What worked for me today 9th March 2010

I found a great site today which I passed on to my marketing colleagues. This is the blurb from their website which explains what they do:

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

You can check it out yourself at: http://www.wordle.net/ but we wary. Before you know it, an hour has passed!

Above is an example of what you can produce.

The copy comes from an advert I placed on US Free Ads promoting two timeshare exchange bibles which I think are great value for owners who are tired of not getting what they want from their exchanges.

You can read the ad here: http://www.usfreeads.com/2306895-cls.html

Or go directly to them if you Click Here! for the II Exchange Bible or Click Here! for the RCI Exchange Bible.

If you are interested in US Free Ads, then click here to place classifieds to buy, sell or advertise anything!

What worked for me today 8th March 2010

The good news is that after just seven days my first batch of seeds have germinated and I now have mini tomato and mimulus seedlings. Still waiting for the chilli plants but I am expecting them later this week. I have also just planted some gazanias. So seeds are definitely working for me today!

Obviously I want them to grow quickly so I have looked into a number of products that might help such as this seed starting system from Burpee and also the germination station but I am not sure if they will be any better than my warm kitchen. It might be time to do some testing.

Up until now, I have used normal compost but I think it might be time to look into proper seed compost. Any views on this would be gratefully received. And I am not too sure when I should start feeding. Again any views on this would be appreciated.

I am hopeful that the weather will start to improve and I can start to spend some time in the garden. Unfortunately, I have a business trip coming up in the next few days and I will be away for over a week, so I hope my seeds survive.

By the way, something that definitely didn't work for me yesterday were my dog walking boots. After a few years of use they split! This meant walking with my left foot wrapped in a plastic bag to stop the mud getting through. As I worked, my left foot sounded like it was farting. Not a good sound - and it spooked the dogs!

I am now looking for replacements - so will keep you updated with my progress.

What worked for me today 4th March 2010

I love to have cut flowers in my house - the colours, the scent and the shapes are just great and really cheer me up. So yesterday I spent some time writing a piece on creating my own cut flower garden so that I can have a regular supply of blooms throughout the year and at a fraction of the cost of even a supermarket bought bouquet. You can read it here.

It also means that I won't have to wait for someone to buy them for me! Because by my reckoning I am probably due a bouquet in about 3 1/2 years!

Now my displaying abilities are no where as good as the WI - in fact I am sure they would shudder at my mistakes so I am keen to find some simple books on flower display techniques. A quick look on Amazon has found two interesting titles so this might be something to consider.

And it is on the topic of flowers that I have found what worked for me today. As there isn't even a tulip or daffodil in my garden I have had to order a bouquet for delivery to my mother for Mother's Day. Now I know what you are thinking. Mother's Day is not until 14th March, but I am going to be away and I want to be organised.

My mother does not like us spending a fortune on presents so I chose a company that I think has a great range of bouquets at  good value prices. You can find more information on Bunches.co.uk here.

I have ordered the Hugs and Kisses bouquet above for my mother for £25.99 but there are much cheaper bouquets if your budget doesn't stretch that far - and I am sure she is going to love it. They are also giving away a box of chocolates with all online orders. I might just keep that for myself......

What worked for me today 3rd March 2010?

If you can believe it, today I had to write an article about social media for the vacation ownership and hospitality industries. It was hard going because I had to start with the basics (which is a bit boring for those who already use Facebook and Twitter) and then had to apply it to a specific market sector. I, of course, recommended blogging!

However, 1000  or so words are now ready to be sent off for approval.

I have found some books in the past to be helpful so I have added a couple for you to take a look at. They might work for you.

By the way, I have recently written an article about using Avatars on your buisness website. Take a look at the article here or to visit the avatar site I recommend click here.

What worked for me today 2nd March 2010

I started growing on my own plug plants brought from a catalogue a few years ago and introduced seeds last year. I even started growing my own potatoes which was quite successful - considering it was completely new to me!

So what worked for me today? Well I have started sowing my first seeds which is great news. To date I have planted in seed trays two types of tomato, sweet chili peppers, campanulas and mimulus. They are currently sitting on the counter tops in my utility room as I am not lucky enough to have a greenhouse (just no room). And what got me started? Well a new catalogue from Thompson and Morgan which arrived by post this morning.

This means I am proud to say that a piece of direct mail worked for me today as it got me away from the computer and planting up seeds during my lunch break.

Everything I have ever bought from them has been really good quality - last year the begonias and sunpatiens flowered until November! So I do recommend them.

Just to let you know, I bought the seed trays from Focus - they were a good price and seem to be good quality.

Where has all the grass gone?

In a recent article  lawn moss removal I looked at the best ways to kill lawn moss. Why? Because after a particularly awful winter, my lawn has become one big patch of bright green moss and it is seriously getting me down.

I looked into a variety of treatments including chemical and traditional techniques but have yet had the chance to try them out becuase the weather is still so terrible.

I am hoping this weekend to put some of the products to the test and will report back on whether they work for me or not.


Come on spring - it's time to get it together!