Serendipity

Thanks to the generosity of a friend, and the newest treasure to be added to my insanity of crafting tools, I have been doing a lot of research on how to get started in the new-to-me art form of weaving. Along the way, I've found some amazing blogs, chat groups and other resources, not to mention some wonderfully patient people in some of my other crafting groups that have been great about answering questions and pointing me in the right directions for more information about my particular loom. I am still terribly overwhelmed but feel like I am at least moving in the right direction now! :) It's amazing how many weavers there are out there and like knitting, is not the dying art that I thought it was! It seems to me, you just have to know where to look! :)

While getting started in my search, I threw out the question to one of the Waldorf groups that I belong to and I asked if there were any weavers in the group. That thread led to a conversation with a gal (who I consider to be a lost long friend now, although we've never met yet!)  about how I got into spinning and how this loom came to be mine. She made a simple comment about wishing she'd be gifted a spinning wheel someday with an "lol" and the conversation went on its way about more fiber related topics. As soon as I saw her comment it was like there was a large floating light bulb hovering above my head and the electricity just made it's connection. If I had been a cartoon I imagine it would have been a comical moment! :) 

You see, I had bought some vintage books from this gal, and she had purchased some wood toys from me... and we had conversed about Waldorf groups in PA after she noticed my picture of downtown Pittsburgh thinking that I lived there too (I had taken it on a recent trip)... so I knew that she was from PA also so I took a stab in the dark and asked what part! The stars aligned and she was about 1 1/2 hours from my mom! Perfect! Again, a cartoon moment would have been a view inside my brain to see the gears turning and another light bulb moment! 

You see, a few years ago, when I decided I wanted to take the leap and get a spinning wheel, my mom was gifted one on my behalf from a friend of hers that had rescued a wheel from a dumpster! Gasp!!! I know, who could possibly do such a thing!!?! Right? Right about the same time, I happened on to mine and while I would have loved to have had the one from my mom, we live on opposite sides of the country! The shipping to get it here would have been more than I paid for mine here!

To make a long story short... I got my mom and my long lost friend in touch with each other via chats on Facebook, they were able to meet up half way and that poor neglected spinning wheel has finally found its way to its forever home!! This gal kept sending me emails of thanks and how excited she was but really I think I was just as excited as she was!! I have felt terrible that the wheel has been sitting in my mom's basement just taking up space but couldn't bring myself to have her get rid of it considering she didn't know anyone that would give it the love that it so truly deserved. So instead... it just sat... The thought that I could pay it forward the kindness and generosity that had been paid to me in the form of a weaving loom absolutely made my day!! 

A week or two later, while checking the mail, we received a mailer that I wasn't expecting... but I recognized the return address label to be from PA... now here's the freaky part...

Inside that mailer was the sweetest heartfelt thank you card and these two vintage books. She already knew of my love of vintage books but she had NO IDEA about my collection of Little Golden books or my youngest's obsession with Eloise Wilken (the artist in the book)... and there is no way of her knowing that we also collect the books in "The True Book" series! As I pulled the books out of the envelope, my two girls were clammering to get over the seats yelling "Let me smell them! Yes, I have done my job when they rate there books on whether or not they smell old!  lol When I told her about it she said that it was Seredipity (one of my favorite words!!) and that we were are kindred spirits... Funny how two people can connect and form a friendship with an entire country between us. 

As I read her reply about us being kindred spirits, it made me think of Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables  

"Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world"

Life Lessons from Anne of Green Gables

A new way of looking at life...

I didn't mean to let so much time go by... I didn't intend on leaving this space so abruptly...but you see, when you find the secret of life you have to just go with it and not worry about blogging, or facebooking or even take the time to keep up on laundry! When God gives you a place to be and grow and learn you just have to jump in with both feet!

It's been almost 9 months to the day that we got the call that we were moving, and then just a week or so later we were up over our heads in the moving and packing process. Life was such a whirl wind that we didn't have time to really think, rest or even take a deep breath really....it was just putting one foot in front of the other and trying not to trip along the way! It's pretty much been that way ever since! It's been nine months of hard work, hauling dirt, hauling wood chips, hauling rocks (do you see a pattern here?lol). Months of mending chicken coops, building new ones, caring for the animals we moved and the animals we have since adopted and rescued. It's been months of playing catch up with what we had hoped to accomplish in a garden. Planting, and watering and experimenting with new things. Now in the winter months, it means putting plastic covers over garden beds and researching new ways of feeding our outside animals. Months of feeling tired... in a good way... because of the goodness we are accomplishing and because of the constant blessings we are feeling. When we take the time to sit down and compare notes, hubby and I are both just feeling so blessed and renewed in this place that we are dwelling.

How can one not feel blessed to wake up to this view?

We are feeling like there has been a turn in our lives that can only be described as finding the secret of life...

For some time now, we have been inching towards a more sustainable lifestyle... It's no secret that I hate what our food industry has become and want to be no part of it (or at least to the best of our ability!) To feel the way I do about how our food is produced (how the animals are treated and cared for) and the un-needed things that are being done to the plants (GMOs) means making a change. Not a little change but a huge life altering change on a daily basis. It means watching labels and researching our food more closely but it also means that we must start producing more of it on our own. My generation was not brought up to think about where our food comes from, if anything we have been taught that it's out of sight out of mind. And for some that is ok. I truly wish that I could be that way sometimes but once I learn something it's stuck in my head and I can't go back!

It has been over the last few months that we as a family have been really taking a look at our lifestyle, and focusing on where we want to eventually be. We are finding that hard work is actually fun and that we don't need a lot of what we as a society have been taught to think we do. We are learning what it feels like to accomplish something we didn't think we could do ( like stacking a whole cord of wood- just me and my two littles). It is with this life change that we are going back in time if you will. Listening closer to the stories of family/church members who grew up on farms, and reading everything on the subject that I can get my hands on. It has even come down to changing the way we look at our entertainment options. The two favorites in our household right now are Alaska:The Last Frontier and of all things, The Waltons. Hubby and I have a running joke. When we are out working or trying to figure out a new project we just ask the other WWWD? What Would the Waltons Do? lol When he first said it, it made me laugh but now I find myself having that question in the back of my mind more and more... so I think that's what I'll title my posts that are homestead related. It really is a compliment to that show and not so much of a joke. When you actually watch the show, there are a lot of life lessons that could be learned by watching it, and for us it is just a really good reminded of what life is like in a simpler time and what it could be again if only there could be a massive shift in society and a change in the way we all view success...

Apple goodness

Since moving to the northwest, I've been taking more interest in the fact that we have good apples more readily available and loving every minute! :) Not only are they a bit cheaper to buy but they aren't all bruised up and old by the time we get them! Sorry, I don't mean to make you jealous, I'm just so excited and have to gush! lol We are big into apples for juicing so this is just such a thrill!

My MIL also brought us some of her apple bounty from Montana, so I needed to find something to do with them in a hurry. (bags on my counter drive me crazy!) Hers were very pretty little apples but also VERY tart! OH my! You should have seen the girls' faces when they tried them! They are used to the very sweet taste of Pink Lady and Fuji so they weren't expecting the tart tastes! lol It was rather entertaining for me tho! ha!

Anyways, we decided to sit down and make applesauce! The girls were just beside themselves that we were going to make homemade applesauce and even more giddy when I told them they could help! We set down to the table with a big bowl of mixed apples (I've heard that makes a better sauce) and I commenced to peeling and coring them.... note my pretty "new" 1950's Pyrex bowl? I just love quality made vintage! ;) Oh, and I already have an apple peeler, slicer, corer on my list of things to get! lol

....after I was done, I'd pass the apples off to my helpers who were armed with their own little cutting boards and butter knives. (We had cold water in the pot we were adding the apples to to keep them from browning) The cutting kept them pretty busy and we just sat, all three working on apples and visiting. And while I can't remember any particular conversations that stand out to me, we had the nicest time just chatting and working together....it was so enjoyable!

When the apples had all been transferred from my pretty bowl to the large soup pot, I poured the water off, added about an inch of water to the bottom of the pot, threw on a lid and put it on high heat till it really got cooking and then turned it down to a medium heat and kept stirring it occasionally...eventually this is what we got! It really was like magic!

I added some sugar and cinnamon for taste and just kept stirring till it looked like this!

....wait for it....

Can you hear it?

The angels were singing....it was HEAVENLY!!!!

When I asked the girls what they thought....as they were stuffing their faces with warm applesauce.... J responded "It's mag-na-fic!" (like on Ratatouille) and then added in " It's better than I could imagine Mom!"

The smile on their faces and the smell that filled my home made it SO worth the mess of apple scraps that littered my floor...I am learning time and time again that it's the joy we find in the little things that seems to last forever. I hope these are memories that the girls will look back on and want to recreate with their kids someday....

What are some memories you have with your loved ones? Were they the big flashing ones, or the simple ones like this? I'd love to hear!

Another Texas outing

While our time here is dwindling fast, we are trying to fit in a few last minute trips to places nearby. When we went to by our trailer, we went thru some of the coolest little towns and knew we just had to got back and check them out! This was one of them!

This place had some of the best food I've had at a little dinner in a long time...so much better than what we'd have gotten in a fast food joint! As we were walking out, we got ot talking to a gentleman and he said that when the inspectors come thru once a year, this place always gets the highest marks and no markdowns! That made me feel even better about the lunch we'd just had! It was SO yummy!

We found some really great old signs (reproductions but still very cool) that I hope to put up in our new kitchen once we move!

I love the little details of a small old town!