Mini Me

I received something simply amazing in the post last week, something that I have been dying to share with you all. My Cameron + Whitney paper portrait. I commissioned Cameron to do this for me not long after my 22nd birthday, and it's taken a little while to get to me (all the way from America mind you) but bloody hell it was worth the wait.

Look at that little paper sculpted Alfie and Oscar too! Totally insane. He captured them perfectly. And even my tiny cloud badge which I wear a lot - it's so tiny and so perfect. It all is - Cameron is crazy talented, and I am absolutely chuffed with what he was able to produce for me. Him and Whitney are such kind and genuine people to top it off, I insist that you go over to their blog right now for a nosy, and have a look at the other amazing work that he has created. Amazing people and amazing artwork, who deserve all the success in the world and I am quite happy to pimp their name for all to hear :) I hope you can see why! Thank you so so much Cameron and Whitney, and I am super happy to have made new friends in the process of receiving this little genius portrait ♥

After working a 7 day week, saturday was a well deserved day off but full of errands and life organising to be honest. Back to work on sunday, and on all the way through to friday but then next weekend I have Brighton to look forward to. Here's some other things that have been making me smile while working like a trooper this week...

Nutella Cupcakes :) Thanks to inspiration from Helen and the Hummingbird Bakery recipe. They were so easy to make and went down a treat, and now I'm addicted to Nutella again. Chocolate on toast for breakfast every morning just shouldn't be justifiable.

New business cards from Moo in preparation for my course in London (and lots of networking me hopes) The box on the left is the new one, and on the right is my old box which has filled up with other peoples business cards I've collected in exchange for my own. The box is so handy that way, and I recommend Moo 110% for anyone looking to get great quality business cards printed.  They're a bit pricey, I paid £17.99 for 50 but they were delivered super quick and have a really slick finish to them. This is my 3rd box in 3 years!

Goodies from Jenn, from her holiday in Florida! (doing a little dance right now) She got me and Katrina lots of sweeties, princess cups and gel pens and a minnie mouse arial topper to say thank you for watching her cat Milo while she was away. It all came in this awesome plastic spongebob bag, which of course I am going to find a million and one uses for because I am a cool/lame kid like that. I also think I will be really classy and drink my wine from this cup before I go out tomorrow night. Le sigh :)

Another parcel of wonderful pressies from my London art department twin Sally :) Getting to meet this lovely lady in person when I go down for the course. Sally was the Art Director on Eastenders, and I think I'll have a bit of a fangirl moment but I can't wait to pick her brains about work and music and boys and hello kitty and other cute things. Separated at birth I think! She's a wee legend. Thank you Sally ♥ She sent me so much yummy stuff and between her and Jenn I won't need to stock up on any sweet things before 2011 is out.

Misfits and then bed for me - did anyone watch the Nazi episode 4? It was one of the weirdest/random things I've ever seen, totally wasn't expecting it... but still fantastic, and none of my friends watch Misfits so I need someone to bounce Misfits chat off of! :)

Ayden x

Simple Math

So it's been nearly a week since my last post, but I've been busy back at the BBC properly for the first time since I took ill a couple of months ago. Literally can't believe how close it is until the end of the year... and how much stuff I plan to cram in before 2011 is out! I'm my own worst nightmare, but I love it really. Very much enjoying the red cups at Starbucks, and started planning my christmas pressie buying list, and christmas card list too. Need to stop scribbling and start doing! My next few posts are therefore full of kinda backdated pictures as usual, but hope you like none the less :) Here's some from my long weekend away with friends in Kilfinan a couple of weeks ago:

As I mentioned on my tumblr already, the 4 days consisted of amazing company, no phone signal, nice weather, comfort food, lots of banter, making new friends, just enough alcohol, jacuzzi, sauna, board games, old movies, pj’s, games room, trampoline, long walks, log fire, shooting stars, and a gorgeous room with four poster bed to kip in at the end of each night. Just what I needed :) You can see a wee video from the journey home, along with a few other clips of bits and bobs I've been upto lately on my youtube. Just been filming off my macbook and phone, but I'm quite keen to get into it again and would love to invest in a little flip HD.

Have any of you entered the Papp A Postcard competition yet? It closes on 28th november on the railcard facebook page, and I know how many of you bloggers have some wonderful pictures that could make the perfect postcard - so if you have a few minutes head over and get entering :) I've used my 16-25 railcard to book for London and Bristol in december, and a few of you guessed right in the last post - next weekend I'm going to be taking a trip to Brighton ♥ Heading down for the weekend with Katrina, we're both so excited and want to cram as much in as possible while were there. Was wondering if anyone had stayed over there before and have any decent b&b or hotel suggestions? Also, places to go, things to see and do while we're down there? It's a flying visit, and we don't want to miss out on the best while we're there so please fire away with hint.

Over the next week or so I've still got to blog about the PURE Spa blogger event in Edinburgh, my lovely new Lomo Diana Mini camera I received especially to take some snaps in Brighton next weekend, and my wonderful paper portrait that arrived last week in the mail from Cameron + Whitney all the way from the U.S.A. I spent £40 at the post office this morning sending parcels out to all my swap buddies. So if you're expecting a little something from me, it's on the way! Tonight I'm going to get into my jammies, put some music on and do some baking for the boys in work and a special someone that's coming over to stay with me tomorrow night. Anyone got any particular favourite cake recipe's at this time of year? I'm thinking about Nutella Cupcakes. I fully intend to be a complete grubber when I come to London for the week. Hummingbird Bakery, Laduree and Krispy Kreme all being on my hit list! I also want to go for some bloody good sushi, get my nails WAH'd and squeeze in a night to see Wicked for the 3rd time (looooser) Again, I'll need to get your advice closer to the time of things to see and do in the evenings while I'm in the big smoke. I'm staying with my uncle who has just moved there, as he's working at The National Theatre... and I'm not totally sure if he's going to have many girly/appropriate/christmassy suggestions for me :p

Ayden x

It must be love...

A couple of weekends ago I took a trip to my dear friends Luisa and Ian's wedding venue for 2013. We went there with the husband and wife to be, Luisa's mum, and the other two bridesmaids alongside myself :) Cornhill House was about an hours drive away from Glasgow, and the open day boasted free tea and coffee, the most yummy canapes, and some wedding decor examples set up around the venue. It was beautiful, totally stunning. Like a little Hogwarts. The interior was so grand, but cosy at the same time. Log fires, old paintings with big ornate frames, and gorgeously upholstered furniture. They've got every room in the hotel booked out the night of the wedding, so we really will have the run of the place to ourselves. CAN'T WAIT! Need to sort out the dresses soon I think, and I wonder if Luisa will mind if I was covered in tattoos by the wedding...

Bit of an eclectic post, but I though I'd share some more love in the form of a competition prize I won from Sarah. She's a bit of a legend, insanely creative, and her sense of humor and the way she writes never fails to make me giggle. She gifted me with this little Ayden in illustrated form (oh but if only I was that teeny weeny in real life) THANKS SARAH. I'd like to lick your face if we ever meet in person :)



Talking about lovely things, and giggly things, I've started thinking about Christmas and how I could actually cry at how soon it is. I need to get organised (and perhaps round up some money first) and the first person to ask me what I'd like this year was my good ol' daddy. Most likely encouraged by my super organised step mum, but I'll let him take the credit just this once! One rather geeky thing on my list this year is a sat nav. I genuinely feel like having a hairy mary (technical term) when embarking upon a journey I've never been on before, and I don't have a fancy iphone with the tom tom app (and lets face it... if any of you have ever gotten blackberry maps to work then I'll eat my onesie! And then ask if you could make mines work too) If I do get a tom tom for christmas, the first thing I'll be doing is downloading some friendly voices like in the video above! Bert and Ernie, far too awesome :) I felt like punching the lady voice on my step dad's old and never updated satnav I borrowed for various trips like cornwall and alton towers.

There seems to be some decent linkage going on here... as I talk about trips I wanted to share some nice news about a few adventures I'll be embarking on soon! Railcard are running a competition on their facebook, where through the 16-25 railcard page you can 'Papp a Postcard' - which basically means uploading one of your favourite pictures into their postcard generator, to enter a free prize draw to win a Topshop/Topman shopping trip to London worth £500! 20 runners up will also get a rail card gift card worth £26, for the postcards they think are the funniest, craziest, or quirkiest! I know you are a creative lot on here, so you should head over and make an entry if you have a few minutes (you can enter as many times as you like!) Even if you don't enter I'd reccommend having a look through the postcard gallery, I can't link to my favourites because it's an online gallery, but there are some proper belters on there. Show me you can do better :) Best of luck!

I used my 16-25 railcard to book my train tickets to London in december for a course I'm doing, where I'm staying for a week but also popping over to Bristol for the South West Blogger Chrismas Meet :) It gives you a third off all rail travel, and when booking long distance tickets like that it's really given me a nice wee chunk off my fare! You're properly wondering what the pictures above are eh? Over the past week Railcard have send me 5 different postcards of their own, describing 5 different places of interest around the UK. My postcards included Manchester, Birmingham, London, Oxford and Brighton. I have the choice of being sent to one of these 5 cities by rail on a little adventure... can you guess what one I've chosen? I think I've made the right choice, but I'm keen to hear your opinions on each city and where you would have picked.

Final thing, a couple of new snippets up on my youtube and tumblr that don't always make it on here. Thanks for all your smashing comments as usual on the last post, I had a fabby long weekend away, just what I needed in time for starting back a long contract at work so I'll be sure to share the pictures from it soon :) Genuinely wish there were more hours in the day for me to reply to every single comment, and write on each and every one of your posts that I read :( But just know I appreciate every one of them, you are a very kind bunch - and I enjoy stalking your blogs/life even if I don't get the chance to comment on the post :p Much love as always ♥

Ayden x

Lego house

Last thursday night I had a brilliant wee evening with Jenn at the Katy Perry concert in Glasgow. The night after I went to the concert again with Katrina, and we had the pleasure of meeting the lady herself before the gig.

Given our Meet and Greet passes, we were led into a cutely decorated room, with big tables covered in sweets, a polka dot carpet and the tour backdrop.

I took my polaroid with me, and got my picture taken with Kitty Purry and Katy :) She looked so different without her trademark black/blue wig, and it felt like we were meeting Catherine rather than Katy. I say that as if I know her - I clearly don't! She was just really laid back and down to earth in comparison to her hyper showgirl persona. She invited us to take as many sweets as we wanted, and we spent 10 minutes chatting to her (and trying to convince her to eat a tunnocks teacake but it wasn't happening) Her sister took our picture, and also Katy took a picture of Katrinas sparkly eyelashes on her blackberry! I've been looking out to see if she's tweet them but it didn't happen. Biggest fangirl moment in history ladies, we were so chuffed!

I also got my hands on some flashing candyfloss from the room we met her in. It was so pretty but I was dying to eat it when I got home (cause I'm a greedy pig y'know) but couldn't get a half decent picture - so I decided to do a wee youtube video of it! I'd disabled a lot of my videos, was feeling a bit crappy about them but I think it's time for a fresh start and to upload random crap when I feel like it. So head on over and have a nosy, and add me as a friend if you're on youtube too.

The dress I wore to meet Katy and to the gig after was a cute little Motel number courtsey of MyLabel. A lot of their Motel stuff is on sale right now, which I'm super pleased about because I really want to get a nice dress of theirs for Christmas day. It felt weird being a bit more dressed up than usual for a gig, I just had black tights and flats on with this dress, but I think it'd look fab on a night out with bronzed legs and chunky heels! I kinda wish I'd got the small rather than the medium, feels a totally different fit from all the other Motel Dresses I've got. But I still love it and the flattering cut hides a food/candy baby pretty easy ;)

Wee bit of posing had to be done :) Some other reasons to smile this week...

My wee sister Tylers 7th birthday. Can't believe how big she is getting! Her and Aaron (last on the right) are as cheeky as ever. Don't know if any of you have really younger brothers and sisters, theres a 15 year age gap between me and tyler, and a 21 year age gap between me and my Dad's wee boy Max! Madness. Really hope that I can be a 'cool' and supportive big sister as they get older. Being an only child until I was 15, I always wished I'd had a big brother or sister :(

Bloody wonderful wee parcel from my lady Chloe :) Chloe is one of the most intelligent and heartwarming people I've ever spoken to (love you long time) And she's far too good to me - as you can see from the above. The chocolate and slippers will be perfect for my journey and long weekend up north, and the earrings and necklace are from Temporary:Secretary, who's wonderful gems I've been eyeing up for such a long time. I'm sorry to the folks who have contacted me about exchanging parcels, my email skillz haven't been great as of late, but I defo want to do it so I'll be in touch again asap.

Just typing this from my bed, and I've literally finished writing a guinea pig check list for my flatmates as they're going to be looking after the boys for me from tomorrow until sunday as I'm away a trip up north with a very nice person I know. It's their friends birthday and we're all going to his parents house in the countryside for fun, drinking and jacuzzi times. It's just the break I need before I head back to the Weakest Link, and the first time I've properly been about the building BBC since I took ill there a couple of months ago. Don't want to have that silly nostalgia where you connect certain places to when you've been unwell/upset/angry, and all the people there are so lovely so I'm just going to keep my head held high and get on with it :) I've missed the canteen and their home baking so I'm sure I'll be distracted by that anyways the second I'm back (told you... greedy)

One last thing, who I am I getting to finally meet at the South West Blogger meet? I feel like a crazy scotsman crashing the party but I'm too bloody excited about coming ♥

Ayden x

Waking up in Vegas

My week has mostly consisted of working a few different contracts at the BBC along with a couple of my favorite things...

Cakes! My mum has got me addicted to Cottonrake Bakery after the box of cakes she got me from there for my 22nd birthday. They had ran out of Macaroons by 12pm, so I got some lovely pie and pastries instead. As much as I could have munched them all to myself... I unfortunately shared them with a couple of lucky people (maybe chancers is the right word!)

And Spa times! :) I like to get pampered at nice places like this when the moths haven't eaten all the notes out of my purse (it's definitely moths that keep making my money disappear, anyone else have that problem?) And after my stints at the Blythswood Spa and Zen Lifestyle, I have grown quite accustomed to my very temporary exposure to a bit of luxury! I was invited along to Pure Spa at Silverburn for a facial, and after in depth consultation with my therapist Leanne, we decided I should go for the express Elemis Tri-Enzyme Resurfacing facial. This facial is said to restore radiance and vitality by removing dead skin cells, reducing fine lines, uneven skin tone, acne and superficial scarring.

(Sneaky picture of the relaxation room you wait in before your treatment. Herbal tea and girlie magazines for the win!)

The express facial is 30 mins long rather than the usual 70, which I think is a good idea for people on the go or feel like they don't have much time in their week to squeeze in lengthy beauty treatments. Personally, the 30 minutes did feel just about long enough but in future I would probably opt for a bit longer (if I was treating myself in the first place - I think I'd just find the time for it) Mind you, last time I had a 60 minute facial I fell asleep twice! I didn't get the chance to completely zone out during this facial, but the 30 minutes still worked wonders on my skin. For me, these kind of treatments in such a relaxing setting are about my mind just as much as my body. I was impressed at how hidden away and chilled the Pure Spa felt - considering it sits above a busy shopping centre. Leanne was extremely knowledgeable and we had a great chat about skincare in general! This facial was a perfect way for me to have a clean start for working on a regular routine for my skin, and I've promised her I'll be on my best behavior from now on (no baby wipes, falling asleep with my makeup on etc...)

While were on the subject of all things girly (well, I know guys like cakes and spa's too) can you guess what the above is? I'd suggest the following chat is ladies only, so if womanly chat embarrasses you then I'd probably skip this bit. You guessed yet?

Not the normal kind of thing I'd cover on the Little Blog Of Horrors, but when I was sent some samples of the new range from Lil-lets  I was extremely intrigued. I know that period chat and sanitary products can still be a bit of a cringeworthy subject for some people, but it's one of the most natural things to happen to a woman so I don't know why so many people fear the chat! (best P.E excuse ever though... no questions asked especially by the male teachers once the woman's troubles bomb is dropped!)

Apart from comfort, FreshLOCK technology without the use of harsh perfumes, and different styles to suit different needs, this new range also addresses those 'cringeworthy' problems associated with sanitary products that us ladies often fear. From left to right we have the smaller version especially designed for teens, then the normal long version, and some night time suited ones too. One of my best friends who is a guy is about to move in with us soon, and I'd normally be quite paranoid about leaving these kind of things about the bathroom in my toiletries basket, but I thought I'd share the very top picture because once the paper label is off I think it's quite hard to tell what these little colourful packs are (remember the sweetie wrapper tampon advert? Ha!) Which could also be quite useful for your handbag, or overnight back where you don't want to scream from the rooftops it's your time of the month! One thing I also love about the grey wrappers is that they're specially designed not to make that awful noise when you open them. Again - great for public toilets and places where you don't want to announce to the world you have your period. So overall I'm very impressed, and this new range (along with the tampon versions) have just hit the shelves so be sure to look out for them. That's my girly chat done for now, those in disgust can look this way again!

I had a lot of fun carving my pumpkin on halloween weekend...

Jack is still sitting outside my door, I don't want to throw him away :( I was using shit ikea knives to carve him but it was still good fun. Apart from all that yucky stuff inside the pumpkin... I dunno why but it freaks me out so much! I didn't do much on actual Halloween night, but on the saturday myself, Luisa and her fiance Ian got dressed up and went out to the ABC in glasgow. I was Princess Peach, Luisa was Sonic and Ian was Ryu!

Sonic trying to fight Mario - I'm not impressed. I really think Luisa suits the blue though!

Haha who knows... after half a bottle of peach schnappes! There were some awesome people dressed up that night, and I had to get my picture taken with a few including Max from Where The Wild Things Are, Aleksandr the meerkat and someone dressed as the horse statue (complete with traffic cone) from outside the GOMA. Glaswiegans will know what one I'm on about :) Haven't seen any pictures from in the club yet, I'll need to steal them soon but all I can remember is a lot of dancing, a lot of Mario's and Luigi's who didn't know who Princess Peach was (terrible!) and someone dressed as Salad Fingers :( Too creepy for words.

We took a nice wee day trip to Luisa and Ian's wedding venue the next day, I was stocked up on monster munch, irn bru and a double decker for the car journey (we and Gemma watched the mini episode of Misfits on her ipad touch which was good, got me all excited for the new series) But I'll save that all for another post. This one has been quite lengthy so well done if you've got this far. I literally cannot wait for my week to end, I'm going to see Katy Perry on thursday and friday night after winning a meet and greet with her before fridays concert! If you've followed my blog for a while you'll know about my excitement of getting to see her twice before, and how she is my total girl crush. Meeting her in the flesh is going to be bloody awesome ♥ Will be sure to share how it goes :)

Ayden x