Hello, Ladies...

I've seen a great deal of progress on this blog from when you first started. You seem to be enjoying blogging a great deal more than you did at the start. I would bet that you will continue blogging amongst yourselves with this long after the course ends.

Blog 2 - You have all chosen interesting blogs - very personal and conversational. Your business blog choices sometimes sound like personal blogs, too. Your assignment was to post two of each, which you've done. However, it would have helped the reader to either organize your entries by user (eg. all of Sonia's, then all of Oxana's, etc.) or by category (eg. all personal blogs, then all business blogs). As it is, your blogs are a bit difficult to mark. However, for a casual blogger, the randomness may work, so I'm awarding 2.5/3 for each of you.

Blog 3 - As for the commentary, you were asked to comment on your other members' choices. I've given each of you 1% for each comment, to a maximum of 3%. If you posted at least 3 comments, you received full marks.

Again, thank you for your contributions! I do hope that this medium will become a regular part of your digital life, as you all seem to be developing great skills at it!

- Lisa

Sonia- The Hudsons

By reading this blog "The Hudsons"blogger share her feelings cand her thoughts about the transitions of the changing weather.she tells in her blog how she is not enjoying this spring weather and sha cannot wait for summer to arrive.

In the blog she is telling all the problems she is going throw like her cat webster being sick and she had to be up and down last night.Weather is not copreating either it rains and sun come out where she lives.While she is going through all this problem there is some hope when she sees pelham pick up day she get rid of som stuff. That and some sport score and wondering who would her coach be for basketball.

Finally,it tells the reader that this blog does not like the transitions from the spring to summer.So she is irritated and cannot for summer to come.
http://hudsonsofpelham.blogspot.com/

Oxana-Royalty life.

When I found this blog I was not surprised by this man. Some people have got their “royalty blood” from forefather. I cannot understand why people so interested by royalty life. Sometimes it is really annoying to watch TV or read news about clothes, shoes, crowns which were on those persons. It is better build your own life and be as a queen or a king. People who surround you should respect you as a person not because you have “blue blood”. This blog for people who do not have “royalty blood”, but my opinion every person is unique as a god.

Visit: http://www.royaltyinthenews.com/ or http://bloggers.com/Sonjapearl

Sonia- The House in Marrakesh

Different countries have different culture, different life style ,tradition, language and their diffrent houses. This blog is about the marakesh beaches, food shops and marrakesh cats and their lovely houses.

In the south side of marrakesh atlantic sea there is good place for surfing and camel ride on the sand. The shops are unique in marrakesh because all the little shops clustered together . These all shops are under the slats wood that prevent them from sun shine. Moreover, marrakesh houses are beautifully decorated and houses has an amazimg colour. Marakesh also famous for the animals like cats and frogs.

I found this blog intersting because i like the picture and i think by reading this blog you will never get bored.
http://thehouseinmarrakesh.blogspot.com/

Sonia - Tanja Lippert Photography

Photography is also part of our life. By photography we can capture a sweet memorable moment of our life.

Passion for the photography I have never seen like a Tanja in my life. One of the Tanja favourite photography, (that he took on Amanda and Michael’ carmel wedding ) was most beautiful, serene, colourful and lovely wedding. This took place in Santa Lucia preserve. Tanja loves photography .He has passion for the random pictures and he also put a separate college for his favourite pictures. The most important thing about the Tanja photography is a created ‘Natural Light’. There is an also link for the Light photography if someone want to learn how and why they make it.

There is a variety of pictures in this blog. I like the whole pictures in this blog, the color of the background. The most things that I like are black and white pictures. It also provides the information about photography. I believe everybody will enjoy by reading this blog.

http://tanjalippertphotography.blogspot.com/?expref=next-blog

Oxana-Best Humor Blog

Hello everybody. My teacher liked to tell that only the human race has sense of humor. I completely agree with him. In this stressful life we have to smile and laugh as much as possible. I love when people smiling on the streets, in stores or in the busses etc. In our country people trying to put on their face some king of mask without any emotion. I like to read funny stories or watch comedy movies. If you like it too, let’s go to read these blog.You can find a lot of funny stories in this blog.
Visit: http://davisoncheney.blogspot.com/

Oxana-Canadian Oil Sands

In this blog you can find information about oil sands. Everyone knows that economy in Alberta is growing up last 10 years very quickly. We have three large oil sand deposits in the Alberta region. Therefore, we do not have so deep recession time in Alberta. We hope in the future we will be protected from any economical problems in the world by our oil sands.

Visit http://canadianoilsand.org

Sonia- The glamorous life of a mother

By reading the blog "the glamorous life of a mother” one can discern the troubles one has when dealing with a pregnancy. In the blog, Katy is a mother of three children with another baby on the way in 3 months. During this period, she must continue to raise her children while simultaneously thinking about her unborn baby. During this time, things make her feel happy and sad at the same time, as she is both glad and slightly depressed at the same fact that her children will be home at all times during the Christmas break. This furthers the feelings of instability that she feels as one reads the blog.

Katy is never satisfied. She wants it to snows but at the same time despises the thought of it. This might seem like drama to some, as all her posts are different in words but they all bring the same message, of her complaining.
Visit: http://katykcarlson.blogspot.com/

Oxana-4Udecor Design

Interior is most important part of houses as it is where we are spending our life. Everyone wants to have something special. Some people like to have their own national themes for their interiors. However, they have to go to designers who can help them to create something particular.

We can buy online anytime, day or night. Thousands of home-improvement and decorating products are displayed online. Nevertheless, we do not know how to use them in our interior. All members of the family have their own ideas as to what they want the interior to be like. In this case, we need to ask advice from professional designers, who provide helpful decorating ideas.

4Udecor Design de Interiores blog offers interior design, indoor and outdoor furniture and accessories. This company has a lot of projects which can satisfy any refined taste. It is the effortless way to improve our home.

Visit the http://www.4udecor.com/

Farisha - Zoe's Bag Boutique

Bags are an essential part of everyday life. Whether they are school bags, wallets or fashionable handbags, bags are necessary for carrying our 'stuff'' around. People also like to carry it around to make fashion statements.

Zoe's Bag Boutique is one unique store that creates and sells unique bags. The blog features Karen Norback's (the owner) designs for bags of different sizes, made of a variety of materials and for a variety of uses. The different colours, materials and designs used for the creations promote her creativity and thus, her products.

The blog itself is organized very well. It shows photographs of Karen's creations from all angles and the pictures are followed by detailed explanations. The links to the Boutique's website, contact information and links to all relevant information are clearly presented. Furthermore, the gadgets at the right of the posts reveal her enthusiasm for her creations. For example, the 'RateItAll' gadget allows readers to write reviews about her products and shows her openness to suggestions from her readers.

I found the blog interesting because I think it is rare to see such passion for bags, as is showed by Zoe's Bag Boutique. We take bags for granted and do not normally think of the effort that might be put into creating one bag. The blog tends to inform its' readers about the thought and effort that goes into creating a bag, and is worth 'checking out'.

By Farisha Faruk
Link: http://zoesbagboutique.blogspot.com/expref=next-blog

Amna Zahoor- Lemiga Events

Weddings are one of the most important events in one’s life. As its an event that occurs only once in a person's life, everyone wants to celebrate in a perfect way. This blog is about the business of arranging all kind of events.

Lemiga is an event planner from the United States. She is running her own business with the name Lemiga Events.The blog’s layout is alluring. Even though the colour of font and background is light, it can still be easily read. Also, the blog is full of beautiful pictures from different events. The combination of bright pictures with the light background is superb. However, the pictures are not balanced with text well. I like weddings very much because I find it really fascinating. After looking at those pictures and arrangements, one can easily think to marry again.

The gadgets are very specific and arranged well.

Overall, it is a complete professional blog. But due to lots of pictures it takes little more time for loading. Furthermore, it provides all contact details.

The link to this colourful blog is http://www.lemiga.com/blog/

By Amna Zahoor

Amna Zahoor- Sweet Designs Cakery

In our life, we usually decide to celebrate events like Valentines’ Day, birthdays, weddings, and Christmas parties. And for these celebrations, sweet dishes are always the special part of the menu. In which, cake is the most common and easily available sweet dish. This blog is especially for cake lovers.

The blog is about the small business of Heather Horton, a cake consultant from USA. She runs her shop under the name Sweet Designs Cakery. The layout of the blog is very simple but complete. The contrast between text and background colour is superb. Also, the images are well-balanced with text. She presents many cakes and giving them different names like decorating-3D style cake. The cakes’ images tempt you to taste it. The owner has a very different pose in her profile picture, which makes it’s amusing for the readers. Furthermore, she also donated money for the cause of breast cancer cure.

The introduction includes the shop’s address, e-mail id, and phone number available for contact. The gadgets are prominent. Also, there are many comments of customers. She shared some of her favourite websites’ links.

The link for cake lovers is http://www.sweetdesignscakery.blogspot.com/

By Amna Zahoor

Amna Zahoor- Opening Hira's Life

The personal blog that I liked is Opening Hira’s Life, by Hira Zainab. She is from Pakistan. She is an engineering student having the capability of writing. Her blog depicts her thoughts about life, and its’ experiences. After looking at her blog and reponse of her readers, one can guess that she is famous among people who like to follow blogs.

Her blog has a beautiful combination of background and text colour. The black, white and red colour text enhances the reader’s attention. Also, she has decorated it with the different art images according to her text description. I liked her recent post, confession court, in which she told the readers about the people she loves. She expressed her feelings about their importance in her life. This post shows her sensitivity and care for the relationships.

Furthermore, the gadgets are arranged and easy to fine in her blog. She has shared some poetry and there is also a list of blogs which she likes to visit. There is guest book for comments and feedback from readers as well.

Hence, I think this is kind of different blog with no personal pictures but with personal feelings. The link to blog is http://spotlesssoul.wordpress.com/.

By Amna Zahoor

Farisha - Rob and Lauren Photoraphers

There are special moments in life that just have to be captured on camera. Weddings, birth of a baby, and family events are examples of such special moments. Rob and Lauren Photographers is a business that captures these moments for their customers. The business is based in Edmonton and is a success judging from the amount of work portrayed in the blog.

Their blog is a unique one that features their works. The layout of the blog is simple and elegant and the colours just bring out the best in the photographs. The different services offered by the business are categorized and the links to the business's website and other categories are easy to follow. All relevant information, such as their contact information, is presented in clear and concise words, as should be for any business blog. The blog contains lots of photographs of their work and quite a lot of words for describing these photographs. It also shows humor and beautiful moments. There are many photographs depicting couples in love or families having fun together. Many photographs depict the ideal family life, and bring a smile to the readers' face (it certainly brought a smile to mine).

Above all, I found the blog to be very memsmerising as one can just spend the entire day just looking at the photographs in the blog, so be sure to check it out.

The only negative thing about this blog is that the photographs take a lot of time to load, so you might want to view the blog through an internet connection that is fast.

By Farisha Faruk
Link: http://www.robandlauren.ca/

Amna Zahoor- Life Is Everyday

Life is Everyday is a personal blog by a young girl named Hazel. She is a student and lives in Malaysia. The blog is about her life’s different chapters and plans, indicating her enthusiastic nature.

At first, the name of the blog attracted me. After that, I like the background colour. Also, the pictures are balanced well with the text. She has shared some of her childhood pictures. Her pictures with her best friend were the most beautiful part of the blog. Furthermore, she has shared some work related to her studies. The gadget is also well-organized.

The link: http://hazelyap.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=17

By Amna Zahoor

Your Blog Tweaking

Hi Ladies, I've been able to assess the improvements you've made to your blog - much better overall, but now you need to ensure that your blog is not too image-heavy. Have a look at the blog itself - try a ratio of 1/4 - 1/3 visuals to 3/4 - 2/3 text MAXIMUM from this point on - the visuals should support the text only. At this point, it seems your visuals make up at least half of your blog, if not more.

3/3. Thank you!

Farisha - Pocketful of Paper

Julie Batta is a wife, mother of 4 and a designer. In her free time, she makes cards and scrapbooks to preserve her family's memories and to allow her creativeness to be made use of.

Her creative and innovative nature can be seen through her creations, that is, her cards. The designs that she creates, and the materials that she uses lead to a product that is outstanding. My personal favourite is the 'spring is in the air' one, which was posted on March 4, 2010.

Her blog is a direct indication of her artistic nature. The simple background, the pictures and her descriptions for the cards that she creates are elegant. Julie also shares the items used and the directions for making the cards with her readers. Suggestions are given as to where these materials can be found and gadgets further display her creativeness.

Finally, her blog is an interesting one which is full of creative and artistic ideas.
By Farisha Faruk

Link http://pocketfulofpaper.blogspot.com/?expref=next-blog

Farisha - Planet Bobs

Planet Bobs is a personal blog written and organised by Brenda Davis (Bobs), who is a 53 year old Scottish woman who likes photography and art. The blog is a reflection of Brenda's passion since it features unique photographs of nature, art, family and life in general.

The layout of the blog attracts nature and photography lovers like myself. The background colour compliments and brings out the beautiful colours in the photographs. Descriptive words used in the blog helps readers in imagining the situations before they actually see the photographs. Unique photographs, such as those of the clear and white ice and the blob of heart on the shell of the egg, are amazing observations that lead to an appreciation of the environment around us. Each photograph is followed by an explanation that is in awe of nature and life.

The gadgets used show her involvement with family, friends and other activities such as the christmas countdown gadget. It portrays her creativity and shows that she enjoys life, nature, and everything and everyone around her.

Finally, this blog is a reflection of who Brenda Davis is as a person.
Link - http://planet-bobs.blogspot.com/?expref=next-blog

Amna Zahoor

Hi all,

My name is Amna Zahoor and I am from Pakistan. My family lives in Pakistan. I miss my siblings a lot.



I have a Masters degree in Mathematics from University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan.



I have been living in Canada with my husband for more than one year and just trying to adjust myself in Canada. The thing I enjoy the most here is the cold weather.



Nowadays, I am doing Business Administration diploma. Business Communication is my first course, and it’s helping me to think and approach learning and life in multi-dimensional ways. This is my first blog ever and I am enjoying being able to express myself. It’s an exciting feeling, because I know there are people who will read about my thoughts.

Finally, I expect that everyone will like and enjoy our SOFA group's blogs.

Blog Evaluation 1 of 3

Hello, Everyone:

You've created a unique blog, one that is visually interesting due to your use of related colours. I appreciate the thought that went into your choices.

I also appreciate the work that most of you put into your self-introductions. I was looking for a comprehensive amount of information from each of you. Most of you remembered the "dark-background-light-text" rule; ensure that your font size is consistent as well. Please also ensure that you remember that your posts reflect your professionalism, so you'll need to revise for spelling, grammar, and punctuation as you would any written assignment in this course.

I'd like to see greater use of visuals - it'd be great for each of you to come back and post images of the people and places you mention in your self-intros. I'd also like to see a better use of your negative space, namely by enlarging the posts column and/or adding gadgets/widgets that increase reader interest and retention - ones that reflect who you are as group members.

At this point, I will award each of you 2/3 for this first evaluation. I will revisit this blog on March 21, and if I see changes/additions that improve the quality of the blog, I will change that mark to 3/3.

Your next assignment, due March 28, requires to do some Internet surfing for personal and business blogs. Each of you must choose two of each type and critique each regarding its layout, content, style, and form. Please remember to include links to the blogs so that all group members may view them, too.

I look forward to viewing your future contributions! If you have questions, please email me at lslywka@nait.ca.

sonia verma

Hi everyone,
My name is Sonia Verma. I am from india and I have been in Canada for about one year.



I live with my husband.I have done a BSc in Arts. Recently, I am doing Business Administration Diploma in aAccounting. One of the courses that I need to complete is this Communications course, which helps me to be a more organized and time conscious person. I am also taking three other courses and those are: Organization Behaviour,Taxation and Marketing.

I hope we will enjoy our sofa blog.

Oxana

Hello everybody,

My name is Oxana. We are in Canada 3,5 years. We came from Russia. I love Edmonton, because the weather here almost the same like in my home city Chelyabinsk. I think my children will get better live in Canada.

Oxana

Farisha

Hello everyone.
My name is Farisha Faruk and I am currently doing a Certificate program in Accounting at NAIT. I am new to Canada and am certainly enjoying this new learning experience. I am from the beautiful Fiji Islands, which is located in the Pacific Ocean.

I have completed a BSc in Mathematics and Physics and a Graduate Certificate in Education from the University of the South Pacific. This qualification allowed me to teach in high schools in Fiji, an experience I enjoyed very much.

Science is my passion and learning about the world around me fascinates me. My interests also lie in learning about other cultures, shopping and reading.

Our communications class gives us an opportunity to learn new things, such as this blog. I had always wondered how people actually created blogs and now I know. I hope to be a good blogger and write blogs that are relevant and helpful to anyone who reads it.
Hence, I hope you will enjoy our blogs.

Introduction

Hello everyone. The display name consists of four names, Sonia, Oxana, Farisha and Amna. We are all new to Canada and are enjoying the new experiences that Canada has to offer.
The blog is for our communications course and the introduction of the bloggers will follow this. Do read and comment on our blogs. Thank you