Fanfare please!

Sound the trumpets! Hang out the bunting! Ready the champagne! Yesterday marked my first month in the world of blogging. And what a fabulous month it has been! I've met some truly lovely people and found some delightful blogs.

I've been a long time blog reader and wondered how I would translate that and find my own voice. I'm still very much feeling my way and I've yet to find my rhythm with posting.  I always really liked it when blogs I followed had a rhythm to their posting, either posting once a day or in a particular pattern.  I've tried to refrain from posting more than once in a day, because I don't want to overload my followers and also because blogger doesn't individually date my posts if I create more than one a day, it just bands them together under a general heading and that irks me.

I've (sort of) got my head around the things that confused me to start with, I've fiddled around with my blog format and then decided that simple is good for me.  Clear spaces and clean lines.  I'll probably make changes in the future at some point, but I look forward to those now rather than fearing them.  I've buttoned, and buttoned and buttoned again.  I've tried to get myself out there and be sociable.  I really don't see the point in blogging if you're not going to interact with anyone.  And I do love to be sociable and make new friends.  I've said it before and it may be a bit of a cliche, but my world really has just got a little bit bigger, and that can never be a bad thing, right?

I've introduced and covered some of the important aspects of my life, joined along with some really fun things like The 52 Project, Currently, and 52 weeks (of kindness) and each of these things has really added something to my life. I've got lots of exciting posts planned and many things I'd like to cover.

I'm truly grateful to all those who have taken the time to follow, comment and show me the ropes.

THANK YOU!

My stats for this month are:

43 posts
1,883 page views in total
250 comments
33 followers

Not sure if that's good, bad or indifferent, and I really don't care which it is. Figures are not what this is about for me, although I am jolly proud to have come this far.

My most popular posts are from The 52 Project and my flapjack recipe.  Key phrases searched for make me laugh.  Apparently a lot of people google "Put socks on her hands", I'm not even going to ask why!!!!

Anyway, thank you all so much.  I'm signing off with a quote, because it's true and I'm that way inclined...

We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand.” - C.S. Lewis. Wise dude.

Love,

P.S

If you think I'm dressing up as a biker or a cowboy you've got another thing coming....

I've lived in a fair few places in my time, up north, down south. Slap bang in the middle of big towns and right on the outskirts looking in.

I've lived in big houses, pretty little cottages and tiny, damp little flats. I've owned my own house and I've rented a fair few times as well.

I've lived in this village longer than I've ever lived anywhere else. There are a lot of plus sides to village life, you get to know people, faces, from all walks of life. It throws people together, forms groups and friendships that otherwise just might not happen.

One of the things I like most is that to me it feels like we've been stuck in time a little, in a very good way. If you leave your empty pram outside the Post Office, it will still be there when you've finished buying stamps and having a chat. If your baby decides to eject Sophie the Giraffe from her pushchair without you realising, some kindly soul will pick her up and put her on a low wall for you to find when you return in a panic.

A quick dash to one of the only village shops always takes longer than expected because you meet people on the way, catch up and check how they're doing. It saddens me to think that there are some places where these sorts of things just don't happen any more.

A friend of mine broke both her wrists last summer in the craziest camping accident I have ever heard of. It's difficult enough to manage without the use of your hands, but this lovely lady also had young twin boys to look after. On top of which she'd been told not to go anywhere unaccompanied in case she fell, as she wouldn't be able to use her arms to steady herself she risked further injury. It warmed my heart to see people, without question, taking care of her and her family. Rotas were arranged, visits were scheduled. Her washing was taken away and returned clean and pressed, her dog was walked, her meals were cooked, her house was cleaned. The boys were accompanied to school and back every day. She needed help and her community jumped up and gave it. It was amazing.

Now, I'm not trying to imply that I live some sort of charmed life, don't get me wrong, I don't. There are a fair few things I'd change, it's just that this isn't one. And it's not all rose tinted, but even the bad isn't really so bad. There's the occasional fall out and bit of scandal, but life would be dull without them. And a juicy bit of gossip can get around here at lightning speed.

It's also more than slightly bonkers around here sometimes too. We went for a walk by the river yesterday afternoon and, no word of a lie, a chap rode past us on his unicycle.....

From a very new person's perspective, I've found blogland to be a little bit similar to village life, although obviously in a less physical way.  It's lovely to see people offering support and advice, to otherwise complete strangers. It's nice to think there's a place where you can actually say, "hey, I'm having a hard time" and find that you're not the only one, there are others who know EXACTLY what you mean and even have some helpful advice following their own experience.  I've followed some blogs for so long that I sort I feel like I know their writers, though obviously I don't in the slightest.  I once waved at Cassandra from Only Fools and Horses when I saw her in a Carphone Warehouse, I recognised her so I assumed I knew her, oh the shame!  At least she was sweet enough to half wave back and look a bit confused at me...It could have been a lot worse, I have a habit of making a complete tit of myself in this sort of situation.

I suppose my point is that I'm not naive enough to think that blogland is purely a charmed and wonderful place only full of sweet natured people, though this has been my experience so far. I know that there are the other kind of people out there as well, and it does worry me slightly that I'm setting myself up for a fall by being here, being new to it all and not really knowing what I'm doing. That my naivety is going to bite me back. Really flippin hard!

So I guess what I'm asking is, is there a big blogger 'NO list' out there of things you'd be barking mad to post about? How do you stop yourself from getting it wrong or from giving away too much? Or don't you?  Do you deal with potential negativity by ignoring it and carrying on regardless?  How do you know if you're doing something that, to others, is completely bloody bonkers?

You'd tell me right? ;)

The Sordid Confession of a New Blogger...

I wanted to change my profile picture to one that I liked a little more.  Yesterday evening (during Lewis) I faffed around adding filters, effects, text and all sorts of (probably unnecessary stuff) but I was having a lot of fun.  More fun than Lewis, I can't even remember who dunnit....

Then I uploaded my new picture, and somehow deleted the photograph on every comment I'd ever previously made.  This sent me into a frenzy.  I crossly tapped on the computer for ages, but I couldn't get it back.  I went to bed and tried hard to resist doing the same on my phone.  I couldn't.  I wasted another hour.

Eventually I went to sleep.  Only to be awoken by an unhappy baby at four in the morning.  I hushed her off to sleep.....

....then, to my great shame, nipped downstairs like the bloke in the old R Whites advert in his pyjamas for another go at sorting out my irritating problem. I sat in the dark, furtively googling.  I felt like a pervert!  Nothing so rock n roll as looking up rude stuff on the internet for me, no siree, I wanted my picture back, dammit and sleep wasn't going to stop me trying!

Thankfully I came to my senses and realised that I was being completely bonkers, turned the computer off and went back to bed.

I haven't sorted it, but I give up now.  On principal because I'm getting obsessed.  I'm already planning to comment on this post myself to make sure my picture shows up in the future......

I have to try and put a lid of this craziness. Gosh I'm tired.





P.S if anyone can shed any light, let me know.  Or perhaps it might be better not to, I might end up in therapy.

The Totally Awesome Blog Hop...

I'm new to all this, blogger confuses the heck out of me, google+ boggles my brain and none of this makes any sense in my head yet.

That Baby frequently quotes CBeebies Tinga Tinga Tales at me by charmingly reminding me that I have a "big head, tiny brain..."

So, I know to most this is nothing of an achievement but I'm feeling pretty bloomin' proud right now; I added a button!

Yep, a whole button entirely on my own! It involved some sort of mystical code and going on "the big computer" but I got there in the end. I even moved it about a bit! Oh, happy face!

I think it's sort of assumed that if you want to blog you have a fair understanding of the technical side of things, well not me, no siree!

I suppose I'm lucky, I've never been afraid to feel around in the dark (fnar, fnar) so I'm quite happy just to mess about with something until it either drives me nuts or I've cracked it. I'm sure things will get a touch more impressive looking around here as I find my feet.

So! The button that I (eventually) managed to add? Well to cut a long story short I was doing my usual mooch over at Tigerlilly Quinn's blog when I came upon, dahdadadadah....drumroll please...

Tigerlilly Quinn: The Totally Awesome Blog Hop

This is a fabulous idea thought up amongst some awe inspiring bloggy veterans to encourage folk to have a good read around.

This lady is a huge, huge inspiration to me. I never miss reading up on what she's been up to together with her beautiful little family. Her monthly posts detailing little Wilf's milestones on his journey through life are such a joy to read. I dearly wish I'd thought to do something similar for my firstborn. Quite frankly what Fritha says, goes! So if anyone should happen to stop by, have a clicketty click on my expertly (?) added button and see what these fabulous chaps have to say.

Oh, and did I mention my happy face?

The Difficult Second Album, sorry, Entry.

Bonjour!

It's really hard setting up a blog isn't it? You have to think of an entirely unique email address that nobody has every thought of before, then a blog title that doesn't make you sound like a half wit, but also that hasn't been used by anyone, ever, in the whole history of the world, ever. I am distinctly British you see and it doesn't do to step on toes....

Then you have a teeny tiny space to accurately describe yourself in a way that again, doesn't make you sound too bonkers, but also that entices people to look deeper. No mean feat.

It's hard. It's like writing a job application without sounding smarmy. Or criminally insane. As far as I know to date that has NEVER happened.

So most of this stuff will probably change. I'm not convinced I make my best decisions early in the morning, so I might need to chuck some thought at it and do some editing there.

And gosh, there are suddenly a whole host of things I need to consider that had never even crossed my mind before today. I need to think about precisely what this little blog is for? What do I want to become public and what do I want to keep just for me?

There's something to be said for anonymity. It gives me the freedom to whinge, bitch and, perhaps most importantly be unapologetically truthful. You know, like admitting to finding Miranda really funny, even though its not cool to like it. Although its never going to be ok to be one of those women who thinks that they're saying "Bear with....." in an ironic way and finds themselves hysterical. There is no ironic way, it's just annoying.

There are certain things that I just cannot cover in a public forum. Work is one of those things. I am never going to discuss where I work, or what I do. This isn't because it's terribly important, or even interesting, I don't work for MI5 and I am definitely not a spy. It's just that there are rules. And I follow them. I hold my hands aloft and am happy to declare that I am an unabashed rule follower. I like rules. Generally speaking I think rules make the world a better place. I don't walk on the grass, I don't feed the pigeons, I mind the gap and I keep to the left, no right, no wait, left. I just do whatever the crowd is doing on an escalator. I know where I am with a clearly defined rule or two.

I know it's not terribly cool and I'm sorry about that. But what can you do? Pity my children, I know, I know....

Ahhh yes, my babies. I have two little girls. I am insanely proud of them both. My oldest is nearly, nearly, nearly five. My baby nearly seven months old. Part of my insane parental pride has convinced me that if I name my babies publicly the child snatcher will single them out because of their gorgeousness and want to steal them from me (big headed, I know). But that, at least, is EASY! Before my first born was, erm, born, she had to have a moniker so I could blame stuff on her....Who ate the last piece of cake? "That Baby" made me do it! Did you just emit an unpleasant sound? Certainly not! It was "That Baby!"

When my youngest came along it was obvious. Welcome "This Baby!" God Bless her baldy head :)

So, blog name? Just Pirouette and Carry On? A nod to a particularly excellent musical pairing I was lucky enough to see live recently.  I was drawn to their lyrical response to the suggestion that elegance has had it's day.  Just pirouette and carry on!  It struck a chord with me.  It's what I try (really quite hard) to do!

 Perfect!

Oh, and I would really would recommend checking out Trevor Moss and Hannah Lou.  They are amazing!

Good Evening and Welcome...

Yes, good evening and welcome. Except it's morning and it's quite early so probably not the best time for me to decide "I know, I'll start a blog".

See, I woke up after a reasonable nights sleep and did all the usual things. Fed This Baby (well, tried, she's not having a hungry day) saw Mr Husband Sir off to work, got exasperated at my brother for making any ungodly amount of noise and then tried my hardest to go back to bed. But today was a tiny bit different. Today I did that thing where, instead of just squishing in fifteen minutes extra sleep I decided it was pointless, one of The Smalls was bound to wake up so I might as well catch up on blog reading instead....

Only today is the 2nd of January. A bright, shiny, squeaky clean and fresh New Year. Every blog I read had a fabulous look back over the year, and listed at least half a dozen resolutions that I probably should have thought of myself (but didn't).

I know, I thought, I'll tempt fate, I'll start that little blog all of my very own that I'd always secretly dreamed of. The Smalls will probably wake up in eight minutes flat and it'll never actually happen. Let's tempt fate and see how far we get....

So here I am. It's now 8.39 am and despite the door based racket made by brother everyone is still asleep. And I have a blog! Hello! And absolutely no idea what to do or say......oh heck......;)