Christmas at Calke Abbey.

Ed and I had a little Christmas adventure to Calke Abbey this afternoon. We went to go and have a peruse around the craft fair originally but nothing really tickled our fancy there. But fortunately parts of the house were decorated all ready for Christmas so we couldn't resist going to have a look around to warm up the festive cockles. 

The Christmas tree was absolutely beautiful, it was decorated with ornaments that have been handed down the Harpur-Crewe family for many generations. There were some vintage ornaments from the 40s to die for! And the fairy on top of the tree was over 100 years old, she wasn't looking too bad for her age either.

Calke Abbey is probably my favourite National Trust property (that I have been to so far), and one of the reasons for this is the sheer amount of taxidermy that is crammed into this property. There is so many unusual, exotic creatures, bones, shells, oddities. I could easily spend all day here just looking in awe at the eccentric collection. 

All the Christmas decorations made Calke really atmospheric today, it was almost eerie in places. You could imagine all the Christmas' that this property would have seen and the plethora of emotions that would have been housed within these walls. It was really nice to go to a place that nudged you to think about Christmas in a way that wasn't all about present buying and hectic panic.   

If you get a little spare time over the coming Christmas weekends I would highly recommend going to Calke Abbey for a festive experience that with warm up the heart of the most ardent bah humbug.

Hope you have had lots of festive fun this weekend <3

Much Love.

Kirst xXx

Our First National Trust Adventure of the Year!

I just renewed our National Trust memberships, a lot of the houses don't open until March/ April so we have been itching to get out on adventures. We decided to go to Calke Abbey, as it isn't too far away, this was our second visit and it was as amazing as the first. Calke Abbey is known as the un-stately home and it shows the unique story of a stately home in decline, as the money and the status ran out. The rooms are packed full of random 'stuff' from taxidermy to fine antiques. We even had a meander around the gardens which were a little bare this time of year but lovely non the less. 

I treated myself to a new camera this week, a rather tasty Fuji X100, and this was my first trip out with it. I am super happy with it, it was really intuitive, even for a technophobe like me! Just can't wait to get out with it more this year!!!

I had such a lovely weekend, was so nice to get outside in some reasonable weather. Roll on the summer *yey*.

Hope you had all had a lovely weekend <3