snap happy #34: my (belated) week in photos

My beautiful Charles having a little lunchtime snooze | Got a bit peckish after my length seminar so treated myself to 3 99p burgers. Classy fo' lyf comes to mind! | I popped back home last weekend and took this snap of the pier on a bit of a miserable day | My new 'awesome' crop top found on Victoria's post! | Salmon & Mushroom Tagliatelle is becoming a staple dinner - the photograph is blurred with excitement! | It was Luke's birthday last week so I bought him this lovely little card | Just a smidgen of my category of drunken injuries. Stay sober, kids! | Some of the stuff I'm working on at the moment. I love colouring in my notes as I go along - think my seminar leaders think I'm a tad weird though | Can't stop eating snacks at the moment | Mama's homemade Mars Bar syrup crispy cake - the best thing in the world! | My grumpy man sunbathing in the autumn sun.

Hello! Oh god, I abandoned Little V yet again, didn't I?! I feel terrible but I also feel rejuvenated and ready to actually create some quality posts instead of some half-arsed affair. I managed to pop home for the weekend just gone and it was the perfect remedy for my over-worked head. I ate lots of good food, snuggled on the sofa, had cuddles with the cat and slept in my glorious old bed again. It was truly magical and, for some reason, made me stupidly excited for Christmas! I know, I know! It's that dreaded C word that gets dragged out months in advance only to lose its magic when the day actually finally arrives. I can't help it; I just love a good reason to stuff my face at ridiculous times of the day without feeling guilty/judged! What does my life consist of right now? I've got quite a lot of work going on at the moment so I've been occupied with various creative writing pieces as well as reading books larger than most book cases. On a positive note, it cured my insomnia for a while. I say 'a while' - the smart arse council have plonked an ice-rink outside my window so my nights are now full of sounds of the generator. I'm thinking of setting up a video camera once it's all in full swing and selling footage of people falling on their ass to You've Been Framed. I've got a stellar business mind, I know.

I'm off to spend the evening brainstorming for my assignment whilst eating a sizeable amount of Veggie stir fry accompanied by a side of Masterchef. Perfect. 

P.S I'm currently working on a piece of writing that I would love your input with. All I want to know is: what are your favourite things about Autumn? What things come across as autumnal to you? Throw all of your thoughts into a comment below this post. Thanks! I'll be back with my own autumnal post extremely soon!

snap happy #27: my week in photos

Drafting a simple blog header | My beautiful new shoes. Totally need to buy more! | Mahoosive closeup. Thanks to the camera smudge on my eyelid. Boo. | Miserable photo of the beach | The frog is back in the pond! | Book times | Weird shaped face | Wiiiiiiine | Rocking the face mask and hair towel combo | The lighthouse on the beach in my hometown

Sweet lord, I've got that Sunday morning feeling! You know that feeling...when you're piecing together the night before and laugh a little before crying in shame?! That. I can remember meeting a Scottish lad and asking him to say, 'There's been a murder' and 'get tae fuck ya prick' on a loop. Ah, drunken Bee strikes again! I had quite an interesting night really. It was quite nice bar a few things/drunk 17 year old kids asking if I want a kebab and then to go 'back home with them'. Um, that one answers itself really doesn't it?! I have a gorgeous boyfriend who will treat me to more than a dodgy kebab and an even dodgier fumble, thank you very much.

I swear I took more photographs than this! Alas, these are all I can offer you of my week. You've got some snaps of my hometown's beach. You lucky devils, you. This coming week is all going to be about organisation followed by a whole load of fun with my #swbloggermeet ladies! I'm beyond excited now but still unbelievably nervous about the fact that I have nothing to wear! I'll be sending an email out to all the girlies soon/furiously plucking my eyebrows into shape. Blogger meets are the perfect things to get you out of your comfort zone and to have one of the best experiences at the same time. I swear Kate is the best success story. Last time she was so unbelievably nervous about it all; this time she's raving about it! Ah, I love that lady! Anyway, enough of my ramblings. I'm off to go hide my face in the Sunday Times magazines and hopefully catch up with Luke after what feels like a lifetime. There's a photo of him with a blow up sheep on Facebook from last night...

you gotta walk like an elephant, run like a beaver: my birthday celebrations

There's only one time of the year where I like to be a self-confessed attention seeker and that is my birthday! The rest of the year I just don't confess to it.  Believe me, my nineteeth was no exception. I had a quaint, albeit quiet, weekend where I just chilled out with some of my favourite people and had a nice bit of childish fun.

top, car boot sale £1 | beach bag, charity shop £2

Naturally, I had a sort of birthday weekend! On Friday, Luke and I ventured to our local Italian for some gorgeous food! I was a horrendous blogger and didn't snap photographs of my food because, as well as being a blogger, I'm a complete impatient fatty ;) With a gorgeous creamy funghi crostini and tagliatelle al salmone right in front of me can you really blame me?! I wolfed it all down and loved every second of it. We thought we'd better end the night there before we slipped into food comas but the waiter, being the generous Italian that he was, wanted us to taste the desserts so he chucked in a Tiramisu for free ;) We ended up waddling home with happy bellies but with that slight inkling that spontaneous combustion was possible at any time. I spent Saturday enjoying myself in one of my favourite ways to do so - nosing round the car boot with my best friend, Ebony. It was sun drenched and full to the brim with sellers so it's safe to say we were in our element. We spotted the usual strange offerings, came across the usual annoying sellers and managed to track down some pretty lovely things. Although, I think some of us EBONY! have got to the point where we've bought so much at the booties that we now need to take the place of the sellers! I found that perfect beach bag on the shelf in one of my local charity shops and knew it had to be mine! Anyone else found any too-good-to-be-true items in the charity shops lately?

We had a lovely picnic in the zoo before embarking on our epic tour of all the animals. Thankfully, all the birds stayed away. The last time I went to a zoo I cried my eyes out because a goose was watching me eat. I'm such a tit. Stand out animals of the day? Always Orangutans and, of course, the baboons. Is it natural/unsickening to admit that my family and I trailed back to watch the baboons fight/shag/groom a few times before leaving?! If the tomfoolery of baboons isn't entertainment I really don't know what is! Luke had never been to a zoo before WTF, I KNOW! so he was pretty alarmed at the sight of a chunky baboon wacking its willy out and chasing suitors around but I think he's recovered now - just. Little fun Bee fact for you - I celebrated my first birthday at a zoo too ;) I had a whale of a time, particularly when it came to singing S.Mouse's hit 'You at the Animal Zoo' all round the park - much to my mother's un-amusement. Here's a few photographs of animals that actually wanted a camera strewn in their face. Check out this sexy ass Camel ;)

I was massively lucky on the ol' gift/££ front this year. I've realised that if you tell relatives you would like spending money for your holiday you end up in the green, whey! I mainly got dosh this year as that's what I was after but I also got some awesome gifts from my close ones - as pictured below. I couldn't find everything to photograph. Everything just gets put in my room then immerses itself amongst all the older stuff. Luke got me some awesome stuff like the travel journal I'd blogged about and some bright yellow shorts that I massively wanted. They make me feel like a superhero! Mamabear has a habit of tracking down some of the strangest CD's in existence for my birthdays so that explains the Hoff CD. It's quite hilarious really; we listened to it all the way to Paignton. Dear Jesus! Ebony painted me the cutest painting about our relationship. It's about two flowers that are planted near to one another but not close enough to touch. I love our creepy relationship; I really do. Luke's actually worried that I'll run off with her. I think that's why he made me a super lovely card - complete with my beloved cherry blossom! Don't you just love birthday creativity?

I'm going to leave this epic post at that! If you've read all that - well done and get a hobby! To reward you for your efforts, here's a photograph of Luke and I proving that we are the sexiest couple in the whole of the South West! I'm off to go get my hair done now - eek! Have an awesome rest of the week! I'll be back Friday providing I've bothered to start sorting holiday stuff out by then. Keep smiling!

snap happy #25: my week in photos

Having fun in the sun | My cheapo sandals that Lyzi helped me pick ;) Already scuffed them :/ | Reading a bit of Captain Corelli in the sun | Beautiful garden flower | In my opinion, this is how Muiller Corner's should be eaten | Sucker for these yellow flowers that are gracing the pond | Gorged on tortilla chips! | Found some ants carrying a dead fly back to their home. Sorry if this grosses you out! I thought it was interesting | Beautiful white rose | Robbie! | 

It's my birthday today!

live fast die fun #3: bee photographs the animal kingdom

'Live Fast Die Fun' is a weekly feature that sees me tackling a new skill/re-visiting old ones in order to broaden my horizons and experience lots of different things.This feature could take me anywhere, from culinary attempts to trying my hands at languages to just about anything! This week sees me at one with nature and the wildlife around me! I'll be rating my experience at the end of the post and discussing the ins and outs of this skill! If you've got any ideas for future posts then please feel free to comment. Let me know what you think!

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I am in no way claiming to be a photographer of any sort. In fact, I'm far from it. However, I've always been drawn to finishing off film with a few snaps of the local wildlife/my four legged furry feline friends. Hello 10 samey shots of the cat at the end of the disposable camera! The summer welcomes a whole new load of colourful characters coming out to play so I thought I'd take on the role of wildlife paparazzi and photograph them whilst they tried, and albeit failed, to go about their day in peace. I'm extremely lucky to live somewhere that is surrounded by vast amounts of countryside so I headed off with camera, keen eye and boyfriend in tow in search of some photogenic critters. Naturally, David Attenborough was narrating the journey in the depths of my mind. All the photographs you see in this post are mine and, therefore, I'd appreciate it if you notified me if you'd like to use them anywhere. 

(collection of some old wildlife photos I've taken!)

Like I said already, I'm no expert. I don't think that in order to learn a new skill you have to go in there knee deep in knowledge and equipped with expensive resources. With this in mind, my lowly point and shoot seemed to be all I needed, well, and some wildlife of course. There's that age old saying to 'never work with animals' and I can kind of understand why. The more awkward of the kingdom, hello Mr Butterfly, will make you work for your photograph. They watch you gleefully as you hop around the meadow in pursuit of them. Therefore, I'd remind any budding amateur wildlife photogs to attempt it with a shit load of patience. Whilst some wildlife like the limelight whilst you invade their dinner time, others don't. With this sentiment firmly in mind,  my second tip is to respect your subject. No one wants to come away with battle scars! If your subject starts grunting/mooing *etc* loudly...that's your time to run! You should also abuse that macro setting.

(I'm pretty taken by the Spotted Burnet Moths that I found)

It seems the insect world were the only ones inquisitive enough to brave the silly June weather and pose for some photographs. This was slightly disappointing because the spot we ventured to is renowned for its sightings of owls, otters, voles and birds. I guess that's the exciting thing about wildlife/nature photography; you never know what you'll stumble upon on a particular day! Since I first came across the Six Spot Burnet Moth the other week *pictured above* I've become pretty taken by them. I was gutted when my camera deleted all the photographs I had of them so I deliberately visited the flowers they frequent in order to capture a few new shots of them. They're extremely obedient when it comes to posing but I suppose that's only because I caught them during feeding time! I love their little curled tongues and gorgeous polka dots. They've definitely got some catwalk credentials! Luke and I have a habit of seeing things for the first time and believing they're rare creatures. We thought the exact same thing about these little buggers and now we see them everywhere.

(Some scary creature perched on a flower | Big juicy grasshoppers adorned the oversized daisies)

Luke was running around like a dog on heat trying to catch little grasshoppers in his hands; I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd caught a dozen on them hanging on these gorgeous large daisies. I think I might have to start reading up on the correlation between certain plants and animals in order to catch them. Oh god, what am I fast becoming?! I'm not entirely sure what the bug in the top photograph is but it looked like it could kick my ass so I didn't bother it for long! I've definitely fallen head over heels in love with photographing the critters of the animal kingdom so I definitely don't think this is the last you'll see of my wildlife paparazzi attempts. Don't worry though, little Viva won't be turning into some sort of Springwatch supplement! I don't own the anorak for that. I'm definitely going to make a habit of photographing the little things around me for the rest of my days. 

(Some sort of duck Mother's Union meeting | Pretty bug - think it might be Harlequin Ladybird larva?!)

There you have it! I'm off to go for an afternoon of shopping with my Mamabear. Have an awesome rest of the week and I'll see you on Friday. By the way, it was Little Viva's first birthday yesterday. She celebrated with a well earned rest! P.S I'm creating the ultimate holiday playlist at the moment and I need your music ideas. Please leave them in a comment ;)

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difficulty rating: 50% This depends on the particular animal and their behaviour on the day. Some will sit pretty for you - others will fly off into the distance laughing at your naivety.
laughter level: 70% Animals really do the funniest things sometimes.
encouraged a happy head?
recommended? Always! Just remember to respect the animal's private space. No one likes to have it invaded - especially cattle!