to the market while its still there. It has an ice rink which we were all too poor to have a go on but it just doesn't get more Christmassy than this!