Posts in Blog Bits & Bobs
Ta da and my blog angel is....

Time for the big reveal! I have been taking part in Crafbotic's Blog Angel challenge throughout June. I was paired with a very lovely lady whose blog I have thoroughly enjoyed discovering.

Turns out whilst we don't have the "mummy" thing in common, well not yet anyhow, maybe one day, we have lots of other things that we both love and are inspired by.

I suspected, when I posted my last update, halfway through the challenge, that she may have sussed me. I was right. I was well and truly busted! Turns out being subtle obviously isn't my strong point, something I have actually known for years! All my little encouraging tweets and blog post comments did not go un detected! It hasn't mattered at all. In fact, I think it has made our bloggy friendship closer!

It is much easier when you can ask direct questions and give direct feedback. I hope that in the last 2 weeks I have been a better angel and encouraged her to try new things. We both share a love of all things vintage and I loved her post about her latest charity shop haul! Right up my street! I hope that she will link up this and future haul posts with a link I love #MagpieMonday on Me and My Shadow.

I have become obsessed with a link I found through her blog called Current Crush Thursdays and love a good nose through her Pinterest boards. I even wrote a guest post for her whilst she was on holiday!

We have discussed ways to style a post and the types of topics to feature. We have batted ideas back and forth and it has been incredibly rewarding to see a post on her blog that is a result of our discussions.

She has an engaging writing style and talks in a honest and genuine way, which is what I like the best.

It has been a complete pleasure getting to know her and even though we have never met in person or even spoken on the phone I feel like if I was passing her house, I could stop in for a cup if tea and we would put the world to rights!

So without further a do I present to you ...... the very lovely and talented Jenni at Bows, Bangles and Bakes!

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Now please go and have a peek at her blog! Follow it by email or RSS - it is a pleasure to read.

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What does your avatar say about you?
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I was indulging in an over due catch up of one of my favourite blogs last night, (Mostly) Yummy Mummy. I read a great post about her trip to one of the blog conferences, Cybher.

She said something that made me laugh, that some people she met look like their avatar's and some do not!

For any readers who don't use twitter, your avatar is the photo that sits on your profile like your Facebook profile picture.

I have recently changed mine from my Capture by Lucy blog logo (designed with my very talented brother) to a photograph from last weekend's birthday celebrations. A photograph of the actual me.

Of course I cropped the original, cutting out my beautiful sister and then applied a nice filter, so much more flattering to this very tired mummy!

Over the weekend we had been teasing my sister, who put a photo as her Facebook profile, taken as a self portrait, on her iPhone. You know the kind, vintage effect, sultry pout with the bedroom in the background. Very 'facebooky'.

Sorry to her for being so mean!

Of course almost all of us use what we consider, to be the best photos of ourselves. That is only natural.  I have seen some great avatars on twitter, the creamy filter giving the effect of airbrushed, perfect skin and wondered how much attention prospective followers give to your avatar. What do we consider when we chose our avatar? How attractive we think we look? How approachable? How it shows off our sense of humour? Does it sum up our blog or our life?

Is that what makes you decide to follow them? Do you check their latest tweets or click on their blog link? It made me think, we can be far too judgmental sometimes. The best photographs that best represent us, aren't the carefully constructed, attempt number 25. They are the snapshots that we capture, almost by accident sometimes! My favourites of me and the boys, are the ones we took just before a bath, with an old Polaroid film that had expired. They are so blurry but capture a really happy moment in time.

I have seen people pose in their underwear on their avatar. Crikey, after two kids I certainly won't be trying that one to engage more followers!

I wonder how many times people change their twitter avatar as opposed to their Facebook profile pic? I change my Facebook pic as often as I upload new albums but am more reluctant to change my twitter picture.

I am sure there are some very clever Social Media experts out there who could tell me the pros and cons of having a photo avatar as opposed to a logo, blog badge or button. But for now I will stick to the actual me!

Here is my original, no filter and not too dissimilar I hope!

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