Friday 26 April 2013

Celebrate the small things and a small favour!


Happy Friday everyone, hope you have had a good week. I'm finishing the week with a cold but hey ho!
I'll cheer myself up by celebrating the little things that keep us going in this fun weekly hop hosted by Viklit at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author. Why not head over and sign up ready for next week, it's a great way to help focus on the small things that easily get overlooked in our busy lives.

So this week I'm celebrating - Learning how to email documents to my Kindle! This is probably so easy for most of you but I'm not the most techno minded person in the world and I'm proud of working it out all by myself!

Finally, as I hinted at in the title, I'm after a small favour from any of you who use Twitter or Facebook. My daughter, who is at university studying Advertising and Marketing, is undertaking an assignment that involves producing an eco online campaign. She has produced a Facebook page and a Twitter account in the name of her eco character - Poly Ethylene. She would be delighted if you could hop over and maybe 'like' or follow her links. I even set up a Twitter account myself last night (yikes another first to celebrate I guess!) and I will try and get my head around how it all works. I want to help her if I can, obviously because I'm her mum, but also because it will hopefully be jolly useful having my own qualified Advertising/Marketing expert in the future! And she said she would make me some more graphics for my blog!

Anyway the links are below should you feel able to help her out or simply want to have a look what she is up to! A million thanks in advance.

Happy weekend one and all :)

Facebook

Twitter

Tuesday 23 April 2013

World Book Night April 23rd 2013

 
 
 
Happy World Book Night 2013!

Want to find out more click here!
 
For a list of books been given out in UK & Ireland click here!
 

 
How many of them have you read? I've read two but have a couple on my TBR list.
Happy reading.


Friday 19 April 2013

Celebrate the small things - Has Spring finally sprung?


Friday again already and I have just realised I haven't posted all week! I have had a busy time back at work after the school holidays and it has just flashed by.

Never mind time to celebrate those small things that keep us going. If you haven't come across this weekly hop yet head over to Viklit @ Scribblings of an Aspiring Author for the full details and to sign up.

This week I received a fun gift from the lovely Nancy at Writers Mark. Thanks, Nancy I love them!



Spring finally seems to be making an appearance. The evenings are lighter. I managed to go for a walk after dinner last night. You seem to be able to achieve so much more when there are extra daylight hours.
A stroll round the garden  showed the plants are flowers are starting to wake up.

                   One of my little furry companions followed me around!

Have a lovely weekend everyone




Friday 12 April 2013

Celebrate the small things




Hello and happy Friday everyone! Today is the 'Celebrate the small things' weekly hop hosted by Viklit at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author.

This weeks celebrations for me include; daughter number ones 19th birthday (yikes do I really have a daughter that old now!). Adding 2000 words to my current project. Winning a prize in the lovely Nancy's giveaway!

Hope you all have something to celebrate this week

Tuesday 9 April 2013

A visit to Hogwarts!

I promised to tell you about my couple of days away last week. It was great and much enjoyed by all of us. We went to visit the Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio Tour!

It was a surprise treat for one of our daughters who is a massive Harry Potter fan - well who isn't?! From the moment we walked through the doors we were thrown into the whole experience. We had arrived early for our tour so headed to the huge gift shop, where you can buy anything from chocolate frogs to whole Hogwarts school uniforms. Daughter really wanted a quidditch sweater but it was a little out of her budget but she still came away with a tee shirt, a book packed full of interesting Hogwarts stuff and her own pair of Harry's glasses!

Then it was onto the tour via the iconic Hogwarts doors and into the Great Hall. We saw costumes and props, visited Dumbledore's office, the Gryffindor Common Room, the Potions Classroom complete with self stirring cauldrons and Hagrids Hut to name but a few. It was freezing cold and snowing but we partook of a glass of butter beer and stopped for a photo outside 4 Privet Drive before crossing the Hogwarts bridge to see how all the various creatures and effects were produced. A stroll down Diagon Alley took us passed the famous Gringotts Wizarding Bank, Ollivanders wand shop, Flourish and Blotts and Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.   

The Hogwarts castle model finishes the tour. It was built for the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It is nearly 50 feet in diameter and has over 2,5000 fibre optic lights that simulate lanterns and can even give the illusion of people passing through the hallways! It took 86 artists and members of the crew to construct the first version which was rebuilt and altered many times for subsequent films. They say the hours involved in this construction if added together would be around 74 years!

The model was used for aerial photography, and was digitally scanned for CGI scenes.


                                   Gryffindor Common Room

Dumbledore's Office
 
Hogwarts
 
 
 
A great day out that we will remember for a long time to come!
 
 
 
 




Wednesday 3 April 2013

IWSG April post

I find it hard to believe it is a month since we last posted for IWSG, it only seems like last week!  There were lots of great and inspiring posts last month and I just want to thank everyone who visited and left comments on my post, I really enjoyed reading your thoughts. 


Hosted by the ever generous Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh
 
 
This month I wanted to keep my post short and sweet (hopefully!) as I know so many of you are taking part in A-Z and are super busy! I'm not as I knew I would find this month difficult to participate fully due to other commitments but I'll drop by and read your posts as much as I can.
 
My writerly insecurity this month is; 'How long do I wait before chasing up a full request?' Maybe you don't think it's a good idea to chase at all and we should just wait patiently for... weeks, months, forever?

I would be really interested to hear of any experiences or advice you could share on this topic.

As I mentioned yesterday I am taking a few days blog break but I'll catch up with you at the weekend.

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Birthstone Unicorns - Diamond

Hope you all had a pleasant Easter weekend. We did, although still hoping the weather is going to decide it is actually spring now and get a little warmer! I will be appreciating the lighter evenings though since we moved the clocks forward. This certainly makes me more inclined to get out and go for a walk or potter around in the garden in the evening after work.

For those of you celebrating your birthday this month your birthstone is the ever beautiful, diamond. Traditionally a girl's best friend! I have three members of my close family celebrating this month but sorry guys there will be no diamonds but sit back and enjoy a extract from Diamond The Birthstone Unicorn. Click HERE or the tab at the top of the page.

Diamonds have always been associated with love and romance. In sixteenth century England, uncut diamond crystals were set into 'scribbling rings.' and the exposed points were used by lovers to etch romantic vows into window panes.

The ancient Greeks believed diamonds held magical powers. Some thought they may be splinters of fallen stars, tears of the gods or even crystallised lightning.

Kings wore the jewels into battle as they were seen as a symbol of strength and courage. Indeed they are the hardest substance known to man.

Flowers for this month are the fragrant sweet pea or the pretty little daisy.

I will post for IWSG tomorrow and then I am intending taking a short blog break for a few days. We have a little surprise trip planned for one of our daughters! I will tell you about it next week!

In the meantime hope all you A-Zers have tonnes of fun. See you soon.