Location Location Location: St Ives & The Struggles of Turning 25.

*A little disclaimer right here- this is the most photo heavy post ever. You'll feel like you were there. You're welcome.*

I remember when Harps turned 25 and had a little bit of a quarter life crisis; suddenly he felt like he hadn't done ANYTHING (I mean ahem, he met me didn't he?!) and it made things all bit strange for a week or so. The imminent arrival of my bestests 25th birthday meant another chance to plan a lovely 'date day trip' for us both. For the last few years (I think it stemmed from us both being too poor for presents) we've gone on little adventures in and around Cornwall. Stacie had never experienced a proper trip to St Ives and though we visited about a year or so ago, it was in the middle of winter, the Tate was being renovated and most places were closed. This time we were really looking forward to a great trip and I'd planned a jam-packed day!

Full of cold and rain clouds gathering, we arrived by train at about 10:30, stomachs growling we set about having some breakfast *read cake and tea* before our day really started. I've totally forgotten the name of this quaint little tea room en route to the main town, either way it was perfectly homely, eclectic and with a window full of homemade cakes, the ideal place for us to start. We sat, people watching and philosophising over age and accomplishments and got a little freaked out together at getting older.

Next; I'd organised a little extra treat for Stacie as a birthday calm down/pamper. We're both pretty understanding of each other's strife when it comes to early morning work commutes and the exhaustion that creeps up on us towards the end of the week. After hours of researching on trip advisor and google (cheers inter web!) I'd booked a stop at St Ives Harbour Hotel & Spa for Stacie to have a massage. This place is actually incredible guys, we were met by the friendliest staff who whisked Stacie away and left me to cope with my cold in the 'relaxation room' which is quite possibly the BEST place to be left to cope with a cold! Once I'd sufficiently scared the rest of the room away with my sniffling and sneezing (don't look at me like that, I basically did them a favour!) I was in a cocoon of happiness and promptly fell into a semi-sleep that when Stacie came back an hour later I think I was just as relaxed as she was! Everyone needs a relaxation room!

^^ I know you're gonna want to put this snotty, snazzy face right next to your pillow at night.

We pulled ourselves together for the next part of our day- a fancy high tea in the hotel's restaurant, overlooking the incredible seaside views. We nipped outside for smoking, interrupted a WEDDING in doing so and found ourselves in fits of giggles, using our posh voices *Yaaass darling*

You're getting even more jealous of my day now aren't you? Thought so. The tea was so fancy, somebody had cut our crusts off for us but the desserts were really where it was at. Pictured above you can spy the most delicious, crumbly cream tea scones, poached pears with meringues, lemon drool cake, chocolate truffles AND a chocolate mouse. Everything was sublime and made us wish we could crawl into that relaxation room again for a nice little snooze. 

Time to finally burn off what had essentially been sitting and eating for the majority of the morning. We had full intentions to head to both The TATE and Barbara Hepworth sculpture garden- alas we had taken too long scoffing and the weather was less than perfect (read raining) so we decided to wander and leave Babs until next time. Making our way across town to the Tate, we scouted like true British ladies, we didn't need directions, we had a slightly horror movie-esque sign to help us!

Ohh what's this, a craft fair- be rude not to! Quite possibly one of the nicest craft faire's I've been to, we were trapped by the best sales lady in the entire world and no less than 45 minutes later had left with a selection of goodies that we weren't entirely sure why we'd bought. Still during this time, she'd given us the faintest of directions to The Tate- it involved the beach...

Plaits flailing in the sea air we trudged along; by now resenting all children, teenagers and semi-adults like ourselves that don't have responsibilities. We were planning packing it all in and moving to St Ives with the brilliant old sales lady and spending all our days in craft rooms and artists studios (we could become residents surely?!) We'd live with plaits in our hair and frolic in the sunshine, our perfect scenic views inspiring us to create masterpieces and become world famous. 

We arrived! You're not allowed to take photos of the exhibitions so you'll have to settle with this one measly photo of the window by the entrance. (I did take some sneaky photos but when I asked Stacie to take just ONE she got caught and we were stalked by the security man for the rest of our time inside.) The exhibition currently on show is  'The Modern Lens: international photography and The Tate collection.' Touring Europe, this wonderful exhibition documents photography styles and inspirations thought the world, from the 1920's to 1960's. It was fascinating to gather a deeper understanding to influences from repression or revolutions and we gawped for hours until our eyes and legs hurt. One particular photographer I urge you all to admire from this exhibition was Claude Cahun who expressed the deep depression and conflict that surrounded being a woman in the 1930's. Her work was some of the most heart wrenching and spine tingling I've ever seen.

Inspired and exhausted we headed on home, reflecting on our day and the whole 25 black hole of doom. Deciding that maybe a quarter life crisis wasn't such a bad thing, maybe it's the time where you start to have a stronger understanding of yourself, what you want to start doing, how the world really is, how far you've come and equally if not more importantly, how far you still have to go.

*Stacie has totally got over her quarter life crisis now by the way, it lasted approx 4 days. She did much better than Harps.*

Love Sophie Xx