Everyone knows that chocolate is a sex substitute. (You did know that, right??) It contains a chemical that our bodies convert into phenylethylamine – the same chemical that does its stuff when we fall in love. A quick chunk of a Galaxy Easter Egg magics up serotonin and oxytocin in our brains to give us that happy, tingly feeling we get when we fall in love. That’s why we can’t help craving it. Oxytocin is the kissing, ‘bonding chemical’ that makes us want more… Well, research has shown that using social media has the same effect!
So if you didn’t get a selection of Lindor eggs and bunnies this weekend (as I greedily did!), don’t be sad – half an hour on Facebook really can make you feel just as happy, and without the calories!
Aside from being naughty with chocolate this Easter, I’ve been suffering from garden envy. I’m not generally a jealous person, but a trip to Cliftonville to visit friends in their new home did the trick and I spent a good part of the afternoon wishing their garden was mine. It was so incredibly beautiful.
Mine will never be a dreamy haven of beauty, but wandering around Linda’s did inspire me to at least tidy up. Therefore I ventured out there this morning, armed with a shovel, rake and broken broom, to begin chopping and pruning ready to plant some pretty purple things next week. (That’s why this blog was late, sorry!)
Cultivating a garden is actually similar to creating a website – you begin with nothing – or, if you’re like me, a higgledy piggledy jumble that’s hard to make out. Then a few hours later you have something shiny and new with the potential to flourish. Like a business!
I don’t often mention my web design work, as I don’t consider myself anywhere near as expert as some of the fab designers I’ve met over the past couple of years through networking. But I do love the creative aspect of it, and I’ve even picked up a bit of HTML coding – more luck than judgement. So I had fun last week creating a whole new business from scratch, starting with nothing more than an idea, a nice blank sheet of paper and a WordPress log-in.
Branding a series of social media profiles is clearly most beneficial when they’re linked to a website. After all, I preach at my training workshops that social media is the signpost to your on-line ‘storefront’ – your website. Anyway, I love the simplicity of WordPress. It’s fantastic to be able to build a site, fill it with content, upload pics, handle all the SEO stuff – meta-tags on photos, meta-descriptions for Google, other meta-blah blah – and I don’t even know what ‘meta’ means!! I love developing it from a blank screen into a tangible business tool with social media links, share buttons, comment boxes, maps, payment facilities and whatever else the client needs to have included. And it’s such good fun!
So now I’ll finish the website, finish the garden and finish the chocolate, before heading out to Cambridge for an afternoon of punting and cream tea. Can’t think of any specific Easter songs, but people do say that, in a certain light, I look like Sarah Brightman. I no longer do the Starship Trooper high kicks but this is more sedate and appropriate for Easter anyway. “Should I bring him down? Should I scream and shout? Should I speak of love, let my feelings out? I never thought I’d come to this… What’s it all about?”
Have a fantastic Easter Monday! @WeekendWitch.
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