Seventeen

"It was November  -- the month of crimson sunsets parting birds, deep, sad hymns of the sea, passionate wind songs in the pines. Anne roamed through the pineland alleys in the park and, as she said, let that great wind blow the fogs out of her soul."

~ L.M. Montgomery

It was my Seventeenth Birthday yesterday and besides being sick it was really nice :)

I went to school despite feeling terrible but I didn't last long, I left soon after 12 and had a long nap at my Grandparents house! Not really what I expected to do on my Birthday but all in all it was wonderful day. I actually have the pleasure of having the same birthday as my Auntie Jaye who spent hers in Maui (so jealous)!! The temperature dropped to minus 30 the other day which was quite the shock and then proceeded to be plus 4-6 this weekend -- that's Canadian weather for you.

For supper I had my grandparents and my cousin Bretley as well as her husband Martin come over and after a dinner of turkey, salads and french bread we had the amazing chocolate cake! It's taken from one of the recipes in Jan Karon's Mitford series, Lew Boyd's Chocolate Cake and it is seriously CHOCOLATE. I think my mom said there is something like a pound of dark chocolate in the icing alone! Apparently my mom had made it before when we were younger but it was too much for us then -- I think our taste buds have matured a bit since then!

I was lucky enough to get a FujiFilm instant camera 210 from my parents as a gift! I can't wait to experiment with a film camera! I also got a spritz cookie press and a stainless steel pastry bag with assorted tips from my grandparents -- first thing I'm going to make, french macaroons, they've been on my top baking to do list for a long time. I also got some lovely cards from a variety of friends and family. Thank you to all of you who got me something for my Birthday :) it did not go unappreciated.

Tonight my friend Jadin is hosting a Halloween party slash Birthday party for me with some of our girlfriends at school. I'm expecting there will be a lot of giggling and movie watching!

Anyway, I hope you have an amazing rest of the weekend :)

A Winter Day

Wide, sparkling fields snow-vestured lie.

Beneath a blue, unshadowed sky;

A glistening splendor crowns the woods

And bosky, whistling solitudes;

In hemlock glen and reedy mere

The tang of frost is sharp and clear;

Life hath a jollity and zest,

A poignancy made manifest;

Laughter and courage have their way

At noontide of a winter's day.

~ L.M. Montgomery ~

The brief fall season has ended here in Northern Alberta and in it's wake came a winter wonderland. It seems to me that we don't usually have snow before Halloween but alas all the trumpet's of the sky have announced the snow. 

Recently we have acquired two little cats and have been a little traumatized by the attention of two great big dogs. Mom and I have christened them Dot and Edith! Their proper English cats :) That's what Seth is distracted by, it took awhile to get a shot of him because they were both riled up.

This afternoon mom and I have tackled the dining room wallpaper and it's looks lovely! After attempting to do the master bedroom wall a week or so before we moved in, we have been rather reluctant to do this room with more expensive paper. 

And with almost no mishaps with the wallpaper I think this has been a pretty productive day, even if I didn't get in the shower till 4!

My lovely Grandparents after being in the city this past week for a couple of days and were able to stop by IKEA to get some table legs for my desk…hopefully that will be up before next weekend.

Tomorrow is church and then it's our Great Grandma's 91st birthday party!

Well I'm going to have some tea and sit down and admire our wallpaper :)

Have a good week!

Pinterest Inspiration 4

1. Unknown 2. Unknown 3. Muitaihania 4. chezjolly from etsy 5. chocolate and carrots 6. Who What Wear / Vanessa Jackman 7. Unknown 8. A Cup of Jo 9. Marc Johns

What with the reappearance of snow and the lack of daylight to take pictures with after I get home from school, I must admit the view from where I sit has been rather gray. So far I've contented myself with the fact that November is coming and with it the start of something like the Holidays and that it's been almost a year since I've read Pride and Prejudice so therefore my vintage copy is begging to be read again. 

1. I love the typography of this first quote, I may not know what I want to become as far as after school, but I just have to satisfy myself with today and what I've become since the beginning of High School -- and  I think I like who I am becoming :)

2. The mood of this watercolour, coupled with the colours helps personify the mood of clashing winter and fall. 

3. I love this crocheted blanket! I think this will definitely be the pattern for my first blanket that I make <3

4. Someday I will walk the streets of Paris and Southern France and take beautiful pictures of beautiful buildings like this one.

5. This cake. Chocolate Raspberry Forest cake…I didn't know what I was going to have for my birthday dessert but this is definitely in the running -- it's competing with pumpkin cheesecake so I don't know we'll see which one prevails!

6. I love this outfit, I kind of did my own spin on it for my thanksgiving outfit but without the collar and with tights :) so cute.

7. "I love you to the moon and back" I remember when we would say this to our parents as they were tucking us in except we would go back and forth with things like, "I love you to South Africa and around the world 20 times and to the sun and back." haha

8. I'm thinking this will be my november challenge. Red lips everyday. 

9. This last picture has to be the epitome of ME, "Sometimes the only thing left to do is put on your favourite striped sweater and get on with the day," except it's "favourite striped dress" or "favourite striped shirt" etc. Sometimes thats what I have to do to get through the day.

Anyways have a good week <3 Oh and tell me what your going to be for Halloween…I'm thinking of being Twiggy -- the inspiration for chopping off my hair :)

Thanksgiving

 This was the first year we had Thanksgiving at our house, me and mom were in charge of the desserts which included pumpkin pie (of course), pecan tarts and pumpkin magic bars. There was about 20 of us including Christian who was able to come up this weekend bringing our family number back to 6. All in all it was a fun weekend full of family and food :)

Sadly the frost has turned to snow! We were warned this week via the weather network that we were going to have a dreary week full of rain and flurries and then this morning we woke up to a couple of centimetres of snow and the trees covered in hoar frost. It's not expected to stay but it was quite the shock nonetheless and it doesn't give us solace to know that 6 or 7 months of this is ahead!

Anyway I hope all you Canadians had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I am grateful for my family, my saviour and the beautiful country we live in :)

P.S. I was planning on taking more pictures of the upstairs in our house but I didn't seem to get around to it - plus my siblings room's looked like a bomb had gone off in them…not really picture material!

Blogger Envy - The Clothes Horse

I follow only a short amount of blogs, perhaps 20 or so and they all pass a mental, subconscious test which in turn catches my attention and in only a short time span I'm hooked. This subliminal exam has since now escaped me, I have only since found out the criteria in which I evaluate the kind of blogs that I love. 

I have found that I'm drawn towards bloggers whose photography is beautiful and intriguing, their writing is a quality in which I look to emulate, who continually make me inspired either with their words or their content. It's a strange thought to know that somehow I'm being drawn to blogs and similarly vlogs on YouTube that fit my own unconscious examinations. For example it has come to my attention that many of my favourite bloggers/vloggers share my own faith. 

Maybe your under the same illusion I was, that the internet in it's vastness only contained non-religious people, however friendly they may be. It seems silly to think of it now, how I just assumed people were not Christians. I'm not entirely ignorant of the fact that their are many Christians in this world and why not have them produce content that I enjoy to read/look at on blogger. 

More precisely, perhaps, I thought that I would not find people who share my own interests and talents as well as share my faith. Besides my own family I have met few people who qualify in those regards.  Maybe that is why I find it strange the number of people I have grown to love on the internet who have all fit into that mold. 

One of the blogs which I have been following for quite some time now continually inspires me. Her life which has been spent moving from place to place, and the places/adventures that she goes on seem to mirror my own favourite characters in books, as if she too was a female heroine in a novel. Abandoned train cars, barns, pathways and amusement parks have become the setting of most of her pictures. Her ability to catch an almost ethereal beauty in her photography and outfits is amazing. It could be her pixie cut, or her petite frame, but she often reminds me of a little pixie or nymph herself. She very rarely wears pants, flouncing about in twirly dresses which generally assume the same silhouette. The quality of her writing is enviable, she seems to express certain feelings and emotions that I have experienced as well upon occasion and have tried and failed to express into words myself.

Her name is Rebecca from The Clothes Horse, her charming blog which in my understanding has been up for a number of years, inspires me everyday to improve upon my own writing abilities, continue experimenting with the pictures I take and the different outfits that I wear.

The pictures above are photographed by her friend Jon, who is also an amazing writer, and comes from a post called, That Girl, it's beautifully written and you should all go and check out her blog for more. 

"Everyone knows the one; a fey creature that seems spun out of myth instead of reality like the rest of us. You spot her in the middle of a crowd or on a busy subway platform passing you as she gets on and you get off…You don't know what it is exactly that catches your eye, maybe it's the way she smiles as if she has a secret she's never shared with anyone, or maybe it's the way she moves as if air was water and you can't really describe her appearance or clothes except to say they're somehow an extension of herself…It's unlikely you will cross the expanse of strangers or subway platforms or barren sand to form an introduction, so instead she remains a distant figure that haunts your memory long after she slips beyond your sight…Most of the time I want to be myself--more of an observer than someone hoping to be seen, noticed, remembered...But sometimes I want to be that girl the one that catches your eye--and in those times sequins seem appropriate, even at a river's edge."

Pinterest Inspiration 3

1. Visionary Dreams 2. PariDesigns on Etsy 3. Unknown 4. An Edible Mosaic

The nights and days are getting crisper, we've been spending our evenings sitting round a fire, whittling in Calder's case, listening to a playlist of Andrew Belle, Birdy, The Fray and Dean Martin in my case whilst talking to dad and begging for attention in Seth and Ezra's case. It's been a good start of the week after a wonderful long weekend of shopping, a wedding shoot and family!

I love this outfit post by Danielle of Visonary Dreams, it's very fall esque. The cotton ball garland is a bit early but I can't help getting excited/dreaming about Christmas in our new house and this Chocolate Hazelnut custard looks so invitingly delicious. 

Well I hope you have a wonderful week and that you "dwell in possibility," the endless possibilities of pumpkin desserts perhaps ;)

A Warm Fall Day

A high of at least 30 degrees, I'm afraid this was the last day of "summer" in the midst of September. It was of course a couple of weekends ago, for it has been rather windy and cold of late. The chilly evening air is threaded through with silver from our warm breath, nipping our ears and leaving our fingers swollen, the farmers are collecting their harvest and school is in full swing. However this is the time to indulge in pumpkin…everything, drink hot chocolate by the fire and take long walks with a sweater, mittens and a chunky scarf. Fall is definitely my favourite season by far! 

I have a week full of tests to look forward to but on a better note it's a long weekend and we're going to the city for my cousins wedding which will be very nice! Can't wait to see everybody :)