February instagram

I cannot believe how fast February has gone by! This month has been another chilled one as the new house is getting closer and closer... I'm trying to avoid buying things on a whim by thinking of the comfy sofa my savings will buy (that's the plan, anyway!). It's working pretty well but I do miss doing things at the weekends, although it is giving me loads of time to cook.

Here's a wee instagram recap of the last few weeks...

1. Scones and coffee at a work meeting, one of the definite highlights of my job (I am obsessed with scones!). This was in Spoon, which is an amazing cafe on Nicolson St - brilliant food and cakes, and it's really quirky and fun. I sort of want a map table for my kitchen now.

2. Using my Hogwarts glass (that I got at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter) last year. I feel like a child, but I love it!

3. Valentine's date to see Brand New in Glasgow. They were wonderful, I love them! I had such a good night dancing and singing with Craig.

4. Pints with my pal Muzza on a Monday night (what a shock!). We went to the opening of Assams, a new Indian-style tapas restaurant & takeaway, that has just opened up on Leith Walk. The food was amazing, and  the service was really good too - when they found out Craig was a vegetarian the waiters kept coming over with veggie-friendly plates. Aw!

5. Dinner at the Butterfly & the Pig Tearooms was amazing! I really fancy making a mini chicken pie, it was so tasty. I really liked that they served the gravy in a tea cup too, so cute.

6. Cocktails at Monteiths with my pal Rae! This was a lovely night out, although both of us are worryingly looking forward to the Edinburgh Festival already (which is in AUGUST - too far away to think about it now!).

7. Toblerone! Craig is a baddie - I've discovered that toblerones are my nemesis.. I can't say no. Thank goodness they are really expensive normally!

8. I couldn't resist doing strawberry nails again - they are so easy to do (I painted them while watching the Walking Dead), and just make me feel really spring-like.

My instagram name is eversojuliet if you'd like to add me!

Museum Lates: Night of the Mummy

On Friday night I went to Night of the Mummy at the National Museum of Scotland. It's the second event in their Lates programme, where the museum stays open on Friday night and is packed with discos, bands, djs, fashion shows & loads more. It's basically just an ace excuse to explore the museum and act like a child!

Silent disco under the Chinese dragon! 

There was absolutely loads to do, we didn't get round everything! At first we went to get our faces painted (like children, ha ha) in an attempt to avoid the queue before it got too big. It turned out that the face painting was next to the animals (!!) which included meerkats (so tiny), a pygmy hedgehog, a massive snake and a few insects (including a massive centipede, eeep!).

We also got a chance to go round some of the Egyptian exhibit, try on pharoah headdresses (ha), handle original artefacts (amazing), play hungry hippos, dance in the silent disco & drink quite a few glasses of wine.

It really is BRILLIANT fun - I'd highly, highly recommend it if you are in Edinburgh! The next Lates is in May, & I imagine tickets will be on sale soon.. they tend to sell out really quickly so you have to be fast.

Oh, and possibly my favourite part of the night - afterwards LOADS of people asked Craig if his "face tattoo" was real. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Giveaway winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered my recent giveaway (and sorry for the delay in announcing a winner - I've had a pretty manic week!).

I used random.org to pick a winner for the pastel polish set, who I'm pleased to announce is...

New Found Glory are pretty stoked that you've won too.

... Jen from Adventures of a Nerdasaurus! Wooo! I'll be emailing you shortly, so keep an eye out.

Thanks again everyone, and have a lovely weekend! x

Pancake recipe

Hi everyone - it's pancake day! (or Shrove Tuesday, if you are into that sort of thing). Pancakes are lovely lovely lovely and really easy to make, so steer clear of the batter mixes that are in supermarkets at the moment. Chances are you've already got the ingredients you need in your cupboard.

Source: Bake and Destroy

I use a recipe that I learned ages ago from my mum. You'll need:

• 110g plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 200ml milk in a jug with 75ml water
• Pinch of salt

To make the batter just sift the flour and salt into a bowl (keep the sieve up high so you get lots of air into your mixture). Then use a spoon to make a well in the middle of the flour and break the eggs into it. Start whisking the eggs and flour together and then slowly add the milk/water mixture as you stir. Keep whisking until all lumps have disappeared!

Then heat up a pan with a good wedge of butter (the hotter then pan the better the pancake!). Add a ladle of batter, make sure the pan is covered and cook. You'll need to flip the pancake over after a minute or so (or painfully struggle with a spoon/spatula combo to turn it if you are RUBBISH at flipping pancakes like I am). Then when both sides are nice and golden, dish onto a plate and serve! I'm a lemon & sugar girl, Craig likes whipped cream and maple syrup.

This recipe makes very thin pancakes, but they are GORGEOUS. Highly recommended!

Half & half leopard print nails

Models Own - Feeling Blue | Barry M - White | Claire's - Gold

I haven't done leopard print nails in ages, so decided to mix it up a little & do half and half nails with blue, white and gold (quite Scottish of me!).

This was pretty simple to do - I painted each half by freehand (I've seen masking tape used to get a really sharp dividing line, but it's too much of a faff for me). Then added the leopard print using liquid eyeliner as my nail art pen has run out (sob). You can see my leopard print how to here - it's really simple.

Also, thanks to everyone who has entered my nail polish giveaway so far! I'll be picking the winner tonight so there's still a little time left if you'd like to enter. I'm giving away a set of Models Own polishes (which includes the blue you can see in this manicure!) - they are by far my favourite nail varnishes & are perfect for Spring!