Tag: blog (page 2 of 4)

3 Years

Today, I celebrate 3 years of blogging. This space has changed a lot in 3 years and I shall continue to evolve it.

I am “growing-up” in this “blogging” world and I feel my blog should reflect that, reflect where I am right now. So little by little I will start to make a few changes here and there. So, stay tuned!

I want to thank you all for reading what I write, for your lovely comments and e-mails and for sticking with me! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I never imagined that when I started this 3 years ago, as a creative outlet just for me, that I would meet such kind, generous people! Thank You!

Here’s to another 3 years!

A few of my favorite posts, just a handful of them, written over this past year:

Goose Girl & Foxy Writing for me in: Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig!
Minka
The Anatomy of a Christmas Card
Mrs. Moss (Part 1)
Meet Goose Girl & Foxy
Renegade Craft Fair Walk Part 2
Silence
Writing on the Wall #33
Murmuration

P.S. Today is Cinco De Mayo and Mr. Michie and I will be celebrating with homemade mexican food tonight, but in the mean time to get me in the spirit, Gigi & Foxy shared a little pic with me of a party they are throwing on their farm! Enjoy! (click here)

Under the Weather

Please forgive my absence as I have been a bit under the weather the past few days. I am on the mend and will be back to my normal posting shortly! I have so much to share from our weekend adventures….

For You

This has been a long week and a crazy one too! It always seems to be that way, the last week of the term always makes me feel like I am working in a 3 ring circus! Everyone is tired, their stress levels are raised, their tempers are shorter. You never think you are going to catch your breath, but somehow you make it to Friday, bleary eyed, happy you have survived the week and simply ready to just flop down and slowly exhale.

I have had one of those weeks. I love the daily challenges of my job. I never fully know what to expect when I come through the gates in the morning, as my day consistently changes from one to the next.

I have been asked to run a session tomorrow that has been offered to students who need a bit of extra help. So, we will be working together to first make photograms out of objects I will be giving them and secondly to make a photogram from a piece of work they will collage based on 3 artists and a piece of poetry (an old favorite of mine by Robert Frost).

A few students needed to be chased up today, to find out if they would be attending tomorrow. I stood next to my colleague as he spoke to one student in particular and I was taken back by this young student’s attitude. I could only think of myself for a moment. I have given so much to this project, given a great deal of my personal time to make and create all the necessary ingredients to this pie, but, this student knew none of that, this student simply scoffed. Attending this session was the last thing he wanted to do.

I shook it off, because I thought, if you come tomorrow, I will prove you wrong! I will show you this is worth your while and if you don’t come, well then you are going to miss out on something that could make a difference to you, personally. You might even learn something about yourself you weren’t aware of.

I keep an open mind with the students, for I never let myself forget that like myself they have a life outside of those gates and for some it is a far from easy life. I get along with the students, it is very rare that I ever have any issues, because I have made it known from the beginning the rules of my Cupboard. One in particular is, that I do not care what others think of you outside of my door, I form my own opinion and you have a clean slate with me when you cross my threshold, unless you do something to tarnish it. I treat you with respect and I expect that in return.

I spoke to Mr. Michie about this on the way home, he smiled at me, with a slightly bemused expression. He has eons of teaching experience over me and you know what I love about him? He isn’t jaded as others are, he heard what I was saying, he took it in his stride, he told me the likelihood of the situation, but he hoped for all the best tomorrow.

That is all we need isn’t it? A little encouragement! I have more students who have been added to my list, I don’t know what numbers I will actually walk in to tomorrow, but if I can make a difference to one student, then I have done what I have set out to do. In saying all of this, my situation earlier today has still preyed on my mind.

I flipped my shoes off when we got home, sat on the sofa and grabbed my laptop to catch up on a few things, while Mr. Michie got ready for a meeting. I clicked to my Google Reader account first and slowly began to go through the posts awaiting me. There was a post from SwissMiss that focused on Austin Kleon’s book Steal like an Artist, with a picture capturing a page from his book (see below):

This is what I needed to see today! That is it! That is what we are here to do! DO GOOD WORK AND SHARE IT WITH PEOPLE! It doesn’t matter what your work is, take pride in it, be the glow that lights the flames around you. This made me feel lighter.

After this, I moved on to catching up with my e-mail and was greeted with another piece of happiness in the form of a note. A letter awaited me from someone who had recently come across my blog, they had even been brave enough to go back to the beginning and read through all of my ramblings.

In reading her words, I thought back over my day. Her words of kindness erased the words I had heard of ugliness today. Her words about my blog lifted me like a pink balloon. Her honesty about herself, to me, a perfect stranger, again brought me back to reflecting on my day.

She shared with me that she has been treated unkindly and made fun of, for sharing with a few people that she likes to make crafts. Do some of us ever grow up? Are will still living in High School as if we have never left? Have we not moved on to being more accepting of others?

To this young woman, I want to say to you, THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your kind words today and for the sunshine you say I give you every day, know that your words have given that to me in return. Do not let others inhibit you, for often those that lash out the most, are the ones who are truly jealous of what you are. For you have found your place and they have not.

Continue to do what makes you happy, find that one thing every day that allows you some peace of mind and DO GOOD WORK AND SHARE IT WITH OTHERS! For the path you are on right now, is where you are meant to be. Maybe this journey isn’t completely about you, maybe you need to be on this journey so your path crosses another’s and gives them the advice, the encouragement, the kind words, that they so need to hear.

I came home with a bit of a rain cloud over my head today and you have shown me the silver lining. So, today, this post is FOR YOU! You know who you are.

Jennifer x

(Image found at SwissMiss)

Spring Pinning

Well Hello! This has been quite a busy week and I haven’t gotten to post since Monday. I even missed commenting on the first day of Spring! I enjoyed it, I hope you did!

I thought I would share a mini Spring board of some things I have been pinning lately. Enjoy!

All images pinned on to my Pinterest account, original sources found below:
1) Sweet Paul 2) Dottie Angel 3) Clic Par Hasard 4) Country Living
5) 2nd Book 6) Whimsical Raindrop Cottage 7) Ladaisi

Wallpaper Backgrounds for the New Year

I like looking at something interesting when I stare at my computer’s desktop wallpaper, trying to remember what folder I am looking for. I won’t say it is strictly a “girl thing” to desire something that is pleasing to the eye, because I have known Mr. Michie to go for a certain overall “look” on his Macbook as well.

Sometimes it is just a picture I like, sometimes I make my own background, other times a wallpaper created by a favorite artist, but more often than not lately, it is a calendar created by Christiane Engel of Desert Friends:

In case you were looking to freshen up your desktop wallpaper for the new year, I thought I would share some of my favorite choices at the moment with you (the first image also happens to be the cover of a Bon Iver album, which makes me like this picture even more):

Click on the images to be taken to a download link, all images copyright to their respective blogs.

The January Clean-up

I have no image for today. I have been under-the-weather this weekend and it has carried through into the week.

I did a little blog “cleaning” over the weekend, there is still a few more things to do. I took away my Christmas designs and went back to the usual “Jenny Wren” look. I have done a little of that in the cottage as well. Things were organized and straightened, a few things put back in order, but still things to be done, it will get done in time.

I celebrated Epiphany on Friday night with a Christmas movie and a cheese pizza, surrounded by the glow of my Christmas lights. They are still up, I can hear you gasp, but I can’t bear to take them down yet, it is too dark outside still, I need the coziness inside.

We went into Marylebone on Sunday as Mr. Michie wanted to get me out of the house for a bit and one particular street we wandered down was littered with Christmas trees, all lined up against their coal black railings to be taken away by the bin men.

It made me sad to see. Christmas is over! The seasons change and so with it, do we. I will get around to taking my ornaments down, I have a few paper whites to plant that will bring a little sunshine to the cottage, but that along with my Christmas lights, will just have to wait for the weekend…

This is it!

This is the last week of my 365 day blog, In the Art Cupboard. I have almost come full circle. I have a few last things to photograph to finish the week up and I have already decided what they will be, just a few things I have had my eye on for awhile.

So be sure to check out the blog this week to see what pops up. I can’t believe that a whole year is almost coming to close on this project. Something, I will no doubt reflect on in the near future, as this blog was a part of my life everyday over the last year and something that has brought my joy and at times challenges,but I have it thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Color Of..

Via the Swiss Miss blog, I found this fantastic site: The Color Of… type in anything that takes your fancy and it generates a beautifully minimal artistic palette of “the color of” it.

I love how this challenges our preconceptions about color. I typed in some words expecting it to generate particular colors but the results were not always what I expected. Go over and check this site out, it is just FUN!

Here are a few of my Color Palettes: