Holly Bobbins has lots of talents and one of them is the ability to sleep wherever she is, sometimes she even likes to be tucked in like a todder (see first photo) but I have the worst sleeping patterns, last night for instance I woke up 14 times according to my Resmed S+ sleep monitor, just to put some perspective onto that, I think my score last night was 68/100 erm, not so good!

Why am I telling you this, I hear you asking, well before Looby went to hospital, when it was still winter a collaboration happened with the lovely people who make the S+, they were about to launch and offered to send me a sleep monitor to see if it could help me get a better nights sleep.

So fast forward to coming home and sleeping in hospital had been so bad that it had reset my sleep patterns and I found I was suddenly able to get 11 hours of unbroken sleep, now I obviously wouldn't recommend this as a course of making you get a better nights sleep and it didn't last unfortunately as you can probably guess from the first lines I wrote.

So, let me tell you about what's going on with my Sleep+, it's a nifty little box which sits beside your bed and all you need to do is take it out of the box, plug it in, make sure it's aligned with your chest when you lay in bed and then connect the app on your smartphone.  It took me about 5 minutes to set the whole thing up.

 

Once you have it set up and you've answered some questions about where you sleep, your age, health etc you press the button to start sleep and every day you're asked how much alcohol you've had, how much caffeine you've had an how much exercise you've done that day as well as how stressed you were that day, for me it's always 3-4 cups of coffee, mostly 20-30 mins of exercise, mostly no alcohol and very nearly always slightly stressed as I have anxiety!

Once that's all done you can choose if you would like a helpful sound to get you to sleep and do you need a smart alarm, I like waking up to the sounds of the birds in the forest every day, it wakes me up in a half hour window when it thinks it's best, I have to say I usually get annoyed with it if it's even a minute before the time I wanted my alarm to go off but that's just me, haha!

In the morning when you end your sleep, the fun begins, you get all manner of information in the form of pie charts about how you slept, you get an over all sleep score which is scored out of 100 and then the sleep mentor gives you tips about what you could do so that you get a better nights sleep.

Now a couple of weeks after I received my S+ they offered to send me another for Iain, Iain has a melatonin imbalance which is quite common in people with Aspergers, his sleep scores range from 50-70 and this week he's started to take the actions that the sleep mentor suggests (much to my actual shock, it's not easy to get teenagers to do anything you ask).  We're now wrangling over who takes Holly Bobbins for walkies as the S+ keeps suggesting that he gets some exercise, this of course doesn't help me in my quest to do 10k a day!!

I think the S+ is a great machine and I still feel I haven't had enough time to tell you if it's going to work or not, I do follow the suggestions every night but I think these things take time and what I'd love to do is write another article 6 months from now so I can really tell you about the changes in our lives it's helped us to make.  Iain has never slept well or had what you would call normal sleeping patterns so if it manages to help him do that then we really could put it in the "life changing" box.

I know there are other sleep monitors but this one is unique because you don't have to stay attached to it, I have an Apple watch for example but I can't wear that at night because I need to charge it every night.  I would say that you have to keep your phone beside your bed plugged in but I always charge it overnight anyway.

I want to also thank the S+ for helping me actually have chats with my teenager, every day when he wakes up we now swap tales of our nights sleep, what our scores were and what suggestions we had for the day and I can tell you, anything which provides a reason for a teenager to talk to his mother is not a bad thing at all ;)

The Resmed S+ is available here and costs £129.99, I was sent two of these monitors in exchange for writing a review but as always these are my very own thoughts and opinions.

Welcome to September

I woke up this morning to a myriad of photographs of cute little people all dressed in smart new uniforms tentatively heading to school, some returning to new year groups, some starting new schools and the smallest are starting school for the very first time, it's a momentous day for a lot of you and I can't help remembering past years with Iain, Abigail and Looby.  This year of course Looby goes to St Mary's although she doesn't start until a week on Thursday and at the moment she's off in the sunshine with Abigail and dad, oh sunshine how I crave thee!

September for me has always been the start of a new year after taking the summer off with the kids, I didn't do that of course this year as I've been busier than ever but there's still been time for fun, holidays, travel assignments and so this week is mostly about catching up so I am up to date, thankfully a lack of sleep last night means that I'm currently about 5 minutes into that state which we like to call "Up to Date"

I can't but help reflect on things in the past year but I don't want to dwell and I've already posted my reflective September one year on post but I was talking on Facebook about some stuff yesterday - 

1. I've only got 9 days left and then have to have a routine again, bohemian living is going to have to be much more restrained. (boo)
2. I've just bought the rest of Loobys uniform for St Marys (OUCH)
3. Iain is 19 on Sunday, nothing can make me feel older than that!
4. I've been a singleton for a year and I didn't even think I could manage a week.
5. Holly Bobbins is 15 months old, she's been with me for 10 months!!
6. In one whole year I've never stayed out past 1am or been to a nightclub though I was involved in accosting a celebrity after a comedy gig.
7. I need to get out more in a social way though I'm terrible, much like Hannah Hauxwell and mostly end up just staying in watching classic movies with Cary Grant or Audrey Hepburn and eating noodles with my dog.

8. My main goals in this year are to increase the amount of travel writing/photography assignments and to keep growing my family portrait business so that it continues to thrive

9. I want to take Looby away for lots of adventures this year, some with Holly Bobbins of course but I'd also like to take her to some European cities to experience different cultures and see amazing sights together.

10.  In this next year I'd love to meet new people, and I want to say yes to more things, seriously if you're out there reading this, send me your ideas and requests, after all that is said and done I seriously think it's got to be my time to shine now hasn't it?  I'm so done with the harrowing life experiences ;)

Maybe I just need to find someone who'll come and eat noodles with my dog and I whilst we watch classic beautiful movies starring Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant?

One thing I've learnt from all that has been and gone is to never get complacent, never make too many plans for you just never know what's around the corner (good and bad), I've never really been a planner, I'm absurdly spontaneous (and very sparkly) which I guess can make me a great friend but also impossible to pin down and deal with at times.  I'm the kind of person who can get up in the morning and be in Inverness by the afternoon if the mood takes me, I'm an unstoppable force when I get something fixed in my mind, some call it madness, I call it creative spontaneity with a little added sparkle and it's something I will never ever apologise for again.

Be brave, be bold, reach for the stars and explode like a giant flower bloom into a glorious and memorable September.

The curse of flu

I came down with flu on Saturday tea-time quite suddenly and managed to work on Sunday but since then I've been pretty much housebound which isn't fun at all, so far this week I've had to reschedule meeting 2 new borns because I'm too ill to leave the house and there's no way you could risk giving a tiny newborn actual flu.  I know we're always saying "Oh I've got flu" when really we just have cold, I'm sure I've probably done it myself but I promise from this point on to never confuse the 2 things ever again.

I can't remember feeling so completely horrid for so long for a very long time, in fact probably the last time was about 2010 when I had flu.  I'm so lucky to have Iain who has been taking Holly out for her walks, I've managed to get out once a day for walkies but today I'm totally and utterly beaten, I've pretty much slept for the last 24 hours, can't eat because I have no appetite and anything I do try tastes like cardboard.  Iain even went to get me some aspirin and brought back some Lucozade saying in his opinion I should try that, I have a brilliant son!

There really isn't much else to say at the moment, yesterday I wanted to burst into tears every half hour because of that awful depressive low you get with proper flu, I realise that crying isn't going to make anything better and I guess I was just so sad at the entire situation with Christmas and my failings in so many areas, financially, emotionally, practically, I was supposed to be decorating Abigails bedroom this week and I haven't even made it off the sofa today, every single inch of my body hurts and the chills caused by the high temperature have just made me want to go and sit in a sauna which probably wouldn't have been a good idea considering that you have shivers because you're actually too hot.

I'm so grateful for Holly, she's such a chilled little beagle, apart from the mass destruction of anything made of wood, Iain took her out this morning after I regaled him with the news that she'd even had a go of eating the TV stand and my vintage milking stool will never be the same again.  She's a happy little puppy though and hugs me lots, 2 new toys have arrived today for her and she loves her new bear which has no stuffing and her doggy entertainment toy where she has to find the treats, took her about 10 minutes to figure that one out, she's a clever little beagle.

I'm supposed to be working tomorrow afternoon but whether it will happen is another thing entirely, the aspirin seems to have worked so much better at bringing my temperature down than the paracetamol (thanks Sue for that advice), whatever happens though I must work on Saturday, it's my last day for 2 weeks and if I don't we'll probably be sticking pictures of turkey to the walls and licking them instead of being able to afford the actual real life Christmas lunch.

On being a single parent...

My wonderful, beautiful, amazing son is 18 tomorrow dear reader, I hope you'll be the first to join me in congratulating him in reaching this pretty epic event and life stage, he told me he really doesn't have any wish to go and get drunk and then vote which is a shame really, it seems like a fun way to do things and maybe the best way to vote!

When I gave birth to Iain I was married but alone, a single parent and now at the precipice at the ending of this era of his childhood I find myself once again married, alone, facing divorce and being a single parent of 3 kids, 3 cats and a rescue husky.

My favourite quote is "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be love in return" I think I would like to replace that with the "hardest"  Just when you think your life is sorted, wrapped up, tied with a bow and decorated with icing it's true to say that you never really see what's coming around that next corner until it whacks you in the nose.

I don't wish to be maudlin even though my heart needs a plaster, preferably a colourful waterproof one with a hug on it.

We'll be fine my fabulous family and I, after all, all you need is 1 great parent, 1 family member who would poke their own eyeballs out for you if the situation arose.  I don't profess to being the greatest mum in the world, I just try hard to love every day and tell my children how much they are loved and valued every day.

I'm 40 years old, I probably have another 60 or so years left on this earth, I'm hopeful, I'm always hopeful, even at this very newly single life stage I have to believe that I won't spend the rest of my days as an effigy of Miss Haversham even if she is one of my most favourite Dickens characters.

I need some time now though to let the dust settle, business can wait just for a moment, a couple of days to adjust, to hug the kids tight, tell them I love them and tell them that in the end we'll be ok, we'll be better than ok, we'll be technicolour fabulous with purple stripes of amazing.

Normal service will be resumed on Monday...

The Sunderland International Air Show 2012

The Sunderland International Airshow is now in it's 24th year and can you believe that until yesterday I can't ever remember going?

I rarely get weekends off due to weddings and portraits but I'd booked this one ages ago to catch up on a little family time!

Abigail was off at her grandmas having a little holiday which left me, hubby, Looby and Iain to go over to the Sunderland Air Show.

For 1 day the sun did actually shine all day, I couldn't quite believe it after all of the rain we seem to have had all day.

Iain and Paul absolutely loved the airshow and sat on the seafront watching all afternoon, Looby enjoyed it but got a little bored so we wandered around the myriad of stalls which were gathered along the sea front from Roker to Seaburn.

I'd definitely recommend it as a great day out for all of the family no matter what ages the kids are, we took the metro to Seaburn and it was a 15 minute walk to the seafront, the metro was actually packed though so thats the only thing I'd advise.

Here's a few photos from the day - 

my son Iain is going to be 16 in September, where on earth does the time go? As  someone with aspergers and being a teenager he's always the most difficult to get photographs of, I don't hold out hope to get very many of him anytime soon as I managed to get at least 4 of him yesterday!

Looby of course is our resident poser, thank goodness for her or sometimes there wouldn't be anyone to photograph!

In the blink of an eye

Short posting today but I had to get it written down...

Iain started High School this morning, he's going to be 12 on Saturday and I really can't beleive how quickly time passes, one moment you have them on your knee singing nursery rhymes and all too soon they're going on into the world on their own. For the first time Iain is making his own way to school, he has to leave before most of us get up because his school starts nearly an hour before the girls school does, he finishes earlier as well of course and that has meant that he's now got his own key as well, now that is a scary thought!!

I still can't quite get over the fact that twelve years ago i was contemplating the imminent birth of my first child and it reminds me as I remind you to enjoy and savour each day that children are young, those little funny things they come out with, those joys of childhood need to be held on to for as long as possible because in the blink of an eye they're gone.

Just a couple of Random Photographs...

I decided that yesterday I would restrict myself to only my 50mm f1.8 lens should I feel the need to pick up my camera.

Well I couldn't get through the whole day without one or two shots, the first was part of a Photo Scavanger Hunt set by a fellow photographer of large organisation that I belong to, I didn't manage 3 or round but I did get Blue :-

Then there was this one of Abigail, always eager to smile for the camera,

Then last night I managed to catch Iain in the livingroom (note our livingroom at night has the worst light ever)

Lastly, just standing by the lamp I managed to get an up to date photo of little Pumpkin who is now a boy again, we've got his sex wrong so many times it's hilarious!!


Happy Tuesday everyone :)

An Afternoon in Rothbury

So here we were thinking about what to do this afternoon:-

Well miss Abigail was by the looks of it.

Hmm Rothbury she thought....

and off we went!

The weather was beautiful, springlike and warm

Rothbury for anyone who doesn't know is nestled in the hills of Northumberland and it's one of my favorite villages to visit.

It's just so picturesque.

This is the first time I've caught Paul in the act of taking photos with his new cameraphone.

Abigail sprinting towards me because as per usual I've been lagging behind with that darn camera of mine!!

No matter how many people I pose, it's the family who never behave themselves!

Looby taken against a blue sky as she climbed on the climbing frame.

Iain who of course usually escapes the camera, not today though, mwahahahaha!

No one can resist a man in a hat!! He's just found out that his first full booked week of work this year has been postponed last minute (deep, unending joy ;) )

Time to go home....

First Day of School

Yes it's that time of year again, Abigail moves to year 1 and Iain is moving to year 6, his last year of juniors and a change of uniform to black and white instead of the yellow and blue. Looby, my baby starts Benton Park Nursery and even though she's a very capable nearly 4 I'm still going to miss my baby when her full time place commences on the 21st. She starts this afternoon and will do afternoons up until then.

She was quite excited about packed lunch so I had to make her a special one which we've popped in the fridge for lunchtime, couldn't leave her out of the packed lunches really could I?

I suppose that the upside of all of this is that I'll have more time for family photoshoots and more time for wedding photography clients, oh and hopefully a little less time where I have to worry about the childcare elements!!

In true Charlton tradition the boot light got left on in the car and this morning when Paul went to start the old dear up she plainly refused so he's had to go on the bus!!! It's funny that things like this always seem to happen to us, needless to say Mr C isn't a very happy bunny at the moment and I'm going to be doing my level best to keep out of his way!!!!

Only 320 days till the next summer holidays, I wonder how life will be then for Mandy Charlton Designs and indeed for Meandering Gardens!!!!........

Play

This layout is packed with vintage loveliness, I took this photograph of my children when we were at Kielder at the weekend and after turning it sepia I printed it on textured cardstock and embellished the layout with lots of cut and ripped Jenni Bowlin papers and other various goodies in that vintage style. I remember when I first started scrapping, I never could master the vintage or distressed style and craved to be as wonderful at it as Snipper, well 3 or 4 years later and I think I might be getting there, I'm certainly happier when I create layouts in this style than I used to be :)

Holy Maloley!

So yesterday we went off to Lightwater Valley Theme Park, it just so happened that they had a special discount weekend on so we all got in just about half price.

Anyway why am I telling you this? Well you see those little red arrows on that there photograph? Well those arrows are pointing at Mr Studley Rogers himself (thats my hubbys cybername for anyone who doesn't know!) and my darling little boy Iain, yes I know he's 10 already but Oi, Looby and Abigail were nearly crying and had to cover their eyes because they were so scared they were going to fall out, they were scared? I can't even imagine how Iain and Studley got through it all, especially Iain though, this is a child who has to have a lie down when he loses a tooth as it's so traumatic for him, this is a boy who cried for an entire evening because he forgot to save his pokemon game and had to go back to the beginning, up until now he has proudly worn his badge of Wuss along with the queen of the wusses, yes that would be me, well I'm still a Wuss but Iain has firmly had his club badge revoked.

I guess this means he'll be wanting to leave home next, Ho hum.....

Not doing very well....

At this blogging thing of late am I?

This is though we're just so busy with work and day to day life that there doesn't seem much time left for other stuff and I'm overwhelmed by just how much time I'm spending on my forum of late, there's been so many new members including one famous one I spotted yesterday Brenda Pinnick, now that has to be a scoop, for anyone who doesn't know Brenda Pinnick Designs was the manufacturer of the last QVC TSV and very much what brought us the good luck of Having Nigel Merry of Crabapple crafts join us.

Anyway if you want to be a member of a forum which is large enough to have a buzz about it but still small enough to make you feel like you're part of the family check out Craft.

Paul has an appointment tonight for his first Gardening Job as Meandering Gardens, this is so exciting and I am so proud of him, looks like all that leaflet delivery he and the children have been doing nightly is staring to pay off.

Hopefully it won't be too far into the future before we can both think of working soley for ourselves instead of for other people. I'm already in the position of course and loving it, I have a brand new concept that I'm bringing to Mandy Charlton Designs, I don't want to give too much away but it's to do with little Princesses and should be live on the website by the end of the week so do look out for that.

Iain has SATS this week and despite feeling very anxious and stressed at the beginning of the week he says he's not finding them so bad as he thought he would, still he says he can't wait for it to be Saturday and them all to be over.

Much excitement awaits for the next couple of weeks as the school has it's annual Creativity Fortnight. This year it's thrilling for me as I'm being quite heavily involved, I'm going into do a couple of class talks about photography, 1 with Iains class and then at the end of the fortnight I'll be taking Victorian Sepia portraits to interact with their Blaydon Races theme, this is so exciting because I get to use my talents to help raise money for the school, School is planning on selling copies of the prints to any families who wish to purchase them, so exciting that I get to do something so useful and hopefully we'll raise loads of money.

Lovely Week!

It really has been lovely this week, I feel like I'm flying high on a cloud of love at the moment, it's been a while since Paul had real time off and this week we've totally reconnected and are in Lurve, yes it's soppy but hey it's 7 years since we got married so I reckon thats worth celebrating.

Todays piccy is from Gullivers where we enjoyed this ride where as you can see you lie on your front, you're then hoisted up and spun around to enjoy the sensation of flying, when Abigail and I had our turn we spent the entire time giggling, then again that Abigail, she's a proper daredevil, I spent most of my time on the bigger rollercoasters screaming but she just thought that was even more hilarious, what can I say, I am indeed a proper wuss!!

It's also very much been a week of lurve over at my forum Craft, I must add it's not just my forum it also belongs to the lovely and much superior techie Phillip, we're enjoying a week over there of free speech, happiness and lots of giggles, including the occasional crafty bit I may add so if you haven't checked us out yet then there's never been a better time, especially as this weekend we're having a competition, details over on the forum.

Happy Weekend everyone :)

Bernie Does Art!

It's been a busy few days for Bernie the Bear as he's been just about everywhere now, I can't remeber ever encountering such a well travelled bear, surely he must be related to Paddington don't you think?!

So yesterday we walked down to the Quayside again, after enjoying ice-creams and me enjoying lovely coffee we decided that we would have a look in the Baltic Centre for contemporary art.

The building as you can see here used to be an old flour mill but was given much funding by the lottery etc to become the art gallery it is now, it opened a couple of years ago now and it's taken me until yesterday to actually get in there. I thought the children might be able to stand it for just a few moments but wasn't too sure what they would make of it as it's really been their first encounter of ART, well for Abigail, Looby and Bernie, Iain is quite knowledgable on such subjects and is studying Andy Warhol at school at the moment. There were a couple of really great exhibits but my most favourite was "Constellation" by Brian Eno, if you want to find out more about it HERE, it really was awesome though, made up of 77 million paintings on slides, it stands on a huge wall with 46 panels which constantly revolve to give each visitor a truly unique experience, it's in a darkened room with specially written music and I have to say I was awestruck and for once (probably the first time ever) all the children were quiet at the exact same moment.

I really hope the children grow up loving art and culture, we surely live in the right kind of place for them to experience it. Next stop I think will be a trip to the Laing Art Gallery, a more traditional gallery, we'll see what they make of that! Not today though, Abigail and Loobys bug of last week seems to have caught me and Iain and we're not feeling very good at all, Pyjama day all round, I just hope that Bernie doesn't complain about staying in the house too much!

They say you never see what's right under your nose

but after a couple years of agoraphobia you certainly appreciate it even more! This is the first year I have actually felt I was able to explore my surroundings and me and the kids, Oh and of course Bernie have had a lot of fun in the process.

Yesterday we walked aropund 4 miles, thats only a couple of miles from home and back but such treasures awaited us it was absolutely worth it.

I'd never been in the Ouseburn Valley before even though it's a maximum of 5 minutes walk from home but boy was it worth it, the whole area is being regenerated at present, a process started in 1996, thing is though it's such a huge area it's taking years. I loved the fact that it was so industrial and yet there were moments of beauty to be appreciated at every turn. If you are a UK resident with children then if I tell you that CBBC's "The Stables" is filmed in the Ouseburn Valley where Stepney bank Stable is then you may have some idea of the area I'm talking about.

Then of course we have the more familiar sight of the river tyne with all it's beautiful bridges, this is the first time I've taken photos of the bridges and so I thought I better take a couple of hundred just to make up for it!

The kids (I Think) loved the adventure, probably their favourite bit was when we all sat on the Millenium Bridge (thats the white one for anyone who doesn't know) eating our chocolate biccies (which I secreted away in my camera bag) and soaking up the gorgeous Easter weather.

Today we're off to Tynemouth for a little quaint seaside fun and hopefully some hi jinks along the way!