We love a good home bake in our family, and now that we're off on holiday we've started to have a baking day each week. Even with regular baking, none of the food ever lasts - and we're finished within a couple of days.. I'm taking it as a compliment that they're just that good.




So, in need of a new recipe to tingle those taste buds, we thought we'd try out a recipe for coconut slices that we tried years ago and seem to have forgotten about. But believe me, they will never be forgotten again. Within minutes of the first slice being cut, my dad had already eaten 4 squares. They're extremely moreish, light enough to eat a couple in a row, but filling enough to act as a mid morning or afternoon snack.



Ingredients

Base:

• 100g of butter
• 100g of plain flour
• 100g of caster sugar
• 85g desiccated coconut
• 3 egg yolks (but save the whites for later)
• 5 tablespoons of jam (flavour of your picking) 

As its the end of the first month of the year - I know, how!? - i thought I'd start a little round up post of my instagram pictures from the month! I might actually make this a weekly thing, considering I did promise to do daily instagram posts in my New Years Resolutions post and I have majorly failed that one already, this might encourage me to post more. We can hope, right!

A while back when Katie from Cheerz contacted me to see if I'd like to try out some of the photo printing products that they have available, I was so excited. Photos are my favourite thing to decorate a room - they are so personal and can bring back many a happy memory. And after a long summer of travelling, I had lots of photos that I wanted printed! With my discount code, you too can print photos of all different styles to fill your house (code at the bottom)!

The Cheerz website is super slick and easy to use. Everything is laid out so that you can find your way without a problem. From magnets to boxes, and posters to albums - you have a big choice to make, especially now that there's Christmas prints available too. Once you've picked your product, you can get to chose your photos from all your different sources - facebook, instagram, computer, dropbox... where ever you've uploaded those special moments. Once you've made the tough call, and decided which ones have made the cut, you then get the choice of which background you want the photos to be printed on, and to add some text depending the chosen box. By clicking on each photo you can zoom, crop and add filters so that edit to your hearts content.

The Cheerz Christmas Box

You can pick 30 photos to add to this little box, and customise them. I loved this little keep sake, so decided to fill it with pictures of my family.






La Boite A Photos

This one I'm excited to try my hand at as it involves more arts and crafts. This box is filled with 40 of your own photos, photo corners, string, patterned sellotape, and some pegs in a little bag. Here you can get as creative as you want, and I can't wait to hang my photos from the string to remind me of all the amazing places I've visited so far.





So what are you waiting for... what's even better is that you can use this code to get £4 off of your order, so long as you spend more than £8! It's such a great deal! These are lovely personalised gifts that would be perfect if you're looking for something thoughtful to give this Christmas.

https://www.cheerz.com/referrals/EMIJOPN
EMIJOPN

Love,
Emily
xxx

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With only one more essay due, which is well on its way and in the editing stages, I decided to take a little time away from the library and start the process of packing my bags for a few weeks at home.

Trying to fit it all in

My Toiletry Bag and Make up Bag

 Both my toiletry bag and my make up bag are from Cath Kidston. I got the make up bag last year for Christmas, and I've found that all my essentials fit nicely into it. The toiletry bag was a present this Christmas past from my brother, and as luck would have it, he picked the same pattern. I've found its really come in handy for my weekend visits home, and helps to keep my bags a lot more organised.

Inside the bag

My Travel Bag

Last week, my university gave us the week off of lectures, with the idea that we would take part in "inovative learning week". I took this oppertunity, like the majority of other students, to take the week off and relax. And I thought I'd tell you about my adventures with some pictures too, hope you enjoy!

On the 15th, my sisters came down to Edinburgh to visit me, which we've been planning on doing since Christmas and it was such a fab few days. We Johnston girls are able to pack away the food, so straight off the train they get and the three of us headed to jimmy chungs for an all you can eat buffet. After filling ourselves up with all the food we could, we headed back to my flat for pre drinks before going to "The Big Cheese", a club night which plays good old cheesy music. Despite Holly feeling the effects of the drink pretty quickly and wanting to leave at 12.30, we did have a good dance to some songs, were bought shots by some guys and tasted a "man cocktail" too, which had beer and cider in it.

This cocktail drink turned out to be a bad idea as the next day we were bed bound, and instead of going to the cinema like planned, we ended up having a movie day. That is after we went out to buy bagels and more crisps, sweets and popcorn.

Before the Big Cheese with Holly and Eleanor

Monday afternoon my sisters were due to get their train home, and I had decided to join them, so the three of us made the journey back up to Aberdeen. We managed to bag ourselves a table seat and spread out a picnic of sandwiches, popcorn, onion rings with dip, muffins and chocolate and ate for the whole journey back. It was absolutely delightful.

For the next four days I stayed at home, not doing much other than a dog walk in the morning and another late afternoon, but I loved it. And I got up at 7 every morning, which is unheard of for me.
Wednesday night, I went to see my sister in her drama groups' production of Hello Dolly which was actually really good, despite thinking that it was going to be boring, and my grandma was singing along to the songs and it was great to see Eleanor on stage (even if it was only for a little bit). The week was really relaxing, I baked some cookies, I went to my church's coffee shop, I had my grandma and great-grandma over for lunch, but didn't do anything too tiring because I just wanted to spend the time with my family.

One of the dog walks to the standing stones of Clune

Saturday morning brought about many tears as I said goodbye to my family once again. I can't control my emotions when I know I've got to leave them, and its a horrible feeling that I get. But this time, my sister Eleanor joined me on the train back to Edinburgh. Saturday night, we made another trip out to the Big Cheese, where we got a lot more dances, I saw some school friends and we had a blast, until a fire alarm went off and we decided to call it quits.

Eleanor and I before our second Big Cheese

Sunday was one of my favourite days ever. Eleanor and I are in love with the band 5 Seconds of Summer and they started off their first headlining UK tour last night in Glasgow, which we had tickets for. We caught the bus there, and headed to the O2 ABC for 1 o'clock, thinking that there would be no queue and we could hopefully meet the boys. There were literally hundreds of people already there, it was absolutely crazy, so we decided to join the queue and stay till doors open. We had a 6 hour wait in the freezing cold, sitting on the wet pavement with only a hoodie and a light coat on. I thought I had frostbite in my toes it was that cold. One hot chocolate run, two toilet trips, a bag of magic stars later, chatting with four lovely girls in the queue, and 6 hours later the doors finally opened and we were in! It was everything I thought it would be and more, and we were right at the front too. I could go on and on about it, but I was one of the most perfect nights ever, they were so funny and I loved hearing some of their new songs.
After the concert, we had to catch a bus back to Edinburgh, and didn't arrive back to the flat till almost 2am. Exhausted, we curled up and fell asleep, only to be woken up at 5 to a fire drill. Its times like these that I hate student flats.

Before the gig

Michael, Luke and Calum (Ashton was at the back of the stage and hard to see from my spot)

This morning, I started back at uni, which has really made me feel down. Sending my little sister off on the train was really heartbreaking, and I find myself close to tears at the thought of our very sappy goodbye. But I do feel lucky that I've been able to spend so much time with all my family members. I was able to see my grandparents, catch up with some people from my church and spend a lot of quality time with my parents and sisters (and of course my dog). But still, I wish I had longer. The dog walks that I went on with my parents were so relaxing, being out in the country side and hearing nothing but the wind in the trees is such a calm atmosphere, and since I had to midterm essay deadlines due the week before, it really was just what I needed, and its something that I've tried to recreate here in Edinburgh, but find can't. Going up Arthur's seat is close, but doesn't give me the same feeling as when I have my mum, dad or a sister beside me, and walking through the meadows just makes me think I'm heading to a lecture.
So I've booked another trip home already!

Thanks to those of you that have persevered through this post, I realise that it is quite long but I have done so much over these last 9 days that I wanted to write it down. I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the pictures from the week, I like a good nosy so I hope you did too!

Much love,

Emily
xxx