weekend wanderings #43

(images from me!, blog.finelittleday.com and junkaholique.com)

• I discovered the most beautiful blog this week, Fine Little Day - via these amazing iced gingerbread mittens that I saw on Pinterest, and I have completely fallen in love. Those silver birch mittens are such beauts, too.
• I'm really loving Paul Hollywood's recipes at the moment, I'm actually tempted to buy his book because they've all turned out really well, particularly his croissants and his shortbread.
• Speaking of croissants, I'm so obsessed with making them now. I've done it twice, and the second time it didn't seem like so much hassle, if you've got the time to do it, they're so worth it.
• A useful post from Terri about how to edit photos to make them really stand-out, not using photoshop and without anything super fancy or tricky. 
• I read the title of this article and wanted to sing: someone that gets how I feel about not having kids! I'm fed up of people saying to me oh, you'll change your mind as you get older, or, but how do you know you don't want kids? Because I know! Like I know I don't like mushrooms, basically.
• How freaking adorable is this wrapping paper? Last year I went to real trouble with my wrapping and used brown paper and printed on it - this year I didn't have the time and just bought it and I really don't like it as much! 
• The stars have been so beautiful and bright these last few nights, the skies have been wonderfully clear. We have these new streetlights where I live that are much darker, making it much easier to watch from my back garden - and judging from these photos from carriebrighton.com I'm not the only one thats been enjoying it.  
• My brother promised me he'd make me some honeycomb for Christmas - and this recipe from Blue October has made me really excited for it. 
• As always, when Junkaholique showcases her festive decorations, it makes me think that it is everything that I want my house to be like. I went out and collected pine-cones and some boughs yesterday to make my room a bit more cosy, and this post about how they celebrate the winter solstice really resonated with me. I'm not religious, really, despite being raised in it, as I've grown up I really love celebrating nature more than anything else.
• I was writing a post about Christmas nail varnishes, when this popped up on my Bloglovin' feed, and all of Rosie's choices were very similar to mine, clearly everyone has the same ideas at Christmastime, glitter and sparkle are on everyones mind.
• Ah, this coat and sweater combo is everything. I have a beautiful green Aquascutum coat that I really need to get re-lined because it's coming apart, this has reminded me to get it sorted! 
• My friends make jokes about how obsessed I am with salted caramel or salted chocolate, and it's really getting silly now, but there is just something really amazing about super sweet chocolate or caramel with a salty kick, and these truffles look like something I could easily whip up.
• Still on that Serial train, I want there to be another 12 episodes, so I eagerly devoured this interview with Adnan Syed's parents on the Guardian website.

(psst, sorry this post is so late, I've had a friend over this evening and I lost track of time!)