This weekend my Mum will fly over the Atlantic to visit my brother and his wife. I hadn't realised just how much I wished I was going with her until last night. My brother used the power of the iPhone and Face Time to walk me up and down the aisles of one of the biggest supermarkets in the country!

It wasn't the shopping that I am envious about it's the time larking around with my brother. He just gets me and I miss his sense of humour so much! We have too many in jokes for me to write down and I am counting down the days until they fly back over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Turkey will await them in England! (We are having an early Christmas dinner together!)

So my poor Mum, who thanks to the wonder of BA staff travel has a 3 suitcase allowance and at the moment it's full on the way out with korma curry sauce jars, Cadbury's chocolate and Frazzles for them and I've given her a list of goodies I would love for the way back!

Here's my list in case you were wondering! The Americans really know how to do Halloween! Just the seasonal display area was the size of our average DIY super store!

 Have you ever been shopping over in the States?! What was your favourite store?!

A little while ago I had an email pop up from a company based in Asia. A very large, successful company who pride themselves as Asia-Pacific's first blog advertising community. At first I thought they must have sent it to me by mistake. That they like my little blog? Surely not?! Turns out their company has led to almost 200 from the other side of the world people liking my little blog (in 1 month), all from their new app NuffnangX.

When I read about the app prior to it's launch it didn't really click, just from the name, what they do. But that's because they are not so well known over in the UK. Well I hope I can change that, as this app is something worth knowing about.

NuffnangX is a social blog stalking app! Their strapline not mine!

It has a familiar feel which makes it user friendly and uses a similar colour palette to Facebook. It is easy to navigate around the site, even on a small phone screen. The user guide is well thought out and must be the work of a web marketeer genius as I've watched the video several times just for the graphics.

Type to search and follow a blog with one click. I love the recommended blogs that are tailored to you. I have followed a couple of really successful blogs religiously (as in stalked them three times a day) but it's amazing to see that they have yet to become part of the NuffnangX community because of it's potential outreach to a global audience.

It is a fantastic way to increase your readership and promote it worldwide. Ok, so twitter does that too but how many of your followers live in the same country/continent?!

It allows you to follow the blogs you love, get updates straight to your phone, wherever you are. This may not sound like a new concept but what is different about this app is the interface you can have with the blogger themselves. Conversations that take the form of text messages! Leave a message for your favourite blogger and it will pop up on their phone as a notification like a text message. The ease at which you can reply to comment, returning your response which in turn pops up on their phone, could change the way you interact with your readers.

The other handy feature is that the app selects a single line of the most interesting text and displays it as the post summary. You then get a feed of the best bits from your best blogs. You then click to see the post in it's entirety, pictures and all, not just the text feed.

Take your favourite blogs to the school play ground whilst you wait for the kids to come out, at the supermarket checkout when you are waiting to pay and perfect for when you are a passenger in the car. All in one place.

It updates as soon as new content is published and has changed the way I read blogs. Instead of 'catching up' at the end of the day on my laptop once the boys are in bed, I can scroll through in 2 minutes to see what is new from my favourite bloggers.

I follow a number of American bloggers who post whilst I am fast asleep. I can scroll through my phone when I wake up and check on the latest post. Think about your eye to screen time in the morning. How quickly do you reach for your phone? Or is it just me?!

I have 'claimed my blog' so feel free to drop me a message. I'd love to hear from you. Find me here.

Claim yours too by following this link. By October 2013 over 16,000 people have downloaded the app.

MARCH 2013 UPDATE - I now have almost 450 direct blog readers via NuffnangX - wow! I value every one!

Best of all this app is available on Android and iOS and guess what - it's free!

Watch the video, even just for the graphics and the cute music!

ps just for info Nuffnang means real good/cool in Jafaikan!

I know it must seem like all I do is scour charity shops and photograph ridiculous things at a jaunty angle for my blog but I actually have a job. A real, earning pennies job that I work around having the boys. I work for an Estates Management Division of a large Housing Association Group as their New Business Consultant (that's the title but to be honest it's a jack of all trades role), promoting and securing contracts for our management service to housing developers. I feel so lucky to have this job, as I have gone through redundancy as a Land Buyer for 2 major UK house builders.

Today I had a site visit that I should have done on Friday and I thought I'd share it with you so you can see my typical day at work!

We are a very small office team and I primarily work from home doing any hours that I can, on top of the three mornings during the week that both children are in childcare. So today, as the weather was hideous this morning I took my smallest boy with me on my site visit! It worked brilliantly as he slept all the way up the motorway and back.

I needed to check the site for existing trees and hedgerows that we will need to maintain and compare it to the new proposed development layout which is going through the planning system with the local Council. I have to check the access requirements and suss out any potential features in the existing and proposed landscaping that could prove problematic and costly to the maintenance programme.

An afternoon in wellies - how glamorous! Plus I didn't have to worry about looking shattered from being up with big boy in the night. The joys of not having to be suited and booted!