Day 59: Less than 3 weeks to go!

No it's not less than 3 weeks till Christmas...or less than 3 weeks till Bruce Willis comes to visit...and it's definitely not less than 3 weeks till I give up tea. That's just never gonna happen. (And neither is the visit from Brucey before you ask...cause I know you all believed that one!)

It's less than 3 weeks till the Youth Conference!!! Eeek. I know many of you got just a teeny tiny bit excited when I said that...yeah you did! It is exciting!! It's such an uplifting weekend, fully focused on God, learning more about him, worshiping him, and meeting other people who are just as excited to be in that situation as you are. I'm excited. But this year I think I'm gonna have to go between 7 and 10 for how much sleep I want...I'm getting old.

I've spent the evening working on bits and bobs for this years Youth Conference, as some of you know, I'm on the Committee (I know, I know, who's idea was that?!). And that's what today's blog photo is...because I've not done anything else! It's amazing how quickly your evening can disappear when you have no life. Ha.

Not the most artistic or exciting of photos to celebrate TWO WHOLE MONTHS of doing my 365 project, but it's realistic of my day...'Realistic of my day'? Does that even make sense? Who knows. Well, probably many of you do, but that's not important.

Oh, and if you've not got your Youth Conference form sent off yet, do it RIGHT NOW. You don't wanna miss out on the banter now do you?

Toodles!

Day 58: Not as short and sweet as originaly planned.

It's late. Have to get up early. Must sleep. Here's Fin blowing raspberries at Granny. Goodnight.

At least, that's all I planned on saying in tonight's post when I was thinking about it this afternoon. But, surprise surprise, I have more to say. Ha. And it's not thaaat late! (It totally is, I'm just trying to be down with the kids...)

So yeah, at Youth Fellowship after church tonight we sang a few praise songs, like we always do, and we sang ones we often sing. But the words of one song struck me tonight especially. Simply because over the last one or two days particularly I've been focusing a lot on one thing. I've been asking for His help with it, but at the same time it was unnecessarily taking up far too much of my thoughts and worries...and still is right now! But it's important to really think about the words we sing in psalms and praise songs, and sing them with meaning. And constantly remind ourselves of them!!

Now, each and everyone word in that song is wonderful, but it was the chorus that made me realise I need to 'wise up'. Having God in my life is a solid, constant, never changing, eternal thing. Anything else doesn't really matter. I'll still get upset and stressed about it, but in the end I know that God's plan is best, and he'll keep me going!


And before I go...don't you just LOVE that face!?

NOW it's late. Have to get up early. Must sleep. Goodnight.

Before and After

Sarah wanted me to show her what I'd learnt during my mentoring session on Tuesday night. So we got one of the photos I'd take at Duthie Park the other week and opened it up in Photoshop, and I proceeded to show her some of the things Andee does with her photos, with a few things of my own thrown in there too. And this is what we came up with about half an hour later...

It's pretty extreme when you see the original photo, which was already very nice to begin with! Just a little cold and dull looking. But it's pretty impressive to see what you can do using Photoshop. The photo was very grainy to begin with since it was getting late in the day, and it was winter, so I couldn't shoot at a lower ISO. But yeah...I like it, it was interesting doing things a little differently to what I normally do!


The strange thing is...I still really really like the before image! Whereas normally, I'd look back on the before image and think "Woaw, yeah. Glad it doesn't look like that anymore." Feel free to tell me your thoughts, no matter how brutal. This is all about experimentation and learning!

Day 57: First time swimming with Fin!

I think today's post can just be short and sweet :) It's not often I manage to say few words though, so we'll see what happens!

I woke up at 9:39am (don't worry, I'm not gonna give you a full timetable of my day) to the sound of my phone receiving a text message. It was Sarah. She had told me on Friday night that they were thinking of going swimming this morning and they'd let me know in the morning. So this was her saying they were just leaving and they'd meet me at the Beach Leisure centre at 10:15...I replied with something along the lines of "I'm still in bed...ha. I'll see you then though!" And I'm impressed with the fact that I managed to get up and ready, and to the beach by 10:25. If I hadn't happened to join the dual carriageway just behind a wide load convoy I would've got there quicker!

I've not been swimming for ages, and to be fair I didn't really do any swimming as the place was crawling with parents and babies with flapping arms and fluorescent armbands. I was loving being at the pool with Fin, and I look forward to when he actually knows what's going on! Ha. He'll be my beach buddy in no time at all.

We went to Jimmy Chung's for lunch...and breakfast since I didn't manage to squeeze that in before heading out...including a cuppa tea as I was getting withdrawals by about 1pm. Ha. We ate a lot. Fin slept a lot. And then he enjoyed some fruit, and stuck his hand in some jelly. And here he is staring Dave out for stealing his jelly...

I almost took out a few football fans on the way home. Unfortunately it was only an "almost".

Day 56: Work it baby!

Today was a good day. A REALLY good day. Like...it's gonna be up there in the Top 10 days of 2011. The original plan was that Laura would be in Uni till 2pm, and I'd head in to pick her up and then pop out to Crathes for a few piccies, on the hopefully not being used railway line...but then Laura messaged me this morning saying she'd be finished by 11:30am!! (Student life, huh...) So I dropped my plans of updating my website...woops. And headed in to get her. We went to Crathes, noticed that there are men working on the railway line (Fail), headed up to the castle and walked up to the cafe to grab some lunch...but discovered it's closed for refurbishments. Fail. So we went to Raimoir Garden Centre in Banchory instead, and got soup and a roll, like proper old wifeys. We were Loving it!

We went for a wee spin through the countryside before heading back to Crathes, and walking along by the wee loch at the bottom of the drive for the start of our photoshoot. I wasn't sure how Laura would react once the camera came out, but she was Amazing! Whereas I am much better kept behind the camera. Ha. I won't talk you through the whoooooole time we were at Crathes, but I'll tell you it was filled with many moments of hilarity. Laura got to see THEE blue door that was the inspiration behind my business name..

I'm really distracted while writing this, because I'm still going through the photos from today, and editing a few of them...I took over 350. Lolsies. I didn't expect to take a quarter of that amount, but Laura was just so darn pretty and cooperative. Haha. She practiced her model face...but the words "Work it baby!" destroyed all hope of keeping a straight face. She lolled. I lolled. It was funny. And then we discovered the door was open!!! Not THEE door, but another door. To a mini castle in the corner of the garden. I got rather excited...poor Laura attempted to go along with it, but had no idea what was so amazing. Hello...the door was open!! And there was a cute bench and a table inside.Amazing.

We took photos in a lot of different spots on the castle grounds, met a few old couples on the way, saw some yucky bugs that could swim, and took some hilarious timer self portraits across the pond...this one's not really that hilarious. That's just our faces unfortunately...

And we generally just absolutely loved being outside all afternoon on such a gorgeous day, and visiting a really cute castle with pretty gardens!

We headed in to town after our fab day out, so I could go buy the blue dress I tried on yesterday!! Eeeeek. Yay. I'm excited. And the top off the day we went for a romantic dinner at Zizzis. Seriously...I don't know if it could get any better! We were super super tired by the end of it all. Haha. So I through on my joggers and made a cuppa before sitting down at the laptop and getting majorly excited about all my amazing new photos...I mean...look at her!!

I'm now going to attempt to close Photoshop...but it may be a good idea to check back at 3am to make sure I'm not still up processing the photos!

Day 55: Boys look no further, it's just about shopping.

I was at work today, since I wasn't in yesterday, so I have nothing exciting to tell you about that. AFTER work, I went straight in to town to have dinner with my lovely friend Rachael, who I forced to pose with me in the elevator on the way back to the car, as you can see above. :) But before we had dinner we popped in to outfit so Rachael could check her hours, and got totally side tracked looking at dresses because I need one for a wedding.

All. Rachaels. Fault.

She was like "Try that one on...I'll carry it...and this one too...what about this one? Yeah. And this one..." HA. It was fun though. It was Not fun, however, trying to find shoes that my massive feet would fit in to. And in the end only the ugly black ones fitted. Bleugh. So Rachael really liked the dress you can see above, but I think it's a little too short to actually walk around in, never mind dance in. It is pretty nice though. Sad times. Maybe I'll just attach an extra panel along the bottom...HA.

I then tried on a few other dresses...until I reached THEE blue one. It.Is.Beautiful. It's a one shoulder dress...not usually my cuppa tea. But it was amazing!! And not too short. And blue. And pretty. And blue, and not too short. But, the zip was broke. So I left it...because the risk of the zip breaking again while dancing was not a good thought. But turns out I can get £15 off it because it's broken so I could buy a new zip and replace it aka get Sarah to fix it for me and then wear it to the wedding with piece of mind that it wasn't gonna break and I was wearing the pretty blue dress. Aaaaaaand breeeeathe. Yeah, definitely going back tomorrow to get it. Ha.

Woop!

Day 54: I almost just used someone elses texture!

So...today's been a weird day...I don't really know what to say. Ha. I had the group mentoring session last night, meant to run from 1-4am, but it went an hour over time...so Catriona Stewart was up till after 5am, on a week night no less...madness...here's what my set up was like last night...and some proof that I was awake!

Ok, I was about to upload my blog photo for the day...an hour ago...I had tried out one of the textures I bought a couple weeks ago, and I really liked the way it looked on my photo and was so so close to just posting the image on the blog. But then I was like "No...go try making your own one!!" The texture had old fashioned writing on it, with a very yummy vintage look to it. My writing is no where near pretty enough for something like that...but my Dad's was! So I asked Mum if she had any of his letters close to hand...but I didn't really want to use her personal letters from Dad which he wrote to her waaaaay back in the day. She disappeared off upstairs...and came down 5 minutes later with his notes for Prayer Meetings he used to take at Fearn Free Church when we lived up north...and he apparently reused some of them at Tain, Brora, and Bon Accord...he wrote down what dates he'd used them on. Genius! Haha. So I had a look through them to see if the way he'd written out the paragraphs etc. would work...and on a side note, it was amazing reading his words about scripture. I'm gonna have to have a proper look through them at some point!

So anyway, I scanned one of them on to the laptop, and took the file on to photoshop to play around with it...put it on top of a picture I took of our kitchen cupboards. And voila!! I was super excited to have managed to make my own vintage writing texture. Haha. Like REALLY excited...it was quite sad. I'm gonna post up both versions of the photo to show you all though...

The first one has Jessica Drossin's texture on it, and the second one is mine. It's not quite perfect...but having made it within about 10/15 minutes it's nae bad like!

You can see Dad's underlined parts of sentences etc. and he's noted down certain verses from the passage he was doing the prayer meeting on...which was Habbakkuk 1 for those of you who are wondering. Ha. He was looking at the questions in vs13, which ask God how he can"tollerate the treacherous". I want to write more about it but I was so looking forward to being in bed by 9pm at the latest after last night's super late night. So I'll just have to leave it there! Maybe I'll come back to it another night...cause I'm certainly loving the chance to see what my Dad's thoughts were on these big life questions!

Happy Wednesday!

Crave Photography Mentoring Session

Here's my first attempt at using the new editing techniques I learnt during last nights group mentoring session with Andee from Crave Photography. I was gonna go out and do a photoshoot to get some new photos to work on, but I was simply far too tired! I have no idea how people can stay up that late on a regular basis. So I've used one of the photos I took of my beautiful sister on her birthday last month...

I learnt so much last night, Andee made everything look so simple...and it is simple, you just have to get used to playing around with the different things, and seeing what works best for you! So I'll be practicing on a few different photos and seeing what I can come up with. I'll try something with more colour in the background next I think...It's all very exciting!

I've got to go do my blog post photo first though...and I think tonight's post will be quite short as I don't think my sentences are making much sense or flowing very well...Ha. Let me know what you think of my before and after!

Day 53: Aaaaand relaaax...But don't fall asleep!

Hello Everyone :) I am so incredibly relaxed...it's amazing! And the cause of this is a visit to the Abzolute beauty spa this evening with the wonderful Laura Nicolson. "Spa?!!" I hear you say...when I was complaining not more than a week ago about 'Girly Nights'...well, I wasn't getting my nails done. I was using their hot tub!!! Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. If I can't have a boat, I'll have a hot tub please. My sister got a voucher for the hot tub when it first opened a couple years ago, and highly recommended it...this is me only just trying it out, and I think I'll be going back every couple weeks from now on!! You get the hot tub for half an hour or an hour, in a room, with a sofa, and a DVD PLAYER! And they make you TEA!!! Or you can get hot chocolate...or champagne. It was Amazing. And Laura's reaction made it SO much better! Once the spa girly had left us to go make our tea and hot chocolate, Laura started jumping up and down with a massive grin on her face going "Eeeeeeeee!!!" I love it. The reason we were there was to help her destress, and me too, but I was just super chuffed that she was so excited! And boy oh boy was it relaxing.


Time for todays photos...of course they're gonna be from the hot tub. Laura was warned...haha. They're a bit steamy...as in the lens is slightly steamed up in some...apologies...

 Doesn't it look amazing!! Notice our empty teacups. Yum. And here's a super cheesy one of the two of us...done using a timer...highly against Health and Safety regulations no doubt, but also highly amusing. I managed not to slip in the process...

D'you like my popeye arm? It's quite nice huh? Here are a few more photos which show the major excitement of Laura on arrival...me enjoying my tea...and Laura approving of the hot tub...

Good times. Ok, no more photos! It was very difficult saying goodbye to the hot tub, but I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing it again soon. And we'll have more time in it next time because we'll know how to get there! The spa is in Bridge of Don, and I was planning on going via King St. but I checked Google maps and decided to take the route it suggested...however, it turned out that route required a special pass card swipe thingy to get down a road being blocked by bollards. FAIL. We were about to turn back and go a different way when we saw a guy flapping something beside a sensor, assuming it just required motion of some sorts we headed over again...and began to flap our arms...then TWO CARS came up behind JD...and a girl got out...and waved her special pass so we could get through...funny times. So we won't be going that way next time!

I love how relaxed I feel!! The only downside is...I can't go to my bed! Some of you may remember that I won a group mentoring session with an American photographer at Christmas, a very exciting prize. 3 hours of learning how she does her editing process on her photos! Well, that session is tonight!! I can't believe 2 months have passed. However, the sessions starts at 6pm...her time...which is 1am my time...and as many of you know, I'm usually fast asleep at that time! But it was just far too good to pass up. So after the hot tub, I popped in to Tesco to buy some munchies to keep me going...I've not started on them yet...thankfully this blog post takes up a fair chunk of my time! I may not even need to have a nap beforehand...only one and a half hours to go! And then I really really hope that I am excited enough to last till 4am. If anyone wants to stay up and ring me every 15 minutes to wake me up that would be great. I'm started to blurt out sentences without a proper structure or point now...signs of the late hour...oh dear. Some of you may wish to come over and witness my state of mind at 4am...it's been a while since I've done an allnighter, so who knows what I'll be like! Obviously I'm not going to work tomorrow, that would be madness. I'm working on Thursday instead...so I can sleep...till who knows when!

Ok, I'm really just talking nonsense now, so I'll stop...I'll leave you with some photos of Sew Hip magazine which I bought in Hobby Craft this arvo before heading to Laura's...did I mention MY PHOTOS ARE IN A MAGAZINE!? Haha. How amazing is my sister...getting multiple patterns in to a magazine and enabling me to be so lucky...

Wish me luck!

Day 52: Cake...

I went to Dobbies for lunch with Ali, Dave and Miranda today...Miranda and I decided we wanted cake...

...don't worry, we had one slice between us, and couldn't even finish it! If I hadn't had a bacon, brie and cranberry panini, with crisps and salad, beforehand I'm sure I wouldn't have had any trouble finishing it! I took the photos quickly, and didn't think to check the focus cause I was too keen on tucking in to my panini! And I find it highly amusing that my camera decided to focus on the salad in the top left corner...rather than the yummy, scrumptious, delicious, unhealthy panini or cake. Mmmm, it was good!

Our sermon at church last night was about enjoying work, not simply enduring it and longing for the weekend...thanking God for Monday, not just Friday! So I tried to do that today. The cake certainly helped. But towards the end of the day I was definitely looking forward to getting home and relaxing for the evening. And I would just like to say I am SO thankful for JD!! Normally, I am one of those people you see sitting in the car, on their own, singing along to the radio/CD. But today that rose to a whole new level...I put the radio up pretty loud and sang to my hearts content, pretty loudly...and if I wasn't singing I was grinning rather massively. I probably looked like a right weirdo. But it felt SO good! It's great having the opportunity to wind down and chill out, it's a necessity I say. And I know many people have kids to come home to after work, so what I suggest is build a big cage in the back garden...throw in some sweets, and lock the door once the kids run in! Then go have a cuppa. HA. Just kidding of course. Wind down once you've kicked them off to their beds.

I love JD, I even went for a wee cruise round Westhill before going home after work because our drive home together wasn't long enough...good times. He loves my singing, and foot and hand tapping...but always makes sure I'm paying full attention to the road and any possible hazzards around me, of course.

I have two pieces of exciting news to tell you all. I found out last night that there was space for my advert in the next issue of the Westhill Bulletin, woop woop! Here's hoping 1 person viewing 1/4800 copies notices it and gives me a call. And secondly, my photos have been published IN AN ACTUAL MAGAZINE!!! Yeah sure, they didn't put my name in there, bit still. I was pretty excited...which is a complete understatement. The magazine is Sew Hip (issue #26 if you feel like buying it...ha). Sarah has designed a few patterns for them over the last couple years, and her most recent one was baby hats. So, of course, Sarah suggested to them that I take some photos of Fin modelling them. Cause Fin's gorgeous, and I'm amazing. HA. And they were like "Yeah, sure!", well I don't actually know if that was their exact response...but something similar I'm sure. And now my photos are in a magazine!!! Here are the photos Sarah sent me once she bought a copy, using our mobile phone devices...

Once I get hold of a copy I'll take some snaps and upload them...or you could pop along to your nearest WHSmith and buy a copy...then contact Sew Hip to ask them who the amazing photographer is!

Oh woaw, I've just realised how much I've talked tonight...sorry! I'm looking forward to tomorrow's blogpost, as I should be incredibly relaxed...tune in tomorrow to find out more! Haha. Toodles!

Day 51: Aunty Claire's Visit

Sarah and Claire are gonna LOVE me for posting this as my photo of the day...it was the first photo I took of them, and I think it's an excellent advert for Toasted Cheese...heh heh heh...

For those of you who don't know, the lovely lady on the left is Claire McCullough from Ireland, aka Irish Claire, who's up from Edinburgh staying with Sarah and Dave for a couple nights. She was Sarah's flatmate for a few years, back in the day, and became part of the family. But now that she's working in Edinburgh we don't see her anywhere near as often, so it's lovely when she comes to visit :) She's an honoury aunty to Fin, of course, and loves coming up to get some squidges. As you can see in the photos below...

His onesie has robots n' mechanical stuff all over it along with the words "Hug Machine"...so true. He's been loving Aunty Claires bizarre noises, hand shapes, and tickles, and has told her a few incredibly exciting stories in return. Accompanied by lots of drooling.

I'm putting up the next two photos to show that my sister is just as much of a weirdo as I am, and makes that facial expression just as good as I do, and the other one is because I wanted to get in on the photo banter too...

Good times...I look like Little Miss Piggy, Sarah looks like she wants to eat me, Fin's lovin his fingers, and Claire looks incredibly normal and pretty! Haha. I hope you've had a great weekend Clairey, see you again soon :)

Day 50: I Love Paintballing!!

Today I tried something new, and fell in love! Ha. Paintballing is Amazing. I was a little scared I was just gonna be hiding in a corner getting pelted with paintballs...or get hit within 5 seconds of starting, and have to go sit out for the next 2 hours! But, that didn't happen :) I got hit within about 5 minutes of starting the first game (along with a good few others might I add) and had to go sit out until it was finished. But we played 5 games, with TEA BREAKS in between. I was love love loving it. It's so much more fun than say Go Karting (because I'm far too sensible a driver...and keep checking to see if anyone wants to overtake me...), or lazerquest! Because you have the satisfaction of actually firing something (safe, as long as you're wearing overalls and covering your head...) out of a gun, at people, sneaking round houses, and playing in the mud! Amazing. Definitely going back again, when the castle's finished :D Haha.

I took a few quick snaps of the group at the end, sadly without the guns, and some people had already taken off their camouflage. And then on the way back across the field to the cars...Lolsies. I forgot to mention that part...we were all driving around trying to find the Battlegrounds, passing each other on country roads going in different directions and just generally looking completely lost. They only moved to that location in November, and haven't completed planning permissions yet so can't put up sign posts...major hold back! Haha. But, we found it eventually...thanks to a bunch of delincuants parked beside some barns, as there was apparently no parking at the site and we had to walk across the field...HA. It was SOAKING. They had to lay planks of wood across this massive puddle to walk across without squelching in the mud as much. Good times.

I'm utterly disgraced at the awful quality of the photos. I should really have put more effort in...I'm embarassed to actually be putting them up on here...but I've kept them small so you can't really tell :D Genius...

...Joanne didn't bother with the planks on the way back since she was already pretty muddy...I'm proud of you Joanne! You survived the day :) I hope your pretty socks are ok! And don't worry, I've binned all your energy drink cans, and I'll take your mug in to you tomorrow :)

Thankfully one of the blokes at the Paintballing actually knows how to take a decent photo, unlike me by the looks of things ^^, and he took this humorous photo of everyone so I could get in the photo too...and a couple of the delicuants jumped in the sides of the photo too.

I highly recommend a visit to Battle Grounds Paintball, it's fun even in the rain! And I'm tempted to already start organising our next battle...ha! Right now I'm off to bed, because although I have no bruises (Go me!), my legs are knackered from all the walking, running, crouching, hiding, lying, and sitting. Hope you're all having a lovely weekend!

Day 49: I need to get up in less than 7 hours...probably 6!

1. Car park ticket #1...from Bon Accord Centre.
2. My amazing new mug. It's a beast. I love it!
3. Car park ticket #2...from Union Square...
4. I love babysitting, because I get biscuits...
5. ...and funky kettles to boil the water for my tea!
6. The time I got home from babysitting...

I'm not going to say much, because it's far too late at night...and although it's Saturday tomorrow, I have to get up at 8am, at the latest, because I'm going PAINTBALLING! CreyC. So, yes, I reached new heights of laziness today...rather than walking from the Bon Accord Centre down to Union Square, I took the car...it's shocking. But really, I didn't want to waste too much time in town...so it was a justified action. Totally acceptable in my opinion.

And this evening I was babysitting for the wonderful Judy from Judy's Crafty Moments, her boys were complete stars. Very impressive! I was able to sit, drink tea, and watch telly like any other Friday night. Haha.

Ok, must sleep. Check back tomorrow for some hilarious paintballing related photos, hopefully!

Day 48: When in doubt...

...go find something that provides humorous reflections! Heh heh heh. Yes, that's me. I look goooood. I hadn't taken any photos all day, so had to think what on earth to photograph for the blog...and when I was getting my cuppa a wee while ago I decided to grab one of the ladels we have hanging on our kitchen wall...and take a self portrait. Cause it's funny. Isn't it funny?

I've had a semi productive business day...after a lazy morning, and then a lovely lunch, and chit chat at the Lipp residence, I sat down at my laptop at the dining room table, put on Spotify and started to do the finishing touches to photos of the MacLelland's for them to view in their private album on the website. I love what I do. And I love being able to put music up loud while I work! Today I've been loving a band called Two Door Cinema Club, random name, I know. I can't really talk though...they obviously likes doors as much as I do, or twice as much perhaps...ho ho ho. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXwYJyrKK5A I very rarely see music videos anymore, which is good as they tend to ruin my fondness for the song...so don't watch, just listen.

I'm gonna leave tonight's post pretty short...I've got lots of business thoughts and photography ideas buzzing around inside my head, so it's preventing me from thinking of anything more to say. And I should probably head to bed so I get up at a sensible time and complete all the tasks I want to do tomorrow...toodles!

Day 47: Trying another new movie

I borrowed this film from the mighty collection that my cousins have. I didn't see it at the cinema, because I wasn't too bothered about it, I didn't know what it was about...just that it had yummy man in it....but when I saw that my cousins had it on DVD I just couldn't resist Robert Pattinson's yummy stubble. And I know for sure at least a couple people who are gonna call me a loser for finding Robert Pattinson attractive. But come on, look at that stubble! Mmmm.

After watching it this evening while Mother was out, I can say it's not quite my new favourite movie, but it was pretty darn good. It's a very intense storyline, all about figuring your life out, dealing with loss, and learning how to love...with a New York grungey feel! And I'll admit that the ending made me cry. If you plan on watching it, and don't want me to ruin the ending for you then skip the rest of this paragraph...or the rest of this post! Patty is in his Dad's office waiting for him, and then the scene changes to his sister at school and the teacher has written the date on the blackboard...Tuesday September 11th 2001. Then it goes back to Patty, looking out the office window...the camera pans out away from the building, and you realise the office is in one of the Twin Towers...that's when it clicked. And that's when my heart began to get all tight. The film really makes you connect with the tragedy of the 9/11 attack, after going through the storyline and getting to know the characters, it feels real. It was real. To many people. And I know that watching a film about it is nothing compared to actually experiencing it, but it certainly does help those of us who watched on the news and were shocked by the disaster but were perhaps, can I say, not really affected by it. D'you know what I mean? Or do I just sound silly?

I remember walking in to the living room of our old house and seeing it on the news. I was totally shocked, and disgusted that such a thing could happen. But I didn't realise straight away, the significance of the date on the blackboard in the movie, because the year 2001 was the year my Dad passed away. So any time 9/11 2001 is mentioned, my thoughts bypass it and go to the that which had a major impact on my life just 3 weeks beforehand...but I need to remember this disaster affected the lives of so many others in a similar way to me, and they deserve my thoughts too. This movie helped me realise that.

That was another deep blog post...I'm now watching CSI for some more light hearted evening entertainment. I hope you're all having a good week so far! Feel free to fill me in on your banter :)

Day 46: I love a good sunrise!

Day 46...seriously?! It's only 312 days till Christmas...ha...http://www.xmasclock.com/ Amazing. Sorry, I didn't just say that.


Today's photo was taken around 8:15am on my way to work. If I didn't have a car, that wouldn't have been possible. I am SO thankful to have a car!! As I was trudging along slowly through the traffic on the dual carriageway I realised that the sun was hitting the clouds Beauuuutifully. So I tried to think where I could pull over to get a good photo, since it would be unsafe to take a photo while driving...and the rear view mirror might ruin the shot. Hooray for Dobbies Garden Centre! Brap brap. (No idea where that came from...we'll just leave it...) The car park is up nice and high so I could miss out the road and get a semi decent photo...in fact, I think I'll put two photos up. One wiiiide one, and one zoooomedinny one :)

Isn't that sky AMAZING?!! I love it. These photos don't put across how truely amazing it was. And it was an excellent start to my day. Which was made even better shortly after that when a great lady pointed me in the direction of UCB notes which are currently on Surrender. I had a wee look at todays and yesterdays readings quickly before starting work and I was loving it. Last summer I was constantly thinking "What do I do next? Am I doing the right thing? Ok, God, you take over...no wait, I wanna do this, but is that right? Ok no, God, you tell me!...are you telling me?..." Haha. So the topic of surrendering is something I know too well! And I'm looking forward to having a look through the rest of those daily readings. Which you can also look at here if you like :)

"Surrendering to God is not weakness, it's wisdom. Only a fool resists God, because it's a fight we can't win. It's in surrendering to Him that we are empowered to succeed in what He's called us to do."

I could quote the whole thing! Just go have a look for yourself. I'll quote this one other bit too though...

" 'How will I know I'm fully surrendered?' we ask. When we rely on God to work things out instead of trying to manipulate others, force our own agenda or control the situation. We don't have to be in charge, we simply let go and let God have His way."

I certainly asked that a lot last summer. And I still struggle with knowing whether I am letting God do his thing! And then, because we all naturally want to be in control, I sometimes try steal it off him again...and start planning what I'd like to happen...but that totally doesn't work! And I remember it's better to let God take control, cause he's much wiser, and I just need to be patient. I go round in circles. And I also talk about myself too much...sorry!

I've been watching the Brits, first time I've ever watched the whole thing. Nae bad. If my photography doesn't work out I think I'll become Rihanna's personal shopper, because she's obviously struggling finding a pair of trousers.

Toodles!

Day 45: Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

Leaving my blog post so late at night is a major downer on the quality of that days post...because there is so much I'd like to say, but simply can't figure out how to say it! And I don't want to end up staying up even later because I'm trying to force my brain to function. Ha. So I'll do my best to put across what I want to say...

I was at a 'Girly Night' tonight...as a Valentines Day alternative. It wasn't easy turning down all the guys who asked me out to dinner, but it had to be done, spending the evening with my girls is much more fun! Ok, so I may have lied twice in that last sentence. No one asked me out to dinner, which I'm thankful for, because I dread ever being in a situation where I have to decline a date request. And, spending the evening with a bunch of girls doing girly stuff really is not my cup of tea. I wanted to go to the Guys Night instead. Ha. But, the wonderful woman who has organised this event for the last few years bribed me to go by buying something specifically for me only...

I look like a complete psycho in that photo, but I had to show you my special present. Which I didn't understand at first, I thought it was just like all the other face masks on the table...until, a good 5 minutes later, I realised it was a MAN on the packet...and the directions stated "Apply to clean, shaven face"...I laughed. A lot. Thank you very much Lynsey! You made my night! :) And I'm pretty sure the girls in my group are going to LOVE me for this...here we are after applying our face masks...

Mine looks nothing like the man on my face mask packaging...I didn't scrape every last bit from inside...where as Laura totally did! Slimeball. Haha.

So anyway, the point in this evening was to cover up our depression about being single and not having men to buy us gifts and tell us we're pretty. Haha. Just kidding...but seriously. No, I'm kidding. The real reason for this evening was to put focus on the only One who truely deserves to have a place in the centre of our lives. And I'm wishing I'd taken more of the articles and passages that Lynsey had printed out for us because they had some very good things to say that I can't remember the exact wording of now!...The time in our lives which God gives us that wonderful man to look after us (or for the men, the woman to cook all your food and do your washing) is different for each of us. Some are quite young, for others it takes a few more years, and there are also many who God never inserts a partner in to his plan for us. I know personally that if that ended up being the case in my life, I'd be upset. There's no denying it, I'll cry! But, although our feelings and emotions change, God will never change, his love for us is eternal, and much more filling than the love of our boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse.

Ok, so I know that people may read this and think "You're single, of course you're gonna say all that." And yes, you could be right. But even if I had a man in my life, I'd still strive to make sure that he wasn't pushing God off the throne in my heart. God always needs to be the centrepiece. And I would thank him daily for providing someone I can share His grace and mercy with.

I hope what I've said tonight makes sense...and isn't just a random outburst without substantial backing! Maybe I'll try re-writing it at an early time of day...Oh my life, it's 11:57pm! I have to get up in 7 hours. Yuck.

I hope you've all had a lovely day!

Day 44: Lighting kit trial run

So my lighting kit was one of the goodies I received on Wednesday, but today was the first chance I got to set up and try it out! And my usual models went somewhere else for lunch, so I had to be photographer AND model. Well, that's not technically true...I could've tried forcing Mum or Richard to pose for me...but I think it was better using myself. Focusing on something that isn't there is an issue though. Thankfully I have long arms and was able to place my hand roughly where my head was gonna go and try get the auto focus to focus on that...yeah. Worked a few times.

I decided to set it all up in my bombsite of a bedroom, because I like my wallpaper :) But I'm pretty sure I broke A LOT of health and safety rules...here's a snapshot of the models view...the camera was placed on top of the tripod in front of the light on the left...very professional...

As you can see...not very safety conscious set up...but I was absolutely loving my lighting kit! And it's so easy to set up, and then fitting everything back in the carry case is soooooo much easier than the ones we had at college. I love it!

Ok, it's late! Time for the photo...there was no way I was gonna start editing anything on photoshop so the photo is SOOC (straight out of camera...or seriously orrible of Catriona...) And I look like I have really bad posture...or a hunchback...because I was crouching forward to be in shot!

On a random note, I got told my earrings looked like hubcaps tonight...I can kinda see it...if it was for the Queen's royal automobile! Ha. Good story. Hope you've all had a good weekend :) I'm looking forward to having an extra 30 minutes to get ready for work in the morning now that I don't have to get the bus!

Day 43: Portobello Beach

Today was the day of the final committee meeting for this years Youth Conference. Which is crazy! Feels like it was just the other week when we were at our last meeting in October and I was thinking "February 2011...that's a long way away..." ...or not! So, since I was going down to Edinburgh for that, Mum arranged to meet the grandparents for the day. However...thanks to being a woman, I wasn't feeling very well at all on the way down the road, and decided I wasn't going to manage to attend the meeting...but because the grandparents were already on route from Glasgow we couldn't just turn around and head home again. So we picked them up from the Bus Station, and headed for Portobello where Mum had discovered a lovely beachfront cafe last night, thanks to Google. I was tempted to stay in the car, but a walk and a cuppa are known to help these things. Well ok, walking is, but the cuppa was just added by personal preference! It was really nice seeing the oldies for the afternoon. My Grampa never fails to make me chuckle. He doesn't like me slyly taking his picture though sadly. And I'd never been down to Portobello, I'd always wondered whether Edinburgh had a decent stretch of nice beach...apparently so! And there's a sailing/kayak club thingy...although it wasn't exactly tropical today, I'm sure it looks lovely in summer. There are also some cute gates in front of fancy houses on the beachfront, which I obviously had to photograph...and have as my photo of the day since I couldn't get a photo of Gramps.

We had to take G&G back to the bus station in town, and parked in one of Edinburghs seriously expensive car parks, as Mum wanted to go get another cuppa before they got their bus...but Grampa was more interested in visiting Poundland. So Mum and I went for a super slow wander, and I decided I wanted to go check out the wonderful Harvey Nichols...and their cupcakes. Boy was that an experience. After purchasing my not overly expensive cupcake we headed back downstairs, and I spotted a dress that could be a potential for one of the weddings I'm attending this year (3 so far...two of which I'm the photographer though...eek!), but I was incredibly naive about the price of clothes in that place...the dress was more expensive than my studio lighting kit!! £1105 to be exact. And the one next to it was £1425 or something like that...I went to take a photo of the price tag for my sister, when I realised I was getting in the way of someone else wanting to look at the dress...I hope they were as naive as me and weren't actually seriously interested in buying it.

On the upside...I don't think Topshop's that expensive anymore :)

Right, off to refill my hot water bottle, and then go to bed! Although...Batman Begins is on the telly at the moment...tempting...no, bed time! Here's today's photo(s) :)

 I have to admit my Harvey Nics cupcake was really rather yummy!

Day 42: Babies day out

Today's post is going to be another short one, because I'm being antisocial again. To sum up today...I had yummy fresh bread for breakfast, took the kiddies in to town and looked after Fin while Mummy and Daddy went to the cinema, took Fin to Topshop, came home to let the dog out, went to Asda to buy pizza, then ate pizza. Not exactly a short summary...but there you go! 

 

Ok...so I am struggling to publish this post when I've written basically nothing in it...but I must continue my important roll as babysitter, and join the kids as they watch Rush Hour :) Hope you're all having a lovely evening!

P.S. Check out Coinneach's smouldering model pose! I'm gonna have to keep the girls away from him in future. I'm already having to keep guys away from Sarah though...

Day 41: Overload.

Right...where do I start? I've got A LOT of photos for today's blog post. Haha. I went round to Lynsey's for a cuppa, and a catch up this afternoon. She's has such focus in the Lord, so my visists with her are a great encouragement :) Today's was too short though! And next time I'm there I must get a photo for the blog. Before I headed round I went down to the beach front for a bit, and thought I'd photograph JD's first trip to the seaside. He was lovin the sea breeze and the sunshine! Look how happy he is...

After my wee visit to the Worthington residence, I headed home to do my washing...Good story. Haha. But theeeen, I went to pick up the kids from school :) And the fun night of 'Babysitting' began...Coinneach made us dinner, while Sarah nibbled on frosties and played the piano, and I took many photographs!

Here's a photo of the sky...I liked it (the white thing is the moon...Sarah was amazed). And a photo of my pudding from tonight...I loved it!!

 And here's some photos of Brodie...he's the same age as Fin, weirdly, he doesn't giggle as much as Fin does but he's still pretty cute.

 

 And here are the comical photographs we took in the bathroom before having pudding, when we were quite full from all the delicious food Coinneach had made us, but not overloaded just yet...that didn't happen until we had the haribo, icecream and cupcakes for pudding. Mmmm.

 I love these guys! They deserve a super long blog post talking about how amazing they are, and how many giggles we've had tonight. But I've spent far too long on this laptop sorting the photos for the blog, so I'm gonna put it away and focus on having more giggles with them as we watch Shrek 4...Do the roar!!

Happy Thursday!

Day 40: Too much giggling

Giggling's a funny lookin word huh...I promised my sister I'd be in bed by 11:30...which leaves me 15 minutes to write my blog post, clear up all my mess, and get to bed...quite a challenge!

I better just get stuck in then...Today's been a pretty incredibly exciting day. I got a few pretty amazing goodies...the first being a car. AMAZING. The second being my studio lighting. AMAZING. And the third being a cuddly monkey for keeping me company in the car. AMAZING! I cannot wait to play with them all. They're going to be such a benefit to my business, I am so so super happy!

I collected the car at lunchtime this afternoon, and on the way home from work I decided to take it out for a practice run...to Banchory, and went to see Sarah, Dave and Fin. It's Sarah and Dave's 4th Wedding Anniversary btw. AMAZING. Haha. Look at them now! Parents. CreyC. I love it. And that's when I received my beautiful monkey...tonight, not when Sarah and Dave became parents...although I do sometimes think of Fin as my monkey...but no. Oh dear, I have 4 minutes to get to bed. Doesn't look like that's gonna happen...don't tell Sarah. Here are today's photos, had to take a few...

I don't have a picture of JD (the car) yet, but the monkey's sitting in my passenger seat, so technically you are seeing my car. And the big black back with a rocket launcher type thing is my studio lighting kit! I look forward to setting it up and using Sarah, Dave and Fin as practice models...haha. The big flashing umbrellas should be interesting for Fin...normally I'm photographing him without a flash...

But sadly, Scotland's not always bright enough for that. I'll still try my best to use natural/available light, but this lighting kit is going to be very much appreciated when that's simply not possible!

I've just realised the title of this post is a bit odd as I've not explained it's significance yet...basically a loud giggle would escape from my mouth quite often during my drive earlier...it's just so exciting! I feel JD and I are best friends already, and I look forward to the many roadtrips to come :)

Hope you've all had a good Wednesday :)

Day 39: Familiar sight...

I realised it was getting rather late and I hadn't taken my blog photo. So, I grabbed my camera which was sitting happily beside me, and just photographed what was in front of me...my laptop...phone...TV remotes...teacup socks...the usual! It's really quite shocking how often this is the view from my eyes. Although, can I just point out, I'm not THAT tall. This photo was taken from above my head...ha. But yes, I need to be more disciplined in the way I use my laptop...whether that's switching it off for the evening...or if I really really must do work, then go sit at the table with it, and wear my glasses! A whole evening can disappear before I realise I've been on the laptop the whole time...quite often doing something on Photoshop though, it's not like I'm on singles chat rooms or something weird like that. Lol jokes Rach, it's totally fine that you do that!

On another note, guess who's on the telly tonight...Mmmmmm.

I'm not gonna stay up late again tonight though cause I watched Die Hard 4.0 quite recently, so Brucey's ok with me just heading off to bed.

Today's post is short and sweet. I want to hear all about YOUR day, how are you? Did you do anything exciting? Are you watching Brucey too?