The weekend, my garden and what happened to all the sunshine

You know, there's been times when I've gone months between weekends off and the sunshine has gloriously shined and I've missed it all, so I really thought this whole working less plan would be super and I'd get to enjoy lots of sunny family days out at weekends and my pale milky skin would take on that healthy peachy sunny glow, well let me tell you it hasn't!

It seems that when I have weekends off it rains, and rains and then it rains a bit more!

On Friday I treat my gorgeous husband to his very first pair of Irregular choice, well you know how I love them so it seemed like about time he had some, I bought him some gorgeous boots which have a stencilled Chrysanthemum up the side of them, quite appropriate for a gardener really, I shall of course be posting a lil instagram photo when they arrive!

On Saturday, in the rain, we went shopping first of all and lovely hubbykins must have been feeling uber lovely and reciprocated my shoe gift by buying me these babies from Garage shoes.

Orange and Peacock blue they are and ever so high, I need an occasion of mucho fabulousness to wear them!

After the shopping we went to the Heaton Festival where it rained, and rained  and well you get the picture...

We made the best of it and Meandering Paul played hide and seek with what I'd call a mixed degree of success

We came home shortly after that because we were wetter than we were dry, I think though if it had been a gorgeous sunny day that the festival would have been a runaway success and I really hope they repeat it on a sunny Saturday next year.

Today we woke up to a dry day so the plan was to have brunch letting the Meandering one enjoy the luxury of a lovely lie in, the girls were very excited because they'd made and bought lots of little gifts for him for Fathers day, he loved it all, he does like being the centre of attention but I have to say credit where credit is due, he's an amazing dad to our 3 errant children and we make a brilliant parenting team.

So off in the car we went to the Seaham car boot sale, you see I'm desperate for a new dinner service, people keep smashing plates and for brunch today we used 3 dinner plates, a platter and a flan dish!

Sadly just as we were approaching the heavens opened and they didn't stop opening for quite some time so we came home and tonight we had sunday dinner on 3 plates, a platter and a flan dish!  Dear readers I simply cannot buy a new dinner service, I want old and vintage preferably, I'm not actually praying for some rain so hubby can take me to Morpeth to the charity shops where we'll hopefully get a new to us one, thats where the current one came from, can you believe we had 8 dinner plates, the cost of having no carpets me thinks, atleast with carpets sometimes they bounce, not so much with hard flooring!

This afternoon when the rain had just stopped I had a wander to see what was going on in our postage stamp of a garden and it seems the plants are actually quite liking the rain, I have enough salad leaves to feed the street and if the radishes get much bigger they'll be eating us!

Lets hope this little yellow flower becomes a huge halloween pumpkin!

My favourite of all our plants is our Gunnera Manicata, it's not exactly pretty but it's interesting and this one is called gertrude and she loves living in a dark muggy bog, for the first time in ages I can actually see her smiling as she sits in our usually dry garden.

and so we're reaching the end of another weekend, I am off again next Saturday so don't plan for sunshine but I've shoots and lots of work this week and on Sunday so they may be your days to plan your sunbathing.

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This week in Instagrams.....

How can it possibly be Thursday again, 1 whole week since my last post, each week I'm so determined to blog more often and then before you can say two posts in a week it's been a week already!

So here's whats be going on in my little world of the strange this week, mostly captured by the wonder that is fabulous iPhone app Instagram.

Much excitement yesterday as my latest pair of Irregular Choice shoes arrived, I think they might be my favourite pair ever!

They are all kinds of fabulous and so very very me, I just need to find a suitable occasion on which to wear them.

On Tuesday I was outside in that splendid sunshine we had when I noticed our Alliums were looking gorgeous so a quick snap later...

Just in case you missed Tuesday it was glorious, barely a cloud in the sky

I've also managed to squeeze in some time to see my little adopted nephew Benjamin who I have to say loves his Auntie Mandy and makes me a very happy lady indeed with his gorgeousness and giggles, not long now till I shoot his mummys wedding!

This was his little face after I'd given him a bottle, can you say Milk Coma?

Our weekend was quite restful apart from me shooting a wedding up at Lumley Castle on Sunday.

Lots of it was spent enjoying the grand prix which always does this to my husband, he's like Pavlov's dog

Saturday was the rainiest day I can remember for ages, it just rained and rained and rained, this happens every year when our Lillies bloom, this one does look awfully pretty with those chunky raindrops on it's petals though doesn't it?

We went out on Friday night and had a brilliant night with friends, I reassured myself with this self shot photograph that for 37 I could look much worse, after now what must be around a year of taking photos of myself I'm finally getting used to my own face, if you hate your photo (or your face) try it, I promise it really helps!

Friday last week was windy in the afternoon but oh my the sky

and that was it back in time to a week ago, so what happened in your week and did you manage to capture any of it?

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A list for Thursday

Another personal post from me, I'm wanting to get back in touch with my blog, I want to blog more often, my blog is history, I should post more about life love and everything, after all business is just 1 part of my life!

So here's my 10 for Thursday

1. Why did my brain and body clock decide that I needed to get up at 5.30am this morning? The other night I was in bed by half eight, what on earth is going on?

2. I'm so enjoying sewing with my antique Singer sewing machine, I think we worked out that it's something like 110 years old and whenever I'm stitching with it I wonder about all the women who've stitched with it before me.

3. My brain as ever is crowded with creativity, when I'm not working I'm being creative with paper, scissors and glue.

4.  I've decided that we are going to have a TV free summer, Looby thinks this is a great idea, Abigail says she is moving out for the summer, I haven't spoken to Iain about it yet, we may not get rid of it completely ( I need my Apprentice fix) but we will majorly cut down and go out and have adventures.

5. Mollie Makes is my new favourite publication, I'm so glad I subscribed!

6. Cannot wait for school to be done and the summer holidays to commence, not a clue what we'll do but definitely a few days away to somewhere new, last year Looby and I went to Cardiff, who knows who'll want to come and where we'll go this year, I'm thinking maybe North Wales might be nice or somewhere in Scotland but no idea where.

7. Out tomorrow night to the Geekest Drink, hubby has a football meeting but is coming to meet me after, ooh it's like a proper date from the old days!

8. My first Sunday wedding of the year this weekend, I always panic about Sunday weddings on the Saturday in case I have the wrong day, it's a recurrent nightmare and even after 4 years in business I still have to reassure myself that people don't just get married on Saturdays, I should know, we got married on a Friday and renewed our vows on a Wednesday.

9. Where is all the rain this year, my gardener husband only ever feels he can take a day off when it rains, this year is the driest year ever!  Please pass a couple of days of heavy rain for the plants, the ever browning grass and more importantly so I can have a couple of days love-in with my husband.

10. I was on Radio Newcastle earlier this week, if you want to have a listen just go here and go to 2hrs 21 mins and you'll hear me talking about the sexualisation of children report and how I have a continued plan to ensure that my kids don't become Chavs or pregnant teenagers, you wouldn't believe some of the lengths I've gone to but thats another post for another day.

Happy Thursday, hold on in there the weekend is in sight

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Hurrah for Scrapbooking

Back in 2003 I discovered Scrapbooking and it literally changed my life and helped lead me to the career I have now, sadly when I started my business in 2007 there just wasn't enough hours in the day and my scrapbooking fell by the wayside.

Well hurray, hurrah, hurrooh! (as Hugh Laurie once said in Blackadder) this week I have completed 7 layouts, the first pages in 4 years and as we've just bought a welsh dresser for the kitchen I have been able to reorganise things so that if I do have a few moments spare I can devote them to my favourite hobby.

and so with a wink and a smile at the end of the loveliest week off in ages I'd like to share just a few of those pages.

and so there you have it, if you've never heard of scrapbooking this is pretty much a good introduction and if you already have then this is my style, it's sort of like my photography style really, quirky, ecclectic and above all fun!

I have to say that I find it incredibly relaxing and I'm passionate that our ancestors will know about what we got up to while we had our time on this planet, you see I love photography and the legacy of leaving boxes of photos for the future Charltons to look through but I want them to know more, I want them to actually feel like they have a link to the past, I just hope the world doesn't end before that happens, haha!

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Photography and Design {guest blog}

Todays blog post is a guest post by the lovely Amy at Whiteacres Design and Amy is going to tell us why good design sits side by side with great photographs, in this instance 2 projects we worked together on.

You’ve got a great product or service, you’ve had your branding created, your business cards are printed and look swanky, you go to a networking event and hand some out, enthusing about your great product or service, a potential client goes on your website and finds a photograph that you took yourself in the garden using your digital camera – anyone can take a great photo these days right? But it lacks something, you can’t put your finger on it, and next to that amazing branding you paid for it just doesn’t quite cut it….

 

Photography can make or break a design. It doesn’t matter how wonderfully a website or a leaflets is designed, if the photography used is poor quality then it’s not going to work so well, it will degrade the design. A photograph is often the main element that people will look at, this will help them to gain a thorough picture of the business and this should work beautifully, seamlessly alongside the design it’s used with. 

 

Professional photography will help your business look professional. It will show your product or service in the best possible light, whilst adding that bit of oomph that will make people stay on your website and look around, or keep your leaflet on the notice board until they need you.

 

Photography is an investment in your business. I love it when clients stretch their budget and have excellent imagery for me to use. It really does help to set a tone for the design, give a better impression of the business, and it makes my efforts look just that bit better!

 

A bad photograph can ruin an otherwise perfect piece of design work. It can detract from this, but will also make a business look bad. A photographer can work magic with a camera and help to instill your business values, create a good first impression and make people want to find out more. When commissioning design work ensure you talk to your designer about the quality of your imagery, and how you are going to stand out from the crowd.

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