Returning to the Biggest Carrot Show and playing with my Nikon D3300 DSLR

In preparation for my Year Abroad, I've invested in a new camera to take with me to Germany. It's a Nikon D3300 DSLR, which my camera-savvy dad tells me is a nice little starter camera for somebody who, a year ago, was relying on an iPad for photographing purposes. It's considerably smaller than his own camera, and nice and light to carry around, which makes it perfect to take on any potential trips and outings at home and abroad.

Once I'd remembered to take off the lens cap, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the D3300 was to use; at the moment, I have everything set to 'auto' while I learn what all of the different functions do, but I've still taken some nice pictures. The seven photos in this post were taken last week before, during and after the Latchley, Chilsworthy and Cox Park Show, which, as you may remember, I visited last year at the very start of my blogging escapades, way back when everything had to be Instagrammed to oblivion.

Editing-wise, I've not done a great deal to the photos I've taken with the D3300 so far, although I've enjoyed playing around with things like the contrast and gamma correction in IrfanView. I'm looking forward to experimenting with some of the camera's inbuilt settings once I get used to it a little more, so I'll keep updating as I learn more - and, of course, as I go on the trips to take the pictures in the first place!

The festive joys of late-night shopping at Princesshay

Not a lot of things make me feel more festive than late-night shopping. The fairy lights, cold winter air and bustling streets could make even the most unremitting Scrooge feel Christmassy in no time - when it goes right, that is. But if you think that tackling the High Street for presents, particularly under cover of darkness, is hell on earth, perhaps Exeter's Princesshay could help to persuade you otherwise.

The lovely people at the shopping precinct have been organising an array of events over the festive season to make your Christmas gift-hunting an exciting, enjoyable experience. When we visited a couple of weeks ago, we refuelled during our shopping trip, making the most of the free churros and Pimms offer, exclusive to Princesshay customers with a receipt from any of the centre's stores or cafés.

Younger children can be difficult to keep happy, but Princesshay had Father Christmas, the Snowman and his Snowdog on hand to entertain even the tiniest shoppers - and even my boyfriend, who will be 20 this week, the big baby...

Official style spotters were also recruited to seek out the best-dressed shoppers and some of Princesshay's most stylish buys were on display on the winter catwalk; pieces from the likes of Oasis, Reiss and Coast demonstrated that fashion doesn't have to come with a designer pricetag and can easily be found on the High Street.

If you're not quite sorted on the Christmas present front, there's still plenty of time to get down to Princesshay before the big day - and tomorrow the Coca Cola truck will be in Bedford Street from 9am-5pm, so if you're a fan of that iconic festive advert, make sure to pop down and have your picture taken! 

Written in partnership with Princesshay shopping centre, Exeter.

It's beginning to look just a little bit like Christmas...

The weather has got a lot colder recently and I'm starting to feel festive! Although I'm not sure that we're properly into winter yet, we've had a couple of frosty mornings and there's a late autumnal chill in the air. The colours of the trees on our street here in Exeter look so pretty and fortunately they seem to have remained intact, in spite of the 'storm' we supposedly had a couple of weeks ago. 

Oli and I took a break from our heavy work schedules last weekend and strolled down towards the quayside, with our trusty Exeter Trails Café Culture map in hand. We visited the Coffee Cellar, a lovely independent coffee shop situated in one of the Victorian wool and cider cellars, and I made what I thought was a valiant attempt to finish the most enormous slice of carrot cake known to man. 

After our refreshments, we walked along the riverbank. The storm seemed to have done a little damage here but it was still a lovely excursion and it's always nice to have a break from the textbooks, translations and such like.

This weekend, Crikey It's Vintage held their Christmas handmade, retro and vintage fair at the Thistle Hotel in Exeter and I braved the planned march by the English Defence League to do a little Christmas shopping. There were some lovely festive decorations, including bunting, baubles and tree ornaments, as well as pretty handmade gifts. These earrings from Kimbows would make great stocking fillers and you can mix'n'match any of the necklaces and bracelets for a set price.

Although I've seen and admired The Peagreen Furniture Company's stalls at many of Crikey's previous fairs, I've not bought anything from them until now. While I was smelling some of their festive scented candles (including eggnog, spiced gingerbread and cinnamon toasted almonds - yum!), I spotted a perfect present for a loved one. Of course, I couldn't tell you what it was or who it's for until after December 25th!

Kitsch In Sync and Otto Retro both had stalls at the fair. I thought that Kitsch in particular had a vast range of pretty little gifts for Christmas; the problem with trying to shop at Crikey is that I saw far more things that I wanted to buy for myself than for others, which is v selfish, but everything was just too lovely. 

I really ought to pay a visit to Exeter-based Otto, but I've not yet made it! I rather wanted to try on all of their hats and there was a beautiful evening dress on display. There's a masquerade ball for the joint languages' societies in January, so I may find myself in want of a new-old ballgown yet...

As well as some familiar favourites, I came across Ravintsara for the first time. Based locally in Crediton, Sara creates hand-crafted, unique accessories and bags, including these pretty felt ones above. Most of her products are made using recycled materials, so they're good for the environment and, at affordable prices, good for your purse too; I'll definitely be looking out for Ravintsara at future events.

The Christmas lights are being switched on in Exeter's city centre on Thursday, and the German-style festive market will be opening on the same evening, so there's going to be lots to look forward to over my next few weeks in the city. 

Don't forget that the Unique Boutique arts and crafts market will be at Exeter Phoenix on November 30th and December 14th, so do come along and, in the meantime, keep an eye out for a new blog post in due course!

Just a quickie - the end of reading week

This week has been the university's reading week, which is something like a half-term, although I think the official line is that it's supposed to be used for getting work finished off and not going on holiday! But I managed to get heaps of things done earlier in the week, so Oli and I spent part of the weekend with his family in Teignmouth and stayed with his grandparents there. When we came back to Exeter today, we met up with my parents and sister for lunch, so we've been very lucky and spoilt this weekend! In the coming week, it'll be back to lectures and seminars, so it was nice to make the most of the time off while it lasted.

It's November now and I think winter is my favourite season. In Teignmouth, we took Toffee the labrador for a walk along the beach - it was quite cold and windy, but the sun was shining and it's such a beautiful time of year. Here are a few of the pictures that I took along the way...

Where I've been spending my student loan this week...

Let me begin this post with an apology - I'm very sorry for having neglected my blog recently. I've been somewhat inundated with uni work and other commitments, such as volunteering and some very exciting meetings and I also turned 20 on Wednesday, which is terrifying but quite exciting. But, while I've not had much time to put a post together until now, I did have some time to do a few hours of shopping! 

Since coming to Exeter, I've found that it's fantastic for independent, local shopping, some of the best of which can be found on Fore Street and in McCoy's Arcade, which happens to be where Crikey It's Vintage and Good Golly Miss Molly share a shop. Crikey's fairs are probably what sparked my interested in vintage and retro, so I was excited to go to their shop for an open evening last Wednesday; especially since there would be Mrs Gill's Country Cakes on sale and a 15% discount in-store!

As well as Crikey's vintage stock, there were plenty of Miss Molly's beautiful handmade pieces; essentially, it's a gift shop, with gorgeous greetings cards (such as the painted bird ones above) and hundreds of ideas for Christmas and birthday presents - speaking of which, I found my sister a lovely pair of earrings for her 16th birthday, and I will definitely be back for stocking fillers come December. 

Among my favourites were the ceramic bunting pieces, a quirky twist on quite a long-standing trend. I really liked that there were letters and decorative tiles to mix and match, so you could collect lots to create room decorations or select a couple to perhaps wear on a cord as a chunky necklace.

There were lots of pieces in which vintage and handmade were intermingled in a sort of reinvention of old items, which I thought was really clever and produced some very pretty results. The covers of old Ladybird books, such as those above from 'What to Look For In Autumn/Winter' were framed and made into these unusual pictures - they're the sort of thing that I'd love to have to decorate my post-uni home, when I eventually come to that. Unfortunately student landlords don't take kindly to heaps of things on the walls, so I'm going to have to wait for my Ladybird prints for a while! 

These necklaces are made with old international stamps, which are laminated or reinforced so as to be suitable for everyday wear, and the hoops make ideal frames for these amazingly detailed pieces of embroidery.

For some reason, whether it was being back at uni or the lovely cosy colours and themes in the shop, I was feeling very autumnal and excited about impending birthdays and Christmas. I love searching for and buying presents for people and the Crikey/Miss Molly shop is completely perfect for that - I know it's a cliché but there looked to be something for everyone on offer, whether it was jewellery, decorative items for around the house, vintage kitchenwear and crockery or simply a pretty card to send a note to a friend. 

While we were visiting McCoy's Arcade, we spotted No Guts No Glory directly opposite. There is some exciting news about this shop, actually, as it's soon moving into its new home and celebrating its fourth birthday - from November 2nd, you'll be able to find it at 137 Fore Street. Don't miss out on the NGNG birthday celebrations!

And seeing as you have your diaries open, you ought to jot down the date of the next Crikey It's Vintage fair and evening do at the Thistle Hotel on Queen Street on November 16th!

Now, you might think that that would be enough vintageing for most people, but the eagle-eyed among you will have spotted a flyer for the Crikey Goes To Exeter Uni event in one of the pictures above. Basically, the lovely Crikey people and dozens of their vintage friends move into the foyer in Devonshire House at the University of Exeter for a mini version of the Thistle Hotel event, and it just so happened that the next fair was the day after I had been to Good Golly Miss Molly's shop for the open evening.

As usual, there was a great range of homeware, clothes, accessories and gifts and the perfect balance between vintage and retro handmade. Hangar 124 provided plenty of vintage and antique pieces, including a helmet which was used in the filming of Band of Brothers, while stalls like Little Nutkins and Tomorrow Looks Vintage, By Jones provided upcycled and vintage-style trinkets. In fact, I bought myself a lovely scarf from Little Nutkins as an early birthday present - it's beautiful and I'm very happy with it, so thank you!

Kitsch Attic's stall caught my eye because of its vibrant colours and intricate stencils, like the Alice In Wonderland ones on these beautiful handpainted chairs above. I liked how pretty details like the running fox transfers were added to usable, everyday objects like Kilner jars to make them that little bit more exciting.

For bookworms, the Penguin lampshade would be a lovely addition to any reading room or lounge and woodland animal prints are very on-trend, particularly on cushions and other fabrics for the home.

Tomorrow Looks Vintage are the owners of a Dorset-based warehouse of vintage and retro products, so they had come a little further afield to Exeter for a change of scene. I spotted a teacup candle on their stall which was similar to the ones I made a while ago. I actually received the exciting news a couple of weeks ago that my candles are going to be in a feature in the festive issue of home and lifestyle magazine Pretty Nostalgic, as part of an article on budget or homemade Christmas gifts. The editor sent round a PDF of the article in progress and it looks stunning, so I can't wait to share it with you and get some festive gift ideas myself!

The Vintage Ladies 1957 from Exeter's The Vintage Trading Company were on hand with plenty of vintage fashion and clothes, which seemed to prove very popular with the students - it was great to see the fair looking so busy and I'm really pleased that the university seems to be so full of vintage fans and such a diverse melting pot of different retro-inspired styles. Hopefully that bodes well for future Crikey events at Devonshire House, which will be held throughout the rest of the academic year. Do look out for flyers on campus!

Last but by no means least, the Farmers' Market returned to Streatham Campus in its regular Friday slot, for students and staff to stock up on locally grown, produced and cooked goodies. I was particularly excited to see that Shaldon Bakery was represented, as well as their famous Uglibuns, which are delicious, if a little funny-looking, as the name might suggest...

Local businesses The Wholesome Hog from Duckaller Farm in Dawlish and Blueberry Bros were also represented, providing fresh food on the go. This was, for me, the best part about the market; I think that lots of the students there were pleased to have so many new and exciting places to grab something to eat on campus. Streatham is a brilliant campus for food and is full of different lunch-type outlets, but who could turn down a local, and more importantly affordable, hog roast or a hot pot of Spanish casserole? It was definitely a much-appreciated treat for hungry, sometimes cash-strapped students.

The Westcountry Deli provided a little taste of the upmarket with a range of olives and other Mediterranean-inspired delicacies, although I thought that their range of honey and marmalade looked most appetising, as well as some very pretty mortars and pestles and other wooden carved kitchen utensils.

The old pick 'n' mix is a failsafe way to draw students in - really, we are big children and love fizzy fish and strawberry laces as much as the next person, so it wasn't surprising that there was quite a queue around the sweets stall when I wandered past!

And finally, cakes - it wouldn't be a properly Hayley blog post without mention of cake somewhere along the line! Truly Treats brought a vast array of baked goods to campus, including a raspberry ripple cake, all manner of cupcakes and an amazing Belgian chocolate cake that came out of its box just as I was leaving - though I managed to snap it quickly! I think raspberry ripple is a flavour that I ought to try, especially as I received lots of fab baking bits for my birthday. 

So, as you can see, both the uni campus and Exeter as a whole are great places for independent shopping; buying treats for yourself feels infinitely better when you know that your hard-earned student loan is going back into the local economy and supporting small businesses.

But big business doesn't necessarily mean it's bad; next week,I'll be heading towards the High Street, as I've been invited to attend the flagship store celebrations at Oasis in Princesshay - and seeing as they take the form of a vintage tea party, I just couldn't refuse!

(: xx