Spring has sprung and we’re all about finding fun activities, new hangouts, crafty workshops and somewhere with a good new caffeine hit. We live in Fareham (Pompey way) but having our in-laws and most of our friends in Southampton and Hedge End, we spend a lot of time Soton way too! This means we’ve discovered a lot of Soton spots in our time on this side of Hampshire and I wanted to share them with you, because we’ve been on a great few adventures!
The Nest, Southampton
The Nest is a really great little cafe that takes many shapes and forms all at once; it’s the perfect hive to work in, or even better, co-work (me and my friends are all about the ‘sesh’ which is a social time-body doubling hybrid). Not only that but it proves a perfect place to meet friends – they have couches on which you can relax or tables perfect for a lunch date, and their food is divine! You should try their cheesecakes – I’m not a cheesecake fan but this is a generous amount of cream, whipped, on top of a croissant style bun – so even better than a standard cheesecake! But The Nest serves well all around. Their coffees and matchas are of a high standard, the staff are beyond friendly and the vibes are just immaculate.
Tattoos by Zoe at Wild Ink Tattoo
If you want to trust anyone to draw on your body for life, trust Zoe. I have 16 tattoos to date and I can count that Zoe did 6 of them! And though I do tend to be artist loyal and stick with those who I like, she does take the lead here – that’s the most any one artist has ever done on me!
By Zoe, I’ve had a sleepy deer, a croissant to symbolise eating disorder recovery, a moomin, a tulip with my mum’s sobriety date on it, a disneyland paris themed photo strip, and the it’s a small world smiley face.
Her incredible work can be found on her instagram but here is an example:
I’ll definitely be getting more from Zoe – I have so many ideas i’m so excited for!!!
God’s House Tower and it’s resident artist workshops
Last weekend I attended two workshops at God’s House Tower. I’ve been living in Hampshire for 8 years and 4 of that has been in the mid/south and I had no idea this building even existed! Firstly, what an amazing cultural building – it’s not fully accessible (but re: lifts and ramps they have absolutely tried their best and are taking on feedback too) so I couldn’t tour it but I got all the info from a volunteer, and added on to the culture of the building itself, what a great place for local art installations!
As I mentioned, this past weekend I’ve been to two art workshops in the a space (which is accessible). These have been a great way to engage in local talent as well as keeping us occupied and now we’re aware of other events that go on locally such as creative writing workshops, life drawing and an accessible book club (more on that another time). The events we went to were a jewellery making workshop and a zine creation class. With my mum, I made a pendant – there was the option to make this or bracelets but the bracelets looked far too complicated! I also think I’d wear the pendant more – it was very much dopamine jewellery which is 100% me. Then a few days later, we went too a Zine workshop held by Kama at ‘Weird is the best’ – she taught us all about the history of zines, showed us many examples of zines including some of her own, some she had collected, and she taught us the purpose of zines too! Everyone made their zine on something totally different when we got round to making our own – my wife made hers on misunderstood creatures (because they are especially passionate about pigeons and seagulls to name a few of the creatures mentioned in her pamphlet) and my zine was on ‘why disabled people dress brighter/dopamine dress’ – if you would like to see my zine I posted it on @holaurgraphic on instagram (I have linked the specific post there) and Em’s is on their art instagram which is @em.powered.artistic.
At God’s House Tower, they also have (downstairs, at the main entry of the building) a lovely coffee shop! When we did our workshops we ordered coffee which they brought to us in the a space, but also, afterwards we went to the cafe which was absolutely lovely! It is a lovely cafe space surrounded by art; both display art and art to be sold by local artists and I love that! I picked up some postcards – some patterned and some of God’s House Tower to pop in my scrapbook, and some to document the day for my friends and penpals, and when Kama did her workshop I bought some of her zines and stickers too. She also has some art displayed in the cafe, but they are more expensive pieces like little canvas paintings – we have our eye on one but just can’t afford it atm!
New Forest Wildlife Park
Over the Easter holidays I went to the New Forest Wildlife Park with my Mum. It’s just on the outskirts of Southampton, hence being in this post. It had a vast range of animals from the tinniest mice I have ever seen to these giant Eagles (I didn’t even know Eagles came that big!). They even had one of my favourite animals, otters, but not only one kind of otter – they had Asian Short Clawed Otter (which again were tiny creatures), Eurasian Otters, and the Giant River Otters, which if you wonder, come from the Amazonian rainforest – and let me tell you, they were GIANT. I got to speak a lot to the zookeepeers after a few of the talks which was lovely, I found some great facts out after the Wolverine and Lynx talks, but the best chat I had was definitely after the otter talk, mostly about Share Savvy (a campaign about not exploiting ‘cute’ animals on social media) and Category 1 animals, especially shocking seeming ones. I came home with some great info pamphlets about the New Forest – helpful as we live so close and find ourself travelling through there regularly – and matching otter toys for my wife and I.
Pick ‘N’ Melt
There is a stunning shop in Eastleigh called Pick ‘N’ Melt that sells a variety of what in my childhood would have been referred to as ‘smellies’ – candles, wax melts, room sprays, and my favourites, the bath bombs, whipped soap and body scrub, to name only a few of the large range of fabulous products! I had surgery recently and I wanted a nice bath the night before, so I tried their Thai Lime and Mango Colourburst bath bomb and Mango Sorbet whipped soap and I smelled fresh as anything! I was like a fruity dreamboat, I loved it. I can’t wait to go back to the shop so I can splash a little more of my cash (as I didn’t have much money when I went in to do the spending for my pre-surgery treat) so I can try out a variety of bath bombs, try their shower steamers, treat myself to a nice scrub and indulge in another whipped soap (as the most latter item on the list are absolutely divine). I know exactly which scents I want to try next so I’ll feed back on my favourites when I’ve tried a couple more but oh goodness, I can report that all the ones i’ve smelled were truly so beautiful. Truly, I encourage you to buy from this stunning business – even better that it’s a small business!
So, these are all the wonderful things I’ve found, local to Southampton! I hope if you live nearby, you can enjoy them! Or even if you’re making a trip down here! Hampshire truly is a beautiful, fulfilling place to live and explore and I love living here; I’m sure I found more wonders to blog about.
I also recently found the page @sotonbloggers on instagram for all Southampton Bloggers! They run a great page that I’ve been following (and i’ve been tagging them in to try and contribute content) so I thought i’d share incase any other Soton bloggers or locals wanted to give them a follow!
Keep your eyes peeled for more content like this upcoming, this series is crammed with content!
Love always,
Laur xxx
@holaurgraphic 
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