This is a sponsored post about the HMV music app. I have been compensated for this #shop by Collective Bias. All opinions are my own.

HMV digital, HMV music app, #shop

I’m no techno thicky.

In fact, there is loads of stuff I am actually quite good at. I can tweet, I use Google+, I even understand the principles of Facebook edgerank, which I think is pretty impressive. I have a block though when it comes to music. You might think then that I wouldn’t exactly be the best person to tell you about the HMV music app, but I actually think it makes me the ideal person, as I can explain it to you slowly, old person to old person.* View Post

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With just seven more sleeps to go, (boo hiss to anyone who thinks counting in sleeps is lame), the last week has been mainly about mince pies and sellotape dispensers. Seriously, if you haven’t yet got one of those tape dispensers that you wear on your hand, what are you doing?! Get one. It will change your life.

Unfortunately I haven’t been sent a hamper of free tape dispensers to review, as useful as that would be, but Duracell did send me some of their super dooper extra long life batteries. It’s a bit hard to say whether or not they are actually super dooper extra long life as I don’t have a troop of mechanical bunnies to test them with, but them did prove very handy when I got out all my tacky Christmas decorations and found the batteries were all flat. View Post

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I have had at least 17 awesome blog ideas this week. Unfortunately, my brain having turned into some sort of old sponge over the last few years, I can’t remember any of them. I know that whilst out for dinner on Monday night for example, I said ‘I should definitely blog about that’ at least three times. What the ‘that’ was though, I have no idea.

Lots of blog ideas come to me in my sleep, but by the time I wake up and try to write them down, what felt like the most ground-breaking or hilarious idea I have ever had has turned into something really lame. It’s a bit like when you have a dream that feels like a Hollywood blockbuster until you try to explain it to someone – ‘Well, we were in our house, except it wasn’t our house, and there was thing creature that was really scary but has a jam jar for a head…’ View Post

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“Off to @KILVERCOURT this morning to take on a shopping challenge,” I tweeted on Friday morning,  “do they really have something for everyone for Christmas?”

Now I have to admit that at this point I wasn’t entirely convinced. I had been to Kilver Court in Somerset a couple of times before, but only when they had sale events on. My lasting impression was of crowds of well-dressed, middle-aged women in silk scarves fingering endless tables of cashmere jumpers. I’ve never really been a designer label kind of gal, so wondered if it was really the place for me.

I could not have been more wrong. Although they do market themselves heavily around the fashion and designer brands element, Kilver Court is actually much more than that and, as I was to discover, really does have something for everyone.

Christmas at Kilver Court View Post

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The last few weeks have been all about Christmas for me. I know that some people get a bit stuffy about the run up to Christmas, complaining about the proliferation of mince pies on the end of every supermarket aisle and moaning about the smell of mulled wine coming from every craft fair, but I love it. The sooner I can mull a beverage the better.

That’s why I have been doing everything I can to get into the Christmas spirit.

First things first, when you are doing anything festive of an evening it’s important to be in your pyjamas. More specifically, I have been in my new Cyberjammies, appropriately decorated with reindeer. They are gorgeously soft and comfy and perfect for lounging around in, sherry in hand. They come beautifully packaged too, with a sort of magical ribbon that holds the box in place and yet comes mysteriously undone with no knots at all. (That was almost my best bit.) View Post

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“What on earth is that noise?” asked Boyfriend at about 9pm one evening. A gentle buzzing, that sounded a bit like a dentist drill, was coming from the ceiling.

“Oh that’s just Belle in bed, playing with her automatic pencil sharpener,” I told him.

“Oh right,” he said, and went back to reading.

We’d been given a voucher to spend in Ryman, courtesy of the Ryman blog team, and Belle had fulfilled a lifelong wish that day and become the owner of an automatic pencil sharpener. That’s not to say that the trip went completely smoothly…

We were in the car on the way there, chatting about what we might get. Belle and I are both big fans of stationery and had been looking forward to the outing all week.

“Money wise then,” said Belle, matter-of-factly, “I was thinking 50-50?” View Post

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It often surprises people to hear that I have an online betting account.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not placing bets on greyhounds every day or anything, but I do like the occasional gamble. Sometimes it’s just for fun – like the Grand National – other times I place bets to balance out things I really do or don’t want to happen.

For example, when Andy Murray was beaten at Wimbledon in 2012 by Roger Federer, I won £30. Murray may not have won, but I had a cash bonus to console myself with. Hoorah! This year I lost money, but Murray won – in each case I think to myself ‘how much would I pay to see something happen/not happen?’

Needless to say when the Tories came into power at the last election I made a nice little bit of money. View Post

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I delivered some training last week to PR agencies and brands to help them engage more creatively with bloggers.* One of my exercises involved giving each group a product that might be thought of by some people as boring, and getting them to come up with some interesting campaign ideas – scouring pads, potatoes, that sort of thing.

One of the products I gave out was a packet of Post-its. The woman I gave them too smiled, her eyes actually lit up. “This isn’t boring!” she said. “I love stationery!”

I feel exactly the same. You are looking here at a woman who goes to Staples for fun. Pens and notebooks for me are a joy, and accessories like paper clips and Post-Its often more so. At this time of the year in fact, Post-Its are invaluable.

I love Christmas and all things festive, particularly the planning and shopping side of things. And the sherry and snacks of course. This basically sums up everything I love about the run up to Christmas: View Post

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This week has been a magical one for me. Literally magical, as last Sunday we went to watch a magic show at The Tobacco Factory. Calling it a magic show makes it sounds like it was a cheesy kids’ entertainer pulling a rabbit out of a hat, but this was a much more sophisticated affair, hosted by Bristol’s favourite magician, the fabulous Peter Clifford.

Peter Clifford

In the popular show, called Peter’s Friends, Peter hosts an assortment of magical guests and obviously I made Boyfriend sit right in the front row in the hope that I would get called onto the stage to help with a trick. This is Boyfriend’s idea of hell, so he spent quite a lot of the evening looking like he was cringing and trying to hide behind a post, whilst I got very excited indeed when called upon by Peter to shuffle a pack of cards. View Post

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Have you always wanted to start a blog but just don’t have the time or enthusiasm to sit down at your computer every day? Maybe you’re a Twitter addict (*ahem*) but wish there was space to say more or that your incredibly witty and thought-provoking tweets wouldn’t keep disappearing into the cyber-ether after about 27 seconds.

If either of these sound like you, or you’re just the kind of person that likes to share, then the new Dayre app could be for you.

The principle is simple – every day you add photos, videos, text (and even stickers!) to your profile using your phone. It’s quick and easy and you can do it wherever you are. At the end of the day Dayre takes all of your bite-sized chunks of genius and hilarity and turns it into one post about your day. View Post

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This week has been half term – a unique and problematic holiday. It’s not really long enough to feel like it warrants any formal, paid childcare and yet at the same time work still has to be done, mostly in a blind panic early in the mornings and on the days when Belle has gone to stay with my mum.

Belle moved up to secondary school this September and has been finding it hard going, so I wanted to make sure half term was lots of fun for her – enough fun at least to keep her going until the Christmas holidays. As you can see from her whiteboard plan of the week we had a lot going on, including a lovely day out at Yeo Valley. The thing she was looking forward to most though, as you can see by her use of seven exclamation marks, was our trip to London on Wednesday to see The Lion King and to meet Bee for lunch. View Post

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How many loyalty cards do you have in your purse? I actually had to buy a separate card holder to keep them in, so full was my purse becoming with little rectangles of card and plastic. Unfortunately what happens now is that I will pop out with my purse, leave all the other cards behind, and so not be able to get a stamp on my ‘buy 173 cups of tea and get a hobnob free’ card anyway.

Much more manageable for me are online loyalty and reward schemes that do all the hard work for you. Whenever I order from The Book People for example, points just get automatically added to my account, without the need for me to carry a two tonne handbag around with me everywhere I go. I was happy then to have a look at epoints, and to share my thoughts. View Post

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