6/25/2026

Silent movies - Snow White

Did you know that Walt Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was inspired by his seeing a silent movie at the age of 15?
Let's have a look at that movie - "Snow White" from 1916.


Here's the plot (spoiler alert, let's see if everything is as you expect it!
).

The movie starts with Santa Claus. I was surprised, too.
Santa Claus puts some dolls on a table which then turn into our cast. Charming.


"Once upon a time, a beautiful queen named Imogene, embroidering at an ebony frame, pricked her finger and shook the drop of blood on the snow outside the window. It looked so beautiful she said: 'I wish I had a little daughter with skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as my ebony frame.'"
Of course we know her wish was granted, but an evil lady of the court, Brangomar, conspired with the witch Hex to become more beautiful than the girl. That's right, we get two villains for the price of one.
For her help and the magic mirror, the witch demands Snow White's heart.


As predicted by Hex, Queen Imogene dies and Snow White's father marries Brangomar who treats her stepdaughter not better than a kitchen maid, so she has to meet the new Maids of Honour in the kitchen.
 
That's the Court Chamberlain Dandiprat Bombas on
the right, by the way, what a great name.

Sent out to the house of Berthold the huntsman to fetch ducks for the luncheon, Snow White sees a conure in a cage and tells Bertholds's children they should never cage a bird. They set it free and just make it outside in time to stop Prince Florimond of Calydon, who went a-hunting, from killing it. Of course he's smitten with her right away.


They meet again when he attends court. The Maids of Honour all lend Snow White something to wear (I'm not sure how they are still fully dressed except for their shoes afterwards) and all are veiled to hide her in their midst, but Florimond makes a beeline for her.
Brangomar is quite shocked about the message the Prince brings from his father who wishes for his son to marry his cousin, Snow White. After a short confusion (there is footage missing, this might be one of those moments), Brangomar decides that they have to wait for one year and one day during which she'll send Snow White to a "Boarding School for Backward Princesses". Wow, that's mean.


Poor Brangomar, not only did the Prince not come for her, but now the mirror tells her she's not the fairest anymore AND Hex pops up in a cloud of smoke to claim the promised heart. The things an evil Queen has to deal with!
So she summons Berthold and gives him the order to bring her Snow White's heart or she'll have his children locked up and starved.
He takes the Princess to the woods, but decides to kill a wild pig instead and leave her behind.
That's when the lion turns up.


And the conure is back to make her follow him to a little house.
The dwarfs who work in a mine with direct access from their house find the sleeping Snow White and hope she'll stay just so they can look at her (!). They give her little gifts and she's happy to stay as she has nowhere else to go.

The dwarfs are called Blick, Flick, Glick, Snick, Plick,
Whick ... and Quee (not in the pic).

Meanwhile, Berthold has taken the heart to Brangomar who has him put in the dungeon where his children already are, anyway (don't forget she's evil, so they are even in different cells).
The conure brings him a rope, though, which allows him to pull his children up and also to get the keys from the keeper.


Brangomar takes the heart to Hex who wanted it to fight her baldness, but since it's a pig's heart, she grows pig tails instead of hair!
The Queen questions the mirror where Snow White is and
 Hex transform her into a peddler which allows her to visit Snow White without being recognized as she obviously can't trust anyone else doing the job.


The first attempt with the poisoned comb fails because the bird tells a rabbit and the rabbit tells the dwarfs which save Snow White in time before the "peddler" can count to 100.
In the next attempt Brangomar becomes a pieman and Snow White eats the poisoned apple.
In the meantime, Berthold and his children have made it to the court of Calydon, and Florimond leaves immediately to look for Snow White only to find her dead.


They take her to Brangomar to avenge her, but what's that ... Snow White lives! The trip has loosened the bit of poisoned apple in her throat.
The Queen breaks her mirror and is ugly again while Hex finally gets the hair she always wanted.


For Snow White and Florimond it's happily living ever after, no doubt - dwarfs included whom Snow White asks to stay with her.


I don't know which versions of the fairy tale you know, so let's go into a few details.

This movie is based on a play from 1912 starring Marguerite Clark. Despite already being 29 at the time of the play, Clark, who was only 4 ft 10, was well suited for the role which she also played in the movie which was released on Christmas Day 1916 (which also explains Santa Claus).
Unfortunately, Clark is practically forgotten despite once being almost as popular as Mary Pickford. Most of her films were destroyed in a fire and "Snow White" had also been thought to be lost until a print was found in Amsterdam. It is missing parts, though, for example the delivery of Snow White to her parents by a stork.

Basically, the fairy tale is covered in the film, but there are obviously differences and I do have a few questions.

Most important, what's with the lion? You see him twice and he doesn't do anything. Is he supposed to stand for danger? Is there footage missing at that point?
What about Snow White being treated like a kitchen maid and what happened to her father? That's Cinderella, not Snow White, just like the Princess and Prince meeting before the ball and then get to share a dance.
We have two villains (one of them for comic relief?), but how does Hex get to celebrate with the court at the end? I mean she was ready to dine on Snow White's heart after all. And anyhow, why could she give Brangomar nice hair and not herself?
What happens to Brangomar? Was the ugliness her only punishment? That would be a lot nicer than the original ending in the fairy tale where she danced to her death in glowing hot shoes.
Where's the conure at the end? There's no doubt that he's the true hero of the movie.


It's nice, though, that Snow White and Florimond knew each other before she died. The idea of a Prince casually coming by to kiss a dead girl is a bit creepy if we're honest. A cousin taking home his fiancée - even if cousins marrying is weird to us today - makes much more sense and the bit with the apple is true to the original fairy tale.

The costumes are lovely (if you ignore them being a wild mix of styles) and there are some cute effects, such as the crown materializing on Snow White's head at the end.
I have seen a lot of fairy tale adaptations over the years and this one is sweet and gentle and not too gruesome for children.
And now you know to be careful about what not to use for hair growth!


Sources and further reading:

1. Scott Simmon and Martin Marks: Snow White (1916). On: National Film Preservation Foundation. Preserved Films. Film Notes
2. J. B. Kaufman: Snow White. On: San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Essay 2013
3. Fritzi Kramer: Snow White (1916) - A Silent Film Review. On: Movies Silently, March 2, 2014
4. Lea Stans: Fairytales Before Disney: Thoughts On "Snow White" (1916). On: Silent-ology, April 5, 2025

6/23/2026

Nostalgia - Traveling Treff

This post is inspired by two topics.
The first one is my love to Steiff's Treff dog, the second one is the fascinating (and frustrating) world of parcel delivery, hence the title.

Let me tell you about Treff first.
From the very start of our Steiff collecting on, this bloodhound has had my heart. Although there are a lot of Steiff dogs I love, Treff has always been my favorite.
I couldn't even tell you why exactly. Is it the long ears, is it the cute nose? The color, the airbrushed details in the face, the eyes? I guess it's the whole package.


Over many years, a few of them made it into the collection, all of them sitting in different sizes from 4 to almost 20 inch (not in all nine sizes, though), in mohair and velvet. These are smaller ones, the big ones sit in the back of the cabinet and I'll admit I didn't want to move the animals in front of them.


Treff was a popular dog not just with me and therefore stayed in the Steiff lineup from 1928 to 1938, also standing up, as a ride animal, with a music box inside, on a pincushion -  and as a puppet on which I had had my eager eye on from the beginning.


I don't know if you have noticed it in the group photo, but their eyes don't all look the same.
The design was patented, the eyes are not just sewn on, but embedded and part of them is covered by the fabric for the distinctive bloodhound look.

As quoted by Steiff Gal, Steiff's US distributor Borgfeldt once wrote "the slanting, half-covered eyeball, which gives this dog’s face a particularly thoughtful, intelligent expression."
In fact, however, you see Treffs where the eyes don't look like that because the fabric has slipped behind the eye. I usually leave them like that because I don't want to mess with the eye and fabric to avoid tearing.

Can you see how the look changes?

I'm in love with the Steiff animal hand puppets and especially with the pre-war ones, and when a Treff finally turned up for sale after years, the ex got it for my birthday.
Probably only a collector will be able to imagine my excitement waiting for the parcel.

And that brings us to the wonders of postal services ...
Back then you didn't get emails and you didn't have live tracking. Delivery notices were still on cards being thrown in your mailbox telling you to pick the parcel up elsewhere although you had been home all day.
What was really disturbing in this case, though, was not getting a notice or a parcel, but then being told that the parcel had been delivered ...
What had they done to my Treff??

So I called the hotline. At least I didn't have to deal with a chatbot back then, but of course I still had to "number press" my way through to a human who then explained to me that I would have to call a sorting center in Munich.
I live 200 km from Munich. The parcel didn't go via Munich. "Doesn't matter, you have to call Munich". Once I finally had a person on the phone there ... you may have already guessed it ... "Why are you calling us?" "Heck if I know, the hotline said ..." "Yeah, you are wrong here, try the hotline again." With the help of a little whimpering and begging from me not to send me back there, they gave me at least the direct number to the right sorting center near us.

There I got to talk to a very nice man who had strange news for me. Yes, the parcel had been delivered today, yes, they had a signature from my husband. Stop, stop ... we always had both names on parcels because of our different names, but I had been home, not he.
I asked him what the name was and he didn't hesitate to tell me, so my next question was if it was difficult to read and he said not at all. I explained to him that it couldn't be my husband's signature for two reasons - he wasn't home and his signature was absolutely not readable because it didn't even have individual letters. He said he'd fax it to me (yes, it was that long ago) which only confirmed what I knew already.
WHO had MY Treff?


I was worried and angry because after all we are not only talking a certain financial but also emotional value. This isn't something easily available for replacing.
He promised to send the parcel guy by our house to see if it helped him remember the parcel and where he had taken it to.
When he called me back, he let me know that my parcel had been delivered to a town three miles from here. To a different person in a street with a different name who had seen - of course because the address had been correct and readable - that it wasn't for him, but decided to keep the parcel "just in case". What case? That the actual owner wouldn't investigate?
Of course, they didn't tell me the name of the person, but does it sound to you as if that was an honest mistake? I didn't even believe that person had the same last name as my husband.
At any rate, the next day Treff traveled to the right house and here he has been ever since.

6/21/2026

Suchet on a broad bean

There are two images in my head when I think of Hercule Poirot - David Suchet and this.


The explanation is that in episode 1 of series 4 of my favorite British game show "Taskmaster" the prize task at the start of the show was for the comedians "to bring in the most interesting autograph on the most interesting vegetable" and this is the one that won - "Suchet on a broad bean. Bang. That's what this competition is all about."
I have no idea why those words are so funny to me, but there you are. It's probably the fact such a distinguished actor would even do this.

Okay, let's get to David Suchet as Hercule Poirot.
Suchet was Poirot for almost 25 years, in 70 episodes from January 1989 to June 2013. And when I say "was" instead of "played", that's exactly what it felt like.
He studied him, made a list of "Poirot character notes", and worked on the role until he became the ultimate Poirot in the eyes of many devoted fans (me obviously included).

If you have missed it before, I'm not a fan of Christie's style and I'm not even a fan of all the adaptations with Suchet.
There are some I find painfully slow - my brother and I always argue about 45 or 90 minute episodes for crime shows in general and in Poirot's case I often prefer the shorter ones ... BUT I will also slog through the slowest ones for Suchet and the amazing sets.
As I love Art Deco, I didn't mind that they got stuck in the 30s for most of the episodes even if it wasn't true to the novel or story. I can absolutely entertain myself not paying any attention to the case - having seen all episodes multiple times, I don't really need to - and look at buildings, cars, furniture or decoration instead.

In the stories I have read I always found Poirot a tad annoying, but while Suchet's Poirot is definitely full of himself, I can forgive him much more easily because he has that gentleness and I love the little smile, how he walks and talks (in English, I hate the German dubbing).

It has been almost exactly two years since I made my last portrait and I've had this pattern lined up even longer than that, but finally I can welcome David Suchet/Hercule Poirot to my fan wall (you can find all of my bead loomed portraits here).

6/19/2026

Weekend Traffic Jam - Week 161

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot!
My posts for the link up will go live on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. EDT or, if you live in the future like I do, on Fridays at 3:30 a.m. CE(S)T.


Sometimes you have to look really close to see something.
My friend and I like this spot which I mentioned a few days ago, the spring of a small river in our area.
It's lovely to rest there for a while, especially early at morning when no one else is there.


Can you see something in the rock wall?
Here you go. Sorry, the pictures are not good because of the zooming in.
We have no idea if that's supposed to be a little castle or church or who put it there and how, but isn't that a cute surprise?


Are you ready for the weekend?

As part of the reboot, we will be featuring a different blog every week.
How about stopping by and saying hello? Let them know we sent you.


This week our spotlight is on Shoreline Journeys Travel.




Jennifer from Shoreline Journeys Travel says: "My family is my strength and supports me on my travel journeys. I met the love of my life & best friend in 1993, we graduated college together, started our grown-up jobs, and were married in 1997. We traveled to Jamaica for our honeymoon and stayed at the Sandals Royal Jamaican (now the Sandals Royal Caribbean) and it started our journey together. I help couples plan romantic escapes to Sandals Resorts for honeymoons, destination weddings, and vow renewals, while also designing amazing family getaways to Beaches Resorts."


Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household - The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from
 Cat's Wire has what she calls a jumping spider brain. She has many interests and will blog about whatever catches her attention - crafts, books, old movies, collectibles or random things.

Rena from Fine Whatever Blog writes about style, midlife, and the "fine whatever" moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she's been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.


Here are some of my picks from last week's link up.


Lydia is talking about bringing courtesy back.

Aletha is sharing some Hawaii memories.

Nicole has three owlets in her cherry tree. I'm jealous!

Donna is making popeye pancakes (also called Dutch babies or German pancakes ... and yes, I'm confused because I have never heard of those being made here).


Barbara tells us about a day trip to the Douro Valley.

Pat witnessed the birth of two mule deer fawns in her garden.


Let's link up!

Guidelines:
This link party is for blog posts only. All other links will be deleted.
Please link only blog posts you created yourself. Please link directly to the URL of your blog post and not the main address of your blog.
Please do not link to videos, sales ads, or social media links such as YouTube videos/shorts, Instagram or Facebook reels, TikTok videos, or any other social media based content.
Please do visit other blogs and give the gift of a comment. 

Notice:
By linking with Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, you assert that the content is your own property and give us permission to share said content if your post or blog is showcased.
We welcome unlimited, family friendly content. This can include opinion pieces, recipes, travel recaps, fashion ideas, crafts, thrifting, lifestyle, book reviews or discussions, photography, art, and so much more!
Thank you for linking up with us! 

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

6/18/2026

Silent movies - Peter Pan

What do you say we make a little trip to Neverland (sometimes called Never Never Land like in this case) today?
I have for you the first movie adaptation of the J. M. Barrie's play and later novel about the boy who wouldn't grow up - "Peter Pan" from 1924.


Again, you are probably familiar with the plot more or less.

First we meet the Darling family with Mother, Father, their three children Wendy, John, and Michael, and the nurse dog Nana. The Darlings are ready to go out for the evening.


When Mr. Darling is annoyed by Nana, his wife tells him about having seen a face at the window and that the same little boy had been in the room the other day, but that Nana had jumped at him and the boy - who had a bright light for company - escaped without his shadow. She thinks he might be coming back, but Father ties Nana up in the garden, anyway.
When the Darlings are gone, the boy comes back indeed to look for his shadow. It's of course Peter Pan and his fairy Tinker Bell who finds the shadow in the drawer.


He starts crying when he can't stick it back on and Wendy wakes up. They introduce themselves and Wendy sews on Peter's shadow after hearing he doesn't have a mother to do it.


Peter tells Wendy that he ran away the day he was born and that he lived among fairies. He lets Tinker Bell out of the drawer. When Wendy tells him that he can give her a "thimble" meaning a kiss, though, Tinker Bell gets jealous and pulls her hair.


Now Peter says he has to return to Never Never Land and the Lost Boys - boys who fell out of their perambulators as babies - because they will be afraid of the pirates on the island. Wendy is sad, so Peter invites her to come along and be their mother.
He teaches Wendy, John, and Michael how to fly thanks to happy thoughts and fairy dust, and although Nana breaks free to alert their parents, the children follow Peter and Tinker Bell.


On the island of Never Never Land, the Lost Boys see Wendy approaching. Jealous Tink tells them that Peter wants them to shoot "the Wendy bird", and Tootles shoots her down, but the arrow hits the "kiss" (an acorn) Peter has given her.
Peter banishes Tink for a week.


So, Wendy becomes the boys' "mother" with Peter as their "father", but while she has fallen in love with him, Peter's feelings for her are those "of a devoted son". He lets her know that Tiger Lily, the princess of the tribe living on the island (we're getting to that later) also wants to be something for him, but not his mother.
Wendy tells the Lost Boys about a mother's love and that the window will always be left open for their return, but Peter says that he tried to go back and the window was barred and another little boy was sleeping in his bed.
Now Wendy is afraid that will happen to them and she wants to go home and take all the Lost Boys with them for her parents to adopt them. Peter refuses to go with them because he doesn't want to grow up, but promises to send Tink along to show them the way.


Meanwhile, the pirates have ambushed the tribe who's guarding Peter's underground home.
Captain Hook, whose hand Peter had cut off which then has been eaten by a crocodile, has the drum beaten to make them think the tribe has won, and Wendy, her brothers, and the Lost Boys are taken prisoners and carried to the pirate ship.
To get rid of Peter, he then poisons his medicine.
Before Peter can take it, however, Tinker Bell drinks it and is about to die. Only if children believe in fairies, she can survive, so Peter implores the audience to clap their hands (and I bet it got loud in that theater!).


On the pirate ship, Hook wants to send the boys over the plank, especially after none of them is ready to become a cabin boy. But of course Peter is there in time to save them all and instead send Hook over the plank ... where the crocodile has already been waiting.

Hook was a great villain, surprisingly it was a
different actor than Mr. Darling, usually they were
both played by the same one.

The crocodile spitting out Hook's hook ...

Before the others arrive at home, Peter orders Tink to close the window because he hopes that Wendy will come back to the island with him then, but seeing the sad Darlings he can't do it after all.
While Mr. Darling is looking for space to accodomate all their new children, Mrs. Darling tells Peter to stay with them as well, but he refuses and asks Wendy again to come with him. Mrs. Darling doesn't allow that, but promises to send Wendy once a year for a week of spring cleaning.
So Peter returns to Never Never Land alone.


Before watching the movie, I had only known about the play from "Finding Neverland" and then seeing the play (directed by Sally Cookson) on National Theatre at Home (here's a trailer) which was very fascinating despite being very long, and from which I first learned about the dark side of Peter Pan.
I then decided I would also watch the Disney movie, which I only knew in parts, and read the novelization of the original stage play.
I know that there are of course loads of adaptations, old ones, modern ones, musicals, sequels, Peter as a grown-up, even horror, but you have to stop somewhere, and I think I did a pretty nice mix.
And actually, this movie is my favorite so far.

Let's talk about the elephant in the room first.
The tribe I mentioned are Native Americans, but "We redskins - you the great white father" doesn't go down well anymore in our times, neither do the stereotypes, even if a review from 1905 said "
Mr. Barrie presents not the pirate or Indian of grown-up fiction but the creations seen by childish eyes." Contemporary productions have to find their own ways to deal with that. You can find an interesting article in the Smithsonian Magazine.

I also mentioned the dark side of "Peter Pan" which actually comes across even more in the novel.
Did you know that Peter "thins the boys out when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules", however you want to interpret that? Actually, there's quite a bit of killing in the novel - although in the film the swords go visibly between body and arm like in childplay - and Peter is not a simple hero, either. With his dodging responsibility and always being ready for the next adventure also comes that he's often selfish and forgets things quickly. No wonder he needed a mother!
In the novel, he even forgets again and again to pick up Wendy for the spring cleaning and thus is very surprised one day when he finds her grown up with a daughter of her own and eventually that daughter with a daughter of her own ...


I don't think I would have noticed it that much in the movie, though, without reading the novel first although it really seems to be very close to the original play.
By the way, Peter was traditionally played by young women for a long time, the reason being that children weren't allowed on stage that late and grown up men not being right for the role for their looks, but also their weight. There's a lot of "flying"! (In the play I saw it was a grown-up man and I have to admit that it didn't satisfy me completely.)
The intertitles are mostly quotes, only Americanized in some cases, for example when being loyal to the King is changed to being loyal to the Stars and Stripes.

"Peter Pan" is another film that was thought to be lost until a print turned up in 1971. What a pity it would have been if it had vanished!
One blog author criticized Betty Bronson's play as overacting, but I thought it worked really well in this context as I imagined Peter as a bit of a show-off, and to complain about wires (which I didn't even notice during the first viewing because I was so immersed in the plot) in a movie of that time is just ridiculous to me.
A lot of well-known actresses of the time are said to have been after this role, but Barrie himself chose Bronson.

I also thought the special effects were great for the time - big fan of Tinker Bell's little room here - but we can't forget Nana, either. Who would have thought that a man in a dog costume would be able to move like that? But then George Ali specialized in playing animals on stage and screen. Possibly he was the crocodile, too.


And because I already shared more pictures than I usually do, here's the Mermaid Queen.


Can you tell how much I enjoyed the movie? The video I saw also had a score that worked beautifully.
A truly magical experience with a very interesting backstory, absolutely a recommendation from me.

Last but not least I want to share a picture of the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens.
The first time I saw it we were there with a five year old and it was great to see how much she loved it (so do I). This picture is from the time I went with a slightly bigger ex 
😉
Barrie commissioned the statue and had it set up secretly during the night. Can you imagine the surprise for people finding it the next day?



Sources and further reading:

1. Lea Stans: Thoughts On: "Peter Pan" (1924). On: Silent-ology, December 6, 2018
2. Rick Aragon: Peter Pan (1924): A Review. On: Rick's Cafe Texan, February 8, 2012
3. Evelyn Harper: 
The Making of a Legend: How Peter Pan (1924) Enchanted the Silent Screen. On: Dark Skies, October 27, 2025

6/15/2026

Bookish pet peeves #2

"I don't need any special preparation, because I'm not nervous, I don't have what the Germans call lumpenfever, which is stage fright."
That's from a biography about Peter Ustinov and it was the last straw.
Let's talk a bit about foreign words in books.
You can imagine that I notice the wrong spelling or grammar for German words or phrases in English books more quickly, but this is by no means a problem of the German language only.
I've seen Germans do "interesting" things with the English language, English or German speaking people with the French language and so on, and those are just the languages I know something about.

This isn't going to become one of those "your/you're" discussions (although some things like those can drive me crazy silently, no matter who does it or in which language).
It's not about blogs or social media posts, either. Although I often look up words I'm not sure of at the moment, I make my share of mistakes and typos, no doubt (and correct even really old posts if I come across them again).
I'm talking about books by big publishing houses.

Do you know what
lumpenfever means? Nothing. A German "Lump" is a "rascal" and "fever" is not German, it's, surprise, English. The word they meant is "Lampenfieber", literally "lamp fever".


Among the languages Ustinov spoke was German, and although it was not always perfect, which absolutely added to the charm, I wouldn't be surprised if his biographer simply got confused by the German "Lampe" being pronounced like the English "lump" and of course "Fieber" and "fever" sounding very similar.
What I don't understand - and that may be an idea from a mad librarian's brain - is why that kind of information isn't checked before printing.
I think Ustinov's biography pushed me over the edge because it wasn't the only German mistake in it, it was just the most interesting looking one.

Of course it's not only books, but articles, TV shows, movies, news.
I will never not cringe (petty, I know) hearing Geoffrey pronounced with an o for the eo as in George instead of Jeffrey in German dubbings, but that's just the first one that comes to mind because I heard it again in a movie not long ago.
Having non-German actors play Germans can be just as terrible to listen to as can be UK actors playing Americans etc. and the other way round or Germans mangling a regional dialect that isn't their own (which I'm sure also happens in other languages).
I also think it's a matter of respect to learn especially how to pronounce names that are foreign to us and of people doing that professionally I'd expect it even more.

Do you have a pet peeve like that?


By the way, if you write book reviews or blog posts about other book-related matters - even movies based on books - please check out "A Good Book and a Cup of Tea", a monthly bookish blog link party that I host together with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and Lisa from Boondock Ramblings. You can find out more about it here.

6/12/2026

Weekend Traffic Jam - Week 160

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot!
My posts for the link up will go live on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. EDT or, if you live in the future like I do, on Fridays at 3:30 a.m. CE(S)T.


This is a picture friends sent me from their vacation at a camping site in The Netherlands.
What is it about chickens that makes me smile? I don't know, but I wanted to share that smile with you.



Are you ready for the weekend?

As part of the reboot, we will be featuring a different blog every week.
How about stopping by and saying hello? Let them know we sent you.


This week our spotlight is on Handmade by Amalia.



Amalia from Handmade by Amalia says: "Welcome to my blog! This is the place where I write about my crafts, mostly crochet, needlework and recycled paper, and a little bit about my life as it touches it - family, work, travel … I wish to live my life with creativity and kindness and my blog challenges me to do that. I'm glad you stopped by!"


Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household - The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from
 Cat's Wire has what she calls a jumping spider brain. She has many interests and will blog about whatever catches her attention - crafts, books, old movies, collectibles or random things.

Rena from Fine Whatever Blog writes about style, midlife, and the "fine whatever" moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she's been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.


Here are some of my picks from last week's link up.


Paula shares with us how to make blackberry passionfruit iced tea.

Linda shows us pictures of the wrens that live (w)rentfree in her garden.

Amy is talking about her Friday Favorites.

Sally has combined black and brights for the latest Style Imitating Art challenge.

Lisa is sharing a bookish link up - A Good Book & a Cup of Tea.


Let's link up!

Guidelines:
This link party is for blog posts only. All other links will be deleted.
Please link only blog posts you created yourself. Please link directly to the URL of your blog post and not the main address of your blog.
Please do not link to videos, sales ads, or social media links such as YouTube videos/shorts, Instagram or Facebook reels, TikTok videos, or any other social media based content.
Please do visit other blogs and give the gift of a comment. 

Notice:
By linking with Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, you assert that the content is your own property and give us permission to share said content if your post or blog is showcased.
We welcome unlimited, family friendly content. This can include opinion pieces, recipes, travel recaps, fashion ideas, crafts, thrifting, lifestyle, book reviews or discussions, photography, art, and so much more!
Thank you for linking up with us! 


You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter