10 Questions

I have been tagged by the lovely Wendy over at Inside The Wendy House in 10 Questions. A great way for us Bloggers to all get to know each other.


The rules of the game are:

1) Answer the 10 questions

2) Tag someone to do the same

3) Come back to my original blog post and comment that you have done so in order for us to find out who has been tagged and therefore find out more about our fellow bloggers!

So here we go!

1: Describe yourself in seven words:

Girly, dizzy, Mummy, loyal wife and friend

 2: What keeps you awake at night?

Nothing, I like my sleep and apart from getting interrupted by my eldest needed a wee I get straight back in bed and fall asleep again. I am lucky that Husband doesn't snore, girls sleep through and we live in a quiet area.

3: If you could be anyone for a day who would you be and why?

ooohhh I would love to be able to swim/dive with dolphins, not in one of the enclosed spaces but in the wild like you see celebrities doing on those nature programmes. I would therefore love to be someone who does this just for a day! 

4:  What are you wearing now?

A purple fat face dress and tights. I feel pretty but casual! 

5:  What scares you?

Lots of things scare me like spiders, worrying about my girls but the thing that has been scaring me the most lately is what if something happened to me? This isn't as self obsessed as it sounds. What I mean by this is that Husband has been working away a lot recently, I live in an area where I don't really know my neighbours, have to arrange to meet friends and drive to them and don't have relatives close by either. If I fell over and hit my head, passed out or whatever, who would know and how long would it take for someone to realise something was wrong. I have two young girls who rely on me completely so what would happen to them? It has scared me to the extent that I have told the Teachers if poppy doesn't turn up to School something is wrong and I have taught Poppy about dialling 999.

6:  What is the best and the worst thing about blogging?

I only started blogging at the end of January when my Husband was away with work and it has exceeded all expectations. I thought I was writing a journal that my family would see, I never expected anyone else too look, this whole support network and the purpose that it has brought to my life. I am really enjoying it and my blog is now a big part of me and who I am! I only wish I had started blogging earlier. 

The worst thing is how much time it takes up. Of course no one makes you write anything or puts pressure on you to write but its so addictive that sometimes I neglect other things like exercise, ironing, housework etc to do it.

7:  What was the last website you looked at?  

I have been flicking between my blog, twitter and ebay tonight. Due to my Husbands job there are always parties and balls I need dresses for. I have recently discovered that ebay is a fantastic place to pick up a bargain. The only thing is I am rubbish at bidding and keep getting outbid. 

8:  If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?

Just one? The list is pretty long but for as long as I can remember I have always wanted to be thinner! Although I am a size 12 at the moment I still have a stone and a dress size to go and then hopefully I will be happy!

9:  Slankets Yes or No!?

Sorry Wendy but a definite no for me, I did have a good giggle at you using one though! I must say I do wear fluffy bed socks and am often seen cuddled up on the sofa with a fleecy blanket (Husband calls it my Granny blanket) but I could just not go that one step further and wear a Slanket!

10: Tell us something about the person who tagged you?

An inspirational Women who has recently lost a lot of weight and is getting her life back. She has a fantastic blog and I met her briefly at CyberMummy when I looked pretty scary after letting the hairdresser in the powder room lose on my hair. He made it all big and wavy and it was not me at all but am looking forward to meeting her again soon xx

Now I am tagging Mummy Daddy and Me Makes Three and Mummy, Mummy, Mum.

Karen x

Bristol Blog camp 2011 - I Was There!

Yesterday I was one of the fortunate ones to head of to Bristol Blog camp.  I had a wonderful day, met lots of lovely people and learnt lots too. I am so glad I went and would recommend to all considering going to one.

The venue was M Shed an impressive venue overlooking the harbour. The glass gave great views and I think it might have been even more impressive on a warmer sunny day.

The day started off with introductions by Sally Whittel, the organiser of the event. You might also know her from the Tots 100 Prenting Blog Index , Blogger.Ed  and of course The MAD Awards. She also blogs herself at Who's The Mummy? She introduced each speaker and was a vital part of the day, encouraging questions, tweeting and generally keeping us all smiling and engaged. She was lovely.

We then went on to a talk by Chris Mosler from Thinly Spread. Already a follower of her blog and impressed by her work with Save The children, I was rather in awe of her.  I managed to speak to her at lunch time and she was really lovely too.  I was very surprised to hear that she has only been blogging for 19 months, I really thought it was a lot longer than that.

Next up was Elisebeth Winkler who has an award winning blog, Real Food Lover.  Again I was really impressed with her talk and she gave us lots of handy tips including go for awards, anything going. Even being shortlisted looks good on your blog

I must admit I was very surprised to see that she sets herself a target of blogging at least once a month. She said too many people blog daily and you cannot keep up with it, read every post or comment on them all either.

Coffee break gave us a quick chance to freshen up and have a chat.  I was pleased to meet up with the lovely Jenny from Mummy Mishaps with her little 6 month month old boy. I had met them both previously at an event in the Summer so it was lovely to catch up again and have a little cuddle with a little one too.

I was really interested in the talk on keeping your kids safe online and hearing about Homesafe  by Talk Talk.

Later Phil Szomszor who blogs at The Red Rocket talked about the relationship between blogger's and PR's.  This was probably the most controversial of all the talks, particularly when he said PR's do not read our blogs but are good at giving bloggers free stuff.  Twitter was going mad! He stuck to his guns though and said that he was surprised that 37% of bloggers thought PR companies got it right, he thought it would be much lower than that.

He also said to not get too worried about the number of follower's you have and other scores as generally PR companies do not even look. Interesting!

After a lovely lunch and a chance for a chat and catch up it was time for the final session.   Despite being told at this point that we were running over, most of us were not too worried. It helped that it was an interesting talk by Lee Smallwood on helping people find your blog.

Some of the best tips included:

1. Be active and post comments on other sites
2. Reply to posts on yahoo Questions
3. Try video responses to other peoples videos on YouTube
4. Try bookmarks like Delicious

All in all, a fantastic day.  I learnt lots and met lots of other lovely bloggers. I think I managed to get round quite a few people but if I didn't meet you I am sorry.

Looking forward to the next event now.

Karen x

The Power of Blogging .... I Never Expected That

When I started out blogging back in January I did not know what to expect. I thought perhaps my blog might be a kind of journal.  Recording what we get up to as a family and something my parents and Sister might occupationally dip into.

When I set it up, I didn't really think too much about the name, the direction it might go or even about followers.  I didn't even read any other blogs before doing it myself. I certainly didn't expect to meet so many like-minded people, make new friends or that I would get to meet them at a big event called Cybermummy! This year has been truly amazing.

I definitely didn't realise how my blog would give me a voice, the power it would offer to make me heard.

Let me show you what I mean.

Two weeks ago we had some new furniture delivered.  Unfortunately it was not up to the standard we were expecting.  We contacted the company - Oak Furniture Land and after several phone calls we decided to take a full refund.  However, we were left feeling very unsatisfied with the situation. We felt as though we had been let down by the company and were still without the furniture we had saved so hard for.

Then I wrote a blog post.  You can read it here. I sent a link to it to the Company and thought nothing more of it.  I didn't write the post for a response.  I wrote it because I had various feelings that I need to vent anger, frustration, disappointment etc. I thought the company should also know about our dealings with their Customer Services team.

A few days later I had a message on Twitter and my blog post saying that someone would be in touch. Sure enough they were. The Customer Services Manager rang to say that they were aware of the blog post and deeply unhappy that we were feeling the way we were and of our situation. He told me that he needed a few days but that he and the  Head of Sales were going to look at the furniture we had received and would get back to me with a solution.

Two days later he rang back as promised and agreed with everything I said. He told me that they had seen the furniture and that it was definitely not to the right standard.  They had discovered a faulty batch and that it was on the way back to the factory with a full report.  He also told me that he recognised a training need within Customer Services and that he would put this right.

I am very happy with the way our situation has been dealt with since and would like to thank the Company for that. I managed to speak to someone sensible that has apologised for the furniture and the way we were treated.  He has now put aside some new furniture which both he and the Head of Sales have physically seen and inspected for themselves and guarantee it is of the right standard. We have also kindly been given a discount for our inconvenience. We are now just waiting for a new delivery date.

However, without my blog this would not have happened.  We would still be without furniture and the company would not have been aware of the faulty batch or the need for training.

This experience has shown me what a fantastic platform my blog is for making myself heard..... I never expected that!

Karen x