Alison May's Blog, page 21
November 6, 2015
The Kindle and Download Question
Just a quick question my Darlings: I have just been putting the finishing touches to House Rules and as a final test I popped it on to my Kindle fire, Finns iPad and Ste's tablet and here's the thing: it looks terrible! Almost illegible.
Which got me wondering: should my ebook delivery alter in order to reflect the new ways we all interact with PDF's and other downloads these days? A lot has changed in the ten years I have been creating downloads, so are you still printing my PDF's, or do you send them to your Kindle or open them on your iPad?
Would it be easier if I created relatively plain text downloads with simple images so they could be read like any other book? Paragraph after paragraph instead of columns? If I stopped being all fancy with my fonts and started concentrating not on the way the download looks but on how you as a reader interact with it?
I would truly value your opinion on this one, so here's my question: would you prefer a pretty download or a plain text, readable version with options to send it to your Kindle as a mobi or epub file?
If you could leave your thoughts in the comments below, I would be so very grateful...
Which got me wondering: should my ebook delivery alter in order to reflect the new ways we all interact with PDF's and other downloads these days? A lot has changed in the ten years I have been creating downloads, so are you still printing my PDF's, or do you send them to your Kindle or open them on your iPad?
Would it be easier if I created relatively plain text downloads with simple images so they could be read like any other book? Paragraph after paragraph instead of columns? If I stopped being all fancy with my fonts and started concentrating not on the way the download looks but on how you as a reader interact with it?
I would truly value your opinion on this one, so here's my question: would you prefer a pretty download or a plain text, readable version with options to send it to your Kindle as a mobi or epub file?
If you could leave your thoughts in the comments below, I would be so very grateful...
The post The Kindle and Download Question appeared first on Brocantehome.
November 5, 2015
The House of Coughs and Colds
One really shouldn't bother making plans. One should not take it in to one's head to say this is the week that I am going to do a Seasonal Scrub and this is the week I am going to release a new download and this is the week I am going to have cwoffee with my bestest friend because I can't remember the last time I laid eyes on her.
Oh no. One really shouldn't acknowledge such plans out loud at all. Best to keep them tucked inside your head and hope for the best for anything else is tempting fate and fate frankly takes any opportunity to take advantage of your trusting nature. The betch!
Today Finley is at home sick with a hacking little cough. Ste remains off-colour and I am fighting off the kind of fierce war with a tickly cough and snuffly cold determined to consume me, with a battery of Vitamin C, Zinc, Echinachea, essential oils and many, many layers of thermal vests and cosy fleecy cardigans.
And I will win Housekeepers. I will win because anything else in unthinkable. Where other people take coughs and colds in their stride I behave abysmally and screech about how no-one else suffers like I do and generally a need a good smack before I can be dragged kicking and screaming out of the kind of self-pity generally reserved for those on their last legs.
I will win because I have coated my entire, overly buxom chest in a mixture of my own devising, that will I hope see off everything from the flu to the plague. As you may know I recently became a Young Living Distributor, mostly because I ADORE the smell of the Thieves Household Cleaner , which may be an acquired taste, but once acquired is hard to shake off and leaves you believing that the house just isn't clean if it isn't fragranced by this delicious, anti-bacterial combination of cloves, cinnamon bark, rosemary, lemon and Eucalyptus Radiata.
While it's use in my home may have come too late to prevent the arrival of this seasons's colds, joining Young Living has re-awakened my interest in essential oils, at a point when I had become more and more disillusioned owing to the almost constant nasal irritation I had been suffering whenever I diffused oils from a range of other sources.
Today I am making the most of Thieves' anti-bacterial properties and I have mixed it with both RC (a blend of nine oils renowned for supporting the immune system) and a few drops of lavender, because I am Alison and I wouldn't be Alison if I didn't chuck a little lavender at any given problem now would I?
The Recipe?
Get Better Balm
Three tablespoons of coconut oil
Eight drops of RC Oil
Five drops of Thieves Oil
Five drops of Lavender Oil
Gently warm the coconut oil in a bain-marie until you can sir it, then add the oil drop by drop and spoon in to a glass container and allow to set.
I have rubbed the oil in to my chest as I said, but for children I would recommend rubbing it into their feet and then popping a pair of warn socks on, or if the cough is particularly hacky, gently massaging it into the back of their neck as I have just done with Finn.
There now. I feel better already. Although that might just be down to the fact that I am curled up with my lovely boy, watching Scooby Doo and abandoning the remainder of my seasonal scrub until we are all a little better...
It's any excuse really isn't it Housekeepers? If I can't be a good example I am going to have to be a terrible warning.
Source List
1 . The Seasonal Scrub. My step-by step guide to conducting your own week or month long seasonal house clean. Get it on Amazon.Com here for $2.99 and on Amazon.Co.Uk here for £1.99
2. Young Living: I would be thrilled to tell you more about using Young Living products in your home. Visit my Marketing site here or fill in the form on this page and I will tell you everything you need to know. Please do not hesitate to ask me any questions you might have, and look out for a dedicated Young Living post here on Brocante in the coming weeks, for this is something we can do together Housekeepers...
3. Glass containers for aromatherapy: Purely for (silly) aesthetic reasons I prefer the amber glass jars and bottles for all the lotions, balms and potions I mix up. Buy them on Amazon.com here and and on Amazon.Co.uk here.
Oh no. One really shouldn't acknowledge such plans out loud at all. Best to keep them tucked inside your head and hope for the best for anything else is tempting fate and fate frankly takes any opportunity to take advantage of your trusting nature. The betch!
Today Finley is at home sick with a hacking little cough. Ste remains off-colour and I am fighting off the kind of fierce war with a tickly cough and snuffly cold determined to consume me, with a battery of Vitamin C, Zinc, Echinachea, essential oils and many, many layers of thermal vests and cosy fleecy cardigans.
And I will win Housekeepers. I will win because anything else in unthinkable. Where other people take coughs and colds in their stride I behave abysmally and screech about how no-one else suffers like I do and generally a need a good smack before I can be dragged kicking and screaming out of the kind of self-pity generally reserved for those on their last legs.
I will win because I have coated my entire, overly buxom chest in a mixture of my own devising, that will I hope see off everything from the flu to the plague. As you may know I recently became a Young Living Distributor, mostly because I ADORE the smell of the Thieves Household Cleaner , which may be an acquired taste, but once acquired is hard to shake off and leaves you believing that the house just isn't clean if it isn't fragranced by this delicious, anti-bacterial combination of cloves, cinnamon bark, rosemary, lemon and Eucalyptus Radiata.
While it's use in my home may have come too late to prevent the arrival of this seasons's colds, joining Young Living has re-awakened my interest in essential oils, at a point when I had become more and more disillusioned owing to the almost constant nasal irritation I had been suffering whenever I diffused oils from a range of other sources.
Today I am making the most of Thieves' anti-bacterial properties and I have mixed it with both RC (a blend of nine oils renowned for supporting the immune system) and a few drops of lavender, because I am Alison and I wouldn't be Alison if I didn't chuck a little lavender at any given problem now would I?
The Recipe?
Get Better Balm
Three tablespoons of coconut oil
Eight drops of RC Oil
Five drops of Thieves Oil
Five drops of Lavender Oil
Gently warm the coconut oil in a bain-marie until you can sir it, then add the oil drop by drop and spoon in to a glass container and allow to set.
I have rubbed the oil in to my chest as I said, but for children I would recommend rubbing it into their feet and then popping a pair of warn socks on, or if the cough is particularly hacky, gently massaging it into the back of their neck as I have just done with Finn.
There now. I feel better already. Although that might just be down to the fact that I am curled up with my lovely boy, watching Scooby Doo and abandoning the remainder of my seasonal scrub until we are all a little better...
It's any excuse really isn't it Housekeepers? If I can't be a good example I am going to have to be a terrible warning.
Source List
1 . The Seasonal Scrub. My step-by step guide to conducting your own week or month long seasonal house clean. Get it on Amazon.Com here for $2.99 and on Amazon.Co.Uk here for £1.99
2. Young Living: I would be thrilled to tell you more about using Young Living products in your home. Visit my Marketing site here or fill in the form on this page and I will tell you everything you need to know. Please do not hesitate to ask me any questions you might have, and look out for a dedicated Young Living post here on Brocante in the coming weeks, for this is something we can do together Housekeepers...
3. Glass containers for aromatherapy: Purely for (silly) aesthetic reasons I prefer the amber glass jars and bottles for all the lotions, balms and potions I mix up. Buy them on Amazon.com here and and on Amazon.Co.uk here.
The post The House of Coughs and Colds appeared first on Brocantehome.
November 4, 2015
The Heart and Home Planner 2016
The post The Heart and Home Planner 2016 appeared first on Brocantehome.
November 3, 2015
Today
The post Today appeared first on Brocantehome.
November 2, 2015
The Beauty of the House Is Order – Mary.P.Hamlin
The post The Beauty of the House Is Order – Mary.P.Hamlin appeared first on Brocantehome.
The Seasonal Scrub – November 2015
The post The Seasonal Scrub – November 2015 appeared first on Brocantehome.
October 29, 2015
The Twelve Deals of Christmas – Number Ten!
The post The Twelve Deals of Christmas – Number Ten! appeared first on Brocantehome.
October 27, 2015
Winter Lighting
The post Winter Lighting appeared first on Brocantehome.
Re-Invent Yourself: The Entrepreneurial Housekeeper
The post Re-Invent Yourself: The Entrepreneurial Housekeeper appeared first on Brocantehome.
October 26, 2015
Housekeeper’s Noticeboard
The post Housekeeper’s Noticeboard appeared first on Brocantehome.
