Seasons Greetings

Seasons Greetings

Over the past year I have noticed that I many more followers to our blog. In fact we have just received over 10,000 hits.
I want to wish you and your families and loved ones a very Merry Christmas.

Last of the Holiday Rush

The last of our holiday rush is over! Gifts have all been purchased. Groceries have been bought and put away. Now all that is left is to give the house a quick clean, then sit back and relax.

Husband's sister and family will be arriving tomorrow around noon. We are really looking forward to spending the holidays with them.

Christmas eve my parents will come and we will all have a fondue dinner, then open gifts from them. We are German so we still celebrate Christmas eve, but have now 'Canadianized' the season as well, and will open the rest of the gifts Christmas morning. A tradition turkey dinner will accompany Christmas day and my parents will return for for the meal as well as a friend who would otherwise be alone for Christmas.

Simple Things

Up early on a Saturday morning. Having a coffee, sitting by the fireplace and looking out the window. Watched a moose standing across the road eating his breakfast of willows. It was wonderful watching him. Life doesn't get better than that! Its the simple things that make us happy.

Boots

Now that winter is here I decided that I would really like to wear more skirts in the cold weather. I do have to dress up for work and I usually wear pants all winter due to the cold, and also because I have never in my adult life been able to find dress boots that fit my calves.

I'm sick and tired of going out to Christmas and New Year parties wearing a dress with snowboots and carrying my dress shoes in a plastic grocery bag to the event. (You ladies who live in northern climates know what I mean! I'm sure you have done it before too!)

Trust me, these boots look lovely with evening wear ;)

I finally did a search online for wide calf boots and guess what I found? A company specializing in wide calf boots! http://www.widewidths.com/ has all sorts of boots in wide calf, extra wide calf and super wide calf and I found a pair I thought looked great. I measured as instructed by the website and ordered them. A week and a half later the boots appeared on my doorstep thanks to door-to-door delivery! I was a little nervous at first, but they actually zipped up.... all the way up! [Cue the angels singing and the Hallelujah chorus] I honestly couldn't believe it! The quality is nice and I'm very happy that I can finally dress up in winter!
This is the boot I purchased. I thought it had a classic look and shouldn't go out of style. It is the Ros Hommerson Ella boot in super wide calf.

Homemaking Book

In an effort to become a little bit more organized for the upcoming year, I have decided to for go the usual planning calendar that I normally buy (and only use for the first four months of the year) and make myself a homemaking book.

My homemaking book is personalized for the things that I want to keep track of. I took an old binder which I recovered with some leftover fabric and sewed a small pocket in the front to hold my fountain pen.


It was very simple to sew the cover:

1. Open the binder and place face up on the wrong side of the fabric

2. Using a pen trace the outline onto the fabric

3. Using a ruler make the outline bigger by 1 cm

4. Cut out the fabric

5. Place the binder face up on a new section of the fabric and trace out the each section of the cover (without the spine) plus an extra 3 cm to use as a hem (must cut 2 fabric flap sections)

6. Using a ruler make the outline bigger by 1 cm (other than the 3cm hem)

7. Cut out the fabric

8. Get out the sewing machine

10. Zigzag stitch the hem portion of the inside flap and zigzag the middle section of the larger fabric cover at the spine

11. Turn over the 3cm hem with wrong sides together and sew

12. **Pin all pieces wrong sides together and sew with a 1 cm seam allowance

13. Turn inside out and iron

14. Place binder inside the cover

** If you want to add a pocket on the front cover you must do it now before sewing all the pieces together.

Here you can see the inside flap and how the binder cover slips in.

I purchased heavier paper to put in my homemaking book because I write mainly with a fountain pen and I need thicker paper so I doesn't bleed through. I then proceded to section my book with purchased cardboard tabs and made up my own pages with vintage images and fonts.

Though it seems like a lot, some sections only have one or two pages or combine page. Sections in my book include:

Calendar
To Do List (now and someday)
Shopping List
Weekly Menu
Diet and Exercise
Housework schedule (still needs to be worked on)
Correspondence

Future blog posts

Gift giving ideas
Books to read
List of books read
Movies to see
Beauty and Fashion idea
Vegetable garden journal
Flower garden journal
Party planner

Photos of some of my pages:

The great thing about a homemaking book is that everything is one place and easy to find. Plus I can add and reorganize

sections as I see fit and not what a commercial calendar/personal organizer thinks I need to keep track of.

Winter Storm

We took a mini vacation/family reunion and spent a few days in Vancouver to visit my sister, and other sister who was visiting at the same time. Of course Vancouver weather is usually very mild, and it didn't disappoint us with being warm and rainy.

October and the beginning of November have been unseasonably warm this year, but as we arrived home we found a bit of snow on the ground.

This morning though winter arrived. We have had snow warnings (15cm) and strong wind warnings (70 km/h) which began last night. This morning our power went out and didn't come back on until 12:30pm. Luckily I had an emergency water supply tucked away in the garage so that I could give the birds water this morning. Since we are on a well water once the electricity ceases, so does the well pump. I sat by oil lamp light in the kitchen and stayed warm with the gas fireplace writing some letters before I finally ventured out.

Since we had just gotten back from Vancouver I didn't have any fresh groceries in the fridge and I spent yesterday working until late. So I drove out to the local grocery store only to find that the entire northern part of the city was suffering from the power outage. I had to go right into town to find an open store and I was a little nervous with the wind and snow.

The school officially closed at 1pm (due to lack of power) and I had to go pick up the kids. The highway was terrible with the snow blowing across it and it was very difficult to see - it was much worse compared to when I drove to town. I just went slow and we made it safely.

I fear that the power may go off again today, so I have refilled our emergency water rations and filled up some large pots as well. Now that I have my fresh groceries we should be good for quite a few days... just in case.

Remember

In remembrance of our Veterans, military personnel and fallen soldiers.
To honour of them and their families.
To say "Thank You" for dedicating your lives in the service of our country.

In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae, May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields