After waking up at Miquette’s yesterday morning, we headed to the Roseleaf in Leith for brunch with all of our parents.

It’s such a kitschy cute cafe, I’m jealous that it’s not in London. They serve cocktails in teapots and I want to try almost everything on the menu.

My Dad giggled at the Canadian salt & pepper shakers.

I went for the waffles with bananas and toffee sauce again, which were the best waffles I’ve ever had and the best UK brunch (2nd only to Clinton Street Bakery in NY).

Afterwards we went to Portobello. It was sunny, though a little cold, but that wasn’t stopping lots of people from having BBQs on the beach.

I couldn’t resist collecting some pretty shells from the sand.

We went to Funpa (with a missing “rk”). Somehow I don’t believe this sign – I find it hard to believe that the amusements are open any day but Saturday.

Tom found a new vocation as a London tour bus driver. We dropped some coins in to the penny falls and tried to win an Alexander or Sergei meerkat plushie from the grabby machines.

After, we went for a coffee at the Beach House but my Dad was determined to think it was summer and had an ice cream.

In the evening, we headed home and my Nana came over for dinner. (She wore the Squirrel brooch I made her for Christmas).

We had barley risotto with mushrooms and a tofu chocolate pudding for dessert. My Mum’s such a good cook, so I had her post the recipe on CO+K.

It’s my Dad’s birthday next week, so I got to give him his birthday presents early –  a cool notebook and a terrorist teapot from Suck UK!

We’re having a Scottish tour of all of our friends. First stop was Perth with my family, which was heavily covered in snow.

We had a snowball fight with my Dad.

We warmed up with breakfast at Spoons before heading through to Dundee. (My Nana is wearing her squirrel brooch).

We saw our old flat in Dundee, which reminded us how much we didn’t miss the city.

We had a wander around the shops for a while and I managed to find the diary-a-month Moleskins that I wanted. You get a different coloured mini journal for each month, so I’ll be able to take them travelling and keep them in my bag at all times. We bumped in to our old friend Stuart outside the DCA, which was handy because we’d lost his number, and invited him to our pub meet-up later.

In the evening we had dinner and drinks with our old Dundee friends at our ex-local, The Counting House. Duncan also came up from KDY and Emma came through from Arbroath.

The big news is that Malcolm and Kirsty are engaged, he proposed on Christmas Eve and they are the happiest couple that you will ever meet. It was really nice catching up with old friends, reminding us that it’s the people we miss and not the city.

The train back to KDY was covered in trash, Duncan said we were in the “Skins carriage”.

As my family are down on holiday, I’ve got to spend the past week doing tourist things that I usually wouldn’t do. My Nana really likes to hear about the darker side of London’s history, so I’ve been trying to come up with adequately gory things to see.

On Wednesday, we went to the Old Operating Theatre, which is located in an attic near London Bridge, so you have to climb up lots of tiny ancient twisty stairs to get to it. The museum is filled with lots of little trinkets and interesting things to look at, as well as an old operating table, which is still covered in blood stains.

I really like this set of tools, which nurses use to clip on to their belts. I think this could be super handy for crafting.

Afterwards we had lunch at the Golden Hynd and went to the Clink Prison. Did you know that prisoners use to have to pay for their own imprisonment and if you had a ball and chain, you were allowed to leave the prison and see friends and family?

We spent the rest of the day on the South Bank, visited The Globe and did a bit of sightseeing.

On Thursday, we took a break from all the gore to feed the animals in Holland Park.

One of the peacock followed us on our walk, it was very tame.

While eating lunch, the squirrels kept climbing up my boots and on to my knee.

They even started begging for a bit of my bagel.

In the evening we went on the Ghost Bus Tour. You ride on a black RouteMaster, which is lit by lamps, and the guides take you around the sights, telling you tales of murder, hauntings and crime. It was really funny and entertaining, so you should check it out if yours in London.

There was a nice little piece on Cut Out + Keep in the Daily Mirror newspaper on Monday. They called me on Friday asking for photos to use. Tom said, you were in the newspaper yesterday, will be on fish and chip wrappers today and will be in the recycling tomorrow.

I’d been wanting a Vivienne Westwood horn tiara ever since I first saw one in Paris, but at £250 it wasn’t very realistic. Tom found a blogger in America, who was clearing out and selling hers off, so he got them as my Christmas present.

They arrived this morning and they are so sparkly and pretty. They’re replicas of the ones Vivienne wore to meet the queen.

Tom let me have a peak at them. All I need to do now is save up for “the dream dress“.

My Mum and Nana have come down to visit, so we picked them up from the train station at midnight last night. Beforehand, Tom and I went on an impromptu very late night dinner date at Carluccios in St. Pancras station – delicious pasta followed up by Tiramisu.

While Tom was at work today (playing on the 3-floor office helter-skelter slide and ping pong table), we all went for pancakes at Plan 9 followed up with a wander around Spittalfields. I took Nana for a drink in the Ten Bells, because she’s a fan of Jack The Ripper.

This door always makes me smile when I walk past.

We got tasty cakes from the Indian bakery on Brick Lane.

I went for a florescent green pistachio cube. I’d love to know what these are called.

This Twilight movie poster in the tube made me giggle on the way home.

I had a really nice day in Perth with my family today.

We went for dinner at the amazing Cafe Tabou and I managed to buy a pair of red mary jane shoes in the sale. We were maybe going to go to Dundee but it got late and I really wanted to meet my cousins new pets.

I feel really good about being vegetarian now. I went to visit my cousin Lisa, who lives in a gigantic old house in Kirkcaldy. She has three lovely chickens which live in her garden. They were really tame and friendly, cooing and purring as we stroked them. If you ever get a chance to pet a chicken, touch it’s feet because they are surprisingly warm.

They lay about one egg each a day and are really easy to take care of. We made scrambled eggs for breakfast the next day. If I had a garden, I would definitely get some.

I found this cartoon portrait in my room. It was drawn while I was on holiday in Canada back in 1996. I was in love with dolphins back then.

My Nana loves crime and murder mysteries, so we went on the hunt for Jack The Ripper in Spitalfields today. Our first stop was the Ten Bells pub, which was the favorite drinking spot for the Ripper’s most famous victim, Mary Jane Kelly.

They serve Parisian absinthe and still have the original tiling on the wall, although the toilets have to be the most frightening part of the pub.

Afterwards we explored Brick Lane, which has so many awesome shops, including the very awesome Tatty Devine. After a very hustle and busy day in the East end, we relaxed with fish and chips and my drink of choice, raspberry lemonade at our new favorite dining ship / establishment, the Queen Mary at Embankment.

Tom and I have been getting in to the Christmas spirit by making Gingerbread Snowmen of each other. He managed to add details like my Bust top, earrings and all the dots on my skirt. I made a knitting snowman too.

My Nana and Grandad came up to visit. They don’t come up too often but I love it when they do.

I made mini fimo Geisha’s to give to my Mum and Nana.

Also Miquette sent me a little package of craft supplies in the mail, including a selection of LED lights, stickers and other trinkets. I love snail mail.

Nana & Grandad came up to visit today. They don’t come up too often so I love it when they do.

I baked them some wheat germ muffins, which are tasty and really healthy too!

They’ve started a Stitch N Bitch at the Borders near our house and I keep meaning to go along and I have no excuse now that I’ve finished knitting my Skulls & Needles knitting bag to tote my supplies in.

I designed the chart in my new Stitch N Bitch knitter’s journal which I love so much!

Update: someone made their own version of my bag and it looks awesome!