Andsmile Studio | Illustration

Illustrated Wish list: Jumpsuits

Wish ListViktorija5 Comments

Happyyyy 1st of June! Sun is shining, it's warm outside, peonies are in full bloom and it's time to take out all the cute summer outfits and maybe add new ones to the warderobe?! I'm a huge fan of jumpsuits, they look gorgeous, you can cycle and run and jump in them and.. did I say they look gorgeous? I am on a hunt for an ultimate summer jumpsuit and here are some of my picks.

 
 

I love this jumpsuit because of the massive ruffle (I'm really into this ruffle trend, so cute!) and incredibly fun to draw. And the pattern is just adorable, colour is practical for all the running around, lying on the grass and spilling a bit of iced coffee.

 
 

While we are on the subject of ruffles, this one shoulder piece looks amazing and it seems to be so comfortable and perfect for summer days. The ruffle is so big that even ladies with big breasts can pull it off without a bra and feel comfy (I'm gonna be real here, I am not a big fan of summer outfits which can't be worn with bras, however I'm totally into this idea if I can go without a bra but my chest will be covered with a faaabulous ruffle and I won't feel uncomfortable). 

 
 

I adore this little jumpsuit with sleeves (mini ruffles, I AM SO SORRY I REALLY LIKE THEM). The length is short and cute and the pattern is flowery but without being too busy.

 
 

Ok, I promise it's the last ruffle. They are wayyy too fun to draw. This jumpsuit looks just sooo comfy, casual and cute.

 
 

Last but not least! Super beautiful jumpsuit with polka dot overload and straps on the back so you can wear a bra under it, yayyy! If I had this jumpsuit all I would do is eat cherries, run in the fields with my imaginary dog, doodle by the river bank and cycle to the local shop to buy baguettes and wine. 

What's on your wish list?

Hope you all are enjoying sunny summer days! 

Black and White Sketchbook

Process and art supplies, inspirationViktorijaComment

Heey,

How are you? What's new?

All is good here. Today I finished a sketchbook, wooop woop! I normally have several sketchbooks for different things (and also because I will go half way and then delay finishing it and will start a new one, oops).

black and white sketchbook

I started this A6 Daler and Rowney (Ebony, hard cover) sketchbook in October 2016 purely for black and white doodles. But quite soon I realised (once again) that A6 is a bit too small for me to have a sense of play and really explore different techniques. I tend to buy these tiny baby sketchbooks because they look cute and then end up not really using them as much as other sizes.

I find that when I give myself some restrictions and boundaries I have more fun and learn more from the process. So this time I decided to challenge the thing which I thought was so important to my work..  C O L O U R 

I love working with colour and paint but for this sketchbook I decided to use only black and white tools. So it was one of these sketchbooks which was by the sofa or by the side of my bed when I fancied a little doodle. I tried to concentrate on lines and simple shapes for this sketchbook. 

I used pentel re fillable brush pen (one of my favourite tools)

Pentel brush pen in grey and black. The nib in this brush pen is much bigger and gives an opportunity for big washes and lots of texture. It's very flexible and variety of line is impressive, it can be very thin and delicate for tiny details or be very wide and expressive with lots of texture and energy.

Winsor & Newton Black Indian Ink

Blackwing Pencil (my favourite pencil!)

Daler Rowney Ebony Sketchbook (A6)

black and white sketchbook

Here is how this sketchbook turned out, these are the spreads I had the most fun drawing. 

Watch full sketchbook video below.

Inspiration. Part 2: PLAY

Process and art suppliesViktorijaComment

Scheduling playtime is sooo important for me and for my work! I'm one of these people who gets caught up in the hustle very quickly so if I don't plan an evening off, a meeting with friends, yoga class, food shopping or creative playtime/experimentation I actually might talk myself out of it for sake of admin or something. Are you guys suffering from severe hustling/multitasking syndrome too? 

But this weekend I actually managed to schedule some play time and stick with it (actually I had a cold.. so it wasn't optional!). A fantastic reminder that in order to create interesting work and keep developing we must have fun, play, experiment and let gooooooo! 

Here is my playtime work and kind of answer to where the ideas come from. 🖌

First I had a “great” idea for a painting and painted two girls on pink background and it was a failure, destroyed all evidence (oops) and then I had some pink 🌸 painted paper left so I just decided to doodle based on loose warm up I did the other day, where I painted on huge scale (well, for me) and with no sketch/pencil line. Just a girls portrait.

 

Recently I work mainly with gouache.  For these paintings I used greens from Winsor & Newton and beautiful pinks from Holbein. 

I usually paint over a pencil sketch so painting without a plan or a sketch was suuuper fun! And I kind of tried to simplify the lines, sometimes my work gets way too busy and I don’t know where to stop and I am huge fan of Matisse and how he can describe so much movement, feeling & story by beautiful and minimal lines, colours and shapes, so was just trying to apply that to my work (with final drawing it didn’t really reflect though 😊)). I got some incredible art books recently and I try to see what things I like and how can I apply them to my work. In this photo you can see Henri Matisse Cut-Outs book (it's beauuuutiful!).

Here is finished line work experiment.

And then I've combined the lines with some shapes and colours in another pink painting! 🌸🖌🌸🖌🌸 

The floral woman on the left is called Matilda and woman in pink on the right is called Henrietta (You see what I did there?... with Henri Matisse being the inspiration? I'm horrible at coming up with names, so here we go!).

These originals are for sale at Studio 73 Gallery in Brixton.

These originals are for sale at Studio 73 Gallery in Brixton.

Hope you enjoyed seeing more from behind the scenes and a bit of an insight how my process works! and where ideas come from! Where do yours come from?

Gouache Illustrations

commissions & collabs, freelanceViktorija2 Comments
lots of cute dogs by andsmilestudio

In the last year I started to use gouache more and more in my work. And even though I enjoy painting with watercolours and digitally, the work I like the most lately was produced using gouache.

And for a while now I was thinking how can I offer my gouache illustrations as commissions & portraits. It's a bit trickier because not many changes can be made to gouache paintings. It requires a customer to trust me and my style, which is exciting and a little scary. But I really wanted to give it a go & create more diverse work for my lovely customers (at the moment I was offering only portraits). I'm trying it out now, yay! I created a listing so if you want a gouache portrait then it's easier to order and then if you want something special, I am so happy to hear from you and looking forward to painting something unique! :)

Let's talk about gouache!

Process and art suppliesViktorija6 Comments

First I used gouache when I was a young kid in school, painting mainly still life. I really loved the texture and feel of the paint then and I still do now. I had a bit of a break from gouache (15 years) but so happy to be using it again.

I absolutely love the consistency of gouache, it can be used as dry medium, layered heavily or watered down to watercolour consistency, it's very fun paint to play with, it can be opaque and mat, it can be translucent, even the lightest colours can cover the darkest paint (like dark blue and light yellow!) and it simply feels great to paint with! :)

There are many great brands out there but here are some of my favourite ones.

Here are the paints I use:

Holbein Gouache

I bought a beautiful set of 18 tubes Holbein Gouache as a present for my birthday last year, it's a bit pricey but absolutely worth the money. Set has a fantastic selection of all colours, including cold and warm hues of yellow, green, red, blue and also black and white. It's a great set and even though the tubes are smaller than tubes sold individually they last a long time. 

After trying Holbein Gouache in the set I went and stocked up on some colours which I adore and use a lot in my work and which were missing from the set (like baby pink, mint and wilder shades of blue), the tubes are much bigger and last for a while, they are crazy cute too! The best place to buy them from is Jackson's Art (if you are UK based). Holbein offer wonderful selection of colours for all tastes and colour preferences. The quality is exceptional and I would recommend anyone who doubts to give these beauties a go.

Winsor and Newton are great quality gouache paints. And because they are UK brand they are a bit cheaper and easier to get hands on! So I have my favourite colours from Winsor and Newton and from Holbein. They can be combined and the texture is very similar. So mixing and matching is super fun! :)

Gouache is very stick and not that easy to wash out of brushes and I go through a lot of brushes. I keep all of them because when they get all fluffy and naughty they are absolutely amazing for adding texture with dry gouache! I choose the cheapest round brushes (synthetic) similar to these Jacksons Art brushes . But my local Jackson's Art has a corner with cheap (£1/£2 synthetic brushes and I just stock up on them, so I would recommend checking out your local store to find what works for you and maybe they have some brushes on offer).

When I paint with gouache I prefer using hot pressed watercolour paper. My two favourite brands are Bockingford & Fabriano. Both very smooth & velvety, heavy papers with excellent colour representation.

I hope I inspired you to get out those gouache paints and paint or even maybe try gouache for the first time! It's a beautiful type of paint, easy to use, not messy and an absolute joy to paint with!

Are you gouache person? Yay nay? What do you like/not like? Please let me know if you have any Q or share your experience in the comments :) 

Getting real on Ig :)

freelance, lifeViktorija1 Comment

Here is probably the longest instagram post ever but I really wanted to publish it here too, for any of you who might stumble on it later. ;)

Getting real on IG! Couple of days ago talented illustrator @marloesdevee shared her story couple of days ago about where she came from and how long it takes to get somewhere and I was really inspired to share my story and hear more & full versions of your stories too! I absolutely love @instagram but it sure can give you a very skewed perception of reality. We think some people just pop up quickly but often there is A LOT of work behind it. Here is my long version of a story.. 

***************

Here is a video taken by my Dad, I’m 5 years old and obsessed by the fact that I was allowed to play with this massive set of colour pencils (lady who owned it is a designer)! I’ve been drawing as long as I can remember and I always loved drawing and was really encouraged by my family to express my creativity. At the age of 8 I went to art school, three times a week after normal school, we were taught art history, composition, painting, drawing and other subjects. I attended art school pretty much till I was 19 (with maybe 3 years break in teenage years when I decided not to draw ever again ;))). After graduating from art school and highschool I went on to study visual communication at University of Bedfordshire. It was a combined course with graphic designers and illustrators, it was fun experience and our teachers tried to make us experiment and explore. However for the last two years of the course we didn’t have an illustration tutor but guest illustration collective (trust me, sounds awesome but not the same thing :). After graduating in 2009 I ended up working in retail. It was in the middle of recession and I was lucky to land ANY job. But as time went by I couldn’t find any illustration work, any creative work, no side gigs, absolutely nothing. My fire started to fizzle and my dream of becoming and illustrator and drawing for a living from an inspiration and power and motivation became my frustration. It took me around 3 years to finally get the courage to make a leap, quit a full time job, find part time job and start figuring things out. It took me at least half a year to get to the grips before I started working on my etsy shop and I came up with a plan. That if I couldn’t find any creative work, I’ll try and make some work for myself. In 2013 I became full time self employed. And even though it’s a dream job it’s not an easy one. It can be financially stressful, also mentally challenging. I really want to draw more, I dream of one day illustrating a book and having an exhibition of my girls. It’s a journey and I have so many places I want to go with my work and sometimes admin takes over, sometimes running your own business has so many aspects there is not that much time to draw. So here it is.. a very long story and a bit of reality check from what’s happening behind cute pictures. I would love to know yours! What do you do? Where you come from? Where do you want to go? What would you like to share with the world?

<3 <3 <3

 

#gettingrealonIG

A Day Out in Kensington, Design Museum & The Churchill Arms

exhibitionsViktorijaComment

 

Yay! New and gorgeous Design Museum is open! 

I loved visiting the old one behind Tower Bridge but it was a bit small and kind of felt that Design Museum needed more space to show off all the awesome things.

So the new Design Museum is big and absolutely stunning! Design Museum took over abandoned Commonwealth institute in Kensington, next to Holland Park and Kensington High St. The building looks amazing from the outside but once you enter it takes your breath away. It's spacious, interesting, colourful and bright! 

On the day we visited Fear and Love: Reactions to a Complex World & Beazley Designs of the Year as well as their permanent display Designer Maker User. WE ABSOLUTELY LOVED ALL OF THEM! My favourite has to be Beazley Designs of the Year, completely blew my mind of how many interesting, beautiful and smart designs and things happen in this world! 

As we were in that area we decided to pop into The Churchill Arms for a drink, I've passed it so many times and never entered! It's probably the most photographed pub in London, you know, the one covered in flowers! ;) And during festive season it's covered in Christmas Trees! 

Inside didn't disappoint too, really cosy and absolutely crazy interior, with all sorts of objects hanging from the ceiling and walls, with some Churchill memorabilia of course. Super tiny bar with great selection of drinks and super sweet staff. They also have a restaurant! It looked incredibly cosy and equally crazy decorated! 

And by the way if you sign up for The Churchill Arms newsletter you get a code for a free drink, thank you very much! :)

 

 

You can walk to Design Museum from Earls Court, Holland Park Tube Station, High St Kensington or Notting Hill. You can also cycle there or hire a bicycle and have a nice park ride. Visit Holland Park & Kyoto Garden (it's beautiful!), pop in to Churchill Arms for a drink, walking distance to Notting Hill, all the museums at South Kensington or Serpentine in Hyde Park. 

Watercolour & Ink Portraits

live drawing, Process and art supplies, eventsViktorijaComment

I've been drawing live portraits at events for over a year now and it took me some time to figure out which materials work best and produce the most striking results in 10-15 minutes, dry super fast, are small and portable. 

Here are my tools for live drawing:

Fabriano Hot Pressed Paper or Cass Art Watercolour Paper

Palomino Pencil

Kuretake Brush Pen or Pentel Brush Pen (both fabulous brush pens)

Carbon Ink (fill in the old cartridges)

carbon ink cartridges (they will fit any brush pen, it did all of mine 

Kuretake Watercolours (set of 36)

Fine Tec Metallic Watercolours

Schminke Burnt Sienna

Raphael Brush

Kuretake Water Brush Pen

And this is how it all looks in action! :)

 

 

Watercolour Portrait Painting Workshop

freelance, events, workshopViktorijaComment

Around a month ago I taught first Watercolour Painting Workshop. I've done other types before but never with watercolours.

I chose to teach with Kuretake watercolour set because it's my favourite set of watercolours and I truly believe they are one of the best on the market. Selection of 36 beautiful colours, all vibrant and really beautiful pigments. What I loooove love LOVE about this set is that they have an amazing selection of reds, yellows, greens, blues but also some really shiny metallics, YUM! 

The workshop was held in a beautiful photography studio, with one wall of windows so there is A LOT OF LIGHT and it is such a joy to be painting in such a beautiful and light space. It makes all the difference, especially this time of the year, when it's so dark outside and not enough natural light to paint.

It was an absolute pleasure to teach the workshop to a such fantastic bunch of people and to see how people approached the same subjects, used the same materials and the way everyone worked.

It was an interesting mixture of complete beginners, professional illustrators and designers and people who paint for joy. 

The results were sooooo different! There were all sorts of techniques and approaches and a lot of beautiful colours & patterns and I really loved everyones work. 

Next workshop is on the 3rd of December in the same studio full of light. We'll be using Kuretake Watercolours, brush pens, cold pressed water colour paper. For more information and to purchase the ticket, click here.

I would love to meet you and paint with you! 

Art Supplies Love

Process and art suppliesViktorijaComment
illustration andsmilestudio art supplies

I often get asked about what kind of art supplies I use. This tends to change, I love trying new things and have a mild (well, quite severe actually) addiction to art materials. 

For the last 3 (maybe even 4, omg!) years I've been using Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolours. I have the 36 colour palette, with a beautiful variety of reds, yellows, greens, blues and even some shiny metallics! The paint is very thick and has a lot of pigment. It's a bit more creamy than usual watercolours, so it kind of feels like a mixture between watercolour and gouache.

I use two types of brushes. My absolute favourite brush is Raphael Kolinksy Sable (size 6), it holds a lot of water and allows you to create delicate details or broad washes, it's a beautiful brush so look after it and wash after using (don't use to paint with gouache, only watercolours).

And the second type of brush I use is brush pens! woop woop! When I can't fill in a jar with water or just want to paint from the comfort of my sofa. I've tried many different brands but couldn't really see much difference between them, they all are excellent at what they are supposed to be doing! Set of three pentel water brush pens or try medium size Pentel water brush pen or Caran d'ache brush pen (it has a cute button too :)).

To sketch, add details or achieve beautiful varied lines I always go for Pentel Brush Pens, I always have one with me. :) 

Another thing which I always carry with me is Daler Rowney Ebony hardback A5 size sketchbook. I've been using them for the last 9 years and absolutely love them.

Recently I've been experimenting with gouache more and more. I do love Winsor & Newton but I invested in this beautiful set by Holbein, lovely selection of incredibly bright colours. Really a joy to use! It's worth every penny.

When painting with gouache brushes get ruined super fast, so what I do is pop to my local art store Jacksons' art and find whatever they have on sale (they had absolutely amazing brushes for a £1!!!) :), so I would recommend doing just that. 

Ok, paper!!! Well, I've been using a few different types. Bockingford is one of my favourite papers. Hot pressed paper is super smooth and velvety. Cold Pressed has beautiful texture and a bit of a tooth. Also Fabriano hot pressed paper (and cold pressed :) is an absolute delight to paint on! But if you really want to treat yo self.. get Arches Cold Pressed or Hot Pressed paper, Arches are considered one of the best watercolour papers in the world (the price does reflect that too :)). Cass Art have pretty awesome paper and for a great price too! But if you aren't sure which paper you like and need more go to a store and touuuch it! :) Jacksons Art is an amazing place to pop in, so are Cass Art Stores (Islington branch has better selection than their smaller branches). 

What are your favourite materials? 

An Ode to I N S T A G R A M

freelanceViktorija1 Comment

Hello, 

My name is Viktorija and I'm an instagram addict. I downloaded the app the second day it came out and LOVED it instantly. 

My first instagram post, promising huh?! :))

My first instagram post, promising huh?! :))

It was October 2010, I was working full time in luxury retail and wanted to break through into illustration world. Who would have known that the door which will let me do what I love for a living will be opened with help of a peculiar app to share your daily snapshots? 

Here is my instagram story as told in September to Brighton Etsy Team members (thanks for inviting me guys!), this story will be interconnected with advice I'm always happy to give but through the years I find it hard to balance all the aspects of my business. So sometimes the instagram & social media part suffers a bit.

Things I've learned from 6 years of using instagram (and using instagram to build my freelance career).

It might sound obvious to some people but it took me a while to figure it out and actually apply to practice.

As an example from my experience: I started making shrink plastic badges to attract more people to my shop and to spread the word about my work. It's kind of hard to sell prints and postcards (market is saturated), so nice to find a niche. Instagram was my main platform to promote products and to show how they came to life, how I did what I did, the process, behind the scenes. The way I shared things came from an honest place of enjoying the process and need to share! Luckily some wonderful people found my posts interesting and they followed and stuck around.

But I always knew that in the long run I wanted to draw and to build illustration career. And that instagram was helping me to make that a reality. It was a portfolio of sorts and also a fantastic way to spread the word, meet people. So in my case I started to offer portraits, listing them as a product in the shop. Because until we tell people what we offer and what we want to do no one will know, no one can read our minds. 

So think about where you are going, what do you want to do in the future, where do you want to be and have that big picture in your mind every day, every post. 

A bit of contradiction, oops! But hey, life happens, shit happens, fun days happen, we change our minds and sometimes we just can't figure stuff out. So don't be scared, KEEP GOING! There will be days when you feel lost and not sure of what you are doing or what do you want to do or how to get somewhere etc.. just let these thoughts be and keep doing what you love, keep posting, keep snapping, keep making, stay inspired, let go of expectations. We can't be and feel the same way everyday. I go through weeks of ups and weeks of downs, different aspects of my business require different amount of attention and sometimes I just can't handle everything. And it's ok to take time off, it's your business, your instagram account, your rules and your decisions. It's ok and you are doing great! 

Things to remember

  • Things change very fast with instagram (or any internet based business), so embrace the change and be ready for it (also diversify your income).
  • Experiment, try new things!
  • There are as many opinions about instagram as there are people using it
  • But I think the most important aspect is E N J O Y what you do, people will love things which come from a genuine place and I think people really feel if something is not really true or is really tortured (and also what's the point of doing something you hate or feel is a burden?) 
  • PLAN!!! Have a schedule, collect photos, ideas and posts. Think for some time in advance, not word for word but at least know what you'll be posting to keep you going for super busy days or for when you just don't feel like posting.
  • Be kind, make friends, have fun! :)

Inspiration. Part 1. An Ode to Stationery

commissions & collabs, Process and art supplies, inspirationViktorija1 Comment

Where do you get your inspiration from? AAA! That question makes me want to run away, scream really loud and eat crisps in a corner. That's the initial reaction. But once I start digging deep into my process I kind of enjoy exploring that inspiration and stuff and actually it's quite hard to stop (love over thinking and over analysing, woop woop! ;). 

One thing I always felt inspired by is STATIONERY! Even as a little kid I enjoyed notebooks, paper, pencils and my Dad's technical drawing set (it had several compasses, lots of funky metal things and it was stored in a beautiful velvet case). Choosing a Diary for a new school year was better than Christmas! And of course... drawing paper, sketchbooks, pads, notepads.. ohhh! A lot of my friends in art school said they could draw on a napkin, toilet paper or newspaper. They couldn't care less. And I was envious of their freedom & I felt like a spoiled brat needing beautiful paper and the perfect pencil. I thought I might grow out of it, teach myself to be less of a paper/tool snob. Nope, that didn't happen. But what happened is that I embraced the addiction. And the addiction is now fuelling my inspiration, creativity, work and in the end is bringing me money! 

andsmilestudio illustration, girl in blue jungle

In the beginning of summer I heard from MARK + FOLD, they were kind enough to give me one of their beautiful hand bound sketchbooks to fill with whatever I fancied.  Usually I hoard sketchbooks & notebooks, the more I like them the less likely I am to use it. So this time I was actually forced to start using the sketchbook I liked the most. It felt terrifying and liberating at the same time.

mark + fold and travel kit by andsmile studio

 

I instantly felt in love with the texture of the cloth/cover. It's very tactile and made me want to pick up the sketchbook more, which led to drawing more, keeping it always in my bag and getting it out as soon as I had a minute or two. 

The paper was quite thin and very smooth. I was a bit worried about how much paint it would be able to take and was pleasantly surprised that despite being quite thin and delicate it could handle all the paint I wanted to layer on it! And I did some thick paint pages there! 

I took the sketchbook to V&A with my sister when she visited, to a cute plant caffe in East London and even ordered a beetroot coffee to match the drawing (purely for a photo), I took it on a mini holiday to Cornwall, I took it to the parks on the picnics with cider and strawberries and spent many weekend mornings playing with paint on the pages of the sketchbook. 

IMG_1429.JPG
IMG_7717.jpg

It really inspired me to create work I wouldn't have created and it encouraged me to draw more. That's the point of a great sketchbook, right? I'm a big believer in spending money on something which makes you happy. And beautiful paper and cloth bound sketchbooks is something which is making me happy & inspired! 

andsmilestudio illustration viktorija semjonova girls in pink and blue
andsmilestudio illustration viktorija semjonova girls in pink and blue

Here is the final result of a sketchbook.

They are inviting everyone to share the contents of your sketchbooks & notebooks. And I really love seeing insides of someones notebook, so please do share! :) #pageturnerproject

MARK + FOLD kindly gave me the sketchbook but my review of their sketchbook is my opinion. I am really in love with their beautiful products. :) 

What inspires you?

Painting holiday snapshots with P&O Ferries

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It's been amazing two weeks working with P&O Ferries on a super fun giveaway! Anyone could tag #POferriesXandsmile on their holiday snapshot and they would be in chance of winning an original painting by me! Woop woop! :) There are 7 winners in total and it was such a pleasure to see everyones holiday snaps and draw the winners!

Thank you so much P&O Ferries for organising such an amazing giveaway and thank YOU to all of you who entered!

And the best news are that P&O Ferries are collaborating with 3 amazing illustrators in the next weeks, so keep an eye on their social media and you can find more information on P&O Ferries Blog!

Update on 100 Days project

freelance, commissions & collabsViktorijaComment

I started 100 days project earlier this year around April but life & work got in the way and I had to put it on hold when I had around 30 days left. 

I really enjoyed painting each day when I could find time and decided to finish the project.

It's hard to find 30 spare minutes a day to do something and sooo easy to waste those 30 minutes! 

Cornwall getaway

life, commissions & collabsViktorija1 Comment

Helloooo lovely people of internet!

How are you? Any holidays planned for you guys? Have you been somewhere lovely?

Me and my husband went on a mini break to Cornwall. I've never been there before and couldn't wait to visit after seeing so many beautiful photos!

bude, cornwall, illustration by andsmile

Maksim (my husband) found the CUTEST little caravan in Bude, which was completely booked up for the whole of August apart from three nights where we were free too! We booked the airbnb, rented the car and off we went (stocked up with playing cards and raincoats just in case).

We don't get the chance to be in the nature often enough and waking up in this beautiful garden, surrounded by the forest, flowers, birds, bees and tons of butterflies was pure magic. I really enjoyed first moments in the morning, drinking coffee and soaking in all the beauty and quiet (and I mean REALLY quiet) moments. By the way these photos are taken on my iPhone and I didn't add any filters or make any adjustments. The weather was truly glorious and it seems that the grass is really greener in Cornwall! We spent the first day at  Summerleaze Beach in Bude. 

Colourful beach huts, lots of cute dogs, ice cream, wind, salty air. What else can you wish for?!

In the photo is actually Bude Sea Pool, semi natural pool which is filled with the water from the  sea at high tide. It was soooo magical!!! Really blew our minds! We had a fantastic swim there! Can't remember the last time I was swimming in the sea (probably 5 years ago) but I grew up by the sea and sometimes I really miss being near the water and feeling fresh salty sea air on my skin. 

Thank you so much Bude! We loooooved you!!!