lori@farmfreshstyle.ca, Author at Farm Fresh Style

2 In Faith

Sunday of Hope

Today marks the first day of the Advent season for 2020. It sure looks very different than previous years. Usually you’d find us in the 5th row back from the front, in the pew with Mom and Dad. Not this year, though, thanks to the pandemic and all that that means.

But I still want to mark the Sundays leading up to Christmas. Advent is one of my favourite times of the year, I love the build up as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ.

Ironically, the first Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of Hope. I find myself circling around the word Hope so much this year. Not just today. And not just for the cure for COVID and a vaccine. Life hasn’t panned out the way I thought it would. It usually doesn’t, am I right? But through all that has been happening, I haven’t lost sight of hope.

Sometime in the past, I think as a teen perhaps, I read a scripture that has really stuck with me since then. It’s a well known verse and yet, it still speaks to me now, perhaps even more than as a teen.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11

We are not promised that everything will be easy. We are not promised that it’ll be smooth sailing. That things won’t go sideways, that what we had planned and mapped out for ourselves won’t fall apart at the seams. ‘Cuz guess what? It will. It does. It has.

But I’m okay. I cling to that Hope that I am promised. I have that Hope. Maybe not for tomorrow or the next day, but at some point down the road. I know things will change and it won’t be such a slog. I know that the weight I’m carry on my shoulders will ease up and I will breath a little easier and sleep a little better. That Hope is like that light at the end of the tunnel….one step and one more and then another one.

We’ve started preparing our home and for the gift giving for Christmas 2020. The house has a warm glow that I know I will hate to pack up in January. I have bags of goodies stashed to show a little love to some of the special people in my life. The logistics are being taken care of. And I’m working on preparing my heart for Christmas, too. I don’t want to miss a bit of this. Even if this year we can’t gather the way we usually do, I want to be truly ready for the Miracle of Christmas.

In a world full of despair, I will choose HOPE.

Warmly,

Lori

November 29, 2020 By lori@farmfreshstyle.ca

2 In Life

Book Club Tea Party

I used to hear about book clubs and scoff. Why would I want to sit around and talk about books that I’ve read?? I hated English class for that exact reason. And I know there are some book clubs out there that are just a cover for the chance to get out of the house and drink wine with your friends.

But let me say, I love my book club and I am so thankful for the group of ladies who I have the pleasure of calling my friends. And when I gleefully use the hashtag #mybookclubisbetterthanyourbookclub I am not kidding. My favourite examples include an Outlander themed meal and a network for buying bulk food and supplies during the intense part of the pandemic when we were told to ‘Stay the blazes home’ by our Premier including cheese, coffee and chocolate. But most recently, it was a tea party.

One of our members is Keltie, the prettier half of Small Holdings Farm in Millsville. { No offence Michael, we love you, too!! } I know you’ve seen my Friday Flower posts, well, they are the ones responsible for keeping me in flowers again this year. They do sell primarily vegetables but I am honestly in it for the flowers, not gonna lie. Anyway, during this year, they ran their Friday CSA pick-up out of the old barn on their property, and it was just calling out to host some kind of a shindig. My other friend, Nicole of Oh Mother!, was the one who instigated an event in the barn and I was 100% on board.

So, a CSA season wrap Tea Party was set into motion. The post was put out in our FB group, lovingly called Meadowville and Poplar Fiction { a clever play on the area Meadowville and Poplar Hill and the genre Popular Fiction } and a plan was hatched. Tasty treats, hot tea all consumed in the setting of a historic barn. I was unconcerned by the food, tea and music, I wanted to know the plan for the decor. I am who I am.

So, the last Friday of the CSA, Nicole and I planned to met in the barn to scope things out and come up with our plan. Our animated conversation caught the ear of a fellow shopper and we shared a few laughs over what we were actually planning { a tea party } versus what we were not planning { our wedding }.

Here is what we started with:

We hauled in tables, chairs, decorations, candles, tea cups, trays of food, feet upon feet of bunting, and table clothes. In no time at all, we had the barn feeling much less like a barn and way more like the perfect spot to host a tea party.

And then our friends arrived and it went from a pretty barn to a gathering.

My soul, I’ve so enjoyed getting to know Nicole over the last year she’s been living in the area. She definitely is a great addition to our book club!

Keltie is the baby whisperer, she snuggled the wee twins who joined us that day. I had the privilege of snuggling this wee muffin, too, it’s been so long since my girls were this tiny!

Heather is showing off just one of the pretty teacups from the day. She just happens to match it perfectly!

Ladies, pick your book club people wisely. Be sure to include a wide range of talents, life styles and values. You will glean so much from them. Open your home and your heart to them, they will fill both with love and laughter.

My book club really is amazing.

Warmly,

Lori

November 3, 2020 By lori@farmfreshstyle.ca

A Cat Tale – Monty

Is there a conventional way to acquire cats? The cats we’ve had seem to come into our lives in unusual ways. And Monty’s story isn’t any different. Here’s his tale of how he became our kitty.

I had seen a momma cat with some kittens at the end of the road a few times late last summer. We were talking about getting a kitten and so I asked the lady whose house I spotted them by if that family of cats belonged to her. She feeds the stray cats in the area but lays no claim to them so she said if I could catch any, they are free for the taking.

Well, on one of the hardest days of my life, here the kittens appear in the ditch, clamoring over big rocks left from a recent paving job. I hopped out of the car and into the ditch and managed to grab one little kitten and almost a second one but he/she slipped away too fast.

Once back in the car, I handed Hannah the little kitten. He is scared and alone and away from his kitty family for the first time ever. But he snuggles in and settles down pretty quickly, thankfully. { Have you ever driven around with a cat flipping out in the car?? }

Hannah decided to name him Monty. We have a list of names for lambs, pets, or whatever unnamed animal comes into our life, so she picked one from the list. Of course he gets nick names. Mont-mont, Monters, Mont-man, we sing him the Batman song, replacing Batman with Mont-man. Na na na na na na na na na na na Mont-man!!

He was probably 6-7 weeks when we rescued him from that ditch. He’s was a fiesty little guy so we kept him in a dog crate so he wouldn’t get lost in the house and so he could get used to using the litter box. He was so little he could barely make it up the stairs!! But he quickly found his way into our hearts.

One of his favourite things to do is attack your legs as you innocently walk by. For no good reason he would pounce and dig his little kitty claws into your flesh. He has now pretty much grown out of that, although he can still put up a good fight if he thinks you deserve it…

He is a big snuggler. He loves to sit on your chest, with his face rubbing against your face, his front paws on your shoulders. His purr is loud and you know he loves you. He also doesn’t mind being carried like a baby and if he’s feeling mellow and not feisty, he’ll rest a soft paw gently on your face. And like a dog { we think he thinks he is a dog by times } he greets you very happily at the door when you get home from anywhere!!

We have discovered he loves the outdoors but given how close we are to the road here, we keep him inside. However, on our recent trip to the valley, we bought him a cat harness { we had ordered one online but he was way too big for it!! } and now he loves going for walks and cries to go outside for a good part of the day. If he isn’t crying to go outside, he’s waiting by the door for someone to accidentally let him out or he’s hanging out in the front window making noises at the birds in the yard, with his tail whipping aggressively!

Monty sleeps in his crate at night, I’ve tried to sleep with him a few times but he doesn’t like to let you get any sleep, he prefers to play, pounce, purr and just be a general pain. I wish he’s just curl up and settle in and maybe when he gets a little older he will? Who knows!!

I’m always amazed at the personality of cats. He definitely has his own! He likes naps on the kitchen table and now laying on his harness. He loves water and can be found in the tub or kitchen sink, leaving little wet foot prints across the floor when he’s done. He has a favourite toy named Lambie which he carried around even though it was as big as him when he first got it. It’s the cutest thing to watch him wrestle Lambie!!

We decided to start an Instagram account for him and it’s been fun to update that every now and again. He’s such a handsome boy in his tuxedo! You can follow along HERE. He’s handle comes from a nickname that the babysitter’s husband called all the kids that graced their doorway – Bad Cats….although I’d have to say that Monty really is a bad cat….

We are very thankful for our ditch kitten and even though there are times we threaten to take him back to said ditch, our lives would be very empty without him!

Warmly,

Lori

August 5, 2020 By lori@farmfreshstyle.ca

1 In Decorating/ Make Something/ Makeover

Netflix Inspired Painting

It isn’t very often that I can say that Netflix inspired me to do a DIY. Usually Netflix inspires me to continually watch a show while neglecting all other duties….I know I’m not alone in that one! Sometimes a design show will make me want to pick up a paint brush or shuffle around some furniture, as I’m sure they inspire lots of others, too.

But the show that struck the creative urge this time was Restaurants on the Edge. If you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend it. It’s the perfect mix of design, cooking, marketing and story telling. The episode that I’m drawing inspiration from is Austria….and it’s not even anything that I recall them focusing heavily on, just a little bit of a panning of the camera across some wall decor. But for me that was all it took. { I tried to screen shot an inspiration picture but I had no idea that you couldn’t screen shot Netflix…who knew!! So then I tried to Google an image of it, but no luck there either! } Just go watch it for yourself!!

Then add into the mix my blogging/design friend, Krystal messaged me about some things she was purging and wondered if I was interested in them. And what she was offering was perfect for this idea. I briefly explained to her what I was planning and if she was ok with it….and she was totally game. So we met up one morning at her house in the midst of the pandemic and ‘socially distanced’ a pick up of two paintings….prime for a bit of a makeover…

So – let’s get started! Supplies are pretty basic – a painting, painters tape, a brush and some paint. I’m using Fusion’s colour Twilight Geranium from the Lisa Marie Holmes Collection that I bought from my favourite paint store – Phillips and Chestnut! I would recommend pulling a colour out of the painting itself for the solid portion it.

See? Nothing too crazy for this project. The next step is to tape off your painting from corner to corner. { I forgot to photograph this step…the pictures went from completely naked to fully finished…I got distracted by a yummy chicken supper at the neighbours…oops!! } When deciding what corner to cover, you could use a yard stick to go corner to corner so you can visualize what the finished product would look like. I knew in my case, either corner would cover the artist’s signature and the vase so it really didn’t matter. Here’s the before:

Once you decide your corner, tape it off and do a few coats of paint, enough to cover it completely, letting it dry in between coats as per your paint’s instructions. Then peel off the painters tape and voila!!

I loved how this turned out! It takes an ordinary painting and gives it a modern spin!

While I was staging this, I discovered that I think I like it even better in a vertical orientation instead of the landscape way it was originally!

So what do you think? Are you a fan of the vertical or horizontal orientation? I’m staying on team vertical….

If you decide to do this to any of your paintings, please share the before and after with me!!

Warmly,

Lori

August 2, 2020 By lori@farmfreshstyle.ca

In Adventures/ Life

Not Missing Summer

Last summer felt like a bust to me. Between life stuff going on and waiting for our new building at Costandi Designs to be ready, I feel like I missed out. I think I can count on two fingers how many times I took the girls to the beach, we didn’t go on vacation – it truly was a bust.

So, this summer I’m determined not to miss it.

If it means spending days off touring the province and rolling in after bedtime, so be it.

If it means trips to the beach after supper is eaten, so be it.

If it means hitting the trails on the mountain in the drizzle or at 5:45am, so be it.

If it means the house being a little less tidy, so be it.

If it means ice cream for supper then so be it.

I refuse to miss summer this year. 2020 has been the most bizarre year to date so I’m not going to miss out on summer, too. Our Nova Scotia summers are short, so I’m determined to make it sweet.

I think I could start a series of ‘Lena Jumping Pictures’….

This next picture might just be my all time fav for this summer…..or it’ll be their album cover….I’m very thankful for the friendship these four have forged.