Thank you Prince William and KateMiddleton for another bank holiday

Here we are at Easter Monday, day four of a bank holiday-fest with not one but two more to look forward to within the space of a week thanks to the wedding of Prince William to his 'peasant' bride Kate Middleton. How lovely of them to bestow something on the nation in celebration of their big day; will this be an annual treat? I hope not.

Call me sour-puss if you will but I could do without another day of bank holiday madness. I blame it on living in a seaside town; if the statisticians are to be believed a whopping 400,000 people have descended on Brighton this Easter to enjoy the unbelievably un-British hot weather beside the seaside. At any one point 150,000 bodies were worshipping the sunshine on our boiling shingle. Is this the place to take two wee ones seriously lacking the sense to stay put in a crowd? I think not. Especially not toddler girl who assumes a bright red shade as the weakest of the sun's rays strike her fair complexion and yet refuses to keep her hat on for more than an hour. As for applying the saving grace of factor 50 - try pinning down a raging tiger it will be easier.

Thankfully we had the wondrous National Trust to fall back on; throwing caution to wind on the cost of petrol we scuttled out of Brighton as fast as our wheels could take us and headed for Standen House. This old Arts & Crafts estate is amazing. They've built a fantastic zone for kids out of woodland; this has two cunning bonuses. The first is shade; not to be sniffed at when the temperatures soar and sun lotion is a battle best avoided. The second is a crazy, clambering, rough and ready range of amusements for small folk that can be bashed and scrambled on with wild abandon. No need to fret or worry about potential damage and it is self contained so they can't disappear into the masses and send your heart rate into the danger zone. Throw in some perfectly placed picnic table with stunning views and you have it made.

The beautiful Arts& Crafts estate of Standen House; views aplenty

But there is no need for a bank holiday to head out there; it's open every weekend for 9 months of the year. While I see that bank holidays are quite lovely really I can't help but heave a sigh a relief once they are over; entertaining wee ones is hard enough without having to fight the crowds for the fun-stuff. As for the double-dose next week; well best get the National Trust book out and start hunting for salvation.

Is SEO the way of the future?

A lemonade purse is all well and good but there comes a time when a gal wants more; like champagne or at the very least a nice class of rioja. This freelance lark is fine when a stable income isn't a priority but in these times of new austoryty - oops sorry that is austerity isn't it. Silly me. As I was saying; with belts pulling in faster than troops in Libya it has reached a point when a return to the world of the office is a must. After three years at home with wee ones I have discovered that employers are less than thrilled to see my CV land on their pile. And what piles they are; great towering edifices of hope and desire. My experience and skill set is, even if I do say so myself, rather good. But a communications job in Brighton - make that ideally a part time communications job - is harder to find than hen free pub down Western Road on a Saturday night. That is unless you work in the SEO trade. For those saying 'what the heck?' this is Search Engine Optimisation. It is a way of marketing online that can be rather brilliant (white hat) but sometimes rather shady (black hat), oh I know the lingo I do. You naughty spammers you.

As I left the world of corporate communications waddling with my baby bump, the world of SEO was new territory to be explored. It appears that in my absence it has not only been explored but conquered and Brighton owns the whole damn kit and caboodle.So it was with a huge sigh of relief that I discovered a free - yes free - conference all about SEO right here in Brighton. If you tweet you'd find it under #BrightonSEO. These lovely SEO people are so brilliant at what they do that they kindly shared their wisdom for naught but the pleasure of people listening and they offered free coffee and danish pastries into the bargain. I genuinely think they deserve a huge round of applause for their efforts; it was well organised, had an amazing range of speakers and for me proved the ideal learning platform for this growing area of communications. Did I mention it was free too - ah yes.

Brighton, a city that is King of SEO

If you want more info on this wonderful event visit Brighton SEO.

Now thanks to the info sharing joy of Twitter and the wonderful generosity of #BrightonSEO I am armed and dangerous; ready to write SEO copy for the highest bidder. Well, at the very least I would be comfortable adding it into my marketing mix and this adds another layer of polish to the old CV. Can SEO be part of my future? Let us keep fingers and toes firmly crossed.

Nifty thrifty

One doesn't want ones little ones to look like scallywags does one? Not at all. Nope. Brighton is a city where funky is taken on as a religion and to lack style, well, it is a sin. So what can one do if one lacks the budget to get 'the look'? One can fiddle and fake it, that's what. Or tell the fashionistas to go shove their style where needles fear to thread. But being a polite young woman (yes young thank you very much) I would never be so rude. So fiddle and fake it wins the day.

Out browsing in the North Laines I stumbled across a new shop selling sweet, sweet dresses. Hand made in the funkiest of funky fabrics. Ah my baby girl would look just darling in one of these beauties. Shame about the price tag then. For a mere £27 daughter dearest could sport a dress to make the toddlers drool with envy, or at the very least the yummy mummies nod with approval. And who doesn't want to see that? Yes that £27 would bring smiles and joy to my wee one for all of 3 months at the rate she's growing. Or I could go to H&M kids and get 3 for that price. But they wouldn't have the kudos would they?

Ah that dress sparked an itch I had to scratch. So a plan was devised. There is a marvellous lady who sells the most amazing fabrics in Brighton (Michelle Le Maitre. 20, Church St,) and at £12 a meter they make it easy to create fresh and funky clothes at a fraction of the cost of buying them ready made. One meter was plenty to create a dress exactly like the one in the shop - 2 dresses if I cut carefully and lined with a plain fabric. What is not to love about that? 

So I got out the brown paper and a similar dress to make my pattern. Snipped and pinned and sewed and tweaked. And voila - a dress. Unique. Funky and most cost effective. Itch scratched. Baby girl got 'the look' and I got a pat on the back. Yay!

A toast to the new dress mummy dearest...

Baby catwalk

Up close and funky