Archive for the 'Fun' Category

Snack Attack

The Media Snacker Respect meme started by Jerimiah Owyang is now at my blog courtesy of Beth Kanter who tagged me. I’m not the biggest fan of meme’s but this one did make me stop and think as it’s made me aware of our shift into how we’re using social media tools to get our information snacks compared to using a newspaper or other traditional media for example.

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In the pink!

Regular readers will have noted a drastic colour change today on my blog.
It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. From politicians, to the public, to the press, it is a time when focus on breast cancer is at its very highest across the world.

Pink is the colour during Breast Cancer Awareness Month hence the new look to my blog during October. You can find out more by searching on the internet for breast cancer awareness charities and nonprofits to learn how you can help to raise funds, spread the word and take part.

Bloggers and website designers like myself are joining in with awareness raising across the globe by turning their sites pink for the month. You can find out more at Pink For October.

I’d love to hear from you if you go pink - Please do leave a comment with your weblink.
Michele Martin at the Bamboo Project Blog has joined me in being pink for the cause too!

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31 Days to a Better Blog: The final days

Firstly before I begin my summary of the final tasks, I’d like to say a big thank you to Paul Webster from the ICT Hub, who boldly took on the final days of the challenge whilst I hopped on a train with the family, leaving all technology behind and unplugged for a much needed vacation in France. Paul on his Watford Gap blog (about ICT support in the regions here in the UK, with a bit of railway coffee for good measure!), did a fine job of tackling the final days really well and I no doubt will be a slave to any of his requests in the future as compensation.
A big thank you too to the 31 Days to a Better Blog community who not only welcomed Paul into it all at a late stage, but a personal big cheers to you all. With thanks to this challenge first instigated by Michele Martin of the Bamboo Project Blog, I have a new circle of global friends who through the project have introduced me to a wide range of ideas, concepts and inspiration too. Congratulations to the MiniLegends, the fabulous class of 9 year olds in Australia with the support of their fabulous teacher Al Upton who won the Chocolate Challenge.
Do take a look at the MiniLegends site, they’ve used VoiceThread recently which I mentioned to them a while back. These young people are just fabulous!!!

Anyway, August is now over, and officially so is the challenge. I had a good excuse to fall behind with my holidays, and a few of us are still plodding through the final tasks.
It hasn’t ended there though, nearly all of us and quite a few extra have joined in as a new community to learn and discover more in our journeys with blogging. You can read more about the ideas behind this in a recent post by Michele Martin, or head straight over and join in on the new Building a Better Better Blog community. Also, I’d highly recommend that you keep looking at the taskmaster of this challenge, Darren Rowse’s site at Problogger. The interest and learning that have been shared on his site are really useful too, with many of the readers and participants giving their tips and experiences.

I’ve not had too much time to do all of the final tasks in great detail but listed them here, and I hope that you, my readers have enjoyed my journey into building a better blog. I still have much work to do. This challenge has inspired me to really understand the role of my blog, and also of my main website, and redesigns and tweaking will be much of a feature in the coming months ahead to refine my sites usability and look more.

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31 Days to a Better Blog - Day 8: Comment on a New Blog

The 31 Days to a Better Blog challenge continues, and to save repeating what it’s all about every day, I’ve created a handy page for the background information to the project and as to why I am taking part. Also, please do read the full article, your input could help you to win a lovely prize!

Todays given task is to Comment on a Blog that you’ve never Commented Before. It was listed as an easy task which it is, but it does also serve an important purpose of widening not only your presence, but also creating new relationships. You’ll (hopefully!) receive more traffic to your own site and create new contacts.

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My Latest Gadget!

I have a new gadget in my possession. And one, that hopefully, my husband will not take, use and hide elsewhere in our house, so at long last I can always find my trusty screwdriver when I need it.
This screwdriver looks fab, thanks to it’s more feminine styling!

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Oli - the pop star!

Those of you who know my little vibrant Oliver, will know that he loves music and as well as wanting to be a 'restaurantman' (his own words!) when he's bigger, running a neat cafe that Jamie Oliver would be proud of...he also wants to be a rock star too. (pretty much your average 6 year old!) Luckily, managed to catch him having a spontaneous jam with his lead guitarist (okay - his dad!) yesterday evening! He loves YouTube no end (funny pet videos and clips of the Simpsons are his faves!) so he wanted this up for you to see...

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A taste that took me back to being a kid again

This afternoon, I dropped Oli off to one of his friends birthday parties. Nearby to the venue, is a fabulous old fashioned sweet shop, so Ralph and I popped in to get some sweets. Now, I am not known for having a sweet tooth, but my heart melted when up on the top shelf....can you believe it - Mojo's and banana ones at that too! Read on to see my joy with my Mojo's...

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Retro Websites

Looking from the perspective of accessibility, thankfully the webworld has moved on. But still sometimes you find a website that was designed some years back with the lovely animated gifs and flashing and rotating banners that would make most screenreaders balk. Read on to find out more about a great example of retro web design. (actually reminds me of some MySpace sites!)

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Big Red Nose

Was it my imagination, or were the noses for Red Nose Day exceedingly big this year?

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