I Feel Like Dancing

We've been on a Daft Punk kick for the past few weeks since we got the new album.  I love a bit of Daft Punk - this is me in 2007 when we went to see Daft Punk play in Melbourne, Australia:

We had the most fun ever!  Go see them if you get a chance - you won't be disappointed (and hopefully you'll get a mask too!).

Anyway, getting back on track, Get Lucky has been on constant rotation - doesn't it just make you want to dance?  If has that affect on me anyway.  Then I found this video which shows some amazing dance moves, which I've just GOT to try!



Don't mind me neighbours - I'm not having a spasm - I'm just dancing in my kitchen!

I also like the video because it reminds me of my all time favourite You Tube video.  I always play this one when I feel like dancing, when I'm feeling a bit blue, or I need some inspiration:



Stick with it for the music coming in at 2:00.The man has got the moves - he's my disco dancing idol!

xx

ps: this post is a bit random - I've got dancing on my mind today and nothing else!

Stockholm

We're just back from a fantastic week's holiday in Stockholm.  It was our first proper holiday in three years, and it was very much needed!  It was also our first holiday with E, and let me say, she's a natural born traveller!  Although, the change in clocks and light (Stockholm has lighter mornings than Edinburgh) was not particularly easy on us - cue lots of early early mornings!

Stockholm is such a beautiful city, particularly the old parts of town - which felt like the old town of Edinburgh but on water.  We walked miles and miles and miles each day whilst exploring, but the benefits of this was outweighed by the number of vanilla cardamom buns we ate - vaniljbullar - which I am going to have to attempt to make at some point very soon.  So very very tasty!

Here are a few photos of Stockholm, from Gamla Stan and Helgeandsholmen, two places where we spent a lot of time:


Dala horses everywhere!


Pretty colourful buildings on Gamla Stan


The winding cobbled streets of Gamla Stan.


I could not get enough of the colours!

 Museum of Medieval Stockholm, Helgeandsholmen

 Guards parading on Helgeandsholmen

It's a bit different going on holiday with a toddler.  In the past we would have probably gone to a lot of museums and galleries, and bars, but this time we focused on spending time outdoors and doing toddler friendly activities, hence why we did so much walking and exploring outdoors rather than taking in more cultural activities.  We also hit up a lot of play parks - we played in practically every park in Stockholm!  Play parks are much better in Sweden - there's one on every corner, with more fun things to do, more sand, and lots of rosy cheeked Swedish children in colourful clothes (Polarn O Pyret of course)  running around, while their achingly stylish mums and dads sit nearby drinking coffee.  The only minus point is that the Swedes don't do idle chit chat - which was the only thing I missed.  My mister on the other hand loved the lack of awkward conversation.  Swings and roundabouts!

 I'm already mentally figuring out when we can next go back!

xx

Lately...

...I've been enjoying this new song by Tunng (one of my favourite bands):



I've also been doing some crafting for Moral Fibres, my eco blog.  Keep your eyes out for my crafty endeavors, coming very soon!

And enjoying some much needed sun on my shoulders - the sun we've had lately has been glorious.  We've played in a lot of parks lately  I'll tell you, chutes are where it's at - swings are so passe.  According to my 17 month old that is!

And finally, I've been enjoying 99 Roots - a new website with lots of very pretty gardening inspiration.  Lord knows I need some, my garden currently bears much resemblance to a jungle.  We had a heap of rubbish piled up in it (we're those kinds of neighbours!) but a neighbour helped us clear it on Sunday, so it's all ready for some TLC now.

xx

Sideboard Love

If we had to label our living room's style, I'd call it traditional.  There are lots of wooden pieces, including a lovely traditional oak mantlepiece (below the mirror) that a craftsman made for us.  Our living room is cosy and feels like a proper family room.  Our house is also old - over 100 years old - so it suits the building well.

When our daughter was a couple of months old we found ourselves swamped in toys, with no way of storing them neatly.  For the sake of our sanity, we needed an easy solution and fast, so when our parents were in town we took advantage of their car and took a trip to that giant blue box, Ikea, and bought a small flat-pack shelving unit.

So far it's served it's purpose (housing toys and acting as a TV table), but the white more modern style doesn't really fit with the rest of the room.  So when Furniture Choice asked me to review their traditionally styled Michigan Oak sideboard I knew exactly what it would replace - the shelves!



So we said goodbye to the shelving unit - which has been relegated into storage in my papa's loft - and said hello to the Michigan sideboard!

First off it's a really solid, well made, rustic piece, so I know it will last for years and years to come, and crucially won't look dated in five or ten years time.  I also love it's traditional styling, that works so well in our room.  So far it's the first thing that visitors comment on, and we've had so many compliments on it already.

But as space is at a premium in our tiny house, furniture can't just look good: it has to be practical as well.  We work our furniture hard - everything has to have at least two purposes otherwise it's been cast into storage.    Thankfully the sideboard houses all of the toys with plenty of space.  And, as an added bonus, I have two drawers that we can use as storage for our things, like DVDs.  As any small space dweller knows, storage is everything, and the sideboard provides us with all the storage we need from it in our living room.

The other bonus is as it's made of solid oak it's sturdy and heavy, so there's no danger of the TV falling off - something I worried about with the Ikea shelves, which, as they were made of MDF, was quite flimsy.  I'm also always a bit wary of things I've assembled myself - I don't have much trust in my DIY abilities - so have something delivered to us that required no assembly whatsoever was also reassuring.

The icing on the cake for me was that the delivery men carried the sideboard up to my living room, unpacked it for me, and took away the packaging, which made one happy mama, is all I can say!

In short, we love the sideboard, and I quite often catch the mister giving it admiring glances now and again, which is his way of saying "it's good, really good".

Furniture Choice don't just sell lovely Red Boots approved living room furniture - they also have heaps of great furniture for every room of the house.  I was particularly taken by their great range of dining room furniture, including some seriously stylish dining tables and chairs - I have my eye on this table for when we move and hopefully have room for a dining table!

xx

NB: Furniture Choice kindly sent me the sideboard to review.  I received no other recompense to write this post, and of course, as always, all words and opinions are my own.   

Snippets...

...of life lately.  I haven't done one of these lately and I have heaps of photos to share, some from months ago, when there were barely any leaves on the trees.  Now I'm sitting here in a summer dress, and we've just been playing in the park all morning and admiring the blossom on the trees.

We used to be quite content pootering around at home most of the time, but now E is older and, since the end of January, walking (nay, running!), our house seems much smaller, and she requires more by way of entertainment to stave away boredom. I make sure to fit in at least one exciting excursion a week and then do lots of little things around home.

A little while ago E and I went to the Museum of Modern Art in Edinburgh for a morning out.  It's in such a beautiful setting:

I hadn't checked which exhibition would be on before going - it turns out it was From Death to Death and Other Small Tales, which is all about how 20th and 21st century artists have approached the subject of the body.  Which, invariably, was pretty much all about genitalia.  I'm no prude by any stretch, and some of the art was very good, however I felt a little uneasy showing my toddler the art.  Less uneasy though than the parents of the 10 and 8 year old kids, who walked into a room that housed a massive bronze cast of a penis and balls dangling from the ceiling!  You can imagine how that went down...!

We did very much enjoy this installation though, which was essentially nylon filled with spices.  As you can tell, I'm no art expert and I'm not going to pretend to be, so I can't tell you what it represents.  I can tell you the smell in the room was incredible though - just like being in the Moroccan Souks again:



We've also enjoyed LOTS of walks to see the ducks and swans in our village.  The walk there is not much fun, at all, but once you're there it's beautiful.  I think these photos are from March:

We've also been on lots of forays around Edinburgh:

Botanic Gardens

Morningside

 West End

Trinity

And after all of that walking:

Coffee!  This one was at Peter's Yard, one of my Edinburgh favourites.

Speaking of coffee, you probably deserve one now after having made you look at all of my photos!  Go!  Enjoy!
xx

April Showers (in May)

The nice people at Joules sent E and I some wellies to review - what a very exciting mail day when they arrived, let me tell you!  E immediately shouted "shoes!" and tried to put them on by herself.  After a helping hand into them she seemed pleased as punch with her boots, and kept looking at them rather than where she was going, which consequently led to a few bumps!  And I'll admit that I also kept giving my feet admiring glances (thankfully I remembered to watch where I was going!).  I'm a fan of Joules and their clothing (this dress in this post is a particular favourite), and already own a few Joules pieces, so it was great to be able to incorporate some Joules style on to my feet!

I chose the navy floral print wellies from the women's wellies range.  I love a good floral print, and I thought the navy would be good at disguising mud!

For E I chose the ditsy pink wellies from the baby girls range.  I don't normally dress E in pink clothes, and I almost went for these lovely stripy ones, but in the end the floral ones were too cute to resist!  Joules have some gorgeous girls wellies, but sadly E is a bit too little for them yet.  

We then went on a walk in our village to test them out on a particularly damp day:

Looking for sheep, sadly none to be seen.  

The only problem about walking on a damp day is that the rain is never far away, and consequently we got drizzled on (including my camera, which has since dried out thankfully!):

Pesky rain spots!

Then the rain came on a bit too heavily for my liking so we hurried home before I got a chance to photo my beautiful wellies in a bit more detail, so after a quick wipe down at home here they are:

As pretty as they are, I'm sure you'll be wanting to know the important things - such as how comfortable they are and if they kept our feet dry.  Well, the wellies ran true to size, and are really comfortable to walk in, even on rough ground.  The soft insoles provide a nice cushion for your feet and they didn't rub our feet.  The rubber is soft and flexible making them easy to get on and off, but in typical Joules quality they feel sturdy and well-made, and I have no doubt that they will last for years and years.  Most importantly of all, they kept our feet dry, even when we decided to jump in some puddles, which is always the most important criteria of welly boots!

Now, bring on the great Scottish summertime (re: downpours) and we'll be all prepared in style!

xx

ps: If you fancy treating the little one in your life, Joules are currently running a half-term promotion, where if you spend £20 online on Little Joule clothing for girls and boys you get £5 off with voucher code LJ20.  :)

---

Joules sent us some boots to review, but I received no financial recompense.  All words and opinions are my own and of course I'd tell you if I didn't like them!

Eco Happenings Over At Moral Fibres

It's been a busy old while over on Moral Fibres, my eco blog.  If you're not a regular reader over there then here are some posts you might have missed:

I

Some hardwearing and stylish ethical men's clothing from Cornish company, Seasalt.
A really great crochet DIY on how to make your own reusable cotton wool pads for removing make-up.
What to sow in April and May.
An update on how I've been getting on at reducing my consumption of palm oil
My first ever eco-fashion outfit post!
Introducing Greenterest - a prototype social networking site for gardeners.
How to plant a bee friendly garden, and if you don't have a garden, how you can be more bee friendly.
A slightly more ethical alternative to Google that benefits the environment whilst you surf.
How to stop junk mail in it's pesky tracks.
And an introduction to solar water heating.

Now that I'm feeling much better, and even getting some rest in the evenings now (after a fun couple of weeks of a toddler refusing to go to bed!) I'm even hoping to blog here a bit more often too!

xx