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While eating dinner tonight I was thinking I hadn't stepped outside at all today, I'd just been sat in front of my monitor all day, but then I remembered I stepped outside to hang some washing out...and when I was done...it started raining, so I had to step outside again to take it all in. So I wasn't inside all day :)

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I wanted to show off my lovely Peach Smoothie painted toenails in this weeks Bench Monday, but unless I curled my lanky toes over the edge of the seat, you weren't gonna see them, and ew, I aint gonna do that. So instead, you're just getting to see my cankle, hobbit, feet in the pretty back garden wilderness :)

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I took maybe...4/5 photos this afternoon, with my wide angle lens, while this cutie was sat on my lap in front of the window. I'll never get tired of that face and those big blue eyes :)

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Tonight's the night we attempted to go see Despicable Me 2...but the only seats available were in the front row, or the fourth row...so we said no, no. And, instead, we went home, made a cocktail, and watched the first one :) Mmm, it was a good cocktail! Next time I'll need to make it in a jam jar...that's all the rage these days!

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Tonight, the girls and I pretended to be Italian, and made our own pasta. It's ridiculous how easy it is. Haha. We used my pasta machine, for the first time ever, to create beautiful, slim, strips of tagliatelle :) Accompanied by two different, delicious, semi home-made sauces, and some scrumptious garlic bread. Not forgetting the wonderful snippets of Italian music we listened to on iTunes, cause we didn't want to actually spend money on an album. Haha. Oh, it was a wonderful evening!

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The Big Hairy Gamer returns :)

We picked up my brother, from the train station, late on Thursday night, and it was good to see his happy face :) I brought my 70-200 lens along with my, and spied on him amidst the mass of travellers, from afar. But the hilarious thing is he spotted me the moment he came round the corner...guess I'm not a sly as I thought. And the poor boy walking ahead of him was wondering what on earth was going on; probably wondering if he was the one being papped or if he'd missed some big celeb on the train. Haha.

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We had Neighbourhood Fellowship at Wilma's on Wednesday evening, her conservatory was lined with different bouquets of beautiful flowers, the smell was wonderful! I was going to take a photo of each bouquet and create a collage, but then I spotted this bunch of pretty pink somethingorothers, inside a pretty teapot, and I knew it deserved a solo appearance :)

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I decided to do a little work on my chalk writing skills this evening...nothing spectacular, but it's better than all my previous scribbles. Haha. I want more chalkboards in my house...

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This is definitely one of my favourite Bench Mondays :) Check out the lanky legs on those girls...haha. One of the things I loved about Katherine's friends flat was their balconies! Yeup, balconies plural. And out on their front balcony they had their own wee herb garden, nestled inside a pallet, I loved it! Check out the cute wee watering can :)

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After two nights in Glasgow, it was off to Edinburgh for the night, ready to meet a client the following afternoon to discuss her December wedding :) And it meant I got to see this lovely lady! I was absolutely in love with her friends flat, and if I lived in Leith I would definitely be renting one of these beauties.

It was wonderful enjoying a night of tea, cookies and chat with Katherine :)

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I got a rather humorous photo of Roddy at the wedding, trying to get the attention of the entire wedding party for the big group shot, but I thought I'd be nice and show y'all the pretty ducks in Loch Lomond instead!

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I was down in Glasgow for the weekend, assisting Roddy at another wedding, and I got to stay with my aunt and uncle, and my two adorable little cousins!


When I left Aberdeen at lunch time, it was cloudy and cold, so I was wrapped up...when I reached Glasgow, however, it was absolutely roasting and the sun was blasting down! I had to run an errand in the town centre and kind of melted a bit in the process, so it was extra nice to get to my Aunts house and relax in the shade of back garden, while the kids had some bubbly fun, along with one of my other aunts, who joined us for dinner.

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So, this morning, 4 friends and I walked up a local hill called Bennachie, at 2am, to watch the sunrise :) We'd been at Stonehaven, enjoying some ice cream on the beach at sunset, the night before, and decided to be crazy and go on a sunrise adventure! It wasn't quite the longest day of the year, but we couldn't manage it on the Friday, and it was overcast and raining that night, so it's just as well we did it on the Wednesday!

We left the car around 2am, walking up throw the dark forest, with a big heavy torch to guard against grizzly bears and bunnies. We got up top around 3am, leaving us about an hour until sunrise...and although we were roasting walking up the hill, the chill kicked in once we were sat at the top, so we were very thankful we'd brought our sleeping bags and slankets!

We enjoyed some munchies, hot chocolate and coffee, had a wee power nap, and then it was time for the big event! 4:09am. It was incredible how quickly the sun rose up; within 5 minutes it was above the horizon...and behind some clouds. Haha. So we quickly snapped a very grainy photo of the group, packed up and began our descent, back to the car...looking forward to bed!

It was a beautiful sight, and a fun adventure :) Next time I think I'll just watch the sunrise from the beach though...my lungs would prefer that.

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Another charm for the collection :) I got a Pandora charm bracelet for my 21st birthday from a wonderful couple, and on a few Christmas's or Birthday's over the last few years I've received a new charm. I have a teapot, palm trees, a cupcake, a camera and, as of today, when I discovered a late birthday present waiting for me on my laptop, I now have a crab! I love it :)

169/365

I had dinner with these 4 lovelies last night :) I forced them all up from the comfortable sofas for a group shot, originally I took an "arm selfie" of the 5 of us...but it's never a good look for me. HA. So then we tried positioning it on the kitchen counter and leaning in...that didn't work. So in the end I just made them huddle in and I took full control of the camera. This is what resulted from me attempting to make them laugh, which got 3 out of 4 of them, so I vowed never to do it again, then Naomi couldn't smile naturally, so we went for a few posed shots...I just stood back and let it unfold...they're gonna hate me for choosing this one. But...I really don't mind! Haha. Enjoy, ladies!

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I found a cute wee road near my house :) Happy Bench Monday!

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Dave and his mini, on Father's Day :) And Fin photobombing in the background...

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Usually I'm all for recycle points...but in this instance, it's obstructing my art! Haha.

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Cuddles with Miss Cassie :)

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My 24th Birthday got pretty wild...

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A short trip to the seaside :)

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It was Courtney's last day yesterday, she'd never been to Crathes Castle before so I took her and a couple of the lads out for a few hours in the afternoon, and we went for a short stroll through the forest in the beautiful sunshine. This is a My Tripod's In The Car And I Can't Be Bothered Running Back To Get It Bench Monday, With Jazz Hands.

Enjoy the rest of your travels, Courtney :) Come back and see us soon!

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She enjoys her food...

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I love shooting weddings in pretty venues with ginormous windows, and equally as ginormous mirrors :)

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We went to a ceilidh on Friday night, it finished and I suddenly realised I hadn't taken a photo at all that whole day...so I quickly checked the time, panicking that I'd failed my 365 project!! But, it was 11:30pm, so I quickly gathered the sweaty troops and snapped a few photos...this one makes me lol because of Naomi's face. It would've been better to position the lads in kilts scattered between the lads in suits, but it was a rush job...and everyone was sweaty and rather unhappy with my timing of a group photo...haha. Sorry, folks! Thank you for a fun night :)

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This is a Super Late Evening At The Park Bench Monday...d'you like our 'Highland Dancing' poses...? It was quite a 'lol' getting everyone to balance in timing with the 10 second self timer...

#blooper

153/365

Courtney came to visit!!

Courtney is from Tennessee and she was here 2 years ago to do her Masters, so it was so lovely seeing her again, and getting to spend Sunday afternoon with two American babes. My accent was probably majorly messed up that day.

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Takeaway and a movie with Miss Cassia as a reward for tidying my bombsite of a room...my curry had rose petals in it...#weird, and the film wasn't that great, but we went to see Star Trek in the cinema before that, and watched Terminator Salvation afterwards, so really I can't complain. We did a lot of chillin'.

151/365

Movie Night with the Younguns'

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I got to have some Auntie & Nephew Time with my little dude today :) We went swimming at the Beach Leisure Centre, got chips, and ran about on the beach for a little while. He wasn't getting bored in the slightest at the pool, which I LOVE, we were there for near an hour and a half, I'm pretty sure, turning in to prunes. So much fun :)

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I tried out some Black Bottomed Cupcakes from one of my Hummingbird Bakery recipe books yesterday afternoon cause I was craving some yummy goodies. They're chocolate cupcakes, with a cheesecake filling...or in my case, topping, and then cream cheese frosting on top of some of them. They didn't quite turn out the same as the photo...and at the time I was a bit disappointed with the taste, but having just eaten one now I've changed my mind; they're yummy! The frosting most definitely helps :)

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Pavlova.

The above must be read in an Australian accent...go on...do it...yeaaaah! It's so good, right!? Has to be done. Thank you Australian Masterchef and Scott Mills from Radio 1. For almost a year now, whenever someone mentions pavlova, I automatically repeat the word with an Australian accent, ever since hearing Scott Mills playing a clip from Australian Masterchef, with the contestants saying it a ridiculous number of times in just one episode. Mmm, pavlova!

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This is my I'm Running Out The Door In Two Minutes And Need To Take a Bench Monday Photo Bench Monday...yeah :)

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Naomi's gonna love me...

I love some late night Chiminea banter with some wonderful people :) Despite their abuse at my lack of jokes...

145/365

When I got back from Glasgow on Saturday afternoon the sun was shining beautifully, so I lay my picnic blanket out in the back garden, read/shut my eyes for a couple hours, had a lovely relaxing bath, and then put my feet up and watched the second half of The Titanic...it was good.

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I took this photo towards the end of, what felt like, a never ending road...

This day had been greatly anticipated for months; assisting Roddy at a wedding down in Hartlepool, the day after the due date of his, and wife Fiona's, first baby, and therefore a small possibility of me having to take control of photographing the wedding last minute. Nothing like a little added excitement on a wedding day!

Thankfully the day passed without any panic of Roddy wishing he could fly at warp speed to get back to Glasgow. Despite horrific weather conditions on the drive down that morning, conditions improved for the afternoon, and the wedding was absolutely beautiful :)

The journey home, however, was rather long, with a slightly stressful stop at a very busy service station half way, but thankfully we had our hilarious wit, Roddy's random music, and a spectacular skyline to guide us back to Glasgow.

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 I love my Grampa :) He most definitely makes me laugh out loud! Despite being in his mid 80's, he is still totally on the ball with his wit, responding to my statements with something hilariously ridiculous in a flash. This is when he spotted the camera...

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I was far too awake at the time this photos were taken...well, that's a good thing considering I was having to control a motor vehicle, but still...running along a country road to get a good vantage point for a sunrise landscape at 5:15am is a little weird in my opinion.

I had no difficulty going back to sleep when I returned home after dropping Miss Cassia at the Airport :) And taking a slight detour on the way home for said landscape shot.

141/365

Tonight was an early night sleepover at Cassia's as I was driving her to the airport the next morning for her flight to...PUERTO RICO!! She was going over there for a week for her brother's wedding (one of her six brothers, that is...), very exciting! So, at the time, 21:38, I thought it was too early for me to go to sleep...but looking back now, it is a perfectly acceptable time to go to sleep, when you're getting up at 4:15am the next morning! I didn't actually go to sleep till after 11...very regrettably.

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So...what I didn't mention on Friday during Alex and Matthew's Birthday blog post is that Matthew might appear in a few more of my blog posts from now on...I'll leave you all to work out why :)

This is an I Watched Hot Fuzz For the First Time Bench Monday...Matthew loves it, and, as a joke, he received 6 copies of it for his Birthday from his future flatmates...so there was really no getting away from it; I had to watch it at some point. We got Chinese takeaway though so it wasn't a complete disaster...haha. I'm just kidding, of course, the film was rather humorous, because Simon Pegg's in it! But Matthew's still gonna have to watch Die Hard, for the first time ever, in return for me watching Hot Fuzz...I know, you may be surprised I have allowed him in to my life when he has such a massive flaw as this...but, I have. Yay for a Die Hard Marathon! :)

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We went out for a very last minute walk on Sunday afternoon, before Church...loved the light bursting through the trees :)

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We had a hugely successful Curry & Quiz Fundraiser at Church on Saturday night, to raise money for the Youth Camps that run throughout summer each year. This photo shows 3 different scenes from the evening...the mass of dishes that is created from cooking for nearly 100 people *massive thank you to Tanya for the delicious curries she made! And the girls who helped wash up :)*, lots of happy, food filled people with pondering faces in the middle of the quiz, and the back room, where the children were running riot while watching Despicable Me (such a good film!).

I've not heard the official total we raised that night, but I hear it was a significant amount. Yay! Thank you, everyone :)

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Majorcreeps.com

This is Alex and Matthew cutting the cake at their joint Birthday celebrations on Friday night...after an interesting trip to Balmedie beach, for a BBQ, in some questionable weather conditions...but we survived the cold, and wind, and sea spray, and sandy burgers...and had lots of fun! :) The banter continued late in to the night, with some humorous birthday presents, more BBQ-ing, and lots of cakes! Yes, cakes...plural...I was happy!

I hope you both had a fantastic day! :)

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I got to look after this cutie for an hour or so one afternoon, while big bro, Fin, went with Mummy to check out the Nursery he's going to after summer...crazy, I know!! I can't believe he's gonna be 3 this July and he's going to Nursery. He's gettin' big!

As is the adorable Elspeth Catriona, but thankfully she's not too big just yet :) She's still a total squidge!