Some of the Best Advice...

“Somebody has to get up early, stay up late, do more than the others, if the human garden is to be a thing of beauty.”

~Edith Schaeffer

This is some of the best counsel I've ever read. It applies to home life, church life, business, you name it. I'm not saying we should consistently overdo it, and never rest, but at the same time, nothing worthwhile has ever been achieved without working harder than the "average bear".

If all you want is an average marriage, then stay "into yourself" and be mindful of your rights and how tired you are and how much you do and what your spouse doesn't do. That is a sure-fire way to a completely average relationship, and it is your right to be average, if that is what you really want.

If all you want is an average life, then do an average amount of necessary work.

If you want something more, you have to get over yourself, roll up your sleeves, and be more. That does not necessarily always mean doing more - sometimes working harder is more about working smarter, which means actually working less! But let's be honest...being who you really want to be always leads to doing what you really need to do to be who you really want to be...and doesn't that often mean doing a lot?

Get happy about it!

Someone really does have to be willing to quietly and willingly do what needs to be done and then some, otherwise the marriage, the family, the church, or the business will descend into a disagreeable, cranky mess.

Sometimes doing what we really need to do, to be who we really want to be will involve expecting more out of those closest to us - but we must always first start with ourselves.

The Nursery

More pictures to come, I promise, but here is a preview of The Nursery. All is in readiness, we just need the grand baby to come! (No, Hannah is not in labor as of this moment, ten till midnight, December 3rd. That could change by morning, or that could change by next week. We don't flippin' know.)

The crib is Jenny Lind. The crib skirt is made of three different, coordinating fabrics...I need to get a closeup for you. The bedding is Laura Ashley - surprisingly, not a print...it is a beautiful matelasse! The valance I found on clearance at Marshall's for $2.99!

The rocking chair is an antique, purchased at a shop called Granny's Attic, near Oak Ridge. The small side table is also an antique, a gift from a dear friend named Anna Sprain, many years ago. The floor rug is from Target - and is incredibly soft.

There is another crib skirt, under the one that you can see. It is the skirt that came with the Laura Ashley bedding...but Hannah wanted the splash of color, and the hand made look of the one you see. (The one you see, there, was a stroke of luck. It somehow got separated from its "set" in a department store, and never sold. It was sent to Ross, of all places, where I snagged it for $3.99! It is absolutely adorable, very "vintage" and handmade-looking! But sorry...there are no more. It was truly the only one of its kind. I got the back story from the manager, who happened to be nearby.)

So Hannah put BOTH bed skirts on the crib, the clearance priced colorful one, and the matelasse Laura Ashley. She can change the look any time she wants, simply by tucking the colorful skirt up under the mattress, revealing the plain skirt.

Soon, Hannah is going to re-figure out a way to put a layer of creamy linen (we already have plenty of linen fabric, ivory colored, formerly a huge tablecloth we picked up at the thrift store for $5...$5 for about three square YARDS of pure linen! All we can figure, is it must have been meant to cover several tables, all end to end...if we cut straight down the middle, we will have about six yards long, by a yard or more wide, enough to make luscious, long ruffles.)

Why do that? Well, Hannah wants another layer of crib skirt that goes all the way to the floor, under both existing crib skirts. This will add more texture, and hide the necessary fact that under the crib will have to also be storage.

Hannah used to have burlap for her crib skirt, and it was adorable, went all the way to the floor in this cool puddle...but interfered with being able to smoothly raise and lower the side of the crib. We have not yet had time to tweak, but either the burlap-to-the-floor or the linen-to-the-floor will also go there.

The floor lamp has been in my house for over fifteen years. Hannah took a few yards of white and baby blue ruffling, and hot glued it around and around the lamp shade, and made it a beautiful one of a kind, expensive looking detail.

The chalkboard is a vinyl wall decal...perfectly safe, and won't fall off the wall onto baby. It is adorable right there. It was purchased at Marshall's.

More later...

Random Acts of Beauty...

When I see an image that makes my heart beat just a little faster, I save it to my inspiration file. (Most of the time I include the name of the blog where I saw it, unless that blog got it elsewhere, and the writer doesn't remember where...easy to happen, believe me, I know!)

My own pictures, about five different shots I took of the decor of both daughters' weddings, are all over the internet, copied and pasted onto other blogs, with no credit given to me. I really don't mind at this point...but I might mind later, with future photos. Hence, my husband got me Photoshop, and I've learned to put my name directly onto the photo itself. It isn't foolproof security, but it is a start.

So anyway, design inspiration is everywhere. I find the more I feed my hunger for good design, and for beauty, the more voracious my appetite becomes. I have quite a collection of gorgeousness, and so this evening, I'll share a tiny bit with you. Enjoy - these run the gamut from Christmas decorations to fashion.

These two images above are from the beautiful blog, "Sofie's Haus". The outfit is so near perfect, and I want the boots!

This living room "hits it out of the ballpark" in my opinion. Simple, simple...and lovely. I happen to really like the "unfinished" look of the antique couch.

This image is also from the blog "Sofie's Haus". It is an antique drawer that was made into Advent candles! (You light one on each of the four Sundays before Christmas Day...) The only change I'd make, is the color of the candles. I'm just not feeling the black. I have an antique sewing drawer, currently holding my living room remote controls - I just might redo it for the Christmas season, into my own Advent Candle Celebration!

Image from Pottery Barn - who this year, incidentally, have the best Christmas display and products of any "chain style" retailer, anywhere. I thought for a moment, on my latest visit, that I'd died and gone to my version of Holiday Heaven. EVERYTHING is "just my style".

Dear Santa,

I. Want. It. All.

"Sofie's Haus" does it again. This girl knows her fashion. I find her aesthetic irresistible! All genius begins, in its embryonic stage, with imitation. Make sure you imitate the very best. (Caveat: if you imitate too long, or too closely, you become a caricature. You become a cutesy carbon copy of someone else, and cutesy always kills. Make sure your imitation isn't too identical, and make sure it gives birth to your own originality! Alas, I am forever lapsing into "a teaching". I'll stop now. Amen.)

Anyhow, I'm imitating Sofie, next time I get dressed.

The German/Scandinavian blogs are stealing my heart lately. If you haven't discovered them, you are truly missing out. These women seem to be designers by genetic predisposition. Their taste is flawless. This image from the blog of Andrella Liebt Herzen. Again - imitation! I want to make ornaments like this one. So simple - yet brilliant. Isn't that how you would describe all the best designs?

Let It Snow...

We actually had snow flurries this morning!


It was a Perry Como Christmas sort of Wednesday...homey...tranquil...



"All is calm, All is bright..."


Adding to the dining room Christmas decorations, bit by bit - I love these mercury glass balls so much, I can't stand it...



I've got my knitting needles, a plethora of yarns in wool, mohair, cotton and silk, so let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

A Blue Christmas - the COLOR Blue

I'm having a bit of a "blue" Christmas, but I'm not at all sad...

This is a little tree I put up in my dining room every Christmas. This year, I was inspired to decorate it differently than I have for at least six years! (I think it is about time for a change, no?) So I added touches of turquoise blue...

...with pops of red. I lovelovelove the red/blue combination. It is so close to the orange/blue combination I also love, and have been decorating with.

I used simple burlap for a tree skirt on this little tree - and leaned my big wooden initial "A" against the wall. This picture doesn't really do it justice - the look is so adorable!

Please excuse the extension cord...ahem. I promise, when I'm ready to share more pictures of my red and turquoise dining room, I'll do better.



My six-foot-three "baby" and I baked our traditional Ginger Snap Christmas Cookies today...just the two of us. We found out yesterday that he'll be looked at by a small college in a state south of us...won't say who yet...not a junior college, either! The assistant coach will be in touch with Tim, if they like what they see. We're praying that his "hooping skills" increase more and more! I snapped this picture today, thinking that this time next year, he could actually be away at _________ college. Who knows?



...the finished product. YUM!




...and he packaged up a dozen, as a gift to his girlfriend. What a sweetheart!

Friends, I pray your Advent Season is blessed and highly favored. My heart is very, very full these days, and I expect the overflow to spill onto these pages. Thank you for spending a little time with me...I love you!

Underlined Bits from Oswald Chambers

"Being justified freely by his grace..." Romans 3:24

The gospel of the grace of God awakens an intense longing in human souls and
an equally intense resentment, because the revelation which it brings is not
palatable. There is a certain pride in man that will give and give, but to
come and accept is another thing. I will give my life to martyrdom, I will
give myself in consecration, I will do anything, but do not humiliate me to
the level of the most hell-deserving sinner and tell me that all I have to
do is to accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.


We have to realize that we cannot earn or win anything from God; we must
either receive it as a gift or do without it. The greatest blessing
spiritually is the knowledge that we are destitute; until we get there our
Lord is powerless. He can do nothing for us if we think we are sufficient of
ourselves, we have to enter into his kingdom through the door of
destitution. As long as we are rich, possessed of anything in the way of
pride or independence, God cannot do anything for us. Only when we get
hungry spiritually then can we receive the Holy Spirit. The gift of the
essential nature of God is made effectual in us by the Holy Spirit, he
imparts to us the quickening life of Jesus, which puts "the beyond" within,
and immediately "the beyond" has come within, it rises up to "the above,"
and we are lifted into the domain where Jesus lives. John 3:5

Advent

The season of Advent is upon us...for me, there is a fresh perspective on my personal celebration, as I am also awaiting the birth of a special child. (Oh, grandbaby of mine, do hurry up!)

We wait, because God waits. There has been much said from pulpits, throughout history, about "waiting on God". But think about it - we wait on God, because He waits.

He waits when there is death, pain, sickness, and wandering hearts - when He could say the word, and it all would be made right that very moment. So why does God wait?

When I asked Him, "Lord, why do you wait?" He answered me out of His word:

Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you; And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for Him. (Isaiah 30)

Legalistas have such a skewed idea of the justice of God. Through the cross of Christ, the scales have forever been tipped in my favor. Christ, and only Christ, satisfies the justice of God. All the wrath and judgement of God was poured out on Christ, so that I can experience life lived by Unfair Advantage.

Now, God waits so that he can be gracious to me. He is committed to be good to me, BECAUSE He is a God of justice. He made His only begotten Son the sacrifice in my place because He wants so very much to be good to me - in Satan's face.

This Advent season, the Season of the Holy Wait, whatever you are waiting on God for, know that you wait because He waits...and He waits, poised to do you good. He waits in order that His gracious nature, His mercy and favor can be exalted in your life. He is never too late.

Now. Time for me to hit "publish post". The family is calling me...we are going to decorate the tree tonight!

Let the fun (and the waiting) begin! I do so love Advent...