November sponsors!

You might have noticed that for the last month or so I've had sponsors on my blog (look, over on the right!). They are all lovely people for helping me fund my nail polish & over-priced coffee habits, so I'd like to say a massive THANK YOU to them all.

Here's a bit of blurb about each of them (they are quite an eclectic bunch!). If you like the look of what you see, please visit their sites & say hello...

Barratts

Barratts Shoes provide shoes, boots, wellies, slippers and footwear for all the family. From classic styles to the latest trends, the store aims at stocking something for everyone.

www.barratts.co.uk

Auld Reekie Roller Girls

Auld Reekie Roller Girls are an all female flat track roller derby league based in Edinburgh, Scotland. (If you're asking yourself - what's roller derby? - then look here!). Next spring ARRG are holding their second home season - where the Cherry Bombers, Leithal Weapons and Skatefast Club battle to be champions!

www.arrg.co.uk

Tastes Like Love
Lauren's blog is a lovely colourful, crafty place to be! She blogs about her daily advenutres, illustrations, vintage finds, fancy folk & the delightful things she comes across. A lovely, lovely read!

www.tasteslikelove.blogspot.com.au

Sugar and Vice
Sugar & Vice is a jewellery company based in Canterbury, Kent, providing you with a one-stop shop for statement pieces and personalised jewels. They pride ourselves on our friendly, polite service, quality products and speedy delivery. The necklaces are gorgeous!

www.sugarandvicedesigns.com

Indie Chic Boutique
Indie Chic are an independent Edinburgh based women's clothing and lingerie boutique. They scour the world to bring clothes, lingerie, vintage pieces & all things pretty from Los Angeles, San Franciso, New Year and Miami to the UK.

Find them in-store at 111 Broughton Street Edinburgh, EH1 3RZ

or

www.indiechicboutique.co.uk

If YOU would like to sponsor Ever So Juliet then you can do so here! This site currently reaches just under 10,000 unique users per month (crazy, I know) & adverts start at only $5 (£3 to us UK-folk!) for a month. I use Passionfruit ads which means it's really easy to purchase, upload artwork, track your ad stats & see your advert up immediately.

Alternatively I am always up for a button swap - just send me an email (thisisjuliet @ gmail.com) or comment below if you fancy it!

Book love

One of my very, very favourite things to do is read. I love it. I can't understand why you wouldn't read (and to be honest, I slightly distrust people who don't like reading...sorry!). I have always been a very speedy reader, but doing an english literature degree really stepped it up a notch.

So I've decided to start a new monthly feature on my blog - a wee recap on the books I've read in the last month. I think it'll be fun to see how many I go through in a year, and hopefully will provide reading inspiration if anyone out there is looking for a new book!

As this month has been taken over massively by nanowrimo I'm including October's reads too (which includes all of my holiday reading!). I should point out, these aren't meant to be 'real' reviews (I'm too rambly for that), just my thoughts of each one!

Summer of Night - Dan Simmons 
Dan Simmons writes terrifying books. I couldn't read The Terror if I was alone in the flat. I had to stop reading Drood because I had really mental nightmares about it (an embarrassingly true fact). This book is a total cracker though! It's one of his earlier books, and it is so so so scary. Read it & freak yourself out. Then read the Terror, because it's amazing.

Embassytown - China Mieville
I am a big fan of China Mieville, but found this a really tricky book to get into. I sometimes think I'm maybe just not smart enough for his books because they are always based around such a clever concept.. and with this one it meant I was spending more time trying to figure out what was happening, than enjoying the plot. He's an incredible author though - Perdido Street Station is a brilliant piece of fantasy fiction.

Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
I'm writing a young adult book at the moment, so thought it would be useful (and fun!) to read some books aimed at the same age group. This looked pretty good ("number one bestseller!" etc), but ohhhh I HATED Artemis Fowl. What an annoying character. He's just amazing and clever and perfect at everything. And he's not nice to his mum. No thank you.

Un Lun Dun - China Mieville
More young adult reading - this time a good one! I raced through the book really quickly, which was a nice change after my slow pace through Embassytown. He's just so creative and funny and good. I like him a lot. I can't wait until my book-loving niece is old enough for this, I think she'd love it.

Warlock - Wilbur Smith
I am a sucker for historical fantasy - I had read River God a few years ago, so was quite chuffed to find out that there was another novel in his Egyptian series (even though it came out in 2007... I am seriously behind the times). It was a perfect book to read on holiday - light enough to dip in and out of, but exciting enough that I absolutely raced through it!

American Gods - Neil Gaiman
This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for years, but I hadn't gotten round to reading it until last month. Neil Gaiman is really wonderful and you should read at least something by him, if you haven't already. Next up on my list is Anansi Boys, which (sort of) follows on from American Gods.

Patrick Ness - The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer & Monsters of Men
These books make up the Chaos Walking trilogy and they are practically perfect in every way. Buy them buy them buy them! (I really can't recommend them strongly enough. Love love love).

Those in Peril - Wilbur Smith
I am usually quite of fan of an action/adventure book, but in this case - oh, bore off Wilbur Smith! If you've read any of his other books you really don't need to read this one. It's packed with one-dimensional characters who do daft things in daft situations. I really can't be bothered with female characters who are presented as being SO STRONG until they melt in the arms of an even stronger man. Whatever.

The Tommyknockers - Stephen King
I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this book. At the beginning and end it was exciting & scary & quite thrilling. But the middle went on FOREVER and it did feel like it was taking me months to read it.

The Casual Vacancy - J.K. Rowling
Ahh, we're definitely not in Hogsmeade any more! Like the rest of the world, I would have bought J.K. Rowling's new novel regardless of what it was actually about... she is an amazing storyteller and character writer. But small-town political dramas aren't really my cup of tea. I sort-of liked it. I definitely wouldn't re-read it though (sorry JK, I still love you).

Sparkly shoes!

Tis the season to be sparkly, tra la la la la!

I'm sorry if this is still too soon for some of you, but I really cannot wait for Christmas  - it's one of my very favourite times of the year. Both Craig & I have birthdays in December and I just LOVE it, the whole month is full of parties, wonderful friends & hanging out with family.

I've got a couple of big nights out coming out - my work throw a massive party (which will be ace), and a just-as-fun smaller lunch for the staff. There's the Scottish blogger christmas party (which I'm tagging along to with the lovely Lianne from Ruby Ruby Slippers) AND my birthday night out (which I have made zero plans for so far, but still)!

I'm a bit of a magpie all year round anyway, but December basically cries out for over the top sparkliness! Here's my pick of the shiniest shoes I could find....

Shoes from Spartoo - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

1. I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to heels, but these Betty London shoes are lovely!

2. GOLD BROGUES. Need I say more? They are also by Betty London.

3. If you packaged up my perfect shoes they would look a little like this. They are sparkly AND tick my leopard print box.Wonderful work, Ravel.

4. Even more by those magpies at Betty London (I didn't plan to mainly feature this brand, but how could I resist?). Disco balls for your feet.

Lovely stuff. Fellow magpies, rejoice!

The Amazing Spider-man nail art (& DVD giveaway!)

Let's talk Spiderman! 

I knew I was going to like the newest Spiderman film as I'm such a big fan of Emma Stone (I love her!) and Andrew Garfield (er, hello) but I didn't realise just how much I would love it. There's a scene where he swings through the streets of New York & I genuinely got a bit of a lump in my throat. Aw. 

So I was pretty chuffed when Sony Entertainment got in touch  asked me to put together a spidey nail art look using a couple of polishes from the OPI Spiderman collection to celebrate the release of the Amazing Spider-Man on DVD & Blu-ray. 

OPI - Call me Gwen-ever* | OPI - Into the Night* | OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls*

I was sent Call me Gwen-ever (a corally orange), Into the Night (a metallic dark blue), and My  Boyfriend Scales Walls (a white polish with a tinge of grey). I had thought about trying to do a subtle spiderman pattern (maybe a tiny bit more appropriate for the serious work meetings I have this week), then thought nah - I'm going full spidey!

So I painted this mix of webs & the Spiderman mask. It's really easy to do - all you need is a thin brush or nail art pen to paint the lines of the web.

Sony have also kindly offered a couple of copies of the DVD as a giveaway - so if you'd like a chance to win one, just comment with your email address below!

The Amazing Spider-Man is out on Blu-ray & DVD on Monday 26th November (that's today!).

The competition will close on Monday 2nd December & winners will be notified by email. 

TacheBooth

On Wednesday night I went to probably the most random (but fun!) nights out I have had in a while - #TacheBooth, hosted by the lovely Zoe from Google Edinburgh (who also writes one of my very favourite blogs, Conversation Pieces).

This was one of a series of events they are running, and this one was themed around moustaches (aren't all good things?). So we crafted our own moustaches out of felt &  fake fur, drank themed cocktails and were allowed to run riot on one of LOOKLOOK's photobooths (I've never had to not queue for a photobooth before, so I was pretty shameless!).

I love my moustache!

There's a few more Google events coming up in Edinburgh if you fancy going (they are free to attend & are full of fun things, nice people & free drinks... ace!). The next one is #WoohooBuckaroo on November 28th - a night of retro games, sweets & booze at Boda Bar. If you'd like to attend just head to the event page to RSVP.

p.s. also, just in case you missed my post yesterday, Google are also running a competition to win tasty tasty gin. Just look here for details on how to enter!