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Blog on my work, and life in general.

Huge New Scary Chapter

30/8/2017

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So! Long time no post.... Whoops. So yea.... Biggest news first I suppose and then I will probably ramble as I do usually...

So for people who follow me on Instagram, you will more than likely already know. So Pete and I are officially new home owners! We are moved in and everything! 
For those of you that don't have me on Instagram, here are a few images that I have posted in the last month about our adventures and moving in. Clearly I have been so busy I haven't really had time to put up many.
So first image is Pete literally picking up the keys to our new gaff. I was proper raging, as he got out of work early and I still had to stay in until 5. He at least waited for me before going to the house. 2nd image is the first neighbor we met, very nosy! we later found out that this fluffy high member of the neighbor hood watch is called buster.
3rd is just us "Getting our ducks in a row" figuring out whats what.

I have to admit the first few weeks since moving in, I still feel as though I am house sitting. I have just decided to move all my crap here and try to invoke squatting rights. I am told this is normal though. It's all still very new and strange, I am sure a few people reading this are thinking I am mental.... cheers!

I have even been getting into gardening as we have an amazing little garden here, previous owner kindly left us all her amazing plants, we have apple and pear trees. Blueberry, blackberry, gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries and  any other berry plant. Tomatoes and loads of herbs, still haven't gotten round to weeding everything..... It's still on the very large to do list.
Here's a couple of photos of our pear and apple trees. We have also had a few visitors of the four legged fluffy kind to our little garden........ And because I have nothing else to do with my time and we haven't yet been told what their names are. We have named them! so on the bottom right we have Toothless, the middle image is of Gandalf (because he's grey) and Charlie.... cause of the mustache.... yea...... and well you guys already know Valentino. He crawled in the back of our nephews pram and decided it was his new home.... Couldn't resist not putting him up. 
​So enough about my wee hoouse. Work wise, things kind of took a turn for the worst. Literally the week we were going to sign for the house, I was moved from being in house designer to dispatch... Basically the company I work for is incredibly small only 6 of us working there and basically they wanted more support for the actual printing team and basically shuffled everyone's jobs about.

From the company point of view I honestly think it was the right thing to do. It makes total sense. From my point of view, I was completely devastated.
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​A lot of people thought I was being a bit over dramatic about the change. I honestly cried for days after it happened, I just felt like I could finally be one of those.....
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.....Who say they love their job and everyone pretty much hates....
I was finally doing a job I enjoyed, I had free rein and I actually enjoyed going to work. I even felt like a woman scorned and seriously contemplated walking out.
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But being an adult and suddenly having a mortgage, mind over heart won.

Not the everything is as doom and gloom as I make it sound. I have to admit though (not that I have been doing my new role long) It really isn't all that bad. I still really miss doing design, its on my mind all the time. I am still from time to time asked to do a few things for customers design wise. We even got a big new sexy machine in work. We are now able to do spot UV and foiling. 

I have even been asked to design a marketing card for the company to use, to send out and show off what we are now able to do on top of everything else. However, after today I feel like the excitement for that was short lived. Due to with my new role I don't really have to much time to do anything mind blowing. I am pretty sure my boss got too excited and ended up just stealing images off google..... 

BUT! now that we have our own place I feel that I was just practicing and getting back into the way of things with using Photoshop and Illustrator. I plan to keep it going whether I am designing on commission or just doing arty farty things for myself. I may continue down the path of wedding stationery, I am not too sure. 

Either way I don't plan to give it up and I feel that after leaving university and having a bit of a fall out with all things arty is finally over. I want to do it all the time, I want to get better at it and I want to keep exploring and practicing. Just doing loads of different things. So I am still getting my office sorted in me hoouse, but I am hoping by the end of this month I will have everything semi set up. 

Plus now that my company has this new toy, I am hoping to maybe get new business cards done. As I very cleverly, locked myself out of my arty email address.... NIIIIIIIIICCCCCCCEEE!

so yea, I finally got a few of my designs that I did design for work. Here are a few of them. Hope you like them. 
The only other piece of design I have really done lately that isn't work related was making a cheesy poster for my partner. Yesterday was our 6 year anniversary.... Scarily all grown up now and proper with having a house together. I decided to make something for the house and for him. It was a song that we were pretty into when we first met and were getting to know each other. So yea... I guess you could call it "our song". (Slightly want to throw up with all the cheesiness). Anyways here is the poster I made 
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So yea... that's all from me this month, here's hoping next month is as fun packed!
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May Mayhem

31/5/2017

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So a fair bit has gone on this month. My eldest brother turned 30, which is terrifying!
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So happy belated birthday again!
The rest of this month has been a bit all over the place! My work got hit by the big computer virus that hit the NHS and hit probably a good few people you may know too.

So for the past two weeks I havent been able to design due to this. At the moment I have over 30 wedding designs although at the moment only some have been put onto paper
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As you can see some are clearly better than others. I will hopefully have even more to show next month, especially when I am able to get back into the swing of things.

Minus design and arty farty things. I havent really been up to much (story of my life). I have just been house hunting
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This was a little guy we bumped into while waiting on the estate agent to show. Meet Neill.

So yea, I cant really think of anything else that has happened this month..... please enjoy some photos of my fuzzy furball babies
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Cats, Cats, Cats.

9/8/2015

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so, ok. I lied about blogging once a week. things have been a little hectic lately. I got a new job working at a call centre, I also just haven't really felt the want or need to design anything lately. still adjusting to life at home after four years of university, Aswell with the fact that I'm no longer wanting to stay in education. so, sadly I just haven't really done any design stuff..... until last night.

my partner is a gamer, like most folk. he has decided to make a twitch account and for people who don't know what twitch is:

twitch is basically an website/app that you can go onto and watch live streams of people playing a plethora of different games. if you find you like watching a certain player you can follow them and even donate money to them. as far as I'm aware some players are so popular that they actually are able to live off the donations.
Every little gamers dream right?
(I really hope I got all that info right or I'm in trouble..... I'm totally not a gamer)


sooooooooo, my partner asked me to design and create his profile picture, cover photo and any buttons that he has on his profile. Now, anyone who knows my partner, knows he's uppsessed with cats...... see where I'm going with this?

I actually had so much fun doing this.
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I have managed to get his profile picture finished, I am currently working on getting his cover photo finished, here is a few of my enitial drawings
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it's been a long time since I've last drawn but you get the idea, just imagine it all......waaaaayyyy less scary than my sketches.

so all the little drawings were my ideas for the profile picture. As (I.probably should have mentioned earlier) My partners name on twitch is
"ShleepyPete"

he also sleeps more than most humans... so the idea was basically to make him into a cat, he loves both his cats which are both pure white.

I think I have an image on my site, that i did a few years ago. A game of thrones style portrait. It's of my partner sitting on the iron throne with his two white dare-cats on either side of him.

I'm currently on my phone writing this blog (first time ever) so I don't have the image on my phone to upload, on here. if your interested. it should be on my commissions page.
here's an image however of my partner with one of his cats
(hopefully I won't get murdered for putting it up)
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isn't he sooooooooo cute!
talking about the cat here guys... :P

so I based his cat on him, I however didn't include the beard. I sort of felt that the cat it's self had enough fur, never mind the beard.

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So here's the finished product, I am actually so pleased with this, I now just have to get the cover photo done and then the buttons that will go on his Twitch account

That's all from me today :)
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Lots Of Kitty's 

29/4/2015

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So today, I'm a slight disappointment. I didn't do any work today. I actually had to go and run errands today and what not, and I took out some time to meet up with old friends. I will however be back to normal, with lots of work to show. So due to being a slight disappointment, I hope that these very famous works of art with a twist will entertain you enough.
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Feeling Icky

24/3/2015

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very short blog today, I haven't managed to do anything today due to waking up at half 7 this morning feeling like death was at my door. Been feeling ill all day :( so I haven't managed to get any work done, just in bed watching Disney movies trying to get better.
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I will hopefully be feeling more like myself tomorrow, and be able to get back on track with my work. That's all from me today.
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Yerp

8/3/2015

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So, I was unable to blog yesterday due to travelling home for the weekend. I also went out and celebrated a little with  friends, as my dissertation is done :D
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So I was unable to blog yesterday. I haven't really done much uni work since I have been home, just doing the rounds of  seeing friends and family. I am hoping to start doing more logo work tomorrow, I have also been thinking a little bit more on, what to do for my main project.  I will explain a little bit more tomorrow, however in short I am thinking of just making a book or even just a poster on how to help students save money and possibly looking  into well-being of students. Not too sure, will look more into it tomorrow. Thats all from me for today. 
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Randoms

6/3/2015

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Short blog for you's today. Well, this will be my last even post about my dissertation!
Happy days,  handed it in today, so happy :D it's all officially over, now to get on with studio work. 
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So yesterday I had a few friends from back home come to visit me, hence why there was no post made yesterday.  We showed them the sites and I even went to a new bar in Aberdeen called "The Boozy Cow", I have to admit I do not recommend this place, as I had envisioned boozy milkshakes. But there wasn't any, that and if your a huge fan of saw and want to be in the next one, then this is the place for you!
Meat hooks hung from the ceiling, the bar smelt like a butchers and there was very dark red light. We had to put the torch mode on our phones, just to read the menu's.  
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A rather blurry picture of the meat hooks and cage that were attached to the ceiling. 
Surprisingly the image on the left was the tastiest of the drinks we had. It also had 0 alcohol content in it. I got a "Nutty Cow", It was a total struggle to continue drinking and to be honest was just awful. But the company was good and the bar staff friendly.

Again, I may not be able to blog tomorrow as I am going home for a week and travelling home tomorrow.  But we shall see, it could maybe be a late one :)
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Last Chapter

3/3/2015

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So I got my dissertation binded, sewn and glued into the cover. It's looking really really good. Without me trying to blow my own trumpet.  However I came to a slight change of plan when coming to my final touch of my presentation. I had planned to put white tissue paper, but the pack of tissue paper I had bought. Not going to lie, cheapy crap from ASDA. So the only two white pieces of tissue paper within the pack, are dyed with whatever other colours it was touching. This made me think about using white in general, white is going to get dirty a lot easier than other colours. So I went through my pack of tissue papers and tested them: 
Again, I want this to look classy, but on the other hand it looking like a gift for someone works also, as I talked a lot within  my dissertation about giving gifts to people.  So I have decided to go with the light blue, as it keeps the look I am going for a lot more classy. The others  are very much slapping you in the face with colour.  I wish there had of been a light green in the pack to symbolize money.  Or even gotten fake money to place out the top. When it comes down to it however. It is should of, could of, would of.  I am just so happy that this is all over.


 On that note, I also started to research into what sort of "Student Survival Guide"'s are out there.  I can't help but feel they are so corny and, I know myself. I have never even thought of reading a how to survive university guide. Mainly due to I never personally thought the advise would be any better than what my friends and family would give me.  Here's a few I looked into:
So I have started to think about infographics again... my slight warn enemy. Here is a few I have been looking at:
These are still very much on the cheesy front. But I think they work. I know myself with again thinking of these books, I wouldn't want to read one. But if it was an info-graphic,  I would read it.  I have to admit it is a lot of work and a lot of design to cram into one space. I am still unsure of following through with the book idea. However I do feel I need to do a bit more research before I give my final say on it.  That's all from me, tomorrow will hopefully be my very last post on the subject of my dissertation. WHOOP!
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Taking The Night Off

27/2/2015

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Short blog today, My tutorial went really well today, there was again much talk about the dissertation, but I'm glad I managed to get to talk about my work, I now have another meeting on Monday to discuss, where i'm going with my main project. As it turns out I have done so much work, they believe that within my main project alone, there could be at least four side projects within it......  I have also been playing around with the idea on how to hand in my dissertation next week. And yes, I can officially say that this time next week, no more talk of the dissertation, as it shall all be done away with! YAY!!!!!!
So, I have been thinking of possibly putting my dissertation in a really pretty shopping bag, make it look really nice, and then you open it, (expecting luxury) and it's just my blood, sweat and tears in a thesis!
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This will be me tonight, just chilling. but catch  a grip, I won't be drinking bud light.  I think I deserve a real drink!
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AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

26/2/2015

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So today, I took a day off from my dissertation.  I have a tutorial tomorrow with tutors to look over all of my work.  So today I simply just tidied up my sketch books and put things in more of an order for the meeting. I'm totally bricking it, the dissertation has fully taken over my life, however, I am hoping to have it completely finished and get it printed and bound on Monday. 
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Well, that's the plan anyways.  So yea, I was very disturbed to see how far behind I am in my projects. Have to admit though I know  I can be up to date in a week. So it is a bit of a problem, but i know I can catch up. Anyways that's me for today.
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    I am an artist from Northern Ireland, I specialize in Photography and Graphic Design. Please follow me on 

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