What Makes You Happy?

What makes you happy?  It's a question I've mused on for, well about 45 years if I'm honest and I always come back to one thing.  Photographs, well maybe not even photographs just having memories of happy things around me as much as possible, my-picture.co.uk asked me if I wanted to choose some products from their range and it didn't take long to accept.  After all, all of my walls are full from top to bottom with memories.

I remembered that for all I had been on adventures far and wide I hadn't printed a lot recently other than small photographs, I investigated my folders on my iMac (of which there are many, my first 2tb time-capsule was full last year) and remembered the joy of the trips I took to Barcelona, Nice, Lincoln and the Lake District over the last couple of years, it's been a blast, I've made some memories I'll never forget and I've given my children memories that they'll never forget, including the day that Abigail and I had the biggest argument ever in Villefranche-Sur-Mer, I can laugh about it now but blimey, the most beautiful place in the whole world, somewhere I'd wanted to visit since seeing Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in "An Affair to Remember" and we had a 3 hour spell of angriness, strops and no one speaking to each other!!  Funnily enough I don't have many photos of that day, not because of the argument but because there are no photos of Villefranche-sur-mer which reflect just how beautiful it is to the naked eye.

I think photographs are a reminder of memories for me, it's not about the best photographs or some great piece of art, it's simply a reminder of a moment in your life when things were good, or fun, or beautiful, the times when your heart felt full and your soul felt happy.  I've been lucky to record moments of my children's life since Looby was a few months old and I fell in love with photography, I always loved photographs but it brings a new meaning when you have the ability to capture life yourself, it's like having the power to hold this immense piece of history or future history and that's one of the reasons I started blogging 13 years ago.

Life isn't always a happy, joyful thing, there are daily stresses, my health can be a dodgy old thing and so for those days, having a catalogue of amazing memories I can look at just by walking around my house is an incredible gift.

I had a lot of fun choosing Canvases, acrylic prints and even a blanket with the ever adorable Holly Bobbins on and the amount you can get for not very much is incredible, whats more if you enter MANDYCHARLTONPHOTO at the checkout you'll get 15% off the already discountedprices

I think I started a trend off as I've now introduced Harriet, Rachel and Steph to the company and they've all been buying their canvases from photos they've taken of their own personal memories so don't just take my word for it.

I have to also say that I wasn't quite sure how a blanket of an Instagram photo would come out in real life but it's amazing and to have a blanket with Holly on that I can always have near me forever, well that's something really special.

Disclaimer - I received some free products from My-Picture.co.uk in exchange for talking about them, my friends bought their own upon my recommendation and seeing the products and I'm continuing to use the company because the colours match, the products are lovely and they're also really good value for money!