Sweet Pillow

I stitched this together this week - another Winterbella project from Teresa McFayden. It's sitting on a chair in my front hallway, making me smile each time I pass through.

Time

 

Winter is the time for comfort.
It is the time for home. (Edith Sitwell)

What are some of your wintertime comforts? Here are a few of mine...

1. sitting with my back to a glowing fire
2. coming in from the cold to a warm home
3. chocolate
4. reading in the evening
5. hand sewing/crocheting with my back to a glowing fire
6. soup - I love the smell, the taste, the creation of it
7. dinnertime with my family
8. tea with anyone
9. admiring the elegance of leafless trees
10. fresh flowers, especially white ones like tulips and freesias

Hope

I am having so much fun with the Winterbella crafts designed by Teresa McFayden. I don't have time to do all of them right now, but this is one I completed last night. It will sit on a side table in my living room for awhile and can easily be changed or taken apart.

Hope sings, sometimes ever so quietly, at other times with raucous joy. Without hope life is silent and colourless.

Be joyful in hope!

Winter's Night

Brew me a cup for a winter's night,
For the wind howls loud and the furies fight;
Spice it with love and stir it with care,
And I'll toast our bright eyes, my sweetheart fair.
(Minna Thomas Antrim)

Today was a day of quiet pleasures - church in the morning, then warming soup for lunch and a long walk in January gray. Helping my daughter with some sewing, puttering around the house and now, a quiet time with cinnamon hot chocolate with my love.

Winter White

Where we live there's not much white about winter. Just gray skies and dark days of rain. I was reading Angela's post about winter whites over at Cottage Magpie where she talked about her winter whites. That inspired me to look around for my own.



White picture frames with a painted carving above it in our bedroom.



I love our winter bed. One of my favourite places to be is snuggled under a warm duvet with cool air from the open window drifting over my face while I listen to the rain dripping outside.




I like the black and white contrast of our staircase. I painted the handrail black this past summer and I'm so glad I did.



But this is the winter white I'd love to see - the Eiffel Tower with snow on it. This poster is pinned above my computer screen in my office for dreaming.

Theme for 2008

I made a small collage last night to hang in my office/studio. The words are my theme for 2008. The more I make collages (and I've only made a few), the more I enjoy them. Time zipped by as I cut, rearranged, pasted and embellished.

I signed up for Teresa McFayden's WinterBella magazine - a new craft project every Monday, Wednesday and Friday of January. This collage is based on the first project. It's so much fun!

Pretty Bottles

Over the holidays, during my days off school, I created these "à la Anna Corba." I save the bottles from sauces, vinegars and such when they have interesting shapes such as these. One of my favourite things to do with them is to line 3 or 5 of them up on my kitchen windowsill and poke a single flower stem into each one.

These are intended for a friend - I just need to get them into the mail.

Home again

 

It was a wonderful getaway. We hiked, mostly in the rain, our waterproof pants and jackets rustling through the woods. I've always had the desire to be able to walk silently through the woods like the First Nations people of old - quiet on mocassined feet. That is not to be.
The woods and beaches are full of evocative aromas - fir and cedar mingle with rotting leaves and black earth. Sea kelp lies in strands on the beach. Driftwood, oceans of it, strewn upon the rocks and sand gives off the breath of sodden wood.
This photo is of one of the bridges over Deception Pass at the north end of Whidbey Island. I like the punch the Coke delivery truck gives.

 

Quiet, intricate beauty in the woods.

School begins on Monday - just another few weeks until I'm done. I have mixed emotions - I love teaching, especially French, but other things call me.

Another year over, a new one just begun

Making resolutions for the New Year doesn't really work for me. I soon fail, leaving behind faint traces of disappointment in my own ability to stick with something. Rather, I tend to take time throughout the year to evaluate and make adjustments.
But someone on a chat group I belong to (Timeless Bliss - yahoo) suggested creating a theme for the year. I've been thinking about it for several weeks and this is what I've come up with.
I want to create in many forms. Words, fabric, paper, homemaking, gardening. I tend to second-guess my own abilities, wondering if I'm just wasting my time and should devote myself to something more productive - ie, more lucrative. But the urge to create just won't go away. I feed it and I'm rewarded in turn by more creativity.
This year, rather than dampen those creative urges, I'm going to give in to them, believing that they were put there by God and that results can be safely left up to him.
One of the first things I'm going to create is a collage to hang in my office/studio with these words on it - to remind me of my theme throughout this year.

In Belief...Create

Check back in a week or more - I'm taking a few days away with my dearest friend, my husband.

Roses in December

My youngest daughter, 21, prettied up the Christmas Day lunch table. An eggplant tablecloth was the background for this charming centerpiece. The green vase is one my mother-in-law gave to me when she downsized her home a couple of years ago. I love its shape. Amazingly, Ashley picked the roses from my front garden! We've had snow, frost, hail and more, but these roses persevered. And they have a delicate fragrance that brings back summertime memories.

Christmas Dinner - The Easy Version

This year, I decided I was not cooking a huge turkey dinner for Christmas. My reasons were:

1. It takes too long to cook and clean up when there are better things to do.
2. We're having a big dinner at my parents' place this Saturday where we will have our fill of turkey and trimmings.
3. I was up for something different.

Our married children arrived around 12:00. I had a beautiful table set (by our youngest daughter) and we enjoyed locro, a potato soup from Ecuador and shrimp ceviche. Later, for dessert, we had the buche de noel.

After opening presents and taking a walk I set up the kitchen table and counter with various appetizers - spanakopita, cheese, fruit, crackers, stuffed mushrooms, artichoke dip, vegetables, cold cuts, etc. Our son is turning into quite a cook and brought some delicious blackened chicken calzones to add to the table. Dessert was Christmas baking and hot apple cider served from the crockpot.
I didn't use the dining room table because it was occupied by board games - Settlers and Ticket to Ride.

Would I do this again? I think so. I had a hard time the day before thinking that I should be cutting bread for stuffing and making the side dishes to go along with the turkey. Once Christmas Day came, all was good. The meals were delicious but didn't take all day to prepare and consume.

I like doing big dinners - serving the various courses and spending lots of time at the table. But it seems that the dinner is not necessarily the main event at Christmas time, so why spend the effort then? I'm already planning an elegant, sit-down dinner for my family in January or February.

Last year, after the big dinner and the gifts, we clustered around the fire, playing games, talking, laughing. And our eldest daughter said, "This is the best time, just being together.

For more non-traditional Christmas dinners, check out this blog.
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Boxing Day

I've always been glad to be Canadian - for many reasons. But here's one reason in particular. We get two days off for Christmas! Boxing Day, on the 26th, is a time to relax and do just about nothing. I've puttered around the house picking up bits and pieces, snacked on leftovers, watched a little television and read blogs. My husband and I took a quick trip to the furniture store - just looking - but we soon came home to do more of nothing.

My daughter stacked some toilet paper rolls on the stairs to take to her downstairs bathroom. Then she thought they looked a little bit like a snowman...so she got a marker to make a face...then her father suggested arms...and here is the result. The most ridiculous snowman I've ever seen. But so much fun.

Christmas morning breakfast - just four of us - husband, daughter and friend. A quiet meal, eaten in the breakfast room before the hustle and bustle of the day. The other two children and their spouses came over around midday and we had a lovely, lovely time. I hope you all had as enjoyable a day as we had.

Merry Christmas

 

I wish you all a most joyous Christmas celebrating Christ's birth with family and friends. Thank you for visiting my blog and for commenting. May you be blessed in your relationships and creativity.

Buche de Noel

Our traditional Christmas Eve dessert - but this year we're having it on Christmas Day, when the family is here. I like it because it's light, can be done ahead, and is chocolate! To me, dessert is hardly dessert without chocolate.
I finished the buche this morning and went out and clipped a little holly to decorate the plate. It sits prettily in the downstairs refrigerator, awaiting tomorrow.

Starting to Relax

School is over. Today I went for lunch with a group of teachers and discovered that one is married to my husband's second cousin! Small world.
Presents are wrapped, cookies baked. I'm starting to unwind and feel like taking a nap on the couch. I think I might - cleaning can wait until tomorrow.
This rooster was a present from my daughter and hangs beside the kitchen sink. I love the country french feel of it.

Come on in!

Welcome to my home. It's cold, wet and windy today so let's not linger at the door.
The tea is hot and I have some pumpkin bars ready. We can get to know each other over a cozy table.



Rain spatters on my kitchen window. The village is one I painted years ago. On either side I have small glasses holding fresh rosemary and thyme.



Going upstairs I have a pair of rustic wooden reindeer on the landing. These always make me smile.



A touch of Christmas in the upstairs bathroom. I like to use fresh greenery wherever I can.



The only Christmas decoration in the bedroom is a crazy heart pillow tossed on the bed.







We'll pass through the dining room. It's set for a dinner party I'm having with friends.



This paper cutting was done by my daughter when she was 15. I love its delicacy. It hangs on our Christmas tree.



Our tree - always real. The fresh, woodsy scent greets me each morning when I walk downstairs. This year I left off many ornaments and only hung those of gold, white or silver.



I collect nativity scenes - sort of. I don't have many. This is a small one made from masa pan, bought when we lived in Ecuador.

Brown Paper Packages

Simplicity. Why is that word so appealing? It brings to my mind an image of peace. I let life get so complicated. And when busyness piles up, I am reluctant to let things go. I want to do it all - not out of a sense of duty, but because I enjoy so much. But this year, I've realized that some things had to go if I was to have a truly meaningful Christmas. I have made no gifts, my Christmas card list was cut to less than 25, I have baked fewer cookies and my house is decorated more simply. And it's good. I know that I will not always be so busy (my teaching stint ends February 1) and that I will be able to resume doing other things I love.

Last night I finished up my gift wrapping. I love pretty wrapping papers, but I think they are rather wasteful. Some years the wastefulness wins and I purchase gorgeous papers that get thrown away, and other years, like this one, I use what I have. A pretty tag and simple gold elastic cord finishes off my gifts this year.

Tags were made from scraps leftover from scrapbooking - pretty papers and old music sheets. I love this one with Schumann's winter song title.

Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for the Holiday Home Tour hosted by Tracey.

Join in the fun!

A virtual holiday home tour. Tracey is the hostess and she has a wonderful blog full of ideas! Tracey's story is one of courage and creativity. Check out her site and be inspired!