Reading someone else's blog, from Start to Finish

I have found myself in a rather odd situation.  I know that other's must do this, but I never have, or at least, I never have admitted it, am reading someones blog from the first blog post to the present.  Why?  I like the person who writes it.  I want to know more about them.   I want to find out about what is going on in their brain, who they hang out with, what makes them tick.....So far i am finding it very interesting.  It also makes me wonder if anyone has done this with my blog?  Should I do this with my blog just so that I can see what they would find out?  I think that might be a good idea.  I know that they are going to find a whole lot of crazy, but what else?   Maybe it's time to have a read, that is, after I'm done reading this other blog, I'm only at March 2009.....

The Evolution of The Princess's Daily Rants

I have been thinking about it for a long time and have wanted to split my blog.  One of the things that I love the most about this blog is that I have connected with so many people about migraines, mental health, fashion, food and just life.

What has happened over the last year or so, is that I have found I am writing more and more about mental health and general health here, and I am happy about that.  Mental health, bipolar disorder, social anxiety, migraines and chronic illness are my life now.  Everyday these are the things that I deal with and have to manage to be able to function and so I write about them and the struggles that they bring to my life.


On the other hand, I have other interests, primarily food and fashion.  I find it difficult that there are so many "food blogs" out there.  It feels like everyone of my friends is writing a food blog.  Every meal that I go to has people who have cameras taking pictures of every single thing that goes into every one's mouth, tweets about everything that is on every ones plate, writes a review about what is on every ones fork.......quite frankly it is starting to make me a bit crazy, but still I feel like I want to write and share some of my own experiences about food.


So, I would like to introduce you to "We like to eat and drink".  The core of the blog will be a place where "writing and musings by me, about myself, my friends and family, as we celebrate life through eating cooking and being together".  Food is at the core of my family and friends, or social time together and the experiences that we share.  So far I see the blog being divided into 4 different areas:

• "1001 Foods You Must Taste Before You Die Challenge" - A few years ago, before I got sick, I started a challenge to "eat my way through this book".  I will be re-posting and re-attacking this book and its challenge on this blog.  More details to come!!
• Princess Bistro - I like to cook, a lot.  I hope to share some of my adventures in the kitchen, both successful and not, here.  I love having real people over, cooking real food, sharing their experiences.  I hope I can do the same.
• We Like to Eat and Drink - As the title of this blog, I am fortunate to share a love of food and eating with so many friends and family.  I hope to share experiences of how we celebrate events and friendships with food.
• The Cookbook Obsession - I collect cookbooks.  I love them.  I hope to be able to share some reviews of the ones that are on my night table for reading and marking up for future recipes.  
• Culinary Adventures in food - Food has always played a role in my travels and I plan on documenting some of that here.  I feel fortunate to have had so many fabulous experiences abroad, most of them involving food at some point.

I do hope that you will join me on this adventure at http://weliketoeatanddrink.blogspot.com/ My plan is to continue writing here about health and my life, so don't leave me, but I would love your thoughts on food, friends and community at "We Like to Eat and Drink".  You can also follow some of my food tweets @welike2eatdrink.  happy eating and good health!

Guest Blogging on "Our Journey Through Life"

Today I wrote a blog entry on the lovely @GermaninAlabama website "Our Journey through Life" entitled "What a Difference a Year Makes".  It was a pleasure to write for another blog, especially on Mental Illness Awareness Week, and I hope that you will take the opportunity to read some of her great blog. The author, Kristina, is the wife of someone who lives with  bipolar disorder.  Kristina is open and honest about their day to day struggles, both in their marriage and in general life.  It is a touching and interesting blog to read.   She is also a wonderful source of encouragement and information through Twitter.  You can follow her at @germaninalabam.

Regretting recent decisions and apologies about my blog and blog enteries

Recently I was pressured to remove a blog post entitled “ “It’s not a date, until I call it a date” - expectations” that I had written about an online conversation that I had had with a gentleman by said gentleman. The post was not about the gentleman directly, his identity, his profession, did not link to his blog, his name, his twitter id, as a matter of fact nothing linked him to the post. What I did do in the post was cut and paste certain parts of the conversation that we were having and reflect on my feelings about him, the post, the relationship online.

I have never apologized for my writings. I have never removed a blog post. I have never ever said that I am sorry for what I feel until now – and I feel sick about doing it this time.

I would like to state that I have re-read the blog post a hundred times and have come to the conclusion that it is lovely and sweet. It is heartfelt and touching and raw emotion of someone aka me, that is nervous about the fact that they have vested a lot of themselves into someone that they are not sure about. I am sad that he found it offensive. I was overly sad that he has decided that because of what I wrote he does not want to see me, I am overly mad that because of what I wrote and because he needed an excuse he used what I wrote to get out of what we had.

The interaction has made me really think about what my blog is about:

My blog is a diary of sorts. It is an online accounting of how I feel about life; my migraines, my mental health, my style, my heart. There is a reason that I do not share this space with my family and friends, because it is an open door to my soul. It is some of my deepest, most raw thoughts. If you do not want to know what those thoughts are, please do not read it. I do not want to be criticized for my thoughts and feelings.

As a friend and “blogger” I will not expose my friends openly in my blog. I will not post pictures on my blog of friends and family as I do not post pictures of myself ensuring their anonymity and my own. I will use false names and nicknames to ensure that they are kept secret. I promise you that. I cherish anonymity in this forum.

As a conclusion to my final interaction with the gentleman, I was too quick to respond. I wrote him this e-mail after taking down the post about our chats and recieving his ranting e-mail at me:

i am so sorry. i am glad that you are feeling better. i published anonymously and published under something that i assumed would not be attributed back to you. how it could be i am not sure. i have removed the post. i feel horrible. please accept my sincerist apologies. i litterally feel sick that you are upset. I write a diary online. Everything is personal on there. I write about the drugs i take, my family, my sisters, my firends, ecetera. I never intended it to be hurtful.

I have deleted the post and did post it anonymously with no link to your handle. i hope you can appreciate that. i looked through it to make sure. I can't believe i fucked up this royally. i feel like an idiot. a royal friggin idiot. i never ever in a million years thought that i would hurt you. i actually don't think that anyone reads my blog. maybe this is a lesson that i should just write it and make it private.


irronically i miss you. i was thinking about you today. i miss our chats and i feel like an idiot. you are a kind person and how anyone could attribut the post to you i am not sure. if you feel like chatting, let me know. I would love to meet. Let me know if you get this. i was so ill and it has been such a difficult time this fall in winnipeg that you have truly been a great relief from it. Thank you.

i feel sick to my stomach about it and apologize. sorry that you have been so ill.

Steph

I was quick to apologize and own the error. I hate that I did that. It was not my mistake. I wrote what I felt. It was a lovely, wonderful, heartfelt post. I am sorry that you read it the wrong way and that you are out of my life. For that I am sorry. I am also sorry that you didn’t have enough balls to write me back after I apologized even to say you recieved it. The lesson that I have learnt from this whole sordid mess, is that:

a. I will never apologize for my writing on my blog. Please read at your own risk. If you read it, please comment and tell me what you do and don’t like about my writing, but I will not be removing posts. These are my thoughts.

b. I had really on some level liked this boy and grown to like our chats and I hate myself for it. Amazing that you can become so vested in an online relationship friendship so easily. Yuck.

c. I will be putting a disclaimer on my blog. As this used to be so anonymous, no one I knew ever read it. Now that I am having the privilege of meeting so many of my twitter friends, many of them are linking to my blog through here. It is the first time that my blog is being read by people I actually know. Eek!!!

Friends that I didn't know I had and a new Fibro/Migraine/Health Blog to read

I read a number of blogs and find support and love online from a variety of friends. My twitterati, as I call my online twitter friends, have been invaluable to my time in Winnipeg and this move. They remind me that although I am here I am not alone. It is wonderful. I am very blessed.

What always is a blessing is to find a friend that mentions my blog on their blog. I actually don't think that anyone really read's this little diary of mine, but I was reading some Migraine blogs today to see the links between migraine and gluten and came across Taming the Wolf.  I feel honored to be included in her list of Fibro/Lupus/Migaine/Health Blogs with list of fabulous people. 

Taming the Wolf does not blog often, but her posts are honest, touching and lovely.  They make you feel like you are not alone in your struggle of dealing with an "invisible illness".  I feel truely honored to be included in her list.  Thank you.

Thoughts on being anonymous and this little blog

my blog and my twitter account are linked.  i have spoken about this before and how as i meet people on twitter i worry more and more about this link.  i write on this blog about very intimate and personal things, including, my health, thoughts on future family and goals, my mental health, my family, my issues, things that i encounter everyday and ways that i (usually don't) deal with them well.

my blog is me exposed. it is my inner most thoughts, my inner most feelings, my heart.  i wonder what people think?  when i am about to go and meet someone, even a new girlfriend for coffee that i've met on twitter, i check out their blog, i see what they're saying.  heck, if i like people that i am following then i go and see what their blog is all about. it is an important part of twitter for me.

so i have know written about some recent interactions with twitter individuals that i have had and i worry that i have fucked it up.  i worry that the linking of the blog and twitter has now buggered up a good friendship that i made on twitter.  should i un-link this from my twitter account? any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

thanks.

Blog Read of the Day: "Paris Breakfasts - I paint Paris dreams"

As some of you know, I have spend many many months if not years in Paris.  A part of my heart will always be reserved for it and I will always love it.  My great grandmother lived there until her death when I was 20 and I would spend weeks on end there as a child - running through the markets and parks with my mother on visits with her.  Re-living the memories of my mother's childhood in the city as a little girl in the same shops, the same parks, the same neighbourhoods was a treasure for a little girl and a young mother.

I came to love Paris on my own, when I lived there when I was 16, alone, with an exchange family for 6 months. I was allowed to roam the city and do as I please most days - a luxury that was not allowed in my own overly strict household in Toronto.  Days were spent shopping, hanging out in every gallery I could find, scouring the old bookstores, haute couture shops of le germain, exploring the marche au posse and being a free teenager.  These were the days that I fell in  love with a boy named Guillaume, saw Lenny Kravitz twice, I smoked my first cigarette (and only until I went to University), I came to love champagne, Led Zeplin, fashion, style and luxury.

So many blogs and writers are wrtitng about Paris or France in one way or another, the food, the wine, the people.... but few that I have found are capturing the streets of Paris in their images like Carol Gillott on Paris Breakfasts.  Carol is a watercolor artist and her work of the Paris streets are sweet, charming and adorable, but I love the photos she finds and posts.  Unless you have spent time in Paris, I am not sure that you would see the distinction between pretty pictures of the Arc de Triumphe and Parisiene children wearing their scarves just so, but Carol does and it is fabulous.

It is truly worth going and having a look.  It takes me back to those carefree days of becoming myself in a city that allowed me to figure out who that self was in all its splendid glory.

Paris, je vous manque

Blog of the Day: Trust Fun! Presents FASHEMATICS!!!

I happened upon this fashion blog, Fashematics, today as I was scrolling through the NYTimes magazine and they had it on their list Blog List. It is fabulous and brilliant and ingenious in its delivery. It has no writing, but is just images that are but together to illustrate inspiration that may have created fashions of the moment in a tongue and cheek kind of way. I think that it is brilliant. I hope that you like it too. Enjoy!

Blog of the Day: Karl Lagerfeld's Guide to Life

this blog is hysterical. if you at all follow Karl Lagerfeld, Yves, or Anna W, you will find this very well done. I read that this is one writer, who writes all the "characters" in the voice of Karl etc. I have been following him on twitter (fakekarl) and he makes me laugh ofter.

his view on swine flu:"Just realized that since only fatties eat pork, the swine flu will result in a reduction of fatties in the world." just as Karl would think.

Website of the Day: Park Avenue Peerage

I am constantly seeking out inspiration, not only for the way that I dress, but the way that I decorate my apartment, the way that I think, the way that I do my hair, the jewelry I wear, what I read, what I write, everything! I try not to find that inspiration from celebrities, but look for it in art, everyday people, food, my friends, my family, etc. One of the largest places that I find inspiration is also one of my largest obsessions - magazines. I read monthly (at least buy and eventually get to): Vogue, W, O (Oprah's Mag) InStyle, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair, and I know that there are a couple others that I am forgetting. What I cannot stand are the celeb mags - the Us Weekly type magazine. I don't know why, but I can't stand what they stand for. I can't stand the paparazzi. I won't read them. I will however get my fill of celebrity and "it" girl gazing, through some key websites, and one of them is Park Avenue Peerage. I find a lot of inspiration in its pictures. I love the pics of some of the parties and the clothes that some of the individuals are wearing. What I find even more inspirational sometimes are the comments from the readers. All in all its a fun, inspirational, easy to flip through website.

Blog of the Day: My First Dictionary

*image is from the http://myfirstdictionary.blogspot.com/

I rarely find someone who has my weird, whacked out, slightly dark sense of humour, but the writer of My First Dictionary, certainly does. His wit and images that accompany the definitions are hysterical. It is really worth a look. I think that he just started the blog a month ago, but it is fab. Enjoy it and I hope that the author keeps up the good work! I need the smiles these days.

Website of the day: OOoOO for all the inane & unnecessary wants in life

I love OOoOO: for all the inane & unnecessary wants in life

The author of one of my new random obsessions describes his blog as "guy in london pondering about all the inane, frivolous and unnecessary wants in life." I think that that is a perfect description for this site. It is rare to find a good, fashion focused, male focused, male written site, that is so entertaining and the pics are gorgeous. plus lots of lovely things to look at. I just love it. Keep up the good work OOoOO.

Fabulous Blog of the Day: Show me your Wardrobe

I would like to encourage you to go and visit Jackie Dixon and Show me your Wardrobe. It is a totally addictive, fun, fabulous, blog that is amazing. She captures some of the stylish, wonderful people in their real environments and it is wonderful. Her photography is lovely and I have become mesmerized by her whimsy and childlike view of her subjects. I also love the fact that there is no writing. It is just pic.

Congrats Jackie and keep up the good work. You are doing a great job!

Welcome Back - Liberty London Girl

One of my absolute favourite bloggers, Liberty London Girl, is BACK!!!! I love her. I used to read her everyday, and then she got a big job at a magazine and stopped writing. I am happy to report that when I noticed some people being directed to my site for the first time from her site, I thought something was up and sure enough, she's back!!!! I want to visit today and she quit her job and is back blogging. She is witty, and brilliant, and fashionable and funny and more importantly worth the read. She puts a smile on my face and makes my day a bit brighter! I'm glad to have her back. You can visit her here.

Welcome back and thanks for making my day just a little bit brighter!

The Princess's Recommended Read's - A Black Tie Event

I am often amazed at the innovation and spark of those younger than myself. As I get older, I find it invigorating and intriguing that I find there is a "generational" gap between myself (32) and someone in their early 20's. One such person is the author of A Black Tie Event. I don't know much about her, except that she is a student who is interested in art, fashion, music and style.

Her mix of personal pictures of what she is wearing on a particular day, to images of articles of clothing or shoes that she is attracted to, to pictures that she is taking, are all beautiful and inspiring. I especially like that she is bringing in some art and some personal projects into her posts. I find it not a blog that is full of stories and tales, but more of inspiration and calmness. She is doing an excellent job and I would urge you to go over and have a look.

Kudos on providing me with some inspiration to stretch my style and seek out style influence everyday.

The Princess's Recommended Read's - Outlush The Shopping Blog for Women

Looking for a place to see all the things that you don't need but want, this site is it. "Outlush -The Shopping Blog for Women" brings new finds everyday to the Blog in the areas of Fashion, Life, Beauty and Home. It is really a neat list of things that are different and useful. I like some of the beauty reccomendations. Sites like this are really great as they help to refine all of the stuff that is out there to a more manageable list of things. They are not great, because they make you want to SHOP, which is something I am trying to avoid these days!

The Princess's Recommended Read's - Charming but Single

What to say about Charming but Single ?? In two words - Delightful and Charming! She is a truly wonderful 28 year old girl who is just trying to figure out how to "live happily ever after". In her blog you get to follow her as she not only leads her life and struggles through the rough patches of the late 20's, but you also get a very realistic account of dating in the 21st century for someone who is in their late 20's, early 30's. She also clearly and honestly writes about the realities of being a single woman in North America. So many times, when I have read her post's I have thought about the similarities and frustrations that I have felt in my own life and how I can relate to exactly what she is experiencing! She is witty and funny and a pleasure to read. If you are single and in your late 20's or 30's it is a great little adventure to follow along with.

Thanks Charming but Single! Your knight in shining armour is out there, you just have to keep trying to find him!

The Princess's Recommended Read's - No Fear Entertaining

From the author Judy's tagline, "Let me feed you!" this is a pleasure to read. Her recipes appear to be easy and her pictures are great. I have to say that she is really real if that even makes sense. Recently Judy has been trying to clean out and eat what is in her freezer. Don't we all wish that we could manage to make a dent through the 10 bags of edamamye and the 20 organic, grain fed freezer burned frozen chicken breasts that we have in our own (OK, my) freezer! i made the brownies from Super Martha that she recommended this past weekend and they were amazing. Thanks Judy for the recommendation.

it's just a cute, easy, blog to read if you like to cook, or like me dream of one day having time to cook or people to cook for........

The Princess's Recommended Read's - Chocolate and Zucchini

Chocolate and Zucchini was my original blog, the one that started it all for me, was Chocolate and Zucchini. I had heard about Clotilde in the New York Times probably 4-5 years ago now and I was fascinated and intrigued by her fabulous story. I loved reading her from the start. Her interesting stories about Paris, her adventures in cooking, quitting her job, writing cookbooks and living her dream are an inspiration. I love her. She has a true following of devoted and amazing readers. who are engaged and helpful in her ongoing adventures.

I would die to go to one of her fabulous dinners in Paris and explore the food shops that she talks about. I just get so engaged and enthralled with her love of food. I can't help but feel like I am back to being a little girl in the throws of Paris, exploring the "Marches" with my great grandmothers cook, Pila. In the early morning, looking for the right asparagus or aubergine to serve at lunch, followed by a trip to the boullangerie for a baguette and a petit pain au chocolat for "mon petite" as Pila used to call me. The memories are all brought to life in this blog. I also feel that Clotilde is a realistic cook. She speaks to substitutions and mistakes in her recipes and makes them attainable for the average cook. She is an absolute pleasure to read.

Thank you Clotilde for being a silent friend and inspiration for so many years. Keep up the good work!!

The Princess's Recommended Reads - Migraine Chick

As a chronic migraine sufferer, I have never really shared that experience with anyone. I have two girlfriends that I know who are going through this. I have found solice and understanding, but most importantly I have found a community of individuals just like me. One woman who has written a very readable an humorous blog is Migraine Chick. I stumbled upon her blog early on in my search for others and I have enjoyed her good sense of humour and posts. I feel her pain (quite literally) and enjoy some of her tips and ideas. One of the best parts of her blog is her list of "Links" and the list of "I Read" Blogs that she reads. They are all good links to other Migraine and Chronic Pain Sufferers.

Well done Migraine Chick! A definite recommended read!