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. 

All day my phone has pinged with wonderful notifications of lovely messages and photos of your thoughtful parcels zipping around the world!

I am just in awe of all the creativity, some have been so resourceful on the £5 guide price, parcels have been bursting with craft supplies, vintage goodies and sweet treats, others have had a special present that was perfect for their partner. 

Your kindness is inspiring and uplifting.

Receiving happy mail is like receiving a bunch of flowers for me. It makes you feel giddy and you want to sit and admire the contents of your parcel! I hope there are a few of you displaying your notelets or cards on your fireplaces of window ledges, I loved a card sent to me in the first swap at the beginning of the year that still has pride of place on the mantlepiece.

It's a reminder of how important an act of goodwill is. 

If you joined in the #autumntimesurpriseproject the deadline for sending gifts was for them to be ready to open today, but I loved that people have shared their parcels over the last couple of weeks too. You didn't have to wait at all and I loved seeing the excitement building!

If you still need to send yours don't panic, just drop your partner an email and let them know you haven't forgotten. Everyone understands that life can take over sometimes and the to do list spills over into another day. Just keep them in the loop.

Look at all the parcels!

This is just a small hint of the pretty gift wrap, the colourful creations, sweet notes and absolute thoughtfulness in the #autumntimesurpriseproject gallery. Go and have a peek.

For anyone who missed this surprise swap and would like to join in next time I will be opening the #wintertimesurpriseproject over the Christmas holidays for parcels to be sent in February. Hopefully that will be something to look forward to after the festivities!

Next year, after the final seasonal swap I hope you will join in with the #surpriseproject which will run three times a year. That way, whether you are basking in Spring sunshine or your playing in the snow we can just exchange fun parcels that put a smile on our faces. 

I have so much love for the Surprise Project society of women, men, bloggers, Instagram fans, friends and to my family who also join in!

I will be updating the surpriseproject.com website over the next couple of weeks ready to open the winter project. But we won't be sending parcels until February, after the madness of the Christmas festivities and it will be something to look forward to in the new year.

I also wanted to say a thank you to The Fresh Flower Company. I won this beautiful bouquet as part of their #freshflowergiveaway on Instagram by sharing a seasonal floral image. I adore the colours, how autumnal can be just as bright and cheerful as the deep rich traditional colours of the season. I realised I hadn't assigned myself a partner in the swap so it was a very lovely surprise for me.

I am going to print a few of these photos as they match our dining room decor! 

Thank you so much for everyone who followed through and sent their parcels, and for those who are busy wrapping over the next few days.

You've made your partners really happy.

Happy Sunday all xx

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.