Another lovely baby photoshoot in Berkshire

A fun, relaxed and beautiful Autumnal photo shoot with gorgeous Aoife and her mum and dad. Aoife was so photogenic and relaxed parents made this session a pleasure. I am so pleased with the results, the morning Autumn sun was very beautiful which is what I love so much about natural light.

You can see more of my photos on my photography blog, or on my webite helenjackson.org

New Treasury on Etsy

Had a lovely time looking through beautiful things on Etsy and created this Treasury, here are a few of my favorite items:

Raceytay

irenesuchocki

Pennytreads

Monicaj

Hope you are all having a  lovely weekend, done a couple of photo shoots today, will reveal later.



Beautiful purchases

After a discussion with my sensible and clever friend Katy I have decided not to sign up for the monthly scrap booking club.  She said I should just spend £30.00 per month in Hobby craft on things that I actually want rather than getting whatever comes in the scrap booking kit.  i think this is sound advice although I am sad to not be recieving a surprise scrap booking stash through the post once a month. 
So...I now have £30.00 extra pounds more than I though I would have, and and although it it now quite November, I have already spent it on these beautiful books:

Oh yes, so beautiful, and not bought entirely based on the gorgeous linen cover...honest!

Now I just have to work out how I can afford the other books in the set.  I was looking at them in Waterstones in town today and was standing holding one and a lady in the show said isn't the cover lovely and I said "Yes, I am mesmerised by it's beauty"!

New scrapbooking pages

I think I might be getting the hang of this now, I just need to not go crazy in Hobby Craft because I can't afford it!

Two pages about organising the flowers for our wedding, still have lots of flower pages to go and have ordered a load of embelishments from K and Company from a range called Poppy seeds, so just waiting for these before I really get stuck in. Am I doing it right?

What is beauty

 Just read this wonderful post from Apron Thrift Girl and watched this beautiful video:



To me, beauty is about the feeling you get from something, it is a feeling of joy and happiness and bliss and a glimpse of God.  I see it now and again in light and colours and actions.

What is beauty to you?

A lovely weekend

What a great start to half term, travelled to Wales on Saturday to celebrate my Nephew's 1st Birthday:

How cute is he?  And doesn't he love the Cath Kidston mug we bought him as part of a breakfast set!?

Oh yes, that was until he started hitting it against things.  "It's breakable!"

Then on Saturday we travelled to my parents who also live in Wales.  On Sunday hubby and I went for a stroll on the beach with my dad, it was a truly beautiful day and we walked on the beach where my hubby proposed.

What is amazing about this beach is that a petrified forest that grew there in the ice age has been from revealed under the sand, you can see where all the trees were growing thousands of years ago,

Can you believe they survived so long?  You can see the grain of the wood and everything, it is quite astonishing to think this beach was once a forest filled with trees, it makes me feel part of something so much bigger.

I really do love this beach, not just for the memories but because it is such a lovely place to sit and think, I feel so peaceful there listening to the waves.  There is nowhere to go where I live where there is so much space and tranquility.

Came across a house:

We went into Swansea in the afternoon.  A lot of money has been put into the SA1 district of Swansea Bay around the old fishing docks.  It looks pretty smart now, a nice place to eat out and a few art galleries to visit.  This bench looks like a piece of art work don't you think?

And this really is an art piece, part of an art programme that is running all across the city.

You have no idea how long it took me to upload the above photos.  There is something wrong with my connection I think.  Anyhow, check out how fab Swansea looks!!

Hopefully have some scrap booking pages to share tomorrow, along with some additions to my Etsy shop.

A beautiful wedding

I have been meaning to share some wedding photos with you for a while now, so thought I would finally get round to it today as I have a bit of time.  It was a beautiful wedding in Cornwall at the end of September of my friend Sarah.  I have know Sarah since she was born and her older sister Hannah is my best girlfriend.  Sarah, Hannah and their younger twin sisters Yvette and Zoe have been friends with me and my two sisters since we were really tiny and we are all really close, when we all get together we never fail to have a great time, so her wedding was something really special. 


Sarah is in a rowing team so her team mates created an oar tunnel for them to leave the church through.

Beautiful hair styles created by the sisters.

I love the favors which doubled as place names, mine was rosemary,

Absolutely stunning floral chandelier,

Sarah made about 300 of these hearts to decorate the room,

Table names were awesome: Our table, your table, my table, that table, what table, their table, his table, her table, whose table, any table, the table!!

We were on What Table,

The bride and groom's families created lovely photo montages of them as children, my sister and I featured in one of them!

How beautiful is the back of her dress?

Amazing scone wedding cake, very Cornish,

A wonderful range of puddings supplied by friends and family,

My sister Rose and I,

Me with my sisters Megan and Rose,

First dance, fabulous bunting,

My hubby and I, yes, it was a good day!

Things I will be doing over half term

Sleeping

Crafting

Spending time with my crazy family!

Spending time with my lovely hubby,

Gardening,

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

New stash

What a great day!  After much effort, stress and anxiety  I pulled off a pretty amazing lesson for my observation (even if I do say so myself!). My class were brilliant, really well behaved and seemed to say all the right things to the headmaster who was observing me. I was really chuffed when I received my feedback which was "Good" (the scale being unsatisfactory, satisfactory, good, outstanding) I only got satisfactory last time I was very happy after.

Then to top the day off, I got home from work to find my monthly subscription scrap booking kit from Sarah's cards ltd had arrived, wasn't expecting it till tomorrow, so spent a good half hour opening everything, examining it, laying it out and putting it all back into it's bags! (I know...how sad!)
I can't wait to order some photos and get crafting with them.
Take a look at the stash:

I know, I got a bit carried away with the photo taking!