1. Tell us a little bit about your blog:
I call The Chronicles of Nani my “Coffee Shop on the Information Superhighway.” “Coffee” has always been more than a beverage to me; it’s what I call spending time with special people and sharing conversation. When I say “be sure to try the black forest cake,” It’s because black forest cake makes me happy and I want everyone who stops by to leave feeling good.
At The Chronicles, I talk about what’s going on in my world with my own optimistic slant, share fun finds, I show off some of my digital scrapbook pages and offer scrapbooking freebies I’ve made. On occasion, I climb up on my soap box and grumble about something in the world that bugs me, but for the most part my coffee shop is a happy place.
2. How long have you been blogging and what do you love about it?
The first blog entry called The Chronicles if Nani appeared in April 2005 on the old Yahoo 360. When 360 closed, I moved to Blogger in 2008. What I love most about it is the ability to express myself and being part of the blogging community, getting to know others through their blogs too. What we all put on our blogs and share with our friends in cyberspace is often more intimate than some of our friends in non-cyber life. We are all psychologists, or bartenders. Maybe we’re all baristas!
3. Who is the person or group behind the blog?
That would be me, Nani! Nani is a nickname my Mom gave me when I was about 13. Nani is Hawaiian for “beautiful.” It’s also Japanese for “huh?” I prefer to stick with the Hawaiian translation.
First and foremost I am an optimist. No matter how bad things are, I truly believe if I step back, I can find a nugget of good to build from.
I am 46 years old. I have a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Communication. I was a public access instructor and sports producer for local cable television in Metro Detroit and I owned my own business making musical photobooks on DVD as Digitalegacies LLC. The economy and just not enough capital investment closed Digitalegacies in 2006. I still use that name for my scrapbooking designs now.
In early 2005 I had decided to quit dating all together. I was a happy single girl and the whole dating thing had become kinda boring to me. That same day I got an email from a man inviting me to come to a multimedia show at a conference I was attending. We swapped a few emails and well, we’ve had the same last name for three and a half years now.
I am in Toledo, Ohio where I live with my wonderful husband, David, and our two feline furkids; Alexis Kaline and Carla Yastrzemski, named for my and David’s childhood baseball heroes respectively
4. What hobbies/interests do you have?
David and I share a love for seeing baseball games all over the country and photographing freight trains. I also love blogging, digital scrapbooking, cooking/baking, U-Pick and Farmers Markets and anything that gives me an opportunity to spend time with my nieces; Tori and Rina.
5. If you could invite 4 people (real or fictional, living or dead) to a dinner party, who would you invite and what would you serve?
I’d invite my mom, both of my grandmothers and my great-grandmother. I was very close to all of them and with them I didn’t have to be a grownup. I was always safe and always recognized for even the little accomplishments. When Grandma passed in January of 2010, I became the matriarch on Mom’s side of the family. It makes me a little sad that there won’t be anymore 5 generation photos for a long time.
I’m making Stuffed Pepper soup for this occasion. I’m really proud of the flavor of that soup when I make it and I know all four of them would like it!
6. I can’t live without…
Chocolate; it’s an essential food group. Hershey’s Kisses are supplements.
7. Something people would be surprised to know about me is…
I never wanted kids and expected that I wouldn’t be close to my nieces.
Yeah, those are the nieces who I went to Indiana to watch graduate from high school and cried with pride when I saw them both graduating with honors. Didn’t think we’d be close.
8. Three of my favorite blogs to visit are (includue urls) :
I visit so many blogs when they update, but I always visit:
Miss Edna’s Place http://missednasplace.
Just Another Day http://justanotherdayjbe.
Hootin’ Annie’s http://hootin--anni.blogspot.
9. Three of my favorite posts on my blog are (Include urls) :
Sentimental Saturday, the women in my family http://chroniclesofnani.
Photoblog Wednesday, Dayton Dragons http://chroniclesofnani.
My Blue Heaven, Our marriage announcement http://chroniclesofnani.
I also have a blog that I do to share stories about MS. I don't want my blog to be concentrated on my challenges, so I gave them a blog of their own. It's About What I CAN DO http://ms-loses-i-win.
