One year!

Doesn't time fly by? One year ago today I thought "oh why not" and wrote my very first blog post on Ever So Juliet. Happy blog birthday to me!

I took this photo at my desk, with a hastily scribbled post-it and a bit of clip art. I feel so professional.

I'd been thinking about blogging (and reading loads of them) for years, so I'm not quite sure why it took me so long to get started. I guess it's easy to view the blogging world as big and scary and judgemental - and then it's even easier to get disheartened when absolutely no one reads it!

But once I stopped worrying about what people did or didn't think about me, it all got a lot easier. And fun! I love this little space I've got on the internet - I love that I've got somewhere to show off the cakes I've made, or the daft things I paint on my nails. Even Riley gets a lot of love! I don't fit your typical skinny/stylish/stunning fashion or make up blogger, but I don't really care. I like rambling away in here (and if nothing else, it has finally taught me how to control my mane!).

So hiya to all of my lovely, lovely readers who have appeared along the way (and somehow there's now over 2,000 of you a month? Crazy. Hello!). Hi to the bloggers who are inspiring, lovely and very funny to read. Here's to another year!

Snickers cheesecake

Mmmmm. Look at this ridiculous thing.

 

You can see a recipe for this totally-over-the-top-and-indulgent Snickers cheesecake over at Aimee's blog (I'm guest-posting while she's on holiday). It's based on the very easy vanilla cheesecake I made a few months ago, but is about a billion times more unhealthy!

Riley

Aw, look at Riley. All chilled and snoozing, and not aware that life as he knows it is about to change. Since he was twelve weeks old Riley's home has been our wee flat, and he's never been allowed outside (although he was born on a farm!). I read up LOADS about keeping cats indoors before we got him, but didn't really have a choice in the matter - we're currently in a first floor flat with no garden, on a very busy street. There was no way I was letting my tiny cat (who had just recovered from cat flu) into the big bad city!

But over the last year or so my guilt levels about keeping him indoors have absolutely ROCKETED. Whenever we have a window open he does his absolute best to climb out onto the window ledge, and will happily sit with his paws over the window just sniffing the air. My poor cat prisoner!

Not for much longer though! I'll need to keep him indoors for a few months once we've moved to make sure he's settled in the new house and knows it is his, but bit by bit he'll start to get outside. Eeek!

I've been reading up on loads of websites (and a hilarious cat magazine) for advice on how to get him used to outdoor life, but secretly I am hoping that he'll be happy enough sunning himself in the garden and not wander too far. I can hope, at least!

The Manna House

As Craig & I are soon to be moving (have I mentioned this enough? ha), we have been trying to make the most of the lovely places in our neighbourhood that will be missed when we are on the other side of town.

One of these is the wonderful Manna House Bakery - a French bakery and patisserie on Easter Road. This is a favourite with many of my Edinburgh pals, and it's not hard to see why.

For our indulgent "bye Manna House" lunch we had....

Mine!

 .. a potato quiche (which was SO good)...

Craig's!

.. a fancy pizza slice (which I assume was also good, it disappeared pretty quickly).

YUM

AND a lemon meringue pie and chocolate mousse/cake thing (I told you it was an indulgent lunch!).

Fingers crossed that another artisan bakery will be just round the corner in my new neighbourhood! If you are in Edinburgh and near Easter Road I'd highly recommend that you pop in and have a look here. It's a tiny café so table space is very limited, but you can always take food away and eat in a sunny park (assuming we actually get summer this year!).

Ombre scallop nails

Models Own - red alert, 17 - pink grapefruit, Models Own - pastel pink, Crayola - white nail art pen

I wasn't sure what to call this post - they aren't quite ombre nails and the pattern definitely isn't a clear scalloped edge, but they fall somewhere in between!

I painted this freehand (in a similar way to these stripey nails from last summer) by starting with the lightest colour, and then adding the darker layers in a sort of zig-zaggy shape. Fun.

Pay it forward

A few weeks ago I was reading Kim's blog & saw she was taking part in Pay It Forward - a lovely blogger project where you make crafty things for readers, who then make crafty things for their readers.

I was sent a mini q&a to fill in but had no idea what to expect, so it was a really lovely surprise to open my package last week!

I got...

.. a tote bag with a Harry Potter quote sown on it! This is so cool (and has inspired me to to learn to stitch - I want to make things like this!). I think I'm going to cut up the bag so I can frame this bit of fabric and hang it up in our new library. It'll look lovely.

AND.. a cupcake coaster & a felt macaroon badge! This was pretty much perfectly timed after my last post, and will look really sweet on one of my cardigan's in the summer. Thanks Kim!

Pay It Forward is such a lovely idea - I'll need to wait until we are settled in the new house before I get started on crafting things but watch this space, I'll let you know!

Ladurée macaroons

I've read about Ladurée on a few different blogs, so was quite pleased when I stumbled across their shop in Covent Garden as I've always wondered what the fuss was about! I couldn't resist popping in (despite the queues!) and buying a box.

It was £12ish (ouch) for a box of eight macaroons. I chose a mixture of raspberry, chocolate, caramel, rose, lemon & a few more I can't remember! They were all nicely wrapped up, and looked like this.

HELLO.

I'd like to tell you that I ate these daintily whilst wearing a tea dress and posing for photos (or some other type of blogger cliché) but I mainly munched them on the train back to Edinburgh when I was soggy and a bit grumpy (and looking like this). They were really delicious though. Really really delicious.

If you'd like to give them a go I have an easy macaroon recipe here! Mmm.

Crafty things to make for the house!

Earlier this year I was all relaxed and confident, knowing that there were MONTHS until we moved into our new house. I thought things like - yeah, I'll just pack a little each week. & - I'll start the clear out now, so that I don't have much rubbish to sort through. And also - I'll do all the furniture DIYs I want in advance, so all my crafty things are ready when we move.

There are now only 36 days before our "date of habitation" and none of these things have happened. Oops.

SO. Here's a reminder, self. Things I'd like to make before we move.

1. Get fancy with some washi tape and a lack table from Ikea (you know, the ones that are £10ish?). Washi tape comes in a million different colours, and this seems like such a quick and simple idea! & everyone likes stripey pastel things, yeah? (Craig probably doesn't. Sorry in advance, Craig).

2. Make colourful cake stands with a little bit of spray paint and glue!  I love cake stands. They are sort of pointless if you aren't hosting endless tea and dinner parties, but I made up a little collection when I was running my cupcake company and have always had a soft spot for them.

3. Turn an old dresser into a kitchen island! My mind is basically going to be blown when I live in a house with an actual, separate kitchen with SPACE (omg) so I'm already getting a bit giddy at the thought of having an island (WHAT HAS MY LIFE BECOME?). Anyway, this is cool - buy an old dresser, attach hooks and the like and paint!

4. Make a suitcase bed for Riley! I've actually already bought a suitcase for this project (for only £5, thanks ebay!) so just need to sort myself out and attach legs.

Motivation - go! 

WAH nails

I've had a ridiculously lovely weekend! I was down in London for work last week, and managed to time it pretty perfectly so that I could spend Saturday & Sunday with my lovely friend Steph who lives down there (and who I miss very much!). 

I don't make it down to the capital as much as I'd like to, so I made sure to use a little of my free time to make a trip to Wah nails! It felt like I pretty much had to get my nails done as it was around this time last year that I popped into Wah (very spur of the moment), had candy stripes painted & then got obsessed with nail art!

I went for a very Spring-like mix of strawberries and pastel stripes and I love love love them! They've lasted for days too - I still don't have any chips! I wish I could get my nails painted every week (although it would be quite an expensive habit!).

Topshop make up

I feel like I've been in a bit of a make up rut recently so as a wee treat, I bought myself a couple of items from Topshop's make up range. I went for the highlighter in Sunbeam (a lovely shimmering golden shade) and blush in Head Over Heels (a coral/peachy shade). They looked really nice in the packaging and were a fairly decent price (£9 and £6 respectively). 

Application was easy - both are highly pigmented, so it didn't take much to show up! You only need a small sweep of the highlighter, so be careful if you don't want to look like a discoball!

Here's how they look on my (pale) face...

I'm really pleased with them! Because I'm quite pale (and rubbish with make up application) I need to be quite careful that I don't look like a doll/child playing dress-up when putting blush on, but I like that I get a natural rosy look with this! The highlighter is also quite subtle, and just perks my face up a bit.

Lovely stuff! I'd definitely try more make up from Topshop after this.