I’ve been keen to post about this event I went to recently and now that I’ve finally got the infographic, I’m ready to share the details of the Digital Diaries research by AVG. As someone who is heavily involved in research every day, I tend review a lot of statistics and insights. This research is [...]

If you’re a blogger there are some things you should know about how brands view you…and not just in travel either. Your blog can make for a rich and rewarding experience through the communities you engage with which will without any doubt include brands.

And what makes me so qualified to write this post? I’ve been a corporate blogger for over four years and a parenting and lifestyle blogger for nearly two. My advice is for bloggers who are finding themselves approached by brands, pr agencies, digital agencies and advertising agencies who are all trying to get a piece of this new blogging bubble.

I’m on the frontline of parenting. I’m a Mum who understands the issues around food and nutrition, not a journalist on a deadline who is looking for a headline. Is it lazy PR to send me a press release meant for a print writer or is it failure to understand the mindset of a blogger? Even worse, is it spam?

We’ve discussed puberty and body changes, and I’ve tried to have the ‘period’ talk, but brandishing a box of Lillets and complaining about the rigors of PMT is not really going to answer her questions. Perusing the shelves of my favourite bookshop in Kew on Saturday, I hit parenting gold. I found this book:

In primary school, I see teachers chasing Ofsted and I’m disillusioned and worried that my daughter will not reach her full potential. I know that several parents are paying for tuition to help their children get along, coincidentally, their children are also in the athletic squad. Am I not being pushy enough I ask myself. Is there some invisible membership I don’t belong to?

This image might look a bit familiar – it’s not quite the original from my banner. Those are my almost but not quite really all time favourite Miu Miu shoes and my daughter’s gorgeous tiny red ballet shoes which I hand sewed sequins on for her when she was three. And there they are, large [...]

I got a text yesterday from a dear friend who I used to work with, we both share a love of theatre, men and good wine. This text was to tell me that he’d spotted ‘My Blog’ in the Tots 100. This is quite ironic. He looked at me quizzically when I first told him [...]

It seems we no longer want to hide behind our blogger handles I’m no longer just a gravatar – since April, I’ve become less reticent about hiding behind my nixdminx name. Yes, I am actually a real person, so why hide from it? So when the lovely Tara asked me for a photo for her [...]

My daughter does a great impression of me using twitter… She puts the laptop on her lap, wiggles her fingers over the keyboard, frowns, squints then makes a really evil honking/laughy noise (a bit like a donkey). Then she smugly hands me back my computer and looks at me like I’m a loony. She says [...]

I’m am so chuffed – in fact gobsmacked to be a new entry in the Top of the Pops (well Moms and Pops) – it’s brought back memories of me and my brothers and sisters (six of us, a veritable bratpack) dragging out the dressing up box on a Sunday night, sticking polystyrene cups wrapped in foil on the end of bamboo sticks and dressing up to sing the Top 40 to an audience of two parents helpless with laughter for two hours on the sofa.

I have to tip my hat to those ladies at mumsrock. They really add an urban edge to Motherhood and I love it. The site is well laid out, the editorial is bang on and basically it’s pretty fearless – which I love even more. I recently wrote an article for them on my on [...]

Raise your eyebrows (if you can) this isn’t one of those too proud/too scared ‘botox’ diatribes. But it is fuelled by the tiniest bit of envy, plenty of fear and loathing and more than a touch of outright morbid curiosity.