Week 68: A shaky mind needs a steady heart

 

Your big decisions in life should be made from deep in the mind and full of heart.  But if you find yourself in conflict, I wish you a steady heart.

food, football and family

Now that Thanksgiving is over, Christmas is in full swing.  On cue, mother nature brought forth a layer of mist to greet those returning to work this morning after a long extended, and I must say much needed, weekend.  The change in weather and along with the golden leaves peppered within the midst of California evergreens are always welcomed, because Christmas season wouldn't be the same without those things.  Yes, the cold is pathetic at the high 50s, but we are, if nothing more, a product of our environment, and I have been a Californian for almost 20 years, and those are my Christmas season reminders, just as much as the snow is to Michigans, per se. 

We have just began to pull out Christmas decorations from the attic last night though we are unsuccessful at getting anything completed because we are without a tree.  I wanted to get one yesterday, my significant other want to wait til much closer to Christmas, so we compromised for next weekend.  For now, I have decorations and ornaments strewn across my dining room table until they find a new home among the evergreen branches.

Our Thanksgiving celebration was a great success, celebrated in the typical fashion of food, football and family.  We stayed in our pajamas all day while we cook, not needing to go out once because we were more prepared this year with the menu and consequently with the ingredients.

 

The menu:

Cheese & crackers for appetizer
Ready baked turkey as the main course
Gravy
Sweet yam and marshmallows
Green beans
Red-skinned mash potatos
Sweet corns
Crescent rolls
Cranberry
Apple pie
Pecan pie
Roasted chestnuts

Most of these were purchased from the farmer's market so we were quite please that we were eating a healthy feast. We divided up the meal between Joe and I, and I was quite proud of what we accomplished together.

But the best of these is the company we keep and love was the plentiful and superfluous.

Someone brought us some candies, and the kids had a blast getting wired on sweets on this special occasion. As for my girl, she enjoyed playing with her cousins who are twice or thrice her elder. The big kids were a good sport to include her.

 

You can't even imagine the drama that ensued when we took this candy away from her.  Now that she is becoming aware, she has gotten quite stingy and would run to a corner to eat, to prevent the possibility of getting that taken away, or worse, taken by the dog.  It's so cute.

thankful everyday

The thing about giving thanks is that people do do it everyday - on a mundane Tuesday afternoon when we escaped what could have been a disastrous accident with our lives intact because there must have been an angel watching over us, when we received the news that the result of the test was not cancer after all, when we lose our jobs but at least we still have our health and family.  We say thanks, when there is a significant event that remind us to do so.  

But what we don't do nearly enough is to be thankful for the mundane everyday happenstances, that in the grand scheme of things, become just as significant as those moments that take our breaths away.  The great thing about making a national holiday out of simple act of giving thanks is that it is a conscious reminder, to give thanks when there is no significant act call for it, to be thankful for family, for health, for time, for opportunities - all of which are free but so often taken for granted until it is no longer there.  We carved out a day, as a nation, to say thanks to each other, individually, collectively.  Because of this, it is my favorite holiday out of the year - so simple yet so significant. 

I am hosting Thanksgiving this year, just like the year preceding it and the year before that.  The torch had been passed onto me some time in the past and I often think about the significance of this responsibility.  

Thanksgiving had never been a significant celebration in our house growing up.  My parents were immigrants to this country and they never saw the significance of the holiday and consequently in the celebration of it.  We have always joined my uncle and his family for a few hours to feast on turkey, return home and call it a day.  I have always been more of a romantic at heart, and always wished that the day is celebrated in a more meaningful way.

Fast forward a few years, I got married and some things happened in between, I am now the matriarch of this holiday, responsible for creating a space where my family gathers, and look forward to coming to, to celebrate the day.  I take the responsibility seriously, and for the first time, have the ability to create the magic that I had envisioned all these years.

So today, I set the table, cook that meal, and await for my family's arrival with anticipation.  I will enjoy every laugh, I will welcome every guest, I will enjoy my time, and I will give thanks - for the ability to do all of these and much more, on an insignificant Thursday afternoon we call Thanksgiving.

our house: where we cook

Ahhh our kitchen.  Our lovely lovely kitchen.

Back it up a bit, to two years ago, and this space was nothing like it is now.  This heart of the home was dingy, and old, and showing every bit of its 27 years of age.  We bought the house mostly in its original form, and started updating it bit by bit by ourselves for over 18 months, but we did not take on the big tasks of remodeling any space because it all seems just too overwhelming.  So, when we found out we were expecting, we bit the bullet and hired a contractor (after a lot of thorough research), and remodeled it. Everything that was there was replaced, from the cabinets to the countertop to the floor.  After 10 days and a lot of thousand of dollars later, I have a space that is lovely and warm and functional.  I am in love with this small space.

It is truly a small space, probably no more than 10x10' and there is an eat in dining space off of it, since we don't have a formal dining room.  But the beautiful thing about small space is that there is less space to clean.  It has all of the modern amenities that makes my life easier and enough storage space to hide everything out of sight.  The only thing that I could use that I wish was a tad bigger is the pantry, but I suppose the cup half full outlook is that less space, less clutter.

I really do love this space.  And of course, what makes a space is in the details.

Only recently did we change the lights to recessed lights, previously adorned by the ever po(o)pular fluorescent utility lights that hung in every 80s kitchen.  Changing the lights out really does make a huge difference! I'm in the process of finding the perfect flush mount light to complement the recessed and clearer space above.  

The thing that I have learn through all of the decorating trials and errors is that you can't rush these kind of things.  I am trying to be patient, so that in the end, I'll make choices and purchases that I will love, and consequently, will love my home that much more!

Sources:

Real wood cherry cabinets - local

GE appliances - Home Depot

Granite counters - local (same vendor as cabinets)

Hardwares and stainless steel sink - free with purchase of cabinets 

Faucet - Home Depot

Subway tile backsplash - Husband DIY'ed with Home Depot tiles

Hanging plates - West Elm

Cutting board - handmade by local artisan

Fruit Bowl - Honeymoon pick from Mexico

Wine crate - sale at Target

Numbered jars - sale at Target

Oversized coffee cup for cooking utensil - novelty gift from an ex.

Persimmons - home grown in the backyard

Storytime bench - handmade gift

Giraffe measuring spoons - Anthropology

Soap pumps - Target

an indoor weekend

We were mostly confined in our house this weekend, and that suited me just fine.  The rain complemented football Sunday perfectly, although it did make for a wet farmer's market trip to gather ingredients for our Thanksgiving feast.  Happy to say that after $60 later, I gathered about 75% of our feast supplies from locally grown/produced vendors, and I'm especially thankful for that.

Being confined in our house wouldn't have been bad at all had not for the state of disarray that it is currently in.  It is the week of Thanksgiving, and I had this great idea to start a bathroom remodel a week prior, optimistic that it would be done by Thanksgiving day.  We were on day 4 and 5 this weekend of the 7 days excursion.  It is times like these that I am reminded of how much we count on our routines and habits, and the little things such having our toothbrush within reach, really defines our mornings and nights.  For now, we are wrestling, and yelling at each other, to find the brush or the tweezer or whatever it is we need on a daily basis that seems to conveniently be lost in the middle of this great excursion.

But the great thing about this is that it was due time, and I'm looking forward to be able to use a brand new bath tub to bathe my now very active and curious toddler, and know that when I turn on the water, that I can count on it being to the temp of my liking, instead of having to wrestle with the knobs for 5 minutes to get it just right.  I am extremely happy with the design choices I made now that they are on the walls and on the floor, more so now validated that classic is always the best choice. 

Octagon and dot tiles for the floor, to be grouted dark.

3x6" subway tiles for the wall, to be grouted with matching color.

 So while we have people going in and out of our house, banging on our wall while we put Lia down for naps, we did a lot of this.

Movie watching, coffee sipping, chocolate snacking, all in between favorite football games.   I scored this great movie on sale at Target for a mere $4.  (I usually don't collect DVDs, in fact, I am very selective of which movie I purchase because I don't have the real estate to store them, but I couldn't pass it up.)

Our house sits within this small little complex with very little through traffic. Even better is that the front yard collects these great little puddle of water when it rains, perfect size for little bodies, and big bodies to jump in and play in rainboots. So that's what we did. 

Notice the white and orange buckets in the background?  That's the contractors' and they thought we were crazy for playing in the rain and dirty waters.

Missoni rainboots for Mama, and cute polka-dot for the little one.  This is the first time I wear them, and they proved to be extremely useful in times like these, and for the outdoor farmer's market on a rainy day.

Dad tried to give her an umbrella to protect her from the rain, but she was too preoccupied with running through the water to care that she was getting rained on.  We just give up trying. 

Having a child really does bring back some of the best memories from my own childhood, and what's even better is the ability to relive it a second time around and creating new memories. 

DIY: a Christmas flower

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

I am a big believer that Christmas decor should never adorn our four walls until after Thanksgiving, but that doesn't mean the crafting remnants are absent from our tabletops and countertops.  So, this weekend, the crafting begun, just in time to kick off the Thanksgiving spirit, which really is a precursor to the holiday season.

I won't be doing a lot of crafting in the ornament department this year, as they are aplenty, sitting patiently in plastic crates in our attic, marked down to 75% from last post-Christmas sale 11 months earlier.  But of all the things I found, I did not find a single tree topper worth bringing home.  So, I am making one.

Source: issuu.com via Elle B on Pinterest

Inspired by this little number in Emily Henderson's Holiday Guide, I set out to make my own, in the classic red color palette to go with the rest of our decor, peppered with some pink to update it and give it a bit of texture.

Using her very brief description in the magazine, I decided to improvise the rest.  The result was surprisingly amazing.  I love.

Here's a description of how I made it.

>>Punch a bunch of 3" circles out of cardstock paper in coordinating colors of choice.  I used 5 different colors in white, pink, magenta, red and deep red.  I varied it up a bit more by having more circles in deep red than the light colors.  I put them all in a box and mix them up, and from there just haphazardly pick them up as I go along, not being picky of what I pick of the bunch.

>>Purchase a white 5" styrofoam ball from craft store.  

>>Cut the ball in half.  I used a bread knife from our kitchen because that was the closest thing within my reach that would do the job. It's a little rough around the edges, but that's okay, as it is going to get covered up.

>>Using the same breadknife, I sliced into the half-circled ball a bunch of criss-crossed patterns, in haphazard directions, about a quarter of an inch deep, like so.  Don't overthink it, just let it happen.

 

>>I turn the ball around, and glue a few paper circles on the back of the styrofoam dome, overlapping each other, in varying colors.  

 

>>This is when the fun starts.  With a hot gun, I apply some glue on the edge of the circle and while it is still hot, insert it into the ball through the cuts.

 

>>Continue to do so until the entire ball is covered.  

>>As much as I love it, it looks a little small, so I turned it back around and hot glue another round to the back to make the circle a little bigger. 

 

>>Clip on a couple of doves (right onto the "petal" in the middle and top of the circle) and voila! you got yourself a tree topper.

   (Since it is so light (made of styrofoam and paper after all, I don't believe that it will need anything to secure it to the tree, and should be able to hang onto the tree branches.)

So here's the dilemma, I have an extra half of the styrofoam ball, along with way too many paper circles because I overestimated how many I would need, and plenty of hot glue.  So, I decided to make another one, not knowing how I would use it.  

But after I finished it, it came to me that it would make a really great "wreath".  And to make it hang, I took a cardboard circle, tie a piece of ribbon onto it for hanging, and hot glue it onto the back of the wreath.  

Voila, hang it on the wall for a touch of festivity to coordinate with the tree. 

Enjoy!