So here it is!

After much toil and trouble I have managed to get the new theme relatively done. There are still a few tweaks I need to make but these can be done on the fly.

If you find any problems, please let me know. Either via this post, email or the nifty new contact form that you *should* be able to get to from all themes.

I am planning on updating the other two themes to incorporate some of the plug ins that I have added for this new theme so if you see anything dodgy happening with those, then please bare with me.

Thoughts and comments would be much appreciated. I Quite enjoyed making this to be honest. Some aspects were quite challenging for my measly CSS skills.

Enjoy!

Earlier today I had a hankering to watch a chick flick. I have them every so often and I could quite easily end up spending a whole weekend re-watching the usual films for the 100th time. Today though, I fancied a change, something new but was unsure what to choose. So I did, what I imagine every person does when they don’t know the solution to one of life’s many questions. I Googled it.

I found various lists that more or less just reeled off every single film that I am not at all embarrassed to say I love and have enjoyed. However, I did manage to find a few quite recent ones that I haven’t seen and settled on Julie & Julia. And am I glad I did even if there is some discussion on the net about whether Julie and Julia is a true chick flick. A lot of people say it’s not. I don’t know if it is or isn’t but that hardly matters. A lot of films aren’t taken seriously or given the time of day (by some) when they get given the chick flick or RomCom status. Which is a shame, as it means they miss out on little gems like this.

Now, if you haven’t seen the film, want to and don’t want to be spoiled then I suggest you stop reading now. Although you will be missing out on my first blog post in ages. But whatever, I don’t mind… much

I laughed out loud at  Meryl Streeps endearing and engaging portrayal of Julia Child. Every time she appeared on the screen I smiled. At first I have to admit that I thought I wouldn’t like the Julia portions of the film, I have no idea why I just did. However, not long into the film I was looking forward to seeing more of her and Stanley Tucci.

The Julie scenes were also good and Amy Adams portrayal of the character was engaging in a lot of different ways. It was her blogging effort that pushed me to write this entry. I would love to come up with an angle to take this blog forward such as cooking all the recipes in a cook book. If only I could think of something that I think I could stick at.

I was expecting the usual Hollywood ending to be honest. I thought it would end with the two women meeting… it just seemed like a very Hollywood thing to do. However, I am more than happy that they didn’t take this route.

At first, I was a bit sad that the woman that inspired Julia to cook and blog didn’t like the idea. I was more than sure that the woman that Streep had shown us would really like Julies passion. After all, she taught Americans how to cook. All Julie was doing was learning what she taught, but documenting her experiences in a blog. We don’t know how true to life this portion of the film was though, but for Hollywood to take it rather than give us the expected ending was good work in my opinion.

Considering the ending afterwards, I was satisfied with the way both women worked hard to achieve their goal. And both succeeded. Julia finished her book and it was published which lead to numerous further books and TV shows and her career. While Julie completed her mission,  finally got noticed and her own book was published and thus began her career.

The film no doubt will not be for everyone, which film is? But it made me smile and laugh which was very welcome. And It made me blog. Which hopefully will only be a good thing.

On the blogging front, I am really trying to get back into it. I am actually working on another design, which and I don’t want to jinx…but so far I am LOVING IT! The design is half done and I know where I want to take the rest of it, I just have to work out some annoying kinks that are making certain images not show up or text not appear as it should. So just the usual CSS annoyances, or is it just me that gets them?

I honestly am trying to get back into blogging but what with my intensive driving lessons that I am currently doing and, well, just life in general it is proving a lot harder than you may think.

Anyhoo, I come out of my hectic life for 5 minutes to show support for the breast cancer awareness and fund raising that is going on.

If you didn’t know, this month a host of bloggers have gone Pink for October in order to raise awareness. The Boobie-thon is also well under way and has raised an enormous $8300 so far.

Also, right on topic (see what I did there?? ) is this weeks Topical Tuesday all about peoples breast cancer tales.

I am blessed that no one in my family has had cancer and only one of my friends has family that has had it, and thankfully fought it and won. I am very very lucky. I am however, very aware of it and make sure I check for those signed every so often.

So, if you can, please support your chosen breast cancer charity during this Pink October and remember, Think Pink!

I just spotted a banner, politely asking me to please upgrade so I happily obliged.

I wasn’t expecting such a change though.

It will need some getting use to but I like.

I am lurking here somewhere, I promise you. Lack of recent posts has been down to me working on a new theme for this here blog. Yes I know I have been saying I was going to do one for ages, but this time I have actually found something that once I start designing I actually still like.

A few of the elements are giving me grief but hopefully I should have it live in the next few days.  I might implement a style switcher so you lovely peeps can decide which one you want… I know the one E made is lovely, and mine won’t match up to it but I try .

Until then, I leave you with this small teaser:

I know I keep saying that I am going to try to get back into blogging then nothing comes of it. I really don’t know why I am finding it so hard to do. It’s not like I don’t have the time, but recently when I have had nothing to do I just like to sit and do nothing. Lazy I know, but sometimes you just can’t beat doing nothing.

So if anyone has any tips on how I can get back to blogging and stay here then please share them.

I am currently doing my rounds of all the blogs that I have neglected to visit recently (sorry all!). If I haven’t got to you yet, I will hopefully do so today.

I have decided that in a bid to help me blog again this little home of mine will be having a makeover. Hopefully I will get round to it (and get the inspiration) to do it this weekend.

This design will stay around as its just oo pretty to stop using so I will get a switcher up and running.

 So, please forgive any mess you might see over the coming days. Hopefully it will be worth it.

I will admit that I have been finding it hard to get back to blogging. What with my placement, trying to start my dissertation and the fact that the majority of the blogs I read have also taken a break it’s quite hard to get started again.

 I am planning on finishing the move over this weekend (she says, don’t hold your breath though). I then plan on having a blog hunt in the hopes to find some other gems to add to my reading list. Hopefully if I can find other blogs that interest me, I will start blogging again.

 Stay tuned.

I have just realised tonight that come the start of January (which scarily is not that far away) I am going to have to renew my hosting and .com domain name.

I know my posts recently have been very infrequent. This isn’t through lack of wanting to post but lack of getting chance too. I have been netless since I moved into this house (finally my broadband is getting sorted hopefully in the next week or so) so I have only been able to get on the net at work really. Work isn’t really the place to poor my heart out/rant/talk crap on here though.

I have liked being hosted by livingdot. They are very reliable and an all right price. However, just due to my current circumstances I am just not sure I can afford to renew. To renew both will be about £90 which, especially being so soon after Christmas I just cannot afford.

So I have some pretty serious thinking to do. I don’t want to stop blogging – when I do it I enjoy it and it would be sad to loose this thing.

I have my email set up for this blog so that any email with the prefix [AT]onceuponablog[DOT]com will get to me. So you could send a message to fjhfdjhdihihgfi[AT]onceuponablog[DOT]com and it will get there. However recently I have been noticing A LOT of junk email in my folder (delivery failed notices, etc) and also random emails to my inbox that have supposedly been sent from hannanhafizzat[AT]onceuponablog[DOT]com.

Does anyone know how I can stop this happening? Also, will I be the only one getting these messages or will there be some unknown in Outer Mongolia getting emails from my domain?