Wednesday 30 March 2011

Time Speeds Up..

Do any of you guys feel like time speeds up at this time of year? I mean It's suddenly April tomorrow! I am officially half way though my degree and only have a presentation and an exam to get past till it's summer. It's getting a bit ridiculous. 


Not that I'm complaining. I'm stoked to be heading home to see Tom for basically a solid 5 months! Summer is fantastic in Edinburgh too. Worth checking out if you've never visited. But 5 months off uni means, 5 months working. I do love earning money for myself and being free to go out and drink with mates and having only a small restriction of having a shift at work. But the unfortunate thing is I don't think I'm getting my old job at the pub with Tom back as my bloody brother took my job! Nightmare. 


Good news though, I heard back from a guy I've known for a while who mentioned he needed some design work done at his company over the summer. He's asked me to pull together any work I've done at uni since coming and show him what experience I have with similar projects. If it all works out, I will be designing an interface for an app his company is developing. I'm well excited at the prospect of getting real world experience and it'll maybe boost my confidence in my work and creativity. It sounds ridiculous that a design student doesn't think she is creative doesn't it? Well I am ridiculous because that's what I think, but if I get this placement I'll hopefully prove myself wrong! 


Other than that, nothing exciting has happened this week. I've been blogging like a mad man on my uni blog and tweeting a load about the Aphasia one to try and raise awareness. It's working as the site views have gone up considerably. Can't say that about my uni one, but it's not one of those things that need to be seen. I'll be uploading my folio work on their if anyones curious. Not till the weekend though. 


One lovely thing that did happen was that, I received a random bunch of flowers. It turned out it was from Tom's boss congratulating us on our engagement. They're beautiful. 




Over and out.
x

Friday 25 March 2011

Help us raise awareness!

You guys might notice the new addition to the side bar of my blog. Please take a few moments out of your days to take a look at this site. 


It's a project we've been doing for university and Understand Aphasia is our group's attempt to help raise the awareness of Aphasia and spread the word to anyone and everyone. Other groups have created installations around the city, made training packs for work places and created flyers for city centres. The blog we have created gives readers a basic understanding of what Aphasia is and how it affects people. 


Aphasia is a communication impairment which often happens as a result of a stroke. Strokes can happen to people of any age and for no reason. By raising the awareness of Aphasia we can help sufferers recover quicker and they can be understood a lot more. 


I know this is nothing like a usual post but I'm posting it everywhere I possibly can to spread the word. 


As part of the project we were also asked to shove together a basic Public Information Film for the cause. Each group took a different approach and it was quite a hard thing to make a video for as it affects people in different ways and we didn't feel right acting as though we had Aphasia. Instead of that approach, we did a short story board.




It would be greatly appreciated if anyone, who would like to help with this cause, could post up any one of the banners included in the website. Or even just link to this post or the website. 


This project has been a great learning experience for me and although the projects finishing this week, I feel I'm quite likely to keep the blog going and keep in touch with the group of people we've been working with. 


Over and out.
x

Thursday 24 March 2011

Brew Dog!

So, I'm defo going to skim straight past my absence on from blogging in the last 2 weeks. It's been rather hectic and busy and I've generally been lacking in motivation to do anything. Saying that, I've not really done a lot worth talking about in my last 12 or so days. I'm looking back and seeing me just watching a massive amount of movies! 


Anyway, back on to other chat. I had an amazing impromptue trip home on Friday to see Tom and to get some computing help from my dad. I successfully got all my work done super quickly and got to see Tom for ages. The new Brew Dog pub has just opened in Edinburgh and I'd been dying to go. A horrible fact about me is that I'm a right lad when it comes to beer. I like beer and good real ale at that! Brew Dog is fantastic and their slogan is 'Beer For Punks'. What's not to love? 




I'm on a bit of a diet at the moment though so I was only allowed 1 pint and then we left to go have dinner. Tom is without a doubt one of the best cooks I know, other than my mum of course, but he's fantastic. It wasn't the most diet friendly meal but all I'm telling myself is that it's not a real diet. Basically I've cut out bread, cider and beer from my diet along with unnecessary snacking (which is the hardest part!). But it's been okay, obviously I had to make an exception on the beer ban for the Brew Dog pub but it's back in force. Also, along with that I've been taking the stairs up the 5 flights of stairs to our flat instead of the lift. Not this week though as I've been horribly over taken by a cold and can't muster the energy for that many stairs yet. But the cold also helped with this whole not eating too much though, I had no appetite for 2 days solid. I know, not the best approach! 

I also received some amazing mail all the way from Korea thanks to a mate of mine. She's been away for over a year and has missed my last 2 birthdays and sent me a wee Korean themed package. In it she sent an amazing Hello Kitty stamp set! It's the best thing ever. 



I don't know if I mentioned a couple of weeks back, but I finally decided to buy a decal for my mac. I'd been deliberating for ages whether to get one or not. The thing worrying me was whether it would leave a mark on my mac after I took it off. Turns out they're amazing and don't leave any trace of anything being there. So I spent hours scrolling through Etsy for one and finally decided on the retro apple mac logo for the apple sign on my computer. 


As I'm a ridiculous perfectionist with a lot of thing, I'm not very happy with it as the stalk is too small and the apple is too big for the actual apple on my computer. (it's not obvious in the picture.. everyone says it's not obvious though, so I'm getting used to it.) Has anyone else got one similar? Did yours fit your apple okay? (sounds pretty silly!)

Check out this cute wee drawing Cassie made for me! It's now made it's way to my wall of lovely things above my bed along with photos of my childhood and grandparents. Thats how much I love it! 

It's Tom proposing on the Teacups! 
HOW CUTE?!

Photo spam from my week! 


What good is a bouncy castle
if it's floating?

The weather on my train journey back to 
uni was beautiful. 

Look how smart he looks! 
Manager Tom!


St Paddy's Day is a big thing at our uni!


Hope you're all well! 

Over and out. 
x

Saturday 12 March 2011

It's been beautiful

In a bit of a crappy mood tonight as a result of a rubbish phone conversation with my silly mother. So I know that if I write a proper post today I'll just end up in an endless rant, we don't want that! So i felt like putting up some photos of the lovely times that have happened in the last month. Mostly taken on Tom's iphone using Hipstamatic and my phone using RetroCamera. 


My month in photos. 







Tom and I finally got to celebrate together.

I'm fixing my iPod. It's on charge, 
won't find out till tomorrow if it worked! 






Hope everyone enjoyed pancake day wherever they are. I certainly did, thanks to Cassie and her culinary expertise. God, pancakes and bacon and phenomenal! 

Other than eating pancakes nothing exciting happened till Tom came, his visit this last few days have been amazing. I don't remember the last time he stayed for more than 15 hours. It was so relaxed. I made some beautiful tuscan sausage stew and we went to see True Grit which was amazing. We also went out for lunch at Ketchup and hung at the union while the elections were being announced for some moral support for people. It was lovely! 

Hopefully all the bad chat with my mum will blow over and I'll be in a better mood the next time I blog!

Over and out.
x

Monday 7 March 2011

Start of the end of 2nd year..

Eughh, so I've came to the realisation that I'm 7 weeks away from finishing my 2nd year in my course. It's scary yet amazing. But most definitely terrifying, as on the 26th of April I've got an actual Java exam! Scary stuff. As for last weeks java secret, I gave in and handed it in on Sunday. But this week is the start of our final java hand in for the semester which is group work. It's not even started well as I've not got the best of groups, minus my flatmate which is good, but other than that, not the best and someone in our group doesn't seem to actually exist in uni. Anyway, lets see how it works out. 


As for this week, I'm pretty happy, although I'm getting a bit pissed off with a few very silly things. I made the mistake of sending all my new purchases to my parents house not my uni address, utter fail! I wish I'd made the decision to purchase the stuff a few days earlier as it means that they won't arrive before Tom comes visit on Tuesday! Boo. Other than that, I've just got back from my mates 21st birthday drinks, (so as a result, I'm sorry if this is a bit of a babble. I have drank a few G&T's..) but it turned out she had no idea about the engagement, she bloody cried, I still haven't cried! Although, I'm not much of a crier, I get told I've got no soul as a result of my claim that I've literally never cried at a movie or a song or anything like that. Al least someone cried, although, Tom's quite the wee emotional thing, which is lovely. He had tears in his eyes when he asked me, it's times like them I wish I did find these thing emotional. 


Cassie and I seen this in as little shop today. 
All Cassie could say was
'Aww! It's you and Tom!'


At the weekend we ended up having a great time. It's usually quite quiet in the flat at the weekend as quite often most weeks someone goes home to see someone for some other reason. This week Finlay was away but we still went Ice Skating, it was epic. We also went straight from there to the pub and didn't come home till 2am which was great fun. It also ended up with some clothes swapsies with Clare after her lending me all her clothes for Paris and me wanting to get rid of some. The main thing I'm missing from it is my I ♥ NY tshirt - and might I add, if anyone from NY is willing to send me one over in exchange for money, it's be much appreciated! Saying that, I defo gained a few lovely things! 



I freakin' love ice skating but I had a spectacular fall! 



Here's some of the lovely things I've got an eye on to buy with my birthday money.. 




1. Dehlia Polka dot dress, £60, Asos.
2. Lomography colour negative film, £6.99, Lomography.
3. Disaster Designs wash bag, £17, Pelican Pear.
4. Fairisle print dress, £35, Asos


So anyway, I'm pretty excited about tomorrow. It's not only the day I get to go get my engagement ring sized with Tom's mum, it's bloody pancake day! I've never tried savory pancakes, or even pancakes with bacon, it's going to be experienced tomorrow! We have class till 10 and then everyone in the flat plus some others are heading back and Cassie is going to feed us a load of lovely yummy pancakes! 


I hope you all the joy and yummyness on pancake day! 


Over and out.
x

Saturday 5 March 2011

Joys and mates.

So after cooling down a little after last week, I can safely say, I'm so happy. Although, my happiness hasn't helped my motivation. I'll tell you a small secret. I haven't done my java this week! The hand in was at 6pm today and it's now 12.30am! I feel like such a wee rebel. But I will probably hand it in tomorrow night or on Sunday, I'm not rebellious enough to just leave it as it isn't just any assignment, it is a percentage of my grade. Boo I don't care though, not tonight anyway! 


But yeah, we went out as a flat the other night after having a bunch of folk over to celebrate with us. It's was a great night and ended with everyone accumulating in my room at 4am eating chips and cupcakes and being drunk. (Don't trust drunkies with cupcakes in your bed, or you'll find yourself changing your bed drunkenly at nearly 5am!) 


Meet the flatmates!






Cass and Louisa made me a birthday cake. 
It was epic! 

But since then I've been just kicking in the flat and failing at getting back in my routine. Also, on Tuesday, my folks and my big bro came up and we all went out for dinner and I got my birthday presents. It was so lovely and I hadn't properly seen my brother in ages so I got to actually catch up with him and see what he thought about the whole engagement chat. Anyway, in the end as I said in the last post I got spoilt rotten. Check out some of my beautiful pressies! 


The folks got me a cupcake stand full of cakes! NOM.
They were successfully demolished at the party.

Polly got me this beautiful playsuit.

Got this epic comfy hat with some
tk maxx vouchers along with 
some le creuset cookware.
I'm also trying out wearing a nose ring. 
What do you think? Too much?

This is my absolutely beautiful necklace
my parents got me. It's so amazing..

AND it's versatile and can be worn back to front


A new addition to my charm bracelet. 
Swarovski duck charm.


A bag I got off Asos with some birthday 
money. I think I only got it because
it's very similar to Clare's bag, which I
am in love with and now have to return.
Well, that and it's well pretty!

The beautiful Disaster Designs Thermos 
that my mate Cat gave me. I've used 
it non-stop since!

So I basically have the weekend to let me fall back to reality and hopefully that means I can get on with my first week of my final project for one of my modules. But I'll leave that to think about for tomorrow or the next day. For now, I'm off to bed to get up and head off ice skating with a bunch of mates tomorrow, should be a right laugh! (Photos should follow!) 


Have an epic weekend guys. 


Over and out.
x