Nooks

I love the idea of having a space in my home almost perfectly designed for curling up with a cup of tea, a book or a stash of magazines.  On the grey days that so often grace Edinburgh, it would be lovely to be able to curl up and watch the world pass by outside. We've got a deep, buttery soft leather chair that would makes for the perfect space to curl up in. And I'd be happy to spend an hour or so in it - especially if my little nook was as lovely as these...

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I do find myself torn though between the comforting, warm and inviting palettes of the above images and the bright airy feeling of these spaces...

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And this one I just love even though it is wholly impractical to dedicate a room in your home to something like this.  Isn't it just dreamy? Imagine snuggling up here of an evening...

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This last one though, truly has my heart. One day, I would love a space just like this in my home...

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The extensive book collection, little vase of roses, comfortable seating and modern lighting? All perfect together.

If I'm going to insist on some essentials there needs to be a throw of some sort, a stash of magazines or a good book, good lighting, a cup of tea {and maybe a sliver of cake...} and preferably both a fireplace and a window nearby.

Love B x

Beach Break

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We're officially off on our holidays: a week of sun, sea, sand and exploring! I'll see you next week to fill you in on all the food and clothes and general holiday loveliness. I am SO incredibly excited. A whole week with most of favourite people in what can only be described as in an incredibly beautiful place. Wonderful! I've lined up a few posts while I'm away just to keep things ticking over.

Back soon!

Love B x

Birthday Cake

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We had a go at making this cake for my little sister's 21st.  We chose to layer ours with cream and fresh strawberries from the garden before covering it with icing and the obligatory candles.  I was clearly a little too obsessed with eating the cake rather than taking photos of it but it was delicious and looked fab.  For something so simple {we stuck to the basic Victoria sponge recipe I've mentioned before on here} it looks so lovely. It certainly makes for a perfect birthday cake.

Love B x

I run this city...

A while back, when I had literally just finished my exams and had a boatload of free time, I enrolled upon a camera class with a discount voucher I had.  The man running the class, James Christie was really knowledgeable {both about Edinburgh and photography} and I had a great morning getting to grips with my camera and learning more about in 4 hours of walking, than I have in 4 years of living here. Oops. I had a brilliant time and only have positive things to say about the whole experience.  Especially considering that I was lucky enough to go through the whole tour by myself instead of in a possible group of 8 - the benefits of being able to go first thing Monday morning I guess!

Want to see my city? It's rather beautiful if I do say so myself...

Love B x

I want to ride my bicycle...

So the boy has rekindled a long lost love of mountain biking, and some how, both literally and figuratively, I've ended up coming along for the ride.  To break it down for you, his love of biking looks like this {cue bad ass rock music or something equally hardcore and cool}...

My idea of cycling, however, looks more like this {cue nice chill-out music...}...

Consequently, I spend a lot of time feeling and looking like this....

But I'm reminding myself of this...

And I am having fun, but wowser, it can be blooming scary. I've definitely walked down more hillsides than I've ridden down. Getting there slowly but surely!

Love B x

Busy Busy Busy

Wow, how time flies! I think I need to postpone the remaining 8 days of my planned 14 days of food.  I wish I didn't have to but I think with hindsight, I picked a pretty bad time to do it: I had a 3 days trip for a job, a 3 day trip for my little sisters 21st, family visits and now we're off on holiday come Friday and I have a whole bunch of stuff to do before then {oh how glamorous my life might sound...}.  If anything, I don't think you'd want to see what I'm eating right now - in the week leading up to my holiday I'm trying to eat healthily and 'light' in order to feel trim in a bikini. Anyway, I plan on coming back to it in the not too distant future, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Right now I've got plenty of things I do want to show you so hopefully I'll get a chance to line up posts about them this week.

Hope you enjoyed the long weekend! I did!

Love B x

Cross Stitch

It was my gorgeous little sister's 21st birthday yesterday! I cannot believe it.  Of course we spent the day celebrating and it was marvellous.  My thoughtful, sweet Mum decided that to mark the occasion she was going to make a patchwork quilt for her, with the help of all our family and friends.  It was absolutely incredible and so thoughtful - I'll blog about it soon when I've got the photos downloaded.

My square was based on a long running {inappropriate} joke about our initials that me and my sister twigged about during our early teens.  Looking for something to do with the mountain of time on my hands post-finals, I decided the best way to make my input for the quilt was to cross stitch my 6x6" square.

I have to say, it didn't take too long at all and I'm so pleased with the results. We learned sewing at school {despite jokes from the boy, I did not go to finishing school though we did learn to sew, knit and had handwriting classes.  The only thing missing is deportment...} and now, over a decade later, I'm so pleased I did! Personally, I think it's a pretty cool {old school} skill to have. And things have come a loooong way since the samplers I did at school.  Check out these awesome examples:

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Awesome eh? The gift tags make me want to cross stitch little love hearts on everything.  Not sure that'd go down to well!

Love B x