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“May you never forget what is worth remembering,
nor ever remember what is best forgotten.”
"We've Holidays and happy days,
and memory days galore
And when we've toasted every one,
I offer just one more
So let us lift our glasses high,
and drink a silent toast
To the day, deep buried in each heart
that each one loves the most."
“May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live.”
As with every New Year, I start to think about my life in more sweeping ways. This is the time of year when I make resolutions and evaluate what I want for myself, and my life, in the coming year; and this year the first place I'm going to start is with Brené Brown and the wisdom she so encouragingly shares about her life and work. I feel that her work is a great jumping off point at this stage in my journey toward self and the things I love, which is, as the subtext states, what this blog is all about. So my official motto for the coming year is: Authenticity is a daily practice.
I was first introduced to Brené Brown through some lovely ladies I met in an Unraveling e-course a few month back who had posted some of Brené's videos and commented on how much they love her message. You can now call me an official convert to the church of Authenticity and firm believer in the doctrine of Vulnerability.
"Heroics and bravery are important, but I think we've lost touch with the idea that speaking honestly and openly about who we are and about our experiences (good and bad) is the ultimate act of courage. Heroics is often about putting your life on the line. Ordinary courage is about putting your vulnerability on the line. In today's world, that's pretty extraordinary.
For me, practicing ordinary courage means telling my story with all of my heart."
~Brené Brown
According to Samantha Cotterill it's "the joy of collecting random things and putting them inside a box, with the 'trashy' finds being just as important," that really makes any Wednesday worthwhile. So, since I once again seem to have run aground in the world of Lazy, I'm just going to let her do all the work and stitch up yet another awesome journal page while I make a hefty contribution to our collection of empty wine bottles. Is that too trashy? Well, welcome to my Wednesday.
Oh, and John, speaking of trash, and collecting, today is garbage day and someone needs to take out all these bottles while I take a little nap. Thanks honey.
I started looking for a 2011 calendar in early October and almost immediately I found the perfect one. As far as calendars go this one would be my calendar soulmate. But, being the kind of girl who likes to shop around before making a purchase, I decided to hold off on buying said calendar because I wanted to see if maybe there were other fishy calendars out in the calendar sea. It turns out there isn't another calendar mate for me, and as it also turns out, shopping around for a calendar mate doesn't always pay off. While I was off gallivanting with other calendars, my soulmate up and walked away. Yes, my calendar SOLD OUT. It sold out over and over and over again to other girls less fickle and more sure of what they are looking for in a calendar. So here I am, still without a calendar and pining for the days when my calendar was still within my grasp. Am I sounding a bit dramatic about all of this? Well, just look what I missed out on...
Frankie Magazine 2011 Calendar
January...
April...
May...
July...
September...
December...
This calendar not only features several of my very favorite, I mean favorite, artists, it is also functional---which means I can write on it, and that is very important to me. Almost every other calendar I've seen with similar physical attributes are primarily for looks. They are shallow and narcissistic. They aren't the sort of calendars that like to get mucked up. I get the impression they don't like messy relationships. But this one, it's not only lovely to look at, but it has openness, depth, and an adventurous spirit. It's not afraid to get it's pages dirty or have you groping it all the time. Sigh. Dear Frankie Magazine Calendar: I hope you've found what you're looking for. I wish you the best. I really do. But in the meantime I'm moving on, and look who I've found to replace you...
2011 Eco-friendly and multi-lingual Calendar
2011 Color Swatch Poster Calendar
Invincible Summer Animal Calendar
Color-it-Yourself Large Wall Calendar
Boys of Able and Game mini Calendar
And last but not least, I love this Overdue Book Calendar for keeping track of all our library book due dates...
I'm off to go fishing!
Remember last week when I mentioned how much I love to bake, especially this time of year? Well, I think I've officially met my baking quota for both 2010 and 2011! I didn't step foot out of the kitchen for two days last week, and it was marvelous! I'd feel like a traitor if I chose just one cookie as my favorite, they are all amazing, but if I had to, the one cookie that everyone loves, without fail, are my chocolate gingerbread cookies. I wish I could say I discovered the recipe in some obscure place or that it belonged to my great-great-great-grandmother, but that's not the case. I came across it in Martha Stewart's Holiday Cookies magazine about nine years ago---before Martha went to prison, pulled her life back together and reclaimed her position as Domestic Goddess---and I still have, and use, the magazine for the recipe. So since I believe a cookie like this could create world peace, I would be a complete jerk if I didn't share it with you. Happy baking and peacemaking!
Martha Stewart"s Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
Home. I love that word. It's the place where most of my life happens. It's where I feel the deepest, and love the strongest, and laugh the hardest. It's where I want to be on a sad or difficult day, and it's where I go to share my greatest joys. It's the place I am challenged the most and also where I am the most free to be myself. Home is my refuge, my eden. It's difficult to put Home into words, but I find it even harder to put my sentiments into images. Even this time of year, when I find myself gravitating and orbiting around my home more than usual, I can't seem to narrow down why this place means so much, but all I know is Home really is where my heart is. It is where my story begins and ends and everything in between.
"The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned." ~Maya Angelou
"Home, the spot of earth supremely blest,
A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest."
~Robert Montgomery
"There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort." ~Jane Austen
"Home is a place not only of strong affections, but of entire unreserve; it is life's undress rehearsal, its backroom, its dressing room."
~Harriet Beecher Stowe
"Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home." ~Mother Teresa
"Home is the one place in all this world where hearts are sure of each other. It is the place of confidence. It is the place where we tear off that mask of guarded and suspicious coldness which the world forces us to wear in self-defense, and where we pour out the unreserved communications of full and confiding hearts. It is the spot where expressions of tenderness gush out without any sensation of awkwardness and without any dread of ridicule."
~Frederick W. Robertson
Lisa sParks
My Fine Garden