R&R

The past two months have been non stop. Weddings every weekend.. travelling up and down the country.. editing.. meeting couples.  When we're in the midst of wedding season weeks tend to move very fast.. we shoot a wedding on Saturday and before you blink it's Friday again and we're back on the road.  This year we wanted some time off.. just little pockets of relaxation to keep us healthy and happy and what I'm discovering is that I'm actually more productive when I give myself smaller segments of time to do things in... who'd have thunk it!?! Now I schedule my edits.. timetable my workflow and give myself weekly and daily targets.  So now we're having normal lazy Sundays.. evenings watching films and last week I even managed to have four days in Cornwall with my girls.. in JUNE!?!?  I'm actually getting pretty good at this time off lark..

Here's a little bit of what we've been up to.. and as you can see Max is getting pretty good at this lazing around too..

Oh look.. more lazing about.. mainly in the garden..

I then headed down to Cornwall with my gorgeous From Our Hearts girls.. Anna Hardy, Debs Ivelja and Joanna Brown.  We all try to get together for a few days at least once a year and now that Debs has a flat overlooking Fistral Beach in Newquay we had no excuse to not get together.  The week was spent eating healthy food.. lying out on the grass watching the surfers.. drinking wine.. talking shop.. and getting in the surf (ok so I just had a body board but at least I got in!).  All four of us didn't pick up our 5D's all week and opted for polaroids, cheap point and shoot film cameras and our trusty iPhones instead... and the weather was incredible.. I came back totally refreshed and pretty freckly.. :)

I'm so lucky to have these three amazing ladies as friends and now we have a new From Our Hearts addition in the form of Hugo.. Debs' new hound.. he was spoilt rotten with kisses and cuddles and fits in perfectly..

I really didn't want to leave..

More film stuff to follow.. :)

vintage vacations..

Last week we shut our office door, packed our bags and drove down to Portsmouth to get the ferry across to the Isle of Wight.  We had three days.. three precious days in the middle of wedding season to kick back and relax and to have some 'us' time.

A few months ago we stumbled across the amazing Vintage Vacations based in the Isle of Wight.. a site dedicated to holidaying in amazing retro style.  We booked ourselves a gorgeous American Airstreamer for two nights and, along with Lee and Dawn, aka Shutterbox Films we enjoyed a few days of lazing around on the beach, sitting around the fire in deck chairs, eating alfresco, tucking in to hearty cooked breakfasts, staring out to sea and waving to boats on the ferry, a charity shop or two, a sambuca or two and lots and lots of laughing..

We all had such an amazing time.. it sounds weird but I felt totally free.. it's amazing what a bit of the outdoors and getting back to basics can do.. and as you can see from below I think we all really enjoyed having our cameras with us paired with the freedom to just shoot whatever we wanted.  I really recommend making time to just shoot for you.. without it being a job.. I think we all find the busier we get the less we take time for ourselves but it's vital for your creative soul.

Oh and while we're on the subject of recommendations... everyone should have a Vintage Vacation!  The site is amazing, the Airstreamers are incredible and there's quite a few other options of accommodation too including an old Scout Hall!  We will definitely be back.