REAL LIFE VICTORIAN
A woman has taken her house back in time - by spending £10,000 to transform it into her Victorian dream home. Quirky spinster Julia Wood, 42, lives her life like a 19th century lady and can often be seen leaving her terraced house wearing ankle length velvet and carrying a parasol. The self confessed "eccentric" has transformed all five rooms of her property in Leicester with late 19th or early 20th century decor. Her lounge, bathroom, bedroom and kitchen are filled with antique furniture, fireplaces and artefacts and even nude portraits complete with lighting from the period. She has a large mahogany mantle piece in her lounge and sips tea from an 1890s crockery set she says she bought for just £10. Her kitchen, which also acts a sitting room, includes an Edwardian day bed, wood burning stove, antique tub chair, pine table and even a black fridge. The author and writer, who has lived in the home for two years, is an avid Oscar Wilde fan and says she lives her life like a character from one of this plays. She said: "I must have a Victorian or Edwardian aura. I was just born in the wrong era. But Downton Abbey has changed things lately. Sales of long gloves have gone up hugely, I understand. All of a sudden I'm in fashion.
Other great stories
GRAND PRIX-INSPIRED ESPRESSO MACHINE
This may look like a monster car engine that will leave petrol heads in a spin, but it is in fact a rather snazzy looking COFFEE MACHINE .
TERMINAL CANCER MUM MIRACLE RECOVERY AFTER UK-FIRST OP
A mother told she had terminal cancer by doctors who ignored her pleas for help 13 times has made a miracle recovery following the UK's first operation of its kind .
ADORABLE SQUIRREL GETS READY FOR A SNOWBALL FIGHT
ROLLING up snow in its tiny paws, this little squirrel is looking for a snowball fight .
RECORD BREAKING WATERMELON
AN American accountant has grown the world's biggest MELON and smashed his way into the record books with his mammoth 350 .
CUTEST PICTURES OF PUPPIES AND BABY EVER
HEART-MELTING shots of a French bulldog and a ten-month-old French baby could be the cutest you’re likely to see .
AMAZING PANCAKE CREATIONS
From squids to Star Wars, these flipping marvellous creations are pancake portraits .
RING OF FIRE ECLIPSE IN OZ
THIS RING of fire in the sky is the annular solar eclipse that wowed our cousins down-under .
ENTER THE LOST WORLD
Some will get up close and personal with Mother Nature’s deadliest animals to get the perfect shot, posing the question, what lengths will a photographer go to for that all important picture? But in this case, the question should be what depths .
IRELAND'S HIDDEN BEAUTY
THE TOWERING Irish cliffs of Moher stand tall over the rippling Atlantic Ocean .
SWALLOW WHOLE - YOUNG BIRD ENJOYS DINNER TIME
PERCHING on top of a gate, this young barn swallow waits patiently for his mum to return with dinner .
THE ENCHANTING FOREST OF FIREFLIES
WITH the phosphorescent blobs and mesmerising patterns, these spectacular images may look like the hall marks of an enchanted forest but it is in fact the scene of thousands of dancing FIREFLIES .
HAVING A HOOT: BABY OWL HAS A CHUCKLE
Something appears to have tickled this baby owl as he seems to be having a real HOOT .