Filed under: friday i'm in love | Tags: Edinburgh, friday I'm love, scotland
The interesting thing about blogging (and one I never expected it) is how aware it makes you of where you are from. Most days we all live our lives hardly noticing the city/town/place we live in – and only really notice how interesting it is when we have to show someone else round or we’ve been away for a while.
So for today’s Friday I’m in love, I thought I would celebrate the city I now call home… and take you on a tour of Edinburgh courtesy of the brilliant M. Sasek.
The steps leading to the train station are known for being very windy on a blustery day!
This the view from the Mound… I live somewhere in the distance!
Scottish grey rain clouds gather over the Castle… even on a sunny day!
One of my fav streets for shopping as it has The Red Door Gallery and Totty Rocks on it. The lovely Godiva is nearby too.
I adore the Penguin Parade at Edinburgh Zoo… every day the penguins come out for a walk (if they fancy it) and waddle about, quite the thing, getting their pictures taken. Some of them are so cheeky!
This is the gardens that I live minutes from… me and the OH like to pretend its our garden. It’s got the fattest pigeons I’ve ever seen.
This is harbour that I see every morning on my walk/drive to work… except those men aren’t standing there!
Hope you enjoyed your Edinburgh trip… for once it didn’t rain!
Have a lovely weekend wherever you are x
P.S. I’ve also added a new links section called ‘Why Scotland rocks’. I’ll be adding to it as I go so feel free to drop me a line if there’s someone you think I’ve missed or would suggest adding.
Filed under: weddingnesday
So me and the OH are going to see our first potential wedding venue on Saturday – and you so know it’s going to be raining. (It’s been chucking it down all week so seems unlikely it will be nice at the weekend.)
Anyway, this got me wondering about rainy weddings.
Partly because we’re considering maybe getting married next November rather than Spring/Summer 2011 – but looking out at the grey downpour out there I’m wondering if that’s such a good idea.
It could be really pretty…
Or it could just be pretty wet?
What do you think?
Happy (wet) Weddingnesday everyone xx
Images via ffffound, flickr and google
I may have mentioned once or twice my love of charity shops… but being me I hardly ever get round to sharing my finds. (Partly because I tend to write this blog late at night and that doesn’t work so well with taking pics.) However I had a bit of free time on Saturday and a charged camera so finally I can share some of my thrifting.
First up I thought I would show you some of my charity shop china.
This is something I can’t help but hunt for in charity shops and the other half has dragged me away from many a tea set pointing out that we already have more plates, tea cups and saucers than we can ever use.
Anyway here’s a few of my favourites… Hope you like them.
1. Yellow dinner set
This set called to me from the window… it’s yellowy, with that gorgeous green colour and golden gilt, and the pretty flowers inside. The only problem was that there’s a lot of it – and I had no idea how to get it all home. (I only took a pics of a few pieces but there’s cups, plates, bowls, saucers, side plates, soup bowls and two gravy/milk jugs.) Thankfully, every single piece made it home in, eh, one piece.
2. Blue gravy boat
I’m a sucker for that gilt edge it has to be said… and I loved the shape of this one. Plus it cost 20p. You can’t really argue with that.
3. Golden teapot
My little sis found this teapot… and I use this pretty much every day. I love it and swear that it makes better tea than my other teapots.
4. Indian Tree plates and others
In one of my favourite charity shops (they play 1950s music and have cute chairs for the old dears to sit on when they get tired while browsing) I found a huge collection of Indian Tree china. So huge in fact that it made 1 1/2 dinner sets. I love that although it’s all the same design, the pattern is slightly different depending on the maker. We discovered recently that the other half’s Gran has exactly the same china.
5. My favourite bowls ever
I adore these bowls. I really do. They are my favourite china find ever. I wish they’d had more than two – but it’s certainly better than having none.
Blog awards rock. It’s official.
They rock even more when they have names like ’shoulda been a stripper’!
So I’d like to say a big thank you to Daydreams in Lace, Our Day by Design and Eden Rose, your Sugar Doll, Super Cute and Shoulda Been A Stripper blog awards made me smile on some very grey and blue November days.
Now before I announce which super cute, shoulda been a stripper sugar doll blogs I’m passing these awards onto… two of the awards came with a tag.
One was to share 10 things about me and the other was to share 7 of my personality traits (ekkk!). So here goes…
10 things about me…
1. I’m 5’3 and a bit. Friends say I’m deceptively short as most people think I’m much taller than I am.
2. I have very dark hair and very pale skin naturally – though if you look at pics of me when I’m a toddler, I had blonde hair and tanned skin… which makes me wonder if I’m the original Zoë!
3. I have been told by a disturbing amount of people that they think I was a cat in a previous life. It might explain my love of napping though.
4. I can’t stand being cold. When it comes to winter, I start wearing scarves, gloves, earmuffs and leg warmers on a permanent basis.
5. I really hate peas. (I think I might have mentioned this before but this is how strong my hatred is.)
6. I love camping at festivals… even if you do find slugs on your plastic plates in the morning. (This rather blurry pic represents how much I love it even if it is pouring with rain. I am so Scottish sometimes.)
7. My little cousins call me a ‘pretend grown-up’. They are so right.
8. I used to suffer from really bad migraines. I got three a month for five years. They sucked. And I am so so so happy to say that I don’t get them anymore! 
9. I’m addicted to dim sum. I could eat it all day, every day, if I could. It makes me happy.
10. I really love cartoons – and once watched SpongeBob SquarePants for a week as they were playing the episodes back-to-back. (We had a free trial of Cartoon Network that week… I was gutted when it was over!)
And now for the scary bit…
7 personality traits…
1. Different. This is the most common word that friends and family use to describe me. I’m like the little fox Ash in Fantastic Mr Fox. A bit different but hopefully in a good way.
2. Perfectionist. I wish there was another word for this. I don’t exactly want everything to be perfect… I just like to have things ‘as I have them in my head’. It’s why I sometimes work very, very long hours, have arguments with plumbers about the placement of taps… and won’t eat sandwiches if they’re even a tiny bit soggy!
3. Thirfty. Spending large amounts of money makes me feel panicky. I am much happier finding a little bargain in a charity or second hand shop – it always feels like it’s worth so much more.
4. Imaginative. I come up with ideas for a living. I write scripts and stories in my spare time. But most of all, I see expressions on buildings, bunny-shaped puddles and comedy moments in everyday life. I can’t imagine any other way to be.
5. Tense. I’m ridiculously bad at relaxing. There always seems like there’s too much to be done. I’m currently relearning to knit and am hoping this will make me more zen-like. (But you so know that it’s just stressing me further!)
6. Caring. I’m not exactly a Care Bear but I care a great deal about all the people I love… and lots of people I don’t even know too. I hate seeing people sad and unhappy – and always want to do something to fix it.
7. Possimistic. I try my best to see the positive in every situation. (Gosh, I sound like a little do-gooder.) I think if I always saw the negative in everything, I wouldn’t bother to get up in the morning. (I’m not good with early mornings as it is!)
The other half thinks possimism describes my fear that one day possums will rise up and take over. And looking at this pic, I think he might be right!
And now that I’ve shared far too much about myself, some lovely blog awards for some lovely people…
My Sugar Dolls are…
Sweet Evie at handmade romance
Delectable Dee at our little love nest
The luscious pretty green
The moresome lenore nevermore
My Super Cuties are…
Adorable Fay at dreaming of an aga
The delightful dustjacket attic
The darling notes from the toothfairy
And My Shoulda Been A Strippers are…
Magnificent Meg at Meg Gets Crafty
Luscious Laura at She Draws
Knockout Kirsten at Paper Cut Panic
Siren Serena at Cowdy Calling
You guys know all the rules… pass them on if you want, do the tags if you want and generally just keep on being your super lovely selves.
I’m off to go stripping now… Or to lie down after such a HUGE blog post!
Pic credits: the strippers via Chole Van Paris, the bin faces via faces in places and the possum via Google Images
Filed under: weddingnesday
My little sis has a blog over at Evelyn’s Eden and she done a super-cute blog post on weddingy stuff for me.
Take a look…
How gorgeous are these photos? Makes me want to get married in a disused warehouse… and of course have Carl Bengtsson as my photographer. A girl can but dream…
(A huge ‘me’… good for establishing who your day is all about.)
(I would of course need a big ‘Z’ rather a big ‘B’.)
(Anyone else think she looks like she’s about to bust a move?)
(Gorgeous… but you just know you’d look back on this in years to come
and think ‘why, oh why, did I wear that big flower on the side of my head?’)
Happy Weddingnesday everyone xx
P.S. If you haven’t seen/read it already, be sure to check oh hello friend’s mystery trip proposal story. Guaranteed to make you smile
All images by Carl Bengtsson found originally via a glamorous little side project
Filed under: wise words
Maybe it’s because it’s November and it gets dark around 4pm right now but a lot of people I know have been feeling a bit blue lately.
So I thought I would share a few lovely things to sunshine-ify your day.
– These gorgeous pics should make you smile… Paris + Polaroids = Love
– How to do the perfect messy French bun
– Wolf pjs so you can pretend you’re in Where The Wild Things Are
– How to show your love for Top Gun
– And finally a bit of on-street encouragement spotted in London
Feeling any more yellow, red, purple or green yet?
Illustrations via because studio
Messy bun link originally found via A Cup of Jo
Filed under: for your walls
It seems like the perfect day to share this print by my happy accidents. And you can’t beat a pretty yellow frame to brighten up your day either.
Hope you all had good weekends x
Filed under: trips and travels
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?!
Last Thursday me and the OH got a little wedding direction… we went to see my cousin who’s getting married in May and it was like going to see the Oracle in the Matrix – if the Oracle had been all about weddings!
Her and her OH know so much much more than me and my OH! She gave us three large tomes, otherwise known as wedding directories, as well as some tips on general planning. We left a little bewildered but in a good way!
One of the ‘tomes’ is the Scottish Wedding Venue Directory – and gosh it’s been an eye-opener! Pretty much anywhere can be a venue in Scotland… which is fab but also pretty confusing. So we’re going to try drawing up a shortlist soon and then just start visiting places – which should be exciting.
In amongst all this wedding chat, me and the other half kept coming back to ‘the theme’. So I thought I might do a few ‘mood boards’ on some theme ideas. (Never done a mood board before… it’s surprisingly fun!)
And here’s the first mood board… which I’m calling red, white and you!
Let me know what you think…
Happy Weddingnesday everyone xx
Love sign via ScarletBeautiful2 Balloons via erin’s blog for nina Car via 100layercake Red dress via Timeless Vixen Vintage Wedding shot via A Cup of Jo Beez Neez via something old, something new Red shoes via definatalie Red velvet via White dress via Timeless Vixen Vintage
Some posts back I blogged about the world’s most awesome cat beds – and after a while (as always tends to happen) I came to the conclusion that we could easily make one ourselves.
So I found a vintage suitcase…
Took the legs off an old footstool…
Grabbed the leftover fabric from the reupholstering of our Parker Knoll…
Petted this cat…
And, with the other half’s help, this was the end result:
Yes, we have spoiled cats…
…but at least they’re cool spoiled cats 
P.S. The suitcase bed is proving so popular we may have to make two!
P.P.S. Thanks to Daydreams in Lace for the blog award – very sweet of you. Will get round to passing it on soon
Ages and ages ago I picked up an old Parker Knoll chair from a Freecycler. Its previous owner had used it as the ‘naughty chair’ for their wee girl (who was very happy to see it go) but she’d grown out of it.
We decided that we’d use it to do our first reupholstering project… and as with all our diy decisions, we then decided to start work on something else completely.
So for months it’s been hiding under a fleece and has been much loved by the cats alone… And then we bought some Cath Kidston cowboy fabric (for a completely different project) and came to conclusion that it would suit the Parker Knoll.
So here it is… I think it needs a cushion (something red and bold I feel) but it’s looking pretty good for a chair we got for free!
But the story doesn’t end there… we had quite a bit of the cowboy fabric leftover so we decided to tackle another ‘project-in-waiting’. This time involving an old footstool, a vintage suitcase and a cat. I’ll show you the pics of that in the next post!
This Weddingnesday the ultra cute Sally from To Dry For (the place to go to if you need a cool tea towel) has very kindly shared some pics from her lovely wedding last year. When she first sent me the pics I was bowled over by her gorgeous cake, her vintage place names and her general attitude to getting married – so I knew I had to share.
So here today is the first ever Weddingnesday interview… I hope you enjoy reading it (and drooling over her pics) as much as I did.
Did you always know what kind of wedding you were going to have?
Not at all. I’ve never been one of those girls who imagines her wedding day and already has the seating plans sorted out before she’s even met her future partner. I looked forward to getting married and having a husband, but always omitted the bit about the actual wedding; the idea of putting on a big white frock and having to think about how the colour of the flowers should match the napkins made me feel a bit squeamish.
How long did it take you to plan your wedding?
Dave and I got engaged on my birthday in August 2007 and our wedding was in November the following year. My engagement ring was a felt butterfly bought by Dave from Lik Neon (just off Brick Lane in London). I’ve since replaced it with something a bit pricier (an Edwardian diamond ring).
We chose the venues pretty soon after this, booking the ceremony in Oxford Town Hall and the reception in the Bodleian Library’s Divinity School. The building itself is so beautiful and we didn’t want to diminish this by doing anything too tacky (although we both like pretty stupid stuff). We therefore needed to draw a line between making it our own and still keeping it formal enough to match the venue. This makes it sound really dull, but I think we still managed to inject some fun stuff along the way
How did you find the dress?
The dress was actually pretty easy to find in the end. I didn’t have a clue what to wear; the only thing I was adamant about was that it wouldn’t be a big traditional meringue affair. I started looking at ethereal Jenny Packham dresses, but when I tried them on I looked a bit like a hooker, so they were out of the question (although I’m sure Dave wouldn’t have minded). My mum on the other hand…
I went to a total of two wedding dress shops and only took my mum as I didn’t want loads of conflicting advice. I also found the experience a bit embarrassing, standing in front of a mirror wearing something that obviously holds a lot of symbolism and provokes a huge emotional response. When I tried on the dress that I wore on the day (a Pronovias lace dress that looked vintage) it just felt right (that sounds cheesy, I know).
Basically I thought it made me look like the snow queen from Narnia so I was pretty chuffed (and not at all concerned about the evil undertones in that image). Apparently everyone had bets on that I would come down the aisle with the dress that Molly Ringwald wore in Pretty in Pink so I think I probably disappointed them.
Could you tell us about your gorgeous cake?
When I started thinking about what kind of cake we should have I was really disgruntled over (a) how boring and predictable most wedding cakes are (even the ‘quirky’ ones are pretty dull) and (b) how expensive they are. I thought I’d just have a look at google images of wedding cakes and found one on Dahlias Cakes and I figured it would be pretty easy to do something similar. But we completely overestimated on the amount of M&Ms we’d need (and consequently only finished them off about 2 weeks ago)!
Our amazing friend Simon actually had to carry 2.5 kilos of M&Ms back from New York as it would have cost so much money to import them. It took nearly 2 days to plan it out and add them to the plain iced cake – all I could see was M&Ms by the time I finished! Also, looking back at the photo of the cake in our kitchen, I’ve realised that our kitchen tiles look somehow familiar?!?!
Was there a moment when everything ‘fell into place’?
On the day! Dave and I were up to our necks in pritt stick, menu cards, moss and M&Ms right up until the morning of the wedding…
What for you turned out to be the most important bit during planning? The dress? The cake? The seating arrangements?
I think the most important thing was trying to make each little bit fun and think about everyone that was coming to the wedding and how they would like to spend their day. Obviously it was about the two of us getting married but we didn’t want anyone to be bored; we wanted it to be a really spectacular day out that was formal enough to be significant, but relaxed enough so that it wasn’t stuffy or dull.
We also didn’t want it to be too conventional. It was really difficult to try and get away from the commercial dross that’s out there in relation to weddings. I therefore found nice 1940s vintage name cards from America on Ebay. We spent ages deliberating whether we should make name cards, but in the end we decided we wouldn’t have enough time, and this worked out much prettier.
We had sticks of rock with our names in them on the tables as favours. (Dave’s from Blackpool originally, so it seemed to make sense). I also asked my mum to pot up loads of cyclamen for the tables and graffiti-spray painted the invitations, menu cards and table numbers. Our lovely friends Igor and Mark took all our photos. One of my favourite things was assigning one person per table to be responsible for booze, making sure to top up everyone’s glasses!
Is there anything you would advise someone to definitely do – and to definitely not do?
The only advice would be not to get too bogged down in the faffiness of weddings. It can completely take over and at the end of the day it’s about having a fun celebration of getting married; everything else is irrelevant. On a practical note, we planned a pub trip for everyone in between the ceremony and the reception – it gave us plenty of time to take some photos, before everyone arrived merry after a pint or a glass of mulled wine.
What was your favourite bit of your wedding?
Ooo gosh! I really loved cutting the cake and watching all the M&Ms fly off in every direction. I love the fact that my friend’s mum made us a moomin as a wedding present and he sat on the table next to the cake throughout the reception.
I loved seeing all our friends and family together in one place having fun. I loved walking back up the aisle with Dave to Dolly Parton’s ‘Love is like a Butterfly’. I also loved the fact that our nice black cab never turned up at the end of the day and we ended up sharing a minicab with Dave’s brother and my sister-in-law, me in the front seat with my dress tucked up all around my head (the driver didn’t even mention it) – it was hilarious!
I always thought it was super cheesy when people said, ‘oooo it was the happiest day of my life’ but afterwards I actually couldn’t stop crying/giggling with happiness because I just had so much fun crammed into a few hours. Quite silly and spectacular really!
P.S. It’s actually Sally and Dave’s first wedding anniversary on Sunday – so a big congratulations guys!
P.P.S. If you’d like your wedding or engagement to be featured on Weddingnesday, drop me a line at conversation (dot) pieces (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk
Filed under: crafty ideas, me, myself and i | Tags: birthday, halloween, party
Before it completely turns into Christmas (I went birthday-money-aspending today and the way the shops were blaring out Xmas songs you would think it was mid-December already), I thought I’d do a rather belated Halloween post.
We had a great one – having a family Halloween party during the day and a 80s Halloween party at night. Strangely enough though we woke up on Sunday and have sworn off partying for a bit!
Anyway, I thought I’d share a few pics from the day…
At the top of this post are some of my lovely cupcakes my other half and my friend who lives in Germany got me from Cupcakes and Ribbons. They were divine – I so recommend them if you ever need cupcakes in Scotland!
And here’s our selection of 80s trash food… also rather yummy but so so wrong!
During the day I looked this…
I was calling this look Count Zuckula! (Yes I am that sad!) And no those are most definitely not my own teeth… a subject of much speculation by my 6 year old cousins!
And then in the evening I transformed into Jem from the 80s cartoon Jem and the Holograms. She looked like this (for those who don’t remember or are too young!)…
And this was me…
If you’re wondering what’s on the walls… one of my best friends sneaked into the flat (more secret stuff organised by the other half!) and put up tons of pics of me! Very funny but very disconcerting to see so many of yourself all at once!
I also have to give a big shout out to D Jenn who made my belt… it truly was outrageous!
I also have to share the ‘chestbusting alien’ the other half made for his costume…
…he made it from scratch using clay, latex and paint. As you can tell he’s much craftier than I am!
Anyway, how was your Halloween? What did you do? Did you dress up? Do know let me know – I’m so not ready for it be to all over so soon
P.S. Thanks for all the birthday greetings – you are all very sweet indeed!
Ok so I wasn’t going to blog but I have some loveliness to share courtsey on my little sis. (And it’s good for anyone fearing 30!)
It’s only 10.30ish and I am having a rather awesome day so far… right now I have sitting in front of me an instax mini camera, a polaroid pogo and sing star for the ps3… and I can’t decide which to play with first.
I also know that my first bit of my surprise day involves chilling at a posh spa… see told you 30 is awesome
Anyway here’s a little bit of the loveliness from my sis (I edited out the bits that would only make sense to us!)
Hope you are all having a fab day too xx
P.S. Much love to my other half and little sis for making it a very awesome day so far… I am very very lucky to have you guys in my life xx
No Weddingnesday post today – though I have something good lined up for next week’s – as I’m just too busy at the moment to think weddings. However I do have some cake though if that makes up for it?
As it’s my birthday tomorrow (I’m leaving my 20s behind… ekkk!) I thought I’d share some virtual yumminess with you all.
The strangest thing about turning 30 is that everyone keeps asking me if I’m freaking out. (Admittedly I know some people who did freak out at this point.) But I can honestly say it doesn’t phase me at all.
For one thing, I’m sure I’ve been at least 30 for some time partly because ever since I turned 26, people have been doing the ‘oooh nearly 30′ thing.
For a second, I’m pretty sure I don’t look my age – I got asked at the cinema on Saturday if I was an adult or a child’s ticket. (Not entirely sure this is a good thing but I’m taking it as a compliment.)
And thirdly, I’m happier in my life now than I ever have been and if this is how happy I am at 29, roll on 30
Tomorrow the other half has a surprise day planned (you would think he’d be tired of doing surprises by now!) and then I’m taking a week off work. I was thinking of taking a blogging break too – which will allow me to get some pictures taken of my now infamous bathroom and some other things I’ve been promising to show for-like-ever!
So bye for now – see you all in November and when I’m in my 30s! xx
P.S. Depending on how it goes, I may end up doing a Halloween post on Halloween – need to see how well my costuming and decorating goes though!
P.P.S. How amazing are these cakes? I need to learn to bake properly!
Images via ffffound
Filed under: Thrifty finds
So on Saturday I picked up this cute brooch from Marche Marche. I bought it for a friend but I’m beginning to think I should have kept it for myself.
We could do with a little luck to get us through this coming week. We’ve got lots of stuff going on – most of it good – but I have no idea how we are going to fit it all in.
We have three nights and two days before my birthday… with a few more days before our Halloween party… and before then we want to finish painting the flat, make our costumes, do the day jobs, do a rather large freelance job, sort out our tenant’s leaking bathroom which is leaking into downstairs flat for no apparent reason, Halloween-ify our flat, buy stuff to Halloween-ify our flat, convert 200 80s records to mp3, pick up a chaise lounge from Glasgow… and a couple of other even more random things!!
Wish us luck! xx
It has to be said I adore grey. We recently painted our living room floorboards a gorgeous dark ‘anthracite’ colour and I couldn’t stop staring at them afterwards and going ‘oooh’.
We’ve already got grey walls in our bedroom to offset our Orla Keily wallpaper, almost purpley grey walls in the living room, a so-dark-grey-it’s-almost-black in the spare room and near black walls in the hall. And I just want to keep going… especially with the floor paint. (It really has made a huge difference… will hopefully take some pics soon to share. I know I’m bad at doing that!)
The surprising thing is that I had no intention for this to be a ‘grey’ flat.
After having lived in a basement flat that had almost natural light and was painted white to compensate for it, I was determined this flat was going to bright and light and colourful.
But I hadn’t reckoned on two things…
• the fact that our new place gets lots and lots of light (so we never have to worry about it being bright, it does that all on its own)
• and that when you have lots of colourful things (as we do) you need a background that’ll make them ‘pop’
Anyway, when I saw this sign in a shop window in Islington when I was last down in London and I thought it was a perfect answer to why you end up living in a grey world.
Hope you all have a great weekend. I’ll be spending it going out to my favourite veggie restaurant (an engagement treat from friends), meeting a friend who’s up from London for an early birthday celebration, hopefully heading to craft market Marche Marche… and of course having a paint brush and a pot of grey paint in either hand (I might even do some painting with them!). xx
