Sunday Catchup - 7th January

I haven't really taken a huge amount of photos this week so this will be a photo light version of my usual sunday catch-up. First I should let you all know that me and Jon are now on a diet as of January the 1st! I want to get back down to my old size 10-12 rather than my current 12-14. The weight has inched on since our wedding 2.5years ago and we are both determined to lose some weight this year. So we are trying the alternate day diet that Dr Michael Mosley did a documentary on last year. It means you eat normally, whatever you want, for 5 days and cut your calories to only 500 on 2 days. So we have started a little blog to track our progress - Less Waist More Taste. You can check it out if your interested in seeing what we will be eating everyday! And how our weight loss is going.

So apart from dieting I have spent most of my week working. In the tourist board and on my online work. I've started a blog for that too - In Pursuit of an Online Income. I intend to do a little work online everyday in the hope of building myself a residual income and a few online clients I can work for, mainly to make my life a bit more flexible and give myself a little bit more freedom. I'm also working on getting my own online website for my work portfolio.

Ok so now I have gotten all the boring info out of the way, and updated you on my life, you can see it's all just been a lot of work for the last week or so. But on a better business note, today Jon and I are on a photo shoot job for a local band. Pictures will be up at some point in the week for you all to see.

Now finally a few pictures for you all - I was very lucky to receive an amazing parcel yesterday from Miki of Miki's Scrapbook.

How amazing is this tote bag! I am in love with it! Thank you lots Miki!

Links and Love - As I said I have just been writing lots this last week, so these are all writing related but there are a few fun posts I thought you might like to read.

1. Fancy Dress idea for an up coming party - Where's Wally Fancy Dress Costume

2. I'm getting a head start on the next holiday season - Valentines Day Foods and Valentines Day Crafts for Kids

3. I've been doing lots of slow cooker cooking again too

Garlic Chicken

Non-Spicy Chilli

4. You have to see this hilarious Twilight Video

5. I want this ring I found on Pintrest, it's so cute!

So that's me for this week! How have you been? Anyone been up to anything interesting? 

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Cross-Jones Photography - Some updates

I noticed I hadn't given you lovely people a Cross-Jones Photography update for a while so here are a few snaps from our last few shoots.

In October Jon did a great live music shoot of a band called The Spokes

Then we did another live shoot with a great band called Goose 

Next we did some stunning head shoots of Bizzy Day

At the Start of December we did some model portfolio shots for Benedict Bond

Please check out some of our recent work and let us know what you think. Or if your looking for a photographer for any project please feel free to get in contact with us.

Happy New Year and Christmas Present Time

Happy New Year to all! I hope you had an awesome Christmas and a great New Years Eve. I can't believe it's 2013 already. I suppose I should be announcing my New Years Resolutions. Well in all honesty I am not setting any this year, I never keep to them so why bother. Instead I just have a few goals to achieve in 2013. They're all very boring and business/financial related really, so I won't bother explaining them all - oh and the usual lose weight one!

So it's been a little while since my last post but with Christmas and New Year it's been a bit busy round the Cross-Jones household. Here are a few pictures from my Christmas Day.

 What we were drinking on the day

 Jon's cracker present

 My cracker present! The awesome Alison in Wonderland Rabbit Brooch from the House of Ismay

Jon was cutting the Beef and little Pasha was watching, hoping for some dropped scraps! It was so cute!

As all the festivities are now out of the way I thought I should share with you some of the amazing gifts I got for Christmas. I was a very lucky girl this year and had some amazing prezzies. 

My big present from my parents was this AMAZING Westwood Watch! You all know my love for Westwood so this was a huge surprise! 

My big present off Jon was these perfect Hush Puppy Vivianna Boots

 Henry Holland Dog Print Dress

 This Cute Skirt

This stunning DP Butterfly Dress by Atelier

Great cozy jumper with studded shoulders from Peacocks

 Accessorize Owl Bag

 Jon bought me a H&M Bowler - I Love It!!

The Vintage Tea Party Book - Can't wait to try some of the recipes!

Ceramic Knives and 

The Sharpest Knife in the World - I love to cook and these will make my life easier!

I also got some DVD's, Books, CD's and make-up stuff too. 

So what did everyone else get? Any big surprises?

Beauty - Mani of the Week

Ah here is another quick mani of the week for you. I wanted something a little festive! So Red and Green it was. Plus I found a tutorial for a cling film manicure to give a marbled effect. Although I think it looked more like a sand stone effect in the end! But I kinda like how it came out!

Green - Collection 2000, Hot Looks in Ninja from Superdrug

Red - Nails Inc in Tate from Boots.com

 To get the effect all you need is your 2 colours and 10 cling film balls, just get a strip and scrunch it up. Then apply your base coat and let it dry fully. Then apply your top colour and press the cling film ball onto it, it needs to be firm but not too firm and do it in one movement, do not dab or move it around as it will just blur instead of making a splatter type pattern. Then top coat! I used a slightly glittery one from 17.

So what are your favourite polishes for this season? I am after one of the ones with big chunks of glitter in, but haven't managed to find one I like yet, any suggestions?