Changes and Treats

I must say thankyou to Koboshi Glass from whom I bought this gorgeous necklace this week and if you think it looks good in this piccy you should see it in real life, it's made from Dichroic glass and the way it sparkles in the sunshine is just amazing! I know that Jennifer won't mind that I borrowed her pic of it from the Craft Marketplace but I haven't had time to take one myself.

Oh and if you fancy clicking on that link you can purchase any print of any photo I have on my . for only £8 inclusive of postage and packaging. I've already sold a couple and they're being really well received so don't be shy!!

Onto the changes part of my blog, well as you know yesterday we went to David Lloyd and oh what fun we had, it's a totally family centric sports and health club and it didn't take too much persuading for us to join, if you're interested they're having an open weekend this weekend so get down there and try them for free.

It's actually costing just under £150 a month for our membership but for what you get I think thats not too bad, the kids can't wait to start doing all manner of classes and I personally am hoping to shed some pounds and inches. Obviously though I'm looking forward to the social side of things, they've a huge family lounge with plasma screen CBeebies, playstations, free internet use, gorgeous food, outdoor play and many other benefits, this really is a lifestyle we're buying into and no they didn't pay us to say that!! It's definetly perfect ofr those of us recovering from Agoraphobia!!

Well happy weekend, I'm off to catch up on some chores before an afternoon swimming at David Lloyd!!

Off to the Printers....

This template for my leaflet has gone. In the end the other two both had minor quibbles, the one of Abigail was sort of too sad looking for a childrens photographer though it was the preferred shot and the one of Looby didn't have enough space at the top for the text, it was only a problem because when I take photos I take them with a view to not cropping them at all and ..... well you get the idea, so quick scan of which other delights I had from the princess series and voila this is the leaflet template and by this time next week it should be 2000 leaflets.

It's been such a quick week again this week, Paul and I both had our businesses officially registered yesterday which means I now have the fun task of doing all the admin for both of them as well as the accounting, YIKES!!

So can you beleive it, if you look back at the beginning of this blog I bet you wouldn't expect that only a year and a half later we would both be self employed with our own businesses!! Lets just hope that Mandy Charlton Designs and Meandering Gardens do us proud, you'll note that Pauls doesn't have a website and it really doesn't need one, he's doing so well it's a complete testament to just what hard work can do for you!

As for me, well my face is going to be featured on the back of 8000 leaflets going out to the east end of Newcastle advertising the Enterprise Support Team, the bonus is that underneath my pic will be my company name, my job title and all importantly my phone-number! All Good!

This weekend we're off to the local David Lloyd centre for some R&R, swimming, tennis, more swimming and definite family enjoyment, it must be good because I just bought myself a new 2 piece tankini set and also some joggers and a T-shirt for those more fitness orientated things, Looking forward to it? Yeah dear reader, YOu bet I am!!

Happy Friday Everyone :D

Self Portraits

We're having a photography challenge on Craft at the moment and the aim is that we all take self portraits and share, mainly because it helps people put names to faces and secondly because it's quite a challenging thing to do with your camera.

I did two today, both with my 50mm lens which isn't the easiest as if you hold it above yourself at the most flattering photography angle you find you can't get your whole self in, not to worry too much though as I quite enjoy taking bits of me rather than the whole me. Oh and I'm going to get my eyebrows waxed tommorrow hopefully, I waxed with photoshop here and I definitely think I need to do it no matter how painful the thought of it is!!

To be honest it's only my eyebrows so I can't see that it would hurt too much I mean after all it's not exactly a large area, I might be more concerned if it was other places I was attempting to wax and anyway after having 3 children it can't be too bad now can it?!

Paul has been out working all day today even though it was fathers day, thats him though, dedicated to the cause and it kind of made up for the deluges we've had during the week.

I went and delivered a coulple of hundred of his leaflets and my busines s cards today so hopefully I might get some business from them.

Oh and 1 final thing, notice my new funky hairstyle, I love it now that it's had a couple of days to settle :D

Angel with a Dirty face

Yep, I've been scrapping, I knew I would do something crafty as it's QVC craft day and that always manages to get me scrapping, I never buy anything but it's just nice to have any form of craft on TV for the day.

This layout has been brewing for ages, I've been desperate for atleast the last year to make a layout purely from felt, well I finally aquired some felt squares during the week and Voila here it is!

Ooh 1 other thing, did you see Dr Who tonight, edge of your seat stuff don't you think, I can't wait to see how this all pans out, and Capn Jack, Fwoarrrrrrrrr

I'm so obsessed with Dr Who, I even had a Dr Who dream last night, and yes complete withj Capn Jack!!! Ooh Capn Jack and Dr Who together and a spare half an hour, the things I could get up to MWhahahahaha

Oh and 1 final thing, did you join in with the butterfly book, if anyone does create one I would love you to share a link so I can see what different crafters do with them.

Fancy making a butterfly book?

Just like this one?

Well I've written the class and if you come join us on Craft.co.uk you can download the PDF and join in HERE

On Rain, Hair and lack of blogging

It was noted today by a couple of people that I haven't been blogging as much as I used to, Sorry :D I really should blog more but time is constantly against me it seems, even now I have a million things which need doing but it's Friday night and I can't be bothered so I'm blogging whilst the children watch classic Rainbow on Nick Jnr!

So this week has been manic as ever, full of work, organisation and planning, for instance todays pics are my leaflets, well one of them will be, both designs are with the printer and he's choosing which one looks best, atleast I hope he does, I've so far asked two business advisors and neither of them could make their minds up!!



I would be interested to see what you think dear reader, even my hubby doesn't know which one he likes best, so which would make you grab that phone and book a photoshoot?

As for hair, well I went and had a radical change yesterday but I'll bring more news on that one when it's light enough for a decent photo!

On the subject of dark and exceedinly dingy, can't beleive it but it's rained and rained and rained for 4 solid days now and if you are a photographer or a gardener that is not good news, Paul is working the entire weekend if it ever stops raining!!

Have a good weekend and I promise to try and blog again before the weekend is out!!

The Fwoar Factor!

As you all know my husband is a bit of a hottie, I'm pretty lucky and it also means that I can get great photos of him without too much persuasion. Yesterday afternoon we happened to be out and about, first we went up to Berwick to a garden centre and then afterwards we popped up to Wooler to a deserted picnic spot in the middle of the national park to give the dog some exercise. I decided to take photos as per usual and I captured this one standing on a picnic bench whilst Paul sat so pretty much it's a great position to be in to capture those gorgeous blue eyes. You should see this one really big, it's awesome. I also took a great photo of Iain as he was lying on the grass, you can see that one on my Photoblog. I really am so lucky that we still get to escape on a weekend, our lives have become so busy during the week that we're just dying to escape the noise of the city by a Saturday lunchtime. We usually do that on Sundays too but this Sunday we have to stay home as Abigail has a birthday party to go to this afternoon.

Have you visited my website lately? There have been lots of changes over there and I think it's looking quite swish, I'm actually getting some leaflets printed this week which I need to design before I take them in to my business advisor on Tuesday, it's very exciting but also quite scary at the same time, thats the thing about having your own business though, it's certainly not for the faint of heart!!

The Good, The Bad and the Downright Ugly

The Good - Spent the afternoon at school doing the Sepia Victoria portraits, what fun I had and I'm so pleased with how they all turned out, so glad my family are lots of fun and joined in just so I could share some of the photos at long last. I'm having this one and the one on my Photoblog mounted and framed and then they're being donated to the Shipley Art Gallery (who most kindly donated the use of the costumes for the event) where they'll be hung for posterity and yes they will be signed and dated by the photographer, awesome or what?!

The Bad - I only did around 10 portraits so I didn't make half as much money for the school as I would have liked to and I only managed to hand out around 10 of my business cards.

The Downright Ugly - My Mother chose to write to me and as usual the letter was full of her vitriolic poison, she wished pain and illness on me which I thought was nice and remarked that my children make off the cuff comments about me when they're at her house. I discussed the issues of the letter with the children and was as open and honest as I could be (as per usual) and apart from them saying that she's a liar I also found out that a couple of weeks ago she called me a Fat Evil Cow, what a nice thing to say in front of your grandchildren about their mother. Luckily Iain said that he stuck up for me and said I wasn't even near to being that, I'm so glad that I'm blessed with such wonderful children who clearly love me enormously.

On a final note, it's the weekend, Hurray! Both sets of the childrens grandparents are on holidays at the moment so for the next few weeks we're lucky enough to get them all to ourselves, let the fun and family frivolity begin :D

Play

This layout is packed with vintage loveliness, I took this photograph of my children when we were at Kielder at the weekend and after turning it sepia I printed it on textured cardstock and embellished the layout with lots of cut and ripped Jenni Bowlin papers and other various goodies in that vintage style. I remember when I first started scrapping, I never could master the vintage or distressed style and craved to be as wonderful at it as Snipper, well 3 or 4 years later and I think I might be getting there, I'm certainly happier when I create layouts in this style than I used to be :)

Catch up Day

Yes it's Wednesday and atlast I have a day which is a little quieter, hopefully this means I can get my creativity out and scrapbook this afternoon :D

I'm having so much fun with photography at the moment, I went into School on Monday and did some Victorian Sepia portraits with the Year 4's, what a wonderful bunch of children and the photos turned out superbly, I even managed to get a couple framed and mounted for their exhibition, the kids should actually get to see them today so I'm hoping they're as pleased with them as their teacher was when I delivered them at the end of school yesterday.

Friday is a really special day for me as it's the exhibition and I'm in charge of a victorian photo booth for the afternoon, I'll be doing my sepia portraits but this time using outfits from the local museum as a fundraiser for the school, what could be cooler than authentic costumes.

In other news Meandering Gardens, hubbys fledgling gardening company is doing amazingly, I'm so proud of him and what he's achieving, he's had so many delighted customers and repeat work that it can't be long before he's able to do it full time.

Ooh also on the subject of photography, I must mention that I'm now able to sell prints of some of the many photographs in my collection. For only £8 including postage and packing you can own an A4 print which would look splendid adorning most walls. I've only 8 for sale at the moment but as time goes on the collection of available prints should grow, to get yours click HERE

You Rock My World

Because he does! I don't think I need to say much more!

Loads of Elsie Flannigans debut line for Ki Memories used here and I think her product really suits my style, I wonder if she would like me on her design team, Elsie if you're reading I'm open to offers LOL!!