Continuing on from our restful stay at St Mary's Inn we had hatched a cunning plan with my lovely friend Harriet to have a half term day trip to the South Lakes Safari Zoo, just 1 day of nothing but fun, animals and friendship, Looby, Harriet and I set off at 7.30am with excitement in our hearts and a tune or two on our lips with lots of singing along to "old people music" as Looby likes to call it.

The weather I think you would say was dreich, lots of rain and mist and fog but it didn't for a moment dampen our excitement, Harriet knew Looby and I would love the South Lakes Safari Zoo, the animals are so free, it's not unusual for a cheeky lemur to jump on your hand or for an Ostrich to suddenly stop you in your tracks because it's inquisitive and wants to know exactly who you are.  Every enclosure brings you closer to the animals than in any other zoo I've been to and the fact that a lot of the animals just have the run of the park is amazing!

One of my favourite findings was that the South Lakes Safari park is free for children and that's all children, not just the under 5's, the only extra cost was if you wanted to feed some of the animals, which of course we did, have you ever fed a giraffe?  I can say I have and I adore Giraffes, I think I adore them even more now.

The food selection was pretty good although there wasn't a great deal in healthy choices but you do usually find that's the case with most zoos, theme parks and the like, Dorito seemed to like the chips though!

Looby absolutely loved the whole experience but I would have to add that Harriet and I were probably the biggest children there, I nearly cried after my giraffe experience as it was so magical and I didn't even mind when I got jumped upon by an aforementioned cheeky lemur who put his muddy footprints all over the sleeve of my new Joules jacket!

When we left the park we did a quick detour past lake Windemere just after sunset, I quickly shouted to pull over the car as I'd seen the extraordinary colours of the sky and in a perfect moment I managed to catch the last red hued light of the day as it set over the autumnal landscape.

It seems like weeks ago now and I've been booked solidly ever since even if the weather has lead to one or 2 more rescheduled sessions than I'd like.  I'm pleased to say now though that weekend photo shoots are booked right up until Christmas with the exception of 2 half days, PM on the 13th and 19th of December so if you would like to book a photo shoot at weekends before the end of the year those are your two easy choices, just send me an email or a Facebook message and we'll get that set up.

Leopards can't change their spots

Yesterday I was faced with the horrible heartbreaking realisation dear reader that leopards really can't change their spots and no matter how many false promises someone makes their true colours will always show.

In the whole of my heart I lived with the hope that we would all be together again as a family one day, I didn't want to give up and I didn't want to have a failed marriage, I never wanted that but I realise that all of the things I have inside of me which make me feel like I've failed and make me feel like I wasn't good enough again were not caused by me.

Life I think in some respects is about to get much harder, without hope I have to go through the breakdown of utter heartbreak again but I was deluded to think that things could ever have been different, in as much as I wanted to hold together the fabric of our family I should have realised that it was ripped to shreds beyond repair long ago.

I think in some sense it's a bit of a relief because now I know the path before me and although I'm facing being lonely for a while I know in the end I'll be ok, one day I'm going to be quite brilliant and I shall sparkle on a daily basis.  I know now that I'm going to work hard to make my business amazing so that I can provide my children with every thing they'll ever need and I will do it on my own without any financial support and without complaint and each moment when I am not at work I shall use it to spend with my children so they know just how much I love and adore them, we'll make our house the best home ever, we'll have as many friends around as we want, we'll continue to rescue animals who need a second chance but I think we'll stick to the four legged ones.  We'll go on adventures to wherever we want and no one will ever be able to say "you can't do that."  I think I'm still in a better place than I was at the beginning of September because a lot of the things have just become clearer to me.  I know this much is true, if you love me, you love the whole of me and all of my children equally because all of my children are fabulous amazing people and I'll continue to tell them that every day.  When you're in a marriage or relationship you have to accept everyone in that unit, you can't pick and choose and you can never expect the other person to allow you to ignore or turn a blind eye to your hatred of any of them.  Mums will always choose their children above a man no matter how old their children are.

It's been hard of late with Abigail spending more time at her dads than at home but today she's going to be here when she finishes school, Iain broke up from college for half term on Wednesday and Looby broke up yesterday so by later this afternoon we'll all be together my children and I and we're having Tacos and it's movie night, Malificent being the movie of choice as it is a tenuously linked movie to Halloween and it's of course that time of year, let me just say that some of the suggestions on our board for this weeks movie had a definite Christmas theme but I am saving Elf  (btw, it's only £8 on blu ray on that linky thing) for another day.

Tomorrow I have a day off and I honestly have no idea what we'll do, we did have family plans but it really looks like we can't pretend anymore and they're just not going to happen, I think the most I can hope for is friendship one day, in the end you can't have someone on your own terms, I think my analysis of the situation was that while I wasn't wanted completely I was wanted enough to make sure that I could never move on and you can't do that, it's pretty clear cut for me, together as a family forever or get on with our own healing and lives being co-parents to our children and dog, you can't have it all and expect someone to have a weird courting sort of relationship with their own husband without a promise of anything else for years, I'll never accept second best even if it's heart breaking, one day someone will love me properly with their whole heart without any conditions or expectations that I'll ever be anything other than just me, it may be years before that happens, it may never happen but you never really truly know what's around the corner.

Have a great weekend and don't forget to love the ones you're with and be with the ones you love.

An Autumnal Family Portrait Photoshoot in Jesmond Dene

Some weeks I seem to spend my life in Jesmond Dene and you know what, I think I'm so lucky and blessed to be able to do that, nine out of ten times I take the same walk and it's always amazing and ever changing.

So on Sunday I went to catch up with Karen, Zoe and doggy Charlie




and here they all are looking fabulous!



Zoe is beautiful and has a great smile.



and when she laughs the whole world lights up!



Will you look at that light doesn't it make for an amazing natural portrait which would look fabulous on a large canvas?!

Karen, I hope you love these amazing portraits you've created, you're a wonderful little family and I love spending time with you all.

If you want to book a family portrait photoshoot and get some great Christmas Presents please call me on 07918 121838 or click through to my website, remember until the end of October all portrait photoshoots are only £25, even on a weekend!

Ooh Ooh Ooh - We're Going To The Zoo!

So, Saturday and we decided to make a 40 minute journey from our hotel down to Chester Zoo, wow that zoo is awesomely huge and not only does it have fabulous animals it also has fantastic gardens so you would think everyone would be happy and delighted all day long, well Abigail being Abigail we saw an awful lot of these faces all day -





I think secretly she loved it but she does have the attention span of a Gnat and I think she would have enjoyed it more if she could ride the animals rather than just look at them!!

I had a brilliant time and particularly loved the Giraffes and Elephants as they're my favourite animals anyway,




I wish I could have got up close and personal with a Giraffe!




aren't these baby elephants just so adorable.

Oh and the Meerkats, I could have photographed those all day because they're such great characters.




There were also lots and lots of baby animals enjoying the first real sunshine of the year.



Looby as ever had a lovely time and her prize winning smile was present for most of the day.




I loved this Ostrich





Oh and the kangaroo




and what could be a better way to end a blog post than this happy accident of a photo, slightly blurry but I adore it.





So if you're dying to see more animals then do click through and enjoy a whole album of them, they're all going to end up in a coffee table book as soon as I get the time to make one.

Stay tuned for the next exciting post as we explore the wonders of a secret nuclear bunker and gaze at the beautiful gardens at Europes biggest garden centre

Kitten Watch - Day 1

If yesterdays photos made you a little broody then I would suggest that you avert your eyes from this blog post as it's a cute kitten-fest of a post!

So all kittens are doing well except for the fact that mum has abandoned the nest and after much searching has decided that a great place to have the kittens is on my chair, I've come to the rescue and put a blanket on it and I guess we'll be sitting on the floor for a few weeks!! It did however mean that I got these corking photos!
This one is going to Jules and we're going to call it by it's name as soon as she decides what she is going to be called.
This one is a noisy little boy and I have to admit to being very fond of him.
here's 3 of them though you can only see one of the boys and the head of Abigails kitten, Angel!

There's a few more shots of them on Flickr so feel free to click through and see the rest!!

Monday Morning....

And life goes on....

Yesterday unfortunately didn't get any better, first we had to break the news to our children about Kate and there were many tears from all of them, lots of hugs and a huge ice-cream sunday helped. Then just when we were settling down and I was baking cup-cakes we heard a huge scream, Looby had tripped and fallen and as bad luck would have it she split her chin open and Paul had to take her to the hospital to have her chin stuck back together. Today I'm being slightly overprotective and have kept her off nursery, she's on 4 hourly calpol doses to help with the hurties and we've just baked 30 cupcakes which we iced with Vanilla buttercream icing, I think that might just get us through the day!!

I've not really been thinking about work too much but Clients if you're reading there's not very much time left at all to order any canvases you may want for Christmas so get those orders in quicksmart! Also if you could have print orders in as quick as humanly possible that would also be great, then I can relax safe in the knowledge that everyone is happy and will get their products in time for Christmas.

Oh and maybe you just want to buy 1 file to go make some Christmas cards with, well this weeks special is that you can buy 1 hi-res file for only £9.99, if you're interested just go to Mandy Charlton Designs and click on the contact us page or you can email me using the link from my blog!

One last piece of positive news is that our eldest cat Poppy is due to give birth to kittens very very soon, we're keeping 2 and rehoming the rest, clients and friends if you would like a kitten email me, we're not selling them as we want them to go to homes where we know they'll be truly loved so speak up and you might just have a wee kitten by the end of the year.

Elphaba Takes It Easy

Some of the members of this family spend far too much lying around and snoozing!!!

Oh and Boo Boo is back! He's off to get neutured next week and we're once again trying to get a handle on the doggy training, we're trying from scratch and so far it actually seems to be working, he's such a lovely fluffy puppy really we just need to get some doggy zen around here!!

Elphaba Poppy and Kate Bush don't really seem to mind though so I guess if they're happy we're happy!!

And on that note I'll end the days blogging.

Does anyone actually read my blog? Put your hand up in the air if you do!!! :D