by Liz on November 9, 2009
**First Published in Nov 2008 – re-edited for this year**
Photo Credit: ToniVC's photostream on Flickr
My Nana is 96 years old and she still talks about the First World War like it was literally the worst thing that ever happened. This is a woman who lived in Central London, alone with a small baby in the Second World War being bombed every night in the Blitz; and she found this more bearable than her childhood memories of World War One.
I don’t think we can even fathom how awful it was, probably the closest (hopefully!) our generation will get to it is September 11 or the Iraq/Afghanistan Conflicts. For those of you who haven’t studied WWI, overall it’s estimated there were 37 million casualities 16 million dead and 21 million injured, numbers impossible to comprehend now.
Credit: British Official Photographer - Battle of the Somme
The defining battle of WWI for pretty much all British people is the ‘Battle of the Somme‘, in the first day alone the British lost 57,470 men and overall there were 1.5 million casualties at the Somme. One of the men in that battle was my Nana’s father James Easter. Although he survived he had been a career solider and apparently was never the same after the war. He came back a quiet man, with lung problems from being attacked with Mustard Gas (chemical warfare started in WWI) and he eventually died in the 1950’s from his injuries
James Frederick Easter before WWI
His brother in law’s weren’t as fortunate and never came home they are buried where they fell.
Private John Criddle
died 30th September 1915
aged 35
Battle of Loos
&
Alfred Alexander Criddle
died 22nd September 1918
aged 35
Buried MIKRA BRITISH CEMETERY, KALAMARIA
So for them and everyone else who’s been lost in a conflict since or are in one now think of them this week, they are heros.
Photo Credit:M J M's photostream on Flickr
by Liz on November 8, 2009
Tara Frey is one of the reasons I blog, she Alicia Paulson, Sheye Rosemeyer and Amanda Soule inspired me to create Violet Posy and take my blogging in a very different direction to where it had been going. So you can imagine how excited and pleased for her I was when I read on her blog that she was writing a book about blogging, and what a book she’s written! My copy of Blogging for Bliss arrived on Friday morning (bought with my own hard earned money!) and I’ve not stopped reading it over and over and I really, really wish I’d written it!
The book is aimed at bloggers of all levels, new and old from setting up a blog from scratch on Blogger, Wordpress or Typepad to dealing with advertising and RSS Feeds. There really is something for everyone and she has a section in each chapter introducing you to her favourite bloggers and their blogs, so I’ve come across some new blogs that I’ve never seen which is always exciting.
There are chapters about finding your blogging voice, why you want to write, simple HTML codes that you’ll need to know, how to style your blog, creating headers, sidebar fancies and photos to illustrate your work. There’s a great chapter on using photoshop elements which has taught me a thing or too – expect some new and improved images on here! The chapters on building traffic, SEO and how to run competitions and dealing with advertisers which are essential if you are trying to get a new blog off the ground or revitalise an old one.
So if you want an introduction to blogging or you want to build on the work you’ve already established then this the book for you. I’ve put it in my Violet Posy Amazon Book Store so pop over and have a look if you’re interested.
by Liz on November 8, 2009
Ummm not sure how this happened but it seems to be time for the November Thrifty Christmas Carnival – where did that 2 months go??? Thrifty Christmas was an idea I had back in September after a chat with other blogging Mums on Twitter. We were swapping ideas of cheap thrifty Christmas presents to make for family and friends. This year money is tight for most people and we wanted to be able to make nice, simple heartfelt gifts. After about 20 minutes we realised that it might not be a bad idea to pool all the ideas we’d had sweets, flavoured vodkas, chutneys, candles etc and Thrift Christmas was born.
One of my examples is these simple and inexpensive Tea Cup Candles I made last year for friends
And these soaps I’ve made this year for Lily’s teachers and assistants.
I have been inundated with really fabulous idea from all over the net. I have some wonderful readers and bloggy friends and all of us seen very adept at making things go further in the current economy. So if you have a Thrifty Christmas blog post you’d like share, please add it below but make sure you link to the actual post and not to your main homepage or people won’t be able to find it.
Can’t wait to see all your ideas! 
by Liz on November 8, 2009
For one of our Christmas present projects this year Lily and I decided to make handmade soaps for her teachers and classroom assistants. So I duly bought from Ebay a £10 soap making kit which came with soap, fragrance and moulds, but I think maybe it was a little expensive and you can probably source things cheaper from hobby shops or other online stores. I’ve worked out that we should be able to make 24 soaps from this kit and we are making 4 soaps per gift therefore about £1.66 a gift.
Unfortunately the soap company didn’t send any instructions with the kit and Lily and I had no idea what to actually do with it, so this rather good soap making website Teach Soap came to our newbie rescue. They also have lot of other good soap recipes on there that I think I might try. But this is what we did…
Cut the soap in half and then chopped up one half into pieces and popped them into a jug and covered the jug with clingfilm. Adding the clingfilm is important so the soap doesn’t lose moisture as it’s being melted.
Microwaved for 1 minute and 20 seconds until the soap had melted
Mixed in the colouring and scent, poured into the moulds and left to harden for 24 hours
Popped the soaps out, put four in a cellophane bag and tied some christmassy ribbon around them for presentation. I’ll also make nearer the time some labels with ‘Handmade by Lily’ on them and this should make 6 presents. It’s a very simple present to make and one that I think looks very heartfelt.
