My awesome and creative husband Kyle likes to spend his free time in his shed playing with grinder's and welding reclaimed scrap metal into unique household objects and sculptures. He has made household lamps out of rusted chain and candlesticks but at the moment he is working on this woodburner. Originally a gas bottle and drum brake from a lorry along with other bits and bobs Kyle plans to sell this industrial and practical piece after he has primed and painted it this week, contact me if you are interested in this piece here. Once its completely finished I will post more images up.

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Over the years I have dyed my hair just about every colour there is, I’ve no idea what colour my natural hair is underneath years of dye and mistreatment. It used to be quite blonde.

I’ve dyed my hair black for quite some time, I like black and it doesn’t strip the moisture out of my hair. In the middle of last year I decided to make my hair ginger, then red but it faded so quickly.  So to avoid any hair disasters I dyed it black again for our wedding, mostly because my hair was getting very frazzled and needed time to recover from its bleachathon otherwise it would have been pink. 

Then at the beginning of this year I decided to start lightening my hair slowly over time so I could get pink hair. So as usual I went to the hairdresser and had it bleached, this turned my hair ginger... which I quite like. Then after a little break I went back to have it lightened again…… this is where it all went wrong, I trusted the hairdresser and told her that I really didn’t mind the ginger and that I didn’t want to trash my hair so as it was in quite good condition I could leave it ginger for longer. I was assured that it would be ok having it bleached.

They bleached my hair, following this a large amount of it fell out, turned to mush, pretty much disintegrated in my hands. Well that was four weeks ago and my hair is snapped, dry, spongy feeling and I will probably have to chop the ends quite a bit, annoying since I had been growing it for years. So it was blonde, white pink and orange..WTF! 

So I rang Toni and guy in Aberdeen for advice (they are very good) and was told it wouldn’t do any harm to dye my hair pink with crazy colors over my mess of a head. 

A few bottles of Pinkissimo Crazy Color, some help from my mum and voila! 

I will let you all know how the colour holds and I think it really needs a trim, but I will find a new hairdresser. 

Hair Tip- Lately I have been soaking my hair in Coconut oil once a week to condition my hair and it has really helped, plus you smell like coconut. I bought Virgin Coconut oil from the supermarket (it cost £5 for a big tub) and warm it slightly in my hands then smear it through my hair and tie it in a bun before bed. Then wash and condition in the morning as usual. Coconut oil is also an excellent moisturiser.

Ever had a hair disaster? What did you do about it? What’s the craziest colour you have dyed your hair? Or craziest style?  

Loving my pink hair, now to update all my profile pics

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If you follow me on Facebook you might have noticed that over the last few days I have been posting up images of works in progress. These images will soon be available on Etsy as original A5 or A6 pieces (I haven't decided what size they should be yet perhaps both) They will be hand drawn and painted to order and entirely custom made, so if you want one to reflect a friend, sister, wife, daughter and so on I can draw one up. For example lets say your friend is mad about cats, has green eyes, long red hair and a tattoo of a duck on her neck (First thing that came to mind) I would paint a pretty red haired, green eyed, duck tattooed lady with her cats, makes a unique little gift. They would not look exactly like your friend though, more like a doll representing them, but if you would like a portrait, contact me direct.

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Recently I spent the day with Jenna creating a Snow White inspired shoot at local woods. Most of Jenna’s hair and make up was done in record breaking time and we thought it would be an easy day until we tried to apply her false lashes. 45 minutes later, 4 different kinds of glue, 2 different sets of lashes and my hands glued together, finally we were ready to go. Unfortunately the lashes we used were not our first choice but they were the only ones that would stay on.

Whilst at the park taking pictures we ended up with an audience and became known as the photo people when a class of kids from a local school were out exploring the woods with their teacher, at least they knew who Jenna was meant to be, always a good sign.

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On the 22nd of March I went with Jenna to Gray’s School of Art’s 4th year printmakers exhibition, “Hard Ground” at Peacock Visual Arts in Aberdeen. We went to see my friend Clare’s work, show our support and take photographs of the evening.

I was instantly drawn to the vintage typewriter in the middle of the room that sat upon a glass cabinet, inside the cabinet were prints created on typewriters along with a piece coming from the typewriter itself. They were created by printmaker Gemma Balfour showing her interpretation of costal erosion. I thought they were rather good and Gemma didn’t seem too freaked out by my conversation that consisted of Vaseline and colons….. umm yeah. I was also very impressed with Clare’s piece, as soon as I saw it I recognised the faces in her print.  There were so many good pieces of work at the exhibit and in the main gallery there is the works of Jacki Parry, her Resonance (Paper as Memory) is a collection of sculptures made from paper.

Here are some photos I took from the evening, unfortunately I had a bit of a problem getting shots as it was so packed out with people and there wasn’t enough room to stand back as I was using a fixed 50mm lens. So I didn't get everyones work (sorry) but if you happen to be in Aberdeen their work will be on show until the 4th of May.

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Our wee Boo was getting rather lonely on her tod so it was decided she should have some friends to bunk with. Boo didn’t have any cage mates when she was a youngster so she came to live with us a lone rat.

She is such a sweet little critter and gets on so well with people and other animals, even Morrison our GSD who is massive, she likes to clean his toes, he’s not so happy about this but she leaves him very little choice… bossy madam.

So the other week we introduced Boo to two young rats, Angel (Jacks choice of name) a little black rat with a white belly and Bambi (Ambers choice of name) the cream and white.

I was a little worried they wouldn’t get along but they hit it off immediately, now they all sleep curled up in a ball together, so cute. I allowed them to meet out with the cage, this meant they could meet on neutral ground then I cleaned out the cage before putting them all in it so It didn't smell so much like Boo, I think this helped them all settle in.

Great success! (as my mate Dave always says)

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On Sunday I went to Thainestone Market with Kyle and wee Jack. Thainestone Market is a large outdoor market/car boot sale. Lots of people come out to sell all sorts of random items, from antiques to old clothing, books, furniture, you name it… we went for tools. Kyle wanted to see what tools he could pick up for his shed/workroom.

As the market takes a while to get to from our house we stopped by Hoodles for cupcakes and coffee on route, they make really good cakes and they have a play area for kids. When we got to the market Jack found a dinosaur model he wanted to take home, Kyle found a few tools and even though we were only there for tools I ended up coming home with an old bureau for £35. I love walking about an outdoor market on a sunny day looking for unusual stuffs, we even found a spinning wheel, didn’t want to prick my finger on it (incase Sleeping Beauty was based on a true story) so just took photos instead. On the way home we had something to eat at a garden centre, where Kyle found more tools.…. I don’t share his excitement.

What’s the best bargain you’ve found at a car boot or market? Anyone found anything really weird for sale?

Here’s our day in a few pictures….


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This post is long overdue, better late than never though.

My brother Stuart has been studying Painting at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen and is coming to the end of his Honours year there. From the 23rd of February until the 3rd of March the forth year painting students held a gallery event in Edinburgh at the Art’s Complex. Kyle and myself, along with Jenna and Morrison (our German Shepherd) decided to travel down to the burgh for the opening night on the 22nd to show our support and take loads of pictures.  (Yes that’s right we took our dog to an art Gallery).

A collection of their works hung on the walls that they had white washed for the event. There was a large selection of foodstuffs and lots of booze… all in all it was a really well organized event.

The 4th year Painting students are currently fundraising for their degree show so all donations are welcome… CLICK HERE TO DONATE and you will also receive a gift for your support they have CD’s and A6 mini paintings on offer.

These are a few of my photographs from the opening night and you can check out more of their work on their website www.grayspainters.co.uk

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Woohoo, I’m back in business. My last post was a wee while ago now and it explained my computer issues, well my new Macbook came in the post just in time for me to be hit with a cold virus that led onto a sinus infection… yay me!! So hopefully now that I rattle due to the amount of antibiotics I have been prescribed things will be better soon, starting to feel more like myself anyway. For a whole week I wasn’t well enough to set up my Mac…. that’s proof of sickness right there, I love new toys and to not be well enough to play with them is truly heartbreaking (sob). I also downloaded a copy of Adobe CS6, which I’m yet to test out and can’t wait to have a play with. Results of testing will be shared soon.

Puppies- yesterday I went to my mums to help her Chihuahua Poppy deliver her puppies, apparently I am the doggie midwife, basically I don’t vomit at the sight of blood, that’s the qualifications. So I took a few iphone pics of the new mum and pups….. I tried to avoid any photos of the blood. In the end she had 5 healthy little pups even though I ended up having to help.

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I have been unable to write up any blog posts for the last 12 days because my 5 year old Macbook “pro” has been acting very unprofessional, refusing to do as she’s told (yes…. it’s a girl), demanding attention, kinda like my son Jack who’s also 5. First it wiped out my backup then reset itself, then demanded that I reset her, basically being a pest :( . So for the last week and a bit I have been trying to fix her and back up the hard drive incase she blows up whilst I wait on the new one I ordered to arrive. Anyway since I’ve now managed to get the spinning beach ball of doom to go away (for now) I shall attempt to post this.

Whist I’ve been having technical issues I have been taking lots of pictures (that I cant back up just now, aahhh!) and writing up my future blog posts using an old fashioned method… pen and paper. So when the new computer arrives I will have lots to say and catch up on, including some photographs taken at two of Gray's school of art opening nights which are long overdue.

In other news… on Friday our wedding pictures were featured on Marry me ink, an awesome site of inspiration for the tattooed bride (or non tattooed, I'm not inkist)  

Then on Friday night Kyle and I went to see An evening of Burlesque at the Music hall in Aberdeen. It was absolutely brilliant, funny and "completely non-sleazy" as the woman behind us kept telling the person sitting beside her... repeatedly. The Tickets were a gift from my parents for my birthday in January, so thanks mum and dad! During the show one poor fellow from the front row called Stuart was picked on to help out throughout the evening and the hostess Miss Ivy Paige along with the other acts interacted with the audience all night, it was a good laugh. I would recommend seeing this show but if you are the shy type and don’t fancy being part of the show, don’t sit in the first row!

So folks, anyone been to a burlesque show? What did you think? And what would your stage name be if you were a Burlesque star??