Top Ten Thursday - Happy Things

This weeks top ten is things that make us happy which is great as I'm part way through the 100 Happy Days Challenge - I post a photo a day on instagram for 100 days of something that makes me happy. I started the challenge on new years day as I thought it was a nice way to start the new year, so we're up to day eighteen and for this post I'll share ten of the things that have made me happy so far. Thanks to Tamara at Part-time Working Hockey Mom for the wonderful theme.

1. Day One - new years day walk with my beloved. The temptation when I decided to do the 100 days challenge was to put a photo of Ken for every day, but I've restrained myself. He will appear fairly regularly as he definitely is my happy place.

2. Day three - a very rare occasion, our two furbies eating dinner together.

3. Day six - I'm always happy when I'm exploring an old graveyard. This one was very lovely and there is a pending blog post about this.

4. Day seven - churros, one of the happiest foods there is. Whenever we go to a music festival we always share churros, as they're the perfect festival food. The sauces are chocolate for Ken, and caramel for me.

5. Day nine - my lovely warm slippers which I'm appreciating even more at the moment as we're having very cold, snowy weather.

6. Day ten - lovely sparkly belated birthday card which is so cute.

7. Day twelve - I treated myself to a new bag in the post Christmas sales, and as they all hung together I realised I may have a little bit of a spotty bag addiction.

8. Day thirteen - banana caramel loaf at the Olive Tree Cafe at Logie Steading. This is a lovely little shopping village in old farm buildings that we like to visit. There's a great craft gift shop, a vintage clothes shop, a whiskey shop, an art gallery, and a fabulous second hand bookshop. So whilst the picture for this day was the cake, the happy was really the whole experience.

9. Day sixteen - my happy thing was that I'm so glad my husband is such a good driver. The weather has been a little bit challenging this week, but I've been delivered safely to work every day by my personal chauffeur.

10. Day eighteen - Princess Cookie Cat has the cutest little paws and they definitely make me smile.

I loved this theme as I think it's always good to take time to realise what we've got in our lives that makes us happy. Before you go, make sure you hop over to Tamara's Blog to see what my fellow bloggers have come up with for their happy things.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and do something that makes you happy this week.

Pamela & Ken
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Winter in Aberdeen

We recently had a lovely weekend in Aberdeen for our anniversary - I wrote about the first part of our weekend in The Twelve Days of Christmas and Cats in Aberdeen. During our journey we stopped in Fochabers for coffee and cake and discovered that they have a window display competition for Christmas. This was our favourite, drink cans that have been turned into a church choir, complete with sheet music.

I loved this little reindeer French bulldog that was in the cafe window - very cute.

The day before we drove across to Aberdeen it decided to snow very heavily but thankfully we were on a main road the whole way so had no problems.

When we got to the hotel we discovered that a friend had managed to get us upgraded to a premium room which was such a nice surprise - I'd already arranged for chocolates and prosecco in the room to celebrate with so it was a great way to start the weekend.

There was a lovely lounge bar downstairs and as it was freezing outside we just stayed at the hotel in the evening and enjoyed some time together in a nice environment.

Here's some pictures of snowy Aberdeen for you to enjoy - the snow makes everything look a little magical.

Ken found a mate to pose next to - I should have got him a matching costume to show off all his muscles.

I loved how this statue looked with the snow - very regal.

The gold mailbox is for Katherine Grainger who won gold in the rowing at the London 2012 Olympics. Every British gold medal winner at the London games had a post box in their hometown painted gold for them.

This huge piece of street art on the side of a building is by the artist Add Fuel, who is a Portuguese Street Artist. 

Look at these boots of loveliness that I spotted in a shop window - I had to go in and hold them for a moment and imagine winning the lottery so that I could go back and buy them.

Beautiful war memorial with the winter sun on it.

We had a good wander round Union Square shopping centre, admiring the lovely Christmas decorations and the shops that we don't have in Inverness. Loved this waterfall of lights in the front of the centre.

One of the shops had all sorts of things made out of chocolate - they were amazing. Love the shoes and lipsticks in this photo.

Chocolate tools and nuts and bolts.

Chocolate 'cheese' and utensils. I was tempted to buy a piece of the 'cheese' as I'm sure it must mess with your head having something that looks so like cheese, but is solid chocolate.

This is looking down into part of the shopping centre from a balcony.

We stopped to have a coffee (of course) and I had this very cute little meringue snowman. He was very yummy.

On our journey home to Nairn we stopped part way for a break and took these photos that show the snow looking like icing on these picnic tables.

The cafe had a lovely wood burner for us to sit near - nice and toasty warm.

More snow shots.

Hope you enjoyed this visit to snowy Aberdeen. That was two weeks ago and now there is only snow left on the high mountains - the weather is being very bizarre.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and I hope the weather is good wherever you are in the world.

Pamela & Ken
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Friday's Friendly Notions

It's Friday so it's time for the friendly fill ins which are set by Annie at McGuffy's Reader and Ellen at 15andmeowing.com. The words in purple are the prompts that are provided and then the rest is me.

1. Snow can be so pretty, especially when it first falls and hasn't been disturbed too much. Last week we had lots of snow and I thought it was beautiful (not so much on the roads but still lovely to look at).

2. I am really looking forward to an eleven day break over the Christmas/New Year period - time for rest and time with my beloved.

3. One holiday memory that I cherish is the Christmas I had in Saudi Arabia. Christmas wasn't celebrated in the country but my fellow expats and I did have a get together and bought each other silly gifts. My favourite gift was a pink flipper for my keyring that my friend Elaine gave me as I'd commented on one that she had. Sadly, Elaine is no longer with us, but twenty five years after that Christmas, my flipper is still on my keyring and it still makes me smile.

4. I always thought that Santa came from a Scandinavian country until we had a holiday in Turkey. St Nicholas lived in Myra and was a bishop in the fourth century. He came from a wealthy family and was very generous including dropping money down chimneys to remain anonymous - I'm guessing this is where Santa coming down the chimney originated. Here's a link to the history if you're interested - Click Here to Visit.

Do you have snow where you live, or do you have sunshine all year round? Make sure you visit Annie or Ellen's blogs to see what my fellow bloggers have come up with for their fill ins.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and it's now only ten sleeps until Santa Claus visits all the good boys and girls.

Pamela & Ken

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Friday's Friendly Contributions

It's Friday (for another forty three minutes) so it's time for the friendly fill ins which are set by Annie at McGuffy's Reader and Ellen at 15 and Meowing.com. The words in purple are the prompts that are provided and then the rest is me.

1. I can't believe people are still sold into slavery around the world. In September the United Nations put the number of modern day slaves at over forty million which is incredibly shocking.

2. I have nothing on Craigslist. (Craigslist is basically an online classified advertising site)

3. Going into December, the weather outside is chilly and it keeps trying to snow. It's a balmy seven degrees now, at 10:45pm. The last few days haven't been nearly as warm, with it barely getting above two. All the mountains around the area are covered with snow and the ski season started a few days ago. I'm enjoying getting out my warm clothes and I love seeing the snow, I just don't like it when it gets all wet and grey at this time of year.

The view out our bedroom window on the day of our first snow

4. My current weakness is cats! (I couldn't think what to write so asked my beloved and he straight away said cats). Technically this isn't a current weakness, more a forever kind of weakness - I just love cats so much and in an ideal world I'd have many more. Last night we were watching a show about cats, and the presenter visited a woman who has got fifty rescue cats in her house (it was a big house), sixty rescue feral cats in the grounds around her house, and over forty cats for rehoming - it was like a little slice of cat heaven.

What's your current weakness? Is it a food, reading, or even spending lots of time relaxing? Make sure you hop over to Annie's blog to see what my fellow bloggers have come up with for their responses.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and say hello to the next cat that you see.

Pamela & Ken

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