My Aunt is a real artsy type, always has been. We were catching up recently and she told me she was really into ‘Rock Tumbling’ at the moment and she and my uncle had had a row about how much she had spent on her Lortone rock tumblers — I just looked blinking at her for a few moments because I had no idea what she was talking about.

Turns out that it is basically putting rocks into a machine and shaping and smoothing them. She made me one to show me, it’s a little blue heart and it is very beautiful — it’s so smooth it actually looks more like glass than stone!

I am not into sports really, in fact I am not into sports at all — I used to play netball at school but that was about it. So when it comes to giving gifts it never really crosses my mind to give sports gifts! Thinking about it, I really should because just because I don’t like sports doesn’t mean my loved ones don’t — my dad and brother are mad about football, my fiance is snooker crazy and my best friend loves every sporting activity there is.

I have been designing websites now for a long time, I think that I created my very first page back on Geocities — it used frames, had a dancing elmo on it and was covered in animated GIFs. I thought it was the coolest website ever, how funny.

I have not actually done very much web design in recent years though. With so many free wordpress themes out there, and the majority of my blogs running wordpress, it is very easy to get lazy and that is exactly what I have done. Free themes are all well and good for sites like mine, but hardly professional for people who are more series about their sites/businesses, having a unique design is surely a must?

Q-Industries is a web design company that offer stunning design work, web marketing as well as other web development services. I have just been looking through their portfolio of work available to view on the website and I am very impressed. I could see them doing a really great job on my boss’ business site — it was designed by a friend of his and is currently ‘passable’ at best. I keep telling him he should get some professionals in to really make the site stand out, but he doesn’t pay much attention to me apparently.

My family should know by now that I am the online bargains expert, I run a bargain website and spend a good portion of my days on certain well known bargain websites. I also know all the best places to get voucher codes and where to go to get cashback and rebates on pretty much every thing — from car insurance to eyeglasses.

Yet still my mum goes out and buys things without talking to me about it first. She says that she doesn’t like to bother me, but I wish she would because it causes me actual distress when I see people paying way more than they have to for things.

She recently got some new prescription glasses that cost her a rather whopping £180. If she’d just asked I would have told her about Optical4less.com where you can get top quality ones for as little as $15 — that’s about £10 at the current exchange rate — quite the difference for the exact same product huh?

I think I would have had to sell her on the quality, Optical4Less’ prices are so cheap that I think they shoot themselves in the foot a little because people assume cheap = rubbish. But at just $15 it is surely worth taking the chance? Everyone I know who has used them has been perfectly happy

I ended up spending most of New Years Eve pissed off.

I got stood up, three times.

Let me precede this by saying I am not a huge fan of going out on New Years Eve and usually have to be nagged and pushed into going out. This year I had decided I wanted to go out, I decided not to be a grump, I decided to get dressed up and do the whole thing.

Firstly I got stood up by my parents who asked me if I wanted to go somewhere, I said yes and started getting ready, a few minutes later they were off out of the door — I was left scratching my head at that, but I am sure it wasn’t done on purpose as they aren’t mean.

Then, fifteen minutes before I was due to set off, after literally hours of bathing, waxing, painting, making up etc etc, my friend text me to say plans had changed and she wasn’t going now — wtf? Her text didn’t even make sense, it said something about having got her mums tickets now, that meant nothing to me but I didn’t call her to clarify as I really didn’t want to speak to her at that point.

Oh well, as least I will still be able to go out later on when the other half arrives I thought — oh no, 30 minutes before he was due to arrive he called to tell me he was still at work and wouldn’t be here until about 11.30.

11.30, what the hell use is that on new years eve? It was too late and pointless to go out at that time so we just stayed in.

That’s the last time I make plans for New Years Eve.

My dad has been searching high and low for some new work boots that he likes and are affordable, he’s been looking for a few weeks and holding out for the sales. Well he should have just asked me, he should know I know a lot about where to get shoes, it’s like my specialist subject hehe

If you need some new work boots then you need look no further than 511 Tactical, they have a huge range available at really affordable prices. I have just sent him the link and I am sure he will find what he needs there.

I considered getting my parents ipods for Christmas this year, they both use awful ancient old generic MP3 players that are a nightmare. My mums only holds about two albums before it’s full — but they both use them all the time when they go walking and such so I really think they’d appreciate an ipod.

I was keeping my eyes out for a hot deal on them, but before I knew it it was three days before Christmas and I had run out of time!

Maybe if I can afford it and can pick them up cheap in the January sales I will get them one any way

My dearest Mom that is, she just can’t get enough and is always buying rings and earrings and the like from those late night TV shows.

Her 60th birthday is coming up in just a few weeks time, she’s not happy about turning 60 so we are all treating her to something nice — she’s getting an opal necklace from my dad, a set of amethyst earrings from me, an amethyst bracelet from my brother and she’s even bought herself a ring…I am not sure exactly what kind that is as she wont tell me until her birthday, which makes no sense, but I am sure it will be some sort of gemstone as as you can tell, she really loves her Gemstone Jewelry !

It’s a shame I didn’t know about TheOrchidBoutique.com a few weeks ago when I was searching the Internet high and low for some earrings for her, they sell all manner of interesting and unique gemstone jewelry as well as swimwear for that fashionista in your life — they sell some crazy avant-garde designer swimsuits as well as more affordable ones in the clearance section.

Take a look for yourself, I can guarantee you won’t have seen swimsuits like it before

One thing that I like to do on my blogs, not just here at Jeoberpta, but on all of my blogs…is include images in my posts — I think visuals always help and they add a certain style to a blog post.

What I usually do is write a post, then think about what picture would look nice and fit in with it, then I start searching free photo sites and google image search and the like — once I find one I like I have to check I am allowed to use it, save it, resize it, upload it and insert it. It’s a bit of a hassle.

So, was I ever glad to come across AcoBox.com a few days ago! They offer free blog pictures, but what makes it so great is that I don’t have to worry about checking if I am allowed to use the image or not — if it’s on the site it’s OK to use. I also don’t have to save it and upload it before use as they host it for me and should it need resizing, I don’t even have to do that manually as it can all be done on site.

They just took all of the hassle of adding blog pictures to posts. Hurrah.

…because I won a Wii, Oh happy days.

I imagine that I will be playing that like a crasy lady over the next few weeks. I have De Blob for it and plan on borrowing a few other games from my fiance and my brother.

Having said that this blog hasn’t exactly been filled with content since I changed direction with it and turned it into my television opinion blog, which is strange because I do watch a lot of TV and I do love to rant about it!

I must try harder.