7 Things I Love About Summer

Hello everyone.

I hope you've had a lovely, sunny week! I also hope you had the chance to read my first post in the Mollie'sThoughts series (if you missed it then there is a link HERE) and enjoyed it. If you don't know what this series is, it is (going to be) a collection of posts where I talk about issues that I feel very strongly towards for example yesturday's was about being your own bestfriend. If you'd like to follow these posts, look for the titles containing "Mollie'sThoughts".

Now, back to this post. 7 Things I love about Summer. There are  of course lots more than just 7 things I love about summer but I don't want to keep you here all day so here are some of my favourite things about summer- in no particular order.

1. Summer clothing - namely dresses and playsuits.

(Clockwise: George at Asda, Primark, Ebay but maker is "Influence", George at Asda...cheap and cheerful. My kinda thing.)

I love that in the warm weather, dresses and playsuits become a practical item of clothing because I just love them! They keep you cooler whilst still looking stylish. I'm always on the look-out for new summer dresses and playsuits as I think they look cute and girly and can be dressed down for daytime and glammed-up for evenings. I am particularly fond of ones with prints on mine (if you can't already tell...).

2. Summer music

 I find that in the Summer months I tend to listen to music a lot more. I think it's because my taste in music is very swingy and summer-y anyway so the songs seem to fit the surroundings better in the summer. For me, there's nothing like listening to a bit of Eliza Doolittle whilst walking down the sun-streamed beach!

My personal favourite artists/songs include:
-Eliza Doolittle (all of her songs)
-Corinne Bailey Rae (all of her songs)
-Nicki Minaj: Starships
-Caro Emerald: Riviera Life
-A Fine Frenzy: What I Wouldn't Do
-Ariana Grande: The Way
- Taio Cruz: There She Goes
...to name but a few.

3. All the beautiful colours

I love seeing the grass look greener, the sky and sea looking bluer and the flowers looking brighter. It's a beautiful sight to behold and I can't resist taking a few snaps of the beautiful views and sights around Arran. Well, I say a few, but I often see something that catches my eye and end up taking about thirty photos of it - no exaggeration. Everything's just so gorgeous!

4. Waking up and going to bed with the sun still shining

I'm not one of these people who want to block out the light in the morning when I'm trying to have a lie-in or who curse the sun's brightness when trying to get to sleep. In fact, I'm quite the opposite! I love getting up early to watch the sun rise and I will happily have my curtains wide open whilst I'm trying to sleep. You see living in Scotland, we don't always get much sun so I always make sure to make the most of it. Also, there's nothing like waking up with the warmth of the suns rays tickling your nose.

5. Bright and pastel summer nail colours

Clockwise in top photo. MUA in Bold Blue, Coral colour from a Boots "Colour Unlimited" boxset, MUA in Ameretto Crush, Rimmel Lasting Finish in Pear Drop and OPI Nail Laquer from a special Spiderman edition boxset.

There's something about having coral, powder blue, mermaid green and peachy pink nails that just makes me so happy. I love Spring/Summer because the pastels and neons come out to play and though I'm a sucker for deep reds and auburns in the Autumn/Winter months, there's nothing like having a pop of colour on your pinkies. Unfortunately for me, we are not allowed to wear nail varnish where I work and so on my days off I make the most of it by throwing on some bold beauties.
My personal favourite look from the colours above is painting my ring finger nails in the Bold Blue by MUA and painting the rest of my nails in the coral colour from the Colour Unlimited set from Boots.

6. Beach days

There's nothing like kicking of your flip-flops and walking bare foot along the beach with the sand between your toes and the sea washing over your tired, warm feet. Or building sandcastles (you're never to old for a good sandcastle) and sand sculptures and burying your feet in the warm sand just to have your toes peep out whenever you wriggle them. Bliss. It's also great fun to swim in the sea in the summer because despite the often freezing temperatures of the water, it is often a refreshing and welcomed relief from the heat. But see if that seaweed comes anywhere near me...

7. Spending time with friends

Last, but definitely not least. I don't know about you but I always seem to be much more sociable during the summer months. I'm like a hedgehog who's come out of hibernation and is ready to mingle with my prickly friends though, I'm glad to say my friends are much smoother than your average hedgehog.
Wow. That got weird fast.
Anyway, my point is, there always seems to be so much more to do in summer and with the days getting longer there's all the more time to do these things. I'm privileged to have made some really great memories already this summer and I am treasuring every moment of them. My time with my friends is all the more important to me just now because pretty soon they'll be leaving the island and going off to do their own thing whether that be uni, college, a job etc. whilst I'm staying put - or at least that's the plan just now.
I've been blessed with some truly amazing friends and I cannot express how much I love and cherish them being in my life.

***

So that's everything I love about summer in a nutshell! Well, my main favorites anyway! I'd love to hear your top 7 favourite things about summer too! Feel free to leave a comment telling me yours.
Until next week, I hope you have a great couple of days and make many happy memories.

Mollie

♥

Lama Farmer

Hello everyone.

I hope you've had a lovely week and managed to have a peak at my bonus photo blog from yesterday of my high school Leavers Do.

Now something I don't think I've mentioned before is that me and my family own alpacas-around 13 I think. You know, the usual. Alpacas are small, cuter versions of lamas for those who maybe don't know and I am glad to say alpacas don't spit at humans like lamas do but if you're not careful you could get caught in the cross-fire between two of them. Ew. Speaking of lamas, one of the key reasons for my parents wanting to buy one or two alpacas was because my dad wanted to be able to call himself a "Lama Farmer". The Hodkinsons' purchasing priorities never cease to impress. 
Our alpacas live on our field and are quite sweet most of the time that is until it's time to shear them.... Each year at this time we need to shear them and my parents couldn't do it on their own so it ends up becoming a bit of a family event- again, the usual. I dread this time of year because it tends to be the perfect time for midgies and the idea of chasing, catching and holding down alpacas to be sheared just doesn't appeal to me (I know, shocking). We got through it though and managed to shear the five boy alpacas -just 8 more to go. Woo.
After shearing them however we do get some comic relief when we release them and see what a mess they are despite our best efforts. 

 Looking fabulous.

I think my face illustrates the level of fun I'm having... 

On the Monday it was one of my best friend's birthday. Iona turned 18! I can't believe that she's 18, I feel like an auntie or something who's feeling a little shocked that my little girl's growing up- despite the fact that I'm 4 months younger than her. 
On her birthday Iona was unfortunately working however everyone at work helped make her day special by presenting a little birthday strawberry tart complete with a candle and sang happy birthday to her. Our manager had also bought her some novelty glasses that had "Happy Birthday" on them and insisted Iona served a customer with them on. 
Shortly after, Iona left work and said "see you later" to me and little did she know that she would in fact see me later as me and some friends were going to meet at her house for a mini surprise party. We had all arranged to meet at Iona's at around 7 which was when I finished work so after glamorously getting dressed in a small bus terminal toilet me and my friend went up to Iona's house to find a lovely gazebo full of little nibbles and champagne as well as Iona's poor dad who was fighting off the thousands of midges. We all decided then that we should move the party inside and some champagne and strawberries later we sang happy birthday and had a good catch up.
It was a lovely evening and I think Iona really enjoyed it so successful mission.

After the party I went home for some sleep as I had work the next day and had to be up by 8. That was nothing compared to the time I got up yesterday though which was my day off - 6:30 am! Even the birds were still sleeping. One thing I love about getting up early though is seeing the sunrise; it's a beautiful reward for being awake at ridiculous times.
The reason I was up so early was because me and my family were going to the mainland and were catching the first ferry. Whilst there we did some errands and things and then went to see Despicable Me 2 at the cinema. Overall I was pretty impressed with the film and I loved that they brought in a new female character, Lucy, for Gru -she was so cool- and of course the touches of comedy were really great as in the first film. It was also interesting to watch as a wannabe film-maker because the level of detail in each scene, the use of colour, the life-like animation and the realism in the characters' movements and mannerisms are all fascinating to me to see in an animation.
After watching the film we then did some retail therapy where I think I was very sensible with my spending for a change which surprised even myself and I was very happy with my purchases when I returned home-some summery tops, summery shoes, jeans and the most important... cosy jammies.

That's the end of this week's update apart from mentioning this evening. I went out with Iona and some other friends for Iona's first purchase of alcohol in a pub. She stayed classy with a glass of wine whilst I was of course on the orange juice. We all sat down on the cosy couch in the corner together eating nachos and enjoying the live music playing. Me and my friend Alex got very into the music at one point with our air guitar etc. which led the singer to shout out to us to finish the line "I'm loving angels instead". We were horrifically out of tune but I think our jazzy moves more than made up for it. After that we began eyeing up the pool table and after waiting a loooong time in the line of people waiting to play, me and Iona began our assault of the game. We weren't the best players and everyone watching knew it so after a while it just got a little embarrassing. This is why we may have accidentally knocked one or two of the balls into the pockets when no one was looking. I'd like to add that I won the game though. I was pretty pleased.
The rest of the week I have spent working which for me isn't a bad thing. I'm still loving it there and today in fact a lovely customer out of the blue told me I had "amazing eyes". Aw shucks. It made my day.

Anyway, that is enough of my ramblings for this week. I'll see you next week with either another life post or a second installment of my series called "Mollie's Thoughts" that I'd like to begin to progress. We shall see. Until then,

Mollie

♥

My High School Leavers Do

Hello everyone.

Seeing as I did a big old blog last week due to me, ahem, skipping a week I didn't want to make it even longer with lots of photos so I thought I'd add a separate wee extra blog here including some of the professional photos taken from my High School Leavers Do as well as some of my own photos. You can read my last blog which described the lovely evening HERE. I will still resume with my normal blog tomorrow! See you then.

Hope you enjoy,

Mollie

♥

The Besties.

 My year.

 The "pentagon". -inside joke.

The heads of our year. -  us deputies on the left, heads on right.

My fellow blogger/potential blogger from my year.

 I love this photo- all 3 of us (Iona, Kirsty and me) together with me smiling like a Cheshire Cat.

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

♥

Highschool Memories

Hello everyone.

How have you been spending your week? I’ve spent mine chilling out, studying and planning for the future. I’ve also spent a large proportion of my time wondering around the house thinking “what should I do?!”. This has been my first week of no-school since leaving (read about my last day HERE) and it’s fair to say I am missing the structure of a school day. It’s so easy to get distracted at home and for plans to be delayed with the excuse, “I have plenty of time”. Deary me. I’ve decided I’m going to take the necessary measures and begin scheduling my day more effectively and sticking to that schedule. I hope this is just a phase.

In other news I found out this week that I have in fact got the job I applied for! Yay! This means I can spend my summer waitressing with three of my best friends.

Anyway, to the point of this post, I would like to share with you my experience and memories from my time at Arran High School.

I began my first year of high school in 2007. This was a terrifying time for me as I was not only entering into a new school but I was entering into school itself. I was home-schooled with my two sisters from primary six to primary seven so I had not experienced being in a school building and learning with people other than my sisters and parents for two years. Scary stuff. I remember on the three full practice days at high school when everyone else was dressed in their primary school uniform I was dressed in a white shirt feeling very out of place. I also remember for the first time hearing someone from my old primary swear and being shocked to the core. How innocent I was.

Luckily for me I managed to make friends quite quickly as most of the girls in my year were lovely and welcoming. I remember that we all used to meet at the front of the high school in the morning and the boys would all meet a few feet away from us (I mean, they wouldn’t want to catch our girl-germs would they?) and whenever someone arrived, we would all hug them as though we hadn’t just seen them the day before.

“Darling it’s been so long…*kiss kiss*”

My first-year of high school went pretty well and I met lots of friends who are some of my best-friends today. My class was also the first first-year class in the new high school which was built just behind the old (very old) one.

   

My second-year was very much the same; me and my friends spent our lunch-times on the swings or slide outside whilst taking lots of photos, I got into bother about wearing various scarves and necklaces in an attempt to jazz-up my uniform, I was still very shy and quiet when not around my best friends and boys were still an un-known species. Me and my friends also took part in the school's Stars In Their Eyes contest as "Girls Aloud plus 1". I can't believe we had the courage to do that back then!

Third-year was when we got to choose some of our subjects for the first time. It was in my third-year that I got to take business management for the first time and met the very inspiring and lovely teacher of that subject. That was also the year that I first took part in one of the school shows. It was We Will Rock You and me and some of my friends were in the chorus so we were on stage a lot with lots of different costumes. I absolutely loved it and have taken part in every school show since: Midsummer Nights Dream, Wizard of Oz and this year’s Importance of Being Earnest.

Fourth-year was when I had my first proper boyfriend. He was called Robbie and we went out for 6 months. I also experienced exams for the first time with my Standard Grades and despite all the sleepless nights and tears, I didn't do too badly!

I uploaded my first Youtube video in fourth-year too.

Fifth-year was the year of the “real” exams though-Highers and Intermediate 2s. I took Higher Art and Design, Business Management, Graphic Communication and English and Intermediate 2 Maths. With a lot of hard work I managed to achieve 3 As in Art, Business Management and English, a B in Graphcom at Higher and an A in my Intermediate 2 Maths.

This was also the year that I feel I began to find myself as a person and realise my love for film-making. My confidence grew a little more in fifth-year and I applied to become a prefect. However, to my utter disappointment, I wasn’t successful.

In sixth-year I re-applied and this time I was successful! I also applied for the role of Head Girl and after an interview stage I was made Deputy Head Girl and one of my current best-friends was made Head Girl! That more than made up for being turned down as a prefect in fifth-year to me.

This year, me and my best-friend set up a Scripture Union group in our school with the help of our other best-friend (Miss Head Girl who I previously mentioned) which has been a goal of mine since I was little. It turned out to be successful and I’m hoping to continue supporting it during my gap year!

I also had the amazing opportunity to take part in a short-film with my friends in our Island’s McLellan Festival. I got to learn some film-production skills, use film equipment and act as the character Rosalind in the film. It was truly amazing to be a part of. My name suggestion for the film title also ended up being the chosen one!

Now here I am a week on from my last day of school. It really has been the best time of my life so far and I have so many amazing memories. I also have some truly amazing friendships which I am so grateful for.

Now I can’t wait for my class’ Leavers Do Party in June!

I hope you’ve all had a lovely week and I’d love to hear some of your memories from high school in the comments!

Mollie

♥