Haul | New Blogging Tools

2013-business-cards1 2013-business-cards2 Macbook pro
Gosh this post has taken me a long time to do!
If you can cast your minds back a month, I teased that I got some exciting new goodies and you probably saw my squeals of delight on Twitter when they arrived in the post. 
The top two photos are my snazzy new business cards I had made up using Vistaprint. I ordered the set of 250 premium ones with coloured printing on both sides for about £15 (not including shipping), and made up the design myself on Photoshop. I’d been um-ing and ah-ing about these for about a year and took the plunge so I could hand some out at LeakyCon so I could keep people in contact with people. They also came in handy lately when I met people interested in my blog, as well as for Blogger’s Bookshelf, I even gave my team some when I left my placement =) I’m hoping to get out and do more ‘Blogger’ events this years, so maybe if I see any of you I’ll be handing you one too!
And next up my beautiful new baby Macbook Pro. Like the business cards, this is another big step up for me. I’d been so adverse to buying into Apple (with the exception of my old iPod) but saw a decent deal on Amazon for the 13″ model, I had been saving for a good 6 months for a new laptop in time for Uni and my brain went ‘Why not?’. Switching for PC to Mac was really horrible – don’t listen to what anyone says otherwise, they lie! – but a month later and I’m just about there. I still need sort out a decent photo editing system, at the moment I’m using Gimp (which is a free programme) or Corel Painter 12 (which I got off my Dad) and missing Photoshop like crazy. If anyone has any cheaper suggestions of Photoshop-like software do let me know. 
I also need a good hard shell case for when I start commuting to Uni again and (thanks to my lovely Placement team) have enough to get a Wacom Bamboo tablet from the Apple store, which I’m sharing with my little sis, so I get properly edit graphics for blogging!
The only thing about this Pro it’s perfect for the sheer amount of blogging/editing I’ll need it for and graphics wise is amazing, but it’s physically more heavy duty than I’m used to with it not being the newer Retina display model. So, achey shoulders shifting this to and from trains and Uni and home for me then! Small sacrifice in my book :)

R.xoxo
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*disclaimer: both the business cards and Macbook Pro were purchased with my own money. I was not compensated in any way for either of these items.