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4 In Life/ Our Family

A Dutch Gift

Every year, Mom and Dad gave each family a gift for Christmas.  In the past it’s been tents, family excursions, but this year it was a nod to our Dutch roots.  A big bin filled with tasty treats and Delft blue goodness!!

Mom and Dad both immigrated to Canada from Holland through Pier 21 as children and settled with their families in Ontario. { You can read about our Christmas gift family tour of Pier 21 HERE. } Then they met, married and started their family before moving to Nova Scotia in 1974, where I arrived the following year.  They farmed here in Nova Scotia from then until they retired just over a year ago.  You can read that story HERE.

But anyway, this isn’t a family history lesson! This is about the goody basket!  Guys!!  So many treats I remember from being a kid, treats we still enjoy – so much goodness!  And this is actually an introduction to some other things I haven’t had before but look forward to having again.

I’m not going to tell you what each thing is or review it. I know some people will know what some of these treats are, some might cringe at the yummy ‘double-salt’ candies and for others this might be a nice walk down memory lane.  For example, the King peppermints, which would be handed out at the beginning of the sermon each and every Sunday morning! I love it when Mom still digs a roll out.

One of the non-edible goodies was this Delft blue ornament.  I love it so much!  In fact, I may make next year’s Christmas tree all blue and white as an ode to my Dutch roots.  What do you think?

Every Christmas, without fail, we are given a Chocolate letter, on of the traditions in not just our family, but a lot of Dutch families, too.  Sometimes we get the correct letter and sometimes we get a fun poem explaining why we’re getting the letter D or I or P when our name starts with L.  And that is all part of the fun, too!  Sometimes we play tricks on our parents and slip a deck of cards in our box and eat the chocolate long before we are supposed to unwrap gifts 😉

Christmas is filled with traditions, new and old and it’s exciting to see how each Christmas plays out, year by year.  I know it is long past us now, but still, the fond memories live on.

Colourfully yours,

Lori

 

 

 

January 10, 2019 By
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2 In Blogging/ Life/ Make Something/ Makeover

Called to be Creative

Creativity runs in my blood. My grandmothers were both makers, my Opa was as well. All in very different ways but in their own right. My mom is creative, too, although she’s probably deny it. My Dad claims that he doesn’t have a creative bone in his body regardless of the fact his mother was an incredible artist.

I mentioned in THIS POST that I had made myself a cuff with the saying on it – ‘called to be creative’.  It was a hashtag that I found and starting using some on Instagram.  But then the more I used it, the more it resonated with me.  I added up putting it on a cuff as a reminder to me to use my gifts.

I grew up being given free rein to a drawer of craft supplies. Later with fabric scraps and mom’s sewing machine. And the scrap wood in the machine shed was fair game, too. I made everything from clothes to forts to wild stories and poems. My access to materials was never denied.

But it was never a conscience thing. It was just how it was at home. All of us kids were always dreaming up something. And I know for my best friend growing up, it was the same. It was nothing for her to sew something up, or make something or other. I never thought a thing of it. It was perfectly normal. The fact that I was one of the very few in my Home Ec class that knew how to thread a sewing machine never occurred to me.

Fast forward to adulthood.  I spend my days creating comfy, inviting homes for my clients.  I love playing with colour.  I geek out over fabric samples.  I dream up combinations of flooring, backsplashes and furniture.  I think in Benjamin Moore colours for walls and Miss Mustard Seed paint colours for furniture.  I love taking something cast-off and turning it into something fabulous.  It’s just how I’m wired, how I am.  I think nothing of it.  It’s my normal.

But.  There’s always a but, right? It took me a long time to see that this is a form of creativity.  I don’t call myself an artist.  I don’t do oil paintings, I can’t whip up a landscape watercolour and I’ve only played with pottery a bit { but I’m aching to get back at it…. } I’m not an artist in the way that society thinks of an artist.  But it doesn’t mean I’m not creative.

These gifts I use in my day-to-day life, pairing colours, fabrics, styles, it is what I am called to do.  I’m called to help people turn a shell, a house into their home.  To talk with them and figure out what will work for them and help them create a space that they feel comfortable in.  And it is my pleasure to do so.  For a while, I felt as though my career as vanity, frivolous, fluff, if you will.  And I think it was because I didn’t realize that just anyone could do what I do.  I didn’t see the value in what I did.  And sadly I worked in this field for a long time before I realized my worth, the value in my skillset and gifts.

 

I keep referring to my design skills as a gift.  And I believe that.  I firmly believe that I was given this particular set of gifts and I am called to put them to use.  Whether that is out in my studio, setting our own house up or helping someone else transform their space. I think we are each given talents and gifts in this life.  What we do with them is up to us.  But I have found that putting our natural talents to use is far more fulfilling then fighting it.

So, I will continue on my path, using my creative talents in many ways.  In fact, I’ve got a fun project coming up in the next few months that I can’t wait to share with you all but I’ll keep that under wraps for the moment.  It is exciting to see the different ways that these can be exercised – my day job, my studio time, our home, my work with the At Home magazine, my blog, 4-H – so many ways to put these to good use!

It is my hope that you have discovered your talents and gifts.  And that you have found a way to put them to use that is rewarding, satisfying and fulfilling!

Colourfully yours,

Lori

PS The artwork in this post is from my grandmother, Lena, I feel quite honoured to have as much of it as I do!

January 5, 2019 By
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In Adventures/ Life/ Make Something

Gingerbread, Candy and Fun

Building gingerbread houses with the United Way has been apart of our annual Christmas celebration for a few years now.  I’m not sure how many more years we’ll get to take the girls but we managed to squeeze in at least one more year!  I suspect the ‘bigs’ won’t want to hang with us much longer…

I look forward to this event every holiday season.  Maybe it’s the sense of community there, maybe it’s the fun the girls have, maybe it’s hanging out with friends….and maybe it’s all the candy.  The United Way does so much within our community, it’s a fun way to be able to support them, too.

I need to go back through the pictures to see just how many years we’ve been going { we think it’s 5 now } to see how little they were when we started!  HERE is a blog post I did at some point – look how little those girls were!!

Wait, wait!!!  HERE they are even smaller!!! Oh my heart!!!!

This year it was held at the Museum of Industry in Stellarton.  It’s nice to see various venues being used for this event.  I just hope the carpet recovered from it 😉 We met Angela and her girls there and got down to business.  So much yummy candy to decorate with and snack on.  And the icing may have been tested out, too….

The girls have fun and sometimes it gets a little crazy.  But the decorative freedom is theirs and so away they go.  Lena clearly is her mother’s daughter, with shutters and window boxes on her house.  Hannah is her own person so she did what it takes to make a candy cane stand upright on the roof….

I think they always start out with good intentions.  They work away with a clear game plan in place…

And when things go off the rails, then you grab life by the roof and just bite into it!!!

Do you think Hannah had a litttle too much sugar?  No, me either….

I honestly can’t recall if Santa showed up other years or not, but he did this year and I loved watching Lena and Abbie interact with him.  They know where things stand, but still couldn’t resist the chance to get a picture with Santa.  The best was when Santa informed us he knew these two well and knew they were good kids.  More than just being Santa, he happens to drive a local school bus when he isn’t too busy overseeing the production line and elves up there at the North Pole.  How can you resist that glint of mischief in his eye?

If one of your local chairties puts on this type of event, I highly recommend you take your kids, or borrow someone else’s and go.  You are supporting your community, you get to enoy watching your children create and the highlight for me?  You don’t have to make the gingerbread nor clean up the mess afterwards!!

Us? We’ll be hanging onto this tradition for as long as we can!!

To be continued,

Lori

 

December 17, 2018 By
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6 In Faith/ Life

Sunday of Joy

Another week has slipped by and I find myself sitting in the quiet of our house this morning again.  If there is a Sunday of Advent that I look forward to the most, it is the Sunday of Joy.

I love Joy.  Joy is fun.  Joy is easier for me. Joy is easier for me to tap into than say…Peace. Do you have that deep-seated Joy in your life?

Joyful, joyful, we adore You,
God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flow’rs before You,
Op’ning to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
Fill us with the light of day!

~Henry Van Dyke 1907

I try to see the good in things.  Even when plans don’t go my way.  All this advent season, I have been looking forward to our Sunday morning services.  And last week was no different.  Until Hannah woke up with a sore belly.  I sent Michael and Lena off to church and I stayed home.  Was I bummed out about missing a service I was looking forward, too?  Yes.  Did I mind having an extra morning at home with Hannah?  Certainly not.  We snuggled and I spent some time in the studio.  Granted, that’s an easy one to see the Joy in, right?

I love spotting little things around me that bring a smile and let me see the Maker’s handiwork in the midst of the rushing around of life.  To me, that is Joy.  Right now, I look out my window and I see the dark branches against the slowly brightening sky and there it is, that bit of Joy in my soul.  I see a bee on a sunflower, the way the light colours the clouds, the smile of a sweet baby, the intricate pattern of frost on a window.  These things are things that bring my Joy.  The feel of a little hand in mine, the weight of Michael’s arm draped over me during the night, the purr of our cat, the warmth of the sun on my face.  All these things are things of Joy to me.

Those things don’t change.  Those things are always there.  It’s up to me to notice and to appreciate them for what they are.  They are little gifts.  And it is takes me looking through Joy-filled glasses to see them.  No matter what life’s circumstances are, it is up to me to take note, to register it and see the Joy in it.

Today it is the smell of a Nova Scotia Christmas tree in my living room, the warmth of the stove on my back, the extra little head nestled in our home, the anticipation of a community gathering tonight, the soft glow of Christmas lights.  These things are bringing me Joy right now.

Yes, today is the Sunday of Joy.  Do you have that Joy in your soul?  Do you tap into everyday?  No matter what life throws at you?  I can be having the worst day and I find myself smiling at some small detail.  That’s Joy.  Look around you.  There is something there for you to see, something that will make your heart glad, make it quicken and bring a smile to your face.

As I typed all that, I thought about the people who have a gratitude journal.  And I love that idea.  But for me, I think I need a Joy Journal.  Hmmmm, I really like that idea.  I did start a FB group called Finding Joy and I’d love for you to join us as we share the small things, or big things, that bring us Joy thought-out the day-to-day.  You can join HERE.  But I think I need to start my own personal Joy Journal.  Yes, I think I do.  And I feel like it needs to be very colourful.

Joy is a long-running theme in my life.  I first realized I had Joy as a teen.  Somedays I feel it more deeply than others.  Some days it leaks out my eyes, other days it is the tiniest spark I carry carefully as not to extinguish it.  I feel as though the Joy I have is a gift from God.  Happiness and pleasure are not the same thing, to me they are a little more fleeting and fragile.   I wear a cuff that says ‘Finding Joy’ as a reminder to look around me and to take Joy in what I find myself surrounded by.

Today, I want you to look around, notice something or someone that brings you Joy.  And tell me what it is.  I love sharing in that realization with others.  Joy is meant to be shared.

May the Joy of the Lord fill you today, to overflowing that you may bless those around you.

To be continued,

Lori

PS Here is the Sunday of Hope and Peace

December 16, 2018 By
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In Life

Snuggle In

Well, it appears as though Winter has arrived on the East Coast.  The calendar might not agree but the temperatures and driving conditions say otherwise.  Am I ready for winter?  No. Certainly not.  But would I ever be?  Probably not.

It seems as this long stretch of bleak, cold windy days is staring me in the face and I’m not sure how to deal with it.  I know that it’ll come every year and each year is different, some years there more snow, others more ice.  If I could pre-order my winter, I’d order it was a medium amount of snow that stayed the whole time, so that it always looked pretty, there’s nothing worse than a bleak, cold landscape without any snow.  I would order sunny days and nights with gently falling snow.  I would order winter light on the wind, like I order my donair pizzas light on the onions.

 

It’s only November.  Is it too early to be thinking about how long winter might be this year?  I dread the cold.  I dread frozen water buckets, crappy drives home in the snow and short amounts of daylight hours.  I don’t enjoy when all plans come with the ‘as long as the weather is good’ disclaimer.

What I do love is storm days when we’re all home together, how the sun reflects off the freshly fallen snow and how pretty the trees are when they are laced with snow that has gently settled on their branches.  And there is something about a snowshoe at night, taking in the woods by headlamp.  { Shhh, but the girls are getting new snowshoes under the Christmas tree since they outgrew their other snowshoes!  }

I’ve been spending my evenings watching Christmas movies on Netflix, working on a weaving and snuggled under a blanket.  I want to sip hot beverages all day but settle for coffee in the morning and maybe a cup of tea during the day at work.  I’d be happy with a hot mug in my hand all day – coffee, tea, hot chocolate, hot apple cider, I’m not fussy, I just like the comfort it brings.

I’ve been lighting candles in the evening, too.  That’s kind of a new thing for me, I never did that consistently but really am enjoying the added warmth it brings to our home.

The time has come to dig out the flannel sheets.  I have already started sleeping in my oh-so-attractive flannel night gown…lucky Mr. Byrne ;)….but it will soon be time for a little more cozy.  I have already slept with wool socks on, too.  Hannah has been sleeping with a toque on for months now.  I do love lots of nice heavy blankets on the bed at night, makes me feel all safe and cozy.  My one issue is sleeping in a flannel nightgown with flannel sheets is like sleeping in velcro…does anyone else find that?

Anyway, come January I may need an intervention, you may find me rocking in a corner. But for now, I’ll just enjoy the beauty that the snow brings!

To be continued,

Lori

 

 

 

November 28, 2018 By
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