Blogger Weekend: (Already) Time for a Change!

Enjoy the original post at An Optimist's Alcove!

I think I might be going crazy…Oh wait, I already am crazy! (My family constantly reminds me of this) But seriously, have you ever done so much research on one topic that your head starts to spin?

I’ve been thinking about giving my blog a face lift. Yeah, the little flowers and scrapbookish pattern are cute, but I got bored with it about a week after launching the blog. So the search begins.

Generally, I’m pretty artistic, but I have to be inspired before all of my ideas start to gel. After two weeks of searching index after index of blogger backgrounds I gave up. Nothing really seemed to fit what I was looking for. Granted, I had no idea what I was looking for, but I figured I would know it when I saw it. Then inspiration struck - “Why can’t I create my own design? It can’t be that hard right?”

Ha! I laugh now at my naivety.

Sure, there are some simple template generators that can help, and Blogging for Dummies is a great resource...but if I’m going to do something, its going to be done right. I want my blog to be memorable and unique, so a killer design is necessary.

I could have a pro do it – but I’m cheap, so this past week I’ve been exhausting every website I can find about creating blogs and writing html. Let me tell you, Google is a fantastic tool! So far I’ve been able to find answers and coding for everything I need.

Hurray! I’m rolling along and learning all of these sweet tips and tricks, but there is only one problem: I still don’t have an inspiration for my design.

Frantically searching more directories, reading articles, and even downloading free digital scrapbooking packages, I was still coming up with a big fat nothing.

It wasn’t until yesterday that, out of the blue, I got it.

Here is a sneak peak at my some things that inspired me:

There is still a lot of work to be done, but I am so excited to dive in and conquer the world of Blogger coding. Hopefully I can get everything completed and launched before September.

Wish me luck!

Sarah Henderson is an enthusiastic college student who is excited about life and what the future has in store! She is just an ordinary girl who love to smile, and tries to make sure there are smiles on the faces of everyone around her!

Recently, Sarah caught the blogging bug and began An Optimist’s Alcove as a place to pose her thoughts to the world. She also broke down and got an Optimistic Twitter Account because clearly everyone would want to read about her life! ;) 

When she is not lost in the world of blogs and twitterers, Sarah attends college and will graduate with a degree in History. She spends her free time dancing, scrapbooking, entertaining friends, or working. In the past, she has had the opportunity to work in many exciting positions including, blogging for a marketing department and hosting her own children's television show!

Posted via email from GuestBlog Me!

Blogger Weekend: Blog Life Balance

 

Sandy Calico is a wife and mother of two baby boys born within a year of each other. She thinks the phrase 'you've got your hands full' was written especially for her. Sandy is now a stay at home mum and works harder than she ever did in her career as a Financial Controller. Her blog Baby Baby is primarily about life with the little ones. Away from blogging Sandy also writes, records and performs her own songs. There is a sample of her work on her Myspace. She's @SandyCalico on Twitter

BLOG LIFE BALANCE

My name is Sandy and I'm a blogoholic.

There I've said it.

I was inspired to write this post by a question the lovely Sian asked on British Mummy Bloggers. She was in Chicago for BlogHer09 and wanted to know: how do you as a Mum and a blogger find the right balance in your life? You can read the full discussion here. Sian also has a wonderful blog called Yummy Mummy Tips, although while she was away her son Dinoboy took it over!

I had started to comment, but soon realised I had enough thoughts for my own blog post.

I started reading and commenting on blogs in May this year. I soon started blogging myself and over the past two and a half months I have become totally addicted to blogging. If I'm not writing my own, I'm reading and commenting on other people's blogs. I've just had a look at the blogs I'm following.

I'm following 172 blogs.

The majority are mummy blogs, but I've come across so many other interesting writers. I don't want to remove any of the 172 and I'm finding new ones every day. So how do I keep up?

• I've got the boys to take their afternoon naps together.
• I've pretty much stopped watching TV.
• I don't spend very much time on my music any more.
• I stay up late.

That still doesn't give me enough time.

Something has got to give.

I don't want this 'something' to be my relationship with my husband Andy. I'm lucky that he is very understanding. He knew that I was feeling quite isolated and is glad that I have found the friendship of the blogging community. Andy spends a lot of time on his music, so he's not sitting around waiting for me to step away from the laptop.

We still make time for each other. When we had children, we thought about the best way to still be Andy and Sandy (don't laugh, we could have called the kids Randy and Mandy!) as well as Daddy and Mummy. This is what we decided:

• We always eat together every evening, in the dining room. No TV, no PCs. We talk about our days.
• Every other night or so we'll watch a TV programme we've recorded, we may have a glass of wine too.
• We always go to bed together at the same time too.

I'm an all or nothing kind of person. I want to read blogs, read the comments and add my own comment too. I've got 83 posts unread in my Google Reader. It's hard, but I'm going to have to cut down on the commenting for a while. Just until I've caught up!

By the way Blogger isn't letting me view followers' profiles at the moment. If you leave me a comment I should be able to find you that way! Thanks.

I would love to know how you manage blogging, relationships and parenting.

***

If you would like to read the amazingly useful comments on this post, please visit Baby Baby.

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My July 2009 Guest Bloggers

What a month. Things really started happening in July with the guest posts; so much so, I'm having to do my best to space them out to keep as much quality and variety going through the pages! Last month I started an index page for guest posts with only a handful of entries; this month, you'll see something significantly different :) I'm hoping to keep posting at the rate of one quality, variety, post per day - so if you feel like submitting, check the blog home page first. If your article is different from what you see there, you'll significantly improve your chances of getting published and promoted very quickly.

Tomorrow (August 1) is the site's three-month birthday, and, to celebrate, I'm running a Blogger Weekend. A couple of metablog posts, blogging about blogging. Be sure to check them out!

Anyway, onto the immense July index - as before, be sure to check these articles out and look out for their authors on Twitter, and, above all, thank you to these kind people for their support of this idea. This is also my Twitter #followfriday list this week! I'd already done the first part of the month in an earlier post - let's see what else we got in the rest of July!

• @babydickey is a mom-to-be who shares my love of the rain. She's written all about her concerns over her pregnancy weight.
• @cafebebe is one of the busiest people I know - running a resource for moms, reviewing new products, and guest blogging seemingly everywhere, somewhere in between being a mother. She's also outpaced my ability to publish - I'll catch up eventually, Karin!
• Review of EA Sports Active Personal Trainer
• Links to her lists of what women really want and the inevitable companion article.
• @Caroljs is a mom with a decidedly British sense of humor - she's delivered a few smiles here this month!
• Sharing some blogger love
• How a simple train journey never goes as planned
• @clareybabble brought us a hilarious post about acute observations out of the mouths of babes.
• @dancinfairy submitted a heartfelt and tender open letter to her soon-to-be-born son. As I write, Squigler is still to make his appearance - give her your love and best wishes.
• @elenelsecchio is an arts management student who contributed a book review that reminded me of the wonderful Cosmicomics, and possibly one of the most thought-provoking articles I've posted so far.
• @goonerjamie is a good friend, a likeable, knockabout rogue, apparently willing to have an operation so he can mother my children (but that's another story). He's summarized everything he's learnt from his first year as a stay-at-home dad.
• @guestblogme is still managing to sneak his ramblings in here every once in a while. You'd be better off submitting your own posts, and then he might stop. He has annoying habits of picking entirely random things to spice up the playlist, and talking about himself in the third person.
• about his favorite humor in video games
• mourns the loss of a co-worker
• details the times when being an atheist is difficult
• explains how Posterous can do some remarkable Twitter tricks
• a curious musical scavenger hunt
• and time travel on Twitter
• @JeanneCant shared a post about an idea from @GregHsnoW for an ambitious Twitter fundraising project for St Jude Children's Hospital.
• @Ivy_House explains just how peculiar it is find oneself seemingly playing house one day, then find yourself running your own buisiness from home.
• @mummytips is a jet-setting professional with an interesting family - she's entertained us with articles about
• her number one son
• her Doctor Who lookalike
• @mumstheboss is an informal resource for work-at-home moms. Read how they've managed to harness and network the power of working moms - one of the most significant blogging groups out there.
• @omgpregnant blogs about an unexpected pregnancy with an amazing sense of humor, and with the help of @cafebebe reposted a guest post here about those difficult decisions. She's also trounced me seriously in a bet, which, don't worry, I'll be posting my forfeit on shortly :)
• @OptimistsAlcove is a remarkably upbeat, positive young lady who knows exactly where she's going, and with the infectious enthusiasm to take her there. She's posted about
• the trouble with Facebook
• the countdown to her semester studying in Italy
• @RohanLikhite is the resident media maven here - he's always ready to deliver some diverse audio, video, and design. Look out in particular for his #musicmonday shares.
• A stacking iPod media system
• An elegant minimalist shoe rack design
• A track from Zero 7
• some creative bike designs
• when his iPod nano blew up
• a trailer for the movie Precious
• A #musicmonday contribution from Metronomy
• @theparadiddler visited us from his blog about drums and all things drumming, to both entertain and enlighten us with an article about the benefits of air drumming and other motivational techniques.

Many, many thanks to you all. Thank you, and have a great #followfriday!

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The Time Traveler's Tweet (or, A Wrinkle In Twitter)

My left eye twitched. I managed to grandfather paradox myself on Twitter last night.

It's always been a favorite of pop culture. The idea that a simple thought experiment 'proves' that backwards time travel and free will cannot simultaneously exist in the same Universe is science-fiction dynamite, with some wonderful workarounds. Philip J. Fry is his own grandfather in Futurama. Characters can comfortably assassinate their former selves in Ashes To Ashes. The expert on the subject says it's not as simple as that; it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff. And, yes, it's always been a favorite of mine, as well. You can guarantee after a dose of Red Dwarf or Doctor Who my son and I will get into a session of shooting the breeze about temporal mechanics. Usually we'll move into quantum entanglement and all sorts of other spooky science before Ben starts to get fidgety and reaches for one of his standard "escape the conversation" tropes. He'll pull his Nintendo DS out of his pocket, fart at an oppotune moment, or inexplicably yell "Sharon!" in an attempt to break out. (That's OK, Ozzy and I go way back).

One of the wonderful things about the Internet is it, too, has a temporal dimension. I love things like the Wayback Machine, a view of what the Web looked like at previous points in time. I love my Google Calendar, and I always keep an eye out for services that let me do occasionally useful (but often puerile) tricks like scheduling an e-mail to send later, pretending I am somewhere else in space-time, or generally just messing about. Twitter, on the other hand, is so "real-time", it's almost impossible to treat it like most other Internet resources - it's a constantly moving target. Unless your other tools are up to that task, you could be in for a few surprises. For instance, when I'm away from the computer, I get DM's immediately via portable e-mail, but @replies may take up to four hours before I receive them in a search keyword summary (from tweetlater). That's alright, people think I'm just slow to respond, and not a slave to the thing. Likewise, if I reply from my e-mail gadget through ping.fm, who can guess how long that will take to make its way through the intertubes? That's what happened yesterday. Not only was my e-mail device being upgraded, but it seemed ping.fm was unbearably slow as well. Let the paradoxes begin.

Quitting time was approaching rapidly, and ominous rainclouds were gathering outside, so I figured it was time to take a break and went outside. Rain does wonderful things to my psyche; you can't keep me out of the stuff. While I was outside, I messed about a bit, blew off some steam, sent some tweets from my e-mail device to answer the eternal Twitter question - "what are you doing?". I must admit, this part of Twitter is my secondary addiction - the primary part is interacting with people, but throwing out off-the-wall notes, checking the responses, and thus discovering what would make a good blog post or not, is pretty precious as well. I thought little more of it; I've been doing this for months. On getting home, I found my teenage girls had filled the house with friends. My left eye twitched; the sort of nervous twitch Dads with teenage daughters get all the time, produced by insane estrogen levels over Twilight or whatever. Ben and I did exactly what any male should do in this situation; we went and hid in another room and wheeled out a couple of episodes of "guy stuff". Red Dwarf, provided he'd promise to go straight to bed afterwards, which he duly did. That left me with an evening to myself, hidden in my sanctuary from the company of wolves upstairs. Twitter seemed an ideal way to pass the time.

Not that The Boy would let me, of course. He came staggering downstairs, complaining that he was "too excited to sleep", wandered into the kitchen to get a banana, hollered "Whatcha dooo-in?" and flying son bombs me from scross the room. I've had years to prepare myself for these. After the first time when he was about two, dropping that cannonball head of his, running straight at my nether regions and sending me reeling in paralyzed agony, I've learnt to prepare for this, tighten the muscles, and just hope he doesn't hurt too much. He took a leap into the couch and tucked himself deep into my armpit. Clingy, apparently in need of some extra male bonding this evening.

"Who are those people then, Dad? Ay? Who's that?"

"Those are Daddy's friends son. Daddy's internet friends."

"It's good you have friends Dad." Cheeky monkey. "Who's that?"

"That's Daddy's friend, son." My left eye twitched. "You really, really, need to be in bed, son." I scrambled out a text message on my little e-mail gizmo to respond to an unfinished conversation. He wouldn't be letting me type on the computer for the rest of the night.

"And there's you, Dad."

Sure enough, it was. An earlier incarnation of me. Previous Me. The version of me that had been dancing in the rain, about four or five hours ago. Previous Me was then, but was tweeting now. It had taken those words that long to get through all the intertubes. Who knows why. Somehow, I'd managed to create a twin - and, of course, it would have to be an evil twin, wouldn't it? They always are. Present Me watched, dumbfounded, as Previous Me went into overdrive, tweeted all over the boards... and got responses. Not me. Not Present Me. Evil, Previous Me. My left eye twitched. I tried to free my arm pinned under my son. Previous Me had to be stopped, no matter what the consequences. If we intersected, if we touched, if it was matter and anti-matter, if the world would end - it was irrelevant. I had one big advantage. I knew what Previous Me was going to say before he said it. Surely I had the upper hand - unfortunately, Previous Me didn't have his arms pinned under an eleven-year old bruiser of a boy.

Then, I saw my chance. I wriggled my arm free from The Boy, as he was beginning to nod off. Maybe, just maybe, this would work. Twitter won't let you tweet the same thing twice in a row. All I had to do was get Present Me to type what Previous Me was about to say. We'd collide in the timeline, in a glorious display of fireworks, annihilating each other, dark and light, becoming pure energy. I pulled up my Sent Folder and saw the words, typed them, carefully, exactly, precisely. previous me wouldn't see this coming - he couldn't, he was firmly sealed in the past. I entered the message and hit Send, closed my eyes tightly and waited for the resulting explosion.

The blood vessel in my left eye finally burst. The twitching stopped, and Previous Me was no more. The world was saved, yet again, from a shadowy fate, a character displaced in time, one who, I knew, had the capacity for unspeakable evil - because he was, after all, me. I'd walked away from the encounter with a minor graze, nothing more. No annihilation, no black holes on earth; just Present Me, left to fight another day. I staggered to the bathroom to clean myself up, wash out my wounded eye, and pull myself together after this experience. He'd be back, I knew it; it was up to me to behave on this timeline.

The device in my Coca-Cola Polar Bear sleepy pants began to vibrate. A tweet.

You shouldn't mess with time travel, Present Me.

At that, I figured it was time to go to bed.

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42 Days And Counting – I Guess I’d Better Start Getting Ready

Enjoy the original post at An Optimist's Alcove!

So in exactly 42 days, 2 hours, 9 minutes, and 37 seconds I will be boarding a plane to Italy. (Actually New York first, but you get the picture) It will be the first step on my three month adventure abroad. If you didn’t read my last post about this trip, let me fill you in: I AM GOING TO ROME! One full semester studying and living in Italy!

Needless to say I am very excited about the trip, but preparations keep getting pushed back because I “have all summer:” Well, not anymore...there are books to be ordered, electronic devices that need researched, and 90 days worth of necessities that much be purchased.

 

So here is my “To Do” of things that must be accomplished before September 9^th

 

Buy School Books – Paperback and internet downloads are the way to go for this gal – beauty product weigh a lot!

Plan Plan Plan – I am fortunate to have my best friend going with me. Our school is planning several trips but the two of decided it is essential that we travel Europe. Trip #1 will be to Milan, trip #2 is Paris, and trip #3 is TBA. I’ve looked up train and plane tickets, but I guess I should buckle down and make some concrete plans ;D

Budget – Get my finances in order. I’ll have to pay my bill for school, plus get the application in for my very first credit cart. Sarah is growing up

Research and Purchase Electronics – First of all I must get a converter and adapter so that I can charge my computer and camera batteries. Last time I went overseas the adapter blew up and ruined my charger sooo needless to say I’m pretty nervous. If anyone has experience or helpful advice it would be appreciated!

I’m also looking into purchasing a new camera. Still researching and deciding how much I can really afford to spend.

Knock Out My Killer Shopping List – Do you know how much make-up/shampoo/soap/facescrub/feminineproducts/contactsolution/deodorant/moose/hairspray a girl uses in three months? It’s a lot! I made my shopping list yesterday of all the necessities I’ll need – It will be around $275 dollars. I am already dreading that shopping trip.

Dealing With My #1 Problem – Fitting all of my clothing, necessities, towels, sheets, and misc items into two suitcases that each weighs less than 50 pounds. I’ve never been a light packer, so this is going to be interesting.

 

Wow, I feel a mildly extreme panic attack coming on. Any advice from seasoned travelers?

Well, I’d better get moving on this, so I’ll keep you posted….

 

Sarah Henderson is an enthusiastic college student who is excited about life and what the future has in store! She is just an ordinary girl who love to smile, and tries to make sure there are smiles on the faces of everyone around her!

Recently, Sarah caught the blogging bug and began An Optimist’s Alcove as a place to pose her thoughts to the world. She also broke down and got an Optimistic Twitter Account because clearly everyone would want to read about her life! ;)  When she is not lost in the world of blogs and twitterers, Sarah attends college and will graduate with a degree in History. She spends her free time dancing, scrapbooking, entertaining friends, or working. In the past, she has had the opportunity to work in many exciting positions including, blogging for a marketing department and hosting her own children's television show!

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The Great Train Journey And Other Adventures Part 1

I'm a 20 something new mummy. I blog about my journey as a new mum (with a few reviews thrown in for fun!) Sometimes I rant and rave but most of the time I just ramble!
 
http://mummynew.blogspot.com

Wow its been a whole week since I had written a post, I do apologise but as you know I've been poorly and so had BG.

I have so much to tell you including mine and BG's first train journey together, so if you are sitting comfortably then I shall begin! (a Little warning this may be long)

Let me take you back, way back to last Friday (I know, if this day wasn't burned into my memory I don't think I'd remember that far back!) Anyway I had decided that I would meet my best friend and her daughter (my God Daughter) in my nearest big town. Now for me to get there without OH I need to take the train, I've been putting off the train by my self for a while, mainly because the buggy we have it quite cumbersome when down. We bought a new lightweight one a few weeks ago so we had one in the car and for trips on the train!

So after practicing putting the buggy down while sitting with BG on my lap as if I was sitting on the benches at the train station I felt confident to take BG on the train! Silly Silly me

When we got up on that fateful Friday it was raining, I thought its OK I have a rain cover, train station is 5 mins away and we will be in a shopping centre it will be fine!! Now BG had also decided that she didn't want her morning nap, which meant running around trying to get dressed, bag ready, washing up done etc with a grumpy baby screaming for my attention! I should have seen that as a sign and stayed home, but did I? No!! (or there would be little point to this story)

After rushing around we made it to the station with 5 mins to spare, there was one person in front of me at the ticket desk I though great I can relax. Famous last words, oh no this woman wanted advanced tickets but didn't like the price, then wanted a different route, I was starting to get a little annoyed. Thankfully I saw the sign that said they had installed an automatic ticket machine woop!! So got ticket, sat down on bench, put BG on lap, put down buggy, removed my jacket as I was boiling from all the running around and laid it over my bag.

The train arrived and a very nice lady helped me with buggy, we found a seat and sat down, I put my bag on the seat next to me and my jacket was missing, I jumped up and looked out of the window and there it was on the floor under the bench!! It had slipped off my bag, the train hadn't left yet so I ran to the door (BG still in my arms) just as the conductor is closing the doors and has given has signal! I told him what had happened and he told me not too worry

He then had to ring the head office in Derby, who rang the station and they went and got my jacket! So nice of them! I then rang OH to collect it for me as our ticket office closes at 2.30!

The rest of the journey was uneventful, BG wasn't really bothered about the train she just played with her toys. The train journey is only 20 mins so the time went quickly. We arrived and another lovely lady helped me off with the buggy, I got it up, BG in and the rain cover on just in time as it started to rain!

We went and meet my BF and GD and had a lovely afternoon, however it was on the return journey thar it went really wrong!

The rain and been getting heavier and heavier all day, my the time we left the centre and made our way to the train station is what bucketing it down, I also have to point out at this point BG had only a 20 min nap all day and was not in the best of moods. So we were on our way to the station and BG became scared of the rain on her rain cover and started screaming!!

So I'm running to the station in the pouring rain, with a screaming baby trying to sing to her to sooth her. I finally get to the station and our train is on platform 3 which means going across a bridge to get there. Fortunately this is a ramp/bridge to get there, unfortunately you have to go right to the very end of the platform to get there!

So I am now running at the platform, in the rain, with a screaming baby, people are staring, I'm very hot (thankfully had pac a mac in bag)!! I run up the ramp, over the bridge and down the ramp where there is a group of people in my way sheltering from the rain!! They hear BG screaming and move (not without tutting first!)

The train was already at the platform and the train conductor (the nice man from before) points me to the other end where I can push the buggy straight on and park her as they have the flip up/down chairs. However there is a man on one of those chairs (there are 3 of them) so I go pass him , squeeze the buggy in one space, sit on the other chair and try to get BG out without hitting the other people on the train. Now I would like to point out that the train was not full, there where plenty of seats, this man could have moved giving me and BG a bit more space but did he? NO!

I finally get BG out of her buggy and calm her down. Across from us was a couple with their two little girls, who were fascinated by BG, BG liked the attention!

As this is only a 20 min journey it was soon time to ger BG into her buggy, this is were the fun really starts! She starts screaming again, its really raining hard outside so there is no chance of carrying her home. So I get her in the buggy about 5 mins away and try to calm her. Thankfully my daughter likes the boys, the little girls dad starts talking to her and smiling, BG stops crying, starts cooing then falls asleep!!

This lovely couple then proceed to help me off the train, up the stairs, over the bridge and back down the other side! I was so grateful for their help.

At this time the rain was really heavy, there was thunder and lightening and I decided that I didn't really want to walk home, so I went into the supermarket across the road, sat in the Cafe and waited for OH to finish work.

I had to wait an hour 1/2, buy BG her tea and several cups of coffee but I am glad I didn't walk home as when we got home our car park had flooded (which has never happened before) and there was a foot of water!! So so glad I didn't have to push BG through that!

OH had also had a pants day, where he works had been hit by lightening and there was also a leak!

So OH meet us and drove us home, now as I said there was a foot of water in our carpark, but where we park (which is up a little slope was mainly dry) so we drive up (slowly), well our neighbour was just coming out if his front door and as we drove up the water displaced and his feet got wet, at this point I will point that he was wearing Crocs and in his shorts in preparation to go to his car, were he was destined to get wet!

His response to being splashed was "was that necessary?" , now what OH should have said is "Sorry, but it was out of control the water displaced and I drove through the foot of water". What he actually said was "you were going to get anyway"!!!! Argggg bloody men!! That's all a need a war with the neighbours!

Anyway we jump out of the car, I got very wet feet and we were finally home!!

The best things to come out of the day was the fire engine turning up to pump the water, loads of firemen, Yummy!!!

Well that was Friday, I've got the rest of the week to go yet!! So I've decided to tell my story in two parts!

In the second installment you find tales of piggy flu, 1st birthdays and unemployment!! You can't wait can you???

Oh the excitement of my life!

NM X

 

http://mummynew.blogspot.com

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Precious.

 Very rarely do I watch a preview for a movie and already have a feeling that it will be one of the best movies of the year. If your going to watch only one movie this year, this better be it.

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Finding Our Way....

OMG We're Pregnant is a blog created by a couple who found out they were pregnant in March 2009, they've been blogging about the ups and downs (and not just of the bedroom type) of being pregnant. Worried they may be boring their readers, they decided to recruit a guest poster to talk about their experiences with parenthood. This post is the second installment of the Baby Love series. The first installment is also available...

Baby Love

After the joy of seeing my daughter for the first time, the motherhood learning curve began. Having had a c-section, moving, holding my daughter and attempting to breastfeed was more than a bit challenging. The whole breastfeeding experience was a humbling eye opener. In my wildest dreams I never imagined that the "most natural thing in the world" could be so stressful and difficult. My boobs were grabbed, molested, shoved, tweaked and tortured and all the while my poor newborn daughter screamed and stressed and none of it was the "most natural thing in the world". Suffice it to say, we failed at breastfeeding. I hadn't planned on this (EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED). My husband had to brave the aisles of Boots to find formula, bottles and a steriliser. I know I wasn't a failure but it certainly felt like it.

Due to the struggle with breastfeeding, my Little Miss didn't eat for the first 2 days of her life. I was pressured and pressured to persevere with the breastfeeding and it wasn't until Little Miss became a bit jittery and they decided to test her blood sugar (which was ok - she just needed to eat!) that I began to realise that we needed to do something for her and that something wasn't going to come from my boobs. At a particularly low moment on the ward, late at night, I shuffled to the midwife desk where several of them were gathered. I held my daughter and stared at them and said "I don't know what to do!". One of the kindly midwives came to me, put her arm around me and said "Do you want me to give you permission to bottle feed your daughter?". I did ... I needed someone to finally tell me that it was OK!

Want to know what happened next? Finish reading this post on the OMG We're Pregnant blog, and let us know what you think.....

Links

OMG We're Pregnant Blog: http://omgip.blogspot.com
OMG We're Pregnant on Twitter: http://twitter.com/omgpregnant

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iPod Nano Blew Up

Today, I get home to find my ipod nano smoldering in my room. Now i have a burned desk, and a room that smells like burned plastic! From further inspection I believe that the battery may have been over charged, and due to the warm climate may have combusted. The newer iPod's have a built in kill switch which disconnects the battery from recharging, not allowing them to over heat and eventually blow up. On the other hand, I just might be able to get a new iPod for free from Apple =D

also, can you remove burn marks from laminated wood?

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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DinoBoy does Torchwood

I am Sian, a mum of four with a huge passion for fashion and everything that is cool to do with kids gear. My children span two generations. I have a big teenager (No1 son) and three little ones who came along in quick succession (DinoBoy, ModelGirl & FunnyGirl). Three in three years to be precise. Yes it was a challenge but we are over the tricky part! The joy is that I still work within the baby industry - so I am get to see all of the cool gear before it makes it to market. MummyTips brings you hot interesting products wrapped up with more than a little heated rambling. Don't forget you can follow me on twitter, you will find me here mummytips

Guest Blogger.... DinoBoy does Torchwood

As I am off to BlogHer in the morning I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to host a guest blogger.

Being just 8, this is DinoBoy's first ever blog post. He's just like me in his love of reading and he is mainly to be found with his nose in a book (dinosaurs or his other true love Dr Who usually).

When I heard that Ebury were looking for people to review the new Torchwood books I put him forward.

For days he sat engrossed and then a week went by while he thought about what to write and here is his eagerly awaited review. Please be sure to show him your love by leaving him some feedback.....

Torchwood - Bay of the Dead by Mark Morris

I love Torchwood and Dr Who so I was really excited when my mum told me that I was going to get sent a free book to read. no one has ever sent me a free book before!

An amazing book deserves an amazing report. Bay of the Dead was exciting, thrilling and fantastic all at the same time. I have to admit that it was a little bit scary sometimes too - so it probably isn't for children younger than me.

I would recommend that if you are Torchwood or Dr Who fan then you really should go out any buy it.

I would like to read the rest of the Torchwood books now - so if that nice lady would like to send me some more I promise to read more and play less computer games.

Well that wraps it up. A very big thanks to my little fella. I thought that you might all enjoy this pic of him dressed as Dr Who. We had his suit made in Thailand and he wore it to death. I sent it to the kids Dr Who mag and they featured him as best Dr Who look alike! We think that DinoBoy is far better looking!

http://mummy-tips.blogspot.com/2009/07/guest-blogger-dinoboy-does-torchwood.html 

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Pregnancy Weight Gain (or lack of)!

This is a guest post from milftobe's blog: Baby Dickey. She rants and raves about her first pregnancy as she's making her way through it with her husband of 1 year. They're expecting their first baby December 18th!! This specific post is about her issues with gaining weight during pregnancy and all the worries it brings to a new mom. You can also find her on Twitter at @babydickey. Comments and suggestions are always appreciated!

Pregnancy Weight Gain (or lack of)!

I had a terrible day yesterday.. I kept making food to eat and then once it was sitting in front of me, I couldn’t eat it at all. I thought these days of being nauseous were behind me!!! It is quite frustrating to feel hungry AND nauseous at the SAME TIME. Steve was begging me to finally make something I could actually eat because all the food got sent over to him for him to eat when I couldn’t. He was stuffed–haha! I was finally able to eat Ramen noodles, imagine that. OH, and bacon and snickers ice cream bars were ok too.

As you know, I have lost weight so far in this pregnancy… so many people say to me, “oh I wish I had that problem! haha!” No, you don’t. 1) don’t forget you’d have to be pregnant to have this “problem.” 2) it comes with terrible nausea 3) it’s extremely frustrating and 4) i just feel guilty all the time, thinking my baby is starving. The only 2 things that are constantly on my mind: i’m pregnant.. and.. what can i eat now?

And comments that I look tiny and not pregnant at all only make me worry more. I know you’re all trying to be nice (thank you), but I’d rather hear that I look pregnant, healthy, etc.

ANYWAY, rant over. The reason for this post was that I just googled some info about weight gain. I SHOULD be gaining a pound a week, says everything. So far, I’ve lost about 5 pounds total, but have gained belly, baby and boobs.

I read about women who gained ONLY 3-10 pounds during their entire pregnancy. And gave birth to very healthy babies.

The baby is going to take what it needs from me, so as long as the baby is growing at a normal rate (and my doctor said I am measuring the perfect size for how far along I am), then everything is ok. Every woman is different, some gain 10 lb, some gain 40. Right?

BUT.. then I read things like this: “Inadequate weight gain has been associated with an increased risk for intrauterine growth retardation, low birthweight, and perinatal mortality.” Inadequate weight gain was defined as less than 15 pounds.

I still have 22 weeks to go though… weigh gain can come later.

 

chart from www.healthybump.com

My point (I think): I need to stop worrying. I AM eating and I’m eating well. Although, I could/should trade in my grapes and crackers for milkshakes.

 

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Drop Dead Gorgeous

A musical scavenger hunt from the early 1990's.

It seems like ages ago, but I wrote an article about rediscovering some music that was important to me at some critical moment in my life. Music is possibly one of the most evocative things there is, triggering a chain of memories; some good, some bad, some things gone for ever. We also have a tendency to rewrite that history, as well; or, more embarrassingly, try to avoid it at all costs. It's exceptionally difficult to avoid a whole few years' worth of music, just in case it makes me think of her. Once I start idly listening to streaming audio off the Internet, it's impossible. I will run into that song eventually. You know the one. Our special song. The one that was playing, the first time we were together; when the fever took hold. The time I realized, this was it, this was the one.

A chain reaction starts in my head. I think to what else I've tried to seal away; any other significant moments we spent together, what was playing at that time. That message to my girl, where I finally told you how I felt. The track list on that mix tape you gave me, the one I gave to you; I'd pushed them to the back of your mind. It's still there, almost engraved on my consciousness. I Google and search, I find every last one of those tracks, even the obscure ones. The tracks from bands who disappeared forever after their first album have been digitally preserved, frozen in time. Dare I listen? Should I? Can I treat it as just music? Didn't I pretty much reinvent my musical tastes to avoid this kind of thing?

The soap opera plays on, projected onto my addled brain; more pivotal moments come into sharp focus. You explained it away; this wasn't anything special, we're both made of nothing more than quarks. Strangeness and charm. That first humdinger argument, the one that had us both throwing around empty threats, the one that didn't upset you, because you knew we'd be making up within the hour. Meeting each other's families, how fraught was that? Your folks liked me; they trusted me. That must have been enough to convince you I couldn't be right. I know Dad liked you; in fact, he probably liked you a bit too much. He spent far too much of that day staring at your bottom and reminding me I had fifty percent of his genetic material. Mom was Mom; she didn't say anything one way or the other. Played the perfect hostess, and never said a thing. I think you reminded her of her at that age; she looked at me with that despairing look that reminded me, yes, you have fifty percent of your father's genetic material. And then there's Nan, sitting in the corner, utterly blind. She knew. She grabbed me by the arm with an impressive grip and told me. She's not right for you. I can see it in her eyes. The blind matriarch could somehow see it in your hungry eyes. This fully-sighted young man could not.

The track list plays on, seemingly moving through curious chord progressions I'd never noticed before. Majors become sevenths, then ecstatic augmented power chords. Then a hit of a minor key; maybe even the odd diminished here and there. How strange the change from major to minor. I reach the end of the list and reach for the mouse quickly. I have to hit stop before we start at the top again and go around one more time. Once is enough. There's a couple more songs, missing from the list; in fact, they won't be on any list I know of. The ones I wrote; the ones I played in that terrible band. The one that I more shouted than sung, with more than just a hint of venom, to college halls filled with uncritical drunks. The other one, that I kept for myself, explaining this away. It would never have worked. We were fire and water. Both of us fixed, interpersonal. You were the sun, and I couldn't have been further away. An astronomical distance, in fact. Or was it astrological? We had our doubts. I tried to convince myself, don't dream it's over. 

I click on, looking for something from afterwards, some closure, something to lift my mind out of this supposedly-wretched time. It wasn't that wretched, after all. The bad has long gone, but the good is still there. We learnt a lot from each other. I could have learnt more about womankind from you. Burned by fire once, I'd proceed to get burned again; of course we do. And again. Finally I end my daydreaming, and come home. I wonder if that song is still around somewhere? Perhaps it's in that trunk of my personal belongings, that veritable Pandora's Box of things I'd left behind from a previous life, things I'd forgotten were in there. Including pictures of you. For some reason one more song comes into my head; a song from the moment that I finally left your world behind, and moved to the world I'm in now.

But when I look at you you're forgiven.

You're forgiven.

I'll forgive. But I'll never forget.

What were the ten songs on the tape? All but one of the titles are hidden in here (the other is a dead giveaway). Look forward to any guesses, and will make a note of the first person who gets each one right. Some of them have been embedded pretty wickedly, so you might want to tweet me for clues.

With apologies to Republica for the hook and title.

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What we learnt this year

A guest posting from @goonerjamie from his blog "The Life and Times of a Househusband" at http://goonerjamie.blogspot.com. Thanks Jamie.

Well the summer break is now upon us and Katy has finished her first year at school.  I know it was nursery and not real school, but it was attached to the school, and the same Parent and Child dynamics hold true.  Next term will mean the start of Reception year for her, more tears from her Mum on the first day (not from me you understand, stiff upper lip and all that). It means a real uniform at last, resulting in one less thing to have to think of, pre-coffee every morning.  It will also leave me and Mate to do boy things almost exclusively from 9am to 2pm, leaving 2-3pm open for cleaning up of mess and selves, before braving the gauntlet of impeccable Mums at the school gate.

I look back over this past year and wonder how on earth I survived it.  I bumbled along from faux-pas to fashion disaster (mine and Katy’s) like a drunken ape, and yet I still managed to learn a few things along the way.  I will take these life lessons with me into the new school year, in the hope that forewarned is forearmed.  So here are some of the things I have learnt this year, and in the belief that history is a lesson in how not to make future mistakes, this should act as my defensive shield for next term.

There are two speeds of stroller pushing Mum, and just by looking at them from afar, you should be able to tell if they are on the way to school, or on the way home.  The school-bound Mum pushes with speed and purpose, stopping for neither man nor beast.  The accompanying walking children will be half guided half pulled alongside the stroller and woe betide them if they stumble or drop something.  Do not attempt to make eye contact if one is seen approaching. She will be employing the 1000 yard stare used by snipers, as she searches for the quickest route and will look straight through you.  Whatever you do, avoid the impulse to attempt an overtaking manoeuvre.  This will only result in you crashing into a tree at speed, your last sight of Mum being a backwards thrown sneer of contempt. 

The home-bound Mum is a different beast altogether, not a care in the world has this Mum.  The speed is reduced to a slow meandering crawl, normally two abreast, making any attempt at passing impossible.  Your frustration levels will increase, and after 200 yards of this pace you will be forced to cough a polite “Excuse me”.  They will grudgingly make enough room for you to get by, but you will misjudge this gap and drop one wheel down a curb, resulting in yet another crash.  Again your last sight of Mum will be one of a shaking head, combined with the tutting sound reserved for an amateur driver.

I also learnt how to receive a fake phone call.  Mock-calls are always handy things to receive when ‘Pushy Mum’ is trying to gather volunteers to collect/paint/pick-up/distribute something.  You turn your back to the group, put your hand in your pocket to retrieve your phone, and in a semi loud voice say “Hello Darling, what’s wrong?”  You do not need to say anything else, just nod a lot.  Whatever you do don’t talk otherwise they will realise that you are faking.  They know as well as you do that husbands are not allowed to talk during these types of conversations, and you will be busted.  Most importantly of all, switch your phone to silent.  Can you imagine what would happen if someone was to ring you in the middle of your fake call, a Guns and Roses (Sweet Child of Mine) ringtone blasting through your nodding dog impersonation.  I could tell you but I am too busy handing out PTA flyers, then I’m off to dig up the school vegetable patch.

Never, ever, offer a divisive opinion, just don’t do it.  You have spent the whole year trying to get the Mums to talk to you, and then you weigh in with a sound-bite that then results in Mummy carnage.  It could be the most innocent of topics, say for instance, should the nursery trip be to a Zoo or a Farm.  Do not answer, this is the perfect time for a Mock-call (don’t forget to switch the phone to silent).  If you have no alternative but to reply, then sit on that fence until you get splinters.  Do not under any circumstances say “I think the Zoo will be better, but to be honest they are both crap ideas.  Let’s go to the Forest and teach them to climb trees.”  You may think you were helping, but trust me, you weren’t, and your Wife will find out what an idiot you were, eventually.

The last thing I learnt took me until the last day of term to realise.  Mums have a weakness.  Oh yes they do, and between you and me, don’t tell anyone else, do you want to know a secret, I know what it is.  They love nothing better than to gossip about each other.  Not in a mean spirited kind of way, perish the thought, but general nosiness and gossip keeps their conversations going.  We had all chipped in to buy a present for the teachers, to be given to them on the last day of school.  For reasons best known to themselves, the Mums decided I would be the one giving the speech.  I had spent the whole year trying to get them to listen to me to no avail, and now they wanted me to give them a speech.  I am fairly sure ‘Irony’ was not part of their vocabulary, but I agreed anyway.

The present was an ornamental rose bush (don’t ask, I have no idea how that would split 3 ways), which I handed over.  I said all the usual platitudes about kids growing up, you have been such a help, inspirational, blah blah blah.  It was then I went into mischief mode.  I said “I would just to finish on a personal note, if you will indulge me for a few moments more.”  I could see I had their attention, the idea that I might be giving up some kind of secret had them gripped. I continued “It would not have escaped your notice that I am the only Dad in the group, (pause for polite chuckles) and I must admit it has been hard work learning how to ingratiate myself into your world.  It has also been quite a challenge to learn all the things that just seem to come naturally to Mums.” They were all smiling and nodding to themselves, a collective agreement in my failings.  I then delivered my Coup de grâce, “I would like to thank the Mum, who I won’t embarrass by naming, for all those endless cups of coffee whilst she listened to me moan and groan, and for generally putting me on the right track re everything else.  I will miss our coffee mornings over the summer, but I won’t forget what you told me. Thanks for everything.”  I then nodded my farewells, making sure I gave a couple of the alpha Mums a hug goodbye, and left them to figure out who the figment of my imagination was.

As Walt Disney said “Always leave them wanting more”, and who would know parents and kids better than him?

 
http://goonerjamie.blogspot.com

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Okay – Its Facebook Official

Sarah Henderson is an enthusiastic college student who is excited about life and what the future has in store! She is just an ordinary girl who love to smile, and tries to make sure there are smiles on the faces of everyone around her!

Recently, Sarah caught the blogging bug and began An Optimist’s Alcove as a place to pose her thoughts to the world. She also broke down and got an Optimistic Twitter Account because clearly everyone would want to read about her life! ;) 

When she is not lost in the world of blogs and twitterers, Sarah attends college and will graduate with a degree in History. She spends her free time dancing, scrapbooking, entertaining friends, or working. In the past, she has had the opportunity to work in many exciting positions including, blogging for a marketing department and hosting her own children's television show!

Enjoy the original post at The Optimist's Alcove!

This morning I logged onto Facebook, and just like every other morning, I was greeted by my home page filled with updates. A convenient way to see what my Facebook friends had been up to since I last logged on. (I call them my “Facebook friends” because even though we have a virtual friendship, that doesn’t mean we really talk)

As I scanned on down the page, I grew more and more disgusted. Status after status, wall post after wall post, were filled either with gushy messages, or a tragic sob story.

Now, I’ve dealt with this before. Summer is when all the college romance dies, (or heats up) but today it seemed extreme.

I am puzzled why anyone would want to share such intimate pieces of information in such a public setting. Am I crazy? Why would I want to read the wall-to-wall conversation between you and your boyfriend/girlfriend? Especially when it is punctuated by excessive amounts of “!!!!” “<3” and "xoxoxo"

On the flip side, I have been nauseated by sulky profile statuses…I am really sorry that your “heart is in a million pieces and he’s a million miles away” but don’t you have a best friend to go cry to? Your world of “Facebook friends” doesn’t want to know.

Desperate for attention? That is disgustingly sad.

Yeah I know, you can peg me as unsympathetic and heartless…but am I really the only one who feels this way?

Personally, I love sharing exciting things that are going on in my life. I post links and quotes and funny things that happen to me, but I don’t want everybody and their mother to know all the details of my life. (And seriously, by now everybody's mother is on Facebook!) I don’t want just anyone to be able to hope online and read the latest tragedy in Sarah’s life. I have the best friends and family a girl could ask for and they’re my support system – not the cyber world.

Enjoy this post? Read more and subscribe to Optimism here!

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Posterous and Twitter Magic

I'm fortunate now to have a steady stream of visitors and contributors to the site - both articles and comments - and thought it might be a good idea to write something about what the Posterous blog platform can do. Lots of visitors have created Posterous accounts; some have even started their own Posterous blogs; and there's a few 'evangelists' out there who won't hesitate to tell you, this is the easiest way to start a blog. For me, it's been invaluable. I've got myself a wonderful little email-only device (I refuse to carry anything that has a 'phone in it!), which lets me write from anywhere, publish to everywhere.

But, a lot of visitors already have a blog; they don't need another one! Why on earth would they want another blogging account? You could go ahead and setup your new account to cross-post to your old one, that would give you e-mail capabilities to your existing blog, sure. Actually, the mind boggles at the sort of things you could make Posterous do for you; it's all about integration. And the one thing Posterous integrates with, better than anything else, is Twitter. Get ready to see how, even if you don't use Posterous as a blog, you can use it to perform some pretty incredible Twitter backflips.

What you'll need

• A Posterous account. Don't have one? Just send an email to post@posterous.com - put some text in it. It'll be your first 'blog' post (just nod and agree, if you don't want a blog). You'll get a chance to set your password and so on after that.
• A Twitter account. Enough said about that.

What to do next

• Set up autopost. This is the clever little feature that forwards your Posterous posts to other services. There's a link on the right-hand side of your Posterous manage page. Add your Twitter account here. (You can add other stuff as well, but in this post, I'm just going to do Twitter).
• And let the games begin!

Things you can do

• Tweet Blog Comments. This is neat. If you post a comment on a Posterous blog, you can select whether to 'tweet' your comment as well (well, the first 140 characters of it anyway), and the tweet will include a link to the post. You can be clever as well; you can 'massage' the tweeted version if the short form isn't what you wanted, or start your comment with an @name to send it as an @reply. Ultimate comment feedback.
• Sending a Long Tweet. Sometimes, 140 characters just doesn't cut it. You have to have a little bit more. Simple. Just send your epic message to twitter@posterous.com - it'll publish it as a blog post and then tweet a link to it. Easy as that. (By the way, the 'twitter' bit in the e-mail address just makes sure it only gets broadcast to Twitter. Peachy).
• Tweeting a document. There's a service out there called TwitDoc that will let you publish a file (using Scribd) and tweet a link. Guess what? Posterous does that as well. Just send your file as an e-mail attachment to twitter@posterous.com. Pretty much every popular document format is supported.
• Tweeting pictures. The famous TwitPic does this, but i think Posterous is easier and does it better. Just attach pictures in an e-mail to - you guessed it - twitter@posterous.com. They'll end up in a lovely gallery.
• Audio, video, and media mashups. By now, you know what's coming. If you want to share that wonderful trampolining cat video, or whatever, you'd have to mess about with bit.ly or something to shorten that pesky URL. Just copy the URL into an e-mail to - yup, twitter@posterous.com - and let Posterous do all the shortening, and it'll even play the video or audio right there inside the page.
• Private group tweets. Just thought of this one. A Posterous blog can be password protected. Post to one of these, and you can share your content only with people you pass on the 'view' password. I mean, how 'private' do you think a DM is? ;)
• Separate your stuff. You can have up to three separate Posterous 'blogs' - you can use this to organize your tweets. Serious power-user stuff, that.

I'm sure there's a blue billion other things I haven't thought of, but give these a try. A blog you don't have to use for blogging! Would love to hear if anyone else has any ideas!

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Twitter + Thinking Cap = Fundraising Genius

This is a guest post from Charlie In Wonderland, a blog detailing the experiences and challenges of parenting a child diagnosed with autism, from @JeanneCant. I'm reposting it here myself to help a fundraising idea from @GregHsnoW. The original article can be found here.

 

A guy named Greg Snow has come up with a brilliant idea on how to use Twitter to raise money for St. Jude.

No, he’s not asking for donations (although I am sure St. Jude would be more than happy to accept anything you can spare in these tough financial times). What Greg is doing is innovative and fun, and a great idea for any organization.

The goal is for Greg’s Twitter account “FundraiseStJude” to reach 1,000,000 followers, at which time the account will be auctioned off to raise money for St. Jude Research Hospital.

Brazzzzzilliant!

If you are already on Twitter, find “@FundraiseStJude” and follow, then ask all of your Tweeps (Twitter Peeps) to follow as well. If you aren’t on Twitter yet, go sign up for a free account at twitter.com so you too can follow “@FundraiseStJude” – and don’t forget to ask your friends to do the same!

Great job Greg, and best of luck with this fantastic idea!!

 

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Feature | 10 Creative Bike Designs.

We spend much of our working lives riding bicycles, but since we never really see them we sometimes take them for granted. Luckily there are clever and talented designers willing to renegotiate our relationship with bikes.

via flickr

Read More here

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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