It was Ellie’s 4th Birthday and our 2nd year working together anniversary this past Friday yaaay.

Also, I’ve been busy doing lots of behind the scenes stuff over at my book blog, I hate listening to a synth voice for long periods of time and as I read so may blogs it can be a bit much, however, not happy with some of the audio programs out there I settled for a cheap, basic one. My iPhone or iBone as we call it, I put it flat on the table so it appears as a black screen to everyone and just record my voice reading everything I’ve written for that particular blog post. So for those, like me, who get bored of a computer voice, you’ll have a bubbly, loopy, author reading her own words. It’s a very simple process and it means I can do ‘one takes’ and upload straight to youtube via my iBone. I hope to bring that feature to this blog as well, it seems to have taken a back burner to my book blog but I still love posting on both. I’ve been working hard on a post all about covers, art, options, etc.. which is now up on RavenReads so please go and check it out.

I’ve also decided to shift my tumblr from just a instagraming dumping ground to promoting feeds from both blogs, I didn’t want to delete the 400+ posts already on it so I’ve just adding posts from here and my book blog. It’s been a busy week!

In typical bank holiday fashion, the weather couldn’t quite decide how it wanted to play out.

We managed to dodge the showers and have a free run up at the local forest. I couldn’t play along in the ultimate mud puddling game with Ellie because I still have no replaced my wellies, which I really, really need to do before we go on holiday. But despite missing out on all the mud fun, it was a great to be outdoors, blew the cobwebs out for sure. I love listening to the rain and although I’m a lousy travel companion, beither either sick, or about to be sick, the rain took my mind of the bouncy country lanes and stop start of dad’s driving. It stopped by the time we arrived so we donned are raincoats and wellies and headed out. The car park was surprisingly busy despite the fact we only saw 2 families with 5 dogs between them. Ellie as usual wanted to play chase with every dog but they weren’t in the mood, I found a sort of wooden climbing frame thing, so I decided to try and climb it and then Ellie decided I shouldn’t be up there alone so bounded on up, didn’t quite make it and did a sort of did a doggy rolly polly, she wasn’t hurt thank goodness and tried again for a second time and made it, and sat posing for a snap shot from mum’s phone.

When we came home mum and I decided to make a sponge cake while dad was bubble bathing and blow drying Ellie, depending on whether there is any cooking chocolate left by the time we’ve finished mixing up the sponge we may or may not having melted chocolate for icing. Using my favourite colour combination and going for Lemon instead of Almond for a change.

Last night I got very excited because Audible not only had a sale on, but they had the 3 books I’ve been missing from a series I started reading a few years ago and had to read 1,2 and 6, but my excitement soon turned into annoyance with errors all over the checkout! I emailed them and had a nice response waiting for me when I got home from my walk, saying they’d had several reports of these errors and that it had been fixed! So I have now used 3 credits that were building up  and bought/downloaded Ted Dekker’s Lost Books of History Chronicles, book 3, (Renegade) book 4, (Chaos) and book 5, (Lunatic) whoohooo!!! cannot wait to listen to them tonight, or this afternoon when I finish up this blog.

This is probably going to be a long post so if you don’t have the time to read it, bookmark it for another time!

This week has been a bit of a blur really, I’ve had a bug of some kind and been sleeping a lot, dosed up and generally feeling a bit blah and not up to posting or being online much. However, it has given me chance to catch up on some much wanted dvd listening! I’ve been wanting to read Lord of The Rings for years but I knew I’d never be able to read the paperbacks and I hadn’t researched the audio book / kindle versions because I just figured, they’d either not be there or they would be expensive. I thought the films might be the easy way for me to break myself in. I found a bargain on Amazon for the extended dvd boxset for the trilogy and snapped it up.

So curled up in bed and super excited, I started listening to the Fellowship of The Ring. I loved it, that’s an understatement. I think it’s about a 3 1/2 hour movie and I watched it twice that day/night because I HAVE to listen to all the commentaries, but I did pace myself… so far I’ve only listened to the cast commentary.
Also, during last months reads I read a couple of the Merlin books that accompany the BBC series that started in 2008, which I never got around to seeing and now I can’t because I don’t have a tv. But I loved the books and I plan on reading the series for teens. Amazon has the entire series so far in box sets so I ordered the first one to see if it’s as good as the books, and it’s so much better! – the books are fun the the tv show just brings it to life so much more. I love, love, love Richard Wilson playing Gaius, genius and that wig! wow. I was a big fan of the 1998 Merlin film with Sam Neil, Miranda Richardson and Helena Bonham Carter and this, although nothing like it because they change the plot and character relationships a lot, had the same awesome vibe! I’ve ordered the second series and can’t wait for it to come. I’ve already watched all 13 episodes 2/3 times plus all the commentaries and special features. Anthony Head playing King Uther reminds me a lot of Rutger Hauer/ King Vortigern I think possibly because they have the same big head shape and low voice.I got a bit confused in an episode where Knight Valient came in and reminded me of Mordred from the 1998 film but I’m pretty sure it’s not the same actor and OMGOSH! I love Asa Butterfield as Mordred, he’s just great in anything he’s in, but just a great role for a great actor.

On the crafting front, I can’t remember if I told you about getting my hands on a Cuttlebug die cut and embossing machine, but it arrived and I’ve been playing around with it, a friend kindly sent me some universal embossing folders of butterflies and borders and I love them. The pictures probably would have looked better if I’d scanned them in but here are some phone pictures of what I’ve done so far.

My gift card giveaway closes tonight at midnight and I’ll announce the winners on Monday on my youtube channel. Good luck.

I’m starting to feel a bit funny again now so off the computer and back into bed with some more pills, fun. Have a nice weekend.
P.S I’m geeing out to Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary CD on my phone thanks to remote disc! I love apple mac so much, haha.

When I started my blog almost a year ago now I really had no idea that anybody in the ‘inter webs’ would find what a blind girl from England had to say even remotely interesting, everyone seems to be too into themselves, that to take the time to see and understand how it feels for someone a little bit different is really eye opening to me. To my surprise, people actually started reading and following my blog. I’m am very thankful, and even more so now that my little idea of having a youtube channel to help explain various gadgets or problems I face day to day to add onto my blog, would get even more of an audience and combined I’ve landed myself in an amazing, supportive community filled with both blindies and sighties and I love it. I still love writing, I still love trying to educate myself as well as others and sharing my random, crazy adventures, and finding new technology. I love sharing with the new friends I have made. And I have each and everyone one of you out there to thank.

I know I haven’t been on here as much as I was at the beginning of my year but still.. I can’t believe that BlindStyle is nearly a year old and I’ve come so far from where I started. I have no plans on abandoning this, it’s just I feel I’ve got to a place where I’ve kind of explained everything I know at the moment and the gadgets I have, all I can offer now is just my daily adventures and frustrations, would you still be interested in that? I’ll write them up anyway, even for my own amusements twenty years down the line .

I’m hosting a 3 way giveaway to say thank you for all my followers and subscribers to my blog and youtube. It’s ebook/audio book related with gift cards from ebooks.com and amazon.co.uk/.com if you’d like a chance to win all you have to do is be subscribed to my youtube channel and leave a comment with your name or user name and the country you’re from with a general comment. I’ll close the giveaway on the 5th May 2012 at Midnight and pick 3 random winners. Good Luck!! and THANK YOU

Hellooooo

I am back at last! I haven’t intentionally been on hiatus, too many things just conspired against me to blog on here regularly.

My internet connection was down for about a week unannounced so we took the opportunity to change providers and it’s all back up now and very happy with it.

I’ve also been working hard on my new book blog RavenTurneDove so go check it out, I’m focusing on Audio Books and eBooks, I’ve had some very sweet and thoughtful comments so far so thank you I really do appreciate it
I have a handful of book reviews up there now and filing them for easy reference as I go along, I’m halfway through my April books the long weekend helped with no internet distractions! I’m about to finish Fever by Lauren DeStefano and then I’ll get started on Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I debated whether to get the audio download from Audible as I have some credits to use up, but after reading the reviews with the same thing coming up ‘interesting story ruined by narrator’ I thought I’d get the eBook for £5 on Amazon instead, so I’ll download that over the weekend. I do question why an American was chosen to narrate a book that features Welsh/English and Polish accents. This is something that crops up again and again, we need more British English audio book narrators. PERIOD.

I’ve been having a techy week. My dad was impressed with my iPhone and how I’m getting on with it that he thought it might help him also, he doesn’t need VO but he’s really enjoying Siri I’ve been going through things like setting up his gmail and showing him all he needs to know, he’s downloading apps now, not Angry Birds though. I’ve also been talking to a friend on Twitter who’s VI and is after her first Apple Mac computer, I’ve been helping her find one, meanwhile I’ve also had my eye on a second hand MacBook Pro (2010) because our beloved MacBook (2006) is getting a bit slow and old, and even if I shell out for the extra RAM and max it out it’s still only 2GB, wheras I can max out a MacBook Pro with 4GB and have OS X Lion, which is the same as my Mac Mini and I know my way around – I’m also planning on maxing my Mini out to 8GB as it’s currently on 4GB.

Exciting news, I’m joining the local Disability Network group and my first meeting is on Monday, I’m really into campaigning so it will be fun to meet others and be social within the disabled community, it’s not just VI.
The lady I was talking to, who invited me was very interested in the letter I received from my MP regarding the DLA/PIP and how it was totally unaccessible so I’m going to bring it along because apparently the MP in question always sends a representative to the meetings, so we’ll wave it under his/her nose and say, this isn’t good enough, try again, better luck next time.

I think I’ve caught you up for now, need to finish my book and warm up, it’s freezing. We’ve had rain showers and thunder today. Awesome.

ALSO POTTERMORE IS FINALLY OPEN.
Ps. You can’t choose your own username and you have to wait for 2 emails, one to register and another one (I’m still waiting for) to let you actually in and explore the world.

Big and er, Blue!

It was a nice warm sunny day so as we are on holiday this week, we decided to drive down to Slapton Sands/Slapton Lea for a day out by the beach. It’s one of our favourite places to go and one of my all time favourite books ‘The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips’ by the awesome Michael Morpurgo is based there so I always get an extra kick out of it. I usually keep a copy of the book in my bag so it’s with me wherever I go – I tend to do that with the handful of favourite books, is that crazy?

Anyway… we left home around lunch time so that we could have lunch there, it was nice, we had a picnic and walked around the village, Ellie even went paddling in the sea, she likes the water once she’s gotten used to it, not to keen on crashing waves coming towards her and the pebbles moving under her when she tried to run spooked her out a bit, but she has been on beaches before but I’m guessing Guide Dogs don’t do much training on beaches.

I usually get car sick but it wasn’t to bad on the way there, I sat in the back with Ellie and started reading Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, I downloaded the ebook for my Kindle from Pottermore.com this morning, I’m on chapter 6 so far, last night I downloaded Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, yes the British version I have no idea where the Sourcerer’s Stone came from, you yanks why’d you gotta change everything? I managed to get through that in an evening but I enjoyed it. I love it when you come across a book that you smile or laugh your way through and it’s never boring, even when you’ve read the book several times and watched the movie even more times. You still want to know what happens and you can imagine is to clearly, Jo Rowling is a genius. I couldn’t read on the way back because the journey was a lot rougher in the country lanes and dad isn’t the best driver, it’s all stop or all go, so when we got home I had to down a cup of tea, a couple of crackers and lie down for awhile, but I feel much better now thank goodness! I hate when I feel like that, I never know how long it’s going to last and if it will turn into a full blown migraine that’s going to take over and floor me.

I decided not to take my chunky camera and try out my new iPhone 4s camera instead I’m pretty happy and impressed with both the picture and video/sound quality, I even had signal in the village – amazing.

Hope you enjoyed the sunshine!!!

Today is my mum’s birthday so we are all at home enjoying a quiet family day. Later this evening we’ll be popping out for a meal, a rare occasional for us, we hardly ever eat out. Dad has been talking about looking forward to eating steak for the entire weekend Mum loved her presents and cards and eggs for breakfast (blehk) now, mum and dad are putting up the remainder of the double glazing panels around the house while I sit at my desk, replying to emails, blogging and listening to the awesome Hunger Games audio book on my daisy reader.

Last night I spent ages trying to track down a series of books I’ve been waiting to read for ages, after awhile I had to resign myself to the fact that I won’t be able to read them and I’ll just have to listen to all the reviews on youtube and read them on my friends book blogs, not quite the same but.. when you’re visually impaired, there are a lot of situations like this in life, where you have to just grit your teeth and bare the fact that the world is not made for you, and it sucks but it goes on. PLUS things always seem worse at night. Today they seem better, after chatting with my parents about how infuriating it is that it’s 2012 and there are still books I can’t access we’ve come up with a plan.
We don’t know if it’s going to work out or how long it will take, but if it works I’ll let you know what it’s all about, something should be arriving with my name on it next week and we’ll see if it’s plausible but I’m excited at the thought of having a semi solution, after being so down about it yesterday.

Also, as I’ve officially moved in to my new room now I can put some pictures up, it’s not as show room tidy as it was on the first night, it’s definitely got that lived in look and feel to it now with my slippers and throw heaped on the floor and a bin half full, but I’m very happy and I’ve been sleeping much better. This room is so huge! it’s probably the biggest in the house, and you know what that means, more space = more space to lose things in. I have some pictures/photos I still need to put up on the walls and I have a couple of wall craft projects I can get started on now so looking forward to that!

Enjoy the sunshine! doing anything special for Easter?

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