First pictures with new camera!

 

These are some of the first pictures I've taken with my new camera, using the Macro function.

Its proving a bit difficult to get used to as I'm used to manual focus SLR's but I'm sure I'll get there eventually!

Listening to my inner 'Yes' voice...and spending some money!

Every since I left school/went into full time work I've never actually had a full months wage to myself. There has always been things to save and pay for, mainly to do with moving out, weddings or ex's breaking my cars (honest to god my poor Punto never went wrong when I was driving it but as soon as I let a boyfriend drive it they broke it!)
Now that I've moved back with my parents and cleared the final bills from my house I've found I've had some money left over! For the first time in my life I've actually had a bit of 'Money Freedom' and I've taken it as a chance to treat myself.
My first big spend wasn't so much a 'I've got the money to do this' sorta thing but more of a 'I need a break and I can afford to do this' spur of the moment decision. I've booked flights to go to Canada to visit my family at the end of June.
I find it very hard to hear my inner yes voice, as one of my Twitter friends aptly put it, and always feel a pang of guilt over spending money on something that isn't really an essential. I'm so glad I didn't think to hard about booking the flights because if I'd have slept on it I probably would have talked myself out of it and not booked them at all and I really feel like I could do with the break just to relax.
My next purchases are a classic case of me indulging my geeky side. I've said for ages that I'd like to get myself a nice camera, I don't know enough about photography to splash out on a SLR so I went for, in my opinion, the next best thing... a Canon PowerShot SX20 IS

 

I also bought a Flip Video camera, justified by the fact that both of these would be useful for me to take on 'Tour' and the fact that I'm a sucker for anything gadgety.

I'm still getting to grips with working out how to use the camera properly but I'll be posting some photos soon!

Think Frock It's Friday

I've made a new friend, she's called Charlotte too, but she prefers Lottie.

She likes dresses, swing dance and all things vintage. She also likes to help people feel good about themselves which is why she created 'Think Frock It's Friday'

So this is me in a dress (its not the greatest photo...still getting the hang of my camera!)

Lottie is starting a new workshop over on her blog next week to 'help us all move forward in our quests to be fabulous, gorgeous and confident women' and I can't wait!

Multi-tasking Vs. Uni-tasking

I like being busy and trying to multi-task.
I like having things to do and projects to work on.

I don't like feeling unorganized and I really don't like it when I can't concentrate because there is too much going on in my head. A few weeks ago I started a 'Tuesday To Do List' the idea being that if I wrote down a list on my blog I was more likely to get it done (because you lot would tell me off if not!) and that did work well, but I still felt like I had too much going on in my head.
I work best when there are routines or a schedule to follow-I like the feeling in control.
After a quick convo on Twitter with @vwallop and @mummylimited, where I was

1. Reassured I'm not a freak for considering making myself a schedule to plan out my evenings and
2. told that multi-tasking is a really inefficient way to work and pointed towards this article and I decided that I'd give Uni-tasking a go.

I came up with...

'a cunning plan'

It involves devising a schedule for some evenings during the week to help plan my time better and by trying Uni-tasking it means that I can just focus on one task at a time with no other distractions (so no music on while I'm trying to write, no Twitter (I know..its scary!) when I'm trying to sort paper work etc - it makes sense; I'm easily distracted, if I minimise distractions I should be able to work quicker and more efficiently) 

I'm not going to go overboard and try to micro manage every last minute of my evening I'm just going to try setting aside a few hours that I can break down into chunks to work on certain areas; for example - setting aside time to blog, answer emails, catch up on my Google Reader, tidy-up.

I know this probably sounds amazingly boring, tedious and overly controlling to most of you but if you could experience just how busy and crazy my head feels some days then you'd understand why I'm so excited at the prospect of this working to help turn down the noise!

Greatest ever...yummy invention?

As I was geekily perusing the Firebox website on my lunch break I saw the word 'chocolate', as someone who doesn't eat chocolate anymore (dairy makes my feel very ill) I am inexplicably drawn to anything that mentions it, yes I am a child/easily distracted.

Theses interesting looking thingies are 'Le Whif Chocolate Inhalers'

a lipstick-like inhaler that delivers a powdery hit of chocolate or coffee...Simply place it between your lips, breathe in and savour the ‘phsssht’ moment as your tongue is showered with heavenly micro-particles.

Could this be the Greatest ever chocolate hit inducing, without it really being chocolate, invention ever?
I'm thinking a big fat chocolaty YES!!

**This is NOT a sponsored post I just wanted to show you my geeky findings...unless the lovely people at Firebox want to send me something to review, in which case it is possible that it could become a blog dedicated to gadgety goodness...**

Photo and quote credit - Firebox.com

The Gallery - Friendship

This is Carrie, she's one of my oldest friends, we met about 21 years ago at playschool :)

She moved away in junior school and we lost touch, she came back for a bit in senior school :) then she moved away again :-( 

We got back in contact through Facebook a few years ago :)

She's just started her own blog

http://theprocrastinator2010.blogspot.com/

Okay, okay, I know-shameless plug for my friend but thats what friendship is all about!

Tuesday To Do List *UPDATE*

1. Buy Travel insurance for Canada Done :-)
2. MSonT - finish all info pages/finish drafting posts Ummm kinda done but I might also kinda, mighta decided that I want to move to a .com and rebuild the site...maybe :-s
3. Work out the route for getting to Reading on Saturday for the #ReadingTweetUp Had a great time, got back safe and sound, M25 wasn't as scary as I thought. Still gotta do the write up about it for MSonT though!
4. Change address on car insurance - Damn it, knew there was something I forgot!

Doing a To Do list like this has worked quite well for me, it been alot easier to keep track of the bits I needed to get done but my head has still felt too busy and all over the place (quite possibly my own fault - trying to do too much at once) so, after having an interesting discussion on Twitter yesterday about Multi-tasking Vs. Uni-tasking, I'm going to look at taking a slightly different tact in the way I approach tasks and how I managed my time.
I shall enlighten you tomorrow...as I'm currently supposed to be doing something else, bloody typical!

A Tale of Persistance, Tracey (my new bestfriend) and radioactive banana videocameras

*I should probably point out first, I love getting deliveries/post/anything, also, if I buy something online I want it to come on the day they say it will...im not patient, I cant help it, when it comes to things like this I am a complete child-its an endering quality, ont you think?*
A few weeks ago I ordered myself a Flip video camera, it was supposed to turn up in time for the #ReadingTweetup but it didn't.
It is quite possible that I may have sulked about it a tiny bit, I gave Misco a call and asked when I could expect it and they said the next Tuesday at the latest (not brilliant but fine as long as I get it before going to Canada it's cool)
Tuesday rolls around and nothing :(
Wednesday, nothing. Make a phone call 'we're expecting stock tomorrow, it will be with you in Friday' Hhmph, ok.
Friday....DHL main arrives but no packages for me, another phone call 'It will be with you Monday' Its ok I can be patient, Monday is fine.
Monday....Nothing :( Too lazy to call again so send an email (it is also possible that I may have been harassing the lovely customer service people about the stock delivery via email...maybe) Reply 'Having problem obtaining stock from manufacturer' :(
Tuesday - Another phone call to customer services, got to speak to the lovely Tracey who is now my best friend...
Me- 'Hello, Ive called a few times over the past few weeks and keep getting told different dates for stock delivery on this item, are there any updates?'
Misco-'Hiya, actually I think I took your call last week about this! I'll just have a look for you...Oh..umm it's kinda outta stock until August...'
Me - 'Nooooooooo!!! Any chance there are any others in stock, other colours, anything??'
Misco - 'Hang on a sec...we do have some but they're more expensive (next model up)...and yellow..'
Me - 'How much more expensive?'
Misco - 'About £15'
Me - 'hmmm..how yellow? Banana yellow or Hi-vis jacket yellow?'
Misco - 'Radioactive banana yellow...BUT I could probably adjust the price for you and have it to you tomorrow morning!'
Me - 'You would be my best friend in the whole wide world if you could do that!!' :)
Misco - 'Ok that's all done for you :)

So I now have a new best friend, a radioactive banana yellow Flip video camera on it's way and more than likely, a restraining order to stop me calling customer services again!
Cheers @Misco_UK
All is good with the world :)

AWOL

Well that was one hell of a busy week, I've been a bit sidetracked to say the least!
Yes I know I should have done a write up on the trip to Reading for MSOT and I should have reported back on how I got on with Tuesdays To Do list, I have no excuse other than the fact that its been a busy week of late nights and hanging out with friends with a knock-out 48hr cold thrown in.

Lots of updates coming soon (hopefully tonight) but right now I'm off down the pub to sit in the sun :-)

My brain has gone to squidge

I'm split between TGIF-looking forward to a weekend away at the #Reading Tweet-up and meeting other bloggers and the guest of honour Heather for the first time and OMFG it's Friday and I still have so much I wanted to get done on the MSOT blog and at home and just in general.
My brain has gone to a squidge like state, but it seems like the idea of using lists is working quite well, I've managed to cross the following of the Tuesday To Do List;

1. Buy Travel insurance for Canada
2. Sort out the paperwork/letters/bills in the overflowing letter rack Finals utilities bills from living in the old house have been paid,letters that need replying too have been put it priority order and paperwork has been shredded/filed
3. Pack and send Secret Post club gift
4. Handwash MSonT hoody All clean and ready for this weekend...smells very strongly of hand wash stuff though :-s
5. Sort through the basket of clean washing that's sitting by my wardrobe..and maybe do some ironing Have picked out what I'm wearing for the Tweet-up and luckily it doesn't have to be ironed
6. MSonT - finish all info pages/finish drafting posts
7. Work out the route for getting to Reading on Saturday for the #ReadingTweetUp
8. Change address on car insurance

I think it may be easiest if my life was just one big list from now on...oooo and maybe I need a schedule/routine too...I feel a spreadsheet coming on!!

Tuesday To Do List

Today my head is full of mush, much in keeping with yesterdays post, so it seems like the perfect time to create 'Tuesday To Do List ' and try to form some of the mush into words, in a list, on my blog for all to see and make sure I get done.
Here's what I want to get sorted this week;

1. Buy Travel insurance for Canada
2. Sort out the paperwork/letters/bills in the overflowing letter rack
3. Pack and send Secret Post club gift
4. Handwash MSonT hoody
5. Sort through the basket of clean washing that's sitting by my wardrobe..and maybe do some ironing
6. MSonT - finish all info pages/finish drafting posts
7. Work out the route for getting to Reading on Saturday for the #ReadingTweetUp
8. Change address on car insurance

Adult ADHD?

I've written posts in the past about how sometimes I feel like I cant concentrate and have too much going on in my head. Then there was that one time when I couldn't actually remember what day it was and had no recollection of the few days prior.

I find it difficult to focus my thoughts sometimes and work on one project at a time, I'll often go off on tangents in conversation and have no idea what i was originally talking about. I have been known to end up crying in a heap on the floor (mainly when tired) because i cant work out what I'm supposed to be doing because my head feels too jumbled to think straight.

I don't do relaxing, I cant sit still for long enough to relax. If I'm sitting at my desk I'm either tapping my foot, swinging my legs and playing with a pen/rubber/band/phone cord.

I don't remember a time when I've ever been any different, definitely not in recent years anyway, and Ive always just put it down to being a bit crazy different hyperactive.

Good news though! Turns out I'm not the only one, in one of the rare moment where I actually focused for long enough to go through some of the unread posts in my google reader I saw that Slummy Single Mummy had written a post about Adult ADHD and it turns out shes just as brain power vs. time management-ly challenge as i am.

She posted a link to a highly scientificial and quite obviously definitive quiz and being the hypochondriac that I am I raced over to get my diagnosis.

(FYI Slummy Single Mummy scored 70 on this test)

If you scored…  You may have…

70 & up             Adult ADHD

50 – 69              Moderate ADHD

35 – 49              Mild ADHD

25 – 34              Borderline ADHD

0 – 24                No ADHD likely

Umm...yeah...I scored 85!

But look at the pretty badge I get

Lately it's been getting me more and more stressed out that I can't focus on things or I just simply don't get things done, but I have a plan!!

This, my bloggy pals, is where you come in.
Every week I am going to post a To Do list and I'm going to report back on how I'm getting on, it is your task to keep me in line, tell me off when I'm slacking/offer encouragement and cups of tea.

If I know theres people checking up on I'm more likely to get things done...I hope...oh well, guess its worth a try!

MissSearles the Model?

Ok so its not exactly a Vogue style shoot BUT the official MissSearles on Tour photos have now been done.

AND

as you can see from my new hair-do 

I think its safe to say that I've finally got my colours back!

Party over here, Party over there!!

What are you doing over here??

Didn't you know there's a party going on over at the MissSearles on Tour blog!

Wait...you don't know what MissSearles on Tour is?

You better get over there quick and have wander around, find out whats going on, its going to be an awesome project that I'd love you all to get involved in.

 Come over and say Hi and help yourself to a *virtual* drink or two

Can't wait to see you!