1. I no longer work in a SPARkling store.  Instead, the company that I worked for have been bought over and I transitioned from the known to the complete unknown in April this year.  As one of the first shops to change over it was exciting, daunting and downright scary.  I live to tell the tale, however.  I’m a lot more careful about what I say about work now, to the point that my twitter feed and facebook page are private.  There were a few trade publications sniffing around the time of the announcement that my company had been sold and I did not want to start my career with this new company explaining why I had been quoted in the trade press about something we weren’t to discuss at the time.  To be fair, I never posted a thing online that wasn’t known already – i.e. who had bought the company, but I wasn’t taking the chance.    Especially when the new company showed recent twitter mentions of the company name on a huge screen at a recent conference and I sat for 5 minutes thinking “please, retail gods, do not let the name @emerge show on that screen…”
2. I had a brief breakup with the boyfriend.  Entirely my fault.  Not going to lie,  I was given a temptation and I took it.  It’s not something that I’m proud of, but I’m not going to pretend it didn’t happen.  I lasted all of a week being single before I was in tears and, fueled with vodka, called the boy and begged him to take me back.  Luckily for me, we’re back together and we’re talking so much more than we ever have and life is good again.  One thing I’ve learned? Temptation is fun in the run up, but honestly when it’s all over and done with you realise the excitement just wasn’t worth it.   Maybe in another life things would have worked out differently, but for now I’m more than happy being the girl who’s been with her boyfriend for nearly a decade and won’t be walking down an aisle any time soon.  
3. I drank half a bottle of vodka for the first time in my life, cried a lot and got the boy back.  I then spent the rest of the night with him holding my hand as I was sick and fell asleep on the bathroom floor.   If that doesn’t prove his love for me, nothing will.  And I remembered why I don’t drink.
4. Pinterest is addictive.  If you don’t have an invite yet and would like one, leave a comment and I’ll hook you up.
5. Living on your own with very little cash and no mother to buy food and cook for you is wonderful for the waistline.  Hello size 10 jeans again. 
6. I still cannot drive legally.  It’s been a while since my last driving lesson and to be honest the thought of getting behind the wheel of a car again brings me out into a cold sweat.  I don’t understand where the irrational fear of driving comes from (yes I do. it’s the thought of not being good at something. I’ve always picked things up really easily and excelled at it and now something which I cannot get my head around is beating me and I don’t like it).  I hate having to rely on other people to take me to regional meetings for work and spending oh-so-much money on taxis getting to and from work but not enough to grow a pair and get driving again.  I’m 26 on my next birthday, this is ridiculous. 
7. I’m going to be 26 in April. When did I become an adult…?
8. One of my staff at work has a horse.  An actual real life horse. I’ve been up to the stables twice with her to give her a hand feeding him and mucking him out and a few weeks ago I got back in the saddle for the first time in 18 years.  It was absolute fun until the horse decided that he wasn’t going to move when I wanted him to and just stand there for 5 minutes while I laughed my head off.  He’s beautiful though. 
   

   Casper the friendly horse

I’ve been using Google Sketchup for ages as a time waster when I’m bored. It’s essentially a 3D modelling program from the internet Gods that is Google. I’ve been drawing everything, from my ideal shop (hey, don’t judge…I’ll need plans for when I win the lottery and build my own store) to making a (not to perfect scale) 3D version of my house to allow me to try out new furniture layouts, new furniture purchases and even colour schemes without having to buy any paint or wallpaper before I start.

It’s great fun once you get the hang of it. Everything starts off as line drawings and you can make them 3D by extending the sides and panels to the size that you want. Downloading 3D models made by other users from the huge 3D warehouse makes adding items like chairs or cars simple. Searching for IKEA in the models section brings up hundreds of to scale IKEA products, including the EXPEDIT bookcase that I’ve been craving for over a year now. Now that I’ve seen how it will look behind my sectional sofa I’m more determined to get my hands on one as soon as possibly.

By using a plugin to create a photo-realistic render of my Sketchup model I can see exactly what my rooms will look like without shelling out a penny first. This is awesome. And best of all, it’s all free when you’re using the trial of Sketchup 8!

So what is MusicMagpie? Essentially it’s a website that gives you money for your old CD albums, DVDs and games as long as they’re intact in their original case with original inserts. I was finding that I was getting anywhere between 30p and £3.00 for each item and I’ve sold them 49 items for the grand total of £20.05. As postage to them is completely free (you can either print off your own postage labels or have them sent out to you via the post) I’ll keep every penny of that.

For 20 minutes work, I’d say that’s not a bad payout. Of all the CDs I think I only paid for 4 of them and the rest were either presents or old CDs of my mum’s that she’s no longer needing (I checked before I sold them). Some of them were over a decade old and they still netted me 50p! A lot easier and quicker than trying to sell them on eBay or at a carboot sale for 99p I’m sure you’ll agree.

It was simple to add my old CDs and DVDs to my order with the iPhone app that turns your phone’s camera into a barcode scanner. You simply sign up for the MusicMagpie service and then start scanning your barcodes. Soon you’ll have amounted up extra cash that you didn’t realise you had lying about your house. And you’ll be decluttering your shelves/cupboards at the same time. It’s a win-win situation!

I’ve just submitted my order with MusicMagpie and my prepaid postage labels should be with me in a few days…and the money a few days later! I’ll keep you updated on how long it takes from submitting to the site and actually having my cash.

Oh, and if you’re a member of the cashback site Quidco you can get an extra 10% cashback on each sale you make to MusicMagpie.

When was the last time you were following a recipe for something and then thought “Oh, I have a better idea.. I’ll do that instead” and you do, and it works out better than the recipe should have tasted? For me, never. I can’t really cook; only bake some amazing cakes and scones. But last night I did just that and I came up with Nutella Cupcakes.

They are pretty much what they sound like, vanilla cupcakes with Nutella flavoured butter/cheese icing. Cheese icing I hear you cry in disgust? Yes.  Cheese icing. Think cheesecake topping mixed with butter icing. It’s amazing. Add in some Nutella and you’re in frosting heaven.

And the booking for the presenters and the Mastercard sponsorship inserts? Whoever it was who decided on these acts gracing our screens should be fired. Avril Lavigne and Will Young presenting together? Boy George showing the world he’s not in jail anymore? Lewis Hamilton (ok, I’ll let that one go. He’s British, successful and sleeping with a pop star)? As for the little inserts for MasterCards Priceless items for the fans…would it not have been nice to use artists who had a) released something in the previous year or b)were actually nominated for an award instead of using people like The Ting Tings (twice!) and Lulu.

The Brit Awards is supposed to celebrate the best of British music over the previous year. So how come 5 of the 12 categories were for “International” awards? Should we not use the Brit Awards to celebrate our wonderful, diverse homegrown talent? The winners of the British Awards clearly showed that we produce some amazing talent ranging from pretty female acoustics to full blown dirty grime and everything inbetween. We are, as it turns out, a nation that doesn’t rely on talent shows to fill our MP3 players.

The full list of winners at last night’s Brit Awards were:

• British Male Solo Artist Plan B
• British Female Solo Artist Laura Marling
• British Breakthrough Act Tinie Tempah
• British Group Take That
• British Single Tinie Tempah – Pass Out
• MasterCard British Album of the Year Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
• International Male Solo Artist Cee Lo Green
• International Female Solo Artist Rihanna
• International Breakthrough Act Justin Bieber
• International Group Arcade Fire
• International Album Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
• Critics’ Choice Jessie J

Ive compiled a little Spotify Playlist of the winners, in case you aren’t familiar with any of them. Except Arcade Fire who don’t seem to be on Spotify at all. Just as well, because I’d never heard any of their songs before last night and I’m not sure that I’m a fan.

PS What on earth was Robbie Williams wearing as trousers last night? Shabba, indeed!

I’ve spent the last 4 or 5 hours pulling my site apart and pretty much starting from scratch again. I’ve got a new theme (hello pretty blue and white), new pages and I spent about an hour updating my links page alone. There’s still a lot to sort out, but I’m getting there. And I’ve realised that I’ve really, really missed coding.

At least I’ve been here this year. I picked up my beloved Nikon yesterday to take some shots of the DIY work I’m doing at the moment and realised that the last time I used her was October 2010! This is probably something to do with using my iPhone camera constantly because a)I always have it with me and b) I can just click and shoot. Saying that, I haven’t put my camera down much in the last 24 hours so here’s hoping it won’t be another 3 months before I use it again…

Speaking of my camera, I’m selling my old Nikkor 18-55mm lens on eBay just now for £9.99. The reason for the low price? It’s well and truly knackered. It fell off a table a wee while ago and lost the auto-focus function but that was fine, I just manually focused. Until I hit it against a wall slightly and it threw it completely out. I’me pretty sure that it can be fixed, but since I’m miles away from a lens repair shop I ended up just buying another lens. So if you think you can fix it, or need it for spares/repairs or whatever please go and bid. Because I really, really need the cash to pay my mortgage this month. There’s some other items up there on eBay too, mainly beauty sets and unopened perfume. I only wear 2 fragrances, so why people insist on buying me others for birthday/Christmas I have no idea…

Since I have managed to get out of bed it’s been business as usual, long hours at work and generally being poor. I haven’t done anything to the house since well before Christmas but I do have a few projects up my sleeves to keep me entertained for the next few months. Painting the hallway and having downlighters installed is one of them and adding extra storage to the kitchen in the form of stainless steel shelves slightly under my massive New York canvases is another. I just need to track down some cheap shelves as the ones I have come across are about £60 each; only about six times the amount that I’m willing to pay. Even IKEA has failed me with this project.

So nothing blog worthy but I am planning on being a better blogger in 2011.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don’t really do resolutions, to be honest.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My best friend’s girlfriend gave birth to their second son.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Not this year, no.

5. What countries did you visit? I didn’t even leave Scotland once. That’s a bit depressing actually.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010? Money that I don’t have to worry about spending and maybe a social life.

7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? 31/12/10 because it was the first Hogmanay in 8 years that the boyfriend was sober.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Possibly something as boring as hitting sales targets or wage targets at work. Hey, I’m a career girl.

9. What was your biggest failure? Not quite returning to a size 10.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? RIGHT at the end of the year (at least I got Christmas out of the way) I got struck down by flu and a nasty chest infection, which I’m still battling three days into the new year.

11. What was the best thing you bought? My iPhone, without a doubt. And the few apps that I’ve actually paid for (The Sims 3 Ambitions,  NFS Shift, various photography apps including Infinicam and Hipstamatic). The purchase of Spotify Premium made me a happy lady, too.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration? My mother, for finally finding happiness and pissing off to live with him.  Thus, I gained a house.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? A certain few people at work. I won’t go into it but there’s one word I’d share with all employees of any company – cameras.

14. Where did most of your money go? Rent, food and taxis. Although not in that particular order.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? I don’t remember getting very excited about anything this year. Oh.

16. What song will always remind you of 2010? Black Eyed Peas – Dirty Bit.  Don’t care that you all hate it, I don’t like the original as I’ve only ever seen the movie once in my life and don’t have ties to it. So a little dirty electro pop mixing it up is just fine by me.

17. Compared to this time last year:

i. happier or sadder? happier, just.
ii. thinner or fatter? the same.
iii. richer or poorer? theoretically I’m richer but I’d like to see all this extra money I earn these days.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Taken photos. Laughing.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Wasting money on cigarettes and taxis.

20. How will you be spending Christmas? I spent Christmas morning working and then I slept until 8pm, when the boyfriend graced me with his presence to open gifts.  We missed Doctor Who, slept early and that was that.

21. How will you be spending New Year’s Day? I spent it asleep in a Nurofen and Lemsip Max induced coma.

22. Did you fall in love in 2010? Only with my iPhone.

24. What were your favourite TV programmes? Doctor Who. I warmed to Matt Smith and Karen Gillan more than I thought I would, I guess. That Rory can get to hell, though.  I enjoyed X Factor for the first time since the year with the show that had Will Young and Gareth Gates in it.  The usual suspects of Mock The Week, QI and Top Gear should get a mention too.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Nick Clegg, maybe?

26. What was the best book you read? Do you know…I don’t believe I read a great deal in 2010.  Any money that I would have spent on books instead went on crockery and paint swatches.  Must try harder in 2011.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? The Gaslight Anthem.

28. What did you want and get? An iPhone.

29. What did you want and not get? An engagement ring/baby/house with boyfriend.  I’m joking. I think.

30. What was your favourite film of this year? Since I only remember seeing one – Toy Story 3!

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I was 24 and I have no idea what I did.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? A friendship with somebody other than my family, boyfriend or dog. The miserable social-phobic prefers-her-own-company thing gets boring at times.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? I could just about afford Primark without a mortgage.

34. What kept you sane? The boyfriend.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Liz from the Apprentice.  Jack Whitehall.  Christian from EastEnders.  Brian Molko (he features every year),

36. What political issue stirred you the most? The fact the person I voted for didnt even bother turning up to the vote count announcement. I have very little interest in politics, I’m afraid.

37. Who did you miss? Long, hot summer days working with 2 of the best people in the world. More importantly, their friendship. Cue the violins.

38. Who were the best people you met? My other personalities.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010. You don’t always get what you want.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
I have been waiting, all of my life
For you to come along, and make everything alright
My body’s shaking, right through my bones
So take me by the hand, please don’t leave me here alone
Darren Style – Save Me

Generally, I listen to the one Spotify playlist over and over and over and over again. So I thought I’d share it with you. And share some of my favourite songs in the whole entire world. And you can see that my taste in music is all over the place. Really, it is.

1. Ayo Technology – 50 Cent and Justin Timberlake This song signifies the turning point in the music I listened to from heavy rock, industrial and indie goodness to the dark side (as my boyfriend calls it).  About 2 and a half years ago my world was turned upside down and inside out when I was forced to listen to music that I thought I detested.  It all started off with listening to other people’s CDs in work, then on the way home when my manager would give me a lift home and then by my own admission, when I discovered I rather liked this genre of music that I’d always dismissed.  Ayo Technology was the song that turned the tables for me.
2. Low – Flo Rida ft T-Pain Like Ayo Technology, this song was one of the first that I fell in love with when I decided to give rap/rnb/hiphop/whatever a chance. It was my song of the summer in 2007. I must of heard it about 4 or 5 times a day during those months that were the some of the best days of my life in recent times…family life was good, my relationship was awesome and work was the most fun you could have while working.  Just hearing it makes me smile and remember long, hazy summer days.  My rose tinted glasses song, if you will.
3. Celebrity Skin – Hole Likewise, this was one of the first femmerock (did I just invent a music genre? Oh, google says no.) bands I really, really loved. I have no idea how many times I watched the video over and over and over when I was younger but I was in love.  And believe it or not,I had no idea who Kurt Cobain or Courtney Love were at the time.  What can I say, I had a sheltered boyband filled childhood.
4. Coma White – Marilyn Manson This man rocks my world. And this is one of the most meaningful songs in the world to me. No seriously, hear me out.  ”a pill to make you numb, a pill to make you numb, a pill to make you anybody else. But all the drugs in this world won’t save her from herself” That one line sums up my late teens to a freakin’ T. The boyfriend introduced me to Manson way back in ’03 when we started dating. (Sorry, I’ve no idea when I became an American teenager). The second gig we attended together was Manson and aside from the dodgy support band (Queen Adreena.. good songs but shockingly freaky live) it was amazing. I know the lyrics to pretty much every Marilyn Manson song, having heard them so many times.
5. We’re In This Together – Nine Inch Nails This is “our” song. Just listen to it, you’ll understand why.
6. The Bitter End / Pure Morning – Placebo Either of these songs by the mighty Brian Molko is easily my favourite Placebo song. Again, most of my late teen years were spent blasting Placebo from my MP3 player (no jazzy iPod for me back then) or through the tinny speakers of my laptop feeling sorry for myself.  It helps that Brian Molko is one of the sexiest men to grace the earth. Yet another band that I can recite lyrics to every song on command.
7. Chelsea Dagger – Fratellis Who doesn’t love a bit of homegrown indie boy goodness?  This song was the anthem of summer 2006 for me and my friends and will induce a singalong whenever it’s on the radio. Or mentioned in any way, shape or form.
8. The Sex Has Made Me Stupid – Robots In Disguise Mainly because I loved them before people knew who they were and was one of only a handful of people who saw them in the Relentless Tent at T In The Park. While the boyfriend complained that they sucked, I was in heaven. Girl power and all that.

So if you fancy checking it out… the playlist This Is Me <3 is on Spotify.  You’ll need Spotify to listen to it, but it’s worth it… it might actually be better than last.fm.

A little present for the (future?) mother in law.  I absolutely love this wrapping paper, almost to the point I didn’t want to use it to wrap anything…  And black ribbon for £4 from a HK eBayer? I’ve used it on every single present I’ve wrapped (25+) and still have over half a roll left!

Perfume for me.  Hey, it was about 50% off the RRP plus my staff discount – bargain!

The lamp that I’ve been lusting after for months. That little box is one of most prized possession even though more than half the little tiles are missing or chipped. It was my grandad’s but he gave it to me years ago & it now houses my small jewellery; belly button bars and rings.

New bedding & 2 new pillows.  The duvet cover was probably a little too expensive (it’s the most I’ve ever spent on anything for my house) but I fell in love with it the moment I set eyes on it.  All the pillows and cushions were less than £10 from various online retailers, including TK Maxx. Mismatched chic ftw!

Also, I use Instagram way, way too much.

1. Ashley Tisdale – Last Christmas [Spotify]
2. Christmas All Stars – Santa Baby [Spotify]
3. Smashing Pumpkins – Christmastime [Spotify]
4. Irn Bru – Snowman Advert [YouTube]
5. Girls Aloud – Not Tonight Santa [Spotify]
6. Lady Gaga – Christmas Tree [YouTube]
7. McFly – Deck The Halls [Spotify]
8. Katy Perry – White Christmas [Spotify]
9. Cascada – Last Christmas [Spotify]
10. Girls Aloud – Jingle Bell Rock [Spotify]
11. The Ravonettes – The Christmas Song [Spotify]
12. Ronan Keating – Fairy Tale Of New York [Spotify]
13. Train – Shake Up Christmas – Coke Xmas Anthem[Spotify]

What are your favourite Christmas songs this festive season?  Am I missing any classics?

[edit] This list is pathetic in relation to the amazing Last Year’s Girl’s alternative Christmas playlist; They Faked Their Way Through Fairytale Of New York 2010.  But she’s more awesome than me, so that’ll explain it.

I suppose there is now no reason why I cant keep up with more regular blog postings as I can now do it on the move with the WordPress app. Expect more frequent random updates of my life and the transformation of my house from now on. And on that note, I’ve got new curtains to go and put up.

I’ve just tallied up how many times that I’ve tried to get in contact with BSM in the previous 3 weeks, and it’s quite impressive that they’ve ignored every single one.   Twice I’ve filled out the contact form on the BSM website requesting that somebody call me about my lessons (which at £600 don’t exactly come cheap). Twice that’s been ignored. I’ve emailed once to the email address at the bottom of the payment confirmation email, which again has been ignored.

Then I started to get crafty and contacted them via Twitter…

Which got me absolutely nowhere apart from empty promises of a phone call from somebody at BSM to sort out my driving lessons. I’ve also called them (0845 851 9571) six or seven times and been cut off all but one of these times, which just happened to be yesterday morning where I finally got to book my first lesson.

The reason for the delay / non-contact? I’d asked to have my driving lessons in an automatic car (mostly due to the bad experiences I’ve had with the last two instructors I’ve had in a manual car) and they don’t have one in my area.  So they just thought they wouldn’t bother contacting me to tell me this and instead effectively take my £600 and run. Not something that I would expect from one of the biggest, longest running driving schools in the country.

I suppose I’ll just have to wait and see if my BSM driving instructor shows up on Thursday at 12pm for my first driving lesson with them.

Has anybody else had problems with BSM Driving School or any of the BSM driving instructors? I’ve read horror stories of instructors not turning up for lessons,  double booking lessons, failing to turn up to take you to your driving test even though you’ve booked the car for those two hours.

Am I the only person who seems to waste time off work? It seems like each and every time I’ve got a break I spend it watching TV and sleeping all day, instead of doing things that need doing like washing all the bed clothes or finishing decorating the hall. That was my plan for the last three days and all I’ve managed to do is hoover the stairs!

• 100g/3½oz unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 100g/3½oz caster sugar
• 50g/1¾oz fine brown sugar
• 1 free-range egg, lightly beaten
• 275g/10oz plain flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp cinnamon powder
• Icing; whatever kind of icing you prefer!

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until combined.
3. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract, a little at a time, until well combined.
4. Stir in the flour and cinnamon until the mixture comes together as a dough.
5. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured work surface to a thickness of 1cm/½in.
6. Using biscuit cutters, cut biscuits out of the dough and carefully place onto the baking tray.
7. Bake the biscuits for 8-10 minutes, or until pale golden-brown. Set aside to harden for 5 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.

That’s the basic recipe from the BBC Food website with a few little adjustments by myself, like adding the cinnamon.  Once your biscuits have cooled completely it’s time to have fun decorating your biscuits. I’ve done two versions, one with glazed pink icing covering the tops (which ended up with icing dripping everywhere down the sides; must practise this one a bit more) and buttercream icing using my new piping bag which I made a little too thick, my biscuits ended up looking like cupcakes!

To get baking yourself, check out the BBC’s Get Baking For Children In Need campaign. This isn’t a sponsored post, I’m just really enjoying baking at the moment and think everybody should be doing it!

After trying, and failing, to move an IKEA Aneboda wardrobe from the hall (we use it for coats, jackets & shoes) to upstairs I’ve had to come up with something to house all my books in the massive recess (it used to be a cupboard until my mum ripped the doors off and I pulled all the crappy shelving out of it) in the upstairs hallway. The initial idea was to have the wardrobe in the middle of the cupboard and shelves built around it from the same style of wood, to make it look like it was an expensive fitted wardrobe. Now I’ve been looking through the IKEA website for other solutions and I think I’m going to have to go with just shelving the recess with basic shelves and then using the KVARTAL system and sheer curtains over the front of it. That make’s it like a sliding door cupboard without having heavy doors and should make a nice feature out of what is essentially going to be a big cupboard full of books. I might actually be able to fit one of these chairs into the corner of the recess for a comfy spot to relax and read for hours, my own little library if you like.

This is a quick mock-up that I made in Photoshop to take with me to IKEA when I go shopping at the weekend. IKEA is like my Mecca, I just love their furniture and textiles. It helps that they’re so cheap and durable, too.

I’m planning on taking a lot of photos during this renovation to make a bit of a “how to” post about different things that I’ve got to do to transform this ugly cupboard into a relaxing reading nook. The only thing that’s staying the same is the flooring, everything else has got to be done, including getting a light fixture put in there. Good thing my mum’s partner’s an electrician!

It should cost me less than £100 to do, and £40 of this is the chair from IKEA. The shelves are going to be simple wood, that I’ll prime and paint whatever colour I decide on (it’s green in the mock up, but I’ll possibly change my mind). Like I said, the floor’s already there and the wallpaper will cost me very little, as I’ll actually only need one roll since the space is small. I have the light shade already and getting in installed and rewired won’t cost me a penny. Then it’s just the time factor…and deciding if I’m doing my books alphabetically, colour coordinated or genre-specific. That’ll probably take the longest to do, since I’m pretty OCDish about organisation.

So how does VoucherHub work, I hear you ask? It’s really simple.

Once you’ve decided where you’re buying from online, point your web browser to VoucherHub.com and search for the shop in the search box at the top right hand side. Your search will then bring up a list of all the vouchers that are available for that retailer.  Then it’s as simple as picking out the best voucher for you, whether it’s free delivery or a 10% discount off your subtotal.

The great thing about VoucherHub.com is that it lets you know which vouchers are active and those that are currently inactive, so you’re not wasting your time trying to use an out of date money off coupon or voucher.  You can also submit your own voucher code to the website for other users to use to get money off their shopping, too.

I’ve also signed up to receive any future vouchers for ASOS discount codes straight to my email, which is another great feature of VoucherHub.com. It means I can get voucher codes straight away and get a discount every time I buy something from my favourite online shops.

It’s not just online shopping that VoucherHub.com caters for. I’ve also used the site to get a discount on my dinner by using a Domino’s voucher to get free delivery on my pizza meal deals. Food always tastes better when it’s cheaper, doesn’t it?

Out of all the voucher and coupon websites that I’ve used (I never, ever buy anything online without first checking sites like VoucherHub for money off coupons), VoucherHub is the easiest to use and 90% of the time has a money off coupon for me to use. It’s also, by far, the prettiest designed site of them all and really simple to use. Even my mum can use it!

Again, using VoucherHub.com is as easy as these steps:

STEP 1: Make a note of the online store you are buying something from. For example:
http://www.amazon.co.uk
Or even just:
amazon.co.uk

STEP 2: Visit VoucherHub.com

STEP 3: Enter the address from step 1 into the search box and press the “Search” button

STEP 4: You should now be presented with any vouchers available for that shop. Make a note of them.

STEP 5: Click on the voucher to visit the shop and proceed to enter your voucher code when asked at checkout.

With any luck you should now have a great discount or bonus!

VoucherHub.com demonstration screencast from VoucherHub on Vimeo.

disclaimer: I was offered the chance to review VoucherHub by FuelMyBlog.com. As an avid user of VoucherHub.com for a few months now, I jumped at the chance to share this great site with you all.

On Monday my brother had an operation to remove part of his bowel, after spending pretty much the last month in hospital. I’ve been the only person visiting him (which, although it doesn’t bother me because he’s my brother and I love him) which takes 3 hours out of my day and is costing a fortune because he’s in a hospital so far away from my house and have been dragging The Boyfriend with me even though he has a severe hate for hospitals and I’m relieved that he’s supporting me by coming along to make small talk. Adding that onto 10 hour work days and cooking, cleaning and tidying I just don’t have time to waste online. And yes, I sound like any other working mother in the land, but with one small difference. I’m not a mother. I’m a sister.

My mum’s on holiday, which I’m actually pretty angry about, as she booked it while he was in hospital the last time and he actually checked himself out the day before she flew out to Egypt. Within 24 hours I was on the phone to NHS 24 and he was on his way back to hospital in an ambulance. My opinion is that even though she doesn’t live in the same house as her children any more, she is still our mother and has responsibilities to look after us and put us first, not her new boyfriend. We’re going to have to have a serious chat when she comes back because this situation just isn’t working out the way it’s supposed to. Although that’s mainly down to one person…

My youngest brother, who I’m currently fighting with about his sheer laziness. He moved back into this house on the understanding that he got a job and tidied up after himself. And you can probably guess what’s he’s doing. Absolutely nothing. So I sort of lost it with him a few days ago and he’s disappeared to his cousin’s house to stay…

Argh, can I just have one day of peace and no drama?

Table of contents for Wednesday Woof

1. WW | Lounging
2. WW | Tired little doggies.
3. WW | Black and White
4. WW | Messy Dawg
5. WW | I wuv u
6. WW | Apple, Abbi & Jason too.

1. Pay off all of my debts. And not incur any more other than car payments or a mortgage. This is the big one that I’m working towards every month. Currently I owe around £3000, which is slowly going down by about £50 a month at the moment.
2. Pass a driving test and finally get a car. I’ve left it far too long and I hate not being independent. Plus the money I’m not spending on taxis getting to and from work every day would go towards number 1.
3. To own my own home, preferably with the Boy. This is defiantly one that I’ll have to work on for two reasons. The lack of money and his fear of commitment and growing up.
4. Upgrade my camera to a Nikon D3000. It’s sexy.
5. Travel to New York city for at least 3 months. I’ve always been drawn to the city and as I know more and more people who’ve holidayed there I can’t wait to finally get over to the other side of the pond and live in such a wonderful city for a short time.
6. Have my teeth fixed. I’ve lost a tooth due to falling over on ice and banging my face HARD against the ground, resulting in a smashed up tooth that fell out a few weeks later. Then the tooth above that one turns out to have been damaged also and I had that extracted after living in agony for a good week or two. So now I have a huge gap at the side of my mouth (two teeth away from my canine teeth on the right hand side). I hate it and would love to have it fixed. That and the incisor at the top left hand side that has become very twisted over the last year, apparently due to my teeth moving to allow a wisdom tooth to come through.
7. Cook a perfect Christmas dinner. As I can’t cook very well and dislike cooking for other people this one should be interesting.
8. Learn how to apply nail varnish perfectly without getting it on my cuticles / skin.
9. Stop smoking. Or at least cut down a lot.
10. Keep my weight around the 9.5 stone mark. That means loosing about 6 or 7lbs in order to get there, but it’s the weight that I feel the best at. I’ll never been a skinny person, but when I’m about 9.5stones I feel (and look) healthy.
11. Backup all of my photos properly and start a working, easy backup system for them in the future.
12. Write a WordPress plugin.
13. Have a photograph publish in a magazine or newspaper.
14. Own my very own grocery or convenience store. In my head I have it named, designed and perfected. This has been my dream since I was 11 years old.
15. Incorporate exercise in my daily life. And no, running up the stairs doesn’t count as cardio, Mel.
16. Finish both the gardens in my house. I’ve got the basic plans mapped out in Google SketchUp and somebody who’ll actually do it, now I just get the cash in order and I can have a modern, sleek garden of my own.
17. Learn to walk in heels so I can wear something other than flats or wedges.
18. Tidy up after myself instead of leaving it for a few days and having a massive tidy up that bores me to death.
19. Stop biting my nails.
20. Get a professional manicure. And maintain it.
21. Increase my circle of friends. You know, so I have more than just the Boy and people I work with / have met online.
22. Finally buy the IKEA EXPEDIT bookcase I’ve lusted over for more than 3 years and display my books instead of hiding them in the cupboard.
23. Master white balance / manual mode on my camera.
24. Print my photos and create a photo album of memories, year by year.
25. Bake, and decorate, the Boy a birthday cake that means something to him. Doctor Who, rock bands..something.
26. Delete FarmVille from my Facebook account.
27. Stop drinking fizzy drinks and go back to drinking a bottle of water a day. I curse the day I started drinking cola again.
28. Quit drinking energy drinks.
29. Perfect the home made Frappe.
30. Complete this list!

Photo credit:

This is the living room as you walk into it from the hallway. Currently using the small TV from my bedroom while my huge TV is at the repair center being fixed. That usually lives in the corner where all the cables are lying on the floor.  Also, Abbi walked into this shot!

My beautiful £15 coffee table from IKEA. Also, IKEA swing top bottles, plants and cherry lemonade from TK Maxx. You can also just make out a copy of ID magazine on the lower shelf.

Half way through decorating the feature wall. It took ages to do, probably because my mum was teaching me how to wallpaper as we were going along.

Close up of the flower wallpaper.

Badly lit shot of the “short” wall in the living room, where you come in via double doors at the hallway.

• Floral Wallpaper – Colours by B&Q. It cost about £5 per roll as it’s discontinued but they have a similar one on their website for £16.98 per roll here.
• Sofa – Harveys Furniture. Model similar to Tara sofa and was a few thousand pounds. Not sure how much, though.
• Flooring -
• Magazine rack (hiding behind the dog) – DIY project
• Coffee Table - IKEA. £15 (model: Lack) (now £22)
• Red/Brown cushions – Primark £3 each including cushion & cover
• Plants – Sainsbury’s and IKEA. £2.49 – £3.49 each. Purple plant is a Celosia and it’s beautiful. IKEA plants are Dracaena Marginata.
• Plant pots – IKEA £12.99 for three
• Curtains – Homemade from material bought in Remnant Kings clearance sale. £cheap
• Paper lamp - IKEA £7.99 (model Dudero) (used as a table lamp, even although it’s a floor lamp)
• Red leaf print – DIY Project
• Photo print of dock – IKEA (discontinued. Its from a good few years ago)
• Buddha statue – TK Maxx (from a few years ago. Sure it’s from TK Maxx)

Making the icing

1. Take one vanilla pod and split down the middle using a sharp knife
2. In a mixing bowl, add the icing sugar and butter. Scrape the vanilla pod seeds into the icing.
3. If you’d like, add a few drops of food colouring to suit. I like to use pale pinks, pale blues and black, which creates a lovely pale grey with one or two drops.
4. Add a few drops of milk and begin whisking the icing until you get a creamy constancy. When you lift your whisk out of the mixture, it should barely try to fall back into the bowl. This’ll allow you to create the whips and peaks that won’t sink.

Decorating the cakes

I use a tool to decorate my cakes that looks like a syringe with a piping nozzle at the end, you can pick them up in supermarkets for a few pounds. Each of the nozzles provides a different style of icing and my favourite is the one that creates little miniature “iced gems” shapes.  You can use this one to go around the edge and then towards the middle of the cake for the ‘typical’ cupcake design or create little dots of peaked icing like the one below.

Your imagination is the only other thing you need for decorating… as well as sprinkles, glitters, icing flowers. Have fun!

The BabySitters Club series

I was totally Stacey McGill. Or, I wanted to be. These books were first released when I was 4 months old but I really got into them when I was around 8 or 9, if I remember correctly. I may actually have been a little older but they were a major part of my life for a good few years. A neighbour and I were both avid readers and would swap books with each other since we couldn’t afford to buy them all for ourselves. I used to beg my mum to take me to Castles Cash and Carry in the South Side of Glasgow to buy one or two books if I’d been good or had spare pocket money to spend on them. I think I finally gave up reading them around the 72nd book. Uh yeah, I’m pretty sure I read every single one of them up until then. That’s a bit weird, actually.

They just don’t make kid’s TV shows like they used to…

My entire tv memories from when I was very, very little is probably the same as every other 22-26 year old in the United Kingdom. Button Moon. Rainbow. Camberwick Green. Ducktails. Care Bears. Jamie and The Magic Torch. Inspector Gadget. Clarrissa Explains It All. Sister Sister. Zzap!. Fun House. Doug. Rosie & Jim. Play School. Sabrina The Teenage Witch. I can still sit and watch episodes of Clarissa and Sabrina at the grand old age of 24. It makes me feel so, so old!

And of course, who hasn’t seen this paticular episode of Rainbow entitled ‘The Twangers’. It was a pisstake, not an actual broadcasted episode.

Talk Girl Recorder

Didn’t everybody either have a Talk Girl or a Talk Boy? Possibly the most useless toy, ever. It was pretty much a cassette tape recorder with a microphone so you could record your voice. And play it back. And the was it. I begged and begged and prayed to Santa to get one, and I did. And had forgotten about it by February. Or broke it. Probably broke it.

Polly Pocket

Tiny little dolls. Tiny little accessories. Tiny little houses thatdefinitely didn’t fit in your pocket. Trust me on that one.  My most vivid memory of Polly Pocket was having it confiscated from me in primary school for playing with it during a lesson. That was about the only time I was ever in trouble at school. And what a thing to get into trouble for, eh?

Pogs

You know I said that Talk Girls were the most useless toys that were out around the early 90s? Take that back, Pogs where.  I still don’t understand what they were, except for a complete and utter waste of money. I got my first Pogs in Orlando, Florida in about 1994 and remember my brother collecting them for ages afterwards. I had shiny ones. Metal ones. Free ones out of crisp packets. And they just sat in a plastic box underneath my bed…

Platform Trainers

The Spice Girls started a few trends. Girl Power. Catchy tunes with crap lyrics. That Union Jack dress. And platform trainers. I was in love with the, and the girls themselves from the very first moment I saw the Wannabe video, roughly 10 minutes after returning home from a school trip to Kingswood Activity Center (best school trip, ever by the way). Within a week I was obsessed. Within 6 months I’d saved up enough money to buy a pair of platform trainers and promptly sprained my ankle. I still have them in my cupboard.

Spice Girls

Like I mentioned, I was obsessed.  I know the words to every single song they ever wrote recorded. I know the dances. I can name that tune super fast. My bedroom was decorated with Spice Girls border, a clock, posters, duvet cover, lamp shades and possibly even curtains. I owned all the CDs. I called myself Mel G (cringe). I was OBSESSED. I cried when the broke up (and when Take That broke up). They were my band.