Exploring the Lothians

A little gardening-related post today folks, just for something different. I tried disasterously to garden last year (see the Triffid-sized weeds encroaching menacingly on my little veg beds over here? Well, they are so large now that you can barely see the vegs beds at all, I've given up on the garden and barely escaped with my life...) and so now restrict my botanical adventures to the original and best Windowsill Farm, the one actually on my windowsill.

However, the gardening bug still remains and I dream of the day when I can have a little patch of land to call my own. In the meantime though, look what I came across on a recent jaunt to Linlithgow!



It's food! Growing in the street! And there's no litter or vandalism or poop in it! That's how you know Linlithgow is fancy, there's no animal (or human) poop in the fancy pavement veg bed.



I love this idea though, it was literally right on the pavement and you could have walked past it thinking it was just a flower bed if you weren't more observant. I love the oil drums with the not-so-subtle political message and I love the reclaim-the-streets vibe about the whole thing. It's run by Transition Linlithgow who stand for 'bulding a resiliant and sustainable future.' Two thumbs up to that I say!



For those of you not familiar with this little satellite of Edinburgh, Linlithgow is a Royal Burgh, complete with its own palace and history stretching back hundreds of years, with links to almost all the Scottish Kings and Queens. It was the past birth place of Mary, Queen of Scots and the future birth place of Montgomery Scott or 'Scotty' from Star Trek, both of whom have exhibits in the lovely little Annet House museum.

I miss Star Trek. They should show that on TV more often.

Back from the Highlands

I'm back from 2 weeks in the Highlands on placement with a horse vet. It was amazing, I got to see and do loads of things and the people up there are all lovely. The countryside is amazing as well, it's nice to be a passenger in a car for once and get to enjoy the views!

Anyway, just a quick one since my folks are arriving for a week any second now. I might not get to blog much this week but normal service should resume next week so watch this space...

In the meantime, here are some thrifty finds from Inverness. I bought this fabric (plus some secret baby things for Baby Maciver!) from a community centre thrift sale, all this for £1, bargain! So much for the one-in-one-out pledge when it comes to my fabric stash, I just can't say no to a thrifty find!



Here's a sneak preview of an Andrew find, I'm not sure if I like it that much just yet but given the amount of rubbish we have in the house that belongs to me, I could hardly say no. Still, it may yet grow on me. More photos to come once it's assembled and in its rightful place (which sadly is not the bin downstairs...not the attitude Amy...)

Karen's housewarming blanket

Just a quick one folks, since I'm off up the road to Inverness to start a 2 week placement this afternoon! I'll be able to carry on blogging while I'm there, but posts might be a bit sporadic.

Anyway, here's a finally finished crochet blanket! Remember I showed you a sneak preview of it back here? Well, I started it at Easter and just finished it now, effeciency at its best!



It's for my friend Karen, as a belated housewarming present after she moved to Wales. I got a very sweet homemade thank you card in the post this morning, so I'm finally able to put it on the blog, knowing I'm not spoiling the surprise!



Happy Housewarming Karen! ♥

A sewing disaster

I'm here today to share a cautionary tale with you all. I'm sure for a lot of you the following words will be a 'no dur' moment, but I find I have to learn by my own stupid, silly, I-wish-I'd-thought-of-that-beforehand mistakes. Otherwise it just goes in one ear and out the other, sigh.

Here's what happens when you make a sideboard cover out of material that is cotton on one side and random, thick, calico stuff on the other. It didn't seem to occur to me at the time that I might want to wash the cover in the event of, say, my rose regularly leaking water, causing the cover to go mouldy and decompose in an attractive circular pattern that exactly matches the terracota water catcher it sits in. Nooo, that would be far too sensible.

The mouldy hole, in the process of being fixed:



Patch-up job:



So I decided to wash it and repair the hole, good as new. Sadly not. What actually happened is the random, thick, calico stuff shrunk in the wash, while the cotton stayed the same size, meaning the cover is now much smaller than it used to be (and so doesn't cover the top of the sideboard any more) and the cotton side is all puckered and wrinkly with all the excess fabric. Since I'm about to leave the flat for 2 weeks, I don't have time to fix it properly (i.e. throw it out and start again) so instead I patched the hole to protect the sideboard while we're away and I'll have to make a new one when we get back. And I don't even like the sideboard very much!

It's not the clearest photo, but you can see that the cover doesn't actually cover the sideboard, and look how much extra material there is on the cotton side!



Learn from my mistakes folks!

New summer skirt!

Remember the skirt kit I got for my birthday? Well, I made it up!

I was really pleased with how quick and easy this was, especially given my mental block with following sewing instructions, I finished the whole thing in about 2 hours whilst listening to Radio 6.



I wore it out yesterday and am planning on wearing it out again today! I was going to cycle in it (with cycle shorts underneath of course, can't be flashing my bright pink pants to the world) but Andrew persuaded me otherwise because it's raining and I'll get all muddy. Sad face. I'm taking it with me though, to change into when I get there!



Things I learned whilst making this skirt:

- Not drinking wine whilst sewing makes a huge difference to the professionalism of the outcome
- Not watching TV whilst sewing makes a huge difference to the straightness of my hems
- Listening to the radio is infinitely better than watching TV whilst sewing
- Measure twice, cut once = GENIUS!

Apologies for the cars in the backgrounds of the photos, the whole point of taking them on the Meadows is to avoid distractions like that in the background but apparently my photographer (who shall remain nameless...) has the mental capacity of a small fish and needs reminding of this every time.

Two new in store

A small Etsy shop update for y'all.

Vintage pastel lacy sweater



Vintage rose knitted sweater



Welcome to the shop little pretties!

Inspiration part 5

Goodness, it's been a while since I've had an Inspiration post! It's not that nothing has been inspiring me, far from it, I just haven't had the time, what with exams an'all.

Look at this lovely photo tutorial from {this is glamorous}. I just got my regular 3 monthly please-tidy-my-hair haircut done, so I'll definitely be having a go at this lovely 'do, now my hair is a bit more manageable.

Source: citified.blogspot.com via Second on Pinterest

This amazingly simple scarf-to-top tutorial strikes me as having a multitude of bra-related issues, but it's so cute it's totally worth a shot anyway! From Everything Fab

Source: s633.photobucket.com via Second on Pinterest