iPhone music for kids piano application - Baby Grand

My very good friend Stuart Sharpe has just got his very own iPhone application stocked on the iTunes store. It's called Baby Grand.

He started off writing it for his 3 year old daughter after realising that other applications had too many buttons etc and young children were getting lost when using such 'games'.

So he set about writing his own and it's a brilliant piece of an application.

Basically, you get 6 nursery rhymes that you can set to play and the keys light up as the tune is played. There's also an accompanying lyrics bar so you can sing along too.

Then you can try playing the tune yourself or any old tune you like - the piano keys still light up when pressed.

You can read all about it here:

http://stuartsharpe.co.uk/2009/03/baby-grand-now-available-on-the-app-store

The six nursery rhymes are:
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Row row row your boat
Here we go round the mulberry bush
There's a hole in my bucket
The wheels on the bus
Half a pound of tuppenny rice

Nice one Stuart! Wishing you great success from everyone at the Fabulous Photo Gifts office.

Photo Gift Ideas Newsletter - More readers, more response

Just in case you missed our regular email out photo gift newsletter yesterday, we just wanted to give you a chance to catch up with our latest news.


It featured our newest photo and personalised gifts plus some reminders of your 'old favourites' like our boxed photo jigsaw range - completely re-vamped for Spring 2009 with new size options and new LOWER PRICES, plus we can now deliver them in 7 to 10 days rather than the previous 14 to 16 days.

Please click here to read our latest newsletter in full.

Fabulous Photo Gifts.

Fun picture posters - personalised with your name

Fun personalised posters make Fabulous Photo Gifts debut.

We've had great fun picking out our favourite 24 themed posters that you can personalise in a very special way - by adding your name to them.

Each poster can be personalised with your name (and in some cases another name or surname) which is then seamlessly added to the picture. For example, a poster of 2 starfish standing on the beach - your name is added as if it's written in the sand - amazing.

Or how about the rugby girl with your name written into the mud on her stomach?

We've picked the best 24 themes and added them to the Fabulous Photo Gifts website and not a moment too soon it would seem as we've already seen a lot of interest in these speciality personalised posters.

To make them even more special, we even offer each poster (posters measure 30 x 42 cm) in a choice of 3 frames - silver, black or traditional.

With Father's Day coming up in June, we're sure you'll have no difficulty in finding a suitable personalised present for even the most difficult person to buy for and our new range of personalised name posters means you've now got even more choice.

Poster picture subjects range from cute kittens to iPod wearing dogs, extreme mountains to skateboarding, pop groups to fairies, rugby to football and not forgetting flower and garden themes too.

Fun personalised name posters measure 30 x 42cm and cost £9.99 with the framed option costing £21.99 (choice of 3 frames).

Click here to view our full range of themed posters and put your name or a loved one's in the picture today.

March's postbag - customer comments from Hong Kong to Israel

Here at Fabulous Photo Gifts, we like to publish recent round-ups of real customer comments we receive - quite unasked for - from just a few of our happy customers.

This month's has a special worldwide flavour as we've received and shipped orders as far afield as Honk Kong and Israel in addition to our more usual UK photo gift orders.

Here's the latest from March's postbag....

(jigsaw order to Israel)

Hi Mandy

The package you sent arrived today: My husband went to the post office when I was at work!!! Hahhah - It was supposed to be a surprise for his birthday!!! Well I was way too excited to wait, so I gave it to him.
I was so pleased with the puzzle: The quality is fantastic and colors bright and clear!! We're going to have a lot of fun putting it together.

Thanks so much for your prompt service and great product!

Cheers
A.
...................................................

Mandy - coasters arrived yesterday - thrilled with them, thank you #1

S.
................................................

Thanks for the jigsaw which arrived this morning - excellent - and a superb service

J.
...............................................

Have already received my order. Thank you for the excellent service!!
 
T.
..............................

Hello there.  Many thanks for your speedy delivery - received the coasters on Saturday & they're great!
M.
..................................................

(Hong Kong order)
Dear Mandy,

The placemats and coasters are beautiful!! Thank you so much for your help. I will be in touch if I ever need any personalised photo gifts!!

Regards, D.
.................................................

Hi Mandy
 
Just a quickie to say tray arrived today and is absolutely fab. Really pleased with it - better quality than I thought, helpful, friendly service and really quick delivery.
 
Thanks again,
 
D.
.................................................

Just a quick word to say thank you very much and a to say what a great job of the photo on the t-shirt.

N.

We love receiving your comments and finding out how well the personalised gifts were received so please stay in touch. Don't forget you can send us your picture of someone using, playing with their Fabulous Photo Gifts and we'll publish it on our very own TV channel - Fab Photo TV over on our website.

Making Site Maps more appealing - SEO article.

Make your site map visible and more appealing - an SEO article.

If you're website doesn't have a site map, then get one now - and come back and finish reading this once you're done. No - only kidding. Read this through and then go and build a better sitemap. It might be the best 5 minutes you invest in your website this week.

Think of a site map as a road atlas for a country you've never visited, but written in your language. That would be pretty neat wouldn't it? It would also save you loads of time by letting you find the place you were wanting to travel to easily and quickly. You wouldn't have to keep stopping and asking the locals for one.

If you had a choice of two countries and one had the road atlas and the other did not - which one would you choose to drive through?

So it's the same with websites.

Many visitors will be first time, some may be the first time they've ever used a website full stop! So you need to make it as easy as possible for them to navigate their way around, find what they are looking for quickly and easily (without unnecessary padding and frills) and either checkout and pay / enquire further / make contact (whatever the satisfactory conclusion of their visit may be).

Of course, most, if not all, of this can be achieved with good design, clear directions and a level of a maintained 'look' to each page so the visitor doesn't get any nasty surprises and after getting to grips with where things are, doesn't have to relearn everything again a few pages later.

One such aid is a Site Map. Ok now I bet I can guarantee that most of what you've heard about site maps was to do with search engine optimisation. Am I right?

Well seo is all well and good and there's no reason why your site map can't help visitors - both the human and the robotic kind.

In fact the search engines have their very own site map program over on Google. (read more about Google Site Maps on this blog by clicking here).

Back to the human site map - a couple of things. It wants to be plain, factual and easily followed.

Some site maps are laid out in a flow diagram style, others as a plain list of every page on the site. Both are a step in the right direction but consider this. If you break your list of pages up into bite-size chunks under instantly recognisable headings, then that's got to be better, right?

Also consider where this site map lives. Is there a plain - in sight - link to it from every page on your website? No? Then correct that now.

Another more recent design option has been to run the site map, in its various headings at the foot of each page (see Apple's website for a great example of this). All the pages, all linked too, and because the links are text links, the search engines will love you too.

In fact, Apple actually hide away a product they'd rather you didn't find too easily - the white macbook - in their listed 'site map' at the foot of their pages.

If you opt for a more traditional separate page for your site map, then it wants to mirror the corporate look of your website still - logos and banners - even the font style. Don't just list the pages e.g home, about us, contact us, but put the page followed by a short description of what they'll find on that page - what is this page about? Tip - if you use the description from your description metatag for that page then the search engines will love you too.

Remember, you're trying to be helpful on this page. If a human visitor has visited it, it's probably because they were looking for something that wasn't immediately obvious on the main pages. Perhaps a question and answer session? I've seen examples of where people were searching for your contact details and in desperation ended up on a site map page. Why not make your custom 401 error page a site map too?

People will be looking for different things, but they share one thing in common. Usually they're looking for something.

Did you find this article useful? Any unanswered questions? Thoughts of comments? In fact anything to add? Then please leave a comment below and i'll do my best to answer it.

About the Author: Jonathan is Technical Partner at Fabulous Photo Gifts and when he's not busy (which isn't very often) he enjoys writing SEO self-help articles aimed particularly at other small businesses. He can also be followed on Twitter.

Derby Mountain Rescue promote Sponsored Abseil down Derby Cathedral's Tower

Duffield Based Derby Mountain Rescue Team is currently promoting a sponsored abseil down Derby Cathedral's Tower on the 26th or 27th September 2009.
 
A Limited opportunity has arisen for members of the public to abseil down Derby Cathedral’s Tower. At 65 metres (212 feet), it is the second highest church tower in the country. Derby Mountain Rescue Team members will be in attendance at the top and base of the Tower, throughout the weekend.

This event is organised jointly by the Derby Cathedral Chapter and Derby Mountain Rescue Team (the organisers).  All money raised by this event will be shared between Derby Cathedral Chapter and Derby Mountain Rescue Team.

Applications are available from the address below applications are welcome from individuals aged over 14 and in good health, with no disability that would prevent them climbing the tower stairs or abseiling down unaided.
If a person would like to support the causes but don’t wish or are unable to abseil – they can either nominate someone to abseil on their behalf or we can nominate someone for them.

Due to time restraints, there will be a limited number of timeslots available for abseils. It is, however, hoped that the 203 descents (the equivalent of 35778 feet) achieved in June 1982 will be exceeded this time.
 
For more information, please contact the organisers at: Cathedral Abseil 18 / 19 Iron Gate, Derby DE1 3GP
or Tel: 01332 830 839 or email: abseil@DerbyMRT.org.uk

Good luck to everyone who takes part from Fabulous Photo Gifts. Don't forget your event picture will make a great personalised photo gift.

St Edmunds Pre-School Pamper Evening for Mother's Day - we'll be there

Fabulous Photo Gifts will be on show this Mother's Day weekend at: St Edmund’s Pre-School Playgroup pamper evening - this Saturday 21st March, St Edmund’s Church Hall, Kingscroft, Allestree, Derby, DE22 2FN.

We'll have a large selection of our gifts on display including our fabulous new range of engraved photo crystals.

Stall set up from 6.30pm, doors open 7.30pm. The programme of events is as follows:

7.30-8.30pm: Browsing, booking, pampering, purchasing, enjoying… For the guests to wander around the stalls, enjoy a glass of wine etc. We have provided a booking page on the back of their ticket with 10 minute slots from 7.40pm-9.50pm.

8pm: Stall demonstrations… Certain stall holders will be demonstrating their art / skills. Unfortunately, there's not much we can demonstrate at Fabulous Photo Gifts without bringing half the office - computers and heat presses etc. so we'll be behind our stall to answer your photo gift questions.

8.30pm: Sing for your Supper Choir will perform a few songs while guests are still pampering, browsing etc.

9pm: Dirty Dancing Quiz… Provided by Star Steppers.

9.30pm: Salsa Class with Star Steppers.

During the raffle, there will be a chance to win one of our large worktop savers (chopping boards) which retail at £21.99. The prize will be a gift voucher to redeem with the photograph of your choice by post to Fabulous Photo Gifts.

Good luck to everyone and lets hope we raise lots of money for the St Edmunds Pre-School.

Perfect new gift for difficult people - Newspaper and wine sets

Newspaper and wine gift sets.

Sometimes you're really stuck for an original gift idea for someone special - you know you want to make it a little bit special - personalise it a bit and you want to order it online and you want it quickly.

We think we have just the gift - a bottle of fine wine or aged spirit with a copy of a broadsheet newspaper from the date of your choice. Add a 200 character personalised message card and a certificate of authenticity, place all of this in a silk lined presentation box and you have our latest personalised gift idea - The Newspaper and Wine selection.

You can choose from Champagne, Port, Wine, Malt Whiskey, Cognac and Armagnac. The Armagnac can actually be ordered in 25, 30, 40, 50 and 60 year old options.

We'll normally supply a genuine copy of The Times from the date you select (1900 to 2008), although if the date you select was a Sunday, please note a surcharge will apply and because of the scarcity of Sunday Times, another quality broadsheet may be supplied instead.

The Newspaper and wine gift sets are part of our new collection of personalised gifts that allow you to personalise something with a name, date or message rather than just a photograph.

Easily identified on the Fabulous Photo Gifts shop page by their blue backgrounds. Have you clicked on a 'Blue Button' yet?

Personalised Engraved Crystals - another blue button!

The Fabulous Photo Gifts web team spent a frantic weekend getting our latest personalised gift idea live - Engraved Crystals.

Our fantastic range of sub-surface engraved crystal blocks makes a truly everlasting personalised gift idea suitable for every occasion and every member of the family - especially those family members who it's difficult to find the perfect present for.



So what makes our range of photo crystals so perfect?

Firstly, the crystal is really beautifully finished with well defined edges or the chunkier beveled edges. Secondly, the sub-surface engraving means your photo or message appears seamlessly in the middle of the crystal.

Thirdly, we have 13 incredible shape options for you to choose from, many of these crystals are available in more than one size and most come with a photo / photo and text / text only personalisation choice.

Don't think it can get any better? Think again.

To show off your beautiful personalised engraved crystal, we offer an attractive range of LED bases. When your crystal is placed upon the base, the LED's shine up through the crystal, literally igniting your engraved photograph.

And because Fabulous Photo Gifts believe in good old fashioned values of service, we even include the 2 pin 'shaver adapter' mains plug for the mains operated bases at no extra cost.

So - beautifully finished crystal, cleverly sub-surface engraved with your chosen photograph and/or message and in a choice of sizes plus a complementing range of LED bases - Phew - you can see why we're so excited and we know that you will be too.

To see our full range of personalised engraved crystals - click here.

Have you pressed the Blue personalised gift buttons yet?

Some strange Blue Buttons have started appearing on the Fabulous Photo Gifts shop page these last few days - have you clicked on them yet?

When you do, you'll find you're taken to a new kind of personalised gift - something very new for us and we hope you'll be as delighted with them as we are to be able to offer them.



Firstly, our new Times Newspaper Jigsaw Puzzle - a 400 piece jigsaw featuring the front page of The Times newspaper from a date of your choice - perhaps a birthday or anniversary? Each Jigsaw comes with a printed copy of the completed Jigsaw and the whole gift is packed in an attractive box with space to write your own personalised message. Times Newspaper Jigsaw Puzzle. Click here to see our new Times front page newspaper jigsaw puzzle.



If you're the more outdoors type, then perhaps our Map Jigsaw Puzzles are for you?. Choose from Urban Street Map Jigsaw Puzzle, London Street Map Jigsaw Puzzle, Land Map Jigsaw Puzzle, Victorian Street Map Jigsaw Puzzle or a Photographic Aerial View Jigsaw Puzzle, personalised on the address of your choice.

The Victorian Street Map Puzzle is available in a 400 piece size only whilst the other Map Jigsaws are available in either 255 piece or 400 piece options. They all come in an attractive gift box with space to write your own personal message. Click here to see our full range of new Map Jigsaws personalised with your address.



Finally something for the youngsters (or young at heart adults amongst you) - the personalised Blankie Bear.

These cute and cuddly bears and bunnies feature a comfort blanket which is personalised with the first name of your choice. The blanket itself tucks away inside the bear or bunny making it a very versatile cuddly companion that's suitable for ages Birth and upwards.

The Bunnies are available with either pink or blue blankets and matching paw pads and ear inners. They're just adorable.

We'll be adding even more Blue Buttons over the coming days and weeks so be sure to pop back regularly won't you.

Of course, we still continue to offer our full range of personalised photo gifts including our new additions of bags, garden furniture and stretched canvasses, not forgetting our new range of boxed photo jigsaws. We're confident that there's a personalised gift for everyone and every occasion and the choice is going to keep on growing.

Photo Gift company - as busy as bees ahead of Mother's Day

Photo Gift company - as busy as bees ahead of Mother's Day

Fabulous Photo Gifts have certainly been busy little bees lately, haven't they?

Firstly, their re-developed online personalised gift basket went live just this week. Photographic uploads to accompany your gift orders are now faster and you can see an actual status bar of the photo uploading before a confirmation message appears.

But that's not all. You see they've been busy working behind the scenes on a whole new and exciting range of personalised gift ideas - everything from comforter blankets and teddy bears to etched crystals will start being made available online with new name, message or special date etc personalisation options, in time for visitors to their website to order something for a Mother's Day gift with a difference.

Mandy said " We're very excited about expanding the range of personalised gifts we currently offer our customers. There's been a lot of late nights reviewing new gift ideas, discussions with suppliers and of course the web design work involved to allow our site visitors to personalise gifts with options other than just a photograph".

"We'd already added a new range of cushions, personalised bags including handbags and garden seats - personalised deckchairs and stools, but that was only the start!".

To embrace this new forthcoming range of personalised gift ideas, you may have noticed a small change to the company name and logo strap at the top of each page. Technical Partner and web designer Jonathan explains "After our last style change some 6 months ago, we agreed that the new look, although cleaner, was taking up a little too much screen space. It was also proving difficult to get the new logo in proportion when designing our new boxes for the boxed jigsaws. We decided with the basket programming changes and the new gifts coming online that we could achieve a re-design, keeping the familiar elements of the two jigsaw pieces, but in a vastly reduced space. At the same time, we introduced the idea that Fabulous Photo Gifts was more than just photo gifts - it was personalised gifts too."

Over the coming days and weeks, visitors will be able to choose from both their long standing line up of photo gifts, personalised with a photo to newer gift ideas that can be personalised online with names, messages, special dates and even postcodes. Each personalised gift idea when added to the basket asks you to 'personalise' it - this page then gives you the personalisation fields particular to that gift. Some gifts have more than one personalisation field.

Keen eyed visitors will also notice a new line up of Fabulous Photo Gifts oldest photo gift - the boxed jigsaws.

Previously manufactured in partnership with a European manufacturer - all photo preparation was and will still be carried out by Fabulous Photo Gifts - their new range is manufactured in England which will bring usual delivery times down from 16 days to 7 to 10 days.

Mandy continues "We were always acutely aware of the shipping times involved with having the boxed jigsaws manufactured in Europe and with euro against the pound rates climbing it became extremely difficult to continue to offer the boxed jigsaws at what we believed were realistic and affordable prices.

We are therefore extremely pleased to announce our new English made jigsaw range. We continue to do all the photograph preparation though, prior to actual printing and pressing". This new line up brings with it some new size options and reductions in price - notably the best selling 1000 piece boxed jigsaw has been reduced by £5 to just £34.99 (+delivery)."

There are 10 size options to choose from in the new boxed range. However, the review has seen one or two jigsaw puzzles dropped from the previous line up. Notably the 2000 piece and the panoramic (letterbox style) jigsaws. Mandy says "although we were pleased to be able to offer them, because of their size, weight and price they were not very popular, however we continue to develop our relationship with our new manufacturer and who knows? Maybe we will introduce more size options in the future".

It's obvious talking with Mandy and Jonathan that quality and attention to detail is still their highest priority, all the more evident when you see the lengths they've gone to in securing and adding new personalised items to their range.

I've had a sneak peek at just some of those new items being made available very soon and that commitment to quality is evident. I'm looking forward to ordering a Victorian Map Jigsaw of our home postcode myself.

It looks like a fabulous time ahead for customers of Fabulous Photo Gifts.

Mandy and Jonathan were talking to Karyn Milner of All Things Local.