How cute is this little bowl? I was visiting my sister-in-law yesterday and she had her nespresso pods in one and when I ooohh-eh and ahhhh-ed she pulled out another one and said I could have it. I was excited!

It’s the small things peeps

Then in the post arrived a new iphone case (yes, I am obsessed with them!). It cost $3 and free postage. How do they make them so cheap? So now I’m all polka-dotted up!’

Speaking of polka-dots… you must visit my IRL (in real life) friend, Kim, over here. Her blog is amazing. We have seen so much sadness and suffering in this world lately, but hers is one of pure miracles and triumphs. She has been so lucky to expand her family to 7 with 3 surrogate babies from India. Yes it’s true!

A-m-a-z-i-n-g.

He babies are beautiful. I saw her on Monday and then did a quick tidy of her blog yesterday. Go over and see how life can truly be fulfilling in so many ways… I talk about being grateful and here is an example of someone being truly grateful for what they have in life.

Today I am flat out! Blog designing and packing. Husband and I are heading off on a little road trip. Just us. With other adults. No kids. We’ll be heading off really early tomorrow morning. I’m so excited. I’ll share the trip with you soon. So, I’ll be signing off from the blog until next week.

Have a great day! X

1/2/3/4/5/6/ 7+8 Logos

Oh boy it’s been busy at The Media Maid. This is only half of what I have been up to! Loving it. There are some great blogs out there and some really creative people. I just help them set everything out better. I get a lot of people who also ask me to just pop in to their blog and fix the layout, add some buttons or menus. There has been a lot of that going on. Happy to help.

With over 200 million blogs worldwide it’s a tough market out there. If you’re serious about blogging a good design can make you. A bad design can break you. I wrote about my blog design tips here last week. Everyone is leaning towards crisp and clean designs with great colour combinations and small repeatable patterns (if any). Small narrow headers are all the go without a lot of scrapbook style graphics. Backgrounds are really simple to save on load time.

Last week I also wrote about how to back up your blog. Then I received an email yesterday asking me to see if I could help Lisa King (Lisa has lost her son and husband all within the last 4 months. You can read Lisa’s story here) as she has been having trouble logging in to her blog and was worried about hackers. Blogger had also noticed unusually high activity on her blog. We know because it’s a Blogspot blog, Lisa doesn’t technically own it, so yes, Blogspot can pull it down if they so wish. So whilst she had backed it up, there were still concerns about it all going missing. This is a stress! So last night I talked her through using this free service  Blog Booker.  It takes only a few minutes (depending on your blog size), but will convert your blog to a PDF. Lisa had 6500 pages! But it worked and she was so happy.

Ok, I’m off to do some more blog designing…

Have a great day! X

I have 3 weddings to go to this year. I saw a couple on dresses on ASOS and thought I should snavel them up. I thought if I bought them online with plenty of time to spare then I could get them altered or return them if they weren’t right. I don’t normally buy such things online because I’m frightened they won’t fit! The purple one needs a bit of altering around the boobies but the black is perfect! Yay!

Yes, there are only 2 dresses, but 3 weddings so I’ll wear one of them again, mix and match or maybe I’ll find another great deal online!

Do you buy clothes online? If so, what are your favourite shops?

Shoes are from FSW and Novo. I don’t spend a pile of money on shoes. I prefer the quantity of shoes! The more the merrier. Those purple and orange ones are as cute as a button! I really hope I can wear them when the time comes. I’ve been having problems with arthritis in my ankle. Fingers crossed I have a good day.

I’ll also be wearing a jewelled hair clip. I’ve been told these are really hot at the moment.

I have a big black clip similar to this one Sarah-Jessica Parker is wearing. I just need to find it (after we moved house!!). I love it! I’m going to do that. Except maybe hair all out and one side pulled up??

And I hear the glomesh is in. So I’ll be taking along one of these. I’ll fiddle with it all night, I just know it. Love the feel of this stuff!

Then of course I’ll have coloured nails. NO chips. “Chipped nail polish still revolts me.” Ref Faux Fuchsia.

Orange? Or hot pink? I’ll be colour-blocking with the purple dress and orange nails I think.

Have a great day everyone. Don’t forget to enter my giveaways!

Would you like to advertise on my blog? I have a media kit here.

Yesterday I was asked to give out some awards at a Fishing Competition in Wagga.

All for charity and all for Wagga. I’m happy to do any of these things when asked.

The event ran over the 2 days.

My boys and hubby took the boat out on Saturday to participate in the event. No such luck with winning any events! But nonetheless, they loved it.

I took my camera along and just before the awards the kids were lucky enough to help release hundreds of cod in to the Murrumbidgee River. They were in their element! I swished around in the water with my nice shoes and maxi dress (haha). Wasn’t the right attire at all! But I never miss a chance to take photos of my boys being boys. My nephew and his mate were there too.

So now we start another week. It’s a busy one too. I have some seriously exciting stuff coming up. I shall share all in good time!

Hope you have a great week planned…

I have 2 giveaways on my blog right now if you missed yesterday’s posts. An ipad cover and 2 x wrist key fobs. You must enter. They are seriously cute!

I’ll leave you with this little quote I received in my inbox a few weeks ago:

It’s like one big hall of mirrors, isn’t it, Katrina?

Except, of course, that the halls of time and space reflect what you choose to think.

Like right now.

Wow -
The Universe

I’m giving away this iPad cover. Isn’t she divine!? I luuurve this colour.

I bought it from here, so click over to read the specs.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and I’ll draw the lucky winner in a week.

I’m also giving away 2 x wrist key fob’s on this post, so don’t forget to enter that one too!

Good luck!

Have  you seen these wrist key fobs? They are the best! If you haven’t already got one well then you must!

Pop your keys on the end and wear the wrist holder. No more scrounging for your keys. They look great.

I bought my sister-in-law one a while ago and people are still asking her about it. I’d be lost without mine.

So, I bought a couple from OhKoey on Etsy and thought I’d give away 2 on my blog. Just leave a comment on this post! I’ll draw the winners in a week. The first winner will chose which one they like.

In this post I am also giving away an ipad cover. Now, head over and check that one out!

This is not a sponsored post. I was not given the items. I like to buy them and share with you because I really love that you keep coming back to read my blog! x

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Ever get a text message that wasn’t quite right? It’s was a bit weird?

Well, last week my husband got my sister a beauty with a text message…

I went to do some groceries and accidentally left my phone at home. My sister obviously starting texting me and my husband started answering.

I got home to find him with the phone in his hand, on the lounge, giggling and laughing with tears in his eyes.

He couldn’t breathe… “I just got Amie big time!”

Once I’d answered that I did not write the message about loving him so much, the phone call that followed from Amie was the funniest conversation I’d ever had. We snorted and squealed. She laughed and laughed and laughed…

It was funny because Amie fell for it and normally she’s far too clever for my husband and his jokes. She is not mushy at all so she would have found that strange that I’d write such a thing. Her eyes would have been rolling in her head and she would have thought it was gross. She even took the phone to her husband and screwed up her nose saying “Geez Katrina must be tired and delirious, what a weird thing to tell me.” Her husband looked at the phone and thought maybe I’d been drinking. Ha!

Once we stopped laughing her words were “I don’t know when, I don’t know what, but I WILL get him back.”

Hook. Line. And sinker.

God I love my family.

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Ever fleetingly thought what would happen if you woke up one day and couldn’t see your blog?

What if you couldn’t access the dashboard?

What if you frantically grabbed your phone, ipad, laptop… and still couldn’t see it?

I’m paranoid this will happen to me. I am no expert in the technical side of hosting, viruses etc (I just make the page look pretty!), so I would be just like you if this happened…

How would you get your blog back?

Nikki from Styling You and Maria from Crashing Red have both been faced with this. No blog. Just gone! (Both got them back, but we have learnt some stuff along the way). Maria writes and great article about it here.

Both believe a nasty virus got in somehow via a plugin and started destroying files.

There are some steps we can take to help prevent this, or at least back-up our blog so you don’t lose everything.

How to back-up your WordPress Blog

1. Always use the latest version of WordPress. Make sure your blog is backed up (instructions on how to do that below), deactivate plugins and install the latest version. Re-activate plugins.

2. Always use the latest versions of your plugins. Update them when you see them available in your dashboard.

3. If you’re really paranoid and you have money to invest in your blog (depending on how/what you use your blog for), I recommend you also buy a subscription to Sucuri Security. This is a site that will scan your blog every few hours for any little bugs that may attach themselves (and looks out for hackers!). They can find problems if they arise and delete them. Well worth it! I bought this subscription. It means that if I have a problem, they can detect it (plus I’ve backed up my blog content and layout), so I can put it all back together.

4. Back-up your blog.

This is the easiest part. It will take 10 minutes to initially set this up.

Download this plugin: WordPress Database Plugin.

Install it and edit the settings (TOOLS > BACK UP).

I have set mine to back-up daily and have the file emailed to me (now it backs up to the server because of it’s size). Send it to an email address that you know you can access through a different computer should your computer ever die one day! I know so many people that have email addresses they’ve set up on their computer years ago and don’t know how to access it elsewhere!

So if my site dies, I still have to find the right person to put it back together because I am not that clever, but I have all the precautions in place.

That’s it. So easy.

How to back-up your Blogspot Blog

If you have a Blogspot blog, the thing to remember is that you technically don’t own it. It’s not a self-hosted site. When signing up for a Blogger account you have agreed that Blogger has the rights to remove your site any time. So, we need to think of saving our time, energy, and money put on Blogger blogs by some means. It is much easier for a Blogspot blog to go ‘missing’. I wrote a short article about why I switched to WordPress after using blogspot for 5 years. There came a time when I realised my blog was a culmination of too much hard work just to lose it.

However, there are steps that you can take to back it up. If your site does go AWOL, remember, you have the back-up files, but you may not get your domain or all of your google indexing and page ranks back.

1. Go to SETTINGS > BASIC > EXPORT BLOG.

2. Take a complete back-up of your site (via Export Blog).

3. This will download to your computer. I always save it and then email it to myself. There are no features for periodic saving, so you need to remind yourself to do this often.

4. Now you need to download your layout. Go to DESIGN > EDIT HTML. Open a new file from your computer in Notepad (or the like). Copy ALL of the code from inside the Edit HTML box in to your blank Notepad file. Save it and email it to yourself.

*If you’re using the new blogger interface, go to Template (in your Dashboard) > Backup/Restore (top right). 

Now we have most of the big stuff covered. It’s peace of mind.

Hope this helps you in some way. There are plenty of other blogs who have written about this, so take the time to do some googling and you’ll feel secure knowing you’ve taken some steps to make your blog safe.

Happy Blogging. X

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Well here we are. The Chambo’s. New year, new journey…

My kids are all in the one place. One drop-off and one-pick-up. Life is pretty good. It’s those simple things!

Yesterday went off without a hitch. No tears from anyone. Just lots of smiles and excitement. I couldn’t be prouder.

Today Amie (my sister) is coming over from Albury. We’re lunching and stuff.

Plus, the highlight of my day? A man is coming to steam clean all my lounges and floor rug. Yippee! Freshness.

In the next few days I am going to do a post about securing and backing up your blog after a few of my fav bloggers were hacked recently. So come back for that!

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I haven’t posted much from around my house in a long time. Just wasn’t feelin’ it. You know how it gets! So here are some pictures of some of my stuff. I’ll give you a tour of my new bed-head when I finally finish it. So far Aqua is winning followed by Fuchsia! Have you voted? Click here to see what I’m talking about…

I’m leaning towards Fuchsia or even Yellow.. gasp! I know! I have so much aqua in my house already. I have aqua cushions on my lounge, aqua vases… but I do love it. Hmmmm.. decisions! Amie is currently making a bed-head too. yeah, we do everything together. Hers is out of hessian. I’ll get some pictures for you when it’s done.

…

My littlest kid starts big boy school today. I am going to be emotional! This is a big step for our family. My eldest will be 10 in a few weeks so I’ve been the ‘carer’ for so long. My husband says time for a job Katrina. Ha! See that, I laughed. Haha.. still laughing! No, really, I have contract work all year, so I’m looking forward to 2012. Bring it on!

This means tomorrow’s blog post will be the obligatory school photos of my boys

Have a great day! x