Is this not a beautiful piece of jewellery? It’s the silver cuff I was given by the lovely people at Scottish Woman magazine.

It comes from Edinburgh jewellers Hamilton and Inches and I have to say their presentation style is gorgeous. Are you not loving the bag, the mock lizard purple box and the two tone ribbon? Totally beautiful. H&I is a wonderful shop with working silversmiths upstairs. You might just like to know that they have a website with an online shop www.hamiltonandinches.com

Christmas is coming after all…

Me collecting my award. OK, I’m not loving the pic, but it does capture my shock! Mainly I’m feeling ginormous by comparison to the ultra-dainty TV stars behind me and I’m wondering whether the wet-look leggings under my Mum’s lace dress – instead of the black petticoat – was a good decision. But thank you so much to everyone who voted for me!

Now, a little update to say I was totally thrilled (not to mention stunned!) to win Scottish Woman magazine’s Woman of the Year Award in the Wit category. Many, many thanks to everyone who took the trouble to vote for me; there are so many fantastically witty women in Scotland that I really am honoured to be counted among you.

The award ceremony was an amazing fashion show and dinner in Edinburgh, fundraising for the very worthy Macmillan Cancer Support. It was a brilliant event and no one warned me about winning, so I had a jolly old time and was pretty much gobsmacked to be suddenly called to the podium. I don’t really recommend having to address hundreds of people while clutching a surprise award. It’s pretty nerve-wracking… the stuff of nightmares rather than dreams, if you ask me! However, the award came in the shape of this beautiful silver cuff from Edinburgh jewellers, Hamilton and Inches.

The best thing was going into the jewellery shop the next day to have it fitted. The shop is gorgeous (were money no object, I would do all my shopping there!) but even better, I got taken upstairs to the workshop. I do love a peek behind the scenes and this was excellent… ancient old leather and wooden tools, pots of bitumen, little Georgian shutters, someone hammering flamingos onto a solid silver platter for a sultan of Oman! I could have poked about all morning.

As soon as the cuff returns, I’ll post a pic!

Loads of things going on this month as the third Annie Valentine is released: How Not To Shop comes with the chance to win an Egyptian holiday (and if like me you’ve spent much of the summer in Glasgow – you might be needing something like that).

Rush to your nearest branch of Faith and they will give you a special edition of The Personal Shopper for free if you spend over £30 (easily done, I have been on their website and checked those shoes out… and they do big sizes. Gone are the days when you went to any shoe shop, asked for a size 8 and the shop assistant’s eyes popped from her head in astonishment – I’m still slightly scarred though.)

The lovely people at ultra-stylish Scottish Woman magazine have put me on their shortlist for witty Scottish Woman of the Year. I still can’t believe that… anyway, you can find out more if you follow this link. Hey, you can even vote and yes I will understand if you think Ronni Ancona is much more worthy!

Also, give this link a whirl if you’d like to read an interview with me from the Sunday Herald magazine. It’s incredibly nice, Susan Swarbrick was totally charming and no, I don’t have anything on her, she wrote this all of her own accord, honest! ‘Poster girl for yummy mummy chic’ oooh how my husband fell about laughing at that. He knows the grim reading glasses and ratty jeans reality!

Now, which photos can I use to enliven the August blog… I’m still missing New York, so here are another two from the holiday. The big plastic roach key-ring which was the gag of the fortnight: it ended up in everyone’s shoes, everyone’s bed, even Sam’s salad and my birthday presents. Eeek!

Then there are the family birthday cards… obviously cute dogs feature highly as we were all totally missing Jimmy by then!