Waterloo Region: Doon Heritage Village

Last weekend, Rox-Anne and I took a trip to Doon Heritage Village at the Waterloo Region Museum. Just a few weeks earlier, I had gone to the Museum, but the Village was closed, so we didn’t have a chance to take a tour. On this visit though, the Village was all decked out for its Country Christmas event, so it was a festive and cheery way to spend a couple of hours.

Doon Heritage Village is a “60-acre living history village that shows visitors what life was like in Waterloo Region in the year 1914.” I was impressed by the knowledgeable staff who provided us with information about food, tradition, family living, and marketplace routines as we moved through each of the buildings in the Village.

There was a lot of natural wood in the homes and merchant shops in the village, but I spotted quite a bit of white, too (as per usual…I’m always on the lookout!).

some tools by the fire in one of the home’s kitchens

wood and wood and more wood in a home’s basement storage area

saddles in the leather shop

white and wood in the leather shop

saddle supplies in the leather shop

pretty wreath on the church door

simplicity in the church

winter white

a glimpse of the loom in the rug weavery

a home dressed for Christmas

food storage in a home’s basement

I love this image of Father Christmas waiting to greet guests, and I’m going to be on the lookout for a wall match strike like this one.

Rox-Anne will be sharing more photos on Celebrating This Life this week, so be sure to check in if you’d like to learn more.Save

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The Friday Five: Family Trees

I have been working on my family tree on and off for at least five years now. It’s nowhere near complete. It keeps growing as I meet more family members (which is always nice) who can provide more information about relatives. Sometime in the future I need to go to the small Italian villages where my parents were born to learn more about my family history. For now, I’m happy to fill in names and dates as I learn them. My family tree is in very rough form and I never have a paper that’s large enough to fit all the info so I keep taping on paper extensions…

my family tree: this is only my mother’s side…I have another paper roll for my father’s side.

Maybe one day I’ll work it out so that my family tree is as pretty as one of these…

Diamonds Family Tree by Martha Stewart

Family tree by Melinda Beck via Martha Stewart

Inspired Goodness

family tree, Martha Stewart

How about you? Have you ever worked on your family tree? Any tips?

Photographer Spotlight: Vivian Maier

My uncle recently introduced me to the work of Vivian Maier, an American amateur street photographer whose photos date between the 1950s and 1990s. Countless rolls of undeveloped film along with thousands of negatives and prints were discovered at auction just a few years ago. It’s been too hard for me to choose just a few favourite photos so here’s a full selection that caught my attention.

Aren’t these photos stunning?

Read more about Vivian Maier and her work here, here and here.

Update: The new Vivian Maier website was revealed on April 22: http://www.vivianmaier.com/