Cupcakes and Cadenzas

10! I often read blog posts which list a number of facts about the blogger and, I have to confess, I love reading them. I'm often surprised at things people do or have done, places they have lived etc. It's funny how you build up a picture of someone you don't actually know and then they give you a few facts about themselves and that picture can be completely changed. So here are my 10 facts. I was going to title the post '10 Facts About Me You Would Never Know Unless I Told You and Probably Wished You Didn't Know Once You Read Them' but that was just a bit too long. Anyway... I studied Wing Chun Kung Fu for several years My ultimate comfort food is a white roll with tuna mayo and Branston pickle. Don't ask I have a tattoo and for anyone who is wondering - yes - it was painful and no - I don't regret getting it. I like love adore Pingu When I was at school I fenced for Scotland (the sport of fencing as opposed to handling stolen goods of

Original First of all I have to say that I can't believe it's been a whole week since I posted anything on here. Somehow last week suddenly became very busy and before I knew it, it was Tuesday again and so I'm going to do a very quick update on my personal 'no-spend' challenge. This is technically the post from last Friday. The funny thing about last week (week 3) was that I began to find that there were less and less things tempting me. As you know, during the first two weeks there were many things that I would have just bought on the spur of the moment but as this challenge goes on I have found that I'm not as tempted to look at things, try things on or impulse buy as I was before. They do say that it takes 21 times of doing something to form a habit and I'm beginning to think that I am getting into the habit of not spending unnecessarily and that's got to be good - right? Anyway, the one thing I was tempted to buy was a new blusher brush at £

Welcome to Tuesday Treasures. Tuesday is now going to be the day when I will give you links to six websites or blogs that have caught my attention over the last week. They could be about absolutely anything so there won't be any kind of theme but hopefully you will find them interesting, informative, inspirational, funny, cool and lots of other things too. Sometimes they may be just downright weird but whatever they are I hope you have fun checking them out. Just click on the name of the site to visit it. So, for this week we have: Lifehacker   This is a website full of 'tips, tricks and downloads for getting things done' and I love it! Soul Speak   This is an inspirational blog where you will be 'Going within. Being grateful. Living positively'. It's definitely worth many visits. Polyvore   At Polyvore you can discover your own personal style by creating wonderful outfits using products from across the web. You can also find out where to buy the pr

How would you like to feel great every day? Image Wouldn't it be lovely to start your day feeling motivated and end your day feeling as though you've really achieved something? Well, here are my top tips for doing exactly that. I try to stick to these every day and it really does make a difference to the way I feel. I'm not saying that I never get annoyed or fed up or feel unmotivated - that would be unrealistic and it's all part of being human but generally I find that if I set myself these small tasks every day and stick to them as best I can, my day usually goes pretty well. So here we go with my top 10 things that will make you feel great. SLEEP - this may seem obvious but very few of us get the amount of sleep we need to keep us healthy and happy. Too little sleep is not good for you but did you know that having too much sleep is just as bad? There is an optimum number of hours that each individual needs to sleep to stay happy and healthy both menta

Yesterday I ran a short poll over on Facebook about people's preferred writing implement. I also asked what colour of ink they liked to use, as certain colours are supposed to say something about you and your personality. (Please remember that this is just a bit of fun.) Anyway, the results are now in! The poll asked "When writing in your diary, journal etc. do you prefer to use: pencil, ballpoint pen, fountain pen, gel pen, erasable pen, quill or other? And the winner is.....The Fountain Pen! The good old ballpoint pen was second and then the erasable pen, the gel pen, the pencil and other were all third equal. The only problem is that I don't know what the 'other' is and now I'm intrigued so Jenny, if you read this, please put me out my misery and let me know by leaving a comment at the end :) To be honest it was more or less what I expected but it is nice to know that fountain pens are so popular. QUESTION The question was: "The colour of ink

Hopefully this picture will give you a lovely warm, fuzzy feeling at the end of a hard week. HUGS Image

It's now the end of the second week of my personal 'no-spend' challenge and of course the big question is, was it a successful week or was I tempted to spend, spend, spend? Image Well... it was...a... SUCCESSFUL WEEK!!  In fact, this week has just flown past and, compared to last week, it seemed much easier to walk away from anything I saw and considered buying. For anyone who hasn't read my previous posts on this challenge and therefore has no idea of what's going on you can catch up by clicking here . So, here is what I could have spent my money on this week but chose not to: Firstly a gorgeous red blouse. Now this was a bargain as it was originally £50 reduced to £30 and reduced a second time to £15 but I resisted temptation. Next there were some boot socks at £7 and I managed to turn my back on those despite them being very cute. The next thing to try and tempt me was some gorgeous nail polish. Now that was quite strange because I'm not real

I've always loved this quote.

Well, despite having now had four nights of rioting in England I am not going to blog about it. The reason for this is that I will go into rant mode and I really don't want to do that on here however, I did find a very interesting blog post on another blog through Google+. It's a piece of fictional writing but it is incredibly well written and highly thought provoking.  Please click on the link below to read it. It really is worth reading. http://bartie-blog.blogspot.com/2011/08/ffs-parents-wake-up.html

A few years ago I was asked by a large company if I would give a presentation to a group of employees. These people had just started with the company and this was part of their induction course. Much of their time in the job would be spent working with clients using an appointment system and my presentation was to be on time management. I happily agreed to this (they were paying me) and I set about preparing for the day.  Now, the induction course was in the centre of Glasgow and I was living in the Scottish Borders at the time and, in hindsight (a wonderful thing), I should have travelled up to Glasgow the night before and stayed in a hotel. That way I would have arrived at the training centre bright and early and in plenty of time to set up my presentation. Can you see where this is going yet? Instead I decided that, as the course didn't start until 9.30am, I would catch the 7.30am train, arrive in Glasgow around 8.30am, wander up to the centre which was about a 15 minute walk

The Daily Aww has now become The Weekly Aww as I've heard that looking at too many cute pictures can be bad for your health and so at the end of every week I will post a lovely picture, video, etc which will hopefully make you smile. Here is this week's and if this doesn't make you smile I guess nothing will.

So, that's the first week of my personal 'no-spend' challenge over and, to be honest, I've quite enjoyed thinking about what I'm spending rather than just going ahead and buying something just because it catches my eye or because I 'think' I need it. I did have a couple of small lapses this week but I'm not going to beat myself up about it and I'll just have to do better next week. So here is the list of things I could have spent my money on but decided not to. A scarf from Ollie and Nic   £22.00 A book offer in WH Smith   £ 8.00 A book for my Kindle          £ 3.90 Treats for my horse            £ 7.00 Saving me                         £40.90 These are the unnecessary things I did buy this week: A book for my Kindle     £0.86 A box of 4 cupcakes       £4.00 Costing me                   £4.86 So my overall total saving this week was £36.04! In a normal week I would have bought those things without a second thought and, whilst they w

This poem has always been a  favourite of mine and this is what I aspire to be when I am an old woman. Warning by Jenny Joseph When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter. I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells And run my stick along the public railings And make up for the sobriety of my youth. I shall go out in my slippers in the rain And pick the flowers in other peoples' gardens And learn to spit. You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat And eat three pounds of sausages at a go Or only bread and pickle for a week And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes. But now we must have clothes that keep us dry And pay our rent and not swear in the street And set a good example for the children. We must ha

Image via Stumbleupon 1.) Brush twice a day. Please click on the link below to view the complete  25 ways to improve your health

So, July is over and I've had 4 weeks off so far. I had so many plans at the start of this break. I was going to clean the house from top to bottom, do the entire garden (just short of an acre), get my horse fit enough to start competing him again, tune my harpsichord (yes, I do have a harpsichord and yes, I do tune it myself), file my tax return for 2010/2011, start my novel and about a million other things as well. What have I actually achieved? Nothing!! Absolutely none of the above and nothing else which wasn't on the list either. Image Admittedly I did have my DH's mother staying for two weeks and it's difficult to do some things when other people are around but, to achieve absolutely nothing is not good and, quite frankly, I'm annoyed at myself. Heck, I barely even managed to get on Twitter some days! But, there are reasons for me not achieving the things I wanted to. These are not excuses as there are no excuses for frittering away a whole month but t

Hurrah!! One of my favourite brands - Fossil - has just opened a shop in Aberdeen's Union Square. If you haven't come across Fossil before click here to have a look at their website. All of their stuff is gorgeous but it's the handbags and purses I really like.  New Purse My DH and I walked into the shop and I was like a child in a sweetie shop. I didn't know what to look at first. Their new range had just arrived in and the colours and styles are beautiful. There were bags in turquoise, green, tan, pink, yellow, olive and multi-colours and they had tophandles, over-shoulders, satchels , totes, weekenders...*sighs* I settled for a purse which, I must add, my DH treated me to and I really did need it as my poor old pink Radley was looking a bit worse for wear. I love my new purse to bits but there was one bag which really caught my eye and I couldn't stop thinking about it. The only thing that stopped me getting it was that, having decided to take an extended b

Today's Daily Awwww is slightly different. Watch this stunning video by  Cristóbal Vila  carefully. It's all about numbers and geometry but it is inspired by nature. Fascinating and beautiful. Visit Eterea Studios for Cristobal's online portfolio

Image courtesy of National Geographic