I love the countdown to the end of October, the flashes of sunshine fooling you that you can still wear flip flops one minute and winter boots the next, and the 1st of November is always a happy day - it's my sister's birthday!

I feel like we've squeezed more into this past month than ever before. Every second of October has been jam packed with trips with friends, catch ups, walks on the beach, play dates at the park, school performances, parent's teas, house updates, decorators, plumbers, plasterers, more train bookings than I've made in my life up to the big smoke, new babies and a visit from a small pink one.

We've all tried our best, put 100% into moving at 100 miles an hour and half term came just at the right time, before we all collapsed in a heap! The boys have been desperate for a break from the school run. We leave the house at (or we aim to leave the house) at 7.50am and once the dreaded clocks went back, it now feels like we are heading off before the sun rises. All they really wanted this half term was to play. Play with grandparents, play with their cousin and root around in the playroom rediscovering toys that have been overlooked in amongst the homework, the after school club routine and busy weekends away.

We've all been on a hamster wheel, the boys have embraced everything the new school has thrown at them, violin lessons, tennis, swimming and Ollie has suddenly blossomed into this beautiful wide-eyed sponge, soaking up every new experience, reading books with words in "Mama - look it has lots of words!" and walking past road signs, stopping to spell out the letters "Rrr-oooo-aaa-dd cc-lll-ooo-ss-ee-d, road closed Mama." We are just watching in complete awe. He is suddenly writing with confidence, and told me off the other day for my 'h' which was lacking the cursive flick at the end. He's growing more like his confident, show man older brother and these two floppy haired boys are testing our patience less and delighting us more.

That must sound strange to say, but over the summer we really struggled with temper tantrums, answering back and attitude that gave a worrying flash of what their teenage years might be like! But over the past month, with a definite influence from school and new friends, they have both calmed down, they are speaking more eloquently and are generally showing us how wonderful life is when everyone is contented. No arguing, no stamping feet. More of that please!

October has been about focus, we've juggled an extraordinary amount of work commitments, had more than a few 1.30am finishes and we both have made conscious choices about where we want our businesses to head. Rich is doing remarkable things with the tea business and I've had a bit of a soul searching month. I've realised where my strengths lie and where they certainly don't. I've been firmer with myself, saying no more often than ever, and made a big step towards my big dream for this blog. I met with a very talented man Reuben who understood me in 5 minutes and is going to help me make some big changes to the look and feel of this blog and finally get my product photography business online!

I blasted him my wish list, my ambitions, talked about people I admire in the blogging arena and my constant struggle to concentrate on one thing. And luckily he doesn't think I need to either! It's ok to wear many hats if they all point you in the same direction. I want to be able to write about the house, the boys, places we have travelled to and this month I am going to try and get more comfortable in front of the camera. I loved sharing a podcast last year but for some silly reason I let it drift. But maybe there's a way of being a little less camera shy (That sounds stupid but check out my daily feed - you have to scroll for weeks before you see me) - I'm plotting.

Over the next few days I am combining work and pleasure. That's the funny thing about blogging, there's no real break. You could be online every minute of the day, and share every intimate moment, every holiday, there's no real downtime. I look at bloggers with babies and there's no maternity leave as a blogger. The blog must go on! In a way it's become normal now, sharing a photo to Instagram first thing in the morning, making sure I photograph the rooms we are decorating for a before and after post and borrow my family as models for product photography! This weekend it's Granny and Grandad Bo's turn to be my props. I am photographing new images for the Wallace and Gromit The Grand Appeal charity "Big Bake" campaign which happens in December. We have chefs hats, flour and cupcakes to make!

Life and work have intertwined. 

But I don't see it as a bad thing, I have felt luckier than ever this month with the opportunities we have as a family, we took the boys to the regional shopping centre at Cribbs Causeway in Bristol and I felt proud as punch to see all my photos around The Grand Appeal store. This weekend I am rather worryingly modelling some gorgeous clothing for Joules for something exciting which I will share next week and all week we have been planning a surprise trip away with a company I love in 8 weeks that the boys are going to go nuts about. Blogging has led to some amazing collaborations, creative campaigns and long lasting relationships with brands I have loved for years. I've found a new confidence to approach companies I respect and would love to introduce my audience to and have had the pleasure to share my blogging story and hopefully help others with some hints and tips at a couple of events with Tots100. I have my final part of my growing and developing your Instagram style and following series on Monday and will be sharing my session from the food photography workshop with River Cottage towards the end of the week. 

I was completely spoilt this month with a night away with the team from Graham and Brown, swapping a drafty room with no carpet for 5* luxury at the Northcote Hotel and a fantastic behind the scenes tour of their factory, a wonderful afternoon with Etsy learning the art of brush lettering with a firm blogging friend I have made over the last few months Teri, and chatted all things home and interiors over afternoon tea with Farrow and Ball with some wildly talented writers and bloggers. Spoilt rotten. 

I have so many photos to share with you - this blog is going to be full of colour and inspiration in November!

On Monday I'm meeting with a London PR agency and one of the biggest international beauty clients imaginable to discuss a very exciting event. I'll share more when I can but fear not I shan't be in front of the camera! Trips to London have become a weekly occurrence and it suddenly doesn't feel like such a momentous journey zipping on the train from Gillingham and home again. 

I'm still just about managing to juggle my consultancy role in the development industry - flicking a switch some days and heading to meetings with house builders in traditional workwear, all suited and booted. It's like I am in a different world but I like it.

We had my little niece Yasmin to stay for 3 nights last week and I couldn't have adored my time with her more. We slipped into life as a 5 and I can't thank my sister and brother in law enough for trusting us with their most precious person. My sister was on bed rest with SPD that she has developed through her second pregnancy and we got to cement our tight bond all over again. She was so happy, so grateful to join me on the school run, she was an absolute joy. Her infectious enthusiasm for the world touches everyone she meets. Strangers stopped me in the street to tell me how beautiful she was, how polite and I honestly feel I have the best of every world being able to borrow her.

Our little spare room has firmly become "Yazzy's room" and I am planning a sweet makeover before Christmas - a total excuse to decorate with pink and pretty bunting even though we have 2 boys! I love being a mother of sons and having Yasmin to stay gave me a chance to totally indulge both our girly sides. She loves all things sparkly, frilly dresses, playing traditional games like tea parties and we spent hours at Auntie's dolls house that the boys enjoyed when they were younger. I dress my boys in pink, they've had dollies in the past, Sammy adored a pushchair we found in a charity shop when he was a toddler and I've never pushed them towards stereotypical 'boys toys', but naturally both the Heath brothers and Yasmin are drawn to different things. And that's fine by me. 

I did nothing but spoil her with attention for almost 4 days and it was the break from work I needed. It was full on, but the most fun full on I could think of. Neither of us wanted her to leave when they came to collect her! She even said over and over "No I don't want to go home, stay at Auntie's!" I love her like she's my own and when she left I felt quite empty, the house seemed so quiet without a bustling toddler haring around.

We sat down and just watched our pair of brothers for a few moments, happily colouring at the table, chatting to each other, playing together, encouraging each other, complimenting each other on a particularly well drawn monster, and we said wow - they are just so easy now. Of course it's not like that all the time but suddenly we've moved into a new phase. Almost overnight they have the independence they crave, instead of pushing boundaries, they stay up a little later at the weekend and we can enjoy a meal at a more grown up meal time, and talk all through dinner, with these mini people we have made.

We've had tradesmen in the house all week like Piccadilly Circus at the front door and each one has seen how they respect the house. All the little touches, the vases of flowers that live on the coffee table, the white walls, the nice accessories and cushions we work hard to afford. And although Yasmin is just the same, growing up being taught to respect the homes we live in, at 4 and 6 our boys are showing a real appreciation for how tough it is to work so hard. The value of things and pride in what Rich and I do.

And we are so proud of these two.

We left for a Halloween weekend away in the South East late last night and I suddenly realised that of all the hundreds of photos on the camera roll and laptop, there wasn't one of us four. A Me and Mine fail! So just before the car was packed to the brim with party bits and birthday presents for my sister, we dived into the hallway and snapped our reflection in the little hanging mirror.

And that will have to do this month and actually I feel it's quite fitting. It's been a whirlwind month, we've had time as a family and just enjoyed it without photos. I have to force myself to leave the camera at home or in my pocket but I am learning that not everything needs a photo, it's ok to be in the moment. So our family portrait this month is just one piece of a busy jigsaw of lovely friends, simple days out, celebrations and everything that life can throw at us.

Tonight we are having a Halloween party with Yasmin - just fun nothing scary. The boys love any excuse to dress up, play games and eat treats! We are going to snuggle under a duvet watch a film and then start it all again the next day for a 32nd family party complete with pass the parcel and party bags! I will never believe you are too old for party bags ;)

This week we were sent some treats from Slumberdown and the most divine silky new duvet which I can't wait to get home to on Monday night. It has the most luxurious striped finish - you almost don't want to hide it with a quilt cover. The boys road tested it and it passes their cosy test! We have always struggled in the past that their duvets seem to fall off them in the night and they've woken feeling cold and unsettled, but this duvet has been developed with a hollow fibre filling that wraps around your body so the whole thing moves with you in the night. I predict they are going to want to sleep with us every night! And after our mini Halloween play shoot the dogs didn't want to jump off either - naughty pups. We've spent the last 2 weeks redecorating the guest room and as it's so lovely we are going to take our new duvet and move in there! 

So wherever you are tonight, whether you celebrate Halloween or not, happy end of October. We have planned our calendar out right up until to new year now, it's just as busy as the last few weeks and we are going to embrace every second of it. The boys are already practising for the big school nativity show, we have long overdue catch ups with best pals away planned and I am working on lots of festive content for lovely clients.

How lucky am I?! Pop over and see my latest family craft ideas for Center Parcs if you are looking for a last minute idea today, my favourite has to be the Woodland Pumpkins... 

Join us and share your month and family photo, I can't wait to see them all. Then head over to Let's Talk Mommy and Jenny's award winning blog! I wish I lived closer to Jenny, she's one of the people I've been lucky to meet through blogging who I could talk for hours with, without stopping for breath!

I was packing on Monday evening for my trip away with Graham and Brown (which I cannot wait to tell you all about!), rooting through my wardrobe and the baskets full of washing ready to be ironed, that haven't quite found their way to the ironing board yet. And I realised just what a mis match of colour there is in my life. I have one black dress for serious work meetings or evenings out where I want to blend into the background more, but everything else is a rainbow of emotions, print and pattern.

I am at my most confident in colour, which to some must sound quite strange. The brighter the better in my book. Wearing my yellow mac and coloured scarves for the school run gives me an instant smile and a confidence to say hello to anyone as I race up from the car park to the school gates.

It makes me feel sunshiny. Does that sound as ridiculous as it seems to type?! But it's true. 

We've been redecorating our hallway over the last week, the sad walls full of crumbly holes have been filled and skimmed and we have freshly painted brilliant white walls from top to toe. The yellowy tinged skirting and door trim have been refreshed up with a new coat of paint and the nice, but not anything particularly special, wooden doors have also had a ghostly transformation. 

It's like someone has turned the lights on. But as much as I like this new fresh feel it does lack a little soul. So all week I've been playing with our furniture, moving bits from around the house in and out to see what felt like the right fit. I adore my bureau I found in an antique shop for a bargain price and instead of giving it a chalk paint makeover I've decided to leave it in it's varnished wood state. I need to source a lovely lamp once the pictures are all rehung on the new walls and that little corner will be complete.

It needs some colour which at the moment I am bringing in with florals arranged in little vases and some colourful cushions on the window seat. But I feel it still doesn't completely feel like me, like us. Rich's fondness for orange doesn't seem quite right with the grey accessories and I go back and forwards trying to choose the perfect wallpaper for perhaps under the stairs behind the bureau. Maybe we need something lighter behind, softer against the heavy wood rather than the bold floral prints I am drawn to over and over again.

We have greys and blues and a hint of autumn with seasonal blooms but I can't help but want to bring in a tone of pink or green somewhere. Something warm to balance the steely cool colours.

I am in love with these images from my Inspiration for our Forever Home pin board... the mix of vintage and modern, the statement light, the industrial textures mixed with the soft fabrics, rough hardwearing homewards, seagrass matting... ooh I just need to save that big budget to tick off my wish list!

You can follow along and see what I've got in mind for our renovation here... 

Whilst I love the calmness that white brings I need to be surrounded by pops of colour. It helps me think, sparks my creativity and the house changes from splashes of mint and coral in the family dining room to navy, golds and other hues of blue in the lounge.  I look back on the photos I share every day with #capturingcolour and could pin point at any one time how I was feeling. A busy, frantic day full of deadlines has a lonely single image over an 8 hour period, busy, bursting with textures and colour, a day when I'm feeling refreshed and energised will have a palette of greens, trees, leaves in the garden and other days where I am feeling less sure of decisions will have more white, a stillness that shows I need time to reflect. 

I'm sat typing this is in a pair of pillar box red capri trousers, my favourite navy slip on espadrilles which should really be packed away for next summer, and an enormous billowy white and navy neck scarf. I'm in a nautical combination of strong, but serious colours ready for a more rigid day of routine. Manageable deadlines, military timings to get everything done before the school pick up but with a playful (dare I say it rather girlish) hair clip pinning back the right side of my hair. And that's what my mood is today, hectic but under control with a hint of cheekiness. I need to be creative today, I have product photos to take that require humour and whimsy. I am like a pot of paint. The same colour inside and out!

And when I scoured the #capturingcolour gallery the other night ready to share my favourites and then got slightly weigh laid, do forgive me, with chores before I headed for an early train, I could feel I needed to immerse myself in the richness of the season. Energising greens, sumptuous flashes of red and calming blues.

I cannot believe the gallery now has over 20,000 posts linked up - that is amazing thank you so much for joining in!!!!

I loved these beautiful captures this week from the #capturingcolour gallery. 

Each week I share my grid of favourites and link to one account on the blog. I hope that I feature all sorts of accounts, inspiration from all over the world and people who make me want to reach for my camera. Check them out on my Instagram feed. 

I'm thinking of starting a monthly styling challenge as part of the #capturingcolour gallery. For the last week of the month to have a daily prompt, different daily themes to capture and get our creatives sparks flying. What do you think?!

7 days of styling for those who love to capture colour.

In the meantime go and find Candy Pop. I went through the gallery, as I do each week blindly choosing photos that jumped out at me and it was only after they loaded that I realised 4 were by Natasha! I have had the pleasure of meeting her recently and I only wishes we had had longer to chat! Her feed and love of colour is inspiring. Find her. 

So come and join us, tag your colourful images with #capturingcolour. Anything goes! Are you all about the pastels or bright pops of pink or are you a lover of cooler muted tomes, I'd love to see.

#capturingcolour is a monthly theme on Instagram. Tag your colourful photos to be featured next week. I will share a round up next Monday :)

To celebrate the launch of the #AutumnTimeSurpriseProject we had a week of snapping and sharing paper and parcels, postcards and posters, ribbons and string, colourful gift wrap and beautiful books. 

I loved the #capturingcolour gallery this week, so full of happy mail and a glimpse into your home interiors, the art work you display and the cards you'd lovingly been sent. I can't believe there are over 200 people signed up already to join in the new surprise swap, if you haven't already filled in the sign up form head over here - don't miss out, it's only open until the end of September.

I adored all these images, the bright colours, the pretty pastels and the calming muted tones. Every week I scroll through the gallery to create a lovely grid of favourites join gin in with the weekly theme and it's not until I have bookmarked all 10 that I see which accounts have shared them. It's wonderful to see so many joining in for the first time and I love that the gallery has some very loyal followers who rise to the weekly challenge week after week - I love you!

So here are just a handful of favourites, I could have created 3 grids this week!

But I just had to give a shout out to Tanya who shared this wall of post it notes. How poignant, how beautifully written and a real snapshot of this world at this moment in time. Tanya is one of the most well respected bloggers in the parent community and beyond. She has travelled the world highlighting incredible campaigns and raised an astonishing amount of money for charity. She has kindness running through her.

Last night I shared my final post for the week of paper and parcels as a little thank you to all my followers, all 20,000 of you! Eeek! It's hard to explain to those outside the world of social media the impact an app can have on you. I couldn't imagine life without the support and encouragement of the Instagram community.

I bought an extra Rifle Paper Co 2016 planner when I was in New York and I am giving it away to one of my kind followers. To enter all you have to do is leave a comment on this photo and tell me why you love the platform too. What has made you fall in love with Instagram? I will pick a comment at random next Sunday at midnight GMT. The giveaway is open worldwide, so pop a comment and good luck!

I have found this summer a challenge, keeping my blog up to date (well, I failed miserably on that front!) juggling work commitments, holiday fun with the boys and making the most of every last second before Ollie started big school. And Instagram has been my saviour. A way I can share a mini blog every day. 

I was talking to some of my fellow bloggers at an event last week about how many photos they share each day. I am conscious that perhaps I share too much, that I should adopt the one a day unofficial rule like so many others but it would honestly pain me! Everyday I want to share my little world with you, what I am working on, where I've travelled to. I see moments all through the day, that although quite insignificant in the grand scale of life, are significant little moments to me. And I hope they make you smile. Jumping out of the car to snap a roadside flower stall, arranging them on the mantlepiece the next day as a cheery photo to start the day. I am determined to finally get round to printing my first year on Instagram, so I have a physical record of all my observations.

I am a person who appears to wear their heart on their feed.

I can scroll back and see how I felt on any one day. Bright, bouncy happy captures when I'm feeling on top of the world, muted grey backgrounds when I am feeling like life is getting on top of me. Pastels when my head is dreaming, frames so full they are bursting when I am bursting with energy and excitement for a new project and black and white when I need to clear my head of all distractions and focus.

This week's theme couldn't be closer to my heart. 

As many of you know, my cousin lost her little 5 year old boy Skye last year. They have tirelessly campaigned for awareness into the effects of the treatment of childhood brain tumours and have somehow found the strength to fight for the lives of future children by continuing Skye's work through his charity Blue Skye Thinking. 

September sees a worldwide campaign for Childhood Cancer Awareness and I would love to turn the #capturingcolour gallery gold this week and show our support. And if we all use the hashtag #honestlovesmax too, Jessica Alba's company Honest will donate $1 to the Max Love Project who, like Skye, encouraged the world to Loom for Cancer. 

Join me and my co-host for the week Anna @instannnnagram whose beautiful 2 year old niece Hattie is currently in Great Ormond Street battling Leukaemia. Come and share your beautiful captures for a wonderful cause, raise some money and awareness - let's go GOLD!

Think golden sunlight, shiny sequins, glitter and sparkle, antique golds and anything else that sparks your imagination.

And don't forget to add #capturingcolour #honestlovesmax to raise your $1. That's for every post and tweet! 

#capturingcolour is a weekly theme on Instagram. Tag your colourful photos and post your GOLD images to be featured this week. I will share a round up next Monday :)