This Time Last Year ~August

August. Well, I always write something about how the time has jumped up on me and I totally can't believe that it's come around so fast, but it's true. I swear as I get older the time goes faster x.x (more clichés...) Hey ho. This August is going to be a busy one for Face and I, I think, but i'll let you know more about that soon. Last August was also busy, but more with daytrips with Dad, which is always fun ^^

Early on in the month we went to Gloucester as Dad had to go get his electric bike fixed there. While we waited for it to be repaired we explored the town a bit. I'd not been there before and although it wasn't a great weather day I had a really good time, there is a lot to see! I particularly liked this boat that was docked up on the river, I think inside it was a cafe? But we didn't go in, just admired it X3

Another day we went to Bridgnorth because that's something we do fairly regularly when we're not sure where else to go tiki-tour XD This engine isn't seen very often in the station so I got a few shots of it. I quite like this one as I obviously had to lean pretty far out off the platform to get quite a forwards-on shot of it.

On the way home from that trip we stopped at a local beauty spot where you can sit at a lake and watch some carp. As we sat there this massive storm cloud rolled over and I guess that reminds me that although the weather doesn't seem as nice this year as it was last year, last year had its chilly summer moments too.

Looks like August last year was all about daytrips cause this picture was taken out at Ludlow- another spot we enjoy travelling out to see. We don't come here as often though as it's a bit further out than a lot of our local haunts. Judging by the rainbow, the weather wasn't ideal this day either XD

And last is this one I quite like. Taken in Shrewsbury, I often try to get a good shot of these cannons that sit outside the castle gates, but it's one of those I take so often I feel the picture is never really up to much, it's always a bit dull. But i do quite like this angle on it, I guess I haven't taken this shot much and so with the old house in the background too it kinda has a bit of something different :]
So that was August 2014 for me, do you remember what you did?



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Photo Challenge ~Update Four

I realised yesterday that if I was to update my photo challenge with it's finale on Saturday there would be 11 photos to finish it off! I sort of hadn't realised before that that the weeks would pan out like this to leave me with so many extra days at the end XD So, today I thought I would update with a few of the final challenge photos, there are some pretty interesting ones today too x3

Something Green
While out visiting Worcester I saw quite a few interesting things, including this old railway bridge, painted a rather interesting shade of mint XD

A Stretch of Fields
This I thought would be an easy one for the challenge as I'm usually out and about in the countryside on my days off, but I actually had to concentrate on looking out for a good stretch of fields to get this photo. I think it was worth the wait though.

An Interesting Shop Window
I changed this one up a bit by taking it from the inside of the window, but I really like this place, a small restaurant that has opened up in the new complex they are building up town. We were going to try out the food here but they were too busy, so I just got this pic of their nice shop side!

A Family Crest
Also taken around Worcester, I believe this building is now the local council building? Not sure. But it was big and fancy and has a crest on it! To be honest, I'm not 100% if this is a family crest or a town crest, but we'll run with it....

Free Shot
This one was too cute not to include as a Free Shot! It was some street art from the high street, which some woman wouldn't stop standing over as I tried to take this pic, which is why some of the words are cropped out...but I love how vibrant it is! I didn't know chalk could be so bright x3
We'll leave it there for now and I'll show you the last of the photo challenge pics on Saturday ^^ I've still not got any plans for August as a challenge, so, anything you would like to see?



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Project Wednesday ~Keri Smith Book Collection

So this Wednesday I thought I'd introduce you to my Keri Smith collection- an ongoing project I do one book at a time x3

A seemingly prolific writer, Keri Smith is best known for the 'Wreck This Journal', which has had it's fair share of internet fame, and seemingly every tumblr kid and youtuber has one! Here I have quite a few of her books, though there are a couple missing- I have A 'Wreck This Journal Everywhere' which I've managed to misplace currently (fail ;d), and she hasn't long released another which I have put on my Christmas wishlist ;p

My first of the collection was actually the Wreck This Journal, which I carried about for a good couple of years, doing off and on until it was complete. I did this flip through once I'd felt it was done, and it has gathered quite a bit of attention on Youtube! I think at the time I uploaded it, it was the first completed WTJ up too, which is pretty cool. I did really enjoy doing the WTJ, and I think looking back on it, it's one of the easier Keri Smith books to do. I'd like to think that one day I'll do another with some new ideas, and make sure there's something drawn or written on every page, but just look at what I already have to do XD

After the WTJ Keri released 'Mess', which I've always felt was a reaction to the prettying up a lot of people do to the Wreck This Journal, something that may not have come to mind when you first see it, and doesn't really follow along the 'Wrecking' guidelines. However, with the tagline 'To Create is to Destroy' and a rule that all instructions were up to interpretation, you can't really argue when the books weren't coming out as messed up as you may've first imagined. So I think that's where Mess comes in. There are specific rules not to be pretty, be unafraid of the mess you create and just go with it. And it may be the very reason you don't see many of these books around the internet. As you can see, mine is still pristine and I've not really got any intention to do it next either. I bought this book as the follow on to WTJ, but couldn't face trashing it for trashing's sake. Looks like poor mess is going to have to wait awhile before it gets it's own flick-through video from me.

Third in the series is 'This is Not a Book', which I'm sure you've already heard too much about from me already XD (You're gonna hate me next week if that's the case... :x). I dragged the completion of this unbook out for nearly 3 years. Ouch. Eventually earlier on in the year I completed it. I did enjoy doing the TiNaB, but it was more difficult than WTJ, I thought anyway. It seemed more in depth and you had to think more to complete the pages, but on the other hand, I also put a lot more effort into putting something onto every page, which was pretty time consuming. There aren't too many TiNaB examples around the internet which is a little sad, because although it doesn't quite measure up to the WTJ, I'm sure some of the arty people who do those could come up with some super clever ideas to the TiNaB's prompts.

I believe 4th in the series was 'Finish This Book', or 'F nish Th s B k'. It's basis is that Keri found a manual in a nearby park, but some of the pages were missing so it's up to the owner to study the manual and complete the book. It does seem quite an interesting idea, particularly for the outdoorsy types, but so far I just haven't got around to filling it in, or even studying it particularly hard, unfortunately. Maybe it will be the next in the project line, so long as something else doesn't distract me when I finish my current task-

'The Pocket Scavenger' is my current in the Keri Smith line which I officially started with a photo on Instagram last week x3 So far I'm really enjoying myself with this one, although I'm toning it down a little by trying not to have quite the excessive use of colour I usually go for, and just keeping it simple. This way I think I will enjoy the book more, and perhaps complete it a little quicker! Pocket Scavenger is pretty much what it says on the tin: you hunt for things listed in the book. The twist comes in when you flip the book over and there are a bunch of prompts to get you to alter the item you have found. You are supposed to go for the first one you flick to, even if you're not keen on it, which is a major struggle for me. For example, I don't want to loose the thing I just found! Being the massive hoarder I am, this book suits me pretty well until it tries to tell me to destroy something I've just gained :x Anyway, a week in and I'm having fun, here's the first page I did:

Do you have any Keri Smith books? If so, which ones and which is your favourite? x3



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July Photo-a-Day ~Week Three

Ohhh, so over the weekend I was crazy busy and like a dork I had nothing pre-written so here we are with an amalgamated Monday weekend post!
I thought as I didn't take many photos at all last week that I would put together Saturday's July photo challenge and Sunday catch-up :x So lets start:

A Forest Path
This one was taken out near the wrekin and although I'm sure this challenge is sort of planned to make me get out more and take more photos I was so busy this day I literally just drove to this spot to take this photo. Hmmm.

An Oak Tree
I would've liked to find an oak tree with some sort of interesting history or something, but while I was driving down a country road the view took my interest, and then I saw this tree. It's nothing special, in fact there were a lot of oak trees down this lane, but that's kinda what struck me- it's very british, I think? x3

Front Door
A simple one here, I was going to see if I could spot someone else's pretty front door, but I ended up going with our own XD

View From the Top of a Hill
Another view from a drive I took earlier in the week. The weather was really nice this day in between two rainy days, and really clear too as I looked from the top of a small hill out near Little Wenlock.

Clouds
Self explanatory this one? Although pretty normal, I thought the clouds this day were quite picturesque.

Free Shot
I hadn't realised it was quite this time f year, but the wheat is turning golden already. The year is going by so fast ;d
Well, only one more week left of this challenge! I'm not sure what I'm going to do for August quite yet, if anything. Any ideas you'd like to see?



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5 Places I Need to Go (that I've not been before)

I love travelling. There's nothing like it for new experiences, photo opportunities and generally finding out that there's more to the world than your own front garden.
The longer I go on without a passport the more my wanderlust grows. I'm having hassle applying for a new passport and the longer I see no travel in my future the more my subconscious thinks of destinations abroad- to the point where the other day moving to Japan for a year seemed like a super-awesome idea until I remembered I can't speak Japanese and have no way to make money while I'm there x.X
But, when I do get a passport again, these places are definitely at the top of the list of places I need to see with my own eyes:

• Vietnam
I love Asian culture and this one has been high on my list for a few years now. Having been to Thailand, I imagine it to be fairly similar, but I know there would be plenty to see that I wouldn't have imagined, weirdly what first brought it to my attention as a destination I really wanted to see was a Top Gear Special! I particularly want to see the floating markets and the more rural areas, like smaller villages. Ha Long Bay is high on the 'to see' list too, preferably by canoe. I imagine that the best way to see Vietnam is by moped, as the weather is so hot and humid you would appreciate the breeze as you rode slowly through the country...*drifts into daydream*


• Iceland
This one is actually relatively new to the list, and I'm not really sure what made me first notice it last year. But even though I may've been late to the Iceland fan-club, I'm no less enthusiastic for it! I really want to see all the volcanic areas it has to offer, and in turn, all the thermally heated pools! I just love the idea of being sat in beautifully tempuratured water while looking at the snow on the ground all around. I know Iceland has much more to offer though, and I'd enjoy the scenery most of all I think, so many chances to take some awesome vista photos. Talking of photos, another thing I'd like to experience are the Northern Lights, and the chance to get do my best at capturing them on film. I've never seen the aurora and I've heard it's a good place to go to at least try to catch it!


• Singapore
Back to Asia, Singapore perhaps doesn't belong on this list as I actually have kind of been there, but I've never really seen any of it because it's only ever been for stop-offs! I think I need to at least spend a few days here next time I'm flying somewhere else though so I can actually experience it! I'd love most of all to swim at the pool at the Marina Bay Sands complex, made up of 3 massive buildings with a boat-like structure balanced on the top, it looks pretty amazing, though I'm not sure I could get Face to join in as he doesn't like swimming or heights XD There are plenty of other things to see though, like the Singapore Flyer, a massive tourist ferris wheel slightly larger than the London eye, or maybe if we fancy staying more grounded we could go see the waterfront 'Super Trees' in the evening x3


• Hawaii
Is somewhere I'd particularly like to go with Dad. We both dream of seeing the volcanoes and lava. I understand that they aren't going to let tourists too close to it but we would certainly have a go XD Hawaii is probably the only place in America that really draws me, and it's perhaps because it isn't really all too close to America :x The sandy beaches appeal too, I'm sure the sea is warm too, and eve if it's not, it's enough that there is a lot of sunshine to revel in. Like Ibiza, it's a small island on the map but we would find so much to do there if we rented a car and went for a tour about. I'd really like to learn more about Hawaii and it's history too.


• Dubai
I'm a little cautious about Dubai as I'm not really sure about the decency laws there, as I've heard the Arab states are very hot on that kind of thing. And I would be very hot if I had to wear trousers or a long skirt everywhere while looking about a country about 30 degrees hotter than I'm used to! I think with a little more research though I would enjoy Dubai a lot though. It has the (currently) tallest building in the world, and as I've already mentioned, I'm rather a sucker for going up high! I would also love to check out some of the other famous buildings, as Dubai is known for it's architecture, so I would quite happily be able to tour about getting photos! Of course, being right next to the ocean is an advantage too, and seeing that man-made island shaped like a palm tree. That would be amazing to see with my own eyes!

What do you think? Do these places appeal to you, or do you have a different top five? Let me know!



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Disclaimer: Yes, I ganked all these images from Google Images. Trust me, if I had my own images to put here I totally would! However, if one of these is your photo and you don't want me using it, let me know and I'll take it straight down ^^; Vietnam - Hawaii - Dubai - Iceland - Singapore

Sunday? Catch-up ~Thursday Edition

So, being the terrible person I am I didn't get to type up my Sunday catch-up, even though I found time to edit the photos for it. It's now Thursday and the guilt has overridden my procrastination and so here I am, to at least share the photos I took even though I didn't do that much last week.

    So, Tuesday was my second day off in the week and as both Face and I had it off I finally managed to convince him to go to the safari park with me! (I need someone to drive so I can take photos or I'd probably go by myself tbh ;p). Even though it rained a bit when we were in the walk-about bit of the park we still had a really good day and I got to take loads of photos, woop x3 So I've already already told the story of the African wild dogs so I thought I'd focus on the other animals/dinosaurs for these pics x3
I really liked this one I got through the wires of the cheetah, did you spot the other cheetah lurking in the background? Meerkats are probably like my second favourite zoo animal so I got a ton of cute photos of them too, I would've liked to have seen the lemurs too but we were out of time by the time we got there. Something for next time I suppose.

On Friday my Graze box came, and it has the cutest box for summer. I like how they put so much effort into their design. Everyone around me knows how easy it is to sell me something in appealing packaging (and small tubs tbf...I'm a sucker for marketing) x.X

On Sunday I did a 13 hour shift and felt bad about not getting many photos this week, but as I was lamenting this the sun set and there was this beautiful sunset. I quickly popped outside while the others worked on to get this photo. I'm a terrible coworker sometimes :x So I'd ask how your week was usually but lets face it, we're well into this week! Well, I hope the remainder of the week is good to you, it's nearly the weekend x3



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Project Wednesday ~La De Dah Finale

Project Wednesday again, huh? This week I thought I'd go through my final pages of my La De Dah Smashbook, can you believe it? I'm sort of surprised it took this long actually, I'd really not realised how many pages I'd had to do to complete this book XD
Let's jump straight back in then with this two-page spread:

These were about my spanish holidays I took around September/October. (Last year was a really good year for holidays...) both Face's family and my Dad wanted us to go with them, so we went twice! First we went to Mallorca, on the left. It was a good holiday we spent not doing too much, just checking out the town we were in really. I still managed to collect a bit of stuff for this page though. The right hand page was the Ibiza/Eivissa page, where we did practically the opposite with a lot of touring around the island in a hire car. I even went swimming in the sea! On the right hand page is a bracelet I bought to wear for a while, but it quickly wore down to copper and turned my wrist green...so now it lives in here XD

This page was done towards the end of the year about all the places we'd been on daytrips that I didn't really have enough stuff for to make a whole page X3 I used my instax camera quite a bit on these trips and so I lined them up overlapping slightly, but they lift so you can see the pic under it too x3 The trip to Gloucester was really cool actually, I did have quite a bit from that trip so it was a bit of challenge to get it all on the one side XD

This page was completely an odds and ends page. Right at the end, as I was so close to finishing the smashbook I had so many random bits of paper hanging out in the pages waiting to find a home. I didn't really know what to put on this last page anyway so I did a 'true' smashbook on it and just smashed it all in! It has everything from pictures I drew, cut out or took to a DVLA notice that I don't own my old car anymore XD

The finale is a little boring- the very last page and back cover I didn't do anything to, though in retrospect I'm not sure why not. The pocket is full of other pictures I couldn't find a proper home for, to maps and stuff that were just too big to fit in.

And so that was my 2014 La De Dah Smashbook. I hope you enjoyed taking a more detailed look at the pages as much as I enjoyed creating them. I guess I'm going to have to look into a more detailed view of another book now. Which would you like to see more of? My Thai holiday smashbook, This is Not a Book by Keri Smith, or something else? Let me know x3



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July Photo-a-Day ~Week Two

We're onto week two, and I've got to admit I'm already struggling to take a photo everyday, let alone with a theme! Let's see what i managed to get, shall we?

A Favourite Sweet
Okay, I've got to admit, I'm not sure if this is cheating or not XD A sweet isn't really a fruit and if someone offered me friut as a sweet I'd probably laugh in their face...but cherries are something else. Like, a level to themselves of awesome Xp And as cherry season appears to be in full swing I am pleased to have far more than I can eat around at the moment XD Even better that they're free!

In the Sun
This isn't my favourite interpretation of a challenge item, although it does fit it. I just hadn't planned of having to use it on a shot like this, but that's not to say I don't like it, and ultimately that's how this shot came to be here xp

A Playground
Also maybe a little cheaty? Can a merry-go-round count as a playground? I'm not sure but I think it's super cute so here it is ;p

In the Garden
In my head I'd intended this shot to be more like a blanket laid out on the grass with books and the like scattered around, my usual garden relaxation routine, but instead I've gone for my favourite lily this year! It's a beast of a plant with 40 flowerheads! I'd tried to google to see how many flowerheads was the most likely to grow on this kind of lily just for a comparison but I couldn't find much, shame. I'm starting to feel a guinness worl record going on ;p

Free Shot
I dragged Face to the safari park on Tuesday finally, I've been trying to go for at least the last 4 years XD I got some really good photos too (and a lot of mediocre ones...) but this one of the white tiger I thought came out really well, it kind of looks like he's got something on his mind to me.

A Pet Outside
I think I can be forgiven for actually having two pets outside in this shot? ;p Thursday was a lovely sunny day and i took advantage by cleaning the boys out as they'd started to really trash their tank ;p They weren't sure what to think- their first tank clean and their first time being outside! I even put them on the grass for a while, they weren't sure what was happening at all :x

Something Exciting
This is not only my favourite shot this week, but my favourite shot in a long time! It's exciting because African Wild Dogs are easily my favourite animal at the safari park and as we drove through their enclosure the whole pack walked right out in front of our car holding up all the traffic behind us, but giving us a great view and plenty of photo opportunities! I was so stoked and look how cute they are x333
Well, that's it's for this week, sorry about the late posting, it's looking like Sunday Catch up could be a Monday catch up too as I'm at work for at least 12 hours tomorrow. We'll get there :3
Are you trying this challenge? Let me know x3



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