Frolickings With Friends

Hello everyone.

How has your week been? I feel like I'm the only one doing the talking and as patient as you are reading all my weekly ramblings I'd love to hear back from you guys even if you were simply organising your sock drawer. (I wonder if anyone does that).

This week I have been working A LOT which hasn't been too bad as we all know I enjoy it there but it has been tiring. That's why me and my friends decided we would make the most of our evenings and meet up after work to chill and eat cakes and other yummy treats. 

As you can tell from these photos the weather has been fabulous. I love it when the weather is like this because it make Arran look almost like a tropical island rather than an often damp Scottish one.
To make the most of the weather, me and my friend Kirsty decided to meet up on one of our few joint days off yesterday and go to our island's main town for lunch, shopping and sunbathing. 

We began by hitting the charity shop which I love visiting because you never know what you might find. I bought a new bag, scarf and, my favourite purchase of the day, a gorgeous little vintage teapot candle-holder.

After spending no more than £7 on our bargain purchases we did a little more shopping and then went to lunch at ... the cafe where we both work. Trust us to spend our day off work at our place of work. 

Whilst walking there through the blistering heat we bumped into Ross, a boy from our year, who came and joined us. It felt really strange having lunch at work and being served by our friends but it was handy for them as they stole a nacho each time they walked by.

After lunch we decided we would play mini golf and get ice-creams.The only thing was we did both at the same time meaning an impressive juggling act between not letting the ice-cream melt and not falling behind on the golf was performed. Pressure was added when we decided the loser would have to go in the sea which, despite the very hot temperatures, didn't sound too inviting as we were picking up our other friends, Kirsty and Iona, shortly after and I didn't want to leave a trail of wet footprints and laughing strangers through the village .

Luckily for me I didn't lose! Unlucky for Kirsty, she did. She kept up the bet though, much to the surprise of me and Ross, and she waded on in without hesitation.

After Kirsty finally re-emerged it was time for us to pick up other Kirsty and Iona and for Ross to go to work.

With the four of us united there was more swimming in the sea, sunbathing and chocolate-y goodies. What more could a girl ask for?

 Kirsty after she lost mini golf

 Kirsty's trail after being in the sea

The two Kirstys

Kirsty: "Is it coooooold?!"

 Chilling in the sun and watching the bags

 Today was my second day off and after going out in the sun all of yesterday, I decided to have a chill out day at home where I could plan my next week and collect my thoughts. I also decided that I should probably clean my death trap of a room which now looks somewhat presentable after a few hours of work and smells like blueberries thanks to a candle I bought yesturday. Yummy.

All in all it's been a good week and all my working means I'm earning lots of pennies which I'm hoping to save up to buy a good camera so I can properly start making videos. Hooray.
Sometime next week when my brain's alarm clock kicks in I will have my "Mollie's Thoughts" post up . Until then, I hope the weather is as lovely for you as it is here and that you have fun in whatever you get up to. Don't forget to leave me a comment letting me know what you got up to! I'd love to hear.

Mollie

♥

The First Day of Summer

Hello everyone.

So, following my last post which was a little deeper and thoughtful I have decided that once a month I am going to build up a series of posts under the heading “Mollie’s Thoughts”. (Please leave your jokes about how that time scale may reflect how little I do some thinking…)  These posts will address those issues I have strong feelings for and that really matter to me such as, the idea of living for you, not to please others as discussed in my last post. Is that something you would be interested in?

Anyway, back to business. This week began with the first all-day rehearsal on Sunday for the school play I’m in (The Importance of Being Earnest) which is something I look forward to every year when I’m in a school show as it used to give us some hope that school was nearly finished for Summer and also it is a time when everyone in the show can mingle and chill out whilst doing something that we all love – acting in the play. I especially love it this year as I am doing the play with my best friends.

The weather was really beautiful on Sunday as it has been on-and-off this week and so after rehearsals me and my friends decided to go for a swim in the sea for a few hours and it was lovely.

Up until then, on sunny days I have always been working or completing art coursework but Sunday was the first day when I could relax and enjoy one of the hopefully many to come sunny days and so for me it was the first day of Summer.

 Speaking of the school show, it only yesterday dawned on me that it is in fact less than a week away. This time next week we’ll be performing our second show and in true show business manner, we are not feeling very ready. I am now beginning to count my blessings that I have a smaller part! I cannot wait though and would like to encourage any Arran readers to come and see it at the High School on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday night – or even all three if you’re of a particularly theatrical demeanour.

On the topic of not being ready, I am ashamed to say that I have only just finished editing Fiona’s video in the past few days following her Butterfly Tree Tea Party a few weeks ago (You can read about the day HERE). It was not an easy task I can tell you because the software I was using kept crashing and so I had to re-load everything and footage kept refusing to upload etc. but it is now done and delivered and it will be up on my channel tomorrow sometime. 

Me and my parents visited Fiona and Pete (her husband) an hour or so ago and they seemed to really like it so it was all completely worth it! Especially if it can be used to help raise more money for The Butterfly Tree Charity! A copy of the video is even being sent to the charity in Zambia! How amazing is that? Lots of excitement there.

So that’s pretty much everything in my life this week for this life post - well, everything of interest, even though I’m sure you would love to hear about what I had for dinner last night or how many hours I worked this week.

I have lots to look forward to this week - the school show as I mentioned, a much needed sleep-over/catch-up session with my friends, a party on Saturday and next weekend my School Leavers Do! I shall have much to report in my next post. Until then I hope you have lovely sunny weather and have a great week.

Mollie

♥

Aprons and Castles

Hello everyone.

(I couldn’t think of a new introduction so this will do.)

It’ll have to be another life-update post as I have been too busy this week to sit and plan a more adventurous one. However, I do have a few ideas linked with my Youtube Channel that I’m excited to try in the near future.

So this Sunday I had my first day at my new job and I arrived on the busiest day they've had so far. Typical. This meant I fluttered around trying to find things to do as everyone tried to explain their system in the little free time they had. It was fine though and I still learned a lot. It was on Monday that I began my real training and I can honestly say I really enjoy working there. It’s such a friendly, relaxed environment - even when it’s busy. Everyone helps each other when they have a free moment and it just works.

Tuesday and Wednesday were my days off work. I would have liked to have just chilled out or got some things done but I still had art to do (nearly finished now though!). It almost seems never-ending. However I did get an un-planned rest yesterday when I went for a costume scavenger hunt at our Island’s castle for the school play with our school play’s director and a friend. This year we’re doing The Importance of Being Earnest and my part is a female version of the character ‘Merriman’-a housekeeper. This meant we needed authentic looking maid costumes for mine and the other maids’ parts hence the reason we pulled on our Island’s resources and went to the castle. It was like being a child playing fancy dress with all the beautiful dresses and accessories. My costume is a black dress with a white apron and I love it!

The castle isn’t the only place that is donating props to our play; the director has sourced various plants and pieces of furniture from different businesses on Arran to feature in the show -one of the many benefits of living on a small Island.

Anyway, I stray from the story. When we had found our costumes and got into the director’s car, it wouldn't start. I wasn't complaining though because it meant we were ‘forced’ to spend more time at the castle on a lovely sunny day.

In other news, I’ve recently become very aware that I am long over-due a new video on my channel. This will be one of my priorities once my art is finally all done and dusted. If you’d like to visit my channel there is a link HERE).

So that’s this week so far. Not so many exciting things to talk about but still a busy week. Hopefully next week will be a little more interesting as my art should be packed and sent away finally and I’ll hopefully have a shift with my friend who has also recently started where I work-if they can cope with two people who are not really sure what they’re doing working at the same time.

I hope you’ve had a great week and if you have any topics you’d like me to talk about in a future blog post then please leave a comment below.

Mollie

♥

Ink and Paint

Hello everyone.

I feel like I need a new opening to my posts rather than “Hello everyone”..hmm. Any suggestions?

So this week I have finally managed to focus my attention (for at least 30 minutes every 3 hours…) on admin revision.  There’s been quite a lot even though I've only this year got one exam (my other subjects don’t have an exam). I've been through 2+ pens. And now it’s all finished as I sat my exam today and I think it went okay.

I always surprise myself when I’m revising at my ability to find so many new interesting hobbies and interests in order to distract myself in any way possible from the revision I’m trying to do. In one of my many breaks I even developed a whole business that I’d like to run complete with product lists and some price ideas. Yes it really went there.

Something I've been enjoying about revision is that I've had time to just sit out in the sun all day. It’s almost made revision fun. Almost.

A beautiful view from where I was revising

 My bedroom floor right now. So many pieces of paper and books.

As well as revising however I've had my Advanced Higher Art folio to complete and stick down and it had almost slipped my mind with the thought of Admin being at the top of my list. However after a little panic moment on Tuesday evening thinking I’d never get it done in time I decided to risk losing a day of revision on Wednesday and make-up for it one Thursday so that I could do my art. It seemed to work and things are back in control. Phew.

Here's a sneak peak of some of my artwork:

I will hopefully be selling some of my art/prints of my artwork once it is returned from the SQA. I also have lots of other plans for it too...exciting.

Now I have my new job to think about. I can't wait. My first day/training day is this Sunday so I’m preparing myself and hoping that my waitressing experience from my last job will help me out. It’s great to know that my best friend is starting work there with me and my other best friends already work there. I’ll always have someone to answer my questions and spend my lunch breaks with.

I think that’s it for this update as I haven’t really anything more to tell you as I've been mostly sat revising all week. *sigh*. I hope you've had a lovely week and been able to enjoy some beautiful weather.

Mollie

♥