Blog archive 2011

Festive break and opening times

Published: 12th Dec 2011

Christmas is nearly here and we'll be taking a break to join in the festivities and recharge our batteries. We will be closed from 5pm on Friday 16th December to 9am Tuesday 3rd January. Emergency support arrangements If you have an emergency hosting support request during that time, please use our online support helpdesk to send us a message. It ...
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Client News Roundup November 2011

Published: 30th Nov 2011

Lots of awards and things to celebrate in this month's client news roundup... New Green Hosting Clients: Third Rock - Communications consultancy specialising in environment and green PR. My nPoint Exactly - A print and online magazine created and produced by a group of friends. Project Warren - Hand crafted home and garden projects Parents Carers ...
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Our clients’ websites are green, good and effective

Published: 22nd Nov 2011

Switched-on businesses and organisations like our clients are well aware of their social responsibilities and that they have an important role to play in reducing their impact on the environment. Many other businesses are also reviewing their energy consumption, the waste they produce, the activities they support and the suppliers they choose. Consider ...
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My Week

Published: 15th Nov 2011

The Nottingham Post ran an article in their business section recently on my week (a few weeks ago) at Make Hay. The My Week features follow local business owners and professionals from a range of industries. This was an interesting experience for me because, like most people, I'm too busy getting on with the job to stop and reflect on the past week. ...
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Client News Roundup October 2011

Published: 20th Oct 2011

Happy Halloween! Here are lots of treats and no tricks from our clients this October... New Green Hosting Clients: Angels Housekeeping - Cleaning and domestic services for older people in Leeds. Chinese Calligraphy Society of Europe - Promoting the skills of Chinese calligraphy. Douglas Lee Dental Practice - A caring family dental practice. Marumi - ...
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Guest Post by Dr Isobel O’Neil - Thoughts on the Role of Authenticity in Careers Transitions

Published: 5th Oct 2011

Welcome to my guest blog! Let me introduce myself, I’m Dr Isobel O’Neil a lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Nottingham University Business School. You might be wondering what I’m doing hijacking Make Hay’s blog? Well, Vicky was kind enough to take part as a case study for my research and invited me to share this with ...
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Client News Roundup September 2011

Published: 28th Sep 2011

It's that time again! Here's what our web design and Green Hosting clients have been up to in September... New Green Hosting clients: Planetary Collective - Filmmakers and visual media creatives working with cosmologists, ecologists, philosophers and futurists to inspire people to look deeper. Marie Krag Therapy - Psychotherapist and counsellor ...
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Client News Roundup August 2011

Published: 30th Aug 2011

They say that August is traditionally a quiet month but that's not the case for our busy clients. Take a look at what some of them have been up to... Support for Carers are beginning a new project to help carers find and set up support groups in Leicestershire. Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust launch the new nature reserves smart phone app Climate East ...
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Future Factory, Supporting Sustainable Design

Published: 25th Aug 2011

This morning I had a very interesting meeting in the beautiful Newton Building at Nottingham Trent University. This is the home of Future Factory, an impressive project set up to support sustainable product and process design in the East Midlands. As Debra Easter, Project Manager, explained this project aims to help SME businesses to become more ...
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Support for Carers - New Website

Published: 15th Aug 2011

Here is our newly launched website for Leicestershire Support for Carers. LSFC supports full-time and part-time carers across Leicestershire via independent online information and a telephone helpline. This brand new website is a full content management system, allowing LSFC staff to manage and publish content to the various dynamic website ...
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The Manual

Published: 12th Aug 2011

It landed with a loud thud when it hit the floor through the letterbox this morning, the very pretty first issue of The Manual. This brand new printed journal promises to give a fresh view of design on the web. Over several issues it will document voices of web craftsmen and women about our maturing industry as it defines itself as a 'distinct ...
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Client News Roundup July 2011

Published: 28th Jul 2011

Here's the latest from a few of our web design and Green Hosting clients: Newly launched websites using Green Hosting: Clarendon Press - Environmentally friendly printing services in Gloucestershire. Planetary Collective - A collective of filmmakers and visual media creatives working in partnership with cosmologists, ecologists, astronauts, ...
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Nottingham Green Network & Eco Show

Published: 25th Jul 2011

For folks in Nottingham, here's some great green news: Nottinghamshire Green Network First of all, the fledgling Nottingham Green Network has just taken flight, newly launched a couple of months ago and looking for members and supporters to join them. I only found out about them a couple of weeks ago and have recently joined the team as the green ...
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Our Web Design in Showcase Gallery

Published: 22nd Jul 2011

Show-ee "the official ExpressionEngine showcase gallery for the best designed and built ExpressionEngine sites on the internet" has included our design of the Foxglove Covert website in its showcase gallery. We are delighted of course to have our site listed alongside other stunning designs from some great developers. You can see our entry on the ...
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12 Acts of Kindness for Businesses

Published: 11th Jul 2011

Business isn't usually associated with kindness, in fact, it's often associated with quite the opposite. The idea that bosses are mean and companies are greedy are almost accepted as the status quo. But isn't that sad? The virtue of kindness doesn't need to be linked only to charities and non-profits, business has a great capacity for ...
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New Adventures in Web Design Audio & Slides

Published: 1st Jul 2011

You may remember that back in January we wrote a very enthusiastic post about a most inspiring conference that took place here in Nottingham. The conference was New Adventures in Web Design. 'Colly' (Simon Collison), web designer and creator of the conference, promised that the event would have "inspiration, thinking, and intelligence at its ...
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Client News Roundup June 2011

Published: 29th Jun 2011

Where did June go? This month has flown by but it hasn't stopped our clients from getting up to all kinds of interesting things... Newly launched websites using Green Hosting: Cycle Hire - Helpful online search for cycle or cycle equipment hire in the UK. pickIT - Bespoke IT and e-learning training company with a green and ethical ethos. Read ...
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A week in the life of Make Hay

Published: 24th Jun 2011

Well, strictly speaking this is a week in the life of one half of Make Hay. I should add that during this busy week and every week, the other half of Make Hay, Jez, is even more busy managing projects, designing, developing, building and providing support to our Green Hosting clients as well as a whole range of other tasks. I thought I would write about ...
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Updating Wordpress

Published: 13th Jun 2011

For those of you who use WordPress as your blog or website platform you'll know that the guys over at WordPress regularly release updates for the software. It is important to make sure that your website is using the latest version of Wordpress to ensure its best security and functionality. Updating your WordPress installation is relatively easy. You ...
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Client News Roundup May 2011

Published: 26th May 2011

It's that time again! Check out what some of our clients have been up to. Newly launched websites using Green Hosting: Barnes & Adams - artisan apple products & cider Green Talk - Short talks, big ideas from leading thinkers and doers on climate change, energy and food security and the natural world. Bradford Personalisation - a network of ...
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Wildlife charity celebrates after teaming up with Make Hay

Published: 24th May 2011

We were in the news yesterday with a story about our work with Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust. Here's what it said: Visitor numbers to Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust's website have nearly tripled since a new online presence was unveiled. The number of people signing up online for membership has also increased as a result of the new-look website, ...
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Great Green Printers

Published: 19th May 2011

Its a lovely thing when you find a local business that reflects your ethical ethos, provides a great service and is good value to boot! I was so pleased to find green printers, Print Revolution, the other day. They're just down the road from us here in Nottingham and I couldn't believe we hadn't crossed paths before. After chatting to the ...
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Green Office Week

Published: 6th May 2011

Did you know that next week is Green Office Week? Well, we would advocate making moves for a greener office all year round but this a good time to think about how to save energy, reduce waste and purchase greener products. The organisers of GOW are encouraging businesses up and down the UK to take action in their offices, tackling a different area each day ...
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Client News Roundup April 2011

Published: 3rd May 2011

Well, with all of the recent bank holidays and festivities our April round-up has been slightly delayed. Where did April go anyway? If you have exciting news to share let us know. Here's the latest from some of our fab clients... Vote for Climate Change Gardening in the 'One Small Step' business competition. Climate Change Gardening provides ...
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Happy Spring Update Newsletter

Published: 20th Apr 2011

Our latest newsletter 'Happy Spring News Update' is out now. As the weather is sunny and we're heading into a long weekend we thought we'd keep this newsletter light with some nice updates including: Welcome to our new clients The UK Aware Show & Finding Services for Green Businesses New Adventures in Web Design Movie ...
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Finding green & ethical businesses

Published: 5th Apr 2011

Recently a couple of clients have asked me where they can find other types of green services, such as energy providers, banks and printers. When I'm looking for a green service or product I turn to directories that specifically register ethical and eco-friendly businesses and I've built up a little list of them over time. So, I thought I'd ...
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UK Aware 2011, the sustainable living show

Published: 28th Mar 2011

Last Friday I hopped on a train headed to the big smoke for a day out to the UK Aware show. Despite this being the longest running sustainability lifestyle exhibition in the UK, this was my first time attending and I was curious to learn what the two days of workshops, seminars and exhibition stands had to offer. I arrived at London Olympia, the ...
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Client News Roundup March 2011

Published: 24th Mar 2011

Here's the March edition of our client news round-up. If you're one of our lovely clients and you would like to share your news here, just get in touch. My Climate Change Garden celebrates Climate Week with a post-a-day on things you can do in the garden to combat climate change. Foxglove Covert and their volunteers prepare for the massive task of ...
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Uganda Carbon Bureau - New website

Published: 23rd Feb 2011

Here's our newly launched website for The Uganda Carbon Bureau. UCB provides a range of services around carbon management and offsetting. They help organisations measure their carbon footprint and take steps to reduce its size. They also provide advice and support to projects planning to develop and sell carbon credits and carry out a range of ...
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Share your Make Mail Newsletters

Published: 10th Feb 2011

If you use our Make Mail e-newsletter system then why not try its clever new social sharing facility? Using the Quick Links inside your newsletter editor you can add Facebook 'Like' and Twitter 'Tweet' links so that your readers can share your stories in their social networks. You don't even need to worry about creating the icons ...
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Client News Roundup February 2011

Published: 3rd Feb 2011

We love what our clients do and so we like to talk about them. Here's the latest news from a few of them: Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust launch their wildlife photography exhibition at The Museum of Nottingham life. Gertie & Mabel get their Danish ribbon featured on the cover of Not on the High Street's latest catalogue. Well done ladies! ...
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reecovid: waste not chaste

Published: 27th Jan 2011

reecovid, the stylish, eco-friendly stationery company, first came to my attention when our friend Katie at Ethical Weddings wrote about them. I'd been looking for exactly this sort of thing for ages. When I learned that their products are made entirely from post consumer waste, and being a bit of a stationery geek, I had to find out more. You can ...
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Wildlife in the City

Published: 26th Jan 2011

Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust have started an exciting new project to help people in Nottingham discover and explore wildlife in the city's green spaces. We've launched the new holding page for Wildlife in the City which will be in place until the full website is ready. Visit www.wildlifeinthecity.org to sign up to the newsletter, follow ...
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New Adventures in Web Design

Published: 24th Jan 2011

On 20th January 2011 at the Albert Hall the plans of Mr Simon Collison’s New Adventures in Web Design were realised here in Nottingham. This conference (‘naconf’) had come to our attention last summer and we pounced upon the tickets as soon as they were available. We knew from the line-up of speakers (web industry leaders we had followed ...
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New Year, New Look, New Website

Published: 19th Jan 2011

Happy New Year! Welcome to our brand new website. As you will see we have freshened our look up, with an updated logo and pretty new colours. We are still the same Make Hay, an ethical web design team, creating beautiful websites for positive organisations. We still run Green Hosting too! Aside from our new brand we have lots of exciting plans in place ...
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More news from Make Hay

Help us celebrate our 20th business anniversary
To celebrate our 20th business anniversary and to say thank you for your custom we are excited to offer you the opportunity to win a year... read more
It’s been 20 years! Share your memorable moments with us.
Calling all Make Hay and Green Hosting clients This September will mark our 20th business anniversary. Wow, where did that time go?! On... read more
New Festival of Social Science website
In November we were delighted to launch the new 2020 Festival of Social Science website. This event hosted by the Economic and Social... read more
Happy 16th to us!
This month our business turns 16 years old. 16th business birthdays are not usually considered to be significant, well not as significant... read more
New website for Redbridge IASS
We have been very fortunate to work with another great Special Educational Needs & Disability Information and Advice Support Service... read more
New website for Ask Us Nottinghamshire
We are delighted to launch this brand new website for Ask Us Nottinghamshire, an organisation that provides impartial support and... read more