Aah thats better...

Yes thats right listen to my friend here, he knows what I'm talking about!!

We went off to the park this afternoon after school, first evening it's been really nice enough to do that this year, Saltwell park just outside of Gateshead is such a lovely park, particularly since all the renovations to restore it to it's former glory, anyway we spend lots of time there but this evening was the first time we had managed to squeeze it in on a school day so Spring must be here mustn't it! It certainly feels like it, I saw plenty of daffodils just beginning to bloom and had the joy of watching a couple of busy squirrels as they went about their work, sadly though i had my long lens on and no tripod so no photos of them today.

I did though as per usual get just one or two of the children, they were particularly taken with some stone sculptures which now reside in the park and as I took this one of Iain and was processing it tonight I was thinking just what a brilliant boy I have, he's such a nice person and always helpful and loving, he's such a grown up these days and I'm so proud of him, If you're wondering that text was added in photoshop, I think suits him!!


So much gamboling and larking about took place and the girls had lots and lots of fun, they did seem a little on the tantrummy side though, Abigail seen here when she was in a slightly better mood had the biggest tantrum in the world on the way to the park and the whole of the journey going there and then Looby decided to reciprocate and had the biggest tantrum in the world on the way out of the park and most of the journey home, I suspect they were both very tired little girls tonight though I can't be sure why that could be, anyway they both had a half past seven bed time this evening and lets hope thats all the tantrums out of the way for a while as they can be quite exhausting, I'm sure that you parents will know what I am talking about!!

Paul is at the hospital tommorrow with his groin injury, he's seeing the sports injury people in the hope that they have an answer to just why it has gone on for so long and also of course the hope that they can put him right and he can get back to his beloved footie.

I'm going to the hospital on Thursday to see the dreaded liver specialist and I am dreading it, we already know that there is something wrong it's just a case of finding out exactly what it is. I have to say that over the last couple of months the pains in my liver have been getting more persistant and I am in the back of my mind quite worried, then again if it hadn't of been for those blood tests which told me there was something wrong I might have just assumed it was a muscular thing, well i mean I only really found out the location of my liver when I had the ultrasound scan LOL!!

Bleurgh!

Not really a lot more I can say about today, I've just been horribly ill, it's a continuation of the virus caught by being Newcastles latest interior designer! LOl I think I'm kidding myself with that one, I think I'll stick to photography it's far easier and a million times more enjoyable. I am wondering still which room should get the next makeover but I think I might invest in a few ideal home mags and wait for creative inspiration to strike. Thanks to all those who requested that i photograph my room immediately, well you know I think it's fabbo and to me it looks divine but at the risk of having you all chortle yourselves silly I think I'll leave that one for now!! Anyway I'm not really a "Stuff Portrait" type of person, I only made an exception so I could play show and tell with the fabulous bracelet from hubbinsworth!!

I have some new scrapping purchases on the way as we speak, I haven't splurged in the craft department for some considerable time but as all those gorgeous goodies from CHA winter are arriving on our shores I feel my paypal account emptying with speed, it can't be long before we're back to using our own money! LOL

Photo is obviously from stock as I haven't been anywhere or felt human today, it's from Blackpool and I love it!

Bling!

My hubby bought me this yesterday in a gorgeous little coffee shop full of treasures up in Rothbury, the coffee shop is a treasure trove of little vintage decor items and costume jewellery and I knew when I saw this it was destined to end up on my wrist, I have a bit of a thing for bracelets!

Thanks to same gorgeous hubby for yesterdays blog post, I have to admit that I have been pretty darned ill since last i blogged, I think as hubby said I inhaled just a few too many fumes when decorating our master bedroom, ooh and on that very subject I must say I achieved my goal, the vintage schreiber wardrobe and all the dark chocolate mixed in with the duck egg blue just looks sumptuous and in the end it kind of reminds me of a hotel room in Brighton in the 1920's, even if hubby did comment that he keeps sliding out of the chocolate satin bedding!! I got the most fabulous wicker picnic basket from ILVA (click to see it!!) and it's now the new home for all my knicky knacky Knoos!! Pauls undergarments are in some rather fabbo vintage hatboxes picked up from Ikea. Iain commented on how I had done a marvellous job it's just a pity that I have ended up so ill because of those darned gloss fumes and i must point out that is hubbys fault as he wouldn't let me buy satinwood!!

So after a bowl of soup in Rothbury and a walk to the park we had to come home and that was when I got put to bed, there I remained mostly sleeping and trying to breathe properly until this morning. I'm feeling sort of better yet still pretty yacky today but i feel the hearty lamb stew we have cooking in the oven might be just the thing to finally sort me out. I snapped this lovely photo if Abigail in the coffee shop, sorry for the lack of photos but with decorating and being ill I've taken less than 20 this whole week, never mind though i'm sure I'll make up for it soon. 1 more thing, I need to know which room to start decorating next, its either :- The bathroom, the sittingroom, the girls room or iains room, answers on the back of a box of Heidi Swapp Chipboard letters! mwahahahaha!!

First Ever....

photograph of the whole Charlton clan together, can you beleive that?

I have to admit to feeling more than a little shaky as I entrusted my 350d to a total stranger but I figured that as we were in her carraige waiting to be pulled along by her horse she wasn't likely to pinch it or I would refuse to move! LOL So I'm discounting the fact that she wasn't best photographer in the world and I'm looking like a hamster crossed with Bella Emberg but it sure is nice to actually finally have 1 photograph featuring the whole of my gorgeous family, see they do exist after all, I'm not just making it up so I have something to scrapbook!

Thought I would take the opportunity to share more of my Blackpool pics, I took loads but when I edited them there were about 20 or so that I kept and will scrapbook, well I say that I'll scrapbook them but I haven't been very creative of late, I decided though that today was the day so I got all my work and chores out of the way first thing and what am I doing now????? Well I managed a card and I played with some chatterbox doodle genies which BTW are pretty fab, I bought them before christmas and have only just gotten round to taking them out of their packets, not something I plan to use every day but nice to do something with when you're feeling a little bored and slumpy like I have been recently!

I have big plans though, I am shortly to attempt a 1 woman redecoration of the entire house starting with the master bedroom which can't really be called that as all 3 of our bedrooms are the exact same dimensions, how anal was the person who designed that?? LOL

I have duck egg blue and brown picked out for the colourscheme, I think the walls will probably end up the blue colour because I have the same sort of colourscheme planned for the livingroom and i figure that one can take browny walls as its far bigger, I'm not planning on going too dark, I guess though you'll have to wait a while before you can see any results as 1 woman in a 3 storey house with a paint roller is going to take more than a little time!!

I'll leave you with that Happy Pleasure Beach piccy, doesn't it look warm and sunny, I have to add that we didn't even make it into the park owing to Paul having his trusty utility tool attatched to his keyring, it contains a teeny knife you see and they don't let you into the park if you have weapons. I don't think you could even manage to peel an apple with the darned thing but hey ho there you go, rules are rules and C'est la Vie!

Blackpool

Firstly abject apologies and also thanks to all those lovely people who noticed that I hadn't updated my blog since Tuesday and wondered if I was Dead/Missing/abducted by aliens. I had a horrid week and thank goodness I have the most lovely gorgeous caring family or I don't think I would have made it to Sunday! The week culminated in a daytrip which was supposed to be to Fountains Abbey but due to some roadworks and a little fate brought us to the bright lights and gaudy colours of Blackpool.

Blackpool is one on it's own really, for my US buddies, it's on the North west coast of England and is a mecca of amusement arcades, theme park rides and all that is traditional about the good old british seaside, there really isn't another place like it in the world, I love it for the occasional daytrip but I don't think I could afford to spend a week there!! In fact at the rate my children like putting money in tuppence machines I couldn't afford to spend more than a day there!! It was one heck of a day though, we arrived around two-ish in the afternoon which wasn't bad considering hubby had been to work in the morning. The kids quickly set about destroying as much of our finances in the quickest space of time and of course they loved every minute of it. I think the highlight of the day for all of us though was having a horse and carraige ride along the sea front all the way from the pleasure beach to Blackpool tower at the other end, if you want my unique veiw from the ride then check out my photograph of the day over at Don't Pose. We certainly did have fun yesterday and we didn't get home until 10pm last night, the children slept most of the way back and still managed to drag me out of bed at 7am this morning, for all the many talents my children possess, staying in bed and giving mum a rest isn't one of them!! I'll leave you with one of my most favourite images of the day, Looby on Pauls shoulders just as dusk was falling, she had a wild old time although that poor Care Bear you see there got lost and to this moment we don't know quite where, lucky we won (for won read spent £50 trying to win!!) a couple of other soft toys along the way, Hubby even won me a Tigger cuddly, no one has won me a cuddly toy for years so I was chuffed to bits!! I really love my family, there may be only 5 of us but we have enough love for a whole planet between us, I am the luckiest girl in my universe!!

Even the Worst Days....

Have some good things in when you're a Charlton, today these are my good things!! Taken in the whole 15 mins of good light we had today and then fiddled about in with photoshop CS2, today I played with the channel mixer, curves and a little desaturation

And now for something a little different...

We went off to Seahouses for some real traditional fish and chips for tea this evening, by the time we had finished dusk had fallen and I had a quick wander to the harbour whilst hubby and kids finished their teas, to be honest all was quiet and there wasn't really a lot going on but I spied this pretty boat next to the lobster pots and had to photograph it, To be honest I only had my 5omm f1.8 on the camera but I have to say that I'm really pretty pleased with the end result, for some reason it just looks better in black and white, oh and if you're wondering the steps between the shooting in raw and the black and white end, it's basically, curves, levels, channel mixer, Unsharp mask with a couple of tweaks in between, all of course done in Adobe Camera Raw and then CS2. This is a removal from my normal portrait stuff but I do actually enjoy taking photographs of anything and everything, thing is though and here we go back to a previous posts about whether your work is good or not, because I don't take loads of this kind of thing who knows whether it's fabulous or not, it may be laughed at in certain circles but I can tell you from my perspective, I love it and dear reader I hope you love this little snapshot from gorgeous Northumbria too!

My Signature!

Every artist should have a signature style, something they do that no one else does or something which really can sum them up without words and this photo is mine, I took this one today but I have several similar ones in my collection, I love jumping photos and happy photos and this really sums up both emotions. I guess if you have a photoshoot booked with me then this might just be one of the things I'm going to ask you to do and I can guarantee that every time you look at the photo you'll smile a quiet smile.

So as you've probably guessed dear reader we have been out and about this afternoon, a couple of hours spent rambling at the Wallington Hall Property near Morpeth in Northumberland helped to blow the cobwebs away and we enjoyed the late winter sunshine to the maximum, I also really got to grips with my Sigma 70-300 mm lens, I didn't take my tripod so I tried it to it's max with just myself to steady the lens and I have to say that it performs pretty well! All the children once again enjoyed the ramble though we did have several moments with Abigail and her tantrums again, I'm not entirely sure what to do about her at the moment but she seems to think that she can get whatever she want by throwing strops and when she doesn't there are further strops and tantrums, it's funny because we don't seem to encounter any of these things with Iain or Looby though they have both been brought up under similar conditions. I'm guessing that middle child syndrome has a lot to do with it but we shall try a reward chart to go with the normal naughty stair extravaganza and see where that gets us, if anyone has any better ideas then feel free to suggest them on the back of a sheet of Hambly and sent post haste to Stressed parents in Newcastle!

Tonight we're having a couple of glasses of a gorgeous South African Grenache, I don't usually do Grenache but I bought Paul a case of red wine for Valentines day so I thought I better join in, oh and in case you're wondering he bought me a gift wrapped packet of Love Hearts and a bottle of my favourite Gucci perfume! Ooh yes much love in the Charlton house, but then again isn't there always!!

I'll leave you today with this photo of my hubby which just goes to show one of the many reasons we're still so blissfully happy, I mean after all with this much laughter and silliness every day you wouldn't want to give that up in a hurry would you?!

It's finally arrived....

My portrait lens finally turned up after the longest 9 day wait which seemed like 9 weeks, I'm now fully kitted out and available for photoshoots, I took this of Paul in the kitchen this morning and this was in the first 30 seconds of use with no flash at 400 asa in my dark kitchen so if I can do this without optimum conditions, imagine how good I can be when doing it professionally. Yay I feel ready now, I've already had some enquiries so I think Mandy Charlton Designs is far more of a reality with each day that passes! Just click that link to book me, Paul who is my driver as well as my husband informs me that we travel as far as Leeds in a southern direction and as for northwards, well no real boundaries as any excuse for a day or two in bonnie Scotland!!

Looby again....

Yes I know, there have been many many Looby photos this week but considering Iain has been at school all week, Abigail has had Scarlet Fever and I've been stuck indoors, Looby just happened to be on hand whenever I had a "I need to take some photos" moment!

This week I have bought 3 lenses for my camera, a Sigma 70-300, a Canon EF 28-80 and a Canon 50mm f1.8, that last one I am still waiting for and getting ever more impatient as it's just the weather for large apertures.

To say that it's dull and grey outside is an understatement. It has rained and rained and rained for the last 12 hours without a break. I wouldn't mind but Saturday afternoons are our getting away from it all days, today it looks like we might make it as far as the book shop if we're lucky, certainly it's the worst weather for photographs this week. Here's hoping that all round we have a better week with lots of photos, sunshine and not so much illness!!

Just watching!

Another Looby photo today, I was playing with my 70-300mm, not much else I can do as it's freezing cold outside though not enough snow to do anything with and Abigail has ulcerated tonsilitus and Scarlet Fever, my doctor hadn't seen Scarlet Fever for years and I've had to inform school so they can send letters out to everyone seeing as it's very contagious, not a nice thing to have so I'm hoping that we don't all end up with it.

Anyway back to the photo, as I was testing out my lens I managed to get a few without Looby even noticing, my favourite sort of photography, it was shot at 800iso as it's so dark indoors today, after taking it in raw I processed it in photoshop, first applying a sepia filter, then adding a layer of gaussian blur, then using the channel mixer to turn to black and white and finally adjusting the opacity of the top layer to around 50% to get a really soft muted sepia ish photo which I think adds to the dreamy feel of the photo. What do you think, I would love to hear!