Happy is what we are when we're together

We've had some cracking summer weather here the past few days and as luck would have it Mark had two days off in a row, yay!

After he finished work on Saturday we bundled all our dive gear, along with four borrowed tanks and weights courtesy of awesome Aquatron, into the car and headed north to Ballachulish.

We stayed the night with mum and on Sunday morning we did our first ever completely solo buddy-team dive in Loch Leven.

There are two popular dive sites within a stone's throw of mum's house, the one that we went to with Ben a while back called Manse Point and another one that is even closer to the village called The Slates.

Unfortunately Mark had forgotten to charge his GoPro camera so we've got no pics or film of what we saw under the surface which was a shame cause the visibility was really rather splendid on the day.

We did two dives of about 40 minutes each, the maximum depth that we went to was 20 meters and the dive highlights were spotting a Ling  and having a close encounter (thankfully not too close) with a large Lion's Mane Jellyfish. The water temperature was a cool 10°C but I kept fairly warm in my Scubapro Climatec Undersuit & Everdry 4 Drysuit combo.

On Sunday evening we drove back to Glasgow and celebrated our buddy team milestone by cracking open a few bottles of choice ale, awesome!

When we woke up on Monday morning the sun was blazing though the window and although I had planned to spend the day indoors taking photos for the Etsy shop, it would have been a sin to miss out on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year.

So Mark and I decided to grab our snorkeling gear and head to Wemyss Bay for a day by the coast.

Here's Mark all wetsuited and booted running into the Firth of Clyde...

It would have been too cold to go snorkeling for any length of time without wearing a wetsuit but with a protective layer of neoprene we could stay in the water for a good twenty minutes. The water was crystal clear so the visibility was amazing. We spotted lots of crabs and really small jellyfish but I spent most of the time looking for unusual pebbles for my collection.

Here are a few snaps of our lovely day at Wemyss Bay...

We only took a couple of pics at The Slates on Sunday as our minds were pretty preoccupied with getting everything just right..."planning the dive and diving the plan".

The dive site name is spot on. Here I am rocking my fleecy thermal onesie or Monkey Man Suit as I like to call it.

A well deserved cuppa in-between dives.

So that was the tale of our two days of diving and snorkeling fun.

This is the lifestyle Mark and I have been longing for and I can't begin to explain how happy I feel that we finally got our procrastinating act together and made the move up north. I feel tremendously blessed that everything has turned out so good and that we've managed to hook up with such awesome & kindhearted people.

Don't get me wrong, we had a really nice life & lovely friends down in London too but financially we were always chasing our tails. Even if Mark was earning twice as much as he is here in Glasgow we were still always teetering on the brink of being completely broke.

Although the move has not put us in a better place financially at least we are much happier and we get to do loads of fun stuff, which to me is more important than a bulging bank balance anyway.

Last month we were sent a lovely surprise parcel from our friends Kaori, Adam and their cute as a button daughter Maya in Japan. It contained (among other things) two beautiful kimonos and obi belts.

We have been awaiting an opportunity to take some photos of them and on the way up the road last Saturday evening that opportunity presented itself.

We wanted a dramatic backdrop to do these truly stunning garments justice and it doesn't get much more dramatic than the spectacular Buachaille Etive Mor.

It was Mark that choose this spot. I think it's quite Hokusai-esque.

Mark snapped a few solo sans wig ones of me but the midgies were out in force so it had to be a guerrilla style photo session. 

I had some fun with PicMonkey this morning :)

I'll leave you with a cheesetastico tune from the 90s, enjoy  ;)

May this blog post find you happy & healthy.

loads of love,

Jennie

xXx

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The Hills Are Alive

Today I did another shop update and I'm really excited with the addition of my beloved shapeshifters.

I call these poncho style garments 'shapeshifters' cause not only are they reversible but you can transform it into a dress by simply slipping your arm through the neck-hole and nipping the fabric in with a funky belt.

It is such a versatile item of clothing but more to the point it is awesome fun both styling and wearing it.

The ones that are up for grabs at the moment (bar the sun-glo vintage brocade one) are second-hand but still in excellent condition, however I am working on a few more that will be exclusively for the shop.

I have been sourcing fabulous fabrics for years and the time has come to get creative with them.

With the shop update comes yet another lookbook, this one is entitled 'The Hills Are Alive' and was shot in Glen Coe in the stunning Highlands of Scotland...enjoy ;)

The new shapeshifters will be in the shop within the next few days. 

I've made two already but haven't had the time to photograph them yet.

I'm slowly building up the stock in the shop, four more items to add and there will be fifty and then I think we might have to have a bit of an end of summer sale :)

Take care peeps.

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

The Highlander

This time last week we were on our way up to Scotland. 

At the midway stop hubby and I sat and pondered over how many times we'd made that journey and all the times that we'd said we'd never take the night bus again.

Yes, we say that next time we'll be smart and book in advance and get a "cheap" train fare but it never quite happens like that cause we always leave it that little bit too late and therefore we always end up going by the dungeon on wheels that is the Megabus overnighter. 

Maybe we have slight masochistic tendencies? 

I mean why else would we put ourselves through the ten hour  nightmare of  torturous neck stiffness, raging restless legs, excruciating arse ache and coffee that tastes like it has been sieved though a pair of grotty old pants?

 Not to mention the fact that when you finally reach your destination you feel as if you have been travelling all scrunched up in a suitcase like some contortionist from a  freak show and it takes a good couple of days to get back to normal and then you have to do it all over again to get back home, och!

My neck is almost back to its "crickless" old self  but it has to be said that I actually recuperate faster from jet-lag  than I do from the dreaded Megabus-lag.

Next time we are planning to go up north I will superglue a note to my forehead reading... 

"BUY TRAIN TICKETS YOU SILLY BAG".

I've finished editing all the photos that we took in Glen Coe last Saturday morning, some are for the shop but these ones we took just for fun...

I made a little slideshow for my folks that you can take a wee peek at should you wish to, it's less than a minute long and it's just a few more pics than the ones above...

The song is by a really talented Danish singer songwriter called Allan Nordkvist, you can listen to the song in its entirety here...

...it's awesome, I really love his voice!

That's it for today folks, hope you are all doing grand and feeling dandy :)

Friday is here...HUZZAH!

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

The Haggis Hunter

I finally managed to bag a new camera just before we headed up north for the weekend.
As someone who takes customer service very seriously I have to say that I was utterly appalled with  Jessops.
Not only did they have me road-running throughout London all of Wednesday afternoon but when I came to pick up my "new" camera from the third shop on Thursday morning, I found that they had in fact stuck a shop display camera back in its box and tried to palm it off as new.
I just shook my head..."-mate, would it be at all possible to get a brand NEW one in a sealed box"...the dude realized that he'd been rumbled and got me another one.
They might have got away with it, had they cleaned the lens cap and replaced the battery pack seal before sticking it back in the box.
Apparently this sort of practice is not uncommon so if you are buying a new camera always make sure you check it out before you leave the store.
I mean don't get me wrong, if I had been offered a reasonable discount on the display camera, I may have considered taking it off their hands but if I'm paying for a new one then I expect a new one.
Anyroad...Jessops may suck rotten eggs but my new camera ROCKS!
It got its first proper outing in the Scottish Highlands over the weekend.
I've been wanting to shoot some of my own designs for ages and Glen Coe creates a magical backdrop.
We headed out in the early morning hours so that we could have the hillside all to ourselves...if you don't count a gazillion midgies that is.
Everyone was saying...
 "You're doing what tomorrow morning...where? You are going to get eaten alive! The midgies will have you for breakfast!".
It wasn't too bad to be honest, thankfully there was a slight breeze blowing through the glen so we managed to shoot for an hour before they started getting to us.
It was very early and a tad nippy to say the least and although I tried my hardest to stop it, my face was all too keen to bear witness to this.
However as per usual we took a mother load of photos and some came out not too shabby.

I brought four kilts but we only managed to shoot one of them. I wanted to get the other stuff done first and by the time we got around to the kilts the midgies were biting and we had to pack up and RUN AWAY!

Vintage kilt, 90s mohair jumper, tights, DMs, Frocktasia 'Dear Darkness' chiffon rose headdress, bangles galore & etno-earrings.  

For me tartan is an autumn/winter style perennial, it just feels right at this time of year.

I tend to team my tartan with stuff that make it a bit more punk than prim...

DMs or a pair of battered lace-up hiking boots, a washed out band Tee or a shaggy mohair jumper.

Tartan inspiration...

Audrey Horne from Twin Peaks looking prim, two pics from a grunge laden 90s Marc Jacobs collection and Liv Tyler wearing a cute mini kilt in the 'Empire Records' movie.

Fan-tartan-tastic!

I'll leave you with a tartan OTT look from the Frocktasia archives...

'THE HAGGIS HUNTER'

Take care y'all!

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx