I got a blogging award

A Liebster award to be exact. And I was kindly nominated for it by Emily Lewis. My dear, we have the same surname! That makes me like you even more (and no she isn't my sister). So thank you very much to Emily Jayne Lewis at I Hate Ads.

So because this isn't The Golden Globes I will attempt to explain what this means: 

What is the Liebster Award?

The Liebster Award is given to new bloggers with less than 200 followers and therefore helps promote and support those bloggers nominated.

The Rules:

-Nominees must link back to the blogger who awarded them.

-If nominated, write '11 Random Facts' about yourself.
-Answer the 11 questions the person who nominated you wrote for you.

-Come up with 11 new questions to be answered by 11 new nominees.

Ok so here I go. 

11 Random Facts About Me:

1. The first album I ever bought was Dangerous by Michael Jackson. 

2. I love singing the ridiculous words to Chesney Hawk's "I am the One and Only".

3. I really love shows, films and books about witches and wizards.

4. Growing up I wanted to be Sarah from The Labyrinth SO MUCH!

5. When I was about 14 I got bullied so I made up an invisible dog friend called Seb to keep me company. He was a border collie.

6. If I won the lottery I'd become a painter.

7. When I was young I wanted to be a gipsy - I wanted to live in a caravan, sell lavender and travel around the country. When I realised this wasn't a career option I decided I wanted to be an actress. 

8. I've played a stripy alien, Daisy Meredith from Daisy Pulls it off, an oompaloompa, a 19th century teacher, a fairy, a Hitler youth, a chavvy murderer, a santa, a bin man, a child who can't talk, a massacre victim, a ghost, a Welsh dragon and a prostitute on stage. 

9. I really like those cheese and ham croissants from Pret. 

10. If I had a last meal on death row I'd choose my Dad's meatball curry. 

11. One of my favourite memories is dancing to T-rex with my family with my dad with a tea towel on his head strumming on a french loaf. 

Phew.. 

And here's the answers to your questions Emily:

1. Who/what was your blogging inspiration? 

I started blogging because I wanted to work for a cool Advertising agency. At one such agency an interviewer asked me if I had a blog. I said no, I didn't get the job. 

2. What is your guilty pleasure? (Chocolate, Justin Bieber...?) 

My guilty pleasure is The Spice Girls. I love them. 

3. What was your fashion fail of all time history? 

So many to choose from...probably a navy long legged playsuit. I looked AWFULLY lumpy. But I refused to throw it out because it was fashionable...must throw it out.

4. What's in your handbag/manbag? 

Purse, blistex, pressed powder, an instruction manual for my dishwasher, the guarantee for my boiler, beats by dre headphones, an umbrella, a plug, tissues, lipgloss, glasses, keys. iPod. Yes, I need to empty it. 

5. What's the best advice you have ever been given?

"No matter if you have a job lined up or not, set yourself a deadline and leave" - the career's advice lady at Oxford University when I was so unhappy in my job that I went back to university to talk to the careers service.

6. How would you describe your style? 

UMMM...rock-pop comfy. 

7. What one item from your wardrobe can you not live without? 

There's not one thing I can't live without but my favourite item is s pair of Furry tasselled snow boots.

8. Do you prefer designer or high street?

High street. But was I rich it might be different.

9. If you were to model for a company/designer who would it be? 

Noone would have me. But if my body shape became miraculously fashionable I'd model for Alexander McQueen's brand. 

10. Do you have any tips on hair/beauty/fashion that you could share?

Ok - I have a stripe of purple hair on one side cut in about halfway so it's subtle. I've had a lot of compliments and it's quite unusual. 

11. What fashion item do you despise? 

Playsuits. 

So here are my nominees for an award: 

Daily Obsessional

Wife on the edge

The Life Style Artist

gurl on girl gaming

Hipstercrite

koju bofu

shib

In 200 words or less

blog du jane jane

Fanny Love

Steve with the Idea

My questions for you are:

1) If you could interview anyone in the world who'd it be? 

2) If you won the lottery what would you do with your life?

3) What do you dream about in your sleep the most?

4) What are you scared of?

5) What is the song of your life?

6) What was your first ambition in life?

7) If you could snog one celeb, marry another and lock away another who would they be?

8) Which celebrity reality show would you go on if you were famous?

9) What do you eat for breakfast?

10) What is your favourite book?

11) The worst advice you've ever been given was what?

Rate Your Cat - some brutally honest truths about your pets

I've just stumbled upon a very funny website called Review Of My Cat. http://www.reviewofmycat.com
Some owners seem blown away by the sheer beauty of their cats. Others are less rosy-tinted.

Here are some choice excerpts:

Cat: Rascal
Sociability: C
Rascal is very bi-polar. One minute, she’ll be sitting peacefully behind the couch, and the next, she’ll jump on the back to attack my head, as if possessed by a demon (true story). I believe that while humans are not around to look at her, she relaxes in a chair, wearing a beret, and smoking one (of many) cigarettes. I’m convinced she’s French.

Cat: HRH Ping (of the Ping Dynasty)

Appearance: B

He has a fine, if unmemorable, gray tabby stripe

Henry Rollins

Usefulness: F

Henry does nothing. ever.  He’s good at mowing the lawn while i garden and then throwing it up as soon as we come back inside.

Cat: Gordon 
Sociability: B 
You don’t pick Gordon up for a cuddle, he comes to you when there’s a gap in his schedule.  Perhaps Sheila (his sister) acts as his secretary.  It would explain why she lazes by the fire all day, its probably acting as her desk and she’s making appointments for Gordon when she sees us sit down. 

And this is my favourite:

Cat: Eisenhower
Appearance: B
His black fur sets off his striking yellow eyes, and if you didn’t know better you’d think this is a regal feline. It’s not. This cat is a moron.

So I've decided to do one about my kitten Bailey. I chose Bailey not Ziggy because he is the most useless of the pair  and definitely the weirder sibling.

Robert Mckee's Story Course

For the last 4 days I have been locked up in a big white box with 100 other writers listening to the famous and revered Robert McKee telling us how to write stories. It was intense and tiring. But it was amazing.

Robert McKee is 71 years old and he is one of the most interesting people I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. What I took from his lectures wasn't just how stories are put together, or how Hollywood works and the films I love are structured, but also a greater understanding of what makes people act the way they do. I learnt about human nature.

Robert McKee sees humans as things that must be continually in flux. Like people themselves, stories are all about change. They are about value changes - events that occur to change people's situations - for the negative and the positive. If a story doesn't contain a major change in a value (love, honesty, freedom) then it simply is no story.

And why do people need stories? Why do they need negative stories? Why do they want to cry? Why is Literature something we study and revere?

Well McKee has an answer for that too. Stories allow us to experience life in a vivid way. Think about your daly life. How much of it do you spend of it locked up inside your own head? How much of it do you spend experiencing extremes of emotion - love, hate, triumph? How many times in a week to you look at something beautiful and feel the real pleasure of being alive? When you go to the cinema all your attention is on the screen - you get to stop thinking about all the things you have to do and instead you get to really feel, really see.

Stories are a metaphor for life. Characters are a metaphor for you. The reason why you feel moved by a story is that you have empathised with the character. You see yourself in them - a part of yourself - be it the dark parts you repress or the best parts. So when a character suffers you suffer too - and you experience life. McKee suggested that those people who say "I don't want to see a sad film, I have too many problems in my own life" or those people who say "why do you want to read books that make you cry?" , are those people who are rejecting life - they are emotional cowards who reject flux and wish to live life on a flat emotional plain. As someone who constantly cries when reading books and cries in films - I like this idea. I feel courageous.

Apparently it was documented that Holocaust survivors sought out tragic films. They weren't trying to ignore the existence of their sadness. They were seeking to feel that they weren't alone. That what they experienced was human. Human nature, McKee tells us is half good, half bad. This is the reason why so many bad things happen in the world.

Robert Mckee tells us that it is the job of the writer to know human nature better than any  body. This is the only way to create beautifully 3 dimensional characters. And none knew human nature like Shakespeare. That is why Shakespeare is timeless.

As a English Literature student you are often faced with the question - what was the worth of your course? It's not practical like Maths, you can't use it to build a motorway or improve planes or defend victims or cook great dinners. It is all in the head. Well, Robert McKee gave me the best answer I have ever got. Stories, for all the reasons I've talked about above are needed by people. The reason why every civilisation has a form of storytelling is that stories help us to work out who we are, who others are, to deal with our emotions, to feel connected to the world and to live fully. And so I would say that my course, Literature, is actually one of the most necessary of all.

Christmas Party Story

Hello all. Happy New Year!! I hope you've all resolved to read and comment on my blog this year (please do!!!). Last year ended with some scary stuff, some family drama, some brain damage from serious alcohol intake and a hell of a lot of cheese.

So first of all the scary stuff. Work asked me to read a story at the Christmas party. "Yes ok" said I, inwardly curling up and dying prematurely. I had no idea what I was going to read to 70 clever advertising types when they were drunk and just wanted to reach desert, so I decided to look at my blog and see if I could find any inspiration.

It might sound weird but it's easier to type "diary of an advertising girl" into google than going through my bookmark bar to get to my blog - so I typed it in and randomly it brought up a really old post of mine called "Ways to be Welsh"
http://diaryofanadvertisinggirl.blogspot.com/2010/01/ways-to-become-welsh.html

It was obviously a sign from the Gods of the internet so rewrote it slightly and submitted it for approval with the Planning boss. So two weeks later I find myself standing in a spotlight surrounded by a circle of slightly drunk people all looking at me expectantly. SHIT! So I began. I meant to do the first sentence in a strong Welsh accent. Unfortunately I couldn't stop. I did the whole thing in a really strong accent. I acted my piece, I walked around bare footed and gestured and I got so into it I wasn't Adgirl any more, I was Angharad from the Swansea valleys. It helped. I had forgotten how acting can take your fear away. And people laughed at all the right places. It was great. Then finally it was over. I was so high I had to down two glasses of wine. Lots of people came up and told me how good I was. It was a wonderful feeling. So one of the scariest things I have done all year became the best. Thanks blog!

Here's a bit of me in action:

You're never too adult to build a den/fort

Today in work we were talking about dens, or as my US colleges call then "forts". Debs used to use a big wooden washing rack to hand sheets over, I used the slide in the garden as my framework.

We love you so - the blog dedicated to Spike Jonze's Where the Wild things are have just run a "fort" building competition:
http://weloveyouso.com/tag/wild-things-forts-contest/

Here are a few of the entries sent by grown adults who are still 8 years old at heart. Check out the innovative locations. It's also nice to imagine the people who built each fort - some mechanics, some hippies, some corner shop owners:

Follow Friday a day early due to hen party reasons

I am going to my University town for a hen do tomorrow (can't wait!!!), but I thought that I'd like to do a follow friday to share a couple of blogs I have recently found and loved. Obviously it's thursday. I get that. But rules are there to be broken right?

1) http://lochessmonster.blogspot.com/
This blog is funny and by someone completely wacky with a monster fantasy imagination. This is the kind of blog my dad wishes I wrote (Hi dad if you're reading...unlikely as his computer would take a year to load the first page). Find out how to write a zombie movie and even get your tarot cards read. She's that bored.

2)http://sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com/
For those who haven't come across the phenomenon of sleep talking man this blog is written by his other half who wakes up to note down his mutterings. He has one strange dream life! Here's an extract:
"Stop running, puppies. I don't want a puppy tornado! Whizzing 'round, with all these legs flapping. Mess."

3)http://iamtheclient.blogspot.com/
A blog from a highly self-congratulatory client. This blog is so over-the-top and rude it's hilarious. I wonder who writes it and if he actually is the client, or if he is an ad man pretending to be the client. Either way really funny stuff. Here's a rant straight from the client's mouth:
"To all my ex-colleagues, I have one simple message: SUCK ON MY NEW JOB, YOU FUCK-BOWLS! YOU SAID I WAS FINISHED! I AM NOT FINISHED! I AM JUST BEGINNING! I AM IN CHARGE OF TWO DEPARTMENTS! NOT ONE! TWO! PUSH THAT SLOWLY INTO YOUR CLACKERS, HOLD DOWN 'MENU' AND 'SELECT' - AND REBOOT YOUR FUCKING DANGLEBAGS, YOU SCAT-FELCHING WANKSLOTS!"

Please let me know if you have found any super brilliant and unique blogs that you recommend. Until next week, over and out!

My new literature blog

If anyone fancies settling down with a good book this February they might want to check out my new book review blog:

http://aimeesbookshelf.blogspot.com/

I will be reviewing every new book I read here so that you only need read the good ones. I am a bit of a literature-addict. I studied English at University and had an English teacher as a father. So I think I'm probably a pretty good judge. If you have any books you'd like to recommend, please leave me a comment.

I won I won I won!

Big thank yous to the lovely Kim DB for giving me an 'Over the Top' bloggers award.


I have no idea what it means but I'm guessing it's good. So here's my acceptance speech:

'Thank you all for coming. I'd like to thank my work computer (I will miss you - now all I have is this sucky PC), Agency Republic for asking me whether I had a blog back in june last year (no....eeek getting straight onto that), my work collegues (for their feed of brilliantly bloggable material)and Mental Aunty (even if she's so far failed to write her guest piece).'

So these are the conditions of my award - I have to fill in this questionaire about myself using one word answers. So if you have no interest in me and just pop in for the advertsing rants please look away now:

1. Where is your cell phone? desk
2. Your hair? quiffed
3. Your mother? Heaven
4. Your father? rocker
5. Your favorite food? Curry
6. Your dream last night? naughty
7. Your favorite drink? mulled
8. Your dream/goal? writer
9. What room are you in? caotic
10. Your hobby? cooking
11. Your fear? spiders
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Cannes
13. Where were you last night? bed
14. Something you aren't? frog
15. Muffins? thanks
16. Wish list item? magic-lamp
17. Where did you grow up? Swansea
18. Last thing you did? interview
19. What are you wearing? skinnies
20. Your TV? masssive
21. Your pets? Ragdoll
22. Your friends? Clever
23. Your life? improving
24. Your mood? positive
25. Missing someone? Mum
26. Vehicle? oyster
27. Something you're not wearing? speedoes
28. Your favorite store? Liberties
29. Your favorite color? green
30. When was the last time you laughed? hour
31. Last time you cried? weeks
32. Your best friend? Gemma
33. One place that I go over and over? Aunty's
34. One person who emails me regularly? Elizabeth
35. Favorite place to eat? Garrison

I'd like to pass on this award to a blog I sometimes like to steal from:
Daily Obsessional.
Well done Daily Obsessional you are now the proud owner of an 'Over the top Award' - don't forget to fill in the questionaire thingie but don't ask me know you accept it coz I haven't the foggiest.

Blog ideas.

I have a number of ideas for my blog. I want it to become more organized with features like a magazine. Some of my ideas include:

1) Clever people I know - showcasing all the things that people I know have made or done. Illustrators, car designers, painters, photographers, journalists, home-builders, song writers, jewelry makers, blog writers, creatives. There's a lot of talent among my work, friendship and family groups.

2) Guest spot by Mental Aunty. I need to work on her this weekend. She's almost up for it.

3) Song of the week. Since discovering Spotify I have discovered a load of lovely songs and ones that make me smile too. They might be old hat to music junkies but you never know.

4) List of the week. My list of uncool went down very well and list writing is one of my secret uncool hobbies.

5) What I did next - I want to start drawing more. When I was little I drew for hours every day. In fact I thought watching TV was boring if I couldn't draw at the same time. I am very rusty now. Life is hectic! So every week if I know I have to post something I have drawn it will be an incentive. Please be kind. Don't slate my work too much!

I am not sure I will implement these plans and when there is a pitch on they will def fall by the wayside. But I'm a creative aren't I. Full of grand ideas, which generally don't go anywhere.

Blog shout out

I thought it wold only be fair to give a little shout out to some of my favourite blogs at the moment:

1) ad broad -

http://adbroad.blogspot.com/

A woman who really knows advertising and writes insightfully about the business. She claims to be the oldest working writer in advertising, so I see her in a motherly light.

2) Blog du Jane Jane

http://blogdujanejane.blogspot.com/

This blog is partly written by a friend of mine but it's still good, I promise. It's the random and funny finds and musings of a girl in London, and a girl in Canada - both called Jane. As far as I know they are looking for more Janes in other countries to join them.

3) Daily Obsessional

http://dailyobsessional.blogspot.com/

I love this blog... the posts are short and snappy and there's lots of interesting art/advertising/funny content. All hail The Daily Obsessional.

4) My Himalayan cat "Goma"

http://mycatgoma.com/

This is an utterly silly blog about a girl's cat. He is very cute though and looks a bit like my cat. He also has a funny voice.

5) If It's Hip, It's Here

http://ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com/

Some days I think I don't like this blog. It's because I'm jealous. This blog is a great collection of artist's work, interesting ideas in design and advertising.

6) Will work for soup

http://willworkforsoup.wordpress.com/

Another advertising blog. This guy always has strong point of view about work. Plus he was inspired by my "It's not cool but..." entry into writing a list of true facts about himself. Check it here:

http://willworkforsoup.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/honest-list-of-me/

(6 is a rubbish number to end on but I really wanted to mention all these blogs - I'm greedy like that)

If you think your blog is better than these please send it to me so I can take a look. I love finding new blogs to read. Am currently trying to persuade Mental Aunty to start her own blog. What do you think?