Edie Wadsworth

Merry Christmas

December 25, 2012 by Edie Wadsworth 18 Comments

Two years ago at Christmas, fire ravaged our home and we lost everything.

Except that we didn’t.

Because everything that really matters can’t be taken away by fire or death or the darkest earthly hell imaginable.

Even death is swallowed up in victory.

And as we celebrate the incarnation of Christ, we know that it is He who conquers our fire and our death and our hell.

He takes it upon Himself on the cross and makes the great exchange.

Our sin for His righteousness. Our death for His life. Our brokenness for His abundance.

We offer up the same, tired ashes and He makes all things new.

This Child-gift from heaven is our Christmas miracle.

He is the great I AM, the bush that burns but will not be consumed.

And He is refining us, remaking us, tearing down this house of cards to give us life, everlasting.

May His love burn bright in us as we rejoice in the Gift that changed everything.

Merry Christmas, dear friends!

All my love,

edie

xoxo

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(Would you kindly pray for us—-Steve’s dad has been hospitalized and we are battling a stomach bug in our house. It’s been a long two days. Hope all is well with you and yours.)

the Ups and Downs

December 19, 2012 by Edie Wadsworth 47 Comments

If you’re new around here, let me extend a hardy welcome! I recently updated my ‘about’ page, which was 3 years overdue! You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest and find me on Instagram as ‘lifeingrace’! Mostly, you’ll find me at home, cooking , teaching, crafting, reading some great books, and practicing the art of hospitality! Hope you find something that makes you smile!

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This is what my house looks like in my mind.

This is the way it really looks. #crapeverywhere

Tell me I’m not alone.

Thanks for the emails and well wishes about my injury. I’m doing well, healing up pretty fast and hobbling around with a walking boot.

Here’s what happened. I was running on the main drag in our little town. I’ve been running on this road for 12 twelve years. I know where to start and stop if I want to run 3 or 4 or 5 or 10 miles. I know where every bathroom is and every place I can get free water. I feel like I could run it in my sleep. I love that kind of familiarity with something you’ve done countless times. Friday morning, it was cold and I probably didn’t warm up enough. I jumped over a small puddle onto an embankment and when I landed, I felt like someone had hit me in the back of the calf with a baseball and then I felt a *snap*. I went down to the ground and couldn’t really walk. I called my friend, Sue, who was dropping her kids off to school and she drove me to my car. I may or may not have been sobbing. Poor Sue.

Then when I got home and settled in with my ice and walking boot, I went on a googling spree to see how to speed up this healing process.

The first site I landed on said, “This injury is common among the middle-aged.” Shut it, google. Who asked you anyways.

Long story not so long, I have a (partial?) tear in my left calf muscle and will be gimpy for a month or so. It’s feeling so much better already so I’m praying for a quick recovery. Running is my sanity, my stress reliever, my therapy. I’d say the inspiration for 75% of the things I write come when I’m running. I’m just warning you, it may be lame around here for awhile!

Apparently, I’ll do anything for new boots.

We made so many goodies, including a huge batch of Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon rolls. You really need to try these. They’re delicioso.

My mom and sister, who are saints!, have been helping me finish all my Christmas baking/shopping/mailing/etc. I am so thankful for them in my life. It seems like they’re always doing something to help me! Love you both so much.

And then there’s this::OH MY HEAVENS!!!!! Our house is featured in January’s Better Homes and Gardens!

I am so humbled and happy and weepy and verklempt.

And the fact that it’s all come full circle now, with the 2 yr. anniversary approaching. It’s just about done me in.

I’m still pinching myself and tearing up at the least provocation. Thank you, Better Homes. Thank you, Gretchen. Thank you, Darlene.

Thank you, Elizabeth and Heather and Zane and Jessica. I love you all.

My heart is full to the brim and running over.

Thank you all for being so excited with me and posting your pics to Facebook. It’s been such a fun week.

And to add to my reasons to squeal, House Beautiful tweeted a link to my stri-ped bathroom!!!!!!!! I would SO do a hitch-kick if I could.

And all minor ailments and perfect joys aside, we are full swing into Nutcracker festivities. My girls are both performing again this year and the first performance is tonight. Elea’s in the party scene (red dress) and Emme is in flowers and is the ballerina doll (black and white tutu). Performances are open to the public Thursday, Dec. 20th at 7:30, Friday, Dec. 21 at 7:30 and Sat at 2 and 7:30, at Walter’s State Community College. Dress rehearsal was last night and it’s gonna be a great show! Come and support the arts! You can purchase tickets here.

And while we’re just catching up on life, can I keep this boxwood wreath up year round? I think I should be allowed to. Y’all would start making fun of me around April, I’m sure of it.

Also, I’ve entered into full obsession with cuties. They are both delightful to eat and to gaze upon. Simple pleasures.

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When I got back from the doctor on Friday, I was still a weepy mess. Sad about the injury, hurting physically, wondering how I would get it all done without getting around very fast. And remembering the fire—as the two year anniversary quickly approaches.

Then, I turned on the tv to see the Connecticut shootings. Oh, the senseless horror and tragedy. I can’t even begin to imagine the depths of despair that those families feel right now. It’s hard to think about anything else.

I’ve listened to lots of news coverage and commentary on the shootings but nothing like the clarity of this pastor, Mark Lovett, of Concordia Lutheran Church, as he preached on the 3rd Sunday of Advent. If you are still wondering why—–how could this possibly happen in America, you will be blessed and encouraged by this 15 minutes of pastoral wisdom. I promise you that it will make more sense than the hours of commentary you’ve heard in the media.

Bless you, friends as you hold your loved ones tight and celebrate the Light, which makes all things new. You can listen to the sermon here or read it online here.

Excerpt from the sermon:

But in the face of such evil, in the heart breaking hours that follow so gross and wicked and perverse things as what happened two days ago, these gods are silent. Money cannot answer the pain because money feels no pain. Gun Control cannot bring back those that have lost their lives to bullets. Morality cannot sympathize or bring good news because Morality has failed at keeping us moral. The American Dream and Prosperity and Pay It Forward, and all our other gods from which we seek blessings and good are deaf to our cries and mute to our pain. They are silent because they know nothing, feel nothing, and can do nothing. They are gods of wind and smoke, vapor and fog. And those who trust in them shall be put to shame, for when evil strikes and homes are devastated and we are robbed of joy and peace, these gods are useless and pathetic and from them all we get is divine silence.

Only the God who speaks can give answer. Only the God who fashioned man in His image can answer. Only He can give answer because only He has borne our sorrows and carried our grief. Only He became as we are. And on His lips we hear the voice of all mankind, issuing forth the cry of every suffering soul: My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?

And just as the Lord Jesus puts the question of mankind to voice, so He Himself is the answer. Here in the disparity of our hearts the Lord speaks His word of comfort: I AM. I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. And in this, we rejoice. The Lord is at hand.I am with you when you suffer, for I suffer for you. I am with you when you die, for I died for you. I am with you in the grave, for I lay in the grave for you. I am with you when you weep, for I weep for you. I am with you when mourn, for I mourn for you. I am with you for I am one of you.

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I am so thankful for you all.

Here’s wishing you beautiful days ahead as we wait for Light to dawn!

Mwahhhhhhh!

My Cottage Christmas

December 12, 2012 by Edie Wadsworth 62 Comments

If you’re new to life{in}grace, welcome! And especially if you’re from Nester’s Home Tour or Melissa’s Home Tour or Sarah’s Tree Party! Thanks for hosting, friends! I just updated my about page and don’t miss my newly painted stri-ped bathroom! Thanks for visiting! Hope you find something that makes you smile!

I’m 42 years old and I’m pretty sure I’ve never decorated for Christmas tree the same way twice. It’s a blessing and a curse. Thankfully, I like to use simple, natural, easy- to-craft items. Otherwise, I’d spend a fortune changing my mind every year. I also never really ‘finish’ decorating. I’ll be spray painting pine cones and adding fresh greens until it’s time to take it all down. In a way, my Christmas decorating is a lot like me—-it’s never really ready to meet the Christ child.

I love every last square inch of my new house even though I never meant to spend last year rebuilding.

There are two problems with my house. 1. I have no dining room 2. There’s no room for a tree in the living room.

I get around those obstacles by soupin’ up the mantel and moving my lemon tree (WHICH IS BLOOMING!) by the fireplace.

Rabbit trail:: I need to do a whole post on the amount of baby-ing we do to that lemon tree. I almost got my mom one for Christmas but then I remembered that it would be the equivalent of giving her a small child to care for. Okay, not that bad. But our lemon tree is so baby-fied that we take her outside to sit in the sun when it’s nice and then hem and haw about whether or not it’s gonna get too cold for her to stay out overnight. We’re hoping for lemons by February.

Okay back to the tree. SO, that means that my *real* tree has to stake its claim in the eat-in kitchen. It makes for happy dinners and a floor full of fir needles because someone brushes past it approximately every 3 seconds.

I wanted a tree that looked relaxed and cottage-y and natural. My Christmas Pinterest boards helped me decide what I liked. I used large starfish, pine cones, paper birds (template here), paper garland (inspiration Miss Mustard Seed), dried orange slice ornaments (Shannan gave me the idea), newspaper print leaf garland and magnolia leaves (I don’t know where I saw it first), and my cowhide rug for a tree skirt (spotted under Nester’s tree last year!). In my humble opinion, it needs something outrageous but I haven’t quite decided what. I’m thinking giant paper antlers but I’m taking suggestions!

I poked little lights through the orange slices for effect and I made the banner garland out of book pages that I cut and stapled onto twine.

And there’s a few honest to goodness ornaments just to keep up appearances:)

And apparently, I can’t be suited when it comes to paper bird patterns. I looked through eight million until I finally found this one on Martha’s site. Of course, it’s the perfect shape. I would expect nothing less from Martha. Which I like to pronounce Mah-tha. I made my girls make these today for ‘art’. In other words, so I didn’t have to make anymore.

And I’m having fun this year with the packages.

I wrap them in white or brown paper and then look around for something to stick on them.

It’s all very exact and calculated—-branches, left over pom poms from the wreath project, burlap, or whatever else is in reach!

This one is my favorite so far. I used this template for the antlers, spray painted the paper gold, added some fresh greens and then wrapped it in twine.

I used the free printables here for the tag.

Now, here’s what I need to know from you. Do you always decorate your tree the same or do you do it different every year? If you always decorate it the same, do you know exactly how much money you have in your checking account right now. That’s what I thought. We can still be friends. I’ll come change up your tree and you can balance my checkbook. Deal? (Actually, I love sentimental trees filled the same ornaments year after year but that’s not possible for me now, so I make the best of it :)))

Because I may in fact be insane, I decided to paint the bathroom last week. I love how it turned out and you can read all about it here.

I added some fresh greens and a rosemary tree to make it even more festive for the season.

The girls and I also made a cute pom-pom wreath and then added a Christmas cactus and a pink poinsettia to this little vignette.

And one more thing. Did you see the preserved boxwood wreaths at Lowe’s?? They’re already on clearance.

I LOVE them and have two hanging in the kitchen!

It’s beginning to be festive around these parts!

And since I now have a partial tear in my calf muscle and am gimpy, Grannie’s in the house, making fudge and all kinds of yummy treats.

And due to said injury, I won’t be putting a tree on the screened porch this year. Which makes me very sad.

So, here’s the fun from last year!

Happy preparations dear friends!!!

Striped Walls in the Bathroom

December 10, 2012 by Edie Wadsworth 36 Comments

From the very beginning of our rebuild after the fire, I knew I wanted a statement bathroom.

The half bath on the main level is tiny and I’ve thought of nearly every possible option for making the tiny space shine. I started a ‘bathrooms’ board on Pinterest and had my eye on this striped bathroom for a year.

I almost tackled this project before Better Homes and Gardens came in September but I had plenty to keep me busy then and was still hemming and hawing around about what exactly I wanted to do.

It all changed when Emily painted her foyer in the most gorgeous stripes ever. And since I adore her and everything about her, I knew it was time to dig out the rollers and brushes.

Except then I saw this on Pinterest. And even though striped walls and I had been going steady for nearly a year, I almost ditched them for this brooding beauty from Lonny Magazine.

After a little contemplation, I decided that I shouldn’t have to choose. Why can’t I have the best of both worlds?

So, I painted the strip-ed walls (from here on out, we shall call him stri-ped, with emphasis on the ped, for reasons I can’t quite articulate) and then added the moody/broodiness with my main man, the bust of David, and some quirkily hung art.

The bathroom is the love child of those three gorgeous rooms and now seriously competing with this room and this room for most favored room in the house status.

I had my girls’ bedroom painted with stripes a few years back and loved it. I learned a few things from watching the process being done and I knew I could do it on the cheap. My trusty side kick, Nick, did all the hard work of taping it off. It took several hours and it’s not rocket science but it is most certainly tedious. I would advise all my ‘fly by the seat of your pants, ‘it looks pretty straight’, friends to let the OCDers have this one. I sat this one out. I know when I’m defeated. Some things I’m good at. Some things I’m not. Painstakingly taping all those straight lines is definitely not one of my spiritual gifts.

Nick did great but even his tendency towards perfection was challenged.

In my humble, ADD slanted opinion, it just walls and paint. And someone smart once said, “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.”

So, we got it pretty close to perfect and then the next day, we painted it in a couple of hours.

I measured the wall before we started and it was 96 inches, perfectly divisible by 8. So we decided on 8 inch stripes.

And I loved Emily’s foyer so much that we used the same color as she did for the charcoal stripes. The color is Urbane Bronze from Sherwin Williams.

The walls were already painted Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams, so we started with that as a base.

I would HIGHLY recommend painting the wall all over with one of the colors you want in your stripes. Let that dry for a day and then begin the taping extravaganza.

Two keys to painting striped walls:

1. Take a credit card and smooth the tape down. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. It will keep the edges from ‘bleeding’ paint.

2. Dry brush the edges of the stripes before you actually paint them.

And by that I mean, get just a little paint on the brush and do a thin, almost dry layer of paint to seal the edges of the tape. Then when you go back to actually paint the stripes, you won’t get any bleeding through the tape. We used Frog Tape and got great results. Our edges are perfection!

The corners bled a little and Nick is at this very moment touching those up. I probably wouldn’t even have gone to the trouble but I love that he cares!

We used a 6 inch roller to roll the stripes on, once we had dry brushed the edges. This is one of those projects with a huge pay-off and very low cost.

I would definitely do it again, although I’m sure Stevie (and Nick) hope I don’t:)

Before::

After::

DIY Pom-Pom Wreath

December 7, 2012 by Edie Wadsworth 44 Comments

If you’re new around here? Thank you for visiting my blog! I’m honored you’re here and I hope you’ll find some encouragement (and some laughter!) for your days. Join this community of grace lovers and get fun, free stuff every month delivered to your inbox, along with access to free printables, meal plans, and my 31 Days to A Heart of Hospitality ebook!

For a tour of our house this Christmas season, click here!

And now, for the wreath……..

My jaw dropped the first time I saw the snowball wreath from Anthropologie. It’s beautiful——of the drop dead gorgeous variety. And it’s $298.

Then my friend Nester posted about her snowball wreath. Which is all kinds of awesome. Just like she is. I knew I had to find a cheap, easy way to do it.

Side note: She’s the cornerstone of my internet world. Hers was the first blog I stayed up until 3am to read ALL the archives from. I love everything she does. I love seeing the world through her eyes. I love that she works hard but also guards her margin. After our house fire in 2010, she made a video for us that I’ve watched over and over again and has been such a source of healing for me.. And then I couldn’t believe it when she did this for our rebuild. I adore her and feel privileged to call her friend. I hope she knows how much we all appreciate her generosity and her willingness to use and share her gifts. She’s one of a kind. And she’s hosting this Christmas crafting shindig, which will inspire to make something beautiful this weekend. And while you’re at it, visit Cate’s crafty party too. Let’s just party in glue sticks and yarn and pretty fabric all weekend, whadaya say?

(I recently hosted a 12 Days of Christmas crafting and you’re looking for great tutorials for gift making!)

Now, back to the wreath. First, you’ve got to make 10 or 12 pom poms.

Here’s what you’ll need:

2 skeins of chunky yarn

1 10 inch string of yarn

10 inch wreath form (or whatever size you wanna make!)

scissors

a piece of cardboard ( I used a 2×4 inch piece but the bigger you make it, the larger the pom-pom.

Place the ten inch string through the slits so that there are equal tails on each side. (When you make the pom pom, you will use the tails of this string and tie them into a tight knot around the wound string.)

From the full ball of yarn, start wrapping around the cardboard. The more you wrap, the puffier your pom pom will be. I wrapped my chunky yarn about 100 times for my snow ball pom poms. If your yarn is normal weight (thinnish) you may need to wrap 150 times to make full pom poms.

Once you’ve wrapped it as many times as you like, take the two tails from the string that is in the slits of the cardboard and pull them up around the ball of yarn.

Gently slide the yarn off the cardboard, holding the tails up and being careful not to let them slip out from in between the newly formed ball of yarn.

At this step, you now have a ball of yarn with a string in the middle. Most tutorials will tell you at this step spread the yarn out towards the ends of the string. I didn’t do that. I just tied a tight knot in the string and double knotted it for extra security.

Then insert your scissors through the middle of all those loops you wound and cut right through them.

And tada! You have a snowball pom pom!

You can give him a trim if he’s got some straggly uneven spots. We also pulled the ends of the yarn apart a little to make it look a more frayed and cozy.

Now all you need to do is make a dozen of those and attach them to the wreath. I used a 10 inch straw wreath form and it took exactly 2 skeins of yarn to fill it up. You could hot glue them or just wrap string around them and tie them on. I chose the latter because I’m a little lazy with my crafts and didn’t feel like firing up the glue gun.

This project took about an hour an a half , cost about $14, and was definitely worth the explosion of yarn and fuzz in my schoolroom. Actually, the girls did 90% of the work, while I flitted around with a host of other (very ordinary) things, including my collaborative mantel project. The girls did a great job!

And for all you friends who gave it your all trying to help me with my Christmas mantel, I want you to know that I had paint on my grannie pj’s by 5:30 this morning.

I was mixing paint like nobody’s business.

Check out the coral-ish/pinkified/sal-mon colored mirror here!

diypompomwreath

Christmas Mantel 2012, (i think?)

December 5, 2012 by Edie Wadsworth 101 Comments

And the winner is——coral-ish!!!! (If you’re confused, read start reading the post after the 2nd photo first and then come back up here!)

Do you hate me? If so, blame it on Ruth. She took us down the dark and twisty alley of ‘black is dead to me.’

So, what I did was—-I spray painted the black mirror gold first and then mixed up the craziest concoction of paint you ever did see, using every tube of acrylic paint in this house until it was just perfectly coral-ish. I painted over the gold with a brush and then when that was almost dry, I rubbed the edges so some of the gold would show through. All this I did at 5:30 this morning in my peejammers, fully prepared to paint over it if need be.

Because why? Because this is all perfectly normal in my world. It ain’t easy living in this brain of mine.

Do you like the mirror painted a coral-y color?

Or do you like it black? You can pick your favorite and imagine that I kept it that way. We all win!

That was the question I posed to my very insightful readers.

Do y’all have any idea the haphazard throwing around of things that goes into making my Christmas mantel? I wish I was one of those people who packed things in a box labeled ‘Christmas mantel’, to reuse year after blessed year. If you do have a box so labeled, I want to be you. I covet your organization and discipline.

But I don’t have a box labeled Christmas mantel.

We all knew that, right?

And every year, I cipher and clip greens and move mirrors and spray paint stuff. All in an effort to make beautiful Christmas mantel music.

This year, let’s make this a joint effort, whatdaya say? Here’s what I need to know from you.

I’ve been hemming and hawing all day about whether or not I should spray paint that mirror. Well, maybe not ALL day, but in between laundry folding and dinner making and Latin chanting, it’s taunting my weary mind. So here’s the deal. Leave a comment and tell me whether or not I should spray paint the black mirror gold (or maybe you have another color suggestion?) and I’ll count the votes and follow the moral majority. Give me all your sophisticated reasons cause y’all are smart and will school me on why I should leave it/paint it.

And to be totally fair, here’s what the gold mirror looked like before I moved it to the newly painted bathroom. Just looking at this picture makes me wanna paint it gold. But DON’T let me sway you.

I know you want that antique federal mirror back on the mantel and I do too. But he’s in the bathroom, loving on the striped walls.

While we’re at it, here’s a sneak peek of the newly striped bathroom. It’s all kinds of cozy up in there. And David wasn’t missing out on all the fun. He may be there to stay. There’s a whole post coming soon on that little project.

But you can’t have the mirror for the mantel. Okay, one more viewing.

Please take note of my Meyer’s lemon tree, WHICH IS FINALLY BLOOMING!!!!!!!!!!!)

And never mind the wad of lights that I didn’t bother to spread neatly under the greens. If I had done that then we wouldn’t be having this conversation at all because I’d have a box labeled ‘Christmas mantel,’ remember?

Now, give it to me straight. Black or gold? Which shall it be, my dear internets?

And I’m linking this crazy mantel post with Layla’s mantel party! Thank you hosting, sweet dear!