Yummy Soy Wax Christmas Candle + Nordic Reindeer Hotpad

 

I'm in love with scented candles from small businesses, and I just bought this sweet 9 oz candle called Joyful in person at a consignment and tea boutique called Festivitea in Colorado Springs. I couldn't resist lighting it as soon as I got home and I grabbed this red Nordic Reindeer hotpad as background for the photo!

Color me thrilled to find that this candle artisan also has an Etsy shoppe, called CelyseStudio! And the candle I just purchased is in her online store!

Joyful has such a mild Christmas scent. I find sometimes that holiday scents are far too woodsy for me, so I love that the primary scent I'm getting is the clove, which I find very calming. It's a warming scent, if that makes sense, like you're snuggled up in a blanket with a cup of tea and eating gingerbread. 

Click to open the Etsy listing for Joyful

As for the Nordic Reindeer hotpad, this is available from another Etsy business called The Finnish Cottage, and this one happens to be my family's small business! We started up this business last year and I just never got around to mentioning it on this blog!

We currently have red and silver Nordic Reindeer hotpads, along with a variety of other holiday table and home decor, including table runners. Our little online store exploded with business this November which has been amazing!

Click to open our Etsy listing for this hotpad

Click to open our Etsy listing for this hotpad

Click to open the Etsy listing for this table runner set

I'm super proud of what our family has accomplished in just a year with The Finnish Cottage and I am also thankful to support other small business owners like CelyseStudio!

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Christian Christmas Reads Haul!

 

It's that time of year again!

Well, technically I'm a little bit late, but better late than never when it comes to buying some new Christmas Reads, which I did and am waiting to arrive in the mail!

If you're looking for an amazing source of Christian (or clean) Christmas fiction then I highly recommend browsing through the Christmas Fiction section of Christianbook.com. I love that website so much for Christian fiction and even for stocking stuffer ideas, so keep it in mind for that too!

I tried reading Christmas Bells by Jennifer Chiaverini a few years ago and just couldn't finish it. But I'm a little bit different now as a person than I was a few years ago so I'm actually really looking forward to this book. And I love Longfellow's poem so I am excited that Longfellow is the primary theme of this book!

This is one I would consider to be more clean than Christian fiction just based on my memory.

I haven't read Lynn Austin books in many years but I like postwar and 1950s fiction, so I think I will enjoy The Wish Book Christmas. I also fell for the cover, not gonna lie. It's super cute. 

Waiting for Christmas, also by Lynn Austin, is another book where I just loved the cover, but I also enjoy Victorian fiction a lot so I thought I would give this one a try. Literature is full of people who married for love, not station, so I wanted to see Lynn Austin's take on the subject.

I haven't had good luck with Julie Klassen in the past, BUT sometimes Christmas fiction brings out the best in an author. So I'll give An Ivy Hill Christmas a try. Regency fiction is some of my favorite to read so I'm hoping that this novella is as charming as it appears.

I absolutely adore Melody Carlson's Christmas fiction! She's one author whose work I look forward to reading every year, but I don't own all her Christmas books and this one is a 2024 release so I am eagerly bouncing up and down waiting for it to arrive. I can't wait to read The Christmas Tree Farm!

Again, here's another author that can be hit or miss with me. I've very much enjoyed some of Roseanna M. White's fiction in the past and really disliked others, but I'm more than willing to give her 2024 Christmas release of Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor a try.

I totally missed last year's Melody Carlson Christmas novella so I had to leap at the chance to buy it, even buying it at full price, which I totally did. I appreciate that romance doesn't seem to be at the front and center of A Quilt for Christmas, but instead is about a widow befriending a child in need of a Christmas miracle for her mother.

While my ancestry is mostly Finnish and Swedish, I do have a small amount of Norwegian blood in me and I happen to love eating lefse, a delicious Norwegian alternative to a tortilla or a crepe that is made out of potatoes. So finding an author, Larry Woiwode, who wrote a story involving lefse, well, I knew I had to purchase The Invention of Lefse: A Christmas Story.

And there you have it! My 2024 Christmas Reads Haul from Christianbook.com! I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of my package so I can get reading!

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Excited about the upcoming HBO Harry Potter series!

For numerous reasons, I’m absolutely stoked about HBO’s new Harry Potter series that’s in development! I love magic and fantasy and epic adventures, and stories starring children as the leads. That goes way back to my childhood and has carried on well into my adult years.

But, I’m not really a fan of the Harry Potter movies. In fact, I haven’t watched them in years. With a few exceptions, the films just didn’t meet my expectations, which is strange to admit because I did watch the movies before reading the books. I guess I just didn’t know how much MORE there is in the books than what the films allowed.

I did “like” the movies when I was younger, but I LOVE Rowling’s books. She created such a masterful world of imagery and experiences and characterization and my hope and prayer is that the HBO series really brings that world to complete life.

Funnily enough, my favorites of the Harry Potter movies are the first two! They felt the closest to the books with so much obvious magic just everywhere. I LOVED that feeling so that vibe is what I’m literally crossing my fingers for in the series remake.

 

 

I also have a gentle confession to make so if you don’t want to get a little political, it’s okay to skip the below paragraphs and join up again at the end.

 

 

 

 

 

I support J. K. Rowling and I don’t think anything she said concerning biology and female spaces should have ever created the massive controversy the Harry Potter fanbase finds itself in. Because HBO is standing firm in its stance on having her on board with the new series, I am also on board with them. You cannot have Harry Potter without JK. Nor should you try because that really is just disrespectful to the creator of such an imaginative world.

My sister and I had tickets to Leaky Con back in, oh 2021, in Denver. It’s a Harry Potter themed convention that has, apparently, evolved into something called EnchantiCon but hasn’t really changed their mindset from what I can tell. That season was at the beginning of the intense anti-Rowling sentiment that was infiltrating the Harry Potter fandom. We read through the new “rules” for the convention which were quite long and ranting and realized that unless you towed the line and went with the anticipated anti-Rowling narrative that was going to be in a lot of the talk sessions, you really weren’t welcome at the convention. We got refunds for our tickets.

I have no patience with authoritarianism whatsoever and the entire convention reeked of it. You have no idea how very much that grieved my heart. I wanted to go. I wanted to celebrate Harry Potter and just have an incredibly good time with my friends. The convention should have been about Harry Potter! But they made it about politics. The convention was tainted because it no longer allowed for diversity of thought or opinion on Rowling herself. Authoritarianism isn’t left wing or right wing. It can infiltrate any belief system, any fanbase, and any political party and that is what happened with Harry Potter.

It’s taken me 4 years to reach a place of psychological safety where I can publicly acknowledge that I love the Harry Potter books and JK. Nobody wants to feel that they’re putting themselves in a position of potential harassment by complete and total strangers online for coming out in support of something.

If a person decides that reading the Harry Potter books violates their personal ethics, I’m not going to argue with them. But just because that person feels that way, does not give them the right to thrust that opinion on everyone else in the fandom and demand that we follow suit. Because that’s not happening.

 

 

 

End of gentle confession/rant.

 

I have a delightful Autumn at Hogwarts ambience on Youtube playing on my computer while I’m writing this. If you have never played ambiences, either while working from home or crafting or just if you’re sitting and reading a book, I highly recommend the experience! My sister and I have at least a hundred ambiences saved for a variety of themes, and they are so relaxing as an experience!

We’re making Pumpkin Pasties tonight for Thanksgiving tomorrow, using the delectable recipe from The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook. We’re not big on pumpkin pie in my house but Pumpkin Pasties are another matter entirely! If you’ve never given them a try, I highly recommend using the recipe from this cookbook.

 I wish you all, at least those of you who celebrate it, a very Happy Thanksgiving!

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Desiring a Husband but no Kids

Jun//Getty Images

It seems to be a controversial statement in conservative Christian culture to want a husband, but not want kids.

My primary response to people who are upset at the concept is "why do you care?!"

It actually is my body, and I do have my own personal reasons for why I don't want kids, my age being foremost in my mind now since I've turned 40. I believe it's called a geriatric pregnancy at my age and . . . no thanks, nothing about that sounds like a healthy idea for myself or for potential offspring.

But I do not think that my lack of desire for children should EXCLUDE me from desiring a husband!

I have always been an extremely affectionate and playful person with people I trust and am fond of. I love touching and hugging and snuggling and all the things, and, forgive me, but I would love to do those things with a husband without the added pressure of "I'm doing it with the hope of bringing children into the world someday." I'm sorry, am I not enough as a partner for you? I want to do those things because they feel good to both of us, not because there's additional expectations.

There is a lot of pressure put on women like me, and by me, I mean Christian women who are sensual by nature and want to share that side of themselves with someone without the offspring string attached. Can't I just want that relationship for me? But no, it seems like it's considered selfish in mainstream Christianity to desire a sexual relationship with a man without the expectation of children. As if the thought is, if you don't want kids, why do you want a husband? Ummm, because I do. Isn't that enough?

Turning 40 has been a milestone. I didn't cry or get overly emotional at putting my young adulthood behind me. Instead, it's helped me realize there are things I want in life. Like, a healthier lifestyle concerning my weight. I'm confident when I work out and eat better and weigh less. It's my reality and it's what I'm extremely proud to be working towards. I want that both for myself and for a potential mate because I know what I find attractive in a man and I would like him to find me attractive too. Our relationship would not be cemented together by children so there would need to be other incentives and reasons for why we're together.

And yes, while I want a husband who is a believer, I am not going to settle for a man whose personality type is literally "Evangelical Christian" and there is nothing interesting about him. That was my problem when I was in youth group and young adult groups in church. The guys weren't INTERESTING because all they talked about was purity and Christ, skiing and football, and, I'm sorry, to me that is boring. It was boring to me then, even though I didn't say so out loud or even really allow myself to think it, and it is incredibly boring to me now. Surely not all of them really wanted to be youth pastors and worship leaders!

It does my heart an incredible amount of good to see Christian parents with their kiddos in church together, worshipping and listening to the pastor and just spending quality time. I am so happy that these family units exist because they are so important. I just wish I felt accepted as a Christian woman who realllllllllllllllllllly wants to be a part of an A+B relationship but without C thrown in.

This rant went a little long, oh well. This is what happens when I go online and find young Christian conservative women in their twenties waxing profound on what it should mean to be a woman, including the maternal instinct, and that if you don't want kids now, you will someday. Sorry, but that box doesn't fit me. And I should still be allowed to find a husband who loves me for me, not for the offspring I can give him.

This post might seem harsh, especially since I haven't posted in so long. But it is genuinely how I feel from my perspective. And I'm not sorry.

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Paid Vacation Days: Finland vs. the US

Oh my gosh, America is so bad at this! I'm now appalled that the US government doesn't have mandatory paid vacation days. 

In case you're wondering what I'm talking about, here's the gist.

Both Finland and Sweden employed persons are allotted between 5 and 6 WEEKS of paid vacation time every year. This vacation time is mandatory, and to that I say, yes please, absolutely require me to take time off to spend with my family, to travel, to rest, and STILL GET PAID FOR IT. 

Whatever it is the US is doing, they're doing it wrong. There's a federal law somewhere that needs to be either created or changed to require employers to provide their staff with at least 5 weeks per year of paid vacation time. 

Just think of the mental health benefits?! If you want to take a month long trip to Europe with your family, you can do it because you're still being paid and you have job security. 

I'm sure there's a reason why the Finnish government has such labor laws in place, and there is undoubtedly a cost to the citizens of some sort, but again, I don't care. There can be a cost if it means that I'm allowed time to rest and just enjoy my house, my garden, my books, and a trip around the world all as part of a mandatory paid vacation.

The reason I'm starting to feel this lack keenly was the 5 months I spent last year out of work on severance pay. It was glorious. I enjoy working and I enjoy my new job, but I am frustrated because I am currently just a "temporary" employee which means even though I'm full-time, I have no paid time off benefits. No PTO, zip. So if I want to take time off, I will not be paid for it. I don't even get paid for official holidays so if we're closed on the 4th, sorry, I'm out of luck financially. That is the height of frustration and in Finland, that wouldn't happen.

If you work 35 hours or 14 days a month in Finland, you are eligible for your mandatory paid vacation leave of 25 days. It's the law. End of story. None of this temporary full-time worker with no benefits nonsense.

There is a growing mental health crisis and work burnout rate in the US. It's no wonder. Maybe instead of panicking over unbuilt border walls and who won what debate and whether a person's identity matches their birth sex, our politicians should consider ways to work together to get its citizens 5 or 6 weeks of mandatory paid leave. Take a page out of Sweden and Finland's books and I guarantee you that American citizens would be far better for it.

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Book Review: The Lily of Ludgate Hill by Mimi Matthews (2024)

 

Official Synopsis

Lady Anne Deveril doesn’t spook easily. A woman of lofty social standing known for her glacial beauty and starchy opinions, she’s the unofficial leader of her small group of equestriennes. Since her mother’s devastating plunge into mourning six years ago, Anne voluntarily renounced any fanciful notions of love and marriage. And yet, when fate puts Anne back into the entirely too enticing path of Mr. Felix Hartford, she’s tempted to run…right into his arms.

No one understands why Lady Anne withdrew into the shadows of society, Hart least of all. The youthful torch he once held for her has long since cooled. Or so he keeps telling himself. But now Anne needs a favor to help a friend. Hart will play along with her little ruse—on the condition that Anne attend a holiday house party at his grandfather’s country estate. No more mourning clothes. No more barriers. Only the two of them, unrequited feelings at last laid bare.

Finally free to gallop out on her own, Anne makes the tantalizing discovery that beneath the roguish exterior of her not-so-white knight is a man with hidden depths, scorching passions—and a tender heart.

My Thoughts

Mimi Matthews certainly knows how to tell a good story with engaging characters. While The Lily of Ludgate Hill is not my favorite of the Belles of London series, I thoroughly enjoyed Lady Anne and her loyalty to her grieving mother. She's a spunky heroine, but one who also knows her own mind regardless of how she might appear to people on the outside. Yes, she's been dressing in mourning back for years in respect to her father's memory. No, she hasn't settled down to a suitable match. Yes, she gives every appearance of being cowed by her mother. But not everything is as it appears as Felix Hartford discovers soon enough.

I'm not always on board with stories where the male lead is prone to arrogance, but for Felix, like Anne, he also is not all that he seems. The reader comes to know this about him soon enough, but it takes a bit of time for Anne to learn that she can't judge him by his outward behavior, but rather by the things he does in secret. Think of Sir Percy from The Scarlet Pimpernel where he behaves one way in public and another in private and you might have a slight idea. Of course, he's no Percy, but in his own way, Felix is quite heroic.

Their relationship is quite rocky, fraught with miscommunication and assumptions, and that might be one reason why I didn't necessarily love this book. But they do get things straightened out in the end and I believe they will be a truly charming couple. Both of them just needed to do a bit of growing up before their relationship could even begin to work.

Another reason for my liking and not loving The Lily of Ludgate Hill is that it starts up about 3/4 of the way into the previous book The Belle of Belgrave Square, which I absolutely ADORED! So that just felt strange, retelling from a different perspective the end of a previous book. Once we moved into a newer timeline with different events, I enjoyed the story more, but that beginning was a little slow-paced for my liking simply because I didn't really care at that point.

I also didn't care for all the new age mysticism and seances and spirit guides that Anne's mother believes in. Spirit guides tend to be something people play with and don't realize what they actually are. In this case, Dimitri is presented as being a figment of Anne's mother's imagination, but he could just as easily have been something else. Don't open that door.

I am hopeful for the 4th and final installation, The Muse of Maiden Lane since it follows the story of Stella, the fourth young lady in this group of friends, whose hair is completely gray and who may be falling in love with a gentleman in a wheelchair. I would love that story arc if that's what happens!

Kudos to Mimi Matthews for continuing with her clean fiction trend. You've got some passionate kisses here, but nothing else, and that's how I do tend to like it, fiery but careful with how much is shown. The Lily of Ludgate Hill is a quick and easy read and a charming way to pass some spare time. If you love clean romance and Victorian fiction then this one is probably for you!

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Household Facelift Time - Painting a Wall Green

My newly painted green wall and my cat basking in the attention

My sister and I are women of very eclectic tastes, preferring warm tones instead of cool tones, gold and bronze instead of silver, and one thing we've noticed is that we've gotten really tired of having off-white walls in our house. Off-white walls are boring and they show every single weird ding or mark or bump in our drywall. Because, naturally, our house was built in the 1970s and bumpy walls were in, even though we would both prefer smooth walls!

When we bought our house, it suited our needs and still does, basically. But it was all fitted out with burnished silver and cool tones. Naturally. Especially the kitchen. So, we made it work for a couple of years, but last year, amongst the weirdness with my job, we purchased new-to-us furniture that gives the house more of a vintage masculine vibe. It's all in more of a craftsman style and has warm brown and red and teal tones that we just love. 

But that's when the problem happened. We began really noticing our off-white walls. So bleh and boring and just, nope. We've always loved artwork so we already have lots of nice pieces around the house, but the walls just aren't dynamic enough to really make the artwork pop.

So we took the plunge.

We already have a wallpaper sample that we love that has this Art Deco vibe to it so I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to match the green at the store before a very helpful associate told me he could match it exactly with a scan. Go figure. So our paint on this lovely wall is exactly the color of the green in our wallpaper sample.

There will be one wall that gets smoothed out with a joint compound skim coat. That'll be an adventure, I'm sure. Until then, though, I took an entire day a weeks back and painted one family room wall green. I learned that I want the baseboards green as well as the trim around the doors and I have some fancy ideas for the doors themselves that will include adding molding.

We're very vintage in my house

I am going to paint the rest of the walls green, except for the ones that will be smoothed for very specific wallpaper. I'm in love with our green wall already and can hardly wait for the rest of the room to come together. We're sort of taking this facelift one room at a time.

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