11.30.2011

The End of the Road for Gale and Emily

Today I completed NaNoWriMo for the second time. I wrote 50,272 words this month. I decided to forgo sleep, work and relationships to write this novel.

BUT whilst I should be like this:


I am actually kind of like this:


"Why?" You may ask (or you may not). The reason is this: I am not especially happy with the novel that I have written and I doubt that I will ever finish it. Last year it was such a joyful, momentous occasion- I was ready to show the world my amazing book! This year, however, I kind of don't want anyone to see it. I disliked large sections of my writing but knew that I hadn't got the time to go back and rewrite it.

"Am I glad I did it?" You may also ask. The answer to that is most definitely "YES!". Although the end product requires a lot of work and isn't a completed, perfect novel; no one writes a complete perfect novel the first time round. Through NaNoWriMo I have learnt that I can persevere, that I can write long pieces of fiction, that I can develop my ideas and that I shouldn't give up. I just ended on a bad note which was really annoying because I'm not going to do it next year :( I'm afraid university comes first.

If one day I revisit 'Island Angel', my novel this year, and redraft it and work on it; I will put a downloadable copy on my blog. But until then, it's bye to NaNoWriMo and bye to Gale and Emily. It's been nice knowing you.

Say

11.28.2011

Attempting Self-Portraits :P

As you probably would have gathered by now, Oliver takes most of the pictures of me on my blog because he loves photography and is absolutely amazing at it. However, we have slight disagreements on fashion and he therefore wont photograph some outfits because he doesn't like them. So then I have to find a time when no one is at home (when I wont look silly) and take pictures myself. This is my first attempt and, yeah, I'll let you make up your own mind about them.. :P




I made the top with my Grandma :), I found the skirt in my mothers wardrobe :P and the belt came with some chinos from New Look.

Even after the pictures, Oliver still didn't like the skirt.

Love,

Say :)

Last Time for the Youth Weekend Away :(

As I mentioned in my last post, I went away this weekend with my church youth group to a centre in the middle of nowhere. It is truly an amazing weekend to go on and this was my seventh (and final!) one. It was sad to know that we were never going to go away like that again but it was also really good because the last one was one of the best :) Thank you to everyone who made it so special :)

I apologise about the quality of the photos, Oliver wouldn't let me take his camera so I had to use my brother's :/

Oh and these guys just below were my room mates: Jocelyn, Lilly, Trudy (remember her party?) and Clare



















So we had a beautiful weekend at a beautiful centre in the middle of a beautiful field. Beautiful.

I will miss it so much :'(

Say :)

11.24.2011

Being Mum.

As my mother had a week off this week (she was supposed to visit my uncle in Canada, but he came over here instead), she decided to go up north to stay with my dad's parents. The first thing my dad asked me once she was gone was whether I would cook! But that's ok, I'm fine with gender roles and stereotyping :P I like cooking :) So in the end I decided to make Mexican chicken wraps with a sugary lime marinade. It's good, I'm telling you, a recipe by Sam Stern, a young chef who has written a few cook books with his mum.

Oliver decided to change the camera setting to monochrome half way through cooking, so I have had to put ALL of them in monochrome :( Now it looks a bit like this post, sorry guys!






I am really pumped for my youth weekend away tomorrow! I won't be able to post until Sunday at the very earliest, but hopefully I will accumulate some good pictures for you :)

Love,

Say :)

11.22.2011

Photoshoot with Lena :)

As it is November and steadily getting darker and more miserable, we thought that we would go out and do one of the last, bright, outdoor photoshoots of this year. As it so happened, the brightness we found at first slowly dimmed and it ended up raining. Oh well, we had fun :) This one is much less serious, just laughing and smiling and messing around. I don't get to see Lena as much as I used to now that she works full time and I study, so it was really good to see her. And I suppose we have to drag Oliver along to take the photos :P Joking, I am very grateful :)
















I got my check shirt from Peacocks today (paid for by the lovely Oliver) but the smallest size they had was size 12 so it's a bit baggy lol but I loved the autumnal colours :)

Oh and Lena made her scarf. Pretty amazing, right? Maybe you guys make scarves, but I can't so I think it's amazing.

Enjoy,

Say :)

Ps. I am on 35,000 words!

11.20.2011

November photoshoot when I should be writing

The sun was setting fast, so we ended up just popping to our local park again to take some photos. Unfortunately, the three different locations we used had really different light levels and tones, so here are just the ones that I could fit into a nice set :) Oh, and if anyone is wondering, I found the dress in a charity shop for £4 which is always good!









And thanks once again to my amazing boyfriend, Oliver for taking all the photos!


Just thought you should see him again! :P

See y'all later,

Say :)