education, Uncategorized

BritMumsLive 2016 Instagram Panel

So, this year I’m back at BritMumLive…

BritmumsLive Instagram workshop

And at 14:50 in the afternoon of Saturday 25 June 2016 I shall be joined in stage by some rather lovely friends – we’ll be talking about Instagram,

Our team:
@incredibusy – that’s me, Ali 
@redtedart – Maggy  www.redtedart.com
@coldatnight – Sian www.coldatnight.co.uk
@paintsewgluechew – Diana  www.paintsewgluechew.com

I’ve known Maggy for a long time, we are good friends and neighbours with similar creative and social media interests, and we also curate a craft blog together, click here.

Our instagram feeds are similar, yet quite different – I think this is perhaps due to the age gap between our families? And Maggy crafts and creates a WHOLE lot more than I do… Plus, I spend time creating and curating content for my clients’ instagram feeds too, so we perhaps don’t dedicate the same time to to our accounts as each other! (I’ll be wearing a couple of them – www.Po-Zu.com and www.BryonyandCo.com so make sure you follow their instagram feeds for me!!)

I was late to instagram, well, two and a half years ago I didn’t have a phone that supported the app, and experimented with my iPad – if you scroll back through my account, you’ll see I was having fun with filters and frames, and although I cringe at some of these shots, I’m loath to delete photos, as each tell #littlestoriesofmylife – and my family’s life.

This garners a couple of questions – do you delete old photos?? and do you feature photos of yourself and your kids??

Maggy and I both share an interest in themed photo challenges – we co-host #KidsCrafts101 and #SGIEW – two weekly hashtagged instagram challenges which we’d love you to join in with – go find the hashtags, and see what this week’s challenge is, we’d love you to join in!

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/kidscrafts101/

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/sgiew/

For me, this has been an amazing way of finding new accounts to follow and connect with, it’s also been a wonderful prompt for me more recently, to be creative, as my own boys have grown older, they are less inclined to ‘craft’ yet have really enjoyed creating stop motion animation – so we’ve been experimenting with that too!

It’s about evolution – your own evolution, perhaps as your kids get older, or indeed, just looking back at how your feed has developed and changed. I don’t particularly have a theme or a style, and neither does Maggy – however, if we turn to our other panelists, and look at their instagram feeds, you will see that both @coldatnight and @paintsewgluechew have definite styles, and consistent feeds…

I’ve invited Diana and Sian along to #BML16 to share their own experiences of instagram, so if you’re lucky enough to catch them ‘live’ on Saturday, you’ll find out more about them – needless to say, I hadn’t met them before the introduction of instagram in my life, and now have a little look at their feeds every morning, to see what they’ve been up to, and to say hello, good morning, and sometimes good night too! I’ve been to stay at Sian’s amazing place, Fforest {luxury camping and outdoor living at its very best} and would recommend it, an amazing space – and great for the kids….

So – at BritMumsLive we’ll be focusing on:
How each of the panel have grown their channel, their instagram philosophies and working practices
How they make their feed look fantastic plus any photo styling tips/props
We’ll be asking the panel to share their favourite instagrammer/s…
Their best tips on gaining followers. When they were growing what strategies did they use?
What they use to edit pictures
Their use of hashtags, and favourites
Which Instagram communities they love

Here’s a link to each of our panel’s most recent photo:

[ so good in every way ] #sgiew theme… #sgiew_BISCUIT ☕️ Oh we are LOVING a bit of baking at the moment, so we thought you might like to join in with this week’s #sgiew theme to join in with is “BISCUIT” – some comfort in this the first week of summer, yet we’re wearing wellies and grumbling about the clouds… 🌧🌧🌧Join in by following your hosts, @incredibusy @redtedart @willowdaygram and tagging #sgiew #sgiew_BISCUIT – PLUS, biscuity-bonus, we’re delighted to welcome an old friend to be our guest judge – @NikkiMcWilliams! Nikki will select x9 at the end of the week, to feature on the @sogoodineveryway grid – and you have until Midnight Sunday to join in, so whether it’s a cookie with your coffee, or a biscuit with you breakfast tea we want to see them! Oh and we might just have a little prize this week too; more on that later in the week☕️ can’t find the tea cup emoji but it’s something to do with that!! Thank you @teapigs 💛. . #littlestoriesofmylife #cookies #biscuits #mymonthofsundays (if you are following me on snapchat you’ll know we made these on Sunday morning!) #aquietstyle #coffeelover #string #coffeecam #coffeeandseasons #flatlaylover #flatlayforever

A photo posted by Ali Clifford (@incredibusy) on

More reading on Fforest:
fforest-gather-2016

fforest-and-welsh-woven-blankets

switch-off-enjoy-fields-silence

crafts, gardening

What I wore to Britmums Live 2014Ali Clifford and Maggy Woodley

Yes… I know, you know what I wore to #Britmumslive 2014. So many people asked – and I told sooo many people! A couple of rather lovely frocks from the wonderful Palava.co – Honestly, Bryony at Palava.co (previously Poppy England and Bryonyandco) has some beautiful dresses for women size 8 to size 16 and for little girls, from 6months, to 10years! (we ask the question again… why did I have two boys?!!) Maggy from Red Ted Art and I loved wearing the dresses – we are both a #PoppyFrockLover 🙂 I warn you… there will now be a LOT of Britmumslive photos…! #MakeitBritish

PoppyEngland parcel

The parcels arrived, and the tweets started (look at that packaging with the giraffe!)

And then we got DRESSED – and following the tiara theme, the lovely Georgie at Common Farm Flowers down in Somerset popped a beautiful floral tiara in the post arriving safely and in time to adorn the quiff…

If you would like your own Palava.co frock at 15% OFF, use the code BOATSANDFLOATS15 before the 12th July 2014… And failing that, for a chance to win a limited edition 2014 Boats Print reversible washbag, follow Poppy England on twitter and tweet I’m in it to win it with @poppyengland #poppyfrocklover.

Loved my three fabulous rings from another #PoppyFrockLover TreasuredBouquets – they just HAPPENED to coordinate perfectly! 🙂 For more thoughts on Britmums Live click here.

Ali PoppyEngland in a field

Ali Clifford by Liliesarelike Ali Clifford selfie Ali Clifford PoppyEngland feet Ali Clifford and Maggy Woodley
Ali-Clifford-wears-PoppyEngland-Day-1-FlowerFarmer
Ali Clifford Britmumslive rings

Follow Ali on twitter as @incredibusymum and twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos for more posts like this one… Erm, and funnily enough on Google+Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it! and come say hello at instagram.com/incredibusy too x

Ali also writes for Britmums here: GreenRoundUps and over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

 

charity, education, kids, life

see the childSee the Child: Change the System

I was lucky enough to be at Britmums Live 2014 and attended one of the INSPIRE sessions, “How to be an Agent of Change: Advocacy and charity campaigns” featuring Camila Batmanghelidjh, Kids Company; Lindsay Atkin, Lilies Are Like YouTuber; Hayley Goleniowska, Downs Side Up; and Chris Mosler, Thinly Spread.
Camila Batmanghelidjh
All very inspiring women indeed – and Camila Batmanghelidjh is the founder of Kids Company – the charity behind See the Child. Change the System.
Camila spoke of how vulnerable children in Britain desperately need our help. She movingly talked of how too many children across the country are suffering squalor, abuse and neglect. Most can’t get any help because the system just isn’t coping. Watch this video:WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP? Please help by signing the petition to show you care. This will help support an independent task force to redesign children’s services so that every child who needs help can get it. By voting, you too are helping to show the politicians that we’re no longer going to stand for this. Many of these children, and those who work with them, are being failed by a system in crisis, vote now by clicking here.
Visit the campaign’s website seethechild.org for more information.
Please do follow on Twitter @SeetheChild along with Facebook, G+, and instagram and search for the hashtag #SeetheChild and start sharing by commenting, and retweeting.
#SeetheChild are asking people to text I SEE to 63000 – (a standard network charge as a vote, not a donation). The text will constitute a ‘vote’ for change but you will also be able to sign up on the website.
see the child Ali CliffordFinally, in addition to voting, #SeetheChild would really like you, your friends, followers and family to post a picture of yourself as a child with the campaign messaging something along the lines of something like: “This is me as a child. Some children don’t have such happy childhoods. I’m supporting the #seethechild campaign to change Children’s Services in the UK. Share your childhood photo and sign the petition here bit.ly/1tfykF3.
Follow Ali on twitter as @incredibusymum and twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos for more posts like this one… Erm, and funnily enough on Google+Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it! and come say hello at instagram.com/incredibusy too x
Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com