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Photo Diary; Weekend in Leeds

Hilton Hotel, Leeds City Centre, Little Tokyo

For mine and my fiancé’s 3 year anniversary I decided to treat him to a weekend away.
Lucky for me The Hilton Hotel has some great offers on right now. Their Leeds hotel was just as lovely as any of their others I had previously visited. With a gym, swimming pool, spa, restaurant and bar you could stay inside all weekend! 
As tempting as that was, we did venture outside eventually…
I had a few places I wanted to visit, such as Harvey Nichols, Seasons, Topshop and Urban Outfitters.
Unfortunately neither Harvey Nichols nor Seasons had the Marc Jacobs phone case I have been searching for. I think I will definitely have to buy it online. However, Topshop and Urban Outfitters did have what I wanted. I shall post those later!
After some retail therapy we headed to Little Tokyo, a wonderful Japanese restaurant that Sami had previously introduced me to. Their food is delicious, especially their vegan options. I’m not a vegan myself, but I love vegetables and tofu.
It did snow quite a bit that weekend, and unfortunately it disrupted our stay a little, meaning we had to head home early so we didn’t get caught up in any delays on the train. Any Brits reading this will know of the chaos that snow causes to our transport every year.
Unfortunately the battery died in the camera, so there aren’t as many photos as I would have liked, sorry.
bloomzy /

Photo Diary; Kawagoe, Japan

Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan 川越、埼玉県、日本

Whilst I was studying at university in Tokyo my class would often go on field trips.
Anthropology was easily my favourite class, and always had the best trips. The pictures above are from the time we went to Kawagoe, a city in Saitama, the prefecture just above Tokyo. 
The city is famous for its old-fashioned buildings, dating from the Edo period. ‘Candy Street’ is also a well known spot in Kawagoe, selling traditional Japanese sweets at low prices. One more thing that the city is famous for is sweet potato. You can find various incarnations of the food in most shops, my favourite was Sweet Potato Ice Cream. 
bloomzy /

Birthday Gifts 2

Some gifts from friends

I shall certainly be smelling nice for the rest of the year (not that I don’t already), with some gorgeous items from Lush. 
Little Green Bag includes: Squeaky Green Shampoo & Jungle Solid Conditioner, Sugar Scrub, Sea Vegetable Soap and Each Peach and Two’s a Pair Massage Bar and Tin.
Buttercup includes: Butterball bath bomb and Honey I Washed the Kids soap.
Some old favourites of mine, and some new ones that I can’t wait to try!
The Tea gift set is from the wonderful Teapigs online store and included: Yerba Mate, Lemon & Ginger, Super Fruit and Mao Feng Green Tea. All amazing teas that I adore – can’t wait to relax with this!!
You all know my love for Matcha (powdered green tea) by now, well you can also buy it at Teapigs!
Finally, an absolutely amazing present.
This t-shirt is from my friend Zak, we lived together in Tokyo and went to the same university there. Whilst we were studying in Tokyo we often came up with strange, random things on our commutes. This is one of those things – yep, it’s me riding atop a sting ray yelling “キモチィィィ” (Japanese for ‘wonderful feeling’). He drew and designed it whilst we were in Tokyo, and this year he put it on a t-shirt for me.
Thank you to all my wonderful friends ♥
bloomzy /

Instagram Weekly 2

This week; plenty of eating…mainly homemade food, which I have been making myself. My love for cooking seems to have been rekindled early in the New Year. 
I finally began to unpack and place new items onto workspaces etc. 
The unpacking was short lived though as I headed off to a hotel & spa with the fiancé for the weekend; hot stone massages and rose scented baths – thanks again Alanna, for the bath salts!
I also received early birthday wishes in the form of an adorable birthday card from a family friend.

bloomzy /

Velvet & Hearts ♥

(Velvet Dress; Topshop, Shoes; H&M, Accessories; Marc Jacobs & Swarovski)
New Years Eve Celebrations; Dressing-up for Mexican Food

I don’t usually go ‘all out’ on NYE, just drinks/food with friends or family. 
For 2011 I wanted to spend it with family, as it was our first New Year together for 2 years – I had abandoned them for Japan in previous years. 
Anyway we (parents, me and the fiancé) booked a table at a Mexican restaurant in the city, as I adore Mexican food. Needless to say the night was wonderful, filled with good food, cocktails & champagne. I couldn’t have asked for more…actually I would have preferred it if I had been able to eat all my dessert, but unfortunately it was too much for me. I only managed half.
It’s a little embarrassing that I’ve only just remembered to post my NYE pictures, so please forgive me. I promise to make it up to you.
bloomzy /

Instagram Weekly 1

I love how Eki updates once a week with photos from her Instagram.

I think it adds a new twist to the ‘photo diary‘ portion of blogs.
Therefore I decided to take a leaf out of her book, as I realised that not everyone has Instagram, nor do you all follow me on Twitter and sometimes I don’t even post my photos there.

This first post will be a catch-up of my favourite photos from previous weeks, then I shall continue with the weekly updates.

Click ‘read more’ for the full post.

I hope you will enjoy this new weekly feature.
Thank you for the inspiration Eki!

bloomzy /

Treats from Japan & Paris

Delicious Christmas treats from the fiancé and friends.

This year I received some delicious treats from people.
One of my best friends from Japan sent me Matcha (Green Tea) Fran & Gianduja Meltykiss. My fiancé bought me Macarons & Matcha Madeleines from Paris, whilst his family bought me a Matcha, Cherry Cake Mix, along with some Oolong Pocky and some delectable Chocolate & Peppermint Fudge.
I have started on the madeleines, but after that I won’t know where to begin.
What do you guys think?