Edinburgh: Favourite Foodie Places

This blog is a bit different from the usual - I was sitting on the train home on Friday trying to figure out how to fit all these photos and places into one post! We had a great week in Edinburgh and found so many new favourite places, I mostly photographed the foodie ones so thought it made sense to put these into a nice little run down of which we'll be missing most. I think I might just do a separate one for shopping once the presents I bought have been opened by their recipients though...

Mary's Milk Bar

19 Grassmarket, Edinburgh EH1 2HS 

This adorable milk bar serves the best milkshakes in the perfect vintage setting and was just around the corner from where we stayed. The ice cream and chocolates are made by the lovely Mary who went to Carpigiani Gelato University. Mary's Milk Bar also offers gelato tasting evenings and truffle making workshops - yum! Unfortunately we couldn't make either of these but we did manage to squeeze a second visit before catching our train home - yay! 

Hula

103-105 West Bow, Edinburgh, EH1 2JP

The perfect place for a tasty (and healthy) breakfast! I'd imagine lunches would be great too but we got into the habit of grabbing a smoothie on our way past Hula in the mornings. A bright and cheery atmosphere to start the day, art on the walls and friendly staff. David tried a chicken pesto bagel too which looked tasty but I liked the 'Special H' breakfast shake best which was a mix of granola, frozen yogurt and berries. 

Eteaket

41 Frederick Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1EP

This was a bit of a rushed visit because I'd seen Eteaket online and thought it looked nice and we only just managed to squeeze it in. I really love the branding, from the bold doilies outside and the more subtle ones inside to the tea packaging and gift bags. We chose a pot of tea each; tutti fruitti for me and gunpowder green for David. They are quite big pots of tea! They sell lots of tea related accessories there too so I couldn't resist a polka dot tea infuser pot to add to my collection. 

Miro's Cantina Mexicana 

184 Rose Street, Edinburgh, EH2 4BA 

I'm so glad one of you lovely Facebook likers recommended this place - thanks Emma Robb! It is such a cosy and colourful little Mexican restaurant and they honestly do the best nachos. A few years ago I didn't actually like nachos (I'm a fussy eater but getting better) and this was the kind that would have intimidated me with it's abundance of toppings; chunky guacamole, sour cream, cheese, refried beans, salsa, parsley, jalepenos, all layered generously with seasoned tortilla chips. David had a large with added beef chilli and faced a man vs. food moment, I had a small with a sweet potato, honey and chilli soup although I still didn't manage to eat it all as there was so much! 

Mimi's Bakehouse - Picnic Parlour

250 Canongate, Edinburgh, EH8 8AA

We came across this place by accident, after lunch when completely stuffed but still had to go in and see what they had to offer because it was too pretty to resist. This is another place where I love the branding; quirky details with a classy mint, pink and black palette. We managed a sticky toffee cupcake between us, but only because it was so good! The birds in the lamps and sprinlkes jars in the windows were really sweet touches. 

Dragonfly Cocktail Bar

52 West Port, Edinburgh, EH1 2LD

This place was literally across the road from our apartment. It was really busy the when we arrived since it was the weekend so we waited until a quieter evening for a more chilled out drink. As soon as I read the menu and saw the word sprinkles I knew I was having a raspberry ripple cocktail! It tasted like raspberry milkshake and is probably the cutest cocktail I've had. David's drink was really yummy too, it tasted a bit like a spiced apple pie. The bar itself is really dark so it's hard to tell what it actually looked like in there - this statue behind our table gave us a bit of a scare!

So there you go, I hope this might be useful to anyone visiting Edinburgh. There were lots of other places we would have loved to visit but simply not enough time (or money) in one week. There's always next time though! 

Edinburgh Markets

We've been in Edinburgh for 3 full days now and managed to find 4 markets - 3 foodie ones and 1 vintage! We're staying in the Grassmarket area so first stop was the farmers market there on Saturday morning where I bought some yummy teas from Leith Tea Company. We then went up to Castle Terrace for the farmers market where we found chocolate, craft beers and Scottish tablet - yum! Next we went over to Pippin in Haymarket (one of my Mum's stockists) where I bought some goodies including a motivational Bread & Jam mug and Bomb Cosmetics Sugar and Spice candle tin (smells so good!!) also stopped at Paper Tiger where I picked up some helpful looking books. Later, on a long evening walk, we came across Bruce Munro's Field of Light installation in St. Andrew's Square, it's so pretty - like a meadow of colour changing fairy lights.

On Sunday we headed over to A Spoonful of Vintage fair but it wasn't my lucky vintage hunting day. Then we had ice cream in the rain on our way to Stockbridge market, I got Daisy some doggy doughnuts there! We had lunch at Peter's Yard which I'd heard about through Instagram and I'm glad we did, the pizza was great! The rest of the day was spent in and out of charity shops, still not my lucky day for bargain hunting though. After that we got some macarons - mango, rose and chocolate from Patisserie Madeleine and I bought some cute bits and pieces from Daisy Cheynes but can't share those yet as they're a present.

We finished off the day with cocktails at the Dragonfly Cocktail bar. I had a drink that tasted suspiciously like milkshake called a Raspberry Ripple - finished with sprinkles on the glass! David had a slightly more manly spiced apple flavoured rum drink.

Today was so busy that it's going in a separate blog post!

March Places: Pebble

An exciting new gift shop based in Rosemount, Aberdeen opened at the weekend! Since Pebble is my Mum's shop and I've been really involved in the whole process I'm doing my best not to write this as a review since it would be really biased! Instead I'll tell you a bit about the finishing touches, opening weekend and some of my favourite products in the shop. So come on in and have a look around!

The big job last week was arranging all of the stock around the eclectic mix of pastel painted vintage and upcycled displays, this took a few days and we finished with the window display on the Friday which admittedly involved no planning and a bit of panicked throwing together. The vertical Pebble branded bunting seemed like a good idea beforehand but was being assembled right up until the last minute - I think the look was worth it in the end though! Along with those last minute jobs I hadn't actually finished the Bottled Treasures stock until the Friday morning; I was determined to fill the two tiny cube shelves in time for the opening and am glad I did as they have been selling quick and getting lots of compliments (thank you). The little stationery section was my idea, not all of it handmade but I thought arty people like to buy crafty things so I helped choose some cute pens, stamps, deco tapes and sticky notes... and most have sold out already!

I could have featured all of the products in the shop but I've limited myself to 8 so this post didn't get too big:

1. Ecosse Candles: these have been so popular, my favourites are Sweet Pea and Evening Rain (which might have sold out actually) but I'll be waiting for the next delivery to get my own. 2. Collage Etage: gorgeous brooches and embellished heart frames. I've already got a few of these quirky pieces! 3. Bosie Boutique: silver stacking rings, my Mum makes these but they are really beautifully shown off in the illuminated cabinet in gorgeous colour groups. 4. Bellwood Bears & Nikki McWilliams: These bears have the cutest faces, they're just begging to be given a new home. The cushions are catching passer-byes eyes in the window display. I'm a fan already with my lilac party ring cushion being displayed proudly on the sofa at home. 5. Freda Shelton: pretty yet practical socks, I have a pair of the rainbow ones in the middle - so cosy 6. Doodlestuff's Doodlepins: I bought one of these at Christmas and was very excited to find we'd be stocking them in the shop. Such funky colours and creatures. 7. Studio 34: Northern Lights tealight holders, they light up in such a magical way and come in a set of 4 so you don't have the impossible task of choosing! 8. Ginger Pickle: adorable wooden animal earrings, brooches, necklaces and hair slides. These have been really popular already - you can see why!

This has still turned into a bit of a giant post but it's all too exciting! We spent the weekend serving lots of happy customers and hearing wonderfully positive comments about the shop while living on cake, sweets and tea. It's no surprise that I came home and fell asleep at 5pm yesterday - oops...

Finally, I've just published the temporary website for Pebble today. In future the plan is to replace it with an online shop, in the meantime it's just a simple place to have a look around the shop and find out a bit about it. Hope you like it!

www.pebbleshop.co.uk