October instagram

I know I basically say this every month, but I CANNOT believe it is almost November. Where has this year gone?! This was such a good month - impromptu holidays, a trip to London & loads of Halloween fun!

1. Winter is coming, which means it's dark and cold by the time I get home & I can't be bothered making anything fancy for tea. This is my new favourite (and very easy!) tea - chuck loads of vegetables in a dish, drizzle in olive oil, squeeze a lemon over & put in the oven for about half an hour. Yum!

2. Old bottles filled with flowers from my garden. We bought the bottles from Drum Farm - a huge antiques barn that's absolutely packed with cool stuff.

3. Stuff that looks a bit like this! The barn was full of everything you can imagine - a suit of armour, furniture, books, suitcases, curios, everything! Well worth a trip if you are anywhere near Edinburgh.

4. Riley being a sook. Look at those paws. Super cute.

5. Craig & I in Portugal, which was lovely! There's more photos here if you fancy a look. It feels like such a long time ago - come back sunshine!

6. Riley chilling out in our library. It's been brilliant having the room all done, it's such a peaceful space.

7. Travelling down to London. I love getting the train down - it's only four and a half hours from Edinburgh, and you get free tea the whole way (which is enough to keep me happy).

8. I couldn't resist getting a photo of Platform 9 3/4 when I was in King's Cross Station! I was hoping that a nice tourist would offer to take my photo (cause I was by myself) but no-one did, and I was too shy to ask. Boo! I'll need to drag Craig there next time we're down.

9. I popped into WAH Nails and got mix & match nail art. I love the skull, it's so cute!

10. Hanging out with my big sisters at my dad's retirement party. I know they read this - hi Dust, hi Tepi! (Hope you don't mind me putting our photo up, ha!).

11. A sign from the old books shop on Victoria Street.

12. Craig & I dressed up for our (early) Halloween party. I was a doll, he was Sheriff Rick from the Walking Dead (talking of which, has anyone else been watching the new series? SO GOOD).

Fun fun fun!

Nanowrimo - my top tips!

Hello! So it's almost November, which means it's time for one of my favourite things in the year - National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo)!

You can read more on how nanowrimo works here, but it's pretty simple. You (the budding author) write a 50,000 word novel over 30 days. If you win, you get to feel great about yourself, and you have a first draft to do with as you will. If you lose, then you have still written something (and can feel good for giving it a shot).

I'm taking part for the fourth year in a row, so I thought it would be fun to film a video with my top tips for getting to 50,000 words (and enjoying the process!).

The challenge starts on November 1st so you have two days to prepare yourself, think of an idea and get ready to write. Let me know if you're taking part & we'll be nano pals. 

Scary doll makeup (& Halloween party photos)

I've been writing Halloween posts every Monday for the last five (!) weeks, and it has been so much fun. It's been great getting to play about with make up and do crafty things, so thanks for reading!

Today I just wanted to share a few photos from this weekend - Craig & I held our annual Halloween party and it was so much fun! It was a little bit unorganised this year as I had a horrible cold & didn't make any plans until the very last minute, but it was still ace. 

I dressed up as a scary doll, which was actually a really cheap costume to put together! I wore a cream dress that I already owned, and bought black ribbon to tie around my dress & in my hair.

For my make up I used a white pencil to line under my eyes so they looked big and doll-like! Then I wore two pairs of false eyelashes, placing the lower set underneath my eye (which felt weird, but looked good!). I bought some fake scar putty and liquid latex from the joke shop, and created cuts on my face & throat, which I then "stitched" with thin ribbon (stuck on with liquid latex).

Food is one of my favourite parts of Halloween, but because I hadn't been well I didn't actually make anything. Instead I just bought cakes from the shop and customised them - the eyeball cake is a white chocolate sponge from tesco, and I piped spiders onto bakewell tarts!

A few years ago we used to go a bit mental in house decoration, but this year we kept things simple (mainly because the house still feels so new and shiny, I don't want to pin anything on the walls!). So we had loads of pumpkins around the house and put candles and fairy lights everywhere.

We commissioned the diner painting a few months ago for the kitchen from a roller derby pal and I love it! It's perfect for this time of year too.

& my lovely pals all dressed up! I'm still not quite sure what Murray was meant to be (bottom row, middle photo), but it was LOADS of fun. Hooray!

I heart Autumn!

So you may or may not know that I have a fledgling youtube channel which I've put a couple of tutorial videos up on, but have not really done much with. Well, that's going to change! I love chatting and I love watching chatty video bloggers, so I'm going to give it more of a go.

For my first chatty video I am copying Lauren from Laurenella & have filmed the I heart Autumn tag, where I answer some questions about how lovely and fun Autumn is. I tried to explain the concept of video-blogging and tags to Craig before doing this and he gave me SUCH a weird look. I promise this isn't weird.

I'm giving myself the challenge to post a new video at least every fortnight... we shall see how well it goes! If anyone has a suggestion on fun topics to film OR a tutorial you'd like to see, let me know. Also, if you'd like to subscribe to my youtube (and join a group of, ahem, four amazing people) then you can do so here.

Thanks for watching! (please don't laugh at me).

The Bloggers Breast Cancer Awareness Raffle

Hello! I just wanted to draw your attention to something different that's running today - the Bloggers Breast Cancer Awareness Raffle. It's an annual online raffle which raises money for Breast Cancer Campaign (the clue's in the name) as part of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

On Friday 26th October (that's today pals), you can head on over to the TBBCAR justgiving page and donate money. For every £2 you donate, you get a raffle ticket, and can be in with a chance to win one of these amazing prizes. AND you get to feel good because you've given money to a brilliant campaign. Last year TBBCAR made £851 & this year they've got their eye on the £1000 mark - which I reckon is totally doable! 

You don't have to be a blogger to enter the raffle, but you DO have to be a UK resident (sorry), although you are more than welcome to just donate money if you are overseas (and don't mind not getting a raffle ticket). Please note that you CAN'T claim gift aid as you are buying a ticket, so remember to untick this box! 

Have a wee nosy at Sarah's blog if you'd like to find out more. Cancer is really rubbish, so raising money to beat it is really good.