Monthly Archives: December 2012

One More Star to Cap the Year

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Nicole of NMNPHX has nominated us for the Blog of the Year 2012 Award. It is our third star, which is three more than we anticipated receiving. What a wonderful way to end the year. Thank you, thank you! Pssst. You should really pay her blog a visit. It’s okay if you want to go now; I’ll wait. It was worth it, wasn’t it?

Blog of the Year 3 Stars

Blog of the Year 3 Stars

 

The ‘rules’ for this award are simple:

1 Select the blog(s) you think deserve the ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award

2 Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen – there’s no minimum or maximum number of blogs required – and ‘present’ them with their award.

3 Please include a link back to this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award – http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/our-awards/blog-of-the-year-2012-award/   and include these ‘rules’ in your post (please don’t alter the rules or the badges!)

4 Let the blog(s) you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the ‘rules’ with them

5 You can now also join our Facebook group – click ‘like’ on this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award Facebook group and then you can share your blog with an even wider audience.

6 As a winner of the award – please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award – and then proudly display the award on your blog and sidebar … and start collecting stars…

I am getting these nominations in just under the wire. It’s already Hogmanay and the clock is ticking away, so I am limiting myself to just two blogs. I recently started reading both of them, and couldn’t be happier that I discovered them. They are:

Vyvacious, serving up hilarity and food, with a tasty, tasty side of Batman.

Romancing the Bee, which makes urban beekeeping compelling. Bonus: lots of honey-licious recipes.

Enjoy!

One Year Later

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It has been a year (or thereabouts) since I moved A Small Press Life from Blogger to WordPress. It was a snap decision, but I haven’t regretted it for one second. Even though I have expressed this opinion a few times in the past, it is worth bringing forth once again: the WordPress community is awesome. A blog isn’t a blog without an interactive group of readers. With your keen commenting skills, you make every post an interesting, organic and unique experience.

2012 has been an incredible year. We have seen our stats steadily climb, and then soar. A Small Press Life was featured in both The Daily Post and  Freshly Pressed. Then, again, there’s all of you. Heading into 2013, you can be sure of two things: that we are truly grateful and feverishly excited to make the blog even better (more on that soon).

“I stay cool, and dig all jive,

That’s the way I stay alive.

My motto,

as I live and learn,

is

Dig and be dug

In return.”-Langston Hughes

Proof That It’s Always About Books

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I received many bookish gifts for Christmas (more on those later). In fact, most of the gifts with my  name on them turned out to be delightfully literary-based. I’m easy to buy for like that. One of the only non-literary themed gifts was from The Chef, who gave me a fancy, shiny, amazing new phone: a Samsung Galaxy S III. It’s heavenly, and I am in love (with both it and my husband). Really, it is perfection. Except, of course, for one small detail. It isn’t bookish enough. My solution? This, dear readers. This.

If it looks familiar, it’s because I wrote about something similar here. I’m over-the-moon with nerdy glee! A plain case would work just as well, but if you can put a bookish spin on something utilitarian…why not?

 

 

 

 

Over the River and Through the Wood…

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We spent Christmas Day at my grandparents’ house with my extended family. Up and back in one day, a smooth drive, no worries. We had no idea that, whilst we were opening gifts and eating entirely too much decadent food, a blizzard was traveling this way. It is here now, and I wish that I could say it is as pretty as a picture. It isn’t, so I am leaving you with these lovely paintings instead. Please look at them to your heart’s content; I will be off in the corner munching on left-over cookies and writing my blogging game plan for 2013. See you tomorrow!

Winter Landscape: Washington Bridge, by Ernest Lawson. 1907-1910. Brooklyn Museum.

Winter Landscape: Washington Bridge, by Ernest Lawson. 1907-1910. Brooklyn Museum.

Blue Snow the Battery by George Bellows. 1910.

Blue Snow the Battery by George Bellows. 1910.

The Dead Writers Round-Up: 26th-30th December

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  • Henry Miller was born on 12/26/1891. “Back of every creation, supporting it like an arch, is faith. Enthusiasm is nothing: it comes and goes. But if one believes, then miracles occur.” (Tropic of Cancer; Black Spring; Tropic of Capricorn)
  • Charles Lamb died on 12/27/1834. “Anything awful makes me laugh. I misbehaved once at a funeral.” (Tales from Shakespeare; Essays of Elia)
  • Theodore Dreiser died on 12/28/1945. “In order to have wisdom we must have ignorance.” (Sister Carrie; An American Tragedy)
  • Christina Rossetti died on 12/29/1894. “Hope is like a harebell trembling from its birth.” (Goblin Market; In the Bleak Midwinter) Continue reading →