Since 2015, the Audacious Women Collective has focused on empowering and encouraging women to overcome personal, political and institutional barriers, and to celebrate the achievements of inspirational Scottish women. The Audacious Women Festival happens once a year and a range of workshops and talks are held by and for people who identify as women.





I was lucky enough to get a ticket for a gilding workshop run by Sally-Ann Johns of Studio 58 at the City Art Centre. I had zero experience of gilding prior to this day so I'm very grateful to Sally-Ann for teaching me! Photos courtesy of my Instagram story that day!









We began by coating a wooden board with a gold acrylic paint. This would act as our base and would also help mask any issues we might encounter when we placed the gold down on the board as beginners. Hair dryers were used to speed drying along.









Next up was working out what word we wanted to gild/gild around. After a lot of humming and hawing, I decided to simply do The Travelling Quill initials in a pale blue and gild the background.





Once we were happy with our designs, we needed to coat what we wanted to gild with a substance called gold size. Size is an adhesive that can be used to stick gold leaf or any other kind of 'leaf' to a surface. It's quite runny and we used small paint brushes to apply it to our wood.





Another quick blast with the hair dryer and we were ready to apply our gold leaf! No going back after this as once the gold leaf touches the size, it is sticking! Placing the goldleaf was tricky because of this. It's very delicate and fragile so you have to place it gently and avoid tearing it.









With the entire board covered, the unattached gold leaf then needs to be brushed away. Using incredibly soft brushes, we revealed our designs below. It felt a bit like excavating ancient ruins or fossils!





A quick spray with sealant outside to protect everything...









And then that was that!













Not too bad for a total beginner! I missed a few spots with size but I'm very pleased with how it turned out and the board has pride of place in my office now!



Once again, another trip to Edinburgh Zoo. February makes for cold shooting but I'm pretty pleased with some of these shots. Always a treat to see the red pandas as well!
Here's v quick post from me, delving into the backlog of photos from the last time I was at Edinburgh Zoo. I'm pretty tempted to get myself an annual pass and start a photo series studying various species... We'll see.

It's a truth universally acknowledged that portraits look far more artistic when they're in black and white.

In between working full time, teaching myself to draw by sketching every single day for the year (which, FYI, is looking more and more like sketching every day for the rest of my life because I'm too stubborn to let my draw count reset), attempting to have a social life, and continuing the very necessary habits of binging Netflix and hibernating to reconcile my sleep deficit from the week, it's hard to keep up with posting on here. I'm slowly catching up but it's more difficult than I'd like to find the time. But I will get there, so without further ado...

 Samhain, pronounced SAH-win or SOW-in, is an ancient Celtic festival celebrating the end of the harvest season and the start of the 'darker half' of the year. Each Halloween, the Beltane Fire Society perform a living, dynamic reinterpretation and modernisation of the ancient Iron Age Celtic ritual in central Edinburgh, complete with full costume, acrobatics and pyrotechnics. It was crazy impressive to watch. So much time, effort and dedication goes into the performance and the event is entirely run on donations!


In Celtic mythology, Samhain causes the veil between worlds to weaken, allowing faeries and spirits to cross over into this one. Performers are split between the faeries who belong to the court of Summer. They're covered in flowers and greenery and interact with the crowd by speaking about perfect weather and how wonderful the Summer King's eternal reign will be... while the followers of the court of Winter hiss and screech and celebrate the long-awaited coming of the Winter King. The main performance shows the kings and their courts fighting one another and Winter emerging victorious, ready to usher in the colder months.



While utterly otherworldly in person, Samhain was a huge challenge to photograph. It was raining like nobody's business, so cold I could hardly feel my hands, and the lighting was so strange with the general darkness from Parliament Square and the bright fire. I had to give up on my SLR (i.e. protect it from the elements!) and rely on my phone camera, which I have to say I was actually very impressed with.


Another exciting thing about Samhain for me was that one of my photos of the performance made it to the shortlist of a photography competition run by the Scottish Parliament! Super exciting and I was honoured to be selected for week six!
There are good days and then there are bad days when all you want to do is play with kitties. Today wasn't one of those days but it didn't mean I was going pass up the chance to play with kitties!


Look, I am fully aware that the internet is full of cat pictures already and really doesn't need any more but I promise this is a genuine post. I didn't just see some cats and deem them blog-worthy. Actually, let me amend that, I would absolutely blog about random animals I see in my day to day life but I'm not sure I could successfully convince anyone that Mittens the cat is a wonder of the world (I probably could but let's not get into that right now)...

I'm pretty settled into Edinburgh now but when I was fresh to the city, this visit to Maison de Moggy was a wonderful way to explore some of the more popular areas. I'm counting this as a travel post because cat cafes are actually few and far between!


My day started out by discovering this utterly gorgeous shop called Museum Context on Victoria Street. I don't know if I've ever come across a shop so suited to me. Globes and maps and phrenology busts and typewriters and orreries and dinosaurs! Of course, every item costs an arm and a leg but that didn't stop me from dreaming. Maybe I'll save up some money and buy myself a trinket.

I think this day was the day I fell in love with the Grassmarket. Already an iconic part of Edinburgh with its ancient buildings and quaint stalls, I shouldn't have been surprised that this remains one of my favourite parts of the city but it was a gorgeous day to boot. And, you know, Maison de Moggy is right around the corner. What's not to love?

The cafe is set up with a set of two doors to prevent any kitty (or human) escaping in a way that reminded me a little of a decontamination unit on a space station. Once inside, we took of our shoes and went looking for kitties!


The cats have free roam of the cafe and can nap in hammocks, cat towers, on chairs and even in drawers! There were so many different toys to choose from and if a cat didn't want to play, they could get up high and away from humans.


Before our time slot, it had been nap time so everyone was a little sleepy still. Our visit quickly devolved into choosing our favourites...


Now, you're a sharp cookie. You may be thinking to yourself "but Emma! How can it be sanitary to have animals that use litter boxes in a cafe?!" Well, Sharp Cookie, the kitties have their own purpose built toilets with a super cute sign. They are also fenced off from the kitchen so everything is okay to eat too!


But the shop is not without its perils. Elodie, the sphynx cat, loves cake. And I mean, loves it. The staff warned us beforehand and said we should stand to eat it because she'd jump on us. And ohhhh did she. She had also learned to flip the metal covers off the little milk jugs for our tea. What a clever kitty.


Full disclosure: I did not like sphynx cats before I met Elodie. Or rather, I didn't like the idea of sphynx cats. I thought they would feel like petting skin and were relatives of Dobby the house elf. I was very wrong and I feel like I need to go forth into the world and spread the good news about this breed. Elodie was so soft! She has tiny peach fuzz all over her body and was so lively and affectionate. I've totally changed my tune.


When our hour was up, I left the cafe with the biggest smile on my face! Playing with kitties over afternoon tea - what more could you ask for on an August afternoon?! Maison de Moggy was perfect furrapy and I can't wait to go back!
I love Edinburgh. Maybe an unreasonable amount. I've never been in a city I could truthfully say I loved unequivocally before. It's nicely compact due to its geography, has beautiful, ancient buildings, incredible culture (the anticipation for August when the festival season starts in palpable), has easy access to the beach (still on my to-do list) and most importantly, has a huge hill/mountain/extinct volcano for me to climb when I get cabin fever, feel like I need to hike somewhere, stand at the top and say "hmm, yes, good".


For all of July, I sublet a flat that faces Arthur's Seat and in particular the Salisbury Crags. I got in from work repeatedly, utterly shattered, but I'd look out of the window and see the tiny, ant-sized people at the summit and walking the cliffs and convince myself that I'd go hiking the next day. 

Well, I finally got myself up there and boy, was it worth it.


Other than taking the steepest route possible by accident (take the regular route via the north side of Holyrood Park like a normal human), I'd put it as a must-do for anyone heading to Edinburgh. 360 degree view of all of city? Yes please. 

You can see everything from Edinburgh Castle (featuring stands for the Edinburgh Tattoo)...


...to Calton Hill...


...to St Margaret's Loch, Leith and the Firth of Forth.


The name Arthur's Seat is pretty unusual and its etymology is actually thought to come from King Arthur, as a possible location for Camelot... Whether or not that's true is something else entirely though. Lots of geographical features are named after King Arthur but if you want some more reliable history, you can find the ruin of St Anthony's Chapel on the sensible route to the summit. Try doing what I did and look very interested in the ruins as you kick yourself for having practically scaled the southern side of Arthur's Seat when you could have taken a gentle(ish) slope to the top... It was still worth it. 


A bit of housekeeping now. I'm sorry for being atrocious at updating! Work has certainly been keeping me busy but it has also been handing me things to write about and photograph so my to-do list has just been steadily growing. I'm all moved into my new flat now so things will be back to normal ASAP! Promise!
As much as I love when my mum drives up to collect me from university, I sometimes can't help but feel guilty that she comes all the way up to Stirling only to stuff all of my worldly possessions in the car, turn around again and drive right back home with me. Of course we make sure to see a lot of family on the way down each time we do the drive but my guilt was assuaged this time around as she had decided to extend her visit for a few days so we could do a mini-road trip.
One of the best parts about being back in Stirling this semester has to be my Animal Behaviour module... and the best part of the module? The all-expenses paid trip to Edinburgh Zoo!