Month: June 2023

Castleton June 2023

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Hello everyone! My latest UnicornPostbox blog post is photos and descriptions of an overnight trip to beautiful Castleton, situated in the heart of the Peak District, with my best friend Robyn, and her mum and dad.. enjoy! 😁

Castleton is so quaint and gorgeous! After having a quick bite to eat, we strolled along the lovely streets and passageways, enjoying and exploring

We ventured up SO MANY steps to reach Treak Cliff Cavern! Even with a little rest on the provided benches uphill, we were absolutely knackered! Then, to our dismay there was even more climbing to do in the cave itself, haha 😭

We did a self guided tour of Treak Cliff, pausing at certain stops to hear via the app a description of the cave and rock formations, I particularly liked seeing Blue John stone and the stalactites and stalagmites!

As we descended the hill, back down to ground level, Robyn reminded me of a little hobbit, haha 😄 My legs were literally shaking with all the exercise! We are not the most active girls, ha!

The hostel we stayed at really surprised me how lovely it was, I didn’t expect it to be at all. It was a large gothic mansion – YHA Losehill Hall, with spacious rooms and stunning surroundings. We freshened up before tea at Ye Old Nag’s Head. I had a beaut mushroom and goats cheese salad (I’m a veggie), but we ended up giving half our garlic bread away as we were stuffed with the massive portions, lol… Back at the hostel, we had a couple of drinks and played the board game Labyrinth and Uno… a veggie full English on the way home the following morning!

I had such a great time, and was completely blown away by the beauty of Castleton. I would love to go again in the future, it’s so picturesque 😍

My next blog post I believe will be an upcycling project for the Children’s Air Ambulance 😊

Thank you as ever for taking the time to read/view my blog.

Many thanks, Lauren xx

© 2023 Lauren Parr/ https://unicornpostbox.com

Skegness 31st May 2023

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On Wednesday 31st May, me and my grandma Ruth went on a coach trip, organised by the bingo club, to Skeggy for the day. It was the third time travelling, the two previous years the sun was scorching. This time however it was cloudy but fortunately not raining 🙂🙂

On arrival, we ordered tea, caramel latte and scones with jam and cream at a little cafe 😋 We ventured then around the shops. I bought two new books for myself from The Works, and three teddies for mum; a sloth, dog and hedgehog 🥰 For lunch we went to a gorgeous quaint fish shop, gran had the cod and me mozzarella sticks, chips and salad

Gran was a bit reluctant at first but I persuaded her to come with me to Skegness Aquarium..it was fantastic! There were small sharks and jelly fish, starfish, tropical fishes, blue lobsters, sting rays…and outside there was a dinosaur exhibition! Loads of huge dinosaur statues! A park keeper/enthusiast came at us with a hand held one, great photo opportunity, haha 😄😄 Gran was pleased I’d persuaded her to go, she loved it

To finish off the day, we had a wander around the funfair, and played on 2p machine in the arcades… another quick hot drink, then back on the coach home 🥰🥰

I am so glad we made it. Only a few months ago my gran had a nasty fall and broke her shoulder 😫 I stayed with her and looked after her for about eight weeks. She has other health complications too at the moment, and she’s eighty six now bless her..so I’m just happy we had a nice day away the two of us

Thank you as always for reading/viewing..I think my next project will be an upcycling job for the Children’s Air Ambulance, so keep a look out 😛

Many thanks, Lauren xx

© 2023 Lauren Parr/ https://unicornpostbox.com

‘Flowery meadow’ amateur acrylic painting

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Hello everyone! My latest UnicornPostbox blog post is progression photos of an amateur flowery meadow pub painting, enjoy! 😄😄

The first step was to paint dark emerald green at the bottom and fade it going up. We then incorporated blues and purples for the sunset sky. Prominent green leaves were added, then purple perennials, white daisies, scarlet poppies and fluorescent pink flowers. To give a 3D effect, the flowers lessened in size going up, then little dots, to give the illusion of fading away into the distance…and here is the finished piece:

As always, artist Rebecca guided us through the entire process. I actually think this one is the most effective ones we have done. It looked quite difficult at first, I thought it was maybe too tricky to achieve – however it all went surprisingly smoothly, and I am over the moon with the result! 😄😄

Thank you as always for reading/viewing 🥰 Catch you soon. Much love, Lauren xx

© 2023 Lauren Parr/ https://unicornpostbox.com