Couch to 5k

I've never ever had any inclination to start running. Ever. I have some vague memories of being forced to do it in school, and that I was always the slow coach at the back at the group. Even when I was recently fairly fit from roller derby, any time we did off-skates training that involved running I would still feel like I was about to collapse in a heap.

So with all this in mind, please be extra impressed when I say that this week I have been for THREE runs - and two of them were before 7am in the morning! (Please be impressed!).

 I was mainly motivated by the hot weather and the desire to do *something* to get a bit fitter before summer properly started. So when Craig mentioned that he was going to try running, I thought I'd join him & luckily stumbled across an ace programme - Couch to 5k.

This trains you over 8 weeks to go from a total running novice to a happy runner who can comfortably complete a 5k. You do three runs per week and they are really simple to start with (which is brilliant as there's no danger of pushing yourself too hard too early and burning out).

Livsmart shoes*

 The first week was sort of okay - my very first minute of running was HORRENDOUS (it was uphill, which didn't help) but it did get easier. The first day of getting up at 6.15am to run before work was also mildly terrifying, but I hadn't realised just how enjoyably smug I would feel afterwards, knowing I had done my good deed for the day!

One of the biggest things I've realised so far though is that I need to get proper fitness shoes! I did my first run in a pair of old converse... which I wouldn't recommend. So I have ordered a pair of Sketchers Shape-Ups which should hopefully help my poor feet out.

I'm going to try and blog about my progress each week (partly just to try and motivate myself!) so I will let you know how I get on!

Jubilee nails

 The Diamond Jubilee is this weekend, marking the 60th anniversary of the Queen's reign (go on yourself, Lizzie!). There's loads and loads and loads of Jubilee themed merchandise and things cropping up on the internet, but I thought there was one thing missing in quite a few of them... CORGIS! 

So here's my take on a Jubilee manicure - flags, crowns, corgis and all! 

Corgi, polka dots, flag, corgi with crown (!), polka dots

This was actually one of the most fun nail art projects I've done in a while! It took quite a while to do the different layers on the corgi nails (brown circle for face, add white stripe and white triangles for ears, outline ears, add nose and eyes!), but I was catching up on gossip girl which made it much easier to be patient and let things dry!

Polka dots, crown, flag, polka dots, corgi!

If you fancy trying this yourself I'd highly recommend getting some nail art pens (as they make everything easier) - failing that get some fine brushes which should do the trick.

Also, if you are going to a tea party this weekend - I am jealous of you! Tea parties are the best (I will be in Paris though.. so I am not that jealous of you).

Exploring the Scottish Borders

One of the nicest things about moving that wee bit further from town is that suddenly I feel SO much closer to the country. There's a country park about two minutes down the road, big farmers fields behind my back garden and the Scottish Borders are less than ten minutes away by car. So perfect!

So recently, Craig & I took advantage of the lovely, lovely, lovely weather we've been getting and went on a wee road trip.

We drove to the beautiful Traquair House, Scotland's oldest inhabited house.

We just wandered round the grounds, paused to take slightly awkward outfit photos, completed the maze (yay), kept running into lively theatre groups, picked daisies and drank tea.

We then drove down to St Mary's Loch, which was just beautiful! The clouds had started to creep in at this point so it wasn't particularly warm, but it was gorgeous!

We managed to *just* escape getting caught in a boggy marsh, I felt a bit overdressed (next to all the proper hikers that we there), but didn't care, and Craig taught me how to skim stones!

This is a look of genuine giddiness when I FINALLY managed to skim a stone, I am so rubbish at it!

It was such a lovely day of exploring - I highly recommended a ramble around if you are at this side of Scotland!

Bunting nail art

Rimmel - Professional Finish in Peppermint | Nail art pens

I saw this idea on a tumblr post a few months ago and have been waiting on a nice summery day to try it out for myself. Luckily the sun has decided to FINALLY come out in Edinburgh, so this week seemed like a nice excuse for it.

I used my new trusty nail art pens to make little triangles, and then outlined them with a white nail art pen. Some nails are considerably neater than others, but I am quite chuffed with my wee bunting flags!

I am also really loving this peppermint nail polish, and have been wearing it pretty much constantly since I bought it (as you can see here, here & here!). It's one of the Rimmel Pro shades, and it is just such a beautiful shade that goes on very smoothly.

A summery outfit

Oh happy days, it FINALLY stopped raining in Edinburgh at the weekend. Craig and I jumped in the car on Sunday morning for a wee impromptu road trip down to the Scottish Borders (which was super easy as we are about 10 minutes away - the wonders of suburban living!).

I have loads of photos from our wee adventure (more on these later) but I thought I'd brave taking outfit photos in the beautiful grounds of Traquair House - a nicer backdrop than what I'd normally use! 

Sunglasses - Prada (wonderful birthday treat)
Lipstick - Rockalily 

I have never grown out of putting daisies in my hair (much easier than making a proper daisy chain!).

Dress - River Island
Satchel - New Look

Slightly awkward posing in Traquair's walled garden. It was so warm and beautiful! I absolutely love this dress too - it's so comfy and perfect for early summer weather.

Shoes - New Look

I love these shoes! They are quite tacky (and I don't know how long they will last, sob), but it is a bit of a battle not to wear them every single day.

Scrabble ring - Etsy 

And this is my super cute scrabble ring! My lovely pal Steph has a matching "J" one (friendship rings for twenty six year olds, I guess).

So nice to get out and wear SUNGLASSES today too! Please stay sun, I've missed you!

Zombie shoes

I try to be a bit of a grown up these days when making most clothing decisions, but when I saw these zombie shoes by Iron Fist I couldn't resist. Look at them!

Gold Digger flats*

THEY HAVE TEETH! (Surely all anyone wants from a shoe, yeah?).

Gold teeth charms AND a diamonte tooth accessory. Goodness me. They are ridiculous shoes. I know that. But still... I am clearly a sucker for ridiculous shoes because I started daydreaming about wearing them. At first I thought I would just wear them in the summer & over the festivals (where you can get away with ridiculous things), but now I think I might just wear them whenever I can.

Because surely everyone should own a pair of shoes that just makes them smile, yeah? (Even if everyone else thinks I'm a weirdo).

MAC paint pot in Blackground

Recently I visited a MAC counter and was sweet-talked into buying one of their paint pot eyeshadows in Blackground. I don't normally buy high-end make up (I'm more of a Boots 17 girl), but I find it hard to say no to good sales chat - especially when it is accompanied by one of the little makeovers they do.

I'm quite a fan of a smoky eye, and this is already my go-to product from now on if I'm doing a dark eye.

Blackground is a really pigmented shade that is lovely and creamy to use. You can see the colour from just one swipe.

It goes on really smoothly, which is really important to me! I hate dark eyeshadows that go EVERYWHERE when you try to apply them - I want the colour on my eyelids, not all over my face! It's really easy to get the shape you want with a brush as the shadow is so creamy, and it dries nicely too without creasing (which also dries me a bit crazy).

This is what it looks like on my face! I've been really impressed with it so far, and am now eyeing up the other shades on the MAC site - if only they weren't £14.50 each! Still, better to spend a little more on a quality product that is lovely to use and stays in place all day!

Nail art pens

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a set of super cheap nail art pens from Amazon. I hadn't heard of the brand before, but for under £9 I thought it wouldn't break the bank too much if they were rubbish.

You get 24 colours in a pack (I think the colour range might change a little bit with each order, but you get a mix of reds, yellows, blues, greens and metallics). Each pen has a thin brush and a pen nib so you can use them in different ways depending on what you are painting.

I really really love them! As you can probably imagine (because of the price) the pens are pretty cheaply made. The quality of each polish isn't great either - it's pretty gloopy and also comes out of the pen nib really quickly. But I don't think that really matters much with nail art as you'll be using these pens for detailing, not for painting the main coat of varnish.

I used these pens to do my Avengers nails and for these nautical nails, so you can see how well they work.

If you fancy them you can buy them from Amazon here. Shipping is a couple of pounds, but I still think it's great value for money considering how many colours you get!

How to: rolled hair updo

I was looking through my blog stats the other day (as you do) and was quite surprised to see that my previous hair tutorials (how to use a hair doughnut & how to do a twisted hair updo) had over 4,100 views between them!

So I thought it definitely was time to do another one, and wanted to show you all a very easy updo. I did it earlier (with the lovely Craig helping out and taking photos), but when I started to put this post together I realised it was quite hard to see what I was actually doing in the photos. So I am being BRAVE and have made a wee youtube tutorial which hopefully explains it simply. Please be kind!

I've also included the photos and a brief how-to below in case you aren't a fan of videos. I wasn't quite sure what to call this hairstyle.. is it a twist? Is a a roll? It makes me think of vintage hairstyles, which I like, and you can make it as sleek or scruffy as you'd like. Plus you don't need anything other than a hair bobble and kirby grips!

You want to start by putting your hair in a low ponytail, at the base of your neck. Then pull out the hairband until it is about half way down the ponytail.

Now take the end of your ponytail and start wrapping it around itself, making a roll. You want to roll this down into the space at the bottom of your hair (I hope this makes sense!).

You'll find it makes a nice roll at the bottom of your hair. Try and make sure it's even, and use some kirby grips to start pinning the middle part of the roll.

Now add in a couple more kirby grips at each side of the hair roll - this helps keep the sides neat and in shape.

Use curling tongs to loosely curl any hair that is hanging down at the front - this helps keep the shape nice and soft.

Tada! There you go! It's so simple to do and I really like it as a quick way to get hair up and out of my face.

p.s. please let me know what you think of my video. If it's not too daft I might try doing more video tutorials.. it's much easier explaining things when you can waffle a wee bit!

Short short short fringe!

I've been battling against my horrible overgrown fringe for far too long, so made a much-needed appointment to get my hair cut this week (on reflection it has been two months since I last went - good grief!).

I got my badger stripe put back in (as I love it so), as well as the world's SHORTEST FRINGE. Eep.

I know it's better to get it a little bit too short when it is first cut so it grows into a nice shape, but I am a bit nervous about how much of my forehead is suddenly on show! I also need to get my eyebrows sorted out - the girl who normally does mine has moved to Glasgow (sob), and I'm not quite sure where's best in Edinburgh for threading. Somebody point me in the right direction please!

ALSO, here's a bit of a cheeky request. I don't normally put myself forward for blog things, but I love Cosmo so I thought I'd give it a go. Cosmopolitan are now taking nominations for their annual blog awards... and if you fancy you can put Ever So Juliet forward!

All you have to do is fill out this form (which will only take a minute or so) and put forward eversojuliet.com in the "Best Lifestyle Blog" category. Obviously only do it if you like my daft witterings! You can nominate as many blogs as you'd like... so spread the blogging love.

Have a lovely (long) weekend all!

Loopy Lorna's Tea House

It's not really a surprise that I am a fan of cake. And tea. And particularly tea and cake. So, a couple of weeks ago, when I saw that my Science Festival event had been moved to the Church Hill Theatre I was over the moon, as it meant I had an excellent excuse to visit Loopy Lorna's Tea House.

Loopy Lorna's is one of several tea & cake wonder cafes in Edinburgh. They consistently win awards & receive glowing reviews, and it's not hard to see why. Not only is the food (and tea!) ace, but they do so much to support their local community & charities. The cafe was set up as an ode to the owner's mum (called Lorna) who died of cancer, and they run loads of fundraising events across the year.

Caaaaaaake.

In a world full of Starbucks & Costa's, it's lovely to see a local business with so much heart. This also means (on a selfish note), that you can feel quite smug about supporting them. Guilt-free cake! What's not to like?

So. We ate.

 Soup & a sandwich for Craig. Chicken pate on toast (with some sort of chutney-thing) for me.

Chocolate cake (with snickers on top) for Craig.

And a WONDERFUL scone for me (this defeated me, but it was glorious).

The tea house is really quirky too.. it feels a little like sitting in a forest, and there are loads of little tea-based quotes all over the walls.

Loopy Lorna's Tea House is based in the Church Hill Theatre in Morningside. If it's not obvious, I'd definitely recommend a visit!