Category: Blogging (page 3 of 3)

September 26, 2010 / 0 Comments

The Art of Simplicity

I have gone through so many changes with my new blog, In the Art Cupboard. I had so many different ideas of how I wanted it to look. It would be cleaner, simpler, not all the girly flowery things that exist here on Jenny Wren’s.

I mocked-up a “board”, trying a background that looked like a cork board with my designs pinned on it and lived with that for awhile, although something about it never felt right. I tried a stretched canvas background, a solid color in a variety of hues. Like Goldilocks, I just new they were not the right fit.

And, then it hit me! I was trying too hard, too hard to make it look like something it wasn’t, this is a blog about simplicity, about finding one thing a day you want to photograph and putting it up for the world to see and so, the site itself, should be just that. I lost my way for a little bit, but I found it again, simplicity is key.

August 26, 2010 / 0 Comments

Into The Cupboard

I ventured into the cupboard yesterday and began to get the lay of the land. I wanted to straighten some things up, clean some things out and just get a general idea of where everything is supposed to be!

In the process I brought along my camera with me to start to get a feel for how I want to shoot things: in a collage, by item, a mixture of the two? Do they look best on my work table? My desk? With a fabric background?

So, I played around a little, grabbed a few things and started to shoot. I had so much fun, cleaning and discovering some of the items in there, like an original box of violin strings from what looks like the 50’s or 60’s, there is a handwritten note on the side stating they are 20p each. I also found an original handheld camera from the 1960’s with the original receipt of purchase and Japanese instruction manual still intact.

These are just a few images from yesterday. Some, might be used in my new blog, others not, but I wanted to get a feel for things and how they would best work and be photographed. I can’t wait for school to start!

Visit my new blog I will be beginning my 365 day project soon…

(Tape & Tag in image are Pugly Pixel Freebies)

August 16, 2010 / 1 Comment

Lost & Found

As you know, from my last post, I am beginning a new blog called, “In the Art Cupboard“. It is here that I plan to do a 365 day project through the medium of photography.

I am making a point to be armed with my camera more and more as I go out to run errands, shop, or we take a walk through our beloved woods.

This is a small test, dipping my toes in the water to see what I think of doing this project, is it best to leave my photos as they are, do I like the idea of tweaking some of them, do I want them all to have a certain feel, or will that change depending on what I am shooting?

So for the next 4 days I will place one image on my blog in a miniature series of “Lost & Found”. These are all items that I have found out and about while talking a walk. Some still remain where I found them, others have either been taken by someone else or swept away….

August 12, 2010 / 0 Comments

In the Art Cupboard

You might have noticed recently that I have a new button in my sidebar. It is a link to my new blog. I have decided to take on a 365 day project in conjunction with my new job and if all goes well, I would like to continue taking photographs of a chosen theme for a set amount of time. Sometimes a picture really can say a 1,000 words!

I still have some tweaks to make and cleaning up to do, but the bones are there and the structure is slowly being defined. My new job is a position within a school Art Deparment and my office is literally “In the Art Cupboard”.

It is filled with the most delicious items vintage and new, that are used to set up still lifes or for use in the students personal work. There are tons of old car parts, lanterns, ancient suitcases, doll parts, vintage bottles, old-fashioned typewriters, just to name a few things that are contained within those walls.

I shall begin, with what I hope to be an ongoing project by photographing the items hidden within my cupboard for 365 days. I hope you join me on my journey as I begin to discover what exactly is “In the Art Cupboard”!

June 2, 2010 / 0 Comments

Tweet, Tweet

I have finally joined the world of Twitter this weekend and I am trying to figure it all out! If you tweet, please hop on over and give me a shout out! You can follow me @JenniferMichie

Hope every one is having as sunny of a day as we are in London, I hate to go back into work, it is one of those days where your feet need to carry you off into the words and find comfort in the rush of a cool stream with the sand wiggling under your toes!

May 16, 2010 / 0 Comments

New Blog Header

I have put a new blog header up. After a year with the same one, I was itching for something different to be up there! I have been playing around with this new design for a few weeks and I think I have finally tweaked it (with a bit of help from my adorable red-head)!

So I have gone from this:

to this:

I LOVE it! Especially the gnome….

I have also created a new button:

you’ll find it further down on my sidebar under everyone I love, so grab it and spread the ♥!

May 5, 2010 / 2 Comments

1 Year Blogaversary

Today is my One Year Blogaversary! So put on your party hats! I can’t believe that a year has passed so quickly! I started this blog as a way to keep my creative juices flowing, to write about all the crazy things that flow in and out of my head and to work harder on my goals of getting my children’s books published and start my Etsy shop.

I never thought when I wrote my very first post that I would would meet so many wonderful people over the year and I want to thank all of you for reading and commenting, I never dreamed that I would have followers, readers and commentators, I thought only a few people would find me here and there, and that was ok, I created this Blog for me, and I have enjoyed every minute of it!

I wish we could all be together, I would have a party, a tea party of course since I live in jolly ole’ England. But, we might have to serve some iced sweet tea as well, I have not forgotten my Southern roots! If I was having a party I would serve this cake:

It just made me smile, and it looks perfect for a fun garden party. It also made me think of Burl Ives’ Lollipop Tree song, I had this record when I was little and my sister and I would dance around to this song. Oh if only there could be a real lollipop tree, I would quite enjoy that!

Keep reading, I have so much more to come, so much more to write and share, so much is happening at the moment, I am on the rollercoaster of life and not the merry-go-round and I am prepared to be surprised!

(vintage party children copyright The Baby Gardner)
* Obviously tea parties are floating around my head at the moment, since I wanted to have one on Monday as well…
**The actual Martha Stewart Lollipop Cake is a carrot cake with a cream cheese frosting, but I love the recipe for the Ruffle Tower Cake so I chose to use that one instead; you can find both on her site.
***Happy Cinco de Mayo

April 3, 2010 / 0 Comments

B.I.

B.I. or, “Before the Internet”. Our internet has been affected this past week due to a flood in the Paddington area. I got on-line Wednesday evening to work on a post for Thursday and no internet, so after much button pushing, hemming & hawing, praying and stamping my feet I realized it was all to no avail.

So we have been living a life of “Before Internet”, we have become Fred & Wilma without the giant pearl necklace and water buffalo hat! It has been quite amusing. You don’t realize how much you rely on it, or at least I do, when I need to convert a recipe or research an idea that has popped into my head! But, we are back on-line and going strong!

To Debs, I don’t know who you are, but thank you for your two comments, I loved your foxy information and hearing about “Sausage” and thank you as well for sharing the Blog info with me. I have two things I have been dying to post (sad I know) and I want to get caught up reading all of my pals because I have missed what you have to say! So I am going to do that right now, hang tight, there is more too come!

January 24, 2010 / 0 Comments

100th Post!

I can’t believe it! Today I am writing my 100th post! We have done a little work in the flowerpots this morning, cutting back and sweeping things up.

We had to make a milk run this a.m. and my grocery store surprise was 3 brightly colored primroses. So they are now happily nestled into their new homes and will bring a smile to my face every time I come into our cottage door.

I still can’t get rid of the last remnants of Christmas. With the weather still being so icy here, my Christmas wreath is still living merrily on my front door. So, off came the bow I had made for it and on went a heart hung in the middle for Valentine’s Day. I am going to keep enjoying this little wintry wreath as long as I can.

I am still hard at work on crafting my little bears, a personalized pink colored bear has been added on to my order. So, that will be my last bear to complete, along with 3 little bunnies that need to be stuffed.

They have just had their fluffy little tails sewn on and are more than ready to be filled with marshmallowy fluff and be sewn up, so they can hop on into their wee traveling box to be posted on their way to RosaBlue.

(Image of the Cake Invitation & Sweets from the BabyGardener, embellished by Jennifer Michie)

May 5, 2009 / 0 Comments

Home is Where the Heart Is

Embrace where you are right now is a concept I try to live up to everyday. I am an American living in the London suburbs and married to an adorable redheaded Brit. I am surprised by how many Americans I know living here who only associate with other Americans. You are somewhere out of your comfort zone and that is the best time to search out a new experience. I live in a very sweet cottage behind a “racing green” colored door. The only yard I have is what I can grow in my flower pots in front of the house, as we live on a side street. But it is just right for us.

Living here I feel like a pioneer woman, the “Laura Ingalls Wilder” of London and her family in their first little sod home on the prairie. Not everything is as convenient as it is at home and so you learn to adapt. You adapt in many ways, your way of life, how you cook something. It is easy to make certain recipes at home with the ease in which you can gather your ingredients, usually half-way done on their journey to finish your dish, yet here, I find that I will have to often start from scratch and even though the process takes longer the finished product is something I have pride in, my hands have touched every step along the way.

I love to travel, especially to Paris, we don’t get to go to France as often as I would like but as the French novelist Marguerite Yourcenar said, “To stay in one place and watch the seasons come and go is tantamount to constant travel: one is travelling with the earth,” and that is what I am being, a gypsy in my newfound hometown.