Category: Cyber Mummy
My top tips for how to save energy around the home? Here’s how I do it, and it has added benefits:
I work at home all day most days and apart from the flurry of housework before I do the school run I am mostly sitting at my desk. Which means I get chilly. But instead of putting on a heater I either go for a brisk walk (walks are really good for thinking time as well), or do some exercise to a DVD or on the rowing machine. And if don’t have time for either, I run up and down the stairs 10+ times. Yes, really. It works! It warms me up and wakes me up and I can sit back down to my desk and carry on until the furry of housework time.
Exercise is good for us, duh. Who knew it was good for the environment as well?!
This post was inspired by the BritMums and British Gas Watt Loss Challenge, in which I have a chance at winning one of the four sets of £250 in Sainsbury’s vouchers! If you’d like to be in with a chance as well, just write a post about how you’re reducing energy consumption at home; include a vid or photo if you like but they aren’t necessary. Then click on the link above and add your post to the linky. Hurry, there’s only a few days left of the competition.
It was easy to write this post, and important. If we all focus on reducing energy consumption now it will be a habit that we don’t even think about by the time our childen grow up!
So am I the only one running up and down my stairs to keep warm and wake up? Or do you do something even more strange…?
The Lake District is a fantastic place to take a family holiday. There are lots of family friendly activities to keep children entertained whilst helping you enjoy a well deserved holiday in a beautiful part of the country. With a large array of outdoor activities available there is something to suit everyone.
- Beatrix Potter is a much love children’s author and with her home situated in the Lake District, there are lots of activities orientated around her and her adorable characters. From visiting The World of Beatrix Potter to wandering around the Beatrix Potter Gallery where the original artwork from the books is displayed to seeing where she imagined and created her beautiful books at her home at Hill Top.
- If you have older children then there are lots of outdoor activities for them to enjoy. One such place to visit is a fantastic GO APE course in Grizedale which is full of high wire climbing fun and zip line screams.
- If you are looking for something to occupy the whole family then why not visit one of the many country parks such as Fell Foot Country Park. A great place to let the little ones run and explore and a beautiful place to enjoy a family picnic.
- There are also lots of water based activites in the Lake District, from learning about the secret world of lakes at Aquarium of the Lakes to enjoying the beautiful scenery on a lake cruise.
- Do you have a train fanatic in your family. Well the Lake District has some wonderful steam trains which any train enthusiast, young or old, will love to ride on.
- Another great place to visit whilst in the Lake District is the famous location of Hogwarts wizardry school. Great for all Harry Potter fans.
So no matter what age your children are , there are lots of great attractions and activities to suit the whole family. With a great selection of Lake Distict cottages available for weekend breaks or weeks away, suitable no matter what size your family is. So what’s stopping you visit this breath taking part of the UK?
This post is brought to you by Holiday Rentals.
It's a kaliedescope–kind of like all our blogs together, aways an interesting mix.
I’m joining one of clever Kate’s listography’s this week and offering up my top 5 tips for bloggers (pop over to Kate’s for many more tips). Yes, I’ve done blogging tips before, and I’ve just given you some ideas for your About page (so, have you jazzed up that About page yet?) but this is a slightly different list of tips–it’s for people who are more experienced. Or perhaps ‘intermediate bloggers’, is a better decription of the ideal audience here.
And then no more blogging tips for a while because I know that’s not everyone’s thing.
1. Help newbies.
Some people call this Paying it Forward. Some people call it Karma. I call it Being Nice. I do it because it feels good. I like helping people. And I know how it feels to struggle in a blog jungle and how nice it was when a more experienced blogger stepped in and said, ‘hey, try it like this and see how that works for you!’
The internet is not a dog eat dog world, it’s a place where the successful people are the one’s that help others.
2. Stay brave.
In the early days of your blog you were brave just by stopping by someone else’s blog and saying ‘hi’. As someone who has been blogging a while now, you’re comfortable, getting a bit set in your ways and you have your routines because that’s what you’ve learned works. Every now and then just push yourself, be daring, do something a little bit different with your blog. Get a new header, change your blog theme, save up for a designer, if you’re anonymous become known, host a big giveaway, challenge yourself to find 20 new readers this month–do something that you wouldn’t normally do. Add a bit of sparkle to that routine!
3. Do a regular audit.
If you’re an intermediate to experienced blogger you’re probably pretty clear about your niche, your audience, your social network platforms, your plans for the future with your online branding… no? Then it’s time to do an audit of your blog and your social networking.
Try using an anonymous poll to see what your readers think, what they want more of and what ever else you want to know about the readers’ experience with your blog.
Look at your stats to see what posts are popular, what time of days are peak times, what days of the week are busiest, etc. The general advice on stats is to not over analyse them or look at them too much, but a regular audit is a great reason to spend a little bit of time on them. Both Google Analytics and Statcounter combined are best for an overall big picture.
4. Keep up to date.
Do a bit of refresher reading about updates on G+, Pinterest, Stumble Upon, FaceBook, Twitter, Quora… are you using them as effectively as you can? Perhaps some are better for spreading info about your blog than others.
Keep reading the big sites like Mashable and Problogger to stay informed about upcoming changes in social media or other relevant areas.
5. Remember the golden rule? It was written for the internet.
Seriously. Do unto others as you would have done unto you. If you’ve been doing this a while, you might be really busy doing many things, you might not have time to do a lot of ‘sharing the love’ but don’t forget this golden rule or you’ll start sliding backwards. That’s just how this online world works.
If you want people to reTweet your posts, then RT others. If you want people to comment on your blog, comment on theirs. If you want good information for a task you’re working on, then help others when you see someone posing a Q on Twitter. If you want people to be friendly, welcoming, interested in what you have to say, then be friendly, welcoming and interested in others. You don’t have to be good at your numbers to understand this equation.
Happy blogging!
Does your child ever feel left out? If so, read them Love Monster
Peggy Melmoth (39) lives on board a narrowboat with her husband, and daughters (aged two and four). She works from home as a writer, professional blogger and virtual assistant.
Peggy Melmoth
The first event of its kind in the UK, The Party Plan Conference and Awards 2012 is the must attend event for anyone looking to start or excel with their party plan, direct sales or MLM business.
Throughout the day there will be seminars on how to start, improve and expand your business, with inspirational and igniting speakers such as Gail Reynolds, a leading sales manager for AVON UK and Joanne Dewberry, Dorset Business Mum of the Year and to round off a fantastic day, an awards evening to honour and celebrate the achievements of those dedicated business people from within the industry.
The Party Plan Conference and Awards 2012 is being held on Saturday 28th January 2012 at The Queens Hotel, Bournemouth and has been organised by The Party Plan Guru and Party Plan United and with a large array of party plan companies exhibiting on the day, making it easy for anyone to make an informed choice on where to start their business. There will also be a great variety of business advice and support available on the day too.
The awards ceremony during the evening is the ideal time for direct sellers to let their hair down, mingle with likeminded people and enjoy the awards ceremony designed to honour and reward the achievements of individuals and companies who may not normally receive the recognition they deserve.
Paula Giles, The Party Plan Guru says, “The conference is the first of its kind in the UK and allows the direct selling industry to get to learn more about their profession. It’s also a chance to start a new business for you while having the backing of such amazing companies. The direct selling industry is being brought into the 21st century and we are here to help others achieve their dreams”
To book tickets to attend this event, exhibit or for more information, please contact Paula Giles at theguru@thepartyplanguru.co.uk, or visit http://www.thepartyplanguru.co.uk to nominate someone you know for the awards. Closing date for the awards is 13th January 2012.
Are you looking to increase the number of customers you reach and in turn increase your sales? Well ACEInspire have a fantastic brand new ‘NO COST’ Business Promotion Basics eCourse which will share with you their best tips on how to market your business yourself.
Business Promotion Basics runs over 8 days, a new lesson is delivered direct to your inbox each day. Simply read the lesson, take action and you will see your business have a great start to 2012. Each lesson is full of great information and tips on how you can market your business yourself to reach its full potential.
Sign up to ACEInspires Business Promotion Basic eCourse click here or find out what other resources ACEInspire has to offer your business.
There’s not much in life for free any more, and often when you get something for free, you can see why. The Lego kids magazines, however, show that sometimes you CAN get something great for nothing! We’ve been subscribing to the magazine for over a year now. Every few months each of the kids gets sent a 20 page magazine with puzzles, cartoons, and ideas for new Lego builds.
The magazine is produced in different editions for different age groups and the builds are easier in Lego Club Jr magazine than in the magazine for older kids. It’s a great day when D, J and K get home to find the new magazines have arrived!
Incidentally, the magazine is NOT a big plug to buy Lego: it is all full of good content and ad-free.
If you want a change from constant pestering to spend money on magazines, you can sign up for a copy at Legoclub.com
This is not a sponsored post – I just love Lego!
Butlins, the home of happiness are running a great competition to win a family break for 4 in Silver accommidation at one of their resorts. This is to conincide with the launch of their new ad campaign which see’s a little girl skipping her way round their Bognor Regis resort.
The new ad was aired for the first time on Boxing Day and show’s Neve meeting all the characters at Butlins including the new member of the team, Cederic the Seagull!
To enter this competiton is as simple as watching the advert and counting how many bounces Neve does on her tour of the resort.
To find out more and to enter this great competition, please visit the Butlins site, where full terms and conditions can be found.
J is now 6 and his tastes have changed from when I did his bedroom four years ago. I still love the sea themed curtains and duvets, but J now loves Transformers, Bakugans, Lego and football! He now shares his bedroom with his little brother, nearly three, so whatever we change to has to not give K nightmares! So, we’ve started small with a new duvet cover from Feather and Black. We went for camouflage rather than picking a particular toy brand or football team in the hope that it will last another four years of changing enthusiasms. I’m slightly stuck now how to adapt the rest of the bedroom. It is an L shape, so there should be some scope for J to have a camouflage theme for his part, and to do something different for K in his part of the room – but K’s favourite thing right now is Mickey Mouse. I may have to put aside my desire for a co-ordinated look and instead go for mix and match! One camouflage curtain, one Mickey Mouse one perhaps?
Feather and Black has a sale on right now with a few quid off kids bedding AND an extra 10% off all orders before January 2nd. There are some BIG savings on the Noah range which I reviewed earlier this year: you can save over 50% on a bed, for example. We also have a profile of Adam Black, the father of four behind the company.
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