Sunny days are here again...


At last the sun is shining again so we hot footed it down to Farmleigh to catch a few rays and enjoy the sunshine before the Sunday crowds arrived!

May Scrapbooking Class 'Top 10'...

We had a lovely and relaxing day today in Le Cheile, Donnycarney where I taught this double LO class entitled 'Top 10'. I chose to scrap my top 10 holiday destinations to date. Thanks to everyone who came along and we look forward to seeing you at the big event - The Midsummer Megascrap on Sat 20th June when we have celebrity tutor Celine Navarro over to Dublin for a fun scrapbooking event. Lots of techniques,gorgeous bumper kits, raffle prizes and of course auntie Ann's home baking ;-). Tickets start at €25 and you can book your space here...

Sneak Peaks May 23rd Scrapbooking Class...




I've just put the finishing touches on this month's scrapbooking class using a lovely monochrome set of Jenni Bowlin papers. There's still places available if you would like to join us to create this double layout on the theme of 'Top 10'. For my layout I've listed my top 10 favourite holiday destinations to date... Hope you can join us..

Letters to a Love Rat...



Well what do you know, my lovely friend Niamh Greene has done it again. This is the girl who sat in my kitchen week after week having a cuppa and telling me that she was doing 'this and that' with her free mornings since the kids went back to school.

A few months later I was totally shocked and flabbergasted when she tells me that actually the 'this and that' she was doing was tapping away at her laptop, writing funny stories to record the antics of her kiddies. The 'tapping' was a way of preserving her memories and also her sanity. Thankfully her husband read them and encouraged her to send them off to a few publishers. Lo and Behold Penguin Publishing House (which incidentally is no shabby unknown publisher!) phoned her back the next day... and the rest as they say is HISTORY!


Her first book 'Secret Diary of a Demented Housewife' came out 2 years ago and was an Irish and UK bestseller. Last year she followed it up with 'Confessions of a Demented Housewife - the Celebrity Years' and now she has just launched her third novel 'Letters to a Love Rat'. Isn't this the stuff of fairytales??? - stay at home mum always wanted to be a writer ...becomes Irish and dare I say it 'International' success in two years!So proud of the gal! I'm absolutely loving the latest edition to her repetoire. And 300,000 copies sold in 2 years is no shabby pipedream neither! It's in all good bookshops now...now tell all your friends :-)

Cheryl's Bootcamp


WOW WOW WOW just home from the most fantastic photography workshop weekend in Great Chesterford, London- Cheryl Johnson's Bootcamp. From beginning to end it was just an amazing weekend of learning and fun in the best company of lovely photographers and scrappers from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.





The weekend was a great mix of tech talk and practical experience and the theme of Army Bootcamp was prominent as you will see from these photos. Lesley made this fun and clever animation of our graduation/fall out - have a look here

On Saturday we had a morning session in studio with a great little model Abbie aged 6 who was such a little pro....



After that session we went outside to the beautiful hotel grounds and photographed Abbie doing her thing in the garden. She was quite the little star and loved the attention from the papparazzi following her every move..








Afterwards we spent some time doing a baby photo shoot - little baby David aged 4 months who was half compliant and half annoyed at us poking lenses in his face which was good experience on adaptability as a photographer as that's what babies do at that age.




After a fantastic BBQ on Saturday night we had a chance to have a little play in the studio again and that's when the fun really started...

First I took some 'serious' head shots of Audrey - quite happy with the mood of these photos. Of course it helps when your model is photogenic!



...Then we discovered Cheryl's prop bag so we had lots of giggles with the fairy wings!




The next day we spent a sunny Sunday morning walking around the lovely village of great Chesterford with our model family of four which were duly stalked by the papps. At one stage we were photographing our roleplay 'moody teenager' subject on a doorstep when suddenly the owner opened his door to 30 or so cameras pointing his direction. He took it in good spirits and invited us in for tea!


















It was an unmissable weekened - I learn't so much and had the best time...Thank you Cheryl!

Dec's 40th Birthday Party

Last night we went to a dear pal's (the bould Declan's) 40th birthday party. A great chance to catch up with the old college crew- what a night! Finished up at 6am! I can't remember the last time I left a party in broad daylight!Birds were singing - too weird! Thank God for overnight babysitters! I made this little album for him of the good 'ole college days- so many great memories!





Another pal Elaine was also celebrating her 40th so I made this album about our travels to Greece in the 90's. I love making these albums - so much fun!

One of the funny events of the night was the conclusion of a 20 year bet which we all made on the last night of college exams- to see who would lose the least amount of hair...


And here we are 20+ years on and the time to announce the winner was last night. Guess who won!!

Disclaimer: no scalps were harmed in the taking of this photograph!