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Well I was doing a bit of googling and found a website which I thought was fun so thought I would share.

The website is called Is This Your Name???

When I put my name in it comes up with these interesting little quips:

43% of the letters are vowels. Of one million first and last names we looked at, 19.5% have a higher vowel make-up. This means it is well envoweled.

In ASCII binary it is... 01000100 01100001 01101110 01101001 01100101 01101100 01101100 01100101 00100000 01000111 01110010 01100001 01110110 01100101 01110011  

Backwards, it is Elleinad Sevarg... nice ring to it, huh?

In Pig Latin, it is Anielleday Avesgray.

People with this first name are probably: Female. So, they are constantly overcharged for beauty products.

The Origin of Danielle is French and comes from the male name Daniel. It has the meaning 'My Judge'.

 
Your personal power animal is the Domestic Ferret




Your 'Numerology' number is 8. If it wasn't bulls**t, it would mean that you are motivated by material success and have an aptitude for business, managerial and financial matters. This comes through your uncommon discipline and persistence.


According to the US Census Bureau°, 0.149% of US residents have the first name 'Danielle' and 0.0339% have the surname 'Graves'. The US has around 300 million residents, so we guesstimate there are 152 Americans who go by the name 'Danielle Graves'.


So there you have it, have a look what does it say about you?
Today is Fathers Day, a day for celebrating how brilliant and amazing our fathers are. Yet there are many people, and a lot of my friends are included who will not be celebrating today, as sadly their dad's have passed away. It is seeing the status updates of people sick with worry, and stressed about how they will cope on their first Father's Day since their dad's have passed which has made me so appreciative of what I have.

I have 3 dads.

My first dad is my real dad. He's the one I look like and the one I inherit my height from. He's the one that thinks of himself as a 'shit dad' - his words not mine. Yet he doesn't realise quite how proud of him I really am. Admittedly we haven't always seen eye to eye, and for years we had no contact, yet in 2008 I wrote him a letter and we got back in touch and I might not see him every day or every week, but those 2 or 3 times I see him a year mean the world to me. We have limited contact through emails and texts because he works too bloody hard and when I do see him we never really know what to talk about and often sit in his car for 20 minutes, but that's ok because he's still there. He always calls me monkey in our emails and he always signs them off Pops. So this year I got him a chocolate monkey from Thornton's and had it iced 'To Pops Love Monkey' it might not have been expensive but I know it meant the world to him.

My second dad is Dave, he's my step dad. Me and Dave have had our ups and downs and there has been more downs than ups. I've never been able to call him dad because it felt like betraying my real dad so I stick to calling him Dave. At times I have hated him and at times I love him to bits. He makes my mum happy and it's cause of him I have my spud and whilst at times we fought like cat and dog he still tried to do his best for me, it didn't always work but he tried. Now many people will find my card to him offensive, those who know him will probably think its a bit below the belt, but that's the way me and Dave work, we bitch at each other in the nicest possible way! His card is pint shaped and reads:
"Of beer you are an expert,
 you know good ale from bad,
 which isn't that suprising
 the amount of pint's you've had.
 You're happy drinking lager.
 cider, bitter or even stout,
 if anyone questions your knowledge........

 your beer belly removes all doubt! "


It made me chuckle anyway :o)

My third dad isn't really my dad. He's my granddad. I've always been a granddad's girl, it's probably always shown. He's the one who cleaned me up when I fell and banged my knee, the one who takes me to the doctors or hospital when i'm ill, the one who looks after me and puts a roof over my head, and even though he doesn't admit it he's the one that lets me squidge in between him and my nan on the sofa for a cuddle. He's the man that stood by me through everything from the 4am feeds as a new born bairn to the 4am trips to pick me up from town when I am stranded. He often jokes that I'm his fourth daughter, to be honest I am. He get's on my nerves with all his sport but what man doesn't?? I couldn't ask for a better man.

So there you have it. I'm spoilt. I have 3 men who all have their faults, some bigger than others, but they all had an input into who I am and despite a few rough patches they didn't do too bad. So I wish them a huge and happy father's day and may I not bring undue stress, grey hair or expense to you in the next 365 days, i love you all x
Yesterday somebody asked me what song defined me and I really struggled to come up with one definitive song as there are a few that define parts of me or parts of my life so far at least. I asked my best friend and my grandma; the two people who know me best, and neither of them could come up with one song. My cyber sister Jobie Wan Kenobi said her defining song was 'Fat Bottomed Girls' which made me lol lots. So I set to task and with the help of iTunes tried to find a song that defined me. The sun was shining, and the music was playing loud and it reminded me of a part of my teenage years. So the facebook status

The year is 2002, I'm a moody 15 year old with black hair and even more black eyeliner. My jeans are so wide that the leg fits around my waist, the sun is shining the music is loud and i couldnt give a shit :p


came about. iTunes genius is just that - a genius. It transported me back in time to the age of 15 and the music that I loved and still do. The very first song on the genius list was Something Corporate and their song Punk Rock Princess. That's who I was and part of me still is I guess. I still don't think that song defines me on a whole though so I am still pretty stumped. :(

Other songs that came up on genius were Bleed America by Jimmy Eat World which was pretty accurate with the line 'I'm not alone cos the tv's on yeah, I'm not crazy cos I take right pills everyday." Then there was Bullet For My Valentine and their song Tears Don't Fall - "My tears don't fall they crash around me" as well as many many more. So even though I still can't find one defining song I'm enjoying trying x



It's official.

I am having a mid-life crisis. Aged 22.

I have no job, I am no longer a student, I live with my grandparents 'renting' one of their spare bedrooms. I have no income, no partner and yet despite the fact I should be miserable and depressed about all these facts I am the complete opposite.

Gone are the days of wearing nothing but black, and the hatred for wearing jewellery. My hair was black, my clothes were black, my make up was black. Today I am a rainbow. (I've been on the energy drinks can you tell?)

Looking at my wardrobe and it's contents, yes there still are some items of black, mainly trousers but there are new colours seeping in such as blue, pink, purple and green. I have developed a love of T-shirts with pictures or slogans on. One of my favourites is a chick with huge glasses on and the words 'Chick With Brains', a blatant lie if you could see my revision notes at the moment but all the same I think the tee is cute :)

My hairs now a mousy brown although in 3 weeks time it is getting bleached blonde. It won't be blonde for long though as I am ditzy enough but even though I have brown hair the dyes I use never give the results I want so I am bleaching first before hopefully going a lovely burgundy colour. Hopefully.

I don't wear jewellery, well I never used to, I still don't wear conventional jewellery but I love quirky and kitsch items. Such as my smiley face studs which my mum got me at christmas from Claire's accessories, to the scrabble tile I wear around my neck and my new love a knitting needle bracelet. Which was sent to me by a wonderful lady called Natalie. I love it hun so thank you very much :)

The only thing I can think of is about how much I have changed, for the better. In the last 3 years my confidence has grown and with it my true inner personality has begun to break out, the weight loss has just given it a bit of a shove.

So as I sit here in my rainbow of bright pink tinkerbell t-shirt, blue and pink Sesame Street underwear, fluorescent yellow socks, black trousers, a pale green knitting needle bracelet and some funky yellow earrings, I'm happy. Cause at the end of every rainbow is a pot of gold..
After losing just short of 4 stone, I have outgrown my clothes, or rather they have outgrown me. The size 24, 26 and 28 which I regularly used to wear now hang loose and look scruffily ill fitting, heck I have even had the problem of some of my trousers falling down.

Wanting to know what clothes size I should be looking for from now on I decided to do a quick google. I checked the New Look site, Evans and then I checked the British Standard chart as seen on Retro Chick's Blog. My grandma who has also decided to lose weight has also joined Slimming World and so we decided to look at her measurements as well.

I have some size 24 trousers which fit perfect, not tight but not baggy on the bum and falling down. I have size 22 which fit perfect not tight and again not baggy on the bum. Yet according to the New Look size guide I should be buying size 24-26. Yet the New Look trousers I have from New Look in the size fall down.
 Me wearing said 24-26 trousers from New Look

What made me feel even worse was the fact that in accordance with the British Standard, which admittedly doesn't really exist in store but is still there for reference I should be in a size 30! No matter how much weight i have gained in my life I have never been a size 30 and it's really moral quashing to see that in print when you think you have done well. 

So either New Look have just lied on their size guide and picked numbers out of the air at random or I have been really unlucky and bought 3 pairs of trousers which have had the wrong size label sewn in, which is pretty impossible as New Looks inspire range only goes up to a size 26 anyway.

In complete comparison with their trousers, New Look state I should be a size 18 on top. I wish. My current tops are a size 20-22. Without looking too tight (the pic above the top is tied behind my back so you can see the extent of of the gap), yet I know that if I was to try and get a size 18 on at the moment then I would either lose feeling in body parts due to the restriction to my blood flow or the seams would bust. The British Standard is a little more accurate though and puts me at a size 22. 

So I guess my point is. How can a clothing size guide be so accurate with one part of your body and then so out of touch and off the mark with another? How many people's self confidence have shops ruined and sabotaged because they can't make a set guideline for their clothing sizes and then stick to it? 

I'm of the personality type on which normally I would let this put me down and I would feel sad and feel like I hadn't made any progress, well all I can say now is bollocks to the British clothing industry. I'm doing well, I've lost weight, I've lost inches, I'm in smaller clothes. Whether you put me in a size 20 or a size 24 it's still apparent how far I have come by looking at me, a few numbers on a label aren't going to ruin that for me! 


I haven't blogged for a few days. I have had a lot running through my mind. My exams are this month, in fact my first one is on Friday. I could always lie and say that I am prepared but when it's the end of an era almost it\s hard to know if you are prepared or not. After my exams I am not sure where I go. It's been 3 years since I worked and as much as I would love to go back to work I know that my options are limited as to who will take me and what I can do. I still struggle with groups of people although am thinking of enquiring about touch typist roles or receptionists in the local hospital. Something like that.

Speaking of hospitals, on Thursday I had my appointment with the specialist regarding weight loss surgery. Last year I asked to be referred for surgery as I wasn't able to lose weight. I was struggling and shifted a stone then gained it again. I didn't tell them at first that I had been going to Slimming World. They weighed me and were shocked by the results, in a good way. It turns out I can't have the surgery now anyway as I have lost so much weight that I fall below their BMI threshold. I am quite happy about it really as over the last 17 weeks I have managed to talk myself out of it. I'd rather do it my way.

I also went to Slimming World on Thursday and I lost 4.5lb this week! :) 1lb to go for my 4 stone award yippeeee. :)
I love books which have been made into films and television series. As many of you will know some of my favourite books are the Twilight Saga and Sookie Stackhouse series (TrueBlood)

Then there is the wonderful films such as Alice in Wonderland, To Kill a Mockingbird and many more.

As a treat for you guys I have two books to give away.

The Soloist and Dan Brown's Angels & Demons

If you would like to enter then please fill in the form below by the 15th June.