Fat Frocks

My week in photos

By Gem - 17:57:00

I had a really lovely week last week involving lots of good food, friends and fireworks. It really doesn't get much better than that. I missed out on all the big organised firework displays because Martyn had work on the weekend so I planned a little evening in the garden to celebrate bonfire night.

This is a picture of food on bonfire night, currywurst, hotdogs and mulled wine.

I made a obscene amount of food for two people including hotdogs, currywurst, mulled wine. baked Camembert and toasted marshmallows. Yum! Currywurst is my favourite, I wish takeaway places in the UK served it. The Germans are on to a good thing.

I had way too much fun with the sparklers, anyone would think I was 5 years old.

We needed plenty of mulled wine to keep warm and I wore my lovely new Blue Melon hat. They have a wide selection from lots of brands so if you're off to France to ski this season or just want something to fight off the cold British Weather take a look at Blue Melon.

Both neighbours had lovely fireworks, thanks for the free display ;)

On Saturday I went shopping in Cardiff and headed to Spillers Records to see what new stock they had in and had lunch in Wallys. (post to follow on this)

This is a photo of Spillers Records in Cardiff

Amy kindly invited me along to Cardiff Comicon with her on Saturday afternoon. I loved seeing everyone so dressed up and I'm definitely going to go as Osgood next time. I've never done any cosplay before but why not ey? It's pretty surreal seeing some of your favourite cast members from shows like Game of Thrones and Doctor Who in the flesh, I hope the Cardiff event grows. Doctor Who and Sherlock are both made in Cardiff so it would be great to see more panel discussions from cast and crew here like they have in the big San Diego Comicon.

What did you get up to last week?

8 Comments

Bath

Trip to Bath Pt 2 - Royal Crescent and Roman Baths

By Gem - 09:00:00

I had so many photos of my Bath trip to share, I thought it would be a good idea to do a second post. I've already spoken a little about where I stayed on my recent trip to Bath and my visit to the Assembly Rooms so this post is more about what I saw.

Two masterpieces that should not be missed on a trip to this historic city are the Royal Crescent, a beautiful crescent curve of townhouses, and the nearby Circus, a circular street. Even though I've seen them before I was still impressed by the scale and symmetry of the buildings, they really are stunning.

Bath stone is used to clad most of the cities’ beautiful Georgian buildings. Much of the city has not changed over the past 200 years. Even today, modern builders must use the same building materials in the heart of the city.

The Romans knew that they were on to a good thing when they discovered natural warm water springs in the then swamp areas around Bath. They built the Roman Baths so they could clean and socialise. Entrance to the Baths and museum is well worth the fee. You will be given a free audio player, which gives an overview of the site and more information about the artifacts found there when you enter and there are informative free tours with a guide once an hour on the hour.

I found the curse tablets particularly fascinating. The curses, which date back between the 2nd and 4th century AD, are mostly written in Latin on pieces of lead and pewter and are addressed to the goddess Sulis Minerva.

One of the tablets is written in British Celtic - the only text known to survive in that language - while another tablet contains the earliest known use of the word Christian in Britain. People used the tablets to ask the goddess to punish thieves. One tablet asks for an somones intestines to be ‘quite eaten away’, while another one reveals that the victim of a theft of a bronze vessel wanted the cup to be filled with the thief’s blood.

We did loads of walking that day so I'm glad I wore my comfortable Clarks pumps. It's not easy trapsing around on the cobbles (I wouldn't dare wear high heels on them) but luckily all the main sights Martyn and I wanted to see were only ten minutes way from our lovely hotel.

After a full day of sightseeing we headed back to our hotel with an obscene amount of tasty takeaway from Schwartz Bros burgers and watched Doctor Who in the fluffy robes the hotel provided and had a mini pamper session and put a face mask on.

My weekend trip to Bath with Martyn was lovely and I can't wait to head to Budapest with him for a week long adventure at the end of this month.

13 Comments

Cardiff

Cathays Park Day Out - Made by Hand Wales & National Museum Cardiff

By Gem - 12:53:00

On Saturday I headed into Cardiff to have an afternoon stroll around Cathays Park and make the most of what the area has to offer. I visited the National Museum but before that I headed to Made by Hand Wales.

Made by Hand Wales is the first craft event of its kind to be supported by the Arts Council of Wales Fund and demonstrates a big commitment from Welsh Government to support small creative businesses across Wales. The craft event was host to over 135 of the designers and was in the plush surroundings of City Hall. Not only could you buy handmade goods there was also a full programme of free children's workshops, adult workshops, demonstrations and talks every day about contemporary craft & art by leading makers, historians and curators.

There was so much to see and take in there and I wanted to buy so many lovely things, there was a lot to take in and all of it was of such a high quality.

Here are some of my favourite things I saw at the event:

I really want one of these lamps with Newport and Blackwood on it, grace & favour home make them and if you want a custom one head over to this site. Grace & Favour Home is the work of Designer/Maker Rachael Rowe who works from her studio on the edge of Dartmoor to create unique homewares with a vintage inspired point of view. Every piece is made in the Devon studio by hand, sounds good right?

The wirework art is by Helaina Sharpley, the Christmas decorations are by kirsty (she also has a wonderful shop in the Castle Arcade in Cardiff), the ceramics are by Ken Eardley and the cute gifts are by Megan Alice England.

I'm definetly looking forward to this being an annual event that I can attend, it's a great place to find something unique. It's a bit of a shame for me and my city (Newport) that the fair has left as it was held in Tredegar House the previous two years. I hope the more central location in Cardiff gives the artists and craftsmen more opportunity to sell and promote their work.

Next on my itinerary that afternoon was a trip to see the Artes Mundi prize at the National Museum. I've got my 'going to see serious art' face on in the photo below.

This major international contemporary art exhibition and the UK’s biggest art prize, returns to Cardiff. It's going to be on display there until February 22nd if you want to go and check it out yourself. It brings some of the world’s most pioneering artists to National Museum Cardiff and features groundbreaking work including film installations, sculpture, painting and performance. The theme this year is the human condition.

I tried to like it, I really did. Some of the installations provoked some thought but I think I needed a guided tour. I didn't know much about the artists and this type or art isn't really my area of expertise. Am I just really uncultured? Probably.

Now the rest of the art collection they have does reflect my area of interests. There are some wonderful paintings of the Valleys and industrial South Wales, a great exhibition featuring WWII lithographs and Welsh art from the Early Modern period.

What I really love about the National Museum is its collection of Impressionist art donated to the museum but the Davies sisters. Gwendoline Davies (1882-1951) and Margaret Davies (1884-1963) were the granddaughters of David Davies who made his fortune during the industrialisation of Victorian Wales.
He built much of the railway system in mid-Wales and was a pioneer of the coal industry in south Wales.
Their childhood was dominated by the strict beliefs of Calvinistic Methodism. They learned that it was their Christian duty to make good use of the great wealth they would inherit.
As young women they developed a deep love of the visual arts and music and travelled widely in Europe and both sisters served with the French Red Cross during the First World War. The sisters championed social, economic, educational and cultural initiatives in Wales. Their idealism and generosity had a huge impact on the cultural and intellectual life of Wales which is still with us today.

There are two of my favourite items in the collection:

Claude Monet, Waterlillies,1908 - Pierre-Auguste Renoir, La Parisienne, 1874

Not only does Cathays Park area have City Hall and the National Museum it also has lots of other lovely listed buildings and is a very pretty civic area. I work here everyday and never get bored of my surroundings.

This is a picture of Main Building, Cardiff University

Cardiff University Main Building

This is a picture of the Welsh National War Memorial

Alexandra Gardens with the Welsh National War Memorial

Did you go to the Made by Wales Event?
Have you ever visited this area of Cardiff?

9 Comments

asos

Outfit post - Boohoo Plus

By Gem - 11:37:00

T-shirt: Boohoo Plus - Boots: Primark - Skirt: ASOS - Bracelet: Alexander McQueen

I haven't posted an outfit for around 6 weeks, I'm going to have to rename this blog Fat Travels or Fat Cooks a lot. It's always too dark or raining to take nice photos in the UK at the moment so no whimsical photos in a field sorry, you get photos in my bedroom where the camera is balanced on a pile of books. I've been wearing this outfit a lot on weekends recently. I tend to stick to the librarian who wears a lot of Joules look in work but try to be a bit more casual on weekends. I can't recommend this skirt enough, it's super heavy and the perfect length. All skater skirts are indecently short at the moment (maybe I'm just getting old?) so I treated myself to this more demure ASOS midi.

I don't wear this bracelet enough, it was a impulse sale purchase a few years ago and I'm trying to get the cost per wear down a little. Pairing it with my new favourite outfit means it's getting out of its box more frequently.

Trying to find cheap boots that fit my wide feet is a yearly nightmare for me. Wide fit shoes tend to be ugly and aimed at a 50yr old + market so I snapped these wide fit Primark beauties up as son as I saw them.

I've got my arms out! I never get my arms out. I'm learning to embrace my bingo wings.

I've been posting loads of photos over on instagram recently so if you like photos of cake and other calorific food head over there to take a look. Instagram tends to get all the moments that aren't big enough to get a blog post. Leave your instagram name below if you use it, I'm always looking for new people to follow.