Abigail and Iain did provide a couple of great photos for me to use for my portfolio!!

Not much else to report at the moment, Paul had a very dark day yesterday so most of that was spent trying to be normal and not notice the foreboding depression surrounding us, he seems a little cheerier this morning so lets just hope that things stay this way for the remainder of the day, why not pop accross and see him and send him lots of hugs.

Just got to keep on pushing

I love this photo from yesterday of Abigail, she just looks so pretty and sweet and you know for the most part she is, we've jst been to see her reception class teacher tonight and she's thrilled with how our little girl is settling in and loves how she is bright as a button and a hppay little soul, I'm really proud of her.

So yes I'm pushing, pushing and pushing a little more with regards to my business, it's so disheartning at the moment, the website is now all finished and I secured my professional email address today (more money) so if you want to hire me you can visit the site or email mandy@mandycharltondesigns.com, now thats a huge email addy for you!

The thing is though i still feel like i'm playing at big girl shops and i probably will until someone actually pays me for my services, my friends build me up and give me loads of confidence but there's still that niggling doubt at the back of my mind atleast 30 times a day which says your not good enough, My therapist calls this niggling doubt my mother!!

I have now chosen some very nice leaflets and business cards which are going to take a while but in the meantime I have some cheapie emergency business cards en route which I'm kind of hoping my hubby will help me spread accross the north east. Talking of Hubby, he's doubtful about playing on his calf strain at the weekend, so I'm asking you all to send a little healing energy over to Mr 30minutemeandering so that he gets to play in the county cup n Sunday morning, if he doesn't I fear my life will not be worth living for yet another week!!

Finally...

A great photograph of Abigail and Iain together! quite pleased with this one i am as it really was another near disasterous shoot. Still none of the three of them together but I'm guessing that other peoples children can be nowhere near as much hard-work as my own.

The failed photo-shoot and a layout

Sometimes you know before you set out that you'e never going to get the shots you want, firstly never try and get hubby to have his photo taken just before lunch, he'll co-operate for around 5 minutes before faking some kind of hypoglycemic coma and ranting about cake and buns every 30 seconds. Secondly don't expect a 3 year old to act any differently!

Yes not everything in life goes to plan and in my family it's usually a surprise when something actually does work!

Anyway I can home with a camera full of nothing, if you think this shot was bad you should see the rest of them!

One of my fabulous team-mates had a brilliant idea for my business, Fiona recommended that I do a Babies first year package or as i'm calling it the Poppet Portrait Package!!

The layout was created for the Happy Scrapper design team and features the fabulous swirly papers of Winnies walls, I think I took the swirlies 1 step further. Photo is of course my Looby being a princess!!

He's lots of fun and a bit tasty...

Except that he's not happy at present as he just went out for a 3 mile run and came back 5 minutes later having pulled his calf so I want to dedicate todays post to his loveliness and say i know life can be a bitch but your gorgeous, you're all mine and i love you to bits!!

Here's a few shots of him from yesterday being silly as usual!!

Ooh I must tell you I have been arranging business cards and leaflets so hopefully i should get some customers soon, starting your own business when you have nothing to finance it with is nearly impossible but hey ho, i do have determination and hopefully by Christmas I'll have loads of people queueing up for photography shoots!!

See The Devil Wears Prada free

I've just had word from the lovely Michael Cooper on behalf on the Nissan Micra team inviting me to see "The Devil Wears Prada" tommorrow night at the Metro-centre Gateshead at 7.30pm, of course I said I'll be there will bells on and so will my hubby. you know the best thing though is that it's totally free, you get to see the movie over a week before it's generally released and the ultimate thing is that Nissan are raising money for Breast Cancer Awareness and so there'll be volunteers collecting.

So if you're in the north and you fancy a darned great movie staring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway (I've seen the trailers and it looks hilarious!!) you can Email Michael HERE

Do it soon though as tickets are strictly limited and don't forget to tell him where you heard it.

Sharing Sundays photos

So today it was Loobys birthday party, she's 3 tommorrow but of course its a monday and as usual all the family wanted to come and annoy us and eat cake etc, anyway i took quite a few photos today and thought i would share just a couple, Looby must have gotten every single Dora toy in the shop and Looby being Looby she just got on with it and was happy but not hyper. My gorgeous baby girl will be 3 tommorrow and i really wish i could stop time and keep her like this forever, she's just adoreable and luckily so are her brother and sister!!