Fun with Friends in February !

I've had a rather manic month so far, so bear with me as this post will be quite looooong LOL

As I mentioned before, Valentine's Day is also my husband's birthday and this year was his 50TH !!! No idea where the years have gone, but I will admit he is looking far from his age and is wearing well LOL

Our friends, Dawn and Glenn, came over from Ireland for a few days to celebrate with us and, honestly, we did nothing but laugh, drink, shop and eat good food for the entire visit ! The image of John hiding behind a tree at a few minutes past midnight on his birthday, on the way back from the pub, as we sang Happy Birthday to him will stay with me forever !

John's birthday portrait :)

Glenn just couldn't be serious !!

Dawn was much more well behaved :)

We headed into Birmingham for some shopping and a great lunch ! Of course, on the way back to the train station, we couldn't pass this pub ...

The view of the gorgeous sky and fabulous architecture ...

Moi ! Waiting for the beer to arrive :)

We managed to grab a couple in the pub on Dawn's Nokia ...

The Sunday after John's birthday found me at the Stoke Moat House Valentine's Bridal Fayre ... thanks to all those who dropped by to see me ! And thanks to my friend, Kim, for coming along and helping me out :)

This past weekend I travelled to London for the National Wedding Show at London Olympia ... I was helping out my friend, Matt Pereira who was exhibiting and I think we did rather well ! I also managed to secure a spot at the NEC Birmingham show in October (9th to 11th) so jot that in your calendar and come by to see me there ! Of course, I will blog about that again, watch this space ... Matt's friend (and bride of his from December) was also helping out (Kate) in her wedding dress, but we managed to have a night out without the dress (LOL) at a brand new, fantastic Italian restaurant on Kensington High Street (Postino) ... I won't even try to describe the experience, just get yourself along and try it out for yourself ... be prepared for the warm welcome and fantastic food !!

A couple of the fabulous trio ... self portrait (my aim's getting better with these haha) ...

At the restaurant ... trusted my G10 with the restaurant owner !

I got home pretty late on Sunday night and then decided on a mini Oscar's party with John ... we managed to stay awake until about 3:30am (no idea how !) so of course Monday was pretty much a write-off ... with the exception of a rather special visit :) John had been out walking Tess last week and met up with her sister, Bea ! She literally lives around the corner and we didn't realise ! So, we invited Bea down for a runaround with Tess and, boy, did they run around ! They had soooo much fun together in the garden, sharing toys, eating each other's treats and generally just getting along so well !

Bea ...

Tess and Bea ... awwwwww :)

On Tuesday I got picked up by Matt Wagster and Margaret McAtier for a ride down to Focus on Imaging at the NEC, the largest UK trade show and something not to be missed for us photographers ... I caught up with some of my suppliers, and some friends in the industry, which was great fun. I also folded and bought a new lens ... I know, but it did come highly recommended as a beautiful portrait lens by my friend in Turks and Caicos, Chris Mann, so I blame him completely. It is the 135mm f2 L and I will be putting it through it's paces at the weekend at a pre wedding shoot ! Here's an initial one of Tess in the kitchen (pretty dark conditions this evening) helping me with initial low light tests :)

And so here we are, half way through the week ... I have loads more to update you on, including a recent baby shoot, some new album designs and my pre wedding shoot with Kit and B this weekend up at Crewe Hall ... all good fun !

Gill