Sunday Mornings #16 {the festive edition!}

Well hello there! How the heck are you? I hope you've managed to have some wonderful days with those most special in your lives? Are you still munching your way through the Christmas chocolate and cheese? I know I am...the cheese in our house never ends! I've had such a lovely few days, I can't even begin to tell you. Oh wait, isn't that the point of this post? Ok, let me fill you in on what has made my Christmas an especially wonderful one...

:: Driving through the countryside to my parent's house on Christmas eve whilst listening to Heston Blumenthal on Radio 2. An unexpected surprise, let me tell you!

:: Playing a lengthy game of Trivial Pursuit with my parents and O. There was a lot of cheating going on...naughty! My Mum won, by the way!

:: Christmas baking. This year I made Anna's cookies and Lily's brookies. They taste AMAZING, if I do say so myself! 

:: Waking up on Christmas morning to open our presents. I got seriously spoiled this year and I am a very happy wifey! But of course, the best part was seeing O open all of his gifts. Some of them he knew he was getting, but the look on his face when he opening the waffle iron I got him was priceless! 

:: Christmas Day food! This year we ate a breakfast of smoked salmon and cream cheese on bagels and for the main event we had antipasti and turkey with profiteroles to follow. YUM!!! There may have been some prosecco and red wine thrown in there too...oh and some M&S honey roasted cashews!

:: The Doctor Who Christmas special. This is one of my favourite Christmas TV shows. Every year we snuggle up on the sofa with some snacks to watch!

:: Christmas Day board games. We've been building up our board game stash and I think we seriously raised our game this year. O came home with Pandemic and Twilight Struggle. I know, our choices are getting slightly geekier, but have you played Pandemic?! So so addictive! We played about four games of this on Christmas Day. We're still trying to get our heads around the rules of Twilight Struggle, so if any of you guys have any tips, let me know!!

:: New Christmas traditions. This being the third Christmas we've spent together, we've been trying to inject some new Osc-Lou traditions into the holiday. One that we've done three years running now is a Boxing Day walk. Every year we pull on our big cosy boots and coats and go for a huge long walk. The first year we went to a beach in Kent, last year we went to Beachy Head in the South Downs and this year we went to the Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park. It seriously blows away the cobwebs and burns of a little of those Christmas calories. We want to go down one evening to watch the stars, with a big cosy blanket and a little hipflask of whisky!

So my little lovelies, tell me about your Christmas? What did you eat, drink, play? :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my lovely readers, friends and family! Thank you so much for all your awesome comments, tweets and such over the past year! You've made my first year as a blogger a bloody brilliant one! :)

Today we're off to visit my famjam and of course see this little mutt ^^. Then we'll be heading down to Manchester to celebrate Hogmanay! I hope Santa spoils you all rotten and you get to see in an amazing New Year with your loved ones! More from me in 2015! :)

♥

 

Serial

Is anyone else listening to this podcast? I am completely hooked! It's a weekly podcast that tells the story of a murder committed in Baltimore in 1999. The evidence against the guy arrested for the murder is so questionable that they are re-hashing the case week by week. The narrator (Sarah Koenig) has the most compelling voice I've ever heard. This morning the twelfth and final episode downloaded on to my iPhone and is just begging to be listened to! But I just don't want it to end...! 

What are your thoughts on it? Do you think Adnan's guilty? I've just heard that they're making a second series with a completely different story...CANNOT WAIT! 

FYI you can download the podcast on iTunes or visit their website serialpodcast.org :)

Sunday Mornings #15

Good day, my lovely little Christmas baubles! Yeah, I know. Christmas on the brain right here. How have your week's been? Are you riding that festive wave? To be honest, it's only really starting to hit me properly this week. I've had the Christmas tunes blaring and the tree lights sparkling...you get the gist! Here's what's been making my week a jolly one...

:: Having lunch and a spot of shopping with a lovely friend that I haven't seen in aaaggggeeess! We spent over three hours catching over a steak frites that pretty much blew my mind. Put balsamic onions on top of anything and I'll eat it! 

:: This weekend saw another trip to Whole Foods, this time to start the Christmas food shop! We really didn't get very far...except for a lot of cured meat, cheese and Christmas beer. What else do we need, right?

:: Eating a little better this week. I've been trying out 5:2 for the past week and it's really made a difference. 

:: Having a proper date night with the O on Saturday night. We went to our new favourite Indian restaurant and I even managed to fit in some Scottish tablet ice cream...

:: Listening to BBC radio 4 in the car on the way home in the evening. I used to hate it, but it's really growing on me now.

:: Having a snuggly pj day on Thursday. I literally didn't get out of my pj's the whole day. I may have also dragged the duvet on to the sofa at one point. Mayhap...

:: Lime Doritos and salsa. Enough said.

:: Receiving our first Christmas card of the year...only a week and a half to go!

:: Seeing all the magical Christmas lights and skating rink in George Square during the week. Oh yes, Christmas has seriously smacked me right in the face!

:: Watching Jamie's Cracking Christmas! I've never ever tried goose, but oh my!! If that's not on my Christmas dinner plate this year, I'll be sorely disappointed! 

What's made your week a jolly one? :)

A Weekend in Manchester

Last weekend the lovely O surprised me with a weekend away in Manchester! He had booked a gorgeous little apartment just outside the Gay Village for three nights. Every year we go down around this time to go to the Christmas Markets. If you've never been to the Manc markets, you are seriously missing out! They're sprawled all over the city, which means you can smell mulled wine and bratwursts everywhere you go...could there be anything better?! We managed to fit in a lot of shopping (a little Mulberry action), far too much food (check out those pancakes from Moose Coffee, btw!) and we went to see War of the Worlds with O's family! I almost needed another weekend off to recover! 

Where are your favourite places to visit in Manchester? :)

Highland Adventures {throwback}

I'm ashamed to say that we're still unpacking boxes after our move...almost two months ago! I came across an old external hard drive the other day when I was attempting to empty some of said boxes, which has loads of old photos on it. Some of them brought back some seriously lovely memories, so I thought I would share them with you and maybe make this into some kinda series? Today's photos are from a trip through the Scottish highlands up to the Isle of Skye that I took with my Mum in the winter of 2010. I think this may be one of the most beautiful trips I've ever taken. I don't see enough of my pretty country, so lets just appreciate how breathtaking some of these views are, shall we?

♥

 

{Four} Favourites

Today I'm coming at you with four favourites that I've been loving this month. I love it when I find something new that I love using/making/eating. I'm the type of person that will use/eat/wear said favourite until I've either used it all up or am thoroughly sick of it. No happy mediums over here! Here's some products that have seriously been my jam lately...

1:: Bath & Body Works Pumpkin Pecan Waffle Candle: 

Oh my...this has been my Christmas candle staple this year. It's sugary, mapley scent has been wafted all over my little bungalow this month. It smells good enough to eat and there have been times when I've been tempted, believe me! I have been *trying* to use it sparingly, so that it lasts til Christmas day, but I just can't bare to blow it out!

{Bought from a lovely eBay seller}

2:: Korres Basil Lemon Body Milk:

I am absolutely in LOVE with Korres products! This body milk smells amazing. I'm not a huge lemon fan, but it just adds a little zing to the basil. The thing I love about Korres is that they mainly made up of natural ingredients. This body milk has 93% natural content which are listed on the back of the packaging. Oh and it's also seriously hydrating. The guava shower gel is also my jam this month, but I had to narrow it down, y'know? 

3:: Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover:

If you're like me and paint your nails every few days, then this is your saviour. You just stick your finger inside the sponge (sounds a little saucy!) for literally a second and the polish is all gone! It's even quicker at getting glitter polish off too and we all know what a mission this is! I've converted three of my friends to this bad boy...maybe I should be on commission?! 

4:: MAC In Extreme Dimension Lash: 

Oscar bought me this mascara as a "sorry-I-didnt-get-you-an-advent-calendar" apology gift! I've never used a MAC mascara before, usually I just head straight to the lipsticks. I love it! I have really straight lashes and it gives them a great curl and some serious length. The brush is huge and really gets a good grip of the lashes. It doesn't clump or smudge by the end of the day. I am a serious fan girl. 

What have you been loving lately? :)

 

Fig + Sparrow // Manchester

Last weekend O and I jumped on a train down to Manchester for some Christmas festivities! The Northern Quarter is one of my favourite areas in the city, so off we headed in search of some breakfast. We stumbled upon Fig + Sparrow just as it was opening and I fell in love with it right away! Not only can you perch and have your breakfast, but you can shop too! I wanted to buy every single thing in there...O had to seriously talk me down!! Here's a few snaps from our breakfast...

If you ever find yourself wandering around the Northern Quarter, head to Fig + Sparrow, you won't be disappoint, but you purse may be significantly lighter!!


 

Sunday Mornings #14

Well hello there you lovely people! I'm sorry that I've missed a few of these posts. I've had some seriously busy weekends of late and just haven't had a spare second to blog. But hey, I'm baaaaaaack! This week feels like it's gone by in a flash, doesn't it? Or is that just me? Every intention I've had to have a quiet week at home has completely gone to pot. I've been out every evening bar one. Shame on me! I hope your week has been grand and that your weekend is a right corker! Here's why this week has been a lovely one...

:: Discovering that Whole Foods is only 40 minutes away from my house! We went on our way home on Thursday eve and oh my...! They have some awesome beers on draft that they'll bottle up for you to take home (which we did), I found some bagel chips and a tower of meringues so high that I almost drooled...

:: Listening to Bob Seger on late night drives. Is there anything better? I'm not sure. My fave is Turn the Page, just in case you were wondering.

:: Coming home on Tuesday night to discover O had bought a Christmas tree! We spent the evening listening to Christmas music and putting up the decorations. Starting to get a little festive now!

:: Finding the nicest little pizzeria in Giffnock after Whole Foods. Salami and prosciutto are just the best toppings!

:: Spending the best weekend in Manchester with the lovely O. We had the best time in our little apartment. It's so nice just to have some time to ourselves sometimes. I promise the post about it will be up soon!

:: Seeing all the Christmas presents stack up under the tree. I know Christmas isn't all about the gifts, but I can't wait to see O's face when he opens his!

:: Mulled wine, oh how I love you! I just can't get enough of it.

:: The new navy bobble hat I bought last week. I just wish it would get cold enough to wear it. What's going on Scotland? Where is winter?

:: Planning our Christmas dinner menu. We haven't nailed it yet, but I know there will be a lot of cheese involved. Baked Camembert anyone? 

:: Finding the cutest Christmas wrap in M&S. Check out these penguins...I couldn't resist them!

:: Getting to the cold, pitch black train station on Tuesday morning to discover O had snuck in a little owl hand warmer in my pocket! Best surprise ever!

What's made your week a lovely one? :)

A Coffee Lover's Dream! :: Beanies

If you follow me on any of my social media accounts, you'll know that I'm a complete coffee addict! So you can imagine how excited I was when Beanies sent me a few of their flavoured instant coffees to try!!! These instant coffees are ideal when I'm feeling too lazy to fire up my moka pot and at less than two calories per serving with no chemicals or syrups they're a healthier option too! They sent me three different flavours to try: Cinder Toffee, Gingerbread and Amaretto Almond. So far, Cinder Toffee in my jam. 

How tasty does this look in my newbie M&S mug?! Yum! Beanies have just released their Christmas flavours and I'm on the look out for the Mulled Spice one, how nice does that sound?! What are your favourite flavours?

{Beanies gifted me these products for review purposes, but all opinions are my own.}

Let's catch up, shall we?

The past few weeks have been such busy ones and it feels as though I haven't blogged in forever. Let's have a little catch up, shall we? How *are* you all? Me? I have been a sorry sorry blogger of late. My life scales are not tipped in favour of this little space at the moment and for that I apologise! For so long I've had plenty of free time to write and create, but recently I'm finding the life-work-fun-blog balance to be a tricky one! This week I'm making it my mission to turn my MacBook on and start sharing again. So, here we go...

:: We've just returned from a long weekend in Manchester (more on this trip in another post), where we shopped, ate our body weight in pancakes, drank a LOT of mulled wine and went to see War of the Worlds. As usual, our beloved Manc did not disappoint!

:: My working days are soooooooooooo long. I leave the house at 6.30AM and I don't get home until 7.00PM. All I want to do on evenings like these is get into my pj's, eat dinner and watch trashy TV whilst snuggled up on the sofa. Some nights I'm even in bed by 8.00PM, turning my electric blanket on and trying to pretend I'm not snoozing. Sorry. Not sorry.

:: A lot of evenings we've been hitting the shops to make a dent in the old Christmas shopping list and inevitably, eating out. This week I am thankful for normal, home-cooked suppers and slippers.

:: I have spent many an evening watching YouTube videos about which camera lenses to buy for the new DSLR I'm getting for Christmas. O is spoiling me and getting the NIkon D5300, so if you have any lens recommendations, hit me up!

:: Tonight I came home from work to find that O had bought a Christmas tree! So we spent a few hours getting the decorations down from the attic and painstakingly positioning every one so it's just right. Who am I kidding, we really just put them on wherever we felt like it...

:: I have been having some serious train delay karma. Two days in a row now my trains have been horribly screwed up. Today it took me four hours to get to work. FOUR! Two of which were spent trapped on a stuck train. Pray for punctual trains for me tomorrow, will you?

:: Rosie's post about "giving presence" (watch the LuluLemon video here) really hit home with me last week. I am forever glued to my phone/iPad/laptop and I feel like I miss a lot of special moments. The idea of giving someone your undivided attention and actually living in and appreciating the beauty of the moment we're in really made me think about how I waste spend my precious time. This may explain a little of my radio silence over the last few weeks...

Reading all your lovely blog comments has really spurred me on to find my blogging mojo again and I'm now off to catch up on all your hijinks via Bloglovin', in bed with my electric blanket on of course... :)

Morning Strolls

Firstly, my apologies for there being no usual Sunday post yesterday. I did start to write it, but we had O's family visiting (all nine of them plus the dog!) and I didn't manage to get round to finishing it on time! It'll be back next week...with bells on! 

OK, back to the post in hand! This morning I decided to get out of bed early and go for a stroll to try and blow the old cobwebs away. When O's dad had been out walking Holly (the lovely black labrador) yesterday, he had discovered a coastal walk about five minutes from our house. So I decided to go out on a little adventure to see if I could hunt it down. After five minutes of walking around the houses and over a little bridge, I found it! As it happens, it's quite a famous coastal walk and it's over 100 miles long...maybe a little far for today's stroll, but hey, there's always tomorrow! I had planned to bring along my DSLR, but I'd left it in the boot of the car, which was now parked at O's work. So all of these photos were taken on my trusty iPhone 6. 

I love this photo^^! This man and his little spaniel were pretty much in front of me the whole time. The cutest little dog was diving in and out of the waves the whole way along. It was a little gloomy this morning, but the sunshine started making an appearance just as I was walking home (always the way, eh?).

How has your Monday morning been? I can now happily eat my M&S Christmas sandwich guilt free after burning all those calories scrambling up and down rocks (not those ones^^ mind you!) and rambling around in the sand. Oh and maybe a little Percy Pig thrown in for good measure?!