Dear reader, yes it's another work post so skip on through if you're just here for the juicy personal stuff, heehee!

So here's my remaining availability for the rest of the year - 

Monday 1st December 10-1.30 at any location

Thursday 4th December - Jesmond Dene 1pm

Friday 12th December - 10-13.0 at any location

Saturday 13th December - 12.30 at Tynemouth Longsands

Sunday 14th December - Saltwell Park 11.30, noon, 12.30, 1pm

Monday 15th December - 11am - Jesmond Dene

Wednesday 17th December 10-1.30 at any location

Thursday 18th December 10-1.30 at any location

Friday 19th December 10-1.30 at any location

Saturday 20th December 11am, 11.30, noon, 1pm, 1.30pm, 2pm

Sunday 21st December 10-2.30pm at any location

Half hour photo shoots are £25 at Jesmond Dene, Tynemouth and Saltwell Park, all other locations, at home and larger family portraits are £40, all come with a web gallery for 30 days, 15% off for the first week your gallery is live and a complimentary print (7x5 for 30 mins and 12x8 for the full photo shoot) 

Last orders if you want to get your prints by post is midnight on the 15th December or if you can collect your prints from me in Heaton last orders will be Midnight on 21st December.

Black Friday offer - get 40% off at Philomena's Boutique with the code BLACKFRIDAY until Midnight on Monday

1 more thing, if you buy gift certificates before Midnight on Monday I will add an extra 20% of value, this offer will end at Midnight on Monday!

Have a wonderful weekend, I have photo shoots in Jesmond Dene tomorrow and then the lady is coming to do the home check from Beagle Welfare tomorrow afternoon (fingers and toes crossed please) and then Sunday, well I'm sort of dotting about the North East after a photo shoot in Ponteland I am off to Gosforth in the afternoon, it's going to be a busy one so whatever you do my lovelies make sure it's a brilliant one and make every single second count and as I always say, love the ones you are with and be with the ones you love.

Christmas photo shoots in Newcastle with Mandy Charlton Photography

Another later in the morning blog from me today, I went to bed with a migraine and I've woken up with a really dull throbbing migraine which is just ridiculously annoying, I think I have decorators neck, if that isn't a condition I am naming it now, I think it comes from having your arms in the air with the brush for too long!  I did finish decorating the downstairs loo and actually it looks better than it has for years, i'm quite chuffed with it all, just Abigails room to go and that's pretty much ready to paint but I'm having a couple of days off to allow the swelling to go down in my neck and spine.

I am going to go for a visitors permit today so that I can openly welcome visitors into my house, maybe they'll come armed with a paint brush ;)

The hall and stairs are still desperate for redecoration but I just can't see how we can do all 3 floors before Christmas so I'll just ask visitors to shut their eyes when they're going up and down the stairs, maybe I could blindfold them?  Might be a little dangerous on the stairs!

Can I talk about work for a bit today?  So, it's not all that long until Christmas and do still have some availability in my diary for weekends and weekdays so here's the full rundown

I have availability on the following days - 

Thursday 6th December, Friday 12th December, Saturday 13th December at Tynemouth Longsands, Sunday 14th of December at Saltwell Park in the morning and Jesmond Dene in the afternoon.

Wednesday 16th December, Thursday 18th December, Saturday 20th December in Jesmond Dene and Sunday 21st of December

All orders placed by Midnight on 15/12 will be dispatched to reach you in time for Christmas, Orders placed before 22/12 will be with you in time for Christmas as long as you can pick them up from me in Heaton.  Time is running out to book your sessions though so do it today via email, my website or my facebook page

Half hour sessions are £25 at Saltwell Park, Tynemouth Longsands and Jesmond Dene, All other locations, in the home and larger family portraits are from £40 and these prices are due to rise in January 2015 so book your sessions today and you get them at this years prices.  With each photo shoot you get a web gallery for 30 days, 15% off for the first 7 days your gallery is live and a complimentary print (7x5 for half hours, 12x8 for hours).

Here's some photos from recent sessions that I love - 

So hopefully I have shown you enough to whet your appetite, quick go and book a session or maybe you could buy one for a friend or family member for Christmas, for a limited time only you can get an extra 20% value on all gift certificates, well what are you waiting for email me now!

A short Wednesday cornucopia

After spending most of yesterday with 2 migraines, one when I woke up with it at 4am in the morning and then the other yesterday afternoon I really don't have a lot to blog about this morning dear reader, I did in between times manage to put the first coat of paint on the walls of the loo, we're going Urban Jungle though if I'm honest it looks a bit like urban mould after the first coat, buying more paint today after my one photo shoot of the day which is thankfully in doors at home, it's the best time of year for at home type photo shoots, I also like indoor photo shoots because mostly I get cups of tea and coffee and my toes don't go numb and they're never cancelled due to bad weather!

I didn't even make it to slimming world last night though to be honest all I have been doing of late is really keeping a check on my weight, I haven't really lost anything but it definitely means I'm more conscious of the things I eat so I am at least not ballooning to the size of a large portion of butter!

It's the 26th of November and at that means it's only 29 sleeps until Christmas, as I was saying yesterday I was just sneaking bits and pieces out of storage and putting them where no one would notice, well of course now I'm trying to distract myself in moments of festive need by cracking on with the decoration of the house, one more coat on the loo and then Abigails bedroom which should at least be empty tomorrow after a visit by St Oswalds Hospice to take 20 charity bags and then another visit from the council to take the rest of the rubbish.  The partial end to the decoration is in sight, it's not going to be truly finished until way after Christmas as Iains bedroom needs decorating and the hall on all 3 floors is abominable but I am only 1 woman and though my children offer to help they do get exceedingly bored quite easily, Looby lasted about 10 minutes painting yesterday before declaring mass boredom.  If anyone fancies coming and giving me a hand with some painting I'm open to bribing you or imbibing you with copious amounts of mulled Cider and mulled wine!

Well dear reader that's your lot for today, whilst life here continues on a daily basis it's mostly same old, same old, I'll be back tomorrow with perhaps some news of a black Friday/sofa Sunday/cyber Monday offer, to be honest I haven't actually decided yet but it feels appropriate to do something wonderful to celebrate the decline of society into the free for all that is the proper start to the Christmas shopping period, I'm nearly done with mine, thanks of course mostly to Amazon, I know some people have major ethical issues with Amazon and I totally understand but if you are a busy single parent trying to run a house, a family and a business there's nothing quite like doing a 1 click purchase from a wishlist and having it arrive the very next day!  They have some really great deals on this week too!!

Moving onwards

The first thing I need to do is thank so many of you for getting in touch after yesterdays blog post, the sheer amount of support from people who've been through similar things and some who are still going through it, it seems to me that it's something that we're just not talking about, maybe we need to have more open conversations about control and passive aggressiveness so that people know how wrong it is and how much damage it can actually do to someone.  I was heartened to hear from so many who were much further on in this turbulent journey, people who have been able to find themselves again and move on, many in wonderful new relationships which actually came as a shock or surprise because they didn't contain the same behaviours.

Well for now for me I can see what lies ahead and that is time spent with my children, hopefully a new forever dog (Beagle Welfare home check on Saturday afternoon) and of course my beloved kitties.

One of the things I am building up slowly to do is going out more and not being so scared by that prospect, I definitely seem to have lost the ability to be socially confident, even in recent weeks with Slimming World I find myself going, getting weighed and then coming straight home again. but I do know there's a sparkle burning in there somewhere and once it's at it's brightest no one is ever going to take it away from me again.

Day off today and Tuesdays are my favourite day, my cleaner is coming, my groceries are arriving and later we're moving about 20 bags of junk downstairs for collection by a charity tomorrow, the council are coming to take lots of wood and more rubbish on Thursday and by the end of the week I'm hoping Abigails room will be finished, Iain's room is getting there, yesterday he got black curtains which are far superior to the pink spotted ones he was using, they're not really befitting of an 18 year old teenager you know.

I've been sneaking odd bits and bobs out of the Christmas collection so I hung up a fabric wreath on the inside of the front door and I got down a china ornament from the top of the cupboards in the kitchen, it's like if I do it slowly no one will notice and before you know it we'll be in Christmas land! It is of course only a month until Santa pops down the chimney now so the rest of my week is mainly taken up with photo shoots and the editing that goes with all of that, those 2 weeks off at Christmas though are firmly in sight and I can't wait!  I might just have actually finished my Christmas shopping by the end of the week, well I should have at least cleared the Amazon wish lists with any luck, oh and if you're an Amazon fan, remember that it's Black Friday deals week on Amazon and there are bargains amongst the various effluvia on offer but you have to be quick!

And so off into Tuesday I go and I hope it's terrific, not just for me but for you too dear reader, may it be the best day of your week so far!

Who the heck am I again?

For 15 years I've lived a life of being controlled and often without actually knowing that it was happening, for instance, I was never ever stopped from doing anything I wanted throughout my entire marriage, however often things were made to be so displeasurable that I would stop doing them because it was just so difficult, it's like being encouraged to go out and then getting accused of cheating when you come home or being encouraged to follow your dream and write a book and then as soon as you start you get accused of never being at home and not loving the other person enough or giving them enough attention.  It's also small things like being able to watch whatever you want on TV but if the other person doesn't want to watch the same programme they'd sit with their back to the TV in a room where all of the chairs point to the TV or they'd spend an hour with their hands over their face so that you can't miss their disapproval.  Another tactic of course is being out with friends and then getting a flurry of text messages encouraging you to come home because you're being missed so much or maybe it's just not speaking to you and switching off every single emotion towards you if you do anything that the other person disagrees with.  Every single one of those things is a subtle form of control and I'm speaking out about them now because every single one happened to me and I don't want anyone else to have to go through that.  At the time I often didn't even know it was happening, it's only when you have time to walk away and digest it all that you realise the extent of the damage caused.

This weekend as I found myself watching Strictly, X Factor and I'm a Celeb I noticed that I was really enjoying them, it seems I like reality tv and you know the scariest thing about all of this?  I have no idea who the heck I actually am, I was talking about this yesterday and nearly burst into tears because it's a bit of a terrifying prospect.  I assume I'm a bad person and that I deserved it all in one part of my brain and then in the other part I know that I couldn't have forseen all of this and all I ever tried to do was make my marriage work.

I really hope now that I am a good person, a kind person, a happy person and a good mum, they're the most important things to me, especially being a good mum because I adore my children and want to be the very best example of a person to them and more than anything I never want them to be in a position where any of these controlling behaviours are allowed to happen to them at any point in their lives with anyone they meet.

But what's next for me?  Well I haven't a clue really, I know that I like reality tv, Barbra Streisand, musicals, Christmas, vintage things, animals, kids, photography, craft, Cath Kidston and soft furnishings, I know that I like the UK more than overseas and I love going to castles and museums and I adore going on the train but beyond that I'm not especially sure, I guess though I have very many years to find out!

If you're reading this and you're identifying with some or any of the things I've written about then my advice would be get out of that situation as quickly as possible for that isn't what love or a relationship should be about, control and love are not the same things even if the person providing them thinks that they are.

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?

Single parenting, I've got this!

It's been a full on week of sparkle barring the last couple of days when I've been pretty ill, still feeling quite horrid this morning but I'm off into the world for 2 photo shoots in Jesmond Dene this morning and then I'll run home to a blankie on the sofa I think!

This weekend I have 4 photo shoots in Wharton Park, Durham and then 6 in Jesmond Dene on Sunday so it's a much busier weekend than the last couple of weeks but that's a good thing, I really need those 2 weeks off at Christmas without worrying about financial implications, it's always a bit of a battle taking time off when you are self employed!

I have kept up with living a life of sparkle and yesterday once the bin men had taken the 20 black bags I'd cleared from Abigails bedroom I managed to make our seating area just a little bit more sparkly and festive.

It's still a little too early for the Christmas decorations but it's never too early for a bit of extra sparkle in our lives.

I also made a practice batch of peanut butter tablet, a roaring success containing about a million calories in every bite but what the heck, it is going to be for Christmas presents after all.  I've amazed myself this year, I've made blackberry jam, I've pickled beetroot, I've made my own sweet mincemeat, my Christmas cake is maturing nicely, I've made quite good progress with Christmas shopping too, amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it!  I think I might be getting good at this single parenting thing, if I manage to get Abigails room decorated next week then I've nailed it, if only the cats could do housework ;)

So whilst you go about your wonderful weekends enjoy every minute of them and remember that being nice doesn't cost anything at all, be kind to yourselves and others dear reader and I'll be back on Monday to regale you with tales from my weekend, hoping to fit in just a little festive stroll around Durham tomorrow after my photo shoots!