Family Blogs

It is no secret that when it comes to creativity, my kids have it covered: Melissa in music, Eli in photography and art, and Maya in writing.  These were established well before the computer became everyone’s everyday addiction.  But with the ubiquitous presence of the Internet, they have all taken on another angle. They’ve all emerged as bloggers.

While there are any number of blogs out  in cyberspace to choose from,  I thought at the very least, we could check out what our own family members have been up to on theirs. To that end, I’m laying out the basics on three of the blogs closest to my heart.  For each one I’m giving name, URL, purpose and a sample paragraph from one entry. Oldest blog (and coincidentally blogger) goes first.

Melissa’s Blog: Swell Notes

http://swellnotes.blogspot.com/

Melissa’s description: “These pages are dedicated to women committing theirs lives and love to family and home.   Here, I write about my quest to seek everyday beauty, alone and with my children.  Join me as I share my love of music, creative arts, food, nature and play.  I hope you will share your inspirations and ideas here as well.”

Sample post:

Lately, I have had thoughts that I never expected.  I have been thinking about going back to work.  Granted, “back” to work doesn’t quite fit me.  I never had a career that took flight.  My degree in sociology never led me to abundant opportunities.  In all honesty,  I never expected to work for all that long.  I knew that I wanted to have a family.  I knew that I wanted to stay at home with my children.  So, these new feelings have gone against who I thought I was a mother.  More accurately, they go against who I hoped to prove to be as a mother.

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Maya’s Blog: Lilies and Elephants

http://liliesandelephants.blogspot.com

Maya's descriptIon: “Lilies and Elephants is a collection of my thoughts, musings, ideas and stories. I blog for my company, Chimera Travel, but I like to depart from the business end of things and simply scribe my personal impressions. I write about life, thoughts, curiosities and more.

Sample post:

I took a family vacation to Cape Cod and made a decision to unplug as much as possible. All of my travel this year has had some business component to it and I wanted to spend time with the family without the constant urge to check my email and social media outlets every five minutes. If you don't know me well enough to know how difficult a challenge this was, let me give you a few examples - I've actually emailed from a game park in Botswana, posted on Facebook from the rainforest, and tweeted from Macchu Picchu. Plain and simple, I like to be connected and my job very often requires it - even at odd hours of the day and night, since my clients aren't always on the same time zone.

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Eli’s Blog: ENformed

/http://enformdesign.blogspot.com/

Eli’s description: “Tips and news from designer and photographer Elijah Northen, the founder of ENform. This is a companion blog to our full website: www.ENformdesign.com "

Sample post:

Have you ever noticed that you can rotate a camera 180 degrees?  Well, I'm sure you have, but how often have you done it?  Conventional wisdom presents us with two formats: portrait format (90°) and landscape format (0°).  Considering the fact that these are only 2 of the 180 possible angles, that means you're probably only exploring 1.1% of the available options - sounds pretty absurd when put that way, huh? 

As Eli’s description suggests, the blog is a spin off from his websiteENform which “lies at the intersection of synthetic space and practical utility.  Founded by Elijah Northen, a registered architect and photographer, we search for questions by means of artistic exploration and answer them through thoughtful, yet practical design.”

 These are the family blogs that come first to mind, but if you are related to the Northen family in some way and have a blog, let me know in the comments.  We'll make sure we give yours equal billing.