Ridiculous Red

Tags

Art, Blogging, Canalboat, coloryourworld, Nostalgia, Photo, Rosie & Jim

Gone are the days of painting the town red

Now I’m just blogging red photos instead

 

#coloryourworld – Red

Was nice to see a blast from the past though:

Gah now I will have this stuck in my head!

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CampNaNoWriMo- April 2016

Tags

April, CampNanowrimo, Challenge, Motivation, Writing

I wasn’t sure if I would be taking up the CampNaNoWriMo challenge this time around as I already have some commitments, however I figured that I could combine the two. So I have signed myself up for April in the hope that it might encourage me to write the back story for a some characters that I need to develop. We were giving our mystery cabin assignments today so I popped in earlier to see if anyone was about early, but it was quiet so I left a hello post-it note on the fridge.

Now I’m just sitting here awaiting the inspiration or inclination to start writing, but you know when you have to get something done that it always seems harder to do.

 

All the free stuff – I love it!

Tags

Amazon, Blogging, BzzAgent, freestuff, lottery, Review, Reward, Shopping, Topcashback

Every time I log onto my email these days I seem to have an overflow of emails trying to sell me something or offer me some extra wonderful discount or bargain. I can’t blame the companies for trying as they are only using the tools at their disposal and most are places that I have or do shop with, so sometimes I do admit to taking the bait. Now whilst I could go and complain about the companies that overload me with nonsense, instead I thought I could share some of the more positive experiences and maybe share some sites that actually do save me money.

For starters one of the best things I did do was to follow Martin Lewis’s advice and sign up for Topcashback . It has by far been the best source of extra cash back for me since I shop mostly shop online, and all it means is I log into Topcashback before making my purchase. Basically if you shop online then you really do want to set up an account here, you can opt for the money straight back into your bank or swap for another voucher of which there are many choices ( personally I use the Amazon credit as it adds and extra %)

Great to use if you are buying online anyway and you want to treat yourself for free
Topcashback – sign up

Next up the free lottery 

But it can’t be free you say, nothing is given away for free!

Well technically you do have to give up some of your time to click on a link to the website over at  The Free Postcode Lottery

Again you need to make sure you don’t use adblock for this domain however I haven’t encountered any issues with it as yet and I have been clicking it a month now. If you join the site you will notice that there are a fair amount of advert on there yet these are the reason that there can be anything given away free: for the website earns money from this advertising, which in turn covers the payout for an
y winnings given. So you might see it more of a business ideal than a scam. For my part, I think it’s a great idea: it only takes a minute to give an extra 4 clicks to see the winning postcodes. Let’s be honest most of us do this to random links anyhow so it’s not really wasting time, it’s using it for something more useful than clicking Bored Panda (not that this stops me either).

If you want to sign up and take a chance to win some free cash in exchange for clicks

The Free Postcode Lottery

Then we have the review companies which supply you free stuff in return for a review, and please note that they don’t ask for a good review just an honest one.

So these are the two I joined up with and so far have had a couple of free / discounted items without too much extra work for them.

Bzz Agent – This is a nice site to sign up with if you want to fill out a few surveys and then share your findings if they post you something out to try out. You don’t need to be a blogger or anything just write it up on their website.
I will say that if you do try this though make sure you read the notes before you add as review as some product campaigns want to be advertised and connected to Bzz agent and some campaigns don’t

AMZ reviewer – This site is great if you use Amazon prime as many things can then be bought at a hefty discount or free since you would already have free postage. Basically you just sift through the items as request anything you might want to use and review. It’s a good place to search for items you were going to buy anyway.

 

Review for L’Oreal

Tags

Beauty, Blogging, Hair, Hair dye, L'Oreal, Review

After my earlier post rallying people to add their voices behind good reviews as well as bad, I decided to follow my own advice. So I went about and signed up to a couple of review sites to get free .. er to promote honest reviews (and I like free stuff).

So here goes for my first one:

I recieved a free sample from L’Oreal: A hair dye (which I had a choice of colour).

First impressions of the L’Oreal Casting Creme Gloss were this – Finally somebody thought about long hair!

The conditioner was bigger than the usual ones in dye boxes and having long dry hair I often feel like my hair could do with more of the nourishing treatments. So kudos to L’Oreal for that.

First up the usual question: What will it smell like?
I was pleasantly surprised with this one, and there wasn’t a strong smell like some dyes can produce (cue complaints from partners or flatmates). In fact it was actually a nice light perfumed scent, so bonus points there too.

The applicator was a good size, easy to handle and not overtly large in my small hands. Oh I almost forgot to mention the gloves..

What about the gloves?
These ones were a new type for me to use, as they were a thin textured type that were easy to open up (some have static cling) and just felt of a higher quality than my normal box dyes. These ones were strong and didn’t leak, the wrists were shaped so no extra water got into the gloves whilst rinsing. Also as stated above, I have ridiculously small hands apparently and most gloves are like comedy ones which fall off but these were a really good fit for me. In fact these were the only pair of gloves that have lasted the whole dying session for me so I’m happy not to have the usual stained fingertips.

Ok, back to the actual dye: did it drip? What was the consistency like?

It is a gel like thickness. If anyone crafts then you might understand what I mean by the comparison: it is similar to liquid pearls. I would be lying if I said it didn’t have a few drips, however I will mention that I am also apparently more messy than any other female when dying hair, so you might not want to take too much notice.
However the drips did clean up better than expected and my ears are not a different colour so this is a good thing.

I was a little worried in the waiting stage as I feared for my grey roots becoming ginger ones (no offence to anyone ginger, I just thought roots only would look odd). Also in the waiting stage there were no drips and no itchy scalp or irritated eyes like some dyes can produce.

 

 

 

Yes but did look good after?

Well yes … I think, It does seem to depend which light and angle it gets looked at and I think next time I would opt for a darker colour. However it does look much better, and bear in mind that my colour was already a mismatched bodge job so it did well.

Does it feel better?

Yes definitely, my hair feels soft and smooth and also smells good too. There is a much better shine on it now and the extra conditioner made a big difference for me to be able to cover all of my hair generously and still have some left for the next wash.

Would you recommend this product?

Yes I would! Personally I would try out another shade for myself, however I would try L’Oreal again and was pleased with the process and result.

Before & After Pics:

P.S I’m keeping the gloves 😉

Peach with permission

Tags

Art, Book, coloryourworld, Community, fantasy, Game, Johnathan Green, knitting, photography, Puppy

After a long day I have enjoyed a little time to relax and flick through some photos and images, in the hopes of finding some lovely images for you and the #coloryourworld campaign.

Today’s colour is peach:

So I found a couple of favourites which I am hoping will be okay to use on here because they are ones which make me smile.

First up: The lovely Lady china looking peachy

Hopefully  my friend won’t mind me sharing the picture of one of her fur babies.
If you enjoy knitting / crochet then you might want to check out her projects over at ravelry too, she is very talented!

Melihermit

 

My second image found is one received from Kickstarter and also probably wanting permission but hopefully the advertising plug will be of use:

I so love this image and the book that it relates too. If you enjoy interactive game books, Alice in Wonderland, great writing, fantastic artwork or fantasy fiction (basically if you enjoy fun and / or admire talent) then I advise you go grab yourself a copy of this book – it’s amazing!

Alice’s Nightmare in Wonderland by Jonathan Green

And check out his blog: HERE

 

 

A catch up – Pacific Blue

Tags

Art, Blogging, coloryourworld, Photo, photography, sailing, sea, ship

I saw three ships a sailing..

Right out on the sea

But someone started wailing

Oh darn, I’ve split my tea!

 

A bit of outrage-

Tags

coloryourworld, combat, Community, Gladiator, History, Kelmarsh Hall, orange, Photo, photography

-ous orange that is!

I was very glad to have found these old pics to match today’s #coloryourworld prompt.

Nothing quite like a bit of gladiatorial combat to get the heart pumping!

Awooga!!

Rwaaar!

Clearly this is appreciation of the sport and not objectification of semi naked men *winks*

And lets not forget the wonderful jousting

If anyone was wondering these photos were taken at the History Festival held at Kelmarsh Hall, it was a wonderful event weekend but sadly is no longer held there.

Outer Space Lemur

Tags

Animal, Art, Blogging, coloryourworld, Community, crayola, outerspace, Photo, photography

 

Ok, so he might not match the words but he matches the colour, and lets be honest we can all imagine this little guy with a space helmet on … can’t we??

 

My participation in #coloryourworld – find out more details over at

Jennifer Nichole Wells

Social Media: Friend or Foe?

Tags

Appreciation, Blogging, Business, Community, Reading, Review, Social Media, Time, Twitter, Writing

After a strange kind of a day it’s only fitting that I rattle off a strange kind of post, and today I have been thinking a lot about social media and our (or rather my) use of it. It strikes me that a lot of my time is taken up with (or willingly given to) social media these days, even when I’m not being particularly sociable in my own world. In fact I think I would go so far as to say that when I feel at my most unsociable point in real life, this is when I enjoy trawling through social media such as Twitter or Facebook the most. It makes me  wonder if I’m alone in this or whether this is just the usual thing.

Are we all using social media to subconsciously interact with people whilst maintaining the stance that we are indulging in our ‘own quality time’ , or are we just looking habitually and secretly resenting the loss of time?

This thinking started after a conversation about the validity of a full time job,  purely in social media and if a business should recognise this role as a valid position within a company. Personally I think it’s becoming more important than ever for a company to have a virtual ‘face’, to get ahead they need to at least have a foot on a rung of the social media ladder just to be part of the modern world. For instance, if checking out a new place to visit or to make a purchase, the first thing I do these days is input it into Google. I’m not saying I am always swayed by reviews, however if the company doesn’t have an easily accessible website or information I can readily find online then I am less likely to want to trust them. I also know of people that put all their faith in review sites and only eat or shop at places that have what seems to be proven worth. But from what I can gather as a consumer we tend to read reviews more than we write them, and even then tend only to write them due to wanting to complain about something. I guess I should admit to falling prey to this way of thinking sometimes too.

The main reason I started to use Twitter was to complain, as it was the only platform which companies seemed to be listening to at the time. Since then I have received better results from customer services from making one angry tweet than I can get via a phone call, email or an online help desk: so it’s no wonder that we keep complaining in this manner. We also get to read all of the negative stories in the press about internet trolls and how they affect other’s lives, mostly read by people who don’t use the internet and therefore don’t get to see the other side of the coin.

Whilst I have been on Twitter I have at least attempted to put back in some balance to the negativity. Lately I’m making a conscious effort to review items I have purchased, or places I have visited. I know that there are many good bloggers, companies, places, charities and people in general contributing to social media that I interact with on a daily basis that seldom get the praise and appreciation they deserve.

So maybe it’s about time that the positive side of the coin gets shared.

Here are just a few posts/links I have read today that I have appreciated, so maybe you will too.

Inspirational places to visit

Inspirational people

MMO Games: Still in World of Warcraft

Damyanti Writes: Insecure writing

Brain pickings: How stress effects emotions

OlivejuiceJu : Growing up

Easter Crafts

Nerds & Geeks: How about we ditch the labels?

Felt me up designs

Epic Rap Battles: Stephen King vs Edgar Allan Poe.

Facebook: Little Silver Hedgehog – Animal hospital & silver jewellery

NB They are in no particular order and are quite varied in subject matter but I hope you enjoy anyway.