Month: May 2013 (page 2 of 3)

Beauty in the Everyday

Roost Blog Sea Shells Roost Blog Mussels

This has been a tough old week on many levels. It is just one of those weeks, where you just can’t quite seem to find your groove.

Last night I took 5 minutes to look over my GoogleReader account and for one reason or another there was a large amount of posts by Roost.

I realized this is most likely because Caitlin, like myself, has had a bit of a blog makeover. But, it was so lovely to look through some of her posts again from this year. She is a prop and food stylist and her photography is always eye candy.

This was a post she wrote alongside a recipe for “Mussels in Meyer Lemon Sauce”. There is also a video, that just made the world stop around me. It was just a little slice of beauty in the everyday. As the week is coming to a close and I am searching for a bit of tranquility this made me smile.

I could just imagine my toes digging into the sand as the waves brush over the tops of my feet and the sand that scurries away as the froth and foam retreat always tickles the delicate part of your soles.The smell of the salt in the air and trade winds blowing your hair in every direction. Well, that is just what I call Heaven! I could be at the beach today, there is something that saltwater just does to your soul. It has rejuvenating powers.

{the images and video used here are copyright to Roost}

Happy Mother’s Day

jennifer michie audrey and her son

Today we celebrate mothers, be they old or new at this game of motherhood. This year I have watched my best friend, my partner in crime, my confidante, my sister, become a mother.

She has blossomed in this new role. She knows her baby. It is still surreal to see my sister as a mom. Not that she is not capable, but to have watched her grow for 9mos and to now see this little person, kicking and rolling and laughing and eating her little puff cereal and talking jibber-jabber is a miracle, pure and simple. She has created life and so has our own mother who instilled in us values and a love for life; who gave us strong roots, but equally great wings.

The greatest role we can ever have is to be a parent to someone, be they your own children, or someone else’s. To guide and nurture a little soul into this big wide world is a blessing and a gift bestowed to us. Happy Mother’s Day to all Moms, be this their first Mother’s Day or not.

Before I leave you, I wanted to share with you an essay written last year and submitted onto the  NieNie Dialogues. It was written by Emily Baer (the original post can be found here), it is called Sensible Shoes, it spoke to me and I think it will resonate with you as well:

Sensible Shoes 

by: Emily Baer

Motherhood is mostly about wearing the right shoes.

We are ballet dancers with our newborns in the middle of the night. We are construction workers on the living room carpet with our toddlers and their building blocks. We are scientists and mystics when banishing bad dreams and monsters in the closet. We are coaches, cheerleaders, teammates when life gets tough and faith is thin on the ground. We are therapists and sometimes we are drill sergeants. We are intuitive, understanding, and forgiving. We are the kissers of boo-boos, the medical team on the field, the picker-uppers, the duster-offers, the go-get-em-now-ers.

We are the teenage battering rams. We are the least liked chefs. We are the ponytail wearers, the carpool drivers, the wipers of smudges, the please and thank you enforcers.

We are the grateful recipients of dandelions and painted paper hearts, of whispered I love you’s and little hands held in the dark; and also of rolled eyes and skeptic pre-teen attitudes.

We are a brave face. We are pilgrims on our knees asking for guidance, direction, and a few tablespoons of grace. We are the tearful-proud standing in the corners, watching our little ones blossom for all the world to see.

We are believers of make believe and impossible dreams. We are the keepers of maps, the holders of keys, pilots and co-pilots when those dreams take flight (and they regularly do).

We are champions of the underdog. We are party planners and cupcake decorators, banner hangers and town criers when the world should know how wonderful our children are.

We are the oft under-consulted consultants. We are collectors, curators of our children’s hopes and histories.We are the ride to the movies, the ticket to freedom, the tether to self discipline.

We are the first sought when something is amiss. We are the seekers and the finders, be it mittens, or homework papers, or broken heart pieces. We are a harbor. And a force. We are just the right words at just the right moment; a quiet resolve to see things all the way through.

 And when it is entirely necessary, we are professors of lost arts, like how to spin around barefoot in the sunshine.

FRIDAY

Jennifer Michie Sleeping Itsbetterthanbad

Me oh my, small fry! We made it to Friday! For a 4 day working week this has definitely been a tough one, with a lot of late nights. So, I think I will be hitting the sack early tonight. I need my beauty rest as we will most likely be going to see the new Star Trek film this weekend and I don’t want to fall asleep while watching that. I think eating a lot of popcorn will also be in our Saturday date plans as well, because a movie without popcorn, just doesn’t feel like a movie!

So, “Live long and prosper,” my friends, I’ll see you on Monday!

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Moving In

Jennifer Michie Vintage Moving Van

Well, I officially moved last night and now I am in the process of unpacking. With the very generous help of Mr. Michie, the process went extremely smoothly. He helped me make the move, convert my labels to tags and write the coding into my old blog, so that you will now be directly linked to my new site, whether you are trying to view an old Jenny Wren post or go to the blog itself. We also think we have the coding right for subscriptions, so if you do subscribe to me, you shouldn’t have to lift a finger. However, if you do subscribe to me and my new posts aren’t coming to you, could you kindly give me a shout out, so I can work out what went wrong behind the scenes.

Tonight, I will work on backing up all of my image files and a couple more behind the scenes projects. I have a few things I want to change as this is still a site under construction. The foundation has been laid, the structure has been framed out and built and now I am just doing some of the interior decorating, to get everything as I want it. It is a work in progress, but I will get there.

This weekend, I will begin the process of going through all of my 700+ posts to ensure that they successfully made the move, enlarging the pictures, something I wasn’t able to easily do before as the borders in my old blog kept me in check. Looking back over the 4 years I can see an improvement. I look at some of my old photos and I cringe, not really believing that I took that, or that I thought what I was doing was so cool at the the time, with my crazy Photoshop skills, but in actuality it just wasn’t, well at least not to my little perfectionist eye. But, they are a part of me, of where I’ve been and where I’m going, so they will stay. Stick with my for just a little bit longer, all will be running smoothly soon…

I’m happy here, I like this new chapter in my blogging life. As Martha Stewart says, “It’s a good thing!”

A New Home

Jennifer Michie Collingwood Plans

My journey here has been a long road. I have thought at length during the process of making this decision and I feel that it is time for me to truly “grow-up” in the blogging world.

I wanted a place to call my own, to reflect me and to give me a cleaner, more organized, yet still whimsical and elegant appearance.

This will be an ongoing process for a little while. I will go through my old posts as quickly as I can to ensure that everything has made the transition smoothly. But, there might be a few bumps along the way, so please bear with me.

My “Type A” personality is telling me to wait and do this at the weekend, or till I have a long school break, or wait till the stars are aligned, wait till my work life is a bit quieter, or our home life isn’t as busy, wait till everything on my new site is exactly how I want it, but Mr. Michie is telling me to jump in, don’t dive, just jump, so CANNONBALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL! Here we go!

A Long and Winding Road

I mentioned on Sunday that I have a new home I have been building and working toward. This week I will begin the process of packing up and moving to that new blogging space: JenniferMichie.com

Through this process, I might be radio silent for a few days, so please don’t worry. I will keep you posted when I can. If all goes to plan you should not have to change your rss feeds if that is how you read me and in a perfect world everything will link up beautifully! Fingers crossed! I know there will be some cleaning up to do, but I’m ready.

I wanted to wait for the right time, or a better time, or who knows what, I am not a procrastinator, but I wanted everything to be “just so”, but, Mr. Michie told me to run, not walk. So, I am running head long into the wind and away we go!

I hope you join me on this new adventure!

The Weekend

We got up bright and early on Saturday to make the most of the glorious day we had in front of us! Every art exhibition that I have wanted to see lately, we were never able to get tickets for. I love Roy Lichtenstein, I always have and Mr. Michie was not going to let this slip by without taking me.

So off we went to the Tate Modern and what a day it was! We loved the show. I still can’t believe that I got to see Whaam!, in person!!! And, one of my all time favorites, We Rose Up Slowly. It was beautiful, I stood in front of it for ages, just taking it all in. The colors, the scale, the beauty of it.

After the show we stood in the line buying a few postcards and Mr. Michie with his cheeky grin commented on how funny it was that Lichtenstein’s work made comment on mass production and the consumer’s need to buy into mass production and here we were buying massed produced postcards about work that was in part created to comment on mass production. That was his arty farty comment on the day! We still bought the postcards!

We had lunch at The Diner, I got a short stack of pancakes, that were deliciousi-oso! Mr. Michie got an order of chili cheese fries. We wandered into Liberty’s as there was some fabric I wanted to see in person. On the way out we walked through the jewellery department, and we spotted a stunning ring, but we clearly didn’t look like two people who could buy jewellery there as the two sales associates wouldn’t even speak to us. It is always amusing to be judged. Judged by someone who knows nothing about you and has already formed this opinion of you in their mind.

We left there, strolled into Convent Garden and ended up going to Wahaca for an early Cinco de Mayo feast and ate cactus tacos and chicken tinga and frijoles and spicy slaw, it was wonderful as always. It was the perfect day, out with my baby, just enjoying where the wind blew us.

4 Year Bloga-versary and BIG NEWS: I’M MOVING BLOGS!

Well first things first. Today is my 4 YEAR BLOGA-VERSARY! I can’t believe that it has been 4 years since I got on this ride and I have loved every minute of it. I have learned a lot in my 4 years sharing this space with you, which leads me to my next announcement: I am moving blogs. This has been a long thought out decision for me and an ongoing design process. I have loved the time that I have shared with you in this space, but I feel it is time for me to grow-up a bit and have a place to truly call my own.

The paring down approach we are taking with us into this new year, is one that I have decided to take into my new space. I wanted to keep the design clean and simple, yet still elegant and whimsical.

I will begin the process of moving everything over soon, so please bare with me as I will have a bit of tidying up to do to ensure that everything has moved over smoothly.

Thank you for sharing this spot with me, I hope you continue to read and follow me in my new space. For the next little bit, this is still “home”. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted on the BIG MOVE, I’m still packing up boxes, so I’m not quite there yet.

Jennifer x

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