My Sunday Holiday Shenanigans & Winter Pots

{Click on images for source}

I am seriously, easily entertained. As many of you know, I live one hour and 15 minutes from downtown Vancouver in–gasp–Yarrow but it’s considered Chilliwack.

Recently, I read The Happiness Project, an awesome book about. . . surprise, Happiness, I read it twice, back-to-back. I have NEVER done that in my life. I LOVED it.

When Terreeia saw that I had bought it, she said “I want to read that after you, I spoke to someone recently who said it pulled her out of depression”.

Gretchen Rubin is the author, and she wrote twelve commandments to happiness and every month she practiced one of them. In January of the year of her Happiness Project, she practiced ‘Being Gretchen’.

She said she wasn’t someone that had to be out in all the latest restaurants or plays (I fall asleep at most of them) in the city and she’s quite happy being at home with her kids and her husband, etc.

I am the same. Give me a 5:30 am visit for coffee with my Mom who happily, now lives only 2 minutes away, back for breakfast with Terreeia, the love of my life, at 8:00 am, back to my Sister’s place at 9:30 am to play trains with my nephews, and, I’m a happy camper!

Here’s why The Happiness Project is such a great book.

Gretchen studied happiness and read all the books, did all the research so it’s all here. She talked about a book she bought by Faber and Mazlish called How to Talk so Kids will Listen’.

One of the lessons was Acknowledge the Reality of People’s Feelings.

Then she wrote a list of strategies that she could use to help show her children that she was acknowledging their feelings.

Here are two of my favourites:

Wave my magic wand.

“If I had a magic wand, I’d make it warm outside so we didn’t have to wear coats”. “If I were Ozma, I’d make a box of Cheerios appear right now”. This shows that I understand what my kids want and would accommodate them if I could.

Admit that a task is difficult.

Studies show that people tend to persevere longer with problems they’ve been told are difficult as opposed to easy. I’d been doing the opposite with Eleanor [her daughter]. Thinking I was being encouraging, I’d say, “It’s not tough to pull off your socks, just give it a try.” I switched it to saying things such as “Socks can be tough to get off. Sometimes it helps to push down the back part over your ankle, instead of pulling on the toe.

I had the chance to practice this lesson when I babysat my nephews a few weeks ago. Markus is 4 and William is 6 but William (even though he’s older} always has a harder time when his parents are out.

He’s way whinier and harder to deal with than Markus.

So Markus is splashing away in the tub before bed, and William is sitting on the toilet because he’s not going to get into the tub. Half crying and whining “I miss mummy and daddy, when will they be here?”. And I said “I know you miss them, I know you’re sad, but they’ll be here before you know it. And we can have fun and read some of your favourite books, yaay!

In the past, I would sit there, mystified on how to respond, thinking in my head ‘You’re too old to be acting like this’.

And, it worked. He perked up and ran off to find some books to read before bedtime!

Anyway, here’s what I did this weekend.

After all my travelling in the past two weeks I came home to find orange pumpkins and lanterns still sitting on my portico from Halloween.

These need to go, ASAP. I thought to myself.

So, this weekend, Elizabeth, my nephews and I drove out to a Nursery and bought some sticks and balls for pot filler.

Elizabeth was excited! ‘We are having our staff party at our house and a Christmas party one week later so I have a holiday decorating budget’.

Photo by Maria Killam

This morning, we decorated the first one. More to come when we finish them next weekend. Apparently we were one week early to get clippings like Magnolia leaves for example.

Elizabeth confided “My husband hates my Gnome, that’s why he’s sitting outside!”

Well, he’s perfect to sit beside your barrel, all festive for the holidays! I said.

This area is Elizabeth’s outdoor patio, and it’s her view from the kitchen window.

Much better now, haha.

We found the holly branches from this shrub in her backyard!

Then we went to the Chilliwack craft fair on the way to a big box store to buy a pair of urns to flank her front door.

My sister Lea (above) and my mom, met us there. Markus grabbed my hand at one point and said “Let’s go find Lea”.

Sigh.

Obviously, Lea is around them more than me since I’m chopped liver. It’s so true with kids, love equals time. And it’s the reason I moved out here to be close to them!

I bought him some popcorn when we arrived at the craft fair and he immediately said,

‘I only like the yellow (buttered) ones’

Are you cherry picking the popcorn?.’ I asked.

‘No, I’m popcorn picking’ he said.

Then we went and found some urns for Elizabeth’s front door.

These are the ones we bought. They had plastic ones for $39.99 and the cast iron (already rusty) ones were $59.99. We bought the plastic ones, they will sit underneath a covered area so we thought they would be okay, but I’m curious, should we have bought the rusty, cast iron ones?

Here’s an idea of how they will look (above). Elizabeth and I got most of the clippings we needed from my yard and hers. Oh, and we helped trim the cedar trees in the park.

And here are some more of my favourite ideas for wintery/festive pots:

I loved this modern, lighted urn for winter!

You’ll see ours next weekend! Hopefully this gives you some fun ideas for your outdoor pots!

Which one is your favourite?

Related posts:

A Window of Happiness

Happiness is. . . Being Uncomfortable

Happiness is. . . Flower Drama

If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk up to the front door, become a client. On-line or In-person.

Download my eBook, How to Choose Paint Colours – It’s All in the Undertones to get my complete step-by-step system on how to get colour to do what you want.

To make sure the undertones in your home are right, get some large samples!

If you would like to learn how to choose colour with confidence, become a True Colour Expert.