Typecast

The nation fell in love/hate  with Chloe Jasmine at her recent X-Factor audition.  She's "tipped for the top" by Simon Cowell, marked as "the X-Factor's poshest contestant" so far and Twitter was buzzing with memories of Chloe on Sky's The Face 'find a model' programme from 2013. Why don't you watch this video at exactly 27 minutes and see who appeared on the X-Factor back in 2006 (the year that Leona Lewis won)...  Isn't it amazing how Cheryl can remember someone from six years ago but both Simon and Louis fail to remember someone who was "every parent's nightmare" and "fame hungry" and has appeared on our screens on many occasions over the past eight years?

Back in May of this year I read Sandy's post about how she had just finished running a 10K race and was now a size 12 in clothes. It was so far removed from being a post about complying to society pressures and ideals that it really resonated with me plus Sandy is one of my oldest blogging pals and I have a huge amount of respect for her. Her post made my eyes a little bit wet and instantly became the push I needed to do something similar. She became my inspiration. Coincidentally, Sandy's post was published on the same day I joined Slimming World and the weight loss has been a slow but steady process. None of this "I lost 6lb this week" for me which disappointed me at first when comparing myself to my fellow group members but then the group leader told me that if I lost 1lb a week for a year I would have lost almost 4 stone (my actual goal).  On Tuesday 27th August I had lost my first stone. Some of the Slimming World group members had also taken part i...

I often want to share a bunch of photos from an outing or event with family or friends but have found that not everyone has a Facebook account (yes, really... who knew?) and privacy settings can be an absolute nightmare.   KatchUp has created the perfect solution. KatchUp has a tiered membership system.  A free membership allows you 1GB of image storage (this is about 500 photos taken on your average smartphone) and a Premium membership is £2.99 per month with 10GB of storage and additional features such as photo editing.  I am going to share my membership with all my family members so we can all upload our own photos to a "moment" when we have been together because everyone has a different view, don't they? Privacy is of absolute importance with your  KatchUp  account.  There is (currently) no social media sharing and you choose who you send your selected album to, either by email or with your own  KatchUp  contacts.  It is ve...

According to Wikipedia, THIS is how you pronounce it (hover your cursor over each letter in the link below): A  video blog  or  video log , sometimes shortened to  vlog   / ˈ v l ɒ ɡ /  is a form of  blog  for which the medium is  video. Or you can watch this video for the Northern way to say it - and to see where my rhyme came from.

These " What's In My Handbag " posts could now be called a series seeing as though this is the fifth one I've done. As a bit of a move from the norm as I have done this one in a video for #vlogchallenge rather than write it out and take photographs.   I'm loving using a real satchel for my handbag - so much more than I thought I would have done. This satchel is a 13" and is from Zatchels , bought in the sale a short while ago.  I did order another to use as a work/laptop bag but I have had to return it so that I can exchange it for a slightly larger one.   Gorgeous, isn't it?

Every day since 21st June 2005 photographers from The Day That... have been taking amazing photographs of the sun rising at dawn. They convert these into a selection of unique gifts that capture the start of a momentous day for you or someone special to you. Even Elton John has been enraptured by this concept saying, "It captures the spirit of a new life beginning, it's so beautiful. " I recently received a fully mounted picture of my own 'new beginning' and I chose to use the day that I started this blog - 28th July 2009. It was a beautiful way to represent a new beginning for me and a reminder of how far I've come. Today you have the opportunity to win one of three digital downloads of the sunrise of the day of your choice.  Once you receive your digital download you can choose to use it in any way you like such as desktop wallpaper, a wall canvas, greetings cards, jigsaws... the list is endless. To enter this giveaway please follow the...

Back in May I was invited to take part in a skydive . Jumping out of a plane is high on my midlife crisis bucket list and these opportunities don't come along very often, do they? The event was cancelled due to bad weather a few times but eventually the rain clouds cleared and it was GO, GO, GO! My husband drove me to the Skydive NorthWest centre in Flookburgh (just north of Lancaster) and I met up with the other divers of the day.  We had about 20 minutes training which explained that the instructors that we would be paired with for our tandem dive really know their stuff having jumped out of planes thousands of times. We learnt how to help the instructors to make our experience safer and more enjoyable by learning three jumping and landing positions. And then we were off... up, up and away. (Brian was my tandem instructor and Gary filmed my dive) I love flying and being in this small plane took me right back to when I learnt to fly and glide with the Air Traini...