MFT # 3: Alan Ardiff

I'm not a gold kind of girl, I actually prefer silver. But these mixed gold and silver pieces are just to die for!

I first came across Alan Ardiff's jewellery while I lived in Ireland. And I was besotted. 

After months and months of drooling every time I passed them by in the shop, I treated myself to a pair of "just for you" earrings on a special birthday. 

Below I made a selection of the ones I like the best. 

Which one is your favourite design? 

A bit of advice: keep scrolling until the end to see the jewellery , literally, in action. 

just for you

3 wishes

busy bee

daisy chain

dog lamp

door  to my heart

forget me not

high nellie

hugs and kisses

leaf

little fish

M50 M25

moon dance2

secret garden

sun moon stars

toast

tree

tweet tweet

                                                     butterfly kisses

Do you know any other jeweler that uses gold and silver in his/her creations?

Enjoyed it? May be you want to see more of my favourite things. 

Or just read the post that started it all, entitled (of course!) "These are a few of my favourite things". 

Blogging - labels as tabs

Apparently the option to have tabs on your blogger blog using the labels isn't quite there just yet. But, there is a quite simple way to get around it. 

Basically you create a page that can be shown either at the top or on the sides of you blog and like it to the label of your choice. Just follow these simple steps:

Go to a post that has label you want to create a tab for. 
Click on the label at the bottom of your post
Copy the URL that gets displayed on your website address

Go to your blog's Design dashboard
Go to Pages on the left hand side menu
Click on the drop down list: New Page and choose Web address (instead of Blank Page that you would normally use for stationary pages like "About me", for example)

Write title of the tab on the Page title box 
Paste the label's URL that you copied earlier on the Website Address box
Save

The Show pages as drop down list, determines where your new page/tab will be displayed:  Top tabs or Side links.  (There is a Do not show option but, I can't really see the use of it! ) 

Et voilà!  
Your label's tab should now be showing next (or below) your main page tab. 

Additional tip: You have created a few tabs now but you are not happy with their order? 

No worries, you can easily change their order by hovering over each pages little vertical blue bar with 5 white dots until the cursor changes to a cross with fours arrows (I'm sure this icon has a name, but I don't know it - sorry!) and simply drag it up or down into your chosen order. 

Hope you enjoyed this post! Was it helpful? Did you encounter any issues?

Read other blogging tips here. 

MFT # 2: Nissan Juke

For me it was love at first sight. 

Nissan says it is built to thrill. Well, I'm beginning to feel like I was born to be thrilled... 

MFT # 1: Is it a chair or is it a ladder?

The answer is both. And I love it!

It's called "Scala Zero" and it's from Resource Furniture, it's Italian designed and it shows, don't you think? They have all sorts of cool space saving furniture, as shown in this video. 

The chair / ladder itself appears between seconds 43 and 50. 

 

I wanted it. ALL of it. Don't you?
 
Enjoy reading it? This is the post that it started it all, very appropriately called (if I say so myself): "These are a few of my favourite things".  

These are a few of my favourite things

Remember the song from the Sound of Music when Maria sings about some of the things she loves?

It is the inspiration for a new section on my blog about... guess what? My favourite things! Well, some of them, anyway. 

And of course, both the movie and the song ARE some of my favourite things.

Él va a vivir su vida... ¿y tú?

Últimamente oigo esta canción por todas partes , principalmente eventos deportivos.

A parte de lo repetitivo, creo que tiene un mensaje muy bonito y positivo. Y es pegadiza. Me alegra el alma cada vez que la escucho.

Esta misma mañana la oigo por la ventana... y ya tengo una sonrisa plasmada en la cara. Así que os dejo con ella.

Él va a vivir su vida... ¿y tú?

10 hot tips from a 10-year-old biz whiz

Ryder, Liv Lane's 10-year-old son, give us great business advice after running a lemonade stand. Anyone running a business should pay attention to these: "1. Make very good lemonade. 2. Make the price high. 3. Cuteness attracts people. 4. Ask for help. 5. Be nice and customers will be nice back. 6. Give everybody something to do. 7. Share your money. 8. Teenagers are the best customers! 9. Enjoy your own lemonade. 10. Have fun. " If he is learnt all that at 10, I'm pretty sure he will succeed at any business he sets his eyes on! Well done Ryder & thanks for sharing your insights. Read the full post here.

Reflexión ante un café

Photo courtesy of frenchbyte
morguefile.com/creative/frenchbyte

Un día despertarás y el tono de tu voz habrá cambiado.
Un día tu sonrisa será franca y cordial,
y tu piel amanecerá marcada 
por cicatrices de tu sufrir como grietas
y rios en la piel de la tierra.

Un día la soledad no será más compañera,
no solo será tristeza; 
será memoria y será nostalgia,
y será maestra de lo vivido.

Un día despertarás y todo a tu alrededor
tendrá sentido, y habrá valido.

Y con el café de tus mañanas aceptarás
que eres el fruto de tu experiencia
con el acento de quienes fueron
hierro y forja de tus errores.

Un día despertarás y la inquietud y la duda
se habrán esfumado,
y sonreirás mirando al infinito
pues bien profundo en tu interior
sabrás que valió la pena.

 © Eva  Nicolau - reproduced with the author's permission.

Blogging - translator

I'm a self-taught blogger and a quite un-dedicated one at that. So despite of how long I have been blogging, I'm quite unexperienced. Shame on me!

But I recently attended the "1st meeting of bloggers of Lanzarote" at the Miramar Hotel in Arrecife and I thought it would be a good idea  to meet other like-minded people and see if I could learn a thing or two from their experience. 

The issue of multi-language blogs came up. They said that Blogger has a built in translator, which I didn't know about, that has increased the range of people who read other blogger's work. 

So this is the first things that I have introduced in my blogs since then: the translator. Basic, really basic, I know. 

So I looked for it, in the gadgets list... et voilà! there it was. I have added it on the right hand column right under the visitor's counter for handiness. 

This is how you do it:

Go to your Design dashboard

Click on Layout

Click on Add Gadget where you want to place your translator

Choose a Title for the gadget.  I left the default one: "Translate"

Select your Style - I chose "Dropdown only" versus "Horizontal" or "Vertical". This is a personal choice in relation to the location and design of your blog. If you are not sure which one to use, select them all, on by one and see how it changes on the Preview to choose the one you like better. 

Click on Save

Easy, peasy!

Will see if I get more readers now and which languages they speak!

Let's do a test: leave a comment with the language you read this post in, if you want. 

10k or half marathon?

The question I'm being asked the most when I meet people who have just taken up this sport is "how long have you been running"?

Well, I have been taking part in races for the last 3 years, on and off. But I have never been to bothered with marks or anything like that. I'm just happy to actually cross the finish line! 

However that recurrent question made me realise that I haven't improved much since my first race. Which is why I think it's time to crank it up a notch. 

Now, let me tell you that I have never been much of an athlete. 

My dream as a girl was one day to run a marathon. Well, it was more an idea than a dream. And quite a vague one I might add. Never really acted much on it, to be honest. But the idea kept coming back every now and then, specially when I started to do 5k and 10k races. However, given my current performance at those, I might not manage to do a marathon... ever!

Everybody says running a marathon it's about determination, mind over body and so on but I have feeling that my limit is much more... limited that for most people. 

I also realised that if I want to make any progress, in terms distance or speed, I have to take up running a bit more seriously. Without loosing the enjoyment factor, of course. Otherwise, I'm out of here! OK?

And that is where the Lanzarote International Marathon enters the scene. It's ideal for me because it offers 3 distances: 10k, half marathon and full marathon. And it takes place on the 8th of December this year. Which means that I still plenty of time to prepare. 

Now, the big dilemma is: 10k or half marathon?

Do I sign up for the 10k and try to improve my time?  

Or do I go for the half marathon which is a length I have never attempted before?

My main issues are: lack of endurance, lack of consistency training & lack of speed. So I do really have my work cut out for me, don't I?

Since the Lanzarote International Marathon offers discounted entry fees until the 30th of September I have almost two months to decided which race to do before the fees go up. 

I have asked some fellow runners what their thoughts are and this is what I have come up with:

I will try to run about 2 or 3 times a week this month to see if I can reach again my longest training route so far of 9k comfortably and see what kind of times I do. 

So, what do you think? Does it sound like a plan? I am actually kind of getting excited about it now! 

NYR - July results

These are my New Year Resolution results for July: 

• NYR # 1 - Run

I took part on the 1st Charity Race in Tahiche on the 27th. Mind you, only did the 5km one, I hadn't trained have as much a I should have for the 10km. Plenty of non-perishable food collected for people in need. Big success, for organisers. I'm just happy I finished the race!

I also registered for the  1st Popular Race of Quíquere-La Tiñosa on the 3rd of August & the 2nd Cochinilla Trail on the 19th of October. Two more reasons to keep it up! Also starting to think about taking on another challenge race-wise, but keeping a tight lid on it for the moment... will keep you posted if it materialises!!!

Result: passed. 

• NYR # 2 - Read

Work in progress... almost finished but not.
Result: technically failed as I haven´t finished the book I´m currently reading. 

• NYR # 3 - Eat

I had some visitors earlier this month and although we did go out for food, as expected, we did a fair bit of cooking in the house: crepes for breakfast, pimped BLT for the beach, Spanish omelette (probably the best I have ever cooked), rice salad, pasta with clams...

I enjoyed food enormously this month. Why do I find it easier to cook for / with other people than just for myself? Does it happen to you too?

The only dish I blogged about & took a picture this month (sadly, because some of them did look nice!): papaya & melon salad..

Result: passed with flying colours! 

• NYR # 4 - Walk 

Keep walking the muts daily. Even on race day!
Result: passed. 

Overall, happy, happy, happy. Except for the reading. Will have to find a way...


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Here is the post that started it all: New Year Resolutions for 2013.