The one where I sit in pyjamas and think about photos, stories and next year...

Our Christmas Day is always busy with an early start to open presents at home with Mr Marshall, a journey together to mum and dad's house where I spend the day, Mr Marshall leaves to go to his parents' house and then returns in the evening; in the afternoon my family visit my little granny and then I go back to Mr Marshall's parents' for Christmas buffet tea and Wii fun. This year I loved every minute of it though. There was a lovely happy feeling in our house and it was relaxed and calm (unlike other years!!). I got some lovely gifts and hopefully gave some too.

Yesterday was mostly spent in the cinema watching Avatar and all day today I sat in my jammies taking a free online photography course for compact cameras here in preparation for my project in the New Year to take a photo every day. I think 2010 will be a perfect year to try this out as we make more plans for our wedding, to record all the decision making and visits we make (I'm thinking wedding dress shops here in particular!!).

Every year Ali Edwards chooses a word to focus on throughout the year - a short of mantra. You can read more here if you like about her choices. This year she has chosen 'story'. I'm thinking 'story' might also be a perfect choice for me to focus on. I'm finding more and more I'm journalling my thoughts on little snippets of paper to remember conversations, comments, feelings and moments. I think this, combined with daily photo taking will make for an interesting year to look back on.

Has anyone taken part in Project 365 before and can share any tips to help me stay motivated?!

Christmases past...

I've been off work and in bed sick yesterday and today with a cold and dizziness and just this morning realised it is 3 days to Christmas! I've all my shopping done, presents wrapped, cards sent and Christmas cake made but still have baking and food shopping to do. I started looking at photos of Christmases when I was little (in the early 80s) and had a good chuckle at these which cheered me up no end. I thought I'd share a few in case you need a laugh too!

Oh my goodness, look at this tree! It's the only year we had a real tree and mum said we'd never have another one because of the needles falling. I always had a romantic memory of this tree until I came across these photos and seen the shape of it!! I've got a sneaky suspicion my dad pulled this out of the garden.

Pictures from my world...

Hi everyone :) Today I'm sharing with you some pictures from what is going on in my world these days - well, this weekend anyway!

Yesterday was my birthday and although I was laid up with a bad cold I managed to take my annual self-portrait on the morning of my birthday. Note the sore, red lips and cupid's bow :(

These are some of the gorgeous pressie's I got - all of which I love. My friends/family know me so well!

Mr Marshall took me out to dinner, watch a movie and then we headed to the local pub for a few drinks. When we woke this morning we found snow outside so I had to take a few shots from the bedroom window.

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday evening. I'm updating my wedding scrapbook while Mr Marshall plucks a pheasant and makes soup! That makes him sound domesticated - but that he is not!

oh Christmas tree...

Our Christmas tree is finally up and although all of the pressies are bought, very few are wrapped and sitting underneath. I'm not too sure what to think about our Christmas decorations this year, they don't seem very, well... Christmassy!

I realised the night before last that there are very few photos of Mr Marshall and I, at least ones you would want to look at. I was personalising this little calendar in Photoshop that I found on the fab blog Shutter Sisters (which is free to download if you want to have a little play!) and struggled to find 12 photos of us that I loved! Isn't that awful - that someone who loves photos hasn't got enough to fill a calendar after 5 and a bit years together. Something needs to be done about that. So I have warned him that the camera will be out this Christmas and to be ready for it!

Font love...

It seems kind of popular these days to say you love fonts, given we are exposed to so many as a way of branding and of making you feel a certain way. I actually do love fonts but if you wanted me to give you a list of my favourites, we'd be here all day!

Today I took a quiz here (which I found at Ordinary Courage) to find out which font I am. The answer was Edwardian Script (above) - which backs up my claim to be a die-hard romantic!

For those of you who would like to have fun creating your own font with your handwriting, you can do so at http://www.yourfonts.com/.

Enjoy!

Be still my beating heart...

Have you ever seen anything so pretty? In my dreams this is how I want my wedding to look - if only the weather here in N. Ireland wasn't so predictable to be rainy. This morning I've closed my eyes and been carried back to my uncle's hay field where we would spend summer days when I was little, turning the hay and breaking for a picnic out of a wicker basket. I can see this wedding taking place there...

I've been told more than a few times before that I'm a hopeless romantic so this won't surprise you folk! Luckily for me, I see the romance in everything so when Mr Marshall brought me a glass of water to bed last night without me having to ask, I gushed from ear to ear and told him he was the best boyfriend I had!! I'm the easiest person in the world to please, a cheap date and the smallest gesture lights me up.

Like your comments. I can't thank those of you enough who read my jabberings and leave me comments. I have kept every single email I have received letting me know someone was kind enough to leave me a message - just in case I ever forget how good it felt.

Photos courtesy of Ian Grant via Style Me Pretty (designer and florist credits here)

Angela (and Mr Marshall) meets Angel...

It seems only fitting that someone who was a Christmas baby and named after the Christmas angels would (along with Mr Marshall!) choose Angel Photography to take the most important photos of her life - the day she marries her man for life! Yes, Angel Photography is the wedding photographer of choice and we will have two lovely ladies joining us on the day.

At our first meeting with Andrea we felt relaxed and welcome as well as suitably impressed by Angel's approach and work and I definitely think she has a good understanding of my style and what I like, which is really important. (We both share a love for painted doors so you can't go far wrong with that!) Their photos have a lovely feel to them - modern but romantic, natural but not left to chance. The album design was exactly to my taste and I was glad to hear Mr Marshall say that he loved it too, trying to convince me we need one! Photography isn't high on his list of priorities in life so that was definitely a good sign.

They also have a fab blog which I am obsessively keeping up to date with to see the latest weddings they have done.

As a sign of how much he must love me, I was humoured while we priced a pretty well-known photographer in USA to come over to take our photos. But it wasn't to be and I'm more than happy to give the job to Angel NI, who is def my no.1 choice in N.Ireland.

Photos courtesy of Angel NI

A present to myself...?

Oh my gosh, this morning I have found something beautiful I want/need to have. I visited Paris for the first time in July this year with family and fell in love with the atmosphere and buildings. Unfortunately we only seen the city itself one day as we were staying at Disneyland but I managed to fit as many photographs in as possible. However, these photos of the city are on another level - just magical!

irenesuchocki's shop on Etsy (which I found through ishtar olivera's blog) is full of gorgeous prints and this particular calendar has a 'pretty' for every month of the year. If you want to see the other months click here.

I always feel bad about buying myself something nice at this time of the year when so many presents have to be bought, but maybe I should buy a present for me, right?

Are you buying yourself something nice for Christmas this year?

Getting old...?

Last night my sis and I took my niece and her friends to the Clubland show in the Odyssey Arena in Belfast (with Agness, Cascada, N-Dubz and the likes) and grabbed some food and a movie to pass the time while we waited.

We went to see these cool kids in New Moon and although I'm still only halfway through the book, I decided to go ahead and see the movie anyway and I loved it!

While we waited for our kids to come out of the show we suddenly realised we were getting old when we found ourselves saying things like, "Look at all that child has on her!"; "She doesn't look old enough to smoke!"; "How do they walk in those shoes?!".

Oh dear.

The Happenings...

Things have been fairly quiet around here. Some of the things I've been up to are:

• Shopping on my day off work last Friday with family
• Babysitting a 3-year-old all day Saturday and loving acting mummy
• Trying to come up with fundraising ideas for our new church hall
• Finding new inspiration at Designing Moms - even though I'm not a mum
• Trying to reassure myself that the photographer we have decided to go with is the right one for us (I'm not good at decisions)
• Visiting my little granny who isn't very well at the moment
• Considering all the nice things I want to bake for Christmas
• Reading Twilight and New Moon before I see the movies
• Searching for cute red and green packaging to sell my baked goodies in for the church sale (for said church hall)

Life is good, quiet and simple. And that's not to say that there are other things lurking in the background but I'm making a conscious decision to focus on the good and be happy.

What is making you happy at the minute?

Photo love from Shannen Natasha via Green Wedding Shoes