Special Birthday Thanks

I wanted to give a special thank you to my sweet Kyla who made these decorations for my birthday party. They are scattered all over the house. 

 And thank you to these two for showing up...

Birthday Cake flavoured Vodka and Chocolate Wine - my party wouldn't have been the same without you. 

My 40th Birthday

Well, my 40th birthday came and went and I'm still alive. I actually don't feel any different than I did before. That's a good thing, though. I was afraid that I would start to feel and act my age. The truth is, I feel like I'm still in my twenties, but with my eyes wide open. 


Will threw me a birthday barbecue. We had some friends over for food and drink and lots of laughs. Here are a few photos from that night:

Party favors

The backyard

My wonderful friends

 The best part of my birthday was that my sister came down to visit. 

She came the night before my birthday and stayed for four days. It was so fun to have her here. I took her to the farmers' market, my favourite thrift store and Green Chutes. We also get tattoos. 

This one is mine. 

The five dots represent Will and my kids. 

This is Erica's tattoo.

Our tattoos are similar but different and together...

they fit. (As Erica pointed out, this perfectly represents us.)

 I had such a wonderful weekend. If I had known that turning 40 was going to be this awesome, I wouldn't have worried about it all year. 

What I Learned from Great Expectations

“a most excellent man, though I could have wished his trousers not quite so tight in some places and not quite so loose in others.”

For the past two Sundays on Masterpiece Theatre on PBS, I watched a recent adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. I hadn't planned on watching it. I had already read the book in college and seen my favourite version of it (the loosely based movie of the same name with Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert DeNiro and Anne Bancroft) a hundred times. But Sunday evening came along and I was too lazy to change the channel. It was the one time that my laziness paid off because after the first couple of minutes, I was hooked. It was so well done. And I had forgotten what a great story Great Expectations is. It's amazing that a book that was originally published 150 years ago can still bring so much meaning to our world today.

So, here are a few things that I learned from Great Expectations:

• Be true to yourself because pretending to be something you're not will not bring happiness (or fool anyone).
• Revenge and bitterness only hurts yourself.
• Be kind to everyone because you never know when you might meet them again (and possibly become your benefactor).
• Money can't buy love or impress others.
• Lies have a way of coming out in the end.
• Clothes do not make the man (or woman).
• Great expectations only come with honesty and hard work.

After watching this two part series, I'm really tempted to read the book again. Well, at the very least, watch the second part of the movie again this Wednesday when PBS replays it.

“If you can't get to be uncommon through going straight, you'll never get to do it through going crooked. [...] live well and die happy.”

“Herbert received me with open arms, and I had never felt before so blessedly what it is to have a friend. When he had spoken some sound words of sympathy and encouragement, we sat down to consider the question, What was to be done?”

Trying to find peace in this crazy mixed up world...

I don't know that I've ever felt inner peace before. I think the closest I ever got was a few years ago when I got depressed and hit a certain point between normal and full on depression where I just didn't give a crap anymore. It was actually quite liberating. Nothing bothered me because I stopped caring. People, things, situations are always making me angry and frustrated. Today I had a bit of an epiphany. This afternoon I was reading a blog post on Etsy and I read through the comments that were made. A lot of them were not pleasant and some were even downright mean. I also got one of my school assignments back. I was not happy about some of the comments my instructor made. And then it hit me:

• Less than perfect people will always judge me.
• There will always be those who try to get away with things that go against what is proper behavior.
• There will always be people who try to convince you that their opinions are the right ones and jam it down your throat.
• There are people who just don't know how to be nice.

So out of that I made the following decisions:

• I will let my money do the talking for me. If I don't agree with a company or the way something is made (or the false pretenses behind it), I won't buy it.
• If someone I know uses social media to make passive aggressive threats (towards me or anyone else) or to continuously use it as a way to claim that their opinions are the only right ones, then I will block that person so that their words won't upset me.
• I will be the best that I can be. It's OK to not be perfect because I know that I have done my very best.
• Not everyone has to like me and I don't have to like everyone.
• To be patient because people will eventually learn in their own time.

I can't say that I won't get angry or frustrated again. I know me too well. However, I want to try to learn to be more calm because I don't want to end up on a therapist's couch again.

Start each day by affirming peaceful, contented, and happy attitudes and your days will tend to be pleasant and successful. Such attitudes are active and definite factors in creating satisfactory conditions. Watch your manner of speech then if you wish to develop a peaceful state of mind. – Norman Vincent Peale

Happy Leap Day!

I've always thought that Leap Day was a bit spooky. It shows up for a few hours then it's gone for years before it shows up again. It's very Brigadoon-esque. I keep waiting for something magical to happen, but it never does. It ends up being just another day. When I was in grade ten, there was a boy in my math class who's birthday is February 29th. We were all fascinated by this and asked him all kinds of questions about how he celebrates his birthday. Then, of course, we had to tease him that he was really only a few years old since, technically, his birthday only came every four years. He was a good sport and laughed along with us. I'm sure he was used to trying to explain his very rare birth date.

So, on this rare day, I will honour the occasion with a blog post. (That's kind of magical, isn't it?)

I've been working on some more embroidery pieces to put in my Etsy shop. These two are my favourites:

I used yarn to make the french knots so that the clouds and the sheep wool really stand out. It gives the pieces really great texture.

It's time to start making my upcycled skirts and shirts again so yesterday I hit the thrift store. I have two favourites: the Idaho Youth Ranch, because the money stays in the state and helps troubled kids, and the Northwest Animal Companion thrift shop because I love to help the animals. I always find some great stuff and yesterday I found a great collection of fabrics, including these:

These are some colourful, silky fabrics. I inherited my mother-in-law's serger which I am so grateful for. Her death has been hard and I still really miss her. I think I'll use the serger to make some fun spring time scarves.

I also found this maple leaf fabric that I couldn't leave behind. It's a heavy duck cloth.

Today Moira had a Power Point presentation at school on Abigail Adams. Liam and I went to see it.

Waiting...

Moira giving her presentation

Moira's classroom

The other day I looked out my sewing room window and saw that my bulbs are starting to poke their heads up again. I was so excited! Spring must be just around the corner.

Sorry for all the wonky fonts and alignments. Blogger isn't cooperating and it's making my posts look odd. :(

Some Randomness

Nothing too terribly exciting is happening, but here are a few random things that have been going on at our house.

In January, Moira had a duct tape project for school. She had to make something then make a Power Point presentation about it. She chose to make a skirt from an on-line tutorial. We had to modify it so that it fit better and put some darts in the back.

Will made the kids a brand new sandbox a few weekends ago. The kids love it and go out there almost every day. Which means that sand gets tracked into the house almost every day.

Will made a light weight cover for the sandbox so that the kids can still take it on and off.

I've been doing embroidery off and on for years. I mostly made stuff just for me, but lately I've been doing a lot more.

This is a drawing of Mrs. Puff Puff that Kyla made and left on my work table. I transferred the image and her signature on to some fabric and embroidered on it for Kyla for Christmas.

This is another piece that I made after being totally frustrated with the constant laundry there always seem to have.

Here are some other designs that I embroidered. Some I put in my Etsy shop and some I took down to Green Chutes.

This piece sold over the weekend.

The other day we had a full moon. I love the way it was showing through the bare willow tree in our neighbour's yard.

I completed this pillow the other day. It's made out of recycled t-shirts and sheets. Not sure if I'll list it our take it down to Green Chutes.

So, that's about it for the Taylor/Rogers household. Always keeping busy.

On Turning 40

You're not 40, you're eighteen with 22 years experience.

~Author Unknown

Since Will's birthday last week, I haven't been able to stop thinking about my own impending birthday. Mostly because I will be forty this year. I'll have lived approximately half my life. It's an uncomfortable thought as I feel like I haven't even begun to live my life. There are so many things that I would still love to do, like have a career and travel. My life hasn't turned out anything like I thought it would. If my twenty year-old self could see me now, I think she would faint.

In no particular order, here is a brief list of the direction my life has gone in as compared to where I thought I would be:

• I'm living in the States. I swore I would never leave Canada except to visit. Boy, has that bit me in the butt. Not only did I leave, but I've been gone for a very long time.
• I gave birth to four children which is four more than I ever thought I would. I never wanted kids, let alone go through the nasty pregnancy and labour process. Plus, I have a son. A SON! I imagined that maybe I would have a daughter, but she would be adopted. Little did I know that when I was twenty-eight, the thought of having my own children didn't seem quite so bad after all.
• I've been married - twice! I never really pictured myself as being attached to someone, let alone twice.
• I still don't have my degree. I'm on my third attempt at achieving that. I swore that I would be thirty at the oldest when I got my degree.
• And that brings me to no career. I always pictured myself as rich and a work driven person. And that brings me to...
• I'm a stay-at-home mom. WHAT?!
• I also never thought that I would want to be around my family. I pictured myself leaving the nest and never turning back. I always thought that familial piety was something to be spit on. Now I think about how much I miss them and want to be near them. I also want to be able to take care of my parents when they are no longer able to do it themselves and to be a good aunt to my nieces and nephews. It's hard to do that living so far away.
• I live in small town suburbia on half an acre with chickens and a couple of big dogs (and cats, but I always knew I would have cats). I pictured myself living in a posh apartment or small house in an exclusive neighbourhood in Vancouver. And because I've lived in small towns since moving to the States, I've also had to learn how to drive. That was never on the top of my priority list.

There are other little things too, like, I like to sew now and I like refried beans and hummus. I've also had to add some new words to my vocabulary. Words like "diet", "calories", and "exercise" and phrases like "anti-wrinkle cream" and "Clean your room". Yikes!

Do I have any regrets? No, I don't. I love my husband more than I thought I was capable of and my children are a constant wonder and delight to me. I have wonderful friends and a comfortable home. The only thing I do feel bad about is not being nearer my family. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to spend more time with my grandma and step-mom before they both passed away. I miss my parents and my sister and my Nana and would like to see them more than I do. I would also like to be able to travel. I want to see exotic places and how other people live. I'm sorry that I haven't had more opportunities to do so.

Let's see what happens in the next forty years.