Archive for the ‘Featured Article’ Category

Grandmas are people too!

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Whilst I’m old enough to be a Grandma, I don’t yet have any grandchildren and I’m honestly not worried about that fact. Does that make me strange? According to some of my friends and work colleagues yes.

Yet I am cherishing my life of freedom and as far as I can see grandchildren have the potential to interfere with that big time. (more…)

Rants r us!

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

We’re Carol and Sue and we’ve been virtual friends for nearly 10 years. We often say we are twins separated by 10 years and 100 miles, although politically we may not be quite the same eh Carol?

We were Guides for About.com in 2001 and then ran a successful website business together so we get along well, and recently we decided to bring together our musings and rants about everyday life. Not being ‘girly’ types we get annoyed by all sorts of things and we hope your find our  musings  either:

  • Enjoyable
  • Amusing or
  • Thought provoking

Whatever – please feel free to comment. We look forward to reading them.

Make Christmas Star Decorations

Saturday, October 24th, 2009

christmas-starCorrugated cardboard and some silver and/or gold spray paint together with beads, glitter and ribbon can make striking and original decorations for your Christmas tree. (more…)

Recipe: Christmas Gingerbread Decorations

Saturday, October 24th, 2009

Gingerbread Christmas Tree

Gingerbread Christmas Tree

Traditionally, this recipe is made into gingerbread men but you can use different shaped cookie cutters to make it into stars, Christmas trees or other shapes. Before cooking, remember to pierce a hole at the top of each one so you can thread ribbon or strong coloured thread through them to hang on the Christmas tree. Makes 25 cookies. (more…)

The Benefits of Organic Gardening

Saturday, September 12th, 2009
Unloading a truck-load of mulchy soil for gard...
Image via Wikipedia

There are a number of advantages of organic gardening:

  • You can make your own compost from garden and kitchen waste
    All home grown fruit and vegetables are free of chemicals and safe to eat
  • (more…)

Visit Swansea, South Wales, UK

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
Swansea Castle
Swansea Castle – Image by Juan Seguí Moreno via Flickr

Swansea is second largest city in Wales. Although the city name appears to be of Viking origin, no evidence exists of any settlement until the 11th century when the Normans built a castle later destroyed by Owen Glendower. The major attraction is the beautiful Gower Peninsula just to the west of the city centre.

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Websites: Don’t Look Like an Amateur

Saturday, August 15th, 2009
Specimen of the typeface Verdana
Image via Wikipedia

We’ve all seen the sites that make you think “Uh oh, amateur hour”. It’s easy for beginners to make some basic mistakes that give their sites an amateurish look. So how do you avoid giving that impression with your first website? Here are 20 tips to help you.

1. Look at lots of good and bad sites. Try to list what makes them look good or bad.

2. Keep your pages simple. Look at the way good magazines layout their pages.

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Putting Pictures or Graphics on a Web Page

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Picasa
Image via Wikipedia

Adding pictures and other graphics can lift your pages, add colour and life as well as make them easier to read. They can give novices to building webpages a real headache, though. Here is a simple guide.

The very first step to adding pictures is to make them the correct size for the space on your webpage. This means don’t just click on the picture in your html editor and push it to the right size because doing that doesn’t reduce the file size. If you do that and have a jpg that is 2mb, for example, even though the picture looks smaller, the file size will still be 2mb.

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Write Good Content for Your Website

Saturday, July 25th, 2009
Screenshot of Google Picasa 3 - Library View
Image by DanieVDM via Flickr

Whether your website is for your business, to give information on a subject you love or just because you want your own website, it is very disappointing if it doesn’t get an audience so it’s worth taking the trouble to get presentation and content right.

(more…)

25 Home Safety Tips

Monday, April 13th, 2009

More accidents, we are told, happen in the home than elsewhere. There are ways to minimise the chances of accidents occurring – follow these safety tips and make your home safer. (more…)