Hallelujah!

Christmas Eve morning, as I was driving back home, with the last of my errands completed, something interesting came across the CBC radio station I listen to....it caught my attention and made me listen more intently than usual...
 

It was about the impact of the song, Hallelujah, almost thirty years after it's release,
sung by Jeff Buckley, and made famous by Leonard Cohen...that incredible word, what it evokes, even if you are of little faith... the words, telling of how joy and sorrow are inexplicably interwoven.... how we can't experience one without the other...

...it gave me pause....

I have always loved the song, my favourite rendition perhaps, by k.d. Lang.
It was sung by Lang at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, and I recall the power and strength of the words, the feelings it evokes in me every time I hear it....

This Christmas, more than any other, it resonated strongly with me....how, in desperation, we throw our arms heavenward looking for an answer, consolation,
perhaps redemption, but above all hope and gratitude....and in the end, joy to be alive...

Every Christmas, I am more aware of gratitude and life itself, it seems...
 

On a lighter note..... Hallelujah !!!!  My kitchen cupboards have arrived and are being installed ! At a bit of a stand still now, with the holiday season's arrival....
Above, the new garden room/conservatory, open to the kitchen...one more coat of paint and then finished...it was all painted Cloud White.

The two islands waiting for their marble honed tops...
Early January scheduling....

...looking towards the garden room....
 

I chose simple Shaker style cabinetry with beadboard accents, suitable for our country location...the hardest thing for me to do while renovating, was remaining true to our home's own sense of place....the "bones" I had to work with...
 

Close up view of the posts in the islands....

The powder room vanity, waiting for new Corian top, Avonite, on the new stone/slate floor, called Winter....it will have a simple, under counter, oval basin with tarnished brass faucets....the cabinet is a vintage piece I painted a while ago, in anticipation of the new powder room....the walls are Cake Batter by BM...
 

These paper cones, were the only gifts I managed to make this Christmas...I found an edition of The Illustrated London News from 1871 while rummaging through the carriage house early this month...from December 21, 1871...I photo copied the illustration, Christmas Bells by Lorenz Frulich, on cardstock, and embellished it as Victorian scrap might look....channelling as my muse, Susan's class at Stitch, earlier this month....thank you Susan!!

Another joyful season has come and gone, my dear readers....I wish all of you love, health and much happiness, now and throughout the coming year...and always grateful for your unwavering support and generous comments...I am always overwhelmed by your kindness and generosity and above all, friendship...

photos from my iPhone

The Holy and the Broken, Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of Hallelujah, a new book, by Alan Light.

N.xo