DECEMBER INSTAGRAM

Hello! I hope you all had a lovely festive season, and are feeling refreshed and ready to take on the new year. I took a few weeks off blogging to eat, drink and be merry and it was just so much fun. Here's what December looked like for me...

1. At the start of the month I went along to the opening of Cambridge Satchel Co's new Edinburgh store, which is packed full of beautiful bags and satchels in a rainbow of colours. I have a brown satchel which I got several years ago, and I still use it almost every day. They are such perfect bags!

2. I also was sent a bouquet of beautiful Christmassy flowers from Debenhams, which have helped make my house feel suitably festive! These (the cinnamon spice bunch) were sent three weeks ago and have held up so well - I've picked out a few wilting blooms, but the majority of the bouquet is still going strong! Debenhams are also offering you all 25% off a luxury bouquet - just use the code DFBLOG25 to get money off a flower delivery.

3. One of the best things about December? Mince pies! I caved early this year, and mince pies became a pretty staple part of my diet from late November on. They're just so good! I will miss you, flaky pastry pals.

4. Here's a good treat cheat I learned from Nikki McWilliams' blog - make mini christmas puddings super quickly, by drizzling icing over tunnocks teacakes. Perfect if you have no time (or are, ahem, feeling a bit worse for wear after a festive night out).

5. Joshua went full hipster this year, and embraced beard baubles (stealing all of my kirby grips in the process). I went full christmas with a velvet red dress and massive glitter bow.

6. For the Science Festival's christmas lunch, my lovely pal Amy & I took charge of the organised fun (the best kind of fun), and made everyone do a big singalong, with the words from 'Walking in a Winter Wonderland' turned into 'Working in a Science Wonderland' (see what we did there?). It was TOO much fun, and luckily our colleagues went along with it!

7. It was my birthday just before Christmas, and Joshua painted the cutest card for me. I love cacti! (He's alright too).

8. We went on a birthday adventure to stay in the most amazing romany caravan in the Scottish Borders (I'll blog about this in more detail soon), and went on a big explore of the countryside - finding this amazing abandoned saw mill. It was totally untouched (the saw blades were still in position!) and was such an exciting (and spooky) place to discover.

9. Another favourite thing about December - wreaths! I wish they could be up year round, it's so lovely to see them everywhere.

10. In the season of excess, it's totally appropriate to drink massive bloody marys, garnished with king prawns AND boiled eggs AND bacon, yeah?

11. This was our christmas pudding which was super appropriate for an Australian/Scottish Christmas, as it was half panettone, half ice cream (plus millions of fruit, dessert wine and dark chocolate, mmmmm!).

12. And this was my new year look! I went super glittery with a Crown & Glory crown, and used Urban Decay glitter to line underneath my eyes (I'm not sure if you can see that clearly, but it was so sparkly). I spent Hogmanay surrounded by wonderful friends, singing Auld Lang Syne and watching the fireworks from Edinburgh castle.

2014 was a good one. Bring on 2015!