The night is young. The night is always young: The Locals' Guide to Edinburgh

It's hard to find a quirky, non-touristy guide book that serves up recommendations of places you want to visit off the tourist trail, but when you do stumble across a good one it's a real treat. Word of Mouth Travels' 100% Made in Scotland city guide is like a friend in a foreign city letting you in on all their little local secrets.

On top of chapters delightfully titled "where to stay", "all you can eat", "Scots for weather", "beautiful walks", "drink and be merry" and my favourite; "you should be dancing, yeah" the book features a number of interviews with local legends including a fashion designer, a deli owner, a theatre producer, a musician and a parent and publican. You really do get a feel for a town that has so much character to offer.

The Locals' Guide is a pocket sized go-to guide for everything cool on the cobbled streets of Edinburgh, definitely worth picking up a copy.

(Now my personal tip, I picked up my copy from The Red Door Gallery in Edinburgh but when looking online was surprised to find The Locals' Guide to Edinburgh cheapest at Amazon.com)

Is there candy in your camera?

I finally got around to developing my lomography snaps from Europe. A lot didn't work out which was disappointing and a few rolls caught too much sunlight. Nethertheless, here is my lomo show and tell.

Photos were taken on my Diana F+ with 120mm 100ISO and 400ISO colour negative film.

Dear paper crane, can you fly?

I ♥ origami, I think it is such a superb pass-time.

Today at work I received a press release, this is standard it happens every day, but today I opened the envelope and out fell four delightful little paper cranes. They had been folded from the medical information leaflet you get inside pill packets.... a little bit cool.

If you consult doctor Google, you will of course end up at Wikihow at some point, but hey kids today Wiki doesn't let us down, there are simple instructions for origami beginners to follow. Even more exciting, whilst on my google image rampage I found Made by Jo on Etsy (oh how we love Etsy). Jo has a delightful store where you can buy tens or hundreds of paper cranes already made for you. This can only mean one thing, paper crane theme party time!! Go ahead and fill your life with origami delights!! I have just ordered the 24 printed cranes for USD$6, yeee!!!

Dear Penpal

I love stationary, in fact I have a minor stationary obsession, kiki-k, smiggle, give it all to me :)

Last week, trawling through the goodness google had to offer on all things stationary I stumbled across Indiefixx.com's Perpal Project! I jumped with giddy excitement. I love receiving things in the post, oh how opening letters makes me smile especially letters from someone other than Ashley at my bank.

I jumped at the opportunity to dive right in and hop to writing some snail mail. I am super excited to receive my first letter from Paula in Spain and can't wait to get penciling to Sandhya in India and Katrina in California!

Image by suburbanpenpal

The Birds are Chirping

It has been a day of clouds and rain, but hey, this is Scotland after all. Alas, now I sit in my window looking out at that castle that makes me grin and I can hear the birds chirping, this can only mean one thing. The rain has stopped, the streets are wet, the air smells cold and fresh, the day is happy.

I snapped this pic last night before the rain came, I have always loved summery (and not so summery) nights.