Anchor nails

Mm. I am turning into a thirteen year old girl.

Anchor nails! I used my trusty white nail art pen from Claire's and a kirby grip to draw on the (very blobby) black anchor. I think next time I try this I'll maybe try a navy background with gold stripes? & red anchors? Hmm.

This week has been manic! On Wednesday I was at the Arches with my dad to see Suzy Bogguss, Gretchen Peters and Matraca Berg - three singer songwriters who do lovely Americana songs. It was really good! When I was younger I would go to gigs all the time with my dad, and it was really fun to do it again (although I was absolutely knackered by the end - earlier that day I had a six course menu from Mark Greenaway at Hawke and Hunter which was incredible, but left me absolutely stuffed!).

This weekend I am going to the premiere of the Lion King in 3D (because I am a child and I love it), then the EIFF closing party, followed by a day of derby practice and league meetings! I'm going to be utterly knackered by Sunday night.

See you on the other side. x

Roller derby helmet

Best roller derby helmet in the world? Maybe..

The detail is amazing! & yes, ARRG rules 

This was painted for me, by the very talented KillaWatts (who also skates for Auld Reekie Roller Girls). It's incredible!

Front of helmet

I hadn't been entirely sure what I wanted (she's been painting a few ARRG helmets lately, so I had been wracking my brain trying to think of something cool), but I eventually decided that I wanted a traditional tattoo style (purely so I could have swallows on it!) and this is the creation.

Miss Chief! That's me

It's amazing!

Investi-cat

I had a bit of a mad dash across town tonight after work to pick it up, then rushed off for a sneaky Monday night practice. I wanted to work on transitions as I am RUBBISH at them, so my lovely pal Stitches basically spun me around for 10 minutes, until I was confident enough doing it myself (at very slow speeds). I found it really tricky at first, but slowly I realised that if I stopped thinking about what my feet did, and instead just moved my body to the direction I wanted to travel, then my feet would go to the right place!

I'm still falling over when I try them with speed, but it's just a case of practice, practice, practice until it is drilled into my head! A really successful Monday by all accounts!

& for good measure, here's a photo of me, derbied up. Trying to do a tough derby face. & smiling politely instead. Hmm. (practice, practice, practice).

Thanks Watts, I love it!

Tweedlove

Good weekend! We went on a mini road trip to Peebles, saw Frightened Rabbit, were delighted that it was called Tweedlove (cause, I'm a Tweed) & sang along. Today was derby & a brilliant practice with some scrimmaging, then an outdoor screening of Indiana Jones (Raiders of the Lost Ark). Ace!

It was WET in Peebles. 

The river Tweed. Hiya!

We found an ace wee traditional pub. 

& ate really tasty food.

Then off to the gig!

Hi Frabbits!

Craig took a video on his fancy new phone, which is below. The sound quality is really good! & you can hear his lovely singing voice (har har har).

Thanks Tweedlove, that was fun!

Polka dot nails

Always amused that I freckle so much I get them on my fingers

Here's an incredibly easy thing to do if you have five minutes and want polka-dotty nails - just grab a spare kirby grip, open up the ends, dunk in nail varnish and dot on nails!

This was my very first attempt, so it is clearly a bit smudgy in some places and not very well mapped out in others, but hey! Next time I'll be a polka champion.

Busy, busy weekend ahead. Craig is back from a week-long surfing bootcamp tonight (hooray), then tomorrow we are going through to Peebles to see Frightened Rabbit play at Tweedlove. I am super excited about this as I'll see my wee pal Aimi (who I do not see hardly enough), but also I can pretend the festival is named after me! Good times.

Sunday is roller derby practice! I am excited, as I have been missing loads lately because of work/festival stuff/deadlines. So I will probably be horrifically knackered, but that's okay.

Have a lovely weekend everyone x

Edinburgh Film Festival

Guys, summer has started.

Photobooth party!

Last night we got dolled up, and headed out to the opening night of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. I'm a big, big fan of the festival, and have been feeling quite sorry for them lately - the local press has been quite harsh in predicting potential doom & gloom, but I think they should get the benefit of the doubt!

Anyway, the opening film was The Guard. I really liked it & so did most of my friends (with lots of laughter from the audience throughout the screening), but reviews have been really mixed in the press. Everyone agrees that Brendan Gleeson was brilliant though, everything a grumpy Irish garda should be.

Guard faces. Me, Biddy, Adam, Rae & Adam's mam!

Post-film we headed up to the party at Teviot (my old union!). The party was stripped back a bit, so there were no red carpets, but they had our favourite thing from last year - photobooths!

Rae & I with the photobooth man - he is a posing champion!

I'm not ashamed that I went up for more photos than anyone else there. It is BRILLIANT.

Persuaded Adam (aka Cub) to do bear faces. I'm CLEARLY doing bear ears there.

So that's it - EIFF is now running, the Fringe programme is out, the Book Festival launched today..... SO MUCH TO DO. It will be August in a blink. I'm going to hibernate tonight in preparation.