I fancy doing a quick re-cap of what I have been up to, and what I've got coming up soon!
One of the things I've loved about having this blog in the last year is it's a great place for me to keep track of what I've done and it makes it easy for me to refer back to an event/occasion - plus I get to share it with you too! :)
Last Thursday took me to Speke in Liverpool to deliver atalk about localtraining session with my colleague Mike Rawlins. There's a whole heap of potential for this area when it comes to having an online voice, and we helped representatives from organisations in the area get up and running with their own Wordpress website which will act as a 'hub' for all their activities, and we will be going back later in Feb to finalise the training.
Then on Friday it was the first Birmingham Social Media Cafe event of 2012 and it got off to a great start! Over 60 attendees from all sorts of industries met, networked and talked social media and the coffees were kindly sponsored by Meegloo - a great, free social media app! The next event is on Friday 24th Feb at the Birmingham Town Hall. It's free. So if you are interested in using social media for work or play, and want to meet like minded people, then please come along! Check out the Storify from last week where you can see photos/video and what people were tweeting about the BSMC!
On Saturday I had a Very Nice Day Out with my Mum in Warwick. I thought I hadn't been there before, but actually I had, many years ago, but I didn't see very much of it back then. I was really impressed with this small town. I have been to the famous Warwick Castle before - it's well worth a visit. I really loved the dungeon part!
There seemed to be more independent shops in the High Street so that was a welcome sight. And there are lots of antique shops with unique items such as
In the olden days, men with mustaches used to use these tea cups to keep their upper lip dry!
I have my eye on these beauties. If you don't mind, ta ;)
And although I didn't buy the earrings, my mum treated me to a new purse, and I treated me to a new red handbag!
On Sunday evening I went out with a few friends to Loco Lounge in Kings Heath. It was my first time there, and I really liked it! It was quiet as it was a Sunday night, but that more than suited me and was a lovely night chilling and chatting and sharing a few drinks.
This Wednesday I'm going all the way to Redruth (pronounced 're-DRUTH)'in Cornwall and delivering a talk about local workshop. I'm meeting Nicky there and we are staying overnight as the workshop is early on Thursday morning. It's looking to be a great workshop with over 20 attendees! I also can't wait to see Nicky, as she moved away from Birmingham in the new year, so it will be great to have a catch up!
LocalGovCamp is an unconference (no charge, no agenda) for people mostly working in or around Local Government to get together for a few hours and talk about stuff.
There's nearly 100 people going, and there will be lots of talk of new digital developments, social media, data, and how to share what's going on, just for starters!
And whilst I'm in that neck of the woods, I'm meeting up with my best friend for dinner and a catch up.
It's going to be a great day!
There we go. That's what has and will be keeping me busy for now :)
I received the pdf recently, so here it is in all it's glory! Thanks Jayne.
If you click it, it will become bigger!
Just wanted to mention that really. I like to keep a note of interviews etc when I can and keep an online record.
2012 is in full swing. I'm just keeping my head down and getting things done.
Though I have had my first nights out of 2012 last weekend. Yeah, party animal!
They were much needed as I hadn't been out properly since before Christmas - when I managed to catch a bad cold.
Night 1 was an evening of drinkies and cocktails with a very good friend who I hadn't seen for far too long! She's a fantastic lady, who is so supportive and amazing to be around.
Night 2 was a party to celebrate Nicky's and Sas's birthdays! Fantastic night and great to catch up with good friends who I had't seen for a while. I also got a bonus belated birthday pressie from Sas!
Perfect! A lovely mix of Red and Animal Print. My favs!
I had a good excuse to wear my Big Hair Bow!
On Monday it felt like New York City was calling me. I received this stunning gift from a friend. The photo doesn't do it justice. I'm keeping on my desk right in front of my monitor so I look at it every day.
Then when I got home, I post card from my NYC pen friend was on my door mat!
They both made me really happy!
Yesterday myself and Nicky went to Acton in London to deliver a talkaboutlocal training workshop. It went really well, and we have got some new people starting their wordpress hyperlocal blogs.
I was catching a train back to Birmingham from Euston and mentioned this to my best friend who lives in Cumbria. Well, she was only travelling home from London from Euston at the same time, so we were able to snatch 10 minutes best friend time together! Yay! It's always great to see her, even though it was for such a short about of time. We are meeting up again in Preston as I'm going to Local Gov Camp and we are seeing each other afterwards for dinner. And I just CANNOT wait for March as we are having a long weekend away in a 17th century cottage in the middle of nowhere in Wales!
Me and my BFF!
This Saturday I'll be going to the first Birmingham Girl Geeks events and doing a little talk about social media and the 4am Project. It's free to come along, and boys can come too! See you there I hope :)
Next week I'm off to Liverpool for a talkaboutlocal training day. We have quite a few workshops coming up so I'll be heading to Cornwall, Southminster, and back to London a couple of times soon!
Then on Friday 27th it's the first Birmingham Social Media cafe event of the year. Come along to that too. It's free, and a great place to meet creatives and businesses who share a love for social media. Meegloo are sponsoring coffee! Check out Meegloo's free app too!
Oh, and I've written a chapter of a book! It's for the Community Lover's Guide To The Universe that Podnosh is curating and the Birmingham edition is called Militant Optimists; people who knuckle down, get things down , give things a go and get the community involved. For my chapter I have written about the 4am Project. The book should be out in the next few months and an online version will be available to download for free. I'll keep you posted!
Okay, gotta dash! Just a flying update. Say hello on twitter @karenstrunks :)
I've been online for about 10 years. Well, when I say online, I mean, I've been connected to the internet for 10 years.
I feel I REALLY got online approx 3/4 years ago. Instead of just using it for just research, browsing and emails, I started putting myself online, started my first blog and started making connections with other people.
And how my social landscape has change since then!
Prior to the internet and really using it to connect with people, my circle of friends mainly consisted of people that I worked with. I didn't have much choice about who I worked with then, but luckily there were always a few people who I connected with.
Or I'd meet people through a friend and maybe make a new friend that way.
Occasionally I would go out and make an effort to meet new people and join a group or class. I found that a bit hit and miss.
My best friend has remained my constant friend for the last 20 year (we met in the Royal Navy). I used to moan to her, "Where do I meet interesting people? Where are the people who are are inspiring and doing something different?"
I was really frustrated by not being able to find the people that I wanted to connect with.
And now....
I'm surrounded by those people I so yearned to meet years ago! People like me! People who I can relate to. People that inspire me! People that are doing something different. People that have their goals and work hard. People that are interesting.
Before I went online I kinda thought that you couldn't call someone a friend if you hadn't met in person first. I've changed my mind on that now.
I'm glad to have met in person some of the people I admire who are online, and to be able to call them friends. When I was a 'newbie' online, and still finding my way, these people made the first connection to me and gave me a 'welcome'.
And although I haven't met everyone I want to, I feel that I can call some people friends that I connect with online. The miles don't seem to matter so much when you can chat and share on the internet.
My social landscape has changed a lot. Now it's a lot easier to seek out the type of people that I like, and say 'Hi'.
The type of people I'm attracted to are positive, industrious, rebellious, have goals and dreams and ambitions. They are busy people, as am I, and I take comfort in the fact that I'm working away late into the night, my friends are doing the same thing. And then we'll come up for air and meet up in person and have a good catch up.
They say you are what you eat. I'd also say, you are who you surround yourself with.
When you have friends that inspire and are a positive influence on your life, that will naturally rub off on you. Likewise, if all your friends are negative, woe is me, life sucks types, how is that going to make you feel?
I really find it hard to remember my social life before the net, but I am very grateful to it now, and for all the friends I have made in the past few years. Thank you friends. You Rock!
My best friend (ever in the whole wide world!) came to stay!!
We haven't seen each other since last summer.
Her name is Faith. We met 20 years ago when we were in the Royal Navy.
We didn't hit it off on first sight, but then Faith moved into my Mess in the bed opposite mine. "I suppose we had better be friends then", I said. And from that moment on we were!
We shared our secrets, had adventures, and laughed and laughed and laughed.
And we are still laughing now.
I don't think there is anything we don't know about one another. Or that we couldn't tell each other.
Since then, we went through the novelty of getting our first mobile phones (I'm not sure who was first), and getting hooked up to the internet (she beat me to that), there's been hardly a day when we are not in touch by text or email. We are constantly updating each other with snippets from our lives, big or small.
Living my life as much as I do online I thought I would document our weekend via my tweets. I chose the hash tag of #ksbf (Karen Strunks Best Friend) and signed up to Storify imagining I would be tweeting all weekend long. However, I hardly tweet at all - that's a first!
I ended up taking quite a break from the internet and my iPhone, and simply enjoyed the company of my best friend.
We had 4 days together and it felt like the first time I had stopped properly this year. I've had a couple of breaks (or at least one that springs to mind) but they have been quite active. I'm so used to being on the go all the time (which I love), but I adjusted surprisingly quickly to a change of pace, and also to having constant company.
I live on my own, I work on my own (for the majority of the time), I enjoy my own company, I never get bored or feel lonely, but I don't think I would ever tire of Faith's company.
I moved to Moseley 7 years ago, but at at that time I very nearly came close to moving to Lincoln instead which was where Faith was living. I even viewed houses there, but I decided Lincoln wasn't quite big enough for me (as much as I love my best friend!). Faith is very much a country mouse (and has since moved to Cumbria) whereas I'm very much a big city mouse (ultimately aiming for NYC!).
I wonder if one day we will find a middle ground near to each other. But in the meantime, with all the communication, we hardly feel the miles.
So, what did we do last weekend?!
Faith arrived on Friday afternoon, and we met my Mum and step Dad for dinner. When we got back mine I gave Faith her belated birthday pressie. What better than one of my favourite toys - a HULA HOOP!
We played outside for an hour like a couple of kids. Faith soon picked up how to hula and we were choreographing hula routines in between laughing.
I've got lots of video footage, but even I'm too shy to put it on here, though I'm crying with laughter watching it!
Saturday was photo shoot day and we got dressed up far too inappropriately for a Saturday afternoon and headed out and about.
Faith
Me
As you can tell, we are very shy in front of the camera! We took a ton of photos, we danced around, jumped up and down, pulled faces, and laughed (though I'm looking quite serious in these photos!).
Saturday evening saw us at a Spiritualist Church. Rock n Roll. We didn't get any messages from the medium!
Sunday was uber lazy, but productive in other ways. We talked BUSINESS.
Even though I have a bit of head start in running businesses and creative endeavors we still found we had a lot of common ground to cover.
We spent a good 4/5 hours discussing topics such as...
Time management
Where time is better spent
Diary organisation
'Hidden' time - ie not just doing the work, but the prep, paperwork etc that is also involved
We talked about what work to say NO to.
We even did some role playing in saying NO politely but firmly!
"Hello, can you work for me for free?" NO
"Hello, can you do XYZ for me and I'll put your name on my website"? NO
"Hello, can you do me a favour where there is no benefit to you, but lots for me?" NO
And what work to possibly say YES to.
Top of that list is paid work obviously. Then there are other things that may bring benefits in other ways. For example, I don't get paid for running the 4am Project (I'm working on it) but it brings me a lot of other benefits, experience and exposure.
We both agreed that running businesses requires a lot of constant decision making. Weighing up of pros and cons, and quite importantly, listening to our instincts.
And it's not just deciding on the type of work you do, but WHO you want to work with too! For example, just a few months ago I 'sacked' my first client (there will be a blog post on that at some point). Opportunities may arise, but are they the right ones with the right people?
As we are both running things single handedly, free time is not on our side and we don't have it to waste. Time, like money, has to be invested wisely and hopefully that investment will bring rewards of some kind.
We then got out our pens and paper and made plans! That's the exciting bit! What do we want to achieve this year, next year, even in 5 years. Where do we want to be? How are we going to get there? How many steps will it take? What do we need to do?
That was a good 4/5 hours well spent and we both benefited from it. It's not often I get to sit down and talk things through with someone and get another perspective and really chew things over. And Faith's gone away more inspired than ever and is already cracking on with her plans this week.
After exercising our minds, Faith managed to persuade me to go out for a walk (I was sooo comfy!). I let her lead the way, knowing we would get lost as she doesn't know the area, and I ended up seeing parts of my neighbourhood I hadn't been to before.
Faith left on Monday and I was SO sad to see her go! I'm so used to spending time on my own but I really missed her and felt a bit down on Sunday evening. I watched silly Sex & The City 2 to cheer myself up a bit!
It took me a while to get back into the work frame of mind on Tuesday. The pro's of Faiths visit are that I had a super, fab, inspiring time with my best friend plus I completely chilled out. But I'm back in the swing of things again and up to full speed.
This has been (and will be!) a pretty amazing week and I'm feeling very happy and grateful. I got to see my best friend, I got a new wedding photography booking, I have taken over the running of the Bham Social Media Cafe, I'm going out with for cocktails with friends tonight, I'm helping a community in Liverpool with hyperlocal blogging with Talk About Local and my friend and colleague Nicky tomorrow, and on Saturday I'm seeing my brilliant Mum!
And now I must get ready for cocktail night and put my best bling on! :)
This last week has been very busy and when I finally had time to sit down and let my mind wander I realised it's been a pretty awesome week! So I'm going to acknowledge it and make a note of the highlights.
I ran my LONGEST run! SIX miles! PLUS a 3 mile walk. I did the run in 64 minutes which was a nice surprise too. My best friend (ever in the whole wide world hehee) is coming to stay at the end of this month so I am planning to do my first 7 miler with her then.
Wedding Photography
I did my second wedding photography shoot of the year! It went really well. I did a lot of planning for it, story boarding and checked out the venues before hand. My planning paid off as did my timings (being where I was meant to be at the right time!). The newly weds were great and I can only wish future wedding photography clients are as ace!
I'm looking forward to editing the pics and can't wait for the couple to see them.
On the subject of wedding photography, I had another enquiry this week about a booking for next year! Usually with other photography, bookings might be made a month in advance but usually with a lot less notice. I guess with wedddings I'm going to have to get used to planning much further in advance!
4am Project
The 4am Project event last Sunday went amazingly well! A great turn out, lots of fab feedback and it made all the preparation worth while.
Speaking Engagements
Talking of the 4am Project, I'm going to be speaking about it at a Red Eye event on 14th May in Liverpool called the National Photography Symposium. Are you going? Come and say hello! I'll be there from the Friday evening until late Saturday afternoon.
I also had another request to speak at a photography festival. I'm just waiting to get some more details about that one first, but it's always nice to be asked!
MORE on the 4am Project!
I received approaches from two companies (one from the UK, one from the USA) showing an interest in the 4am Project. It's very early days and maybe nothing will come of it, but it's great that companies are showing an interest. Whatever comes out of it (if anything - keeping my feet on the ground!), I've got to make sure that if a company gets involved it's got to be the right fit for the project and I won't be rushing into anything or making hasty decisions.
Meme'd!
Kathryn Ashcroft meme'd me and said some nice things on her blog about me too! Like most people, meme's don't hold much interest to me, but I've had a quick scan of the questions and I think they'll fit in nicely with this 'a bit more....' blog. I might do it in a video form, but it probably won't be for a few weeks yet.
Chilling with friends
I had a lovely night with my friends Sas and Marty and other friends at their Chilli night! I played games with the kids and then we all did karaoke (and I NEVER do karaoke). Thankfully I don't think anyone audio boo'd it. Thanks for a great night guys! I'll be round again soon!
Burning Man
Friends Fiona Cullinan and Pete Ashton invited me to their Burning Man party. Pete had been busy cutting down trees and was burning them and a party built up around that!
"We're also inviting people to bring an effigy to burn. This can be a representation of a person, institution or idea that you'd like you remove from your life. You can make a detailed doll or just scribble on a piece of paper. It's all about the catharsis"
Cool!
I nearly didn't make it after doing 9 miles on my feet earlier in the day and was wiped out in the afternoon, but managed to get a second wind.
With the invitation to burn something, I cut out '50lbs' and 'NO'. Of course the 50lbs represents the weight I have lost and I wanted to say goodbye to it! The NO was to represent negativity (N) and saying NO to negativity and negative people. I don't want any negativity in my life (who does) and I'm lucky I'm surrounded by a great group of friends. I don't have much negativity in my life (as it's banned!) but just to make sure, I wanted to burn it too!
So April ended and May started on a high! I can't wait to see what the rest of this month brings!
Oh, I know! I'm partaking in Birmingham's Pecha Kucha night on 18th May. I've been meaning to take part for ages now, so I'm pleased to have finally set a date. I think I'm going to be talking about heart ache! haha. Hopefully it won't be as depressing as it sounds! See you there?
And to top the month of May off, as I mentioned before, my best friend is coming to stay! To say I can't wait to see her is an understatement. I am soooo excited. I know we are going to have a ton of fun and silliness all weekend! Also, she hasn't seen me since I've lost weight, so she is going to get a big surprise.
Right, I'm going to chill for the rest of the day. I had a shock when I looked at my diary for this month and realised I haven't got one free day in it, except for Sunday Me Days where I don't make any plans. I'm going to need those days this month especially.
I want to keep track of this and that as the year progresses and where better than my new blog! It will be handy to have a record of events and highlights as 2011 progresses and a place to refer to.
2011 has got off to a great start I'm pleased to say. I think I've packed quite a lot into it and I'm happy with my level of productivity and the balance I have with time off, which isn't so much about quantity but quality.
Media
At the start of the year when the binmen in Birmingham were refusing to collect the refuse I was called upon to do a BBC Midlands Today LIVE Interview in the lunch time bulletin. This was my first live TV and I tried not to think too much about that part. Ben Godfrey was the interviewer and we had a chance to do a couple of rehearsals thank goodness. I was an 'angry resident' complaining about the state of the rubbish that was piling up. It was an eyesore and a health hazard, oh yes! I'm kicking myself I didn't record it, but it was all such a rush, I forgot. I did manage to get a snap with Ben though.
I took this photo in September 08, and it was used in the print paper at the time. Seeing this image brought back a lot of memories. I remember taking the photo and the challenge of getting a steady shot on a longer shutter speed to capture the movement of people without a tripod!
I absolutely loved my 6 months work experience at the Birmingham Post and Birmingham Mail. I learnt a lot, and very quickly. I was very sad when I had to make the decision to leave to free up some time to concentrate on work.
Seeing this image gave me pause to reflect, in the 2.5 years since took that photograph, so much has happened! I've had some amazing experiences, worked harder than I ever have but loved every minute of it. Sometimes it hard to see the bigger picture on a day to day basis, but looking back I am so proud of everything I have done and achieved. None of that would have happened if I had just sat back waiting for opportunities. You have to MAKE things happen and put the wheels in motion.
Fellow Hyperlocal blogger Jamie Summerfield says my blog post really got him thinking about his year ahead and he's written about his 2011 plans.
Media Student and uber sports fanatic Rachel Simmo has put her exciting plans and goals for 2011 in writing too!
A bit less of Karen!
I'm still on my weight loss journey that began in August last year, and I'm about 37lbs light. I've met, and exceeded my weight loss goal of 5lbs for January with a 6lb loss. You can read more about my weight loss progress here.
I've lost another 7lbs since the photo on the right was taken.
I'm going to Prague with BMI Baby, baby!
bmibaby have invited me to Prague for a weekend in March! I'm so looking forward to this, and it will be my first mini holiday of the year and I suspect I will be ready for it. I've been to Prague before for a couple of days and it's beautiful, so I am looking forward to getting more acquainted with the city. Of course I'll be blogging all about it, so you won't miss a thing!
I've had my first wedding photography booking for this year! I said I wanted to introduce wedding photography in 2011 so it's wonderful to get my first booking so early on in the year. I'll be announcing my wedding photography packages soon and am just working out the details and the price. As an added bonus I received another wedding photography by email today!
So, if you or anyone you know is at the stage of thinking about booking a wedding photographer, get in touch!
Running freeeee!
I'm still hitting the roads and clocking up the miles. It's been a great experience overall and I'm learning a lot about what I can and can't do and trying not to get too carried away and listen to my body. I ran 35.5 miles in January. I can't quite believe it. My longest run (non stop!) was 4.5miles. I'm aiming to beat 35.5 for February. You can read all about my running and see some charts, graps and some gps 'art' here. I've also taken up hula hooping and I am really enjoying it! I've ordered my own hula hoop now which will be customized in my favourite colours, red/silver/black!
I'm Talking About Local
I'm really, really enjoying my work with Talk About Local and the team (and I'm not just saying that because they might read this!). I've written my first blog post about new experiences hyperlocal blogging can bring if you fancy a read.
I'm really proud to be working with such a inspiring company. It just goes to show what a small, dedicated team with passion can do. I'm very glad I listened to my instincts when I saw the job advertised when I was away in New York and followed through with my application. I'm learning a lot, and hopefully I'm making a good contribution to their work too.
Rest and play
I'm sticking to my goal of having a more of a social life and more chill out time.
I had a brilliant night at Nicky and Sas's joint birthday party, and had an equally fabulous night at Ben's 40th 1940's themed birthday bash. I got daring with a green dress, which makes a big change from my usual black/red combo.
I wasn't the only lady rocking a green frock that night!
Love this pic - we can do it!
Sorry about shoddy pic quality - taken with iPhone in the dark. I need to get my hands on a very compact handy handbag sized camera that I can take anywhere and not worry about too much.
I'm sticking to having a day off a week, and taking time out to do nothing much, maybe catching up on a film or two. I do feel the benefit to just chilling out which is something I didn't make much time for last year.
Us Now. 'A film project about the power of mass collaboration, government and the internet' Admittedly I've got to watch all of it, but I've liked what I've seen so far.
I've been mulling over the idea of introducing Social Saturdays this year in an attempt to get my work/social life balance evened out a bit as part of my 2011 goals. The idea is I set aside a Saturday a month or so, and then try and see as many friends a possible! That way I get to pack a whole load of fun with friends into one day, but I'm not sure how effectively that will work out, as the idea relies on the friends I want to see being free on that particular day. I'll give it a bit more thought.
I definitely had a social Saturday last weekend with my friends Nicky & Sas's birthdays at their joint party. This was my first proper night out this year and I was really looking forward to it (and the excuse to get glammed up)!
I was over the moon that my new Maybelline lipsticks arrived from Ebay that, especially after the trouble I had when I went shopping for them at Birmingham's Rag Market a few weeks ago. (BTW, the owner of the stall has recieved my complaint letter and I am waiting for a response. Soon!)
I had popped into the city centre in the morning and picked up an uber sparkly Urban Decay glitter eye gel. It's meant to be eyeliner, but why stop there. More is MORE! ;)
And why not follow the bling through in my earrings, belt and sequinned shoes too!
The theme of the party was CHEESE! There was a MOUNTAIN of the stuff, and I think I even spotted a white chocolate chip cheese.
I hadn't seen Sas or hubby Marty since the hazy days of summer, so it was great to catch up with them. We had gifts to exchange too!
I brought Marty back a very special tie from New York. Looks great Marty!
And then it was time for my pressies! I was assured that out of my two presents, the first one was the best one.
LOOK!
Do you know what THAT IS?! Yes, it's what you think it is! Marty took this for his submission to the 4am Project. It's left me speechless as you can imagine ;D
Then there was this beautifully wrapped gift. In red paper too.
Unwrapped, it revealed this Vivienne Westwood box. My heart was racing with excitement.
And behold a GORGEOUS purse/clutch bag in red. I LOVE it. Thank you so much guys!
But the fun didn't stop there. It was great to see so many friends at the party and have a good catch up, some of who I hadn't seen for months. It was a fab first night out of 2011. Thank you Nicky and Sas!
Of course you can't have a birthday without cake, and I wanted to capture the birthday girls blowing out the candles.
