Aloha! Happy first day of Spring! Finally, Winter is over!

Here is what I've been up to this week!

1 & 2 - On Tuesday night, the northern lights were visible over Edinburgh! I was at my mum's house for tea so we went out in the car to try and get some good pictures. Unfortunately it was very misty and cloudy but I did manage to get these 2 pictures! I was so excited!

3 - I finally managed to fit back into my tartan pinafore dress! I love this dress but I'd put too much weight on for it. Thanks to my fitness drive lately, I've managed to lose half a stone in 2 weeks and it fits again!

4 - And here is a lovely attractive picture of me after a run. This snapchat filter made me laugh so much. You can add me on snapchat at katiemccann92 for more funny faces and food pictures!

Have a fab week!

xxxx

Lifestyle | TheSundayPost - 13th February

Aloha! Sorry I've been rather quiet the last couple of weeks! Last weekend was so busy I just couldn't find the time to write up any posts! Here is what I've been up to for the last 2 weeks!

Last weekend we had an afternoon out in Edinburgh which we hadn't done for ages! It wouldn't be a trip into Edinburgh without a Pinto so we had to stop in there for lunch! I got my usual spicy shredded beef burrito and 2 margaritas! If you've never been to Pinto before you are 100% missing out!

Sunday was Mother's Day so we spent the day visiting both of our mums. We had Chinese takeaway at my mum's house and I got to spend time with my baby Smudge! I'm looking forward to Smudge moving in with me for a month at the end of the year when my family go to Australia! Mikey will be in the spare room ha ha!

This week was very busy at work and was full of meetings for some reason! I've hardly been at my desk! I was off on Friday but we had a department night out so I went into Edinburgh to meet everyone for that! It was actually a really good night! We went to a little cocktail bar which I hadn't been to before where I got this cocktail served in a lightbulb! It was a cross between a whiskey and a margarita and it was really good!

Yesterday we had another date night! We went and played crazy golf (review coming up this week), then went to pizza express for a tasty meal! This honeycomb cream slice was so tasty!

Today is going to be spent cleaning, cooking and catching up on everything I've neglected the last few weeks! 

Have a fab week!

xxxx

Lifestyle | TheSundayPost - 28th February

Aloha! Who can believe we are already heading into the 3rd month of the year?! We will soon be entering the 'less than a year until our wedding' period! February has been a bit of a quiet month. I've been stuck in a bit of a rut of working all week and being so tired by the weekend that I sit on the sofa all weekend in my PJ's!

Here is what I've been up to this week!

1 & 2 - I had Monday off work as I still have a few annual leave days to use before the end of March. I had spent the whole weekend in the house so I decided to get out and go for a walk! I picked a cracking day to do this as the sun was shining. It was still super cold though! I was trying not to fall on the ice whilst taking these pictures!

3 - I bought this cute little jug whilst I was out on Monday. It's obviously not meant for flowers but I think it looks cute! I've got a full haul featuring this jug coming soon!

4 - I couldn't resist these PJ's in Tesco the other night. They were reduced from £16 to £9. I used to have a cat called Puddy after my mum kept saying tweetie bird's 'I tawt I saw a puddy-tat' saying! The name just stuck! Unfortunately he died about 6 months after we took him in (he was a stray that starting living in our greenhouse). We think he may have had cancer and his owners dumped him rather than face the big vet bills to manage his illness. Poor puddy! At least we gave him a comfy, loving home to live out his last 6 months! 

So now we are moving into March, which will hopefully be another good month! Hopefully I'll find the energy to get out the house a bit more as we move into Spring! 

And just incase you missed it, you can find my blog from this week about Yankee Candle for Spring 2016 HERE.

Have a great week!

xxx

Lifestyle | TheSundayPost - 21st February

Aloha! Another week has been and gone and here I am sitting typing this post in my PJ's having not left the house all weekend! I am such a lazy bean!

Here's what I've been up to this week!

As usual, the dreaded work! I used a days annual leave on Friday though and I'm also off tomorrow so that's nice! 

On Saturday I was a little bit hungover after spending Friday night round at a friend's house! I decided to light this candle so I could pretend I was on a tropical island! It's part of the Yankee Candle coconut collection and is the Coconut and Pineapple one. It smells just like malibu and pineapple. Yum! 

I cooked up this yummy smoky beef stew on Saturday night! It was a bit of an experiment but it was really tasty! I'll post the recipe here soon!

And on to today. I have done nothing useful today except finally go through all of these wedding magazines and cut out the pictures I like for my wedding scrapbook/moodboards! It's taken me all afternoon! 

And I also cooked this Sunday roast! We haven't had one in ages so I thought it would make a nice change! I slow cooked the chicken and it made such a difference! It was literally falling apart!

And now it's almost time to start a new week! I think tomorrow I'm going to take a wander up into town and see what bargains I can find to treat myself with, as well as buy boring household items we need!

Have a great week!

xxxx

Lifestyle | TheSundayPost - 14th February

Aloha & Happy Valentines Day!

I hope you've all been spoilt by your significant others today.

Of course, love should be expressed every day, not just today!

As usual, here is what I've been up to this week through my iphone camera!

I decided to try some different recipes this week because we've been eating the same meals for the last few weeks and it was getting a bit boring! I started the week by making these chicken schnitzels! They were pretty yummy and got a big thumbs up from Mikey!

I'll share the recipe on here soon!

Tuesday was pancake day! We try not to eat too much junk Monday to Friday so I tried to make semi healthy pancakes. I obviously made my own batter from scratch! None of your betty crocker shaker bottles here thank you very much! I then sliced bananas and sprinkled some blueberries, sugar and a drizzle of syrup. They were delicious!

I was off work on Friday as I had a hospital appointment in the morning. Thankfully my knee is not as serious as first thought. It turns out my knee cap is away off centre. I'm going to start a course of physio to see if it improves. Because I don't need an operation (yet), Mikey and I had a couple of drinks after he finished work. 

Then I met up with the girls from my work as one of them was having a leaving do. It was a good night. I've not been out in town for ages as I have to drive to work and it's a pain to take the car home then go back out on a Friday night!

On Saturday, Mikey had an all day class at uni so I spent the day cooking up a storm in the kitchen! I made this tasty beef keema which went down great! 

I also made these red velvet macaroons as a valentine's treat! They didn't last long! Let me know in the comments below if you'd like me to post the recipe! 

Today was valentine's day and we spent it in our PJ's watching rubbish on Netflix and eating! We ordered a chinese as a treat. I don't think we've had a takeaway since October!

Finally, this was in my fortune cookie from the Chinese. I can dream right?!

Have a fabulous week! I'm counting down to the weekend already!

xxxx

Lifestyle | TheSundayPost - 7th February

Aloha! Another week has passed already and here I am writing another Sunday post. I just don't know where the weekend goes! Here is what I've been up to this week!

I captured this pretty photo on Monday on my way to work. These are nacreous clouds and could been seen all over Edinburgh! I thought they were so pretty with all the rainbow colours!

This week's throwback Thursday! We've started looking into the possibility of making a very special trip to NYC next year - more to come on that one!

I've never been so happy to see Friday! I've reduced my hours to working 4 day weeks for the next few months and I can't wait to just chill out on my extra day off! I miss being a student!

This weekend was spent watching rubbish TV with a little tipple! We got these valentines edition tennents lager bottles in our local Tesco. I thought the Scottish slogans on the front were pretty funny! And I'm such a classy lady with my tennents lager obviously!

So now the countdown to Thursday evening is on! I finally have an appointment with the knee consultant this week so I can get my useless knee sorted out!

Have a fabulous week!

xxxx

TheSundayPost - 31st January

Aloha! It's finally the end of January and the busy period at work is over! I can finally get back to blogging and wedding planning!

This week has been so busy. I've been working pretty much 12 or 13 hours per day!

And this has been my mood for most of the week!

On Friday my boss said if we stayed until 9pm we could have the weekend off!

This was celebrated when I got home with a tub of my favourite ice cream, a couple of beers and falling asleep on the sofa!

I've spent much of this weekend catching up on sleep and relaxing! Now I think I might go bake something and finally get some proper use out of my mixer! 

Have a great week everyone!

Xxxx

TheSundayPost - 23rd January

Aloha! Sorry I've been rather quiet this week! It's been a pretty busy one at work!

Here is what I've been up to this week!

Last Sunday was my brother's birthday but he was away on a lad's weekend so on Monday night we all headed out to Pizza Express to celebrate his birthday. The food was particularly good which was probably because I was absolutely starving having only had a small bowl of soup and some breakfast biscuits all day!

We've had more snow this week but only in West Lothian it seems! It's all gone now!

I've spent most of this week in work! I've been working until 7 or 8 almost every night this week which is pretty hard going. The light is in sight though! Only one week to go and January is over!

We got a new mattress! It is literally the comfiest thing in the world. If I thought getting up for work in the morning was hard before, its about to get worse!

So that has been it for this week. Another pretty dull week involving far too much work and not enough play!

xxxx

TheSundayPost - 17th January

Aloha! It's Sunday once again which means it's time for this week's Sunday Post!

Here's what I've been up to this week!

This week has been a long and busy one once again! I've been working between 10 and 12 hour shifts all week, trying to get all my tax returns done in time. I'm getting there but there's still another 2 weeks to go!

As I've been working so hard, this weekend called for a treat! Fajitas is my favourite meal. And accompanied by a cheeky little beer, they are even better! My mum bought me a few of these mason jar drinking jugs for Christmas. They are the perfect size for a whole 440ml beer can so I can look a bit more ladylike with my drink haha!

We've had plenty snow this week! Especially yesterday! We went to visit our niece in Edinburgh and by the time we got home, all this snow had appeared! 

So now I'm off to do some research for an amazing idea that Mikey came up with for our wedding. I'll share it on here if we decide to go for it! If your nosy though, check my twitter ;) (@sunskittlesblog)

And if you've missed some of my posts this week, you can find the links below: 

John Lewis Haul

Chicken Myers Recipe

Have a fab week!

xxx

TheSundayPost - 10th January 2016

Aloha! Wow, it's the 10th January already!

This post is a little late going up this week. It's been a crazy busy week, unfortunately containing nothing fun!

Here is what I've been up to!

On Tuesday I went back to work after a lovely Christmas break! Monday was the all important extra Scottish bank holiday so I spent it wisely (sale shopping!) Work has been crazy this week as I've now got only 3 weeks to get all my client's tax returns complete and submitted. It's gonna be a long haul!

On Friday night we saw our first proper snow of the winter! It was totally unexpected!

Mikey was out so I spent the night in my cosy PJ's, eating chocolate and colour coding my work to-do list. Wild!

On Saturday we went for a little walk as I had not been feeling too great in the morning (probably the chocolate!) I took this picture looking over from our street to Bathgate town centre. It wasn't until I looked twice that I noticed the swan in the bottom right of the picture! It was doing a good job of blending in with the snow! We stopped for a coffee on our way back, and bought some tasty treats from the butcher (including some Stornoway black pudding, which is apparently now a super food!)

Sorry there wasn't very many posts from me this week.

You can see what I got in my blogger secret santa HERE. 

Things are likely to be quite quiet here throughout the month of January, as work is expected to be manic. I do have some posts scheduled for next week though so hopefully I'll manage to blog at least once a week!

Have a great week!

xxxx

TheSundayPost | 3rd January 2016

Aloha! Welcome to my first Sunday Post of 2016!

You might have noticed that my blog has had a little makeover to freshen it up for the new year!

This week has been quite busy as my uncle and cousin were here from Norwich so we've been out and about a lot more than usual! Here's what we've been up to!

1 & 2 - We went into Edinburgh and spent a day wandering around the winter wonderland! I finally got a shot on the big wheel and the star flyer! Just as well I'm not scared of heights! Afterwards, we went to Tony Macaroni for lunch. It's well worth a visit! I had shared a Hawaiian pizza and a spaghetti carbonara with my mum and it was delicious!

3 - We had a day's shopping in Livingston where I managed to get my hands on the first of many bags of mini eggs! These are my weakness at this time of year. I could eat them all day!

4 - I baked some yummy salted caramel and peanut butter brownies. It was a test run for my stand mixer, which I have to say, performed very well! I'll share the recipe on here soon!

5 - I got me some new bed sheets for the new year! I had some vouchers for Primark for Christmas (haul coming soon), and decided I needed to get some fresh bedding. This tartan duvet cover set was only £13 for a king size set and it goes really well with my bedroom theme!

6 - The new year has begun! We didn't do anything this hogmanay, except sit in, have a nice meal, and enjoy some alcoholic beverages! Someone was setting off these fireworks in the park opposite our house as the clock struck 12! 

7 - Smudge was my first footer (kind of). Because face-timing a cat is normal.

8 - I met my auntie's new puppy! He's a cross between a Chinese puffball and a shitzu and he is just adorable! His name is Frankie because he arrived at my auntie's house right in the middle of Storm Frank! I need one!

So that has been about it for this week! 

Here's some posts you might have missed this week:

What I got for Christmas

Boxing Day Sale Haul

My Year in Review | 2015

Hello 2016!

xxxx

TheSundayPost - 27th December

Aloha & a little late Merry Christmas! I've been a little quiet for the past few days as I was enjoying spending time with family and having a little break after blogging for 24 days straight!

I'm back now and thought I would start off with what I've been up to this week!

1 - Eating. A lot. This smoked salmon roulade is my absolute favourite Christmas treat. I need to find a recipe to make my own!

2 - Drink. My parents got this bottle of bollinger champagne for their 50th Birthday and we've been  meaning to open it for some time! It finally got opened on Boxing Day.

3 - Cuddles with Smudge. He loves when I stay over at my mum's house coz he gets cuddles with me! Doesn't he look cute!

4 - And of course, Santa came! I was a very lucky girl this year! I'm going to do a what I got for Christmas post in the next few days so keep your eyes peeled for that!

I thought I would also share this picture from Christmas Day. This is a large group of the family together, including both my Grans. They are both suffering from dementia so this photo is special to me.

Here are the posts you might have missed this week!

Blogmas Day 21 - Christmas Eve Box

Blogmas Day 22 - Christmas Throwback

Blogmas Day 23 - Easy Gingerbread Recipe

Blogmas Day 24 - Things I'm Looking Forward to this Christmas

xxx

Blogmas Day 20 | TheSundayPost - 20th December

Aloha! Another week has passed very quickly and its only 5 more sleeps till Santa!

This week has mainly been about trying to clear my desk at work in time for the Christmas holidays!

This weekend we had friends over for dinner and drinks, then today involved shopping and getting ready for the week ahead. I feel like I've never stopped! Only 3 and a half working days left though! Looking forward to a short working week!

If you've missed any of my blogmas posts this week, this is what you've missed: 

Day 14 - Winter Evening Routine

Day 15 - Christmas Wrapping

Day 16 - Stocking Fillers for Him

Day 17 - The Christmas Tag 2015

Day 18 - Bargain Buys for the Last Minute Shopper

Day 19 - The Perfect Hot Chocolate

Have a wonderful week! The countdown to Christmas is really on now!

xxxx

Blogmas Day 13 | TheSundayPost - 13th December

Aloha! Another week has passed and it's now less than 2 weeks until Christmas!!

Here is what I have been up to this week!

1 - Last Sunday I headed into town with Mikey to try and finish the last of our Christmas shopping! We managed to get 99% of it done so we rewarded ourselves with a hot toddy in one of the pop up Christmas bars overlooking the ice rink.

2 - The week was long and stressful as I try to get as much work done as possible before the Christmas break! Friday night was my work's Christmas night out. It was a great night! Here is me looking grumpy before going out!

3 - Saturday was spent mostly nursing a hangover. We spent the evening on the sofa watching the X Factor final, eating chocolate and drinking beers. It was nice to sit in the cosy house, with the Christmas tree lit up, and just relax for a bit! 

4 - Today it is very cold outside so I'm staying inside in the warmth writing up some more blog posts and baking banana bread! I love a lazy Sunday!

If you've missed any of my Blogmas posts this week, you can go and have a read of them now by following the links below!

Day 7: My favourite Christmas Songs

Day 8: Tanya's December Tarte Train

Day 9: Best of the Boots 3 for 2

Day 10: Festive Fivers

Day 11: Christmas Party Outfit

Day 12: Christmas Jumper 2015

Have a great week!

xxx

TheSundayPost - 29th November

Aloha! Wow it's the end of November already! I know I say this all the time, but I have no idea where this year has gone!

Here is what I've been up to this week!

1 - Drinking hot chocolate and scheduling posts! I'm going to be taking part in Blogmas this year so I've been super busy thinking up ideas for posts! This will be a huge challenge for me as I am not the most regular of bloggers and I find it hard to blog when I'm working full time too!

2 - I don't get paid until tomorrow so money has been pretty tight this week! Of course, that also meant I couldn't full embrace the Black Friday sales. I did manage to pick up a few things which Mikey kindly lent me the money for!

3 - I had been going on all week about really wanting a burrito from a local Mexican street food place called Pinto. (I blogged about it here.) Mikey surprised me on Friday night by bringing one home for me! It was soooo good!

4 - I bought allll the wedding magazines. I genuinely think I have an obsession with them. I have to buy one whenever a new issue comes out! I've been cutting out all the pictures I like and adding them to my scrapbook, which I'm going to blog about soon!

So that is about it for this week! I'm away to put up my Christmas tree now! I know it's not quite December yet, but there's nothing wrong with spreading some christmas cheer!

xxxx

TheSundayPost - 22nd November

Aloha! Another week over, another week closer to Christmas! I can't believe it's now less than 5 weeks away!

Here's my summary of this week!

1 - The weather has been so miserable this week. It's been cold, wet and windy almost all week! Coupled with it being dark by 4pm, I've not been outside much!

2 - Cuddles with Smudge have been had. I'm starting to notice him ageing a lot more recently. He's not able to jump up on the sofa as easy anymore. Sad times :( 

3 - My dad is away to Florida on a golfing trip for his brother's 50th birthday so on Thursday night he took us out for a bite to eat at Pizza Express. I tried their new christmas starter, smoked salmon rillette. It was delicious! Then I had my usual choice of pizza, the pollo ad astra on a romana base!

My dad has been sent to Florida with a shopping list for christmas presents so hopefully he manages to find the things I've asked for!

4 - Saturday night, the weather was rubbish again so we decided to have a night in with telly and food. We got some steaks from the local butcher and I made a spicy chipotle sauce to go with them. Then afterwards we toasted marshmallows and enjoyed a few beers whilst watching X Factor, I'm a Celebrity and The Jonathan Ross Show. Sometimes it's nice to just relax at home rather than go out in the cold!

That's it for this week. Now we go into the last full week in November! Scary stuff!

xxxx

TheSundayPost - 15th November

Aloha! I've finally managed to get out of bed on a Sunday morning to write a SundayPost!

This week I've been off work so I've had plenty of time for fun! Here is what I've been up to this week!

1 - Wedding planning. We seem to have hit a bit of a brick wall with it. Quite possibly my fault as I've had no time for it recently due to work taking over my life! Hopefully I can start getting things organised more in the next few months. We still need to settle on a venue!

2 - Mikey bought me these flowers. I love the ombre effect! Sometimes there's nothing better than having fresh flowers in the house!

3 - We went to Dublin! Mikey's dad is Irish so he has lots of family there but I had never been! We decided to take a little trip so I could meet all the family as well as do a bit of sightseeing! We had a great time with lots of good food and beers! I won't share any more photos of our time in Dublin as I'm going to do a photo diary of our time!

4 - On Friday we had a few friends over for dinner. I cooked my favourite dish: Texas BBQ Brisket. I actually think I love that dish so much I'd have it as our wedding meal!

5 - It wouldn't be right if I didn't take a moment to reflect on the horrific events in Paris on Friday night. I won't say much as emotions tend to run high at times like these, and people say controversial things, but all I would like to say is that all those affected by what happened are in my thoughts. I just wish the world could be a peaceful place :( 

xxxxx

TheSundayPost - 25th October

Aloha! Don't you just love Someecards? There's always one that sums up exactly how you are feeling! Anyway, as usual here's my weekly post about what I've been up to this week!

1 - Work. You may know that I work in tax and our busiest time of year is coming up with the tax returns due by 31st January. I've got a week off coming up in 2 weeks time, so I'm trying to get as much done as possible just now, so I don't come back to an overflowing in tray! Of course, that means I have no time for anything fun right now. Sad times!

2 - Wedding planning. I wrote my first post on here this week about planning our wedding! We are still on the venue hunt. It was going okay until others started sticking their noses in and telling me what I can/can't do. So frustrating. On Friday I was so wound up by it all that I was genuinely contemplating booking 2 tickets to Mexico and getting married out there with no one present to tell me what to do! I'm sure it will all fall into place eventually...

3 - Dreaming. I am in desperate need of a holiday! I know, I've got a cheek but when we were students, we were off visiting new places about 3 or 4 times a year. Now it seems like we have no time to do anything. In saying that, we are going to Ireland in a few weeks. Mikey has lots of family there which we are going to visit, but for me it will be all new as I've never been before. Hello Guinness factory!

So that's about it for this week! Hope you all have a great week ahead, whatever you are up to!

xxx

TheSundayPost - 18th October

Aloha! I can't believe it's Sunday evening already! Where has this weekend gone?!

So here is what I've been up to this week.

1 - This picture sums up this week pretty well. I've been dreaming of better things most of this week, mostly wedding related. Things are slowly but surely coming along on the wedding front. We viewed another venue on Saturday, which I'm pretty enthusiastic about. Hopefully we will settle on a venue soon!

2 & 3 - This week we celebrated 11 years of happiness and purrs with my little furbaby Smudge. It's crazy to think it was so long ago that we took him home with us after he had been abandoned in a forest. To celebrate his 11th adoptiversary, I bought him his favourite food and special cat milk, and wrapped them up for him. Needless to say he's scoffed the lot now! 

4 - I just love Autumn time. The colours are just my favourite. And the fact I can get my layers and cosy boots out again makes me very happy. 

So that's about it for this week! Now it's time to get prepared for another work week. I'm pretty sure I'm in need of a week off now!

Have a fabulous week!

xxxx

TheSundayPost - 23rd August

Aloha! So another week has flown by and it's almost September. The countdown to Christmas will be starting soon! (X factor starts next weekend, that's usually a good indication of how close it is!) I just don't know where this year has gone!

Here is what I've been up to this week!

1 - I had a little shopping trip on Monday night which involved buying this cat car freshener from New Look. It's very me haha!

2 - We actually had a pretty decent week of weather! This is the church next door to my work where I have been sitting eating my lunch and catching some rays. It's such a lovely peaceful place to sit, and it beats eating at my desk!

3 - Can't believe this was my first frappuchino of the Summer! It was goooood!

4 - We finally booked flights for a little trip to Ireland! I'm super excited as I've never been before! We are flying into Dublin and hiring a car to travel round Galway, Limerick and Cork before heading back for a night or two in Dublin! Guinness factory here I come! 

5 - Saturday was spent with a trip to Ikea, then hanging around my mum's house waiting for Mikey to come off the golf course! Whilst I was there, Smudge decided to claim ownership of this Amazon box. He's a strange one. 

6 - I made tacos!! They were pretty damn good if I say so myself! Now if only I could teleport back to Mexico...

So that has been my week! Can you believe this post is actually going up before 10pm on a Sunday?! I'm off to bake some lemon and blueberry bread now. Have a lovely week! 

xxxx