This afternoon I went to go watch The Scottish Circuit Race Championships which was taking place down at Erskine Harbour near where I stay.

Since I wasn’t doing anything I thought I’d check it out & watch the races along with the internationally renowned stunt cyclists Danny McCaskill and The Clan which was pretty cool! It was a nice sunny day, except a little chilly as the afternoon went on. I ended up leaving after an hour & didn’t see the finish LOL

Say hello to men in tight tight lycra shorts *swoon*

I’ve mentioned before about the first time I ever went to Wagamama’s and fell in love, well….. I’ve been over 5 times since then & I’ve fallen completely in love with it all!

My favourite dish is still the Beef Terriyaki Soba but now also Ebi Katsu

If you have never been to Wagamama's you better get your butt there!

So my friends Gillian & Brian finally tied the knot after 8 years together. It was a great 4 days in Northern Ireland, even though I didn’t get to see much of the place I did manage to vist a few little places such as Ballymena, Dervock, Stranocum and of course Ballymoney where I was staying.

The little guest house I was staying at was great, it was owned by a husband & wife who were really friendly. The lady; Mary kept forcing me to eat breakfast and was obsessed with trying to find me a good Irish boy as she said it was a shame I was single LOL. Every single day she kept going on & on obsessing that I need a good Irish boy, so much so that it was driving me nuts. Unfortunately, no cute Irish boys for me but damn do they sound hot! Mary was upset that I didn’t find Mr Right during my stay. While I was there, I helped set up their WI-FI router which pleased Kenny & fixed his computer as well LOL

So yes, Gillian & Brian got married. It was a great day from start to finish! I danced my little feet off, so much so that I kicked my killer heels off, boogied with the Father of the Bride & tons of others while a live band played the night out. The food was amazing, so much of it that I could hardly move after stuffing my face & I’ve made new friends. I really want to go back to Northern Ireland & explore it a little bit more, road trip perhaps?

I ended up taking tons of photos (those who are facebook friends can see them) but this is my favourite one of them both. Loving the fact Brian is holding Gillian’s flowers & the look on her face is priceless

The top of their wedding cake was hilarious…

& because everyone complains I don’t take enough photos of myself, I took some pictures of me & what I wore. I went for the simple classy look. Minimal makeup, wavy hair with a black, red & white dress along with killer black heels. For someone who hasn’t worn a dress in 10 years, I loved it. Except for the fact it was 1/2 way up my thighs when I sat down LOL which made a few eyes pop

Now my hunt is on for a hot geeky Irish guy LOL

My brother Andrew finally tied to knot last month to his girlfriend Lisa, they had been planning the wedding for nearly 2 years & finally did it. It was a great day & the majority of the family turned up which was great seeing people I haven’t seen in years & meeting the in-law-in-law’s (that’s my way of saying my sister-in-law’s family!). A few of the older members of our extended family couldn’t come because of their health which is understandable but we kept some wedding cake for them & sending them some photos so they can feel they were a part of it.

So now, I have a sister. I give it 6 months before I’m an auntie as well LOL

Oh & you MUST watch this video from the wedding reception lol Lisa’s brother’s girlfriend got “Robbie Williams” to perform at the wedding & he got my brother, Lisa’s 2 brothers & an usher to pretend they were Take That. It was hilarious!

I was asked a few weeks ago by FuelMyBlog if I’d be willing to review a customized photo printing company MyPrinting and in return given my choice of product to test & report back on. As many of you know, I love taking photos, I have so many of them (in fact I have over 1GB still to process!) so I jumped at the chance to do this. I opted for the canvas print and had the hard task of picking what photograph to get printed. Since getting our house renovated, I haven’t had the chance of decorating my walls yet so thought that this would be a good start. I finally decided on picking a photo of Doggy Dog wearing sunglasses because the colors matched my bedroom & I have this weird fascination (or OCD?) with color co-ordinating everything LOL

I logged onto their website, took a look around at all the various products that MyPrinting has to offer such as acrylic panels, calendar’s, photo books & of course the canvas prints and set about the ordering process.

To start, you upload the photo that you want to use & a preview screen will appear showing you what your customized item will look like on the wall. I really liked this idea as it gave you an idea of what you would be getting. The website overall is very simplistic & easy to use, all the information you could possibly want is given to you as well as more in-depth knowledge into the various products & how they are made.

However, I did face one problem which I hope MyPrinting will address. While choosing the photo to upload (600×481 pixels), then selecting the size of canvas I wanted, a problem arose. I got a pop-up screen warning me that the quality of my chosen photo is “not sufficient to create a high quality product” and to either choose a smaller sized canvas or upload a larger sized image. MyPrinting do not give you any information on this, which I feel would have been better. For those who upload low quality images, a possible fix on the website would be to tell clients what is the best sizes to upload. This would then let the client know what the best size for the highest quality product would be.

Excluding that small problem I had, I ignored the pop-up screen & thought I would chance it. I choose the 40 x 30 landscape canvas and when my package arrived from Germany a few days later, I was not dissapointed. The quality of the canvas was brillant even with the warning given to me on the website. Wooden pieces were included so that if needed at a later point in time I could tighten the canvas if needed. These instructions however, were in German, and even though there are pictures supporting the written words, it would have been more ideal if they were in English.

I would highly recommend MyPrinting and infact will be ordering another canvas to balance my room off (yes, another OCD I have! I like even numbers LOL). The best bit is, readers of my blog can get a discount if they wish to purchase anything from the MyPrinting website for a limited time.

Until the 30th of April, you lot (yes YOU!) can get 15% off Photo Books, Canvases and Panel Prints (Acrylic, Aluminium, Foam-Core) using the Voucher Code: FMB-RDR-15. Please note that the discount does not include delivery costs

Here are photos of the end product, it looks great & now the hardest part is choosing which wall to hang it up on!

Shortly after I went AWOL from blogging, I went away with a group of friends to Newcastle for one of my childhood friends from way back in Kuwait’s Bachelorette (Hen) Party. We went to High School together & she went to University in Aberdeen as well with me.

She moved to Cyprus in December so was having the Bachelorette Party earlier which was cool! We all booked the weekend away and stayed at a hotel right in the city centre with 3 of us sharing each room. The weekend was crazy from the get go, so much so that I needed a week to recover after I got back hahaha. We took so many photos, but we can only post so many of them as they are NSFW LOL So here’s a run down of what went on during the weekend…

Friday
I met up with Klaudia & Claudia (yeah it’s confusing lol) in Edinburgh and got the train down the rest of the way together, meeting Tonje at the station who flew in from Norway earlier. Emma & Carina were coming down later that night & would meet us at the hotel. Klaudia, Claudia, Tonje & I went shopping after checking into the hotel, while in a store, this guy approached me infront of my friends asked where I was from, what I was up to that night & if I wanted to meet up. I said sorry but it was girls only, then Klaudia tells him “unless you’re one of the strippers” which the guy said “sure, if she wants me to be” hahaha it was hilarious, but the guy had guts coming up to me infront of my friends lol

We then all went out for dinner at this Italian Restaurant at the Quay Side which was really yummy before going to a nearby bar while waiting for Carina to arrive. We ended up being surrounded by a group of guys who looked barely over 21 & we chated to them for a while as we drank triple vodka’s for £1.50 *gulp*. Needless to say, I shouldn’t of had 3 of them as I was swinging from the roof! We went back to the hotel to meet Carina, I ended up vomiting in the bathroom & almost passing out, but after vomiting, I was fine again hahaha I cleaned myself up & went partying again at various Nightclubs until 4am.

Saturday
For not coming back to the hotel until 4am, we all woke pretty early! Went shopping in the Metro Centre & binged on Nando’s *drools* before coming back to the hotel to get ready for the crazy night ahead. We booked a male strip show for Klaudia but she had no clue where we were going & also that we were in fancy dress! We kidnapped her, blindfolded her then dressed her in a Grease themed outfit with us girls as the Pink Ladies. While getting ready, drinking (do you spot a theme?!), Klaudia & I met up with a girl we went to school with in Kuwait who was originally from the Newcastle area, 10 years after we last saw her, it was really good catching up.

It was time for the strip show *swoon* & we had a total blast with the drag queen & 2 male strippers at the nightclub it was held in. There were 6 groups in total of Bachelorette’s so I feel sorry for the strippers hahaha. Now, these weren’t just strippers who stripped down to a thong, they went the full hog, bare frikin naked & I think we all had a heart attack hahaha but it was really fun overall & we had drinks with them at the bar after the show (& yes, they wore clothes haha).

After the strip show, we moved on to Tiger Tiger & spent the rest of the night there going from room to room. But with Bachelorette’s comes Bachelor’s, a huge group of Irish guys were all over us, talking to us, stealing our dick shaped straws (lmao!) & dancing with us. They were pretty harmless & funny except when one of them who was completely drunk as a skunk decided to whack my butt with this metal stick, I went to grab it to get him to stop & he ended up slicing my finger open! Blood was pouring everywhere & before I knew it, he stuck my finger in his mouth sucking the blood up *shiver* silly boy! We all danced & drank the night away having a total blast, before we knew it, it was closing time & we all got back to the hotel for some much needed sleep!

Sunday
It was a pretty crazy weekend of mojito’s, polish vodka, champagne, wine & shots and it was the first time I drank in over 10 months, so I didn’t do so bad LOL but I couldn’t handle any more alcohol hahaha. We all packed & vacated the hotel at lunch time, then headed to The Gate for much much needed food before getting our trains back home. The train to Aberdeen was packed so I had to stand until I got off in Edinburgh, lack of sleep + standing for nearly 3 hours KILLS, always book a seat people, seriously! I was in so much pain *cries*. I was so glad when I got home, it took me nearly a week to recover from 48 hours of partying hahahaha a sign that I’m getting very old & not used to it anymore! One valuable lesson I learnt was not to drunk tweet, some of the crap I said was hilarious hahahahaha

Enjoy the photos

How could you not love this little guy? I can’t believe he’s gonna be 4 years old this year! My baby is growing up so fast! He is like a little toddler, always demanding attention & snuggles against you so tight at night you can’t breathe! Getting him to sit still for photos is proving difficult though but he gets cuter & cuter day by day

Cupcakes! Who doesn’t love cupcakes? They cheer you up when you’re down, give you a sugar rush when you need it most & are addictive as hell! These cupcakes are no exception, in fact they are so addictive you can’t just have one!

Cupcake Ingredients:
60g soft unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
1 egg
20g cocoa powder
40ml red food colouring
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
120ml buttermilk
150g plain flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1½ teaspoons white vinegar
Cupcake Tray filled with paper cases

Cupcake Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Put the butter and the sugar in a bowl and use a hand held electric whisk and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer up to high speed, slowly add the egg and beat until everything is well mixed.

2. In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a very thick, dark paste. Add to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until evenly combined and coloured. Turn the mixer down to slow speed and slowly pour in half the buttermilk. Beat until well mixed, then add half the flour and beat until everything is well incorporated. Repeat this process until all the buttermilk and flour have been added.

3. Turn the mixer up to high speed and beat until you have a smooth, even mixture. Turn the mixer down to low speed and add the bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. Beat until well mixed, then turn up the speed again and beat for a couple more minutes.

4. Spoon a tablespoon of the mixture into the paper cases and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes until the sponge bounces back when touched. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely. When the cupcakes are cold, spoon the cream cheese frosting on top. This recipe makes approx 20 cupcakes.

Frosting Ingredients:
300g icing sugar, sifted
50g soft unsalted butter
125g cream soft cheese

Frosting Method:
1. Beat the icing sugar and butter together in a bowl using a hand held electric whisk on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is well mixed. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy making sure you don’t over beat it

2. Frost your cupcakes with a knife or an icing bag and then top with extra toppings of your choice. I topped it with 5 different things: sprinkles, crushed oreo’s, cake crumbs, pink sugar flakes & icing balls & bunny rabbit.