Tag: blog (page 1 of 4)

November 20, 2020 / 0 Comments

Life Lately

It’s Friday. The sun is glowing and the air is nippy. The shadows have been changing throughout the house on a daily basis. As I write this now a golden hued beam is dancing across the floor towards my feet. Two week ago at this time, that beam would have been in a different place. It feels like a beautiful autumn day, the kind of day my parents would pack up the car with a picnic and take us up to the mountains to feast and hike.

Christmas music is playing. It’s been playing since November 1st! The house is clean and ready for the weekend to begin. I’m working on a final plan of attack for Thanksgiving, so I can ensure that the bread I’ll use for stuffing and the loaf we’ll use for sandwiches and the pumpkin pie are all baked on time. I’m also working on a final grocery store list for the week ahead to ensure I have all the little odds and ends I need.

Thanksgiving will look very different for many this year. It will be as it has always been for us. It’s just us around our Thanksgiving table. Because of school schedules we have yet to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with our family overseas. But, one year that just might happen!

This year has found me very quiet in this little place of mine. I have felt at times that I did not have a voice. I’ve still been working on my own writing projects, but this has not been a place that I’ve wanted to come to. I’m not truly sure why? The time I have been spending here has been with the help of Mr. Michie, who has aided me in making changes to the overall visual look of my blog. It’s been awhile since I have written code, so this project was a good refresher! There are still a few things left to tick off the list before I get it close to how I would like it. It is a very different, more streamlined look for me and I have enjoyed that, although it was a hard design decision to come to. I narrowed it down in the end and decided what would work best for me.

Our days are moving one into the next. Life is still happening in the midst of all the chaos. There are lots of games of Scrabble being played and books being read and albums being listened too. There has been a steady rhythm that we have continued to beat out through this storm we are all weathering. And that rhythm will continue to carry us through.

I hope wherever you are today that my ramblings find you safe and well.

{Cranberries, Andrew Wyeth, 1966}

December 19, 2016 / 0 Comments

The Last Monday

Today is the last Monday before Christmas. How can that be? December seems to be flying right past us, even though we are drinking up every single drop.

Last night we watched Home Alone, while I wrapped up a secret Santa present and finished the last of our Christmas cards. I was missing two addresses and between my Mom and my sister, they had me covered and happily forwarded me the details. Mr. Michie sat at the table with me and wrote out his cards for work. We drank tea and ate the most delicious brownies, sent to me by a kindred spirit.

Mr. Michie also very graciously gave me about three hours of his time yesterday, helping me rework my blog. It’s been a long time, since I’ve done some behind the scenes hacking and I was happy to have expert help on hand. So now, no matter what updates are thrown my way, everything should just stay put! I might change a few more things, but for now, I’m satisfied.

This morning, I ran to the grocery store after a frosty 6 mile walk and couldn’t resist the fresh rolls they were putting out. They were still warm! So, off I meandered home to eat a warm roll with butter and make a cinnamon hot chocolate for breakfast. Our lights are glowing, the candles are lit, my Christmas potpourri is simmering away on the stove and Christmas music is playing throughout the house. I’m so very happy!

January 25, 2015 / 0 Comments

Surprises

I love grocery store surprises! Today Mr. Michie brought me home a grocery store surprise of a little chocolate heart. I shared it with him, it was delicious!

The end of last week, got the better of me and I never found the time to come to my little home here and write. I have so many things to share, including a Copenhagen post (or two)!

I hope you’ve had a wonderful weekend, wherever you may be! x

May 26, 2014 / 0 Comments

The Onslaught Of Social Media

We live in an interesting world. The times they are a-changing’ as Bob Dylan once wrote. Not all that long ago, you used to have to think about something before you could verbalize it. If someone made you angry or sad or you were annoyed by something, you told it to your pillow, to your bedroom wall or to your diary. Everyone I knew growing up had rules about being on the phone and so you couldn’t always call a friend to chat about something.

In today’s society with the onslaught of social media, people vent their feelings all of the time. There is no thinking about something, it’s just put there. Now I am guilty of this myself as once my sister and my baby niece were flying home and their flight got cancelled and then cancelled again and the airline was neither helpful nor supportive. My dad was on the phone trying to help her, her husband was on the phone trying to get her help as well and we weren’t getting anywhere until I took to Twitter, funny isn’t it? They won’t pay attention to someone they are talking to on the phone but one derogatory (honest) tweet and they were being a bit more helpful. I know on occasion I have also have commented on the rudeness of men on my train. I still find it shocking that gentlemen seem to be disappearing at alarming rates. These men fight to get on first, pushing past female passengers and rarely do they offer to get up and give their seat to a female passenger or person in need. So I’m not perfect either in my use of social media.

In saying all of this, there are times however where I think people abuse their use of social media. Case in point and I won’t mention names but there is someone I follow on Twitter, who had quite a temper tantrum the other day. They were having a whale of a time ranting away, wishing ill will on someone, hoping something terrible would happen to their ex, complaining about their life and how they were stuck in a certain place. After they called a fellow tweeter a B— for commenting on their negative tweets, it moved into a realm of ridiculousness. What this person needed was to have a time out.

Now maybe it’s just how I was raised in the South, but airing your dirty laundry in public is just so tacky! The pros of where we are right now with technology is the capabilities to be able to communicate with people any time anywhere, the downside of where we are right now is the same thing. No one has that cool down period. If it’s in your head or on your lips, you just say it. I think we need to work harder as a society to not do that. Gone are the days of letter writing by which you had to think out your thoughts through pen and paper. As my grandpa always said if you have something negative to say, write it down, think about it, if you still feel the same way the next day think about it some more and if you still feel the same then send the letter. we have no thinking through period anymore, no cooling down period, that seems to have vanished.

This idea was mentioned about two months ago in a New York Times article, The Lost Art of the Unsent Angry Letter. It is all to easy to use social media as a quick outlet for our feelings, but think before you speak, because you just might regret what you had to say and you can’t easily retract those thoughts!

May 10, 2014 / 0 Comments

5 Years Bloga-Versary

Well May 5th came and went for me this year. I have to tell you that there are times where my working week gets the better of me! We are up by 5 and I am home past 6 every night and by the time we make dinner, do the dishes, have a few minutes to talk, do a few things around the house, speak to my mom or my sister or sometimes I’m lucky enough to speak to both, it is time to hit the hay before 5 o’clock rolls around again, because it comes around all to quickly.

I have so many things I want to share with you. I have yet to share with you about going to my Shibori Dying Class, or about visiting the Matisse Exhibition or the number of other things that flit through my head. I will get there. I just need to work harder on my work/life balance. It came to me last night that 5 years of being in this space came and went unnoticed by me this week.

When I started this space 5 years ago, I didn’t know where it would lead, but it has truly grown into its own. A year ago I moved into this new space that I call my writing home. I love the simplicity of my site. It is colorful, yet simply elegant, it lets me showcase my writing and photography without a lot of fluff and that is what I wanted it to be.

Thank you for sharing this space with me. Thank you for coming to visit me and read my words and view my pictures. I write for me, but it is nice to know that my writing not only touches my own soul, but you have shared with me that it touches yours too.

When I did think of writing about my 5 years of blogging the other week, I had made a Kentucky Derby Pie. It turned out perfectly. A slice was cut and fresh vanilla whipped cream was pillowed on to the top, but Mr. Michie stole a bite before I could get a picture.

So, instead of sharing that pie with you and recipe, I shall share a cake recipe with you, as cakes are a wonderful celebration of life. The image and recipe comes from the lovely Twigg Studios. The pie recipe I will share just as soon as I make another one. Pies should be made to share, but unfortunately, this one was just too good, we were greedy and devoured it ourselves before we could even give away a slice!

For the full Mandarin & Lemon Cake recipe and assembly instructions please visit Twigg Studios, HERE

Image pinned HERE

June 25, 2013 / 0 Comments

Blog Update

Hello? Hello?? Are you there? I just wanted to give you a mini blog update today. Well, I am pleased to announce that I am FINISHED! All of my Jenny Wren posts have now been updated to make sure that everything is working, all pictures imported properly, all videos and links accounted for…

I have also had a long discussion with Goose Girl & Foxy. They have decided that they don’t want their own space anymore. They felt lonely having their own site and wanted to come back to sharing my space. I’ve let them.

So last night the three of us with the occasional double checking with Mr. Michie, worked to import their blog here and make sure all posts moved over smoothly. It was a bit of a tall order for a Monday night, but nothing we couldn’t handle. So from now on, this along with their menagerie of friends is their home too.

It should be smooth blog sailing now in my new home, so stick with me and enjoy the ride.

{woman on the phone found here}

May 9, 2013 / 1 Comment

Moving In

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!”

May 7, 2013 / 2 Comments

A New Home

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!

May 7, 2013 / 2 Comments

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!

May 5, 2013 / 1 Comment

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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