Never forget

My Aunty Elaine, her best friend June, my cousin Emma (all from Leeds) my Gran and me, went to see Take That During the week (mentioned my surprise ticket in the previous post) The heavens opened, and I had the best time ever dancing in the rain with a cold beer to these awesome men ♥ Calling my best friend and singing down the phone to her when A Million Love Songs came on :) Their older songs really got me going. What a handsome bunch of fellas by the way! It's the closest I will be getting to any sort of festival this year, and the pictures above were the best I could do with the way the weather was.  A couple of my work friends from London worked on the Robot, so it was amazing to see it in all it's glory.

The night was going pretty well until I got full on pushed by a middle aged Neddy woman who wouldn't let my 70 year old gran back into where we were standing (and decided to shove me when I told her politely we'd been in that spot for hours, and she'd just nipped to the loo, could she let her back through please) But apart from that... it was good times all round!

A proper wee 'diary' update to follow soon. Had my hands pretty full the past few days. Gave the guinea pigs a bath tonight (also dropped my blackberry in the bath in the process but it survived fine - shocked!) to try and help them smell the same, and hopefully stop them from nipping at each other so often. It was seriously the funniest thing ever. Especially when it came to giving them a blow dry! Haha I am so mean, I think they loved it really though.

Ayden x

I fell in love at the seaside

Last weekend I was whisked away to the cute seaside town of North Berwick as a birthday treat from David. The weather was a little gloomy - but that didn't spoil our fun. We checked into our gorgeous boutique hotel - 12 Quality Street, went for a walk through the town and along the beach, had fishcakes from the Lobster Shack, and a yummy dinner and lots of wine at The Grange. Every meal I ate that weekend consisted of fish (but hey, that's a given - its a seaside town and all of the above boasted fantastic local produce)

Sitting at the harbor and breathing in the fresh sea air made me wish I lived closer to the coast. I just love the beach, and watching the waves, and that smell in the atmosphere that makes you feel like you've never breathed 'clean' air before (city dwellers, ya get me?) Everything just felt so calm. Being the numpty that I am, I always forget to pack one thing in my overnight bag, every time without fail. This time I forgot to pack an extra pair of shoes! What an idiot. So you can see a few pictures above I wore my vans out for dinner :) But I couldn't have cared less, it was a blissful weekend and just what I've needed amongst the madness lately. That boy is my best friend, and spending some quality time with him and laughing so much makes me more happy than I have ever been in my whole life. But anyways, enough of my mush. We swung by Ikea edinburgh on the way home for a wander and for me to buy a few props for work - and lets just say the meatballs, apple pie and lingonberry juice were the perfect end to my weekend! What can I say, it's the simple things in life ;)

One last thing, I did a really fun guest post for the awesome Chloe while she is away on holiday. My attempt at a rather fierce Kat Von D makeup look :) You can see it here (and have a wee look at the rest of her blog too, she is such a great girl) Happy weekend folks ♥

Ayden x

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...

Hello lovelies. Just a quick one today (well, loads of pictures, but I'll try to keep the text to a minimum...) as I was having a bit of a pj day, chilling with the piggies and watching daytime tv when my aunty called to tell me she had got me a ticket for Take That tonight! My Aunty, her best friend, and my cousin Emma came up from Leeds yesterday and were taking my gran along with them to the gig tonight. They got me a ticket on ebay yesterday and literally told me 5 minutes ago so time to get myself into gear :) I am so excited, The Circus Tour was breathtaking and I know this one is going to be just as good. A couple of people I know in London worked on the set, it's going to be EPIC! :)

Anyways, this leads on to a rather self indulgent wee post showing you some of the goodies I got for my birthday. Biggest love ever to the wonderful people in my life, who really do know me better than I know myself ♥ you know who you are.

I am so bad for clearing pressies away after Christmas or a Birthday. I am a bit of a magpie in that sense - I just want to keep it all out infront of me and look at it. Haha.

Some baking/kitchen-y related goodies.

Pretty jewels I received. Thomas Sabo, Tatty Devine, Papayrus, and Me & Zena.

A couple of beauty bits and bobs. The manicure set is just too pretty, I don't want to use it! And I have been dreaming about the Dermalogica Clean Start range since I got my hands on a moisturiser from the collection. I have no skincare routine whatsoever, so hopefully this will whip me into shape and give my skin a bit more TLC.

A beautiful Rik Lee print from Leah - cannot wait to get this baby framed :)

I also got some vouchers, so I bought my first pair of Toms with an Office voucher from my grandparents. Apparently there's a bit of a love/hate situation going on with people and Toms? Well, I love them, they are insanely comfy (road tested them on monday after a 14 hour day working and filming) and for every pair we buy, a pair gets given to a child in need. Now what's not awesome about that?

New laptop sleeve and bag with my Cath Kidston voucher from my Aunty (said Aunty that got me the Take That ticket, SHE RULES!)

Cute dungarees, tshirt and a cross ring (giving into the fads here... but David was a typical boy and was all 'eww are you religious or something?!') with my Urban Outfitters voucher from Jenn :)

Scrub and body lotion from Origins with my Frasers voucher from my mumma's best friend Adele. I have been lusting after some of the ginger scented products after buying them for my step mum and David's mum. Smells too good - I wish I had smellyvision through the blog to show you! Really impressed with the samples I was given as well. All very 'natural' feeling, think I will certainly be paying Origins another visit.

Lovely pressies aside I am also a bit of a card fiend. I love a good card, I love the thought behind someone picking a card for you, and taking the time to write something in it. I'm just a big mush, okay?

The cards I received this year made me laugh, cry, and get that warm fuzzy feeling inside. My family and friends were all so generous and I could not be more grateful for how special they made me feel on my birthday ♥ (and every day, jeez, I need to stop before I well up here)

Things have been pretty busy lately, with working a few jobs at once, looking after the piggies again, and David being away with his work for a few days (miss him terribly, and have also discovered I cannot cook for the life of me without him!) I had a wonderful lunch with David's mum and sister just before my birthday,  an awesome time with Gem yesterday (that girl seriously is my long lost twin) and a romantic little trip away to North Berwick with David at the weekend ♥ So lots of pictures and updates to share with you all over the next coming weeks, and hopefully a bit more time to sit down, chill out and post about it all :) Anyone going to Take That in Glasgow tonight? Maybe - amongst the 50,000 people - I'll see you there!

Ayden x

Something good can work

Hello again, remember me? It's almost been a week since my last update, and all I can blame is juggling three contracts at the one time and having the guinea pigs back home :) Last weekend was my birthday, thank you so much to everyone who left me lovely birthday messages here and on twitter ♥ And the awesome cards I received in the post from Gem, Ruth and Ella. Have quite a few pictures to follow here, a little summary of my birthday weekend:

Awoken by David with breakfast in bed. French toast, bacon and maple syrup. So good!

Went over to my mums in the afternoon to see her, Aaron, Tyler, and my gran and papa. She made us the most awesome lunch as usual (man I miss her cooking SO much) and then she brought in this peculiar looking parcel...

After lunch, presents and a good old catch up, I thought it was time for cake. But why would she bring cake in a box?

Wahhh! Lots of little cakes :)

After we had scoffed a few, I tried to rearrange them neatly to take a picture (obviouslyyy) My Mumma knows me too well, and rather than getting me a full birthday cake, she got this box of treats from her new favourite shop - a gorgeous french patisserie in the west end of Glagsow. It contained strawberry macaroons, strawberry tarts, lemon meringues, and profiteroles with a toffee topping. They were all so dinky and tasted amazing. Thanks mum :)

Then it was time for David to head back to his parents and me to head home and set up for my sleepover. Cocktails and home baking ahoy!

Lots of yummy food for the girls.

Costco cupcakes with a sprinkle of edible glitter.

Beverages for the evening.

Bits and bobs for the drinks.

Sushi platter ♥

Oreo birthday brownies from Luisa (her cooking/baking rocks my world!)

1 half of team sleepover.

Jenn pretty much nailed the birthday cake - a giant cupcake :)

We had such a fun night, drinking, laughing, eating, gossiping, and watching silly videos on youtube. And a rather embarrassing incident on behalf of yours truly which left everyone in stitches when we were sat round opening my cards and presents. I am aware though, I have more pictures of food up there, than what I do of me and my friends! :( It was an absolute hoot, made me wonder why exactly we stop having nights like this when we turn 17/18? What makes us too grown up to have big 'girls nights in' like this, just like we did when we were still in high school. It was a strange sight waking up and seeing a sea of covers and heads dotted about my living room. But once one person woke up (around 10am) everyone else followed and I felt like a right mother hen putting the kettle on for more than 2 people (that's all I'm used to!)

A few ladies had to head home early, but then a small group of us went to Wetherspoons just around the corner for a proposed breakfast (which ended up being lunch by the time we'd rounded up the troops and walked over) It was a total joy getting all my nearest and dearest round to the house for the evening, and for most of them it was the first time they'd been over seeing I live a little bit further out the way now. So I really appreciate them all making the journey, and the awesome gifts they gave me too! :) I was totally overwhelmed at how well my friends know me. I know that might sound silly, but every gift and every card I was given just screamed 'Ayden' (well not quite literally, or I would have had the fright of my life)

I was thinking of doing another post showing some of the pressies I received and things I've bought with my gift cards etc over the past week. Or is that a really uncool thing to do? I'll leave it up to you lot. But it's the biggest 'haul' I've had in a while :)

Tomorrow night David is taking me away to a lovely little boutique hotel in North Berwick. This weekend away by the coast was my birthday present from him. So I look forward to totally unwinding, and being treated to a lovely meal on Saturday night. I hope it will be sooner rather than later when it comes to my next update. I'm juggling a couple of jobs at the moment and also getting to meet Gem on tuesday which will be lovely :) I'm going to go and get my overnight bag ready for tomorrow, but hope you all have a lovely weekend whatever you're upto. Stay classy San Diego!

Ayden x