My Engagement Ring

It's actually been a couple of months since my boyfriend proposed, but since we were getting the rings specially made, I haven't really looked like I was engaged until two days ago when my ring was finished! It was made by the amazing Ruth Laila Steffensen. Here is her website and also her facebook if want to 'like' or share it. Ruth's not only an awesome jeweler, but also one of my closest friends so we didn't even think twice about asking her to design and make our rings. I was just relieved when she said she was be able to do it!

It's a black sapphire set in oxidised silver. The oxidisation will need to be kept up in order to keep the silver looking black, but that's something I'll be able to maintain myself at home.

I'm so glad we went for a sapphire instead of a non-precious stone like onyx or jet. The sapphire really lets the light through it so it sparkles like a diamond. Another black stone would look more dull and opaque. (Little tip there if yer looking for a black stoned engagement ring). There's also no such things as a black sapphire, really. Sapphire's are always blue, but the very, very dark ones look black and are called 'black sapphires'. With mine, you can only see a bluish tinge under very bright light. Usually it looks jet black and sometimes it even looks deep red depending on the light.

By the way, I have the tiniest, witchiest fingers in existence so this is the first ring I've ever worn that actually fits me properly.

Of course I couldn't put it on my finger myself though - I had to wait for my fiance to do that for me. I handed the ring box to him like it was some covert opperation then we went out for dinner before he took me on a mystery train journey. 

I thought he might be taking me to see our new flat again (the one we'll be living in when we get married). It's pretty naked at the moment though, but I guess we could have sat on the floor... It turned out he was taking me to the huge park very near where we'll be living.

It was raining and muddy, but he still got down on one knee on the damp ground to put the ring on my finger.

Then we did nothing but stare at the damn thing for the whole night and the next day. Actually I'm still staring at it now.

And even though my fiance's a bit more 'normal' in appearance (not in any other way, thankfully) than myself, he still asked for a gothic style wedding band like mine because, well, then people know that we belong to each other! (And he's not some random bloke following me around and harrassing me - hah!)

Eating Pancakes & Cream Outside For Lunch

I wouldn't stretch it to say it was sunny here the other day, this is Scotland afterall, but it was certainly warm outside. Ok, maybe 'mild' rather than warm, but you take what you can get! Anyway, sister brought her kids over and we had pancakes with jam and cream in the garden.

My sister making sure the wee ones have their pancakes all sorted.

I don't like jam, but I still managed to have pancakes and butter followed by pancakes and cream. Never say I don't how to enjoy myself.

And here's some pictures of Angus pouring over the fossil collection that used to be mine when I was a wee girl (I was never a very cool child). This box is just replicas rather than the real thing, but he seemed really into it anyway. He's a smart cookie so he wanted to know all the details about what animals and plants the fossils were from.

An ammonite.

 

Annie contemplating her beans and sausages.

Metallic Pale Green Eyes

 A nice witchy green look for a rainy day. Let me know what you think of the little photoshop step-by-step drawing, by the way. Is it helpful? I suppose I should be drawing these things by hand, but it's easier to demonstate the colours to you if I use photoshop instead.

♥ Natural Collection eyeshadow in 'snowstorm' in the inner corner and as a brow highlight
♥ Boots 17 'green glimmer' on the whole lid
♥ A darker, blue-bases green in the crease
♥ Mac matte eyeshadow in 'carbon' to give extra depth to the crease and under the eye
♥ Finish with mascara and liquid eyeliner under the eye and a huge wing above the eye

♥ Also, for extra sparkle, I added a tiny line of Collection 2000's Glam Crystals Dazzling Gel Liner in 'Rock Chick' just on the line of my upper lashes. I really like Collection 2000's glitter eyeliner compared to other brands I've tried: they go on softly so they don't make your eyelids feel stiff and dry, but they also have a lot of colour and glitter in them so they're still noticable. 'Rock Chick' is a lovely black colour with silver glitter.

My sister got me this necklace years ago from a shop called Lalaland in Glasgow which is incidently a shop I sold some dress-up dolls in recently. Funny how these things happen.

Shocking Pink & White Make-up Look And Cresent Nails

This is a very different look for me since it has no black eyeshadow whatsoever. I think it might not work with a pale shade, but the brightness of the pink is enough that you don't really need a lot of black with this.

♥ I used Natural Collection eyeshadow in 'snowstorm' (a lovely white with a pale blue iridenscence) as a brow highlight, in my inner corner and all over the inside two thirds of my eyelid.
♥ Then I used a matt super soft eye crayon by Barry M in no.9 pink in a 'C' shape around the outside of my eye and smudged it.
♥ Over that, I used a reddish pink eyeshadow and blended that into the 'snowstorm' with a blending brush.
♥ Finally I added a tiny black wing of liquid liner and made the inside corner of my eye into a "point" with some black eye pencil

♥ Lips: Barry M lipliner no.6 and Natural Collection moisture shine lipstick in 'Rose Bud'

Also, I was clearing out my cupboard the other day and laid out all my nail varnishes in chromatic order just to see what it would look like. So there you go! I've recently been trying to get the hang of doing crescent nails too. You can see my attempt at it below. I used a pale pink underneath a bluish black colour and the stickers are just little circular price labels I chopped in two. 

Bronze Smokey Eye Look And The Buttercup Dairy Co.

I've decided to keep a photographic record of every make-up style I try out since I'm so obsessed with make-up these days. Who knows if it'll actually lead to anything or have a final result, but I guess it's nice to have a record of these things anyway. Especially since it's not like drawings: you can't keep a make-up look for more than a day so it makes sense to photograph it!

We were going into the west end of town on Sunday and I was wearing my glasses (which I hate wearing) because my eyes were kind of tired so I gave myself big bronze smokey eyes to look better with my specs on.

 

♥ I used a matt black super soft eye crayon by Barry M over the lid (and under my eye) and smudged it with my fingers, then used Mac matte eyeshadow in 'carbon' over that.
♥ Then I used a metallic bronze around the black and curved it up to the outside of the eye, blending it into the black with a big blending brush and softening out the edges.
♥ I finished it with a little wing of black liquid eyeliner.

Anyway, once I'd got my face on, we left for town. We went to the scifi bookstore and then planned to go to our favourite tea house, but it turned out that there was a gala on. That ruined our plans a bit since the tea house had live entertainment on outside for the gala and, well, we're a pair of miserable old gits so we ran off.

Managed to find a new place for coffee though. The Buttercup Dairy Co. at Felix and Oscar. There's something really lovely about having a coffee in the middle of a gift shop. I don't get to do that very often.

A wee sketch I did while we were sitting. The jars at the top are the types of chocolate you can choose in your drink. They're all by Temper Chocolates. Tim had a dark chilli mocha. I had a try and you could really taste the bitterness of the dark chocolate, not to mention the chilli aftertaste. We we already  converts to chilli hot chocolate anyway, but I kind of wonder what the lavender chocolate tastes like...

A little tutu (pettiskirt?) I saw in the shop. I may just have to go back and order six of them for the little flower girls we'll be having at our wedding. It's adorable. I'm not sure about the pink though. I know little girls love pink (and so do I... sort of), but it doesn't really go with the gothic colour scheme we've been thinking of for the flowers etc... Oh well, lots to think about!

And just to share before I forget: my aunty brought back this beautiful jewellery set from America for me. The ring's a little big although I think I can fix that,, but the earrings are so gorgeous they make me want to get my right ear pierced so I can wear them both at the same time. I've still only got holes in my left ear and I have to admit some earrings look better in pairs.

Birthday Things Made By Small People

Thought I'd share some photos from my birthday the other week. I wasn't feeling too well and we were pretty skint at the time so we didn't end up doing anything very exciting, but I stilll managed to have a day in Edinburgh and came back home to my cute little niece and nephew who were over that night. The rest of my family came over too and we had chinese takeaway which is one of those simple treats in life that doesn't cost much time or effort but somehow tastes soo goood.

We found a new coffee place in Edinburgh that I can't for the life of me rememebr the name of. Will definitely be going back though. I'm pretty sure it's on the royal mile...

My nephew in his skeleton pj's. His wee sister has matching ones. Isn't that the cutest damn thing?

Playdoh shapes. I think my niece might be addicted to licking playdoh. She keeps trying to eat what she's made. I'll wait until she's at least a teenager before I start worrying about it too much though.

They made me a playdoh cake too! Silly kids. They got my age wrong! I'm only *cough* 22! *nervous laugh*...

Iced biscuits the wee ones made with Granma. Black icing because they know I like black.

It might look a bit odd, but this was the best photo I could get of the awesome black pancake the kiddies made for me as a birthday treat. I think it'd been poked and prodded a fair number of times before I got round to taking a picture of it though.

Trip To Northern Ireland

This weekend, we went to visit my fiance's brother in Northern Ireland. We stayed with them in a town called Lisburn which is a really cool place even though all the shops close on a Sunday (and I mean all the shops). It was like something from a zombie film. Anyway, getting the ferry there and back was a bit of a treat for me since I've never been inside a ferry before. I didn't even know they had 'insides', so to speak. On old holidays with my family, we always stayed outside, clinging on for dear life in the wind.

Looking at the waves through a wee window.

So this is what the inside of a ferry can look like. Who'd have thought?

I couldn't help thinking the ferry itself looked like a tranformer. I even swore I saw something that looked just like it being advertised as a Power Rangers toy on telly the other day. Incidently, I'll spare you the photo after this one of Tim pulling his trousers down and mooning me while I struggle to figure out the camera settings on my new phone (now you see why I love this man so much).

"Windswept and interesting"

We found a cafe in Lisburn called The Yellow Door (which doesn't actually have a yellow door unless I totally missed that) that made really nice coffee and the thickest, chocolatiest walnut-covered chocolate brownies ever.

Just some thank you cards I quickly slapped together before the trip to thank folk for birthday money and presents they gave me.

Day At Campsie Glen

The other week, we went out to Campsie Glen. It's a nice little area just before the path up to the Campsie Hills. My sister used to work there as a waitress and a silversmith (not at the same time) so I've always had a fondness for the place from the days when I'd go along in the car to pick her up from work on Saturdays.

The little tearoom is still there although apparently it's changed hands twice since I was last there. I was kind of sad to see all the trinkets in the shop gone (there's no shop now, just the cafe), but the homemade baking make up for it.

Also there was a little witchy shop next door with a tiny heart-shaped venetian mirror that I can't quite remember why I didn't buy considering I've wanted one for ages! I saw this image of a bathroom in the Hotel du Petit Moulin in Paris and now I can't help desperately wanting a bathroom with glossy red tiles and heart-shaped venetian mirror.

Something new that's popped up, however, is a vintage shop called The Owl The Pussycat. I didn't get any photos of the interior, but you can see lots on their facebook page. I'm normally not that into vintage places since they can be a bit *ahem* trendy, but The Owl And The Pussycat was genuinely cool and they had a lot of really well made up-cycled (I hate that word) things like re-upholstered chairs, stools with comic book decoupage and an adorable paper lamp decorated in cupcake cases which needs to be seen to be believed!