An Inspirational Read

Wow, what an incredible book! I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to kick off the summer with a great read. This is a true story about a homeless man, a successful art dealer and an awe-inspiring tale of friendship and God's love. It proved to be a friendly reminder of how God works in the most unconventional ways to grow His children and His kingdom. Loved it!

My Projects!

Well as I mentioned, I came home from the Round Top antique festival with some fun furniture pieces. After a few days of sweat and hard work, I couldn't be more excited about the results!

Before:
And After:
Lookin' good as new :) Such a fun project!

Our First Home!

Well, some big news: as of Friday, April 16, we will be the proud owners of our first home! :) Here's a preview!

A Texas Antique Festival

Hello friends! It's been quite some time. I must admit--Tyler and I were cheap and never bought the internet for our place so we've been without for the past few weeks. It feels nice to enter the world of blogging once more!

Well, Easter weekend was quite wonderful! First thing up Friday morning, Jen (my partner in crime for the day) picked me up. We hit up Bux of course and headed off to the countryside, with a quick stop for some pictures in the bluebonnets. We spent the whole day sifting through hidden treasures at Texas' famous Round Top Antique festival. It was an absolute blast and an inspiration. Each tent brought its own unique touch to the festival and inspired creativity in even a non-artsy person like myself! We both had great luck...I left that day with exactly what I set out to find--a precious kitchen table for 2, chairs, and a charming entry way piece for our new home. It was so refreshing to drive out to the country and spend the day searching through some of the vendor's most prized pieces. I can very easily see myself becoming a regular at this event!

Inspiration

As I mentioned in my last post, I have started thinking about decorating inspiration for our (hopeful) new home! The Domino Book of Decorating is really great. It's neat to start with a clean slate and to think about how I will express myself and my style (with some input from Tyler, of course) in my home. I'm excited to see how it all comes together!

As of now, these two kitchens really inspire me! I love how fresh, clean and functional they are. I think these spaces would encourage some serious cooking and creativity :)

Lazy Day

There's just nothing quite like a lazy day :) This is how I spent my rainy Saturday!

Lessons I'll Never Forget

This week I attended my first funeral, for a man very dear to my heart. Ali’s grandpa was always like a grandfather to me, taking me in as his own granddaughter. Though it was very sad, it was a reminder of the amazing life he lead and how he left this world a changed place. One of the lessons in the service talked about how he worked hard, not only in his career but to better God’s kingdom. It’s so incredible to know what difference that hard work can make in the people around you. The pastor said that if you didn’t know his desire for your life was to know Christ our Savior, then we didn’t really know him. What a noble personal mission to have! He was an incredible example of how to lead a loving, Christ-centered life in everything he did. He had the wonderful gift of loving people exactly where they were. I think that’s so difficult to do sometimes, but he exemplified unconditional love. As the pastor said, he really knew how to keep the main things the main thing, instead of ‘majoring in all the minors.’ Just spending time with this man reminded one that so much of what we spend our time worrying about just does not matter in the big scheme of things. As stated in Revelations, all earthly things vanish, and what will really matter in the end are the relationships we form. One of my favorite quotes states that people will never remember what you did, people will remember the way you made them feel. This is just an incredible reminder that I have a job to do while I’m here, one that will hopefully come as easy as it did to J Ray. My job is to just be a living example of love and grace to those I encounter. I will never forget the joy he shared, the way he loved, and the closeness he shared with everyone he met. Love you Gingdaddy!