How to do a French Drop Plait

I know that we promised to make our hair tutorials a regular thing and it's about time we got around to posting another one! This is a two minute tutorial on how to do a French Drop Plait.

Enjoy - and please do let me know how you get on!

How to tie a Sari

Want to know how to tie a Sari? Follow this very simple tutorial courtesy of my my daughters...
I'm simply on film and upload duty!

How To Switch to a Custom Domain on Blogger

If you blog on blogger you'll be only too aware that Google moved all UK based .blogspot.com blogs over to .blogspot.co.uk addresses a couple of weeks ago. Unsurprisingly it's caused lots of issues including a huge drop in visitor numbers, loss of comments and posts simply not redirecting at all.

All of my personal blogs are on blogger but they all have custom URL's and as a result I haven't experienced any problems at all with the switch over.

The blogger forums are full of questions but not many answers, so one thing you could try is switching to a custom domain of your own.

I know this sounds pretty scary if you don't like to mess with the back end of your blog but since Blogger introduced the ability to buy a domain (through Go Daddy), it's actually really easy to do and you don't have to worry about messing up any coding.

Here's a step by step guide...

My blog address is currently www.sian-to.blogspot.com and I want  it to be www.londonundergroundlover.com. Here's how to make the switch.

1. Open your blogger dashboard and go to Settings.

2. In Publishing click on Add a custom domain. 

Type in the custom domain that you want to switch to.

The domains that you can buy through bloggers are limited to .com, .net, .biz, .org and .info so it's a good idea to do a search to see if yours is available before you start. You can search for available domain names here.

The domain that I want to buy is http://www.sian-to.com, it's available to I'm good to go.

3. Click Continue to registration.

4. Fill in your registration details and make sure the box for Automatically renew my registration every year is ticked.
Please do this because if you don't you will wake up a year from now with your url pointing back to Go Daddy...
I'm talking from personal experience here and it is a stress that you really can do without.

5. Click Proceed to checkout and pay.

6. On confirmation page click on Click here to retrieve your purchase. 
This will take you back to your blog Settings page and you will see that my www.sian-toblogspot.com address  is now redirecting to www.sian-to.com.

And that people is it.

Sometimes it can take up to 48 hours for the re-direct to kick into place. This one was instant as  I set up a new blog to walk you through the process.

Please note that Blogger domain registrations are limited to .com, .net, .biz, .org and .info and the registration price is $10 a year (about £8).

I had to start a new blog to walk through this step by step... so www.londonundergroundlover.com will be the new home to my Instagram tunnel fixation. I do hope you will stop by from time to time?!

Any probs give me a shout and I will endeavour to help.

UPDATE: If you've worked through this tutorial and you are getting the 'Another blog or Google Site is already using this address' error, you will find a simple fix here.

How To : Get the New Facebook Profile

You must have been hiding under a bush for the last week if you haven't heard about the new major Facebook update. Most of the  talk is pretty negative but I have to say that I absolutely LOVE the new look and usability. Finally your Facebook profile looks like a real page rather than an outfit that was thrown together in the dark. 

The update will be rolling out from next weekend but if you're keen to get ahead of the game, here's how.

Difficulty rating : Easy
Time : 10 minutes

Step 1
Log into your Facebook account.

Step 2
Go to the Facebook Apps Developer page.

Hit allow to confirm permission.

Step 3
After confirming permission you land on the Apps page (below).

Top right corner - click 'Create new App'.

Step 4

Name your new app.

It doesn't matter what name or namespace you give to your app but the namespace does need to be at least 7 letters.

Hit continue.

Pass the security check by filling in the Captcha.

If you haven't already confirmed your Facebook account you will be asked to do so now. If your account is already verified tick 'I agree to the Platform Privacy Policy' and move on to Step 5.

You can confirm with your mobile number or with a credit card.

If using your mobile, put in your number and wait for the confirmation code to arrive by text.

Put in the code and confirm.

Step 5

Once verified you get this screen.

Click 'Open Graph'.

Step 6

You have landed on 'Open Graph: Getting Started'.

You need to define an action here but it can be anything. Here's an example you can use. 

In 'People Can' box write 'Read' and in the second box write 'book'.

Hit 'Get started'.

Step 7

Page 'Open Graph; Action Type: Read'

No info to add to this page. Scroll to the bottom and hit 'Save changes and next'.

Step 8

Page 'Open Graph; Object Type; Book'

No info to add to this page. Scroll to the bottom and hit 'Save changes and next'.

Step 9

Page 'Open Graph; Aggregation

Scroll down and hit 'Save'.

Step 10

Takes you to the following page.

Wait a few minutes for the changes to take effect. 

Step 11

Go to your Facebook Profile Page. 'Introducing; Your New Profile'

Hit 'Get it Now'.

Choose 'Take tour' to see your new profile in action or hit 'Publish Now'.

And here's how mine looks...

Have a go and if you get stuck give me a shout.

Please do come back and share a link you your snazzy new page in the comments.