2008 Airstream DWR BAMBI

In my post about the Country Living Show you might remember I mentioned about the Airstream Trailer that one of the stands was housed in.

I've always wanted one and look what I found on a fellow bloggers site a really cute modern version called Bambi! These Airstreams have been redesigned internally by Design Within Reach (DWR) and are gorgeous! They are only small but I'd LOVE one! Imagine the adventures I could go on!!

My fellow blogger found one for sale on e-bay for $10,000 less! Do you think I could put it on my Christmas list!!??

Fwad Photography!

My lovely friend Fu who I used to work with at LIQUIDe has set up his own photography business. His website is fantastic and full of brilliant images. Check it out here.

It made me realise that really I should have set up my own business when I got my redundancy money. He has done so much- travelled to Africa and Asia and really I guess the world is your oyster! If you have a dream you can achieve it!

It also made me realise whilst I was looking on facebook at all the messages of support for Fu left by former colleagues at LIQUIDe how tight knit we all were. We were like a wee family and it is tough when that's gone. This year has taken a lot of adjusting but I am thankful that in some form or other (mostly through facebook) we are all still in touch!

So here's to Fu's new company and good friends from old companies!

Out of the mouths of babes!

I know it's not quite December but I love Christmas!! My sister's friend Sarah put this up on her facebook page and I just had to share it with you!!

My sister is Godmother to Sarah's son Seb and our friend Amber is Godmother to Sarah's daughter Lucy. As most children are they are very different siblings but both gorgeous, fun children to be around.

Lucy has always been very advanced for her age and talks like she's 60 never mind only turning 4! She's always been a wee bit mischievous too and tends to be able to talk herself out of most naughtiness.. this made me laugh though!

Sarah and her husband James took them both along with their new born sister Claudia to see Santa. Lucy briefed her Mummy and Daddy before she went in saying 'If Santa asks if I've been good, just say yes. Please don't tell him about all the naughty stuff'

'Out of the mouths of babes!!' I swear Sarah and James could write a book about all the entertaining things that Lucy comes out with!!

One National Celebration to another!!

Whilst I am thinking of celebrating Scotland's National Day I wanted to say a wee HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all my American friends! I hope you all have a wonderful time with your friends and families!! Thinking of you as always! x x x x

St Andrews Day!

This week I have been getting up very early every morning (5.45am this morning!!) and doing event management for St Andrew's Do' this weekend. We have been flyering all the commuters travelling through the main railway stations in Edinburgh to tell them about the event to celebrate St Andrews Day.

The country's flagship event, the St Andrew's DO, will take place right in the heart of Edinburgh. The city's West Princes Street Gardens will host the St Andrew's DO, with a range of free entertainment activities for families, young adults and adults over the entire St Andrew's Day weekend (29-30 November) You can go to their website for more info.

Facts about St Andrew!
1. St Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland.
2. St Andrew is celebrated on 30 November.
3. St Andrew's Day is a day to celebrate Scottish culture, cuisine and ceilidhs.
4. St Andrew's flag is the flag of Scotland.
5. It's in the form of a white X on a blue background.
6. It is commonly known as The Saltire.
7. St Andrew's Societies exist around the world to celebrate Scottish culture.

The Ad agency we are working for has also put the saltire flag on the Balmoral Hotel clock face, beside the station. It made my morning at 6.45am on Monday!! It looks beautiful and is proving very popular with the public!! It stirs up a national pride- even at that time in the morning!!

I have got three and a half more days of flyering/ leafleting out in the cold!! Hopefully I can survive it!! (last Saturday we were at the Farmers Market at 9am and it was about 1*C/ 34*F!! Very Cold!) So I am feeling a little bit under the weather! I need some chicken soup!!

More Country Living Fair............

More wonderful companies that Hills and I discovered at the country living fair.

My Baboo is a collection of contemporary designs including handbags, homewear and little creatures, created from traditional materials with a modern twist. They won the best stand award for the Country Living Fair in Scotland. Hills and I loved their handbags! (we had a thing about handbags on Sunday!!)

Magic Pumkins and Faery Dust was another gorgeous stall- I love there website too!! Children's toys, clothes and textile accessories made from fair trade organic, reclaimed and vintage fabrics. I would have loved this dressing up outfit when I was younger!!

I'm not sure how these will do- hopefully well if they can get in with a big retailer but I thought the Giftelope was a wonderful idea... and something I will definitely use!! So look out for them if your birthday is coming up and you usually get packages in the post from me!!

And lastly because they came across as more established than the rest- and I am out to support the small business at the moment!! One of my favourite stalls because peonies are my most FAVOURITE of all the flowers.... well roses of any kind really!!

David Austen Roses had a beautiful (if slightly sterile looking stand) The flowers were AMAZING though!! David CH Austin, breeder, specialist grower and author, has introduced over 190 English Roses. David Austin Roses was established in 1969 and remains a family business. Here are some of the photos from their website- you can see why I love Roses!!

The Country Living Fair!

The country living fair was this weekend. Sadly I had to work on Saturday so couldn't meet up with my friend Kate and her boys but I was able to go on Sunday with Hillary. We had a fun road trip through to the SECC in Glasgow.

I forgot my camera- which I was really disappointed about as I could have taken so many photos!

I was really good and spent no money (almost unheard of for me!!) I could have spent £1,000 if I'd had it!! Hills bought a few lovely things including some Christmas shopping.

So here are a few websites of my favourite stalls... it will give you an idea of all the beautiful gifts and home wares on show.

• Lavender Blue from Longniddry
• Angel Cake Designs from Peebles
• Nature's Harvest from Fushiebridge... one of my favourite all time catalogues!!
• Boxwood from Glasgow
• Cottage Clutter from Ayrshire... Hills and I had also seen this stall at the RBS Christmas Fair which Becky invited me out to on Wednesday last week. Becky bought a few Christmas ornaments from them then and Hills bought some things at the Country Living Fair- gorgeous!!
• Snapdragon was an amazing stand that married both horticulture and textiles together. I discovered that the lady that runs it has a blogspot so click here to learn more.
• VagabondVan boutique on Wheels! I have always LOVED airstream trailers.. I'd love to own one some day in the future and here is an amazing stand that sold vintage clothes and accessories from an airstream!!
• Jonathan Avery from Morningside.. I LOVE this shop!! I could buy their entire catalogue of stock!
• Mimu... very gorgeous but expensive handbags... Hills and I were drooling over them!! They even have a woven bag that comes from the same factory the LK Bennett woven bag is made. But the leather and wooden bag was our favourite!!

I loved these memory blocks from Natures Harvest! and a few stalls were selling this cute rusty bucket advent calendar! I love all things Country, Primitive, Shaker and New England style!!
There were so many more beautiful stands that I will have to tell you about in the future!

Though the one thing Hillary and I did think when we went round was that we could make a lot of the crafts on sale... maybe one day when we have the money to start our own business!!

Thanks to Pete for the tickets to the Country Living Show! It was great to see him and Lesley and I am so pleased that Foodieboxes did well over the 4 days! Hooray!!

Foodieboxes at the Good Food Show and Country Living Fair!!

My friend Pete has exhibited his Foodieboxes at the Good Food Show (pictured here) and the Country Living Fair in the last month.

I helped out along with Pete's sister Kirsty at the Good Food Show. I really enjoyed myself and as a bonus Pete treated me to a bottle of bubbly for my birthday and free tickets to the Country Living Fair to say thank you for helping.

Kirsty and Pete in the very well set up foodieboxes stand. Pete's girlfriend Lesley also helped out over the weekend. Me and Pete. I love the foodie company branding! Kirsty with her rather large pastry! My with my enormous afternoon treat! I think we both only ate a 1/3 of our pastries!!

Pete and I and my bottle of bubbly!

Giving Gifts!

I love giving gifts!! It is probably along with cooking for friends and family my favourite thing to do!

I love picking the right gift, choosing the wrapping and then indulging in putting it all together. I am better than I used to be as previously everyone would have confetti in every card and present!! But I still love wrapping presents and sending them off to loved ones!

The best presents are always the ones that you know will be well received and my beautiful friend Heidi just wrote a lovely blog about a gift she received through the mail from me for her newborn daughter, Kloe.

Kloe Jean Russell was born on the 21st of October and I have loved seeing Heidi's blog updates over the last month! (I guess Kloe is a month today!- Happy First Month!) She is beautiful!

I sent her over a cuddly bear as I gave her sister, Paige a toy cat from the same brand when she was born and she loves it... Paige's cat is called 'meow' and by all accounts is a favourite! I also gave Kloe a lovely baby grow that is in pink and white (Heidi has the most coordinated baby clothes- I love it!!)

Here are a few wee pictures I pinched from Heidi's site-(I hope she doesn't mind!) Her children are adorable and I only wish I could have given her Kloe's gift in person! I miss Heidi, her family and all the Florida girls so much!!

Kloe with her baby grow and teddy bear from Scotland

Lincoln and Paige with their favourite cuddly animals.

The Gillies Family Ceilidh

My friend Shona is very family orientated and so it was such a pleasure to be invited to her family's '150+ Ceilidh' They were celebrating both parents turning 60 and her sister, Kirsty turning 30. Shona was the +!!

Shona, her Mum, Patsy sister, Kirsty and her Dad, Fergus giving a lovely speech.

The second half of the evening everyone was up doing some Scottish Country Dancing- I sat out the Dashing White Sergent as I was worn out!! It's energetic stuff!!

Jenny, Shona and I all used to work in the Student Marketing Team for Red Bull. It was lovely to catch up with Jenny and met her lovely boyfriend. Kirsty and Shona Gillies

Lots of twirling on the dance floor!

At the end everyone, as is traditional, sang Auld Lang Syne... it was such a lovely evening and Shona's family had put so much effort into welcoming everyone and the food was amazing!!

Winter Fruit and Veggies!

I'll have to find the before photos of the apples that my Dad collected from my Grandparent's garden- they looked fantastic and colourful! He gave them to me as he didn't want them to go to waste. So I decided to make batches of apple sauce. 5 batches in total!! So if anyone wants any apple sauce! I've been having it in my porridge in the morning with cinnamon or all spice. Or it'd be great with pork chops. My freezer is crammed with apple sauce so give me a bell if you'd like a pot!!

We got another load of veggies from Lily and Neil's garden including more apples!! So this time instead of apple sauce I cut them into slices and individually froze them so I can use them in apple crumble or apple pie.

This seems to be becoming a regular occurance! MORE Butternutsquash soup!!

One Year till 30!!

I stayed at my Dad's the night before my birthday unexpectedly. So when I woke up in the morning I didn't imagine there to be any decorations as my sister and I usually do. But there was a wee birthday banner (that he must have found at the bottom of a drawer!) and a lovely card. He'd also been across to the shops and got some tasty breakfast! It was very much appreciated!

After we had lunch at the Witchery we all went back to the flat to have a cup of tea and I got to open my presents.

Last year I didn't ask for much from Nathan apart from a second hand rose bowl- which he could find in a charity shop! I was so chuffed to recieve it on my birthday but pretty annoyed to discover later that it was infact his Mum who had been putting all the effort in to looking for it!! So this year he was tasked with getting inexpensive presents that HE had to look for!

He did VERY well! I loved my Pinata! (slightly random present!) but it brought much amusement! And he clearly went to a lot of effort which made it more special!

Lily and Neil were also very generous and gave me vouchers for SpaceNK to buy new make up!

Nathan gave me some cosy winter woolies and a hot water bottle (to add to my collection!) our flat gets so cold in the winter I will def need it!!

Nathan, my Dad and I then went and met Becky and Dougie at the cinema and we went to see the new Bond- Quantumn of Solace. I love Bond Movies and my Dad enjoys them too.. it was a great movie although not as good as Daniel Craig's first!

After the movies we went back to Becky and Dougie's house for tea. This was the lovely table presentation I arrived too... Becky had gone to so much effort and made me a HUGE chocolate cake! It tasted AMAZING! (We also took the pinata along for after!)
Becky and Dougie spoilt me with vouchers to get my hair done! I was very happy!! (can you tell!?) I used to get my hair done every 6- 8 weeks but on my birthday it was already 12 weeks since I'd had it coloured!!

They also got me a subscription to the Good Food Magazine (loads of recipes coming your way!!) and the new series of Entourage on DVD (I love Entourage!)

I couldn't be happier! Family, Confetti, Chocolate Cake and a cup of tea at my side!!

Nathan and I as I cut my HUGE cake! Becky gave us the cake to take home and by the Thursday Nathan had eaten the rest of it!! (I had a few wee peices) But I think his last slab of cake must have been at least 1/5 of the cake!!

Pinata fun and games!! We forgot that Becky and Dougie's ceilings are quite low- thankfully we managed not to do any damage! You can see Dougie standing guarding his precious TV!!

Dougie giving the Pinata a good hit!!

When we got home I had forgotten to open one present that I'd hidden the week before (so I didn't open it before my birthday!) So the last thing to open were these gorgeous servers from my beautiful friend Heidi! She is so thoughtful and I have no idea how she found time to think of me as she was about to give birth to her third child, Kloe!

I took this photo to put on the front of my thank you cards to all my generous friends and family! I love giving and recieving presents and it really did make me smile!! THANK YOU!!!