Last month as part of #CrazyRebelliousArt challenge is posted about my biggest successes so far but today is the other side of the coin: speaking about failure. As someone who is still young it doesn't really seem like I should have many failures in life and truthfully I don't. But what I do have, and what I think most people have at this age, is things that happen in your life that really change the direction in which you moved forward.

To me these events in my life are both things that originated back at Secondary School, the two pivotal moments that really altered my future could in some way be considered as failure would be 1. Doing horribly in my 5th year exams and 2. Becoming fed up with art during that part of my education. In saying this though, the consequences of what have happened since then have been good and I wouldn't change them at all!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, music is a huge thing to me! I listen to it daily, when I'm getting ready, travelling, doing work and even trying to get to sleep!

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the whole blogging community thing and how people have been using it, how it aids people and things like that. This post actually originated from one of the #CrazyRebelliousArt topic which was focused about creating a link up, inspired by this I thought it would be interesting to speak about this topic and then share some of my favourites right now. 

Could someone please explain to me how it is December already?! It feels like it was only January yesterday! Anyway, with it being December I thought I would try hope on the #Blogmas train! So why not start the month with a lil month update...

For today's #CrazyRebelliousArt, I'm meant to share a photo of your studio or workspace. However, currently, this space does not exist. If I'm working or drawing on stuff I can promise you that I am most likely either A) sitting/lying on my bed, B) sitting on my bedroom floor, C) taking up the entire sofa in either the living room or the conservatory or lastly, D) working in the drawing studio/on one of the computers at Uni. So yep, I have no 'defined' space to work in although I would really like one. 

Today's #CrazyRebelliousArt is themed about art, or for me including, design techniques that you don't get to use in your own work. So I'm going to share a few of things I would like to do more and things I'd like to try!

Today I'm sharing a little colour palette created with the theme 'autumn' in mind! In the prompt from #CrazyRebelliousArt it does say to include artwork you've created using that colour palette but I don't tend to use colours like that that much so hears a photograph I took with colours taken from it instead! You can also see more photos from this day here. 

However, I do have some more 'autumn' inspired posts that you can check out. Here's an Autumn Pinspiration, Autumn Style, Autumnal Tag and Why I love Autumn!

What's your favourite Autumnal Colours?

Today's blog post from #CrazyRebelliousArt is focused around what our blog 'name/tagline' means. I think I've briefly covered it before but can't remember what blog post it's in so I'll just share it again! 

So a few years ago when I was nearing the end of my 1st year at College studying Graphic Design, we needed to create a brand identity and 'website' for ourselves. When coming up with my branding I didn't really want to just go for the standard of my name and after a bit of brainstorming I ended up going with "OhHay!".

I feel like this challenge is really helping me share new and more up-to-date versions of posts I shared ages ago! And this post is no exception. Last year I shared a post of some Inspirational Instagrams and now I'm back with a new list! 

It's been a long time since my last Recent Inspirations post and thought with today's prompt for #CrazyRebelliousArt being what's been inspiring you this week, what better time to share an updated version of it! 

Woo! I'm back on track with #CrazyRebelliousArt (well just, I have half an hour till it's the 13th). Apologise with there being a lot of back posting this week but at the end of last/start of this week I just wasn't really feeling it! And although I've got a bit of a cold right now I wanted to try stick and get back into this so I've been doing my hardest! Anyway, today's theme is to talk about "How you get out of a creative block" and I've spoken about this topic kind of before, but that was over a year ago! So today I thought I would just do a list of maybe like 20 or so (I'm just going to keep writing them till I can't think of anymore), that may help you over come creative block! 

Oh wow it's been an incredibly long time since I shared a little update about what I'm doing at uni! Actually, my last update was on my first day back at uni this year, oops! Anyway, with today's post for #CrazyRebelliousArt being a Photo Log of a piece of art work created today, I thought instead I would share what I've been up to at Uni since my last update!

Ahhh! So today's topic is to share 10 of your favourite quotes! I've always been a massive lover of quotes, with ones from books, shows, lyrics and whatever else I can somehow relate to one so this may be a little hard for me just to pick 10 but I will try!

List your 10 Favourite Quotes

1. "Feck perfuction" - James Victore

Definitely one for the days when nothing seems to be going right.

2. "Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." - Thomas Merton

I just really like this. I've found that this year my art has sparked something inside me that has cause me to find something more about myself but also given me a sense of calm while doing it.

3. "You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life" - Austin Kleon

So true. IF you think life is bad to you then you'll never get over it.

4. "If you want creative workers give them enough time to play" - John Cleese

I'm not in the working part of the Creative Industries yet but this is so true! How can you be exciting without doing exciting things!?

5. "Don't compare your beginning to someone else's middle" - Jon Acuff

I really need to start remembering this one more...

6. "We're the authors of our lives" - Set It Off

Because it doesn't matter what folk say to you, it is your life and your decisions

7. "The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life." - Jessica Hische

Hell to the yes!

8. "It might not be my weekend but it's going to be my year" - All Time Low

Forever the optimist. 

9. "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one." - George R.R. Martin

Why you should always have books around you

10. "The things that make you weird as a kid will make you great tomorrow" - James Victore

And it will make all the haters extremely jealous! 

So that's some of my favourite quotes, if you're interested to find more I like then you can have a nosy at my two Pinterest boards here and here (the second is more poetry). Anyway, comment below with some of your favourite quotes too! 

Today's #CrazyRebelliousArt was themed about sharing a book relevant to your field, but although I have huuuuuge collection of design books I am still making my way through them! So instead I thought I would share a Podcast that I listened a lot to last month when I was going through all of her old ones.

For today's #CrazyRebelliousArt topic, it is meant to be about whether you feel people should go to art school to pursue their dreams of say being an artist or designer. But since I'm still in my own education I feel like I'm in a mid point where I can see the good and bad sides of the education although I'm not at a speciality art school. Instead, I'm doing a post that I've been wanting to do for months since reading Charlotte's own about misconceptions about Fashion Management. 

For today's #CrazyRebelliousArt the topic is to speak about our process for a current project. I'm still not really in a place with uni work were I want to talk about it so I thought what else can I speak about, and obviously that's my #Create365 project!

For today's #CrazyRebelliousArt, the topic is to write about one of your biggest successes and why was it a challenge for you. At first I was kind of struggling on what to do this for because nothing came to mind straight away but after a think I realised that actually my most successful project not just in terms of popularity or sales but also in the process and the way it came about was my 2014 Calendar I made back in College.

Depending on how long you have read this blog for or followed me on social media you may have come across my Calendar before and possibly read this blog post speaking about putting it up for sale. Anyway, I spoke in that blog post a lot about the trouble (and success) I had the day of putting it up for sale and that but there is a ton more to the story that I haven't shared before!

For today's #CrazyRebelliousArt the topic is to share photos of your city and tell us what you like or don't like about living there. I'm not going to lie, I've had troubles with my hometown over the years- Stonehaven, but I think in recent years I've grown to love everything it has to offer. Even if not everybody I may know there is as up to par as the history, scenery or food is!

[Apologies for this being very photo heavy! Thought I may as well make the use of the photos I have.]

The topic for Day 2 of #CrazyRebelliousArt is "How did you get into your field?" but I kind of covered this topic a few weeks ago when I shared the Creative Journey tag so I feel it's a bit repetitive to speak about it again, so instead I'm speak about how I've been getting into hand lettering recently.

Hello! I can't believe it's November now! It doesn't seem real does it? Anyway this month I'm going to be attempting (again) to do a blog challenge for the month but this time it's the first year of this challenge. Set up by Judia of A Crazy Life and Brittany of Rebel Lux they have aimed to create 30 prompts that are more directed to those of us who are more creative bloggers. If you'd like to get involved as well you can join the event and find out more info at their FaceBook event here, or search up #crazyrebelliousart on twitter!

Anyway, the first topic of the month is based around what kind of art I do and why I'm passionate about it. But this is such a big topic in itself without even getting into thinking about design or photography as well! 

Last week I headed up to see my Nannie and Granda with my mum as she was off with it being the Scottish October holidays. I love going up to see my grandparents but don't get to do if often enough! When I was younger we used to go up a lot and whenever my mum and my Nannie would go to the bingo, my Granda was pretty much in charge of keeping us occupied which usually meant going for a walk around the woods and lake near by. 

So when I went up last week I decided that I would have a bit of a nostalgic walk with my camera up through the woods, up past the farms to near the Stone Circle and back down through the old railway track that's been closed for the past 50 (maybe 60?) years. 

So today I couldn't really be bothered writing anything proper but still wanted to post something since I guess I'm trying to do #blogtober... Ignore the fact that I've missed a week of that anyway! But yeah I've had this tag saved for ages and thought it was about time I did it! I originally came across it on Gemma's blog and loved it! But there area few Questions that aren't really relevant to me so I've changed those ones to something different (Q's 3 and 4). I've only scored out the original wording in these Questions in case you fancy doing it yourself!

Last week Darren and I had a little overnight trip to Glasgow again. Our trip was pretty similar to our one back in July so I don't have a huge amount of photos from different places to share this time- instead I have photos from the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum and a typography exhibition at 'On The Corner'.

I'm not going to lie I was a little gutted with the Kelvingrove but I think I was expecting an experience like I had the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Although there was some bits and pieces that were amazing like 'floating heads'. The exhibition at On The Corner was amazing though and really made our little trip for me! It was a very last minute find from going to The Lighthouse and seeing posters for it. It was pretty much an exhibition showing the work of several different artists and designs who include typography and letter forms in their work. I think it's still on for the next few days so if you can pop along to it, definitely try too! 

We also had a lovely Italian at Il Panove- I'd highly recommend! It is a little expensive but it was fairly quiet when we were there plus the food and service were amazing so definitely a good dinning experience! On the topic of food, we also had a really great lunch takeaway from a sandwich called Metro Sandwich Co. Like it was honestly such a great meal deal, for £5.05 I got a bottle of diet coke, a cheese panini and a side of chips.

Today I'm back with a little kind of post about things I'm doing or thinking currently! So anyway...

Currently I am...

Reading: The Assassins Blade by Sarah J Mass. I've so far read the first book in the series (Thorne of Glass) and plan to finish the next 4 soon which will follow with a review on here! [Buy here]

Listening: Set It Off. I came across this band while in the Uni Studio Room on Friday while having PVRIS play on shuffle and they came up as a 'suggestion' and I've had them on repeat since! [Want to listen? Start with one of these: 1, 2, 3, 4. {They do have explicit lyrics btw!}]

Also Listening: Elise Gets Crafty {podcast} I've recently started getting into Podcasts and Elise's have been by far my favourites! I love the topics and the continuous change of guest speakers. [Listen here]

Burning: Maple Sugar Candle by Kringle Candle Company. I picked this up only yesterday from my local garden center as it was on sale and my bedroom has literally smelled like maple syrup since! It's amazing. However, if you don't like sweet scenes this is so not for you! [not available for purchase atm online]

Sorting: My case/bag. For heading to Glasgow tomorrow with Darren! 

Thinking About: A Macbook! I've been meaning to do this since my birthday (4 months ago, tomorrow) as my parents were going to help me get one! But after reading a few articles online, posting in FB groups and speaking to Apple Store workers I think I'll be getting the MacBook Pro with 13inch screen! *insert excited face here*

What are you currently thinking/doing?

Monday has rolled around again and I have to say I'm not even the slightest bit bothered by that. I know a lot of people have Sunday night/Monday blues due to it being the start of another working week but I don't really have that. 

Today I'm back with another photography post, you guys know I love doing these! Anyway, throughout 2015 so far I've taken a lot of photos and many of them have never seen the light of day so thought I would share them! In this post there's a few from a different day trip to Aberdeen's Winter Gardens and then a handful of photos from the night where the moon was not a moon, it was  SUPERMOON! And I really just fancied sharing them with you- especially my moon photos (I love the moon ok?). I'm not going to get your hopes up with my red moon photo though, there's a reason I have shared it so far... and that reason is because it's extremely fuzzy due to cloud hiding it pretty much away for the entire time I stayed up for it! And then there's just a couple others from other day trips and being bored with my camera!

For most of year I've had the black dual brush tombow pen in my pencil case and have loved using it! It is great for doing simple line work with the standard nib and even better for using the brush end for typography purposes! But the main reason I love my tombow pen is because it works soooo well with water! Half the time I show people work I've created with it they ask "is this watercolour?", obviously it's not but it really does give off that effect! 

Anyway, a few weeks ago I decided to take the plunge and buy the pack of 18 pens in the pastel. I really wanted to buy one of the coloured packs as there was so many ideas I had been having where I kept thinking that it would be great to do by adding some colour. 

It's obviously now October and it means Autumn is really swinging into motion! It is really my favourite time of year but I've already spoken about that so instead here are a few things that I are my perfect Autumn Essentials:

On Monday I had a little bit of an unusual but lovely experiencing with a man on a train. If you read yesterday's Creative Journeys Tag post you would have seen that I said I used to be really self conscious about speaking about my work and stuff but I feel like it's becoming better. And on Monday? I feel like I pushed myself out there a little. 

Last year I was tagged in the Creative Update Blog Hop and I've been thinking recently about wanting to kind of create my own tag that would connect creatives again! So this is where the questions (and my answers) below come in! I thought it would be fun for us to all speak about how we started and where we want to go.

Today Lauren and I had another trip to the DCA planned to have a visit of the current Exhibition by Hideyuki Katsumata which has been brought to the city of Dundee as part of the Discovery Film Festival.

The whole exhibition featured around Katsumata's illustrations that have been produced into prints, painted onto the walls as large murals and animations. Within his illustrations some of the recurring themes include UFO's, limbless bodies, dragons, robots and more crazy creations! 

On a whole, I think this is most probably the best exhibition I've been to at the DCA so far! I thought the illustrations were incredible and many had really important views behind them. Also I absolutely loved how there was one room that featured a handful of glow in the dark artworks and one typography piece. I also thought the illustrations that were drawn onto unusual paper stock including old book pages and music sheets is such an innovative idea and I really feel like I should try something similar with my own art work. Lastly, I have to say the cute wee character that features amongst a lot of his art works is the best thing about them! They give the art work so much character and humor as well. 

What was the last exhibition you visited? 

So today I am back with a long time favourite post of mine to do but one that I haven't done in over a year and a half! I used to post my free font favourites monthly from July till December 2014 but never ended up carrying it on after that point. However, I am back now with some of my favourite fonts from over the past 10 months!

Another Shabby // Neotric // Chasing Embers // Dreamwalker // Sweet Pea // From The Woods // LillyBelle

Title font: Ostrich Sans

There is definitely a common theme with the ones I've shared above- hand drawn and textured! I think a lot of my artwork and design work has moved towards this kind of aesthetic and it has definitely impacted which fonts I'm drawn too. 

As always these fonts are free to download but they all have their terms and conditions as to how and where you can use them so please do check out that before going and using them! Also try and credit the creator where possible as it's the best way for them to get recognition too!

I hope you enjoy using these fonts, let me know how you use them & any current fonts you're enjoying using! 

So it's been just over 10 months since I started my #Create365 project and within these past 10 months I have learned sooo much! I have learned about ways I enjoy working on projects daily, how I use certain tools and way more. I thought it would be awesome to share some insight on the things I've learned and add a couple of the pieces I've done lately that I've not shared. 

It's been a really long time since I've shared or spoken about anything related to music in a while but I've been refinding old music loves recently that I felt needed to share some of those -as well as some new finds- that I feel are underrated in the music!

Obviously it comes to no surprise that I am a big lover of all things inspirational. If you've been following this blog from near the beginning you may remember my old "Weekly Words" posts that I would share on a Friday and would have some quote that I had "designed" up on Illustrator then some words about why they were important to me. But yeah anyway, as I was saying, I love to be surrounded by inspiration and my bedroom wall is no exception!

A while ago I read one of Charli Marie's posts about basically having wall art and also watched her YouTube video about hanging these pieces up and started getting me thinking about my own "wall of inspiration". 

My wall is mainly covered in postcards from Paperchase just due to the fact that I visit the store often, the postcards are cheap and they're usually pretty darn cute! But I do have the odd piece of artwork on my wall that I have bought from an artist and it honestly just livens it up so much more!

The main reason I think it's important to have a wall like this, whether you're a creator or not is that not only does it look aesthetically pleasing but it can really give you that little extra push to get your work done! So many of the pieces I have on my wall that I have bought myself are typographical ones with inspirational quotes.

Although, my wall does also have little keepsakes around it too, with postcards from places I've visited, to old Polaroids from when I was a kid. Including these things on my wall really gives it a personal touch and makes me happy when I look at them and think of those memories.

Do you have your own inspiration wall/space? Where do you get your stuff from?

Today is the first of October and to me, it means it starting to really feel a lot like Autumn!

On Saturday afternoon once I had finished work, Darren and I had a little trip up to Dunnottar Woods. I've obviously had a few trips up there, including this one from last year but Darren has never been up there before so some serious exploration was on the cards!

I'm pretty sure over the years I've had numerous visits to the woods and seen pretty much all of it but there was areas that we went to that just felt so new and so raw to me that the beauty of them blew me away. At some point I honestly felt like I had been transported to a magical world filled with pixies and faeries and gnomes. 

And back to reality. Honestly though I absolutely love being surrounded by nature and getting lost in it and with camera in hand, I was ready to capture the magic!