I love....promoting blogs on Twitter

We all know Twitter is a great social media tool for promoting your business, but it can also be pivotal in bringing traffic to blogs which is often hard to do. Here are some tips on how to push your blog views up!  

1. Biography – make sure your ‘about me’ section is properly filled out and links directly to your website/blog. People  will search for key words that they are interested in, and if your biography is used cleverly, you will be likely to show up in the search results. Personally, if I look at someone’s about me section and they have a link, I generally want to find out more so it really is worth linking your blog here.

2. New followers – Now this is a good tip that might be worth using, especially for businesses who are hoping to drive up their website traffic. Every time you get a new follower, send them a tweet thanking them for the follow, and include your URL in the tweet. That way, they have direct access to your website or blog, and probably will be more inclined to check you our further as you took the time to thank them so personally!

3. Get yourself re-tweeted – I see it all too often… “ @justinbeiber I love you so much please retweet me!!”, “@Oprah its my mums birthday, pretty please can you re-tweet this for her!” This is totally the wrong way to go about getting re-tweeted, and like most other people out there really gets my back up!  Take time to identify the major players in your niche, or maybe even celebrities who you think have a fan base who would be interested in what you do, and see if you can get on their radar. Re-tweet what they say, tweet interesting links and news at them , reply to their tweets with something engaging if they tweet a question. If you are interesting and refrain from begging for a re-tweet, you might just be one of the lucky people who gets one!

4. Follow Friday – This one is simple. Recommend other twitter users every Friday using the #followfriday #ff hashtags, and hopefully they will return the favour in turn driving up traffic to your twitter page and in turn your URL. Perhaps make sure you recommend some major players and write a whole tweet dedicated to why others should follow them which will be likely to get you noticed even more.

5. Tweet, tweet, tweet! – there is no kind of promotion like self-promotion, so really go for it! Tweet the links to each new blog post and make sure you always make your new followers are aware that you have a blog/website (see number 3) and tweet back at people who come up in niche searches as long as it is relevant.

6. Tweet chats – I only found out about these whilst doing some research today, but it seems this is a great way of getting yourself noticed.  People hold ‘tweet chats’ using specific hash tags, where participants can answer questions from the moderation and generally chat back and forward. Check out what tweet chats within your niche are happening when here. If you become a mover and shaker within tweet chats, you might get yourself re-tweeted meaning more traffic to your twitter homepage and thus blog. I’m going to give this one a try!

Let me know what has worked well for you.

Love,

Lauren x

I love...my bucket list (allegedly!)

Blimey, I’ve  got problems.

I PROMISED myself at the start of the year that I would really start living. Life is short I said, you will be gone before you know it I said, tomorrow could be your last I said. Blah blah blah.  Turns out I enjoy to ignore my own amazingly excellent advice.

Out of my bucket list of 64 fun, excitingly and quite frankly inspiring wishes, I have ticked off a mere 5 things.

5. That is beyond poor.

And in the last year, I have only completed one of those! (see my previous bucket list post to see what, or more to the point what I have'nt ticked off)

I said to myself that in February when I went skiing to Courchevel, I would attempt to tick off number 4 - skiing down a black run. I am sad to say that this was not completed! Sure, I'm a good skiier and didi plenty of reds, but the elusive black seems to have evaded me once more (either that, or I'm too much of a baby). Better luck next year?

Oh WAIT! I have partially ticked off another one! Number 8 - Further my education. I have recently started a CAM Foundation diploma in Marketing Communications, go me!

Next items to tackle:

14. Roll down a really big hill – this seems such a simple one, but I really need to identify an appropriate hill where A. no one will be able to see/point/laugh at me, and B. one that isn’t so steep that I will accelerate in to some kind of horrific death spin and pass away into the night. Tricky.

22. Get better at playing the piano (chopsticks no longer cuts it) – I feel this is doable. I can already play Coldplay and Rihanna…oh my god I am so going to be the next Lady Gaga.

35. Use my journalistic skills and get an article published in a newspaper/magazine – This is a difficult one but I am up for the challenge none the less.

53. Enter a craft or baking competition at a country fair - I am obsessed with baking, and pretty much immense at it too, so come rain or shine, the prize will be mine!

64. Snuggle in bed all weekend and only get out to wee HAHAHA – Im pretty convinced that this one would be easy. Perhaps over Christmas on a hangover day. Bit boring on your own though..please refer to my previous single depressive post.

Lets see how far I get by next year eh!

Love

Lauren x

I love....Running

Cleary the title to today’s blog is a slight overstatement.

I would say I like running a mild amount. I may even go as far as saying that I do even enjoy it on occasion. But love? I don’t think so.

I know many people who love running, people who would actually rather go for a run on a sunny Saturday afternoon than potter down the pub for a cheeky cider or two. These people are insane. Rarely would I choose to skip a pint over even an emergency circumstance, let alone to go on a long, sweaty and frankly quite boring run.

However, as much as I enjoy to protest against these running fanatics, I have come to realise that running isn’t actually that bad after all. Having been a lazy so and so for the majority of my life, I have recently found myself getting in to exercise more and more, to the point where I actually decided running might be a good fitness option.

Working for NHS South Central, it is clear that we are all for keeping fit and healthy (just don’t tell the guys down in Public Health about our biscuit/chocolate/general snack stash ), so a few of us decided that to keep up with the NHS way, we would start the Couch to 5K plan created by NHS Choices.  If you haven’t seen it before, take a look here. The first outing was an unprecedented disaster. Running around the business park in the dark and rain did not really make for a great run. We managed 20 minutes of running/walking and eventually headed home defeated. The next week we decided if this was going to be proper running club, we A) had to have a proper route  and B) actually run so we mapped out a 3K loop and managed to run most of it without stopping, which to me was a massive achievement as before I started running, I could barely even run to the top of my road without keeling over, let alone 3K!

As the weeks went by, we progressed even further, getting up to our 5K target and running it in about 35 minutes. Enjoyable! Some of us even took part in the Newbury 5K Parkrun one week, and I recorded a time of 32:53 which I was so proud of. Shockingly, now that we run every Thursday (and sometimes even Mondays too!), we are up to running 7K, and the insane part is that sometimes I actually enjoy it!

There is a point to this post (I’m not just blabbering on about boring running for the good of my health you know)

As a running club, we have decided to enter the Bayer 10k which is taking place in Newbury on 13^th May 2012. I say we decided, but it was more like everyone else decided and I was viciously forced, But now I have been roped in to competing in this impossible event, I may as well turn my pain and suffering in to something good. So we have chosen to run to raise money for Cancer Research.

Most of you already know why Cancer Research and the wonderful work it does is important to me. I am running this not only in memory of my beautiful Mama, but in the hope that other families won’t have to lose someone they love so much. Nothing could be done to help save my Mum, but the money we raise for Cancer Research may be the difference between life and death for another person.

I am a terrible runner, and this is going to be a huge challenge for me. I have set up a donation page for the 7 of us that are running, so please please please sponsor if you can. Even £1 can make a huge impact on Cancer Research’s work.  

http://www.justgiving.com/SouthCentralRunClub

I know my Mum would think I was mad for running so far, but above all I know that she would be ridiculously proud of me.

I love you Mum, this is for you.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

I love.....my bucket list!

“Every man dies – Not every man really lives.” ~ William Ross

 It’s true though. Some people just live their lives, never actually achieving anything. It makes you wonder what the point of them being here is really. When my Mama passed away in April, she was only 49. She probably never got to do half the things she wanted to do, and it made me realise that life is far too short to sit around hoping good things will happen to you. My Mum has become my motivation for everything I do. If I think I can’t do something, I just think of her and it spurs me on. I think of what she will miss out on now, and it makes me want to fulfil all of my ambitions because you really never know when your last day will be.
I could live till I’m 100, but I could get hit by a bus tomorrow, so from now on I must live every day like it’s my last! No more moaning. Little Miss Proactive has been born!
So before I kick the proverbial bucket, here is a list of things that I simply must do/see/achieve!

1. See a tornado in real life (Twister is the best film ever made HA!)
2. Watch a rocket take off (I am so depressed that stupid old NASA have stopped the shuttle launches though!)
3. Drive across America in some kind of convertible Thelma and Louise type car.
4. Ski down a black run without falling/breaking my legs/dying
5. Do the 3 peaks challenge
6. Swim with dolphins (So standard but it would be pretty amaze)
7. Run a 10k race (I am far too lazy for this but have signed up for the Bayer 10k in May. Oh dear)
8. Further my education by getting an MA or Charters
9. Have at least 3 children
10. Get married to the love of my life (Yet to find such a man, applications currently being accepted.)
11. See the statue of Christ on that big hill in Brazil
12. Go to the Colossuem in Rome
13. Go to Glastonbury Festival
14. Roll down a really big hill
15. Raise a lot of money for charity 130k bike ride with my darlings Lau, Ro and Tommo.. raised £2,200 for Cancer Research woop
16. Get to my ideal weight (Not telling you what that is, cheers thanks.)
17. Work a season abroad, either ski or summer
18. Do a bungee jump
19. Volunteer at a cancer hospice
20. Learn to scuba dive (even though I’m scared of deep water, rocks, fish and shipwrecks eek!)
21. See the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights)
22. Get better at playing the piano (chopsticks no longer cuts it)
23. Learn to fly a plane (I want to be a pilot so I can fly myself on holiday and not be scared)
24. Drive around the Monaco F1 circuit Did this a few years ago, just call me Jensen.
25. Own my own cupcake shop
26. Go travelling across the world at least once.
27. Learn to speak a language fluently (I’m thinking Spanish is easy, that’s what the thick kids did at school)
28. Learn to surf in Hawaii
29. Go to Scotland (literally cannot believe I have never been!)
30. Go and see Mount Rushmore
31. Knit a scarf
32. Go wine tasting in France (YUM!)
33. Volunteer somewhere like a Russian orphanage
34. Design and build my own house in the countryside (Maybe I can be on Grand Designs ha, I do love a bit of Kevin McCloud)
35. Use my journalistic skills and get an article published in a national newspaper
36. Randomly rock up to Heathrow, buy a ticket on the next plane out of there and see where I end up (hopefully not Iraq or something OH MY!)
37. Have a ride in a fighter jet and do barrel rolls and flips, think Top Gun.
38. Live in a foreign country for at least 3 months
39. Sail a yacht Did this one a few years ago when we sailed from Plymouth to Falmouth
40. Set foot in all 7 continents (Uhhhh 1 might be difficult. How do you get to Antarctica anyway?!)
41. Visit the Taj Mahal
42. Write a cookery book (I want to be the next Nigella)
43. Go to Lapland at Christmas to visit Santa
44. Go to Time Square in New York for New Years Eve
45. Speak in a foreign accent for the entire day Me and my sister enjoy to speak Irish/Australian frequently…. HA
46. Organise a massive charity event where everyone has a lovely time and we raise lots of money :)
47. Get another tattoo (one relating to my Mama)
48. Go to a spa for the whole weekend to be pampered and drink champagne
49. Make a time capsule and bury it somewhere cool for people to dig up in 100 years
50. Do a sponsored silence (I like to talk A LOT so this would be an immense challenge!)
51. Go and watch Wimbledon (centre court)
52. Visit every country in Europe (This will be a fun one! I have done 10/50 I think. Not a great start..)
53. Enter a craft or baking competition at a country fair
54. Visit Ramsay Street
55. Take a cruise around the Caribbean (a cool one, not one with 1000 elderly people on a SAGA holiday)
56. Be able to do the splits
57. Start taking more of an interest in photography to carry on my Mum’s hobby (she was really good at taking artistic pictures of things like flowers and the sea!)
58. Become a newsreader (I’m soo the next Fiona Bruce)
59. Do a week-long bootcamp
60. Swim in the Dead Sea
61. Ride a horse along a beach
62. Visit St Maartens in the Caribbean and go to the beach where the planes fly about 2 metres above your head!
63. Ride all the rollercoasters in the USA (SURELY impossible!!)
64. Snuggle in bed all weekend and only get out to wee HAHAH A

OK. Looks like I have a lot to do. Best be getting on with it!! I'm sure I will add more as and when I think of them too...!

I know some of the things seem totally stupid or unachievable but if you can’t dream and push yourself then what is the point of living?

Do you have a bucket list? Or do you have any ideas of things I may like to add to mine? Let me know :)

Love
Lauren x

I love a blog vacation

OH dear oh dear.

Turns out that my promise to keep this blog up to date and post at least once a week was a pure lie… I for one am shocked and appalled at my lack of effort.

Anyway, I am back now, but it really is anyone’s guess as to how long I will stick around (next post, December 2014?? Who could say!!)

So what has been going on since my last (boring) communication with the world?!!

Here are my updates in a nutshell:

• Got made permanent at work
• Moved into my very own flat with the delightful Deonne :)
• Lost another stone
• Started going running (enjoyable)
• Booked a holiday to Turkey with the girls (Woop so excited!)
• Started baking lots of cupcakes and have now been dubbed the cupcake queen. Thinking of taking orders :)
• Oh, I made my blog public again…I think? Not that it matters, no one will ever read it!!

So a fair bit has happened and I must say I am fairly content with life at the moment. As soon as Bradley Cooper becomes my boyfriend (sure to happen very soon, right??), things will be fabulous.

Anyway, I am boring myself right now so its over and out from me. Hopefully my next post will have some kind of delicious topic (don’t hold your breath though!)

Love Lauren x

I love pink

Well my dear blog readers (aka no one as my blog is private, duh), you know I adore a bit of baking, especially when it’s for a fantastic cause, so last Thursday night saw me whipping up a storm in the kitchen once again, this time in aid of Breast Cancer Care.

Friday 28th October was national Wear it Pink day, where people, businesses, shops, groups etc were encouraged to wear something pink to work, and donate £2 for the privilege. Of course, me being quite the pink lover (the colour of this page says it all really!), I jumped at the chance embrace the theme (think pink top, pink bracelet, pink nails, pink lipstick…you get the gist.), but I thought why stop at clothing, why not make some cakes and sell them at the office to my sweet-toothed, cupcake loving colleagues in order to raise even more money?!

So I set about making cupcakes, a victoria sponge and some chewy white chocolate cookies, but these were no ordinary cakes. No no my friend, it is fair to say that I cracked out the red food colouring, meaning my creations were not only delicious and beautiful, they were pink to match the day’s theme!

Here is a snap of my beautiful pink cupcakes!


Cool huh? They went down an absolute storm, and by the end of the say I had sold all 30 cupcakes, 1 massive victoria sponge (sliced up in to about 14 bits I think) and 15 huge cookies!

The total we raised on the day was £141.09, and I think about £40 of this was from cakes alone so I was so pleased with that :)

I love raising money for charity, but when you can raise money but doing something you really love, that’s even more rewarding. Everyone said to me that my cakes were delicious, and some even said that I have missed my vocation in life and should open my own bakery haha! I would go that far, but I will be sure to keep on baking, and if they are lucky, I may even bake some more cakes to bring in for my colleagues next Friday!

Love Lauren x

I love flying....

Ok, well the title of this is clearly a lie! But whilst I dread the mere thought of cruising through the air at 600 miles an hour, 34,000 feet about the earth which is just clearly NOT natural, it doesn’t mean I don’t go on lots of flights to enjoy a holiday or two at some stunning far flung destination.

Apart from the sheer terror of take-off, the trauma of turbulence and the distress before landing, the thing I hate the most about flying is the pure discomfort. Being stuck not only in the worlds most cramped seat, for 10 hours is one thing, but having to sit upright and try to sleep really does not make for a pleasant experience. Now sadly, I am not one of these fortunate folk who can afford the extortionate amounts it costs to fly in business class, so we mere mortals have to be inventive when it comes to providing ourselves with in-flight comfort (you don’t get free pillows and blankets these days people).

My sister flew to Las Vegas on Monday (lucky mare), and before she went she was talking about wanting a neck pillow for the flight. I thought this was a genius idea so we decided that I should use my sewing expertise (ahem) to make her one. If you want to know how to fashion your own in flight neck pillow out of some fabric and the inside of a cushion, keep reading.

So to make this delightful pillow, you will need:
· Any cotton fabric of your choice
· Stuffing from the inside of an old cushion
· Thread to match
· A sewing machine (although it could be stitched by hand if you don’t have one)
· Scissors
· Pins
· A needle
· A pen

Oooh take a look at my old school sewing machine. Cool huh. I may as well be living in the 50’s. This beauty can only do a running stitch. No zig zagging for me! But it serves its purpose I suppose!

Ok so firstly you will need to pick your fabric. Rowanne chose a charming mint green material with small flowers in pinks, purples etc. Fold the fabric in half so the nice sides are facing inwards (rough edge on the outside) and lay flat on the table. Use a pen to lightly sketch the shape of your pillow; think a thick boomerang!

Once you have drawn your shape, cut it out. Once you have done this, you will have 2 shapes that look like this (you have 2 because you folded the material in half, remember?)

So now you need to line these shapes up, with the good sides facing each other. Use your pins to pin them together so when you are sewing, nothing moves out of place. Take this pinned piece and use your sewing machine (or hand sew using a running stitch) and sew about 1 centimetre from the edge nearly all the way around, leaving a gap big enough to get your hand through when you are stuffing! Turn the shape inside out so that the good side is now on the outside and you should have something like this!
Unsure why this is sideways, but you get the gist, right?

All you need to do now, is stuff the pillow with your chosen wadding and then stitch up the gap by hand. This can be a little tricky as you must turn the open edges inwards and do a looping type stitch to make sure the pillow is sealed with no rough edges (Blimey, that’s so unclear…I’m presuming no one will have a clue what I mean haha!)

And voila!! You should have something that looks a bit like this! (Yes, I know one side is chubbier that the other. I don’t care. It looks stunning)

Hope Rowanne had a nice sleep on the flight. Considering I also made her a matching eye mask, she should have slept like a baby!

Love,
Lauren
xx