What I've been surfing - 001

Since I got my beautiful, life changing (no really!) ipad, I've rediscovered the soulful (er, no really!) art of surfing the web.

Being able to surf the web in odd 10 minute bursts on the hoof has unearthed some delights. I'm mostly enjoying finding sites by women around the world. So many women are so generous with their knowledge and skill sharing.

I'm also enjoying discovering old hobbies and interests. Did you know that there are still women in their 30s who collect my little pony and Hollie hobbie? Did you know that there is still a riot grrrrl cultur of lovingly hand stitched and stuck zines?

Every month I'm going to share my top five surfing finds from the previous month.

So here's november's run down.

 

1. Attic 24

Oh my goodness. I am so in love with this blog. I mean, seriously, honestly puppy like devotion.

I don't know whether it's the gorgeous, rainbow-hued crochet creations

; or the slightly kooky, latte and cinnamon laced stay at home mum-Dom that she portrays in her laid back, chatty style.

It may be the stone terrace that reminds me of the house we lived in until we decamped from Yorkshire three years ago.

It may even be the fantastic photography and teasing hints of what the sprawling house looks like.

Maybe it's just because here is a woman happily getting through life, its gentle domesticity, with love and bubbling life, and Lego and yarn and blanket dens and pansies in jars.

 

2. Commonsense Media

 

This is a lovely idea. This site reviews apps, sites etc to give ideas for age appropriate resources for kids.

If you're addicted to apps (especially free ones!) like me, then this is a resource that's a Godsend. I don't know what you think, but those apps reviews that are in the App Store are sometimes a bit suspect to say the least. I'm sur that half of those star ratings come from friends and family of the app maker! Be honest, how many times have you downloaded a 'five star wonder' from the App Store that's turned out to be a load of pants, and annoys you quicker than you can say 'in app purchases'…

This Commonsense Media helps separate the wheat from the chaff. But it also signposts some wonderful new ideas that I might otherwise not have stumbled upon.

Well done to a great resource.

 

3. How to make Pom Poms

I got it into my head that I would make Pom Poms. To be fair, this was largely prompted by a blog post in Attic 24 (see 1. Above). She wrote about spending a lovely day making basket full of pom Poms with her kids.

So being a romantic old soul, with hankering after being a crafty rainbow clad earth mother (sometimes I do get there), I thought 'I will do that with DS'.

I do have quite a few bags with wool in them, as I've been trying to teach myself to crochet recently. But I had no idea how to make a Pom Pom, hence an hour of feverish web searching. This is one of the simplest instruction posts I found.

And my Pom Poms? Hahahahahahahahahahhahahaha. Reader, I didn't manage it. Even though this lovely site had the easy peasy level instructiions, I still have various small mounds of wool around my desk, which should have been Pom Poms but just came out as scraggly balls of tangled yarn.

But hey! DS & I had a good hour of trying, and that's what counts, right?

 

 

4. Vintage Christmas ads from the 1970s

I love the Internet!!!! Who does this compiling? And how? Is there no bit of social history that is not recorded?

I often think of the Internet as the Lost Library of Alexandria? All human history is recorded here, and yet could so easily disappear, at the flick of a button, the disappearance of electricity and web servers.

Anyway, what a high brow discussion to lead into something which is so deliciously low brow….Christmas ads from decades gone by.

I was reminiscing about Christmasses from the very late 70s, when the world was magical and Santa's sleigh bells rang out in the sky every night, checking that we were good.

This site was the culmination of a good bit of memory lane surfing..I'd found sites with must have 70s / 80s toys; old Christmas tv schedules; vintage editions of family circle for sale on etsy.

Then I came across this. A database gallery with what must be every Christmas magazine ad, organised by year. It's American, but fellow Brits you can probably find something similar for the UK ads…

Nostalgic sigh.

 

5. Have you been caught reading on the tube?

This is a brilliant idea, I'd thought of something similar when I used to edit a magazine and thought it would be great to do a reviews section comprised of what people were reading on the tube.

Unfortunately, this might actually be chronicling a lost pass time. Every week I see less people reading books on the tube. Fair enough, some are reading Kindles. But lots are fiddling with their phones or, worse, reading that dire rag, The Metro.

I do read on the tube so apologies if this sounds a bit sanctimonious. But reading while commuting is one of the great pleasures of living on London.

You may hate your job. It may be the bluest Monday in the world, after the best weekend ever. But if you read on the tube then for 20 minutes, half an hour, you aren't going to work. You're flying to the moon, or solving a crime, or finding a new best friend, or traversing the arctic, or even cooking a quick supper for four

Hurrah for this sneaky web page that celebrates the daily commuter read. Looking forward to when I show up on it (not really – I pull awful expressions when I read!).

 

 

Okay, that was my too five surfing finds. More next month, from my web finding adventure!

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

About these ads