BLOG: Mi Ave, an Introduction

You might have noticed things look a teeny tiny bit different around here. After thinking about the future of my blog for the last month or so, I thought the answer to get my spur back into the hobby might be to freshen things up, to dust the corners lets say. Dusting is dangerous however and led me to changing my name, and therefore changing the URL. 

2015 marked the 5th year of my blog, which previously had two other names, but always the same, and really long URL. While I wanted to make the jump to removing the blogspot, having being so indecisive and on and off with the hobby the last couple of months, I didn't want to make too many steps all at once.

But nevertheless, my blog, formally Dear Ms Leigh has a brand spanking new name - Mi Ave. 

Mi Ave?

Let me explain the name - in part it's a reference to my location, in part it's a play on words. The biggest part is that it lets me merge lots of things together under the same title and find away a little longer from having a defined "niche". So basically yes, mi is a silly play on the word my, ave, being short for avenue - think journey, think the streets and the adventures that life takes you along. But MI is also short for Michigan when you're mailing out your letters. Take MI and turn it into Michigan, add the Avenue and you get one of Detroit's historic roads (actually a road with some of my favorite eating joints but that's another tale). I get away with speaking about mi life, mi adventures, mi Michigan, mi Detroit. Oh it's endless. 

Looking ahead

So aside from fixing and finishing all the bits and pieces, and all those links that need updating, Mi Ave will be pretty much the same as before, as I mentioned the blog name lets me get away with lots of rambles. I may post a little less. I may post a some more about books. Probably throw more Detroit posts that I use to hold back. Who knows, I'm just going with the flow for now. 

On the side

I've been rather lazy when it comes to catching up, commenting, engaging with you all and you're own blogs. I'll be the first to admit that. Stress has been my big issue and blogging was making me stressed too, so I abandoned it in a ditch. I'm also struggling with my eye sight and my days involve far too much computer time as it is so I've had to limit my hours in front of a screen, but I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things once I get my new glasses. 

Socially

To reflect all the new changes, I've hopefully got around to bringing (for the first time ever) all my social media under the same name(s) - MIAvenues upon Twitter and Instragram. Hopefully the moving y'all over on Bloglovin worked and I'm not just talking to myself.

So now I totally feel out of the loop with everyone's lives, feel free to update me in the comments because I'm a nosy bugger!

LIFE: Small Things

Hello hello. How are you all? Everyone getting in the Christmas spirit?! Life here has been a mix of 5" of snow, road trips, lots of turkey and candied bacon. These small things posts always get me into the swing of blogging although I haven't done one since October - oops. I actually haven't done much blogging since October ... moving swiftly along ... here's to the happy list

• Loving Jessica Jones - although we haven't binge watched it like we did Daredevil - it's a little bit too dark for me to binge in one go, that I want to make it last. I love how they've adapted Jessica for the screen, taking the darkness in a different direction. I'd highly recommend reading Alias (although perhaps not if you don't like curse words) which focuses more on her being a PI than perhaps this adaption is showing. The Pulse - which focuses on her life a couple of months after Alias when she works for the Daily Bugle is a fun read too especially if you want to get some more gossip on the whole Jessica, Luke Cage (who's getting his own show) relationship. 
• Enjoying a fantastic brunch at Bakn in Carnegie PA - also loving their name, and if you love bacon it's well worth checking out.
• Finishing and hanging my cross stitch advent calendar all ready for December - used up some of the left over chocolate from Halloween. 
• Thanksgiving dinner - delicious!
• Making friends with other people's kitties.
• Seeing Pittsburgh's Christmas tree.
• Getting my fish & chip fill at my favorite place for my British fix - Piper's Pub along Carsen St, Pittsburgh.
• Chocolate covered espresso beans from Sanders - oh my word they are good!
• Cashmere scarves = weakness
• Sticking up our Christmas tree, living in the US it seems a lot more acceptable to stick your tree up early, I can live with that. The cat's trying to eat said tree, not so much.
• Making lots of cross stitch Christmas cards - I only tend to send them to family members - or at least family members that'll appreciate them but they are fun to stitch. 

How's things with y'all?

LIFE: Small Things

Life has been a little up in the air shall we say in the last couple of weeks, which unfortunately led to a quick dash back to Pittsburgh for a family funeral. Hence the delay in getting out last weeks small things posts, but with a death, it makes you appreciate those small things even more. And while I could go on about the differences in how a funeral plays out in the US in comparison, lets just talk about happy things, like;

• Fall the fall colours - I can never tire of seeing all those oranges, reds and yellows
• Signing up for Marvel Unlimited and getting to read loads and loads of Marvel comics - old and new
• Managing to get a 3 foot tall Peace Lily home in one piece all the way from Pittsburgh, it however may not survive being around the kitties ... 
• Having a couple of days being called auntie is always fun
• Driving around the back roads of Allegheny in Pennsylvania and being blown away with all the beautiful fall colours (more on this to come)  
• Finally getting around to reading Nimona which is a very quirky and fun graphic novel that I would highly recommend
• Also Neil Gaiman's Sleeper and the Spindle is both a beautiful tale and gorgeously illustrated which is always a double winner
• Being spoiled with a Keurig coffee machine in our hotel room
• All the pumpkin carving
• Meeting lots of new kitties and seeing just how well they flock to me, it's like I just let off cat lady signals at every turn
• Popping into an anime store in Greensburg and finding all the goodies

How are things with you?

LIFE: Small Things

Once October rolls around I feel like one of the few people that doesn't go for the whole pumpkin thing, so forgive me while nothing pumpkiny fills up today's small things post. While everyone might be stocking up and drinking gallons of the pumpkin spice whatevers, I've been feeling more at home with my huge box of Yorkshire tea that landed on my doorstep (along with packets of instant custard and angels delight) in a birthday care package from the homeland for my birthday. Now that's more my kinda thing!

Otherwise other happy things include;

• Joe brought me a brand spanking new laptop for my birthday. Yey I finally have a working laptop that actually came with Windows 10 so I didn't get to kill another laptop in the upgrading process.
• Said laptop coming with the kindle app and a local library that offers downloadable books for free to borrow - I'm far too excited. 
• Dear Ms Leigh is the expat blog of the month over on Expat Blog - for which I rambled on about myself. 
• Stitched a Halloween Kitty although I forgot to take a photograph of it completed before passing it to my friend ... oops 
• That birthday of mine.
• I finally got around to ordering my spring bulbs. Over 200 of them. Far too excited for them to arrive - lots of daffodils, iris's, glads, crocuses to name but a couple.
• Doing lots of reading - Night Circus, Friends with Boys and Ocean At The End of the Lane being particular highlights of the last two week.
• Binge watching How To Get Away With Murder - love that show and season two is looking to be just as good.
• Lots of tasty new food places and cocktails drinked. 
• Hungry Howie's chocolate brownies with raspberry topping mmmm
• Taking a birthday road trip to Cincinnati - enjoyed the night in a hotel and got to visit the zoo again (couple of blog posts upcoming ... eventually) but think baby red panda and blue penguins! 
• Oh and feeding a giraffe - much fun! 
• Seeing some of the Ohio countryside/farmland while trusting google maps diversion around accidents and roadworks. 
• Starting a Scandinavian advent calendar cross stitch kit - a birthday gift my parents picked u[p in Norway which is far too cute and I'm loving every stitch. Fingers crossed I get it finished in time for December 1st. 

So tell me, what's been rocking your world lately?!

LIFE: Eight Photos Of Happiness

Sometimes you see a tag post come across your blog reading and you actually think, wow that isn't half bad. Then you tag yourself and away you go. Which is what I actually did when I spied Kerri's version of eight photographs of happiness. 

It's one of those nice tags where there's no silly pointless questions, it's not got that feeling of being done to death and you can just ramble to your hearts content. 

I'm easily pleased like that. 

So here goes, eight things that not only bring me happiness but are pretty important things in my life.

 

Cross Stitching

Not only is it my oldest hobby - I've been cross stitching since I was about five, but it's the one thing that's sure to take my mind off of things. So having stitched on and off for 24 years, it's a big part of who I am. It was actually something I was bullied for being able to do growing up so I abandoned it for a good couple of years, but i'm having a second wind these days. It's relaxing, I love creating, I love still how it all comes together. Plus now I've taken a hand to designing some pieces too, the fun just keeps adding up.

Cats

Picking out my first kitty Bertie is one of my earliest memories. Being an only child I guess Bertie became my closest companion growing up. I'm a self titled cat lady and share our house with Ed (pictured) and Smokey, I love hearing their purrs, getting kitty snuggles, having them walk all over me even if I'm trying to stitch ... 

 

Fall Colours

One of the best best reasons (aside from being with the love of my life after all) is being in a state that offers some of the most incredible fall colours once September rolls around. There is nothing like those burnt reds, crisp oranges and vivid yellows. It takes your breath away .... (although having to rake up all said leaves is another matter). 

Being Mr & Mrs

Joe, well he's my best friend. I'm not sure how I came to deserving him but I'm so glad he's decided to spend the rest of his life with me. But our life together is the one thing I don't really share on my blog and I like it that way :)

Detroit

I sound like a broken record, but most people write Detroit off, even locals. Which annoys me to no end. But I love having the motor city on my doorstep, I love exploring it's areas, it's food culture and getting around to sharing them here on the blog. My fault is that I can get a little bitchy about it - like if you say you're going to get murdered, mugged, attacked, hijacked just because you went three meters south of 8 mile you'll feel my wrath. #SorryNotSorry 

Trains

My geeky love is certainly for trains - big trains, train tracks, incline trains (as above with the Monogahela Incline in Pittsburgh)  model trains. I love them all. In fact for my 21st birthday, aside from all the partying at university, my big highlight was taking another ride on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

Travel

More often an not I love exploring what's on my doorstep. Growing up with staycations far before it was cool, I'm a fan of keeping my nose to the ground which the how and the where's about things to do. When time and money allows, I love getting to explore new places. Finding those fun local places off of the beaten track. 

Zoo Trips

One of the favorite things in my purse is my zoo membership card. I love being able to pop in as and when. Plus it helps having those discounts to reciprocal zoo's around the country - especially the Cincinnati Zoo which is my favorite I will be honest. Moreover the Detroit Zoo is often considered one of the greenest zoo's and it's making great strides in helping endangered creatures, building new exhibits and spreading the world about being green.


While I managed to pick of eight, I probably could have featured about 80 more (including say reading, Pittsburgh, photography itself, gardening, butterflies ... the list is endless). But I'm sure they give you a general impression!

What would be in your eight photographs of happiness?!

LIFE: Photoblogging a Birthday

With family visiting for the weekend and me being social awkward in taking too many photographs, I happened to miss last Saturday's monthly photo and hour link up. But with having a lazy day on Wednesday for my birthday, I thought I would photo blog it instead. Photos weren't taken every hour I will be honest, just as and when. They actually happen to highlight and speak a lot about me - my love for dippy eggs, cross stitching, loosing myself in a good book, a good film to picking vegetables. It's a day that makes me happy, a day full of things that make me happy. A pretty good start to being 29 I reckon. 

LIFE: Birthday Love From Detroit

Mid week birthday's give you the perfect excuse to drag celebrations out across two weekends. Fun weekends sandwiching your birthday from either end. While I'm not a big birthday celebrator, I'd rather not have all that attention, I don't mind using it as an excuse for some yummy food, exploring a couple of new places on our endlessly long Detroit visit list and spending some time with family who visited from Pittsburgh. From a mighty tasty blackened catfish sandwich followed by a huge bowl of the best mac n cheese Detroit has to offer in Slows BBQ, washed down with some handcrafted cocktails next door in The Sugar House. Capturing a sunset over the Motor City with our stomachs full and happy. A Sunday morning starting off with brunch at Toast down the road in Ferndale (review to follow) and a very delicious strawberry waffle and my new favorite place for breakfast. 

But that is just me. 

Happy memories, exploring a great city (yes really) and eating some great food.

LIFE: Small Things

I should probably start numbering these posts so I can actually make a note of how on point I am at keeping this little series up. But anyways. Another two weeks have flown by, flown by so fast I'm not actually too sure where the time has gone. That's the thing I find the hardest about this adulting game, time goes so much faster as an adult. Yesterday actually marked ten years to the day that I packed up my life and moved into freshers accommodation at Newcastle University. Ten whole years ago. It feels like yesterday sometimes. I miss that city. Like so much, blah.

So a thank you has to go out to all the forms of social media for being my brain memory back up for the exciting happy things of the last two weeks, here goes!

• Cats chasing the yarn while crocheting - I'm sure they think they are helping. 
• Working on two cross stitch projects - my seaside piece which takes me right back to all the Yorkshire seaside towns and Flossie, which would be me circa 1880's or something ... 
• Watching the trees along the street and in the park slowly starting to turn a burnt orange at the tips
• Working my way through the HUGE graphic novel collection my local library has - joining said library has brought my love back for reading for sure - happy happy times. 
• All the wild sunflowers that have burst into life around the garden. Wild sunflowers have upwards of 20 flower heads per plant which is just incredibly beautiful.
• Watching all the bees not only on the sunflowers, but on the Sedums I grew from cuttings over the winter - mental note to do more of the same this year
• Thoroughly enjoying The Girl On the Train - a little obvious in parts but well worth a read all the same.  
• Currently reading A Touch of Stardust by Kate Alcott which, if you're a fan of either the 1930's, Hollywood and or Gone With the Wind then I'd highly recommend it. Being a fan of all three myself, it's becoming one of my favorite reads in a long while.

So that pretty much sums everything up!

LIFE: Small Things

As much as I love summer, and as much as this Brit is getting more and more use to the heat that Michigan summers like to throw at me (okay, okay I'm still a bit of a whimp when it gets over 32C/90F) I'm looking forward to the cooler (I say cooler being in the 20's) days ahead. Cooler days get me feeling a little bit more crafty (if that's even possible), TV shows are about to restart for the season and my birthday is at the end of the month. Lots of doing and planning ahead!

Also other happy happy things!

• Three baby pengys at the Detroit Zoo - too cute and I URGE you to check out the video if you ever need a pick me up, or even if you don't. Because penguins.
• Decorating cheap notebooks with cross stitching, just because
• Talking of cross stitching - working on a Pusheen design, starting two new projects, framing up Dinobot and completing another self designs cross stitch piece - home sweet home design for friends buying their first house. More on the last two to come - once I get around to it. 
• Reading Station Eleven - what a great page turner
• Finally getting around to watching The Mindy Project - what a great show
• Pretty sushi presented on a boat as a treat for Joe getting a pay rise and a bonus. Yey. 
• Drawing up an endless shopping list of bulbs to buy for next spring
• Spending all of yesterday morning (Thursday) pulling out the longest flower bed back to the main sturdy plants (the Iris's, the poppies and day lilies) to just build it back up from scratch next year. 
• Two zoo trips in two weeks!
• Cooking (and eating) with tofu for the first time, still a little bit on the fence and it'll never replace chicken in my curries completely, but it's okay ... kinda
• Baking lots of mini zucchini breads in the toaster oven because of the still broken oven. Wasn't sure they'd turn out edible but they did, yey! 
• Pretending to be very adult (well Joe was) and pretty much paying off a very large debt on a credit card
• Waterproofing the basement aka giving my arms a work out with a roller and 5 gallon tub of latex paint
• The thought of cooler days ahead, of being able to work in the garden without melting, throwing windows wide open and the changing fall colours 
• Going on a Detroit haul at the library - noir, food, fiction, biographies I grabbed them all
• Finding the most amazingly quirky vintage wallpaper (here and here) hanging in a basement at an estate sale down in Detroit 

So that has pretty much been my life in the last couple of weeks. Who else is ready for cooler times ahead?

LIFE: Small Things

The death of my netbook while upgrading itself to Windows 10 (it decided to do said upgrade just as they released an update that messed up and makes it just constantly start rebooting) perhaps casts a shadow of this weeks small things, it's certainly put blogging on the back burner a little. But hey, it's letting me crack on with the gardening and crafting. 

But on the up side;

• Checking out more tasty eating places down in Hamtramck - this time Aladdin Sweets & Cafe - the cities first Bangladesh restaurant. 
• Dutch Girl Donuts - enough said.
• Picking the last of the cilantro seeds, one of my kitchen is full to bust with row after row of paper bags of seeds drying out.
• Planting out the first of the fall crops - lots of little broccoli seedlings.
• Getting a new (to me bike) and feeling like a big kid biking around the block.
• Designing and stitching two of my own cross stitch pieces - a Detroit cityscape (more on this to come) and a gift for some friends buying their first house. Really loving designing my own charts, it's taking cross stitching to a fun new level for me.
• Speaking of crafting, for the first time in months, picking up a crochet hook and starting a Christmas tree skirt. Fingers crossed it'll be completed in time for Christmas 2015, it's not stitching up quickly.
• After a whole lotta waiting, lack of communication and even more waiting, our hand selected by Anthrax bottle of Knob Creek finally turned up. Mighty tasty too. 

How's things with you?

LIFE: Small Things

Yesterday in particular has reminded me just how quickly time flies. Not only did Thursday mark ten years since receiving my A Level results (and then me leaving to go to university a couple of months later) but also five years since I first tried sushi. Because Joe was over on a visit. Little did I know what he'd start with me trying sushi. Favourite! Anyway, I broke the special things happening every five years on that date and just wandered to the Post Office which, wasn't very life changing. 

But otherwise, other small happy things!

• Oreo frappes 
• Joining the local library finally
• Which lead to reading Amy Poehler's Yes Please! and loving every page
• Drawing and redrawing ideas for a Detroit themed cross stitch piece again finally
• Getting my DIY on - I'm waterproofing the basement ...  oh the glamour
• Stocking up on 19c notebooks that I don't really need but hey, it's back to school time and they are cheap and ... yeah
• Free listings on eBay, because I can never have enough of those
• Nutella milkshakes from Steak n Shake - DELICIOUS! 
• Being cat stalked
• Stitching myself a new bookmark from a 25c kit I picked up at an estate sale the other week - new bookmark for a new book love
• Having kitchen cupboards filled with paper bags in my attempt to dry coriander and sunflower seeds ... key word being attempting 
• Peppermint tea - nom!

Happy things, happy list, what have been your happy things?

Also if you have any recommendations for quirky, funny, historical book - fiction or otherwise, I'm all ears!

LIFE: The Small Things

Wow two of these in two weeks, I'm spoiling you. That and I'm impressed I've remembered to do another one. There's hope for me yet. Plus it's another excuse to dump a load of random photographs in a pretty display. It's all about the visuals.

So 14 days and some happy things;

• Doing the all American tradition of hiding from the crazy heat by going to the cinema and seeing both Ant Man and Amy Schumer's Trainwreck. Both are well worth watching. The latter just making my day and being so much better than I had hoped. Tears from all the laughing. Amy Schumer just gets it spot on. 
• Tennessee Whisky Cake at TGI Friday's - enough said (kinda made up for the slow service and just okay entree). 
• Scoring a new (to us) computer desk for $20 - one that doesn't rock, wobble, slide like the old one. Yey.
• Finding an old blog post about my first ever visit to an estate sale back in March 2012, oh the fun we've had since doing them weekly! 
• Marking six years of blogging - thanks for all the comments!
• Messing around with a new phone camera app - complete with mirrors and leaky light features. I'm easily amused. But amused enough to ditch VSCO for Lidow. 
• Vanilla cream drinks from Tim Hortons <3
• Picking seeds from the cilantro plants in hope of turning it into some coriander powder for curry making. Fingers crossed!
• Bulb catalogues for spring 2016 dropping in the mail box, not that I'm wishing time away but gimme all the flowers!
• Self seeded sunflowers from bird seed - free flowers!
• Studying this obsessively detailed map Emma found all about amazing places to visit on American roadtrips - any roadtrip that gives a mention to Michigan (which is most often missed off) is a winner in my book.  
• Falling in love and adding far too many more cross stitch projects after coming across The Sunflower Diaries (great xstitch freebies if that's your thing).

 What's been rocking your world lately?

BLOGGING: Six Years

I'll be honest, I've started and stopped, deleted and retyped this post a couple of times. While I want to mark my little blog's sixth birthday, everything I had to say about blogging I shared last year alongside things we as bloggers shouldn't assume about our readers. Nothing much in my mind has changed, although I've taken a considerable step back when it comes to the promoting, sharing, engaging in twitter chats.

Somewhat of a blogging fail perhaps, but for me it's worked. My stats haven't really decreased. I'm enjoying blogging more than I have in a long time. There's less stress, less pressure to make it perfect, to be scheduling tweets out constantly. I don't have the time or the energy for curating that perfect look online or offline.

More then ever my blog is just a reflection of me.

An old lady with an aching back, gardening, crafting, collecting old stuff in a 28 year old's body.

Six years on any hobby is pretty neat. Until I remember I've been cross stitching 22 years but that's another story. Six years doing something so publicly, sharing so much, making many loyal readers that I call friends. 

From an attic bedroom in my student days back in Newcastle, England to being a homeowner in Detroit, USA. Life has changed a bit over the last six years. It's nice to have this place to reflect on it all.

So thank you, thank you to those of you that have ever read my rambles, shared a tweet, talked to me, come back time and time again.

Ta muchly. 

LIFE: The Small Things

While I've been thinking about restarting my small things posts for a long while. I never really get around to sitting and typing them out. Then things change and they get forgotten. But I've been having a rough couple of months with my health which is boosting my health anxiety/stress to new levels to I thought it was high time to use and type this out as a relaxing way of remembering happy things and distracting that over thinking mind of mine.

Old printed cross stitch designs

After my mam taught me how to cross stitch back when I was about 5/6, everyone use to buy me those old printed samplers on linen. They'd have some simple design, often a quote and you got to pick the colours. I found such an old Paragon design at an estate sale the other week and it brought back so many memories. I don't think I ever actually finished such a design in the past, I normally loose my patience with them because it was always so hard to get your stitches neat but i'm up for a new challenge. This one was half started, somewhat messy and half the stitches pointing in the wrong direction. After spending a couple of nights pulling it all out I'm off to dig out some folksy PA Dutch shades of thread and get started! 

Plus while i'm not a fan of quotes, it speaks a lot to me at the moment. Give to the world the best you have and the best will come back to you. 

In other cross stitch news - too many ideas, not enough time to stitch them all.

Soft Parade

Nothing better then a Michigan made beer, but a Michigan made beer fermented with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries is even better. Short's Soft Parade is delicious for this time of year.

Fresh from the garden

There's nothing more exciting at the moment then heading out into my vegetable patch every morning and coming back with a full bowl of raspberries, perhaps a cucumber or a zucchini and all the fresh herbs.

Home-made pie

Not only did I bake my first ever zucchini loaf, developed a love for eating carrot tops, but I've been busy baking all those raspberries into pies. With Michigan blueberries on offer the other week in Kroger, I throw some of those in too. The lattice topping needs work, but you don't need to look at that too long with how yummy it tastes.

Toaster Ovens ...

Not sure how I went about without one of these - it toasts, it bakes, it broils. It's magic. #EasilyPleased

My wild patch

From one free pack of wild flower seeds, the little wild patch along the edge of my veg patch has become one of my favorite places to go for a wander. There's so much colour. It's getting to that time of year to start thinking about plants for next year, there's certainly going to be more poppies around my garden.

Netflix

With most of our shows on summer break, Hulu (and not having cable) has taken a back seat against Netflix. Murder She Wrote (seriously you don't want to know Jessica Fletcher she attracts death), NCIS, Property Brothers, CSI: Miami and Hotel Inspector alongside Parks & Rec and Rules of Engagement - yeap all over those.

As you can see, i'm old before my time and that's the way I like it. What little things have been rocking your world lately?