Cozy Cat and Dishes

When I am talking to my friends about my new apartment the themes are: books and dishes!

First a picture of my Cat and her first Cat Nap on my new sofa bed:

And my pretty dishes - the tray and tea pot, sugar & creamer my Grandma and I found last year when we went antiquing. Don't they look darling on my buffet? It is exactly what I was looking for - a darker colour with a 'old world country' look. The Royal Albert tea cup was from my dear roommate in my undergraduate days and her parents. Next to it is a humble little cup my Grandmother and I found on our first antiquing venture, for my 25th birthday 7 years ago.

The blue dishes are ones I found with my Mother (If I remember correctly) down the street from my parents house! All of them were selling for 5 dollars. They are beautiful, vibrant and I wish I could get a complete set!! They are an ironstone from Japan.

Lastly, a lovely small teaspoon holder, from Holland. It is real Delft; my Mother gave this to me for Christmas this year. A perfect gift; she found it at an estate sale! I love gifts like these the best. To add to the gift, she gave me teaspoons to go in it from her collection. A lot of these spoons her Mother, my Oma, gave to her years ago. And so it is passed now to me. Once I get more settled, I think I will put some of these spoons in another place, so it is not as crowded.

I will have to have another post sometime to show you my Grandmother's set of dishes that she gave me years ago! I had them stored carefully in boxes under my bed in my parent's house for at least ten years before I had a place for them. As a student I knew I could not afford to move the dishes and I was too transient. It is a dream come true to have a one bedroom apartment with space for a buffet with glass doors for my dishes!

I thank God for His goodness shown in this. I do not deserve such kind thoughtfulness more than anyone else (I wish everyone could have pretty things). So, I am thankful.

Pictures So Far

Everyone who has read my blog for a while, knows that I love my Cat Cleo. She is my faithful, cute, comforting little companion and adds a lot of cheer and delight to my life.

My apartment, thanks to a very generous and helpful friend, is now 80% box free! However, until I get my IKEA furniture (much will have to wait until the new year as it can only be ordered and I am leaving for Christmas in 2 weeks so it may not get here in time), my apartment will not be fully picture blog worthy. I would rather show it off when it is done, etc.

But to show a little of my best apartment ever... here are pictures of Cleo in my new place:

The love of windows and birds! I decided early on that I would not worry about Cleo being on my desk. She loves windows...

I am pleased with the light blue paint. I am still adjusting to having a different place though. Apparently it takes time!

This is in the living room by the sliding door. I love the gold chair - it was my Dad's chair when I was a child and we placed "spaceship" with the navy buttons during the day when he was at work. Cleo also loves this chair. She is often near by when I blog! You can also see a bit of the green paint that I chose.

It is going to take a while for my new place to be fully set up, but at least I have a good start.

Apartment Adventures

Unfortunately I was woken up at 2 AM to someone trying to get into my apartment. Even though I knew they were probably confused and on the wrong floor, and possibly drunk, I still found it scary to wake up to someone knocking and trying to open the door with a key. I lit a candle by my Theotokos Icon and tried to calm down again. It took a while, I admit. I told the Super in the morning on my way to work and hope it never happens again. I will be inquiring about it again tomorrow. Meanwhile, I am thinking of putting an Icon on my front door...

I still love my apartment though. I have been here almost a week already! Some people have lived in this building for many years and are older. This makes my heart sing - they are probably responsible, unlike the confused one waking me at 2 AM...

Work went well this week, thanks to many people’s prayers and God's mercy. I feel like I am slowly catching on now to what I am supposed to be doing (most of this was all new to me) and I got to do some really involved and interesting reference questions. Some days being a librarian is fun. :)

I must admit that my life is not what I thought it would be, but I feel really thankful that I have a job and now a nice place to live. It is getting colder and I love winter! I also love that I can walk to work and to Church and to most things...

This Day Is Good

I had taken a weeks vacation time for my apartment move. Today I did not leave my apartment building. I did laundry and it felt like a deep luxury. Fr. James from the Cathedral in Ottawa laughed at me months ago when I told him that the laundry room is run by a debit card system - no change needed. "You're moving up in the world" he said.

Yep. This apartment feels so wonderful. Clean newly lacquered Parkay floors, green and blue walls. A kitchen with many cupboards. To live in a clean building, where glass doors are not smashed, there are no holes in the basement ceiling, the buzzer works, there is an elevator (great for laundry) and near instant hot water from the taps. I am richly blessed and I know it.

I am holding off on pictures until I get more things in order. I have been working on getting my books out of boxes. I feel really hopeful. These last few years have often been so exhausting that I was often overwhelmed. Tomorrow I return to work... at least I will be coming home to a better place. God help me - I want to rebuild my life...

Icon Corners - my old and new apartments

My longtime (almost 11 years!) friend Tamie asked for pictures of my new place. I will try to do so sometime this week. First though I feel like I need to finish staying goodbye to my old apartment.

The picture above is from my Icon corner in my now former smaller cute apartment. I knew I would miss my former Icon corner and I do. It was this cute little room and I would light it with candles year round in the morning; it gave me a lot of hope, light and comfort during many hard and difficult times.

My new Icon corner is being assembled; the same shelf with the same Icons is up - a good friend of mine put it up for me the same afternoon that I moved. But it is different!

I picked the wall colour itself - a light blue - it almost seems too flat or dry looking. Perhaps I would of liked a glossier sheen, even though that is not what is typically done. And it looks so bare and empty still. And way to clean looking - by which I mean I do not yet have my prayers, lists and quotes up.

However, at least I have a start. And my Icon of my Patron Saint, Saint Irene of Chrysovalantou, is now up as well. Patron Saints are really important - they pray for us and can be Mothers and Fathers to us. Of course I do not know how to explain why or how this is, but I know it to be true. St. Irene is especially known for her prayers for peace; Irene means peace. I struggle to stay at peace, so she is a real gift to me.

About the Icon Shelf in the picture. The Icons from Left to Right are:

St. John of Rila, Patron Saint of Bulgaria

The Resurrection of Christ

The Crucifixion of Christ

St. Xenia of Petersberg

The Theotokos

Christ

St. Nicholas of Myra

St. John of Rila can teach us about prayer and the love of God.

St. Xenia prays a lot for provision of us - homes, jobs, families - and was a fool-for-Christ. This Icon was the first one I ever bought and is from St. Herman's.

The Theotokos is also referred to as the Mother of God - to understand Christ as Incarnate God and Man one has to understand that His Mother bore the Son of God and is His Mother. She can also be our Mother and prays mightily to Christ Her Son for us. I got this Icon from Holy Dormition Monastery shortly after I was chrismated.

The Icon of Christ was a gift from a fellow parishioner at St. Herman's. I remember looking at this Icon and the Icon of St. Xenia and wondering what I do with them. So I just looked at them a lot. To be honest, for a start, I think this was the best thing I personally could of done. I have a lot of tender memories of this beginning in my life. St. Herman's was the best place for me to have begun my journey into the Orthodox Church!

St. Nicholas of Myra - I was chrismated at his Church in Michigan and this Icon was a chrismation gift. St. Nicholas is also known for his prayers for financial provision and for protection. As a Bishop, spiritually he has been a Father to many through the centuries through the Holy Spirit and prayer.

I have been supported by so many over the past year in prayer - looking for work, the foot injury of this past summer, and starting a new job and moving. I hope I have been humbled by this, as I have seen how much others have interceded for me and I have struggled to do the same.

I know there are seasons in our lives and that we cannot always maintain things as we want to. I remember appreciating Fr. Thomas Hopko's comment about doing and praying as we can, not as we wish we could!

Thank God for His mercy and that there are Saints who can pray to Christ for us!