Life Lately.

I haven't done any blogging this year mainly because my time is split over so many things that personal blogging can seem like I'm procrastinating. Which as we all know is baaaaad.

 2013 has been great for me so far. I can't remember everything that has been happening so I'm going to talk a bit about easter and what I've been up to in April.

I went home for a few days at the beginning of the holidays for a much needed break. Uni work can get very stressful and sometimes it's nice to visit home and escape your responsibilities for a while. There's nothing better than mums home cooking and a cosy fire, especially with the horrible cold weather Scotland's been experiencing. Snow in March? You're kidding me Scotland!

Whilst I was home my mum and I went for a walk at Prestwick. When I think of Prestwick my mind immediately says 'airport', so it was nice to see a different side to the place.
We went a walk along the promenade first which was really windy. I don't know if it's just me, but walking in colder conditions makes me feel like I'm doing more exercise. I think it might be because I'm battling against the wind. We picked up some nice driftwood for the fire and carried them along on the way back.

Afterwards we headed to a place called Elliots for some lunch. We drove past this place on the way in and it looked really good so we made a mental note to go there for some food. And food we had! It was really lovely inside, because it has a kind of conservatory as the main dining area. The sun was out that day too so it was lovely and bright.
I had sizzling garlic butter and chilli oil king prawns and my mum had something called 'Cullen Skink' which is basically a really thick creamy fish soup. It arrived in a pan!
Both are meals were gorgeous so I really recommend the place.

There's also this place down the road which was called Costley's, and it sold amazing looking ice cream. Everything about the place screamed eat me. So we went in and got some ice cream to eat in the car. No regrets. This place had meringues the size of my face.

All in all, it was an excellent day out and some quality time spent with my mum.

I also had a day in Edinburgh, which I spent with my friend Fiona. She's getting married in October and she has chose me to be her bridesmaid! This day was spent going from bride shop to bride shop with her two mums (present and future step mum) looking for the perfect dress. I think we pretty much found it in the first one we visited, which is very typical! I can't really post pictures of the day unfortunately as that would come under the category 'spoilers'!
however, we did visit Pizza Express, which was a new experience for me.

Man, that place does some tasty pizza.

Everything else over easter has mainly been about my university problems, and if you're at all interested in that side of me I have another blog here, which is regularly updated with my latest dilemmas.

Hopefully I'll be able to update you on upcoming adventures but till then it's back to work.

Lino Printing

I've started lino printing again. I've wanted to get back to it for a while and over the past few months I managed to get all my equipment and make a first attempt!
The one in the photo above in a work in progress and I've yet to put ink to it. It's based on a quote that I've been looking at for my honours project this year, which is all about bookstores and their effects. I thought this mini poem was beautiful and had such lovely words, so I drew them out and started carving. Fingers crossed it will look okay!

The one below is a test I did a while ago. At the time I was watching episode after episode of Pushing Daises, hence the whole Pie thing. Boy, does that show make you want to eat pie! 
I made a peach one after watching a few episodes just to satisfy my cravings.
The first time I made this print I carved it back to front. It's so frustrating when that happens! and it happened again to me this time. Apparently I don't learn from my mistakes!

A Wee Walk.

Fiona, Tom and I took a walk around Kirkmichael the other day with Arthur, who is Fiona's new puppy! 

He's been living with us for a few days now and he's the cutest little thing. The walk was really nice too and I managed to collect another pinecone for my small collection. 

The picture above is a funny little incident involving fiona giving me a lift over the mud because I wore the wrong shoes. We managed to get stuck, it was one of the funniest things. I remember being really shattered for the rest of the day after that! 

Louisa, my other flatmate, eventually came back from France that day too and our flat became whole for the first time. 

Living alone here since July has been quite lonely, but I'm really glad that the other two are finally moved in. For those of you who live alone, you'll know how it can get sometimes. When the house creaks I immediately think someone is coming to kill me. However, that is all over now and the house is alive with noise. It's good. 

Weekend Break.

Last weekend I went to stay at a lodge not far from Perth with Michael. It was a treat for his birthday which was earlier in the month. Below are a few of the pictures from the holiday, but i've left out a hell of a lot. The lodge we stayed in was lovely, really spacious and a much needed break. It was out in the middle of nowhere on a farm with very green views..and a hot Tub! Luckily, the weather held up for us and there was sun the whole time we were there. 

During the day we decided to take a drive to Anstruther to get some famous fish and chips. Whilst we were there we also went for a walk along the rocks on the beach. I'm a fan of rock pools y'see. 

After that we travelled to St.Andrews and had a wander around the aquarium. We heard a talk on the seals and meerkats and I fell in love with the tortoises! 

We went to Zizzi's for dinner. I had never been there before because I'm not the hugest fan on Italian restaurants, but this was fab. I've been told I'm going again next weekend for my friends 21st which I'm looking forward to. I think I might get the penne alla vodka again. 

That's right, vodka pasta is tasty. 

That Yucky Feeling..

I've realised after I painted this page that 'try and start' is perhaps not the best way to say that. It should be 'try to start'. Look past that please! 

Today I am ill. Yesterday I woke up with a blocked nose and a general yucky feeling. Today I woke up and it is even worse, it has added woozy-ness and a muted headache. 

So this is the perfect day to stay in my bed and catch up on some tv, eat and read. 

My Graze Box arrived today and it is by far the best one I've had yet. For those who don't know what a Graze Box is, it's a box that is delivered to you every week with a fine selection of nibbles and treats tailored to your likes! It's a really good way to get something healthy into your diet and they're the perfect size for a snack. 

Here's the link for those interested.

I'll also be reading The Magdalen which was being distributed earlier. This is Dundee University's student magazine, edited by my flatmate Finlay who I've mentioned on this blog once upon a time.

Speaking of Once Upon a Time, (see what I did there) I'm loving the program! If you love fairy Tales like I do you'll really enjoy this program. I can throughly recommend! 

And finally I wanted to mention that I'm starting to paint again as of yesterday. I wrote this down in my visual diary as a reminder to myself, and I'm blogging about it to motivate myself. I used to love to paint in acrylic and I think I got quite good at it, however i'm really out of practice. Watercolour is really different from acrylic though so it may take me a while to get used to the differences.

This post was just my way of keeping on top of a few things. 

I hope everyone else is having a lovely day!  

I eventually got around to watching Submarine this evening. I remember reading a review of it in Total Film ages ago and making a mental note to give it a watch. The movie is set in Wales and directed by Richard Ayoade, who based it on the book 'Submarine' by Joe Dunthorne. I haven't read it yet but now plan too. 

Submarine is about a young boy called Oliver Tate who narrates the movie in his brilliant Welsh accent. I was going to give you a rundown of the story but I think I'm just going to post the book description from Amazon; 

'The dryly precocious, soon-to-be-fifteen-year-old hero of this engagingly offbeat debut novel, Oliver Tate lives in the seaside town of Swansea, Wales. At once a self-styled social scientist, a spy in the baffling adult world surrounding him, and a budding, hormone-driven emotional explorer, Oliver is stealthily (and perhaps a bit more nervously than he’d ever admit) nosing his way forward through the murky and uniquely perilous waters of adolescence. His objectives? Uncovering the secrets behind his parents’ teetering marriage, unraveling the mystery that is his alluring and equally quirky classmate Jordana Bevan, and understanding where he fits in among the pansexuals, Zoroastrians, and other mystifying, fascinating beings in his orbit.'

The movie wasn't what I expected it to be, but I must admit I loved it. What was the most fascinating to me was the way in which it was filmed. It had a very homemade, vintage feel too it. I particularly loved the scene where Jordana a takes pictures of them kissing for blackmail.

I recommend giving it a watch! 
I don't really do movie reviews on this blog but I wanted to mention this one because I loved it so much and thought it was quite a quirky and interesting film. 
If you watch it, I hope you enjoy it! 

(pictures are not mine obviously, I got them from google. ha.)

Today my grandparents came to visit me in Dundee and we decided to go a walk through Balgay park. It was such a nice walk and I took so many photos! The colours of the leaves when the sun was shining was amazing, it really feels like autumn has come. 

My gran wanted to have a look at the observatory so we trekked up to the top of hill and went to look at the telescope, which was run by a very nice guy who you can tell really loves space and stuff.. ha. Like a child trapped within a man. 

He showed me the tiger eye heart, which is in one of the pictures below. It is apparently my birthstone, although I always thought mine was the clear quartz! It was pretty though so I took it home with me.

The place was really quiet, we were practically the only ones there. On top of the building there's this shadow clock that allows you to stand on the correct month and it tells you the time according to the position of the sun, like a human sun dial! 

The place didn't have much else to offer, but the walk up was lovely.