Typecast

2014 was a year of many diaries for me but I always moved back towards my Filofax; it's like my magnetic North. However, in 2015 I am determined to streamline my diary usage, carry less in my Filofax and continue to Get Things Done by using my Bullet Journal (I sometimes call this my BOAT - the Book Of All Things).  I feel I am growing tired of purple (...I KNOW!!) so there's definitely a 'green theme' for the new system - I've switched into my Sage Green Classic Botanics compact ring Filofax, I have an Emerald Leuchtturm1917 A5 with dotted paper to use as my bullet journal and a Marks Tokyo Edge Colors A5 diary in Green that will be my desk diary. I'm also using my J Herbin rollerball ink pen with the Lierre Sauvage refill as the pen that sits in my Filofax.  I'm still trying to decide whether to carry three, six or twelve months worth of diary. Reducing the pages will make more room on the rings in the Filofax but I like to forward plan. I ...

It's so near to Christmas that I can dig out those bizarre YouTube clips that I've been saving for a 'special occasion'.  Here are my top three slightly off-the-wall Christmas videos (with some extra music links for you at the end). White Christmas I've shared this numerous times and even though it's so obviously a set-up, this version of White Christmas with Ant & Dec and Robbie Williams still makes me giggle all the way through. Do They Know It's Christmas This group sing-a-long   (embedding has been disabled by the person who uploaded it so you'll have to click through to watch it) was shown on  Stars in their Eyes  in 1992. You've probably never seen it before - or have blanked it out of your memory - but you're unlikely to be able to unsee/unhear it this time. All I Want For Christmas Is You I can't choose between the Mariah Carey/Jimmy Fallon version and the Steve Kardynal/Chatroulette ve...

* stands up * My name is Nickie and I'm a stationery addict. Here's why: 1.  I keep a diary .  This is alongside using my Google Calendar for digital reminders. I find the act of writing something down makes it more permanent and memorable. I normally use a Filofax but love the Dodo Pad Diaries and maybe I'll try a  Marks Storage diary . 2.  I write lists . Lots of lists. Discovering the bullet journal system was a revelation because it meant I had a legitimate reason for writing lists. And the best thing? I actually get to cross things off those lists because I am Getting Things Done. 3.  I buy notebooks . I have to have a nice notebook to write my lists in, obviously! I prefer dot-grid paper but this is a recent appreciation and was discovered through the bullet journalling. Lines don't really do it for me any more. 4.  I love handwriting . My own is fairly neat but doesn't really have a 'flair' to it so I adore seeing other people...

Over the past few weeks I've been slaving away over a Word document, attempting to pull together an idea that came to me in a flash of inspiration about four weeks ago.  You may or may not know that I founded the Friday Twiz  (a quiz on Twitter every Friday evening) four-and-a-half years ago. It's a small community of quizzers who come together every Friday evening to battle with their knowledge and their wit for no prize other than kudos.  After running this venture for so long I had amassed a huge bank of questions so thought I'd pull some of them together and publish them in a book. The book  The Ultimate Interactive  Pub Quiz Revision Book is now available to buy on Amazon (and it's cheaper than a cup of coffee) You can find out more about the book here .  There are three sections in the book; an interactive quiz section, three picture quizzes and a revision section.  This way, the book will never get boring - at least not ...

Why is today's earworm Ed Sheeran's "Sing"? Has my contact lens gone behind my eye or on the floor? Why can't I find it!!?? How do we go through so much washing powder? New diary on the way... I must practice my best hand writing Why does a teenage boy need to use 14 towels per week? Does anyone ever get an extra follow from a #followfriday mention on Twitter? Holy shit, it's 11.45. I'd better get dressed.  IT'S SNOWING... oh, it's stopped. Am I ever going to catch up with Serial before the final episode? How the fuck did I fail a 'Can You Speak Lancashire?' test on Buzzfeed  (19/22) Are "keks" trousers or underpants? Planning. Yes, planning...  oohh distraction techniques... The best thing about working for myself has to be that I get to watch Minder at lunch time. What's the point of clearing my email inbox when another deluge of emails drops straight in? Aaawww Vintage TV 80s tunes.  Awesome. Vi...

Whilst musing on my next hairstyle I discovered ROCK PAMPER SCISSORS  and thought they are definitely tuned into the trend for wanting to organise your life online. Get #pampered or go home... What  Rock Pamper Scissors  offers is a local online directory for beauty and hair salons.  Their online recommendation and booking system was created in Leeds (in the UK).  They worked with a small bunch of salons, tweaking and improving their service, with more local salons signing up to be registered in their directory. They are now rolling the directory out to more cities, with Manchester being city number two and more being added in the very near future. The search system is very simple to use and if there isn't a salon registered in your local area you can join their mailing list to get a notification when there is. If you're a salon owner you can register your salon for inclusion in their directory too. You'll be able to view service details an...

Every time Buzzfeed publish a "which came first" listicle we are reminded that Betty 'Golden Girls' White is older than sliced bread, which was first sold in 1928.   Out of curiosity ( quelle surprise ) I wondered which other celebrities were also older than sliced bread. Here's my definitive list of ten. Born in 1916 and turning 99 on his next birthday we have Kirk Douglas .  Apart from his acting career we also know him as the father of Michael Douglas. He is ranked at number 17 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male screen legends in American Film history Died 5th February 202, aged 103 Born in 1917, therefore turning 98 in February 2015, Zsa Zsa Gabor is probably known just as well for her nine marriages as she is for her acting career. She was once quoted as saying, "I am a marvellous housekeeper; every time I leave a man I keep his house."  Died 18th December 2016, aged 99 Born in 1922 Christopher Lee ...

Last week I saw a tweet scroll past from the "I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here" team asking for Skype callers for their ITV2 show. Being a huge fan of the show I whizzed off an email and thought nothing more of it.  Yesterday evening, my mobile buzzed with a really strange number. Forever inundated with cold calls, I googled the number, only to find out it was an Australian code.  My interest piqued so I hit the voicemail button.  It was the lovely Maisie from the I'm A Celeb ITV2 production team asking if I'd appear on their show later that night.   EEK!  YES!!  All part of my master plan for World Domination, obviously ! After a couple of conversations with Maisie and a Skype check it was confirmed that, if nothing major happened, I'd be on the show straight after the first person had been evicted.  I had to think of a question to ask the panel based around that night's show too.   So I toddled off and scrubbed up a bit (it's ...

Many moons ago, we reviewed this Brio Pounding Bench from Hello Baby Direct . More recently, I was having a clear out of all the toys we have here (it usually happens around the same time we put the Christmas tree up) and I found this at the bottom of the toy box.  I put it to one side, with the full intention of storing it in the loft or donating it to a charity shop but then the girls came round, "rediscovered it" and had a whale of a time hammering the sticks through the bench. They played with it for much longer than they ever did when they were younger (even though it was aimed at the 2+ age group!). It's a BIG HIT in this house *groan* Do your children do that when you're having a clearout?  It can't be just my children and grandchildren that are turning into hoarders and can't bear to be parted from their (even short) childhood history. (PS, Trivia Time: Did you know that "BRIO" is an acronym for Bröderna ("brothers") ...

We always put our Christmas decorations up on the 1st of December in the O'Hara household; the perfect start to the Advent period. Even though (almost) all my children are grown up we still keep the magic for the grandchildren.  I even let them decorate the lounge last year - it looked like someone had taken a box of decorations and thrown it in the direction of the tree but they were so proud of it. This year I've been looking for some alternative decorations and ways to get in the mood for Christmas along with money-saving tips and bargains.  This post will be regularly updated between now and Christmas so watch out for update announcements on Twitter and Facebook . ¨¨°º©©º°¨¨ First out of the decoration box is my John Lewis snowman that I knitted a couple of years ago. A lot of time and love and swearing went into making this and he sits proudly on the shelf next to all the home/school-made decorations that are stored away lovingly each year.  I was h...

Recently I have been sharing updates from Sun Bingo's very unique online show - Having A Ball - which is hosted by Brian Dowling, Rustie Lee and Jean Martyn. This week I am running an exclusive giveaway for you here with a prize that cannot be bought in the shops .  I also have some celebrity interviews to share with you that I will be publishing over on my Facebook page . Win an EXCLUSIVE Sun Bingo onesie and mug I have ten Sun Bingo prize packages which consist of a Sun Bingo onesie and a Sun Bingo mug . These items are exclusive to Sun Bingo and cannot be obtained anywhere else . To enter this giveaway please follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter widget below (if you cannot see the widget please click through to the web version of this blog post ). To enter you must answer the question inside the Rafflecopter widget. There are additional entries available which include social sharing. If you are a new visitor here for the giveaway, it would be gr...

If you spend any time on Facebook at all you have probably seen the most recent 'tag' which asks you to share five of your 'good memory' photographs.  These are all fairly recent photographs (and isn't it hard to narrow it down to just five?) but they make me howl laughing when I see them because of the stories behind them. ¨¨°º©©º°¨¨ Five Bloggers And A Dwarf After attending my first ever blogger conference, a few of us convened in the hotel lobby with some  smuggled  pre-purchased drinks, evaluating the day's events and catching up with each other. Our mini-party was spectacularly gate-crashed by this vertically-challenged, extremely inebriated dude who took a bit of a shine to Amanda. Social Networking Ruined My Life My favourite ever t-shirt worn at the aforementioned blogger conference.  Iconic or ironic? It also features heavily in  this little mishap ... Dog 1, Grandchild 0. This stool resides in our lounge. When the dog was...

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of music and dance. If I ever became famous (or, more likely, infamous), I'd be begging my agent to get me a stint on Strictly Come Dancing . I'd even be OK with being paired with Anton du Beke! I saw Tara share this video on Facebook recently and it supports a theory I have which suggests that any choreography changes its context if danced to music from a different genre.  Someone has taken an enormous amount of time to showcase this by stitching these dance scenes from various movies together and it needs to be enjoyed.    It's a proper 'feel good' clip so... LET'S DAAAAAAAAAAANCE!! And just in case you were wondering, here are the films featured in the clip: A Knights Tale, Airplane, American Pie, Austin Powers, Billy Elliot, Blue Skies, Clerks 2, Coyote Ugly, Dirty Dancing, Fame, Fame 2009, Flashdance, Footloose, Get Smart, Grease, Happy Feet, High Fidelity, High School Musical, Honey, Mamma Mi...

Sorry, I know it's still November but I've got to start preparing for Christmas soon and I need some off-the-wall stocking fillers and unusual presents. Music Room   contacted me to see if I fancied using their gift finder app to discover some music-related presents.  So, after getting a little bit nostalgic for my piano lesson days with their ' Dozen A Day ' practice books, I found some ace presents for my grandchildren and the rest of the family.  For the grandchildren There is method in the madness here. I would love my granddaughters to be musical so here's a perfect starter kit.  Their mum can play the keyboard [1] (which rolls up for easy storage - genius) whilst they accompany her with their percussion instruments [2 and 3]  (the castanets [6] are a bonus item because I remember my own Nana buying me a set once). I've chosen the Frozen songbook [5] for the four-year old and the One Direction songbook [4] for the six-year old (both obse...

This year has been one of many changes. Each one of those changes has involved making a decision that would forge a new path. Some of those decisions were easy to make, others were extremely scary.  In my old job I would have a specific process which would help me make (business) decisions but in my normal life I have many processes which I can adapt to certain situations.  Seven Ways To Make A Decision 1.  Have A Deadline For me, this is important for everything. If there is no end point then you can faff around forever trying to work out which is the decision to make.   2.  Make A To-Do List I talk endlessly about my BOAT (Book Of All Things). Using a variation of the bullet journal method I write everything down in list format, code it, take notes, brain-dump and then tick everything off when it is done (SO satisfying!). This works perfectly in conjunction with my Filofax too.  3.  Data + Information = Knowled...

A few weeks ago, my daughter took her two girls on their first holiday abroad to Lanzarote. The four hour plane journey was the perfect opportunity to test out the Trunki SnooziHedz - a travel pillow and blanket. They already have a PaddlePak each and are big fans of the Trunki products.  The SnooziHedz blanket is stored inside the pillow until required and then the pillow inflates (in the same way armbands do) when required.  The pillow and blanket can be clipped together with the unique Trunki grip to stop the blanket from sliding away. The blanket also has a pocket on the front which is big enough to tuck up a favourite cuddly toy for a nap too. As you can see, my granddaughters loved their SnooziHedz (they had Felix the Fox and Dudley the Dino) and they made the ideal travel companion for this journey.  They now use the blankets and pillows as snuggle blankets when watching films and they always bring them with them in the car if we are going on a long j...

I love random little "tags" that occasionally pop up in the blogging world or on YouTube. This time Kate tagged me for a mini-Q&A session so I decided to vlog it rather than type it all out.   Have a watch of it here . I've tagged Kate (again), Sian , Channon and YOU!  You have to answer my questions so here they are: Have you ever won a trophy?  If you won a large sum of money on the National Lottery this weekend, how long would you wait until you told people?  Where would you like to retire to?  What or who inspires you?  Is the glass half-empty or half-full?  Feel free to blog or vlog it - whatever you feel more comfortable with. Let me know when you've finished then I can come and have a watch or a read.

I love the opportunity to pull an outfit together. It probably stems from the days of my childhood when Nana brought round my Bunty magazine each week and the first thing I did was turn to the back page to see what pose and paper clothes were with the cut-out doll. The Polyvore website is definitely the grown-up version of those times and I spend an enormous amount of time on there trying seeing what different outfits look like with accessories and boots or shoes.  I've styled this outfit around the boots in the picture as part of my entry into  a competition that Duo Boots are running . I'm definitely an ankle boot person for this A/W season and I'm in love with browns, navys and purple/aubergine.  What do you think? Would you wear it? | 1.  Laverne Anke Boot in Tan from Duo Boots  |  2.  Molly Bracken brown jumper dress |  3. Tommy Hilfiger NIKITA blazer in purple |  4.  Tommy Hilfiger Bracelet (gold) |  5. ...

Over the weekend I posted a rather irate Facebook status bemoaning the bombardment of Christmas advertising when we were only just into November. On the other hand I have been trying to get my 15-year old son to write something that resembles a list of Christmas presents much in the same way he did when he was 10 .  When you read the list it's a stark reminder of how much your youngest child is growing up fast. So far, he wants: A mountain bike because his best mate lives in the next town so he spends a huge amount of time cadging lifts or using a bike that's a little bit too small for him now he's 6'2". An iPad (there's a good selection online at Tesco Direct ) so that he doesn't have to borrow his Dad's iPad or my tablet all the time. An iTunes voucher for some music or games downloads. XBox games.  I think he's hankering after the new Call of Duty game and Fifa 15. Microsoft points to purchase "maps" or "players" o...

Grease is one of my all-time favourite films. I know it back to front and I'm word perfect in all the songs (I always wanted to be Rizzo).  But, just in case you've never seen it - or haven't seen it for ages - here's the story of Grease in pictures. ¨¨ °º©©º°¨¨  Danny and Sandy meet during the school holidays. They fall in love with each other but realise that it's destined to be a holiday romance as Sandy has to return to Australia.  Danny tells her, "It's not the end, it's just the beginning." Term starts again and Danny resumes his position as cock of the school and leader of the T-Birds gang... ...whose girlfriends are The Pink Ladies - the coolest girls in the school. Sandy doesn't go back to Australia after all and, by coincidence, enrols in the the same school as Danny as a foreign exchange student (but neither of them know yet).  Sandy pals up with Frenchy, one of the Pink Ladies. At lunch time, she tel...