I always think of January as the month for movie nights and lazy Sundays snuggled under a blanket together. The Christmas holidays go by in a frantic blur for us, with family and friends visiting. Evenings are spent around the dinner table, long after pudding has been finished and we seem to miss all the Christmas films!

The weather doesn't want to be kind, afternoons at the park are cut short on account of freezing fingers and the sun disappearing by 4pm. The comfort of home, the warmth of the sofa and the promise of popcorn always gets a big smile from our boys. 

On New Year's Eve we all smooshed together on one sofa and watched a Disney classic The Little Mermaid! I can still remember all the words to the songs and the boys jaws dropped when I added the accents! We are off to Disneyland Paris for my Mum's 60th and Ollie's 4th birthday in July and we are on a mission to introduce all the wonderful stories and characters to the boys!

And what a difference this LG MUSIC Flow System makes! We were lucky enough to be sent this wireless multi-room system from Currys and the discrete speakers have just found their way into little corners of the house. The sound bar sits neatly on the magazine baskets-come-television stand and I love that you can play music all around the house. Our more modest television has been given a new lease of life! Up to date sound technology, controlled through an app on your mobile phone. Ooh and the good thing is the app is available on iOS and Android or your PC.

We are now well and truly into the habit of nightly discos. A spinning, flashing disco ball has a permanent place in the family area and everyone who visits has to dance! Ollie is perfecting some wicked breakdancing moves which he expects all the grandparents to learn! The quality of the speakers is in a different league to the portable wireless speaker we have used in the past (The technical bit 24bit/192kHz is impressive for those of us that know what it means!) and we use Spotify to stream our favourite play list. The app allows you to connect through Deezer, Napster and Tuneln too. 

I've hidden the larger subwoofer speaker behind the sofa arm and the multi room speakers are now dotted around the house. You can either choose to play the same music around the house or stream your own favourites. So whilst the boys are downstairs enjoying Gangnam Style for the 150th time, I can shamelessly throw some Mummy moves (Why is it when you hit a certain age your dancing gets a little bit embarrassing?!) while I get ready to my current favourite song on loop, Uptown Funk. 

We like modern technology. But I also like making up to date devices fit into our home, without dominating the room. I like that the speakers are subtle. Simple, sleek and unobtrusive. Rich loves that the LG Music Flow detects when you are home, syncing with your mobile via the wifi, and through a stable connection that avoids breaks in the streaming. So we don't have the problems we had with our old Bluetooth speaker which only plays what the phone is playing!

It's worth taking the time to set up the system, download the app, for a powerful and high quality sound system. I like the nice touch on the app that you can choose to stream songs based on your mood or set up playlists to start at specific times by messaging the system with an instruction! We have renamed the speakers on the app based on which rooms they are in and we are able to control the volume of each of them through my mobile, instead of the boys being able to crank the volume up and upset all the neighbours!

We are now all set up for cosy film nights and making staying in the new going out! Ollie is now at an age where he will actually watch a film from start to finish and I can't wait to get through all my favourites from my childhood.

Here is my top 10! 

My brother and sister and I adored these films as children and Frozen has just got to be the Disney film of the next generation. We went ice skating over New Year and all the skaters were singing it loudly when it came over the tanoy.

But my ultimate favourite family film is without doubt The Goonies! One to wait for, until the boys are a little older (Mine have nightmares if we read about a story book with monster in it.) and one for them to love as much as we did! Rich and I still quote lines from the film all the time!

Are you like us and have family film nights? I'd love to know what family films are a must for your home movie nights! What are your absolute must sees?!

In collaboration with Currys

Hello colour loving happy snappers!

#capturingcolour is starting a brand new year today and let's all beat the January blues with painting the internet with beautiful blues!

It is amazing that the #capturingcolour community on Instagram has grown in just 6 months with over 5,700 posts linked up!

We LOVE seeing everyone's creative eye, the way we all interpret colour differently and it's so wonderful to see such vibrant colours brightening up our Instagram feeds.

Just look at some of the incredible inspiration from these colourful creatives.

I'll be sharing my 9 favourites, as usual, on Instagram and will be giving a special mention on the blog to my absolute favourite joining in each week. I loved filling my blog with all the week's colourful adventures and wanted to get back to it in 2015.

This week was a week of circles, squares, triangles and any other shape that caught our eyes.

I seemed to be drawn to circles but I loved all these colourful captures. 

And I adored this image from The Indigo Crew. Go and check out their inspiring gallery here.

#capturingcolour is a weekly tag on Instagram, with a new theme announced on a Monday, hosted by Kirsty, Clare and me. You can follow the Capturing Colour account here. Come and join in!

This week the theme is BLUE :)

In 2014 I felt like I had a blogging epiphany. I stopped worrying what other people thought and found my voice.

I realised, writing a blog, working around my children, making a stranger smile when they commented on a post or photo, feels pretty amazing. I started this blog almost 3 years ago, with absolutely no expectations. I never dared believe it would be read by people in other parts of the world and I'd see my photo in magazines.

I want to pinch myself almost every day. 

And I wanted to share some words of encouragement (Tips always sounds like I claim to know what I am doing!) for other bloggers or perhaps for people with their own, or starting their own, business this year.

In 2015 - Do Not Compare 

Healthy competition is good. Light hearted sibling rivalry between bloggers can be entertaining, if you are watching from the sidelines. But I've seen too much negativity this year. Snide comments, sad face emojis, down right blatant bitchiness. Over the internet, in public. It's not big and it's not clever. 

You are a published author, every time you hit save and post. You influence people, you make people laugh. You inspire others. 

I have felt so disheartened to see bloggers upset over rankings. Especially when the comments start with "I don't understand, I've had my best month on Twitter, the most engagement on Facebook..." I want to scream and say, that's is amazing! That is the statistic you should care about! YOUR stats, YOUR readers are listening! 

Your readers and followers care about YOU. Not who is 5 places above you in a scoreboard.

Over this year I have stopped checking how many followers I have compared to others, stopped checking my traffic figures on a daily basis. It was just habit. 30 days to make a habit, 30 days to break a habit! Instead when I check my analytics on a weekly basis, I look at what was most popular, where people are being referred from, what posts get the most engagement, and I try to use those metrics to shape and influence my content.

In 2015 - Show You Care

Be kinder.

It makes you feel nicer. Thank the people who support your blog. 

If you see someone on Twitter or Facebook having a rubbish day, cheer them up. Usually just a friendly reply is enough to make that person feel a little better. 

This year I took part in the Oh Comely Perfect Strangers Project. One box, a £10 guide, to a stranger. There was this incredible wave of collective kindness that surged around the internet. People were emailed their swap partner and set about making a little box of goodies. People, baked, knitted, created, sourced and supported other makers and crafters. I was blown away when I received my parcel. My swap partner had poured so much effort, especially for me, into the prettiest package I have ever been sent. 

Oh Comely will be running the project again in May but I would love to do something similar, if any of you would like to join in?! A little Springtime surprise between us all. A £5 guide, a sweet parcel, to make someone's day a little brighter. 

If you fancy joining in, pop your email here for more details when the daffodils start to bloom!

In 2015 - Have The Confidence To Share

Sharing doesn't mean you give away your trade secrets. It means you are helping to inspire others. 

If you make lovely videos, share how you edit them, where you source the music from. It doesn't take anything away from your videos. If you love taking photos, share some behind the scenes shots, if someone commented that they thought your posts was beautifully captured, share how you snapped it, what editing program you use, what phone apps you love?

Have confidence in your own style. Be proud of what you write, what you make, what you sell.

I write this blog as part of my work, it's grown from a hobby, a personal diary, and that is absolutely fine! I can't say that I write just for me, because I write for me, for Rich, for Sammy and Ollie. I am immensely proud of the collaborations and brands I have featured over the last year and will continue to be cautious about who I promote to my readers. To make sure I work with like minded companies, who value the effort I put into my sponsored posts and who I can form a lasting relationship with. 

Don't be shy about the fact that your blog is your business. Don't be embarrassed. People blog for lots of different reasons and that is what makes the internet a more interesting place. 

This year I am so excited to speak at a number of events. On the 7th March I will be hosting a hands on photography workshop at Blog On Cymru in Cardiff. It's the first time the conference has been run in Cardiff and I can't wait to share my props and talk through everything I have learnt over the last few year, to help you get more creative and have fun with your photography. 

In June I will be speaking again at one of the biggest blog conferences in the country. I have something different planned for this year, so watch this space...

I am also in cahoots with an incredibly talented photographer in London, to co host a creative day focussing on food photography. But we need to figure out a couple more details before I can share any more!

I'm hoping that by the Summer, I will have cleared out the workshop and be ready to host a very small group at my home. A day to learn from each other, drink flowery cocktails and play with props we can snip from the garden. It might just be a dream at the moment, but you have to start somewhere!

In 2015 - Remember Being A Super Blogger is Rare

No one is superman, or woman for that matter. No one. 

It may look like it from the highlights and show reel that they share on their Instagram feed, but behind that carefully chosen and edited photo is a pile of washing that hasn't been put away for weeks, a rotting bag of salad that's been forgotten about in the bottom of the fridge and children, who despite crafting their little fingers off in a Facebook news feed, actually spend far too much time on a phone or tablet. How many of us will admit that there are too many days that start with your children waking up and you giving them your phone, to give you just a few more minutes peace? 

But it doesn't make you a bad person! People who are often referred to of the super variety, are juggling too much. Squeezing one more thing into each day and creating the illusion that they must have 28 hours in their day compared to everyone else's 24. 

You don't have to be good at everything. 

I've spent a lot of time in 2014 trying to turn my hand to new challenges, often feeling like I am doing a little of everything, but nothing very well. 

I've realised I don't have to flood my blog with the latest trends, I don't have to have a YouTube channel. I am most comfortable with my camera. I love talking into a microphone, in the comfort of one of Rich's hoodies and I miss publishing my podcast. So instead of reading lots of posts which terrify me, because this is apparently the year of the something or other, I am going to stick to what I enjoy most. And hopefully my readers will enjoy it too. 

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy New Year. We all start the new year with the word happy. Let's try and stay happy, whatever life may throw at us, whatever sadness or challenges we may experience over the next 12 months. Look for the positive, and if you can't find it, reach out to someone.

Here's to health, happiness and helping each other in 2015.