Sister Snog

Two to Tango

You lead. I’ll follow.
The Argentine Tango is a living language. With its own rules, etiquette and non verbal vocabulary. On the dance floor the leader responds to the music, his partner and the circulation of the other dancers. The leader indicates the steps or figures he’s inviting the follower to take by his body language. Shifting his weight. A cheeky toe-tapping-flick-kick. Talking with his shoulders. 


Even bears can learn to tango

Monkey mind
Think monkey. Think tree. Link the two together and what do you see? Monkeys jumping from one tree to another. That's the monkey mind. The monkey mind leaps from one thought to another and then another and another. Distracting us from living in the present. Which is one of the goals of yoga. Meditation is one of the ways to tame the monkey mind in order to get to a state of peace.

RIP
The quest for peace is universal. In every age. In every country, people have been trying to find peace within their environment. Nations meet continually to search for ways to make peace with each other. There's even a Nobel Peace Prize for individual contributions to this noble cause. People hold up two fingers in the form of a 'V' which symbolises peace and when someone dies, we pray that they 'rest in peace'.

Inside out
The dictionary defines peace as freedom from strife.  A state of serenity, calmness and stillness. Inherent in this definition is the answer to why peace is so difficult to achieve. Life and strife seem to go hand in hand. Yet despite the obstacles, it’s possible to attain a state of peace by undergoing a shift in thinking and changing the angle of vision. Peace isn’t found in the outer world of possessions, positions and relationships. The solution to finding peace requires us to look at the problem from a new perspective. To accept we cannot change the nature of the world or its problems but we can add a new dimension to life that leads to peace. Found within. Reached through meditation. 

Puppy mind
Meditation teaches there’s little or no control over the restlessness of the ordinary mind. Imagine the mind is like an overexcited puppy. So the question is how can you keep that puppy from running circles around you. The answer. Tie it to a post. Give your puppy something to attach itself to. A note. A sound. A word. A mantra.

Brain bliss
Minds are like mercury. Unable to rest for more than a nanosecond before they go zipping off. With thoughts and ideas constantly popping in. Memories of the past. Fantasies of the future. Never the present. Meditation helps de-clutter the mind. It’s invigorating. It’s energising. It’s totally refreshing. The trick is to learn to observe all those thoughts without engaging in them. Think of the mind as the sky and thoughts like clouds passing through.

So be a monkey. Or a puppy. Find your path to brain bliss.

Yin and Yang
Sister Snog loves purple.  The deep purple haze. Rich. Regal with a splash of ceremony and a sense of occasion. Royal with a hint of aristocracy.  It sits between the blue hues of the Yin and the red hot sizzle of the Yang. Combine the two. Hey Presto! Sisters Snog's catwalk colour palette.

Hello Sweetie
Dip into the purple palette. You'll find Violet Creams and Parma Violets. Quixotic confectionary. If your taste buds can handle it. Rather like Sister Snog. An acquired taste for a refined palette.

Lavender and lilac
Lavender water evokes a sense of elegance. Victorian charm. Genteel ladies with frilly parasols. A walled garden draped in a gown of wisteria. Sipping chilled lilac wine in the gazebo. Humming a little ditty. Lavender's Blue.  Dilly. Dilly. For instance. And dancin'. If yer askin'. I'm askin'. In the rain. Purple rain of course!

Marvellous mulberry
Think purple. Think mulberry. Looks like a cross between an elongated blackberry. A robust raspberry.  Swollen longenberry. Certainly not your 'Average Bear Boo-Boo!' And did you know Buck Pal now stands where there was once a fine mulberry orchard. Then of course there's 'Peace, Love, Mud...and Mulberry'. The epitomy of understated Bo-ho luxury with roots in Biba-land. A peculiar juxtaposition. Rather like Sister Snog.

Mighty mauve
Think purple. Think mauve. First named in 1856 by chemist Sir William Henry Perkins. While he was tinkering in the lab late one night an unexpected residue caught his eye which turned out to be the first aniline dye.  It became known as Perkin's mauve and  the title of his biography Mauve: How One Man Invented a Colour That Changed the World.

Dress to Impress
Colour plays a key component of a brand's personality. Take a step back to think about what your brand colour says about you.  And be sure to dress it in a colour that speaks volumes.

Mags and rags
PR is traditionally associated with paper print such as magazines and newspapers. But there's also an incredibily accessible arena ready, willing and eager to hear about you, your business, your expertise, thoughts, observations and opinions. PR is the perfect passport to fame, fans and followers in the digital world.

Forget-me-not
Think about what happens when someone reads about you or your company in a mag or rag. Unless you're a household brand such as Heinz, Max Factor or Dove or an A-Lister such as Cheryl, Madge or Kylie then chances are they'll struggle to remember your name. Let alone your website.

Right click. Left click
How many time has a business or brand grabbed your attention while you're getting your locks coiffed or your pearlies cleaned and you're having a Gracia fix. Then when you get back to the office you've promptly forgotten all about them. Well that could be you. However if someone happens to stumble upon you online, they're just a click away to becoming a follower or fan, client or customer. Tantilising eh?

Hop on the Merry Go Round
Online PR is a virtual circle. To create a digital footprint all you have to do is get tip-tapping on the keyboard. Write a blog. Or an article. It'll start a chain reaction. A mention here. A tweet there. Write more. Get more mentions. More tweets and re-tweets. The result. A flow of visitors to your site. Increased site traffic leads to higher ranking on search engines when surfers search under your key words and phrases. Google-icious. Bing! Bong! Print is 'ere-today, 'istory-tomorrow. A digital footprint sticks around. Now how cool is that!

Cheap as chips
Online PR and marketing is a gift. Beautifully wrapped with a big bow. The cost. Your time. Forget paying for all-singing-all-dancing brochures, which are quickly out of date. Postage. No charge. All you need. A well conceived email accompanied by the relevant documents. A press release. Photographs. Articles. Followed up with a phone call. Small investment. Big return.

Trackability
Hitting the headlines in the mags and rags and tracking site visitors back to a specific article or offer is not an exact science. Tracking online PR and marketing on the other hand is rather more straightforward. By accessing web statistics you can see the addresses of the sites where your visitors are coming from. Then you can make more than an educated guess on how the stats correspond to your efforts and activity. And, on that note...

Buyability
...if you're getting a flock of clicks from a particular site, but no one's buying, you can make more than an educated guess why that might be. Perhaps they're clicking through on a message that doesn't really convey what you're selling, that might need a tweak. Equally, gateway sites that drive traffic should be treated with love, care and attention.

Fame costs!
Indeed. But before you think about sending out another press release via snail mail, stop.  Take a good, long look at email and give some serious thought on how you could become the one to watch in the digital sphere.

Paula Gardner
Do Your Own PR
Twitter : @doyourownpr