Fashion - Surprise 30th Birthday Fun!

So a little outfit post for you all today, if you follow me on Social Networking sites you may already have had a sneak peek at this outfit I wore for my Best Friends Surprise 30th Birthday Party! It was masquerade themed by the way!

Dress: Oasis

Shoes: Ruby Shoo (via eBay)

Floral Crown: Bought at the Clothes Show Live but can't remember the company!

Necklace: Vintage 

Bangle: Wallis (via Clothes Show Live)

Mask: eBay

Me and the hubby!

The Birthday Girl and her beautiful family!

Me and my sister having a bit of Photobooth fun!

All our acrylic props are from the awesome Funky Laser!

You can find more of our Photo Booth fun from the night on our Facebook page!

Here's to 2014!!

Well Happy New Year Ladies!

Sorry I haven't managed to check in this year yet, been ever so slightly busy! But here I am, and here's to a great 2014, hopefully this will be the year of some major changes in my life, some great changes! So instead of a New Years Resolution Post which most of us bloggers do at this time of year (and no doubt most of us fail within the first month! Lol) I am going to make this post about the changes and progressions I shall hope to make this year. A declaration of positive reinforcements that I shall be aiming for shall we say. (Oh that all sounded a bit heavy didn't it!)
Number 1: Lose Weight!  Right I know what you are all thinking - this is the most popular New Years Resolution out there and yes it is, lol! But me and the hubby actually decided to be pro active about it this year, we joined Slimming World on New Years Eve! I am determined to get back down to a size 10-12 (I have an entire wardrobe of clothes that currently do not fit me and it is rubbish!) We have been on it almost a week now and are finding it OK, just waiting to see if I have actually lost anything on Tuesday evening - so I hope to be making Wednesday 'Weightloss Wednesdays' where I will talk about food/healthy eating, fitness, weightloss or anything related to that.

A much slimmer 18 year old version of me and Jon!

Number 2: This will be the year we really get our business off the ground! Cross-Jones Photography is mine and Jon's dream, photography is his passion, he comes alive when he is behind the camera, and I love seeing that. We are in our element when creating beautiful memories for parents, brides and grooms and everyone else we work with, we love it so much. We made a huge jump moving back home with the parents, giving up a salaried job with career prospects to survive on my Part Time job, but we felt we had to do it! We want to make this business our lives, we want to be working for ourselves, controlling our own lives!

Number 3: Get a little closer to owning our own home!  Whether we actually get there this year or not I don't mind, in fact I don't expect us to at the moment, I simply want us to be one step closer. To keep adding slowly to our savings so that we know at some point we will be able to put down a deposit on our own home. That really is the dream, it's simple to most people, but it will be a huge financial struggle for us whilst trying to also start a company and live on just 1 small wage. But we will get there!
Number 4: Develop a better work/life balance! I juggle multiply jobs, a start-up company, freelance work and a blog - and somehow try to have a life too! I realised that the last few months of last year I barely had a life, I did very little with the spare time I had other than watch TV or do more online work! This year I want to try develop a better balance. I'd like to read more books, get out of the house more and find more time to exercise (links to Number 1!) plus keep up with my pen pals! I just want to enjoy my life more!
Number 5: Take more Photographs! I know this sounds odd from someone who runs a photography business, logically I would spend all my time dealing with photos, but in all honesty I don't actually take that many, Jon is always behind the camera lens. But actually I mean more photos of my life and not just for instagram! Me and Jon have very few photos of the 2 of us because we are always the ones behind the camera! And I realised there are lots of events and times in my life that I have no photos of, and I want that to change. I want more photographs, more long term memories. And I will be sorting them all into albums for a change, not just posting them on Facebook or leaving them stored on my computer!

Last Number 6: Build my Freelance Website and Get more Private Clients Ok this one might sound like it would just mean more work, so even less of a decent work/life balance, but in fact the hope is that I will be able to work for myself full time at some point - Writing/Editing/Proofreading and running the photography company. The overall goal is for me and Jon to be able to run our lives in a way that will work for us, and no longer on someone else's time frame. So although it may mean I have to work harder at the start, I really hope it will pay off in the end.
So that is it I think! These are the major changes and advance I want to make this year! What are your 2014 plans?

Cross-Jones Photography - Marissen Family Maternity Shoot

Just an update for everyone that is interested. Cross-Jones Photography is going well at the moment and this is one of our recent shoots. A lovely Mummy-to-be called Lydia invited us to come and take some Maternity photos of her and her hubby, you can find the whole set here, but these are our favourite takes.

What do you think? Like our take on the traditional Maternity shoot? We wanted something a bit different and a bit personal for them. Mummy is due soon, so we might be lucky enough to take pictures of baby Marissen very soon too!

Cross-Jones Photography - Baby Mila

Thought I would share one of our latest shoots with you. This is little Mila, she is 3 months old and absolutely bloody adorable! Please check out the full shoot on our Cross-Jones Photography website! 

Let me know what you think of them? If you are in the South Wales Area we have a competition running to win a free shoot on Facebook! Check it out and enter for your chance to win.

Cross-Jones Photography - Breast Cancer Care Charity Boxing Match

Me and Jon were lucky enough to be invited along to a Charity White Collar Boxing Match last week to help capture all the action in the ring. The event was being held to raise money for Breast Cancer Care, and they managed to raise over £10,000 on the night. We took lost of shots, but I thought I would share just a few here for you, and you can find all the rest on Cross-Jones Photography's Facebook Page. In all honesty I had never seen a real boxing match so was a little worried about how I would feel about it, especially as I was going to be so close to the action, literally kneeling at the side of the ring with my camera all evening. But...I loved it! It is so exciting to watch and things move so fast, everything can change in a split second with just one good punch.

Here are just a few of the great shots we got:

Have you ever seen a boxing match up close? How do you feel about it?

Cross-Jones Photography - Smash the Cake Photoshoot and Competition

Just a little update from Cross-Jones Photography, as a few of you know we are now running the company full time (you're probably sick of me tweeting and FB'ing photos! lol) so here is just a quick update on one of our recent shoot. Smash the Cake with Rhys on his 1st Birthday - we had such fun shooting this set of picture, if you want to see more check out our Cross-Jones Photography Blog or Crossjonesphotography.com.

And just incase you haven't see our Facebook page recently we are running a little local competition to win a free kids photoshoot with us. If you live in South Wales and have a child under 16 please check us out here and enter your little Mischief Maker!

If your looking for a photographer for any occasion in the UK (we're happy to travel!!) please check us out and get in touch!

A month has flown by already!

So my month off is over! Hasn’t it flown by? I have barely had time to stop and think, so it was lucky that I had some amazing guest bloggers to keep you all entertained while I was away. Did you enjoy them? I hope you did! If you missed any in my Show Us Your Favourite…guest series here they all are again. 

Favourite Holiday with Forty Percent Fringe : Sixty Percent Face 

Favourite Lip Balm with Makeup Pixi3

Favourite Band with Diary of the Evans-Crittens

Favourite Places to see in New York with A Pretty Place to Play

Favourite Places to Shop in Chiang Mai with Antares:Alpha Scorpii

Favourite Book with Little Nomad

Favourite Lipstick with C.S.I Beauty Blog

Favourite Mascara with Missy In The Mirror

Favourite Shower Products with One Little Vice

Favourite Nail Polish with C.S.I Beauty Blog

Favourite Websites with Miki's Scrapbook

And I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who helped me out, you can find them all on their own blogs here. 

Helen, Georgina, Claire, Bethan, Maryna, Nina, Shruti, Angelica, L&M, Miki

The move went well, so thank you for all the encouragement and well wishes. We have now handed in the keys to our little flat in Cardiff and are almost sorted and settled back at my parents home in Neath. It will take a little time for us to get used to all the changes and get our lives into a new rhythm but I’m sure it will all settle down soon, at the moment it is just a case of trying to promote and market the new business, whilst keeping up with my writing work and commuting to my TIC job in Cardiff 3 days a week, but I am getting there!

So as it is my first post back I thought I would give you all a little catch-up as to what I have been up to…other than moving.

We managed to squeeze in a much anticipated shoot, which if you follow Cross-Jones Photography on Facebook or me on FB, Twitter or Instagram you will already have had a sneak peek of, if not here is a little selection, but you will find the rest on our new website www.crossjonesphotography.comwww.crossjonesphotography.com (please check out the site and let me know what you think of it too!). The adorable Lili-Rose, just 6 days old.

I was very lucky to have been invited to The Ladyboys of Bangkok Gala Night, which was brilliant and so funny! It is amazing how beautiful they all are, makes a women jealous!

I also went to a little Lush blogger event, hosted by the Cardiff store. We got to try some fun non-alcoholic cocktails and get a skin consultation. It was lovely to catch up with some of the ladies, and I have to confess I bought myself a few things for the very first time! I always seem to get bath bombs as gifts and only ever go in to buy gifts for others, so it was nice to finally treat myself to a few things.

 Stefanie of Cowbiscuits trying out the make-up range as hair tint

 All the fun fresh face masks

 Georgina of Makeup Pixi3 trying out the chocolate based face mask

Laura from What Laura Did getting an arm massage

I have been to the theatre not once, but twice! Lucky me, eh? First I went to see Noises Off with my sister and work colleagues, which was great fun. Then I went and saw the awesome Hairspray with my Mum, Sis and Mum’s friend Liz. It stared Mark Benson, Lucy Benjamin and Marcus Collins. I loved it!

The girlies before the show! Biz, me and Briony

Me and Briony ready for the show!!

 Briony and Liz ready for food before Hairspray

 Me and my mum before Hairspray! (yes I know we look very alike!)

And lastly, I was invited to a great little local business womens beauty event called Business, Beauty and Bubbles, held at the Maldron Cardiff. It was a networking kind of event for business women and local fashion/beauty businesses. I meet a few friendly blogging faces whilst I was there, and a few businesses ladies I knew too, it was a nice afternoon of chatting, drinking, eating and a bit of pampering (Thank you Zoe for my lovely nails!)

 Lovely Anne of Stella and Dot

Gemma from Fat Frocks, Mia from By Mimi and her friend (who I cannot remember the name of!!)

So that is a catch up of what I managed to get done, whilst moving, for the last week. Have you ladies done anything fun or exciting? Is there any major news I have missed out on?

Oh and I got a new iPhone with a much better camera! So expect to see some my Sunday Catch-up posts making a return!

Update on my life! And a Giveaway!

Well lovely ladies (and the occasional gents who read my blog) a lot of you will know that Jon, the hubby, is very much into his photography and you may have noticed the odd Cross-Jones Photography post cropping up on the blog. Well big changes are coming in my/our life. We are very excited about it but it is also a little scary. Now that the wheels are fully in motion and the plans are all in place I thought I would let you all know.

Jon has decided to go self employed (me part time!) he has left the pub trade and we are launching own company. Cross-Jones Photography will be an official company as of 1st July!! For this to happen we are moving home to Neath to live with my parents for a while, so Jon can dedicate time to getting the company up and running and to help relieve a little tension on the finances while we build the company up. We will be available to shoot weddings, engagements, family portraits, head-shots, newborn, maternity, events, publicity and anything else you can think of. We almost have everything in place now, it's just a matter of promoting the business and getting our name out there.

As I will be moving this month (and that is a mammoth task!) and trying to launch a company I am sadly taking a month off blogging, but I wouldn't dare leave all of you without some great posts. So don't worry, for the month of June I have some amazing guest posts coming your way from some of my favourite bloggers. I have asked them all to do a post on the theme of 'Show Us Your Favourite...' meaning they will be telling us about their favourite bands, beauty products, holidays, clothing items, food or what ever else they want to tell you about. I hope you enjoy them.

But as I am leaving you and in honour of our new company I am also hosting a little giveaway (actually 2 giveaways, 1 now and 1 in 2 weeks time! So remember to come back). This giveaway is for 1 of 2 awesome books. 1 to fit with my blog and 1 to fit with Jon's. You have the chance to win either a Vivienne Westwood book or a Digital Photography Guide (one of Jon's favourites!)

 Vivienne Westwood Book

The Complete Digital Photo Manual 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So please don't forget to enter my giveaway and check back in on the blog as I will have a ton of brilliant guest posts for you all to read. 

Cross-Jones Photography - Nelson Family Reunion Photoshoot

Thought I would give you a little look at the shoot we did last week for the Nelson Family, you can check it out on the Cross-Jones Photography blog or on our facebook page. Please take a peek and let us know what you think.

This is little Imarni we took photos of when she was just 10 days old, she is now 5 months old and has grown so much!