Sunday, November 13, 2011

Unfortunately, it would appear that I cannot sew on this blog...

... so my living room continues to be full of fabric.  Also, Joann's had a really good sale this weekend, so a little more fabric came into my life.  This weekend, I cut fabric to make pillowcases, so I will post a picture when they are done.  I am doing a craft fair next weekend in hopes of selling said pillowcases, but if I don't I will donate them to Conkerr Cancer, a non-profit here in Philly that donates pillowcases to children fighting cancer.  The pillowcases dress up their hospital beds during their stay.  It sounds simple, but some of the best things are!

Other than that, not much happened this weekend.  I watched some wonderfully sappy Hallmark movies (Christmas has started on the Hallmark channel), and got in touch with some people who I have been neglecting.  It's amazing to me that I constantly put off calling, e-mailing, or good-old-fashioned writing the people I don't see everyday, and yet it makes me so happy to hear about their lives.  I also made plans to see the upcoming Twilight movie with some friends.  I love those ridiculous movies and I cannot wait to see them with the two friends that will appreciate the silliness with me.

My husband surprised me yesterday morning by wanting to come out to do some errands with me.  I was shocked, because the errands were boring and really didn't involve him.  We had a blast together, though.  We went out to lunch and even got some Christmas shopping done.  It felt good to be with him.  It was like a date, even though we were only going to do some silly errands.

As stressed as I might get sometimes, life is good.  God is good.  Little lingonberries are everywhere.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

A Creative Spot (That doesn't take over my living room...)

Hello world!  This is my very first entry on "Life's Little Lingonberries," a space I designed to be fun and creative place for me to write about my life, both the fun-and-creative part of it and not.  I promise (and for all I know, no one is reading this, so this is a promise to myself) to use this space as creative space only (and not as an angst-y, complain-y space).

What should I write about in my first entry?  Well, maybe I should say why I am calling this blog "Life's Little Lingonberries."  First of all, I was raised in a household that celebrates our Swedish heritage and one of the fabulous things about being Swedish is lingonberries.  For all of you non-Swedes, lingonberries are little red berries that taste a little like cranberries and, among other great uses, are candied to make lingonberry jam.  Lingonberry jam tastes fantastic with things like Swedish pancakes, Swedish meatballs, Luda... you know... yummy things.

Before Ikea (where you can buy lingonberry jam at the food market), lingonberries were hard to come by.  Even though I can now have lingonberry jam whenever I want (we live within 15 minutes of an Ikea), I still save it for special occasions.  It tastes like special Christmas Eves, and sleepy Saturday mornings when my cousins had slept over the night before, and the occasional Swedish meatball slow cooker dinner on a cold winter night.  In short, lingonberries are special.

I have decided to make an earnest attempt in my life to start looking for the simple, special things in my life, both the ones that I stumble upon and those that I create for myself and I am going to be thankful for them.  Wish me luck as I find Life's Little Lingonberries... I encourage you to find your own.