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?!

 

Quinoa {Four Ways}

1. Easy chickpea + vegetable curry with quinoa.

2. Cinnamon apple quinoa parfait.

3. Quinoa nori rolls.

4. Roasted brussel sprout quinoa with portobello mushrooms + pomegranates.

Having recently developed a serious obsession with quinoa, I've been searching all over for some tasty recipes! Check out these four lovelies! Oh and also a shout out to Ella's amazing site, her recipes are so droolworthy clean + the photography is beautiful.

Dear Letters

Dear MacBook...would you please stop with that whole multi-coloured wheel thing you've got going on? I want to type and I want to type now. Please be faster?

Dear Netflix...will you please get American Horror Show season four already?

Dear winter sky...don't ever stop being that whimsical shade of pink, will you?

Dear quinoa...where have you been all my life? You really did spritz up today's boring old salad. We shall be having another lunchtime date again soon, k?

Dear cacti...how often am I supposed to water you? I don't want to drown you but you're looking a little dehydrated.

Dear toffee nut syrup...I'm glad you only come out in winter, otherwise we'd have a serious addiction problem.

Dear Oscar...these snoozy morning goodbye hugs are seriously becoming my favourite kind.

Dear electric blanket...I think you're my soul mate. 

Dear festive candles...can I please burn you all year round?

Dear dear little Moka espresso pot...I'm sorry for putting you in the dishwasher :( You've lost all of your sparkle and I fear it's time to go to Moka pot heaven. 

Dear ScotRail...why are your trains so expensive? I would rather spent my £15.70 on lipstick or coffee or both.

Dear Lucy...I do love how excited you get when I come home to my Mum's, little dog, but please stop ripping my brand new tights. 

Dear robins...please don't stop frolicing around my garden. You are my favourite festive visitor. 

♥