Christmas is Almost Here!

Well we are now only a few days away from Christmas. I really do love this time of year, it is very busy but I just love getting together with family. Now-a-days it seems that everyone is so busy that Christmas really just makes people take a time out and make a point of being with loved ones. I always have a dinner with my mom and siblings at my house and this year my aunt and uncle are coming and I really look forward to it. I actually quite enjoy doing all the baking and helping my husband with the meal. He cooks most of the meals around here while I am the baker.
I am for the most part done my shopping, I made alot of gift this year. I think there is too much emphasis on buying and that if you are going to give a gift it should come from the heart. On Friday I decided I wanted a hair cut so I made an appointment for the evening. The hair salon I got to is in the mall and wow was it crazy busy, I couldn't believe! I have done so little of my shopping at the mall this year and last I forgot how busy it is! I think the next time I want a haircut during the Christmas season I will go early in the morning on a weekday!
I hope you are enjoying the Holiday Season too!

Christmas Shopping

This year I have become a great deal more budget conscious and more aware of where things are manufactured. It has really made me notice how much media is directed at trying to get people to spend more. I was shocked the other day to see a commercial that did not just promote a credit card (those are common) but was actually promoting spending on credit, and not in the usual sneaky way of x points or dollars for x dollars spent, but blatantly showing characters partying it up and loaded with purchases. Its kind of scary since I know alot of people who do not have the income they had before the recession hit. And there is so much pressure on to get Christmas gifts. I mean I certainly do my share of Christmas shopping but I think that it is so commercialized now that many people lose sight of the fact that its not about getting a great gift, it's about making time in your busy life to spend time with loved ones. This year I have actually really tried to make many of my gifts. In one of my more recent post I made a resolution to try to not buy things made in developing nations (unless its fair trade) and I did pretty well but there are a few items that I did end up getting the were made in China, but overall most of the gifts were made in Canada/US or by me. I particularly had problems because I made recipe scrapbooks, but all the scrapbooking materials were made in China! But I also made wedding photobooks which are printed in the US. I am also giving out some of my home canned items, a scarf I made, some things I got from the local craft show, a nice wooden shelf made locally, locally made chocolates, Ontario Wine. I am trying to give thoughtful but inexpensive gifts because I am on a rather tight budget this year from the wedding and starting university classes, but again isn't that what it's about? If you are going to give gifts isn't it more important that they be thoughtful rather than worry about spending "enough".

New Woodstove

In early October we had this wood stove installed. I love it! I have been using it almost everyday, there is something just so cozy about curling up in front of the fire. I grew up in home where our only heat source was a wood stove so it also has a sort of nostalgia for me. A few years ago we put in a grain burning stove which was great until we started putting barley in silo instead of corn which went to corn silage as the stove couldn't burn the hulls of the barley so the fire just goes out. So we talked about a wood stove but didn't get one right away because once you buy it and pay for installation it gets very expensive. This summer we decided to look at them again and this wood stove was about $1000 off because they were getting rid of some of their floor models, so that was how we decided to get this one. We wanted an alternate source of heat, we have an oil furnace and the cost in the winter is just ridiculous! We don't expect this to full replace but at least supplement the oil to reduce our fossil fuel use. Wood is a good option for us because living on a farm we have access to a bush and we don't need to cut down any live trees because there is tons of dead trees or large branches around. Sadly this is mainly due to the deaths of the ash trees from the ash borer and the elm from dutch elm disease. We actually have two elms in our backyard that need to be cut down because they are nearly dead. We have also got some of our wood from trees that have broken off in the pasture or along the fence line as well since that must be cleaned up anyways at least now we can make use of it. Another nice thing is my husbands father and a family friend love wood working so if we come across any large pieces that are in good shape we can give it to them so they can get it made into boards so they can use. As you can see in the picture, us humans are not the only ones who love the wood stove, the cats love to just stretch out in front of it and bask in the heat! One thing that disappointed me was, we decided to get the tile from a local flooring place to support local business instead of those big chains and yet the tiles were still made in China! When we ordered them I guess I thought that Canada being so rich in natural resources that surely the slate tiles would be Canadian made, it didn't even occur to me they would be made in China. So when we picked up the tile and in capital letter on the box was "CHINA" it was rather disappointing. It is so hard to find anything Canadian these days! I am certainly going to have my work cut out for me for Christmas shopping this year ensuring none of the gifts I buy are from China (my last post). But I digress, at least the wood stove is Canadian made and very lovely! Eventually I need to redecorate the living room, you can see in the picture the 1970's decor of orange carpeting and wood panelling. I'm hoping there will be lovely pine floors under the carpet since that's what I found upstairs in the two bedrooms I have done thus far.

Well, I have a midterm today so I must go prepare! Happy country living!

Christmas Resolution

I have been thinking a lot lately about where the stuff in our stores comes from, I remember one moment this summer when I was in Homesense looking for something or other and I was checking where everything was from and it was all imported, quite a bit from developing countries and it made me sad. Here I was at this store having avoided going to Walmart for the same item because everything is from China and its no better. Now I know that most of the stuff I buy is from places like China but I have been trying to be more contentious about it. So I have make the resolution that this year for Christmas I will not buy anything for a gift if it was made in China/Japan/Taiwan or any other county where the workers are exploited and there is absolutely no concern for the environment. I had thought about resolving to buy all Canadian but I'm not sure if I will have the time to search out enough different types of shops because right now with working 40 hours a week and taking 3 university classes it is very hard to go wandering around poking through all the little shops, though I greatly enjoy doing so. So I though if I at least limited to things from places like here/US/UK at least I will know that it was not made by some poor worker getting paid pennies so I could buy a shiny new item cheaply. I have found a few local shops that I know I can get Ontario made things in, but for example I want to creates some photo books as gifts and there is this great US company called Blurb that I love using.

Lately people are very upset about so many jobs moving to China or Mexico but very few actually think about the fact that it is our spending habits causing it. If we were not so focused on getting everything as cheep as possible and actually thought about where the product came from and simply refused to buy if it wasn't made here than there would be no market for them to sell to. If there is no market than they wont import as much. If we bought as locally as possible more small family businesses would be able to survive. I know this is easier said than done, the big box stores are so convenient and have longer business hours but I think it is worth the effort.

Fall Gardening

This weekend on Saturday I spent some time outside getting some fall gardening done. It was gloomy and threatening to rain on me but it was actually fairly warm out.  I was supposed to be doing homework but I felt that since there had actually been a bit of, oh I hate to say it, SNOW the other morning,  I thought I should get my bulbs and mums planted. My grandma let me dig up a bunch of irises from her place where they were getting over grown back in September so they were long over due to be planted. I had also bought some tulips and crocuses for the front flowerbed we just put in this year and my Aunt gave me a few leftover pink daffodil bulbs she had. It is getting late enough that I figured I had better get them planted before there is not point to it. And besides, one needs a break from homework which is consuming most weekends. I also had some mums and pumpkins leftover from decorating at my wedding in September so I put them in the side flowerbed by the main door and they look so pretty! I just love working the garden and/or flowerbeds, maybe because I work at a computer all day and am spending extra time on the computer now that I am taking a few classes too, but there is something relaxing about just puttering around outside.



Consumerism and Weddings



Since I am recently married I thought this might be a good time to post about some trends I noticed going through the process. There is a whole industry built around weddings, they are constantly bombarding brides and grooms to be with things they absolutely "need" for their wedding to be a special day. There are commercials, radio commercials, TV shows, bridal shows and magazines all geared at making you think you need all this stuff for your day to be special. It is becoming normal for people to take out loans just to have their dream wedding, but what I would like to know is, what would your dream wedding be if you weren't surrounded with all these different medias telling what your dream wedding should be? Do you think it would be the same?
Now we did spend enough on our wedding, but the key point is we did not spend more than we could afford. To save costs I bought fake flowers on clearance at Micheals and made my bouquets, we did not rent any transportation, I made the centre pieces, we live on a farm so we used our beef so the caterer would knock some off the meal cost (it ended up costing around $11.50/person), I set myself a limit of $1000+tax for my dress and did not go over, I even made my own garter and there are many more things I did, but the point I am trying to make is that I did not read those bridal magazines and at the bridal shows I ignored all booths except those for services I had already decided I was interested in. I did this because seeing all these things truly does make one want them, I certainly felt it when passing by a booth with elaborate sparkly centrepieces or advertising some unique form of transportation and such. Or even when I was searching the web for ideas. It is so easy to loss sight of the fact that it's not all the stuff that makes the day special, it's you and your partner, the knowledge that you are pledging to spend your life together. The stuff is very nice but it is not what is special.
Also making the process difficult is everyone has their own ideas of what you should do, and sometimes you might be ready to go "bridezilla" on them. I certainly felt that temptation too, but it is important to step back and remind yourself that these people are trying to help because they care and I actually made a list of certain items that I set aside so they could choose things too, because at the end of the day are you really going to care what ribbon was used or whatever as long as it comes together. And then the people you love get to feel like they were able to help you and be a part of it.
I'm sure everyone has different experiences when planning their wedding, this is just what I myself experienced.

Hectic Few Months

Today's post will be one without a picture I'm afraid. I usually like to post photos with my posts because I think it makes them more interesting.

I haven't posted in quite a while because I got married in September, which was very exciting! It was also very time consuming, August was a flurry of activity with all of the last minute preparations, even with all the help from my wonderful family, in-laws and friends. The wedding was everything I could have asked for, the rain even held off for the outdoor ceremony and did not begin until we were just taking the final pictures outside. Though it was an amazing day for us I am glad it is done, it really does take a lot out of you, I did a great many DIY projects and just tried to give it many personal touches so that the day would feel like "us". It was well worth the effort!

After the wedding, and I mean right after,  our wedding was on a Saturday and on the Tuesday I started part time university classes while still working full time. So now my free time is down to nil. I already have a college education but with transfer credits I would only need one year of full time classes to get a university degree, doing part time it will take me two years. I thought this would be a good idea just to make sure I leave as many doors as I can open. It is alot of work but it has been 2.5 years since I finished college and I only have 5 years from graduating to get all the transfer credits so I though if I was going to do it I had better do it now before we decide to have children. Not that it can't be done with children, I know plenty who have and/or are, but I don't think that I would bother doing it if I threw a child in the mix. Right now I am into mid-terms but I decided to steel some time away from study to do a brief post since I have been very neglectful of posting lately!

Well, I am off to a late thanksgiving dinner with the in-laws, then back to studying.

Lots and Lots of Canning

Oh, I just love this time of year! My vegetables in the garden are all ripening, though this year with all the wedding preparations I have neglected the garden and it is in a sorry state! But the veggies are still growing. We enjoyed the earlier things like radishes, carrots, beans, lettus and spinach and now the latter things are ready, squash, turnip, bell peppers and hot peppers. Also all the locally grown produce is ready and in the farmers market. That's where I go to get most of the veggies for my canning, though I do use some of the ones from my garden too. So I have been very busy canning away, and ignoring wedding things I probably should be doing!

This pictures just show a few things I left out to give away, I have already put everything else away. I have made jam, relish, peach salsa, vegetable salsa and sweet dill pickles. The pickles are from my Smelly Man's grandma's recipe and they are the best pickles I have ever had! I still have much more canning to do but it may have to wait until after the wedding which is a week from this Saturday. I think there is nothing better than having food that is homemade and it taste better! For example, I always hated relish, I only made it because my Stinky Man likes it, but when I actually tried the homemade stuff I thought it was great! It tastes nothing like the store bought stuff. People always tell me that they love home canned goods but they just don't have the time to do that sort of thing. Well, I may not have kids but I do work full time and we have a farm and I find time to do it. I think a big difference is that around here the TV almost never gets turned on before 7pm on a week night, and I will take my Saturday or Sunday and spend a good portion of the day canning. Sometimes if I am pressed for time I spread it out over a couple days, I will prepare all the fruits or veggies one day and do the cooking and canning the next so it cuts the amount of time I am spending on it in one day in half.

The other day when I was canning I ran out of onions, sugar and vinegar so I ran into town to pick these things up and I was not happy to see that the red onions were imported! The yellow onions were Ontario, but we grow red onions here too! I am always really upset at the grocery store by the lack of Ontario, or at least Canadian produce. I realize there are plenty of things we can't grow here like sugar, coffee, and all that, but I think that if you can get it locally, where every you happen to live, you should. I have started stopping at an orchard on my way home from work to get apples because at the grocery store they too are about 95% imported! The only apples I could find at the local grocery store that were not imported were empire which personally I think are only good pie apples, not good eating apples. And I will admit that some grocery stores are better than other for selling local but I live on a farm near a small town so if I only need a few items my choice of grocery store is limited as I am not driving half an hour for 4 items. I suppose that means I need to plan my shopping trips. I think that is part of the reason I like canning so much, because I know that the fruits or berries or vegetables used were all grown right here.

Thrift Store Bakeware Finds

I just love wandering around the local thrift stores and see what treasures I can find, my smelly man likes to tell me that I am filling our house with junk, obviously there is no appreciation for vintage things. But that's okay, we are all different! Anyhow I digress, back to my finds. There are two thrift stores in the town I live near and one is very much geared toward vintage and so is a bit more expensive than the other. I think vintage has grown in popularity here. The other thrift store in town only very seldom has any treasures to be found. But when I visit my mom, she lives about a half hour away and I go to the thrift stores in that town I can always find something there.

So here are a couple of photos of the bakeware treasures I have found. The small blue dish is my most recent find. But my favourite is the yellow dish with the big yellow flower on the lid. I use that to serve nacho dip so I can do a hot and mild one because it is separated into two sections. In one of the mixing bowls you can see the vintage cookie cutters I found, I got those at a yardsale for $0.25! I find it very useful to have these things around, because when you have company you always need extra bowls and such.

My Yardsale Dresser is Finished!

In the spring I wrote about a yardsale I had gone to where I found many wonderful buys. One of these buys was this dresser, except is was painted pink! Also, someone had replaced the brass handles with ugly ones. Well, I have finally completed refinishing it. I love it, I think it is beautiful. I didn't stain it, I just used polymerize tung oil. I also went out and bought some nice brass handles for it. I knew that was what it was supposed to have because once I got the paint off the keyholes were brass. I know it didn't turn out perfect but I just love it! You can see that the carving on the mirror is darker, that's because I couldn't sand it to get the old stain off properly but I think it looks good like that, it makes the carving stand out. My fiancee, the smelly man, was not please when I brought this home, he thought it was junk! He now agrees it was definitely worth the $30 I spent on it. Though I did spend a lot more on materials to refinish it, it is still cheaper than buying a new maple dresser.

Working on The Next Bedroom

So I repotted some plants this weekend as some of my house plants were getting way to big for their little pots. I had one tree in this basket which is now in a much larger pot and apparently the Smokey cat thought the newly emptied basket looked like a nice place to have a nap. My little sister, the Stinker Weasel has been visiting and she brought him upstairs to where I was working on the bedroom to show me, and he didn't move at all! He obviously doesn't realize he does not fit very well!

I have been working away at the third and final bedroom! I have finally managed to get all the horrid painted wall paper off and am now starting to patch the plaster! It is most definitely a lot of work. But we only bought the farm a couple years ago and are not ready to spend a lot of money on it right now so I am trying to improve the look without getting into having to drywall.

You can't really tell in the pictures but the plaster walls are all full of hairline cracks, as well as some larger cracks so I am using fiberglass tape and joint compound and patching even the tiniest cracks I find. You can see the one wall I started with is covered in joint compound. You can also see another of my little helpers, this is my black and white kitten Tess. She curled up to have a nap beside me while I was busy working.

I Love Old Books

I just love old books! I always pick one or two up at yardsales or thrift stores. They work very good for decorating and they provide insight into how people thought at that point in time, even a turn of phrase and can tell you a lot about the time with the book was written. I really love old history books, I think it is fascinating to see how things change. I have one book about the British Commonwealth and Empire, and another one called "Standard Canadian Speaker and Reader" which I think was meant to teach but it's not like the other old schoolbooks I have come across.

This picture is a shelf where I used a few of my old books to decorate in my home office. Don't mind the mess! This is the shelf Rob bought me for my birthday last year because I wanted something to hold all of our old textbooks from college. The shelves get narrower at it goes up so the top shelf was only really good to hold a variety of knick-nacs and some of my vintage finds. You can see a couple pieces of my milk glass, and there is an old singer sewing machine tin my grandma gave me and the little rocker used to be my Oma's (great grandma). The vintage books used here are mainly Shakepeare and some philosophy which I thought appropriate for an office.

The two red books in this picture are the ones I mentioned earlier. I got them at a yardsale, they were more than I usually pay for old books at about $5 each but I thought they were worth it because I found them so interesting, and really to buy a new softcover book you are looking at at least $10. The white one called "The Cornflower and Other Poems" Was the first ever vintage book I bought, I did have a few others my grandma gave me but this was my first step into vintage. I got it at a small antique shop in the town where I grew up, It's from 1906. The shop is no longer there and neither am I but I still have the book, I would have been around 16. The bottom book is called "In the Time of Roses", the cover is very damaged, I got it for $2 at the local thrift store, but I still think it is a very pretty book which I would like to use in decorating my living room when I get to redecorating that room. After flipping through it I would also like to read.

These are my two most recent thrift store finds. One is to add to my vintage history collection, it's from the 1960's. The other gold coloured one is from the 1940's but I didn't realize that when I first picked it up. I was reading the forward thinking it sounded like an interesting and amusing book then I noticed that it was from the 1940's. The other picture I was trying to get a picture of the bookmark I got for $2, someone made it using vintage jewelry and it looks so pretty with the gold book. But ever since I brought it home the cats think it's a new toy for them, as you can see in the picture Sally Cat is playing with it.

Here is a better picture of the book mark, it has really pretty sparkly red stones. The disappointed cat was removed to the floor. I just love this idea though, it's a great used for bits of old jewelry that might just get tossed out otherwise. I love reusing things, much better for the environment than just throwing things out.

New Shoes!

So on Friday I was out shopping with my mom and sisters for wedding stuff, we needed to get shoes for my sisters for their bridesmaids dresses. We went to Sears which was having a sale, and my youngest sister (age 13) whom I have dubbed Stinker Weasel, came up to me with a box of shoes to show me. The reason she was showing them to me was because she wanted to show me how ugly she thought they were. Well once I laid eyes upon them I thought they were super cute and must come home with me! She was horrified! To me they have a vintage feel, don't you think so?

These flats with their lovely contrasting pink border on white and the cute pink circles, oh I just love them. And I wore them to work yesterday and all the ladies kept telling how cute these shoes are so the poor Stinker Weasel will have to be informed that perhaps the styles which appeal to a 13 year old will not appeal to some one as "old" as myself! And even better they were marked down to $14.99, and were 40% off the sale price!

Busy Busy Busy

Well it seems since my good intentions I have let my blog fall to the wayside again! But wow, is it ever busy. My wedding is only around 6 weeks away now and I can not believe how busy that is keeping me. There are so many details. That is not to say that I don't enjoy it, I think planning my wedding has been great fun but it is extremely time consuming! It is coming together though. We have most of the big things done, we still have to buy the booze for the reception, add wine glasses to our dishes rental (was going to get a free rental with the wine order but found out the glasses are awful!), pick our vows, buy decorations, oh the list goes on! Lol, however, I happen to love making lists (yes, I am a geek!). This is the long weekend and I am hoping to accomplish alot!
Also, those dressers from my yardsale blog? Well I have stripped and sanded the pink one and have started applying the finish! YAY! I am not using any stain and am using polymerize tung oil, I used it on the floor shown in one of my other posts and really like the finish. So I am managing to sneak in some of my other projects despite the all consuming wedding!

Patrolia Yardsaling

Yesterday I went yardsaling with my mom and my two sisters. My sisters are much younger than me, I am 27 and they are 13 and 15. It was so fun. Patrolia is around an hour away but a lady at work told me they have great yardsales and it is the first townwide yardsale for me this year. It turned out that it was well worth the drive for me, I found such great stuff at great prices! I couldn't believe it. Now I need to make it clear that I NEVER find amazing things when I go yardsaling or to thrift shops. I mean I do sometimes find some nice things but never do I find a ton of great things that are exactly what I was hoping to find. So I think I am excusably excited over my finds yesterday! At one of the first yardsales we stopped at I found a lovely old dresser for only $10! It was in quite rough shape, the finish has been almost totally worn of the top, it was missing the mirror and the bottoms of the drawers were warped, likely from being stored in a shed or a basement. Though I didn't think there was anything I could do about replacing the mirror, I don't mind refinishing furniture and I could replace the bottoms of the drawers, it's not really difficult, just time consuming. We wander down the street and guess what we found?! We found a mirror that is supposed to go on a dresser similar to the one I just bought! Can you believe that! I was so excited, I never find such great things! The lady was asking $20 but I got it for $10. I will also have to refinish the mirror, someone painted it a horrible shade of blue! But for $20 for the dresser and the mirror it's well worth the effort to make it beautiful again. As we carried on I found some old books for $1 each, I ended up with 6, I just love books of all types! I found a set of old dishes for $5! They are lovely old English ones with a floral print, so pretty! I also found two adorable old bone china tea cups for $0.25 each! Wow! Usually they are $5-10. One was a cute pink and the other had a cute little bee on it. I found a cute set of 4 glasses with cows on them, now I'm not sure how old they are but since we live on a dairy farm I just had to buy them, it was only $1 for the set. I found some lovely vintage lace/trimming at another yardsale and my mom got a record player there, the poor lady, her mother had passed away and she was having the yardsale to get rid of a bunch of things she didn't want after cleaning out her mothers belongings. There were 3 large ziploc freezer bags of the lace and trimming, two of the bags were $1 each and the other was $0.50. Then across the street I got a whole box of lace and ribbon scraps for $1, since I love crafting it's great to have that kind of stuff around.  I also found a cute sign I got for my father, it said "a bad day hunting is better than a bad day working". At the very last yardsale we stopped at you will never guess what I found! It was so great, I found another dresser with mirror that was almost the same as the first one I purchased! The lady was asking $50, but she let me have it for $30, probably because it was after 12pm, starting to rain and she likely didn't want to have to drag it back in the house. Someone had painted this one pink at some point and replaced the handles with ugly ones but it was in excellent shape. I can have it back down to the lovely wood under the paint with a bit of elbow grease, I love the look of wood furniture! As for the handles, I'm sure that if I hunt around the Re-Stores and Antique stores I can find something, and if not, I'm sure I can find something new that will look pretty. My mom told me that I looked like the cat that got the cream I was so happy. I thought I would be lucky to find one dresser in my budget, I never dreamed I would find two plus all the other stuff I got. I only brought $80 dollars with me and I spent around $70. I will have to thank the lady at work for letting me know about those yardsales! Now I should be off to continue stripping of the pink paint from that dresser!

Tardy

Well, it has been along time since I started this blog! Since I have been so tardy with posting I am setting myself the goal of at least 1 post per month, I think that is an attainable goal. Weather anyone reads this or not is it enjoyable to post my thoughts and about my life. My desk is in front of a window so sitting at my computer with a cup of tea looking out at the trees and birds is can be quite nice.

Things have been very hectic since I started this blog back in September. Time goes so fast, we are now nearing the end of April! Eeks! And still so much to do. I still have to make my wedding invitations. My self imposed deadline was the end of March which has now become the end of April so I can send them out in May. I could have done it the easy way and either ordered them premade or bought the kits they sell at craft stores but I decided to make my own completely from scratch. Now that sounds like a lovely idea in theory but in practice it is extremely time consuming! Oh well, I will think it was a great idea again once I have them all done and can see my accomplishment.

On a positive note I have completed a major home project, I have finished redecorating the spare bedroom finally! I stripped wallpaper, patched plaster that has millions of hairline cracks and some very large cracks too and then I had to strip and sand the floor. That was the worst part. Some one painted the floor all around the edges of the room and there was a piece of vinyl in the middle (thankfully not attached to the floor as in my mothers house!). There was 2 coats and first I tried sand which just gummed up the sand belts so then I poly stripped it which worked much better. I used polymerized tung oil on the pine floor and it turned out lovely. Our house is old and I love vintage so that was the feeling I was going for. I kept the old vintage light fixture but replaced the switch and outlet. We have temporarily moved our bedroom into the finished spare bedroom now so I can work on our bedroom.

You can see two of my little helpers on the bed, Sylvester and Smokey, can you guess which one Smokey is?

You can also see another of my completed projects in the pictures. I made the curtains, it was my first time ever attempting them so I am very happy with how they turned out. I have only had my sewing machine since January. It's just an old used one but it gets the job done. The fiancee doesn't particularly care for the green in the room but he refuses to help pick paint colours and he really only likes blue. There was one thing that I wasn't happy about, there is a 12" diameter hole in the floor where I believe a stove pipe came through.

As you can see in the picture I have tried to cover it with a dresser as a temporary solution to keep someone (likely clumsy me) from stepping in the hole. I want to find one of those old pretty metal square floor grates to put over it.