I am usually a chipper sort of soul. In fact, fellow blogger a safe mooring once described me as ‘sunshine on toast’… but oh January, well, let’s say it’s not my favourite month.

It’s just so January.

So at the start of this year, I was dreading taking down the Christmas tree, sparkly lights, huge paper snow globes and waited until the last day/hour/minute/second to do it.

But once the decorations were down, I decided it was time for a bit of Happy New Cheer.

Which meant hanging up my ‘new’ vintage map from the lovely Lauren McGlynn (she’s a peach that one!) next to my car boot sale version… and finally saying something with my ‘make your own’ banner kit…

(‘Home is wherever I’m with you‘ seemed map-appropriate and we signed our wedding register to that song too. I might have been singing this daily since I put the banner up!)

But being me, I just had to customise the banner kit a bit… with gold spray paint, natch.

Above is my ‘spray station’ – a large Zara box that stops me turning the floor gold!

My favourite craft thing in the world right now. Yes, it’s even better than washi tape!

Of course, when I said I’d taken down the Christmas decorations I may have somewhat slightly exaggerated…

I took some things down. The tree went, the snowflakes too, but the deer with fairy lights wrapped round his antlers? Yes, very much still here…

And the big paper honeycomb balls? Yup, still there. They’re winter themed rather Christmas themed right?

And eh… yes, I may have kept the teeny terrariums too. They may be staying until it’s Spring!

Which might be on the way pretty soon considering daffodils are back in season. Love daffies but does anyone else think it’s a bit early for them to be out? A bit like all the Creme Eggs!

So with Spring perhaps on its way, I did make some concessions to it being a new year… by breaking out my ‘embossing label maker’ the other half got me as a random Tuesday present last year.

(I thought ‘Happy All Year’ was a better sentiment than ‘Happy New Year’).

This little baby is totally clicktastic… though, I’m not going to make a hand model any time soon. That pinky patch on my thumb? A hand meets curling tong incident.

And it comes in neon colours (the tape that is, not my burned thumb!). A total essential in gloomy January. It also came with black tape but, you know, trying to be cheery here.

So 2013… everything is going to be AWESOME. February to December, I’m looking at you here.

And by then I might have properly taken down my Christmas decorations. Maybe.

Happy All Year everyone. May all your months be more cheery than January! xxx

Some Sundays, you have pancakes for breakfast. Maybe go car booting. Maybe go on a day trip. You know the usual…

Then some Sundays, you find yourself being snapped by the lovely Lauren McGlynn for a lookbook and a magazine.

And what a wonderful Sunday it was too.

If you’ve not come across Lauren before, she’s an American wedding photographer in Scotland, soon to be based in Edinburgh. She’s also all kinds of wonderful. Super talented. And damn good fun to boot.

Now, anyone who’s known me/this blog for a while will know that I’ve said I’m not a huge fan of getting my picture taken. Heck, I think I’d even told Lauren that on several occasions. (So I think she was somewhat surprised when I first mentioned the shoot!)

But I’ve learned to let go a bit lately. I just decided to stop being so hard on myself. It’s strange but that’s all it took. Who knew?!

Anyhoo… so Lauren came round to shoot a lookbook for Hannah Zakari. (Possibly one of the sweetest shops in the entire world). I had a stegosaurus print from Hannah Zakari – by the super Robbie Porter – so I’d spray-painted some toy dinosaurs gold to go with it…

… and then Rachael from Hannah Zakari also gave me this ace brainbow camera necklace to model.

(You can actually look through it which is pretty cute!!)

And at the same time, it so happened that I was writing an article about car boot sales for the ever so pretty 91 Magazine – so I needed a pic or two for that as well. You can read my car booting tales/tips in Issue 4, page 70 onwards – inbetween Anna Weinreich‘s beautiful home and The Seventy Tree‘s Kerry’s super illustrations.

So Lauren took shots for both… including in my never seen before on the blog (I think?) spare room. Yes that room that you normally pile all your random stuff in and just close the door when guests come round… yip, that room. That’s my recovered 60s daybed I’m sitting on… one of my prized (furniture) possessions!

We even took off a cupboard door in the kitchen… just so you can see what’s inside my kitchen cupboards.

Surprise, surprise, it’s more vintage china!

And Lauren was polite enough to tolerate me doing lots of silly things like juggling the dinosaurs… and pretending to do the congo with them. (The things you do when you’re nervous!)

 

Um yeah… there’s a reason Lauren’s the photographer and not me!

With daffies, my bunny vase, a ‘Hello Flower’
postcard from Lou and of course an Easter chick (or two)…

My postcard from Lizzy Stewart seemed very appropriate
considering I had melted a chocolate egg already.
(By leaving it too near to a window!)

And feeling Springy… I dug out these vintage napkins
I got in Norway. Hooray indeed!

And got out our charity shop find table cloth…
even if it does make the kitchen super super girlie!

Most importantly, I found our box of Easter chicks…
though I wasn’t the only one who found them!

Then we were all set for some Easter fun…

First up, some Easter giggles with my Papa.
See that super happy, super dapper groom?
That’s my Papa. One of the coolest people I know.
We chatted about flat caps, the latest movies
and where to get the best chips in town.

Then… some Easter fun with my gorgeous little sis
who was back in Scotland for a wee break
before she starts rehearsals for her new play.

This meant mini eggs and heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast…

Blowing Easter bubbles… and discovering that cats
(well the grey one) really like attacking said bubbles!

All culminating in some Easter silliness…
involving a chick, the army men who live in our plants
and a rescue mission called Operation Letter Box!

************

There was also lots of gin and rose lemonade,
the best veggie hot dogs ever, homemade pizza,
old movies, a spot of DIY, an epic hangover…
yip Easter is the new Christmas!

************

So, what about you all… are you feeling Springy?
Think I feel more like Spring being inside than outside!

As welovepictures, Travis and Maike, who like in Cape Town,
take some gorgeous, happy, sunshiney, pretty wedding pics.

But what made me really fall in love with them
is their apartment… For the first time in ages,
I have total and utter flat envy!

Um… that blue lamp, that chair… that boat-shaped mirror!

Oh… yeah… that globe, those signs, that chest of drawers…

Love… that prints and books mini shelves combo!

Home… this sign is what made my heart flip over.

Home is wherever I am with you
by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
was the song we signed our marriage certificate too.
(Like I said more on that later!)

I wonder if I can do a flat swap for a bit!

Check out the rest of their gorgeous place
and lovely blog here …

******

Have a lovely weekend everyone.
I’m off to two weddings.
So it’s a weekend of love!

Over the years, we have killed a lot of plants.

Despite our best attempts to look after then they always die.

ALWAYS.

(Yes, we did our own wedding flowers
but they didn’t have to live for that long.)

So recently we decided that we were giving up.

And we went out and bought some fake plants instead.

I can’t under water them. I can’t over water them.
Heck, I can’t water them at all.

They won’t die of a horrible disease, like Planty Number 2 did.

(Does anyone else give their plants stupid names?)

But we thought they were a bit plain…

Should we decorate the pots?

Or make some fabric flowers to brighten them up?

Maybe. Eventually.

But then we hit upon a better plan…

Yes, we now have our own sentry… watching out for us.

It cannot be underestimated how
much this makes me laugh.

*****

This might be one of the reasons
my little cousins call me
a ‘pretend grown-up’.

Me: How about we go car booting on Sunday morning?

Him: Ok. What time do you want to go?

Me: Super early… so we can get the best stuff.

Him (knowing my inability to get up in the mornings): Ok.

*

A typical Sunday morning conversation before 9am…

Him: It’s ten to nine. Do you want to get up?

Me: Zzzzzzzzz.

Him: Zoë? Hello?

Me: Zzzzzzzzzzz.

Him: Ok, I’ll give you another 30 mins.

*

A typical Sunday morning conversation around 10.30am…

Me: Why didn’t you wake me up?

Him: Um, I did try.

*****

Some days however we manage to drag ourselves (ok, me)
out of bed and head to a car boot sale. And on these days
we very rarely come away empty-handed.

Here’s a few of my favourite recent finds…

A 60s ‘Topic’ teapot by J & G Meakin.

A bit of a departure this one for me…
usually all my china is gold-edged
delicate little vintage numbers but I just
love the colours and that pattern.

This set came with a bit of a car boot sale reminder though…
always check what you’re buying.

As well as the cups, saucers, sugar bowl and milk jug,
there were also some cute side plates. The lady that was selling them
was super nice so I didn’t bother to check them all…

And yup some of the side plates were broken.
Still a bargain but disappointing all the same.

Got ourselves some more glass jelly moulds…
one of these days we do need to try
out our posh jelly recipe book.

Some pretty measuring tape…

Though post-wedding I don’t give a flying fig
about my waist measurements etc.
(As a consequence I think I lost weight
just because that’s how my world works!)

A big cosy yellow blanket…

This one was a charity shop find rather than booting
and from the label it appears to be rather old… but in perfect nick.

It seemed rude not to buy it.

A polaroid camera for 20p.

I love this camera. I love the stripe.

I love the shape. I love that cheerful big red button.

It just makes me feel happy and that’s definitely worth 20p!

It also looks rather good on my little roll-top desk display.

(We think we hate our flip clock though. No-one warns you
that these make a god awful noise when they flip round.
Loudest, most heart-attack-inducing noise ever!)

And of course after a hard (ok not that hard) morning
car-booting, it is essential that you treat yourself to ice-cream.

Irn-bru and tablet ice-cream of course.

Well, you need a reward for getting up early on a Sunday.

(Look at the concentration!
That’s how good tablet ice-cream is!)

*****

Anyone else found any lovely booting
or charity shop finds recently?

*****

P.S. For all those asking, the ice-cream came from
the ice-cream van opposite the John Hope Gateway
at Edinburgh’s Botanic Gardens. Thoroughly recommend!

Well, one (almost) sunny Sunday in March, I started one…

A work in progress sure but it gives us something
nice to see when we open the front door.

It got this reaction from the fox-owl-cat…

To be fair, this look probably translates as ‘stop hammering, damn you’.

On a little roll, I then put up the other half’s favourite Mr Cheapskate print.

Yup, I’m attempting the bulldog clip thing again!

Remember how the fox-owl-cat used to like
to hide under the bed when we were doing diy?

Well, grey-ninja-cat seems to adopted the practice too.

It’s a hard life being a cat right?

I also finally framed my gorgeous birthday screenprint from my friend Jill.

(She based it on a phrase I once said to her… it almost like I’m famous!)

I thought it worked pretty well with our Japan print…
(which unfortunately became pretty relevant later on in March).

I absolutely adore the record detail… she has
superior screenprinting skills to me!

I also reintroduced our ‘rules are for fools’ print back into the flat.
(It had been ‘dressing’ our old flat while it was on the market.)

The chair in the shot is our future mustard velvet chair.
Can’t wait for us to finish it… when we have the time!

I also pondered where to put my lovely bear print from The Seventy Tree…

And did a bit of honeymoon planning on our future map.

Apparently these quieter activities were much more satisfactory…

Maybe I’ll get round to finishing the wall display one day!

***

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

We’re having a bit of a wedding weekend, making our invites,
testing our wines, and writing our vows. Oh yes and a bit snoozing,
chilling, relaxing and watching 30 Rock. Bring it on!

Recipe for a relaxed Sunday morning breakfast…

1. My new Robin and Mould tea cosy. Isn’t he pretty?

2. Daffodils (my favourites) bought for me by the other half.

3. The pretty plate I found at Saturday’s flea market.
How cute is the cross-stitch detail?

4. A rather delectable lemon meringue cupcake.

5. A too good to share (but I did because I’m nice) chocolate orange cupcake.

6. Some green tea. (Even if I do love Kusmi’s packaging more than the tea.)

7. My favourite teapot… and it holds a proper amount of tea.
(I always feel cheated if a pot holds less than three cups.)

8a. A nice teacup or two.

8b. Well, a nice cup for me and a more
macho coffee cup for the other half.

Put it all together and you have a very happy Sunday morning indeed…

… especially when I discovered just how warm my new cosy keeps my tea.

I am truly a tea cosy convert!

*****

Have a lovely Monday everyone xx