Sunday mornings...

...are all about cups of tea in bed.

That's all I'm saying.

xx

Well hello there...

...Lomography Magazine have featured me on their website today and this has pretty much made my day, nay, year!

Holga by me of the Duke of Wellington Pub in Southampton

You can find the article here.

Go have a little look when you get a moment!

xx

This Week...

Growing baby bump!


...I Liked:

Being a bridesmaid for my best friend, and the most beautiful and simple wedding (photos to follow).

Spending time with our friends and family in Aberdeenshire.

Boyfriend being able to feel baby kick for the first time.

Hearing baby's little heartbeat beating away like a hundred horses.

Beautiful sunshine and its warmth on my bare arms.

My bathroom being 90% finished!
Elasticated waist skirts - my saviour at the moment!

I Didn't Like:

Aberdeen withdrawal symptoms.  All my best friends live there, so I always get sad when I have to leave them.  Weekends always go so fast!
Finding out I might have gestational diabetes.  Cue no sugar in my diet.  Cue sugar withdrawal induced grumpiness and general tetchiness.  

Eating out.  Telling people you are a pregnant, diabetic vegetarian induces a look of sheer panic in friends, family, chefs and waiting staff!  My diet is exceptionally exceptionally limited at the moment.
Having to google everything before it goes in my mouth (thank goodness for iPhones!).

Making the mistake of watching parrots that mimic babies crying on Youtube.  Some of them are far too convincing.  It worries me that Lily bird might pick up the same noises!

xx

We had a bit of a dance party...

...last night.

Mostly to this song:

What can I say, we are the coolest.  And children of the early eighties.

Baby is also on it's way to being the coolest of the cool - it was also having a good old dance in my belly to this song.  It's got good genes you see.

xx

Project 365 - Week 37

So here we are, at Week 37, and I'm afraid to say this is as far as I got with Project 365 before the pregnancy exhaustion got the better of me.  Enjoy the last of the photos!

365/246 - Although I walk past this building in Edinburgh often, I have no idea what it's used for.  Must find out.

365/247 - Pretty Edinburgh house.

365/248 - Wet weather day.  Normally out of this window you can see right to the top of Arthur's Seat (big Edinburgh Hill).  On this day, you could only see about five foot in front of you.

365/249 - Flowers

365/250 - Another pretty Edinburgh house - what can I say - I like houses!

365/251 - I love the idea of a 'cheery' compote.

365/252 - I have no idea what's going on at this house we drove past in Linlithgow.  Yes, those are giant ginger bread men and lollipops.  Yes, that is a giant jaffa cake hanging from the garage door.  And yes, that is a giant cupcake on the lawn, surrounded by smaller ginger bread men.  And yes, they have decorated their windows with icing and candy canes. No, I don't know them, but, yes, I would really like to get to know them!

So there we go - thanks for joining me in my Project 365 (or rather Project 252)!  It was fun while it lasted, and I really enjoyed sharing my photos with you guys!

xx

This Week...

Photo of a pretty field near my house

I Liked...

Little dates with Boyfriend to Edinburgh, and a picnic in Princes St Gardens.

Shopping for big ticket baby items – there is now a pram/push-chair winging it’s way to us as we speak.

Walks in the sunshine on my lunchbreak round the Grange (super fancy area of Edinburgh), looking at the big old houses and pretty gardens.

The little baby a kick kick kicking in my belly.

Some of your baby name suggestions in response to this post!

Making detours so I can buy strawberry coconut Di Rollo ice-cream on my way home from work.

Lunch dates with a pregnant friend (due a couple of weeks before me), not stopping for air as we discussed all things baby, and our fears and things we’re learning about babies and being pregnant.

Thunder and lightning storms when I’m snuggled up cosy at home.

I Didn't Like...

Smokers on the streets of Edinburgh.  I don’t want to breathe in your smoke, so please be a bit more considerate and don’t smoke whilst walking down the street.

My only pair of jeans refusing to fit me any more.

Underestimating how quickly my body would grow.  A few months ago I bought a beautiful dress (reduced by over £100 in the sale) in two sizes bigger than I would normally wear, for a wedding that I’m going to be attending in September.  It was pretty big on me at the time and I was convinced I’d still be able to fit into it come September, and felt pretty smug about being so organised.  Alas, I tried it on the other day and my poor girls were struggling to fit in it.  Come September it’s definitely going to be a no go, unless I want to take someone’s eye out!

xx

The Baby Naming Game

{Image from here}

We're struggling to find a name for baby.  Just now we're imaginatively referring to baby as 'Baby'.  Obviously, it would be nice if we could call it 'Baby' forever, but I'd imagine there would come a point when 'Baby' would probably disown us, most likely when we were dropping it off at school, age 8, shouting "See you later, Baby" in front of the whole playground.  So sadly "Baby" isn't an option, even though they got away with it in Dirty Dancing.  I'm guessing living your life according to Dirty Dancing, while it would be fun, probably doesn't get you far in life.

Anyway, I digress, distracted by thoughts of Dirty Dancing.  Babies names.  Yes.  We’re fine on girls name, actually.  We came up with a girl’s name that fits perfectly (we hope), that's not "Baby" (you'll be pleased to hear) and that we unanimously agreed upon pretty early on.  When it comes to boys names, however, it’s been a whole different ball-game.

We decided Baby will take Boyfriend's surname.  I always thought Boyfriend had a fairly innocuous, perfectly respectable surname, like my own, until it came to naming baby.  You see, Boyfriend’s surname is that of a central character in a JK Rowling book.  Which probably sounds like a perfectly fine and normal surname to you.  Which it is.  Until you try and find a first name to go with it.

Because of that bitch, J.K. Rowling, we can’t name it Harry.  We also can't name Baby anything that rhymes with Harry for that matter.  So that removes Barry, Cary, Gary, and Larry from the name pool.  Not that we would have necessarily gone for any of those names, but it still removes names from the ever decreasing pool of viable names.

Boyfriend also informed me that we can’t call baby Henry, because apparently it’s derived from Harry.  Apparently everyone in Medieval England called Henry pronounced it Harry (I had to look this up, here, to believe this).  And whilst we don't live in Medieval England, and not everyone is into their Medieval English history, Boyfriend is still very much against Henry, so that's out the window too.

We also can’t call Baby anything beginning with S, because then it’s going to be Spotter.  Yes.  Delightful.  The same goes for any name beginning with T, because then it’ll be TeaPotter.  Imagine the japes.

Another name we need to avoid is Jack, because then it becomes JackPot.  

Going with family names is also a problem because all of the male names in our families commit one of these naming crimes.  Which is not a valid reason to re-commit the same crime in my book!

And, further complicating matters, as we are both of that age where a lot of our friends have had children (mostly boys!), and all of my sisters and cousins have children (again, a lot of boys), we've found a lot of 'good' boys names have been taken.  It's a bit of a faux-pas really, to give your child the same name as a close friend or relative's child, right?!

Can your see our problem?!

We also don't want a name that every third kid in their class/school has.  At the same time we don't want anything too out there, that is going to make our child be a object of ridicule, so out goes any outlandish names.  A few years ago we overheard a guy shouting "Merlin" in a railway station.  Expecting to see a dog come bounding along, our mouths were agape when instead we saw an 8 year old boy running up behind his dad.  We still laugh about it now, the cruel people that we are.  Hence no crazy names.

Right now we're at the stage where we have two potential boys names we could use, out of all the boys names in the world that will fit, that hopefully won't be the cause of future bullying/sniggering from strangers (if you're reading this Merlin, then we're really sorry).  There's one name I kind of like, and one Boyfriend kind of likes, but we're not completely sold on each other's suggestions, and can't agree on one or the other.  I'm also still of the mind that out there is the perfect name that we've missed, and is out there somewhere just waiting to be found.  Cue a constant trawl of baby name websites in search of the elusive name, followed by the same old sigh and a feeling of wanting to bash my head off of the keyboard when that name can't be found.  Every evening.

With all this in mind, would it be so wrong to name baby "Baby" if it's a boy?!

xx

Project 365 - Week 36

Hello!  Thanks for being so understanding about my Project 365 announcement.  I was quite relieved to finally admit to myself and to you guys that I didn't have the energy to finish it.

Here's some of my last photos that I took for the Project:

365/239 - Buccleuch Street, Edinburgh.  I love hearing people from outside of Scotland trying to pronounce this street's name :)

365/240 - West Crosscauseway, Edinburgh

365/241 - Napier's Herbalist, Edinburgh.

365/242 - Love heart graffiti 

365/243 - Pretty house, Blacket Avenue, Edinburgh.

365/244 - Fresh fennel from our garden

365/245 - Victor Hugo, Edinburgh.  They do really good food!

I've got one week's photos still to post, which I'll post soon :)

xx

This week...

{17 week baby bump - and yes, I'm totally pushing it out to make it look bigger!}

I Liked...

The sun coming out, and temperatures reaching the giddy heights of 22oC! 

Spending a whole weekend with my beau.  Our first whole weekend together in about six weeks.  

Picnics near our home, with delicious food and fresh strawberries.  Above photo taken on our picnic.

Making dens in our garden.

Walnut bread.  My new addiction.

Booking tickets for the shows we want to see during the Edinburgh Festival.

Booking early enough to get the cheap preview tickets (we're never normally this organised!).

Trying to decide where to go on holiday.

Visiting the new Edinburgh Anthropologie store - so prettily laid out. 

I Didn't Like...

The caterpillars attacking the cabbage growing in our garden.

The cost of train travel.  A 2.5 hour train return train journey to York was going to cost us nearly £150!  We nearly choked - you can get flights to most places in Europe for cheaper than that!  Needless to say we aren't going to York.

Wanting to buy lots of clothes in Anthropologie but not having the funds, nor the body for any of it.

xx

ps: I should have wrote this on Sunday, but I was out and about enjoying the sun and our little den in the garden!

Pregnancy Favourites...

...so, do you know how you always hear that ladies glow and look radiant and in bloom during pregnancy?  Well, it's either a big fat lie, or perhaps I'm just not the glowing radiant type.  Which is a bit of disappointment to say the least.  Being the wilting flower type that I seem to be, I've spent the last few months seeking out the products that have helped give me my own little artificial glow.

Here's a run down of my favourite beauty products, which pregnant or not, are truly amazing:

1. As someone with fine hair, I was really looking forward to the thick luxuriant hair pregnant ladies the world over boast about.  In my case, the reality was as soon as I was pregnant my hair got oily.  Super oily.  And lank.  A fabulous combination.  Rather than wash my hair every 12 hours, I turned to Lush and their Big Shampoo.  I've never been a fan of Lush but Big has been a lifesaver, once I got over the chunky salt texture.  Big makes my hair squeaky clean, oil free and volumised.  I can go 48 hours without needing to wash my hair = more time to sleep.  Win!  A little note though: it will make your hair dry so be sure to use a good conditioner on the ends (just make sure it goes nowhere near your scalp).

2.  As soon as I got pregnant I developed dry itchy patches of skin on the tops of my arms, so I've been liberally rubbing in L'Occitane's Shea Butter daily, which has definitely helped..  This stuff is also rumoured to stop stretch marks, so I'm rubbing it into my belly on a daily basis.  I'll keep you updated on those claims!

3.  Speaking of skin, I've also been more prone to getting pimples on my face.  My miracle worker is Mario Badescu's Drying Lotion.  It's liquid magic, I swear.  All you do is at bedtime (because you sure as anything don't want to be leaving the house with this on your face) is get a cotton bud/swab, dip it in the pink lotion, dab it on your pimple, leave it to dry, and go to sleep.  Sure it smells like medicine, and lying in bed with crusty pink dots over your face isn't particularly attractive to your significant other, but it promise it's worth it.  You WILL wake up with either your pimple having disappeared or it having greatly reduced in size and colour, and you will high-five this Mario Badescu guy every morning!  I seriously can't live without it.  And it's so good that it's one of the few products that I own boyfriend has been known to pinch.

4.  Not really a beauty product, but a lifesaver none-the-less.  Whoever named morning sickness was clearly a man, or not suffering from it, because my experience is nausea can come on at any point in the day.  The only thing I've found that helps, safely, are ginger root capsules.  I got mine from Holland & Barrett, and quite frankly they are amazing.  I can take one in the morning, before going to work and can tackle the hour long journey on the bus and a day at work without feeling nauseous.  The best part is if you're not a fan of capsules you can empty the contents of the capsule into a cup of hot water and enjoy it as a cup of ginger tea.  Apparently these also work wonders for travel sickness and nausea related to hangovers, however I am unable to report on this claim!

5.  And finally, to get that elusive glow I've been using Coralista by Benefit.  I'm not sure if it's a blush or a bronzer, or even a blush/bronzer combined, but whatever it is it perks my pale Scottish skin up in seconds, making me look like I've caught a little bit of the sun.  I love it's soft, subtle coral glow.  The only thing I don't love is the little brush you get with it.  My advice is ditch the free brush, and replace it with a big fluffy blush brush for better results.

I'm so so incredibly happy and excited about being pregnant - I'm just a little sad that I've physically felt less than amazing. But these products, in combination, definitely help make me feel good about myself, which is a major plus!

Pregnant or not, what products can you not live without at the moment?

xx

ps: I'm not sponsored, paid or reimbursed by any of these companies - just sharing the things that I love.

Project 365 - Week 35

Remember when I used to post my Project 365 photos?!  Well, my last post was the start of June and now it's July...  Pregnancy has kind of got railroaded it to the side I'm afraid.

For a few months I managed to keep up with taking a photo a day but I'm not going to lie, pregnancy is tough, growing a whole little person inside you while continuing to work full-time, commute 3 hours a day, fulfill family and friend commitments and renovate a house.  Something had to give, and unfortunately it was the Project 365.  But I'll continue to take photos and once the sun comes out (I'm still hopeful we'll actually get a summer round these parts) then I'll be sure to take my holga out to play (remember when I used to take holgas?!)

Here are some of the last Project 365 photos in week 35 that I managed to take before admitting defeat:

365/232 - Little old lady hair salon.  How cute does it look?

365/233 - Urban weeds.

365/234 - Ice cream van near Princes Street Gardens.

365/235 - Fresh Scottish strawberries.  So delicious.  And  yes, Blogger uploaded this photo on it's side - I've complained to Blogger about it.  One of my many gripes with Blogger at the moment.

365/236 - Postbox on Grange Road, Edinburgh.

365/237 - Making vegetarian chili.  The one dish in my repertoire!

365/238 - Love this door knocker.

I've still got a few more 365 photos to post: to follow shortly!

xx