It's been a full on week of sparkle barring the last couple of days when I've been pretty ill, still feeling quite horrid this morning but I'm off into the world for 2 photo shoots in Jesmond Dene this morning and then I'll run home to a blankie on the sofa I think!

This weekend I have 4 photo shoots in Wharton Park, Durham and then 6 in Jesmond Dene on Sunday so it's a much busier weekend than the last couple of weeks but that's a good thing, I really need those 2 weeks off at Christmas without worrying about financial implications, it's always a bit of a battle taking time off when you are self employed!

I have kept up with living a life of sparkle and yesterday once the bin men had taken the 20 black bags I'd cleared from Abigails bedroom I managed to make our seating area just a little bit more sparkly and festive.

It's still a little too early for the Christmas decorations but it's never too early for a bit of extra sparkle in our lives.

I also made a practice batch of peanut butter tablet, a roaring success containing about a million calories in every bite but what the heck, it is going to be for Christmas presents after all.  I've amazed myself this year, I've made blackberry jam, I've pickled beetroot, I've made my own sweet mincemeat, my Christmas cake is maturing nicely, I've made quite good progress with Christmas shopping too, amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it!  I think I might be getting good at this single parenting thing, if I manage to get Abigails room decorated next week then I've nailed it, if only the cats could do housework ;)

So whilst you go about your wonderful weekends enjoy every minute of them and remember that being nice doesn't cost anything at all, be kind to yourselves and others dear reader and I'll be back on Monday to regale you with tales from my weekend, hoping to fit in just a little festive stroll around Durham tomorrow after my photo shoots!

What we got up to this weekend...

It's Spring dear reader, did I mention that enough yet?  I adore spring, people start to come out of hiding, including me I must add, I am a virtual hermit during winter but now it's March I feel I have fully conquered SAD for another year and that alone makes me happy and delighted.

Interesting and wonderful things happened over the weekend, first and foremost I had a Saturday off!! That does not happen very often and so when it does you have to embrace it and grab it by both hands, usually I have my daughter Looby who comes out to photo shoots with me while Abigail goes off with Daddy and does the footbally sporty things!  This weekend Looby had a horse riding lesson booked so we swapped and Abigail and I had a mummy/daughter afternoon, she said she wanted to go and explore the charity shops in Hexham and so that's what we did, a whole £6.10 with our railcard on the train and we got some fab bargains in the charity shops, I shall not be complaining about a beautiful Per Una linen dress for £7.50!

I have some Instagrams to share from our weekend -

Claude is a famous Lobster Mobile, I've never seen him before, well until Saturday in Hexham, have you seen him?  I want to know just how famous Claude the Lobster Mobile is.

It's either horse riding or it's Lady Gaga's new fashion statement

Hexham was sort of springlike but definite touches of winter still remained!

Abigail in her £1 bargain hat

First day of sunglasses wearing this year!

Yes it was a very good mum/daughter day!!

Sunday was a portraits on the beach afternoon, catching up with old clients and new ones and having lots of fun with little people who all seemed to think that the sea was the place to be except that it wasn't really because it was very cold indeed and they didn't seem to be quite so happy 20 minutes later when they were wet through and a bit chilly!

Geek Alert, read on if you're a photographer, you care about camera systems or you're nosy, feel free to skip if you don't have a clue, haha!

This week is going to be splendid, I purchased a new camera, I've just bought into the Fuji X-Series after following the amazing and inspirational work of Kevin Mullins who I'm also happy to call a lovely friend of mine, being around him and his enthusiasm for the system as well as seeing the results finally got too much and I knew it was the camera I wanted, now I know that it's very much the photographer who makes the images and not the camera but in truth the Fuji X-Pro 1 is a complete game changer and it's half the weight and size of my Canon which means I might just avoid the claw the day after I've shot a wedding for 12 hours.  I think it's going to take me a stage further, it's going to be a path to somewhere new, I'll still have my trusty Canon with all of my favourite prime lenses but I'm excited to see what I can add to that with the Fuji X-Pro1, maybe nothing will change and no one will be able to see the difference and only I'll know or maybe everything will change and in a years time the face of my business and also the way I do photography will change forever, it's at the exciting start-line of the journey (I hate that word) and I can't wait to see what happens, I just wish I didn't have to sit and wait unpatiently for it's arrival along with the 35mm f1.4, except they're from different places so I hope they arrive at the same time, haha!

So that's it dear reader, another week commences and I'm a happy smiley Mandy, if you would like to talk to me about photographing your wedding or kids/family portraits then you can catch up with me on my website, via email or my facebook business page.

5 Great Things I've done this past week

Ages since I've done a list and I have so many little random things to blog about this seemed to be a great way of doing it!

1. Went for Sushi at St Sushi in Newcastle on Saturday night, for the first time I tried Octopus and Clams and Oh my I loved the Octopus especially, I'm definetly going back there again!!

2. Went to the Journal/Tyne Theatre to see One Night Of Queen, the theatre was just opposite the sushi restaurant and we were seeing everyone go in, then I spotted it was a queen tribute band and so we managed to get a couple of tickets just as the show was starting and had the best night ever!!

3. Ordered a Huge Canvas, yes I know I sell them but I've never actually had one for myself, well thats all just changed and I've ordered a 16x24 canvas of Abigail, I have a 3ftx4ft one to order before the end of the month too but I'm still searching for that perfect photo!!

4. I bought another Camera, yep this one is lovely and great to add to my existing kit, as a wedding photographer back up kit is an absolute essential, prospective brides, make sure your wedding photographer carries back up!!

5. Hired a new assistant, please welcome Nigel to the MCD team! He'll be assisting on my October 19th wedding and I'm really looking forward to working with him!

No photo today, I was in bed all ill yesterday so my plans of taking all the family out for another autumnal session didn't occur, thankfully I'm feeling lots better today, can't quite beleive I slept for nearly 20 hours!!