For Rosie: My Piano Song draft - Listen on Youtube

I have created a draft one minute version of my song which I have called 'For Rosie' (in remembrance of my cat!). Comments and advice are welcome - but please remember I have never composed a song before, so be constructive!

Here is the song on YouTube:

Christmas Wrapping

Deciding how to wrap your presents may not be such a decision for most people. But I do like to think about how best to wrap the presents that I have chosen and to make them look pretty - with ribbons and the like that I have collected over the year (Yes, so eco of me!)

Unfortunately, I am still waiting for some of my presents to arrive so I am leaving the presents for those people to wrap up later. However, I am very indecisive! For my nephew, I wrapped up one of his presents (a Cars cup) in Toy Story wrapping paper and fashioned it into a rocket (just about recognisable as a rocket anyway!). I have wrapped up some of the adults but not yet added ribbons! Hopefully I will find time to do so (with my sister and two kids visiting from Australia, I don't seem to have much time!)

At work, I was speaking to a customer who said she hated wrapping and would just cover the presents in tissue paper and put them into Christmas bags. This does seem like a hassle-free and quick way of wrapping presents which could easily be decorated further with ribbons!

A Week Until Christmas!

Happy Christmas everyone!

Remember to make a delicious Christmas pudding!

If you don't know how, check out this brilliant video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih5mTrE3iCk

Etsy - And My Book Available On It!

So, recently I came across Etsy. A wonderful site full of handmade and vintage items. The only thing that put me off, is everything was in dollars (and me being in England..) but for the uniqueness of the gifts, it is definitely worth it! Especially with Christmas fast upon us!

So check out my book listed on Etsy, and take a look at the other wonderful items too!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/88672248/where-i-like-to-sleep-childrens-book

Where I Like to Sleep

Where I Like T...

Rosie's Tail

By Rachel Moorshead

Book Preview

Where I Like to Sleep is the outcome of my idea to create a book about my cats. From looking at photos, I decided there were so many funny places my cats liked to hide and sleep that the book had to be about where the cats liked to sleep. This became THE line of the book in the way that many other children's books have a recurring line.

So, find out where my curious cats like to sleep. I am selling the book on Blurb.com at £8.45 currently. Take a look at this 15 page preview or better yet buy a copy at:

Where I Like To Sleep by Rachel Moorshead | Make Your Own Book

Top 5 Eco-Friendly/Energy Saving Gifts for Christmas

Using less energy and thus emitting less CO2 is very important. I know I always find myself lecturing my family and friends about it or reminding them that they can recycle that letter and envelope or that old TV. So I thought what better gifts could I get that would really show my personality and help them save energy and money. So here are my top 5:

5. Sun Jar Solar Light

This is a good gift for anyone in my opinion because it is pretty and everyone could find a use for it. It is a solar light that is a nice yellow orange colour. I imagine it would look very pleasant inside or outside.

This can be bought from many online retailers such as big names, such as Amazon and Play.com, or Home4Eco, for £16.99+:

http://www.play.com/Gadgets/Gadgets/4-/1147936/Sun-Jar/Product.html?_%24ja=tsid:11518%7Ccat:1147936%7Cprd:1147936

http://www.home4eco.com/gift-ideas/sun-jar.html

4. Mobile Phone Enviroplug ~ £9.99+

This plug works with mobile phones and some other devices. It turns off once the mobile phone has finished charging. Useful when charging a phone overnight.

This can be bought from many online retailers from £9.99:

http://www.nigelsecostore.com/acatalog/Mobile_Energy_Saving_Adapter.html

3. Radiator Booster ~ £24.95+

As seen on Dragon's Den, this device increases the efficiency of one radiator - saving money. I personally have this in mind for a parent as their bedroom is above a garage and is often cold. Therefore, I thought this might help to warm their bedroom up faster and keep it warm.

This can be bought from many websites from £24.95:

http://www.nigelsecostore.com/acatalog/Radiator_Booster.html

2. Efergy Elite Energy Meter ~ £39.99+

An energy meter shows information about energy consumption and where it is being used. Please note that energy monitors need to be clipped to an energy meter to tell the consumption. In addition, this particular model has an in-depth memory so it can show you how much energy was used last week or last month - very useful for comparisons and for seeing if you are using less energy each month.

The function of this device will help households to understand their own consumption and where they could lessen it. So, might not be suitable for all recipients but possibly family and close friends.

This device can be bought from Eco-friendly product websites such as Green Stamp from £39.99:

http://www.greenstamp.co.uk/product_info.php/cPath/33_72/products_id/65

1. USB Rechargeable AA Batteries ~ £8.50+

I think this is amazing! As a household, we do go through lots of batteries - especially households with young children as EVERYTHING needs batteries! This is definitely better than buying new batteries every time - think of the price paid, the packaging (OK, most of it is cardboard which can be recycled but recycling uses energy too!), the recycling of them after - or the dump they end up in for those who are too lazy to recycle! Yuk!

They work like normal AA batteries and when they run out, you plug them into a USB port to charge them up and then away you go.

I will be buying at least two of these even if they aren't presents because I love the idea of them! Goodbye to storing dead batteries for ages to recycle them and to nasty leaky batteries!

These can be bought in the UK from many online retailers including big brand names, such as Argos and Play.com, as well as Eco product sites such as Nigel's Eco Store and Home 4 Eco. Prices from 8.50.

http://www.home4eco.com/energy-saving/usb-rechargeable-batteries.html#

http://www.nigelsecostore.com/acatalog/aa-rechargable-usb-batteries.html

Get Some of Your Money Back from Online Purchases: Quidco

I have been using the brilliant site called Quidco (http://www.quidco.com/user/1081615/) for over 6 months now which I would definitely recommend. It is a cashback site that gives you cashback from the purchases you make online. How can it do this you ask? Well, basically, sites like Quidco get a commission for referring someone to the website that you purchased from. Cashback sites like Quidco pass on this commission to you.

For example, if you wanted to buy something (e.g. XBox) from Argos that cost £200. You would sign into the Quidco site and search for Argos, where you would find that they offer 1.5% cashback on all items. This would give you £3 cashback which may seem small but it adds up quickly - especially if you shop online a lot.

From the Quidco website, you click on the link 'Get cashback' that sends you to the Argos website - this is very important as this is how your purchase is tracked and your cashback awarded. It is 100% safe and won't get your payment details. It just registers the referral and hours later you will get an email confirmation of the amount you spent. So once on the site, you choose and purchase your item and pay.

I first registered on Quidco when I was searching for my new phone. I looked up the cashback rates on Quidco and got £30 cashback which I had paid into my bank. There are lots of good deals on mobile phones so it is definitely worth it for that. Since then, I have forgotten to use it numerous times on numerous purchases, unfortunately. But my cashback is still adding up from all the times that I do remember - £2 here and there add up after time!

To be honest, if you are going to purchase your item online anyway - you might as well get a little bit of cashback from it, at no additional effort to yourself! And Quidco is the #1 UK Cashback site and as a user myself, I would definitely recommend it. So have a look: http://www.quidco.com/user/1081615/

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http://www.quidco.com/user/1081615/

Update on my book

The book is steadily progressing. I have the story completed. I just need the photos to go with the story.

I have been searching every folder on every computer in this house to find photos of my cats for this book. I still can't find some of the ones I was looking for but then I have found ones I had forgotten about which I may use instead of other ones.

I also decided I do want the photos to be edited so that they appear to be illustrations. I tried editing them using lots of features in Adobe Photoshop Elements. I found 'watercolour' was the best for my desired effect. But then I remembered about the editing features on Photobucket - with one called 'Cartoonize'. With luck, I remembered my password from years ago and uploaded a photo to try it out on. The default finish was a bit too strange for me but it is possible to change that so that the colours were a bit more normal. Now, it is definitely the look I wanted and so I am uploading loads of photos of my cats to edit!

So, it is all going well but I need to try to get it finished soon to allow enough time for printing and postage of the books. I just know this is going to be a great Christmas present though!

One of the photos I have edited of my cat Rosie (now passed away) sleeping in the sunshine:

Making Piano Music

Another goal I have at the moment is to create my own piano piece.. in memory of my cat who passed away recently. I have never composed a piece of music in my life. And I only got to Grade 3 or 4 in piano about 10 years ago!

With the help from friends, I have found there is a way to do so on my computer! After much deliberation, I decided to try Ableton as it seemed simpler than Cubase - and using the True Piano VST.

Ableton

I would definitely recommend Ableton to anyone who hasn't used this type of software before. Cubase looked a bit too professional and complex for me. Ableton is fairly straightforward or fairly simple to work out - at least for the basic standard things I have been doing such as changing settings like BPM. To be fair, there are bound to be a lot of functions that I have not used which could be useful but for a first attempt with little knowledge, I feel it is going fairly well! Unfortunately, I don't have a MIDI keyboard (yet?) so I have had to use the mouse to click to choose notes which is a much longer process.

However, as a beginner, I reckon you would get used to whichever software you choose to use. I just thought Ableton seemed simpler and I would be able to use it to reach my goal.

True Piano

This is a wonderful VST which sounds brilliant and gives you different settings (Reverb, pitch, etc). I love seeing my piece played on the virtual piano too! I would definitely recommend.

My Piece

My inspiration for this piece was Final Fantasy X - To Zanarkand and a piece of beautiful music I heard on YouTube that was made using True Piano (hopefully I can find the link later and edit the post!). However, my piece sounds NOTHING like them whatsoever. I'm clearly not a natural composer! It definitely doesn't flow as well as theirs do and some parts sound so different that I'm not sure if it sounds right or not. I don't know exactly what I'm doing wrong but I'm going to keep working at it and hopefully I will find a way to improve it! I got to a point where I wanted others to listen to it and give me some constructive criticism. However, I asked my mum...

On a scale from 0 (Children bashing random keys) to 10 (Beethoven), I would say it is a 3 currently. But as it is a personal piece of music that was intended to be in memory of my cat rather than for the enjoyment of others, it doesn't need to be brilliant as long as it is meaningful to me. And doesn't hurt the ears.

Maybe one day I will feel happy enough with it to post here... one day...

Where to print or publish a book?

Today I'm researching just another personal venture of mine.

I want to create a children's book based around my two cats - or rather one cat as one passed away recently which lead to my desire to create a book with my cats as the main characters. Another reason is that Christmas is coming up and I thought it would be a nice personal gift for my nephews and nieces who adore the two cats. I haven't finished writing or creating the book as I am researching prices and what the websites offer - and some offer software to create the book on.

Two websites have particularly caught my eye:

1. Blurb.com

This site offers a range of book sizes and options (such as hardback, paperback, different paper types and other more expensive options that I haven't bothered to explore as they don't seem necessary for my purpose). The smallest page count is 20 which is enough for a children's book. If you order more than 7 copies of the book that you make, there is discount which starts at 5% and slowly increases which I could find useful if the children seem to like my book and their friends might like a copy.. you never know! However, I did find one site with better bulk discounts but have yet to find it again!

Your book can optionally (or so I believe) be available for people to buy - something I am intrigued about. However, flicking through, most of the books appear to be photo books whereas I wasn't sure whether I wanted the pictures of my cats to be photos or to appear more like illustrations.

I downloaded the free software BookSmart and it doesn't offer any photo editing at all. It is quite simple and basic - just adding photos and changing the size and layout or adding text. This isn't such a problem for me as I have Adobe Photoshop and I'm confident in editing the photos so that they look more like illustrations.

The book size I would go for on this site is 7 x 7 inches (the smallest).

It would be a paperback and in colour.

If I use up to 20 pages it will be £7.95 excluding P&P.

If I use from 21-40 pages it will be £11.95 excluding P&P.

Personally, I was thinking of spending around £50 to start with until I could get a reaction from the children whether they liked it or not.

If I buy 5 copies with no discount, it would cost £39.75 (ex. P&P) for 20 pages, or £59.75 for 21-40.

If I buy 7 I would get a 5% discount, which would give me £52.86 (only £2.78 off) for 20 pages or £79.46 (only £4.18 off ) for 21-40 pages.

This would mean if the book is 21-40 pages long, I could only buy 5 copies or if it is 20 pages long I could buy 7 copies.

Advantages

• It is available for others to buy on the site (not sure how it works e.g. if you get profit from it or not) N.B. this is also available on other sites
• There is discount for bulk purchases even if it is relatively small
• BookSmart is simple and easy to use and offers lots of different layouts (including just text) and makes it easy to upload your book.

Disadvantages

• The book will be printed with the Blurb logo on it unless you pay extra (which I think averages at around £2 more for every book)
• This site doesn't seem to offer help to publish the book properly with an ISBN - so maybe not the site for an amateur author who wants to publish a book
• Doesn't state whether they take a cut or the whole proceeds from your book being sold on the site

2. Lulu

This site is available in America and the UK. It offers lots of different services, especially for publishing books such as 'pre-publishing packages', which I didn't look very much into! They also offer many different sizes and printing options such as various types of bounding. I'm not entirely sure what the minimum page length is but for the size that I would choose (7.5 x 7.5) I found that the minimum length was 32 pages - more than Blurb - but on Lulu the cost is worked out per page ($0.20 per page) rather than one price for a certain limit of pages.

Again, the book is available for purchase on the site and Lulu claims that for each copy sold, the author gets 80%. I can't compare this to Blurb as it doesn't seem to say anywhere whether they take a cut or how much of a cut. So I'm a bit weary of Blurb for that. Lulu also offers marketing on Amazon and other places if you buy an ISBN (around $125 for 1), which would suit someone wanting to publish their book and have it sold globally.

I'm not entirely sure how you upload your book but it definitely seems more confusing than it is on Blurb - especially as Lulu seems more targeted at purely textual books. However, if the book is just text, it is probably very easy.

Lulu doesn't offer discounts on orders until they reach 250 or more copies. However, the overall price is marginally cheaper. Again, the size is 7.5 x 7.5, paperback and in colour.

I have chosen perfect bounding which costs $4.50.

It works out around $2 for every 10 pages ($0.20 for every page) which is handy although the minimum length is 32 pages.

However, even with 32 pages, that would overall cost $10.90 - a lot cheaper - depending on P&P.

Advantages

• It is quite cheap and offers a price per page that is printed
• It is available for others to buy on the site N.B. this is also available on other sites
• They offer publishing the book properly with an ISBN and placing it on Amazon and other places
• Offers a book cost calculator http://www.lulu.com/uk/includes/calc_retail_inc.php

Disadvantages

• Doesn't state whether a Lulu logo is printed on the book but it most likely is
• Discount for bulk purchases only starts when you order 250 or more - may be suitable for some
• No software offered