A Random Assortment of French Loveliness

1. In the village of Aigre for a festival in May each shop in the village had the portrait of the shop owner painted on their window.  Apparently some were removed as soon as a polite amount of time had been observed...  This one was my favourite.
2. Yep this was my sat nav, and do you know what?  This and a map got me there just fine thank you.
3. Max the dog.  A new addition to my aunt and uncle's household, he made light work of the squeaky toys I bought him, he's a strong little beast but cute as a button.
4. Naff-o birthday cake made for my brother's birthday.  Nom nom.
5. Super hot evenings playing cards by candle light, on this particular night we waited for a thunderstorm to roll in, it arrived around midnight and was quite a show.
6. Decorations for my dad's birthday.
7. Yay!  Neon plastic cups!
8. Everything ready for our celebration meal, we cruelly made dad wait for his present until after dinner, after which he scuttled off to play with his new iPad.  He is a very happy 70 year old, in fact we haven't heard a peep out of him since.
9. Cake, lots of it.  Sadly I couldn't eat this one but MozzyMr enjoyed it.

Another photographer in the family?

At the weekend MozzyMr and I travelled up North to Lichfield to celebrate our Jim's birthday.  Everyone was there to celebrate including our lovely nieces.  Little big niece was sadly poorly and not on her usual good form, Little small niece was full of smiles and had lots of fun with my camera.  To begin with we had lots of photos with fingers over the lens but then she really got the hang of things.  Here are a selection of her photographs, I think you'll agree she's got some real potential I hope it is something she explores further (she's only 4!).

I love that she went off and took photos of the toys she loves, she also got the best portraits of the family including this one of MozzyMr.

Movember

Look what the clever gals in my office did for Movember!

Katrina made these pink biscuits milk free so I could have some, it would have been rude not to buy three, retreat back to my corner of the office and nibble away on them (bit squirrel like, paranoid behaviour to be honest, I'm not proud but it is what it is). 

The platters may or may not have been 'borrowed' from Hospitality Services I wouldn't like to speculate.

Sarah demonstrating a rather fine moustache here, true dat.

So there we have it, the gals raised a couple hundred quid for the charity, people ate biscuits, and sported impressive facial hair it was a good effort!

Next up on the things to do, secret Santa (£3 budget) hmmm.

Wedding Day

After a year of planning, our wedding day finally arrived, the weather was good, things were casual, friends and family mingled......

..... the kids had their own dressing up yurt:

..... confetti bags were distributed:

..... we had a Portland Street reunion:

...Squeezes from family:

.... musical interludes from friends:

.... and some overindulgence:



What can I say?  Accept thank you to our family and friends for helping out and making the day as casual and fun as we wanted it to be, thank you to West Town Farm for an amazing location to celebrate, lovely smiley staff, gorgeous food and patience, thank you to our friends who came to the ceremony and lunchtime do, for mingling with strangers and making new friends, for showing our family exactly why we love you, thank you to my lovely bridesmaids for dancing like loons, and twirling for England, thank you to my mum for her tireless scouting of enamelware jugs, cake stands and for creating amazing floral displays, thank you to Colette for bringing to life my perfect wedding dress, thank you to Mary for knitting and crocheting some amazing flowers which just went down a storm, thank you to Lynne for fixing banners, making napkin rings and bringing a smile to the stressful preparations and thank you to my new husband for keeping me sane and for not judging my bourbon biscuit habit too harshly.