Valarie Budayr's Blog, page 118

My Favorite Christmas Memory: I'm in the Book!

 

As an official co-author of The Gratitude Book Project: My Favorite Christmas Memory, I want to share my appreciation with you!  

 I was so excited to take part in this book. It happily extends my gratitude practice through my love of writing while remembering my familie's traditions. Yesterday we celebrated the Swedish/Scandinavian tradition of St. Lucia. When thinking about my contribution for the book, I really wanted to capture this family held celebration not only for my children but to help set the holiday spirit for all. Bringing light to the darkest time of year via a maiden dressed in white wearing a crown of candles on her head is the beginning of our holiday celebrations.

 

 The Gratitude Book Project: My Favorite Christmas Memory is stuffed full of surprises in this heart-warming collection of holiday memories that will put you in the spirit of the season.

The book gives you a peek inside the miracle a stranger brought to a single mom's door and will delight with the joy one dollar and six plastic elves created for an entire family. Everything old will feel new again when you get caught up in a 5-year-old's vision of Santa—from the window of a plane. 

 

It makes a great holiday gift for friends and family and is one that can be enjoyed throughout the year; with the added benefit of reminding us all to take the time to count our blessings each day.

 

Many of us have discovered that recognizing and expressing gratitude out loud and often can be a life changing practice. I hope you will join me in being a part of keeping gratitude in motion, not just during the traditional holiday season, but throughout the year.

 

The Gratitude Book Project® series proudly donates its net proceeds from retail sales to the following worthwhile charities:

 

Feeding America
Women for Women International
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (A.S.P.C.A.)

 

I hope you will join me in supporting these organizations and creating an epidemic of gratitude by purchasing one or two copies for yourself, your friends, family, or colleagues. You can find your copy here,"The Gratitude Book Project: My Favorite Christmas Memory." 

 

 

Happy St. Lucia Day

Today a lovely maident with a crown of candles in her hair brings light, song, and sweets during the darkest time of the year. We are celebrating with our Rhythm of the Home family today. Please come and join us.

photo from Image Swedebank

Woven

 

It begins with each one of us just being who we are. Bringing ourselves, our knowledge, and our passions.

 

 

It starts simply. A comment on a blog leads to a daily visit, a recipe shared, a book recommended, and knitting along through the seasons until..........

 

Days have turned into weeks, months, and years. Through our catalog of life's daily events, a sisterhood has formed. Can we ever imagine ourselves without one another? I'm grateful for each one of you and the road we have walked together. My greatest wish is that our time spent together in our spaces, and the memories we have created will be our blessings.

 

Here's wishing you much health, joy, and happiness  through our winter time celebrations and the new year.

~ Peace and Blessings 

Valarie

 

The Wand-maker's Apprentice

This summer I bought three distinctively different wooden wands, one for each child. I thought they would be the perfect gift, even for my big girls. The kids were thrilled !!! Little 'O' thrilled like his sisters had many questions. 

"Where did you find these?" he asked.

"I went to the wand-maker. Where else would I find such great wands?" I said.

"You know a wand-maker? Are you kidding me? I want to meet the wand-maker, does he live near here? Do you think he would show me how to do it?" 

And his inquiries went on and on and on.

Is what he didn't know at the time was that I had already made a plan to go and visit the wand-maker ~A Ambroult, and his lovely wife and family too. 

Upon entering their cozy home and the formal greetings were over 'A' asked 'O' if he wanted to see "the shop".  Did we need to ask the boy twice? No, I think not.

By the time I pulled my camera out and headed downstairs the wand-maker seemed to already have an apprentice.

Gently guiding the goucher tool into the wand 'A' held firm while 'O' gave his hand at wand making.

There's something about the creative process that takes us out of ourselves. I loved watching my boy go deep into his work and the immense joy it gave him.

Alex Ambroult is a very talented carpenter and craftsman. He has stocked his shop full of beautiful wands perfect for hours of imaginative play. You may find him here.

 

 

On This Second Day of December: Bookended

On this second day of December there is a thick frost on the ground which  makes me think of sitting by a nice fire reading. Though there are many special books I could recommend, today I'll share a couple of things I wouldn't want you to miss.

The most important is that one lucky family will be receiving 30 hardcover Jan Brett books next week. Today is the last day of the 30 book Jan Brett giveaway over at Jump into a Book.  It has been such an exciting time ! Please stop over and say hello.

Yesterday the new Rhythm of the Home Winter Edition came out. I'm so honored to have an article inside it's cozy and creative pages. For this edition we shared the time we got horribly lost only to discover Louisa May Alcott's house and her very famous neighbors. As with each new edition the Rhythm of the Home Blog is hosting a giveaway. There you will find many wonderful handmade crafts and other treasures. There is also a collection of Louisa May Alcott books being given away. It goes from today until December 5th. 

The last little bit of news I'll share today is a discovery I made earlier this week about an organization called Better World Books. I learned that my book The Fox Diaries is being sold as a new book through them. I was beyond thrilled. This is an incredible organization changing the world one book at a time.

Their Story:

In 2002, 3 university students began selling textbooks online. Though their buisness thrived, they wanted to further their business by enhancing literacy worldwide by gathering used books meant for the landfill and selling them.

Their business model is a conscious and compassionate one, allowing them to take what is already here i.e. books, and generate revenue to support literacy and make a profit. They have an active employee profit sharing program which makes everyone an integral part of the business.

Here are some ways they contribute to literacy:

They take old books from libraries and sell them. Part of the proceeds are given back to the library to puchase new books.
Better World Books supports book drives, collecting used books and text books. They gather them from a network of 1,800 college campuses and partnerships with 3000 libraries nationwide.

To date, Better World Books has converted more than 80 million pounds of books into $10,407,405.00 raised for literacy and libraries. 66,579,689 books have been reused or recycled.

For each book you buy, one book is given. They have the best prices anywhere plus free shipping.

If you are considering buying books this holiday season, please consider buying from Better World Books and make an impact on global literacy. 

 

 

This First Day in December

Here we are, the first day in December. I always love this day because it sort of gives us permission. Permission to go inside and get cozy.

To make and drink the best cups of coffee. Oh and of course eat the most wonderful sweets.

To light the dark in a magical sort of way.

To play together and for each other.

It's those creative moments between family and friends. 

Yes, December gives us permission to come as we are, to go inside and be together. Wishing you a wonderful beginning to your December.

Feasting

We cooked for two days. Ruth , Susie, and I did our usual "day before Thanksgiving" cooking marathon.

It's a good thing we cooked so much because a whole bunch of hungry people showed up.

As the time of feasting approached everyone took their usual preparatory places. Barry carved the turkey.

Larry mashed the potatoes.

Ruth made her famous pies.

 Our feast is a labor of love. Of course we have the usual Thanksgiving fare of turkey, mash potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce etc. and then we have the unusual fare of grape leaves, spinach pies, and tabbouli. All of the last three dishes take loads of time to make but it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without them.

Now there is a little story within a story here. Every year since the kids were really little I've made grape leaves. Little miss Z loves loves loves her grape leaves and I always have to make double the amount just to make sure everyone has a chance at getting some. It's a very labor intensive process but I do it because everyone loves them so much.

My sweet girl gets completely giddy upon seeing these grape leaves.

It's a wonderful feeling to make someone this happy. The mere fact that there were grape leaves on this table made her day. She could completely forgo anything else but these grape leaves.

It was a lovely feast among family and friends. If you ask my family, they will tell you that this is one of their favorite holidays of the year. I hope and wish that you and your families had a wonderful holiday. For those of you, my friends, who weren't celebrating this day, I wish many wonderful things to be thankful for.

Music to Prepare By

Thanksgiving is one of our favorite holidays. Way back in August I was feeling a little blue about the fact that so many of our children were going off to college and we anticipated that many of them would be missing this year. .........NOT. They all made the greatest effort to get here and we had a normal full house for the holidays.

It's a time when we all gather and work together to put on an incredible feast and enjoy eachother's company.

This year, helping immensely was Little "O".  

Last year the kids insisted that we should all sit at one table. No More Kid Table was the request. Last year I rented tables, chairs, and linens from a local event company and we had such a favorable response that we did it again this year.

"O" was really into setting up the tables and chairs but felt it was moving rather slowly. He refused our help.

To help move things along a little quicker, big sister Mimi pulled out "O's" violin and played many Irish gig's. All I have to say is , not bad for a cellist.  Where did she learn all of those?

Next after the tablecloths were placed it was time to put out the dishes. 

The table-settings bring back many childhood memories for me. The dishes, silverware, and glasses were my mom's and grandmother's.

It gives my heart a happy little beat to bring these memories. It also makes the day feel like they are sharing it with us.

Tomorrow I'll share our feast. I promise it's worth the wait. Until then pick up your fiddle and dance around a bit as you go through your day. Happy Monday everyone!

Out Visiting and a Huge 30 Book Giveaway

Hello everyone. I hope your November and week is going well. Though I haven't been here very much this autumn, I can tell you that my days our filled with many creative endeavors. This week we finished the huge job of editing the next Audrey Press release. It's really fantastic but I must wait just a bit longer before I can share it with you.  Along with creating books, I've been writing and crafting my way through many magazine articles as well. The most important thing I've been doing besides mothering, is visiting. 

Since writing The Fox Diaries, one of the more pleasurable things I find myself doing is visiting school children. Yesterday I spent the afternoon with different groups of first, second, and third graders. All of them happen to be writers as well but yesterday our discussions were all about publishing and how a book is structured. Using The Fox Diaries as a reference, there was also a lot of conversation about how those little foxes inspired a book and by looking at the little happenings in our daily lives can lead the way to many creative endeavors. When I'm on a school visit one of the first things I do is grab my camera and take photos of all those little people looking at me with wonder in their eyes. 

With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, I'm really looking forward to spending some "normal" time with family, friends, and you, my blogging friends. You can't know how much I've missed reading your words and catching up on what you're doing. 

One last thing, our book blog Jump into a Book is giving away 30 different Jan Brett titles. She is one of our favorite authors and for the December giveaway there was no question about it, we wanted to give a little Jan Brett away. You can enter here.

Mrs. Fox Aboard the Constitution

The boy had waited a lifetime.

His grandfather was a master model tallship builder. His version of the Constitution sits above my television and all young "O" could think of was the day that he would see the "real" ship for himself. Did his grandpa get it right? Is it as big as he imagined? Would he be able to go everywhere on the ship? So many questions.

Meeting us for this grand excursion were two of my number one fans Ru and Lu along with their momma Amy.

The USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned ship afloat and is harbored in Boston. She was launched in 1797 and named by President George Washington after the constitution of the United States. The USS Constitution is most famous for her actions during the war of 1812 against Great Britain. She captured numerous merchant ships and defeated five British warships. The ships mission today is to promote understanding of the Navy's role in both times of peace and war, as well as participating in historic demonstrations and public events.

On board were original cannons and cannon balls.

The USS Constitution plays a roll in Amy's life as well. Her father worked at the harbor and every year would stear the tug boat that would take the USS Constitution for her annual sail. We had so much fun imagining life aboard this beautiful tallship.  I cannot think of a better place for friends to meet.