A Season of Change

I hope my American friends all had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was perfect - filled with good friends, lots of cooking, delicious food and excellent conversation ... and, of course, plenty of leftovers.

And then came the official start of the Christmas season, which means an overabundance of ads and special offers in the mail and online. Every year around this time, I find myself wanting to run the opposite direction. Away from excessive shopping and toward a simpler life, handmade gifts and slowing down.

This has always been my favorite season - colder weather, shorter days, good food, baking cookies, crafting, gifting, end-of-year reflection, and planning for a fresh new year.

This year, that yearly pull toward more traditional living seems stronger and I find that I am leaning toward it in many ways - wanting to take more time cooking, baking and preserving good food, taking greater care to shop local and at small shops, caring for and taking pride in our nest, knitting more, sewing lots more, painting, writing more snail mail, and reading and reflecting.

I am drawn to doing things more thoughtfully and working more with my hands, being tuned in to the seasons and nature, and making things myself wherever I can.

In past years, I have felt that same pull but it always seemed like it would require too much change that I didn't think I had the time or energy for. But this year it feels like it's time. And I think it'll be a really good change, which I am sure you will read all about here on my blog...

In many ways it feels like my life is coming full circle going back to many values and skills I learned from my grandmother, including a love for cooking, baking, knitting and crocheting. She also did a lot of ironing and darning of clothes, which I have yet to develop a love for... But then I don't have to love everything, do I?!

Wishing you a peaceful and joy-filled beginning to the holiday season!

❧ Silke

Of Old Things...

This morning, as I was making tea for Daniel to take to work, my eye was caught by all the red in this little "still life with thermos."

I don't know about you, but Daniel and I use things up. We never need the latest gadget and when we get one, we use it until it doesn't work anymore. The same with cars. Or clothes. Or anything really.

When we moved into the first house we bought in Michigan in the early 90s, a few things were left behind by the previous owners. One of them was this thermos, which I am sure was already well used. And it still is. Nearly every morning for the past eight years I have filled it with tea for Daniel to take to school.

Do you have things like that? Oldies, but goodies?

❧ Silke

Busy, busy...

Dearest friends and readers, I've had a hard time getting back into blogging (as you have probably noticed), not because I have lost interest, but because I have been very busy with lots of fun things.

Here's the reason:

Fall has started making an entrance, even if only very cautiously here in the south. It's still quite warm out, so how can I tell?

Well, the first sign in our garden is the fig tree losing its leaves. The first years I thought it had some disease every time, because it is the first tree to lose its leaves every fall. By now I know it is the signal that the long summer is coming to a close.

A few leaves have started turning color (although the real gorgeous fall colors don't arrive here until November) and our beautyberry bush is producing the most intensely colored berries.

But...summer hasn't left yet either and I have been indulging my zinnia love every day! Daniel just threw out some seeds in June or July and our garden is filled with them now.

 So many that I can have beautiful bunches of flowers in the house all the time.

These photos also show a few of my favorite things. The tiny blue vase we got at an art fair, the dragonfly fetish we bought on the Zuni Indian reservation, the beautiful green ceramic piece Daniel brought from Minneapolis a few years ago,...

... a pretty little candle holder we brought back from Oaxaca, Mexico and my new favorite tea cup my sister-in-law sent me for my birthday.

Speaking of fall, it makes me want to make things. Every year I get this urge to be über-creative around this time of the year and this year I've been indulging fully. Daniel will spend a couple of months teaching in the south of France this winter where it can get very (very!) cold. So I knit him a hat and scarf to keep him nice and toasty with gorgeous wool yarn I bought in Münster on our last visit. Turned out nicely, don't you think?

I've also been trying some new things such as making pickled okra and bread & butter pickles.

The pickles are delicious and the okra I just made yesterday, so we have to wait a little before tasting it. Canning things has always intimidated me, but this year was the year to just forge ahead and do it. It all went perfectly!

My inspiration? My dad who decided he was going to learn how to preserve all the different kinds of plums in his garden. He made enough jam to last him through the entire year until the next harvest! And then some...

Also yesterday, I sewed my first pillow complete with piping around the edge. It turned out beautifully. I'm going to make another one this week. Sewing always seems like such a big deal to me until I actually sit at the sewing machine - then I just love it!

I promise there will be more pictures of Europe, but for now I had to show you all the things that delight me around here. Life truly is good!

Wishing you all a most wonderful week!!

❧ Silke

While resting yesterday...

Yesterday - between sneezing and sniffling - I did a lot of resting in our most comfortable reading (aka nap) chair. While I was sitting there, I took a few photos of the things around me to share with you today.

Cashews - one of my favorite snacks! I have to dole them out to myself in small portions because I could easily eat a whole pound in one sitting... Well - ahem - I did finish all of what we had left in the pantry yesterday! Not really a small portion. 

Right in front of me ... lookie there ... my art! :) Pretty, no?

And to my right on the living room table (please disregard the dog hairs on it... Winslow is like a big fluff muffin - his fur flies around everywhere) - one of my dear friend Vicki's gorgeous fall nests! If you are interested in growing your blog, head on over to hers (click here) and join the blog party she is planning. And if you knit or crochet, you might want to participate in her very worthy Pink Scarf Project. You can read all about it on her blog.

Ok, now a view our our front entry way. Doesn't the floor look shiny? Well, it's an illusion...I really need to get out the mop soon! But not today...

I love those skinny windows next to the door letting in light, but I don't always like that people can look in from the outside, especially when I am home alone. I've thought of putting up a curtain rod and sewing two narrow panels of sheer (but not see-through) material. Do any of you have a suggestion?

Ok, back to the from-the-chair sightseeing tour.

On the fireplace, a little bit of halloween decoration (we bought these waaaaay back when we still lived in Michigan at Horrocks, a fantastic country farm store I still miss) and some of my favorite pottery from Germany, which seems to multiply every time I visit my family.

And speaking of waaaaay back when - my mother bought these little etchings probably over thirty years ago. I still love them!

To the right of the chair: the aquarium - or as I also like to call it, my meditation station. It is impossible to watch the fish and feel any kind of stress or anxiety.

Now we've arrived at my lap and a throw I am crocheting for us. Did you notice how I chose a color that is compatible with both Ramses' and Winslow's fur?  Pure necessity at our house! If beige looked good on me at all, that's the only color I'd ever wear!

Friends, there is absolutely no way to sit on the chair (or really anywhere) without Ramses joining you. It was hard trying to dissuade him from sitting right on the knitting and crocheting projects, but he finally agreed to settle on my legs - and consequently refused to look at me for this photo. I tried for five minutes and gave up. Cats!

So different from Winslow, who was happy to pose for me, sweet boy that he is ... as long as he didn't have to lift his head. It was an exhausting day. NOT!

"Where was Daniel?" you might wonder. He was in the kitchen cooking up a pot of delicious midwest chili for us and making our most favorite corn bread recipe (double yum!!), which I might just have to share with you in a future post. 

But for now I am back to sneezing and sniffling and resting and keeping all of you who are in Hurricane Sandy's path in my thoughts! 

Wishing you a most wonderful Monday!

❧ Silke

A happy accident

Over the weekend, some of the surfaces in our house become a little cluttered. But once in a while, the clutter catches my eye, like in this instant. The colors all look like I put them together intentionally. I think I'll leave it for a bit before cleaning up the yarn and magazines... 

 

Speaking of cleaning, I had a bit of an epiphany this weekend. I've been wondering why I have been having such trouble keeping the house organized and why I always feel the need to declutter everything. And I wondered what was going on with me that I didn't seem to be able to get ahead of "the stuff."

Then I realized that this it the first time we have lived in one house for longer than three years. We have moved a lot and loved it, lived in many different places and even sometimes moved within the same town, first renting and then buying a house once we knew the area.

That meant that every three years there was a natural decluttering as we were getting ready to move and then a natural reorganizing as we put everything in its new place. Now I've got to come up with a different system. How do you stay ahead of clutter and do you have a system for organizing things? Would you mind sharing if you do?!

Tomorrow I'll share a few photos from Hunting Island State Park, where we spent the day yesterday. But for now I wish you all a great start to your week!