Jennifer Michie

Tag: hygge (page 1 of 3)

November 1, 2025 / 0 Comments

HELLO, November

Hello, November. We’re ready to see where you take us in these new chapters. So far, our fall has been a whirlwind. As if we have been swept up with the leaves and formed a little leaf tornado. Blowing and twirling in the breeze, dancing down the street as we go. And that is what an adventure is all about; taking the road less traveled.

We’re ready for evenings to close in earlier with candles lit, board games or cards flowing and hot apple ciders at hand. We’re ready for all things apple. We’ve already been making batch after batch of applesauce, with the most luscious Kissabel apples and it is the reddest applesauce we’ve ever made and it is simply glorious!

We’re ready for Bonfire Night and Thanksgiving. We’re ready for gingerbread cake and pumpkin pie. We’re ready for our annual “Alan Alda Weekend”, where we make stew or pot roast and watch “Same Time, Next Year” and “The Four Seasons”. Two of my favourites. While staying tucked in the house all weekend, feasting, watching and just being, happy as always in each other’s company.

We’re ready for crispy morning strolls where the remnant smells of woodsmoke still cling to the air as we make our way to a favourite breakfast joint to feast on waffles and eggs and hot coffee.

You hold so much in this season of Thanksgiving. And we have so much to be grateful for. Welcome, November, we’re ready for all that you bring.

{“Forest Children” by Loré Pemberton | Pinned HERE}

February 1, 2025 / 0 Comments

HELLO, February

Hello February, we’re very excited for your coming. For you bring along with you St. Valentine’s Day and a winter break from school which feels luxurious this time of year. It gives way to the opportunity to move more fully to our own beat even if only for a short time. 

We’re ready for our long winter evenings to continue marching on for a while yet. We’re savouring nightfall with our eventide rituals of drinking tea enriched with lemon and honey or hot chocolates studded with marshmallows and watching cozy movies while snuggled under blankets.  

We’re ready for more “breakfast for dinner” nights in which we feast on scrambled eggs, bacon and biscuits or pancakes dotted with blueberries or waffles with lashings of butter and syrup. 

We’re ready to continue to enjoy winter. Slowly and surely the earth is awakening. I see bulbs shooting up with their green heads from the soil and the smell of damp earth permeates the air. But, I’m not quite ready for Spring yet, I’ll enjoy her when she arrives, but I like each season to have its due. 

We’re still keeping our fingers crossed for one snow day in there, where school is closed and we get to stay home reading books and chatting while lingering over a second cup coffee and stopping mid sentence to watch the snow fall and breathe it all in.

We’re ready for quiet weekends mixed in with long London strolls seeing where our feet take us, stopping for coffee and pastries when we need a break to warm up again. We’re ready for all that you bring in this last month of Winter. Welcome, February! We greet you with arms open wide. 

{Walt Disney “Once Upon a December” poster, 1954 | Found HERE | Pinned HERE}

December 1, 2024 / 0 Comments

HELLO, December

Hello, December. We’re ready for frosty mornings and quiet evenings where we sit by the glow of the Christmas tree and listen to Patrick Stewart reading from “A Christmas Carol”, with hot chocolates in our hands.

We’re ready for the hustle and bustle this season brings and the moments of stillness as well, which are so very important for body and soul. We’re ready for our first chance to wish someone a “Merry Christmas!”, two of my most favourite words. The thrill that gives me to offer those heartfelt wishes, as there is only a finite amount of time in which to do it in.

We’re ready for weekend rambles and visiting a few Christmas markets. We’re ready to delight in frosted sugar cookies and gingerbread men with currant eyes and buttons. We’re ready for the excitement of peeling back the windows each day of our German Advent calendar to see what awaits us behind our little paper door.

We’re ready to relish in this season as well as this time for reflection of what the year has been and where the New Year may go. We welcome you with open arms, December and await all the delights and blessings that you will bring.

{The Nightcap | Will Bullas | Found HERE | Pinned HERE}

January 9, 2024 / 0 Comments

We Need A Little Twinkle & Glow

Although, I find setting goals both personally and professionally, important. I feel that this is the time of year where it is equally important to simply be. To let things wash over you, to move with the season. Winter in the natural world is a time of rest, a season that supports rebirth in the spring.

Our current working culture does not allow for this to easily happen. It’s head first, jump in and just keep swimming. It’s not a straightforward road to walk, to find the balance between “being” and “doing”.

This is a season where we need to consciously make time to rest, to move a little slower, to breathe. And so, we shall continue to have the glow of our twinkle lights for awhile longer and linger at the table after dinner while a record spins and take opportunities as they present themselves to simply be still. Because we are now within the darkest part of the year, the part where we need the most light, the most twinkle and glow; where we need to be cozy, where we need to relish in the season that we are in and look forward to the season that is yet to come.

Last Tuesday, I had to walk past my first dumped Christmas tree of winter. I thought my heart was going to break, I know there will be more to come as I’ve already witnessed it. After all the warmth and twinkling lights, it’s so sad to see nothing but darkened windows. So for a little while longer, I’m going to share a few more moments of sparkle and glow before all of that disappears with the yule log ashes.

{A quick snap of an adorable snowman on top of one of the Christmas trees at Lamb House. | This year the theme was a 1970s Christmas based on the time period that Rumer Godden lived within those walls. It was a delicious step back in time!}

December 1, 2022 / 0 Comments

HELLO, December

Hello, December! We’re ready for the frosty air that you bring that bites at our cheeks and the smell of woodsmoke circulating on the evening breeze. We’re ready for the streets to be lit by the glow of Christmas lights while we stroll with hot chocolates in hand to “ooooh” and “aaaah” at Christmas window displays and house bedecked for the festive period.

We’re ready for the arrival of the numerous sacred days to this most spectacular season and month. In particular Santa Lucia, for she brought light into the darkest of corners and so should we all follow her lead and ensure that we are the bearers of light wherever we may tread.

We’re ready for Christmas music to be spinning while we sit on the couch bathed in the warmth of the twinkling tree. We’re ready for our pace to slow as the sun goes to bed and to play endless games of scrabble or cards while sitting at the kitchen table where all the best conversations always happen.

We’re ready for the house to smell of gingerbread and peppermint and fresh pine. We’re ready to watch Christmas movies by the glow of candlelight and snack on buttery popcorn. We’re ready to simply drink in this season and all that it has to offer.

{Vogue, Christmas Photoshoot, 1956, photographer unknown, found HERE | Pinned HERE}

December 13, 2020 / 0 Comments

Santa Lucia

Happy Santa Lucia day. We feasted on iced cinnamon and orange buns this morning and listened to Christmas music by candlelight.

We’re making the most of the magic that these season brings!

{Image Studio Quirk}

December 13, 2019 / 0 Comments

Happy Santa Lucia Day!

Happy Santa Lucia Day!

This morning on one of my most treasured December days, we feasted on iced danishes by the glow of candlelight and listened to Christmas music. It was dark outside and the wind was howling, but inside it was cozy, magical and was a wondrous way to start our Friday.

Happy St. Lucia Day to you all! May a light guide your way today and always. ❤️

October 28, 2019 / 0 Comments

Fall-ing Back

Our clocks fell back over the weekend. We awoke on Sunday morning to a truly autumnal day. It was sunny and crisp. There was a snap in the air; the leaves crunched under our feet. Mushrooms seemingly sprang up everywhere over night and the air was filled with the warming smell of woodsmoke.

Being so spoiled by the sunshine, I completely forgot how quickly night would close in. We were lost in a conversation, listening to music when we were suddenly aware that the room had grown dark. Quickly, lights were turned on, candles were lit, curtains were drawn and everything felt cozy again.

I’m ready for fall. I’m ready for this change of season. Tonight we’re carving pumpkins and feasting on comforting bowls of homemade macaroni and cheese. There’s a fresh sticky date cake cooling on the counter and a toffee sauce bubbling away on the stove, which will be generously poured over it along with a huge dollop of whipped cream.

Happiness is…

{Image Phoebe Wahl HERE // Pinned HERE}

January 8, 2019 / 0 Comments

Seven

Out of the one hundred or so houses on our street, there are only seven houses left with Christmas lights still up. Not everyone on our street decorates their house, but enough do, to make our little street feel festive. As I walked to meet Mr. Michie after work last night, the street felt so very dreary. Those seven houses were a welcoming glow in the dark.

Our little house still has twinkle lights up and the decorations are still hanging. They will come down soon, but I’m soaking every last drop out of them that I can. January is such a dark month, it feels that we need all the twinkle and glow that we can get.

Once the decorations do come down and the house is thoroughly cleaned, there will be more candles out and some tiny twinkle lights still tucked here and there. It in this sparseness of winter that I feel the most need to fill our home with light. It is something that I always notice when we are in Denmark. Candles lit in restaurants and coffee shops all day; peering in through windows as we wind our way back to our little nest for the evening and spying rooms a glow with candlelight. Even one little candle shines with a warmth and hue that makes even the darkest spaces feel cozy and inviting.

If my weather checker is correct it appears that snow is on the horizon for us near the end of the month and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for at least one good snow day. A day with no school and the streets are quiet and the sounds of sledding can be heard and inside there is candles, music, laughter, homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches and movie watching underneath a pile of blankets.

{Andrew Davidson // Pinned HERE}

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