Blook Club

Did you notice my shiny new badge? Over there, there, down on the right hand side! I'm a member of blook club, organised by the clever and delightful Zoe from Conversation Pieces. 

I say that I'm a member, however I'm unfortunately having to miss the first one. Cannot wait to hear how it went and what everyone thought of the book: How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran.

Enough of me wittering check out Zoe's post. She is much better at explaining.

Blog Birthday 2

(from pinterest but etsy originally)

I've made it through another year!

My sisters and my "real life" friends have moaned about not having the opportunity to make new friends. How it is hard to meet like minded people and start conversations with them.

Inside I'm screaming at them, start a blog, start a blog. You meet the most amazing people and if you are lucky they become truly wonderful friends.

Friends and stuff

(from here via here)

This weekend was a rare treat full of friends.

 Friday I took the afternoon off work and dedicated my spare time to cake and chat.

Saturday, O and I walked into town and got some messages then came home and watched the rugby (the fact that I worked at the same time is beside the point).

Sunday we met up with University friends for lunch, it is amazing the bond that is formed through the terror of having just left home for the first time. Some of these friends I haven't seen since graduation 8 years ago.

Times have changed, the 17 year old boy who couldn't make a Pot Noodle now cooks everything from scratch. The shyest boy imaginable came with his wife and baby girl. It was amazing how quickly we settled in to the same old banter.

The strangest thing was revisiting our student haunts which are now different, full of new (very young looking) students and do not look good in the daylight.

Monday (we were supposed to go to O's parents for the weekend but changed our plans so we could make the Sunday meeting), we had a rare week day off together without any plans. The men came and fixed our broken skylight only 6 weeks after a huge gust of wind took it off the roof. We finally got round to booking our hotel in Rome and got lots of household admin sorted. It is rare that we have efficient days.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Dreams of lace

(image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4)

The amazing, fantastic, wonderful Rebecca is getting married today. I can't put into words how excited I am for her and James.

Wishing you both a day and future full of happiness

Enjoy your honeymoon but come back quick and tell me all about it. 

I'm going to miss you!

Details: Internet friends are amazing

Not only did Rebecca from Daydreams in Lace make me this amazing hair slide

She also gave me a hanky embroidered with my name

and allowed me to keep hold of her beautiful pearl necklace while I hummed and hawed for MONTHS about what jewellery to wear and then I didn't even wear it!

(photo by Rebecca I presume

hope you don't mind me posting it)

Rebecca has less than a month to go until her wedding. I'm so excited for her and James and seeing all their details come together. I just wish I was able to repay her kindness.


scheduled post

I can’t be bothered, I can’t be bothered, I can’t be bothered

I’m supposed to be going to my friend’s house for tea tonight*, she has very kindly offered to host our group of friends again even though it is absolutely my turn – I think I might owe them three or four dinners by now. But I can’t be bothered to go, I can’t be bothered to talk about the wedding and how stressed I am and how I’ve achieved nothing since I last saw them. I can’t be bothered to pretend to be excited or happy or enthusiastic about life it’s tiring. Also I’m bad at pretending. I can’t be bothered with people’s sympathetic eyes and their offers of help which turn into more work for me.

I can’t be bothered getting up in the morning, I can’t be bothered getting dressed and going to work and I can’t be bothered to actually do any work while there, which is a bit of a problem because I don’t have a free second at the moment and need to concentrate.

Food I can always be bothered with I’m not that bad.

The only person I can be bothered with is O – which I suppose is a good thing seeing as I’ll be spending the rest of my life with him. He noticed immediately that I wasn’t right and has set about coming up with ways to “fix” me, in his, I’m a boy and don’t like talking about feelings sort of a way. Which is ok with me considering I can’t explain why I’m feeling like this.

I want to have the energy to write an intelligent post regarding Glasgow Bride’s remark at the end of her post. About how blogging is all about having a conversation and that it is scary butting in on other people’s conversations but that I’ve never had a bad response. Although there are some places where I’m just too shy. About how we all started our blogs at different times but there are new blogs appearing all the time so you are never the new blog for very long. About how blog land is an amazing place where you have access to all these wonderful people you just find a blog that suits your personality and hopefully make friends. About the teasing I got from O when I plucked up the courage to go and meet one of them in person and how thankful I was that she didn’t turn out to be a 50 year old pervert and that we got on.

I’m going to give myself a kick up the behind and get back to being “normal” (ha). Blog posts will come but they may be sporadic.

*I started writing this yesterday morning, while at work oops turns out I found a free second and then had to stay late, but I never got time to finish it. I did go to see my friends and I actually had a really good time. There was a baby to cuddle, lots of giggles, lots of food and some chocolate thrown in for good measure. Probably serves me right for being a miserable cow.

I’ve picked all the wrong friends.

The comment Wellies and Vogue left on this post made me giggle as I was already composing this post in my head. I’m fortunate to know a bagpiper and have a sister who knows a dress maker and they both flukily managed to have a trip to India in their work schedule at exactly the right time – #2 hasn’t been to India or travelled abroad with her work for almost 18 months so it was a complete fluke.

However apart from these two connections I don’t have any other ‘useful’ friends (not sure they’d be impressed by that comment if they actually knew about the blog). I always hear conversations at work from colleagues who are asking their cousins to re-do their bathroom or a friend who is a mechanic is going to fix their car. I’m tempted to put an advert in the paper for useful friends, I need;

Plumber, joiner, plasterer, IT wiz, carpet fitter, kitchen fitter, tiler, electrician, roofer, gas engineer, mechanic, painter & decorator........

Friends I need to make in the next 6 months or preferably right now;
Photographer, a whole ceilidh band of musicians, florist, stationer extraordinaire, hairdresser, make up artiste or instead of all of these just a wedding planner who could arrange it all for me.

I’m sure there are loads of people I’ve missed of both lists. Do you have useful friends? Am I being unrealistic, is it actually quite awkward to ask a friend to fit your new kitchen and replaster your entire house (I can see how it might be pushing the boundaries ever so slightly)?

Not my taste but love it anyway

So Facebook is a strange thing. I've reconnected with lots of people that I went to high school with who I completely lost contact with as soon as I left school.

Last weekend one of my Facebook friends got married and I thought her wedding looked great, the photos online while not professional show everyone partying hard - what more can you ask for?

They laid on party games

A Roulette wheel

What a beautiful bouquet (it kind of matched her hair!)

Bring on the feathers and hot pink!!

Loves

I love Scotland
I love the views, the hills, the greenery, the beauty, the accents and the people.
I try to love the weather but there are just some challenges too great - it's August and it's been p**ing with rain for days now! Scotland generally has it's summer between April and May so by the end of August I've completely forgotten what it was like. I currently live 5 hours from where I was originally brought up where summer happened July/August time. In 10 years of living in Scotland I have yet to figure out or get used to this change of timing.
The hills - my wonderful other half (lets call him O) is from Scotland, from a little island with enormous hills where the wind is constantly blowing but boy is it stunning, in that spectacular awe inspiring way that only dramatic landscapes manage to achieve. I love his little island and although we visit often - I don't think I could ever live there, just too small and too far away for me. I'd love to be able to climb the hills and see the view from the top but that is the subject of another post.
The accents - I have a confession to make (I'm going to offend people and I'm sorry) I have a Yorkshire accent and it makes me cringe! I won't be having a wedding dvd as I'd have to watch it with the sound off, I can't stand the sound of my own voice - I'm telling you that isn't the way I sound in my head! I do however love Scottish accents, the variety is vast.
The people - My friends are all here, my wonderful fella is here - why would I leave.

Love it!