Starting out as a radio presenter, Alison moved to television and quickly became the queen of lifestyle programming. She was a stand-in presenter, along with her former husband, for Richard and Judy on This Morning for four years...

Read Alison Keenan's full biography

I'm launching our brand-new jewellery range!

I was planning to give you all a blow-by-blow account of our rounders match the other evening, but am putting that on hold for a few days, 'cos there's something else I think you'd like to know about. 

You know when someone mentions a name to you and somewhere in your mind it rings a bell? Happened to me the other day when I was told I'd be launching a brand-new range of jewellery designed by none other than Judith Ripka! 

Not only is she the recipient of the prestigious DeBeers Award for Outstanding Jewellery Design, but after several years - literally! - in talks with our jewellery buyers, I'm delighted to tell you that she has designed a fabulous collection of sterling silver jewellery. Plus, it features an awesome collection of our very own simulated diamonds - Diamonique.

I'm back from the bright blue seas of Zante!

I've discovered something about myself over the last couple of weeks (something I've always suspected, but never had confirmed) and that is my innate skill at choosing to holiday in places with sunny climes, when the weather here in England is hotter! 

At least I don’t feel so guilty for having had such a lovely time away as I know you’ve all had the best of British sunshine here, while I‘ve been swimming in water the colour of paraiba tourmaline, and eating my entire bodyweight in feta cheese and moussaka.

What can I say, other than I highly recommend a trip to Zante - a jewel in the crown of Greek islands that inhabit the Ionian Sea. It’s not that big but has an incredible collection of tiny coves and bays, with crystal clear waters and some sandy, some stony beaches. It’s fairly still in the morning, but as the temperatures climb, soft breezes start to blow and take the edge off the hot sunny days. 

My weekend trip to Scotland with Suzi B

Hoots Mon! And other such Scottish phrases which I have yet to hear a true Scots person utter. But I thought I would drop you a line to let you share in my fab weekend. 

I'm sure you're all familiar with Suzi B from California Style (see photo left). Well, we have become quite firm friends over the years, and as her husband Adam's family originally hail from the Highlands, they chose Perth to celebrate his 40th birthday! 

Colin and I flew to Edinburgh on Saturday morning and then caught the bus to the city centre. It took about three hours in total - which I thought was amazing considering it can take me that long some mornings to travel the 45 miles to QVC Towers. However, 50 minutes in a plane and it's like another world! WOW! I've never been to Edinburgh before but I loved it. 

Anyone suffering with hayfever?

I've had it since I was 13, and by jingo it's come back with a vengeance this week! I've been given tablets, Dimotap LA, to combat the itchy eyes, running nose and throat that feels like you've swallowed an entire dandelion clock... but it had the unfortunate effect of sending me to sleep, which wasn't helpful when I was trying to negotiate More Lane in Esher on my bike after school!

Or possibly more importantly, my O levels in the summer of '76. My eyelids became heavy at the point they told us we could turn our papers over... and I awoke to find the invigilator telling me that my snoring was distracting others in the exam!

But seriously, do ANY of you have any weird and wonderful remedies that have worked for you? I think the strangest I've heard is to rub petroleum jelly around your nostrils, which is supposed to catch the pollen before it gets into your nasal passages! I feel it could have the same disastrous consequences that wearing lipgloss used to have when I rode my bike to school. 

My accident prone week and the final of 'Britain's Got Talent'

Not sure how accident prone you are but whether it's my advancing years or just sheer carelessness, I do seem to be more now than I was before.

Last Wednesday having had a beautiful pedicure in readiness for my Pedpro foot file launch, I managed to stub my toe on the bathroom step and smudge my nail polish!! Then, in a very busy car park - while searching for my keys (which makes a change from searching for my car) - I was shocked to find I was the reason for frantic hooting! My trolley had slyly trundled away from me and into the bumper of a small car that looked like a Lock & Lock container on wheels... the driver was not best pleased. 

I have somehow managed over the last four days to tread on the cat, cut myself while shaving - I won't even go there - and then I inadvertantly sprayed sun protection under my arms instead of deodorant  - which I think even Alison Young would feel a tad too protective...
 

I check out our Sanyo camcorder TSV...

I thought it would be churlish of me not to let you know about this fab Sanyo camcorder that we're bringing you as Saturday's TSV! 

Now, I'm really not all that technical, so when it was arranged for me to have a play with this little gismo (and it is little - fits in the palm of your hand and weighs just a fraction more than a small jar of mustard), I had visions of spending hours trying to read the instruction manual or getting one of the boys to work it out for me.

But... IT'S A DODDLE! And most importantly it's not just a movie camera, it takes 10MP quality still pictures too so you've got the two things in one. 

Wednesday's Liz Earle TSV and my beauty routine revealed

I'm assured that night follows day, but my current shift pattern leads me to disbelieve this! I'm living in some kind of weird twilight world, but reading all your comments on my blog has made me smile, and it's lovely to get a snapshot of your world too.

Of course working lates does have its bonuses - bringing you some fabulous TSVs over the last week, and still several more to come. Last night was a corking excuse to dress up in my Christmas party dress for the Grand Opening of Diamonique Day - our 14th to date! 

Thank heavens for Alison Young who laced me into a fitted and boned creation - but where was she at 2am when I needed to get out of it in a hurry and head off home?! Tucked into her bed I hope... it took a while but I was determined and with the help of a mirror and a coathanger I was able to disrobe rather than having to find my feet in amongst the chiffon, accelerator and brake pedals!

Tonight we have an incredible collection of Liz Earle products at a price that seriously begs belief! Caroline Archer will be joining me at midnight, and it promises to be a fast and furious couple of hours. We had a good old chin wag last Wednesday when we worked together, and both agree that this is possibly one of the best TSVs Liz has brought to you so far! 

What did you plan to do when you were 16?

This year Jack is taking his GCSEs - I find it hard to believe he's now 16 and ready to move from school to college. There's so much more pressure on children and exams these days I think, which ultimately is a good thing. George Bernard Shaw's belief that 'Youth is wasted on the young' was probably truer then that it is now. 

When I took my O levels it was the summer to end all summers... 1976. Do you remember that year?  We woke up to bright blue skies and sunshine one morning in May, and it stayed that way until September. 

I used to revise in the garden in my bikini, or at the Upper Deck swimming pool in Hampton Court, and what I couldn't read while laying down getting my back brown had to wait until the evening! The temperature never dropped below the high '80s and this was even taken into account when marking the papers that year... could have been a completely different set of results for me if it had rained! 

Looking back at this time last year...

Did you know that it's National Flea month? No, neither did I untill I took Willows to the vet yesterday to get her wormed. Such is the world of the vet, and it makes me very glad to be in our far more glamourous world here at QVC, with our Get Gorgeous Weekend! Out with the wooly tights, and in with smooth, exfoliated, bronzed limbs - and that's just the fellas!

This time last year I was in Corfu freezing to death on a beach in Kalami Bay while you lot roasted in unseasonally warm weather. Then I was off to Vicenza for the Gold Show with Julia Roberts - oh how we shivered... and shook... and went blue... and could barely speak... and moaned!!! It was bitter! 

And there we were in the skimpiest of evening dresses (left), perched on a concrete bench while a force 9 gale whipped around our undergarments and threatened to cause frostbite to our extremeties. Watching ourselves on the monitors, bathed in a beautiful golden light with a breathtaking view of Verona behind us, we appeared to be basking in temperatures similar to those in the Bahamas. The reality was very different. 

My amazing new Aerobed!

Not since man invented the wheel and John West introduced no-drain tinned tuna have I been so excited! I'm talking about the Aerobed that we sell here on QVC! Such clever clever people. Actually I'm not talking am I? This is probably closer to gibbering - if you can do that using the written word. So... let me take a breath and explain.

I was introduced to this amazing brand of self-inflating beds about a year ago, and became the proud owner of one just over a month ago. It arrived in a relatively small box, but within minutes the kids were all over it like locusts. Inside it was the miracle of mattresses...  

All you need to do to bring to life this small flock-covered creation is plug it in, and in less than a minute it has turned into a bed! And not just any bed either - as the company say 'The finest alternative sleep system!' and I have to agree! Well we didn't even wait to put it in a bedroom - as you can see I was ready for forty winks in 60 seconds, on the hall floor! (left)