The Anti-Inflammatory Smoothie

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Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients

1 inch of fresh ginger, grated
1 inch of fresh turmeric, grated
Handful of baby spinach
Handful of watercress (or rocket/arugula)
1 small soft avocado
1/2 capsicum
Big handful of flat-leaf parsley and/ or coriander
1 cup coconut water (or filtered water)
Big pinch of cayenne
Pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Grate the roots into the blender and add the avocado and coconut water
2. Blend this to form a base
3. Next add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth

 

 

Thanks Ross from energiseforlife.com for the recipe!

My first WordPress child theme!

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my-first-wordpress-theme

I am quite excited right now, as I feel as though I am really unleashing the power of WordPress. I am currently building an e-commerce site for a cool upcoming clothing label called ‘Goldsauce’.

I have chosen to use the WooThemes ‘Mystiles’ template and have now come to the point where I need to customise the theme.

From past experience it came to my attention that it’s best practice to create a ‘child’ theme to edit, so that if you update your template, all your customisations remain the same.

There was a great tutorial here on how to create child themes, it’s very simple!

 

so here’s a little screenshot of my first WP them!

 

 

Waitrose – HTML email responsive design

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This email is a nice example of responsive design, content on mobile version looks quite different to desktop, the call to action has moved  to just below the image and the copy to below.

They’ve also stripped out some of the content for the mobile version.

Making insurance interesting…

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We always struggled at Hertz to make products like insurance appeal to our customers… Today on my way to work I saw this billboard from Hiscox, I like the way they have used the idea of ‘You can never have too much of a good thing..’ to sell insurance !

Web browsing and watching TV

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75% of the UK surf the Web whilst watching TV– how do can brands monetise this? Is it about monetising? Or is it actually about creating a ‘360’ brand experience?

I was watching Jamie’s 15 minute meals, during the programme, I used my mobile to look up the recipe he was making – I didn’t need to search the site for the recipe– – the recipe he was making was the first thing I saw on the page. The information was a given, I like that someone had thought about the user experience in this instance, helping me the media consumption ‘transit’ seamless.

It’s never good enough

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My folio was updated about 1 year ago. I chose a grid style portfolio as I wanted people to immediately get a sense of my design skills from the instant they landed on my website. I was reasonably pleased with my portfolio, however it wasn’t totally mobile optimised. The grid style was good for rearranging itself on different devices, but fonts were still rendering tiny. So recently I’ve been updating my CV and folio, attempting to create consistency between the two. The folio section works functionally, however there are some improvements I will carry out over the next few months. I have found as a designer, creating a brand for yourself is probably one of the most difficult things to do!

The 30 Day Bikram Challenge

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It’s been a while since I wrote anything here, but as my yoga journey continues I felt inclined to share my thoughts. I’m currently on day 28, and I have 4 sessions to go!

When I first began the challenge I was feeling energised after each session, then was forced to take a week off as I got a bad cold. Maybe it was all the toxins coming out? At this point I was halfway through the challenge so I was unsure if it was possible to complete it or not.

 

With perseverance, and a significant sacrifice to  my social life and with the support of people around my, I was able to complete the challenge doubling up sessions for 2 weeks, I was living and breathing yoga!

 

Installing WordPress manually

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I’m generally used to installing WordPress through simple scripts. However I need to install it manually with 1 & 1 hosting package as it does not let you upgrade your WP installation if you use their click &build solution. This is quite annoying, however it will be good practice learning how to do it the manual way for future reference!

SEO, Mobile Stylesheets, WordPress

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I have been googling my name, but can’t seem to see my website. The old website used to come straight up on the front page, usually top 3 – however with WordPress I had forgotten I need to tag my name in somewhere! Doh – – – I’m going to try out the all-in-one SEO plugin…

My website renders well on a mobile due to the grid style (that’s one of the reasons I picked this style) however I think I could probably apply a mobile stylesheet in so that it detects which device you are accessing the site from.

Updating WordPress using 1&1 click and build

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I’m currently working on website design project for a dry cleaning business. My client has purchased a 1&1 started hosting package on which I installed WordPress. I have just discovered there is a WP update available however 1&1 have restrictions so you cannot do the WP 1 click install to update! I have to do this manually through FTP…argh!

Testing out Google Apps for Business

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After a series of problems with go daddy – I have decided it is time to test the power of the cloud. I have a client that needs needs email access anywhere, anytime from any device – much like the culture of todays working world.

Originally email was setup through Go Daddy, however after numerous complaints, port faffing, shouts and screams we  are now trialling out Google Apps for business…fingers crossed…

My first thoughts on setting up the Google Apps for Business account were:

BEAUTIFUL – I just don’t understand how most things on the web have become so aggravating for users. Google is notorious for making things stupidly simple – and guess what? I really think they have done it again. You are taken through an easy peezy step by step setup tutorial that tells you exactly what you need to know to get started quickly!

So far I am loving it…just setup a test user account for myself and some user accounts for the guys. I will be trialling using Google Apps on my Android device and MS outlook 2010

Vaidyagrama – Day 4

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I’ve been having abhyanga, which is an oil massage treatment for 2 days. Yesterday I had an additional treatment called Navra where they kind of hit you with these little balls that are full of herbs, it’s supposed to loosen any blockages u have in your body.

I felt quite relaxed yesterday but this morning just felt like it’s taken it out of me. The doc today said the more toxins the more tiring it may feel. They’re saying my acne is due to impurities in blood, will give me some meds and should see result in 3 months.

I’ve been told to relax here, not do anything strenuous – now I understand today I’m exhausted! I even slept in, usually I would wake up at 5.45am, however I slept till 7.30am today and slept at 9.30pm!