Claudia’s Assignment

The blog review that I have done for my assignment is based on a blog written by a lady, Gene, who is a certified clinical nutritionist with more than 6 years of working experience from the website Choosing Raw.

Gene works with clients of any age with a goal of her own to achieve by giving advices and talking to them based on healthy food choices for a good body, having a healthy balanced diet and building relationship with food. Food is one of the best thing life has to offer, so, why not build a harmonious relationship with food?

It’s really amazing how she has her own website to communicate with her clients or those who seek help due to eating disorders or seeking motivation in order to eat healthy. The reason why her blogs are all very interesting is because I believe that many people are able to learn so much in order to improve personal eating habits including myself. Her written blogs are very informative and easily understood. It is also written professionally where she includes her own personal experiences as well. She even provides all different kinds of recipes in her blogs too! The pictures inserted in her blogs looks absolutely scrumptious and not forgetting, they are all healthy!

The background colour of Gene’s website has no designs but it is plain white in colour whereas the navigation bar is filled with a soft pink colour to it. I feel like these two colours creates a very positive and light energy for the people out there who visits her website. There are also some icon boxes which is filled with the colour green which looks like it signifies healthy greens. Her homepage includes some simple illustration designs of vegetables and fruits, ensuring that her blogs plays a role in providing healthy information. Her website is very convenient and easy for all to access it. Moreover, on the right-hand side of the website where there are a few small advertisements boxes, she includes some of her popular blog posts.

My favorite blog written by Gene is Never Let A Bad Day Turn Into Two. She wrote this blog due to some of her clients who emailed her regarding their bad days which disrupts their eating habits. So, what she always respond was “OK. Let’s not let one bad day turn into two.” What she meant by that sentence was that everyone goes through all kinds of problems, no matter how big or small it may be. These problems creates a lot of stress and pressure, where a person in dilemma, will then have eating disorders. Besides, this will also cause more feeling of guilt in oneself. When all of these feeling overwhelms us, things would get even worst in which we would undergo poor eating habits. If this continues, not only we will allow one bad day to turn into two, but two bad days would turn into three and it would carry on and on.

Yes, I do agree that there are some days where we will go through all kinds of stressful happenings. The advice that Gene gave was those troubled days will eventually turn unimportant when we look forward to the next day. A new start is all we need. No one loses or gains an amount of weight nor compromise one’s health from a single day of poor eating because what we do every day is the one that matters instead of once in a while.

Gene discusses on her personal lifestyle experiences as well. How stress affects her sleeping time and eating habits. Getting herself involve with many activities also gives her the similar effect. Due to these situations, Gene calls it the nutritionist fail. The reason why she calls it so is because she is a nutritionist herself, but, on those particular days, she tends to not eat well nor healthily.

Well, we are all imperfect humans. Even certified nutritionists are normal humans too. No matter how we try to perfectly manage a healthy and good lifestyle for ourselves, on certain days, problems may occur in which it will somehow affect our healthy lifestyle. Sometimes, bad days happen naturally. On those bad days, it’s easy for anyone to overeat, undereat, stress eat or eat emotionally. However, the secret to stop disrupting your eating habits is to allow yourself by giving tomorrow a new start so that we do not multiply those bad days. It is all about the choice that you need to make. It is all in the mind and how you control your emotions and thoughts.

Gene uses the similar advice and logic on her clients including herself as well. Not only it’s regarding eating habits but an overall healthy lifestyle too. In her point of perspective, nutrient-rich food is what we need to nourish our body which is the best cure for a bad and stressful day. Instead of avoiding how stressful things around us can get, we can undeniably improve the way we handle our bad days.

In this blog, Gene also included a picture and recipe of a delicious looking homemade breakfast smoothie which is called the ‘Blueberry, Banana and Avocado Smoothie’. She even included a few other pictures of the healthy dishes she had made.

Choosing Raw is definitely a good website in helping you to eat clean. There are lots of blogs to read and delightful recipes to try. Furthermore, the blog, Never Let A Bad Day Turn Into Two is a really good read for those undergoing eating disorders due to bad situations.

Written by: Claudia Jane Pereira

http://www.choosingraw.com   (WEBSITE)
http://www.choosingraw.com/never-let-a-bad-day-turn-into-two/   (BLOG)

Aaref’s Assignment

“A modern day travel into the past”, is the best way to describe Tim Dreese’s Travel Log & Design Journal. The man who travels around the world and blogs his events and travels across the world and how he comes across the most intriguing and fascinating places or objects.

 

His method of writing is more of a passive, formal and professional tone where he includes himself just as a small hint but mostly discusses how others should take a trip down there for those who plan to visit such countries that he has written about.

 

In his visit to the United Kingdom, from his post “One day at Windsor Castle | Windsor, United Kingdom”, Tim adds the element of historic perspectives and how important the Windsor Castle is to the Kingdom. It holds value of more than 900 years. His method of attraction is through the use of facts and geographic factors such as the distance travelled, or from which route Tim has taken and so on. The blogger included pictures that he has taken and a poster ad, which promotes the Windsor Castle. This method of attraction is through actual facts and is targeted towards those who are interested in learning more about culture, history, and architecture or for those who love sightseeing.

 

The reason why Tim’s blog is professional is due to the reasoning that it is more of a promotional post when in fact, it is just a journal of his travels to many different countries. He also added an image from Google Maps where readers and viewers can find the exact location of Windsor Castle.

 

What makes this blog so fascinating is the presentation and the design of the blog where it is simple and well organized, easy to read and user-friendly. The blog has an abstract background image that is neither too bright nor too dark. Tim’s titles for his posts are straightforward and eye-catching for those who are looking for specific places around the world. The reason why it is user friendly is due to the fact of the implementation for users to search posts by countries, where there are posts based on the countries that Mr. Dreese has visited and blogged about. Also, while reading a post, on the top of the post next to the title, on the left of the blog is his profile information where people can find out more about Tim Dreese and on the right is an image of the KMA Event Center at night as some form of art photography. The basic template that is used is white background and black text with a moderate font size that is easy for users to read.

 

Tim does not only rely on facts and historic information but also his experience as to where he chose to eat or rest as a form of helping those who are in search of a place to relax before they embark on their tour.

 

The blog is easy to navigate through as you can either find his posts under different categories such as countries, tags and his archived works as to which date he published a certain post for users to remember rather than having the need to go through every single post till the user reaches the post they are looking for.

 

Tim does not only randomly go to places around the world but he also attends events and expeditions such as a sea cruise.

 

The only purpose why Tim’s blog might be lacking in the sense of his context is he relies mostly on facts and not much on his experience so it would be a little difficult for readers to get a sense of the visual experience through his words. His posts are a little short that gives a more compact impact but it is still lacking in material. In addition, travel logs are more fixated on images of the travellers themselves as they venture into the wilderness but with Tim it is more of him taking pictures of the places without him being in it. The Windsor Castle is an example of him just providing information rather than his log of what he did. Details are essential in a travel log and not through written information but also about the experience that one would go through when visiting such a place.

 

Overall, Tim Dreese’s Travel Log and Design Journal is an interesting approach and blog for readers and viewers to hover around or surf on WordPress to stay updated on Tim’s travels and get simple information on certain places but this blog is more of a personal journal about Tim’s personal lifestyle, more like his own travel log save point where he writes for himself about all the places that he has visited while showing users the places of his checkpoints to look back upon.

 

Tim Dreese’s Blog: https://timdreesedesignjournal.wordpress.com/

Nita Rosmina’s Assignment

In the past couple of years, beauty and cosmetics industry has grown vastly. Research and new innovations are continuously being made in the industry and consumers are bombarded with endless streams of new beauty finds. With a vast number of options available in the market, how does one know when or should they use a compact foundation, liquid foundation, BB creams or CC creams? And most importantly, how do we know which of them actually works? There is no better person in this industry that can help us consumers other than a professional A-list make up artist, Lisa Eldridge.

With over 20 years of experience Lisa Eldridge has become one of the most recognized make-up artist in the international beauty and fashion industry. Her fresh and modern take on beauty had the industry called upon her signature fresh and flawless look, and work her magic for editorial shoots, catwalk, art directors, and A list celebrities. Luckily for make up newbies like myself, Lisa share all of her experience online in www.lisaeldridge.com

Lisa’s blog has an attractive design with light color scheme, well organized and easy to navigate. She shared her experience and tips through a first person perspective and that created a friendly and welcoming impression for her followers. The blog content is divided into several categories; (1) work, where Lisa showcased her published work for editorials and red carpets, (2) videos, where Lisa recreate popular work that she had done, (3) products, reviews of products that she has tested or loves divided based on product category, and (4) blog where she post about what her new finds or stories from her latest projects.

Lisa Eldridge’s work section is divided into covers, celebrities, editorial and films. Her work has filled magazine covers from high-end titles from Bazaar, Vogue, Glamour, Tatler in local London copy and even for international copies. Japan, Korea, China are some of the Asian countries magazine covers that she has done. The celebrities on the other hand, showcased her celebrity shoots, red carpet or party makeup that she had done for her celebrity clients. In this category you will find Kim Kardashian, Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley, Alexa Chung, and many others. And what really excites her follower, they get to comment and request for which look that love the most and which look that they want Lisa to recreate it in her tutorials.

Selected look from her work will be recreated into makeup tutorial that we can find in the videos section. For the ease of her follower, videos are categorized into everyday looks, party looks and basic. Unlike most beauty guru in the internet, Lisa does not only show how to recreate these make up looks. She talks us out into different adjustments that we should consider when doing the makeup. Lisa recommends similar products that are available from highstreet or drugstore brands, different types of products better suited for a different skin condition (dry, normal, oily) and the color of our skin.

Not only give a daily make up tutorial but also she gave a recommended product to use. So, we can search with the categories like lips, eyes, face, nails, cheek, skincare, body, make up tools, and a gift. I do love to see the review of product in her blog before buy a make up. As you can see below, there’s a lips section. You can see the lipstick that Lisa have used or recommend. When you click see in action it’ll directly drive you to Lisa’s make up tutorial.

I remembered the first time I saw her post is in Youtube. That was Alexa Chung make up tutorial. I really adored Alexa Chung. I love the way she make the cat eye with the eyeliner. And I still learning to do that. But Lisa make it easier. so I thought I should learn from her. Of course by seeing her post.

So, what are you waiting for? Click the link below and find out more 😀

www.lisaeldridge.com

Chloe Chong’s Assignment

Review of a blog

In search of an interesting blog to review on, I have finally decided on this blog, http://www.princesscindyrina.com/2014/09/cliv-revitalizing-c-i2pl-corrector.html.

A blogger who hails from Malaysia under the moniker Cindyrina Rina, I find her entertaining in her own ways.

Instead of critiquing as a blog specialist, who I am not, I shall appraise this as a plain blog reader, from a blog reader’s point of view.

I am neither a friend nor a fan of this blogger, so please pardon me for my ‘not-so-supportive’ comments, if any.

On the first impression, the blog is not outstanding on all aspects.

However, let me start with a positive note. I would like to commend her on the logo design, which I find quite tasteful.

The moment the page displays, readers are bombarded with tons of advertisements. Advertisements of cars, hotels, mobile network provider, fashion, food and anything you name it, you got it.

It is not uncommon to find advertisements on blog spots, as apparently this is how bloggers profit from blogging, however I find the amount of advertisements overwhelming, to the extent I have almost mistaken it as an advertisement spot instead of a blog spot. No kidding.

The first line of the page reads “I am a Malaysian blogger. I writes….” wait a minute, did it say “I writes..”? Yes it did. Okay, maybe just a typo error. Forgiven.

As I move down, more of “I writes..”. All right, grammatical misapprehension confirmed.

Reading on, it reads (quote), “You know our skin could be effected by being under the skin too long or exposed to air conditioning or our body toxic released!”….

“This intensive brightening ampoule contains Tomato Callus Culture extracts for dulls and lifeless skin.”(unquote)

Damn.

It is evident that blogger is not proficient in the language she is blogging in, which seems to be an acceptable trend these days in Malaysia but not necessarily tolerable to all.

The choice of fonts needs improvement, as her ‘words’ are engulfed by everything else around it. I would suggest bigger and catchier fonts, as after all her blog is the main of the page.

Praiseworthy are the visuals. Fortunate for the product sponsor, the picture of the product is clearly shown and the company name distinctly mentioned.

Nevertheless, I believe the selfies of the blogger are meant to be the highlight of the blog and they sure caught my attention.

They are hilarious!!

And the captions are absolutely cracked!!

“Toink! Toink! my bouncy skin…

“Huh! Lier!!! So fast ar the effect???”

I had a good ROFL (Rolling on Floor Laughing) moment. Speaking of self confidence and endless spelling errors..!!

Fine, let me put my rose-colored glasses back on. Well, at least the blogger did the subject justice by providing sufficient introduction on the product, sharing technical information educating readers on the differences, product ingredients and how one may benefit from it, in her own English.

In terms of blog quality, the blog is posted with an acceptable blog structure. The message is successfully communicated and understood by the readers. And most importantly, it managed to keep the readers curious and entertained enough to read the next line, which is key to a successful blog.

I can’t help but notice how the blogger has penned in detail appealing to her readers to help her earn commissions. (Refer to box on the left that says, Hi reader, Please note: …..)

As much as everyone knows for a fact that bloggers earn from Pay-Per-Click ad, or in short PPC ad, in my opinion, it is not respectable for a blogger to post this in detail to her readers. Well, if it must be done, perhaps a common blogger trend now that I am unaware of, I think it should be pulled off subtly.

This is because by doing so, it inevitably causes the blogger’s sincerity appear doubtful and eventually her blogging motive in question.

In other words, as a reader, it leads me to suspect the blogger may be writing the review just for the mere sake of pleasing the product sponsor given the free goodies she has received and hope to keep coming.

I feel the following statements she made led the readers further that direction.

“I like this product too much…. Lucky they gave me full size for this one! So I can enjoy this longer….. so cheapskate ar me??? lol…this is good product to enjoy ma!!!!”

Therefore, would I now trust her product reviews and opinion then on? The answer is NO. Not likely. She just lost a potential follower.

It later reads “This my ‘syiok sendiri’ advertisement! WTH!”

For the sake of our non-Malaysian friends, the Malaysian phrase ‘syiok sendiri’ can be defined as being excited over something only oneself can get excited about.

I guess that sums it up. This is exactly what it is. This is a ‘syiok sendiri‘ blogger who has no regard whatsoever for spelling or grammatical error, least concern for diction or writing skills, ranting in her own blog spot. Not a great blogger, not a good blogger either, perhaps a keen blogger, close but no cigar.

 

Written by Chloe Chong

Meutia Putri’s Assignment : Blog Review

Blog review is a pretty popular these days as there are so many exciting blogs out there. The blogger has becoming like a celebrity. The fashion blogger will be invited to fashion awards or shows, and the cooking blogger could publish a cooking book. Reviewing their blog could be done as an exchange of publicity and sometimes generate income.

Today I would review a blog post because I like the post and would be happy if I could tell and share about it. It is not a paid review but I always find “blog-walking” is very interesting. Today, I would review Roger Ebert’s blog at rogerebert.com. Roger Ebert is Roger Ebert became film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times in 1967. He is the only film critic with a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame and was named honorary life member of the Directors’ Guild of America. He won the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Screenwriters’ Guild, and honorary degrees from the American Film Institute and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Sometimes before we agreed to watch a film, we’d be thinking whether the film is good or not in order not to waste our time. Hence, we then will be thinking of researching its reviews online, a good example would be the professional Roger Ebert, in www.rogerebert.com/blogs. The website is well designed with a proper style of minimalistic and simplicity. Easiness in navigation is one of the main reasons, because you can find what you need in a glare filled with information.

A sample for research page is the post that I’ve personally picked, Spirited away. In this page/post, you can still easily weave through the flow of the website to do whatever desired with powerful navigation system, regarding something minor to be discussed as something I would like to call one major flaw regarding the post; Advertisement. There are advertisements on the sides of your screen, top, and bottom of it. Surprisingly, with many advertisement images, there are so far no glitches found. The web really stands up firmly regarding stability and security, makes it really safe for us to safely browse throughout the web, even its advertisement that are picked to be not hazardous.

The main focus of the post in this review can be seen by the post’s headline of “Great movie” in all capitalized letters, along with the movie poster by the headline’s left side. This means its focus is on reviewing the film in this blog. The content of the blog focuses mostly on standard filming criticisms, starting with its brief information regarding the movie’s history with its own iconic people involved (such as Hayao Miyazaki), the film’s artworks, techniques, cinematography, how much time it takes, etc. It then focuses on a brief story of Spirited Away through its main plot and storyline while, in a way, explaining the emotion, characters, traits, settings of the film, and its animation frame-by-frame techniques of the film. Generally, the focus of the blog is firm regarding its specialized content. All possible sentences are matched and simply make sense that makes the post alive, mostly because how the author shared this post; connecting. Thus, it relates to me by the way the post feels.

Messages are sent by its writing style in literature and grammar. Modern review-like language settings are set to be adaptable to various age ranges for its writing skills. These writing skills are most probably intended to all age that likes this movie. The post is also fully grammatically correct which makes it easy to read for us to even more understand the purpose of the author’s messages. The literary might also be connected to the intended audience of this website as well. The audiences are in a wide-range of age, from as low as eighteen to forty above. Because Roger Ebert is a classic legend movie critic, most people who are really into movie know him.

Roger Ebert is known since the years of classic 50-60s, and he is known for the “relative” criticism instead of “absolute” criticism. Yet he might have his personal taste on his critic on this movie Spirited Away, he will also put the consideration of his critic as to its value as a whole. The messages he sent to us readers are always effective in his own unique punch line in quotes. It is in his own way of putting the message that makes him have his own critical style and signature move.

Written by: Meutia Putri

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blog post link: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-spirited-away-2002

Chinda’s Assignment

Every once in a while, I stumble upon websites or blogs that could affect my life substantially, or could have an impact on anyone’s life in a big way. They could be fun, useful or just adorable… things that I absolutely just can’t have enough of. One of my favourites that I would like to share with you is: “Marc and Angel Hack Life”.

I discovered “Marc and Angel Hack Life” around a year ago and it became one of my favourites instantly. It is mostly lists of simple things to do or think about in order to take steps forward, progress and improve… They are not too heavy, long how-to posts with overwhelming lists of dull action steps. They are short tips and reflections on the little things that could make a huge difference in your daily life.

“Marc and Angel Hack Life” is run by Marc and Angel Chernoff, very passionate writers who share their practical “life tips” and very inspirational advice. Since the blog’s inception in 2006, their blog attracted over hundred million page views as well as hundred thousand subscribers. The blog carries a great and broad range of articles on general self-improvement, productivity, and happiness. The blog shares thoughts and ideas that seem to be inspiring as many people as possible.

The blog holds Marc and Angel’s point of view, believes and perspective on what they consider interesting and notable events or people in and around their lives. They deal with the constant changes in human attitude regarding their decisions and goals. Each post is a strong reminder of what really matters right now instead of focusing on whatever that might hold someone back and bring him down.

Reading several of their posts regularly makes me strive to “think better, feel better and live better”. They are fresh and insightful. They present the tools any one needs to grow and develop.

One of their first lists I came across was “28 Dignified Ways to Impress Everyone Around You”. It is about impressing people by being an extraordinary human being. It is such an amazing read.

During the duration of life, people usually bump into others who consider their worth by how much money is in their bank accounts. Some others by the number of hours they work. And not to mention those who determine their value by the possessions they have come to have. And there are those who think that their worth is by the number of friends or followers they have.

These people’s conversations are overflowing with false trial of impression, but they are not realising that all it reaches is turning away from those who would love to share their world. And what most fail to understand, is that true conversation, which true friendship is built upon, is not formed by what they have done, what they have, who they know, or where they are going.

I am personally really interested in finding out who one really is. It does not really even matter what they personally think. I want people to be themselves, and I definitely do not want to be bored by repetitive wordiness just seeking to always “impress”.

Impress me by who you are, be someone who is genuinely concerned and interested in others, and from time to time stops to turn the direction of conversation by reflecting onto whoever they are talking with. I want to spend time in the presence of people who leave everyone they have spoken with feeling of importance and appreciation at the end of the conversation.

Even though that there may be some kind of repetition from a post to another,  that does not make the information any less useful, some things are just as good and make sense to hear for a second or even a third time. The repetition sometimes lets me think of them again, which is a good thing, in my opinion.

“Marc and Angel Hack Life” acts as a treasury of advice based on true life experiences. It helps us understand who we are and where we intend to go. There is a long series of ideas and experiences that compose a lifestyle that is constantly trying to get used to in an attempt to make more significance. Marc and Angel’s thoughts, dreams, and creativity is the foundation of their drive. Their life moves forward as they lose the balance between simplicity and high ambition.

Marc and Angel have published a book: “1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently“  which is a series of short, to the point tips and reflections on the little things that made and still making a huge difference in their daily lives.

“Marc and Angel Hack Life” might not be everyone’s “cup of tea”, but they are totally worth checking out.

Written by: Chinda Mohammad

Blog Review : Passion for Baking

Blog Review: Passion For Baking

General Overview

In this assignment, I will be reviewing a Norwegian blog, which is quite famous in the Internet world. This blog’s contents are mainly related to baking. The blog name is Passion for Baking. The writer is a Norwegian lady named Manuela Kjeilen. She’s a mom of 5 children, a baker, a blogger, an author, a lecturer, as well as a photographer. ‘Passion for Baking’ has been running since mid 2010. Her first post was about how to make a red velvet cupcake.

cupcake

In terms of blog layout, Passion for Baking applies a traditional intuitive design one would commonly associates with a blog. Posts are sorted by the latest dates, so one would always see the latest entries on the home page. On the top of every page we open in every section of the blog, the writer puts a row of navigation which can leads reader to many different section of the blog. On the right hand side of every page of this blog, readers are presented with a column consisting many contents of this blog.

A brief background on who Manuela Kjeilen is on the top part of this column, followed by clickable thumbnails in which each of them links to a social networking accounts of Passion for Baking. The four thumbnails link to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, as well as subscription to Rich Site Summary Feed (RSS Feed) of this blog. Below of it readers will find links to shop any of her published books over the internet, search bar that can be used to search any content within Passion for Baking, as well as link to archived posts categorised by different sorting options. One other thing to note is that the writer puts a link to a printed and /or PDF format of each recipes. Overall, I would say Passion for Baking succeed in executing a solid, intuitive navigational options, while keeping inline with traditional feel many readers would be familiar of.

It seems that soft pink is the main theme colour of the blog. Whichever page readers see, one would see soft pink dominating the whole webpages with some pinstriped patterns on the side. I think this represents its targeted readers. Although this blog is clearly suitable for anyone with interest towards baking, I would say that in writing this blog, Manuela Kjeilen targeted mainly women as the readers as reflected by the theme colour of the blog.

Blog Entry Review: Baked Lemon Cheesecake

In this second part of the assignment, I will be writing a review about one of Passion for Baking’s blog entry, which is a recipe to make a baked lemon cheesecake. The entry was originally published by Manuela Kjeilen on the 24^th of February 2015.

As usual, Manuela Kjeilen greets the reader with wishing well greeting, which is nice and allows the reader to feel an elevated degree of friendship between her and the readers which is a good thing. The introductory parts which follows the greeting is also easy to digest in which she continues it with a light remarks that connects the introductory part of the entry to its content; how to make a baked lemon cheesecake. I would say Manuela Kjeilen managed to produce, yet another light, easy to read recipe with appropriate flow of information.

photo 2

A number of pictures related to the recipe are shown on the page, each of them neatly placed in line with respective processes of making the baked lemon cheesecake. A straight-forward approach which of course a good thing for the reader. All of the pictures are of a good composition representing Manuela Kjeilen’s skill in photography. Tones are easy, colours presented within the photos are in line with the theme of the blog overall. Readers can clearly see the amount of dedication that the writer managed to put in this blog.

The ingredients as well as step-by step process are explained with an appropriate amount of detail which allows all the informations to appear clear and concise in a way that it is very easy and friendly to read. Manuela Kjeilen even managed to provide a dedicated page for calculating a number of different conversions (e.g. metric, oven settings, etc.), an attempt to provide handy tools for readers from all over the world.

picture 3

I would say that overall, the choice of words, arrangements of sentence as well as the photography, serves a collectively important role in presenting readers with information that is not just attractive and easy enough to digest for people with interest in baking, but I believe that this blog can be inviting enough, and interesting for people in general. As of April 2015, this blog is nearing the end of its 5^th year run, bringing more than 41 million page views. Looking on how Manuela Kjeilen managed to please her readers, It is unsurprising if this blog will only continue to bring more loyal fans, even I can not wait to look and try many other delicious recipes to come.

Last but not least, I like how on every recipe the writer puts a signature ending greeting ‘With love from Manuela’ executed in such a way it gives a touch of sweet impressions from Manuela Kjeilen.

Blog link:         http://en.passionforbaking.com

Recipe link:    http://en.passionforbaking.com/blog/2015/02/24/baked-lemon-cheesecake/

Diandra Chalisha Medina 110032814

Nishanthini’s Assignment.

Blog title : EAT YOUR GREENS.

Blog link : http://www.eatyrgreens.com/nut-seed-banana-oat-snack-bars/

This site “Eat your Greens” is a food blog featuring easy and quick recipe, beautiful food photography and cooking techniques which has many post that would give you some of the recipes that you might ever want to know. The author of this blog is Anjali. She’s a food writer, new mom, former personal chef and current graduate student studying to be a registered dietitian. She’s obsessed with vegetables and the recipes that she share here is basically what she likes to cook at home: healthy, economical, mostly vegetarian meals that are easy to prepare at the end of a long day of work or school. In 2012, Anjali left her job as a personal chef to start a master’s program in Nutrition at California State University Northridge, with the goal of becoming a registered dietitian. She fell in love with food and cooking while living in Japan and teaching English to high school students through the JET Programme. She’s also a writer for home-cooking blog The kitchen.

The eye appeal was very detailed thought for, the colors, the pictures, the letters, everything with some sort of attractive side was neatly chosen and applied. This also sets the very main point of the site. One thing is for sure, there’s no confusion on finding the topic as its well presented for the viewers & first of all it is called Eat your Greens, which is clear for the viewer to understand and also the sub-headline is written straightforward about the topic.

As mentioned, this site has various post to share numbers of healthy recipes with readers. Besides sharing the healthy food recipes, Anjali also shares out her daily lifestyle and what’s happening around her. But, the focused section which is the food part is the most appealing and interesting for it is explained briefly and the effects it makes on the mood and attract the readers to visit her blog and capture the message and image she is trying to share around.

Anjali’s blog has influenced me in many ways because I love cooking and I love to explore exotic cuisine from different countries. This blog has helped change my eating habit. I learned how to cook simple yet healthy foods in order to avoid outside foods which is unhealthy. Well, we cannot use a healthy lifestyle without balance. What I see with so most of this advice today would it be is often unrealistic and unnecessary. In fact, this fanaticism with healthy eating generally seems to make people less healthy overall. The mainstream healthy lifestyle message has become correlated with a surge in both eating disorders and weight issues. It does little good should your body is healthy, but they’re unhappy with your life. It is important to allow yourself to look for a healthy lifestyle balance in every of the aspects of your health.

In addition, it’s a well written blog with a proper English which can be easily understood by the readers. She shares her recipes together with her daily life stories which attracted me to browse through her blog deeper to know her well. This site fits with people from all walks of life who is interested in cooking and loves to try out new foods. It might be good, though, to pin point the foods you might want to try out, it’s kind of an organizer of thoughts; it is a list, giving you all the recipes you might be interested. For example, if someone wants to try out French picnic lentil salad, I will say that this blog is a good choice. Each recipe post also has a “Printable recipe” option. In case you decide to cook a recipe, you can print it out and carry with you to the kitchen.

I believe that one of the most important things in a diet is variety. That is why her recipes sometimes are raw and other times cooked, sometimes they call for buckwheat and other times for oat. Eating is about feeling good, not following rules. I have to say the Nut & seed banana oat snack bars is a quick, super delicious and beautiful snack. I love eating sunflower seeds as its my all-time favorite.

My food philosophy is simple, I enjoy simple home cooked meals just as much as I enjoy fancy gourmet meals and street-foods. I also enjoy every bite as if it were the best morsel of food I ever put in my mouth. I like to cook from scratch and show you how I did it with the help of this kind of blogs. I am not a professionally trained chef by any means. I just enjoy the few moments I get in the kitchen and would love to try out the fun of cooking new food.

Nurzada Kumisbek’s Assignment

“Doing well with blogging is not about writing one key post, it is about performing day after day and helping a few people at a time.” Aaron Wall, Author of the SEOBOOK Blog

Screen Shot of YouTube page of Iren Vladi,

Blog link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgn_t5KEF8WDlOLB75khF6Q

Review of my lovely Blogger!

Hi, my darlings! I am going to share with you my lovely bloggers. Nowadays a lot of people, no matter which age, gender, nationality doing daily blogs in different “internet places” as YouTube, websites and social pages. So, todays we are guys have so many options to teach, learn, show and share our interests! That is really one of the great things to spend your free time! As an example, today I found a great video on my friend’s Facebook page about how to live a happy life. It just made my day. There is the link guys, if you want to watch it: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=269659659729779&pnref=story

That is just the example of how it is great sharing nice information. But usually I watch videos of my beauty bloggers.

My favourite blogger is Iren Vladi from Russia. She is beauty blogger, if I can call her as a “beauty blogger”. She started her videos about cosmetics and other beauty products, but today she takes videos almost about everything what is useful and interesting for her audience. I would like to tell you guys about her a little. But she never tells about her private life, what I actually appreciate. Everyone has to have own private life too. I know only that she married, lives in Moscow and if I am not mistaken she doesn’t have kids yet. Even about her marital status she told after one year since she started her “career” in YouTube. I remember she used to do something like “open time” or do not know how to call it, when she talks with her audience. She used to spend one hour once in month to answer questions from followers and talk about comments what they wrote. I also appreciate it, because I can see how she appreciates her audience, her own channel and its reputation. She is one of the top beauty bloggers on YouTube with almost 181, 500 followers. She has influenced me in many ways. I like her so much.

Our story of friendship or how did I find her?

The first time when I found her video was when I had a problem with my hairs, because they were dropping a lot. Then I just started searching about recipes for hair masks and I found her video. Then I liked the video and started to watch it every day. It became as a kind of routine, hahah. No, I just like her videos and her channel something like I have to watch almost every day. The other thing from her diary blogs I could see her personality. I like her as a person too, we have similar habits and vision of life. For sure, I do not her completely, but I know that she eats healthy foods, she goes to the gym, she checks every ingredient before to buy something and other kind of right things.

Why do I like her videos?

1. I like her videos, because she tells useful things for her audience. For example, her advices about how to care about hairs helped me so much. She posted a video where she told about wooden hairbrushes and explained how do we need to choose them. Finally, I could find a nice wood hairbrushes in Malaysia and my hairs are dropping less now. Thank you, Iren so much! You are my life saver!

2. I can trust her. As I said before, she always checks ingredients, prices, quality of everything before she shows on YouTube and never lies. Usually she tells and shows beauty products what beauty products used on herself. She has some knowledges in chemistry and biology, which helps to her choose the right products. She always explains why exactly the product is healthy, good or useful.

3. I like to listen to her advices, because she usually uses natural products, which are ever will be better than any other chemical things. I also prefer ethnoscience and folk remedies like she too.

4. I like her techniques, environment what she uses in her videos. She is a perfectionist as she says too. She always tries to make her videos better as mush as it possible. She even learned about how to shoot video, how to choose cameras and also shared it with her audience. She is a very responsible person. I really like it. Some bloggers do not care about the quality of video or environment where the video was taken. But I think, it is important when you have enough followers.

5. I like that she always prepare everything and practise herself before she takes a photo or video. Her voice is clear to listen, she does not judge someone’s videos, she talks exactly only about the topic what she needs to say. Some bloggers talk to much, what I do not like. Even if I know, that it is hard edit your information to make it short and good in the same time.

What I do not like?

The only thing what I do not like is that some of her products are expensive. Actually, that’s not her fault, but anyway, sometimes it’s hard to find or buy that product. For example, I bought two wooden hairbrushes for 120 and 65 ringgit in Malaysia, because I couldn’t find them in Kazakhstan. But they are really useful! So, thank you Iren!

                 Wooden hair brushes

Written by SuN!

Amanda Reade’s Assignment

Blog Title: Top 5 Long Lasting Makeup Product

Blog Link: http://neginmirsalehi.com/beauty/top-5-long-lasting-makeup-products (by Negin Mirsalehi)

I chose a fashion/beauty lifestyle blog to write a review about, it’s based on the fashion blogger herself and the top five lasting make up products. Negin Mirsalehi is one of my favourite Dutch fashion blogger that I started following early last year. She began to be an impact towards my sense of style the way I look at clothing and how it could combine into an outfit. Every season she updates on the trend look of the month and it’s refreshing to see new ideas. She travels around the world and keep herself up to date on her daily lifestyle. In her blog she talks about the latest update in beauty, fashion and even lifestyle. She’s one of the top bloggers in the world, with 1.2 million followers on instagram. She’s a fashion expert/stylist/entrepreneur and shares experiences with the fashion world through her lenses. Recently she created an account on snapchat, and she shares her life through 10 seconds of video for her followers, including me. She has influenced me in many ways. From the way I look at clothing from material, to colour and to style. From the way I look at products from prices, to quality, to experiences.

The blog is quite simply yet classy. The main two colours used are black and white with a touch of grey. The details and the headlines are well placed on the header of the website and some on the right hand side. Written details include pictures are place in the center and its properly organize from recent posts to older posts. One of her post includes the map of the globe, and it marks the destinations she has visited and she includes a short post of the trips background.

She focuses on today’s topic, which is top five long lasting make up products, as she explains the products benefits in details and how she comes across with this product. For instance, she stated that during summer heat make- up fades off quickly and she explains about this product called Make Up Forever Mist & Fix how it’s a suitable product for all skin types to last during the day and throughout the night and it’s a product that keep foundation in tact. Surprisingly, I have the product of my own as well. From my experience, it’s one of the products you will keep forever. It has kept my make up throughout the humid day without a smudge.

The content she writes is straightforwardly about the products and she includes pictures/gifs that captures her silly faces using the product and demonstrates it. One of the highlights in this article is the moving gifs she put to demonstrate the product make up forever mist & fix. She shares her voice by writing it down with the knowledge, experiences and lifestyle she come across in her daily life. It’s personally professional written by her. She’s on point with her style when she explains what she wear, how she wears, why she wear them and she’s on point when it comes to newest product because she explains in details on how the product is suitable for her skin and by that she will recommend it for her followers.

She uses simple and strong vocabulary with proper grammar and punctuations and even though born and raised in Amsterdam with the first language being Flemish/Dutch, she speaks and write in fluent English. Each product she explains in one paragraph because she knows that no one would read a five paragraph worth about one product. As she writes about the product, she includes a short personal reason why she chose for his product. The website itself overall reflects her messages about the latest in-sight trend, an up-to date on and in the fashion world, places she has visited includes stories and background about the trips. Her blog even comes in 34 languages.

The blog audience is towards young ladies whom find the blogger beautiful, an inspiration in the fashion world, young adults who look up to the blogger as a fashion icon mother. Not to mention, other fashion blogger too. Personally, I follow her because the way she styles herself is very simple and chic to mix and match during daily wear and it’s always a fresh up-to-date look.

Despite all that, I personally think that her website is too simple with a little bit of touch in colors and background designs would make the website come to life. Right now she has a lot of colours in her photographs, but scrolling through the website is simple. The best part of it, the product being introduced on the blog has its own link attached to it, and it goes straight to the products website shopping chart whenever you are ready to buy on the spot. For someone who needs fashion advice or inspiration or interest, this website is a great place to seek new ideas or just to keep an update with fashion and her lifestyle.

Written by, Amanda Reade