Lifestyle | Life Updates...

Hello my Lovelies,
So life for me lately has been a little busy, a lot of fun and quite a change..

I'll start with a little background,

A year ago, a couple days after my 21st birthday I made a massive change in my life by moving from Aberdeen to Glasgow. I had the best 3 years living in Aberdeen, met the most amazing people who I will never lose contact with - gutting to not be seeing them all the time anymore- and had great experiences. Its such a scary thought when you've been brought up on a teeny Island off the west coast of Scotland, a population of under 2000, secondary school with about 100 pupils and a sixth year class of being a guesstimate - 30, to move away from your family to a city and somewhere you can't just hop in a car and drive home no mater how bad the homesickness gets. Luckily for me I did move in with my Auntie so I wasn't completely alone, but to start over in a new city where you know one person is a thought...

Anyways I spent my 3 years in Aberdeen working for an Oil company, starting on reception for a year and moving my way up to Project Administrator. Over the 3 years I had a wee think of where I wanted to go career wise in life and settled upon Beauty Therapy. It wasn't ever really a plan to move again, but my first interview for Beauty Therapy happened to be a Glasgow College - the plan was use this as a "practice interview" see how it goes and then stay in Aberdeen to study. During my Glasgow interview I was told I was going to be offered a place and as the interviewer wasn't actually allowed to tell me this yet, I wouldn't receive my official acceptance for a month or so. Super happy, comfortable in the College and the lecturers being bubbly and really kind I couldn't not choose this College...
So it was time to move! And lucky for me my boyfriend decided he couldn't stay in Aberdeen without me, so an even bigger step than just moving, we both moved in together. Best. Decision. Ever! 

Fast forward a year,

I'm no longer studying Beauty Therapy, as much as I did enjoy the course it just wasn't for me. I didn't feel challenged enough. Treatments I assumed I would enjoy most out the course became my most hated. Not going to lie, as much as I love doing my own nails and makeup its unreal how much I would dislike to do this as a full time job, it just stresses me out!! On the other hand ask me to do a bit of waxing or a facial and I am all for that! The course was made up of 7 Units, Facials, Waxing, Eye Treatments, Makeup, Manicures, Pedicure and Anatomy. Then each unit had both practical assessments and theory assessments. Each time a theory test came along, as much as I panicked over passing these, I would walk away with 100% bar the mistake in part of one question on both Anatomy and Eye Treatments respectively (irritating mistakes as I knew the answers). Most people would be happy with this but by the end it became a boring and unfulfilling deja vu...

So I am now back in full time employment, working for a whisky distillery company as an Engineering Administrator. I never thought I would say this but I've missed my office work and being in a routine. No more empty days between college to fill or sleeping in so late my day was almost over before I got up.
I've also kept on my part time job from while I was in College as a waitress/bar staff. This does mean it feels as though I'm alwaaays working but I don't think I would have it any other way at this moment. I just love being busy, and it is a little plus that there is that small extra income that helps with a healthy bank balance and to cover me for my makeup buying obsession haha!

Just a little note to say you're never to old to chase a dream, and if it turns out that dream just isn't for you, its never too late to change your mind! I can definitely vouch for both of these...

Shona Marie xo

p.s sorry for the longer and more chunky read than normal - a possible bit of a drag...

Anyone else ever had an epiphany and decided to make a life change?

Lifestyle | Guess Who Had A Face Lift...

Oh Blog how I have neglected you... Here's hoping a little face lift will give me the motivation I need to actually start posting properly this time, no promises. An awful lot has changed in my life since the last time I posted and at the risk of this little "Hey I'm back!" post becoming to congested and lack of a better way to word it "boring" I'll update you in future posts. That all being said I want to keep this short and sweet so until the next post... Stay Beautiful, Shona Marie xo

Lifestyle | My Beautiful Little Island

Hey my lovelies, so what you probably wont know about me is that I grew up on a small Island in the Western Isles/ Outer Hebrides. I thought I would do a quick little post on this picturesque Island that I am proud to call my childhood home...

Lochboisdale - South Uist (Part of Ben Kenneth)

Growing up on an Island you learn to appreciate a LOT of stuff! Most people would think it crazy not to have a choice of nearby shops to choose where you will get your weekly shop from, or cinemas, fast food chains, retail stores, pharmacy's, the list is endless. But for every one of these commercial buildings we have something entirely different, a small utopia if you will. Stretching only 124 square miles, and with a teeny population of under 1800 people South Uist is a stunning Island. I can hardly explain how beautiful the Summer months at home are. The sun glistening upon the many blue lochs dotted across the Island, the warmth of the sand on one of the many beaches surrounding the island and the smell of disposable BBQ's as everyone takes the opportunist moment with the good weather.

Kilbride Beach - South Uist

The Machair - South Uist

South Uist has a number of sites of archaeological interest, it is the only place in Britain where prehistoric mummies have been found! Pretty sure this is where I first found my interest in archaeology, which clearly didn't last long! Beauty Therapy,my current study, is a whole world apart from this.

It is also one of the last remaining strongholds of Scottish Gaelic. Unfortunately my Gaelic vocabulary is extremely limited, Although it was my fathers first language I was just not brought up with it in my house, minus the random word thrown in such as when you were younger and about to touch something hot and someone would shout "teth teth" at you. Although I don't speak Gaelic this doesn't stop the older generation asking "A bheil Gaidhlig agaibh?" which means do you have Gaelic, even once you answer no they will continue to speak in Gaelic no matter how many times you give your reply in English.

A South Uist Beach late Evening

My wee Dog Strolling along the Beach

For fun on the Islands when the weather is good most people will go down to the nearest Beach and sunbathe, go swimming in the sea, go pier jumping or go for a walk up a nearby hill. Almost every year in my childhood I would have climbed up the nearest hill to my house which is Ben Kenneth.Ben Kenneth is 275m in height and every year on the first Sunday of August there is an annual Hill Race. This is a pretty popular event for the islands and many people try and complete the race at least once. I've promised myself since the age of 16 which is the entry age that I would one day achieve this. Next year is 100% the year I will, hopefully...

A View from near the top of Ben Kenneth

The Journey over to Ben Kenneth is not the easiest or cleanest

Since moving from the Islands after I finished school, first to Aberdeen and now Glasgow I hardly manage to get home for a visit. I have a really bad habit of when I become homesick listening to Gaelic music over and over, its fastly becoming my new favourite playlist on my phone! Anything is on this playlist from Manran to Runrig, but of all the Gaelic singers my favourtie also comes from Uist (just not South Uist!) Julie Fowlis who has the best version of Eilean Uibhist Mo Ruin I have heard to date. If you are interested in hearing a bit of Gaelic music you can look this up, its a song written about Uist.

A View from Ben Kenneth - South Uist

Ben Kenneth looking down on Lochboisdale - South Uist

I have to admit there really is nothing like my Home. And I wouldn't change where I was from for the world!

Stay Beautiful,

Shona Marie xo

Lifestyle | Manicures, Movies and Munchies...

Hello my Lovelies, so as you can see from the Blog title this post is a bit of a mix. Basically its just a few little things from how I spent my day yesterday...

So it all started with an early morning and my first caffeine intake of the day as I woke for a full day in College. I hate to admit it but Fridays tend to be the worst day class-wise on my course. From 9am until 12:30 my class is Anatomy. This is the only class that doesn't involve any practical whatsoever and I'm pretty sure that's the reason I grudge it. Yesterday was a serious struggle for me, I had a maximum of 4 hours sleep and I'm pretty sure I saw every hour of the night.

If you're wanting a visual description I felt exactly like this on the inside...

Neeed more caffeine

Luckily the Afternoon went much better after having a Mocha from the downstairs College Cafe. Friday Afternoons are Makeup and Eyebrows, so I after 3 weeks of being on a ban from touching my eyebrows I finally had them tweezed, trimmed, shaped you name it! It felt amazing and made my weekend! No more walking about feeling judged on my unkempt eyebrows...

Friday Night

I spent my Friday night over at my Friends new flat. We ordered in Chinese Takeaway and stuck on Django -which I can honestly say to this day I have still not seen the whole film- and we both started catching up on everything that we had been up to since last seeing each other and finding out the gossip from back home (a small Island where everyone knows each other and each others business).

Munchies and Movies

Finally after a good few hours of chatting we got round to the real reason for my visit... I needed a guinea pig to trial a French Manicure on! This was my first ever attempt at a French Manicure and nicely enough my friend volunteered her nails. Unfortunately or more fortunately for her she is a Nurse and although I would spend the next hour on her nails these would have to be back to short, polish free nails the next morning.

My Set Up for the French Manicure

 So off to work I went filing, buffing, shaping and of course painting. I decided to take a lot off the length as she would be needing short nails for starting back at work...

Nails Before I got my hands on them

The Finished Product 

For my first attempt they turned out really well. I'll admit they aren't perfect! There are definitely a couple of slip ups but who can tell, and they will be cleaned off in the morning!

As the saying goes Practice makes Perfect and I'm sure I will improve with time and experience...

Stay Beautiful,

Shona Marie xo

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