Watching friends suffer

by

grief quote

I have had a few bumps in the last few months whilst adjusting to all the changes we have faced. I have moved so many times that I consider myself very proficient at dealing with changes and quick to make friends and find the resources our family needs to feel settled. Since I lived in Switzerland for a few years before (before kids) I figured it would seem familiar. Unfortunately in this situation I seemed to have been overconfident. There have been many days in the last few months where the frustration and difficulties associated with this move have left me in a crumpled pile of tears, ready to give up and abandon the adventure. Fortunately, I have a husband who is not so easily deterred and is generally great about stepping in and trying to find a solution rather than getting emotional and feeling ready to give up. I am lucky to face this journey with a partner.

In my mind I gave myself 6 months to a year to “adjust” ~what ever that meant. I promised my self not to give-up and not to make judgements before then. I promised my friends that I would not likely be back to the states because If I visited before I got adjusted that I would want to come home and stay home. So instead I have tried to stay busy in between little meltdowns and moments of surrender. I have felt sorry for myself and cried and been ready to give up. I have prayed for an easier life. At this moment as I confess my own pathetic tendencies, I am not blind to my own privileged life. I think the lord has given me a little while to have my pitty-party. He has gently picked me up and wiped me off and given me a little more strength.

Today though-I feel humbled and have an enlarged perspective on sorrow, grief and suffering. With in the last 2 days, out of no where, I have had notes from friends appear in my inbox sharing some of their recent and intimate trials. One friend has just been diagnosed with aggressive cancer, another miscarried after a long struggle with infertility, another found out the IVF had failed-again- after years of fertility treatments. THESE are examples of grief- real, life changing grief. Yet my Father in Heaven does not discount my moments of sadness, however insignificant. He is able to comfort us all. For this I am amazed and grateful! I also know that he has put friends in my life to bless me and for me to serve and bless them. I am so grateful! I am grateful to these friends for trusting me with their trials, and for reaching out and sharing their grief~ I really believe it helps. It makes me grateful for my own trials at this moment and truly helps me put life into perspective. I KNOW that while I have not faced the death of a child, I have not faced nine years of infertility, and I have not faced a life threatening illness, I KNOW that it will be okay- what ever the outcome. Our savior is with us if we want him to be. I know I find comfort in prayer and I also feel that my prayers for others are heard. I wish I could take away the suffering we all feel at times, but I know it is part of life and that all our suffering will someday have purpose. I wish I were able to wrap my arms around these dear friends and hold them up for as long as they need, but all I can do is send them my love and pray for their comfort. I KNOW that these bad times will pass and we will look back and feel stronger for having come out on the other side. I KNOW that it is possible even, to be grateful for trials because of the growth and experience that comes in dealing with them. I am grateful for the opportunity that this provides to consider the needs of others, to grieve with them and help be a support, and I hope that if you are reading right now that you will also feel the blessing of friendship, and if you can, please send a payer up for my friends.

hutch

by

before and after

I found this little goodie for 120 chf. It had been marked down 100chf just that morning. It is hard to tell you with words how massive these old pieces of furniture are. It weighs A LOT! the wood is thick and solid. There are 4 locking drawers, 5 locking upper cabinets and 4 locking lower cabinets.

DSC_3818

It had a strange splattery orangey slightly tacky “mess” of something on the finish. It does not show up in these photos, and in fact the wood inlays etc. really had me feeling guilty about painting it. However I knew that I was not going for a “swiss challet” interior look and hoped that I could make this storage treasue a cute match for the table I also bought at the local thrift shop on a different visit. I struggled to clean off the gunk, but every time I painted a coat of white, the orange came through. I read somewhere that if the finish comes through that you should coat it with a clear finish and try again. I coated it with a polyurathane product I purchased here and tried again- it helped but did not completely solve the problem. In the end the random bleed-through added a little age and character to the piece.

DSC_3964

I can’t wait to get it filled up and looking perfect.

DSC_3958From the beginning I knew that I wanted the top of the table and the top of the hutch to match with a beautiful wood finish. This required a lot of work stripping and sanding. We had some trial-and-error set-backs with using different stains and finishes here in Switzerland. We were first sold and eco friendly product, and people we tried to be environmentally friendly; we re-sanded, we re-stained, and tried again and it just never looked good. It was streaky and had some strange absorption problems. I abandon the Eco friendly approach and sought out a “normal” chemically enhanced version- It worked great! Our home was turned into a workshop for the large part of 3 weeks.The last 3 days were the most chaotic. Proof of the mess below.

 DSC_3950

Coco spend long mornings in here pajamas. She miraculously entertained herself with a game of sorry with her stuffed animals ~ guess we were all feeling creative!

 DSC_3949

Once again we used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. We ordered 2 small containers of “old white” and still have some left, even after 6 chairs, a big hutch and a table base. Not bad. The only downsides to the product are cost and availability. I had to pay a large shipping cost on top of a cost of about 40chf per can! It was worth it for sure- I hate all the stripping and sanding. And so do my Swiss neighbors (I heard about their complaining when the apartment management paid me a visit… try and be clam, try not to say anything bad about them…).

Spartacus and I make a great team. For projects like this there is an unspoken understanding that he will handle the wood staining and the hardware and I will do the painting. I love paint, I love paint brushes, love the smell, (some people complain about ASCP- I find it to be boring and orderless… nothing like spray paint:) I love the colors and the layers and at the end I love the distressing. In my last post I referred to Blue Egg Brown Nest for tutorials on using the ASCP. I don’t think I have anything to add regarding the painting, waxing, and distressing process. Although I will say that I did not tape over any glass or keyholes. Because the paint is like chalk or plaster once dry, I used a razorblade and cleaned the glass easily and quickly after. Can you imagine taping off all these corners and rounded panes? I hand-painted around the keyholes so that the inlay-ed wood and locks remained original (I loved that little detail).

DSC_3951

Spartacus is supplying us with the valuable tip for the project:

When you remove hardware- number it in a way that you can put it back together EXACTlY like it was. ESPECIALLY when working with handmade antique furniture. We learned this the hard way. It’s a little hard to explain but each piece is fitted in slightly different- each door had to fit EXACTLY like it was in order to shut and to lock. Each hinge is carved out slightly differently and sits ever so slightly deeper or more shallow onto the wood. It was like a watching a lone contestant on survivor try and solve a puzzle. 18 hinges later the hutch was finished!

DSC_3960

This project will eventually be for sale but I hope to enjoy it for a while first! Send lots of great comments! Is it looking a little french country?

Sneek Peek- chair before and after

by

chair before and afterThis is one of the “life” things I refered to yesterday that consumed me for weeks whilst I was away from my computer and Moxiblog. In our endless effort to economize, and in part for the pleasure of it, we spent many hours combing thrift stores and Ricardo.ch (a mixture of Ebay and Craigslist) for bargains that we loved or that could be transformed into something loveable. I had a friend warn me that if you double what you would expect to pay in the states, you might be getting close to the average Swiss pricetag. So when I share my bargains, keep the rule of doubles in mind!

I picked up a set of 6 Swedish chairs with a dark green stain; in the poorly lit “brokenhaus” (thrift-store) (I thought they were black) for a price tag of 15 chf each – today that is about $16.30. They are solid wood and appear to be well made. From the chair on the left you can see they had a nice shine which if you were to appreciate their green color would have been a nice bonus, but I was worried about sanding, stripping, and painting. I had a vision for a more country french/ shabby chic look and I knew I wanted to keep all the furniture very light colored because our apartment is small and Switzerland can be dark and gloomy much of the year. I immediately knew that I would search out Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I have read so many blog post and pintrest pins raving about this product with great adhesion and no sanding or stripping prep-work. I wont go into all the details of the processes , there are millions of tutorials. I particularly liked Blue Egg Brown Nest online video tutorials. It really is the perfect product for a project like this.

Can you see some of the distressing details? I love the distressing part of the project, this is where every piece feels unique. If you look to the far left of the photo you can see a brown spiral shaped piece of wood…. that’s a sneak peak at the OLD table I picked up~ tune in later this week for details.

I’d love to hear what you think of the mixture of modern kitchen and updated Swiss antique chic’…. more on that later!

Schools out for summer?~ ALMOST

by

beeslikehoney.tumblr.com

Sorry I disappeared for a few weeks, life some time’s just gets us derailed from the things we love to do. I miss getting comments from my post and little notes in my inbox the last few weeks. But I have been checking out all you guys busy summer plans and fun activities, like teacher gifts and year end parties. Lucky kids all over the United States are getting out of school for summer break. I have a mixture of feeling nostalgic about this time of year and feeling a little guilty that my own kids aren’t at home to celebrate with their friends.

I love the week school lets out, the parties, the celebrations, the worries over missing friends, the anticipation of vacations and sleep-overs. I remember my own delight as a child spending afternoons building barbie swimming pools in the mud-puddles created after neighborhood sprinkler parties. I remember days of bike parades and berry picking and exploring the undeveloped shoreline of our families lake front home. My brothers, sister and I would invent games, and competitions to keep us entertained for days. We looked for reptiles and built homemade rafts with wooden pallets and foam insulation (left over construction scraps). We had hours and hours forced upon us to spend creatively. And we liked it!

Since I am so far away from home and a month away from our summer vacation here in Switzerland, the start of summer strikes me as a very Americana tradition. Everyone’s hitting the beach and the pool and packing their suitcases for vacation. Like Fourth of July barbecues and road trips on route 66- getting out for school is something every American celebrates. The alarm clocks are turned off and replaced with the summers beach read at bedside table everywhere. Sunscreen and lemonade are part of the afternoon routine. Summertime specialties: smores, roasted corn-on-the-cob, watermelon, and sweet pulled BBQ (not to be confused with a grilled bit of meat) are truly part of summertime Americana. Now enters guilt. A little part of me worries that my kids will miss out on these American traditions. A part of me thinks that a 6 week break here in Switzerland consisting of a pretty packed itinerary of European historic destinations, German language tutoring and living in tight quarters just doesn’t provide much freedom for creativity. I hope they don’t loose their love for the USA. I hope they will still be able to identify with summer time traditions like camp-outs and canoe trips. I hope the lazy days in the summer where we spend most of our time outdoors, even if we are on top of the alps instead of on the southern shores of the Atlantic ocean will someday be nostalgic. I must be diligent about giving them that free time to imagine and be forced to be creative, instead of planning everyday for them so that we capitalize on our opportunity to travel. I am certain that in the stillness of morning when I start to wake up and my mind is left to quietly wonder, or in the evening when preparing to rest, in those moments of peace, I do some of my best thinking! It must also be that way for kids right? I look forward to some days when we get to eat when we are hungry not just because its lunch break time~ when we get to have no schedule at all. Some days when they can find solutions to their boredom, and are forced to learn to be creative.

I guess it is times like these- holidays- that make us feel farther away from home. We spent the weekend with a celebration of our own, it is the first sunny warm weekend in almost 2 months!  We headed to Bodensee for the weekend. Here in Europe, sunshine is definitely worth celebrating, even if we have four more weeks of school. We were visiting with old friends from South Carolina who have also moved (back) to Germany (they are German).

We could have been more competitive about our sight seeing, or ridden the 135 km around the lake on bikes ( I really want to do that in the next few years) but mostly we let the kids catch up whilst playing in the orchard and swinging on tires and enjoying normal summertime fun with out an agenda. They loved it and so did we! Hopefully this kind of summertime fun is universal (I know for sure ice cream is).

So tell me all about it, how did you launch your summer break?!

Happy friday- flowers

by

In Switzerland I can hardly walk a quarter of a mile with out passing buy a flower shop or sidewalk display like this. This is a country which loves flowers, and gives flowers! It’s one of the things I love most about it and also one of the charming things that I wish we could adopt stateside. They really support the florist, and the prices are usually better than a comparable bouquet in the states. When I receive flowers here I always think that it looks beautiful enough to get married.

Here is the bouquet I received from a friend. Stunning right?! It came wrapped beautifully in cellophane.

The cellophane was folded in half and in between the layers were flowers and petals. I didn’t even unwrap it for a day because it was so beautiful! Here’s a photo of the petals between the cellophane after I unwrapped it- do you see the cherry blossom? Next time I will take a photo of the flowers wrapped because they do such a fantastic job and its just like beautiful gift wrap.

Until next week- auf wiedersehen.

Dolan Geiman

by

I first discovered Dolan Gieman’s work at the Artisphere in Greenville SC, oh how I love ( and miss) that show!

Dolan’s is a self described “contemporary art with a southern twist”.

The love birds might just be my favorite- I love the birds and they are painted my favorite colors!

His website says that “His Chicago studio has come to resemble a life-size cabinet of Southern curiosities, not too dissimilar from the abandoned homesteads of his native Virginia where he has collected, or rescued, many treasures. Scraps from old textbooks and nature magazines, handwritten civil war love letters, metal ornaments, wooden nickels and other discarded ephemera find their way into his work; each item stirs nostalgia for a not-too-distant, more rural time and place Geiman identifies as home.”.

 

 

I so dig anything resembling Mexican sugar skulls! So these new collage portraits are beautiful.

An Artist AND a PICKER ya’ll?!!? Dreamy right!?I just love these deer trophies.

I love his part-collage/ part-woodwork/ all-cool approach to his work. You can check him out here, here, and here.

Fun ideas I have been COOKING up?

by

So I need a few traveling partners. Let me know if your interested in meeting up for an adventure by leaving a comment below. Here are 3 opportunities that you might like to consider.

1. For my French DIY loving friends~ Take a seat with Annie Sloan at bateaurouge on Sept. 10 and 11. It’s a workshop! You choose a chair from a range at the Brocante, or bring your own. You will paint and then recover your chair using Annie Sloan™ fabrics. Chairs will have a basic drop-seat or lightly upholstered dining seat that needs re-covering. The class is taught in English. Bateau Rouge is a small interiors boutique and atelier situated in the beautiful village of Bôle in Neuchâtel. This is the French region of Switzerland about 90 minutes from my house. Sound fun?!?! Let’s do it!

photo by Tambako

2. For my foodie friend (or anyone who likes a great party)~Meet me in Paris & dinner with Chez Jim. Thanks to an article by Michelle Young that explains this phenomenon and suggest alternate destinations for Supper clubs in Paris- I’m totally intriged.

“Every Sunday for the last 30+ years, Jim Haynes has been hosting dinners in the atelier of his apartment in the 14th arrondisement. The first 50-60 who contact him get to come and it’s an organized affair, but the evenings began by accident. An American dancer knocked on his door, recommended by a friend as a good person to know. Jim offered a room and she offered to cook for him and his friends, and the evenings became a legendary institution. Allen Ginsberg has been by, but Jim seems more interested in the lives of us lay folk and the confluence of characters that fill his home each week.  Jim’s travel philosophy sums up his philosophy on the dinners: “I travel to see friends, even – or especially – those I’ve never met.” The dinner’s are informal (buffet-style) and the point is to mingle. There are the regulars, and those that just dropped into town. “I  believe in introducing people to people,” Jim says. But where dîner chez Jim is less about the food and more about socialising and perhaps even pulling, the newer clubs focus on multicourse gastronomic meals (eg Hidden Kitchen, see below) and visiting the ‘in’ adresse(restaurant) of the moment with a local foodie (eg Paris Supper Club). You’ll get an excellent meal and they’re still great places for meeting people.

Here are some of the most popular ones. Expect to pay from €80 per person and be sure to book well in advance. If you don’t get a spot bear in mind that many post on Twitter if they have a cancellation or last-minute place available:

Chez Nous, Chez Vous (01 45 30 58 92; www.cheznouschezvous.com; 116bis rue St-Charles, 15e)

Hidden Kitchen (www.hkmenus.com; 28 rue de Richelieu, 1er)

Paris Soirees (06 43 79 35 15; www.parissoirees.com) Twice-weekly Paris events hosted on the Île de la Cité by Patricia Laplante-Collins.

Paris Supper Club Run by the excellent local dining blog The Paris Kitchen.

Talk Time (01 43 25 86 55, 06 20 87 76 69; www.meetup.com/TalkTime) Michael Muszlak’s Saturday night food-and-bilingual-chat in the Latin Quarter, organised through the New York-based group Meetup (www.meetup.com).”

3. For my french speaking, love to babysit friends~Traveling France for a few weeks. This is perfect for a teenager who wants to do some traveling, practice their french and are good with kids. I love France! I love the food, I love the aesthetic, I love the history. I hate how difficult it is every time I go. I think if I had someone who spoke french and who knew a little about France to travel with me, it would make a world of difference! I think also that traveling with a babysitter would make traveling with kids enjoyable. For example, image a little hamlet in Provence, equipt with antique bed, amazing views, and a swimming pool, adjacent vineyards and lavender fields. Wouldn’t it be nice to come in from the market and morning bike ride with the family to spend some time at the pool watching the children play in the water with the babysitter? Wouldn’t it be nice after you have spent some time in the sunshine reading and relaxing and feeling drowsy to have a nap? Voila- babysitter! Wouldn’t it be nice to have dinner at a fantastic french restaurant with your husband- in France- made possible by the babysitter! Wouldn’t it be nice to see a beautiful memorial statue and know what the french inscription said?- thank you babysitter! (Terms of compensation would be negotiable. Additional benefits to consider: opportunity to work on English skills, traveling free for a few weeks, undying love and appreciation.)

found on pinterest

 

religion class

by

Ya’ll keep telling me you want more photos so this is a post you should love. It feels like a giant photo dump to me, especially since i am not a photographer! Hope you can see the details in this old catholic church. It was beautiful. Not a cathedral but still amazing to me.

The religion teacher called; she spoke good English. She asked what religion we were. I told her we belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This being a very small village- she asked if I knew the other LDS family in town, and of course I did. She asked about our religion and our plans for Boo’s religious education here. Here parents can pick only 2 tracks- catholic or reform (this is a sort of non-denominational protestant doctrine I guess?). No other religions are officially recognized. There is also the possibility that you can choose for your child to go home during religion class. We spoke to lots of parents about this and after weighing it out thought we would give it a try. After all, can a kid know too much about Jesus?  I was invited to attend the next class, which would be a field trip to the local church.

Yes that’s Coco in a weird ensemble of crocks, insulated vest, and tutu. We got a tour and it was stunning as you might expect from a super old church in a beautiful Swiss valley.

Everything is intricate and exhibits the finest Swiss craftsmanship of the period.

This photos doesn’t show it well but the floor is tiny tiles that create beautiful mosaics.

The carvings are wood reliefs that have been elaborately painted in gold leaf and bight symbolic colors.

I remain quite shocked that this is part of school curriculum. Frau Weeks walked around and taught the kids about the crucifixion of Christ from a series of paintings that adorn either side of the chapel.

She talked to them about the reason for holy water and why they light candles and pointed out the details in the alter-piece adornment and the stories in the stain-glass windows.

We climbed and old stone staircase and she showed the the beautiful pipe organ.

Gabriel even walked up a million steep stairs to the top of the bell tower to see the bells that regale us hourly throughout the day beginning at 6am!

They got to see how the chandeliers are lowered and they even got to light candles.

Patriotic details abound. The clover shape at the bottom of the chandelier is part of the Kanton “crest”.

The Swiss flag is everywhere, outside and inside.

Even Jesus is holding a Swiss flag.

Most everything was in German, so I really couldn’t understand, but I took lots of photos.

This display holds relics~ Frau Weeks explained that they from village people who lived a long time ago. They are stones that were placed in their shoes to try and demonstrate suffering, kind of like Christ suffered. I am sure walking around with stones in your shoes is a little uncomfortable but I don’t think it is an adequate comparison. Maybe something got lost in translation?

On a side note~ I walked with Gabriel to school after lunch to accompany him for this religion class. We were standing near the door waiting for the bell. In the school yard there were tons of kids of all ages whom had walked back after lunch and were playing and waiting for the bell to ring and the doors to open. They was an impromptu soccer game, there was zip-lining, and hide and seek. There was not a single adult in sight. It is shocking to me!!! I was a little bit of a stress case just standing there feeling like I was in charge of all those kids- seriously open campus, no adults, accidents waiting to happen and remarkable… none did.

Bell rang, kids snapped to it, silence fell upon the school yard! It was magnificent~ the whole afternoon.

 

Oh, by the way

by

A friend sent this after I posted my pathetic Mutterstag story. Thank you! The lord has blessed me with so many dear friends. And new ones everyday. I love that this blog brings me to new people and having pen pals in different places throughout the world is so much fun. Love you all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boo gets a birthday party invite

by

Boo started Swiss schule, he loves it! YAY! Kids in his class are nice.Whats not to love? 22.5 hours per week. 2 hour lunch breaks at home every day. 3 hours of sport per week. I few recesses. I class they call hausewerks- and the principal translated as home work. I thought at first it was study hall but found out it’s where they go to learn knitting and nailing holes in wood?! These are important life skills in Kantone Nidwalden. He is doing great at mathematics- it’s easy to do in any language? And he is practicing his cursive penmanship a lot. He also started 6 hours a week of intensive German classes ( paid for by the school) where he has one-on-one with special teacher. Hope this works!

One of the best parts of this first few weeks was receiving a birthday invite from one of the boys in class. Yes every one was invited, but that’s the point. They were kind enough to include my boy too! Look at this sweet homemade invitation! It gives me hope that Ennetburgen has kind families that are willing to welcome auslanders (outsiders) into their home. It made us so grateful for the kindness. Check out where they even translated into English- just for us!!!

In Boo’s own word~ this is what happens at a Swiss Birthday Party.

” Mostly a lot of games and tons of candy +cake. The sun was shining and we played soccer, with water guns, and kick the can, and “verstecken” hide and seek. There was a boy with a handicapped mind that I shared candy with. It made him happy. It made me feel good. I basically didn’t understand anything they said but my friends mom spoke English and she translated a lot for me. By the way I think I am too old for the code name BOO.”