Elaine Massung – Page 9

Elaine Massung March 24, 2017

Tweaks

Running a website is a bit like buying a house. You move in and everything is great. Perfectly fine. Couldn’t be better. Until one day you notice the paint in the bathroom is looking a bit tired, the curtains don’t really go with the rest of the décor, and the kitchen sink could probably do with an update as well. I currently juggle a… View Post

Elaine Massung March 21, 2017

A STORY IN STONE

Ammonites are time travellers from the distant past who took the long way around. Their beauty–and the story they tell–make them one of my favourite things to collect.

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Elaine Massung March 17, 2017

Experiments

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been about a year since I launched the crafty side of MissElaineous, starting with keepsake gift tags. In that time, the tags have undergone several transformations as I’ve played with the shape and the string to give them a more contemporary feel. Next up? I am considering staining the wood to bring out the… View Post

Elaine Massung March 10, 2017

“Words, words, words”

This is best known as Hamlet’s response to Polonius’ query “What do you read, my lord?” The literal answer is part of Hamlet’s “antic disposition” (feigned madness), and I feel it basically sums up my week over on the Rubbish Walks blog. Who knew that so many words could be spilled about litter?! I am temporarily out of MissElaineous thoughts but check out Rubbish… View Post

Elaine Massung March 7, 2017

A walk on the wild side

I love the small birds that flock to the garden. The robins and blue tits, blackbirds and sparrows, long-tailed tits and great tits. I even love the lumbering woodpigeons, with their comical expressions. So you may read with some surprise that I’ve welcomed their predator into the garden. Introducing the sparrowhawk: This female found herself a perfect perch on the… View Post

Elaine Massung March 3, 2017

Our present is someone else’s past

This was a random thought that occurred to me in the shower this past weekend and I’ve been mulling it over ever since. As an archaeologist who now works with cutting-edge robotics (well, I work with the people who design cutting-edge robotics), it’s probably no surprise that I find myself contemplating the past and future on a regular basis. Take, for example, the technology that has… View Post

Elaine Massung February 28, 2017

Menagerie

It’s official … I am having way too much fun working on my new designs! I am adding more animals to the mix every day, at least in the Nature’s Rainbow collection, and also slowly building up the Redbubble store in Blue. The other colours–green, aqua, and purple–will be added eventually as well. I am also intending to use the… View Post

Elaine Massung February 24, 2017

Eight Ring Circus

I like to joke that my spirit animal is an octopus. At the very least I wouldn’t mind having an extra pair of arms (or eight) to make sure I can juggle everything I have going on. So it probably comes as no surprise that I ventured into the cephalopod family when further refining and experimenting with my new design technique. These figures… View Post

Elaine Massung February 21, 2017

Nature’s Blueprints

It’s funny how much of what we do comes down to serendipity or chance. Take, for example, this blog entry. I was planning to write about how the squirrels and birds in my garden have been exhibiting a high degree of teamwork over the past few weeks while raiding the feeder, and that wildlife stereotypes (e.g. squirrels being a garden villain) are often untrue. However, I… View Post

Elaine Massung February 17, 2017

Have I mentioned I like sunsets?

And sunrises, but my timing hasn’t been quite right lately to catch them. The launch of the Love Chippenham campaign and writing the Rubbish Walks blog have kept me busy lately so I’ve been keeping my head down to make sure everything gets done. But last night’s sunset was definitely one to look up for. View Post

Elaine Massung February 14, 2017

Pretending it’s Spring

This past Saturday felt like winter: snow flurries, sleet, and temperatures hovering around zero, with leaden skies and grey light. Monday? Blue skies, sun, and birds beginning to stake out their territories in the garden with song. I could almost feel, hear, and smell Spring … for a little while at least. View Post

Elaine Massung February 10, 2017

Blurring Lines

Since I first mastered the magic of stringing letters into words, words into sentences, and sentences into stories, I have been a voracious—and omnivorous—reader. Most recently this has manifested itself with non-fiction: fascinating insights into the natural world like Sy Montgomery’s Soul of an Octopus and Helen Scales’ Spirals in Time: The Secret and Curious Afterlife of Seashells, or the plethora of productivity and self-help books I… View Post

Elaine Massung February 7, 2017

Reading List

In my last blog entry I mentioned the book How to do Everything and Be Happy and how it made a positive influence on my monthly schedule. Following up on it, I thought this would be a good opportunity to provide a list of some of the books that I have found helpful or interesting over the past few years. They range from productivity… View Post

Elaine Massung February 3, 2017

Happy New Year!

No, I haven’t completely lost it. I realise that it’s February and that the crossover from 2016 to 2017 took place almost five weeks ago. But a monthly New Year’s Eve is a tradition that MrElaineous and I instituted last year and, after inadvertently allowing it to fall by the wayside, we are reviving it again this weekend. Why? A few years ago I… View Post

Elaine Massung January 31, 2017

“Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice.

I’ve always liked this quote from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. This is followed closely by the Cheshire Cat’s “We’re all mad here”, and since it is beginning to feel like we’ve gone through the looking glass, I thought I would share the one wish I have for the world right now: be curious. Ask questions. Stay open minded. Listen to other perspectives. Recognise that… View Post

Elaine Massung January 27, 2017

Perfect Storm, Perfect Sunset

Right now I find myself facing a perfect storm of events: delivering on a major project at work while getting the Love Chippenham campaign off the ground and organising the Indian River by Air 4th anniversary. Anything outside of these things–including writing–has been put on the back burner for the time being, so apologies if the blog is a bit… View Post

Elaine Massung January 24, 2017

New Products

One of my (many) goals this year is to keep both my MissElaineous shop and my shop over on Redbubble up to date. I’ve been a bit slow getting out of the blocks, but have managed to get two of the new greeting card sets up and running. Birds of a Feather and Views of Chippenham are now available, and… View Post

Elaine Massung January 20, 2017

Unscheduled Advertisement

[Cross over with the Rubbish Walks blog] Every so often a company catches my attention with its fantastic eco ethos and makes me want to shout about it from the rooftops. This past weekend during my visit to Top Drawer London I came across not one but two such companies. The first is Weaver Green, a company that weaves rugs, blankets, and handbags… View Post

Elaine Massung January 17, 2017

Moments and the Moon

Sometimes I wonder about the timing of the universe, how things can sometimes fall into place so perfectly. It was, as you may have gathered from my previous blog entry, a busy week. It was to be followed by an even busier weekend: I was off to London, with grand plans of seeing a museum or two (or maybe even three), followed by a visit… View Post