59/365

I had a super lovely morning with these beautiful people today! Catherine moved here from America (yay! Y'all know how much I love Americans!) with her husband and their two cute kiddies last September and it's been great getting to know them.

I picked Catherine and the kids up this morning and drove them out to my sister Sarah's for a morning of fun, stopping off at Crathes Castle on the way to show Catherine how amazing it is, and give the boys a chance to speed around on their bikes :) It was great! Then we headed to Sarah's for a much needed hot beverage, and enjoyed chatting while the kids played.

Thank you, ladies, for a fun morning :)

58/365

It was just Lily and I in creche yesterday morning at the Ladies Bible Study in church. This is when I caught her in the act of wrecking the amazing train track I built...the bridge clearly needed more support, as it caved in every time the train came round. Not great for the passengers really...

Ain't Lily a cutie?

57/365

After my swim on a Tuesday afternoon I head to my good friend Emma's house, and I get collapse on a chair, enjoy a cup of decaf tea in a hug mug and chat to her, while she stands and does her ironing for half an hour! Haha. It doesn't seem like a fair deal to me, but apparently she's thankful to have the time to get it done.

Emma and I became close about 5 years ago when we were put in a Prayer Triplet together in Church; two students meeting up with an older (wiser) member of the congregation to chat about life and put forward any prayer requests we may have. It was, and still is, a major blessing to have her guidance/butt kicking and encouragement. I'd love to go on about it a bit more, but she wouldn't like the attention, so I'll leave it there.

56/365

I wasn't going to bother with Bench Monday today, and just post another photo, as I hadn't managed to get one done, but when I got back from playing crazy golf (I won) and pool (I lost...only just!) tonight I couldn't let myself not do a Bench Monday photo! So I quickly put one together before shutting down for the night.

I love cosy pj's and my bed!

55/365

I loved Mum's homemade flapjacks when I was younger and the other day I got a craving for some. So, with no adorable children to play with this afternoon, I decided to make some!

They taste nice, but several things went wrong...I didn't melt the butter, I whizzed (Jamie Oliver would say 'whazzed'...but I absolutely hate that word.) the mixture too long in the food processor(because it wasn't mixing together due to me not melting the butter...) and the oats were broken in to tiny pieces (so it's like eating a nutrigrain bar instead of nice big crunchy oats), and the recipe didn't make enough to cover the whole of my baking tray...

I guess I'll just have to eat all of them, then make a better batch in a few days! Shame.

**I'd like to say that my baking skills aren't always a complete shambles**

54/365

Aaagh! The water's coming!!

All plans to continue with work today were cancelled when the adorable little boy you see above arrived in my living room. Instead we watched Toy Story, well, Fin only saw the first 20 minutes or so, then fell asleep, but it's all good cause it's probably the 100th time he's watched it.

After lunch we headed over to Stonehaven with Granny, and Fin got to go super fast with his balance bike on the boardwalk, throw some stones, walk on the wall, check out some girls, and share ice cream, and chips...then get caught in a horrible wet and windy hail storm, and be carried all the way on the very long walk back to the car, by his totally wonderful auntie!

Once we got back home, and in to some cosy dry clothes, we watched Toy Story 2! 

It was a good afternoon :)

53/365

A Scottish lassie sits down at a table with an American, a Belgian and a Frenchman...you'd think that was the start of some hilarious joke, but that was actually just me sitting down for dinner last night.

I was invited to join the three PhD students for dinner at Aberdeen's new Jamie's Italian. It's safe to say I felt a little nervous beforehand about my abilities to participate in the intellectual conversation... However, we had a thoroughly enjoyable evening, chatting, laughing, and enjoying yummy food! Despite the intrusion of the rather large lamp on our table (see above).

I absolutely loved the look of the restaurant, it had a cosy rustic, yet modern and sophisticated, feel to it; beautiful wooden floors, shelves, picture frames, tables and chairs, contrasted with metal tables and coloured chairs, Jamie's goodies lining the shelves, funky lights, big chunks of ham hanging in the kitchen, and some of the coolest bathroom fixtures ever...to mention just a few features.

Looking forward to going back again! Thank you for a lovely evening guys :) 

(Cassia's not going to be happy about my choice of photo...but it's fitting that she's too busy talking to pay attention to my camera...love you!)

52/365

This afternoon I planned to do a wee studio style photo shoot, but, after putting my hair in rollers (yay!), setting up the backdrop and the studio lights, my wireless trigger for the lights wouldn't work. Typical. So, the shoot got moved to my trusty upstairs window instead for some natural light head shots :)

I decided to put on my new dress that's been hanging on my cupboard door since before Christmas, waiting patiently for something nice to wear it to...when are we going out for that fancy dinner, girls?

51/365

So, for those of you who know me, it's no secret I'm a little obsessed with quite a few American photographers, and really really really want to visit America, and make beautiful photos there...

Well, this morning, I had a Starbucks breakfast date with my friend Rachael, to look through her STA Travel brochure for North America...Eeeeeek...and try to decide on where we'll go if we actually ever get round to booking a trip over there. I've been speaking about going for at least 2 years now, so hopefully...come Christmas 2013 I'll have been!

Just thinking about the '365 project' photos I'd get during my time their is making me feel all tingly! Gotta make this happen.

50/365

Tuesday is my lunchtime swim day :) I've not been for 3 weeks due to my trip to Lewis, and then taking Los Americanos to Glasgow last week. Both very good substitutes! But it was good to get back in the pool today, and I really must get myself there every week, so that my stamina actually improves!

Who knows...maybe one day I'll be swimming the Epic swim in the Lake District with you, Katherine!...ha...or not. I'll just stick with the pool...

49/365

I was VERY excited that it was so sunny and beautiful outside yesterday, so I could get some fresh air and have a Bench Monday adventure somewhere. Only problem was...I'm currently in need of a new tripod, and can't decide which one to get! As an alternative I took along one of Finlay's steps...but, I'm not a fan of photos that make me look like a giant, so instead it was back home, for a beautiful hallway sunlit Bench Monday.

I must make a decision on my tripod this week...I feel I may need to purchase two! One to give me the height I want for some self timer group/self portrait shots, and one that is sturdy enough to withstand the winds of Lewis. If any one knows of one that does both (and doesn't cost several hundred pounds!) then please do let me know.

48/368

I didn't take any photos during the day at all today, so you were going to get a photo of the little bathroom clock and the toothbrush jar, but then I thought a self portrait in the little mirror might be a bit more exciting...perhaps I wanted to try make up for yesterday's pig face...

I hope you've all had a wonderful weekend :)

47/365

So last night was Girls Night In, something the girls from Church having been doing for a number of years now around Valentines Day. We all get together at someones flat, split in to wee groups and take turns going through each room to a different "Station" where there is something Girly to do, and then eat yummy snacks when we're done.

Megan and Fiona were THRILLED they got me, and my camera, in their group! Not. Of course my camera was gonna come out at the station with the face masks! I think they both look beautiful, which is impressive considering what's on their faces...I however just look like a complete weirdo! I had a clear face mask on...which meant I just looked super greasy, so we thought I should try using the remains of Fiona's face mask...not much better. And I'm doing my laughing pig face. I almost cropped myself out, but they wouldn't have been pleased if I had.

Thank you for a wonderful evening, ladies!

46/365

Faces of pure delight.

Tonight was Wii and Pancakes Night for Teens, and whenever we have a Wii Night it pretty much means Just Dance Night! It's one of my favourite activities with the Teens as it's always a total hoot! Us leaders are just as excited to get our Dance on as the Teens are, and in some cases we put in waaaaay more effort than their little wrist movements...not naming any names! Fellow leader Fiona (above) likes to show them how it's done by a Pro!

It's moments like this one that make me especially love doing my '365 project' as I get to use it as an excuse to post up hilarious photos of people! I sure do love this photo! Look how happy they all are :) 

We had a Leaders Dance Off at the end of the evening, which I won...just saying...although if Fiona's controller battery hadn't died it probably would've been a much closer contest! And our lovely Teens captured the entire dance on their phones...technology these days.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend :)

45/365

I got to hang out with my gorgeous nephew, Finlay, this morning :) While my sister took Elsie to get her final set of jabs, I took Fin to a wonderful little Valentines Day party for kiddies hosted by one of the Mum's from Church. The kids had a great time running around with each other, getting covered in glittery pink paint during the craft, and eating cake! Always a winner.

I extended our drive home a little bit, and popped on some Bon Iver, so Fin could get some sleep after all the partying, and couldn't resist taking some photos when we got in to the driveway. The sleep didn't last long though; he woke the moment I lifted him out of his car seat, and he didn't fancy going to bed, so instead we had lunch, jumped on the bed, and played with Lego for a bit before Sarah and Elsie came over to get him.

With a morning like that, and seeing the new Die Hard movie tonight, it's been a good day :)

Day 44/365

Every couple weeks I've been doing the creche during the Ladies Bible Study at Church on a Wednesday morning. Usually there's only 2 or 3 kiddies, but today, because the schools were on holiday, there was 10! But it wasn't a big deal because they're all super well behaved children, and there were a few Nintendo DS consoles to keep their attention for a while!

I took this photo before the other 2 arrived, yes I can count; Luke, the littlest, was over beside the toy kitchen. Continuously opening and closing a cupboard door is WAY more fun than Super Mario Land.

43/365

Yesterday's blog post is late because last night I took Cassia and Noah down to Glasgow for the evening, and we got back pretty late...we would've got back a little earlier if I hadn't decided to drive towards Edinburgh instead of Aberdeen when we started heading home, but only a little earlier, and who doesn't love a little detour through the countryside?!

Although Noah came to Scotland to see Cassia, he also totally came to see a Football match! Not just any football match; his team, playing against Celtic in one of the roughest parts of Glasgow. Good times! We were a little hesitant about how the night would go...and there are so many reasons for that, be we won't get in to them right now, and the amazing thing is, the night was perfect! I don't think it could have been any better. Maybe if I hadn't driven along the M8 instead of the M80, but whatever, I enjoyed our extended singalong!

Anyway, while Noah was enjoying watching his team kick butt, just metres away from the pitch, Cassia and I enjoyed dinner, chat, and bopping to good music in our seats, in the centre of Glasgow :) Before we headed back to the car to drive back to the stadium, past 60,000 gutted Celtic fans, I snapped a wee photo of Cassia underneath the net of lights beside the Art Museum. I love those lights! Maybe one day I'll photograph an Engagement shoot there :)

42/365

 I thought I'd embrace my girly side and go a bit love heart crazy for Bench Monday this week seeing as it's Valentines Day in a few days. I love doing a fun set up for a shoot!

Whether you're being treated to a special night out by your boyfriend/girlfriend, or you're not doing anything, cause really it's just another day, I hope you all have a great week! I personally will be spending the evening with my boyfriend, Bruce Willis :)

Happy Bench Monday!

41/365

It's quite handy having an IT genius around the house to solve my Internet issues...turns out he's the reason it wasn't working though! I snapped this quickly while he pushed a few buttons and explained to me what it was he'd done to our Internet while I was away to make it work better...I can't remember now though. I think it's quite a nice profile shot.

That's me caught up on the last 10 days, so I can now go to bed!

40/365

After rounding up our final committee meeting for the Free Church Youth Conference in Glasgow on Saturday morning, I was originally going to be spending the afternoon celebrating my Granny's 80th Birthday with the rest of the Berry side of the family. However, sadly, my Granny had a bad fall last Wednesday night, thankfully not breaking any bones but she's pretty shaken up, and has been in hospital since. She knocked one of her front teeth out, and chipped another, so I suggested she could get a gold replacement...it was good to see her usual self coming through as she jokingly looked tempted by the idea!

I can't say I was filled with happiness as we walked down this rather long and depressing corridor in the hospital on Saturday trying to find the way out after visiting. Hopefully Granny will be getting home tomorrow, and we'll all be together again in a few weeks time to celebrate her 80th :)

39/365

I may have been a little gutted to be away from the island, but it was nice to get back to friends in Aberdeen. I spent Friday night having lots of laughs in great company, with crackers and cheese, and a delicious cocktail of sparkling water and Fruit & Barley! It was good to be home :)

*Warning: Cheese gives you nightmares.**

37/365

I must confess I wasn't thrilled to be leaving the island on Thursday. I loved having the house to myself for the week, seeing the sea out the window, and just being on the island in general. What made everything a little bit better was being third off the ferry when we reached Ullapool!!! So.Exciting. Usually I'm stuck behind a convoy of traffic for an hour, hoping that there aren't any cars coming on the long stretches of road so I can slowly make my way to the front of the convoy, and because of that I planned to get fish n' chips in Ullapool before heading off, that way I'd hopefully have an open road ahead. But then I realised I was going to be THIRD.OFF.THE.FERRY. Overtaking an estate and an oil tanker would be easy.

I didn't get fish n' chips until I reached home 3 hours later, instead I finished the remains of a tub of pringles and got a bottle of water and a Wispa when I refuelled in Inverness (you can see in the photo I was running pretty low...).

P.S. This photo is also HDR, looks alright apart from the flames coming out the back of the estate.

37/365

The weather calmed down completely (ha, ok, maybe not completely, it did rain for a while in the afternoon) on Wednesday and I nipped a couple hundred yards down the road to take a few photos of my Granny's cousin's daughter's daughter...:) If you can tell me what relation to me that is, then feel free!

Say hello to little Eva MacPhail :) I couldn't get over how teeny tiny her wee head is! My more immediate relatives are all fatties, so that's just what I'm used to, haha. She was utterly adorable, and it was lovely to get a few cuddles in the morning and catch up with her Mum and her Granny :)

36/365

It's quite sad the little number of photos I took throughout my trip, but the weather was so bad I really didn't want to drive all over the island like I normally would. After taking this picture (and driving back to the house to get my phone because I'd forgotten it and was hoping to communicate with the outside world while I was in town), I started to head down to Harris but turned back after 15 minutes because the wind and rain was too crazy.

So, I'm glad I at least visited the War Memorial in Stornoway and took a few photos of it, trying out the HDR setting on the Mark iii...I'm not a huge fan of over the top HDR but it can be really nicely done! I'm not saying that's what this is, by no means, this was just a quick snap to shield my face from the piercing wind for a second. But I do like the stonework of the tower.

35/365

On Sunday night the crazy storm weather that would rattle the island for 48 hours began, so on Monday, other than nipping in to town to meet my friend Isabel for a quick lunch (it was lovely to see you Isabel! Can't wait to see your chalkboard projects!), I didn't spend too long out of the house.

I decided to do Bench Monday in the comfort and warmth (yeah, you read right! I had the heating on all day so the house was actually warm) of the housie, with the dogs, a half eaten bag of crispy M+M's which I was obsessed with all week, my teacup, cosy socks from Leverburgh, and my random selection of movies that were thrown in a bag before hitting the road on Thursday morning. Can't remember what I watched that night...think it was Fast and Furious 5. Yum.

Oh, I've just remembered I sat in the car and watched some beautiful waves crashing in at one of the coves near the house that afternoon too, sadly there weren't any benches to stand on. Even if there were the tripod probably would've blown over in the wind.

34/365

On Sunday I headed over to Stornoway for Church, and spent the day at the Martin residence catching up with, and being fed very well by, my good friend Rachel's parents. Her Dad was our minister here in Aberdeen almost 10 years ago and it's always lovely to see them!

The guy who's not too chuffed to be getting his picture taken is Paul, the youngest of six, now ruler of the house! He's a fellow photography nerd, but he loves making videos even more, and he's nae bad at it either. It was great to see some of his work from weddings he's filmed this past year, and just sit all afternoon talking about photography and videography! And then all evening too...haha.

Thank you very much for your hospitality guys, and putting up with me All.Day.Long.

33/365

On Saturday I had a few engagement shoots to do :) Unforunately the weather didn't stay this beautiful for long and that one had to be rescheduled, but the one later in the afternoon went ahead thankfully! You never know what's going to happen with the weather in Lewis. It was so windy we were getting a bit of everything over the space of 10 minutes; rain, sunshine, sleet, hailstones.

This shot was taken at my favourite beach, Garry, at the end of the road in Tolsta. The tide was right in so, unless a fancied a swim, I wasn't able to get out to my favourite little rock climbing spots. And you can see a bit of snow on the ground if you look close.

Many good times were had at this beach, and hopefully many more to come in the years ahead!

32/365

On Friday night I went along to a Quiz Night with a couple friends which was to raise money for an incredible challenge! One man from the island is planning to row from New York...to Stornoway...to raise money for the charity SAMH, check out his website here for more details, and how you can donate if you feel you wish to do so! You can see the boat he'll be rowing, and living in for 3 months, all by himself! But it's all good, turns out he can watch movies on his laptop, and the boat has an inbuilt sound system, so he could totally party with the whales!

It was a great night, with 27 different teams taking part, our team coming somewhere in the middle of all that, and a pretty amazing selection of raffle prizes to win...there was only one of which I particularly wanted though; surfing lesson for 2 people! Amazing. It was the first prize in the draw, and my friend Alasdair won it! He then proceeded to ask his girlfriend, my lovely friend Laura, if she'd like to go with him. Safe to say I wasn't chuffed. Think I'll dress up as a shark that day and have some fun in the water...


...I love you guys really!

31/365

So this was the night I arrived in Lewis :) I went straight from the Ferry to Tesco to stock up on food for the week, then headed to what is pretty much my second home. Every time I walk through the front door, I breathe in through my nose and do a little dance inside (and occasionally do an actual dance too) because the smell brings back so many memories and simply makes me feel happy. Very happy. Some people find this weird, because they think it just smells like a dusty old house, that lies dormant for months. I don't smell that.

Once I whipped together some much needed grub, I sat down in the living room, which is filled with photos, much like the other rooms in the house. I love it! There are professional photos of my Dad and his brothers when they were teenagers, all wearing tank tops over their shirts...definitely deserves a 'lol', photos of my parents at their wedding, and my uncles at theirs, photos of my grandparents at their wedding and their parents at their weddings. These in particular are amazing to look at as they are so old! VERY different from the photos I take at Weddings these days. Thankfully camera technology has advanced, and people have learnt to smile. And a lot of snap shots of us all throughout the years.

The photograph shown above is my family at my aunt and uncles wedding, almost 23 years ago now, taken outside Kings College Chapel in Aberdeen. Safe in Daddy's arms :)

I may have had to sleep with an electric blanket under me, and a blanket, a duvet, and another blanket on top of me, and a hat on my head for part of one night, but I love being in that house, surrounded by memories.