What We've Been up to Lately...

Over Easter, we went to London to take in the sites, and eat some good food.

As usual, we walked everywhere.....my feet hurt so bad at the end of this trip!

Here are some pictures of things we saw and experienced along the way...

Tower Bridge,

London Bridge Hospital,

a new high-rise,

the Tower Bridge at night,

the London Eye,

Big Ben,

St. James Park,

Buckingham Palace Changing of the Guard,

the Victoria and Albert Museum (Fashion Exhibit),

the collection of amazing dishes at the Victoria and Albert Museum (here is a video),

 

 Viewing London from the Eye at night,

hanging out with a wax Kate Winslet,

Tower Bridge on a rainy Easter Day,

the Tower of London,

and finally, we had Greek food for Easter Lunch!

 The food was amazing!! I love Greek food!  They even gave us red eggs that come from a story that Mary Magdalene had put a basket of eggs under Jesus when he was on the cross, and his blood dyed them red.  In the Greek culture, you are supposed to smash your egg against another persons, and whoever's doesn't crack has good luck.  My egg withstood Jared's on both ends - no surprise here! I have always been really lucky!

Finally, what is a mini-vacation without lots of fancy cappuccinos!

Then the following weekend, back on the Dee (Dee River that is)...

I made sausage gravy and buttermilk biscuits from scratch!  Yes, there are no canned Pillsbury products in the grocery stores here!  Also, the sausage was not Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage, it came unseasoned in rectangular slices...a little odd, but we made it work!

Then for Sunday dinner, I made ginger bourbon crusted ham, twice baked potatoes, and Parmesan garlic mushrooms,

and apple pie!! This is my first ever time to make pie crust from scratch! I used the Pioneer Woman's recipe and it turned out great! This will definitely be my go to crust recipe!

The following weekend, I had afternoon tea with work colleagues at the Carmelite Hotel.

We had a great time - who knew it was socially acceptable to have intoxicating tea at 2 in the afternoon.  Only in Scotland!!

Have a wonderful May Day on Monday!!

Scotland in Bloom!

I have never seen so many daffodils in my whole life! I will not look at a daffodil again and not think of Aberdeen - they literally grow like weeds here.  Even the road embankments and medians by ASDA (Wal-mart) are covered in glorious yellow and white!

Here are some pictures of daffodils from around our village, Peterculter.

(I just think this house is so cute)

And there are sweet pots like this filled with pansies, primroses, and tulips lining the sides of our street.

 In our front yard there is a tree covered with yellow blossoms..

                                               

In our back yard, there are trees with what almost looks like magnolia blooms - big white blooms.

 We planted our pots this past weekend!  This summer we should have blooms of french lavender, petunias and snapdragons.

 I am really enjoying the beautiful flowers around here!

We are headed to London for Easter weekend to relax and have some fun.  I can't wait!! 

London is definitely calling!!

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter Weekend!

Decorating our Granite Cottage

After waiting  7 weeks, our shipping container filled with our furniture, dishes, clothes, and relatives' golf clubs finally arrived! I was so excited to decorate this place!  

Last weekend we unpacked everything and organized clothes, kitchen, etc. This weekend we finished hanging pictures and plates, and put the final items away.

Welcome to our home!

T.V. Room

This is our "TV" room.  Only one of the living areas has a TV hookup, which gives me an excuse to have a formal living area, which is fun!

Front Hall

This is the hallway entering from the front door/front vestibule to the upstairs, kitchen, TV room and formal living room.

Formal Living Room

This is our formal living room.  It is full of floral and toile fabrics, cottagey furniture and of course, Spode plates.

Ironically, I always tried to accumulate things with an "English cottage" style in Oklahoma.  I think it fits in really well here.

Dining Room

This is a view of our dining room from the formal living room.  Luckily, it fits our huge harvest table.  I can't wait to have lots of company come and have a big dinner here!  I love this space!

Kitchen

This is our black and white kitchen.  I love the light that comes into all of these rooms and the French bistro set my parent's gave me for college graduation matches great!  (Those are the same chairs that you'll see at the Cheesecake Factory - I ordered them surplus from their supplier).  Carrara marble pieces are from a nice little company in Guthrie, OK.  

I painted a menu chalkboard out of an old cheap picture from Big Lots before we moved here. 

Thankful that my Mother stressed that I needed to buy tons of baskets before moving to Europe because they don't have much built in storage.  Thank you, Mom - it is coming in handy!

Teacups from Aunt Sharla and my new Cath Kidston teapot!  I will not be leaving the UK without an entire set of Cath Kidston dishes.  Her stuff is adorable!!!

3rd Bedroom/Closet

The upstairs spare bedroom/closet....this would be a tight fit.  We may use the TV room as a second guest room since there is a bathroom downstairs too.

Guest Bedroom

Dedicated guest room.  Thank you for the wreath, Emily O.!!

Master Bedroom

Back Patio & Garden

Finally, I am excited to fill these pots with colorful flowers and shrubs.  Glad I shipped these pots - planters are expensive here!

Dreaming of sitting outside in the summer with a glass of wine or cup of coffee and looking at the flowers.  It's the simple things!