Happy 14th Blogiversary to the Yellow House

 

Today is my blog's 14th birthday, or blogiversary!

The Yellow House has made it to its second year of teenager-hood! Woohoo!

I know that it's Tumbleweed City around here sometimes, but I still have a great love for this space. Especially in the earlier years, I shared so much about my life as I tried to fit in in a new country, so this blog has a special place in my heart forever. Sometimes I'll come here as a reader of my own blog and I'll read about this woman from Georgia who came across the pond several years ago and I marvel at just how much has changed in my life and in the world. There is a comforting innocence when I go back to read from the earlier years of my blog. Even though I stumbled with adjusting quite a lot sometimes, looking back now, I see that those were still some of the sweetest days of my life. I never thought I'd say that (smile). There were some tough days back then, but little did I know that life would throw so many challenges my way. None of us ever know. I guess it's like they say though...that's life. 

This isn't meant to be a sad post or one of regret. It's not that at all. I guess that I'm at one of those points in my life when I'm pausing for a moment to look back briefly before I continue on my journey ahead. I guess that this pandemic has brought things into sharp focus for many of us. So I guess that what I'm trying to say is that I look back on some of the more innocent past times with gratitude in a way that I didn't appreciate before. And through this, it also makes me grateful for the beautiful things that I've experienced in my life and it leaves hope in my heart for beautiful things to happen now and onward (smile).

So I will continue writing here as I have off and on for fourteen years. As I've mentioned previously, I don't know if anyone reads my blog anymore since I'm so sporadic and nowadays there's social media, Netflix, and so much more for people to give their time to. However, if anyone still visits me here, I thank you gratefully (smile). And if I'm just talking (writing) to myself, well I imagine it makes a cool echo in here (smile).

I'll be back to write more, even though I don't know what to write about here anymore. Ha ha! I'll think of something though. I hope you'll join me just to see what I come up with. Thank you for reading this to the meandering end! Ha ha!

Happy 14th Birthday Yellow House....let's keep this going! Mwah!!💋

My Thirteenth Blogiversary

Today is my 13th blogiversary! 🎉🎉

Wow! Who knew that I would stick to this for thirteen years no matter how sporadic I am with posting these days? 😉😁

As I mentioned here recently, this is more of a passion project, since I don't even know if people still read my blog. Thank you truly to anyone who does. I sincerely thank you. 

I've looked back at my first blogiversary post and it was interesting to go down memory lane. Time flies. It felt like I was looking back forever ago. Time is funny.

If you'd like to take a look at my first blogiversary post, you can find it here .

Onward to more years of blogging...

I hope that you'll join me 🙂💕

12th Blogiversary

Courtesy of Pixabay

Today is my 12th Blogiversary!  

I can't believe that I've been blogging for twelve years off and on. Time does fly. I admit that my blogging has been quite sporadic over the past couple of years, but I'm always operating in the hope that I can get back to blogging much more. When I show up here at my blog, I'm instantly happy and it brings back good memories when I scroll back over older posts. 

On this blogiversary day each year, I always look back at that very first post in 2008 and I'm instantly nostalgic. When I wrote that first post I was very actively trying to figure out how to "be" here in this new land. I have to admit that I was struggling a lot back then and I still do sometimes, but I firmly believe that this blog has changed the trajectory of my life in so many good ways. I love that I began this blogging journey on March 4th, which always makes me think of marching forth. 

Typing those first words on my very first post really opened up a new path in my life, that I am still exploring. I've been given great opportunities through blogging, but the most important thing that blogging has given me has been simply to give me an outlet, especially during a time when I needed it the most. 

My life is a bit more complicated than it was when I wrote that very first post back in 2008 and right now I'm working on making it a bit less complicated again. I know that I can never go back to that time and that looking back too much can be toxic, but I think that reflection once in a while is a very helpful way of checking in with myself. I think cutting down on some of the complication in my current life starts with getting back to square one with myself and doing the things that I love. I've been running on fumes for the last while and my tank is ready to give out if I don't help myself. I've come to realize lately that I don't really do much that I love anymore. I just do what needs to be done and not much else (I know I'm not alone in feeling this way). That has to change. Life is to be lived. 

Only I can make the changes that are needed to get me back on track in life. This blog offered me a great outlet in the beginning, so now it is time to let it do its quiet magic again, to help me look within. I am ready to do this. Here goes :)

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

~ President Barack Obama

11th Blogiversary

Today is my 11th blogiversary! I've been blogging since March 4th, 2008. It's been quite a journey and I hope to keep blogging for years to come. I haven't been able to blog consistently in the past year or so for a variety of reasons, but hopefully I'm getting to the place where I can be more present here again like I want. I'm getting some things rearranged in my life and in my mind in order to do more of what I want in this life. It's a process like these things are, but I'm up for the challenge :)

I like the number eleven. In numerology, it is seen as a master number. I don't know a whole lot about numerology, but it's very intriguing.

I'm just grateful that I've been able to keep blogging for this long, no matter how sporadically I've done it lately. Here's to going forward with more posts again :) As I've said on past blogiversaries, the date of my blog's birth always reminds me keep going forward in life...to march forth! So that is what I'll do in life and here at my blog.

Until next time...

World Book Day

Happy World Book Day!

If you have visited me here before, you'll know that I love books. Sometimes it seems as if I've been reading for as long as I can remember. By the time that I went to school, I was already reading quite well. Some of my earliest memories are of me sitting on the floor as a tiny little girl and pulling one of the old encyclopedias off the bookshelf. I'd open it up and look at the pictures and then pick out the words that I knew and read them out loud or I'd write them on a piece of paper. My daddy used to read to me or I'd read to him in the evenings sometimes. I think that having access to books...the old encyclopedias and my own storybooks, definitely had an impact upon my love of books early in life. I'm grateful to my parents and extended family for giving me access to books as I was growing up. It's not hyperbole to say that books changed my life for the better and I'm so grateful.

As I mentioned in my previous post, my 10th blogiversary is coming up. This blog will be 10 years old...double digits...(smile)...on March 4th. So in honor of my upcoming 10th blogiversary and World Book Day, I've decided to share a list of my ten favorite books. This was HARD! This list could've been ten lists of ten because there are so many books that I love and picking just ten is quite a challenge. But hey, I'm going with the ten theme here for ten years :) So I'll just say that these are ten of my favorite books, but there are many, many more.

Okay, here goes, in no particular order....

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

The Wedding by Dorothy West

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

The Hand I Fan With by Tina McElroy Ansa

Cane River by Lalita Tademy

I Know Why the  Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Black Girl in Paris by Shay Youngblood

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

All of these books mean something special to me. They have all given me a new viewpoint about something and I relish that. As I look back over this list, I think that perhaps I'll reread them all. We shall see.

In the meantime, Happy World Book Day! :)

Delayed But Not Stopped

I haven't posted in a while because I've been a bit under the weather, with a nasty cold. Actually I've been sick as heck for about a week, but hopefully I'm getting out of the woods with it all. Fingers crossed.

Being sick arrived at the wrong time, although sickness is never a welcome guest. But on the day that I got sick, I was planning to share a great experience that I had the day before. I had the chance to attend a show during London Fashion Week! It was fantastic!!

Even though I'm a bit late, I'll still be sharing my experience at London Fashion Week here on my blog this week, along with some photos.

Also in anticipation of my upcoming 10th blogiversary coming up next Sunday, I'll be sharing a couple of special posts to mark the occasion. The first will be on March 1st and the second will be on my 10th blogiversary on March 4th. So I hope that you'll come back to check those out.

Have a great new week!