Quite a while back (over a year now,) wrote a post about Stephanie Nielson, a blogger and mother who was in a small plane crash with her husband. Despite over 80% of her body being burned, Nie recovered and re-started her life...and blog. Just today, she posted that she will be on the Oprah show tomorrow (October 7, 2009.)
CONGRATS NIE, for an Oprah show appearance being probably the least impressive fact about your life so far!
This past Saturday night, The Prof and I went to a 30th Birthday/Green Card Renewal soiree for Hal the Norwegian at he and Tara's (makeup artist and wedding planner extroidinaire) house in Somerville. While there, I was particularly excited to see a framed Nie Nie print hung in the kitchen. Tara read about the Nielsons on my blog and, like me, became completely obsessed. So she wrote to artist Christine Alvarado, found out that a new batch of prints were about to go into the NieNie Benefit Sale's Etsy shop, and bought one!
The framed print looked just perfect there on the wall , so when I got home, *I* wrote Christine and asked about buying one. She responded quickly, and said that more prints would be ready as soon as she receives the frames. I can't wait to get my Nie Nie print -- I'm hoping that seeing it each day will remind me to be grateful and thankful for my life...
From the Nienie Dialogues:
With the right perspective, life is actually very wonderful. Really it is.
I saw a funny bumper sticker yesterday on a beat-up jalopy. It read: 'Don't be fooled by my car, my treasure is really in heaven.' Is my treasure in heaven? I believe it is, and I believe my home is heaven on earth."
Christian is in daily rehabilitation, and Stephanie's skin grafts are taking well...more updates via C Jane; donate to the Nielson's recovery at the Nie Recovery site.
ReaderBack = Reader + Feedback
Basically, I scream the phrase out when a Blogorelli reader actually sends me a personal email -- YEA! Also, in terms of "backs," JT-style SexyBack is nothing compared to hotness of email correspondence...
Right?
Leif Forre (love the name, too) wrote a few weeks back, taking responsibility for the Catherine Holm photos that ignited my crazy enamel pot addiction in April. After spending my entire economic stimulus check buying CH pieces from Ebay, my kitchen now boasts a fairly broad collection and has never looked better.
. . . . . . .
Hi there-
I just thought I would write and say hello. I'm the one who's flickr photographs you used on your April 2008 blog about Cathrineholm items. I ran across your blog when I was doing some research on Grete Prytz Kittelsen before I left for Oslo to see her exhibition at the National Gallery of Design. Since I'm not a blogger, I was pretty excited to see that someone actually used my photographs of part of my collection for their own blog! :-) From the looks of it, you are starting to get quite a collection of your own. Have fun, it's really addicting!! Perhaps we'll bid against each other some day. lol.
Take care-
Leif
Last week, I became completely enamored with and personally connected, with a blog that Cho sent along: the Nie Nie Dialogues. Written by a young mother of four in Arizona, the blog accounts daily adventures of the author (Stephanie Nielson/Nie,) her loving and handsome husband, Christian, and their fun children Claire, Jane, Oliver, and Nicholas.
Of course, life is never a perfect narrative. The reason Cho forwarded the URL was because she saw a New York Times article about the couple tragically being in a private plane crash on August 16. They are currently both in critical condition at the Maricopa Burn Unit in Phoenix.
So, one may ask, what about this mommy blog touched me so much that I spent all of my post-work evenings last week reading the Nie Nie Dialogues' complete archive? I'm not a mother, or a Mormon (disclaimer: Nie and her family belong to the Church of LDS, but only about 1% of the posts are religiously leaning.)
I guess the answer would be three words:
celebration
gratitude
connection
Since the accident, bloggers have banded together to fund raise for the Nielson's recovery, showing that one truly can be touched by online dialogue. Laura Trujillo phrased the reason for everyone's fascination with the family pretty perfectly in her piece for The Arizona Replublic...
"I was charmed by her love of living in the moment and her honesty, even if it didn't always make her look good. Of course she had hard times, but she was about celebrating motherhood, not complaining about it.
So, I followed her stories: of simple family life, inspired daily by her joy in being a mother and wife."
Some might scoff at the idea of a woman reveling in the roles of wife and mom. Aren't we, the females of 2008, supposed to strive for bigger and better things in regard to status, employment, and self definition? But Nie shows that a contemporary woman can be cool, fun, fashionably, quirky, and totally energized (instead of overwhelmed) by the traditional roles. Her story encourages each of us to embrace our lives in all aspects, to take joy in even something small.
She hides little feel-good "fortunes" around town for strangers to find, releases balloons with wishes inside to mark birthdays, proclaims "I am a Queen, look what I just did!" in talking about the birth of her fourth child, and laughs at the sometimes gross daily realities of parenthood. In short, she is someone I'd like to know, (even with the secret underwear and all.)
I guess, for me, reading Nie Nie helped me turn a corner in regards to really loving and appreciating my life and my choices. I've always had a bit of a problem with gratitude. Under the daily grind, I find it so easy to feel overwhelmed, frustrated, tired, to look at the negative, and question my big decisions. Nie caused me to ask myself what my life would look like through her lens of perspective? The answer is, wonderful -- I am lucky in life, love, family, friends, and health.
Now, when I wake up in the morning, I get out of bed happily. I go about my daily routine thankful for the little things. I smile at strangers, I'm polite on the train, I give the benefit of the doubt. Life truly does change depending on a person's perspective.
Nie's sister is doing updates on her blog, and I noticed that today Nie is having a important skin grafting operation -- with dermis grown right here in The Bean! The operation's success is critical to her recovery, so I thought it a perfect time to say "Thank you" for my new viewpoint, and send some positive vibes to her via Blogorelli and everyone who reads this post.
From behind my wall of sunshine,
Blogorelli
A few links:
The Nie Nie Dialogues
Nielson Recovery Fund
Uh, what is basically most everything, according to this hilarious blog that Cho sent to me. Plutonium, McDonalds, Alaska and Hawaii, Spam, even freakin' Dick Cheney...all younger than McCain! I realize that everything in the Wündercabinet is a wee youngin' compared to Johnny boy too. Could that be a marketing gimmick; including a certificate of authenticity that says, "Though vintage, this product is indeed younger than John McCain"?!?
Stuff White People Like
"This blog is devoted to stuff that white people like."
You've probably seen SWPL, even so, the site is always worth a check-in, as new features are added weekly, like White Problems ("Should children drink wine?"), White People in the News, and of course, White Spots ("This is a new feature where we try to find the locations around the world that are beloved and frequented by white people.")
Feeling a little attention deficit-y today? Go straight to the full list of Stuff White People Like and feel your porcelain shame.
Genius...but maybe I only think that because I'm clearly a modern furniture-owning, Arrested Development-loving, Target-shopping, dinner party-having white person?
Heh.
...is probably easier than walking in 'em!
An excited "welcome, come right in, and sit down" to The Dairy Queen as she joins the blogosphere with her own site, Skydiving in Stilettos! It's about "a girl, a blog, a life list of to-do's... and the silliness and sassiness that ensues".
I've been in awe of her LifeList for at least a year, and now everyone can check it out (with mouths agape, no doubt.)
With modest fanfare, I present: the one thousandth Blogorelli post.
It's hard to believe I've posted 999 times since September of 2003. Exhausted by insomnia, work, family, emotional situations, and needing a creative outlet, I wrote the first entry on a lunch break, using a new weblog service -- Typedpad -- that I'd read in the morning's Metro subway paper. (Did I ever think I was some techie hot shit back then or what? Heh.) Proudly, I even got the "panties" persnickety-ness out of the way immediately.
I've procrastinated on writing this 1000th entry for weeks, trying to figure out the perfect tone or fun "something" I could do to mark the event. In the end, I decided to keep things simple (new mindframe, perhaps?) with a classic device: the transformation montage.
So where have almost 5 (!) years gone...and how am I still living in The Bean?
[cue montage and voiceover]
“ You know the way the story goes...
girl graduates from design school
moves to the big city
...for her Mary Tyler Moore moment...
she has lots of adventures
and posts them in this blog!
sometimes up, sometimes down, but never without:
hand clap music via the iPhone
Baby Kitty Princess Sophia:
All "my" crazy marrieds and their addictively fun nuptials:
Blogorelli Baby Boom Batches of 2006 , 2007 , and 2008:
Bubblicious raspberry bubble gum (yes, still)
LOTS of vintage typewriters
The usual suspects (cho cho, bobby crocker, jeffé, swiss miss, p-natty, lil' k, half pint, mr. car, the nachos, the polish princess + mad hungarian, jiminy cricket, and le junglecat):
The dance party
A toothbrush + whitening paste
Juicy gossip, a good strong drink and
last but never least, my Supercalifragiltastic live-in lover (tee hee):
So stick around, k?
Heartfelt thanks to everyone who's read, commented, or emailed over the past 4.5 (!, once again) years. Writing Blogorelli has been and is such a part of, um, me, and gives me more kicks than the Inter-net might (or should) ever know. Now onward and upward -- to more frequent (probably shorter) posts, some weekly features perhaps, the return of photo albums (huzzah!) and lots more quirky adventures. Hope you like the new look, too.
With a haircut, nip of whiskey, some quality tambourine -- and LOVIES (I couldn't resist),
Blogorelli
(ps: Inter-net, if the screen was a two-way mirror, here's what you'd likely see -- if you caught me between sips!)
Since I vowed a few weeks ago to be more positive and pro-active about all things in my life (including this blog,) I registered for the Boston Blogtoberfest, "a chance to put down the mouse, step away from the keyboard, and meet some of your favorite Boston bloggers face to face in a casual setting."
There's gonna be alcohol, prizes, AND Bostonist Jon is attending. Did I hear someone mention optional costumes ?
Boston Blogtoberfest 2007
Thursday October 25, 2007
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
– at–
The Pour House (downstairs!)
907 Boylston Street | Boston,MA
OOMPA!
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