Three Holidays

We've got three holidays rolled into one here, starting with Valentine's Day, then Pancake Day, and finally Chinese New Year. So lets get started.

Dixon and I celebrated our Valentine's Day slightly early with a holiday I like myself, Friday the 13th. So he gave me his gift that night and we went out to dinner to our favourite spot, David Bann's. I have posted about them so many times because since the first time we went it has always been amazing. I also now realise that I basically wear the same thing each time, stripes, strips and more stripes. But hey don't mess with a good thing! The food again was fantastic, its always great to look at a menu and be able to order anything I fancy off of it.

Dixon got me a beautiful necklace from the fabulous, Bloody Mary Metal, I have been ogling their stuff for sometime, maybe he noticed. I don't usually wear jewelry, but it is so nice! 

I was off my photo game for Chinese New Year, but I snapped a couple, Hayley went to such an effort to make the room look amazing and all the food was great as well. It was really fun celebrating something that we haven't done before. Not to mention we lit lanterns, which I have always wanted to do since I first spotted them in the sky. So I am really happy Hayley put it all together to make it happen.

It was a wonderful evening together.

And last but not least, Pancake Day. It falls between our previous holidays on the 17th this year, and since that day I have been obsessed with making pancakes. I think in the last week I have had pancakes for 5 meals, that might be a bit weird, but maybe I was going through pancake withdrawals. 

Traditionally known as Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day started as a way to use up your fats you have in your cupboard for the start of Lent. Now in the UK at least, everyone just goes daft for pancakes. Pretty well everyone I know ate pancakes that day for one of their meals. So its a bit of fun and delicious!

100 Days Happy 50-56

So I had a weeks worth of holidays to use up and so use them up I did, so this weeks worth of happy has been especially good because its also been very relaxing. I didn't have too many plans but still got out and did stuff too. So its been a good week. And we are past the half way mark for 100 Days Happy, so that is also pretty cool. I can't help but wonder if it is helping me relax and feel happier and notice happy things, this week it would have been hard not to.

1. Started using my Valentines Threads for my cross stitch

2. Bath bombs!

3. The ever growing camera collection, they got some use this week.

4. First photos back from the Pentax

5. Roslin Chapel

6. Botanics greenhouses

7. Dr Sketchy's is back!

100 Days Happy 36-42

So, here we are again, and I've got my photos for another week. I would say nothing so exciting as getting word that my permanent residency has come through happened this week, but I did receive my actual physical card. So that is exciting as well as our passports, the two years of bank statements from Daniel and I and other miscellaneous papers needed for my application! So yay that is exciting, it isn't one of my photos though, not sure it would be a good idea to take a photo of my new visa and put it all out there, but it did indeed happen and so Saturday's happy, is probably a close second.

Anyway without further ado.

 

 

1. Light Exhibit in St Andrews Square

2. Parcels from Canada

3. Cross Stitch progress

4. Big Hair, good hair day

5. Valentines Day, I rememebered!

6. New Tunes, hanging out with pals

7. Mammoth Bus!

All Things Van Gogh

I recently started cross stitching again, and I thought I was doing pretty well so I wanted to challenge myself with something bigger and what better than to fuel my ever growing  love of Van Gogh than to do a cross stitch of one of his paintings. Now when I looked into it, I didn't think it would be as complex, but I am having a brilliant time working it all out and here's the progress over the past week and a wee bit.

You can totally start to see it come together, bu that is just on panel out of four, my plan is to do it a panel at a time, and move forward that way so I don't get too ahead of myself!

Also while we are on the Vincent Van Gogh topic, I stumbled upon a kickstarter for an entirely handpainted animated movie of the story of Vincient Van Gogh as told through his paintings, unfortunately the kickstarter wasn't funded but the good news is they are going to relaunch it! Its well worth checking out what they are doing!

You can find their Facebook here and hopefully a link will pop up for the kickstarter too!

And finally, I got a few surprises in the mail, one from Amber, she had been to Harry Potter; The Exhibition, in Edmonton and passed on some goodies to me! And a Parcel from my mom full of sweets and a Tim Hortons mug, now I will just need to get my hands on some Time Hortons Coffee!

Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre

Hayley and I were lucky enough to go to the Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre in Glasgow this week, I say lucky because it seemed like the world was dead against us going. Firstly they only show the full show twice a week and it was on the days that I was working, but I was able to get it off fairly easily, so conquering that obstacle was easily done. Next, unfortunately, Hayley wasn't well, but still really wanted to go so we pushed the time we were going to meet ahead, and then ahead again so we would make the show one time, but not really do anything else. When we finally met at the bus stop, the bus, 900 to Glasgow was just leaving the stop as we were walking up, but we had a bit of spare time so we weren't to worried, only to see the next 900 fly by us without its lights on the front and just flicking on at the back. So now it was cutting it tight, but if the next bus was on time we would make it just in the nick of time. It wasn't. We made it to Glasgow with about 10 minutes to spare and I thought the building was a bit further than it was, and we walked right by. We did however find the Trongate 103, at exactly seven, we know, because the bells were chiming. But when we got to the door the sign said "Please come back at another time, a show is in progress", if Hayley hadn't spotted the bell and had the balls to ring it, I probably would have walked away, but she did and she rang it! And we were let in. And let me tell you it was all worth it. I haven't ever seen anything like it and was continually surprised and delighted. 

I took a few photos, but they do not compare with the professional ones you can find on their Flickr. And the video below is taken from their website here and here, where there are loads more and you can watch them there too.

 

And so far I think it was one of the best exhibits I have ever been to. And hopefully will get to go to again. On our way there we saw two amazing bits of graffiti, unfortunately my photo of one didn't come out very well but this one was brilliant. So hopefully a few more adventures in Glasgow. 

One last wee exhibition I popped into on my lunch, as I am apt to do lately, was the Wha's Like Us at the National Library, which has a books and poetry by Scotland's finest and for one week only they were showing a rare first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone with annotations from J K Rowling, so of course I had to pop over. Not to mention a book sculpture by the mysterious benefactor that I haven't seen before. They are always cool to find.

Burns Night

It was Burns Night on Saturday the 25th and I really wanted to get into the spirit of the thing A. because Dixon and I usually go round to Gail and Gordon's often but haven't lately, so it was really nice to have them and Hayley round to ours, and B. I really like Veggie Haggis. So after seeing Haggis and Burns Night things everywhere I convinced Dixon we should have the meal at ours. I made Veggie Haggis Stuffed Peppers and and Honey Glazed Sweet Potatoes and Parsnips, for Gail, Gordon, Hayley and I, and Dixon had real Haggis Pizza, which Gail and Gordon had a sampling of too! And for dessert, Cranachan! A traditional Scottish dessert made from double cream, toasted oats, raspberries, honey and whiskey. It was awesome!

Gail also read a part of one of Dixon's Nana's favorite poems by Robert Burns, To a Mouse,

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,

O, what a panic's in thy breastie!

Thou ne na start awa sae hasty not,

Wi' bickering brattle!

I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,

Wi' murdering pattle!

And today Hayley and I are going to the Sharmanka exhibit, it is going to be brilliant. So Hopefully some really cool photos of that later!