The first challenge I decided to try for Shimelles Proud to be a scrapbooker weekend was the Starting Point Challenge, it seemed to be the simplest way to get myself going as she gave a starting point and all you had to do was follow along and then after you had the same basic elements make it your own.

I chose to scrap another one of my iPhone photos, now it's not usually like me to scrapbook random things instead of the kids but this photo represents a dream that both me and hubby have - the Journalling reads "This old house may not look like much but it's our dream house in Tynemouth, all thats stands between us and a fully renovated dream house is half a million pounds"

I've used the Stella Rose range of papers from My Minds Eye and added some bling, well rather a lot of it actually, Prima and Kars are the companies responsible for all of the page elements.  The title stickers are Making Memories, the only thing I have no idea where they came from are those flower pins.

If you haven't guessed it by now I love bling!

A Stickery Challenge

Let me preface this by saying that over on Shimelle.com she's having a proud to be a scrapbooker weekend with challenges and prizes aplenty and so having a rare Saturday with no weddings or portraits I thought it was a good chance to spend the day in the kitchen getting dirty with ink and paper.

So this challenge was about using Stickers from different ranges and using them together, I've used Queen and Co and Sassafrass felt stickers to compile this layout of my two gorgeous girls.

for me this weekend was about getting some photos used up which I won't put in frames, they're just from my iPhone so not the best quality but with a few added embellishments on a scrapbook page it turns them into their very own pieces of scrapbooking art.

The queen and co felt flowers and vines came as a huge wide strip so they've been hacked to make something a little gentler and then I've added the felties from Sassafrass along with a bit of Bling, the paper and statement is from the Be Loved range by My Minds Eye.

Stay tuned, my next blog is coming up in just a few minutes with another challenge completed.

The Twitter Round Up, First Edition

@MeanderingPaul and I were talking today about twitter and the fact that he never gets into my daily news, well thats because it's automated I replied and he commented that surely it would be much better for me to manually do it and report on things I'd personally chosen and so here's what's going to happen - I think this deserves a blog of it's own but given that 1, I don't know if it's going to work and 2, setting up a new blog is going to take time, I'll just do it here until such a time as I decide.

So a couple of times a week I'm going to give a quick round up from my twitter feed, so if you have something you want to tell the world then all you have to do is tell me via my Twitter account.  And so lets get down to whats been going on in the twitter world -

1. The first thing I have to mention is the BOB books seminar on the 6th of September taking place at The Living Room in Newcastle, I'll be speaking about the Dressing Up project, photobooks and many other fabulous things, the link for more information is http://photobookmonthnewcastle.eventbrite.com/

2. Yesterday I commented I was baking to combat the horrible weather, gilltaylorphoto replied to say she was making a warming stroganoff whilst cakepopboutique pondered what if we all baked at the same time? the power of cake!

3. Chris from Specularworld tweeted to say he's been shortlisted for black and white photographer of the year, congrats Chris, I really hope you win.

4 Meandering Paul was poorly this week and tweeted to say that he must be poorly because he was craving ice-cream and lime Jelly, Phil Sherry said he was obviously pregnant to which I replied that he also had a rash and I didn't know that was a symptom of pregnancy at which point Meandering Paul replied saying he was only allergic to penicillin and dogs so clearly he was going to deliver a dachshund.

5.

It's My Friday roundup

It's that day of the week again, the hallowed day of Friday, even though I mostly work weekends I still get that Friday feeling!  Here's my round up of everything that's been going down in my world this past week.

On Sunday it was Hayley and Andrews wedding at The Assembly Rooms in Newcastle, it rained quite a lot but what a day we had with them, hubby assisted and i have to say he did a brilliant job, I'm still editing all of the photos so this is just a teaser of what is to come.

It wasn't all work and no play, in a quiet moment and while I was testing my flash for the first dance hubby decided he would become mild mannered asst pinching my glasses, seriously I think he looks hot!!  Shame he's got perfect vision eh?!

My other highlight of the week was taking Abigail up to Alnwick, she loves Alnwick Castle because she's a huge Harry Potter fan, I would love to photograph a wedding at Alnwick Castle so if you are a bride planning your wedding there please do get in touch :)

We had a fabulous day and my favourite part was broomstick training!

See, she can fly ;)

Levitating the broomstick, now that truly is cool.

This week has been another lovely summer holiday week, I realise that our country hasn't had the best of weeks with looting and rioting and whilst I have quite strong views on these subjects, I don't think that blogging them is appropriate, what I will say is that Twitter and Facebook have been the things that helped me launch my business and help to keep it going every day, I've made so many wonderful friends and received so much support through the wonder of social media that I just want to remind people, it's only a tiny minority who are using social media for negative reasons.

Happy Friday everyone!

Christine and Michael are married

My beautiful friend Christine got married to her true love Michael last Friday at St Marys Heworth followed by Eslington Villas, which by the way if you are a north east bride planning a smaller wedding you couldn't fault Eslington Villa, it really is a special kind of place and  it was a really special day and I'm so utterly delighted that I got to record it

here's just a few previews from the day, we started the day with Mike at the Barbers

and then we popped to Christines mums where we were greeted by this happy chap!

It's that getting into the dress moment!

because Christine and Michael are such good friends I also got to share the day with my gorgeous family and yes thanks to the talents of Jamie Emerson we got a new family portrait

 and yes there's me with my camera, that doesn't happen very often ;)

Married!

Their gorgeous little family is complete!

Christine and Michael, thank you so much for sharing your day with me, I love you so much and I hope that you have a long and happy marriage together.

For a very limited period of time (20/08/11) I'm including my brand new 12x12 photobooks in all packages, prices start from £749 for 4 hours, if you want to meet with me to talk about your 2011 or 2012 wedding please either visit http://mandycharlton.com and fill out the contact form or call me on 07918 121838 or as ever you can email mandy@mandycharlton.com

All about Christine

 Todays post is all about one of my very best friends, Christine, tomorrow she's going to tie the knot to her true love Michael and as well as hubby and the kids coming with me to celebrate our friends love I also get to be their wedding photographer, a great honour indeed but in the words of Christine she just doesn't trust anyone else.
                   

                                  

I first met Christine when she contacted me to take some 21st portraits of her, on the first meeting we got on like a house on fire even though there's a considerable age difference, that was in 2008 and we've been through lots together since then, she's settled down, met Michael, got engaged, bought a house, had baby Benjamin and now tomorrow she's getting married!!

I'm so happy that Christine found me when she was looking for a photographer all those years ago and I'm so thankful that we became such great friends, Christine, tomorrow is your big day and I can't wait to photograph it and help you celebrate, all of the Charltons love you so much it's going to be a fabulous day, see you tomorrow and don't forget to have the bacon sandwiches ready ;)

Mandy Charlton has not been abducted by aliens

Despite it being over a month since I last blogged I can actually confirm that the aliens did not abduct me.  Life is a funny thing, you think you have all the time in the world and then you realise it's July and it's only a few months until Christmas!!

So because I've got no chance of ever catching up I'll use this catch up post to share some photos of recent favourite photos.

These last few images are jointly credited to Jamie Emerson with whom I collaborated (and who is also a wonderful talented friend and photographer) on the Brides Up North Bridal Belles photoshoot if you click on that link you'll get to see the whole collection of photographs.  They really are deserved of their own blog post but who knows if that will actually happen, you might have guessed but blogging hasn't exactly been top of my list over this last couple of months.

As well as all the working we did get to go to and stay in a quaint scottish castle for a mini break,I got to sleep princess like on a huge bed in a Turret!!

Over the next 6 weeks it's the summer holidays and time for me to have fun with the kids while shooting just a couple of weddings, I am available for portraits and if you want to give photographic gifts for Christmas this year perhaps consider having these portraits shot over the next six weeks when the weather will hopefully be better than it is in October, I did say hopefully though....