Last night I fell in love, yes it actually happened, last night I fell in love with...

an advent calendar which costs just £150!!

I'll tell you one thing, this beauty advent calendar is a definite way to my heart, just look at it's beauteous goodness and okay, yeah, it's £150 but it does contain £300 worth of beautiful presents, 24 tiny treats to make you fall in love over and over again, well at least for 24 days of December.  Maybe it was made more magical by the fact that it was in John Lewis?

For anyone who doesn't know me well, John Lewis is my favourite and my best, when I'm feeling sad and a bit glum I take myself to John Lewis and everything is happy again, all of the good in the retail world exists in John Lewis, cushions you can bury yourself in, sumptuous drapes you could hang in country houses, only the best people get to shop at John Lewis.

Now I should state for the record, I am not a beauty blogger but when John Lewis got in touch to invite me to their inaugural blogger event in their beauty retreat there was no way I was going to refuse, it's like being invited by the Queen for tea at Buckingham Palace, next year John Lewis, you should have a Christmas bloggers evening although I'm not sure I could cope with so much excitement, John Lewis and Christmas now go together in grand tradition, it isn't even Christmas until after we've first viewed that special advert which heralds the real start to Christmas.

Okay, so I'm guessing one or two of you cynical minds out there might be judging me for my materialistic love of a department store and for the idolisation of a false God but really, without John Lewis and Fenwick, life would be miserable and much like Waitrose the staff are the success of the store, they're always happy to help, always smiley so allow me this one deferment from my usual statement that life is about experiences and not things.

In saying that, last nights bloggers evening was most definitely an experience, I had a Decleor massage, an Elemis facial and a lovely hand massage from Jessica nails, there was music from a divine man announced only as "Mark" who I wanted to steal and pop in a corner of my living room so he could sing to me every time I walked past *insert winking smiley face here*

Last night was about so much more than beautification, it was about teeny tiny canapés, sumptuous macaroons and more importantly it was about catching up with my most favourite ladies from the blogging world, some of whom I haven't seen for ages.  I don't go out a lot at night and I only work with select brands now, juggling a photography business, writing, home educating, single parenting, well it doesn't leave a lot of time and that was one of the reasons I went along, an excuse for a pamper, just for a couple of hours to leave the world behind and spend it in the glittery wonderland that is John Lewis Newcastle.

I really do hope they throw more events and even more so, I hope they invite this fan girl to come along and escape the humdrum of the world outside and slide into a decadent department store where simply everything is taken care of.

8 Great gifts for teachers that won't break the bank

It's nearly the end of term, the summer holidays are almost within touching distance and kids everywhere are looking for the perfect gift to give their teachers to say thank you, it may be that they're just going up a year or that they're moving school but if you are buying for more than 1 teacher it can become prohibitively expensive, it cost me an absolute fortune when Looby left her primary school last year, we didn't begrudge those gifts one bit though as we'd been parents at the school for 15 years, I think I may have cried more than Looby saying goodbye to all of the wonderful staff who'd been such a big part of our lives.  Now being the canny shopper that I am I've put together a quick gift guide for you with 8 of my favourite gifts for teachers and support staff at schools that won't break the bank.

1. This Teacher Jolly Ginger Biscuit card from Biscuiteers is only £6, plus it's a card and a yummy biscuit so both money saving and totally tasty!
2. The You Are Wonderful Teacher print from Not On The High Street is only £8 and it's personalised, so in a world where teachers get a bazillion boxes of chocolates why not be the one to get something completely different?!
3. I love this wooden flower and tag, something which will last forever and only £12.50, the tag is personalised too.
4. If it does have to be chocolate then make sure it's good chocolate, Hotel Chocolat have a great selection with some starting at only £1.95
5. If you are going to buy flowers then make them local, I love the flowers from Diana Kaye at Fenwick in Newcastle, they are always so fresh and colourful and they often sell little posies for less than five pounds.
6. Ok, so the male teachers are a little harder but I managed to find these socks on Ebay for only £3 and they're available in both teacher and assistant teacher design, they're also personalised! For £3, bargain!
7. I love this little thank you for being my first teacher plaque, it's only £3.49 on Amazon and it's really a very sweet little gift.
8. Finally, this voice recording mug is the ultimate quirky and lovely present, you can record your own message guaranteed to make teacher feel all warm and loved every time they have a cuppa, and it's only £9.99

So there you go, it is possible to find great unique gifts for special teachers, why not let the kids choose which gifts they want to buy?!

I use affiliate marketing to facilitate the feeding of my children, Holly Bobbins and my cats but I put together this gift guide to make your life easier.

Thrifty Summer Style From TK Maxx

It's summer don't you know, yes it may not be wall to wall sunshine but it's July tomorrow!  TK Maxx very kindly sent me a £75 gift card, the brief was summer style and so I decided to be thrifty as possible and get as much as I could for my money, well it's not every day someone offers to pay for your shopping!

I love TK Maxx, it's no secret that after charity shops it's my favourite place to go searching for bargains, I once got Looby a Ralph Lauren skirt for £4.90 in the clearance section and I bought my very first Ralph Lauren, a jumper costing £35 instead of £130, sadly someone put it in the washer at a temperature that was just a little too high!

Wanna see what I got for my £75?

These sunglasses were without a doubt my biggest bargains, the white Anna Sui sunglasses were in the clearance section, RRP £130, I paid £13 and the purple Marc Jacobs sunglasses were £11 with an RRP of £110, yes that's £240 of designer sunglasses for £24 and I've worn them every day since I got them at the weekend, I perpetually wear sunglasses because I have light sensitive eyes (you can blame a career as a professional photographer for that) so even in winter I'll be out there walking Holly with my bobble hat and sunglasses!

Next I bought this amazing picnic rucksack, you know how I love a summer picnic  so this is going to be amazing in the summer holidays when Looby and I are on our travels, there's tons of room in it so I should be able to fit my camera and phone in as well and because it's padded everything is going to be safe and cosy!  This was £24.99 instead of the RRP of £49.99 and I'd been looking for one for ages,  I have the traditional basket but when you don't drive this is so much handier, especially if you are travelling on the train, no more overpriced under tasty buffet car for us!

I was perusing the shoe department when I saw these lovely toe post flat sandals by Guess, these were my most expensive purchase at £34.99, I suspect they'd be much pricier if I got them from Guess and do excuse my pearly white toes, these are the first sandals I've bought for years, me thinks a pedicure might happen before my holidays!  I love toe post sandals because flip flops never feel secure enough so having that strap at the back makes my feet feel safe whilst still being airy and look at them, they're summer casual style perfect for summer evenings with a floaty dress or exploring castles and towns with a pair of cropped trousers or leggings.

So that just left a fiver but I wasn't going to be satisfied until I had spent it all so I got myself this cute Caroline Gardiner salad bowl, perfect summer picnic style and only a fiver instead of it's RRP of £10

So there you go, 5 stylish summery items for my £75 and I think that's quite thrifty, ok so the sandals were an indulgence but the bargain designer sunglasses more than make up for my slight splurge, in a future blog post I'll share my secrets of how I have a wardrobe of designer clothes and 95% of them come from charity shops!

TK Maxx kindly sent me a £75 gift card in exchange for me going shopping and writing this post, some jobs are easier than others people, I never refuse shopping or shoes!

10 Fathers Day Presents To Make Dad's Day

It's Fathers Day on Sunday, the annual celebrations of the wonder that dad is and with that in mind I have a few nifty gifts you could get even the most hard to buy for papa to say thanks for all of the lifts, the cash advances, the DIY emergencies, the camping expertise, yes the best dads provide all of these as their specialist subjects so here without further ado is my guide to 10 Fathers Day presents to make dads day.

1. The Outwell Cazal Fire pit - I have a fire pit in my garden and I absolutely love it but you know what the average dad loves?  BBQing and a fire pit is such a great purchase, one, it keeps you warm on evenings spent in your garden and 2 it doubles up as a BBQ with a huge cooking surface, we use ours two or 3 times a week.

2. A photo shoot that's all about dad, I couldn't write this article without suggesting a photo shoot, I sell vouchers you can happily print and present to dad on Sunday and then at a later date plan your fabulous family photo shoot, it's the gift that keeps on giving and they do say you should buy gifts that you would want to receive yourself, to purchase an E-Voucher from just £30 please Email Me

3. If you're dad is a funky dude you might want to treat him to my personal favourite thing, cherry red Dr Martens, I find that men are the worst about replacing shoes and when they do they grab the first thing they see, why not treat dad to something he can wear for years or of course, you could just buy them for yourself.  Abigail actually has these boots and in my humble opinion they're just as fab for daughters as they are for dads.

4. If there's one constant in the life of dad it's the need for socks, whilst we women can get away barefoot for most occasions I'm always a little worried when I see men wearing shoes without socks, take note men, barefoot with flip flops or plimsoles is all very well and good but never, just never wear leather shoes without socks, think of the sweaty toes, get yourself to Happy Socks and buy some footwear to make your feet delighted.

5. Why not get dad an Audible subscription, I was talking to Iain about writing this guide and this was his suggestion, I used to use Audible but I prefer music to audio books, I did however used to love David Tennant reading the Doctor Who books because it was like having the doctor in your ears and almost as good as watching him on TV, I'm sure (and so is Iain) that this will be one present which only costs a little every month and will keep dad happy for a very long time as he gets a new book every month for just £7.99

6. Have a dad who loves playing sport?  I've bought 2 pairs of Karrimor run trainers in the last week at ridiculously bargain prices so you can be assured that Sports Direct have something for all pockets, some great ways to show dad how much you love him (Karrimor Run is my favourite brand for running and walking and they have enormous savings).

7.  If dad has his own specialist subject then why not get him a magazine subscription, this is another gift that will keep on giving and it's quite a low monthly cost so if you're budget is a shoestring then this might be the gift for you.

8. Ok so you've got no money but you want something exclusive so why not be creative, maybe make up a box of goodies and include this fabulous Harrods Pen, it's only £5.95 but if you popped it in a gift box with some chocolates and his favourite tipple you might just find he thinks you're the best child in the world.

9. Now it may not be applicable to all the men folk but generally in my experience I've found that the males of the species love nothing more than a good beer or some chocolate so why not put the two things together and get your father a beer chocolate hamper from Hotel Chocolat

10. Those lovely people at Marks and Spencer have an awesome offer, you get shorts, shirt and Fathers Day card for only £19.50, now that's something to fit everyones budget.

Disclaimer, I use affiliate marketing as a method to facilitate the feeding of my children however all of these products have been personally chosen by me to save you time with your Fathers Day gift purchasing.

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Loneliness, Hermitude, Christmas and not being a social butterfly

I wasn't planning on blogging today but since my body clock decided that I might want to be awake at 6am on a Saturday I have a few hours to fill before I leave to go to Durham for some photo shoots, I have 4 lovely photo shoots right on the top of the hill at Wharton Park, I've been visiting this particular park for several years, well since I started my business, it's the place my Durham clients always request and as it's just a short hop up a very steep hill from the train station it's nicely convenient.

I am hoping that when I am done this afternoon I can have a stroll down into the city and have a wander and hopefully pick up a few Christmas gifts, I love shopping in Durham, it's one of those lovely cities with quirky little shops which sell unusual gift items, I think Santa would probably give Durham 2 thumbs up!

Both of the girls were at dads last night so after a couple of more lively lovely days last night was just far too quiet for my liking, it's never a good thing to be in bed before 10pm, I think that's the worst part of separation and divorce, being apart from your children a lot more than you would like, I'm the first to admit that I'm not exactly the most social butterfly of the year and I would much rather be at home with the kids, I have a couple of Christmas party invitations this year and I am going to drag myself out to them otherwise I think I'll be giving legendary hermit Hannah Hauxwell a good run for her money although I have to say I couldn't live without gas, electric or running water!

It's a little bit of a quandary really to have bouts of loneliness but not actually want to go out into the world and socialise with people because that's far too terrifying, even my recent weekly visits to Slimming World have been just to get weighed and then straight home.  At Christmas I am throwing the doors open to visitors and anyone who wants to come to my house for mulled wine and mince pies is absolutely welcome, especially on Tuesdays once the cleaner has been ;)

and so off into the world I go, well not now, I'm still in my pyjamas writing this from the comfort of my cosy tartan clad bed but soon, on the train for another photographic adventure filled day, oh and if you just happen to be popping in to get the low down on photo shoots, my latest availability is that I will be at Jesmond Dene on November 29th, Saltwell Park on Sunday 7th of December and Tynemouth Longsands on Saturday 13th of December, all have a little availability so get in touch if you would like a photo shoot and as long as you place your order by December 15th I will personally make sure that you have your goodies before Santa Claus pays a visit with Rudolph et al, I'll leave you with my thought for the day... What in the heck am I going to write about in January?

More Blogging coming soon....

I have been such a naughty blogger and it's all about to change.

In recent weeks I have been shooting many gorgeous weddings, kids and families and as if thats not enough I have also been decorating our house and I've also started walking, I take myself on jaunts to interesting places and have become the queen of Charity shop bargains.  You see the thing is, I want to have a house which matches the personality of our family, so basically vintage, quirky and fun, now I have a penchant for old and interesting as well as funky retro and so you can only find these things at Car boot sales, antique stores and charity shops so I've incorporated my walking with hunting for lovely pretty things for our house and I have to say that it's all going fabulously.  I've sprinkled in a little new because I love John Lewis and Laura Ashley but for the most part everything I've made use of has been a bargain!!  thanks to my lovely friend Julie over at Applause Accountancy for the suggestion that I should incorporate my shopping tales

1 more important thing, my wonderful friend and awesome photographer who inspires me every day, Mr Matt Wagster has his amazing and gorgeous photographs from our vow renewal on his blog at the moment so if you have a moment go and have a look and then leave him a lovely comment, I call Matt my big brother even though he's technically a little younger than me so I really want him to feel the love!!

So I promise more blogging, more photography and more shopping tales coming very soon.

Oh and just so this blog post has an image, here's something I shot at a vintage wedding recently -


 

Hurrah for Husbands!!

Yep Paul has been using the camera, he's recently started those first tentative steps in photography and I think he's doing rather well he took this photo of Boo Boo last night,



Now I can rarely manage to photograph Boo Boo being that he moves so quickly so well done to hubby for his fabbo attempt! I processed it for him and gave him a little chat about not using direct flash and I think with just a little guidance Paul could be the next rising photographic star!!

Here's mine for last night, taken at 800iso in the dimmest livingroom light, we have one teeny light for the evenings which is kind of nice but not conducive to great photography, especially if like me you despise the use of flash. I loved this one of Abigail though, I like the angle and the look she has on her face, it has had some post processing but only just a little in lightroom, I rarely have to send photos into photoshop these days which is good because I've noticed that Photoshop doesn't seem to like it when I have more than 2 photos open! I was trying to do 8 the other day and my poor laptop was practically steaming!! The Mac Book Pro is in my shopping list but at nearly £2000 it may be sometime before I realise that dream.

Happy Sunday everyone, we're just watching the Great North Run on tv, funny because we only really live 10 minutes away from seeing it live! We're having a lazy morning though, this afternoon we'll be off for an autumnal ramble to Rothbury, mostly because I've noticed that most of the trees are just on the turn to gorgeous rich colours and I can't wait to capture some of that!!

Ash and Halima

So what can I tell you about this couple that I shared their wedding with, well they're a gorgeous couple who approached their wedding day with great responsibilty but they are all round lovely people and I'm so glad I got to share the day with them. The photo I'm sharing today is of Ash's brother who I have to say was lots of fun especially when I made his cousins and he walk the length of the back garden so that I could get a great shot of them, well it worked didn't it!!

I can honestly say that I've never even picked up my camera over he weekend, we've had a super exciting time though, we bought a new sofa and chair on Friday and then on Saturday we bought a new big TV, a TV unit and a coffee table :D

Today we went to two car boot sales where we had lots of fun, I bought a Tolouse Lautrec pasta jar, i.e it had a moulin rouge piccy on the side LOL, ooh did I tell you about my new toaster, ooh it's fabulous!! Yes I know excited by a toaster, back to my bottle of champagne I think! I can thank hubby ofr that one, he bought it for me oFriday with a huge gorgeous bunch of flowers, I loves him I do!!

Changes and Treats

I must say thankyou to Koboshi Glass from whom I bought this gorgeous necklace this week and if you think it looks good in this piccy you should see it in real life, it's made from Dichroic glass and the way it sparkles in the sunshine is just amazing! I know that Jennifer won't mind that I borrowed her pic of it from the Craft Marketplace but I haven't had time to take one myself.

Oh and if you fancy clicking on that link you can purchase any print of any photo I have on my . for only £8 inclusive of postage and packaging. I've already sold a couple and they're being really well received so don't be shy!!

Onto the changes part of my blog, well as you know yesterday we went to David Lloyd and oh what fun we had, it's a totally family centric sports and health club and it didn't take too much persuading for us to join, if you're interested they're having an open weekend this weekend so get down there and try them for free.

It's actually costing just under £150 a month for our membership but for what you get I think thats not too bad, the kids can't wait to start doing all manner of classes and I personally am hoping to shed some pounds and inches. Obviously though I'm looking forward to the social side of things, they've a huge family lounge with plasma screen CBeebies, playstations, free internet use, gorgeous food, outdoor play and many other benefits, this really is a lifestyle we're buying into and no they didn't pay us to say that!! It's definetly perfect ofr those of us recovering from Agoraphobia!!

Well happy weekend, I'm off to catch up on some chores before an afternoon swimming at David Lloyd!!

Sleepy Puppy!

Thought I had to share this photograph really as it's so darned cute, I took it a couple of days ago just as Fiyero was tootling off to sleep, bless his little fluffy paws!

So yesterday I went to buy a new laptop to be greeted by several techy males telling me how Windows vista would wreck my business and how I should get an XP machine except they don't sell them anymore other than through their business section and they just happen to be a couple of hundred quid more expensive than the swanky Vista model that I wanted. I remained unpeturbed, stuck to my guns and in the back of my mind was thinking "good old Bil Gates wouldn't lket me down would he???"

So a couple of hours later and I had it all set up and ready to go, I have everything on this laptop I had on my old one except Vista is so much better, yes the laptop is much better specs but you can definetly tell the difference between Vista and XP, in my opinion Vista is just a whole lot more sensible and a lot more like a MAC, I'm a definite fan already and I would advise you if you go to the computer store and they tell you not to get Vista (presumably they get less commission for it) don't listen to them everything will be fine, my software is all fine, my printer is fine, my camera is fine, even blinkin Flock is fine and thats still very much in Beta!

Oh and Napster comes as standard, so within minutes my Napster subscription was transferred although I have to rebuild the library but that shouldn't take too long and on this laptop I'm definetly not having any of hubbys music, he can have it on his laptop!!

Out with the old...

and in with the new. I think shopping is good for the soul, especially when you're buying things which you might not need but you definetly want!! Today thanks to the Tax credits people and my job we finally got to do a little recreational shopping. We bought a whole new dinner service and some fabbo cups and saucers all from my favourite store Ikea, we had seen a gorgeous rug which was half price but sadly it was sold out.

I think we're decorating or atleast on the way to renewing all that needs done in this house and blimey there is such a lot to do, I know we're talking of moving but I feel that as long as we're progressing in this house then we'e half way there.

We did pass a nice place tonight where you can take part n one of those schemes where you buy half and rent half of a house then when you've bought the first half you move on to the second half. It's so good not to have to worry about money any more, I know we're not exactly rolling in it, far from it, in most peoples eyes we're probably the poorest of the poor but in comparison to what we were used to when we were both ill it's amazing the difference, plus of course we're both happy, have jobs we love and whats more both our jobs still allow us to see the children grow up.

we saw so much furniture we loved today, it's funny how you can get excited about wardrobes but we've only had clothes rails for the last two years in our bedroom, we even saw a wrought iron bed frame which was gorgeous and totally affordable. The only hard decision is should we get the bedroom furniture first or the Wii which the kids probably think is much more of a neccessity!!

I'm So Excited!

You wouldn't beleive dear reader that I didn't get a wink of sleep last night, although dear reader you may have guessed that if you know me well, and the reason for my lack of shut eye, well I don't think I can control myself any longer, I'm just so excited because it's only 3 sleeps till Santas arrival and i'll be tracking him with Norad, yes it's a yearly tradition in our house we all get really excited on christmas eve we start tracking the big guy, then the kids lose interest and it's just me left acting like a 5 year old and crying out "OMG Santas just been spotted over the great wall of China" Yes dear reader hope for me is fast running out, even the funny farm gave up hope, so much so that they packed up and moved in between appointments!!

You know, this is the very first year we've not had to worry about the financial aspects, don't get me wrong up until Paul started work a month ago I was in a panic but hey I did all the christmas shopping by internet in 3 weeks, I may not have sent Christmas cards but apart from that i'm mostly the most organised I have ever been. I'm off to the supermarket this morning for last minute gifts and the grocery shopping, am I phased that it will be one of the busiest days of the year, why no dear reader, I am positively brimming with yuletide joys of the season and cannot wait and if all else fails atleast I have my 3 year old for protection. One mostly sensible thing is that the kids don't actually finish school till this afternoon so only 2 hyper-exciteable days instead of the usual week. tat my dear reader is what I call a blessing sent from above!!

New things to share...

So it's Design Team reveal day at Happy Scrapper and I'm pleased to share with you the things that i've been up to with this months kit, we were lucky enough to get a bumper kit to play with containing Cosmo Cricket Papers, Cosmo Cricket die cuts and a Cosmo cricket cigar box containing chipboard alphas and shapes, I had such fun creating these layouts and when I finished I emptied the cigar box and turned it into a handbag! Lots of fun! I had the Love notes collection and even though I was completely stumped it didn't take too long to get inspiration, I used a photo from our recent holiday to create "My new best friend" which tells the story of Loobys relationship with Tilly the dog and then for my next layout, I celebrate "Darlington" yes thats the name I call my hubby, I used to call him Darling but we like silly names in our house and I call him Darlington, what does he call me, well that would be telling ;)