Miss Polkadot's Kick Arse Females

I always read Rachel's Mon Polkadot Cheri blog and she's recently started Miss Polkadot's Kick Arse Females idea. Me likey this idea :-)

Basically it's all about giving us Ladies a bit of a confidence boost when we have our down days.

One Year Blog Anniversary Giveaway

I first started this blog in June last year and I had intended to do a Giveaway in honour of this occasion, and then the next thing I knew it was July, and now it's the middle of July so I'm late. Oops! But as I have more of a reason to celebrate now I'll get on with it!

But anyway onto the giveaway, I've got some lovely goodies from Grace and Firefly, a great etsy shop and also she's a great tweeter too here. So onto the goodies:

This girl is off to New York

In the lyrics of the Jay Z and Alicia Keys song "Empire State of Mind" this best sums up how I feel about my trip to New York.

Sarah Loves... Tumblr

Have you heard of Tumblr? 

Tumblr is a blogging platform that enables users to post text, images, video, links, quotes and audio to their tumblelog. You can follow other users, like their posts and re-blog any posts that you like onto your own blog. In many ways it is similar to Twitter.

The Faithful

So the football season is over. The trophy is on loan to Stamford Bridge. They had better look after it, as we already want it back. Manchester United will be back BETTER and STRONGER next season. 

The Good The Bad and The Ugly of my week

A good week with some very big highs and some lows courtesy of a broken boiler :-(. How are you all?

My First Giveaway!

So this week my blog hit 5,000 views and after I started blogging last June I am pretty happy with that. So I thought I'd do a little giveaway to celebrate as I will be celebrating my success on my mini break to Germany and that seems pretty selfish doesn't it?

So anyway my giveaway; here's what you could win - 

Shiny Happy People! (My first tag)

I was tagged by Typecast and it was originally started by Rosie Scribble.

The rules are

1.  Name a song that makes you happy - a song you would listen to if you needed a sudden injection of happiness

2.  Post an image that makes you smile.  It can be anything - a silly photo, an image taken from the internet, anything at all that puts a smile on your face (and isn't too rude!).

So here goes

My song would have to be Michael Buble's "Everything" as whenever I hear it I'm smiling and singing along!

The picture has to be cup cakes!

I'm always happiest also with a box of yummy cakes, iced and decorated and all scrummy and gorgeous! Nom nom! Also today is Chocolate Cake Day!

So with Michael Buble and cakes I'm a happy girl.

Next I have to tag 5 people

Jools from My Blog and I

Carina from Miss Carina

Rachel from Polka Dot Stripes 

Sidrah from Going Solo 

Sarah from Kookylicious

Looking forward to see what they pick :-)

Found my old filofax!

I wrote a post asking "Does anyone use a filofax anymore?" back in October and it turned out from people's comments on here and on my twitter page that they do indeed still use them. I had asked whether people instead used iPhone's (and of course could be blackberry too) and the general thing seemed to be to use both.

I did have my eye on this Butterfly Personal Organiser but decided that as I already had a filofax it was silly to go out and buy another. But couldn't actually work out where it was? A couple of searches through boxes and it was found (Yay!). Mine is the one pictured above and it is Mini size, it's actually perfect as it fits in my bag and is not too heavy. I noticed at a few meetings and trips on the tube into London that people do still use a filofax! At a meeting I went to this week they were using their filofaxes AND iPhone and Blackberry.

I use the diary inserts (week on two pages - my writing is quite small but never enough for just one page for a week) and the address pages. I like to use the coloured ruled notepaper as I feel it makes me feel more inspirational! I've only been using a filofax again properly really in the last week and will update later on as to how it's working etc and what works best for me. Anyone got any tips?

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of my week

The Good

Still loving having a chocolate each day from my advent calendar! Although realising this soon stops :( WEEK TODAY AND IT'S CHRISTMAS! :)
I like the fact that Rage Against The Machine might make No 1 for Christmas over X-Factor

I have won more prizes this week on twitter and I even won £20 on Magic!

Had another lovely follower of my blog this week - love you all!

I'm loving all the festiveness (is that a word?) and glad I finished all my shopping weeks ago

Feeling proud of myself as I definitely turned a corner this week - I deserve to be happy!

Realising there are a few job opportunities available but now can't decide what to pick?

Finding these new necklaces from Funky Junk Jewellery, Key and Beads Necklace and Cute Tourist Necklace 
Having a snow day! (but also see under the bad below)  

The Bad

Still got bruises! Pretty greens and yellows now

Feeling low in myself (this got sorted in my Good section above)
The snow causing the Christmas party for where I volunteer being cancelled but we're hoping to do a party in the New Year and this will possibly be a Valentine's Disco!   

The Ugly

My local football team heading into administration :-S

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of my week

The Good

I'm liking the new John Mayer album - is that bad?  

Glad that Spotify have sorted out their problems and I still love it. Especially when I asked on twitter if they could put some Powderfinger on there and within 3 days they had done so and had even put the new album on!

Winning more prizes on twitter!

I like having a chocolate each day from my advent calendar

I've had 3 more followers to my blog this week (Thank you to all of my lovely followers)

The Bad 

Shovelling gravel for the repair work on the driveway for where I volunteer - my shoulder aches!

My bruises from last week are now still a rainbow of colours and this week I have added more so my legs looks oh so pretty :-(

The hangover from a Christmas party last weekend and the realisation from talking to others that I drunk at least 3 bottles of white wine - oopsie! I had a good time though and I can remember almost everything!

The Ugly

Yesterday where I volunteer it was one of those days where lots of things went wrong from 8-9.30 ish and we all knew it was going to be one of those days and it really was.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of my week

The Good

Powderfinger! Loving the new album and found Odyssey Number Five a great album to be able to write to

It's nearly Christmas - everyone got their advent calendars?

Realising I can do some DIY - I made a table!

Now a contributing writer on Happy Moments

Winning prizes on twitter, facebook and from blogs

The Bad

The cold and dark mornings!

Sliding around the mud/poo outside chicken huts!!! Although I laugh at everybody else doing the same

The Ugly

Falling over and smacking my knees on concrete (I have nice colourful bruises)

P.S. Don't forget you can still use the code blissbubbley for 10% off purchases (valid until end of December 2009) from Love Hearts and Crosses

Mad Boastings Of A Cheapskate Mum

Check out the blog where she has a fab giveaway at the moment!

50+ Follower Giveaway from I Wanna Work For Judd Apatow

Another great giveaway, see the picture above and it closes on December 3rd 2009. To enter and for more details click here.

Amazing first giveaway from www.sweetshugahon.blogspot.com

Go to www.sweetshugahon.blogspot.com

What are the prizes?

1. One M.A.C Eyeshadow (of your choice)
2. One M.A.C Lipstick (of your choice)
3. One M.A.C LipGlass (of your choice)
4. One M.A.C Blush (of your choice)
(but be sure - you must pick the product thats only available at the M.A.C online Store http://www.maccosmetics.ca/) plus you will receive some goodies, it'll be a surprise!

How to enter?
Easy, all you have to do is leave a comment in this post and tell me the names of what M.A.C Eyeshadow/Lipstick/Lipglass & Blush do you girls want!
For example:

You must write..

PLEASE GIVE ME MY:
1. MAC (Smoke & Diamonds) Eyeshadow.
2. MAC (Costa Chic) Lipstick.
3. MAC (Florabundance) LipGlass
4. MAC (Pinch O' Peach) Blush.

and the link of this post on your blog.

RULES:
1. You must be a follower.
2. You must blog or post this on your blogspot and link to it.
3. Must be 18+ years old.4. write in the comment box, like the example above and the link where you have reposted my giveaway.

Notes:
>Everyone can enter anywhere in this world.
>Contest Ends Sept.15, 2009 ( you have lots of time to enter)

Blogging made easy

I downloaded the BlogPress application for my iPhone and wow it's now so easy for me to post blogs without the need for sitting at my computer! Wowee!

BlogPress app is compatible with:

Blogger
Windows Live Spaces
Wordpress
Movable Type
Type Pad
Live Journal
Drupal
Joomla

I can do everything I would do normally sitting at a computer when writing a post, you can add photos, labels, signature and the best part once you're happy with your post and hit "send" an option comes up to see your blog post and there it is exactly as you imagined.




Available for the iPhone and iPod Touch it is a very useful tool for all bloggers! Love it! Get it here http://linkbee.com/2RYQ

Trying out iPhone blogging applications

Wonder if this will work? Hmm guess I'll soon find out won't I!

Adding music to your blog

I tried a few different ways of getting music onto my blog page and mixpod has been the best that I have found. The website enables you to share your playlist on blogger, myspace, bebo and more.

You can also choose what type of player you want and the colours, another chance to get your widgets to blend with the colour of your blog. They even have iPod and iPhone skins which are very cool but are very big, that's why I selected the little button choice (seen in the column on the right).

It is the best way of adding free music to your blog and they have a wide selection of music to choose from. So check them out today at http://52146e2c.zxxo.net or for a look at the sample skins see here http://3e2a4256.zxxo.net

What's on your playlist?

Some ideas for your blog

As well as having a change around on my blog page I found some other handy little tips and thought that I would share them with you.

I got this blog page template from http://www.allblogtools.com/ but there are many other websites to choose from. They have options for 3 and 4 column templates. They also provide help on how to make this template your own ie, colours, fonts etc it does involve knowing a little about html but they do guide you through what to do. I'm very pleased with this page and I do like purple as you can tell and even my twitter page has recently been taken over by purple too.

I got my twitter background from http://www.twitterbackgrounds.com/ but again there are many other choices.

Speaking of twitter I added a twibbon to my profile picture from http://twibbon.com/, Stephen Fry added the Norwich FC twibbon at the weekend (Yes that was before they lost 7-1 to Colchester and yes he still has it on his picture!). There are a lot of charity ones and a lot of choice and there is also an option to make your own twibbon! So for all you creative folk go give it a try!

Another tip I have found is to get your blog or website added on google search via their google submit page at http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl.

Also I found a website called Spottt! http://www.spottt.com. You show an advert of another Spottt user on your blog page and they will show yours. The amount that the adverts are seen depends on how many visits you get every day but is another free way to drive traffic to your blog/website.

As you have probably noticed I now have a signature at the bottom of my newest posts I made this using http://mylivesignature.com/mls_menu.php, you can design your own for free.

I fancied a change

If this is your first time to my blog then Welcome, but if you visit often SURPRISE! I had been planning on changing everything around for a while now and yes this is it!

Well I hope you like it and well if you don't, it's kind of tough as I like it and it's my blog! So ner ner!

Will be back on again tomorrow to update more as I made some very delicious cupcakes today! And yes I've had 3 today... oopsie