Julie's Musings | Julie Saffrin

GLASS FUSION FUN IN THE FLORIDA KEYS

March 23, 2016 • Julie Saffrin • 4 Comments

What do you get when you’re on vacation and you bring yourself, one of your best friends, and a couple of your crazy ideas from Pinterest, into an art studio? A whole lot a fun and a tangible souvenir of a fabulous trip. My husband and I vacationed in the Florida Keys in February 2016 with our friends, Greg and Mary. The four of us did many things people do while at a vacation rental in Marathon – relaxed, read, sunbathed, ate, (highly recommend for lunch the Shrimp ‘Po Boy at Brutus Seafood and Market), rented a boat, fished and gawked…

HOW ONE PERSON CAME TO THE DECISION TO BE A KIDNEY DONOR

February 29, 2016 • Julie Saffrin • Leave a Comment

I met Mary Harms in 1987 at a Bible study when we both attended Faith Covenant Church in Burnsville, Minnesota. In the years since, we’ve done many things together, smacked a golf ball around a course or two, gone horseback riding, gone for bike rides, taken vacations together, and always, have shared a good laugh while doing so. As far as friends go, one could not find a truer friend with whom to share life’s joys and sorrows. She and I along with our husbands are on vacation together in the Keys. Mile Marker 50, to be exact. Today we…

CHECKLIST FOR CREATING A GREAT STORY

February 15, 2016 • Julie Saffrin • 1 Comment

Stuck on your plot? Not sure how to shape your scenes and chapters? Here are a list of excellent resources to get your going again. I’m not sure how I came across this checklist that Ms. Whitney encouraged writers to use as they crafted their stories, but I’m using it as I create my next story and I’m finding the checklist so helpful. I also love knowing that my beloved author used this to help her write her memorable characters and her stories. Phyllis A. Whitney‘s Checklist for Creating a Great Story 1. Have you a plot, a story plan?…

GIVE, A NEW LENTEN OUTLOOK

February 10, 2016 • Julie Saffrin • Leave a Comment

Yes, I know today, February 10, 2016 is Ash Wednesday, and on this day many Christians choose to give something up for the next 40 days until we celebrate Christ’s resurrection and new life on Easter. What I am thinking about today, and I hope no one takes this idea as sacrilegious as I mean nothing of the sort. But I wondered, what if we make, in addition to this tradition or to stand in as a substitute, the idea of giving something each day for the next 40 days, until Easter comes. If you choose to participate, please drop me a…

WRITING BEYOND OUR MORTAL COIL

February 5, 2016 • Julie Saffrin • 6 Comments

I read the other day that Prince Charles has painted thousands of watercolors. He’s a prince, first in line to the throne. Why should he do anything other than be princely? His Royal Highness responded, “We walk away and shuffle off our mortal coil, but these things live on.” Ah, a partial quote from a soliloquy spoken by a fictitious Shakespearian prince from Denmark who wrote, “To be or not to be, that is the question.” The Prince of Wales paints so that the beauty of that which he sees will extend beyond his time here. The British heir to the throne…

2015 A YEAR IN PICTURES

January 2, 2016 • Julie Saffrin • Leave a Comment

When I look back at 2015, no matter the lessons in it, I look back with a heart filled to the brim with gratitude and a snorting giggle at a couple of the pictures. Oh, the stories. Thanks to the Scrimgeours and the Three Bs, the Harms, the Majchrzaks, High Country Guest Ranch, the Mestads and Hamanns for creative ways to make a vase and unforgettable games of Telestrations, the Beaulieus, the Schalinskes (We’ll forever miss you Baby Grayson), Vista Linda, Hunter Philip, Marco Island, Rio Verde, Cornucopia, Wisconsin, the Saffrins (all of you), the Trewarthas (all of you), Ann Seymour, and many…

2015, AN ALMANAC

January 1, 2016 • Julie Saffrin • 4 Comments

“Time is not even, neutral, uniform, independent of man and culture. Time is not regular ticktock time. It varies, comes loaded, heavy or light or tragic or shaking with one or other passion, be that pain or pleasure—each reflecting very human affairs. Beginnings and ends, births and deaths, critical moments of liminality. Big ends, little ends. The shock of the new, the trauma of the old. Some times come unexpected, when we are not looking, and they stun us, perhaps for ever after. Time is not calendar or the clock, it is the almanac.”1 2015, for some, was a year of intentions…

Letters from a Wannabe-Brit Living in Wisconsin

November 21, 2015 • Julie Saffrin • 2 Comments

Doesn’t everyone need a pick-me-up now and then? I have a friend who is as crazy about everything English as I am.Her name is Gail and she lives in Baldwin, Wisconsin. Like me, she is a writer. She’s currently at work on a novel that I cannot wait for her to finish because the premise is adorable and yes, has much to do with England. She blogs as much as possible about all things about the big island. Anyway, Gail is one of the most caring people I know and she loves to surprise people with her letters. Yesterday, a…

SAUDADE

November 20, 2015 • Julie Saffrin • 2 Comments

A woman stopped at my Pebbles of Peace display at my boutique table last week. The Pebbles of Peace is a collection of smoothed stones, shells, and sea glass, themed around the “Whatever” Scripture from Philippians. “I like these,” a woman said to me. “But do you ever make custom sets?” I told her for the same price I would put words of her choice on the stones. As she wrote her words, curiosity got the better of me. Laughter, love, peace, xoxoxo, forever, grace, child, memory, remember, hero and saudade. “Tell me about the last word,” I said. “Saudade.” “It’s a bit like the…

An Ocean of Orange

October 9, 2015 • Julie Saffrin • 2 Comments

Orange is the new ocean. At my Minnesota cabin in autumn, anyway. Wind swirls ripple and cause swishes in its sea. Nature splashes it spray before it rests in white. Sanskrit’s naranga: “orange tree.” I am awash in its fruitiness. Its scent, aged in musky sweetness, allures even the staunchest summer hold-outs and those reluctant to sea change. I admit I am one, as is Mickey, my golden retriever, who loves to fish. I’ll not be the one to tell him the docks will come out next week. I, for today, at least, while nature says I still can, am choosing to moor in my Orange Ocean.…

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