My Magic Shoes

They're not red and they're not new. The story about these shoes goes back all the way to 1992. It was the first pair of shoes I bought upon arriving in Munich, Germany. I needed something very comfortable for long walks. This pair of Rieker shoes was just incredibly comfortable, very flexible, made from soft hazelnut brown leather with a buckle on the side. Not my style at all, but, although normally rather expensive,  they were reduced by 70% because one buckle was detached. I new I could sew it back on so I bought them. They served me well, my feet were very happy and light in them and they took me places...

When we left Germany for Canada  in 1998, I must have thrown them in one of the bags and so they moved to another continent with me. I wore them a couple more times but soon they started looking old and really worn out. Somehow I couldn't bring myself to throw them away and so they lived on quietly in a dark corner of my entry closet.

Then one day I was reading an article on FlyLady about effective house cleaning and she said you should put your shoes on  when doing chores. This tip really picked my curiosity and I wanted to try this method and see if it makes a difference. When I started looking for a pair of shoes to use I found my old, comfortable Riekers again. And it made a difference. I felt more stable, I was stronger and faster. From then on, I didn't put my old shoes on every time I had to clean but I thought of them when I had an incredible amount of things to do at home and very little time. I was always under the impression that, with these shoes on, I was able to accomplish such an amount of chores in very little time that I myself was in awe... I started to call them "My Magic Shoes". Soon my husband started to notice the ginormous positive effect of these old shoes on my speed and my mood. He loved the change so much that he himself suggested often: "Why don't you put those magic shoes of yours on?" 

 I can't believe I have an 18-year-old pair of shoes that I still use! They're barely holding together, but I'm pretty sure that they can't be easily replaced by any pair of shoes - they must be very special. They are my very special old magic shoes.

My Magic Shoes

Back In Bloggerland

So sorry for the break in posts...I missed you all so much! I've been lacking inspiration a bit (not only for my blog posts...) and I've been in a sort of a dormant blog phase for months. I figured the last thing you need is to come over here only to pick up on my low vibe. Not only did I desert my own blog, I didn't follow yours neither. But today, just moments ago, it was as if someone pushed a secret (red, please!) button, and I woke up. So here I am and I hope you'll forgive me this little unintentional black hole of mine...
Many things happened: spring, flowers in garden, my diploma (finally),  job searching, swimming pool season, patio, extreme heat for weeks...
So, for today, I wanted to give you a sign of life and to share some nice pictures I've taken recently. I have to go now, I have to catch up on my blog reading, my Google Reader is bursting out of seams...

Back In Bloggerland

Message From the Past

What a lovely surprise! As I was organizing my stuff in my sewing room I found a lovely message written probably more than a decade ago. It was engraved carefully in a piece of red tailor's chalk with child's hand.

This is one side of the chalk:

And here is the surprise on the other side:

I can't believe I never saw it before! I was moved to tears (but than again, this happens fairly easy in my case). Just lovely! I'm almost certain that it was my daughter who did this as she loved playing by my side while I was sewing. This little discovery made me happy instantly and put a permanent smile on my face...

Message From the Past

Life is Happening...

...while I'm living in a bubble. I don't know what it looks like on the outside. Pictures and sounds are passing by in slow motion. I feel good. I'm calm, I have time for everything but I do almost nothing. This is an incredible gift - having time. And I'm finally enjoying it.  But I'm also well aware of the fact that my bubble could pop very soon.

Photo credit: Reini68 on flickr

So what am I doing right now? I have only one exam left before finally having my diploma. I'm invited to pass an exam for a job I'm very interested in. Other than that, I cook, I sew a little, I read and I observe young plants popping out in my garden.

Tell you one thing: I can't wait to start working again! I seriously need this somewhat imposed rhythm in order to better structure my life around it. I can't believe I just said that! 

Anyway, thank you for being patient with me and have a beautiful spring!

Life is Happening...

Salvation Art - part three

There is nothing exciting going on in my life this days except for the exams. I had my French exam last Monday. I know you're tired of me saying that I didn't do well and then having an excellent note, but this time I really wasn't great. For the first part, I didn't have enough time to complete the last document, I only started to write it. I've lost lots of time with my first because I couldn't concentrate at all in the beginning. I wrote the second one stressed knowing that I'm not going to be able to complete the last document. And then in the second part, I was shocked by the kind of text they presented us with - nothing to do with the domain - but I tried to do my best. Anyway, this time I'll be very pleased only to pass the exam...

Back to the art! I continue to present the pieces of my "Salvation Art" collection. Click on the link to learn more if you hadn't read my first post about it. Today's print was one of the first pieces I found in Quebec approximately ten years ago.

Sorry for the picture quality and the reflection - the light was not so great. I loved this print immediately: colors of the fire of creation; organic, almost living, interweaving lines...and then their resemblance to the symbol for eternity and infinity. This print hangs in my dining room along with two others.

The signature reads: "F. W. Reiter" and on the back there is a label with the following text : "No. Reiter New Abstract, Montreal, Canada". Underneath the damaged paper cover on the back is a text written by hand: "Show VXK4". I don't remember how much I paid for it but it must have been a couple of bucks only. I wasn't able to find anything about this artist or painting on the Internet but I certainly enjoy it.

Salvation Art - part three

The Love Story About Two Dirty Socks

As I'm starting to write this post I'm not certain how it will turn out. I've been wanting to write it for quite some time now but, to be honest with you, I hesitated because of the person involved in this story. You guessed it: it's my better half. I've been working him for weeks and I think I finally wore him down. This post  may be even considered as the continuation of my post about beauty of imperfection. I was inspired to tell this story by young girls, like my daughter, who found themselves in the somewhat serious and longer relationships, usually with guys who are "almost" perfect. Those girls believe firmly that they can change their man once they live together under the same roof. To DIY a perfect husband or partner so to speak. Husband improvement project. Now, I've seen things and lived long enough to know it doesn't work that way. So whenever I hear something that let me believe this particular girl might think she can change her partner or his bad habits, I tell her my story about two dirty socks.

It all started insanely long ago when I studied at the university and got to know this young boy with the most beautiful  hair, lips and eyes in the world. We were only nineteen years young. Aside from not being able to repair home appliances (very big deal as I come from a DIY family!), he was a very nice guy and I was madly in love with him. I couldn't wait to live with him together. Four years later we married and moved to our first apartment. As many of you may already know, dating and actually living together isn't the same thing. I knew my young husband was always very orderly, sometimes even excessively so. Luckily for me, he continued to be that way and from the beginning on we did our household chores together (thank you, dear mother-in-law!). But there was one thing that drove me nuts each day! He used to leave his two dirty socks inside-out on the floor beside the bed each evening and forgot to put them away in the morning. So whenever I looked there they were: two dark stains on the floor. In the beginning, I asked him nicely to put them away in the laundry. Didn't work. At all. Then I started being upset about it and not too rarely we had a fiercely dispute because of that. One day it all escalated and I was so mad that I didn't want to speak with him. But the socks were still on the floor beside the bed. We didn't speak so I couldn't tell him to put his damn socks away! So as I was cleaning the bedroom and putting things away, I grabbed his socks and put them in the laundry. Thing I refused to do till that day. It took me 2 seconds. Everything was calm. 

It might seem dumb to you, but it took me more than one year to understand that he's been putting up with my flaws (open books and magazines literally everywhere) while I raged about his socks. We were still madly in love. So we decided to not take this matter too seriously (apparently people freak out and divorce over a toothpaste?!). It was so easy and so simple: to love each other for all the good reasons and to accept each other's insignificant flaws. The secret is to not sweat the small stuff. There is no need to ruin the whole marriage or relationship over the toilet seat and the toothpaste! You can't change another person, you can only love them for who they are. So you have to be ready to love, accept, respect and tolerate the person as a whole, with all his good and eventually bad sides. That's it!

As for my DH's two dirty socks, they still live on the floor beside the bed. Occasionally, I make a joke about them and my husband put them away and promise me in all seriousness never to leave them there again. We are still madly in love.

The Love Story About Two Dirty Socks