USA holiday haul:

I wholeheartedly promise that I will shut up and stop posting blog posts and YouTube videos about our America trip very soon, but first I wanted to share a few things I bought while we were away.  Craig and I were both more interested in spending our money on nice food and memorable experiences than on shopping during this holiday, but I did end up buying one or two keepsakes to bring home.

I may not be the girliest of girls, but I do still get excited about the prospect of being able to buy make up and skin care products that you can't easily get hold of in the UK.  The (nearly) spherical EOS lip balms hold something of a celebrity status in the online beauty world, so I picked one up in the Strawberry Sorbet scent at Target to give it a go.  While the lip balm smells and tastes great and I really like the novelty of its unique shape and design, I don't actually find the product itself very moisturising or long lasting, which was a bit of a disappointment.  Luckily, it didn't cost an arm and a leg, so I don't feel too cheated!  

On the same trip to Target I also felt the need to replace my mascara.  Maybelline seem to have around four million different types of mascara in their range over here, and there are even more to choose from in the US!  I settled on Volum' Express Colossal Pumped Up! Waterproof (always waterproof) which doesn't seem to be available in the UK as of yet.  I'm happy with the results of this one, but the brush is a little larger and more unwieldy than what I'm used to (cue an increase in the number of times I poke myself in the eye each morning).

I was very restrained and only made one homeware purchase (again, at Target - seriously, I could have spent many, many more happy hours browsing in there) throughout the whole two weeks, despite a lot of temptation.  It was love at first sight between me and this 20oz Mason Tumbler by Aladdin, with a burnt orange lid and straw.  The tumbler is made of plastic, as well as being reusable and insulated, so I can use it to keep drinks cold.  Probably just water though, as it's a little on the large size for iced coffee!

I made sure we fitted a visit to Bath & Bodyworks into our itinerary so that I could buy some miniature scented candles that are rumoured to be the best around.  Again, a lot of these scents have been made famous by bloggers and YouTubers but are impossible to source at home.  Unfortunately, there definitely wasn't room in my suitcase for their large, three wick candles, so I settled for three miniatures for $10.  The scents I chose were Autumn, Marshmallow Fireside and Leaves (probably the one most raved about by YouTubers!) and I'm looking forward to savouring them during the autumn and winter months.

Last, but definitely not least, I nabbed a bargain pyjama top in the Old Navy sale that perfectly sums up my feelings about running on a treadmill!

A sleepy Sunday in NYC:

Like most big city breaks, this holiday has been great fun but also a little hectic and tiring.  A combination of jet lag, late nights, early starts and miles of walking really takes it out of you!  Craig and I decided to take yesterday (Sunday) at a slower pace to give ourselves a bit of a rest.  Unfortunately we managed to get horrendously lost once or twice, but aside from that it was an enjoyable, stress free day!

Our first and most anticipated stop was brunch (we intended to go for breakfast, but by the time we made it there it was after 12pm...) at a restaurant called Pies 'n' Thighs in Brooklyn.  Unsurprisingly, this place specialises in sweet pies and fried chicken, but they're also famous for their biscuits (kind of like a flaky, savoury scone) and their donuts.

When Craig and I arrived at Pies 'n' Thighs there were around twenty people standing outside, with a waitress occasionally popping her head out to call out names from a list.  I knew from online research that the place was very popular, so I had been expecting a long wait, or maybe even to be turned away.  We were told it would be about half an hour's wait for a table, so we shuffled off in search of takeaway coffee as getting lost for so long had left us dead on our feet!  True to their word, when we arrived back at Pies 'n' Thighs about thirty minutes later, we were quickly called and escorted to a little table in the middle of the restaurant.

I chose fried chicken (two pieces) and buckwheat waffles, which came with cinnamon butter and baked apples on the top.  This might sound like an odd combination, but it was actually really tasty!  The chicken had an especially lovely flavour.  Craig had fried chicken, a biscuit and home fries, and we both sipped on mimosas (bucks fizz) because I hear that's the done thing to do at brunch.

After eating we were both stuffed, but I wanted to try a donut, which are rumoured to be the best in New York City.  We ordered a couple to go (caramel apple for Craig and pecan butter crunch for me) and headed off in search of the Williamsburg Bridge.  Halfway across, I tucked in to what was undoubtedly the best (and biggest) donut I've ever eaten while enjoying the Manhattan skyline in the sunshine.

The Williamsburg Bridge runs between Brooklyn and Manhattan, and you can drive, cycle or walk over it, depending on how the mood takes you.  It only took us around half an hour to walk across - including time spent admiring the view - and it made a nice change from the subway.

Our next stop indulged Craig's nerdy science side.  Roasting Plant Coffee in Greenwich Village uses a system called the 'Javabot' (designed by their founder) to select and grind coffee beans fresh for you, depending on how you would like your coffee to taste.  All along one wall there are loads of different canisters full of different types of bean, and the Javabot will suck out different kinds to make a completely personalised coffee for you.  As a novice, I opted for the house blend, but I would love to create my own perfect coffee.  Maybe if we were staying longer!

Most relaxing Sundays involve a stroll in the park, and not far from Roasting Plant Coffee there is one of the most unusual parks I think I've ever seen.  The High Line is a disused railway bridge (nearly one and a half miles long) that has been converted into a linear park.  The last section of the High Line was only opened to the public in September, so it was very busy and crowded, but I still really enjoyed visiting a rare slice of greenery within New York city centre.  There are plenty of places to sit (and even eat and drink) along the path, and I can imagine it would be a really lovely way to spend a few hours with a  book on a slightly quieter day.

We rounded off our sleepy Sunday with a movie at the Regal Cinema in Union Square.  We saw the stop motion animation Boxtrolls, which was super cute, before catching the subway back to our hotel.

Food 'n' Stuff:

Hello from New York City!

We've been having an amazing time on our holiday so far, and are slowly getting used to the time difference!  As I mentioned briefly in one of my Hello, Holidays posts, Craig and I have been filming our exploits (also known as 'vlogging') and our first video went up on YouTube today.  You can watch it below (and subscribe to our channel, if you like) to see our first couple of days in NYC, which consisted of a lot of travelling, a fair bit of eating and even some sightseeing!

Hello, Holidays | Packing for a two week trip:

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You can all breathe a collective sigh of relief: this is my last post in the Hello, Holidays series.  (However, I will no doubt be writing a little about the trip while we're there and after we get back, so apologies if the subject bores you to death!)  We leave for New York City in THREE DAYS and (as I'm sure you can guess) I'm very excited!  

My last but somewhat mammoth task before we jet off is to finish packing and (while I'm certainly not an expert) I've put together my own personal survival guide for anyone packing for a fortnight.  Hopefully it will help you with your own travel organisation in the future, or at least spark some ideas!

1. Write a list: I'm the type of person who makes to do and reminder lists constantly, but they are especially helpful tools when packing.  Over the last week or so I've slowly started putting clothes and accessories into my suitcase, so - although it might sound trivial - having a list to hand with everything down to the number of pairs of socks I need for the whole trip has been useful.  There's a lot to take for two weeks away, so I've used my list to keep track of what has and hasn't been packed.  If you are likely to forget anything important, write it down and tick it off once it's in your case.  Problem solved!

2. Try before you fly: A few years ago I started attempting to plan full outfits for each day of a trip in advance, rather than just throwing in the right number of tops and jeans and hoping I would look okay when the time came.  It might be slightly more time consuming to organise your packing by outfit, but this way works better for me because it stops me from overpacking (and also from tearing my hair out when I don't like any of the clothes I brought to wear on my holiday!).  Obviously outfits are weather dependent, and sometimes plans or activities change at the last minute, but for the most part it has made my life so much easier. For this trip, I will probably try most of my outfits on before we go to avoid any style related meltdowns when we're stateside.

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3. Embrace 'bagception': Another way to make packing (and living out of a suitcase at the other end) much easier is to use smaller packing bags or pouches to organise your clothes within your larger travel bag.  I bought two sets of the UPPTÄCKA packing bags from IKEA (which come in a set of four different sizes for £7.50) and they have already proved themselves to be very useful for both short and longer trips.  Store all of your tops in one travel pouch, your trousers in another and so on or, alternatively, you could pack by full outfit.  Either way, the need to rake around in the bottom of your suitcase is eliminated.

4. Be a nervous Nellie: I already mentioned this in my hand luggage Hello, Holidays post, but I'm doing my best not to pack any valuables in my suitcase as I'm totally paranoid my luggage will go missing.  Yes, it would be a huge pain if I lost all of my clothes and shoes, but they are covered by our travel insurance and I would be much more upset if more sentimental things (like photos on my laptop, or my diary) were never to be seen again.  Anything that I want to keep an eye on will be going with me in my rucksack on the plane.  Better to be safe than sorry!

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5. Weigh it up: Again, this is probably my inner Girl Scout talking, but I like to be sure that my suitcase is the right weight before leaving for the airport.  For our USA trip the baggage allowance is a hefty 23kg, so it's highly unlikely that we'll go over the limit, but I still picked up an inexpensive Rolson luggage scale (£2.99 from TK Maxx) so we can weigh our bags prior to leaving and also before we come home again.  When travelling with just a small suitcase as hand luggage it's much easier to go over an airline's weight limit, so I would definitely recommend buying a scale for trips like that.

Do you have any top packing tips of your own?

Hello, Holidays | What's in my hand luggage?

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Last year I wrote a blog post all about what I keep in my handbag.  Strange?  Maybe.  A weirdly popular topic for YouTube videos and blog posts on the internet?  Definitely.  Today's Hello, Holidays post is in the same vein, but this time I'm giving you all a look at what I'll be packing in my hand luggage for our flight to America next week.  I've decided to take my Mi-Pac cosmos rucksack (which I reviewed here back in May) so I can easily transport everything I need and keep my hands free in the airport.

As this will be my first long haul flight in nearly ten years - and also the first time I'll have to check in luggage in ages - I'm slightly paranoid that our suitcases might go missing somewhere along the way.  For that reason, I've decided to pop a few items that I'm determined not to lose in my hand luggage, just in case!

Tons of technology:

Okay, so the first thing you'll probably notice is the abundance of cables, plugs and gadgets among my hand luggage.  Sadly, I'm a product of my generation and am pretty addicted to technology at the best of times.  However, I'm really only bringing my laptop and my camera along because - wifi willing - Craig and I are planning to vlog most of the trip so you can all come along for the ride!  (You can find and subscribe to our YouTube channel here, if that sounds like your cup of tea.)  Hopefully I'll also be able to put up a few blog posts while I'm away too.

I wouldn't usually take these enormous headphones on holiday, but sadly my in earphones decided to stop working properly this week so I've had to send them back to the manufacturer.  On the plus side, these ones will probably be good for blocking out noise on the flight.  I'm also packing my trusty iPod (which I think now probably appears in some museums) to contribute to our much needed road trip soundtrack.  Of course I'll then need to throw in the chargers for my laptop, camera, phone and iPod and at least one power adapter so I can actually plug them into sockets in the US!

A plethora of pages:
I've been writing in my One Line a Day diary every night since the 1st of January, so I definitely want to make sure I can keep that up in the event of my luggage staying in Edinburgh, or disappearing somewhere in Charles de Gaulle airport.  I'm taking my copy of Orange is the New Black (not a novelisation of the TV show, as one of my friends thought, but the original novel the programme was based on!) to read both on the plane and throughout the trip.  Also, my friend Nicola gave me three beautiful notebooks from Anthropologie as a birthday present, and I'm taking one along so I can be ready if and when creative inspiration strikes while we're on the move, or in case I want to keep a longer travel journal.

Excellent essentials:
Last, but absolutely not least, are my hand luggage essentials.  These things are basically either irreplaceable, very useful or super cosy.  (Spoiler: the super cosy item is the pair of fuzzy socks.  It's a long flight, so I'll probably want to take my shoes off at some point, and I don't want my feet to get chilly!)  Probably the most important object here is my passport - obviously I'm not going anywhere without that!  Then I've got some dollars in the new small travel purse I bought from Primark especially for this holiday.  It has room for a few cards as well as cash, and has a wrist strap which will be really handy if we're just nipping out to the supermarket at any point.  I'm taking both my normal glasses and my prescription sunglasses in my backpack because I would be pretty much lost without them (when it comes to going to the cinema or reading road signs, at least).  Finally (but perhaps most importantly) I'll be packing a spare top and underwear just in case I get stuck without a change of clothes.  I'm determined to be prepared!

And here it is, all packed up in my Mi-Pac bag.  I'm really looking forward to taking a small rucksack on this flight instead of my usual jam packed mini suitcase!

What are your hand luggage staples?  Is there anything that I've missed?

Hello, Holidays | A remarkable road trip:

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I briefly mentioned in my last (and first) Hello, Holidays post that Craig and I will be road tripping between New York City and Boston (through Pennsylvania) while we're on holiday.  Our plan was to share the driving, but sadly it would be very expensive to insure me on a hire car over there because I'm under 25.  Boo!  Poor old Craig will be stuck behind the wheel for a total of about ten hours, but - lucky for him - we're breaking it up with a few sightseeing stops and one overnight stay.

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Our first leg of the trip will come after a seven day stay in New York City, and our first task (or, I should say, Craig's first task) will be driving through Manhattan not long after morning rush hour...  So that should be fun!  After we've made it out of the city (hopefully alive) we'll head west towards the state of Pennsylvania and our first destination: Centralia.

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Anyone who has played the thriller video game series Silent Hill (or seen the films based on that series) may be interested to know that the town of Silent Hill was reportedly based on Centralia, PA.  A fire started in a coal mine below Centralia in the early 1960s, and that fire is still burning today.  As a result, the majority of the town's inhabitants had to move elsewhere and from what I can tell the area is now pretty much a ghost town, with very few buildings left standing.  Smoke rises up to street level and dangerous sinkholes have appeared as a result of the fire, which presumably inspired a lot of the landscape of the fictional Silent Hill.  However, what I've read online has assured me that it's fairly safe (and legal) to explore on foot - away from any warning signs.  Craig and I both enjoyed the games and want to pay Centralia an ideally non fatal visit, but I have already stipulated that it must be in broad daylight.  Otherwise it would be way too scary for me!

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We'll probably only spend an hour or so in Centralia before getting back on the road and heading north east towards Scranton, PA.  Any fans of The US Office will know of Scranton, but unfortunately a lot of the show's locations (including the titular office building) are actually in LA, not Scranton.  Still, a few places are really there, including the Steamtown Mall - which is apparently now home to the original 'Scranton Welcomes You' sign seen in The Office's opening credits - and Poor Richard's bar (although only the name is the same, they didn't film in the real Scranton bar).  We're also spending one night in the Lackawanna Station Hotel which was the setting (but, again, not the filming location) for an Office episode.  As you might have already guessed, the hotel is a former railway station and looks absolutely stunning inside.

A lot of people who I've told about this leg of the trip seemed a bit bemused as to why I would want to go to such a small, relatively unknown part of America.  Then again, all the Office fans that I know got really excited about the idea.  Really, I just wanted an excuse to see beautiful, autumnal scenery and Scranton happened to be on the way, but I'm looking forward to visiting the Electric City!

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Last but not least, we'll spend the majority of a day driving from Scranton to Boston, although we're actually staying just outside of the centre of Boston, in Cambridge, MA.  It's a long journey, but I'm sure there will be at least one stop off along the way to stretch our legs.  We'll be spending a few days in Boston once we get there (so Craig can relax after all that driving!) and I'm looking forward to exploring Cambridge - where Harvard University is located - as well as Boston itself.

Although we've done a lot of planning already, I'm always open to suggestions and recommendations (especially for Boston) so please let me know if you have any!

Inferior Inspiration #14: Hello, Holidays edition!

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Hello, Holidays is the name of a (fairly brief) blog post series I've decided to start in the run up to an imminent and very exciting trip to the USA.  Craig and I leave for New York City one week on Wednesday (eek!) and will stay there for a week before driving to Boston, via Centralia and Scranton in Pennsylvania because we are massive nerds.  

In honour of this trip, my first Hello, Holidays post is a travel clothes and accessory wishlist with a few dream must haves for my upcoming adventure.

1. Of course, sensible shoes should be high on any traveller's shopping list.  I've actually already treated myself to a pair of these patent Dr Martens 1461 shoes (a purchase made even sweeter by a cheeky 25% off voucher during their £3 sale a few weeks ago) in anticipation of both our USA trip and the impending winter months.  They remind me of shiny new school shoes, but with a punky edge.  Hopefully the investment will pay off and these will be brilliant for traipsing the length and breadth of Manhattan and beyond over the next few years! (£80)

2. Whilst buying my Doc Martens, I also spied their tiny but gorgeous 7 inch leather satchels on a shelf and it was love at first sight.  I'm a big fan of satchels, and - although there is a special place in my heart for huge, cavernous handbags - a smaller bag is easier to carry around and keep a watchful eye over whilst sightseeing.  Sadly my bank balance wouldn't stretch to one of these beauties, but maybe one day!  I've seen a few dupes for this style in Primark, so I might settle for one of those in the mean time. (£45)

3. As a Scottish native, I'm always prepared for unexpected rain showers and I will be packing my trusty parka.  On a recent flight to France, I spotted a fellow passenger wearing this yellow lace, plastic raincoat which, frankly, looked amazing in person.  I very excitedly tried to source one for myself, only to find out that it was a Topshop piece that (devastatingly) is now sold out and unavailable, apart from the odd size 8 on eBay.  At a push, I might settle for something like this more traditional yellow rain mac from Asos (£90), but I'm determined to stay on the hunt for something more unique. (was £48)

4. Again, I actually already own this exact insulated travel cup in a blue floral pattern by Paperchase.  It was a birthday present from my sweet friend Nicola, and I think it's amazing.  Our NYC hotel room reportedly comes with its own Nespresso coffee maker and (yes, just to repeat, because I am a massive nerd) my plan is to fill my travel mug there in the morning to save some dollars on takeaway coffees.  The downside to this plan is that I will then have to carry the mug around with me for the rest of the day, but it's small enough that I don't think I'll have too much of a problem! (£6)

5. I've always been an advocate for keeping a travel journal, and I've done this on and off since I was a kid.  My accounts of family trips as a 7 year old are hilarious to read now, but they are also a good way to bring back fond holiday memories, filling in the gaps between and stories behind photos.  There are plenty of lovely journals and notebooks out there to choose from, of course, but I think this cartography journal and pen from John Lewis is particularly nice.  It would definitely make a good gift for someone about to head off travelling. (£14.95)

Do you have any holidays coming up, or any recommendations for NYC and Boston?  Let me know!