instagram catch up #1!

So sorry I've been totally MIA recently - for some reason the transition back to university after being at home for a long and lovely winter break has been super tricky this time around. You'd think halfway through my third year I'd have grown out of this by now, but I somehow don't think I'll ever grow out of missing my home, my dogs and my mum! But, even though all I've wanted to do is curl up in my freezing cold bed and watch Lord of the Rings, I've been making an effort to get out and about and see my friends. In Scotland you study at university for four years, so even though I've still got a year and a half left (uuugghhh), a lot of my fourth year friends are leaving in June so I'm trying to spend as much time with them as possible.

I know instagram catch up posts are a total cop out "filler" post, but I always like looking at them on other blogs & I figured it was an easy way to let you guys know what I've been up to. These are from the past few weeks, including some from when I was still being lazy at home. Seems like such a long time ago now. Hope you don't mind!


LEFT: Sorting out my home wardrobe & finally being able to access my clothes again!
RIGHT: Cuddles with the actual love of my life.



LEFT: The best type of post.
RIGHT: Insane amounts of snow at the top of Pen y Fan, in the Brecon Beacons. Another world.



LEFT: New toy! This is actually my nan's old ipad. The woman had two. Sigh.
RIGHT: The perfect couple.



LEFT: January 20th - supposedly the most depressing day of the year. Not for me!
RIGHT: Where I live was the worst this place in the country, snow wise. Hard to be angry at something this pretty, though.



LEFT: Reppin' Scotland, braving the snowy trains to visit Swansea.
RIGHT: View from the plane on the journey back to St Andrews.



LEFT: Back to reality!
RIGHT: Grey mornings.



LEFT: Dinner party at 9 Queens Gardens with my absolute favourites.
RIGHT: Because what dinner party is complete without articulate?!



LEFT: The cosiest thing I own. Once I put this on, it takes a while to come off!
RIGHT: Superbowl at the union! I wore converse and blue. Go ravens!

So, that's been me. What about you? Did you miss me?!

Wendy MacNaughton

Wendy MacNaughton is exactly the kind of artist tumblr tends to go wild for - and I actually don't mean that in a bad way. The 2012 artist in residence at San Francisco's Instersection for the Arts, MacNaughton's pieces are unobtrusive, intimate and deeply relatable. In her words, she makes diagrams 'to help make sense of things that are incomprehensible and overwhelming, too big and complex' - which, really, is I think the only reason anybody ever makes art in the first place.

Made entirely from ink and cotton, the designs have a soft and minimalist quality which makes them the perfect prints for a home. We can't always be making obscure statements about communist decadence, or building intricate dreamwork cabinets out of recycled wood - sometimes you just want a lovely, simple piece which speaks to those deep truths of humanity and is beautiful precisely because of its basic-ness. I've got a real soft spot for this form of art.

MacNaughton's wonderful and affordable prints - including 'The Universe Is Forever' (above) - are available on the fantastic 20x200 site, which directly supports the artist.

blondes have more fun!

I'm flying back to uni tomorrow, after a wonderfully lazy 5 weeks off. But I couldn't leave without seeing my very best friend, Megan - so yesterday I hopped on the train to Swansea & we partied, how we do. I've known Megan for nearly 7 years, when she was first introduced to me by my other very best friend - Harriet (memorise these names, they'll appear here often) - with the words "Megan's friends don't really like her at the moment, so she'll be hanging out with us for a while". She never left, and I couldn't be more glad.
Whenever we spend time together it inevitably involves three things - food, dancing, and Beyonce. So as soon as I arrived in Swansea we stuffed our faces with garlic bread and potato waffles, stocked up on amaretto (to aid the dancing, duh) & turned the music up.
My favourite thing about Megan is how insanely fun she is to be around, & we get up to all sorts of mischief when we're together. We're sisters in all but blood, and are totally free to just be ourselves around each other - vain, ridiculous, silly, all those qualities you hide from other people but don't ever have to hide from your friends.

We squeezed into little outfits - I'm wearing a Missguided dress, House of Holland mesh suspender tights & Next stilettos - downed our drinks & braved the rain to go to Tooters, at Swansea uni. It was a far cry from the nights I'm used to in St Andrews, but so fun. And since Megan works on the ENTS team at Swansea we got to skip the queue & avoid the entrance fee - and aren't nights so much better when you get to walk past people who've been waiting for half an hour?!
We danced with each other until the early hours, when our feet were aching, but somehow managed to stagger to Subway for that bready, carby necessity at the end of a night out. Obviously cameras were left at home, but Megan's just as much of an instatwat as I am, so the night was not without documentation. I'm hollyatgatsbys on instagram.

It was the most fun night I've had in a while, with the most brilliant lady I know.

10 minute recipe: grilled aubergine

This is one of my absolute favorite recipes for an easy, delicious lunch (or super lazy supper). It's totally vegan, ridiculously good for you, super low fat and best of all, it only takes ten minutes! Now, the reason it only takes ten minutes is because I am filthy, disgusting cheater - just use Uncle Bens! Obviously you don't have to, but boiling rice is such a faff, and takes such a long time, and these bad boys only require 2 minutes in the microwave. And I promise I'm not being sponsored.

Ingredients
- One large aubergine
- One red onion
- Two cloves of garlic
- 400g tin of chopped tomatoes (I used cherry tomatoes in juice, but regular ol' chopped tomatoes work just as well)
- Wholegrain rice in whatever form you fancy!
- A sprinkle of dried basil
- Olive oil

Wholegrain rice is definitely the best type of rice for this dish. The slightly earthier, grainy texture just works perfectly with the soft flesh of the aubergine and the richness of the tomatoes.
Honestly I've got no idea what I'm talking about - it just tastes better! And the health benefits of brown, wholegrain speak for themselves.

Preheat the grill, then start by chopping the aubergine into thick-ish slices. Spread them evenly across the grill and drizzle with a hefty glug of olive oil.



In the mean time, heat up some more olive oil in a pan, then chop up the red onion & garlic cloves. Toss them into the oil and give them a good fry for a few minutes. But I'm sure onion & garlic chopping is old news to most of you now!

Then add the chopped tomatoes. At this point the aubergine should be nice & browned - so just switch them over, drizzle the other side with olive oil & grill this for another minute or so. Aubergine grills deceptively quickly, so do keep an eye on them!

Then pop the Uncle Bens into the microwave - or make sure your actual rice is ready by this stage if you're being all proper!



Once the aubergine has grilled, cut the slices into quarters and toss them into the chopped tomato mix. Add a handful of dried basil, then the cooked rice, and give it all a good stir! I like my meals to be giant bowls of colourful, healthy goodness - no mess, no fuss, no fanciness. Just a fork, a bowl of warm & filling antioxidants, and something cosy on the telly. I went for Grand Designs.

Oh, Kevin!

red velvet cupcakes & tea

Cream cheese is essentially the reason I get out of bed in the morning, so I'm a big fan of red velvet cupcakes. I could honestly eat them by the bucketful, but in the spirit of all that "new year new me" ethos that everybody gets into in January, I've been behaving myself on the food front recently. Buuuttt... Today, it's making a very half-hearted attempt at snow, it's far too cold to go anywhere & there is simply no excuse for how dry and brittle this weather makes my hair. So,  in need of a bit of comfort food with absolutely minimal effort, I bundled up & headed to Tesco in pursuit of every lazy ladies saviour - Betty Crocker. I am shameless.

When I saw the Red Velvet cake mix I got pretty excited, but sans cake tins I decided to just use the mix for cupcakes instead. I would post the "recipe" here but I'm sure you can all figure it out - just follow the instructions on the box! The only difference in making cupcakes rather than an actual cake is that you should make sure to use muffin cases & cook for about 15 minutes, rather than the 25 recommended on the box. And only fill the cases about halfway, because these babies rise!



There was enough mix for maybe 15 or so cupcakes, but there was only room for 12 on my tray so I was forced to eat the rest of the mix.
It's a hard life.

Then simply slather on a healthy helping of Betty Crocker's ready made cream cheese icing, and enjoy with a well brewed cup of Clippers organic tea. And no dainty little china cups either - you want a hefty mug to keep your hands nice and warm. I enjoyed my cupcake curled up in a giant armchair next to the radiator reading all of your lovely blogs, but I've so far only managed to eat one - possibly all that raw mix might have been a little much...

summer nostalgia

The summer of 2012 was the summer I fell in love with summer. Before then I'd always considered myself a winter girl - I liked grey skies, snowfall, bare branches and winter winds. But maybe last summer, after 2 years in Scotland, I'd finally had enough of the cold and the rain and the dark, because you honestly couldn't keep me out of the sunshine. Although I had a full time job and a gallery internship on the weekends, whenever I managed to wrangle a few days off I was straight to the seaside, or the woods, or even just pub gardens with my friends in the town where I went to school. I embraced bare legs and frizzy hair; I took long train journeys through the sun baked countryside; I swam in the ocean and picnicked by the poolside - and all on British shores, as I didn't leave the country once last year.

And now, unfortunately, I am curled up on the sofa under two blankets and three jumpers, with the heater right beside me doing very little good. The world outside is frozen and so are my fingers, my lips are chapped and my legs are positively translucent, and I'm dreaming of that sun soaked summer. Of course, in my wistful trip down memory line I'm choosing to ignore the many weeks last summer where it rained non-stop, but we won't talk about that... Instead I'm reminiscing for the days where I climbed mountains, learnt how to make mojitos and daiquiris, read about a million books, decided where I want to live after I graduate, ate my body weight in mexican food, spent some time in a village built into the side of a cliff, finally realized what all the fuss is about regarding cider in the sunshine, and tried to soak as much vitamin D into my veins as I could. Summer 2013 cannot come soon enough.

Forgive the picture heavy post. Allow me this moment of summer nostalgia!

 

Hendzel & Hunt

Hendzel & Hunt are a devilishly talented twosome, producing beautiful pieces of bespoke furniture entirely from reclaimed materials in Peckham. Young, innovative and desperately cool, they tick all the right boxes - and they've also got one of those "team" pages where everyone is beautiful & the all the pictures are black and white, so they've got that going for them too. Established by Jan Hendzel and Oscar Hunt (above), the company is all about the sustainable and the recyclable - and it might be a cliche, but god damn, I do love me some ethical responsibility. Particularly when combined with beautiful design.

As is the case with the positively dreamy Dreamworks Cabinet. Made of reclaimed oak and walnut flooring, this cabinet is so much more than it seems. Think the wardrobe to Narnia, but in the home of some city slicking young thing who actually reads the design books on coffee table and grew up surrounded by enough trees to recognize a decent oak when he sees one. With unexpected mirrors, pin stripes and the kind of angle-based logic that just goes completely over my head, the illusionistic cabinet even contains hidden compartments - because who doesn't have a few secrets, right? The beautifully earthy grain of the combined woods alongside an expertly distorted pattern are right up my street. Now there's no way this cabinet could handle half of my bulging wardrobe, but with this piece in my home, I might just consider downsizing.


All pictures shamelessly thieved from the Hendzel & Hunt website. Apparently I turn to crime in my excitement.