Kate's Purple Stars

A Purple Star is the top accolade for Squidoo lenses, awarded only to the very best lenses on Squidoo. It's even more desirable as Purple Stars are only awarded to Squid Giants - lensmasters who have be assessed as having 50 or more great lenses, and whose portfolio didn't include spammy lenses. You can find out more about the Purple Star program below.

At 10am on 4th November 1922, the waterboy (it is said) on Howard Carter's team working in the Valley of the Kings discovered a step ... Working feverishly the tomb discovered a second step. a flight of steps heading down and, wonder of all wonders, an intact, sealed tomb door which had not been opened in more than 3,000 years. Excited, they covered the steps and telegramed the dig's sponsor, Lord Carnarvon. Carnarvon rushed to Egypt with his daughter Evelyn and on 22nd November 1922 the entered the tomb for the first time.

It is often said that the Tomb of Tutankhamun, which today is known as KV62, is the first and so far only tomb which has been found in Egypt's Valley of the Kings which had not been robbed. That is inaccurate. Kv62 was robbed twice in antiquity and it is estimated that the robbers made of with 60^ of the light, easily-concealed, jewelry buried with King Tut. Other tombs were never robbed. For instance, other Tutankhamun artefacts were buried in a pit called KV54 but which was never disturned from the day it was first sealed. There are either tombs like Yuya and Tuyu which have also yielded amazing treasures. What makes the Tomb of Tutankhamun unique is that it is the only pharoah's (ie king's) tomb discovered substantially intact - the burial of King Tutankhamun himself had not been disturbed - complete with the main burial goods. Whether other pharaoh's were buried were more or less we may never know - although the possibility of finding another undisturbed royal tomb remains - but many of the treasusres of Tutankhamun were created during the Amarnan period, a period of high art.

The fate of Tutankhamun's Queen, Ankhesenamun, remains unknown. Hopefully her tomb may be found soon - perhaps it is the elusive Tomb KV64, although some have conjectured that the Valley of the KingsTomb Kv63 found in 2002 could have been dug for Queen Ankhesenamun - it is very close to Tutankhamun's own tomb. Even though the tomb and mummy of Queen Ankhesenamun has not been found, two stillborn, mummified children were found in KV62. It is believed that these were the children of the royal couple.

My lens tells the story of the Tomb of Tutankhamun and the treasures found in it. When Howard Carter first looked into the tomb by candlelight, he was asked whether he could see anyting. History records that he replied, "I can see wonderful things."

I'm not sure when I first heard a sax solo. The first that really had an impression on me was Will You, but over time I came across several. I decided to research what others I might have missed and put a compilation together of the greatest sax solos so that people can vote for them. This lens is the result.

Alomg the way I came across some other wierd sax solos - like Purple People Eater the nuttiest sax solo and Hungry Eyes, which must surely be the cheesiest sax solo ever.

But stay tuned, I am getting great comments in the Guestbook and will be putting together more collections of sax solos - good, bad and ugly! - over the coming months.

This is a very special lens and I must start by paying tribute to Jessica Barnhart, who wrote it: I bought this lens about 6 weeks before it was awarded a Purple Star. I like to think that the improvements I made to the lens helped it win a Purple Star though. So far, its highest ever lensrank is 16. (The Purple Star itself may help it go higher yet.) As of December 2009, Jessica was still willing to sell lenses so you might see if she has anything else which you could buy from her and push for a Purple Star.



Gingerbread - a Childhood Treat


Although buying a lens has to be a commercial decision to some degree, gingerbread has many happy memories for me. My earliest sense of a treat was either a custard tart with nutmeg, or a gingerbread man. A bakers in the village, sadly long-since closed, was the magical source of these treats. I was also inordinately fond of ginger cake. For various very personal reasons, too raw to share here, those are some very precious memories.



Gradually, as a learned to bake, I started making ginger cake and ginger icing. Ginger icing is wonderful and something about which I must write a lens. I must admit, however, that I have never made a gingerbread house myself. At various times I am made all the bits, just never put them together as a house. Maybe one day. The lens is inspiring me as well.

See lens for photo credit

This is another lens from Jessica Barnhart, who wrote it. In this case I cannot claim credit for the Purple Star as it was awarded before I took over the lens. I took over a Twilight Birthday Cakes lens from Jessica about the same time and my efforts damaged its traffic, so I have been very cautious with my Disney Princess lens and have been making changes only very slowly in incrementally. I have added some more material, for instance a small section on /www.squidoo.com/little-mermaid-birthday-cake">Princess Ariel birthday cakes. In time it will become my lens, but this one will take time to take on the essence that is Kate Phizackerley.

See lens for photo credit

So many lenmasters say it's hard to find a niche. Since my mind is good at lateral thinking, I don't find it hard to think of possible niches which haven't been taken on Squidoo so I compiled a list of ideas which I believe would make Tier 1 lenses if well done. I have included the analysis so that readers can see why I believe these ideas have the makings of Tier 1 lenses and how to evaluate their own lens ideas. I think of this as my "Way to Go" lens!

See lens for photo credit

On Squidoo curated collections of lenses are called lensographies. There are a number I recommend to you:

Best of Squidoo is my personal collection of the very best of Squidoo by other lensmasters

Kate's Angel Blessing is my record of the great lenses I have blessed in my capacity as a Squid Angel.

Kate Phizackerley's Best Lenses is a compendium of my best, most popular lenses which is automatically updated each day to refelect any changes in Squidoo Lensrank.

Since there is a purple theme to this lens, it might as well double as a lensorgaphy for my purple lenses. So here they are...

Images by Kate

Purple People Eater and Sax for Sale are orginal artwork by me, Kate Phizackerley. © all rghts reserved and reproduction prohibited. The Golden Throne of Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike Licence - for details see that lens. The photograph of Howard Carter is public domain. For the introductory image for each lens featured - please see the lens concerned.

Finally, thank you to the developers whose icons I feature on my Squidoo lenses: Please refer to "Icons I Love" for full details and links to the developers' own sites. I also appreciate the section dividers collected by Stargazer00. I will receive commission if you buy through to any Amazon or eBay products I have featured, on any purchase from AllPosters I feature or from Theban Moon, my Zazzle store.