The one with the Ferrero Rocher cupcake

So this weekend past I was in London.

I was down to see my sister’s play,
do some work and have belated birthday fun.

Here’s this weekend in pictures,
including the most amazing
vegan Ferrero Rocher cupcake.

Yup, with this weekend,
London was really spoiling us!

My belated birthday cupcake from my sis…
bought from the amazing Ms Cupcakes.
(I found this recipe for non Vegan ones
if anyone fancies making me them too!)
 The Turkish Delight cupcake
which was rather delightful too!
A birthday trip to Drink Shop Do for afternoon tea. (This was
after a session of hot yoga so cake was more than deserved!)
We had proper afternoon tea for the girls…
and man’s afternoon tea for the boys:
beer, pies, scotch eggs and pickled onions!

I also slightly fell in love with this camera illustration
by faiiint… I want this camera in real life!

And how I managed to leave without purchasing
this yellow teapot is a bit of a mystery.
I did buy myself a badge though I’m not a total martyr!
We stayed at this amazing little hotel,
very exclusive, not very well-known
filled with old wartime prints…
Otherwise known as my sis’s new flat!
This was my favourite print and it seemed to go
perfectly with one of my birthday presents…
my fake fur fox stole!
(Excuse the pjs, I opened this pressie at 1am)
I wore my stole all Saturday…
It was so cosy – and it did seem to make people smile!

On Sunday, we went to Bread Etcetera for breakfast.
They have little toasters on each table
for you to make your own toast. Yum!

Then we popped into a super cute book shop
and went to see the John Martin exhibit
at Tate Britain which ended with a light and sound show!
Brilliant, bombastic and lightening bolt-tastic!

It was A for Awesome… ok this isn’t John Martin’s work
but Paul Thurlby‘s illustrated alphabet (which I saw in the shop)
but it’s just gorgeous… especially the E!

And then it was home to Home Sweet Home.
(Thankfully not Home Sweet Homicide!)

Of course after a weekend like that,
I could do with another weekend now.
And I may have to lay off the cake for a while!
Happy Monday everyone xx

*******

P.S. If you were the lovely girl who said hello at Drink Shop Do,
thank you for your kind words and sorry if I was a little bashful!

Friday I’m in love… with London

I love London. I really do.
It’s the place I escape to
for a whirlwind weekend.
It’s where I got engaged.
It’s where friends and
my little sis live.

Watching this week unfold has been
so desperately sad. And so sad
that things can get this desperate.

But rather than add to the debate,
(though there is a very good article here),
I thought I’d do a sort of ode to London.

About my two recent London trips.
One pre-wedding. One post-wedding.

*******

Trip no.1…

…all the family fun you can have with free signs.

 You know how I sort of have a thing for foxes?

This is me doing my impersonation of the Southbank fox.

And yes… being a fox again!

(They have whiskers right?)

 My super, super gorgeous little sis.

The next day was her graduation
from acting school Italia Conti.

Me busking… with my harmonica necklace.

Where I would live in London if I could…

Ok, not really. But I do have my eye on
a ‘if I ever win the lotto’ flat down there!

*****

Trip No.2

Yup, he’s still there… had to check!

Then off to see my little sis’s play…

Then on to see a friend’s dad’s play…
this is where we got lost.

Which is fine because getting lost is (eventually) followed by ice-cream…

Bubblegum ice-cream!
(Tablet ice-cream feels healthy now.)

And after ice-cream, you must sit down…
at a fake beach of course.

The best of getting lost? Finding old signs…

Love this tea and coffee sign.

But this one won me over completely…

I’ve actually started designing a print based on it.
That’s just how much I love it.

Also seems somewhat relevant to right now, doesn’t it?

*****

Hope you all have safe, happy, relaxing weekends.

I’m off to a 90th birthday party.

Yup, 90! How amazing is that?

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside…

The second week of our mini-moon…

Sun-soaked days. Me with my cameras. Him with freckles on his nose.

Going nowhere fast… just wandering, wondering, pondering.

Watching the waves rise and fall…

Rolled up jeans and bare feet, shoes dangling from our fingers…

Playing the 2p falls without a care in the world.

Seeing the sun set on the sparkling sea…

Strange how much brighter everything seems.

*****

After leaving the Isle of Wight, we went to Brighton…

And there I did some more snapping with my Diana.
I’m still getting to grips with my little plastic wonder
but I have to say I’m rather pleased with these shots…

The next one is my favourite I think and
my first attempt at double exposure…

Ok, maybe this is my favourite shot…
my now husband silhouetted against the sun.

I picked up these Diana shots on Friday
and if you could wish yourself back somewhere
we’d have been there in the blink of an eye.

Think the time has come to start
planning our actual honeymoon.

*****

I heart mini-moons… our too cute vintage airstream caravan

I love the phrase ‘mini-moon’.

It’s fun to say… and even more fun to be on.

For our mini-moon, we wanted to do something chilled,
low effort and relaxed, without having to travel far.

Somewhere we could sleep, eat, drink and be happy.

So to start our mini-moon, we rented an airstream
from Vintage Vacations on the Isle of Wight.

I can’t tell you how much we loved our wee caravan.
It was just so perfect. A perfect start to married life.

So while we’re waiting on wedding pics,
here’s some snaps from our mini-moon part 1…

Our French chocolate and caramel wedding tea
from my Dad and his girlfriend…

Our lucky charms breakfast from my little sis…

Our caravan… the Sparton Manor.

Sunny deck chairs… for two.

Sunny Hendricks gin and tonics… for two.

Me and a fox mask from our wedding…
(we brought it on mini-moon as we forgot all about it on the day!)

One of the comfiest beds in the world…
and it has a yellow blanket too!Two very tired but very happy people…
getting married is exhausting!

I also took a few Diana shots…

One of the fires we lit… so we could sit
outside until the stars came out.Our favourite caravan on the site… the dinky Doris!

So much a favourite that we took
a Polaroid of us outside of it!

Oh to have my own little airstream!

How lovely that would be…

****

Life inside a snow globe…

On Saturday, it started snowing…

It’s now Thursday and it hasn’t stopped.

I feel like I’m living in a snow globe.

Just as well I bought myself mittens last week.

On Saturday, me and my mittens went to visit a potential new wedding venue.

(I was planning on doing a Weddingnesday post about it
this week but time has just run away with me.)

Anyway, on the way there we met these frosty fellows…

There were three adorable baby Highland moos too…
but the adult cows kept blocking them whenever
we went to take a picture. Darn.

On Sunday, we got up to this view…

Our plan had been to go visit the Castle but it was shut due to the snow.

So we went to the park instead.

It looked so pretty and serene.

But with all the squeals and shrieks
from sledgers, it was pretty noisy.

We wished we had a sledge.

Until we spotted this little old woman…

At a surprisingly fast speed, she was driving round the frozen pond,
throwing bits of old bread and being chased by swans.

And hooting with laughter all the way!

As the swans were distracted, I took the opportunity to do some snapping.

Swans are much taller than you think they are… which is only
vaguely disconcerting when you’re taking their pic!

Then we went off for a small snowball fight
and contemplated making a snowman.

Good scarf huh?

I can’t remember what me and this snowman
are looking at… it was maybe the sun setting.

Which made for a beautiful view on the way home.

(After 4 days more of snow, this street is much, much snowier now!)

Hope you’re all not too snowed-in/stuck/disrupted by it all.

I want it to last until the weekend so I go out and play in it…
even if I still haven’t found my wellies yet!

Wild weather, wildcats and wet trainers… just a day out in Scotland

It seems like forever ago but on our week off work we took a trip up north
to the Highlands. On the way there, we drove through lashing rain
and blustery winds, and just kept looking at each other laughing…
of course, it would be chucking it down.

On arriving, we checked in to our little B&B, ordered some veggie haggis
lasagna (!) for dinner and then got an early night as we were heading to
the Highland Wildlife Park in the morning.

Waking up, the signs looked good for a drizzly, dampy day – but no downpour.

Now if you look at evidence A below, I am dressed for a day in the Highlands
(rain mac, woolly hat, gloves, scarf)… and if you look at evidence B,
I’m wearing Converses and flared jeans.

All of which would have been fine if the weather had stayed as it was…

On an arrival, a little smattering of rain but we made our way straight
to meet these handsome fellas – Japanese Snow Monkeys.

(I called this picture eat no nom, see no nom, nom nom nom).

We also encountered this dapper owly fellow…
who made an absolutely awful noise when it was time for his lunch!

And we met this pretty kitty… actually that should read pretty hissy kitty.
Yup, the park has a pride (?) of Scottish Wild Cats.

It was rather surreal looking in cages at animals that look exactly like pets!

By this point, my Converses were starting to get a bit squidgy.

Then we decided to go see Mercedes the polar bear, who just happens
to have the furthest away habitat… and you can guess what happened next.

(Not the actual polar bear!)

The heavens just opened up and we got
absolutely drookit (that’s Scots for utterly drenched)!

We made it to the polar bear viewpoint (which had a roof)
and the two of us couldn’t stop laughing.

Especially at the squeaky noise my now totally sodden trainers were now making!

But the rain wasn’t letting up so there was nothing for it but to press on
like true Scots and enjoy an afternoon of being pelted by heavy rain.

And enjoy it we did… this is the OH terrifying some goats!
(I love the one that’s just a blur of running away-ness).

And this is us… pink in the face from being pelted with rain, dripping wet
and as happy as can be. Just how every Scottish trip should end.

Weddingnesday… one year on

Friday night, 21st August 2009, my other half took me on a rather elaborate mystery trip involving maps and much secrecy.

Sunday morning, 23rd of August 2009, he asked me to marry him.

He’d been planning how he was going to ask for months and ‘had known for much longer’ that he was going to ask. In the run up to asking, he’d been sweating buckets whenever anyone said anything negative about marriage in front of me in case I agreed wholeheartedly. On the Saturday night before asking, he couldn’t sleep a wink for stress.

Meanwhile I was fast asleep, totally and blissfully ignorant of what he was going through.

(For those who haven’t heard the story of how we got engaged, click on the Weddingnesday button and that will tell you everything you need to know!)

Saturday morning, 21st August 2010, and we’re on another mystery trip.

Yes, the OH decided he couldn’t let the anniversary of our engagement pass without more secret plans. (There were more maps too.)

So here’s a little photo story of what we got up to one year on…

Yes, we were down in London town again…

We went to markets, meandered in and out of cute little shops, and just had fun. (You’ll notice the coffee cup and bag of cookie in the OH’s hand… I know him too well to attempt such thrift trawling without caffeine and sugar!)

Not the smallest cookie I have ever seen…

But it didn’t last that long…

It was so warm and balmy that I was sorely tempted to jump into this water feature too… but on seeing just how soaked people were coming out of it, I thought better of it!

We also dropped in on a pop-up beach and popped in to an indoor garden party…

They’d turfed the whole bar which was pretty cool…

On top of all this, we did some rather fine eating, most excellent chilling in our hotel and just talked about life, the universe and everything in between.

What we discovered was that we’ve both been really really really stressed/tired/worn out by juggling jobs, diy, getting our old flat ready for selling and all the other things that life has been throwing at us.

Seems an obvious one but it’s amazing how a change of scene can change your perspective.

We also started talking about our wedding again… and spent ages just talking about all the fun, silly stuff we’d like to do until we were grinning like idiots. (We do that a lot when happy.)

So we returned home tired but happy tired.

Surprise weekends really are the best.

Happy Weddingnesday everyone xx

Friday I’m in love… with Norway

Well, not really Norway so much as my lovely friends who live there…

They moved back to Oslo, abandoning us Scottish folks for better weather and higher booze prices, in 2008.

This was our 3rd visit over to see them (you might remember pictures from last year of their yellow house and the gorgeous cabin)… but this was our most exciting visit yet as we were off to meet their new baby!

Just like her Mum, she’s entirely gorgeous and utterly adorable…

And put up with us adults doing SingStar and generally being daft without complaint! The OH brought along his Flip HD camera that I got him for his birthday… which means there’s now video evidence of SingStar-ing and me trying to prove how Scottish I am by attempting a Highland Fling on their balcony. (Can’t remember why… there was no alcohol involved there!)

Luckily I had my trusty SLR with me to take some shots back!

It was also the last holiday of my other friend before she has her first baby… so there was quite a lot of baby/giving birth/pregnancy chat on the go. I now know maybe more than I should on the subject!

Obligatory shot of their dog… just to prove he’s not been forgotten now there’s a baby! I had those big eyes looking up at me whenever I had food as he knows I’m a soft touch for dropping a little crisp for him every now and then…

And some pics from our lazy day at Frogner Park…

It’s this gorgeous park with some very strange statues in it – mostly of angry naked men and women.

The angry baby statue… thankfully this was the only angry baby of the trip!

The bad hair day statue… not sure if that’s what they call this but it seems like a good name.

And the, eh, fighting couple… thankfully there was none of this on the trip either!

But despite the angry statues, it’s a great place to chill out, sunbathe a little and attempt a conversation with someone who’s only 3 months old!

And to end on a happier pic… here’s the love heart I dropped in the grass. Mmm maybe the dog is right about me dropping food!

Happy Friday everyone xx

The San Fran trip… part 2

Ok, so after all the Yosemite-ness, Vegas-ness and Grand Canyon-ness, we returned to San Fran for some more San Francisco-ness.

Which meant a visit to the infamous Alcatraz.

Now it would be an understatement to say the OH was excited about this.

I’ve lost count of the amount of times he’s seen The Rock … and if you’ve seen this movie then you’ll know why the journey there was peppered with conversations about VX gas and marines!

On the way out, the views of the city were amazing…

… and we were followed by a lot of seagulls. I love how this one has totally clocked me taking a shot of him!

The outside of Alcatraz was also covered in seagulls…

… and pretty flowers! So not what you would imagine of a grim prison.

Inside the infamous prison… the audio tour is so interesting, rather bleak but fascinating. I didn’t know about the Indian occupation or that it was a military prison either.

The OH made me go stand in the cells… which I wasn’t entirely comfortable with. I wasn’t made for prison! (The OH looks ecstatic in his pics… so I can only conclude he would be happy to be an inmate!)

After we escaped Alcatraz, we jumped on the back of a tram… which literally meant we were hanging off the back of the tram. The OH thought this was far scarier than the helicopter ride!

Good fun but god knows how people don’t fall off and hurt themselves!

The next day we took another trip to the Mission to do some present shopping and checking out of the street art, including the Banksy…

… and then the mural project… of which the following is just a selection.

Makes me wish I was handier with a can of spray paint and a stencil!

The next day we boarded a plane and then – in a mere 21 hours – we were home and in need of a holiday!

So that’s it. That’s all our SF highlights… well, except I still have a few posts to do on my favourite shops and some of my favourite finds we found over there. Then we’ll be back to normal blogging if I can remember what that was…

The Vegas and Grand Canyon trip… gambling and feeling queasy

So Vegas… or fabulous Las Vegas as the sign says…

Before we left Scotland, it was a serious contender for a wedding ‘venue’ for us. Partly because we liked how fun it sounded and partly because we thought it would save us the sheer frustration/upset of working out how to deal with estranged relatives and a wedding.

Two things happened to put paid to that plan. One: the Neon Graveyard was closed for refurbishment the days we were in Vegas. (You can imagine how bummed I was at that but something always has to give on a big trip – you can’t do everything.) Two: we were tired.

Now the second reason might sound a little lame (a friend of our friend did laugh at us when we tried to explain). But we’d just spent a week hiking, walking round SF and cycling the Golden Gate Bridge etc – we were feeling a bit worn out and, this perhaps was the more important thing, that our Vegas wedding would end up being an ‘effort’.

Now I’m not against getting married in Vegas. (Some of our friends and family said they would have put money on us doing it.) We just decided that if we were to do something like that then it should be the focus of our trip, not an add-on to a holiday. I guess you could say we realised that it was a bigger deal to us to have a wedding than we’d realised.

Anyway, having decided not to get married, we set about doing the other things you do in Vegas…

We stayed in a very nice hotel… the Mandalay Bay which has a fake beach in it!

We gambled… I actually won money at Excalibur (which the OH calls ‘a silly place’). I spent my money on new sunglasses (to replace my favourite blue ones that broke in Yosemite) and pretty shoelaces for my Converses. (Yup, I am not your typical Vegas gambler!!)

We visited New York New York…

We took a trip to Paris…

And hung out in the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ style Bellagio Gardens.

And made some new friends…

We named him Flower Frog… can you tell we’re really original with the naming of things?!

And then we ate things. Bad things. Like deep-fried Oreos with ice-cream and mallow fluff.

(This was actually the OH’s dessert – it’s so massive it’s obscuring the enormous frozen hot chocolate I had!)

And then we went to the M&Ms store…

By which point we were feeling mighty queasy… which also had a lot to do with the fact that we also took a helicopter ride into the Grand Canyon that day.

When there were 25mph winds.

The OH absolutely loved it.

I was absolutely terrified.

Don’t be fooled by that smile – it’s one of sheer terror!

Of course I would do it again.

Just look at how gorgeous/scarily high the views were…

(And one with a bit of helicopter reflection just to remind ourselves we really were that high up!)

One tip if you ever do this: don’t let your OH persuade you that it’s best to sit on the outside seat with the glass canopy that goes all the way underneath you… unless you have a good head for heights!

So after all that, it was time to head back to SF for our last few days – and a trip to Alcatraz.

Thanks for sticking with the holiday posts – normal blogging will resume soon!

The Yosemite trip… hills, waterfalls, bears, oh my!

So after a couple of days in San Francisco (and a day in the Wine Country), we headed out north to Yosemite National Park.

(This is a long post so as Lisa-Marie did, you might want to make a cuppa to go with it!)

For the trip I bought my first ever pair of hiking boots, which really were needed…

The night we arrived we did a mini hike… which was apparently a test to see how well you could cope for the next two days of hiking!

(For those who have ever wondered this is what I look like minus any make-up and without shades on a very sunny day! My favourite blue ones broke within seconds of arriving at Yosemite… I did not take this as a good sign at the time. I have no idea why my hair looks that red here though!)

Anyway, we must have passed the first hike because the next day we drove off to our first ‘proper’ hike in snow.

Now when I say snow…

… that tiny bit of wood you can see is actually top of a picnic bench… which was level with the path we were walking on!

So the snow may not look that deep in the pic below – but if you went off the side of the icy packed snow path, you were up to your knees.

(Check out the look of concentration – it was really really icy. I’m also wearing driving shades borrowed from the hostel reception. It’s a look!)

And here’s what that first hike was all about… giant sequoias.

It has to be said they’re pretty tall. (Certainly a whole lot taller than my OH!)

After hiking in snow, we went further into the park to scale a huge waterfall.

(At this point I was wondering whether I’d secretly been signed up for bootcamp!)

On the way there, we saw this sign…

And the sign was swiftly followed by our first sighting… ekk!

Ok so he doesn’t look at all terrifying (so much for my fear that a bear would eat me!)…

But our hike guide did assure us that although the bears are pretty placid, they can still tear the door off a car to get at food inside.

Hard to imagine since he looks so soft and fluffy!

After all the bear excitement, we hiked on… and on… and on… oh and did I mention on?

And then there were only another 600 stone steps to climb before reaching the waterfall…

But the view was worth it… check out that rainbow!

As well as ‘meeting’ a bear, we also befriended some other wildlife on this trip…

This is Newton the newt. Who looks like we’ve just woken him up!

And this was… well we didn’t actually name this bird but it was very pretty.

We also encountered lots of cheeky squirrels… and even a small mouse who broke into our cabin and stole some of our trail mix!

The next day we went on a ‘flower walk’ which turned out to Yosemite speak for a hard hike with some flowers on the way!

There were lots and lots of flowers… my friend was managing to name them while I just snapped away…

But all insisted that we have to take a pic of this… a non-Scottish thistle!

And after all that hiking (and sliding in the snow) it was time to go back to San Fran… to see Jonsi in concert.

(See it’s all beginning to sort of tie-up now!)

Next time… Vegas baby!

The San Fran trip… part 1

So some of you may remember I recently went to San Francisco…

(I also went to Yosemite, Vegas, the Grand Canyon and some wee places outside of SF but I’ll save them for future posts.)

Anyway, we’re very lucky to have some lovely friends who now live over there – and who very much looked after us while we were there.

After they’d picked us up for the airport, we drove past the Golden Gate Bridge and a very jetlagged OH said to me “Doesn’t it just look like a red Forth Road Bridge?”

Which it has to be said it really does!

However the rest of San Francisco looks nothing like Scotland…

I fell in love with the colourful houses… how cheery would it be to live in one of these?

Doesn’t this house look like something from a movie set?!

And the original coloured houses… the Painted Ladies…

All of which is a bit of a contrast to Downtown!

In our first week out there, we also went to visit Wine Country…

Has to be said ‘sampling’ wine for a whole day is a lovely way to pass the time!

Coming back from there, we stopped through Sebastopol to check out a very strange little street where every second house has these crazy sculptures in the gardens. I took lots of shots of them so I think I might have to do a proper post on just them!

Pretty much the next day we went off to Yosemite (more of that later) but the night we came back to SF, we went to the Palace of Fine Arts to see Jonsi…

I’m a huge fan of Sigur Ros and it has to be said their lead singer did not disappoint! Go and see him if you can!!

The next day did one of those bus tours… always good to get your bearings and to hear a bit of the bus driver’s banter!

The next day (before we went to Vegas) our friends persuaded us the best way to do the Golden Gate Bridge was to cycle it.

So it was that we agreed to an epic bike ride that went from near Golden Gate Park, to the Golden Gate Bridge, over it and then up the hill above it, then to Sausalito… and then back again.

There was also no way my OH was letting me do the trip without wearing this rather glam cycling helmet – just as well San Fran is a colourful place!

Actually he turned out to be right as I actually did come off the bike on one of San Fran’s notoriously steep hills – at 5’3 I couldn’t get my feet on the ground when I stopped the bike and I just toppled off instead. I still have the bruises!

The views were worth it though…

As well as checking out the views, we also spotted this bride in flip flops and her rather harassed-looking new husband. I took a couple of more pics of them before realising I was probably getting in all their wedding shots!

And what should you do after a hard day’s cycle… why go and drink copious amounts of sangria!

(So that’s what I’m doing in the new blog picture in case you were wondering!)

Perhaps not such a good plan when you have to get up the next day for a flight to Vegas… but hey it was very good fun at the time!

Especially as we got to meet all our friend’s Irish friends – all of whom can handle their sangria better than me.

Ok that’s part 1 of San Fran over… will show you Alcatraz, trams and street art in the Mission later. Tomorrow a bit of Yosemite, Vegas and the Grand Canyon.

You’ll probably all feel like you were there too by the time I’m done!

From the Highlands to San Fran…

So at the weekend the OH biked and hiked 55 miles (between Fort William and Inverness) and I was his support team.

This meant I spent the weekend driving around the Highlands – where there are almost no straight roads – and hanging about at the waiting points.

(Obviously I looked just as glam as the woman in the pic above!)

Anyway, it was all for a good cause – so far the OH has raised £400 for Maggies.

This is also my explanation as to why I still haven’t sorted out my San Fran and Vegas pics!

I did however come across the work of Chloe Fleury, a French illustrator/designer who lives in SF… so I thought I’d share some of her work instead.

I absolutely adore the map, mini paper houses and Golden Gate bridge. Makes me want to go back now!

Hope you’re all having a lovely bank holiday weekend – even if you are in work like me!

First pic via tompalumbo.com

And we have a winner…

Right now I’m trying to sort through the 1000+ photos me and my OH took. (I think at least 100 of them are of the bear!)

So I’ll tell you more about our trip when I’ve got the photos down to a more sensible number!

In the meantime, I decided to do the draw for the San Fran giveaway…

And the winner was…

…as picked by my OH in the interests of fairness 😉

… drum roll

So Polly, who writes the very pretty blog A Rowan Tree, you’re our winner.

I’ll reveal later what the prize is as I thought it would be nicer for it to be a surprise.

Hope you like it Polly!

xx

A quick postcard…

So we’re back… and very jetlagged.

It’s 11am in San Fran right now, which is 7pm here.

So everything’s a bit backwards.

But it was all worth it.

We had an amazing trip.

We hiked in snow, scaled a waterfall and saw a bear (who didn’t eat me!).

We cycled the Golden Gate bridge, took a tram, and visited the infamous Alcatraz.

We flew into the Grand Canyon, went gambling in Vegas and drinking in Wine Country.

As I said, amazing.

But there was one thing we didn’t do.

We didn’t get married.

Vegas was fun. (I even won a bit of money!)

But it didn’t feel like ‘us’ once we were there.

So we have returned home, still legally single, and with a 2011 wedding to get planning.

But first we need to get over our jetlag…

Friday I’m in love… with holidays (and a mystery giveaway)

Right now, it’s Friday 2am and I’m just about finished packing.

(I really am terrible at it – how on earth are you meant to decide what you’re wearing so many days in advance?)

Suitcase stress aside, I’m looking forward to a truly awesome trip (even if I do say so myself!).

Over the next wee while, I’ll be hanging out with friends in San Francisco, not getting eaten by bears in Yosemite Park, considering saying “I do” in Vegas, and maybe going “oooh” in the Grand Canyon.

As I’m in such a good holiday mood (and to celebrate that I’m ‘blog of the week’ on HomeShoppingSpy) I thought I’d do a little blog giveaway.

So if you’d like a mystery present from my trip, just leave me a comment.

I have no idea what it will be – but that’s part of the fun right?

I’ll do the draw when I get back so it’s open until then.

See you all in a bit – unless I do get eaten by a bear! xx

Pic via yvetteinufio

A fair of the heart…

So Valentine’s Day… how was it for you?

We had a lovely time down in Newcastle. We went to the Affordable Vintage Fair, ate sparkly cupcakes, drank tea, went to an art gallery, listened to a ukulele collective (!), meandered about, chilled out in a spa and generally just had a very relaxing time indeed.

Here’s a few iphone pics from our ‘Paris of the North’ trip…

First up, my heart-shaped tea spill. Very appropriate don’t you think?

Beautiful vintage French magazines…

Love the packaging on all these vintage hair slides… especially the one where the slides make up part of her dress.

The little tin cars we decided we couldn’t go home without…

Our stamped hands… they really should have a more boy appropriate stamp at these fairs!

Our yummy cupcakes…

Mine was the sparkly one in case you hadn’t guessed!

Will share a few pics of the amazing artists we came across later this week. They all made me wish I had enough money to buy ‘proper’ art!

Friday I'm in love… with Dublin

Why Go Bald, originally uploaded by Dave G Kelly.

Just back from the world’s most fleeting visit to Dublin. I so want to go again and have a more relaxed, non-work visit – but right now I’m looking forward to a weekend of chilling out tonight, a 30th birthday tomorrow and going to a knitting class on Sunday (let’s hope they can sort out my dodgy rows!)

What are you looking forward to this weekend?

P.S. Don’t you just love this sign for a hair clinic there?!

My monster weekend…

This weekend I was down in London to see my little sis (and wish her a happy birthday in person). It was one of those trips that was both great and greatly chaotic at the same time – mainly because Edinburgh to London and back in a weekend is a little hardcore. (Especially if you get the 6am flight there and then miss your flight home!)

Anyway, here were the highlights of my weekend (aside from seeing my sis)…

Seeing All’s Well That Ends Well at The National. Really really really can’t recommend it enough – everything about it is enchanting from the set to the acting. Go see it if you can…

Seeing Breakfast at Tiffany’s starring Anna Friel (I so want all the dresses she wore in the show and that lamp that’s behind her!)…

Seeing the Liberty building in person… all buildings should look like this in my opinion (I think Edinburgh Council would be rather cross if I did this to the outside of our flat)…

Discovering some great little boutiquey places including a vintage wedding dress place (more of them in future posts), finding a giant plug (anyone know what that’s in aid of)…

And seeing a man walking 5 great danes! If you’ve seen Elf (and like it), you’ll understand why this was good news! 😉

Anyway, how was your weekend? Hope you had a good one x

All’s Well That End’s Well pic via londonist
Breakfast at Tiffany’s pic via mrpaparazzi

Friday I’m in love… with surprises

So it’s Friday which means I get to know a wee bit more about the other half’s surprise he has planned.

Here’s the clues I’ve been given so far:

• We’re going on a mystery trip

• We’re not camping

• I’m going to be given a map with addresses on them and I have to google them

• It’s somewhere I’ve never been before

• I need to bring a posh dress

• And we’re leaving tonight

Needless to say I haven’t got a clue where we’re going!! But the other half has said it’s bloggable so I may be able to do an update from my iphone (which I don’t know how I lived without now!)

Anyway in honour of the surprise, I thought I would share one of my favourite decor ‘surprises’… hidden doors. How cool are these?

First door from Hannah Zakari’s blog. Second door from Jangus’s sunny edinburgh flat… via Living Etc