Ladies footy team in St Albans!! Bend it like... what?

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I'm in a dancing mood..and it's nothing to do with a Royal Baby...

Yey, it's a boy. How exciting has it been, despite the various media 'filling' as we awaited not only the announcement of the birth, but they actually getting a glimpse of the Royal baby yesterday.. 

Forgive me for a bit of self indulgence, butI wanted to post this blog I'd had saved from last week which is nothing to do with the future heir but all about ME!

If you've had a listen to any of my audio boos on here, or listened to my breakfast show on Heart, you'll know I'm taking part in a charity event in October called Strictly MK www.strictlymk.co.uk. I've met my partner Sean, heard my music and now it's all systems go to learn a waltz, a cha cha, and a show dance which we'll only do if we get through to the final!

Last week I met up with the lovely Ann Marie @actressann and Cathy Higgins some of my fellow competitors along with Dance teacher extraordinarie Accursio Romeo @accursioromeo at International Dance Shoes in Milton Keynes, one of our generous sponsors to get kitted out in our professional dance shoes.

The company supply dancers, all all over the world and of course Strictly and it was the point of feeling the pinch of the dance shoes - that the reality of the task ahead kicked in! I had dance lessons for my wedding, and if you've ever taken lessons, you'll know there's A LOT to remember. This coming from someone with a short attention span is somewhat nerve wracking! I have co-ordination, and I know I have rhythmn, but my mind is all over the place at the best of times.

I've just heard from Sean 'Snake Hips' Macarthy my dance teacher (i've given him the name much to the delight of his mickey taking peers)  and he's sent me videos of the routine and I've got A LOT of work to do before October. Our first training session is on 3rd August. So until then, wish me luck and i'll crack on with my #30DaySquatChallenge - see below. Progress report and justgiving page to follow! I need all the help I can get!

FINALLY my very own voiceover booth!

I've done it! I've got myself a home studio finally. As far the career 'bucket list goes' a breakfast radio show was on there, as was a voiceover booth.

I've actually been doing voiceover work for about eight years, being represented by people. So the actual voicing of the work isn't new to me. But I've always wanted to be set up at home.

It's somewhat daunting when you finally make that thing happen that you've been working towards as now you HAVE to make it work.

I wanted my voiceover booth to be something special, that inspired me to use, so it wasn't like I was shutting myself in a cupboard which is in essence what I've created. Our initial idea was a Dr Who style tardis, but it would have been somewhat ironic as there wouldn't have been the space inside, so my brilliant carpenter friend Joe, came up with this and I loved it. When it came to kitting out the inside, i took ages, trying to work out what was best - not trusting my own judgement as I'm not a sound engineer and there's only SO many blogs and posts and you tube videos you can read about how to set up at home. Having started to get friendly with the voiceover community, I went to VOX (www.voxevents.co.uk) in in April and on talking to Posy one of the brilliant event organisers(@PosyB) she explained there would be a number of manufacturers at the event.

There were, and I got to try mics and chat about what I was doing.. and I made decisions. Firstly I bought myself a Sontronics Orpheus mic (www.sontronics.com) and Lisa was more than wonderful helping me sort everything I needed. Then I met Mark Burford from Lowfold Audio (www.lowfold.com) who doing a session on setting up at home. I explained what I was trying to build as I needed to get my head around the soundproofing as well as the kit - and Mark said to send him my spec. I did and we spoke on the fun and he helped me kit out the studio from foam tiles to my mixer. It didn't stop there, as once everything had been delivered, Mark, talked my through setting everything up via Skype. BRILLIANT.  

I also met Hugh Edwards who gave a fascinating insight into the world of voiceover acting for the Computer Games world and I've since done his day course, along with the legend that is Peter Dickson (www.high-score.co.uk)

So there's lots to be done, with the new booth, new characters to develop (you may have heard my Cheryl Cole impression on my radio show!) It's extremly exciting and if there's one thing you take from all this, is make your dreams come true. No-one else will do it for you. Set you mind to it, do your research, ask for help and you'll be well on your way..

Watch this space to hear what happens next as the #voiceover booth is OPEN FOR BUSINESS!

If you want to talk more about bespoke quotes for your business, email me natalieb@natalieb.co.uk and do LIKE my new NAT CHAT facebook page https://www.facebook.com/NATALIEBTALKSFORME

Pictures taken by the extraordinarily talented www.chelonewolfphotgraphy.co.uk if you'd like to speak to Joseph William about his carpentry skills his email is josephwilliam.enquiries@gmail.com

Wanna hear what I'm daning to in @StrictlyMK it's been an exciting week of discovery!

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Have a listen to my first outing with @StrictlyMK - hopefully next time i'll get the dress code right!

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Keeeep Daaaaancing..Olympian Gail Emms invited Natalie B to join in with Strictly MK

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Can't beat a bit of bowling..

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Power Arms, never mind Michelle O or Sam Cam - meet my sister in law!

When I first watched Linda Hamilton in the Terminator movies,as a teenager,  I decided I wanted arms like her.. she just looked so strong. 

At my wedding last September my arms looked good not quite a good as Linda's but I wasn't too far off!I decided that my lack of six pack wouldn't be seen under my wedding dress, but I could do something about my arms. It took a lot of training, from lifting tyres, rowing, swimming, doing push ups, pull up and watching what I ate.  

Now we hear Michelle Obama and Samantha Cameron, are the latest inspiration for toned arms. These are women with busy schedules, yes they have people helping them yet they make time to get strong and fit. I'm much more comfortable having Michelle as my fitness role model than Lucy from TOWIE who this week I also see launching her fitness website, saying that I can't help but take my hat off to anyone who trains hard, as it is hard work!

To quote Peta Bee in The Times today "It’s no longer the upper arms of the Noughties,  wrist-thin, skinny to the point of creating arm-gap that personal trainers are being asked to achieve, but biceps, triceps and shoulders with tone and without flab."  As you may know my husband is a personal trainer and he's often asked about 'getting too big' by women wanting to tone up but not look like Jodie Marsh.

TAKE NOTE  - you won't! There's no Popeye arms to worry about, you can tone up your upper body with all sorts of different resistance training from swimming to lifting weights, but wasting time on a cross trainer ain't gonna do it.

My current inspiration is my sister in law. She runs a highly successful events company in Manchester, has a family and still has time to train hard with her personal trainer, the result... awesome biceps. Now she's a tall and strong lady and has always been active, but her persistent training highlights how you can maximise you booty!! Check out her arms!

It's important to remember that you need to work on your whole body to get these kind of results. If you're working with a personal trainer, tell him what you want to achieve - don't fear lifting weights - and ask yourself are you just making excuses? You'll burn fat much quicker doing resistance work and be thrilled with the results. If you don't have a trainer, look into doing work with kettle bells or VIPR's which provide resistance with movement and are much more fun than using machines in the gym. You gym should should have them, if not ask them. If there's toning classes sign up and if you've tried it, add Pilates to the mix. The key word here is 'mix'. Make sure you change what you're doing, to keep it fun and interesting, what's the point in doing the same thing over and over again. 

If you're not sure where to start follow @lifestyledeluxe. Yes this is my hubby's twitter, but you might as well get it from the horses mouth.. 

Here's to banishing bingo wings forever x

Check out www.freshwebsite.co.uk

What could go wrong when you go away with a new partner for the 1st time?

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