Have you been joining in with the brand new week of #capturingcolour?! This week you are in for a treat.

I have joined confetti weilding forces up with Talking Tables - the wonderful party ware company, and we have a gorgeous give-away for you.

I love party styling, the day my boys say "Oh Mama can we just have money?" will be a sad day! They love big birthdays, the appreciate and remember all the little details and I adore all the late nights spent making up party bags and the after party where all our family and closest friends share a drink amongst the party debris!

This week we want you to share your botanical inspired images in honour of the Talking Tables Botanical Christmas Range of party supplies for your chance to win a set!

The holly and berries pattern is so distinctive, it's classic festive feel is perfect for any Christmas table, whether you are in the city or at home in the country this year. The delicate illustrations and traditional colours are such a treat to see.

All you have to do to win your set from the Botanical Range is share a photo to Instagram with the hashtag #capturingcolour.

Do let us know so we can see them, I will be sharing a grid of favourites as well as announcing a winner next week.

We would love you to tag us @capturebylucy and @talkingtablesuk and follow them for incredible party inspiration. Their whole feed is delightful!

It's a blooming good week :)

Show us your beautiful botanicals, share a photo of florals, the great outdoors, anything inspired by nature!

There's even been some well over due sunshine over our house this week, a perfect excuse to get in the garden with my camera.

Happy snapping and good luck.

To enter tag your botanical themed photo with #capturingcolour. Entries are open until midnight GMT Sunday 29th November 2015. Open to UK and EU residents. 

I have never needed colour more in my life. Every day for the past, what seems like endless weeks, I have woken up and dreaded pulling up the blinds. Not just because they are a temporary measure, the cheapest blinds you can buy, and yes you do get what you pay for, they never seem to go up straight, but because underneath the crooked fabric horizon is a grey sky. The clouds are like chubby cheeks puffed out with raindrops, just waiting to wildly exhale and shower the garden in a blanket of dampness.

It's too dark. At 9am. 

These last couple of weeks seem to be getting the better of me, I am fighting the miserable weather outside, fighting against that feeling of being weighed down by the lack of sunshine that this November has been so unkind with. I've come to rely on those sunbeams for work and pleasure. Photo shoots are being delayed, every night I toy with whether I should invest in a studio with lighting next year, but then I realise how different that would make everything.

Leaving the house I adore to an unfamiliar space, that's seen so many stories before mine. I feel so lucky to have patient clients, who want those magical lifestyle shots that feel real, with real light not products blasted by light boxes and umbrellas indoors. But I just wish we had a teeny bit more sun in every day, even just an hour for the sun to show it's face through the thick fog of white cloud.

I raided the garden today for twigs for a craft project I am making for a lovely client, that I am finishing tomorrow, and took a few extra moments under that heavy cotton wool sky to take in the little bubbles of dew on the leaves, the cherries that are making a vibrant entrance and the lush green grass that is more thankful than I am for all the rainy days.

These little moments can make a big difference. I love how these talented Instagrammers have found the light, even on the darkest of days. To capture a flash to share. To post them for both their pleasure and ours. 

Each one let's you delve into their lives for just a moment, to see the way they capture what's important to them. The colours around them, the textures, the people. The things that are important to them. Their favourite vase, the corner of their home that makes them feel safe and contented. 

I share my grid of favourites that have jumped out at me on my Instagram feed so go find and follow them for daily inspiration and galleries you will get lost in.

It's amazing that in 10 seconds I can scroll through the dark days of almost winter in the UK to balmy shores and tropical climes. I LOVE this gallery and I love you for joining in.

We all need little things to get us through each day. Things we can find hope in. When the world is as turbulent as the stormy heavens above, it's important to appreciate the privilege we have. The safety and security.

We live in a rural village, where the occasional curtain twitching over someone's planning application for new windows sets tongues racing. There's old village traditions, villagers who have lived here all their lives. The lady who lives in the house behind us grew up in our house, she slept in the same room as the boys! The cows in the fields that envelope the centre produce some of the finest cheese, that you will probably have bought in your nearest supermarket. It's middle England and I adore it. And I don't think there is anything wrong with being grateful for it keeping my babies in a bubble, two country boys, with filthy wellies by the back door that more often than not get discarded in the middle of the garden in favour of bare feet, even in November. 

Instagram and sharing my daily #capturingcolour images has become part of my escape. A release from routine. You know those days when you can't seem to get on top of the washing, you've missed the deadline for the Christmas card order form at school and you've scraped together an eclectic dinner from what's left in the fridge? Well what does it really matter?!

Quite frankly sharing images and stories on our blogs and Facebook is a way to immerse ourself with an online world that can be anything we want it to be. It is so important to our well being! To lift our self confidence, to get appreciation for the things we love, that inspire us, in the hope that someone else feels the same. 

And SLPHoneymoons transport me to paradise on a daily basis! Their feed is bursting with cheerful imagery - just beautiful!

I have friends on Facebook who use it as a lifeline to their friends and family. Who take great joy in sharing the daily changes and achievements of their children and who feel happier when their friends press that like button. Every morning I wake up and check 4 websites before I've even cleaned my teeth. Tell me I'm not alone! Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and the Daily Mail online. I know I know I shouldn't I still look at it!

And isn't that just a wonderful thing? That for all the bad press Facebook and social media gets, that actually it can bring so much daily cheer to so many. The boys school shows videos to a Youtube channel, and it's amazing to see a glimpse of what they do for all those hours away from us.

I picked them up from after school club tonight, where they go twice a week, and got silence on the way home. It was like their little minds needed a rest, need calm, an escape of their own. Then just as we turned the corner up the hill to our house they burst into song. A full dress rehearsal (minus the costumes) of their Christmas nativity show.

They fought to sing the loudest who could scream "Welcome to our stable" louder than the other! There's so much they are learning, practising and performing that we don't get to see. They bomb into the house leaving me carrying the bags like a pack horse, kick each school shoe off into the four corners of the room, like the ceiling is the top corner of a goal post. 

It's a whirlwind from the moment the back gates swings open to the moment their heads hit the pillows. And then the clear up operation starts. When you both work from home you realise just how much mess you can make in a day. How many cups you use for tea and how all my work takes over the house. I had a Christmas scene set up in the conservatory today, cards and holly set up on a shelf outside the boys room against a picture perfect large white wall and an array of miniature Shaun the Sheep figures are lined up on my desk ready for their photo call tomorrow!

One day working in the world of photography and social media is never the same. And that's what I love.

Share what capturing colour means to you, next week I have a rather lovely giveaway from Talking Tables for a lucky member of the gallery. More on that over the weekend! 

#capturingcolour is a weekly theme on Instagram. Tag your photos to show what colours inspire you this week. 

Umm excuse me how can it be November already? I still have flip flops in the shoe basket in the hallway and my winter coats are still stuffed in bin bags in the top of the wardrobe. I am rather partial to a golden sunlight autumn day, crispy leaves on the ground of every colour from green, to red to orange but the grey days of November are not for me. Luckily family birthday shenanigans see me through this changing season month and suddenly the build up to Christmas festivities starts. 

I am so affected by the weather. Just look at my profile picture, a quick iPhone snap on a hazy summer day in the golden fields with sun rays streaming across my face. I really need to change it for something more autumnal but I was so happy at that moment. Believe me I have tried to take another, a selfie queen I am not. 25 attempts later and the summer photo has stayed put.

You know those miserable wet mornings where the sun never seems to rise, where dark clouds threaten the skies all day and everything seems so flat? Those days drain me. I am a summer baby and the thought of begin cocooned in opaque tights for the next 4 months makes my heart sink a little. I need colour in my life and when there's no colour to be found outside I create it inside!

The #capturingcolour gallery is everything I need to brighten my day. Over 22,000 streams of colour in my Insta feed. I adore scrolling through and looking through all the posts linked up to this colour loving community.

You blow me away.

We get to peek into people's homes, see how they use colour in their clothes to change their mood and colour to motivate them. I love the soulful images, the straight out pops of neon and everything in between.

I'm catching up on sharing some favourites so make sure you click on the ones that jump right out of you, and I guarantee you will find inspirational by the colourful rainbow load. 

Top to bottom, L to R: @flojoro123, @allenandbear, @dandyfinepartycompany, @porthjess, @partyprepworkshop, @stickandstonedesigns, @bespokebride, @lucylovesyablog, @myaamin. 

Top to bottom, L to R: @holidayspiritsdecor, @candypop.uk, @sophieisobelasher, @littlemaldod, @noorphotoart, @mylittleduke, @thevintagegoodlife, @spoonfulofcolor, @winnies_wonderland.

Top to bottom, L to R: @alittlepartoftheworld, @coolbananasblog, @hellomissmay, @jessicatrent, @lingyeungb, @hstfineart, @monkeykidsandme, @littlebigbell, @ceren_and_ladies.

I could fill these grids 5 times over, I am so thankful for everyone who joins in and who are so supportive. So keep sharing your colourful captures, it's such a positive and happy thing to do. Colour is everywhere, in door frames, beneath your feet, in the sky, all around you.

This image from Jennifer Lake just stood out for me. The essence of the gallery! Oh how I'd love to walk down that street!

Over the last few weeks we have been madly redecorating and updating our guest room and the downstairs cloakroom. It has been a hive of activity, tradesmen coming and going from dawn until dusk and I cannot wait to show you the difference. The way I have kept the walls neutral to make the spaces feel bigger and brought splashes of colour in different ways, to highlight all the features of the room.

Is it normal to fall in love with a box of floor tiles? Because I am in luuuuurve with our new toilet floor and they are not even grouted yet!

So much to show you over the next couple of weeks on the blog!

Keep sharing your beautiful captures, join in with the #capturingcolour community. When you hashtag your photo click through and see what catches your eye, like it or leave a comment. Spread the love.

Over the coming weeks I have some super collaborations to fill you in on - colour lovers you are in for a treat! I am going to share the gallery with a few of my favourite brands and we are going to have some amazing giveaways for you. 

Happy colour hunting! Don't forget to tag me too so I don't miss them!

#capturingcolour is a theme on Instagram. Tag your colourful photos this week. Favourites will be featured next Monday :)