Wednesday Hodgepodge: Eleven is not just a TV character

Here are the questions for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog then hop back to From This Side of the Pond to add your link to the list. 

1. It's the 11th day of the 11th month and bloggers often make lists on days like today. Let's go with a list of eleven things you're feeling grateful for today.

In no particular order:

1 Computer, Internet service, and electricity to run it

2 A writing project to keep me busy

3 Vitamins

4 Chihuahuas wearing Santa Claus suits

5 Freezer that works better than the one we had at our apartment

6 Frederick, the mouse who stored up colours

7 Chocolate covered raisins

8 Thrifted sweaters

9 Not needing to buy new glasses this year

10 Books still out there to be read

11 Shoes.

2. What's something you decided to do or act on at the '11th hour'?  

The above-mentioned writing project, something I decided to start a few days ago but which needs to be finished quickly. So why am I working on this instead? Wednesday habits, I guess.

3.  Apparently the Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe contains 11 herbs and spices. What's a dish you make that calls for exactly eleven ingredients? Feel free to share the list and/or recipe. 

OK, I'll bite, I thought, and started browsing through past posts with recipes. Most of them, unsurprisingly, called for fewer ingredients, because that's the way we roll here. I did find a recipe we had made once for Cinnamon Cake, and when you add in our own suggestion of nutmeg, it adds up to eleven.

Then I found one we've made more often: Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies, and these are not-your-average-oatmeal-cookies, but totally worth the making. And there you go, eleven ingredients. Don't skip the coarse salt, kay?

And I just noticed that Pumpkin Pie also calls for 11 ingredients, if you count the pie crust as one ingredient and don't count the whipped cream on top.

4. Something you remember about your 11-year old self?

Not a place I revisit too regularly, but okay. Late 1970's, fifth to sixth grade, the year of a house move. It was the first year I remember wearing blue jeans as school clothes. We jumped rope, played outside, and watched Happy Days and Little House on the Prairie as if they were religious rites.

Enough for today. More on From This Side of the Pond.

Quote for the day: These, too, give praise

"So, too, do honest, simple souls who bear affliction willingly, or who live their appointed lives with the sense that they are appointed. All of these ways of giving praise we recognise and bow before; but the duty would seem to pass us by as incompetent persons. We are not angels, we carry no harps. But the duty of praise is not for occasional or rare seasons; it waits at our doors every day." (Charlotte Mason, Ourselves, Book II)

Wednesday Hodgepodge: Less Nasty and Mean

 It's time to ask the weekly Wednesday Hodgepodge questions.  Come on in...it's a friendly space. Answer the questions on your own blog, then hop back to From This Side of the Pond to add your link to the party. 

1. How do you define peace? 

"....I wish to place on record that I am in unrepayable debt to Francis of Assisi, for when I pray his prayer [Make me an instrument of Thy peace], or even remember it, my melancholy is dispelled, my self-pity comes to an end, my faith is restored, because of this majestic conception of what the work of a disciple should be.

"So majestic is this conception that one dare no longer be sorry for oneself. This world ceases to be one's enemy and becomes the place where one lives and works and serves. Life is no longer nasty, mean, brutish, and short, but becomes the time that one needs to make it less nasty and mean, not only for others, but indeed also for oneself." (Alan Paton, Instrument of Thy Peace)

2. November 3rd is Election Day in the US of A, but did you know it's also National Sandwich Day? Let's vote, shall we? egg salad or tuna salad? chicken salad or grilled chicken on a bun? peanut butter and jelly or a bagel with cream cheese? turkey and swiss or ham and cheddar? grilled cheese or pimento cheese? roast beef-corned beef-or make mine veggie? 

Peanut butter is always good, and grilled cheese is classic. But if I were going all out I'd order a sub with mozzarella and black olives.

3. When did you last say (or feel) 'no rest for the weary'? 

I usually prefer the Mitford version: "No rest for the wicked, and the righteous don't need none."

4. This time last year, where were you?

Here, most likely. The fourth of November was a Monday, so I was probably getting started on the week's work in my last university course. (I was learning online before everybody was learning online.) 

5. Share a favorite song, verse, or quote featuring the word 'peace'. 

"People who are anxious, confused, and looking for answers are quick to search for solutions in the pages of books or on the Internet, looking for that 'killer app' that will make everything right again. The Rule [of St. Benedict] tells us: No, it's not like that. You can achieve the peace and order you seek only by making a place within your heart and within your daily life for the grace of God to take root." (Rod Dreher, The Benedict Option)

Linked from The Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond

An Artful Story (with clothes)

Part One: Don't Overthink This 

It's late fall, and she's trying to build a winter-wearing plan.

She realizes that the colours and the outfits she came up with for early fall aren't going to change much. And since she's not going to the Arctic, most of what she's already wearing will still work through the winter.

But it's always interesting to curate things a bit, maybe find new connections.

Part Two: Winter is somewhere between September and spring

She decides to try something that's worked for her before: choosing Canadian paintings as inspiration. A familiar one by a Group of Seven artist, and a new favourite seen at an antiques market.

Arthur Lismer, A September Gale, Georgian Bay (1921)

Donald Mackay Houstoun, Approaching Spring

She and her spouse both noticed the Houstoun picture, and they agree that it's a) amazing but b) way out of their budget. Oh well, she thinks, she will probably be able to visit it again there, since it's not likely to be flying off the wall at that price.

Part Three: Walking Backwards

The normal way to plan a wardrobe is to pick clothes, make outfits, and add accessories to match, right? But she has always been one to do things the wrong way round.

This thrifted scarf, she now thinks of as the September Gale scarf.

This one (from an antiques market) is the "Houstoun original."

And this one is Houstoun #2, with the dark leaves from September Gale thrown in.

("Poetic Nature Foliage" pink scarf from Northern Reflections)

Pink earrings like the rocks and the hills (thrifted)

Blue earrings like the sky (thrifted)

Green earrings like the waves (thrifted, gallery gift shop, and antiques market)

Teal and white bracelets (Fierce Lynx Designs)

Purse (thrifted)

Grey and pink scarf/shawl (thrifted)

 

Necklace (thrifted)

Part Four: What goes underneath

The Vivienne Files recently wrote about 21-piece capsule wardrobes, so she decides to go with that idea.

4 cardigans and pullovers

Teal-green zippered fleece shawl/poncho (thrifted). This is a multiway piece of clothing, one of those magic garments with snaps that can zip, unzip, and turn it into almost anything, like a wrap top. She appreciates the fact that it was designed and made in Canada.

Grey and blue long cardigan (thrifted for a whole dollar)

Another grey cardigan (thrifted)

Cotton cable-knit pullover (consignment store four years ago)

11 button-ups, turtlenecks, and t-shirts

4 pairs of pants (jeans, cords, and leggings)

 1 sweater dress

1 denim skirt

Hmm...21 pieces? She looks carefully at what she has and what she's likely to be wearing, and decides to add three more:

Blue and white striped shirt (thrifted), because it's useful

Khaki pants (thrifted), because sometimes she wants a lighter colour

Purple jersey dress (thrifted), because sometimes she wants something not so grey

Outerwear and shoes (not counted) 

Jean jacket (thrifted)

Warm jacket, muffler, hat, gloves, snow boots

Ankle boots (Walmart clearance last year)

Arcopedico flat shoes (thrifted)

Allbirds Mizzles

Making Outfits

The end of the story

They live three-quarters of an hour from an outdoor flea market. On the weekend before it closes for the season, her spouse says, "Let's go one last time. Maybe there will be some good deals." 

It turns out to be a shivery morning, but one thing she spots hanging on a rack of pictures makes it all worthwhile:

 Yes, for less than the cost of a Dinner for Two with Spring Rolls, she now has a print of Lismer's September Gale. Her spouse cleaned the frame a bit (because he's nice like that), and it's now hanging over her workspace computer.

And the Houstoun can stay where it is.

Quote for the day: Face to faith

"The word imagination means "to face"—to visualize an image, to almost make the thought concrete from within. The power of reasoning and the power of imagining go hand in hand. The power of reason without imagination tends to make us materialists and unable to understand faith."

"Rightly taught, every subject gives fuel to the imagination, and without imagination, no subject can be rightly followed....We do not tell the tales, we know we cannot, we read them as well as we know how and without comment, unless questions are asked. We rely upon the imagination of the children to work upon this material until it becomes theirs, and I think we do not deceive ourselves by so doing."

E.A. Parish in The Parents' Review

Wednesday Hodgepodge: The Cream in my Coffee

It's the Wednesday Hodgepodge! Answer the questions on your own blog then hop back to From This Side of the Pond (click the graphic) to share answers with the rest of the world.

 

1. When is the last time you experienced nostalgia?

Probably a couple of days ago when we visited an outdoor flea market.

2. September 29th is National Coffee Day. Do we need this? Ha! So are you a coffee drinker? If so how many cups per day, and tell us how you like it. Is there a recipe you enjoy that calls for coffee as one of the ingredients? 

In spite of the fact that I love teapots, I am more of a coffee drinker. Those who believe in nature would say that it seems to run in my family. On the nurture end, I spent my early years living around the corner from a Tim Horton's doughnut shop (when there were less than ten in existence), so maybe that counts for something.

One of my favourite holiday recipes was originally called Coffeeberry Loaf, but it doesn't have any coffee in it. I sometimes use coffee as the liquid in chocolate cupcakes. We made these Cappuccino Thumbprints a few times for special occasions.

If you missed the National Coffee Day, it appears you can still enjoy International Coffee Day on October 1st. Looks like we just can't get enough coffee commemoration.

3. Do you find praise or criticism to be more motivating? Explain. 

Not sure about that. Praise is, obviously, less painful. It would depend on where the criticism comes from and if it's based on something real and/or something I have any control over.

4.  What's a television series you keep coming back to and re-watching? 

When we were at the flea market, I bought a copy of this 1996 tribute to PBS Mystery. We have watched a LOT of those shows over the years, but there are some others in the book that we've never seen. One page of the book shows a list of episodes by season, and Mr. Fixit thinks it would be interesting to start at the beginning (in 1980) and watch through them all in order (to 1996), at least the ones we can find, which would mean starting with She Fell Among Thieves and probably working through a lot of Rumpole of the Bailey before getting back to Inspector Morse and the final Sherlock Holmes episodes.. Last night we watched one from the Partners in Crime miniseries (Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence).

5. As the month of September draws to a close give us three words to describe your mood.

It feels slightly profane, though not untruthful, to make it "Come Lord Jesus."

Something less heavy?

"Stay Sidelined, Snow." Hoping for some good October weather.

Linked from The Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond

Yet another three-dollar thrifting trip, or six if you like sequins, I mean really really like sequins

 Long blue and grey acrylic cardigan from the dollar rack, very fall-2020-cozy-style

Another fall table runner, two dollars. Needs some freshening, but that's okay.

So okay, I did spend another three dollars on the same trip, when I saw a  beaded, sequined silk Oleg Cassini disco-era sweater, discounted from four dollars to three. I don't usually thrift clothes to resell, but for this I made an exception.

I like the nightlife, I like to boogie

This Old Thing (Part One)

"This old thing? Why, I only wear it when I don't care how I look." (It's a Wonderful Life)

Appreciation of our stuff is often a matter of perspective.

One of our kids, at a very tiny age, watched the rest of us wrapping Christmas presents, and wanted to play too. Within the next hour, a number of gift bags appeared under the Christmas tree, filled with everyone's socks and underwear.

I can imagine that there are circumstances where clean socks and underwear would be very welcome! At any rate, we tried to affirm the good intentions of our little "giver." "Socks! Just my size! Thank you!"

So imagine that you have received a wrapped gift with something in it that you already own, maybe something you're on the fence about keeping, or something that's been a bit neglected. Or that you scored it through an online auction, and it has just arrived with all the "It's for me, happy day" dopamine you get when the package truck pulls up. How do you respond?

"A sweater! Look at those nice buttons! And it's my favourite shade of blue."

"I love this teapot! Where would be a good place to display it?"

"This was, like, my favourite book ever. I can't wait to read it again."

Or, in a nod to 2020, "Oh, a whole jar of yeast! How did you know? Rolls for dinner, for sure." 

Whatever it is: hang it in a good spot. Put it on the table. Make something with it.  Mend or glue it, if it needs it. Post its picture on your social media. Show it some love and appreciation.

And see, you didn't need to spend a dime.