This'n That ... Chez Ilona

Thursday, August 26, 2010

resilience


 
This dainty and delicate flower grows in the
Rocky Mountains in the US mid west, where I've lived for so many years.
The natural flowers that sprout in the spring are gorgeous,
and fill up the fields with all different colors.
What differs Sego Lilies from all the other flowers is that they sprout in between 
the rocks and arid ground, unlike the others that bloom in the
meadows after the snow melt, or poke through the last snow of winter.
In all it's delicate and fragile appearance,
the Sego Lily is strong, resilient and withstand the dry and hot weather during summer!
They were the main staple for the early pioneers who arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, Utah, 
out of season and had no crops to survive from.  
These precious flowers were their means of survival until they could harvest their first crops.
 


and learn to bloom wherever they were planted!

If we can mirror ourselves in nature, we can emulate its attributes and learn to bloom wherever we are planted and make the best of our circumstances without suffering the loss of our feminility, graceful, soft, nurturing and loving ways!



life

For some reason, I really feel impressed to share with you; please, I don't mean to impose on anyone, but maybe be of inspiration to someone!

This  last week.. or rather last lots of days... have been challenging!
Life brings us unexpected surprises, sometimes from places we would have never dreamed of, nor even in our wildest dreams!  When they are great and good surprises they present no threats, but when they are not so great they instill an avalanche of feelings and scrutiny about our values, beliefs and principles that have been the guiding rule for our lives. Either we feel stronger about them, or they shatter in little pieces leaving nothing but a feeling of numbness and disappointment!
I am sure this is true to everyone, from the moment we are born to the moment we expire our last breath in this realm of mortal life!

We learn since we are little how to accommodate, adapt, endure, persist, have patience, forgive, let go, forget, or not!  The one thing I have learned is that ll of these attitudes are our choices, we choose how we want to feel!... we are not responsible for what other people feel or think or do!  even if we have not been the best example.  We choose how we will respond to every situation in our life.

I have also learned that our ability to be positive and develop good attitudes are influenced by our environment and circumstances, but they do not determine that we are not to have a good life.

Some people are blessed to have been born of good parents and circumstances, others are not!  we will never fully understand why things happen this or that way, just as we can never measure the reach of our influence on other people.  Some people feel victimized by life, others decide they will take matters into their hands and not allow  feeling sorry for themselves.  Why is it so.?.. psychology tries to explain and find reasons or motivations for our actions, some follow this or that school of thought, some have religion as their beacon and find solutions in it!  I am of them....

The more I live, the more I understand that this mortal life of ours does not make any sense unless we have some perspective to measure it by, and for me it is my understanding and faith in  Jesus Christ, His atoning sacrifice, love for mankind and mercy, have helped me become a better person, even when facing challenges... whatever they may be.  Not that I don't feel sad and disappointed at times, after all I am only human and have human reactions just like the next person, but to me the key point is that I have been learning to curb impulses and instincts, because I understand that it is possible to do so, thus enabling me to decide how I am going to feel or react to the said challenges.

This really makes me feel like a million dollar person.  It also allows me to understand that my happiness is my sole responsibility, no one can make me happy but myself.  Those loved ones around us make it all else better and more fun... we complete... Not all of us have family, or loving families round and about, then we find friends ... good friends ... and what a joy they are!

It really saddens me when I see family members who cannot be loving and friendly towards one another, when they can't work out their differences, forgive and forget!

All this rambling comes from the loss I have experienced recently ... a great family and my friends got lost in the trap of pride and vanity.  What is left are two small children, with no mother or father to love and care for them, their lives to decided by others who are not the ones who should be doing it!

It makes look into my own life... I am being proud and pride as well... Am I doing what I need to do to teach my own family about love and forgiveness towards one another and those of our immediate contact?

When death comes, there is nothing left to do, but before that happens, everything can be done, lives can be turned around, pain can be healed and wounds can be dressed, instead we learn how develop those attributes that will bring us closer together to our dear Father in Heaven.  We fill our cup with happiness, we learn to love ourselves, for we cannot love another unless we first know how to love ourselves, with all the flaws and imperfections we all do have.

The saddest is when someone leaves this life without making amends for past mistakes, all it is left is ..."What if...., and  if I had only..., and if it wasn't for...."

We will never know what it could have been, only what it was not... sad, very sad!

And looking around we see more and more of this very thing, and yet, every one bleeds for love and attention!

This video I just posted shows very eloquently this very idea!

May we all, when faced with challenges and sorrow and pain,
find solace in our families and in Jesus Christ who is our Redeemer and Comforter!

Nothing can make up for a loving family!


Families complement each other with each individual's unique traits, abilities and talents!


We are to accept one another and respect our differences, 
and learn from each other, just as we want to be accepted.


We cannot have one foot in the worldly life and
the other in the celestial realm... for we cannot serve two masters...

Parenting: Touching the Hearts of Our Youth

Parenting: Touching the Hearts of Our Youth

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

feeling stitchy

This a very interesting blog on sundry stitching styles!!! if you like learning about what/how others view this craft!!

feeling stitchy

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Saturday, August 14, 2010

friends!

These last weeks we have felt the winter as we haven't before... tonight is especially cold! and yet the plants are budding with the new leaves and flowers!  I so love to see and follow up on my plants growth! It amazes me ... it always does, how nature knows knows and follows the changes in the weather and they just know when it time for what, and just how it mildly follows the lead!  I think we humans have something, or rather, lots to learn from nature!

I have been working in setting up other blogs where I can deal with specific topics and keep my log and a journal of things that are important to me, so i haven' t been dedicated to my sewing as I want to be!

And I have noticed that most of my visitors are from Hungary, thank you ladies... my blog has been going for just a month, but I sure hope  I can make friends among the many of you.

I wonder if there are some of you who are close to Szeghalom - this is where my mom's family come from, I would like to ask for some help in locating possible relatives in the area... Vekóny István and Zsábo Emilia... I have bben trying to put together my family history, but since I can't speak Hungarian enough to communicate and my parents never talked much about the past in Hungary, the memory of war was too much!  please let me know if there is anyone of you who could maybe put me in contact with who can speak English in the registrar's office... they might have records if they were not destroyed during the war!    any help would be very much appreciated!

In a lighter tone, I really follow your work and thank you for so many beautiful things, they really have inspired me in the ideas and my own creative process... Would love to hear from you and exchange with you all!!


this flower blooms all year round.... and so does now!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

blogging

I don't know about you, but I like to understand and know how things are done. I think I've been this as long as I can remember. So when I decided to start my blog, I did it I was a little afraid about going into it because I knew nothing of html language and I still don't but I can understand a little more about... long before the internet was what it is now, I had taken programming classes and understood how the computer talks and can understand what we want it do... and html is pretty much like that... the only difference is the symbols we need to know for html!!

So I apologize if some you know have come to visited and found my house in a mess! Since I am not able to create my own blog as of yet!!! I will learn how to!! I was in search of a template that would do what I wanted in the blog...as it turned out, all the free things I was using limit the things you can do on the blog, and I always found backgrounds that wouldn't work with the template and vice-versa... I think that it will be ok now... I was able to twinkle with the language and change things a little bit to manage to make template and background more compatible!!

Now I can dedicate more time to working on my projects and post about them!
It will be nice if you commented on my screen and how you like it and/or give suggestions.

I often tell my friends that deep inside I am a little girl... (you see I am a tall person), and when i was growing up we didn't have all the cute things we find now ... and I just love them ... I used to buy some stickers we had to put in water so soften and losen up and then had to carefully be slid over the surface we wanted them on, or they would break... and they were the vintage kind, flowers, little animals, etc... I loved to decorate my notebooks with them...so here are a few of these cute vintage images!

A  bientot for now!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

l'Atelier d'H�l�ne

It's cold and cloudy, a week long of cold and gloomy weather after several beautiful sunny and warm days! I feel like staying cooped up with a quilt and just being here!

This is another French blog with gorgeous things, the white embroidery is beautiful!

l'Atelier d'H�l�ne

www.linhoealfazema.com

I served a mission in Portugal, and came to learn and love its people and all the beautiful things they have to offer... friendship and love was the first that touched my heart. This was when Salazar was deposed from his 30 years dictatorship, and Portuguese were fleeing the hard times associated with the political turmoil and the wars in the African colonies. Brazil took in many Portuguese and planes were arriving in constant flow! This is when I arrived there ... 2 years after the liberation... the political environment was very strong and the communist ideas permeated all the aspects of the politics of the time!
I wasn't involved with it because my purpose there was not political, but one couldn't help feel the things in the air. Many Portuguese were coming back from Angola and Moçambique, and the retornados, returned, faced many obstacles in their return home; no housing, jobs or hope! I had the opportunity to meet many of them and work closely with them, and they were among the best people I met in Portugal! I so loved them and leaving the country was a hard thing. I loved the beautiful gardens and castles and history that is so mingled with the Brazilian history and much of this history and culture is still felt in the little towns across the country, and that resembles the Portuguese architecture from the colonial period when Brazil itself was a Portuguese colony.
Portugal is know for its beautiful handwork, stitching and knitting...
In this elegant style you can see some of the Portuguese craftsmanship!! just beautiful!

www.linhoealfazema.com

Casamia in Italia

I love the shabby chic look and feel, the French style associated with it + the Provençal country work and looks, this link will take you to Casamia in Italia, a Japanase in Italy.... isn't it wonderful how cultures mix and we learn from one another?

 There are some beautiful things to see in this site!  have fun...

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

still Bunny Hill Designs

isn't it darling... I looooooove pink and all it's nuances... 
this makes me  want to eat it... pink and chocolate!!!  
you can see lots more in their site!!!   enjoy!

Free Patterns

We all love freebies don't we!!!!!!!?? I do!!

This is a cute snowmen aplique quilt from Bunny Hill Designs.. their forte are the bunnies... sweet and pink... but this quilt is adorable!! have fun!



Free Patterns

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

me

It's funny to speak about yourself,  there are so many aspects to a person!  but to our purposes here and to justify this blog... a means to things I want to accomplish at this point in my life I will deal with the creative aspect of my personality.
Technology is something that came to me later in life since it was not available as a teen or a young adult, I mean the internet of course. I already was a mother of babies when the 1st contact with computers was possible... I didn't have one but I had already understood that it would be big and I would eventually need to know how to use one!  SO I learned how... can't live without it now...but the biggest opportunity came when working at this office and the 1st computers were being installed in the office... the old windows 5 with the blue screen...I had to work with it all day and we didn't have a network or were connected to anything... it was just that!! and slowly I started on the different programs and upgrades. My company believed it was paramount to keep up with the market and have top of the line equipment; I liked that because it gave the opportunity to learn what many hadn't had the chance to have yet! and then I bought my first PC and so on!! and here we are ... our teens today can't imagine life without this technology...if they only knew!!!

Anyway... I have always enjoyed crafts and doing creative things since I was a little girl, my mom was very talented with the needle, the brushes and in the kitchen!!  and as little girls do... we want to do just like mommy does... and so did I!
I used to seat by her and watch when she was sewing my dolls clothes, and how she cut the pattern out of newspaper!  I was a girl scout and every year we went camping in the mountains in Rio, gorgeous place... in the peak of the summer... tropical summer, we needed blankets at night, pine trees were huge and old and my love with nature started just then, and of course I needed the proper clothes... the 1st I went camping I was around 5-6 years old and we stayed out for 10 days... we had cabins and bunk beads, washed ourselves in the freezing cold water of a little spring that would take your breath way when you got in contact with the water, so cold we had to wash around noon when the sun was the hottest! I'm going away in my memories... so my mom would make me under panties out of very soft cotton (knit material was not available as today), white cotton with lace around the legs and dainty little flowers painted on by mom!! I loved to watch her do things... and of course was there sitting next to her watching her paint!!  I remember going to a ceramics class with her ... I was around 4 or so... we would mold the clay and paint whatever we made, and after being cooked in the oven we would take it home... I still have them ... pieces my mom made and a little one that I  made and mom helped me paint... I treasure those pieces!!

And then she would embroider a lot of items in the house and being Hungarian, embroidery had to be a must... and she did beautiful work, and what intrigued me was that she would make her own patterns and designs; it fascinated me that she could make beautiful things out of nothing!  and then she would give a piece of cloth and teach me the 1st steps, embroidering, knitting, crochet, sewing, drasowing ...
And  so I was raised and grew up... We didn't have much money for magazines and all the other gadjets we now take for granted; mom had and old sewing machine, one of those with the pedal, and I learned how to sew with it!... we didn't have an electric one until I was 15!

I am curious by nature and am always trying to learn everything I can, most of the time by myself, reading, watching, researching and lots of trials and errors!

I am a mom of two handsome young men, Joshua and Zoltán, both all grown and not needing too much of my attention, my DH is calm and helps me things and I work from home as an ESL teacher and a translator, and with more time in my hand I really want to devote more time in my crafts and creative activities.  Of course, the blog finally came to be, not quite yet to what I want... but certainly it will get there!
I just love the idea of being able to visit so many of you out there and see how you live and the beautiful things you can do, and feel very inspired and motivated... it will also help me keep my journal in a fun way!

And then there is the other thing that keeps my life complete and full of hope!  I love my Heavenly Father and have kept busy in the church serving in many capacities that have allowed me to grow as a person and acquire many other talents of a more personal and spiritual nature! But I am certainly sure that I have been in many ways and given much in this life!  I especially thankful for having been born of good parents who took care of and loved me, I felt protected and cherished, even when we had disagreements or not always saw and understood things in the same light! 
My parents are now gone and I miss them... I wish I could have the understood the importance of family life and loyalty as a teenager.... what years are those... we become little monsters!! 

So in this blog I will be touching all of these things that I have learned along the way and wish to incorporate many others as I learn from you!
I hope to meet and make good friends here!
But my absolute most cherished thing about this blog is the opportunity I have had to go into the life of Hungarian ladies, see their work and life!  it somehow brings me closer to my mom....I haven't been there yet, but it is one of the things I still wish to accomplish!

I love to read your blogs...lots of you are being followed and like to know how you do and handle things!!  This is very neat!  thank you all, I hope I may be of inspiration to some as well!

Welcome chez moi... and enjoy! I hope we can become friends and leave a note so I know you been by!! xoxo!

free quilt patterns

this is a nice place for lots of all kinds of the quilts!  with lots of contacts of quilting lovers!

and this is a very nice lady from Romenia  with a very touching story her blog is beautiful and her work gorgeous ... quilts with trapunto quilting!

very good reading!  enjoy !!  and here a link to her blog with a free bag pattern! !!!   free bag pattern
have fun!!! 

caramba!!

well ! if you have been around visiting and found the blog going crazy.... it was... mr blogger is very finicky!!  I find that my eyes get very tired if I'm working on a very busy page... too colors and what not! and I just couldn't find the right background to fit what I wanted... if it wasn't one thing it was another...but I didn't want a blank page either.... my eyes get worse on a white page....my word processor always has a greenish tone to it...green relaxes the eyes! As I have had to work with a computer for long hours, I am a translator, it is hard on me now!  so it seems I finally found something to make it a little easier... let's see how long it will last!!! cross my fingers...
Today I found a nice blog on patchwork and quilting ... there is a lot of stuff happening there, besides, Kelly has a very nice way of "talking" to us on her blog...and of course beautiful and fun quilts...the blog looks like grand central station ... so much traffic!  http://cottoncharmquilts.typepad.com/charmingchatter/2010/08/index.html

I have been working to put all my projects in order... have soooooo many unfinished things to work on... so my goal now is to get them finished... and keep a log ... hopefully to be shown...
My problem is that I start and then get trapped on adding and adding to the original project...not good...also I don't like to work in a hurry like some people who want to see it finished right away!  I enjoy the process of creating !!!
Anyhow!!
I am also in the process of segmenting the areas of endevour to make it easier to find things... there are so many wonderful blogs, ideas and people... don't want to spend too much time looking for them... I want to be able to access everything quickly....  I like to browse on the ideas and get my creative juices running... once they are warmed up I take off on my own ... that's dangerous!!
I was helping my son yesterday with a poster for a play the young adults will put out for Christmas and found some illustrations from A Christmas Carol by Dickens... the popular story never looses it's appeal!  so here is one of them... you all have a good day!


this is not the one I wanted to post ... but the format is not allowing to download
... need to check and see what happened, but this is Scrooge's nephew and his sick boy!!!


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Moda Bake Shop

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