"take your passions.....and make it happen" (Flashdance)

( I was going to add this to my previous post...but then I realized after the first paragraph that it needs a post of it's own)

My husband always asks me "what are you passionate about?" and of course I am passionate about my faith and show that by trying to live a Godly life but aside from that I never knew how to answer that question. What am I passionate about? What do I really enjoy doing? This can be very frustrating thing when you just completed 20 years of school and you still don't know how to answer the question first asked by your primary grade teachers "what do you want to be when you grow up?"
I spent 5 years in high school. Not because I failed any courses, I graduated with honours in fact despite the fact that I had people in my life that told me I wouldn't amount to much. But really didn't like English class, as I was and still am a slow reader and could never keep up with the class reading assignments. I was also at a Career plan halt. My original plan was to go through for forensics ( maybe I just watched too much TV)  But the field fascinated me. I had the grades to do it too. But I guess forensics wasn't His plan. I jst finished a grade 11 year in enriched mathematics ( yes..enriched) and finished with an 80 something or other. the next year I was in a U level math...and half way though the year I couldn't apply any of it to tests of assignments. I spent the rest of that year in a basic math class after begging my guidance counselor to let me keep my math credit. Anyways, I spent my fifth and final year of high school studying social sciences and English ( i skipped English in my 4th year cause I needed a break from it)
However one thing remained constant  in high school: art. I wasn't the best, and i still am not, their were many talented people in that class. At the end of high school my art teacher asked if I required a portfolio for University. I said "pfft! I'm just taking art for fun"
Well Mr. Scales, I am a university graduate with an Art major... but the portfolio wasn't necessary so that's okay.
I also took up Education classes to attain a B. Ed. in the primary division. However as soon as I graduated, unlike about 99% of my class, I had zero desire to teach or apply for teaching jobs. But no worries I have a degree in Art! awesome!
I ended up working in a school as an assistant teacher and enjoyed the day while I was there, but dreaded going to work each day. And that doesn't seem right to me. I recently thought that maybe I am being lazy with applying to teaching positions. But twice now I have applied to a position that I was very qualified for, one of which was at the school where I worked for an entire year. I never even got a call back.  And I know that there are people out there with the "beggars can't be choosers" attitude ( which i have at times too) But to me it's important that I enjoy my work. I don't want my job to be a depressing weight on my shoulders. This doesn't mean I wont ever teach. I do use my education to do private tutoring, and I plan on homeschooling once kids come into our lives.

In a previous blog I mentioned how I would sit and watch my mother sew, mend and create. Ever since I made my first stitch, I haven't stopped. I always took out her sewing machine and made things.
My mother got me my very own sewing machine for University Graduation. Best gift ever!!! I don't think that it has gone more than a week without being used. I would always be thinking while at work about the thinks I could create. This also applies to refurbishing furniture. My passion has been with me all the time, right in front of me. I think it took making new curtains and pillows three times for my kitchen and living room in the past year to realize this.
I recently joined the banner making committee in our church, so that I can apply my passion there. I am really excited about this because this means I can share it with more people, and have it be very Christ centred. It's important as Christians I think to use our passions in a way that gives back to God.
  I don't believe that my teaching degree is wasted. God has a plan for us, and at some point, whether it is through homeschooling or another way, that degree will be used. It's never a waste. But I think people need to realize that teachers don't just teach in schools. And they usually have a 2nd degree. Mine just happens to be art.
I have finally discovered my passion. I am passionate about creating, refurbishing, redesigning and being thrifty. I'm a hands-on person. I always have been. It's in my blood.

So now that that is all out there, I have some fun news. Some or maybe only a few, know that I did some contracted graphic design work for the Living Rock. I had my own logo and name,Simply Yellouw Designs. Well SYD is coming back ( hopefully, depending on how things turn out) but not as graphic design ( still available for that too though) but as a home decor creator.
On April 22, SYD will be at the Ancaster Arts and Crafts Show, displaying and selling  one (to four-ish) of a kind accent pillows.
I am really looking forward to this. My goal is to just make back the money I spent on supplies and the booth rental and to have people enjoy my makings.

I think there are reasons why you are passionate about certain things. It's not just about liking or enjoying, but I think that you will be used by God in that way...know what I mean? Or maybe not. Maybe it's just something to keep us looking forward to work being over.

making space without taking space

I bought a two drawer (side by side) dresser the other day from Value village. It's originally an Ikea Product. I had been eyeing this thing for a whole week..okay maybe three days or so. There is nothing really special to it, it's not even of any value. But here is what I did with it:

we need to stain the leg raisers still 

I've always wanted a high bed. they look so much more expensive and feel more expensive. At first I wasn't sure if this thing would fit under the bed. However, when I brought it home, I found out that it actually didn't. Not to fear, we right away began thinking of things around the house to place under the bed on the other end. I originally had one of those big plastic Tupperware things at the foot of my bed. it was the same height so we placed it under the bed and it held...until we sat on the bed. There was a loud crack and then a big thud as the bed came crashing to the floor. It's a good thing I got that tub for free! We ended up making raisers for our bed for each foot....which brings me to a side story:

we were in Home Depot ( that store smells sooo good!) looking for 4X4's to make the raisers. we found them in the lumber section (of course...it's not like they keep them in plumbing...that would be weird), had them cut to the length we needed, and took it to the cash. The price ticket attached to the skid of the 4X4's said $12.39. The cash registers told us $21.99. THERE IS NO WAY THAT I AM PAYING THAT MUCH FOR THIS PIECE!!! turns out that the price attached to the skid was not for the stuff on the skid but rather for the stuff on the skid below it. How stupid is that! any ways, we told them, you can either keep the wood that we just had cut and not be able to sell it for full price, or they could give it to us at the price labeled on the skid....of course we got it for the price we thought it was.

Anyways so yeah we now have a fancy bed with extra hidden storage...or at least storage that doesn't take up space...cause you can obviously see the drawers...they are not that well hidden. Of course it doesn't look as fancy as the real deal you would find in the furniture store, but a higher bed in my opinion looks great homemade or store bought...though store bought would look pretty fancy...but you get my point.


Another addition that we recently made to our humble little home is a tiny bookshelf. Now I know you are thinking "BOOOORING! everyone has a bookshelf" But I made mine out of a discontinued Ikea product I found on Kijiji. I am quite proud of this accomplishment because I normally get Fritz to make the purchases off Kijiji for me. I get too nervous making the phone calls to people who prefer to be called. so I have him do that. But I did it all by my self this time. I even picked it up.... side story:

I picked up this item in Burlington, which is maybe a 15 minute drive away for me. on my way back, because of rush hour, instead of taking the 403 I took Lakeshore road. I think I had a long line up of annoyed drivers behind me, because I was going about 30km/h gawking at the houses along the lake! those places are incredible!!!! WOW!!

Anyways back to the bookshelf. It started out as a discontinued Ikea cd tower. My plan was to slide out some of the shelves so that books can fit on it. But lo and behold, the shelves are all firmly stuck in place. so I had to search on line for the assembly manual for this specific item, to figure out how to unassembled it. any ways after going through all that this is what I got:

What's an Accessory to an Accessory Without an Accessory?

I love sewing. I'm not super great at it, I have a somewhat difficult time following patterns, because I don't understand all the terminology that comes in those packages. But I still love to sew, freestyle sewing I guess you can call it. I began sewing when I was around 7 years old. Whenever my mother was hemming or mending or making, I would sit along side, and watch, and do an occasional stitch. Then sometimes when I was left alone, I would get out her sewing machine, hope the thread was in place cause I had no idea how to thread a sewing machine without a GPS, and I would start creating things out of scrap fabric or my old jeans.
this is a talent that comes in handy. For example, lately, I have had this desire to repaint my living room. But then today I realized that I maybe just a change in curtains is needed. so right after work, I headed over to another of my favourites, Ikea, and bought some fabric. I always LOVE the fabrics they have. it's very sturdy and has very fun prints. Occasionally though, I will find a fabric that I love, but then there is one tiny little thing in the print that bothers me. For example, take a look at this print:

why does the rabbit have to have red eyes? and what is that squirrel going to do to that bird?

kitchen curtain

Anyways,I was in Ikea, and then I was stuck in a predicament: do I choose the same fabric as my small kitchen curtains since my living room and kitchen are partially "together" if you know what I mean. So I ended up asking the textiles lady for an opinion, cause I can't make those big decisions on my own. Now if it was a simple yes no answer and either one would look equally as good, I would have simply brought out my yes/no coin and flipped it. But this was a which looks better question and assistance was required.

 As soon as I got home, I cleaned out the dishwasher, and filled it with the dishes on the sink. I was planning to start my curtains right away, but the dishes had to be done first. in two hours, maybe just under, I completed the curtains, and had them hung on the rod, after which I decided an accessory was necessary to bring the curtain colour and print to the other side of the room....

BEFORE (please excuse the
 Christmas tree and the fact
that curtains are pinned up...
it's to prevent curtain fire
from baseboards..it's temporary...
winter only)

AFTER sooo much better!

I love it! look at the bow!!

...So  I decided to make little pillows to match! I know  that many of you are probably thinking " sheeeesh Jelma, don't you have enough pillows??!!"  well don't you worry, I recycled a pair of the ones I already had. I opened them right up and gutted out the stuffing , secretly hoping to find a million bucks or a treasure inside them, but due to a lack of such, continued to place the stuffing into my new pillows. Now what's an accessory, without and accessory? I attached a little bow to each pillow. Now what's an accessory to an accessory without an accessory? I attached a little blue button to each bow. This brings out the blue in my rug.
Total time spent: 4 hours...ish.

Thaaat's STUPID!

disclosure: the following is merely a rant based on an ugly sweater. all content is merely the opinion of a thrift shopper (not a stingy shopper) you may continue to have your own opinion if you so choose.

Today at work, i was hanging some womens active wear shirts. In the mix was this ugly grey thin fleece hoodie. There was nothing special about it, but it did have an oddly shaped hood. as I was hanging it I caught a glimpse of the price tag and thought to my self.." that has to be a mistake" the sweater cost $17.99!! I put down my handful of sweaters to examine this rag only to discover a teeeeny little lululemon logo. 

This should be Lululemon's ad

I was thinking about this sweater for the last 20 minutes or so, and thus headed to the lululemon website to check it out. I swear I see the same things at walmart. 

I think the world has gone crazy. I mean the stuff there looks mighty nice, and I've examined the clothes in person. But I really don't see the hype.

I could never ever ever spend that much money on a pair of spandex pants and the company should be ashamed of itself, it's just plain rude to ask that much money for spandex. 

I don't really care that other people are buying their stuff. it's their money to spend, but frankly for me,  I think it's money well wasted. I don't mean to sound stingy, but it irritates me that big companies think they can charge so much for an item like spandex pants. I don't really care if its high tech fabric. It's still just a pair of pants. I'll think about buying a pair from a thrift store but never from the retailer. 

Walmart: nice and cheap. I like the blue ones :)

Lulu's: $108... and i am pretty sure walmart carries a pair almost identical  for $17.
according to my calculations you could buy 6 walmart pants for one pair of Lulus. or 2 complete athletic outfits for the price of one of these lulu's. 

108 bucks for pants...pppffft! for 51 bucks you can get an entire outfit. Now that is (somewhat of) a deal. at least its a better deal.

That's my rant, thanks for reading.

blue box

Nope. Not the one you put at the end of your driveway every week. Not that one.

Yesterday as I was waiting at the dentist, I was reading a home design magazine. I LOVE these magazines. I see all these beautiful rooms in them with amazing ideas. Every time I flip a page a feel the desire to do the three R's: redecorate or renovate or refurbish .

 R  R  R

Anyways, this is going somewhere. so after the dentist, I drove to work. As I mentioned before I work at Value Village. I love working there because I get to see all the treasures daily and I have amazing hours (11am-3pm...I know awesome hours!). I'm only part time which I like because it gives me time to also do my tutoring after work.   Yesterday as I was rolling out my first rack of clothes, I was taking a peek at the furniture section to see what was all brought out. I don't stop and look, I just glance as I roll by.

There, sitting on top of a coffee table was this light teal wooden crate. I was beautiful! As an employee, we are allowed to purchase items after they have gone out on the floor. But only during our lunch break.... I don't have a lunch break.

I kept my eye on this crate, all day. Every time I rolled by I glance over to make sure it was still there. When I saw customers walk by it I would say a little prayer. When I saw customers pick it up I would pray a little harder. For 4 hours I watched as customers walked by, touched, picked up and admired MY crate. It was a stressful day.  However, all day I thought about the places in my house that I could put this crate, and the ways that I could redecorate my room around the crate.

After 4 hours of rolling racks and fantasizing about rearranging my living room to accompany this crate, my shift came to an end. I signed out, ran out of the staff room to push my way between customer in the furniture section.  I was so worried that someone would  purchase this item just as my shift was over.

Well at the end of the day the crate was mine. And now it stands on it's end beside my couch filled with some books and holding a wedding picture on top.

i've been branded

I recently, and by recently I mean a month ago, got a job at the best store in the world...I'm sure you all know my opinion on that. I work at Value Village. Yes there are some VV's out there that could do better when it comes to appearances, But I must say that I work at a pretty amazing one.
I get to be one of the first people to see what comes into the store, and I have to say it's some pretty fancy stuff. Of course there are tacky things in the mix, but that's fun to go through as well.
I think since I have worked there I have seen at least 3 or four brand new lulu lemons go to the floor, amongst some other high brands.
I can't snatch them of the lines though and get first dibs as many people may think. Everything that is sell-able, must go on the floor. However, now that I get 50% of clothing, I can finally afford to buy brand name clothes. I am currently wearing a Hollister sweater and I feel cooler already! I know that many people, including myself say that we don't care about brand names, but I think secretly we all do. I don't mind wearing B.U.M  equipment from walmart (or is it Zellers?) but I do enjoy the higher qualities of high brands too, just not at their ridiculous original over priced costs.  I'm honestly shocked that a name in the back of a pair of pants can make the item costs so much!
Do you ever read through a magazine and sometimes thet compare an outfit on one celebrity and show you how to do the same outfit for less? I always think I can do it for even less. sometimes I am shocked at the prices of the items they suggest. I think they should either fire the person who finds the cheaper out fit and hire me, or they should add a third person to show how you can do the outfit for waaay less.
another cute item I saw was a baby Gap coat. It was pink and brown plaid with fur/fluff on the inside, with these great loop buttons and courderoy hearts to hold the loops in place. The coat was $4.99 so I would have only paid $2.50 for it!
I could not imaging purchasing items like that brand new for an infant. They grow out of it in 2 weeks! Every day I see baby Gap and Baby mexx and baby Tommy Hilfiger, and I think "what is wrong with people?"
 But then I think, "man my kids are going to be stylish!"
 and then I think, "wait a second, I don't have kids, let's go to the women's section and look at savings there!"

I saw this comic in the Spec today in the break room and I thought of my opa and oma:

not my typical blog

Sun god: Ra

Decking the halls with boughs of holly... this was a tradition started by ancient peoples such as the Egyptians, druids and early Romans. These people worshipped pagan gods such as the Egyptian God Ra. During the winter solstice, the people beleived that Ra, the egyptian sun god was getting weak, but on the day of the solstice the people celebrated his renewal of strength by bring in greeneries into their homes to represent the victory of life over death , and everlasting life.
This pagan traditon like many, was borrowed by Christians several years after the birth of Christ to represent the victory of life of death and evelasting life through Christ. During htis season many things outside die and the world looks fairly grim ( except in warm places like the caribbean of course) but here and there we see little bits of green peeking though in forms of pines, giving us hope of new life to come.
Many people still deck their halls with greeneries. Though more and more each year, it seems that people are not decking their halls with the right kind of green. Instead people are decking their halls, with money, and greed, and the need to out buy the person in front of them in line. I love Christmas, I really do. It's a fantastic time of the year. Seeing houses decked and trees lit really creates a festive mood. But when I go to a store during this time, I see so many frustrated and angry people, and it makes me wonder if they really know what this season is about. It's not about getting your kid the latest technology, or your spouse a ridiculously expensive watch. I think its a nice idea that we give each other nice gifts, but I think we've all gone a little mad. My family decided not to do gifts this year. Although I did get a nice tea cup set and ceramic vase from my parents. I thought it was nice just to get together and enjoy each-other's company. I think that instead of buying materialistic and over priced things, we should give more to people in need. My church does this thing where you can purchase goats or school supplies and other stuff for people in 3rd world countries. I think that is a fabulous idea.

Sinterklaas

Growing up my family celebrated Sinterklaas, as I am dutch and was born in the Netherlands. this was separate from Christmas, and celebrated on the 5th of December. This is when gifts would be given and such. Not on Christmas. Christmas is a time to reflect on the birth of Christ.  I think this is a tradition that I want to bring into my family when we have kids one day. I don't want then to lose the real meaning of Christmas in the hustle and bustle of the money hungry consumerism.

   Happy Holidays  

   Seasons greetings  

   Merry Christmas!