sneak peek..

Amy and Matt..

shopping cart...

I'm having a current shopping obsession with dots, glitter, autumn colours, any type of shoes and peter pan collars. These are my favourite recent purchases.. I am literally obsessed with the dotty shirt from Forever 21... and yep.. I actually bought a pair of trousers!?!? I haven't worn trousers for about 3 years.. and I bloody love them..

A- Echo Bow Red Flats

B - Polka Dot Shirt with Bow TieEcho Bow Red Flats 

C - Bottle Green Boyfriend Cardigan 

D - Sequined Ballet Flats

E - Black Pony Print Trousers

good times...

Image by Marianne Taylor at the Beloved Workshop

The past few months have been pretty intense.. what with the burglary back in March we started wedding season as if we'd been spun round and let go... but in the past few weeks it feels like everything has started to settle down.  We finally feel (after 3 years) like we're getting on top of things and that we're now driving the business rather than the business driving us.  Where I've seen this the most is with our work/life balance.

For the past few years I'll be honest my work/life balance sucked.  There was no balance. We were both working from home.. sitting in our pyjamas all day surrounded by washing up, most days not stepping out of the front door.. no fresh air, not much real human interaction and then we'd drive to weddings at the weekend, shoot, drive, pack, unpack (sometimes).. Sundays we'd work.. we'd meet couples, shoot, edit.  Through the week I'd start work at 11am and work through til midnight.. we'd eat crap constantly.. anything for convenience.. anything for a little reward for working so hard, we smoked, we occasionally socialised, crowbarring it in between the massive to do list and feeling guilty any time I wasn't sat in front of my computer replying to emails or editing.. we were loving the job but I stopped caring about me.. and that had to change.

Since the office move EVERYTHING has changed.  We get up and get dressed, we come to work, we see real people, we get out in the fresh air, we work normal hours, we're more productive, we now have our home back, I sit on the sofa of an evening and watch a DVD, I sit in my pyjamas on a Sunday when the rest of the world also sits in their pyjamas, we eat healthily, we quit smoking, we book little holidays in peak wedding season, we make time to socialise and spend time with each other, I don't reply to emails after hours, I make time for personal projects and the best thing by far is now we have bikes and we ride to work! Thirty minutes there and back every day that gives me the space to not look at Twitter/fb/emails.. to not only exercise but to really have some time for myself.. and see the world around me.  It might sound crazy but I've never felt so free as I do riding my bike.. it's the best thing I've ever done.. :)

So how's your work/life balance coming along?  What things would you like to change? Maybe writing them down might help to make them happen.. :)

rue magazine

When Rue, San Fransisco's top online style (and all round gorgeousness) magazine emails to say they need a photographer to shoot the offices of MIH Jeans you a) squeal.. and b) take the job in a heartbeat.

The world's most amazing photographers who I have admired and looked up to from the very beginning of this journey grace their beautifully designed pages and that internal 'goals that seem impossible but I'll be damned to make them possible' list definitely had 'See my images in an issue of Rue'... so to me this isn't just some tear sheets with my photographs.  This represents another little milestone.. another achievement.. that dreams are totally possible and there is absolutely no reason why I should ever do anything but really go after them..

The incredible blog SFgirlbyBay also featured some of the images from the shoot.. (if you are in to your interiors you NEED this blog in your life. You can also see the full Rue (June 2012) issue and read all about the fabulous MIH Jeans and their amazing family history here.

kelly & dan {wedding}

These two are the absolute cutest. We photographed their friends, Kirsty and Rob's wedding last year and loved it that we got to head back up to York to photograph this pair. Kelly and Dan simply adore each other beyond words and it was the sweetest, most relaxed wedding with so much love surrounding them..

But the best bit by far is that there is a Baby Benniworth-Gray on the way very soon who was there listening to his/her Mummy and Daddy get married.. I think it's so special.. in years to come they'll be able to sit down and say... 'Look! When we got married.. when we promised to love each other forever.. you were there with us..'

Kelly and Dan, we're so happy for you guys and cannot wait to meet Baby Benniworth-Gray!!!