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life{in}grace

live with more presence, passion, & purpose

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Grace Notes

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1. First, let me start with this post, which was written months ago, but has left my mind reeling today. I’ve been thinking about this topic alot and I’m sure I’ll feel the need to write about it soon. Ann, author of the blog Holy Experience, is a beautiful crafter of words, and has a way of sharing her heart that is rare and inspiring. This is a must read for any blogger. Or any person who has a story to tell.
Now on to lighter subjects:
2. This just so happens to be a peek at my new living room. I’m not ready for a complete reveal, but I thought I’d show you a close up of the silverleaf cocktail table that had been $4000 which I purchased for $359. This room is shaping up to be my favorite room EVER, but I’m struggling to add some vintage to the mix. Right now, it’s a little too ‘uncluttered’ for me.
3. In other blogland love, I thought you’d enjoy this little girl’s room remake as much as I did. Kelly (one of my rare real life friends who blogs) made that ‘chandelier’ out of a planter and some Christmas lights and her husband crafted the bed. Go see the before picture. You’ll love her stuff.
4. ANd I’m swooning over this room from Cottage Livings’ website. Swooning I tell you. I love this color. I want to paint my DR and alleged craft room this color. Then I want to swim around in a vat of it.
5. And last but not least, let me introduce you to my new favorite blogger, Meg. She found my site somehow and left a sweet comment, so I clicked over to properly ‘meet’ her and immediately knew we should have coffee and go fabric shopping. Her photography is todiefor and her house is a creative masterpiece. I’m currently making the cutest rainbow cake I found on her site and hoping for a little time tonight to ‘comb’ her archives. Have you ever gotten ‘lost’ for periods of time in someone’s archives? Yeah, me too. You should visit her if you haven’t already. Y’all probably already know her and if you do, I’m gonna be mad you didn’t tell me about her. Mmmmkay?
6. Oh and for your spiritual edification, there’s this audio clip about The Gospel Driven Church. Micheal Horton is interviewed by Todd Wilken. It’s worth your time!
Now I’m done. Have a great weekend!
Thanks to Jeanie for my title ‘Grace Notes’.

Peacock Blue and Painting

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I’m a walking fandeck of paint colors this morning. I have white on my arms, blue in my hair and stain on my nails. My LR walls are white-ish and my trim is just a ‘hair’ darker than that. I love the subtle contrast. I’ve been pouring through my beloved stack of Cottage Living Magazines for ideas. Their website is also still somewhat functional and I found this segment reassuring (on color trends) as I was painting my armoire peacock blue. Apparently, peacock blue is ‘in’.

And I can see why. I am drooling over this armoire right now. Actually, I’m still antique-ing it with glaze to achieve just the right ‘this armoire is really old’ effect, but the color against the white-ish walls is enough to make you go weak in the knees.

I’ve got a blank canvas this morning. A fresh start. Did I say that I love the trim and the mantle being a teeny shade darker? Paint colors and details to follow. For now, I must focus the ADD monster in me and keep working. I also found this delightful picture on the CL website and I must say that my craft room (which is still only a figment of my imagination) is begging to be ‘coral pink’.

TTFN!
BTW, my basement and dining room look like a cross between Goodwill and TJ Maxx! I should start a little boutique!

Surround Them With Beauty

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This is part 3 of a 4 part series on Creating An Environment of Learning. The start of the series, along with links to parts 1 and 2 can be found here. It may surprise you that I have included ‘beauty’ as a cornerstone for learning. I hope you will soon agree that it is essential to awaking the soul to curiosity. We will explore beauty in nature, in the home, and in you.

beau·ty n.
The quality that gives pleasure to the mind or senses and is associated with such properties as harmony of form or color, excellence of artistry, truthfulness, and originality.

Beauty in Nature

It would only take a brief look out your window to realize that God is the essence of beauty. His creation tells us something about His heart. It is magnificent, powerful, and beautiful. He has, with reckless abandon, lavished His beauty on the world. We stand in awe of the landscapes of nature; the clear, crystal force of a moving river, the delicate colorful petals of a flower, the gentle sway of a tree moving in the breeze. God is the penultimate artist. The Creator of all things has not made a world merely of function—He has chosen the wonder and beauty of the world as a means to draw us back to Himself. Beauty is transcendant. It reaches to the soul—it inspires us, and invites us—to know and to love.

And God has ‘spared no expense’ at providing us with a world filled with delightful sights. At every turn, we see His handiwork. And we must teach the little ones to notice. We can do that in countless ways but one way is to expose them to the great artists of the past who have seen and captured the details of life in startling ways. Charlotte Mason in her book A Philosophy of Education, says that in order to prepare children to live aesthetically,

“….their education should furnish them with whole galleries of mental pictures, pictures by great artists, old and new; with these pictures by great masters hanging permanently in the halls of their imagination, which has the property of magical expansion.”

Photography has a similiar power, to capture the smallest details of birds, flowers, and landscapes, that children can learn to look for and appreciate. We must teach them to appreciate the beauty around them. That usually requires a slower pace of life, that seems hard to attain these days. Stevie has taught the kids so much about watching birds and identifying trees and plants. We keep a field guide for birds handy so that we can look up the details of what we’ve seen. They seem to learn so much more when they learn ‘in context’ versus when they learn in a forced setting of ‘now we’re gonna study birds’. They don’t ask, “Is this gonna be on the test?” They are genuinely eager for knowledge unless we snuff it out of them by teaching them to only desire the rewards of knowledge (grades, money, ice cream). Knowledge is its own reward. And so is beauty. And this God given appetite for beauty must be nourished. The body needs food , the mind needs knowledge, and the soul needs beauty. Ultimately beauty comes from God and calls us to eternity.
Beauty in the Home
Creating an aesthetically pleasing atmosphere in your home is important and it doesn’t have to be expensive or elaborate. Everyone benefits when time and care is taken to make your surroundings beautiful. Beauty invites us to ‘stay a while’, to relax, to enjoy ourselves. This can be achieved in a myriad of ways from playing classical music in your home, to bringing in fresh flowers, to lighting candles, to hanging artwork. Your children will be nourished by the very surroundings in which they live.

I would go a step farther and say that creating beautiful, nutritious meals is an important way to literally ‘nourish’ our families. This is the perfect time of year, with summer’s bountiful harvest, to practice making meals that are both healthy and appealing. Take the time to use a tablecloth, set the table, use cloth napkins, and make a simple centerpiece of flowers or clippings from your yard. We all have to eat several times a day, so attack meal planning as if it were a job. There is comfort and tremendous ‘soul’ nourishment to children when they come in from playing to the smell of fresh bread or homeade cookies. And just as our Father has lavished on us beauty and nourishment in abundance, we can share the same gift with our families.

Beauty in You

This category is, to me, the most important. The point was driven home a few years ago when I read the book Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge. They devote a whole chapter to the power of a woman truly ‘unveiling her beauty’ to the world. I’ve given this book to my daughter to read because it changed the way I viewed my own physical and spiritual life. They describe the essence of a woman as beauty; that ‘Eve’ (woman) is the very incarnation in human form of the beauty of God. And they go on to describe that beauty is not some ‘conjured up’ set of external qualities, but is instead the essence of what God has already put inside of us. We don’t strive to ‘gin up’ beauty, we simply let down the veil—to our hearts—to the part of us that inspires, comforts, speaks, invites, and nourishes. We let down our guard to the beauty God has placed there, making ourselves available and vulnerable. And we do that by being ‘at rest’, ‘at peace’ with who God has made us to be.

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters……Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” Isa. 55:1,2

Eldredge says,

“A woman of true beauty is a woman who in the depths of her soul is at rest…..she exudes a sense of calm, and invites those around her to rest as well……she speaks comfort….she offers others the grace to be and the room to become….in her presence, we can release the tension and pressure that so often grip our hearts…..Her spacious beautiful soul invites other to come, to be, to taste see that the Lord is good…A woman who makes herself vulnerable and available for intimacy invites others to do the same….in her presence, you can breathe again, you are free to be you….she unveils her beauty and invites you to life.

Oh, how I long to be a woman like that. So often our hurts and insecurities keep us from unveiling the beauty in our hearts. We fail. We protect ourselves. We draw the curtain tight so that noone will have the chance to hurt us. But God invites us to His table, where we once again obtain forgiveness and find the strength to make our hearts available. If there is one thing our family and our world needs, it’s to see us without the veil, offering our hearts and our presence ‘full of tender mercy and gentle vulnerability’.

It will invite them to true life.

It will captivate them.

It will awaken their very souls to the beauty and paradox of God’s redemption.

I am linking this post with Melissa’s Beautiful Life Series at The Inspired Room. Be sure to visit other posts on capturing life’s beautiful moments.

Price My Space

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I’m joining the Nester’s Price My Space party with my newly redecorranged breakfast room. (I just moved stuff around, nothing new here).

  1. Slightly damaged armoire that I bought 8 years ago for $150 at a local furniture sale. I love this beastly mammoth and just moved it from my dining room by myself (in a rare burst of hulk strength) to make room for a new piece I bought for my dining room. I kinda like it here, even though it doesn’t truly fit in the space. I’ve also entertained moving it the bedroom to store cute sweaters and shoes.
  2. French distressed table and chairs—bought 11 years ago for $1100. I think that was the most I had spent on furniture at that point in my life, but it’s been such a great investment. I still love the set and have resisted painting it many times. It’s beautiful, comfortable and just the perfect size for a breakfast room.
  3. IKEA window treatment–$39 for the pair! I love this pattern and it coordinates so well with my newly painted kitchen cabinets.
  4. Original oil artwork—-I love this artist—whose name I can’t remember or decipher–and have several pieces of her work. (I know it’s a she and she’s French.) I bought this for around $100 at an Art Finds home show. Look up the company online and attend a show if you can. They have great stuff at a fraction of the price you’d normally pay for original oil paintings.
  5. Various plates from TJ Maxx—I’m gonna guess around $40 for all of them. I bought several of them in the last few months on clearance and LOVE them all!
  6. Striped pillows from TJ Maxx–$6 each on clearance for a total of $24 . I had these in the guest room at my lake cottage. The colors work perfect here with my new kitchen.

Drum roll please: Total for breakfast room $1410. The lion’s share of the money is on seating, which Mrs. Nester tells me is how it should be.

Just for fun, I thought I’d show you, using Polyvore, what my new living room furniture (that I bought recently at a high-end furniture store for unbelievable close-out prices) sorta looks like (the colors at least). I bought ~$30,000 worth of furniture for $6500. 12 pieces in all, I think. I don’t have a blue armoire but am contemplating painting mine, and given the other colors in the furniture, I’m leaning to jewel blue paint or dark charcoal stain. You wood purists are gonna tell me to stain it, I just know it. Remember I’m painting the walls creamy-white. Whadya think?

Tune in later this week for more on my Creating an Environment of Learning series and a few peeks at my new furniture. You will definitely want to visit the Price My Space party for lots more fun. And I can’t say enough ‘thank-yous’ to the Nester for so generously sharing her creative life with us. She has set a high standard for how to positively use this blogging world to help and encourage each other.

Furniture which shouldn’t be spray-painted and books which shouldn’t be neglected….

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“No sooner doth the truth come into the
soul’s sight, but the soul knows her to be her first
and oldest aquaintance.”

  1. I should first tell you that I am still working on the ‘beauty’ post. I get hamstrung by reading a lot of great writers and then feel completely inadequate with my own summation of the important points. I guess the old adage that we should listen twice as much as we speak is holding true for me. I can‘t stop listening(reading) long enough to speak (write).
  2. I also wanted to tell show you what else I’ve been up to lately. By a stroke of luck, or by my estimation, divine appointment, I wandered into a ‘high-end’ furniture store at the end of their ‘store closing’ sale. I also just happened to have insurance money that had to be spent on furniture replacement in order to be fully reimbursed. Long story short, I feel like I’ve just won the lottery. Most of the furniture ended up being 75-90% off. For instance, I bought a $1000 kilim rug for $89. And so on. So, to prepare my house for delivery next week, I’m rearranging everything. ( or as JamieKnoxville and I affectionately call it…..’tuggin’ and pullin’).
Yesterday, in a burst of hulk-strength, I moved this large china cabinet from my dining room to the breakfast room—to make room for the $4500 mahogany sideboard that I bought for $619! It really doesn’t exactly fit here, so it may end up in my bedroom holding clothes and shoe displays. On 2nd thought, my bedroom is on the other side of the world, so it will likely stay here for awhile.

To help me celebrate this rare joyous occasion, the crepe myrtles are blooming. So kind of them. ( I love how they poke through the fence)

I also have an insatiable reading appetite lately as I’ve been preparing the last two blog posts in this series. And if you are homeschooling, you must read this Charlotte Mason book “A Philosophy of Education”—it goes right along with the Thomas Jefferson book I’ve been giddy about, and is much better than reading someone else’s summary of what Charlotte Mason said.
She reitirates the fact that self-education is the key, and that we as teachers, are to inspire and help to ‘awaken the soul’ so that children have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.
And Plato? This stuff is fantastic. I’ve been printing off maps of Greece and taking copious notes. It’s not as hard as I thought. I read the sparknotes summary of it first, which helped, then I read a historical introduction, which really helped, and then I dove in, headfirst. It must be contagious because in the antique store the other day, my 7yo got really excited and said, “Mom, I just found a book about Plato!” We were all excited about the beautiful little volume with dainty gold lettering, but mostly, I was thankful that she had been paying attention to what we were reading.
And that little notebook at the bottom? That’s a collection of lots of fun stuff—-paint swatches (I’m painting my living room—which has been the same color for a record EIGHT years—-before the new furniture arrives), magazine clippings of things I love, articles I want to read, my much neglected calendar, my somewhat neglected bible reading schedule, notecards, address labels, and so on.

I also stumbled upon a lovely aloe plant and my girls have discovered hundreds of little boo-boos lately which most definitely require aloe. Hundreds. Thank you to my friend, the Nester, for introducing me to this beautiful way of displaying my succulents.

So, as I re-evaluate my decor, and pour over design ideas, do you have any advice for me? I’m painting my living room Woodrow-Wilson Linen (a very presidential cream color) in an effort to feature my new heirloom furniture. But I’ll find a way to ‘shabby’ it up a little I’m sure. Although I don’t know how I’ll adjust to furniture that shouldn’t be spray-painted. I can’t wait to show you.

Check out my tumblr site—a place where I store links and pictures I love. And if you have time this weekend, read the post I wrote at the blogfrog about my current thoughts on blogging.
Have a great weekend and I’ll soon return to my series!

Anniversary Post

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I fiddled around all day, trying to think of something just so, to say to the this man with whom I have shared my soul’s truest longings, my mind’s most intimate questions, and my heart’s deepest sorrows—-for these past nine years. I have poured over poetry books to find just the right words and listened to legions of songs, in hopes that someone has captured before, in writing, the love and gratitude I wish to convey to him today.
But alas. I find no words.
They seem weak and inadequate.
I guess i’ll just remind him that I can’t even fathom my days without him.
That I am filled to overflowing with gratitude for his love and protection.
That I don’t take for granted the heavy burden of providing.
That I notice the tenderness with which he fathers.
and faithfulness with which he doctors.
I’ll remind him that most of all, I respect him. And the way he uses his gifts.
And confesses his faults.
He is capable and accomplished. So skilled with his hands. The perfect combination of masculinity, wisdom, and passion.
He’s all that I want.
Just what I need.
More than I deserve.
And I wish him a most Happy Anniversary.