Happy Mother’s Day! Let’s celebrate all the amazing women out there who are doing so many things effectively, with generosity and caring everyday in this uncommon time! What do Margréts and Vínarterta have in common? I had a remarkable experience leading an amazing group of women who came together to support a friend by making […]
Gleðilegt sumar! Happy summer! You’ve survived the long hard winter once again and now it’s summer according to the Icelandic calendar. Warm days are tickets to happiness on our mothership móðir jórð (mother earth). As she moves us through this viral time reminiscent of 1876 and 1918 we are humbled and ever hopeful that we […]
Just think about the dynamic proliferation of our people and culture over the last 150 years! (Not just the Icelanders!) In 1944 Halldór (Dori) Guðjón Jónsson Eastman’s family celebrated his 70th Birthday in Riverton, Manitoba and they could barely fit everyone in the picture. Dori was a toddler when he arrived in Canada. In the […]
‘If you wake up and the day feels broken just lean into the crack.’ – Björk We’re in a different world right now and what we need for ourselves, and others are for us to lean in. We’re not going back. That thing-that-shall-not-be-named has ushered in a massive evolution calling for reset and balance. We’re […]
Calla Lilies Dessert Recipe Calla Lilies Desserts are easy to make sweet little elegant indulgences from Nýja Ísland í Kanada. (New Iceland in Canada). I can’t remember an Easter without these lovely treats. Calla Lily flowers are loaded with meaning and commonly used in Easter services and Funerals to represent resurrection and rebirth. Used at […]
Vinarterta Tribe Tactic: Our home places are the world. It’s a very strange time. Enforced closing of activity, of gathering and businesses, sends us home. How do we navigate this? If we are fearful of getting sick, of keeping our loved ones healthy, of losing money, livelihood, and the effects of so many things lost […]
Vinarterta Tribe Tactic: Bake! Here’s our traditional family recipe for Icelandic Brown Bread. Brúnt Brauð has a special sweetness, lightness, and density. I love to make it entirely by hand and enjoy the process! This is a bread that connects directly with the heart of Icelanders in North America. A must-have, lightly buttered, (divine toasted) […]
Here’s a Vinarterta Tribe Tactic. A little light-heartedness for you today. Tertavaccine, n.: – a cake designed to detect fears of viruses and inactivate them. When an evolving pandemic is upfront in the news perhaps overcoming fear is one of the greatest moves a person can make. Fear is caused by not knowing. Fear stops […]
(Made ya look!) Order Vinarterta Cake Delivery! There are no squirrels in Iceland. So the joke of startling someone, usually a pet, into action (by saying ‘Squirrel’) when a Squirrel appears may not work there. It definitely works at our house. There’s still lots of snow on the ground and there are lots of squirrels […]
Vinarterta. It is us., I thought. And with that thought I knew what I had the opportunity to create, and was ready to make it happen. Others said my best ideas were behind me. You’ve heard them too. My story started with the recognition of the true message of our beloved Christmas cake. Vinarterta. It […]