Jennifer Michie

Tag: holidays (page 29 of 31)

December 20, 2010 / 1 Comment

Christmas Cards

Everyone, I have spoken with this year, has commented that Christmas has just come to fast. That, it has just suddenly appeared and there isn’t enough time to get all the presents, do all the Christmas dinner shopping and even send out their annual cards.

I am ashamed to say that this year, I have fallen into one of the above stated categories. I am not sending out Christmas cards. We have had work taking place at our little cottage and the cards I bought are packed up in a box I can’t get to. My new work schedule does not make it easy to get things done some days and Saturdays seem to be taken up by everything else, but what I actually want to do.

But, I am taking this in my stride. I have decided that I will be sending out “Happy New Year’s” cards instead. I will design something myself and get them printed and then mailed out. It will be a little something to cheer the one’s I love after Christmas has come and gone; a little gift in their postbox from me.

It is so easy to become overwhelmed this time of year with all that is going on around us. But, last year one of my dearest friends and yoga buddies, gave me a photocopied page out of a book, dealing with stress over the holidays. One, of the suggestions was that on Christmas Eve, or even the day before you pick a time that you are going to stop. And at that point, whether you have gotten everything done or not, you sit down, have a glass of eggnog and begin to enjoy what is in front of you. To take it all in, because, we all seem to work and work and then it is gone in the blink of an eye and during that time, did we even take a moment to catch our breath and enjoy it?

So, this year, I am not going to beat myself up over the fact that I have not bee able to send Christmas cards, I have come up with another solution and I am going to make sure that I take in all that the season has to offer, I hope that you do as well!

(Image found on Flickr)

December 18, 2010 / 1 Comment

Bringing the Outside In

It is always nice, but especially, at this time of year, to bring the outside, indoors. I can appreciate that it is not always easy for some of us. I live in a very tiny cottage and there is not always space to have what you want.

This idea, however, would work for anyone. I saw it on the lovely One Pearl Button Blog. Everyone has bits and bobs laying around the house they can use. It doesn’t have to be an apothecary jar, it could be a giant old jam jar, or your Nana’s favourite mixing bowl. It could be old plastic farmyard animals that are laying around, your children don’t play with any more, instead of the cupcake toppers.

It is simply, just a little way to bring the outdoors in, to create a whimsical world and bring a smile to your face every time you see it!

Go to Alli’s site for further information.

December 7, 2010 / 2 Comments

A Gift from St. Nicholas

Yesterday, was St. Nicholas Day. Some of my most cherished childhood memories come from this day. We headed out into a very frosty wintery wonderlandy Monday morning to catch our bus to school. It was just too cold to be out, it was a morning to be snuggled in bed with hot chocolate and Christmas music, but off to work we went.

I headed up to my cupboard and once I dumped my stuff on my desk, I began to start taking down signs that were posted on Friday about classroom changes. As I walked out onto the landing of the back stairwell to remove my last sign, something flew up out of nowhere and perched on the ledge that leads out to the conservatory.

It was a fat little robin red breast. We chatted to each other for a few moments and with a little turn of his head he hopped along the ledge and disappeared through the elfin sized gap, where the new building meets the old and flew away.

Thank you, St. Nicholas, for you know how much I love British robins and how much more I wanted to be cozy in bed yesterday morning, that little present made me smile all day!

November 16, 2010 / 0 Comments

Gather Here

We are just a little over a week away from Thanksgiving. Not a holiday here in England, but we still celebrate it in our little cottage. There is something to this time of year, as we approach Christmas, there is just so much more hustle and bustle and everything takes on a more frantic pace.  There also seems to be something in the air lately, everyone seems to just be fed up!

Maybe, it is because evening crawls in sooner and with less hours of daylight we feel pressured to complete more tasks than usual. Maybe, it is simply the pressure the media puts on us, there is not one store I have entered lately that is not stock piling their Christmas displays or has already decorated to the nines. It seems that as we approach Thanksgiving there is more pressure than ever.

Thanksgiving, can be a stressful time for many, you are possibly dealing with family that you would prefer not to see, you are anxious that your turkey will turn it out just so; the new bride cooking for everyone for the very first time. All this pressure, seen and unseen, seems to mount for everyone and comes to a head.

I think, of all the Christmas gifts, I have to buy and what seems like no time to do it in. I think of all the things I have to do at home and only the weekend to complete everything. I feel the pressure, that Thanksgiving seems to be the “hurdle” we have to get through on our way to Christmas, and once Christmas comes we can all sit back and take a breath.

I refuse to look at holidays like that. I want to enjoy them for all that they are, I want to soak up every drop of time I spend with my family. I want to simply take a breath and be open to just being, not be pressured by society to have everything just so and by a certain date, I am willing to just take it as it comes and drink in the moments as they present themselves. Because, I believe that I am where I’m supposed to be right now and I will come to it with not only an open heart but a grateful one!

(Image by Craftily-Ever-After)

October 31, 2010 / 1 Comment

Happy Halloween

In the run-up to Halloween you had to make the toughest decisions you had made all year, it was like the practice test that got you ready to start working on your list for Santa that would become your focus not long after Thanksgiving. What was the toughest decision you made? It was: what would I be for Halloween?

I was so many things over the years, a pumpkin, a witch, a pink bunny, a little leopard. One year I was St. Lucia, I dressed up just like my American Girl Doll, Kirsten Larson, with my hair in braided loops and a wreath around my head that my Mom lit with battery operated candles. Knowing my love for all things Christmas, this was one of my favorite costumes.

As I was growing up, on the other side of the pond, so was Mr. Michie. Being British he never had the full American Halloween dressing-up, trick-or-treating experience. But, I know if he had and we had been friends when we were little, as I know we would have been, then knowing his love for all things Star Wars, he would have made us go out trick-or-treating like this:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

July 3, 2010 / 0 Comments

Red, White & Blue

The Fourth of July is on the horizon and I have my whole menu planned for the weekend festivities, except for the most important part: dessert! That, for me, is the hardest thing to plan, there are just too many choices.  I could make my Strawberry Shortcake Cake, or good old fashioned ice cream sandwiches made from fresh chocolate chip, oatmeal or sugar cookies and filled with vanilla or strawberry ice-cream.

I spotted these goodies on the Martha Stewart site. I love the cookie spoons, although I would probably break them on purpose so I could munch away on my edible utensil and then get another one.

I also loved these jam stars. However, I would feel wasteful to not use all of my dough when I have smeared it so lovingly with jam, I would probably use my scraps up by cutting out some little circles or mini stars to go alongside the bigger ones.

It would also be tempting to make a mile high Pollyanna Cake, like the ones they baked for the Church bazaar. That is an old Disney favorite of mine. It is one of those movies that you better make sure you have something sweet in the house to eat when you watch it, although, unless you have one of Tillie’s (the Harrington’s cook in the movie) cakes you will be sadly disappointed with whatever exists behind the doors of your cupboards.

That does it! I think I will make my Nana’s marble cake with chocolate frosting! I just might have to make two, one for me and one for everyone else…

*Click on the Martha Stewart Images to be taken to the recipes for those mouth-watering cookies!

(Images: Sugar Cookie Spoons & Jam Stars: copyright Martha Stewart; Pollyanna: images found on Flickr; Pink Flags & Circle Labels: a Pugly Pixel Freebie)

June 20, 2010 / 0 Comments

Happy Father’s Day

“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.”
-Jim Valvano

 

Happy Father’s Day to all Dad’s, but especially mine! I know you are always the voice cheering me on!

(Image by Dorothy Grider, 1952. Circle label, The Pugly Pixel. Embellished by J. Michie)

June 19, 2010 / 1 Comment

Shirt & Tie

In lieu of the traditional shirt and tie for Father’s Day, I thought this card was quite cute and could hold tickets to a Summer concert or coupons, good for a day out with Dad.

One more day to go, so if you haven’t gotten something yet, this was just too cute not to share. I am loving the Japanese origami techniques…

Directions:

A shirt and tie are a traditional gift for Dad — a card to match is something new. Use legal-size (8 1/2-by-14-inch) decorative paper.

1. Place paper facedown. Fold in half vertically; unfold. Line up left edge with centerline fold, and crease; repeat with right edge. Unfold, and lay flat.

2. Fold top-left corner in to line up with outermost crease, forming a triangle; repeat on top-right corner. Using index fingers and thumbs, pinch together outside points of each triangle so they meet, and crease.

3. While still pinching triangles, fold down top edge (this will make sleeves).

4. Turn paper upside down, and flip it over. Fold down top edge 3/4 inch.

5. Flip paper over. Fold top left and right corners so tips meet at centerline.

6. Tuck bottom edge under collar, and flatten by creasing. For the tie, cut out an 8-by-1/2-inch strip of decorative paper. Knot paper. Snip close to knot on one side; trim other to a point. Glue to shirt.

(Images and directions copyright Martha Stewart)

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