Saint Andrews

So we thought Saturday was our annual Cavalier summer party.  We got Pippa all groomed ready to go and compete for her title of Scotland's longest ears, drove the hour up to the venue and then discovered we were a week early!  Rather than waste the day we decided to continue to St Andrews.  

It was lovely.  We wandered round the town, got an ice cream and went down to the harbour

We were lucky with the weather too - the rain stayed away

Here's Pippa with the statue of their famous cat - Hamish McHamish..... if this is life size - that's a big cat!

Fiances Birthday

So it was the fiance's birthday end of last month.... we had a belter of a weekend celebrating it!

He got to choose what I cooked him on Friday night - so he went for Scallops a la Delia

Those scallops are seriously good!  Seriously.  you should try them.  They've incredibly rich and normally reserved for Christmas.

Followed by Spanakopita and salad

I just love spanakopita.  So simple to make yet so darn yummy.

And of course cake for pud!  His cake of choice - courgette cake.

I made a lime cream cheese frosting to go with it.  

For his birthday I bought us a day at the spa - so we spent all day Saturday being pampered and then got dressed up for dinner at a new restaurant in town.

Experimenting with the selfie stick here - it's hit or miss whether we take one photo or 25 at the minute - grrr bluetooth!

I always hate leaving Pippa at home when we're celebratin - look at that face - she knows we're going out without her.

We had a quick drink in the pub next door to the restaurant first

It was so nice to watch everybody wander by.  It was a sunny day and Glasgow was out in force.  We never normally see the sun here so when it comes people are super happy

Our meal was just fantastic.  I had Calamari, followed by Seabass and we shared a side of lobster mac and cheese - oh my gosh that was good!

Finished it off with a marilyn monroe cocktail.  This is seriously good.  Almost as good as the lavender cocktail I had in Dublin.

It was a really fun weekend.  I love it when it's just us hanging out like this.  My favourite times

Quilts

I've been spending a lot of time making blankets the last few weeks..

I finally finished the quilt top for my flying geese quilt.  I'm pretty happy with how it looks but I need to get some kind of border on there and quilt it up

I also made another crochet blanket

I like to have something to do whilst watching the TV.....

And i finally dug out some fabrics from my last trip to the states.... I'm going to make a really quick quilt top with this bunch

Wedding favours - experimenting with soap!

So as you know I'm getting married in November.  Trawling round the wedding fayres looking for inspiration for my favours, I kept on being drawn towards soap stalls.  So I decided to investigate - how hard could it be to make hand made soap, right?  The way I figure is people spend a fortune on favours and they are always left on the table..... if the bride and groom have gone to the effort of making the favours, they're better received.  It'd be too easy to just buy them!

So I watched some youtube tutorials and googled and I discovered the amazing melt & pour method. So easy!  So a quick amazon shop later and i was set up and ready to go

The soap comes in these blocks, that you cut down, put into small chunks, stick in the microwave and pour!  It really is as simple as that.  I have here a goats milk block

You need quite a sharp knife to get through it and remember you can't use any of the kitchen utensils again as they'll be soap flavoured and nobody will thank you for that...

I found some really cute moulds on eBay....

And you don't have to wait that long to un-mould them (i'm not known for my patience so this is a good thing)

Here you go - et voila!

My first soap out of the mould

So I got to exploring - here below is a few I used from a cake mould from the supermarket and a few bath bombs

The bubbling on the hearts is unsightly but a further google brought me the knowledge of spraying with a little surgical spirits/rubbing alcohol, which stops it.

The bath bombs were super easy too - tho I had a little trouble getting them to stay firm - I shall experiment further tho and make it perfect for November.  They were really lush in the bath tho!

I have decided that for the favours I want just square ones.... so I have been experimenting with different essential oils and dried flowers - below are some lavender and lemon, bluebell flower and ylang ylang,  germanium and lemongrass.

I've also now invested in some colourings and glitters.

   

And some other moulds.  I love this bird one - this is a lavender soap and I got the colour by mixing blue and red together!

I've also been experimenting with the packaging.

     

What do you think?  I think the tags are too big and the ones form the prettier moulds don't need much packaging.

I also think I prefer the clear soap as you can see the flowers better and the colours!

But the goats milk/shea butter feels more luxurious

The celophane I think I will save for the bath bombs.

I have to say my skin is soooo soft from using them!  Even the finance has commented.

I hope people like them.

What are your favourite scent combinations??

Too long....

Woah!  It's been way too long since I've posted anything and soooo much has happened!

This year - I can't believe how quickly it's flying.

So biggest news.  The boyfriend asked me to marry him on Christmas Day.

So after crying a bit and getting over the shock I said yes.  So we've decided to get married quickly so this year has just flown by in a rush of wedding organising.  We're getting married in November, in a barn in the highlands and I can't wait.  I've got my dress, bridesmaids dresses, the suits - the accessories, the decor.  Sandy did the invitations himself which look amazing and the whole thing is just rushing by.  I can't believe we're into June next week.  That coupled with the fact I'm on another mental production means I've had no time to do anything - no sewing, no baking, just work/wedding/sleep.

We did manage to squeeze in a trip to Dublin in March for country to country music festival which was amaaaaazing!  I loved it.  Lady Antebellum on night one, Luke Bryan on night two and loads of other amazing acts in-between Florida Georgia Line, Brandy Clark, Kip Moore!  Total country music heaven.

Plus Dublin is a really cool place.  We had some nice meals out, went to a speakeasy - did the obligatory guinness tour and spent time in the temple bar.  I can't wait to go back next year.

The cocktails were great too - I had a lavender one which is probably the nicest drink I've ever had.  Need to find a recipe for that!

The open top bus tour was a fun way to see the city

This was Dublins oldest restaurant - the Trocadero.  It was really nice.  it's very deco

A few beers at the concert.  The 3 arena is a great venue - you never feel like you're too far away from the action

The beers were definitely flowing

Lady A were sensational!  As was Luke but I didn't get any good pictures of him I was too busy falling in love...

A lot of the americans in the audience were saying they came all the way over just for the concert because they can't get tickets to see those two acts in the states as they're so popular/expensive.  I'm kinda glad country music is not big over here because it means we can enjoy superb gigs like this!  

The flying goose

So after finishing my shirt, I wanted to get back to a nice easy quilt project.  I've been wanting to do a flying goose for ages and I had some fat quarters that would do the trick.

So armed with my trusty Quilt in a Day project book, I've set to work

 

There's a lot of cutting involved in this pattern.

cutting and cutting and cutting........

You get to know your rotary cutter and rulers really well!

But I figure it will see up really quick when this step is over 

Edinburgh

We've been meaning to do this for AGES but you know how it is - life gets in the way.....but a couple of weekends ago we jumped on the train through to Edinburgh for the day.  It's so easy from Glasgow - less than an hour.

We just basically did a pub crawl round the city to all the dog friendly pubs.  It was great fun!  We ate nachos for lunch and had a burger for tea!  No better day to be had than that, right?

Castle in the background

Pippa (as always) was the star of the show everywhere we went.

You never get a nice photo of you in a place when it's just the two of you - we could be anywhere here!

Pippa enjoyed her day out too!