fields of gold

I suck at outfit posts and worse still I suck at posing. Whilst I'm fully aware of that fact and that I will never commit myself to being any kind of fashion blogger, I think I'm pretty alright at throwing together a fairly wearable outfit. Plus, who else gets their dog involved for outfit photos? 

I wore this outfit day after day on holiday, the dress is such a wonderful cut and is made of material that really flatters the figure. The white sandals are what I wore both down to the beach and for trips into town as they feel lightweight and are super comfy too. Plus I love how different they look compared to most holiday sandals.  

DRESS - H&M | SANDALS - ASOS | LIPSTICK - CHANEL  

sage nutri juicer compact

With my dinosaur of a juicer being pretty much the same age as I am and on its last legs, the wonderful people over at Sage Appliances kindly took to fixing my juicing woes and sent over a brand new shiny Nutri Juicer Compact for me to try out. I was so pleased about this that I even did a little happy dance when the postman arrived. 

I've been putting the space age looking machine through it's paces for a few days now, and having pretty much drowned myself in fruit juice I feel now is the time to report back. On first use of the juicer, I was so utterly impressed at just how quick and easy the whole process was. You are free to leave fruit like apples and pears whole, or you can chop the best bits off for an even more smooth juice. Pineapple, grapes, blueberries and softer fruits blitz away instantly and with a gentle push harder fruits are gone in a maximum of three seconds. With the machine being compact, there's no bin on the side for the pulp as with most juicers, making it the perfect solution for if you have less space on your worktop. I love this about the machine and find it so fun to watch all of the different colours building up. 

As far as the yield goes, I manage to get enough juice to fill a cup from around two/three handfuls of fruit. The pulp does end up a little slushy so I wouldn't say that the machine gets every bit of the juice out of the fruit, but it still does a damn good job compared to my previous one. It's also super quick and easy to take apart and clean once you've finished, there's even a special brush included to clean the filter/blade which is just genius and does the job perfectly. Talking of genius, the jug that collects the juice in is designed in a way that keeps the froth back once you pour it into a glass, whoever thought of that idea read my mind. 

If you're in the market for a new juicer, be it a compact version or not, I can simply not recommend this one enough. I will more than happily guarantee that should you buy one, you will love it just as much as I do. Also, should you want to give a delicious rainbow juice a go, whack in the ingredients I've shown a couple of photos above. I'm going to be giving some detoxing green juices a go too so expect to see a few more juice recipe posts coming up soon!

SAGE NUTRI JUICER COMPACT - £129.95

venice, italy

On my 21st Birthday, we hopped onto a boat at 7am which took us all the way from Rovinj (in Croatia) to Venice, and took around three hours to do so. Luckily, we'd thought ahead and paid a little extra for VIP tickets which meant we were on the top deck and had great views of the sea along with comfy seats. If you are ever thinking about doing the trip, I highly suggest you do the same, the standard seats are in tight rows and the whole deck is dark and dingy compared to upstairs. We went with Venezialines and the ticket prices are £70 VIP return, or £50 for the standard fare, which I found to be perfectly reasonable, especially considering we even spotted dolphins at sunset on the way back.

I became more and more obsessed throughout the day with looking at the glass beaded bracelets and necklaces that were for sale on almost every corner. I ended up buying three bracelets and a necklace (photo here), but could have happily bought out their entire stock. 

Tucked away from all of the tourists, we found a magical restaurant called .., which served mainly locals and had a completely traditional feel. We opted to share halves on a pizza vegetariana and this incredible dish of spinach, smoked ricotta and truffle tortellini, bloody hell it was good. 

Of course you can't visit Venice without clambering onto a Gondola. I will start by saying that the 30 minute boat trip is ridiculously expensive, especially if there's just two of you, but still, I'm so glad that I had a go on one. My advice is, try to find a quiet spot on the backstreets and offer to pay around €65-70. The "fixed" rate is €80, and is on every single board for every single gondolier (actual term), but my motto is never pay full and I'm always more than happy to haggle for the best price.

The Gondola tour will take you down both the most famous canals in Venice, and the quieter ones, and if you get a friendly enough man in a striped t-shirt, he will give you a bit of a history lesson as he's negotiating the boat under bridges and around tight corners. 

My first ever visit to an Italian city was most definitely short and sweet, but I enjoyed every minute and will be sure to soak up more of Italy in a year or two. 

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