I don't know about you but I started 2015 with a heavy sigh, sad that 2014 hadn't been my favourite year in life but in the back of my mind I had a feeling of great expectation that 2015 would prove to be a much more smiley year.

It really has been so far, I've had some gorgeous family moments, some happy times at work and some adventures thrown in for good measure.

I think now I get out of bed with a spring in my step and a little woofy face at my feet, having a puppy who loves cuddles on the other side of the bed is way better than a cold empty flat space next to you.  My daily wake up now involves a beagle head or toes usually right next to my cheek and I'm lucky that Holly isn't a massive fan of mornings like me (totally perfect match we are) but once she's up and about she's dragging me off to the park for a few miles of wandering, walking and sometimes me chasing her trying to get her to come back after encounters with spaniels, she really does have a spaniel fixation!

This year I have given up sugar (barring a couple of nights out but you can't be a saint all of the time) and I'm a dress size smaller and a stone lighter than I was on my birthday (1st Feb).  I've also managed to make my business pretty autonomous and get Sundays off thanks to the ace photography skills of my associate Stacey.

I've explored places near and far and all mostly because of Holly, well you have to walk interesting places when you're doing 12,000-15,000 steps a day!  Oh yeah, I should mention the steps, I went from walking 8,000 steps a day to nearly double that and have lost inches, I wish I'd measured how many!

All in all we've come to nearly April and I'm happy and pretty content with my lot in life, there's more to be done of course, there always is, I want to lose somewhere in the region of another stone though my target is only 8lb away and I want to continue to become fitter and healthier.

I want to continue to build my already successful business into something entirely awesome, I have a great team in the shape of Stacey and Sue who does the admin and I'm pretty sure we can conquer the North East (in a photography sense) by the end of this year.

I'm going on holiday in 15 days, more walking and stomping and rambling and ambling, all through the Northumbrian countryside, I can't wait!

So here we are, Holly will be 10 months old this week, that's 5 months she'll have been with me, it's unbelievable to think it's been so long and at the same time it feels like she's been a family member forever, she keeps me on my toes on a daily basis but together we have the best adventures and I'm so thankful she came into my family.

UK Cityscapes, then and now, a progress update

When I started the UK Cityscapes project I thought that it would be easy, I mean, there's only 69 cities, that's just 69 days out of 365, I gave myself a year to do it and for me I just thought it would be easy, I was so very wrong...

Since April I have travelled to 22 different cities and I have loved pretty much all of them, there have been ups and downs (did someone mention Wakefield?) and what started out as an idea for me to just take 69 photographs of the cityscapes of our great cities of the UK has become something much more.  I have absorbed myself in each city so I could come up with an unbiased view, I have explored, I have literally walked for miles, sometimes with a guide or a companion and sometimes with just me.

This week I made the tough decision to take a week off from travelling, my family complained that the only see me in passing, I'm super busy shooting weddings and portraits and I find myself exhausted and my mood is dipping, and that's accompanied by spots, a cold sore and yesterday I woke up with a migraine, this is always a sure sign that I need to step back and reassess.

I am worried though that I am completely behind schedule and that I'm letting people down by not achieving the goal quickly enough.  It's very much more expensive than I ever thought it would be, even with the crowd funding, every single penny I earn is going into this project.

Why am I writing this, well it's my blog and therefore it's a good place to put my thoughts and I really needed to do this, don't worry, I'm not even thinking of giving up, I just need some time. I've already got my tickets and hotel booked for Sheffield next week but I have nothing further booked after that trip so I really need to book more and decide what action plan I am going to take, on average it's £100 per city for travel and hotels if I can do it in 24 hours and I think the easy way would perhaps be for me to see if I could just turn up at a city, take 1 photo and get back on a train, however, I think if I do that I am essentially letting myself down and therefore letting everyone who's supported me down too.

For the rest of this week though I am doing family things, I have a wedding on Friday and then I have the weekend off as it's my hubby's birthday and I think he wants to go to Redefest, a music festival in Northumberland.  On Monday I hope to have made the decisions and I'll be filled with renewed energy and my mojo will reappear.

Until then, I shall muse about the next step, suggestions though, are gratefully received.