Day 334: New Sample Goodies!

My new sample albums arrived in the post yesterday, but I was out all day so tonight was the first chance I've had to look at them. And yeah sure, I took the photos, and designed the album myself, but I must say...it looks pretty darn gooood! There is the main 12x12" layflat album, one 8x8" replica parents album, and eight 4x4" replica guest albums in the sample pack. I'm in love with them all! Here's some photos...

 I love the cover image! I used pretty much an identical one as my 365 photo on the day :)

 I couldn't resist giving this image a douple page spread, it makes me laugh every time I see it :)

 Had to get in some of the shots of the bridal party having some fun...

This shows you the layflat style of the album; it's excellent! You don't end up chopping off part of your photos like you would in a normal curved page album, so double page spreads look amazing!

 And here's a couple shots of the replica parents album. Just as beautiful, just a smaller version :)
I absolutely loved designing this album, looking forward to being a part of more beautiful weddings next year!

Day 333: Best Magazine I've Ever Bought....and most expensive.

 

So I wish my day was simply made up of reading my new magazine by world wide wedding photographer Jasmine Star, and drinking hot orange juice, because my throat feels like it has a razor growing inside it, but sadly no. I was only able to flick through a few pages at work, and then wipe my grubby finger prints off them afterwards. Haha. I'm pretty excited about reading it...whenever that's gonna be! She tells her whole business story, about her determination, her mistakes, and her successes. I'm hoping it'll give me a big boost!

I was at the lovely Cassia's for dinner and prayer triplet tonight, with the lovely Tanya, and didn't plan on staying late...shock horror we couldn't stop talking, so now it's almost midnight and I'm trying to get the blog done so I can get to sleep! I planned on getting loads of sleep this week in preparation for our weekend away this weekend...it's not happening so far. So, tomorrow night...bed by half past nine! We'll see...

Day 332: Major Giggles Bench Monday

Aaaagh. I have to be super quick cause I'm doing the blog from my bed, and my laptop informs me it has 6 minutes of life left in it, and I can't be bothered going downstairs to get the charger! So I'll just say that this was probably the funniest evening of Bench Monday attempts ever. Ha. We started out on the sofa, and Fin found it hilarious that we were climbing up and down from the sofa, but it just wasn't working. So then we tried the step, and he kept running back and forth, like me checking my camera! So eventually Sarah just sat down and left me to it, and this is the last photo I took. I like! Ha. Good night!

Day 331: Sunday School Singing

I may never march with the infantry
Ride with the cavalry, shoot with the artillery
I may never zoom o’er the enemy
For I’m in the Lord’s army
I’m in the Lord’s army
I may never march with the infantry
Ride with the cavalry
Shoot with the artillery
I may never zoom over the enemy
For I’m in the Lord’s army
I may never climb like Spiderman, Fly like Superman, bend like Bananaman,
Indiana Jones is not the kind of guy I am, for I’m in the Lord’s army,
I’m in the Lord’s army, I’m in the Lord’s army.
I may never climb like Spiderman, Fly like Superman, bend like Bananaman,
Indiana Jones is not the kind of guy I am,
For I’m in the Lord’s army.

Gotta love a song that mentions Superman and Indiana Jones!

Day 330: He's Not Just Santa's Favourite

I was about to head off to bed a while ago...after watching Larry Crowne with Mum, and getting some Christmas pressies ordered online (booyah!), but then I realised I HADN'T DONE THE BLOG YET. Close one. Would've been the first time I'd not got a blog post up without a legitimate reason like Internet failure or migraine.

So, d'you like my favourite little reindeer? You'll be surprised to hear that it wasn't actually me who bought him the suit, it was Granny and Grampa Morrison. That's not to say I won't be buying him a Christmas themed outfit of some sorts...heh heh heh. He's actually the cuddliest thing ever in this suit though! It's amazing. Maybe I should get a selection of suits...and try create a Christmas Multiplicity...

Day 329: Thank You For The Music!

Tonight was our Music (and Pudding!) Night at Church, to raise money for the Women For Mission project Energising Lakhnadon. We have quite a few talented little people, and Teens! It's amazing. I'm so impressed with them all! And wish I was as musically talented as they are; 6 months of violin lessons in primary school is the extent of my talents...really wish I'd carried it on!

It was a lovely evening, with great company and delicious puddings! And as Sandy Smith said "Thank you for the music" in the grace during the break, I couldn't help but start singing Abba in my head...

Day 328: Sudden Darkness

So, I'm sitting at my 'desk', and I realise it's 4 o'clock and the world's suddenly gone dark! Well, obviously not the whole world, that would be rather scary. I'm sure it's still sunny in America...and other places where it's still morning...OR at the south pole where the sun's not actually going to set again until April. CreyC. I'd love to see that! I was watching a bit of Frozen Planet on my lunch break today...amazing. I fast forwarded through all the nonsense about birds...they're all the same! I'm joking bird lovers...I'm just more interested in the sea mammals and funky fish they find deep in the sea.

Imagine if THIS was your job! Amazing. I'd not only get to take photos of whales underwater, but I'd get to buy lots of massive thick cosy scarves!!

Day 327: Curl Lovin'

Yes, today I've taken a photo of my shampoo and conditioner. But it's not just any shampoo and conditioner; it's John Frieda Frizz-Ease Dream Curls Shampoo and Conditioner! I almost went upstairs to get my John Frieda Frizz-Ease Dream Curls Curl Reviver Styling Mousse, Styling Spray, and Perfecting Creme...but I thought that would be a step too far.

John Frieda is actually amazing! I've always been a bit like "Shampoo for people with curly hair...aye, ok, whatever...", but I already had the curling spray and creme, so I decided to give this stuff a go...probably because it was on offer in Tesco or something, and it totally works!! And then when I ran out of shampoo, I discovered Boots had a 3 for 2 style thing going on so I branched out to their curling mousse, and crikey! My hair was so thick and curly and yummy and amazing! I've loved having long hair, but it was always so much curlier when it was short, and now it's the best of both worlds!

Fascinating blog post, all about my hair. I bet it'll be horrific tomorrow. Haha. I feel like such a girl...

Day 326: Mmm Mmmm Edward Cullen

Rachael and I went to see Breaking Dawn part 1 at the cinema tonight. Eeek! We were a few minutes late (at least!) due to the rather shocking wait we had for service and then our food at TGI Friday's, but we didn't miss the wedding of the year, so it's all good! I'm not gonna give away anything because I've been warned not to by people who will be reading this blog post, haha. I'll just say I was loving it far too much, most of the time.

I put my lensbaby in my handbag this morning, as it's not been touched since May! So I thought I'd use it to capture Robert Pattinson's beautiful face (on a cardboard cutout...yes, sad, I know), and then try out some amazing bokeh shots of the Union Square Christmas decorations :D Love!

Day 325: Rather Rushed Bench Monday

9:30 to 12:40 - Business Start Up Awareness workshop
12:40 to 13:30 - Buy lunch, drive to beach, take a quick Bench Monday photo and try not fall off the wooden thingy, drive to work.
13:45 to 17:00 - Work...involving a bit of reception cover...woop.
17:00 to 18:00 - Drive back down to Business Gateway, nip to Starbucks for decaf Mocha, and listen to bloke telling chick he's planning on buying some girl a "£400 pair of shoes for Christmas, and a few other wee things...so probably spend about £500..." Some people are CreyC.
18 to 20:40 - Business Plan workshop. This workshop was timetabled to finish at half 9, but I was very thankful it finished early, so I could get home for some foooood.
So, it was a bit of a long day! But actually, it didn't feel too long in the slightest. These workshops have been great! It's been really good being around people who are in the same position as I am with business stuff, and some are even more clueless than me! And I feel like the interaction during the workshops is improving my communication skills and confidence for sure. Happy days!

Not a shabby Monday I'd say. The highlight was probably when the only guy at tonight's workshop, a short haired, butch lookin bloke in a t-shirt, joggers and trainers similar to a pair my Dad had, informed us all that he works in Oil & Gas, but has never liked it, and would like to open up a men's designer wear shop. I wish him all the best!

Day 324: Students For Lunch

Hope you guys had a lovely afternoon :) Iain and Donald were also present, but they left before I got the camera out...I'm sure they don't mind. And thank you Mumsy for a delicious lunch, I'm sure Tanya will tell you it was far nicer than the meal she received from myself on Thursday night. Haha.

Hope you all had a good weekend :) Try a big smile for Monday!

Day 323: Trumpy's New Course

Today was the perfect day for a stroll along Balmedie beach, and some breaking and entering on to Donald Trump's new golf course...minus the breaking...more like stepping across a wee stream and wandering on to the sides of the course. I'd seen photos of the course in the paper the other day, and fancied a wee nosey, any excuse to get to the beach though really, and the sun setting was an added bonus! It was a lovely afternoon, finished off nicely with a trip to Starbucks :) Yum.

Here I am with my fellow trespassers...

Feel free to zoom in on Alex's face and tell me what he's doing. Good job ruining the happy family photo Alexander!

Day 322: Aberdeen Fae Torry

I need to take a photo of Aberdeen for the church website. The one I've given them to use at the moment is lovely but too agricultural for a city church. Sadly. So, before heading home after a lovely afternoon with Lynsey and her wee girlies, I crossed the bridge to Torry and headed up the hill to try out the vantage point for photos.

I love that I've gotten some of the sea in the shot (shockerooney!), but unfortunately it's just not gonna fit with the church logo over it. It doesn't stand out enough over the buildings, and if I crop it to the similar format as the landscape shot, with lots of sky, then you don't really get much impact from the buildings as they're not getting enough light...fail.

I think I'll scrap my harbour view idea and find somewhere that has a good view straight across the tops of the buildings in the centre of town me thinks. This shot might work from a lower view too though...maybe I'll go back and try that.

Day 321: "Chicken Korma" For Dinner

I attempted to make chicken korma for our dinner tonight...who would've thought you could fail at making chicken korma! Well, it wasn't a total fail...it just wasn't as absolutely delicious looking as I'd hoped, but we ate it anyway! Next time, it'll be scrumptious pasta or noodle based dishes aaaaaall the way.

We then watched Enchanted, stopping part the way through to pose for this photo! And went on to watch Maid of Honour, to continue the Patrick Dempsey theme...Mmmm. Thanks for a lovely evening ladies!

...I still have to tidy up the kitchen.

Day 320: I Love A Good Novel

So Katherine and I have been trying to get a suitable time for another phone date for the past couple weeks, and if I hadn't gotten a migraine on Saturday morning we would've had one then! Anyway, tonight I suggested we resort to private mail on Facebook until we do get to chat properly.

After Neighbourhood Fellowship I got a text from Katherine saying she'd just sent me a novel! Haha. I was excited! But when I went on all I saw was two paragraphs, that I didn't think were worthy of novel classification...turns out Facebook was just being sneaky and when I scrolled down I discovered a gold mine! Haha. Had to copy and paste it in to word to show just how long it was, obviously I've blurred out everything it says! Don't want you knowing our secret cupcake recipes.

But look, 922 words! Impressive for less than an hours work...took me a few days.../weeks to type 500 words for our college assignments! Haha. But I expect my response will take me no time at all.

I've not actually read the message yet, wanted to get the blog out of the way first! So now I'm gonna go get my cup of tea, which has been stewing for a feeeew minutes, and get reading :)

Tinie Tempah Bench Monday Tuesday

My sincerest apologies to these lovely ladies for not adding their Bench Monday photo yesterday, after all their efforts with those incredible t-shirts! I hope they will forgive me now that they've got their very own special blog post dedicated to them...

Can I just ask, what's going on with that sofa?? It looks like the children's soft play area on the ferry...

Day 319: Granny's Got Skills

D'you like Fin's cute little sockies that his Granny made him? I nipped round after work tonight to give Sarah some stuff, and before I left we snapped a few photos to show Nana Jana, now that his feet are big enough to keep them on...mostly. Ha.

Even when you can't see his head he's a cutie!

Day 318: The IT Crowd Bench Monday

So I had planned to go out to a nice wee park at Bridge of Don at lunchtime for today's Bench Monday photo, but then I found out everyone was getting Pizza for lunch at work! Woop! So instead I enlisted the help of the IT Crowd. Sadly my chair was too fat for us to fit properly in a line, so I'm covering Ali up a little...but he'll get his moment in a second. My legs are actually massive, huh! Tree trunks ahoy hoy.

So, yeah, this was me setting up the camera on arrival in the IT office...

Funny lads.

And this was Ali trying to do some Parkour magic on our first attempt...and my chair spun round...lols...

Oh how I love Bench Monday!

I've been sent a last minute guest entry from the lovely Judy Laing! She took this photo of her boys at Crathes Castle. Yay! We all know how much I love castles :D I love their different poses, good job lads!

Day 317: Fin Attack

I was a little worried tonight, cause I hadn't taken any photos all day and I was gonna have to rustle something up before hittin' the hay...but then I got home from Church and saw this...

...Sarah's really sweet in the way that she leaves the place in a mini bomb site, so that we can feel like part of Finlay's incredible cuteness has been left here with us. Good times. Thank you for providing me with something for the blog tonight :) It was either that, or the now water stained draft of my wedding packages.

Hope you've all had a good weekend :)

Day 316: Mmmm Soup!

4 o'clock in the afternoon and I'm still in my pyjamas! Unfortunately not because I'm enjoying a lazy day in front of the telly, but because I got a migraine this morning. Woop! When I got up I was craving some yummy soup, and guess what...Mumsy had been to Tesco and stalked up on yummy soup while I was unconscious. Amazing.

Hope you're all having a good Saturday, I'm gonna go make some tea.

Day 315: 11:11:11 11/11/2011

It was an exciting evening filled with banter after the service at church tonight, we didn't spend too long staring at the clock waiting for this incredible moment in time.

Day 314: Another Lovely Evening at the Morrisons

Alexander, Iain and myself went out to Sarah and Dave's for dinner this evening, and we had wee chocolate cakes for pudding :) Haha. Fin was of course a great source of entertainment throughout the evening, as well as Hogs of War which we played after dinner. I actually love it! Don't underestimate Alexander. He was a bit iffy to start of with, but his skills with a Bazooka are now pretty incredible! It was a great evening :)

Hope you've all had a good week so far :)

Day 313: New Slippers, Yay!

Just rustlin' up some dinner in ma new slippers! Gotta be cosy for winter :)

Day 312: One Excited Ginger

Doesn't she look excited!? She's fair chuffed with her "fortune teller thingy", which she made out of her Wagamama's place mat this evening. She predicted that I was going to enjoy the movie we were going to see, which was The Help. She's a genius; I loved it!! Such a good movie, and it will definitely be finding a home in my collection when it's out, perhaps next to the Die Hard trilogy (quadrilogy now, I know).

Thank you ladies for a lovely evening :) I have taken my nail varnish off, paid £26 for a limited edition magazine by Jasmine Star from America, and am now going to sleep!

Day 311: Product Placement Bench Monday

Today has been a good day :) I had another business workshop this morning, and then I walked along to Marks and Spencers for a sandwich, Bibi's Cupcakes for a chocolate orange cupcake, and nipped in to Starbucks for a tall, decaf mocha, with cream on top, to take away. Then I headed back to the car and drove down to the beach to enjoy my lunch, while watching the seals in the harbour, and take a Bench Monday photo. No doubt some of the staff of the Silver Darling restaurant were looking down at me wondering what on earth I was doing!

So the first time I pushed the shutter release, I decided to move my Starbucks cup and cupcake just a little to the left...which meant I didn't get in to position on time. Ha. But I like it!

Day 310: I Always Love This Face

He'd just had a spoonful of pudding.

Day 309: "Oh What A (Bonfire) Night!"

I hate when I'm doing blog posts this late at night and am far too sleepy to do justice to what a wonderful day or evening I've had! Tonight, as you'll know, was Bonfire Night, and Ken and Rachel had the young folk from the church, and a few families out to theirs for an incredible evening! They had quite a chunker of a bonfire, delicious sausages, AND/OR beef in buns, hot chocolate, and then a pretty magnificent fireworks display! It was such a lovely evening, with excellent company.

And to finish it off we headed inside and watched Back to the Future! Amazing. There were a lot of exclamation marks at the end of my sentences in tonight's post...that's just how great it was! :)

So...good night!

Day 308: Three Angles of Crathes

:) Hello! I was loving the hazy light on my drive home from town just after lunch today, so decided to nip home to get the 17-40mm (and fill my tea flask!), and head out for a drive. I had planned to find a spot by a river, but after driving down the south deeside road, and crossing the river twice...no, sorry, four times, I decided to head for Crathes!

Having been driving with the radio up loud, just a bitty, it was incredible how quiet it was when I switched off the engine and stepped out the car. The peace was pretty wonderful! Sure, my heart broke a little just minutes after my arrival after I discovered that they had replaced MY BLUE DOOR! But I soon calmed down, thoroughly enjoyed strolling around the grounds, and was loving the low autumn sunshine!

Without really realising, I had taken photos of the castle from 3 different angles, and each was framed by overhanging tree branches and leaves...I hope you like them, I sure do! 

Day 307: Back To My 50mm

My 17-40mm...no sorry, it's not mine, haha! THE 17-40mm lens is due to be returned to it's owner soon, ready to spend a wonderful week in Paris, so I've been trying to wean myself off it and get back to my 50mm. I absolutely LOVE my 50mm and it's ability to go down to a super low aperture, and work in low light conditions, which the 17-40mm can't do! That was it's one major downfall; f4's not too bad, but it's not as yummy as f1.8!

However, I think my 50mm is going to need some time to forgive me for leaving it in my camera bag so much this past couple months, as it wasn't playing ball tonight! Getting the focus right in an aperture as low as 1.8 is tricky business, and when the subject is a super gorgeous baby who's loving being able to walk it's even tougher, so I'll let it off for the right image, but the one on the left shouldn't have been a problem! He was being a typical male; in his underwear with his PS3 controller, but I don't think even one part of the image is in focus. Ha. I've had to sharpen it up big time in Photoshop! Maybe the lighting was just that little bit too dark...or maybe I need to upgrade to a 1.4!

Anyway, I've probably lost a few readers by this point, apologies to those who have no idea what I've been talking about! These images are a perfect example of content over quality. I loved Finlay in his totally awesome towel (I may have bought it for him), and then that photo of him and the PS3 controller just cracks me up. I asked Dave if he wanted a game of Fifa...and I was totally serious! Ha. But they only have one controller, so instead we played Hogs of War, which Sarah stole from me the other year and I've been craving it every so often since! We used to play it a lot; Sarah, Ali Richard, and myself. And my bazooka aim was pretty darn good . Not so much tonight...ha, but Sarah and I ended on a draw after 4 games.

Fascinating blog post tonight wouldn't you say!? Happy Thursday :)

Day 306: Mouldy Apple?

When I got home from Neighbourhood Fellowship tonight, having yet to take today's blog photo, I had a craving to photograph something on our wooden floor...but what? A teacup? No...try thinking outside the box for a change. Ha.

So, instead I picked up a mouldy apple! And went to look for a pretty ornate plate to place it on. I spent a few minutes placing the still life, lying on my belly on the kitchen floor and getting the focus exactly how I wanted.

But I went on to spend over an hour fiddling around with the photo of Photoshop! I was watching CSI Miami at the same time mind you...but anyway. I couldn't get the colour tones the way I wanted, since it was a bit of a mixture of colours, and the lighting was rather full on and fluorescent, due to our new 'flood lit football pitch' style kitchen. So in the end I just had to stop myself from flicking back and forth between settings...it's just a mouldy apple after all!

It's not actually mouldy...just a little squishy.

Day 305: Just Makin' Dinner

Look at the concentration on my faces! Ha. Kinda wishing I'd thrown in some cheesy grins, but it was a 'Bish Bash Bosh' job before I got properly stuck in to making dinner. Ha.
Mumsy put out one of Jamie's recipe books, saying to make something she'd made previously...pretty much nothing like what the recipe was. Ha. So it was definitely a 'wing it' situation. I really wasn't too optimistic that it was going to be edible, but it was great fun just throwing everything in to a dish and mixing it up!

It was edible in the end. It'll be far better next time round though!