It's not very often I manage to get them all in one place looking happy, looks like the 7th day of the 7th month of the 7th year was lucky lucky lucky for me!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

It's Official, I have the busiest life in the world!!

More weddings are booked and it's looking like me schedule for the next 12 months is going to be completely fabulous if somewhat manic!!

Just want to say a big CONGRATULATIONS to ma buddy Sarah and her BF Matt who've just announced that they're going to get officially engaged in October, of course I've offered them an engagement shoot and if I'm really lucky I might just get to do her wedding which would be a total honour as she and Matt are a really cute couple who have the sweetest story to tell.

Also had some great news yesterday which is going to see us considerably better off from August, great just in time for Iain and Loobys birthday, Looby who will be celebrating her 4th birthday wants a Pink Nintendo DS and a Dora game to go with it!!! Iain, I think will be in line for a Wii!

Just been chilling out at the beach this evening after a very busy day it has to be said!! Had lots of fun and took a smidgeon of photos, hopefully I can get those processed and share some tommorrow, too late now as I've just realised that my camera is in the car and with that, I shall go and get it!!

Happy weekend again!!

When I Began Blogging....

I never thought there would come a day where I actually hadn't blogged for a week, 1 year and a half later and life really has become so very busy that I haven't been able to squeeze it in! We've had a week of ups and downs, We've had chicken Pops, Wedding photography bookings, portrait bookings galore and Paul has been working hard gardening for what sometimes seems like the whole north east! LOL, and if we weren't doing all of that then you could probably find us at the David Lloyd club!

Speaking of which, I had a health and fitness induction yesterday afternoon and oh my I've put on nearly 2 stone since last May, this came as a bit of a shock but I spoke to my personal trainer and expressed my wishes to be thin, fit and fabulous by the start of the 2008 wedding season and that doesn't seem to be a problem! I'm going to atleast make the effort to do the gym workout a couple of times a week and in between I expect we'll be doing a fair bit of swimming anyway!!

I have around 3ish portrait bookings on this week, I say ish because a couple still have to confirm exact times and dates but never the less I am completely looking forward to all of them!!

Have a good week and I promise to try and post again before the weekend, oh and I'm booked in for an eyebrow waxing at the Saks salon situated inside the David Lloyd club, anyway I'm a wax virgin and only slightly terrified so wish me luck!!

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!!

Off to the Printers....

This template for my leaflet has gone. In the end the other two both had minor quibbles, the one of Abigail was sort of too sad looking for a childrens photographer though it was the preferred shot and the one of Looby didn't have enough space at the top for the text, it was only a problem because when I take photos I take them with a view to not cropping them at all and ..... well you get the idea, so quick scan of which other delights I had from the princess series and voila this is the leaflet template and by this time next week it should be 2000 leaflets.

It's been such a quick week again this week, Paul and I both had our businesses officially registered yesterday which means I now have the fun task of doing all the admin for both of them as well as the accounting, YIKES!!

So can you beleive it, if you look back at the beginning of this blog I bet you wouldn't expect that only a year and a half later we would both be self employed with our own businesses!! Lets just hope that Mandy Charlton Designs and Meandering Gardens do us proud, you'll note that Pauls doesn't have a website and it really doesn't need one, he's doing so well it's a complete testament to just what hard work can do for you!

As for me, well my face is going to be featured on the back of 8000 leaflets going out to the east end of Newcastle advertising the Enterprise Support Team, the bonus is that underneath my pic will be my company name, my job title and all importantly my phone-number! All Good!

This weekend we're off to the local David Lloyd centre for some R&R, swimming, tennis, more swimming and definite family enjoyment, it must be good because I just bought myself a new 2 piece tankini set and also some joggers and a T-shirt for those more fitness orientated things, Looking forward to it? Yeah dear reader, YOu bet I am!!

Happy Friday Everyone :D

Self Portraits

We're having a photography challenge on Craft at the moment and the aim is that we all take self portraits and share, mainly because it helps people put names to faces and secondly because it's quite a challenging thing to do with your camera.

I did two today, both with my 50mm lens which isn't the easiest as if you hold it above yourself at the most flattering photography angle you find you can't get your whole self in, not to worry too much though as I quite enjoy taking bits of me rather than the whole me. Oh and I'm going to get my eyebrows waxed tommorrow hopefully, I waxed with photoshop here and I definitely think I need to do it no matter how painful the thought of it is!!

To be honest it's only my eyebrows so I can't see that it would hurt too much I mean after all it's not exactly a large area, I might be more concerned if it was other places I was attempting to wax and anyway after having 3 children it can't be too bad now can it?!

Paul has been out working all day today even though it was fathers day, thats him though, dedicated to the cause and it kind of made up for the deluges we've had during the week.

I went and delivered a coulple of hundred of his leaflets and my busines s cards today so hopefully I might get some business from them.

Oh and 1 final thing, notice my new funky hairstyle, I love it now that it's had a couple of days to settle :D

Angel with a Dirty face

Yep, I've been scrapping, I knew I would do something crafty as it's QVC craft day and that always manages to get me scrapping, I never buy anything but it's just nice to have any form of craft on TV for the day.

This layout has been brewing for ages, I've been desperate for atleast the last year to make a layout purely from felt, well I finally aquired some felt squares during the week and Voila here it is!

Ooh 1 other thing, did you see Dr Who tonight, edge of your seat stuff don't you think, I can't wait to see how this all pans out, and Capn Jack, Fwoarrrrrrrrr

I'm so obsessed with Dr Who, I even had a Dr Who dream last night, and yes complete withj Capn Jack!!! Ooh Capn Jack and Dr Who together and a spare half an hour, the things I could get up to MWhahahahaha

Oh and 1 final thing, did you join in with the butterfly book, if anyone does create one I would love you to share a link so I can see what different crafters do with them.