wagwaan?

Hello, my name is Jen and I'm an iGeek

I've always been a bit of a techno geek and recently, when I found myself telling someone on Facebook that I had "screencapped my iMessages on my iPhone and they had uploaded to my iMac via iCloud"... well, I realised I was actually an iGeek.

In fact, I have had two sessions at the Apple Store to make the most of my iMac. Although Apple products are quite straightforward, I thought I might learn some new tricks and I did indeed. Just a couple of little tips each time, but that made it worthwhile.  You also get to chat to the Apple Specialist after the session so you can ask any specific things you want to know. 

So, talking of geeky stuff, I do love this Adobe app called Kuler. It's actually already in the version of Photoshop that we own, which is handy, but the best thing is the iPhone app. You point your phone at anything and it selects colours from what it sees and makes colour schemes, which you can then finetune. The colour schemes below come from, among other things, a pretty flowery napkin, the cushions in the living room.... and the cat lying on the carpet by the window.  It's amazing what colours are in the everyday, isn't it? 

Well, that's it for today. I need to go out and get some cat food before poor Lyle fades away... (as if!)

Tuesday

It's a good job I enjoy my work - because my Christmas holiday is over tomorrow. Back to the treadmill at 2pm.  I'm quite looking forward to catching up with my colleagues, and I'm nicely rested now, so it's all good. I was so exhausted just before Christmas I was really desperate for a break. Now to plan the next one.  I have a week off around my birthday next month and I'm thinking about where to go. I've had invitations to Paris and Switzerland.... Oh the possibilities!

Today I got up and blitzed my bedroom. Although I'd unpacked on the day I got home, the suitcase had been left out and I hadn't hoovered, so I did all that. Then it was over to the hospital to catch up with Dr O, and then on to coffee with my new friend L. Well, his name is actually W, which is the same as my ex, so I told him that could be a bit of a problem.  His family all seem to have nicknames so I said I'd use that instead, so L it is.  He doesn't seem to mind. Well, that's what he says anyway.

We have started the New Year on a pretty healthy footing. I seriously need to get a handle on consistent healthy eating. I do manage to do pretty well overall - until I get the munchies and give in to my cravings. The tool that really helps me stay on track is the Myfitnesspal app. I use it to enter my weight, what I eat, the exercise I do etc. There is a huge database of foods already entered, so it's easy to quickly add what I eat, and if I'm out and about and decide on a snack I can even use the barcode reader.

When I started using it last year I entered my starting weight and how many lbs I wanted to lose a week (I chose a  healthy 1-2lbs), and it calculated how many calories I needed per day. I know what a healthy diet is, but I sometimes crave something 'naughty'. With most food in shops and restaurants having a calorie value on the wrapper, or indeed on the shelf, I find that counting calories works for me because I don't want to waste the ones I can eat. I assume it's the same with Weight Watchers points - you don't want to waste valuable points on something that might taste good but won't keep you satisfied for long.  Today, for example, on my way home I stopped for a coffee and was tempted by a lemon dessert pot in Pret a Manger. Until I saw the calorie content on the shelf in front of me I could fool myself that it was healthy....ish. Then I saw the 3 figure value and came back to earth with a bump. And chose a pack of rice cakes instead. Patted myself on the back there, and when I finished inputting my values for today was rewarded with being on target. Long may it last.

The good thing is that if you finish inputting and you are under your calorie target, the app gives you a good talking to and tells you that it's not healthy in the long run and that your body could go into starvation mode, and what the minimum healthy amount of calories is.  I lost about a stone in the Autumn and although I went off the rails a bit with some of the shock news I got in November, I am happy to say it hasn't all gone back on, and even then what went back on over Christmas is now off.  

So there you have it. My New Year plans are on track for health (check), finances (check) and socialising (check). Not a bad start, 8 days in!

Budgeting

I just thought I'd share the most wonderful budgeting tool I came across recently. I really thought I'd blogged about this before, but on doing a search of my posts nothing has come up. Maybe it was on Facebook? Anyway, I used this first as a free trial but within a day I was hooked and splurged on the full version on my very next pay day. 

It's called YNAB or You Need A Budget. It is truly a thing of wonder. You may be thinking I've finally lost the plot. How can a boring financial budgeting tool deserve such superlatives? But trust me - it's fabulous!

Like lots of people, over the years I've tried and failed many times to get to grips with my budget. I'm not a stupid person (no, really, I'm not!) but I could never work out where to start and there was always something that got left off and, well, nothing really worked for me. Spreadsheets, envelopes, you name it. 

Until I read about YNAB. Now, I'm not being paid anything to wax lyrical about this, it's just something I feel strongly about. I love that my iPhone app syncs via Dropbox with my budget on the computer at home. I can keep track of my spending before I've even left the shop. I have different budget accounts in the same place, so I know what I have in my bank, purse, savings etc. When I get money out of the cashpoint I do a "transfer" on the app and it moves it from my bank to my purse just like that, and then I can keep track of how I actually spend that cash. 

My waffle isn't doing it justice, so go and check it out for yourselves. I highly recommend it.

ETA: Here is a link so you can save $6 if you decide to buy YNAB

(screencap of the app)

The downside

Ok, so I've paid for the excitement of the past week by being rather unwell. It hasn't happened for a while, but every so often I get cocky and think I've got the tiredness licked, only for it to come back and hit me big time. I had to cancel last night's outing with my girlfriends to go to a long-awaited carol concert because I was desperate for my bed by about early evening. On top of that I had a bad tum. I slept for hours and still felt like I'd been hit by a truck this morning so I stayed in bed. Didn't get up till gone lunchtime. I hate when that happens. I feel like I've taken a step backwards, even though I know I'm a million times better than a year ago.

Claire declared it was time to watch White Christmas this afternoon, so we snuggled under blankets with the tree lights on and had a lovely time. I took this from my armchair...

 

Before I close, here's a picture I took yesterday, before I got sick. I had received the score for Carol of the Bells and needed to work out my Alto part. I have no instruments here but suddenly remembered the iMac comes with Garage Band. Oh wow! All I had to do was open it, select "piano" and try out the notes. And voilà. I even recorded it so I could have it to listen back. Brilliant invention!  In the end I didn't get to sing it today but I'm sure it will remain part of the repertoire.

 

Fantastic! And now for bed....

Oh frabjous day!

Such excitement at wagwaan towers today: my new iMac finally arrived at the office yesterday. To say I am excited is an understatement. I got a cab home and left it there, in its box, while I went to the office Christmas party. It was great but I was actually really tired so I shared the first taxi out of there with other people who had long journeys home. I actually thought I'd go to bed and set up the computer this morning, but Claire 'convinced' me that it really wouldn't take long.... and the rest is history. Oh what a joy it is. The detail and design. The understated, sleek packaging. And the 'plug and play'ness of it. I was set up in no time. I'll stop waffling on about it now, but you get the picture!

So here are a couple of pictures of yesterday's events....

And last but not least:

 

 

Hello and Welcome to 2012

I've just added a quick New Year banner to welcome in 2012. May this new year bring you every blessing and may you dream bigger than ever before!

It's way past my bedtime, so I'll love you and leave you, but I do hope you'll say hello in the comments section. Cheers <3

Squeal!

I got the most interesting phone call today - my friend V over at the Community Centre called to tell me our website was finally LIVE and neither of us could stop squealing down the phone, haha.  It's been so long coming. I think I did most of the work in April, so you can see why we were excited.  

Anyway, I've got a lot on my plate so I've not been blogging as often as I could but I did want to show you our website.  Enjoy!

Volunteering

I've probably told you before, but I volunteer at the Community Centre as well as being a Trustee. Mostly, my "work" involves taking pictures of activities and a bit of IT help here and there. We are desperately trying to get the new website up and running and I've been teaching myself how to use Joomla, which one of the other volunteers uploaded to manage the content. It's quite straightforward, once you get your head around it. 

Although I did do some work by myself, I found it easier to have someone with me to clarify the breakdown into sections, categories and articles. That kind of logical thinking still eludes me sometimes, although I'm miles better than six months ago...

Anyway, I found a suitable template to use, and I've been working on a new header. So far, this is what it's looking like:

(it's going to be public soon but I'd better wait for the grand unveiling)

I think it's going to look great when it's finished. Phew. Now I need a cuppa and a rest. I wonder if I'll get breakfast in bed tomorrow for Mother's Day???

Ta dah!

Here it is, the grand unveiling of the professional photo website that I've set up, thanks to the generosity of my family who had a whip round for my birthday (I love them all SO much!). 

I am proud to present Jen Rigg Photography, hosted via Photobiz dot com. It is still a work in progress, and after the most amazingly easy set-up I'm having a few little technical problems with uploading pictures at present. I'm sure it will get sorted when customer services re-open.  

I cannot praise Photobiz highly enough. Over the years I had noticed many photography websites that were hosted by them, and I kept on coming back to see whether it was the direction I wanted to take. Well, after much research, seeing what RUBBISH there is out there and what OUTRAGEOUS prices web designers charge, I was thrilled to see that Photobiz were doing a special offer, so I signed up and within MINUTES I was designing my very own photo website.  

Now for the technical bit: I have gone with a plain html website, because anything with Flash does not work on the iPhone or iPad. I also find that Flash websites take ages to load on my PC and if that happens when I'm looking at sites, I tend not to even wait and see what they've got to offer because it frustrates the heck out of me. I also hate music blaring out unexpectedly when I log onto a photo website, so there'll be none of that either, thank you very much.  These things are just my humble opinion, but I hope to appeal to like-minded people!

The templates are named after cities, and I did think of going with Paris, London or Toulouse, but in the end Manchester won out (yay Gemma and Katy lol).  I was also toying with the idea of Liverpool, and I may well use it in future. Because another fantastic thing about Photobiz is that you can swap to any of the 90 (I think) templates they have on offer, whenever you like, with just a click of your mouse.  As my business grows, I can also upgrade to get a client viewing and proofing area, and a shopping cart so clients can order prints etc directly via the website.  I'm so jazzed!

Well, there you have it. Watch this space. 

Little disclaimer - if you are a Virgin Media Broadband customer running Virgin Media Security, you will sadly not be able to access my website because it is blocked as being "fraudulent". This seems to be a common problem with new websites, and I've contacted Virgin to get them to put it on the "safe websites" list. 

 

Ringing the changes

You'll have to bear with me for a while - I fancied a change and I've got to recalculate all the sizes of the columns and work out what references I need for the colours. It's always the most complicated bit of a redesign, so excuse me if my little blog doesn't look its best at the moment. 

Back soon!