Blogging is brilliant.

It's brilliant because it brings communities together, raises thousands for charity, develops life long friendships and brings you opportunities you'd only dream of!

And.... it brought me to Buddy.

Oh what a night! Kirsten and I have been giddy for a couple of weeks, my sister was livid as was my brother and sister in law in New Jersey who adore his show Cake Boss! If you haven't seen it you are one of the few, his shows are televised in 190 countries! 

I had no idea what to expect from an international celebrity. But he surpassed all expectations.

Charming, witty, informal, welcoming (He kissed us all on two cheeks asking "This is what you do in England right?!") and led the most informal workshop, bouncing questions back and forwards between bloggers, journalists and television network staff, who were all as giddy as we were.

Buddy is passionate about creating a legacy and it was his strong sense of family that was so overwhelming. He wants a successful empire but he wants a clean, family, wholesome empire. One which will inspire generations to bake.

He calls it "Empowering the home baker." 

Buddy had both the men and women captivated in the basement kitchen of L'Atelier des Chefs in London's Mayfair. I was impressed with his sincerity and the way in which he openly discussed his own ups and downs and family heartbreak. This isn't a skill he has mastered, it's his natural charm.

We were all invited as part of a promotional event for his new line of bakeware. A HUGE new line of everything you could possibly ever want or need. But there were moments when you forgot he had a new line to sell. There were no figures or statistics, no hard sell, just banter. 

There were bloggers, bakers and writers and it was wonderful to meet Caroline too! 

But what I noticed was how classic the styling of the new collection was. With a reputation for creating enormous, extravagant cakes and even covering a whole car in fondant icing once, I had imagined the packaging, colours and patterns to have a show business quality to them. But no. Beautifully packaged, timeless products and pretty decorations. Feminine colour palette but the metal bakeware and gadgets have a strong unisex feel which I can see men and women alike snapping up as soon as they hit UK stores. If you can't wait until then you can purchase the range on Amazon.

Thanks to the official TLC photographer for providing the image of me icing my "marble" creation. Eek!

We were all sent home with a marvellous goodie bag full of treats to try and watch, apron and books including The Cake Decorating Bible by Juliet Sear, Cake Boss' ambassador in the UK. And Kirsten won the prize for the best decorated cake! Go Kirsten! 

Thank you to Porter Marketing for such a brilliant invitation.

And don't forget to watch the new series of Cake Boss on TLC on Fridays at 9pm.

And if you haven't yet nominated your favourite blogs for the BritMums Brilliance in Blogging Awards (yes I know - it's blog awards season!) today is your last chance!

You don't have to submit links to everything just the blog website links you love. 

Of course I'd be thrilled to be nominated this year so if you think I deserve a place in the shortlist you can nominate HERE.

It's hard to describe the feeling when you suddenly see your phone light up with a stream of Twitter notifications. It's like Christmas morning for a blogger! Because you know it must mean something good.

And in blog land, being a Finalist in the MAD Blog Awards is like being nominated for an Oscar. Over 200,000 nominations were submitted this year. That's the same number of glasses of milk a single cow will produce in its lifetime, as many pieces as it took to make this Lego creation and as many grey wolves as there are on the planet.

Ok so it may have been trickier than I thought to find 200,000 facts but you get my point! And the fact that you can only vote once means that more people than my supportive family and friends read this blog!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

It is an honour to be listed alongside the calibre of bloggers in the photography category. Katie has the ability to capture a thousand moments in a single shot of her daughters eyes and promotes appreciating the ordinary moments with her Sunday link up, Annie has been on a photographic journey of discovery this year in amongst her other incredible travels for charity as well as offering support with her Better Photos Project, Charly has a beautiful eye for composition and capturing the detail and I regularly join in her What's the Story link up and Helen has got food blogging down to a fine art with her nostalgic story telling and creative imagery.

And then there's me. And I feel like we all bring something different to the MADs this year.

My blogging ethos has always been to share the extraordinary in the ordinary. I choose to see life in a positive and creative way and I thought it might be nice to give you a glimpse into my day.

We can all chose what we focus on and I focus on the things that make me happy, because I am a much nicer person to be around. This is what I try to see.

I try not to see that the boys have turned the chair around and nag too much that they are too close to the TV screen, I try to see that their tiny legs, snuggled together, don't reach the ground yet. I try not to see that we are running late (as usual) to preschool, instead I take an extra 5 seconds to appreciate the magnolia that lives on the corner of our lane.

I could focus on my knotty, drip dried hair that has never looked as nice as the first day it was styled, but it's nicer to focus on the 10 seconds of bliss in Ollie's face letting him climb over onto my lap and pretend to drive the car. Yes, you could see a fishing equipment section of a large home store, but I see party supplies!

Food shopping is a necessary evil. But instead, as I close the boot, I choose to admire my new flip flops (ignoring the toes that need repainting) and take a minute to think how lucky we are to have such a sunny and warm Spring day in March. And for me blogging = mess. Almost every post ends up covering the house in clutter (Clutter by Lucy would be more appropriate) but then I snap a little pocket of detail which makes me smile.

My eye just scoots over the mountain of recycling stuffed in the centre of the sink and heads straight for the notes left on the fridge by a friend. I know at some point I need to sit down and file away all the paper work on the coffee table and move the collection of coats that adorn the metal stairs instead of the coat rack, but it's much more fun to take photos of flowers.

Of course I am never ready to dash off on the school run and always leave an explosion of props and papers behind me but who cares when you get this at 3.10pm. And yes there seems to be never enough time in the day to finish all the work on my to do list, but when work is this pretty it spurs me on!

What does it matter if instead of making gourmet recipes we cheat and buy ready made mash when we are shattered. There will be time one day to sit down and pour through all the inspiration that sits neatly on the kitchen shelves. And who doesn't have a pile of washing at the bottom of the stairs next to a helium canister?! But what does it matter as long as the school uniform is clean when you creep upstairs and peek at matching boys in matching beds.

Because I prefer to focus on the little things that make me happy. And those are the bits I love to share through photography. The extraordinary ordinary.

Photos let you capture a moment and record it forever. It's not about what camera you use, whether you are an expert on Photoshop or whether you know the technical details like a pro, it's about pointing a lens and capturing what you see. And then telling that story. It's not necessarily about a "perfect" picture, it's what's perfect to you.

Being a MADs Finalist and award winner is an incredible achievement and I believe it gives you the opportunity to inspire others, help and advise your fellow bloggers and readers and, above all, encourage as many people as possible to share your passion for photography.

These are the best days of our lives and I want to be a very old lady one day, surrounded by crinkly photo albums, pouring over memory after memory, that I recorded. On a phone, on a tablet, on a disposable camera at a wedding, on an instant Polaroid and on the best investment I've ever made.

I didn't think anything could top how I felt last year. It has made me challenge myself technically, led to work opportunities I'd never have dreamed of and inspired me to (hopefully) write more engaging and quality content for you to read. 

It is a pleasure taking photographs for this blog. Setting up mini photo shoots, leaving a trail of glitter confetti out to the back porch to grab the last snippet of natural light and is the perfect justification for filling my home with props!

Social media is so visual, sites like Pinterest have led to a new waves of photography talent being more easily shared with a worldwide audience and even Twitter have just announced a new photo policy!

Blog photography is about capturing the essence of your blog in imagery. Mine is like a tidal wave of me! I have tried being a ripple and it just doesn't work. So there it is, probably the longest post anyone has written as a Finalist. I am very grateful if you read all the way to this!

Here I am, loud and proud! If you think that I deserve to win this year's Best Photography award you can vote here. And if you'd rather vote for someone else then I wouldn't blame you!

Good luck everyone and here's to a group selfie on awards night!

PS. don't forget you can keep up with a daily dose of happy by following me on Instagram :)

A couple of years ago I signed up an Instagram account, posted a few pictures and then got swept up in a love affair with Afterlight. 

I have no idea why I didn't just keep publishing my iPhone photos through one app and then another, but I didn't. It felt like another step I didn't have time for, and then when A Beautiful Mess brought out their photo app, again I got lazy and left my Instagram account lonely and unloved.

But, I'd like to think I am a photography blogger (Aaah thank you for everyone who has nominated me in the Photography Category and all the others I am amazed to be nominated in, of the MAD Blog Awards 2014, I am so grateful - you can nominate your favourite bloggers here if you haven't yet) and there is an amazing Instagram community that I have been missing out on, who love sharing their photos as much as I do.

What a fool! I can still run all my photos through my preferred apps and simply choose to publish them on Instagram. Yes, why I didn't cotton onto this earlier is beyond me.

Of course it has made me realise just how many photos I post to Twitter and Facebook in one day. 

Yikes.

So my account is alive and kicking! Are you on Instagram? Please let me know your account name and I will come and find you.

I'm capturebylucy if you want to find me :)

ps. anyone a whizz on Instagram? Can you help me? I want to sync my blog Facebook account, rather than my personal one but I have no idea how to change the setting?! Any ideas?!

ps. tomorrow I am posting Episode 1 of my new podcast • Life Lately, please have a listen and be kind! I was very nervous when I recorded it, so I am hoping for a lot less fumbling and umms next week :)