Summer Never Came To Scotland

I think we got maybe ten days of proper sunshine? Which isn't too surprising as we had snow at the end of April. Still I feel like I've wasted the lion's share of my free time. So here's to making plans and doing a full on Pollyanna and just getting on with the business of making the most of it.

This is going to mean some serious embracing of my wellies and keeping on top of my vitamin c intake to stave off the sniffles. I live in a gorgeous part of the world and I really need to make more of an effort to get out and about. And knitting like a demon. I suck at being a selfish knitter, I hardly ever make anything for myself. That's a balance that needs a bit of work. And I've frankly negleted my sewing.

The Weekend Is Shaping Up

And rather nicely too I might say. I rather foolishly decided to cope with the sheer expense involved with graduation by, uhh, spending more money. Don't judge me it made sense at the time. And my haul is pretty damn modest for all my hand wringing guilt.

Can ginger people wear maroon? I hope so. I'm not often a fan of ladies wear from Primark because I am way way too tall for 90% of what they sell. But this little beauty is nice and long and was only £6. Worth the madness of Primark on a Saturday wouldn't you say?

If all else fails I can do a rocking Ginny Weasley impression. I am a grown up adult lady I swear.

Remember those kilt hose I linked in the last post? My other splurge this weekend was picking up the yarn for them. Twice as much as is recommended because dude has massive cyclist's legs.

It's the regia 6ply sock wool in anthracite marl marked as farbe 00522 on the band. I picked up four of the 150g balls in the hope that gross overestimation will be the safest option. FOUR. That's 1500 meters. One of the balls is in a different dye lot so it's not quite so safe as I'd like but I shouldn't, in theory, need it for the kilt hoes. She says with the false hope of denial seeping away rather quickly through her toes. It'll be fine right? Just nod and smile please. And hold my hand if this ever gets to the holding my knitting while weeping stage? Thank you, you're brillaint.

What else have I been up to? 

More sock knitting. 

It's regia wool I think, it's been knocking about my stash so long it's long lost it's label band. The fancy sheep holding it all safe are from clover. They are the best point protectors ever. I don't think these will be particularly pretty socks but they should be pretty hard wearing which always good.

Tomorrow Bloke is racing, first road trip in the new (to us) car. So today I'm doing a bunch of cooking and baking. Racing is hard work, and so is being the dorky wife armed with a camera. Or maybe I just eat when I'm nervous? Yeah. Still Much food is required. This might as well be an ode to pasta salad. I don't care what anyone says about paleo you'll have to rip the carbs from my cold dead hands.

Other things I've been loving this week are:

Why meal planning isn't just for boring bitches from Mrs thrifty.

These high waisted tall legging from Asos.  Because I have high hopes for leggings I can bend over in without them riding down.

Is moving to the suburbs 'selling out'?  Even at 26 I feel a bit weird considering the notion of 'selling out' but I grew up rural so moving to the wee village we're in wasn't much of a hardship. And our rent money translates to a much bigger space than we could ever afford in the city.

What have you all been up to? What's your favourite road trip food?

Minnie xoxo

This is the time of to-do lists

It's less than two month till Christmas. I know I know it seems like all I've done is talk about Christmas. I need to share more of my life, and I promise I will. But the key to a stress free (or as close as it gets) and affordable holiday is in the planning. You don't want to pay for the holiday with only one month's worth of pay. It's not like the regular bills take the month of December off.


Gifts, decorations, food, cards, it amounts to a lot. Here are the last postage dates for mail from the UK, some of the international airmail ones are very early in December! I'm terrible for missing the postage dates, I think most of the cards I sent didn't arrive until after Christmaslast year. Whoops. We've already missed most of the surface mail dates for this year! Air mail it is then...

Not to mention that November is goign to be super busy what with me finishing up the semester, looking for a job for when I graduate while you know still trying to maintain  bit of a social life. No biggie? It's just about making the most of my time. And planning. Let's not forget tea! Tea is wonderful!

Now I have to get to the doing part of my to-do, are you guys as swamped as I am?

Minnie xoxo

Presents vs Gifts

So, the cake has been made so we're officially in the run up to Christmas. Granted we're still at the marathon stage not the sprint. But still the totting up of budgets is happening, the slow panic is building. Last night Bloke was watching Dave Gorman's new show Modern Life Is Goodish. And he made a brilliant point. There's a difference between Gifts and Presents.

Its quite a simple concept "presents" are things that you would actually buy for your self: books, clothing, perfume etc. "Gifts" are those things that are created especially for giving and are not something you'd not buy for yourself: miniature foods, mini sets of *anything*, the dad centric desk gifts and the myriad of joke presents available in the run up to Christmas. Now I can hear your "But bath sets are useful!" Well yes and no, how many selections of bubble bath are actually used? It really comes down to how familiar you are with the persons bath/shower time habits. I fully admit to buying my husband a nice shower set or posh soap every gifting holiday but I do so knowing that it's something he'll actually use. The same cannot be said for anyone who doesn't share a bathroom with me.

Now, this is not to say that presents will be what the person wants. But there is something far more personal about it. And the whole point of presents is the thought you've put into it.

And presents don't have to be about shopping. I cannot emphasise this enough. I only buy things for a very select few, and honestly most of them are children. Every one else gets food at Christmas. Bloke and I spend a few days making a section of edible goodies. we can't guarantee you'll like them, but you can feed them to any of your guests, we don't even mind if you pretend to your Aunt Mabel that you made them yourself.

And if cooking isn't your thing, don't sweat it. Use your talents! If you want to. This is just a plea against wasting your money because you have to buy some one a gift.

 If you can't think of anything, go for the best sort of gift- the charity gift. Oxfam do a wonderful range. How about some Chickens for the animal lover in your life? Or if your budget is a bit bigger you could help a vulnerable child.


So, this isn't a campaign for no gifts ever, just "Let's stop buying pointless crap, yeah?" I promise I'm not a grinch.

Minnie xoxo

UUUGGGHHHH ZOMBIES WANT SLEEP NOT BRAINS UGGGHH

Its been a pretty tough semester. So so busy, I miss people, I MISS GOING OUTSIDE!

The crazy eyes of some one who knows far far too much about far too long ago to have any kind of interesting chat at the hairdressers. "So what have you been up to lately?" "DIFFERENTIATING BETWEEN FEMINIST HISTORY AND GENDER HISTORY and yoga.. yoga is fun."

However my hairdresser must deal with a lot of mentals because she just nodded and smiled and me and broke out the rollers, so achieve the above swishy smoothness one usually associates with the Dutchess of Cambridge. And then left me alone for a little while to ponder on my inability to make proper small talk. 

I've also been drinking a lot of tea. Tea make me feel better about life, the world and everything. I should write an ode to tea at some point. But I get so distracted at the prospect of tea to write about it for too long. Proof, I'm off to boil the kettle now. 

And on the same calming, life is awesome even if I'm super stressed out vein - I've been doing loads of yoga at home. In my running tights because I'm awesome like that.

Other random things I've been doing include colouring in these cute new trainer I got. £6 and a sharpie and you can do the same too!

See cute! And they didn't actually take all that long. couple of evening in front of the t.v.

Also it's finally almost nearly summer. Okay so it was raining today but the past few weeks have been getting nicer and nicer. 

Would you look at that blue sky? So gorgeous. 

And finally, it took a lot of searching but we found something to give to my Dad. The man who has everything. 

Powercuts are pretty frequent in the islands, he has an open fire and its got awesome long handles. WINNING!

Tomorrow I sew, do stuff and generally be awesome because it's summer and I HAVE THE FREE TIME NOW. 

Take care dudes, 

Minnie xoxo

Can we talk about gender and love for a quick moment

No one really thinks a certain way because of what their gender identity is. 

This mini rant is brought to you from too much perusing of wedding boards on Pinterest. You don't need a book or a series of inane blog posts or magazine articles to tell you how to relate to your other half. Just treat them like a person you care about! That's it be a decent human being, treat them like any other person you want to stick around with. Having mandatory date nights isn't going to bring you any closer together if you don't make an effort. A weekly trip to the climbing centre would just make me hate you. (I don't like heights.) You can still be selfish and alienate the other person while on the surface "trying."

Relationships, yet another place where the rule of Don't Be A Dick applies.

And the object of your affection in question fell for YOU, you just the way you are (hairy toes and all.*) Not some weird person who sends sickly sweet texts every Tuesday lunchtime (because you set a reminder), makes sure you have an official date every Thursday ever without fail and leave creepy little love missives in their lunch box. Unless you've always been like that. If you are I bow down to your amazing powers of organisation and perkiness. Will you be my friend? My after coffee and a good breakfast so I don't smash a
plate over your head friend?

I am nice to Bloke, honest.
Minnie xoxo

*Stop laughing at me, they aren't THAT hairy and I wax. HUMANS ARE MAMMALS! WE HAVE HAIR!

The past wee while in pictures

I carved a pumpkin. His name is Seonaidh. 

He's a handsome fellow isn't he?

We took a Hamis MacLego on a hike 

He was awestruck by the views.

We went on an explore and discovered that the old Dunblane road is hardly a road at all any more.

It was tarmac before the storms washed it away.

The weather has been cold, crisp and clear.

Lovely.

Could there be a more appropriate time of year for this top?

It glows in the dark. Squeak.

What Have you all been up to recently? Ready for Halloween? 

Minnie xoxo

Depression is like the bad pair of tights.

Everyone who wears tights (pantyhose) know what I mean about the bad pair of tights. They look just like any other innocent, well behaved pair of tights in your drawer but as soon as you are irreversibly out of the house for the day they will turn on you. The ankles will bag, the crotch rides down to just under the bottom of your skirt hem. Your whole day is spent trying to slyly adjust, pull and cope. You try and look like you aren't wearing Bad Tights. But the effort of running into every loo you pass, hiding behind bloke trying to adjust in public and performing all kinds of stealth gymnastics that everything falls to the wayside. Nothing is enjoyable, you can concentrate on anything and by the end of the day you are exhausted.

You throw the bad tights away, recognise with hindsight that something felt off when you pulled them on. They'd been brilliant tights up until now, just the right colour, not too shiny. You loved them dearly, hand washed them in the bath, never made them bobbily by wearing socks over them. Alas the Bad Tights are a constant, not tied to any one pair. The Bad Tights can be any pair, a previously loved pair, a pair in a multipack of otherwise wonderful well behaved tights or the greatest betrayal a previously trusted brand begins turning out only Bad Tights. For some people is not tights, it can be knickers they got from being comfy trusted friends to bum floss seemingly over night.

I've been really low recently, its been a Bad Tights day every day. Even when I wear jeans. Its so difficult trying to appear normal that everything else gets left behind. I'm back on the upswing now, which is quite nice.

I hope none of you are having a Bad Tights day,
Minnie xoxo

Revisiting Wedding Shame

So the last post was disjointed, weird and rambling. I think my main issue is the shame associated with weddings. "WHAT EVER YOU ARE DOING IS BAD AND WRONG! STOP THAT NOW! ITS NOT ALL ABOUT YOU! ITS YOUR DAY DO WHAT EVER YOU LIKE BUT NOT THAT!"

You spend too much money, or not enough. You are getting married, or you aren't. And you can bet the groom doesn't get the same kind of grilling (except Bloke, but he works with lots of little old ladies who want to know everything about him.) The problem is of course is that this is part of the idea that all the life choices women make are up for public discussion. Education. Marriage (and I include all legal and non legal bindings that may or may not be refereed to as marriage in here.) Babies, or not. And how much effort you put or not into the latter. Its all up for discussion and criticism! See also how you spend your money, the extent of your grooming regime and any other number of bizarre life choices.

Weddings are defiantly the big palooza though. Every one has an opinion, EVERYONE. And every one reads far too much into it all. Are having a big lavish do? well you must be putting the lot on a credit card! taking it out of your parent retirement fund! You terrible, terrible person. Its only one day! Having a cheap as chips party, making your own dress/buying second hand? You poor, poor dear! This is supposed to be YOUR DAY! Why don't you put it off a for a few years?!

I would say that I suspect these people have missed the point of marriage, but so many people do it. People who are other wise fairly normal. people who you wouldn't expect to be probing your financial and emotional plans.

SO MUCH SHAMING!

Fuck that noise. And on that note I'm off to try out my new delicious smelling coconut shampoo. I'm waiting on a parcel delivery and you can bet as soon as I jump in the shower the door bell will go.

Any of you get ridiculous "wisdom" of late? Minnie xoxo

Homesickness

It's awful. I turn into this terrible grumpy cow. Ugh. I phoned Dad last night, being grumpy and sad.

And guess what? It was his birthday. I suck. Sigh. I'll spend some time on Sunday crafting something up for him.

I've decided that the best way to deal with my homesickness is to enact The Plan. The Plan isn't actually anything very specific its just all those things you file under "wouldn't it be awesome if I did x, y or z?" So Sunday is going to be all about The Plan. Scary? very. But oh so worth it. I've had a year to piss about and, yeah being an adult isn't so bad, but I'm the only one who can make it awesome. At least that's the theory. I like theories, they make everything seem so simple.

Anyway this adult is off to make the house seem more liveable.

Take care, Minnie xoxox