Crochet

Having a time deficit these days for crafting, what with all the studying and life in general.
However, another New Year promise to myself is to get back into my crochet and I'm going to start carrying a ball of wool and hook about with me again as in reality there's always small windows to do some hooky.
I'm starting a blanket, granny squares to begin with and I have a nice stash of self coloured ones,

knocked up in the last few days. It takes me around 15 minutes to produce a 5 inch square and I'm aiming for 6 a day.

Hot Cloth Cleansing

New Year New Skin, new everything.
Seems that the beginning of a new year always brings that sense of having to start afresh and what better way that a new cleansing system.
I have been meaning to stop using wipes for a long time and whilst they are handy if going away I know that all they really do is move the make up and grime around your face and can never really get really clean.
From now on I am using hot cloths whether muslin or simple face cloths the principle is the same.

Recently, I decided to try and go organic as possible. Remembering that in my home town of Wick we have the producers of the wonderful Organic Surge.
I have been ordering and using their products for a while now especially the heavenly  Sugared Almond Shower Gel an aromatic, silky delight.
I've bought quite a few of their bundles and thought it was time I tried out a couple of the cleansers, the ones I use are Gentle Cleansing Lotion Skin Perfecting Face Polish and Daily Care Face Wash I honestly can't choose the best between them as they are all so indulgent and leave me feeling so clean and fresh.
I top this off with one of three moisturisers that I use Blissful Daily Moisturiser Super Intensive Daily Moisturiser and Overnight Sensation Night Cream. I honest can not recommend these products enough and they are all extremely reasonably priced for being organic.

Now I know I'm meaning to be organic but curiosity got the better of me and whilst in Superdrug on a hair roller mission I noticed their Naturally Radiant range was on special and at £2.39 I took a punt on the Hot Cloth Cleanser having read much good things about it.
It comes in a box with a muslin cloth. Now years ago I use to use the predecessor of this range in particular the Radiance Balm and remembered how it used to brighten up my skin and had a gorgeous fresh scent, so this also made it's way into my basket Naturally Radiant Radiance Balm at £2.89. The price more than anything did it for me as if I didn't like it then it wasn't too much of a waste.
So I trialled it last night, my preferred method is to use a fair dollop and give it a good massage before wiping off with really hot water.
Now on cleaning performance I would rate it well, however I couldn't helped being annoyed about the new fragrance which I can only liken to men's shaving foam smell, how disappointing, I also notice that once my face was completely dry it felt tighter and a bit drier than my usual Organic Surges. I then put the balm on and whilst it does give a nice shine it goes nowhere near what I need from a balm. I will still use it all up for the sake of waste and I was impressed with the cloth but won't be buying it in future.
I still haven't tried the other two main players Liz Earle or No7 so they will have to wait until I have used up all my other cleansers first.

China - not the country!

If like me your an avid collector of old china then I need your help. I have jam packed a cupboard full of the stuff, tea sets, dishes, bowls, jugs and platters. What to do with it all if you don't have a dresser to display? Answers on a postcard please?

Vintage Fabric Stash

I'm in love with fabric of all kinds and here is some of my latest finds. I was lucky to hear about a house clearance where free fabric was offered and I snapped up the whole lot, about 40 cardboard boxes full. As you can see some has the original price labels in old decimal.
What a rare find in this day and age, secreted away in my shed, sorted through, washed and pressed ready for transformation.

Iceland April 2013

Iceland – April 2013

Day 1 – Flew into Keflavik airport from Edinburgh, 2 hour flight. Met by guy from Blue Car Rental, now I will say I found it strange we didn’t get a confirmation email from them but apparently it’s normal not to reply to mail in Iceland. However no probs, got the car and away we went on the road to Reykjavik, after not too many map mishaps we worked out there was a car park not far from our hotel http://www.centerhotels.com/our-hotels/hotel-thingholt nice modern, dark interior, boutique hotel with a massive front door, plenty of amenities and free Wi-Fi throughout and at £60 a night absolute bargain, breakfast was great too!. Dropped the bags and round the corner for the first of many delicious food experiences at http://www.caruso.is/en/   where we had salmon and tuna starters and lamb and meat cannelloni.

Day 2 – Off to Geysir and Gullifoss, we left about 9.30 am and headed towards Pingvallir national park, where you can stop off to look at the rift between the tectonic plates, great viewing spots for taking photos. Back on the road to Geysir next, stopped and had coffee at the visitors centre before a short walk over the road to see the spectacle, very impressive when they blow and lots of excited people taking footage, well worth a look. Next stop Gullifoss where you can park and walk down to the falls, again a photographers dream. We came back by the Selfoss road and into the city where by this time we were pretty much clued up on the roads and got back to the hotel no bother about 4pm. Now I have to say here that for some parts of the journey it may be a bit bleak and monotonous for the driver, however as a passenger I could soak up the ponies and cute little houses (Icelandic houses rock, they are so pretty, like on the programme Grand Designs). So feet firmly on the ground time to check out Reykjavik and its Happy Hour, there are some really nice visual arts just of the main street where the kids have a skate park, full of artistic graffiti and in the evening sunshine it was all very Nordic feeling. The drink is 2 for 1 during happy hour and we got tanked up at a few different places https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lebowskibar/156528837802169 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dillon/24784174383

Then onto http://fruberglaug.is/ where the food was’ totes amaze’, we opted for a sharing platter starter of fish stew, whale, lobster and various other muse bouche sized bites, (a word on whale,, normally I don’t go for that sort of thing and I only had a bite size chunk but it could be described as beef steak), this was followed by lovely steak and fish. I love my food and have to say everything we ate on our trip was top quality and really tasty, couldn’t fault anything food related, some may say it’s pricey but I’d say it was same as fine dining back here in Scotland and you really do get what you pay for.

Anyway we strolled off down the street for a few swifter’s and a bit of drunken souvenir shopping and then to bed, a great day to remember.

Day 3 – Leisurely rising and fuelling up on the breakfast buffet we decided we wouldn’t go too far today but if we could get to Glymur falls and back just after lunch time then that would be enough. However as we climber over Hvalfjordur the weather closed in and started to snow and no amount of searching revealed the road to turn up to the falls, there was no sign post for Glymur but we did see a sign with Fossa which was probably it but we decided not to chance it and turned round back to the city. Parked up and in the mood for some culture we went to see the Viking long house http://www.minjasafnreykjavikur.is/english/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-4206/

Interesting to find out about the DNA of Icelandic people and to see that there are things like place names in common with our home Caithness.

From there we went up the Laugavegi to the very top to http://hallgrimskirkja.is/ where for a small fee you can take the lift to the top for great views over the city.

Next stop back to hotel for another happy hour before heading out to http://www.buddhacafe.is/hexiaweb/restaurant/page.do;jsessionid=7XT2bnmQ6QXf+kq9xYHaaUCn.root?articles=buddhacafe

Here we opted for the 5 course for 2 and although it was probably the best part of a hundred quid it was well worth it, every single course was gorgeous, seems to be a Vietnamese/Icelandic food fusion and not knowing what was coming next was all part of the experience.

Day 4 – our last day, as our flight was at 8pm we decided to explore the Reykjanes peninsula where the airport is located. Heading off toward Reykjanesbaer we turned off for Sandgerdi in hope of finding the nature museum but no luck, we carried on to see the lighthouses at Garoskagi  before making our way to Keflavik where we spent a good couple of hours at the Duushus cultural  http://visitreykjanes.is/Searchresults/TravelService/duus-hus--cultural-centre and another delicious lunch of lamb soup, muscles and chips and baked cod and a look at the glass blowing studio(had to buy tea light holders with volcanic ash in the glass!) really nice guy who chatted away about Iceland and life in general. The girl who served us lunch recommended we head south about 20km to Gunnuhver to the geothermal area, passing on the way the bridge between Europe and America where the plates are drifting apart 2cm a year. Very smelly and smokey but none the less it was a sight worth seeing as it’s so unusual. And so to home.....