It’s been a while since I wrote my last post (hence the embarrassed picture of Tsukasa), the new year has been keeping me busy so far. I’m afraid that when I go back to university on Thursday I will become even busier (there goes all my free gaming time!). Since my last post I revised for and took exams, as you can imagine that stopped me from doing many of the things I enjoy. One of the exams was about Language and Communication the other was Social Interaction. I hope I have done okay in them as I am not a big fan of exams (hey, who is?), I much prefer writing essays as I can put more thought into them. I have also been spending time with Chris as when we are busy with work we don’t have as much time together. We had to make the most of the free time we had!

On the 21st it was my 19th birthday and I had a brilliant day. I didn’t ask for anything in particular as a present from my parents so my mum took me on a shopping spree. She bought me Bare Escentuals makeup (2 kits worth!), Clinique skin care products and clothes from Jane Norman (jeans, a top and a coat) and H&M (a cute dress). My brother Greg bought me a white bag, a scarf and some sweet pearl bracelets. By the time I came home I was exhausted from all the shopping but still very excited.  Shopping is so fun with my mum.

Chris then came to my house later and gave me some presents from him and his parents. He had bought me four lovely rings from Wallis, the new Lost Prophets CD (The Betrayed), some sweets in a mushroom, a Zelda toy and his parents had bought me two Fruits Basket mangas. I was over the moon to say the least. He really knows my tastes. Thank you Chris!

I have to say though the best thing about birthdays is cake, I had a yummy chocolate cake for mine. However I would have preferred one of mum’s home made ones. Oh well, just means I will have to pester her to make one or make one myself!

I saw the Sherlock Holmes film with Chris as well. It was pretty good, not one of the best films I’ve seen but definitely one you should watch at home. I’m only trying to save you money on the price for tickets. Students like me have to budget things (yeah right, I bought Tales of Symphonia 2 for the Wii a few days ago not to mention all the manga I’ve bought…).  :)

Tales of Symphonia 2 is a good game though and that is what I’ve been playing lately (along with Muramasa). I made a gaming page for you to see what games I own and also what I am currently playing. You should check that out. I own more games for the Gamecube and DS but I couldn’t be bothered to list them all! *laziness* I do plan to write reviews for games but I think I will leave that for until I get further into the game. Sometimes my opinion changes the more I play a game. You will just have to wait and see.

I’ve been reading a lot of manga lately too, including Fruits Basket. I love the manga, it is so much better than the anime (well most mangas are!). I should probably read more intellectual books but sometimes I prefer a book that is light and doesn’t require too much concentration. I bet you are slowing losing your confidence in me as an English Language university student. I am a good student (honest!) it’s just I’ve been on this break too long. My body clock is all messed up.

Oh and before I forget here are the Emu boots I mentioned in my last post. They are super warm and perfect for keeping my feet snug. I recommend them to anyone who loves good quality boots. 

Right I think I have sufficiently ranted on here, if you read all of this post you have earned yourself a cyber cookie. Enjoy! I expect my next post will come a lot sooner than this one has. :)

Bye for now.

xxx

Labels: chris, films, kihugs, my mum, personal, shopping, university, update

Happy New Year everyone!! I’m sure you are all sick of hearing that by now. We have all waved goodbye to 2009 and hopefully we will welcome 2010 with open arms. I’m just happy because now I can say the year twenty ten (you know that sounds cool!). I have been busy looking through my old blog archives to compile a list of good times from last year. It’s amazing how many things I have forgotten, thanks for saving me archives!  So here is my list of all the good things that happened in 2009 (including links to blog posts!): 

 

• I went to New York with people from my old college.
• I went on my first little get away with Chris to Castleton.
• I transferred Kihugs.com to its new host.
• I had my 18th Birthday and became officially an adult.
• I bought my Nintendo Wii and became even more of a gaming addict.
• I stated watching the anime Shugo Chara.
• I had my final college exams and I passed them all.
• I applied to study English Language at university and I got in!
• I started my driving lessons (not far off my test now!).
• It was mine and Chris’s three year anniversary and we went to see Beauty & the Beast at the theatre.
• I bought my new pink phone, the Samsung Genio touch and even did a video review.

 

2009 seems like it was a busy year for me and I hope that 2010 is going to be just as good and hopefully even better. I don’t usually make resolutions as I never seem to be able to stick to them or I forget them (my memory is terrible). This year I want to study hard for university to make the most out of it and I also want to cut back on the sweets I eat (this one is going to be tough!). So what are you new years resolutions and do you think you’re going to stick to them?

Oh and just before I go I would like to say:


Happy Birthday Chris!

 

It’s my boyfriend’s 19th birthday today! I’m going to go to his house later and give him his presents/cards. :)

So once more I’m going to say Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a good 2009 and I hope this year is even better for you all.

xxx

PS. My new Emu boots came today. I will post pictures in my next blog!

Labels: 2010, chris, internet, kihugs, new year, personal, university

Yes this is officially my 100th blog post on Kihugs.com. I'm feeling pretty proud about that. (^.^)
I've really enjoyed having Kihugs as my little home on the Internet and I hope we have many more years together. I'll try not to get too sentimental here!
I feel like I've made some great friends online and met some brilliant bloggers/web designers. All I can say is that I'm glad I stuck with this blog and worked to improve it and make it what it is today. Thanks to all my visitors who come and read my blogs. It really makes me smile when I hear about people visiting Kihugs.  

I first had the idea for Kihugs in late 2006 back when I had a site called Cosmic Passion. I even made a layout for it and had it as sort of a secondary site:

This was the first layout I made for Kihugs. I was really into cutesy things at the time and most of my layouts featured bunnies.

After that I began to learn more HTML and toy around with other layouts. I eventually left I-frames behind and the whole kind of 'graphics' community. I began to focus more on my writing and realised that I actually preferred blogging rather than designing graphics/writing tutorials for other people.

I gave Kihugs lots of different looks and I eventually came to this one. Nice and minimalistic but with a touch of pink (you can never have too much pink).

I feel like I have come pretty far with this blog, it is practically my online journal where I write all my musings. hehe

So thanks for visiting Kihugs and give me a cookie because this is my 100th post you know. :)

xxx

Labels: blogging month, kihugs, personal

I decided to join the Site Glamour Contest which is being hosted by the lovely Dayna at AmourChaleur.com. The Site Glamour Contest is a semi-annual contest to find the most glamorous website.

What makes this contest so great is that the judging is not just based on your design skills, but also your writing ability (I am so going to enjoy the writing!) as well as a vote (just like a SOTM contest).  Seen as it has been a while since I have entered Kihugs in any kind of contest I figured that the timing couldn’t be any better. I am not busy with work at the moment so I have loads of free time to take part.

I have placed a link to the contest page in my navigation and it will stay there until the voting starts (at that time I will swap it for a vote button which you can click to vote for Kihugs!). Voting starts on the 1st of October. If you would like to know more about the contest click the cute blue robot button. :)

Have fun!

Labels: contest, kihugs

Just so you know I am transferring hosts, so if there is any downtime that is why.

Be right back.

xxx

24/06/09 - Edit: Kihugs was transferred safely to its new host. Expect a new post coming your way at high speed! :)

Labels: kihugs

Hi everyone, I've been wanting to post a blog for ages but I have experienced difficulty with my host.

I was procrastinating a blog to tell you what my birthday was like and also how the trip to Castleton went. A couple of days ago I got the urge to do the blog, so I logged into Blogger and tried to write an update blog. It told me my server was unavailable, immediately I checked to see if my FTP program was working and as I had already guessed it came up with the same error message.

I contacted my host but I didn't get a reply probably because they were too busy trying to sort out the problem. I checked their status page and it showed that they had had a couple of instances where their were problems with the hosting.

I thought to myself that I would give it a week maximum for it to sort its self out. Kihugs.com may only be a personal blog site but it is my site and I do expect my hosts to be reliable.

It seems that today it has been fixed (whatever the problem was) and I did a couple of test posts just to check.

So I'm going to go ahead and post my birthday blog now, even though it is late! (o^.^o)"

Labels: kihugs, update

Well I'm super happy with the feedback I've received regarding Kihugs' new layout. Thank you everyone. Its feels nice to know my work is an improvement and I'm proud of the change I've made.

I finally got rid of that notion that I had to make my blog conform to at least a few things. For example, having an image map and large header image. *shudder*

Everything on this layout is credited to me and now I can't be called a hypocrite when I rant on about illegal use of celebrity images.

Today has been good. My friends from my media class have been looking at Kihugs and they were actually impressed. I was like, "Wow, you like my site?" Insert big cheesy grin. :)
That class rocks.

Thanks to Elliott for promoting Kihugs and I know your reading this because you admitted you were a regular visitor. haha!

I'm glad its the weekend; finally I'll be able to sleep in.

Well I'm going shopping tomorrow with Chris, so I need to actually get up. I plan to buy a small diary (with dates in it!) so I can actually organize my hectic social life (haha as if!).

My mum is nagging to be mentioned in my blog. So here you go mum, this is a special mention just for you:

My mum is awesome and also she sends me hilarious joke texts. I mean, surely no ones mum can top that. She has a witty sense of humor too, I guess I get my personality from her.

She also makes a yummy egg on toast sandwich. Yes. Be jealous. :)

Well, I'm signing off now. I shall return (like a curry after you eat it, trust me they haunt you). ;)

Much love

Labels: chris, kihugs, my mum, update

As you can see the layout has been changed again.
Personally, I prefer two columns and I've tried to tidy the whole blog up. I'm currently updating the pages and making a couple more tweaks.

What do you think of this version?

xx

Labels: kihugs, update

Well this is the homepage of my layout. None of the links work because I'm just testing it.

What do you think?

Too plain/simple?

Or is it an improvement on the Sakura one?

Do you think my layout is more personal now and fitting of a blog/writing site?

Do you think one column is good or should I have two?

Is the text size ok?

Please leave me your opinion, I would like to know your views.

Labels: kihugs, update

As I said in previous blog there are going to be some changes to Kihugs. First of all there is going to be a layout change to make it more like a personal blog site. I'm going to be getting rid of the Sakura image and also the image map.

My main aim is to make this site 100% made by me and more personal.

I would like to say thank you to the people over at Review Me for helping to inspire me to be an individual.

Over the next few days I will be making my new layout, so please be patient while I work on that. I will still continue to blog everyday though to keep you updated.

Labels: kihugs, update

Kihugs is haven't some major content changes. Stuff is going to be shifted around so please bare with me while I butcher my site.

Labels: kihugs, update

Hiya everyone, I'm back again but this time I'm bringing a new layout with me too. I really like the colour scheme this layout has, its much more simplistic when compared with the old one and it has a warm feeling about it.

My new layout features a Sakura render. I would like to say that I do not claim ownership over any CLAMP characters and that I'm just a big fan. :)

I've deleted several pages out of my site and I no longer offer graphics, there are tons of resource sites that are custom made just to offer avatars and all that jazz. Plus I don't want my bandwidth eaten by direct linkers! If you don't know what direct linking is this article should help (external link).

At the moment I'm going through my site and picking through the pages. Some of the articles I have written are from 2006 (woah!), those are the really bad ones that haven't been spell checked or proof read so I'm working on editing them.

Bye for now

Labels: daily, kihugs, update

Hiya, I'm currently updating the layout on my sites Version7:Sakura Love layout. I've completed all the blog pages and now I just need to update the content pages. Please be patient! Thank you.

I'm currently at college and sat next to my friend Flow aka Shola, you may remember her from my previous blogs. (Shola is too cool for old school!) She's happy that I'm bigging her up in my blogs. :3

Again, I apologize for the delay but I have to manually code each subpage and it gives me RSI. ^^
xxxx

Labels: daily, kihugs, update

Hiya, I'm back! Sorry I took so long in posting again but this week has been quite hectic. I went to the university and had a good long chat about my courses for college. The man who was there was really friendly and helpful. He explained to me that even someone with loads of Ucas points doesn't always get accepted into the university. He says that if I just work hard, he sees no problem of me getting in the university! So now I know that I can achieve what I want. It seems I'm not the only person who college has let down. I was talking to one of my friends in English class and they were having the same problem with their courses being canceled due to funding problems.

Its just a huge relief that I have finally got things sorted out and I'm not feeling as stressed anymore. Shola, my best friend, helped me a lot during all of this. Just by being supportive and a shoulder to cry on.

My CardCaptor Sakura box set came yesterday! :3 I'm so happy because it has taken less than a week to arrive. I'm already watching it as I am typing this blog. ~Nya! ^^
I have put a picture up too, click on it to view a bigger picture.


I've gone and ordered the two CCS movies off eBay too! £9 for two movies is a good price and they are both on one disc. :)

My first day at college was okay, I'm quite pleased with my new timetable as I have only one early start and, seen as I'm only doing 2 A2's and an AS, I have less hours. I start college at half past 2 on a Monday! That means I get to sleep in! hehehe :3
My form class is pretty good too as most of my friends are in it and I more or less know everyone there.

The only thing that is annoying about going back is that there are so many new students starting out that the college is packed at dinner time. The queue was massive on Friday! T_T

I'm sure what to do today, maybe Chris will come round and we can watch a DVD or something.

Oh yeah, Kawaii Awards season one has ended so be sure to pick up your awards. :)

Well I'm off now. Ja ne!

xxxxx

Labels: college, internet, kihugs, personal, shopping, update

Just a quick blog to tell you that you can now subscribe to my blogs feed using feed burner and you can also subscribe via email. :)
I've fixed up the sidebar a bit and deleted some old links. I will be back later with a full blog. ^^

xxxx

Labels: kihugs, update

Hiya, I'm back blogging after a little break from the Internet. I'm still really happy with this layout and I've made a tiny alteration. I've changed it from where it used to say interact to now say visitor.

I'm going to be uploading more visitor content, like reads, quizzes etc. The poll of the month is still there so I want you to vote in it as I need a bit of feedback.

I'm still waiting for one review to come through, so far I have two. They haven't scored me to high but I mustn't let it knock my spirits. Personally I believe Kihugs is doing pretty well.

Today I've been busy adding tutorials, so far the tutorial section is my favourite part of the site. I need to fill up the graphics section a bit more as the free layouts aren't particularly great. I felt like making some avatars today, so I made some anime ones! haha. I'll make some different ones sometime but I think celebrity avatars are kind of boring anyway. :p

Samples



Don't claim that they are your own! Credit must be given to Kihugs. I love them, so cute! hehe

I've also been in the mood for making more glitters but I need to think what sayings I could use. Should I use Myspace ones? Here is an sample of the type of glitters I am working on at the moment.
I have put up quite a few! I think they are pretty cute though. I am avoiding having too many different colour versions as they can get boring. You know where you just use the same graphic but make it 10 times again in different colours? I will use the same phrase but try and make them in different colours/styles/fonts. Click the glitters to get the codes. :)

Also here is a cute Sakura glitter, more anime glitters will come soon!



If you can think of any phrases that I should use and make glitters of then please tell me! I will credit your site on the credits page. :)

I am so going to make some anime glitters as well, I have already collected a few cute images that I am planning to use. I swear, my image folder is fit to burst on my computer. :D




I've been busy watching Card Captor Sakura again! I was wondering what to watch and then I thought I'd just re watch the series. Oh and that reminds me! I have added 2 new anime reviews to the visitors section, I plan to add more but I'm afraid I will only add them when I feel like it. It is quite time consuming writing reviews! haha. I've added a Tokyo Mew Mew and a D.N.Angel review.

I'm really glad that people liked my new layout, feels nice to have a change. My old layout was kind of sucky though I must admit. You can see what it looked like in my past layouts section.

Kawaii awards voting is already underway and so far its quite interesting. You can no longer nominate yourself though as voting has already begun so you will have to wait till next season. Exciting! lol.

I'm getting my hair dyed again soon, planning on getting the pink re-done. I love my pink hair, it matches my website haha. :)

Bye bye! xxx

Labels: kihugs, personal, update

[Edit]
Ahh! I'm so smart. Sorry but I am. Haha. I though that I'd never be able to get Kihugs to work with the super big screen size 1152 x 864 but I have. I've fixed the coding on the pages so that the affie/advert/update links don't go zooming of to the left and that there isn''t a big white gap on the right when Kihugs is viewed in larger screens. I've also made it compatible for those annoying 800 x 600 resolutions (yes some people still use them!). I'm shattered! Night. xx
[/End Edit]

I got my first review back from Georgina @ Out The Window and after following some advice from her, plus some of my friends, I redesigned Kihugs. I quite like how this version turned out. Shola said to me that I should design something that I would be happy with, never mind what I think people want. So I didn't do a typical celebrity layout. Changing the topic a bit, I love that render of Sakura at the top! Credits for some the images used in this layout go to here and here. I've updated all my pages, you may need to refresh Kihugs to see the new layout ;) Tell me what you think!
Today has been quite good as I have been busy on Kihugs and just relaxing. You know when its just ones of those days where you want to sleep because its warm. Its such nice weather though, so I might go out tomorrow.
I saw the new batman film yesterday, the Dark Knight, it was awesome. If you're a Batman fan, then you will love that film. haha :3
Bye bye! xxx

Labels: internet, kihugs, personal, update

Last week was a pretty good week for me. I went out with Shola to Graves Park and we had a laugh. It was such a nice day and we took quite a few pictures which I uploaded on my Myspace of course. It was funny because we got to watch these crazy ducks gang up on this one duck. I kind of felt sorry for it. We also went out and saw the film, "Angus, thongs and perfect snogging". It was a great film and defo one that you should should take your friends to go see. I would just like to say that me and Shola are Stiff Dylans fans and proud. After the film we decided to go and get Myflurrys and I swear we had the dumbest person there serving us. It took him forever to count out 2 pence in change. Seriously, how hard can it be to pull a lever and get ice-cream. I felt like jumping over the counter and fetching them myself! Bad service.

I applied for Kihugs to be reviewed by a couple of sites today and I'm looking forward to what they think of this site! A 3 out of 5 would make me happy to be honest. I've been web-designing for quite a long time and I still get a buzz when one of my college friends mentions Kihugs! :)
I haven't done much else to Kihugs lately, other than join some more fanlistings. I think I'm like addicted to them things. I just love all the cute little buttons haha.

I've just remembered I need to do a review for my Myspace blog on Lucky Star (anime series). Meh, I just write on there when it suits me really. But the blogs on there are considerably different to the ones on Kihugs. Much more about life matters and stuff that I feel comfortable with my friends reading. You know what I mean. :)

Well I'm going now, as yet I again I am blogging in the early hours of the morning.

Bye bye. Mwah. xxxx <3

Labels: daily, kihugs, personal

Hiya everyone, sorry I haven't updated for a couple of days. I have been quite ill. Been having migraines and feeling dizzy, but today I seem to have recovered quite a bit. Probably due to Shola's (my best friend) support. :) Tomorrow we are going out to have a laugh and just chillax (chill/relax). :D

Kihugs has a new affiliate, Afef from Strawberry Gashes! So please check out her site and blogs, they are really good. :)

No real major updates to discuss, other than Kawaii Awards seems to be doing well and the voting is set to start on the 1st of August so good luck to everyone who has nominated their site!
Feel free to join, also you can join Kihugs topsites too and apply for free advertising.

Well this is quite a late blog so I'm signing off for tonight!

Night Night xxxx <3

Labels: internet, kihugs, update

Today I've been busy updating Kihugs, I've already added 7 Myspace tutorials! I also plan to come back later and add some more updates. The tutorials that I have added teach you some cool little tweaks you can do on your Myspace profile like making the friend/comment area scrollable and so on. Check them out. :3

Bye for now. *Mwah* xx

Labels: kihugs, update

Got to feel proud of myself today as I have finally integrated a blogging service with Kihugs. I heard about being able to upload blogs via Blogger to your ftp server and I decided to give it a go. This service is great as now I don't have to manually edit my homepage and then input haloscan onto it to try and make it look like a blog. hehe :)

In case you're wondering how come I didn't just use cutenews, its because my host doesn't provide php. It's not that bad as I don't really have to edit all my pages when uploading something. I'm so happy now as I can blog from college when I go back! :3

Just a quick shout out here to my best friend Shola. She has been my inspiration to keep going and I'd just like to say thanks Shola; I look forward to when you're in the best sellers list. ;D

Today has been a pretty average day. My boyfriend Chris has gone away for a week with his family in Cornwall so I'm gonna miss him. Looks like I'll have the gamecube all to myself.

I'm really happy that so many people have entered over at my site, Kawaii Awards. I've already created the award templates and the voting is due to start at then end of this month. Good Luck everyone!



Hehe, I just had to put this video up. I love Lucky Star. <3

Labels: daily, internet, kihugs, personal, update

I am pleased to announce that kihugs has returned!

Yep, I finished my exams in June and now have completed a year a college. I'm just waiting for exam results that will come in August. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, now that my first A level exams are finished.

I promised you that I would return and I noticed that in my absence some affiliates have not kept in touch, so I'm sorry but them ones are going to have to go. I've planned loads of updates that I'm going to do to Kihugs in these holidays now as I have 6 weeks off. So expect masses of content.

I've already created a new site called Kawaii Awards. It's an award site as you have probably already guessed. Winners will receive cute prizes to put on their sites and a permanent spot on the past winners page. So what are you waiting for? Check it out.

Bye bye!

Labels: college, daily, kihugs, update