The Woods 31.08.14

Jake and I went to the woods handily located at the end of my road this evening. It was the perfect time for pictures as the sun was just going down which looked really nice reflected on the water. Haven't really been up to much since Reading as I've been quite ill, but hopefully some more interesting posts soon! 

I'm wearing this gorgeous snakeskin effect velvet top from ASOS Marketplace, black Jamie jeans from Topshop and my docs, as usual. I should really start wearing some other shoes from time to time...

Hope you like:)

Eloïse x

Reading Festival 21.08.14 - 25.08.14

Ella and I have just got back from spending our August bank holiday weekend at Reading Festival. Although feeling slightly like death now, IT WAS SO WORTH IT.

We arrived on Thursday late-afternoon so we struggled to find a pitch for the 5 tents we had collectively, and ended up in White camp which is the furthest away from everything - probably about a mile walk from the stages. The walk was a bit tedious but it was worth being away from all the incidents that went on in the more central campsites (we have heard some rather peculiar stories). 

It was the line-up that attracted us to the festival this year, with some of our favourite bands playing - Arctic Monkeys, Cage the Elephant, Queens of the Stone Age, Royal Blood, The Kooks, Temples and way more. Out of all the bands we saw, the majority of them were in the NME tent which was great as the sound was so good. However, with Arctic Monkeys, we were quite disappointed as they sounded really quiet and the crowd wasn't very lively at all. A highlight were probably Royal Blood who put on such a great live performance. The atmosphere for them was incredible but we did have to move slightly further out of the crowd because we were being completely crushed!

When we weren't seeing music, we found that there wasn't really much to do apart from hang around the campsite, but we did spend a while seeing comedians which was a nice change from being jostled about to music. The most annoying thing about the festival was probably how expensive the food was - you weren't allowed to bring your own food or drink into the main arena which meant spending £7 for a bad quality burger. We will definitely be bringing our own food to cook on our campfire next time!

Overall we had such a great time and cannot wait for the festival season to return again next year.

Hope you like the photos and depending on how Ella's disposable pictures come out, we might put another post up of those:) 

x 

Rainy Camden 18.08.14

On Monday afternoon, we ventured out to Camden Town to do a bit of experimenting and mucking around with the new camera. Unfortunately, it poured with rain pretty much the whole time so we had to shelter in Pret and sob quietly (not really we just ate popcorn and got excited for Reading Festival ((WHICH WE'RE GOING TO TOMORROW WOO))). Although it's slightly depressing feeling it get so much colder, it's so nice being able to wear coats and cosy jumpers again!

Eloïse is wearing: black t-shirt from her dad's wardrobe, ripped jeans from Topshop, Doc Marten boots, tiered necklace from H&M and black coat from TK Maxx,

and Ella is wearing top from River Island, boots from Office, bag from Primark and denim jacket stolen from her mum.

In a way, the weather was good preparation for Reading, where it will probably rain buckets and completely soak our tents and all our possessions. But that's all part of the British festival experience, right?

Enjoy your weekend! 

Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 Polaroid Camera Review

I recently received a Fujifilm polaroid camera as a birthday present and already, I've nearly finished my second packet of polaroid film paper. Although taking photos on a DSLR is great if you're looking for top quality pictures, I think photos are often lost and forgotten about if you don't have hard copies of them. 

How does it work?

The camera itself is really basic. It literally has two buttons. One to pop the lens out, and one to take the pictures. Although the camera is really simple to use, it does take a bit of practice to gauge how to take the best pictures. There are five different settings you can choose from to maximise picture quality, particularly exposure - so the camera can take great photos both indoors and out. A really handy feature of the camera (that took me a while to figure out) ((I didn't read the instructions)) is that it has a little LED light which shows which of the 5 settings is most suitable for the light and conditions of the scene you're taking a picture of. 

Appearance

The Fujifilm comes in 5 colours and has a matte finish, and looks quite like a toy with its chunky size and big buttons. The camera is really nice to hold but can be quite cumbersome to carry around - but the upside is that you don't need a specific camera bag for it because there isn't a screen or anything that could get scratched or damaged. 

Pros and Cons

Pros: 

-Good fun watching the polaroids develop and it only takes a couple of minutes

-Really easy to use

-Takes AA batteries 

-Colours come out really vividly if taken on correct setting

Cons:

- Even if you use the recommended setting, the photo quality can be mixed, for example some still come out over-exposed

-Instax film is fairly expensive so you have to be really sure you're getting the perfect shot each time

My Polaroids

Here are some I've taken so far. I've included a couple of the over-exposed ones so you can see what it looks like when it doesn't come out perfectly!

Twins in France 09.08.14

As you might have seen in my last post, before my trip to Paris I'd spent a week in South-West France at my boyfriend Jake's parents' house. His parents run a small music festival in their huge back garden every year, which is when I had the chance to take some pictures with my friends Holly and Summer. Although the stormy weather put a bit of a downer on the event at times, some of the acts were actually amazing and the whole place was decorated with loads of colourful bunting so it was a really nice atmosphere. If you want to check out a couple of the acts, look here for Kate Stone, a good friend of the twins and Jake, and here for M.A.Z.O,  the most weird and wonderful French band I've ever come across. Emphasis on 'weird'.

It was lovely taking pictures with the twins as they run such a nice blog, the-twins-wardrobe.blogspot.co.uk which you should definitely check out. I've also included some random pictures of little decorationy bits from the festival which I helped make and put up - a personal favourite was the KNITTED CAR. 

(What I'm wearing: Silver velvet skirt from Topshop, grey tank top from H&M, velvet detail kimono from ASOS, chelsea boots from Topshop and necklace from Topshop).

Hope you like, Eloïse x