Have you heard about Haribo's great competition to win a premium UK family break with Forest Holidays?  I've collaborated with Haribo (and Looby) to try and find our very own double yolker amongst promotional packs of the family favourite, Haribo Starmix.  Haribo have hidden double yolker sweets and I'm guessing if you find one you'll be jumping up and down with excitement!

Haribo kindly sent us a whole kit of stuff and we had our very own "double yolker" hunt in the back garden.

First of all Looby was blindfolded and lead to the bottom of the garden after I had secreted the magical Haribo in small pots around our garden.  We may not have a huge back garden but that doesn't mean we can't go on a huge magical Easter adventure.

After de-masking I handed her a magnifying glass just in case any smaller spaces needed thorough investigation.

At the start of the egg timer, she went about the task of uncovering as many Haribo as she could checking for "double yolkers" everywhere, she was under strict instructions not to eat them before checking!!

Picking up Poppy Cat for help along the way they searched high and low for the magical prizes.  Black and White cats are not just useful for helping Postman Pat with the post you know!

After examining the haul of delicious Haribo Starmix we worked out that despite there being plenty of the yolkers there were sadly not any double ones.  Looby didn't mind as really she was only interested in eating them.

Holly Bobbins declined to get involved as there were no meat flavoured Haribo but she did consent to becoming a magical Easter Bunny for a little while later on in the day.

Later on we found that the Easter Bunny had been, just look at the size of those footprints, now I can't be sure but it might just be that on Easter Sunday we may just find some good old chocolate Easter Eggs hidden around our house, or maybe we'll even find some more packets of Haribo...

I want to say a huge note of thanks to Haribo for helping me to create a magical experience which returned usually grumpy teen Looby to a temporary state of child-like wonder, we may not have won the holiday but it was 100% worth it for all of the fun that we had.

Easter Homestyling

In just 1 week my girls will finally break up from school for the Easter holidays, I love these holidays so much, it's nice enough weather to do things and life feels good again thanks to the increased daylight and more importantly, the sunshine!

I love Christmas and styling my house but over the last few years I've started to style parts of my house through all of the seasons, my fireplace, for example, gets a restyle every month to reflect the time of year and it makes me happy.

I'm also very lucky that I get to work with my favourite stores TK Maxx and Homesense, even when we do collaborate I end up spending way more of my own money on things I see.

So this month for them was all about styling for Easter and they couldn't have picked a happier person because I had that fireplace to fill and as always my first stop was to visit TK Maxx/Homesense in the Metrocentre.

Wanna see what I bought?

Now I must state with absolute honesty that on this particular trip with a £50 budget I ended up buying a desk also so I spent way, way over the budget but that's testament to it being my favourite store, I literally jump up and down every time they want to collaborate because I can't believe how lucky I am that my career has lead to this, I will never stop being thankful!

So before I show you my desk lets look at the above, the solid marble spring sign was £12.99 and now I have signs for Christmas, Valentines and Spring, they had Easter ones too but I figured I could keep this out until summer!!

The cute bunny was £7.99 and she's watching over us and luckily too sturdy for a certain beagle to eat although a certain beagle has been seen wandering off with those there plastic eggs which cost £9.99 and fill my fireplace beautifully.  The chick plate at the back was an absolute steal for £3.99 and finally, I even got the girls their Easter eggs and today, 1 week after I took that photo they are still sitting there and haven't been pinched, I couldn't be more impressed, they have though, chosen who gets which!

So my desk was £129.99 and I think an absolute steal, it's so sturdy, I didn't have to assemble it and it was pretty easy to get home!  It's solid wood and a thing of beauty!  I love sitting at it every day, it's the perfect size for my bedroom/home office, oh and if you look, there's a wooden star at the back, also which came from Homesense in the Metrocentre when I was working on the Christmas campaign!

So that's me, I feel more ready for Easter than ever before, this time last year of course we spent in hospital when Looby was poorly and only got released on the evening of Good Friday so this Easter I have so much to be thankful for and I'm hosting a big friends for dinner on Easter Sunday for anyone who wants to come, it's open house and consider this your invite if you are spending the time alone and unwillingly, we may not have enough chairs or table but there'll always be wine, dinner and really good company.

And so this is Easter....

This year for Easter I made big plans, I invited my lovely best friends Li and Harriet over for a big family Easter lunch along with Paul and Abigail, Looby, Iain and me, it's been in the planning for quite a while and I wanted to cook and bake up a storm, there would be spring decorations in the house and fresh floral arrangements everywhere, oh and don't forget chocolate eggs so affluent that a whole farm of magical hens must have laid them.  And then Looby got sick...

Spending the last month in and out of surgery and hospitals has meant, I haven't done any grocery shopping, I haven't bought a single easter egg and all of the other decorations are now sold out of every shop I might have thought of getting them from.

We're still here today, we don't know if we'll get home and if we do there's guaranteed to be nothing left in the supermarkets, I can't even do a pre-emptive online order just in case our going home doesn't happen, they mentioned it yesterday and then we got a no today so what on earth can you do?  

We're lucky and blessed that this isn't forever and today we've seen not just one but two Easter bunnies, I'm not sure if one was just a helper or maybe they were Mr and Mrs, you know how prolific bunnies can be, they both brought chocolate eggs for Looby though so I sort of feel better about my lack of Easter egg purchasing, as for my poor other children I think they're going to have to be happy with some spare cash (that's a hilarious thought after spending so much time in hospital, do you know how expensive it is?).

My lovely friends are still coming for Easter wherever we happen to be and for that at least I am truly thankful, If we do make it out of here I may suggest an Easter picnic, maybe at Kielder or one of our other favourite Easter picnic spots, Looby is champing at the bit to get up and out for a while and though I know I am the ultimate protective paranoid mummy at the moment I think in reality that getting out into the air for a big walk would do us all the world of good.

What lies ahead in the next 2 weeks school holidays is still uncertain, next week will be Loobys fifth week of absence from school (her very kind of head of year sent flowers today and Iain arranged them for me because I haven't actually been home since Monday) and virtually none of it has been any fun.  We have zoo tickets for the Yorkshire Wildlife Park at the end next week so we're focusing on that.  It's very much a baby steps situation but I am still confident that we can have her back to full fitness and back at school by the start of next term and definitely well enough for her school farming trip to Treginnis farm, we need to get her to those animals by hook or by crook.

Bank Holidays, They're Not The Same As They Used To Be

As i'm sitting here typing on my sofa the sun is just starting to dip, it's the start of the golden hour and the end of the most beautiful weather day of the year so far.  It's been a bit of a scorcher in parts today, by the sea it was still uber chilly but in my garden when we came home from the beach it was nearly 30c, it does catch the sun with absolutely no wind though usually because of the walls.

Today was such a difficult day, bank holidays for me have always been about family time, every single one for the last 15 years has pretty much been a whole family adventure of some kind or other so I hope you'll forgive me for feeling, well just sad really, if some days are harder than others this one is definitely one of them.  7 months on almost exactly to the day since life changed forever and I wouldn't say that it hurts any less now than it did back then.

I don't want to dwell but I have always been honest thus far and what's the point of lying to yourself (and 20,000 readers a month) someone is going to find out...

I do hope that today marks the start of sunshine all of the time until at least October, in fact if I'm honest I'll be happy if it lasts until our Berwick holidays are over, 8 sleeps to go, I have a treasure trail, Looby has packed her suitcase and I'm considering selling a body part to pay for all of the expected activities that Haven has to offer, I remember the last time dear reader and it was not a cheap experience.  At least this time I have Holly who's my get out of jail free or rather "I can't come and play family bingo because someone has to look after Holly at all times and she's not allowed in any of the buildings" (haven't quite worked out if Haven really is dog friendly or more along the lines of dog tolerant, they're quite different animals).

Speaking of animals, Holly is now a stinky beagle after rolling in manure today at the beach, I thought I could smell the whiff of freshly fertilised fields carried on the winds all day until I worked out that the smell was actually coming from Hollys neck, she wasn't amused by the bath at all and she's probably grumpy because she can smell herself and yes, she's going to need another bath tomorrow.

What Looby and I did do today to make the best of the situation we've found ourselves in was go to the beach (again, again, again.....) we walked from Tynemouth to Whitley Bay via beaches and promenades and the sun shone on our faces and warmed our skin and I was glad I'd remembered to put  my factor 50 on my face this morning, sun can be ageing when you're my age so it's full on sun block at every opportunity.

We decided not to wait in the huge queue for ice-cream or to partake of the (probably overpriced and underwhelming) fun fare which has been set up at Whitley Bay for the bank holiday weekend.  Oh no, we're going back again tomorrow without Holly, yes the beach again, ice-cream and the fun fare (probably still overpriced) but that's what Looby wants to do so yes that's what we're doing.  I feel I really should move to Tynemouth, I seem to spend more time there than I do at home.

Whatever you get up to tomorrow dear reader please go and embrace your families and do something with them, enjoy every second, savour every moment because you just never know what might lie around the corner of life.

Mothers Day and Easter Mini Sessions - Portrait Photography in North East England

You heard it here first dear reader...

To book all you need to do is email me, contact me through my website or even my lovely Facebook page

This is the first year for Mothers Day sessions as close to Mothers Day without actually meaning I have to go to work on Mothers Day, being that I'm a mum of 3 too!  I expect them to sell out early as Tynemouth Longsands is one of my most popular locations so if you see a slot you want grab it quickly.

Last year the Easter Sessions completely sold out and I shot 12 sessions in total, this year I am capping it at 8 sessions for my own health and wellbeing ;)  so if you see a time you want I can't emphasise enough the advantage of securing your slot early.

It's Spring! Easter mini sessions are just around the corner

It's Spring dear reader, I thought I better tell you just in case you were currently sitting dusting the snow off your shoes!

Can you believe just how cold it's been?  I must be so lucky with the weather because this weeks mini sessions all went ahead without issue and it didn't even feel too cold, at one point there was even sunshine!!


So this weekend there are available sessions at Tynemouth Longsands at 1pm, 1.30pm, and 2pm

Next weekend on Saturday it's Easter mini sessions at Saltwell Park and I'm giving out free Easter Eggs to all the kids who come along.  The day is already quite full but I have availability at 1.30pm, 2pm, 2.30pm and 3pm, I may even squeeze another couple in at 3.30pm and 4pm but that is only if I fill the other sessions first.

So what do you get? well you get a 30 minute shoot, a web gallery for 30 days, 15% off for the first 7 and it's only £20 which includes your favourite image as a 7x5 print.

Print prices start at £10 for a 5x7, £13 for a 10x8 and £15 for a 12x8.  if you would like to book one you can email me, contact me through my website or I'm always posting my latest photos on my Facebook Business Page.

Mini sessions are suitable for babies and kids (babies must be able to sit with very little support, if yours can't you might want to consider having a family portrait shoot at home) families (including the family pets) couples or maybe even just you!

and why wouldn't you want to have a mini shoot dear reader, take a look at some recent sessions and what I've been getting up to in this last week.

I'm shooting this lovely couples wedding on the 6th of April and it's going to be a beautiful thing!

we had a teacher training day on Monday so we hopped up to Kelso in the scottish borders, it's one of our favourite places and we get to tell everyone that we left the country to go to lunch, and had a very cold but lovely family day out.