Goodbye, virtual world.

Hello.

This post is to say goodbye... I'm jumping ship, aborting mission, and moving my blog to WordPress.

I started a WordPress blog to log my eternal struggle to get fit... and I love it.

I dont want to merge my two blogs as the fitness one is quite personal to me and HAS A POINT. I really do like having one for my ramblings.... So, I made the decision to keep it going, but to host them both under the one roof.

If you would like to continue following me, the new address is:

www.randomencountersoftheinquisitivemind.wordpress.com

I have used a fancy export/import tool so the posts you see will be familiar, but the layout is cleaner.. and it's more organised.

Thank you for your support and encouragement on here - I hope to see you in the new place!

Love and Light,

LT xx

Heavy gaybo... me?

I love my friends. I love Facebook too.

I know that a lot of people don't like it, but when you combine your actual friends with Facebook - the result is not only a great portal for keeping in touch with friends who live further field... but also a great platform for laughs, banter, giggles and shenanigans. Whats not to love?

Here is an example of a conversation with my mate... truth be told I'm only posting it as he has said nice things about me. If I'm ever feeling dark and depressed I'll look on here, to make me smile. This one isn't so much funny banter... as proper bo gayness!

he he.

By  gayness, I don't mean homosexual. And just for the record I have no problem whatsoever with that either. I have loads of 'Actual Gay' friends.

Thats not my point though. Back to business.

I cant find the right words to describe how I use the word Gay these days... its a mixture of geeky, dorky, happy, outwardly affectionate, sometimes stupid....

In the weird and wonderful world that is my Brain, being called any variation of Gay isn't an insult.

In fact, I'd go as far as say its a COMPLIMENT.

You can definitely tell this when you see it in context, or actually hear it being used. When someone says or does something cute and stupid, I immediately pipe up with a large 'gayyyyy' directed at them.

But one thing for sure is: I would always have a smile on my face!

Leaving something behind....

I have just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. It was a great read. Unfortunately I recently watched the 'Book of Eli' and they are both similar in that they have a character memorising the contents of a book to save humanity. I wish I hadn't watched the film until I finished this book so I didn't make this comparison mid story.

I'm digressing.

Near the end of the book I read a paragraph that touched me:

Everyone must leave something in the room or left behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.

I like this. Its a message about living. About taking your time on Earth and doing something with it, no matter how small or trivial you may think it is. Do it. Create. Be. Live, Love, Explore.

I Google searched for the quote above as I don't have the book with me at the moment. The searching uncovered a great website: wikiquote. I can't believe I have never stumbled across this before! When I was looking down the page to get to my quote I glanced over other quotes from the same book, and some of them as stand alone statements are just as good as when in context, if not better!

Have a look:

·       The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.

·       This is happening to me.
 

·       Let you alone! That's all very well, but how can I leave myself alone? We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real.

·       "Where do we begin?" He opened the book halfway and peered at it. "We begin by beginning, I guess."

I whole heartily take my hat off to Ray Bradbury, I think he created a wonderful story that illustrates our society today and where we could be headed if we don't take time to think for ourselves, and  if we let the modern world engulf us.

The saddest thing is  - I read the book on my Kindle.

Do any of the quotes above mean anything to you?

I'd love to hear your thoughts, it might spur me into actually articulating myself in a more coherent manner.

LT x

Lets dance

Schmercy was djing at a local club on Saturday, so a few of us went down for a wee shin dig and stomped it out until the wee hours in the morning.

One of my pals walked into my dance space, and I made a fist and jokingly chased him out of my dance space. He then said,' Lets not fight, lets dance'.

Awesome!

I wish the whole word had the same idea - how wonderful would that be?



My Mum's wedding...

Today....

I'm sharing a few photos of my Mum's wedding reception party with you. Its a sad occasion when one of your parents remarries, as your heart goes out to the other one (my Dad), but on the other hand, its been 18 odd years and its nice to see my mum with a nice guy, who makes her happy.

This is my mum and Mick

My oldest sister Sage, and her daughter Zoe

My two oldest nephews - David and Sean. Handsome buggers aren't they?

Sean dancing with Laura, his child hood sweetheart

My sister Debbie, her man Roy and her youngest daughter Kayleigh (unfortunately Jade couldn't be there as she's holidaying in Spain with her other gran - lucky girl!)

Wee Kayleigh bum enjoying a dance with Schmercypants

Laura and her soon to be husband Mark enjoying a wee dance

The Wilson, the only picture of me on my camera, and Schmerc. I'm glad its not my tongue thats sticking out for a change!

All in all it was a good wee night. The dance floor was chokka all night, mostly taken up by all of the people you just met in the photo's. Man! I love my family! I think the wee people in my family are absolutely gorgeous.

This makes me worry that I'll get the wee straw; when I have bairns they'll be ugly! eeek. I hope not!

Anyhoo, happy Monday Mo Fo's.

LT

xx

More pictures!

Howdy doody folks...

Thought I'd stop by and show you a couple more photos from the 'Photo a Day' Thing.

One (finger being held up)

Messy (my desk at work)

Somewhere I sit

The steps are at the porch entrance to my work. I used to sit here a lot when I smoked, although now that I am a non smoker I only tend to sit here when its sunny, with my trouser legs rolled up having a 'smoke break'.

I think non smokers should still take breaks. That saying, if I was to take a break as often as the smokers in my work I'd get NO work done. Seriously, they go out for a cigarette at ten past nine. We start at 9!!! And one even goes for a cigarette 5 minutes before his one lunch break. Crazy! I guess it all comes down to bad management, along with the really bad attempt to increase productivity through blocking face book. Seriously? How about a bit of feedback, direction, interest, interaction, honesty, morale.... I'm fairly confident these things will increase productivity more than blocking a website!

Strange, when I started this post I had no intention of ranting, but there you go! I must have needed to vent my frustrations. Thank you. And apologies!

Love n light,

LT x

Photo a Day Day 3... Coin, and Wall-E lookalikies :)

Here is my incredibly pap picture for COIN:

Its 4 £1 coins, all with a different 'Tails' picture on them.  Wow weee. Did I do a good job of feigning interest there?

I'm more excited about this second picture that was inspired by the lovely Miss Loops who pointed out that my speakers looked a wee bit like the gorgeous wee robot Wall-e. We rearranged them slightly, what do you think?

Waaaawwww! Too cute! Have you watched wall-e? I watched it on New Years day and broke my heart! The film is ultimately a sci -fi story about the fate of mankind, and the 'love' story involves two gorgeous wee characters. Wall-e's resilience and persistence pangs the fook right out of my heart strings! I'm not sure if I love it so much much because I watched it on New Years day and i was feeling a tad 'delicate'.

Here is the link: http://www.disney.co.uk/wall-e/  Check it out!

Have a nice weekend folks :)





LT x

Photo a Day - 1st August - Outside

Mooorninnng!!

A lovely woman started an online trend for photography, setting a daily theme and asking all participants to interpret this theme in any way they like with a camera, and post the picture.

At this precise moment in time I cant find the link to the original concept - d'oh!

Anyhoo, here is my picture from yesterday.

Here is OUTSIDE.

This is Dominoe, my 'once an Outdoor but now a Town House' cat sniffing the air through my open bedroom window longing to go outside. It was taken on my phone. I'm looking forward to taking part in a Photo a Day, but alas I'm not very arty, nor do I have a good camera... so my photos wont be that great. I'm not really that fussed about my camera, or how good my photos actually are - I like the fact that every day I have something to think about, interpret, capture and post.

I got another picture of Dominoe on the window sill.... she turned round and had that wee gammy look on her face that I love so much. Want to see?

When Schmercy and I were brushing our teeth before bed we took great delight in watching wee Luna get all excited for the moths outside banging their heads off the window trying to get in to the light. I took a couple of photos of that (on my phone again) and this one is my favourite.

I love the reflection of her wee face, and i love that you can see Shmercy brushing his teeth. I think the wee dot to the left of his head is a moth. he he he! Tooo Tute!

LT x

A Quick Catch Up

Good afternoon my lovely blog friends! (Are you there? Or am I writing to myself?)

I thought I'd sign in with a catch up on my life as is...

I originally said this would be a blog about me, my eternal struggle to get fit and my attempts at getting creative.

Well, I am sad to say I never did keep up with the '30 Day Shred' Programme as I promised myself in another post. Here's my excuse -  I don't have a DVD player to continue the programme after finishing the first ten days doing Level 1 that you can find on youtube YES, I do have a lap top, but the one that plays DVDs is old and has a massive line running through it and its crap. I am however pleased to say that I have lost 1/2 a stone. I guess this is through gym go-ing, for the past 3 weeks I have taken part in classes to the value of 150 minutes a week or more... and tried to focus on cardio ones. I still have a long way to go though as I'm a whopping 12 stone.. which is not really where I want to be.

I've said it before and I'll say it again... PROGRESS!! Progress is progress, and every little step gets you where you want to be.

In terms of creativity... I haven't been doing much at all. I haven't even been making granny squares when watching TV. Infact I  haven't really been watching TV either.. I need to finish a project that I started as a gift for one of my friends new born baby, and I need to work with MW to put it all together. MW is currently holidaying in Canada... and that's my excuse for that one!

My plan tonight is to go to the gym after work for a body attack/combat combination class... then head home and tidy up my bedroom and my Doing Stuff room. I'm certain that I will be inspired to create when my surroundings are free from clutter. Truth be told, I enjoy the act of tidying up, I feel like it not only freshens my home but also my perspective on life.

At the moment my perspective on life is goooooood. I am happy to report that I am happy.

I'll leave you with a link to a photo gallery of the top 40 powerful and moving photos. I got goose pimples from number 5 and had a wee tear in my een. They ARE powerful photos, the saddest thing about the whole collection is that some of the most moving are a result of war. War sucks. The photos however capture human nature well, and I see a lot of love and hope in them. I hope you do too.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/most-powerful-photographs-ever-taken

Peace n love,

LT x

Sunny days and Campervanning

Hello everybody!

It is with a light, happy heart that I write this post today. Why so happy? I recharged and invigorated my soul with a good old healthy dose of the outdoors. Lets face it - the summer so far in Scotland has been bleak, dreicht and dreary. MP and I decided to go a wee trip in his dads camper van for the weekend, fully anticipating a couple of days of being couped up inside it playing cards and scrabble. I brought my crochet bag along for the ride, and Schmercy brought his college stuff for studying.

Imagine my delight as we drove up past Inverary and the most amazing thing happened - the sun came out! Not just a wee poke from behind a cloud, but properly, up in the sky, shining bright OUT! Awesome!

We travelled through the beautiful countryside of Argyll, where I noticed that most of the village names also start with an 'A', and made our way down to Machrahanish Bay. We were feeling so good and happy, we even picked up 2 hitch hikers in Lochgilphead and took them to Campbeltown. The waves weren't that big in Machrahanish, but it was till good fun out on the boogie boards.

MP was pretty good at it. I wasn't so good. I didn't really ride any waves. I jumped on the boogie board as a wave crest landed, propelling me forward an average distance of around a metre, then bobbed about while more waves rolled over me. 

After we dried off and had some dinner we visited another beach and spent the evening with our eyes to the sand admiring all of the stones. The sun was still shining but it was quite windy - definitely blew away any cobwebs that might have been lurking!



The sky was awesome. The night was awesome. Our first night sleep in the camper van was awesome. MP probably thought that beating me loads of times at 'Switch' was awesome ;)

The next day we went to a small beach in Southend, the rock at the end of the Bay in Dunaverty Rock and signifies the end of the Kintyre way.

I love the photo of the wetsuits! We changed as soon as we parked up in Southend and ran into the sea... holy moly!! It was fr-fr-freezing! So much more colder than Machrahanish, even the wetsuits couldn't keep us warm enough for a swim. So, we came out and dried off and walked along the beach to Dunaverty Rock.

This is the view from the 'Rock'. (Its really a grassy mound). Our camper van is 6 caravans in from the left hand side. You cant see it though, I wonder if you tried?

What a tip top weekend of mucho brawness. No rain, except for a few drops on the journey back. Our journey back wasn't home to Paisley, we were going to a wedding at Lochgoilhead on Monday afternoon, so we had a separate adventure that morning as we left the campsite late, dilly-dallied about for breakfast in Campbeltown, and then made a mad dash to get to where we going with no sat nav and time against us!

We made it! Yaldi! And guess what? The sun was shining for the wedding too.

Photos of that adventure to follow....

Ciao for now,

LT xx

Stripper Puppets and White Trash

Yowsers!

Yet again I have left it far too long between ramblings. And what a weird time too, so much has been happening. Its cause and effect I guess, as the reason I havent posted in a while is simply that I have been too busy. And then lazy the rest of the time. Yes, thats right, lazy. Me. Who'd have thunk!? (If you dont know me I feel that I should explain I know  thats not a word, I just like it)

A few weeks ago I went a jaunt to the Isle of Arran for my friend Kellys Hen do/Batchelorette party. This was an awesome trip, although I could only stay for the Friday night as I had plans to meet my brother on the Saturday and help him celebrate his birthday. I wish both events were on different weekends as I would have loved to have stayed with the ladies in Arran.

Kelly is American, and it was the first time I met her sister, Ashleigh, and two of her friends, Becky and Charlotte. As the chief hen Ashleigh worked wonders, she ensured that we all kept to a theme, that was mainly Stripper Puppets and White Trash. Stripper Puppets? Honestly, you would be surprised at the amount of props/videos available on this subject Ashleigh pulled out the bag, some a bit tenuous but all spot on good fun! Here is a picture of Michelle and I as stripper puppets:

I wasnt too sure what Trailer/White Trash was, but luckily for us Kelly had bought enough clothes for everyone. Here is a group action shot of the ladies:

I loved, loved, loved the one night I was there and can't wait for the wedding. I'm looking forward to sharing Kellys big day with her, and I'm looking forward to hanging out with her super confident sister, and lovely lawyer pals.

Did I not mention Kelly and her friends are lawyers? Well, they are. Initially I was a bit worried about it, what with me being a lowly proletariat, mingling with high flyers. I think it went well. Also, what was I thinking? I dont know why I was worried that I wouldnt be able to hold my own - regardless of our profession in life we are all humans! Pretty nice ones at that too. And I'm happy to say we are now all friends.

:)

30 day shred!

I'm going to try the highly acclaimed '30 Day Shred' programme - and see how I get on. This means that for 30 days I definitely have to do the training video for half an hour.

Sounds easy enough.....

I wont bore you with a post about it every day, but I will check in every week to let you know how I'm getting on. And confirm if I am actually still doing it.

Come on Lisa!! You CAN do it!!!!

My Happy flower decoration

Woooo! I made one!

I copied a tutorial I found on this amazing blog: http://attic24.typepad.com/ and made me my very own Happy Flower Decoration. The blog author, Lucy, lives a wonderfully colourful life full of all things woolly and pretty, and shares all of her expertise with folks like me. YaY. She also has a paypal button on her blog, where people can donate and 'buy her a coffee'. I definitely will, once I have been paid. Also, I'd  recommend making this. Small, digestible chunks of pure loveliness. Can't say fairer than that.

And here is a picture of it 'in action' . Although this photo makes my living room look DULL.

Hip hoppy happy Friday everyone :)

LT x

Introducing..... Monkey!!

Ta da!! This is Monkey. I couldn't wait to show you. Plus, there is no chance of my one year old nephew reading my blog anyway, so it's not as though I'm ruining a surprise. Unfortunately as I seem to be a full time pauper the wool isn't that great, in fact its a bit 'hairy'. Here is another photo anyhoo.

What do you think?

I'd appreciate your comments. Have a nice day folks!

LT xx

A Quick Catch Up

Hello there lovely people..

Its been a while!  No excuses, I've just not had much to write about. Or maybe I have, I just havent thought about it too much. I didnt want to leave it TOO long.

I finished Monkey!! He is a wee crocheted monkey from 'Seriously Cute Amigurimi'. I have to say though, I dont think he is actually THAT cute. As he is a gift for my nephew I can't post a photo on here until I have presented it, but that time will come soon.

On another note I'm going to a gym class tonight that is an emalgamation of yoga, pilates and tai chi. Its freaking awesome!!

I'm going to shoot off and leave you with a wee video of Dominoe attacking Luna. This was taken the day after Luna had her collar removed, after 'The CATastrophe'.

Enjoy!

The CATastrophe

Last Thursday night I was watching 'Paul' with Schmerc and Galdo, when I realised that my wee-est cat, Luna, was no longer sitting on the outside window ledge. My new gaff is 4 stories high, so I was ever so slightly worried. I leaned out of the window and rattled her brekkie box, but nope, still no Luna. This almost undoubtedly proved to me that she wasnt playing further up the roof.

I ventured out and walked round to the High Street with Galdo (the entrance to my house is at the back). I have to admit at this stage I was pretrified that I would find a 'splatted' cat. I'm not sure if Galdo was aware of how uneasy I feltand he was and he was just chatting incessantly to make me feel better, or he was just chatting. Anyhoo, I looked up a long shop door way and there she was, gorgeous wee Luna cowering next to the door.

So. She fell off the ledge and landed on the High Street and crawled to shelter in a doorway. Poor wee  cat! She is alive, thankfully, but she did acquire an 'extra hole' somehow. This is beside her other ones, but its been torn right into her muscle. I think she hit a 'To Let' sign on the way down that caught her bum. Owww, even typing that makes me shudder. POOR WEE LASS. On a plus note though, I think that the sign (or whatever it was) reduced her speed, and therefore the overall impact of the fall.

My living room window (the one she fell from) is the left top window in the goup of three. The middle window is my new 'Doing Stuff' room, an dthe right one is our bedroom. I found Luna underneath the blue sign, as that particular shop front has a long entereance, so she was about 2 metres out of the road of the High Street. Scary biscuits though!            

She has been back in for a check up, and the vet said she is doing well. Lucky she didnt harm her reproductive bits, or other delicate features. Her stitches will be removed next Monday.

I know cats are supposed to have 9 nine lives, I think that she has used up 8!

For an unlucky thing to happen, she has been very lucky. And for that luckiness I am very thankful, albeit £215 less wealthy.

Hmph.

LT x

Lunch Time Productiveness

I have been quite bad of late, I seem to have lost a lot of enthusiasm for most things. Well, technically speaking that's not true, I still have the enthusiasm, but what I lack is the motivation. This is true for all things creative, as well as all things healthy like exercising and cooking. (You should have seen Schmerc's face when it was my turn to make dinner and I presented a meal of potato rosti's, corn beef bake and beans straight from the oven - well except for the beans!)

I have come to the conclusion that the only way to get motivation back is by DOING. If I make myself do something, I get a wee buzz, and that wee buzz spurs me on to do more.

My new gaff is 2 minutes walk away from my work, so I regularly go home for lunch. That's all I do, lunch. Occasionally I clean and tidy, and then I lie on the couch sucking my thumb and playing with the cats until its time to go back to work.

Not today!

While I was lying on the couch sucking my thumb I realised that there is a whole host of stuff that I could be doing with the remaining half hour before work. I toddled off to my Doing Stuff room and got out some stuff to be doing. I completed two rows of the monkeys head (the monkey that I was supposed to have finished last Saturday as it was a present for Lewis. Oops.). The picture above is all I have so far - part of the head. I'm on the decreasing rows now, so its nearly finished. I need to make the eyes and muzzle from felt and sew them on before the hole gets too small.

I have decided that from this day forth I will use my lunch time to work on this project, and at night time with every spare minute between reading and soap watching I will work on something else.

If you ask me, that's quite a good decision. Oh. I forgot to add that I'm going to gym tonight too, so it is working out to be a very productive day indeed. '2 rows' and 'very productive' don't REALLY go hand in hand, but the productiveness really comes from the decision to be productive. That in its own right is productive :)

I hope this motivation lasts!

LT x

Sewing curves and volunteering

Happy Monday everyone!

I've not posted in a  while as I had hoped to have something great to show you - but alas, my project is hardly off the ground! I keep on uttering that I think I am more willing than I am able, and I have to say - its true!

I am trying to make a teddy for my nephews 1st birthday (6 days from now). I have all of the components drawn up and cut out, ready for assembling. I decided to create wee patches for the teddies paws and a bigger silky one for his belly. Herein lies the problem - I can't sew curves on my sewing machine! To be fair, I can barely sew a straight line at a constant speed, but hey ho! I decided to try it out on a scrap piece of material and I was almightily glad that I decided to try it out before plunging straight in. ooft! What a mess! So, until I manage to nail it, my next adventures with the sewing maching will be me practising sewing in a circle.

 See? I wasnt joking! It IS a mess :(

 

On a more positive note I found a really cool charity that is looking for volunteers to work with disadvantaged young people aged 16 - 30. The programme helps them in personal development endeavours through the use of the outdoors. It sounds mighty fine and I have been excited all day! Unfortunately the volunteer coordinator wasnt in today, so I'll have a chat with her tomorrow and send over my application form. It sounds 100% awesome. If I am able to volunteer I will probably stop volunteering with the Brownies, as this is more up my street and the experience could help towards a change in career in the future - if I was going to.

All in all, its quite exciting!

Is there anything exciting you at the moment?

LT x

A woman after my own heart...

Check out this blog: http://sweetnothingsbj.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/dirty-dancing.html

I'm posting a link to this, so be thankful:

1. You get to see a couple of really HOT photos of Patrick Swayze
2. Maybe this means that I will not ever create a post of the similar ilk.....

He he.

Happy Tuesday Mo Fo's!!

xx

My new bedroom.

Ta da! Here it is!

Its quite similar to my old one, only its way bigger and looks out onto the High Street. For those of you who remember this as the jamming room - some difference, eh? I love it. Its the best bedroom I've ever had, and its my favourite room in the flat so far.

Thats because my 'woolly' room isn't complete yet....

The room is a lot bigger than it looks in this photo. I didnt take any panoramic shots because I spent so long taking this one - all of the previous attempts had wee Luna with her leg cocked in the air licking her bits. Euurgh!

Another nice day - yay!!

LT x

Sunny days and wind turbines

The weekend is over and I'm glad to say the move went well. Lets talk about that another time though, more interesting things happened over the weekend. The sun was shining constantly!! Erm, thats it. Thats the more interesting 'things' that happened. It was awesome.

I went for a wee day trip with my homie-o, LW on Sunday. Fresh air and friendship is good for the soul.

Here is a view of the sea. I love the sea! The sun was out, and it was a lovely day, but it wasnt all clear blue skies. Some parts looked a bit muggy, while others looked BLUE.

This is LW hanging out of a gurret on the beach. Is it a gurret? Maybe its a turret? Hmm. I dont know. I will check this out once I have finished the post.

We left the beach and headed for the hills. We stopped off at a wind farm near Largs and took a wee daunder up to check them out close up.

I found it really eery approaching the wind turbines. I cant explain it, I get the same feeling when I walk near a huge electricity transmitter. I get overwhelmed by the size of the thing, and I have an odd feeling inside.

The closer we got to the turbines the more freaked out I was. I was actually scared. Proper, poop my pants kind of scared. I managed to get about 5 metres to it and laydown looking up. Phew! The wooshing noise of the blades rotating was strangley calming, yet it was still weird. LW went right up to the base of the monstrosity and hugged it. Grr, this meant that I had to get closer too.

Fear! 100% unjustified fear!

The blades are so high, they are NOT going to touch me. I know this. I KNOW THIS!! Yet, every time one came round I ducked!

We didnt stay long, we admired the view for a few minutes and promptly left - I had the same feeling that I get when I spend more than 5 minutes in a graveyard. A 'lets get the f00k outta here' kind of feeling. Weirdo!

The drive back was nice, we had some good old fine girly chat on the go and the windows were down letting the spring air brush past us.

We stopped once more for another view over Largs. Check it out:

Yeah!

The world is beautiful, and life is sweet. As a mutha funking nut.

LT x

My last night in G'hill.

Tonight is the last night in Chateaux De La LT.

Honestly? I'm pretty sad to be leaving it. I love my gaff! Out of all of the houses I've had since leaving home, this has been the only one that I have truly felt at home in. Owning it probably has something to do with it, I took a great deal of satisfaction in basquing in the glory that was my home once I had cleaned and tidied, and I loved how it looked when it was like this, unfortunately it didnt last very long. I'm quite messy!

I'll be happy  to get moved though. I love Love LOVE unpacking and finding new homes for things, and just admiring the amount of crap that I have acquired over the years. It will be interesting to place my much loved 'things' all over the place and slowly establish a new home. I hope this works ok though, I need to remember that Schmerc will be stamping his personality about the place too.....

I stayed at the new place last night, and i had an AWESOME sleep. My bed goes well in the new room, its newly decorated and so far devoid of clutter (wont last!). To  top it all off I woke up to glorious sunshine, and it has been a fantastically gorgeous day ALL day! Cue the instant happiness!

I wont have any time for weekend posting, so I guess I'll catch you next week. If anyone is in Paisley town and wants to lend a hand o'er the weekend - come on in!

If not, ciao!! For now.

LT x

p.s The picture above of one of the cats 'helping' me paint. Grrrrr!!

C P Design and spring time :)

Thanks for your comment on my last post - you know who you are! ;)

I will change the font size and make it slightly bigger to help those fighting off old age.

I mentioned my friends blog last time.. www.cpdesign22.wordpress.com Check it out! Carlo very kindly created a post about some fabulous work he completed for me - helping me with the LT brand. It's awesome! He also wrote a very nice review of my blog. I'm so touched!

So, if you need any design work Carlo comes highly recommended by me. He takes a brief and works wonders with it, all in a timely fashion! What more can you ask for? He is a lovely chap too, if that was the 'more' that you would have asked for. he he.

On another note it is all over Facebook today that its the first day of spring. Yay!!

Hooray for spring! I love watching all of my solar powered friends get more energy and come alive, almost as beautiful as the flowers and the trees. It really is a magical time, I hope you all feel energised and have a spring in your step on this most wonderful of days.

Peace n Love Homie O's.

LT x

Blog layout - help required!

I am looking for your thoughts and opinions on my blog please.

I have customised my background and layout so much that its quite 'messy', I'm sure I'm breaking all of the rules of clean design, by having lots of swirly colours in the background. Should I change it to a more clean cut, eays to read, more professional looking layout/design?

I have just boggled my brain by looking at the options that are available.. another option includes a Dynamic view template that posts all of the posts on the home page in the style of a photo album. That looks quite cool, but it might become annoying over time.

If you actually read this, please please please take the time to send over your opinion. My friend Carlo has just created this blog: http://cpdesign22.wordpress.com/ I like it! He is using a different Blog site, but it gives you an idea of what I mean by clean cut!

On another note, I havent posted anything for a while as I have been very busy decorating, my old and new house, as well as packing up all of my stuff. The official move out/in date is a week today. I am wholeheartedly looking forward to the end of next weekend. I should be moved, unpacked, settled. Hopefully my normal life will resume quite quickly. I was kindly given a sewing machine by a friend, and I havent even tried it out yet. I cant wait to try it out! I'm looking forward to getting in a tangle trying to thread it. I'm looking forward chilling out with my crochet hook and wool. I'm actually looking forward to loads of things - come on next week - hurry up!!!

On a plus note, here is a photo of me and Schmercy pants when we were in Ardfern last week :)

Me. Being all shexy and that like, no?

Schmercopolopadopalous being all strong.

Ciao for now amigo's... have a good weekend :)

LT x

Lentil , sweet potato and curly kale soup

Soup is amazing! I'm definitely guilty of throwing everything in the pot, and I don't really think much about flavours,  rarely have I made a pot of soup with two main ingredients.

Last  night was no exception, I was using up some ingredients that I had in my kitchen.

I made a small pot of soup, enough for me - twice!

Ingredients

1 Carrot
1 Leek
1 Sweet potato
Large handful of red lentils
Vegetable stock
Large bunch of curly kale (maybe 4/5 big leaves?)


Method

Chop up the carrot, leek and sweet potato and 'sweat' in the pot with some olive oil for 5 minutes.

Add the red lentils (rinsed) and enough boiling water to cover, and add a vegetable stock cube.

Cover, and let boil, bubble and simmer for 25 minutes.

Add the curly kale, roughly cut but still quite chunky, and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Then enjoy!

Adding the kale in at the end means it doesn't wilt away to nothing, and is still chewy. hmmm. Chewy!!

More photos from last night!

The photo in the last post was merely to illustrate how  light it is becoming - at 17.30 its no longer dark! You have no idea how much this pleases me. Spring is about to spring, meaning that everyone I know will be slightly happier and have more energy. The great outdoors will become green again, with lots of lovely colours ...ahhh bliss!!!

I took another coupl eof photos last night as the sky looked awesome! I'm afraid my phone doesnt capture the colours that well, and apologies for the middle photo thats a bit squint! I was leaning out Schmercs window at the time.

The picture above was taken when I was walking home...

This is the squinty one from the living room window....

And this is a slightly straighter portrait shot from the living room window.

Seriously though - my camera phone does it NO justice. It looked waayyyyy nicer than that. Factoid!!

LT x