From Now On

From now on, I will

Write everyday

Pray everyday

Learn something new

Do something different

Get out of my comfort zone

Dream everyday

Keep my real friends closer

Find happiness

Exercise

Kill the introvert side of me and meet new people

Enjoy the mornings

Practice gratitude

Connect with nature

Read, read, read!

Create everyday

Symbolic Poem: The Sky as Your Crown

Nowadays, I call myself a poetic photographer. I have taken smartphone photography as my new passion. I wanted to be a professional lifestyle photographer but I do not need to wait to get enough money to purchase a camera before I start. I decided to start with my smartphone.

So if you want me to take a picture of you using my smartphone, I am always available. I don’t have the best camera quality but I can do something about it.

There is this palm tree at home and it looks funny. It is not dead, but the fronts have withered. It is still firm to the ground, producing palm fruit and providing shade. I wonder if it is normal for a palm nut tree to look like that. To look dead, yet living.

This palm nut tree looked symbolic to me, so I decided to write a short poem about it.

You were in pain

 But you still wore

 The sky as your crown

There are people who are in pain, whether physical pain or emotional pain, but they overlook those pains and care for those they love and grew up with. It is their calling to do that, and they have gladly accepted it.

In the end, try to look at the brighter side of things. Have hope and be strong.

The Joy of Living Alone (Blogtober Day 14)

After entering my young adult years and saying good bye to my teenage years, I am gotten the chance to experience three different ways of living.

Living with family

Living with a roommate

Living alone

Today I was thinking and decided to weigh the pros and cons of each living situation.

This will be fun. Let’s start with living with family

Pros

Shared responsibility and chores

Family traditions and activities

Food is mostly available, if not everyday

You can borrow items like clothes, money, comb etc.

Shared bills

Cons

When you reserved some food, and you come back home seeing that someone had eaten it

When you buy food from outside and you bring it home and your younger siblings watch you. Excuse me, do I know you?

When you are having your quiet time and they are disturbing

Taking your personal item without permission.

Living with a Roommate

Pros

Someone to chat with

Someone to ask for fashion/beauty advice

Someone to laugh with

Sisterly/brotherly dates

When you are hungry, you can rely on them

Cons

Cannot stay naked

Placing something of yours at the wrong place

Playing your not so favourite kind of music

Making loud calls

Inviting the uninvited guest

Living Alone

Pros

You can spend time giving yourself a treat

You can catch up with work without any disturbance

Spend hours on something important just for you

You can wear your birthday suit

You can sing and dance like no one’s watching. And truly too, no one is watching

Cons

No one to complain about how annoying school/work was

No one to discuss a radio/Tv show/movie/novel with

MDB Lifestyle Report: The Art of Hygge (Blogtober Day 12)

Hello world!

Welcome to another day of The MDB Lifestyle Report, where we talk about lifestyle trends.

Have you ever heard of hygge? This might sound like a new word, but actually, you might be practicing it unintentionally.

Hygge (pronounced hoo-gah) is the Danish concept of coziness and intimacy.

 In both Danish and Norwegian, hygge refers to “a form of everyday togetherness”, “a pleasant and highly valued everyday experience of safety, equality, personal wholeness and a spontaneous social flow.” (Wikipedia)

The noun hygge includes something nice, cozy, safe and known, referring to a psychological state.

Reasons why I said you might be practicing Hygge already. Let’s see….

When it is raining, you try to make your environment cozy, so that you can read a book as you listen to the raining.

You partake in simple pleasures and you might call that your quiet peaceful moment

You try to get comfy and cozy.

If you have ever tried to do any of these, then you are already practicing hygge. Just that, you never knew the name for that.

Anyway, if you want to know more about it, and if you want to try it, then you better continue reading this post.

How to master the art of hygge.

1. The main ingredient of practicing hygge is making a cozy atmosphere. Make sure the environment is comfy and full of good warm.

2. As we try to make the atmosphere cozy, you might consider the brightness of your lightening. Try to have soft lightening. You might use sweet scented flickering candles, fairy lights warm toned lights to bring a feeling of warmth.

3. Also, consider your furnishings. You might incorporate cushions and soft duvets soft textured blankets, mostly when the weather is cold. Fluffy surfaces is a plus.

4. Consider your clothing. Wear an outfit that should be comfy. If it is to the extent of wearing a pajamas. Go on ahead and wear it.

5. Turn off your electronic devices that might distract you. Try not to use your phones, and do something that might not require the use of electronic devices.

6. Treat yourself with a good snack. It might be a glass of drink, or a bar of chocolate or even a bowl of popcorn.

7. Use this moment to be grateful. Close your eyes and think of the things you are grateful for. You can decide to write it down.

8. You can also use this moment to do a hobby. Maybe, you love to write, use that moment to write. You love to draw, paint, kill art? Just do it. Play your guitar, piano, read a novel, magazine. Just do something that makes you happy. You can just lie down and listen to soothing music.

9. Hygge can be a form of a date. Use this moment to spend time with the one you love, a family member, a friend, or a significant other. Enjoy every cozy moment of it. Avoid drama at all cost.

These are some of the ways you can master the art of hygge.

Let’s Chat: What do you think of hygge?

Life Lately

Hello world!

It’s been a really long time. What I know is August is ending and September would begin. Also, 2018 is 4 months away. Yes! I will allow you to gasp. Also! We will officially enter the –ber months: September, October, November and December. And December is the month I am despacito waiting for.

Please note, despacito means slowly. Ain’t that right?

*whispers* I’m about to start listening to Christmas music. Don’t tell anyone.

What have I been up to? Well, nothing much. Life has been filled with the cold weather and reading and writing poetry. I just finished reading The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn and I love the ending so much. It was a very happy ending. I don’t know but I imagined Edwina to be Charlotte "Lottie" La Bouff in Disney’s The Princess and The Frog. Tiana’s best friend.

Ahem. I guess it’s only me.

Can we talk of the Chale Wote Festival? I attended! For the first time ever.

Everyone Was Taller Than Me...lolz xx

Saturday's Outfit

Foooood!!!

Friday....Wata Mata

With Brother

Hondred Percent

Read my interview with Hondred Percent here

Yoyo Tins Shrine

And I had fun with my young adults on the last weekend of the month.

Speaking of reading, don’t forget to read my latest posts on JUMP. Click on the links below.

Sunday Night Strategies

Beauty Hacks to Try

Things To Do Every Day

I hope you had an interesting August. See you in September.

Marietta DeGrant Poetry: Remind Me

Hello world!

There have been a lot of cloudy/rainy days and I spend the moment by writing poetry. One rainy Monday, I was reflecting and making a list of things (I love making lists) and I realized I needed a lot of reminders in life to move forward, to make my dreams come true and to remember that God loves me. I needed a reminder that I should not be scared of anything and whatever I am going through will turn out to be a blessing.

I looked at the date and I realized that life is moving so fast, I wanted it to slow down. I needed little reminders that would tell me to make every pretty moment a treasure. Reminders that would tell me that life is worthwhile and the people who make my life beautiful should be appreciated.

So I wrote this poem, Remind Me to tell life to remind me of certain things.

This poem is dedicated to people who love me and always wish the best of me.

Dear Life

Remind me of the things I ought to live for

Remind me to slow down

Don’t be too hard on me

By telling me to work hard to earn papers with people’s faces on them

Remind me to appreciate the rain

Remind me to let my skin inhale sunlight

Remind me to kiss my lover every night

Remind me to take pictures of children playing in the mud

Remind me to take a deep breath

Because life is all about capturing memories

And sharing them with the world

With our loved ones first

Remind me to travel to see other parts of the world

Remind me to learn

Remind me to teach my descendants what I have learnt in life

Remind me……to drink water

5 Things I Love About the Rainy Season

Hello world.

Greetings to the rain that makes my days more comfy. I have been loving the rain lately. Maybe because I have been working from home, blogging and writing. I have been reading too. Reading lines of scenes and conversations with the rhythmic beats of rain drops on the roof. That sounds so much cool and comfy.

Here are 5 things I love about the rainy season.

1. Reading during the season

2. Long cold weekend nights with comfy pillows and a good cover cloth

3. My skincare routine is on point

4. Less clothes to wash. Clothes get less dirty

5. There is less sweating.

Let’s chat: What do you like about the rainy season?

Weekday Scribbles

So I decided to blog about nothing in particular today. I just felt like writing something but I didn’t know what. Even the title is a problem. Please enjoy my useless updates on nothing.

Going Home

Going home from work/school/whatever has this kind of atmosphere that makes going home a happy destination. As we walk, we meet other people with different expectations. The smell of popcorn less than 100 meters away, the smoke of barbecue on the grill, the grilled corn seller tempting you makes life seem so full to the extent that the annoyance or stress you acquired from wherever you are coming from seem to disappear. Just because you are closer to home. Your bed just awaits you.

Poetry

Can we ever get tired of poetry and the lines we do not understand? Sometimes, you feel like you want to write a poem so bad, but the words aren’t floating in your head, but rather above your head. You stare at your journal or your computer screen but the words are just laughing and making fun of each other above your head. Can anything get any worse?

Dear words, just sit still in my brain! I am closing my eyes, by the time I open them, I should see some words before my eyes.

More laughing, more mockery of each other.

Oh well. They just want to play with each other before I play with them.

The John and John Movie

Life is too short…..for long story.

Thank you for reading my useless updates.

Pray I don’t write another one.

Inspiration took a walk

Happy May Day! and happy Aboakyer week from Winneba

Since the end of the Easter celebration, I have not been my creative self. I do not feel inspired to write or dream of anything, not to talk of doing something. I usually experience this sort of feeling as a writer a lot of times, but this one was just too much. I told my best friend about it and he told me I should socialize more.

First of all, I did not need socialization at that time. I need some time alone. Also, as a proud introvert, we do not appreciate socialization, even though, sometimes, in my opinion, socialization is fun.

I read some quotes, read my dreams and goals. Still, inspiration was nowhere to be found. Inspiration took a walk, without telling me it was going for a walk.

We, introverts, have mastered the art of finding ourselves when we are alone. Unfortunately, it did not work for me at the time that I needed it. I needed to go out.

One Saturday, I visited the beach with a friend to find inspiration. I stared at the ocean, trying hard to find a lesson. It just made mighty noise, telling me that he still rules the beach.

I shook my head….but one thing came into my mind.

I should keep my friends close.

Even though, the waves comes to the shore to steal a kiss from it, it comes back to hug them for a little longer. Friends are like that. Some get new friends and ignore you but you should still keep them close.

Sunday, I went to church, still searching for inspiration. Maybe, I would hear a still small voice, but confession time; I was more interested in looking for my friends who I haven’t since in a long while from Swedru and even Winneba.

Why was I more interested in that? I couldn’t tell.

After church, we went over to a friend’s house to pound fufu and eat. Talking, laughing, serious talks and feeling comfortable.

I got home after 4pm, and started planning my week, most especially the following day.

It was later at night that inspiration came back and inspired me of friendship.

Friendship. Why that?

I still can’t tell.

Inspiration took a walk and brought me something that was close to me. I needed not to go far to search for inspiration. Inspiration was in my social life, in my neighbourhood.

Inspiration took a walk, not a journey. Inspiration did not run away from me. It just went on a break by walking, but I went searching for it by running. It was just a stone throw.

Inspiration is just in front of you. You don’t need to go far.

Busy Days and Sunshine

Hey World!

My weekend was great! How was yours?

These days have been hectic. I need not to complain. One of the major things I learnt in life is not to complain. Reasons being that

11.       No matter what you do, problems will still exist.

22.       It tells other people that you have problems. For instance, complaining that you are hard up or you have headache to random people.

33.       You should be grateful for where you are. People want to be where you are.

My days have been very busy, and I have been trying to find peace and sunshine in those busy days and speaking of sunshine, literally, the sun has been coming to work earlier in the mornings, and doesn’t seem to go home early. The weather is literally HOT. I don’t know why. Now going out is literally, a problem.

Since I have been very busy and drinking tons of water (which I think it’s a plus), I have been trying to create my own sunshine of happiness. (Even though, moody days are sometimes cool).

Attitude of Gratitude

I try to take some little time to think about the things I am grateful for. I sometimes write it down and reflect on them. The list contains names of people, my talents, my health, the life lessons, my work, school and even things I cannot express.

Play Games

I don’t know why I did that last month, but I downloaded games that are meant for children and I played with it. There’s no harm in that. In fact, it brings out the inner child in you.

Beach Babes

The beach is a relaxing place, except for the fact that sand gets between your toes. Go to the beach and have a conversation with the sea. Think about the future and see how great it will be.

(Life Hack: Rub baby powder on your feet before walking on the beach to prevent sand in between your toes.)

Life is short, so live in the moment. Life is like an ice cream. Enjoy it before it melts.

Let’s Chat: What do you do when you have busy days, yet you want to create your own sunshine?