I'm sat tucked up in crisp white hotel bed sheets, with the crumbs from the complementary dual biscuit wrapper crumbling into the laptop keyboard, and thinking I wonder whether anyone else is up now, if anyone is going to BritMums for the first time and nervously dreaming of what to expect?!

Well be prepared for noise. Walking into the main room at BritMums is like battling through a joyous cacophony of excitable women, equally excitable men, all sharing reunions, first hugs and squeals and anxious anticipation. 

It can be everything you want it to be. You just need to harness those nerves and be yourself. My advice to anyone gong tomorrow is say hello to as many new faces as possible. This is the one event where everyone "gets you" they're all on your wavelength and they all want to talk about nothing but blogging!!!! Bloggers - you will be in heaven!

It's a chance to connect in person with people who feel like your best friends on the internet. Make real life friendships to take away with you, even if the next time you see each other is in a year's time, back at this very same venue. I will be missing some of my best pals this year - girls, I wish you were there!

I packed the boot to bursting with wallpaper samples, paint chips, buckets for flowers and scrap book papers. I hope there is something for everyone! 

I am in awe of all the preparation. I finally arrived in the loading bay (yes it was just as glamorous as it sounds) at 8.30pm tonight, over 4 hours since leaving home in Somerset. I crawled out of the car almost in the same driving position as I had sat in for 125 miles and cricked my neck and back a few times as the kind staff from The Brewery helped me load up the trolley with all the props for the Define Your Design Session tomorrow.

My boxes were added to a room full of boxes, all waiting to be revealed tomorrow afternoon.

Everyone who is going - you are in for a treat.

Hats off to the organisers who have clearly worked around the clock. It's one of those Pretty Woman moments where I want to say to Jen, Susanna and the BritMums team "If I forget to tell you later, I had a really great time tonight."

I checked in to a very stylish and spacious room and I am going to soak up every bit of modern luxury before heading home to our very old, very dusty, very in-need-of-renovation 300 year old house. Queue wriggling my toes excitedly under the tight hospital corners. I am going to enjoy the pristine white tiles in the bathroom, and collapse into the tower of pillows topped with a foiled wrapped chocolate. 

This weekend I am representing Boots and their great campaign #SummerGoodTimes. I am so excited to see their stand, after hearing a sneak peek earlier this week. The Boots team are looking forward to welcoming all the bloggers to this year's event, so make sure you stop by! Some of the longest lasting relationships in the community between brands and bloggers are formed at BritMums Live. 

It really feels like Summer now, I walked back along the main road from the pub that connects to the hotel at 10.30pm tonight and the air was balmy, people were walking past me hand in hand and it felt like a Friday was already here. 

Good luck to everyone in the BIBs this year, it is an amazing achievement to get to the final, I will be so proud to see my name on that big screen but I feel I had my moment last year, stepping out onto that stage and being blinded by the lights, feeling so loved and so grateful. I shall be whooping for all the winners tomorrow night. Every single one deserves to be one that stage, how do the judges decide?! 

So it's time to crash out now. Dream of my talk for the design session, practise it as I'm in the shower (Please tell you someone else has taped their notes to a shower door before and it's not just me?!) and wake up excited for the first day of the 2015 BritMums Live conference. 

Ready steady go!

The #capturingcolour week of brights was a blast. A riot of saturated reds, dazzling blue skies, hit you in the face shades of every colour of the rainbow. My week of colour started and ended in spectacular fashion. The garden is bursting with every hue, deep pinks, burnt oranges, sunshine yellows and vivid purples.

But the end of my week was colour magic. Taking part in a colour run is a special experience. The people, the cause, the haze of powder at every km mark. Rich and I signed up a while ago to support St Margaret's Hospice and join over 1500 other runners, walkers, children, grandparents and groups of friends to run 5km for charity last Sunday. The result was a crescendo of positive energy, dancing, smiles so wide your face hurt and the most colourful washing basket you will ever have the pleasure to wash! 

We were covered from head to toe. And it has never been so fun to get dirty! The boys adored it, were desperate to join in, next year Sammy boy. My heart melted like a nobbly bobbly on a hot Summer's day when we passed them on the first lap and he ran as fast as he could along side us on the other side of the rope line. Screaming with glee and encouragement as if he was never going to see us again! That complete adoration that we had run that far (Ok it's only 5km but that felt a long way for these out of shape runners. The hot dogs might not have been the best option!) and the excitement that we were going to pass them again even more covered in paint!

I was so desperate to run into the haze with my big camera but the powered gets everywhere! I have promised we will recreate the colour run in the garden in the Summer, wouldn't this be amazing for a kid's birthday party!

If you ever get the chance to participate, raise money for a fantastic cause just do it! We ran through the powder stations killing ourselves giggling, and the crowd support was fantastic. Everyone cheered you on from the sidelines, people were snapping away not wanting to miss a moment.

A collection of people, strangers, all laughing and smiling at each other. All day. 

Such an exhilarating and joyous experience, thanks to Granny who looked after too cheeky boys who wanted to run off every minute!

And thank you all for joining in with the #capturingcolour week of brights. Just stunning! Every colour you could imagine, it finally feels like Summer has arrived!

But I just adored this scene from the photo walk at Blogtacular. I was at the conference on Saturday but tucked up in our crisp white hotel sheets at the Travelodge in Covent Garden when these incredibly creative group of Instagrammers took to the streets of London armed with giant balloons. As soon as this was posted I knew it would be my favourite for the week!

Check out Melanie's inspiring feed on her Instagram account GeoffreyandGrace. 

What would life be without colour. Monday blues, Wintry shades of white and grey, the seasons take us through a spectrum of colour each year.

Now is the time I love the most. Summer brights! Thank you so much for a really great event!

I took some snippets of video, for a moment I stood and thought face your fear, switch the iPhone to video! I'm going to have a play at editing them all together but for now you can see the magical moment here.

Awesome. 

#capturingcolour is a weekly theme on Instagram. Tag your photos and post a CAPTION with it this week. Tell us all the story behind the picture. Favourites will be featured next Monday :)

You know it's been a successful children's party when you actually enjoy it. When you are ready 5 minutes ahead of schedule and greet your guests with a big smile rather than a flustered "Oh gosh hang on I'm just finishing the sandwiches!" For the last 6 years we have hosted birthday parties for our big boy Sammy. A cowboy theme complete with bucking bronco for his first, a petting zoo party, a circus and fishing extravaganza but this year just might have been my favourite. 

A party at home! 

Sammy decided quite a while ago on a camping/cowboys/red indians theme and unlike other years when the party planning and bags of party accessories start taking over the house a couple of months ahead, this year we managed to get everything ready in just over a week! A mad dash to our larger local town's party store the Saturday before and a next day delivery I ordered from Party Ark saved the day! 

I found this talented designer on Etsy Emily from DesignFancyParty and not only did I buy the invitation bundle but she also put together a set of drinks and food labels and fabulous printable bunting! All for $12!

Who knew a party at home would be less stressful! I loved having all morning to potter and it was a relief to have the weather on our side. A party at 3-5pm means it's an early finish enough for small ones but not so early that they end up eating party food and needing tea afterwards! I scoured the house for props for the buffet table, I raided my office and the boxes in the garage that still haven't been unpacked since we moved. I found their Playmobil Cowboys and Indians set, my wooden drawers, I spied a giant bear in the charity shop window for £10 and Sammy and I carried bits and pieces out of the playroom to make his marvellous camping party sweet table! Our neighbour loaded up his mini tractor and bought over hay bales from their farm and I borrowed picnic blankets and dusted off some old florist oasis I had saved for a craft idea, to use as a cake pop stands!

I slung my camera around my back all afternoon and every now and again snapped away, in between chatting with some our very bestest friends, new friends from school and our lovely family who had travelled for the day. I helped excitable small people with insect tattoo transfers, watched endless routines on the trampoline, bundles on the bouncy castle and sat in the doorway of the scout tents we borrowed from Beavers with a glass of wine and my best pal as all the children got to grips with the craft activities! Bliss.

I was shocked when I loaded the camera card onto the laptop and 668 photos popped up! So I have a few posts to share with you! I'm not sure my site would ever load if I uploaded all my favourites in one go!

I love the little details. The things you think will go unnoticed. But they don't. My boy remembers all of them. And that's all that matters. He's still talking about those tiny things, that meant staying up til 1am tying up polka dot Dick Whittington style party bags together and cutting out labels for all the chocolate treats at 6am. And he's already talking about what we should do next year... oh crumbs! 350 days of anticipation and excitement, he's so my son!

So if you are planning a camping theme for your next child's party, I hope you find some ideas to borrow!

We made the wooden signs from an old fence panel that was destined for the bonfire and some sample tins of paint, I found a lovely chap locally who sells wooden tree slices for a couple of pounds (The cake stand log was £1!) which made perfect party plates and we roasted marshmallows over the fire.

I bought almost all the party food and drinks from our local Lidl and spent just over £100 as well as some bargains in our local Original Factory Shop and bought a couple of extra bits from two talented bakers. We made a big sweet buffet on our dining room table and had hot sausages in rolls just before the marshmallow s'mores.

The iced biscuits (I mean edible sleeping bags, compasses and tents - how cute?!) and flake fire cupcakes were from The Small Cake Shop in Wincanton. She also made the most fabulous biscuit matches! I lined some cheap match boxes with tissue and shredded paper and popped them next to the "breadstick" firewood! One of my neighbours, Abzs Cakes, in the village made his spectacular two tier cake and the other bonfire and mini marshmallow topped fairy cakes. Psst the bottom was a false polystyrene cake! I have lots more photos to share of the games, photo booth and fun but here's a quick peek...

Happy Birthday our darling boy! Where on earth have those 6 years gone?!

I'll be sharing more photos soon, I just adored the party favours and the home made games! I love that he still pours over photos of his parties, remembers all the little things. He took his birthday cake into school with such pride. Roll on this year with our happy camper!