The Makeover

To use a term from Carmel, Make Mine Mid-Century, I've been in a bit of a "blog funk" of late.  I've been wanting to blog but not really making the time to do it.  I've been lying in bed not being able to get to sleep because I've been writing blog posts in my head (I can remember reading about Jane from Life on Planet Baby doing this too) but still not getting around to writing them.  There has been so much swishing around in my head but nothing making it onto the screen.  So I thought, maybe I need a bit of a blog makeover to inspire me to blog a little more regularly.  Enter Katrina Chambers from Media Mad.

If only I could look this serene when struggling with blogging.

So I approached Katrina in giving me a little quickie; that's a small bloggy makeover.   I really liked the makeovers that she's done for other blogs out there but I wasn't sure how to approach my makeover.  You see, I don't really have a main topic I talk about.  I don't have a particular hobby I can share with others.  Nor am I an expert in a particular field.  I just like to bang on a bit about things that tick me off mostly, followed by amusing things I observe or things that catch my flitting attention.   I simply don't have a bloggy style.  In a nutshell, how was Katrina going to design a blog banner out of a ridiculous title such as Littlemissairgap?

I've often been called Little Miss Chatterbox.
More often though, Little Miss Bossy.

I decided I had to go back ... way back ... and tell Katrina how I've ended up with a such a ridonculous (I love that word from the movie Bolt) name as Littlemissairgap.  About 15 years ago I moved up north with Hubby for his work.  I'd just recently completed a radio & tv course and was lucky enough to get some work at the local radio station which operated 24 hours a day back then.  I did everything.  Mid-Dawn announcer (that's a whole other blog post), fill-in news girl, a bit of copywriting, promotions (did I happen to mention I have icy cans of cola to give away), voice overs (my favourite thing) and regular weekend announcer, hence the reason why I like to call myself "Jill of all trades.  Master of none."  Now panelling wasn't my strongest suit ... panelling by the way is pushing all the buttons that put you live on air, take you to ad breaks, etc.  I was renowned for pushing the "ad break" button just a milli-second too late creating what's known as an air gap ... not noticeable to the average punter (the listeners) out there, but it stuck out like the proverbial to my fellow jocks who would give me curry for it and hence the name Little Miss Air Gap.  Fast forward a few years to the rise of email and the internet.  When I signed up for my first ever free email account, I had to come up with a user name.  I didn't want to use my own name, rather a nickname, so Littlemissairgap it was.  Then when I signed up for Blogger a few years ago, it too asked me for a name.  Dim wit me thought I had to use my email user name as a Blog Title and hence Littlemissairgap it's become.  Basically it means nothing to whoever reads this blog, and the people who would know what it refers to, don't know I blog.  As I said earlier ... ridonculous!

My 2 BFs from my radio days.
One has gone on to be a great News Director at a Brissie station.
The other, a rather famous, or should I say infamous, national jock.

So apart from working in radio, I needed to give Katrina a few other suggestions on how to give my blog a look that would reflect me.  I went back and forth to Katrina with info on what colours I liked (don't really know for sure), what kind of fonts I liked (knew of a few) & some things that inspire me (could I simply say coffee, wine & the kids not bugging me?).  It felt a tad like therapy telling Katrina about the things that make me 'tick' ... some of these I haven't shared with my closest friends, but it can be easier sometimes telling a complete stranger that you wished you were 18 again so you could finally wear those short tartan skirts, with the black tshirt, ripped black tights & Doc Marten boots whilst hanging with the wrong kind of boys.  Too much info?  Or perhaps that if I were single and 30 years old, I think I would be the main character, Rob Fleming, in the novel "High Fidelity" by Nick Hornby.  I too have made many a "mix-tape" for different friends and I'm sure I'd be that pathetic if I suddenly found myself single and wanted to contact past "break ups" in attempt to square things up.  I know I would.  I've dreamt about it.  Again, too much info?  Did Katrina feel like she was dealing with a nutbag here?

If I were a Blythe doll, I'd look like this,
minus the creepy lizard accessory.

So I reckon Katrina has done a great job in putting into graphics, a bit of what I'm like, whilst still leaving me a lot to tell you along the way.  Having typed this long-winded blog post, I think I'm now well and truly over my blog funk.