It's Monday, my day off and here I am, sitting at my desk for the first time in days after a hugely busy working week last week, I shot way over 30 sessions from Wednesday onwards so you'll forgive me for my blogging absence.

In addition to that I also shot all of my gift guide products last Thursday, they're far from written but powered with copious rounds of toast and cups of festive hot chocolates, there's nothing really that I can't achieve.

October was a rough month for me personally, it always is, it has been for years with the same things happening over and over and I credit myself with being a moron for letting them happen.  I think my lonely heart betrays my sensible head far too often.

I've also been completely ill despite taking every vitamin in the world to keep me well, I guess it would have been much worse if I didn't take them but I'm grateful to a lovely company called Flyte who produce clean energy drinks made with the caffeine from green coffee, they offered to send me a case and it's pretty much how I made it through the week if I'm honest, unlike most energy drinks they didn't make me feel fluffy or headachy, they weren't too sweet and they didn't taste like chemicals, I would certainly drink them again, especially the green mango which was just delicious.

The Pumpkin Day photo shoots in Jesmond Dene went incredibly well, it was a day filled with the cutest tiny babies and their siblings and it was so successful that I'm doing it all again but with giant wrapped presents, some of them may even be big enough to fit a family member or pet inside one or two of the boxes.

If you would like to book for the Christmas portrait day in Jesmond Dene on the 1st December you can see all of the details on that wee post above or just contact me through my Facebook Page

This week I'm hoping for a nicer, gentler, kinder week, I have 2 weddings to finish editing and about 30 portrait sessions and my calendar is really filling in a crazy kind of way so if you want a session before Christmas please don't hang around. 

I shall be back later in the week with my first gift guide of the season, filled with the yummiest photos of the best products around for you to give to your wonderful friends and family this Christmas day and if you need to contact me in between times, I'll be right next to the nearest hot chocolate stirred with a candy cane of course!

Halloween Crafts and Autumn Styling

I love autumn, the falling leaves, the cosy hot chocolates when you come in from the cold and light a fire (or candles in my house, I don't have a fire sadly) the crisp mornings, the golden sunlight and the start of the holiday season with Halloween being the first occasion in the holiday calendar.

Halloween gets bigger every year in Britain, our American cousins favourite autumnal holiday traditions have crossed the Atlantic and it's no longer just about carving out your turnips with spoons and thank goodness for that, I'm not sure exactly how my parents managed it, have you ever tried to scoop out the flesh of a swede with a teaspoon?  I did once and I can tell you this, don't do it!!  

Viking sent me a box of crafty goodies and asked me to come up with some spooktacular craft ideas and being that I used to run a design team for a craft store I thought I might measure up to the challenge.  I love the chance to create things,  If you go back far enough on my blog you'll know it used to be my daily business to come up with creatively fabulous ideas but I must admit when the box turned up I was a little stumped, and then I saw the glass jars, and I love candles and autumn, being the season of Hygge, I'm always looking for more ways to get a little soft light into my lounge.

Here's the thing though, Halloween may be full of spooks and ghouls but I wanted to create something I could use from now right through to Christmas and beyond so I spent several very messy hours with some Mod Podge, tissue paper, a permanent black marker and about 6 tons of glitter, glitter which I must point out is now all over my kitchen floor, my dog, my garden path and me, yes if you see me today, I literally sparkle and that's not such a bad thing!

With the smaller jar, I drew on a village of spooky houses and then used the Modpodge to create a glittery starry sky and with the larger jar, I covered it in modpodge, added a layer of tissue paper and then painted on it with glue and sprinkled librally with glitter to make my very own witches brew tealight holder (to be recycled on the 5th of November as a firework tea light holder) the black is slightly translucent so it gives off a lovely sparkle with the light drops in the evenings.

I've also added in another couple of Kilner Jars which are filled with sweeties and then they just have spooky faces on them to make them more Halloween, yes they'll be gone by the first of November and I can recycle the jars, my festive sparkly tealight holders are destined to stay much longer and my autumnal pumpkin garland really does make the perfect hygge atmosphere, combine that all together with as many candles as you can light without wanting to risk a call from your local fire brigade and I think you have yourself something really special.

I want to thank the Viking team for massaging my creative brain, sending the goodies and my dog who hasn't complained about sparkling in the sunlight or the fact that her paws are covered in gold glitter!

There's never a dull day when you can add just a little extra sparkle!

Welcome October!

Sunshine through my bedroom window this morning, although there was a distinct chill in the air first thing it's definitely warming up and it's quite easy to mistake the middle of the day for July rather than October for sure.

For me October has so many meanings, it's the month of leaf kicking, glove buying (we covered that yesterday didn't we?), boot wearing, blanket snuggling, hot chocolate drinking and in just a few weeks it'll be Christmas movie unboxing, yes October is one of my favourite months and if it didn't lead into winter I think I could quite easily christen it my favourite month.

I noticed yesterday when I was out for a walk with Holly that all of a sudden the trees seemed to be starting to switch to their bright scarlet clothing, those autumnal outfits they wear for just a few weeks before undressing to cold dark spines whilst they settle into their winter slumber.

It's no surprise that October is one of the busiest months of the year for family and kids portraits all over the north east, if you are going to have bright happy photographs on your wall there's no better month to do it than October, it's not just about the Christmas gifts though, it's about the colours, the cute hats and jumpers, if you get good weather it's about the golden hues of warm autumnal sunshine. Take a moment to consider an after school/work session during the week, if you look at the light at around 5.30 today you'll know why I'm suggesting that, to book a session with  me, a Newcastle photographer right now!

Usually around this time of year I start to hoard Yankee Candles and consider starting my Christmas shopping, well dear reader I've not ventured out shopping for candles just yet but I did purchase my fist Christmas gift yesterday, I'm going to say this out loud and if you see me over the next couple of months can you repeat it to me "Wrap up the Christmas presents as they arrive!"

55 days until I go to Europe on my Norwegian Epic cruise, I have a feeling it's why I haven't yet purchased a single Yankee candle, I still feel like I'm waiting for that build up to my holidays and of course holidays aren't in Autumn they're in summer aren't they?

Looby has already informed me of this years Halloween costume of course, I shan't spoil the surprise but speaking of Halloween and Yankee candles, there's loads of goodies I think I might need to hoard over the coming weeks including this cute Halloween Yankee candle holder, it's cute, halloween themed and not too tacky!!

Happy Halloween

from my house to yours -

Happy Halloween!

From my two little girls who went out trick or treating looking not very scary at all, Looby went as a princess, abigail also went as a princess! So I'm sharing Abigail, give you her very best halloween scary face, Looby, well just being Looby with a face full of sweety and one of my two pumpkins, this one is the happy one, the one on the other side of the path outside the door was the sad pumpkin!

It was of course a whole new adventure for Looby who hadn't been trick or treating before, she was so sweet and even though we only went to a couple of houses, all of whom we knew we had a lovely time!

I've Been Busy

as you can see from all this stuff I seem to have created over the last couple of days! Firstly there's the other christmas cards for the challenge I set on the Craft Kingdom, then there's a Halloween goody bag with accompanying card for a swap and then there's the layout created with yesterdays star photograph of my gorgeous daughter! This is the second layout I have made with this months Happy Scrapper kit, all I had to add was the small sprinkling of Prima flowers!

Do you know I actually dream of cake, I was having this fantastic dream this morning about fruit pies to be exact when I hear F#@K, lovely Hubby had just awoken and realised that he'd overslept by an hour and was late for football, hopefully he got there on time, funny how much longer you get to sleep for though when there's no small children to come and get you up!