working on it

I have a lot going on in my head most of the time. To the people who live with me and who know me best this will come as no great shock - I constantly have a mental list of things to do, things I want to do, blogs to check out, gifts to buy, layouts I want to create, photos I want to take. You get the idea. The noise inside my head is often so loud it honestly surprises me that no one else can hear it. It comes in cycles, this busyness, and at this time of year it seems to step up a gear. Currently in my mind I am..

:: trying to remember all the other things I mean to do while I'm online;

:: planning some big changes to my photography website and business plan;

:: making a list of the little things the boys might want to ask Santa for (the phone Patrick mentioned is not on that list!)

:: resisting the urge to go and get the half bar of Dairy Milk from the fridge;

:: squashing down the list of things I have to do in school this week;

:: wondering where on earth I'm going to get a gum shield for Patrick before tomorrow's mini rugby game;

:: planning tomorrow's dinner;

:: thinking about all the layouts I'd love to be creating but just never get around to.

I know I'm no different from most of my friends and that we're all juggling a multitude of seemingly (and actually) vital balls at one time, but I can't help but feel that somehow all this mental busyness is holding me back from just being present in, and enjoying life as it happens. I want to slow things down and focus on the good stuff while still making headway on all the stuff that I really want to get cracking on.

So I'm working on it. A little bit at a time. Trying to take at least one picture a day because I want to work on being a better photographer. Setting a doable list of jobs to move the business forward a bit more. Trying to take a deep breath and not panic because Christmas is a whole quarter of a year away. Accepting that the fight against the chocolate in the fridge was lost before it began! And knowing that if even some of those layouts make it to reality then a little bit more of who we are and what we did will be preserved just a little bit longer.

I'll be surprised if the amount of stuff going on in my head suddenly diminishes anytime soon, and with the wedding coming up in just 4 weeks I can only imagine there'll be more going on in there than ever! But I shall keep working on it. And of course, do my best to turn my mental blogging into actual posts which will hopefully let you see just how well I'm doing with that list up there. (The chocolate is no longer in the fridge, but at least that's one thing ticked off!)
 

Too cool for school

Too cool. Too cute. Too small! It would be fair to say I'm a little in shock at how quickly school days have overtaken baby days. Surely it was only a few weeks ago that Conor and I spent our mornings with our frineds and their equally small babies at baby massage. It certainly seems that way to me. But apparently that was actually 4 years ago. We appear to have gone from this

to this in an unacceptably short period of time!

 

Let me show you that again. From this

 

to this!

 

And how this happened I have absolutely no idea. So grown up. And with such an amazingly huge knot in his tie for one so young. Like the flattened-with-water hair, it's all about the style!

Really, I have nothing more to say about these pictures other than they amaze me in so many ways. And at the risk of this turning into a tearfest I shall leave it at that :)
   

cheep cheep cheep...

went all the little chicks! Further embarrassment will follow - my own included. Please note in the collage the completely fabulous Chris of Danze Attack who flew in from Manchester to make all our 80's Fame dance dreams come true! Chris, you were A - MAZ - ING!!!! I can honestly say that our weekend was fantastic from start to finish - great Chinese on Friday, Sing Star ('nuff said!), 3 hours of workout and dance with Chris, amazing meal out in Distillers'Arms, and dancing in Kelly's (which, thankfully, wasn't anywhere near as scary as we'd thought it might be!) The dance lesson was clearly the highlight. The 'warm up', a term I use lightly here, was on a par with an hour of Body Pump. And I really don't think I've ever laughed as much for such a prolonged period in my life as I did while we learnt our routine. Just the best fun ever with some of our best friends in the world. To those whose pending bambinos meant they couldn't be with us, know that you were most definitely there in spirit.

 

 

In other news, I feel it only fair to share with you the new love of my life. Oh how I love it!!

It's really just the bag of loveliness, don't you think? What's lovely with you this week?

cluck cluck...

...went the little hen! Just a taster of the hen weekend - more to come. A lot more! Such a fantastic weekend with so many amazing chicks. I think the hen was well and truly impressed :) No apologies for any embarrassment caused by the photos since I had to endure the same as the rest of you!

 

Making me happy

In this summer of damp days and hyperactive children it isn't really taking much to make me happy! Just thought I'd share a couple of things that have put a smile on my face the past few days.

:: Mmmm, lovely newness from Basic Grey! What's not to love, I ask you?

:: My friend Janet's fabulous sciorta - you must check this out and read the blog!

:: A night of giggles, chocolate, pretty paper goods and my friend Sheila which resulted in this (and another that I'm too lazy to photograph - 12x12 layouts are such hard work!!)

:: A bit of romance - albeit not mine, but you have to love a wedding!

(There will be more of these in a week or so if you fancy coming back for a peek.)

:: Vicarious summer living through the ever lovely SouleMama's blog.

:: A weekend up north with my fabulous boys. Lots of tacky seaside activities like WaterWorld (where I believe the rest of my tan now resides!) and Barry's amusements where parents pretty much haemorrhage money as they go!

:: Some new programs for my super slow computer to ease my processing pain, and a few new tricks to go along with them! 

All those pretty coastal flowers were making me happy as we waited for ages to go across Carrick-a-rede rope bridge last week!

:: My happiness will be complete in mere moments when I indulge in a living room with only me in it and Countryfile on Sky+. Like I said, it doesn't take much these days! Do share what's making you happy :)
 

Pompeii - Italy photofest part 2 (don't say I didn't warn you!)

Just before you begin, I'm going to offer the warning again. There were literally 100s of photos of ancient ruins on my memory card and it was hard to narrow them down! So leave now if you want - I won't hold it against anyone.

Pompeii was top of our to-do list for our Italian adventure. I remember learning about the eruption of Vesuvius when I was in school and have long wanted to visit there. Patrick was particularly excited about the visit. He has a book which tells the story of the disaster based on some of the findings the archaeologists have made there. I think that really helped both him and me to imagine the events as we were walking along the cobbled streets and listening to the audio tour tell us about the buildings and life at that time.

Several memories will linger from our visit to Pompeii. First, the heat. It was stifling. There was no shade. We had 2 small people with us. It was the hottest I think I have ever been!

Secondly, that Conor wore his Crocs. There was nothing in our preparatory reading which had said 'Wear closed shoes with thick socks because there is sand and dust everywhere and you will suffer unimaginably if you don't'. And we did! Every 30 seconds we had to stop to shake the stones and sand out of his shoes. It would be fair to say that he doesn't suffer well!

But the lasting memory I will have of Pompeii is the scale of the site and the grandeur that is evident in the excavations. Pillars and statues. Symmetry everywhere. How amazing it must have been in the amphitheatre at the height of its glory. Just amazing.

(clearly these last 2 photos are more evidence that we were there than of the grandeur!)

I could lie and say that these are the last photos of Italy I shall post, but you know there are more on my computer and that you will either see them as they are or in a layout someday soon. But I shall try and post of other delights like our visit to the north coast this weekend or the piles of laundry that are building around here. You shall have to wait and see!
 

Italy photofest!

It has taken me almost 10 days to accept that our holiday is over and that grey skies are likely to prevail until the day we start back to school. It just seems so darn unfair that a trip you have planned for for months is over so quickly and has been transformed into a mountain of memories to delve into during the rest of summer and a folder of photos which will wait to be printed or scrapped. However, today it is sunny (for now) and I feel inspired to share some of our holiday with you. It will be easier for all of us if I do this in stints, so this will be phase 1 of the photofest!

We stayed in a beautiful little town called Sant'Agata, about 20 minutes from Sorrento, up in the hills where a gentle breeze made the mediterranean temperatures just perfect. Our apartment was beautiful but the pool area was just amazing. On our first day there I felt like I was in some 1930s Agatha Christie novel (possibly Evil Under the Sun but without any of the evil and treachery!) There were only 7 apartments and the pool was rarely very busy which was great for the boys as they learnt to swim and for us as we remembered how to unwind!

Sorrento was absolutely everything I imagined it would be, and then some. Piazzas with cafes and restaurants, old cobbled streets festooned with bougainvillea winding their way to the sea, fishing boats and seafood, sunsets to die for and friendly Italians who never seemed to tire of Conor's white blond curls!

And Vesuvius, always present but slightly hazy during our visit.

I remember thinking when we took these pictures that it would be impossible to forget how hot the sun felt on our skin and how desperate we were for a drink, but alas I just can't recreate the feeling (not without turning the heat up full and leaning against the radiator in the kitchen!) We shall simply have to print these photos and start an Italy Fund jar to save for next year!

Look out for photofest part 2, in which you will get to see a hundred photos of the ancient ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, because that is all there seemed to be on my memory card when I uploaded it! For now, I am heading out into the sun to see if there is any warmth in it at all at this latitude!

time flies

10 years ago ...

:: we got married.

:: it was much sunnier and warmer!

:: we thought being married was easy peasy (ha!)

:: we could nip to the shops any old time we liked without having to arrange childcare.

:: we dreamt of the day we would have a family (or that might just have been me!)

:: we each thought the other was the bee's knees! (we mostly still do!)

:: we had no idea what lay ahead of us.

:: we thought we couldn't be happier - we were wrong :)

Today we....

:: woke early because of the rain beating down on the roof.

:: had 2 small boys clambering over us in bed.

:: spent much of the day ferrying the boys to and from CSSM at church - 3 separate time slots!

:: managed to grab an anniversary coffee at the garden centre.

:: spent a lot of time sorting out car/house/money issues.

:: one of us sustained a pretty bad football injury - as yet not returned from the hospital!

:: still think we are pretty lucky that the other one chose us!

I can only imagine what the next 10 years will bring!!

Gone sailing

 

Or rather, taking several flights to Italian shores. It's really all too exciting, and we definitely need this holiday - especially after the stress of packing for foreign shores with a child who is "not really interested in food"!  I'll be back in the blogoshpere in a couple of weeks, so until then, arrivederci :)

never work with children

You are probably no stranger to my boys on this blog, especially as they are more often than not the main subjects in my photos. And, if I do say so myself, I have shared some gorgeous shots of them over the years. Shots that have great lighting, lovely composure and catchlights galore. Today I thought you might like to see some more photos of them, so without further ado, I give you yesterday's photos.

This is the type of photo I have literally thousands of on my computer. And I have most likely deleted thousands more. But while I love the technically great ones, these are the ones that make me laugh out loud and that I go back to time and again when I want to remember a particular event or trip we took. They are the ones that show me how amazing these two are, even in the midst of the mid afternoon meltdowns and panic attacks about wobbly teeth falling out! The photos that will bring a smile to my face even when I am at the point of throwing an uncooperative computer out the window. Of course, I did threaten them in order to get this next photo. I mean, what kind of semi-professional photograher would I be if I didn't get the cute brothers together shot?

I took these pictures yesterday at Mount Stewart, one of my favourite places in the world. In fact, I think it merits a whole blog post of its own so that I can show you just how it has achieved such elevated status!

The other wonderful thing about Mount Stewart in the sun yesterday was that I got to sport my fabulous new sandals. Oh how I love them! (And my sister for not minding that I totally copied her and got the same ones she already had but in a different colour.)  Wearing Fly shoes is like having a permanent foot holiday! If you haven't yet enjoyed this treat I would highly recommend it - there is no limit to the joy you will experience or to the additional injection of style to your (I imagine already fabulous) outfit!

So now you know how I've been spending the sunny days, how about you?