February sponsors!

Here's a little round up of the lovely folk who have been sponsoring Ever So Juliet this month! If you are looking for a new read or a nice place to shop, then this should hopefully provide some inspiration....

Sail the Ship

I've said it before, but lifestyle blogs that mix chatter, recipes & the occasional crafty project are my very favourite! Jen's blog is a perfect example of this - especially her recipe posts (how amazing do they look?!).

www.sailtheship.blogspot.co.uk

Win a festival trip in Scotland

Want to win tickets to a festival of your choice in Scotland? Plus accommodation?  AND train tickets? Well here's your chance - The List & Visit Scotland are running a competition... and if you win you can choose which festival you go to. Brilliant! 

www.list.co.uk

Studio 336 

It's the third month in a row that the lovely Studio 336 have been on my sidebar - have you checked them out yet? Erin's an art graduate & etsy-shop owner, who blogs about handmade goods, DIY ideas & snippets of everyday life.

www.studio336.com

 If you would like to sponsor Ever So Juliet then you can do so here! This site reaches 11,000 unique users per month (eek!), so it's an ace & very affordable way to show off what you do. Adverts start at only $5 (which is £3!) for a month on site & a spot in my monthly sponsor feature.

Alternatively I am also always up for a button swap, so please feel free to send me an email (thisisjuliet @ gmail.com) or comment below if you fancy it. Thanks!

Book love

Each month I chat about what books I've been reading in my monthly Book Love feature.

The Red Pyramid - Rick Riordan
Immediately after finishing the Percy Jackson books I went straight into another Rick Riordan series, I just couldn't resist! I found this book a little harder to get into, but probably because the set up was the same ("hey kids, ancient gods exist, you have powers, the world is ending!"). I still think he is a wonderful story-teller though, and it just goes to show that very good kid's fiction can be read by anyone.

The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut
This is a really lovely, daft, fun, old school sci-fi novel. There's quite a lot taking place (the novel skips around a lot and covers an entire lifetime), but that's what I think classic sci-fi is about - epic, sometimes ridiculous tales taking place over a huge landscape. There's armies on Mars! Brain-washing! Time distortion! Mystery! Aliens! Hooray!

Life of Pi - Yann Martel
I tried to read this book years ago, but gave up before Pi even got on his boat (it's one of the few books I've ever quit). Friends that had read it all insisted it was worth struggling through the start for, but I didn't pick it up again until after watching the film (which I sort of regret). Anyway - it's a weird one, I really loved the book on my second attempt, but I knew I would because I had loved the film! I feel a bit robbed & cross at myself for giving up all those years ago. Definitely worth powering through!

Tollesbury Time Forever - Stuart Ayris
I knew nothing about this book or author, but saw that it had LOADS of five star reviews on Amazon, so thought I'd give it a go. Oh boy. It really isn't my cup of tea at all. It picked up a lot in the second half, but I just couldn't stand the protagonist... at ALL. I stubbornly stuck with it (because I really hate quitting half way through & I wondered if I'd suddenly realise what all the fuss what about), but vented my frustrations one night on twitter. To my HORROR, the author had obviously been searching for his book name & replied! He was really lovely about it (just thanked me for giving it a go), but I was mortified.. and then felt like I definitely had to continue reading to the end as an apology. Oh dear. Never again.

Ladybird Likes

I've been a fan of Ladybird Likes for a while now (I recommend having a look at Zoe's blog too - it's lovely!), but I hadn't found an excuse to order myself anything from her site... until their first birthday rolled round.

The first ten customers to spend over £20 got a free goodie bag worth £30... and I am so chuffed that I was quick enough! I bought three beautiful brooches (a black cat, little owl & ampersand) and got everything you can see in photo above - necklaces, earrings, another brooch & a lovely art print. So spoiled!

I'm also a sucker for lovely packaging, so this ticked all of my boxes - there was twine, calligraphy & handwritten notes. So lovely!

Moon collar clips | Retro robot brooch | Paper plane brooch

I'm already planning my next purchase - how cute are these?

What's in your pocket?

Recently I was contacted by the nice folk at Moneysupermarket, to take part in their 'What's in your pocket' challenge - a campaign to celebrate life's 'little wins'. 

They recently put together a feel-good experiment where they set up hidden cameras in a dry cleaners & told customers they'd left a £20 note in their pocket by mistake (you can see their reactions here). It's such a sweet idea - it encourages money saving by feeling good & getting an unexpected surprise (like finding money in your pocket you didn't know was there!). 

I was given £20* and was challenged to spend it on anything I liked, but with the aim to share this feel-good feeling. 

You may know (I feel like I've been going on about it!) that I've really got back into painting this year, and so I thought it would be nice to combine my crafty side with this campaign. So I used my £20 to buy a few new paints (SUCH a treat, as the ones I've been using are over 10 years old!) and some blank cards and envelopes.

First I painted a Valentine's card for Craig - much nicer than a cheesy Hallmark card (and it fits in better with my make-things-for-your-valentine philosophy!). I looked up old tattoos for inspiration (and channelled a bit of Ella Masters too). I'm really pleased with it - it was so much fun to do! (& Craig liked it too, hooray).

I then painted a thank you card for my old boss Robin. I worked for him for almost six years and wanted to give him something nice to say thanks, so I thought a little painting would be perfect! I'm a bit of a sook!

I've got three cards left, and I've barely touched the paints - so they'll last me for a long long time! Shop bought cards can cost up to £4, so this is a good way to save money by making my own. And (hopefully) my friends & family will get a nice surprise when they realise they are handpainted! Win-win!

A weekend in Athens

A couple of weeks ago Craig & I flew to Greece for a long weekend in Athens. It's one of those places that has been on my "must-go" list for years - I studied Classical Literature for two years at uni & learned a lot about Greek mythology & traditional culture, so I really really wanted to visit in person! I also have, ahem, recently been hooked on the Percy Jackson books which are all about Greek gods!

The Temple of Hephaestus in the Ancient Agora

Athens was only three hours away on a direct flight from Edinburgh (which is amazing, I thought the flight would be much longer!). As you fly in for landing you can see loads of little islands & bright blue sea, and then the huge sprawl of Athens (the city & the urban zone around it has a population of over 4 million people!).

Athens (the big hill in the middle is Mount Lycabettus) 

We stayed in the most amazing hotel, the Athens Gate, which was absolutely perfect. It's in a brilliant location - a five minute walk from the Acropolis, right next to the metro station, across the road from the Temple of Zeus (and tour bus stops!), and has the most amazing view from their rooftop restaurant.

Statues on the Erechtheion (next to the Acropolis)

As we were only there for three nights we decided to not rush about madly trying to see everything & instead picked a few key things to do. There's a couple of bus companies that do tours round the city (the ones you can jump on & off) so we booked tickets for that on our first day - it's an ace way to get your bearings and see as much as possible, when you are fairly short for time!

A wee tip if you are doing the city sightseeing bus tour - don't bother with the Piraeus part, unless you are a big fan of cruise ships!

We visited the Panathenaic Stadium, which was amazing! It is an ancient stadium that hosted the first modern Olympic Games & is built entirely from white marble. 

When we visited the only other people to be seen were a group of women in traditional dress, walking around very slowly & men in Olympic jackets looking cold. We were trying to work out exactly what was happening (without just staring... it felt like we'd just walked in on some ceremony) & saw them light a torch several times, using the sun & a big metal dish.

Turns out that we had stumbled upon a dress rehearsal for the European Youth Olympic Festival lighting ceremony, which was the next day. So cool! 

After the Olympic group left (we had been slowly wandering round listening to the audio tour), we were given free reign of the stadium - so I couldn't resist posing on the podium (I'm number one!) and Craig ran a lap! 

The other big destination on our trip was the Acropolis & Parthenon - it's such an iconic site and it was amazing to be up close and walk around in such a historic place! Again it was super quiet when we were visiting, so it did feel really special to stand in the middle of such history and look out over Athens.

Just down from the Parthenon is an Ancient Agora, with a big temple in the middle of beautiful ruins & gardens. We sat here for ages and it was my favourite moment of the whole trip. There was a market near by, so we could hear music & chattering voices filter through the trees, but it was so calm and peaceful and quiet! I sketched the temple (annoyingly I only had a ballpoint pen, but I'm quite happy with the outcome!), and just basked in the sunshine.

There had been a bit of trouble in the city at the start of the year, so we were at first a bit cautious about going to places where the locals had been protesting... but we really didn't need to worry! There wasn't a bit of trouble (although there was a lot of angry graffiti) and everyone was so nice and friendly. The whole city had such a relaxed feel to it, and they have the shiniest metro I've seen - even cleaner than Hong Kong's!

Can you tell I'm a bit in love with Athens?

If you are looking for a weekend away I'd definitely recommend it - I want to go back!