Two good things arrived this week.

My beautiful new letterpress business cards and my beautiful new 100mm macro lens. These two things were made for each other. The perfect lens for the perfect subject. This piece of glass is like a revelation for me. I’m really enjoying the little things. You can even see the detail in the embossing.

Here are those cards.  It’s called ‘letterpress printing’ but when I say those words, the designer part of my brain says. “Oooooh…. letterpress!”

:)

Slowly but surely over the last few weeks a wall in my lounge has been taken over with drawings. Niamh must have completed hundreds of drawings and sketches in her short lifespan.  This is just a small sample. I used to put them into frames but there are just too many. The girl can’t stop herself. At least they are on paper now whereas before they went directly onto the walls. From the moment she gets home from school until bedtime she draws. The more praise she receives, the more she draws. She lives in a world were imagination reigns.

There are a few dinosaurs and pictures of our family in there, but the ongoing theme is usually to do with blonde princesses being locked in tall towers, waiting to be rescued. When she’s not drawing she puts on her princess dress and makes all the toys her subjects.  But alas, I’m presented with the age old problem. The one question I don’t have the answer to:

“Mum, why won’t anybody be my prince? The boys in class just want to play football all the time.”

*sob* Poor Niamh. I think she should stick with dinosaurs.

~

I’ve probably got about five minutes of internet connection here so better blog quick.  I’m currently getting ‘bt infinity’ installed. I can no longer blog and upload at a ‘sky broadband’ snails pace. Life is too short. I need those hours back. But in the meantime, I have been left with next to no internet. It’s so strange. I’ve even had to think of other things to do. It’s actually surprising how much can get done when you don’t have to check facebook, twitter, pinterest or your google reader every five minutes.

Here’s something I never thought I’d be blogging about. Finding my ‘inner baker’!! Every day, baking my own loaf. I know, it is completely crazy, especially when there are perfectly good sliced pans in the shop across the road for a pound.  I get up in the morning and don’t know this person kneading the dough and feeling all is good with the world. It earthly satisfaction. I don’t care who eats it. I just like making it. And the smell. Not that’s it the best bread ever or anything. My first loaf was definitely not for cutting, more for bashing.

There are bakers on my mother’s side but I kind of thought that gene had skipped me. Maybe I was just a late developer!! Or maybe it’s another development of getting old. Like the thermal blanket, and the two hot water bottles, and the fleece pyjamas, and the bliss that is a good book and cup of tea at bedtime. The bread-making is not entirely strange behaviour.  I had a ‘clay making’ phase. Every week I had to make at least one small clay pot/saucer/bowl/thingy. We have a cupboard of small clay items that aren’t really big enough to be useful or pretty enough to display. Now, it seems that’s been replaced that with ‘dough’ cravings.

What’s a girl to do in the northern hemisphere where it’s cold and wet and dark almost permanently in the winter. I mean, there’s the shopping thing, but January is never a good month for that cosy pastime. I’m never in the mood for shopping when I’m filling out self-assessment forms. I’m sure it’s a phase. I will be back to my normal, too-busy working, loaf-buying self again soon.

And sorry I haven’t been blogging alot lately either, but lots of lovely couples got their album layouts! There are quite a few shoots coming up. If you don’t see them by the end of the week, that means the internet’s down again, or, I’m watching a loaf rise :)

p~

As I sift through everything that has built up over the weekend, behind me I can hear snores and contented stretches as Molly adjusts her sleeping position. There are days I would happily swap with her. And the only one ‘chasing their tail’ around here is me.

This is not my favourite time of the year. It’s all about the admin and paperwork.  There is a 5d tucked away in my bag feeling very neglected.

Apologies to all the super-organised blog readers beginning to twitch over the state of my desk. Don’t panic. I know exactly where everything is and it’s being sorted.

paula~

The time has finally come oh furry one. Move over, there’s a spot on that couch with my name on it.

Wishing you all a very Merry couchtime, Christmastime!
Paula x