Christmas Shopping, Island Hopping

This year we decided that we would try to do as much as possible of our Christmas shopping locally, which meant that a trip to Arran by ferry was called for!

So, on a glorious winter morning last week we headed down the coast and set sail.

Crisp, blue skies, snow-capped mountains, calm seas and glorious scenery not a bad combination for a shopping trip :)

Arran is a veritable hive of crafty activity and one of my favourite destinations is the Arran Aromatics factory shop, where we stocked up on loads of their island-made gorgeous smelling goodies.

Next up, a visit to the Arran Brewery to stockpile a selection of their great beers for the thirsty hordes who will descend upon us at Christmas :)

Whilst browsing the shelves at the Brewery, I came across this barley wine. Now normally I wouldn't have paid too much attention but as our shopping trip co-incided with Christmas Pudding making time, barley wine was very high on my shopping list! For years I have been making Delia Smith's traditional Christmas Pudding, which calls for barley wine in the list of ingredients, and for years I have searched high and low for it without success. So you can imagine my delight when there it was sitting on the shelf in front of me. That bottle was snatched up pretty quickly I can tell you.

Now, whether I will be able to taste the difference when the pudding is finally served I have no idea, but I am just over the moon that I have at long last managed to tick off everything on the long list of Christmas Pudding ingredients for a change.

After a very pleasant lunch we headed back to the ferry to be greeting with this stunning sunset when we arrived back home.

 Now wasn't that a very pleasant way to spend a Christmas shopping day! Hope your Christmas shopping expeditions are equally as enjoyable.

Sights and sewing - New to Me in March

Welcome to the March New to Me Link Party.

The monthly celebration of trying all things new.

My New to Me's are a mixed bag as ever.

This month I have visited a New to Me island, Arran off the West Coast of Scotland.

We enjoyed some gorgeous weather and stunning views, so will definitely be adding it to our "must go back to" destinations.

I have enjoyed the very New to Me experience of seeing Scotland win a rugby game at Murrayfield :) Sadly I wasn't able to repeat the experience last weekend in Dublin !

And of course, the biggest thrill of all, completing my first ever piece of embroidery for inclusion

Hardhome Embroidery

in this amazing banner created by the Embroiderers Guild and others for the launch of HBO's Game of Thrones Season 5 DVD boxset!

It has been an interesting month :)

Now it's your turn to show and tell what you have tried for the first time this month. As ever please help to spread the word by linking back to this post in your post and/or adding the blog button to your sidebar.




Check out the other links too and, maybe, leave an encouraging comment along the way. The emphasis of this link party is to celebrate the trying so a little encouragement here and there would not go amiss! 

The link will remain open until 23.59GMT on March 31st, so you have some time yet to try something new and link up and join the party :)




If your New to Me involves some Christmas or Holiday crafting don't forget to link it up to this month's Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Link Party too over at Pesky Life.

These lovely sewing charms are up for grabs for two lucky linkers!

Looking forward to seeing your New to Me's in March.

An InLinkz Link-up

Sunshine and Swagger

It was my husband's birthday last week, so we treated ourselves to a trip to visit Arran, the largest island in the Firth of Clyde. Despite growing up within striking distance of the island I had never actually visited it before so was looking forward to exploring a new to me destination.

Visiting Scottish islands in March can be a bit hit and miss weather wise but we were lucky to experience a glorious couple of days surrounded by sunshine and stunning scenery as you can see.

The mountains in the North of the island are known as the "Sleeping Warrior" as they are said to resemble a warrior lying on his back with his arms crossed over his chest. They certainly don't look like it from the photo and angle above, but maybe I can see a head and chest in the photo below.

Of course that could also be down to the power of suggestion :)

No powers of suggestion needed to spot the sheep in this photo though, aren't they the quirkiest bollards you have ever seen?

Clearly quirky is part of the island culture.

These cottages at Catacol, known as the Twelve Apostles, were built for local landworkers who were being driven from the land and encouraged to become fishermen. Each of the cottages has their own distinct window style. The idea was that if a wife wanted to signal her husband out on the fishing boat she could place a candle in the window and because of the different window shapes the husbands would know which of them was being signalled! I never read anywhere how successful that scheme was :)

Talking of success, however, I am pleased to report that our second trip of the week North of the Border was equally rewarding.

The swagger of the kilts, such as this, at Murrayfield to watch the annual Six Nations rugby match between Scotland and France was much improved by an impressive Scotland victory.

The beret wearing fans amongst us didn't have so much to cheer about by the end of the afternoon, although it didn't appear to dampen their spirits too much :)

Next up a trip to Dublin and the hope of a long awaited away win, keeping my fingers crossed!

Linking up to