a new normal.

schwew. monday morn at last.

i guess it suffices to say that moving is somewhat chaotic. besides the fact that my keyboard now sticks on the 'space' key - which i use occasionally - i came through it somewhat unharmed.

i have to say, the picture above is what i have been most looking forward to. white bean chicken chili in the crockpot today; pumpkin bread later this afternoon when the dust of the day settles.

yesterday, as i was cleaning out the fridge a couple of hours before the new owners did their final walkthrough, it struck me that i did not feel a ton of emotion. it was not my house anymore. in fact, it wasn't even 'mabel' anymore! perhaps i learned a valuable lesson in that a home is only four walls, and the love and care that you put inside it, and that your friends and family and memories put into it, is what truly makes a home.

i didn't cry. which is nothing short of amazing.

so, today at 4pm i will close on this season of my life. lots has happened, both good and bad. i am ready to be here, and that is good :)




happy monday!

home.

fall boot parade.

so. all of a sudden it's winter today. not really, but i do have to dig out some socks. same thing.

you know it's that time when you start to surf the internet for cute boots. oh, so many to choose from!





you also know you are *50* when this is what you decide to buy instead.

they ARE metallic. that makes me still cool.




:)

let's do this.

Dear God:

I have a good idea. Let's have 70 degree days in October from now on.

Thank you in advance,

Bobbi





ps. if you ever decide to create a large-scale client project using flamingos, just beware that before it's over, you'll be calling them 'effing' flamingos and that your client will say "wow, you sound like the OLD bobbi!"

not. good.

woot.

i kind of don't know what to frame, the artwork or the card!!

that's it.

i'm digging out the farmer socks as of today. i have kind of missed you, farmer socks!



on tap, workwise, i have a flock of flamingos to decorate for a mailer for a client. i was telling a friend that i wish i could put them all in Fern's front yard for a few days, just to mess with the new neighbors :)

ha. happy wednesday!

someday.

yesterday at church, pastor shel mentioned about how he doesn't even hear the word 'busy' when someone is making an excuse why they cannot do something, he just hears 'blah blah blah' instead.

it got me thinking about how we all say we're too busy sometimes, and how usually we follow it up in our heads by thinking 'someday' things will be different. yep, if i'm being honest with myself, it's true that 'someday' has taken up a good share of my life.

lately, my joy has been directly related to 'when' and 'if' the house sells, and i move. as of today, that has been 3 months of seriously compromising my thoughts - EVERY day. what i've tried to convince myself in the process is the thought that 'someday' it will all be over, and i'll be able to focus on other things.

however, in the interest of waiting for someday, i quite possibly have missed some things:

fall. i love this time of year, and i have not spent a day in a pumpkin patch, or visiting my parents in the country, or walking in my neighborhood to see the spilling leaves. i have been outside precious little, usually to pet loco when i see him, but not to rake or feel the sun, which i love so much.

people. i have not been home to see my parents in MONTHS. yeah. that is crazy ridiculous. i live so close. i love sitting in the gazebo and hearing the sounds of the country. i love checking out the garden with my mom, and teasing my dad about being a farmer. i miss them.

reading. i miss reading. i am in the middle of a bible study now, and i usually read it in the few hours before i actually go to group. i miss lounging on a sunday afternoon with a book. or reading before i go to bed. i think reading is one of the precious things we have in this life, and i am sad that i have not done it lately.

cooking. making food. eating food with people. the smell of the kitchen when something is simmering on the stove. oh, how i LONG for this again.





in honor of 'someday' starting today, i plan to live, really live, in the moment - even though it's monday!

would you like to join me?

art makes a home.

i'm ever so slowly getting the new house 'move-in' ready...for me, that means i will NOT have a shower in my upstairs bathroom, but i WILL have some new artwork to look at.

art is not optional in my house. i swear, i would live in a mud hut, and still have art in it! filling my new house with little bits of beauty is one of my truly favorite things to do.

just so you know (i feel the need to justify) = these six pieces of art were less than $150 total. my secret is that i don't buy frames, because i thrift and already have many, many shapes and sizes. in a perfect world, i'd have new frames too, but the art is more important to me. here's what i got:

jonah by jim lepage: i was extremely disappointed in the poor quality of the art (hello jim lp - get a new printer and set up your art for print, not web!) when i got it!!! however, the beauty of the work sort of makes up for it, and i do plan to hang it in my living room right away.

'serve the Lord' reclaimed wood art by the simple standard: my dear sweet cass gave me this for my birthday! what a girl, she snuck over to my pinterest page and found that i had pinned this art :) not sure where i will put it yet, but somewhere where i see it often.

welcome home decal by vinyl fruit: my new door is kind of ratty, so i painted it turquoise and will put this in the window!

birds by dolan geiman: oh my goodness! i got this for 70% off! some of you may remember me pining away for this a couple of years ago. thank you dolan for making your beautiful art affordable!

marilyn by velvet morning: i do have several themes running through much of the artwork i buy - birds, deer, houses, and women. all of them fascinate me, and i really do love marilyn.

nesting birds by bee things: these guys are seriously GOOD graphic designers. and lime green is popping up all over fern these days! i want more of their stuff.

'lemons' and 'love birds' by kingslip: i got this from a place called red bubble. the artist is in south africa, and he calls himself 'designer, printer, farmer, cook' - fabulous combo! both prints were tiny and very affordable - they came very quickly and are really nice in quality! go red bubble!

whew. that is a bunch of goodies. i should mention that most of my old stuff will be finding a new place to live, too. art show, anyone?


:)

october light

even though i have not gotten to spend much time outside this fall, i do appreciate the light that shines into my office window almost every day. fall light is beautiful, yes?

two weeks until move date. so much to do. here's hoping that you have a wonderful weekend with all of the hours in the day to do everything you need to do, including soaking up some wonderfulness.

how do you spell meringue?

well, no lemons today. but i could sure use a lmp!

i bought this print in a tiny size over at red bubble. i've had 'hit and miss' luck with buying from sites who process artist's work directly. this company is in australia, and so far, they seem to be on top of things.

i also have a fab spot to put it in!!! i bet you can hardly wait to see ;)

happy hump day.

we all need an advocate.

so, here we are. a new week, and a new round of negotiations on selling my house. last week, i swear i was on my last, last, last shred of nerves. this week, i learned something new at church! it's actually part of a continuing theme in my life right now: God loves me. not in a 'maybe i'll love you if you get it right, but maybe i'll unleash my wrath on you if i feel like it, for some hidden unknown purpose that seems crazy to everyone else but me' fashion, but in a 'He really means it' fashion.

My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.

this verse is from 1 John. that's the new verse series we are studying! funny that it blends right into the lab class that is my life right now!

what is unbelievable to me is that right now, for today, i am thinking 'i don't know what will happen and yet i am still okay'. oh peeps. that is revolutionary!




be blessed today :)




pps. the new home is starting to look more 'homey,' too.

comfort food.

today is the last day that i will have to wait to find out if my house is sold. well, technically that day is october 31, but today is a pivot point that will either lean toward 'yes' or 'no'.

i find that when i am super stressed, i don't really have an appetite. i think that it's the same principle that turns most people going through a divorce super skinny. the body just doesn't care about food all that much.

last week, i found some new food to chew on in the form of matt maher. i have loved him for awhile, his music hits on social justice issues and jesus both very beautifully. a couple of weeks ago, i was driving and heard his song 'turn around' for the first time....it made me wish i had not changed the name of my company from 180 creative earlier in the year.

the song is about repentance. repentance as a life style while we are here on this earth. it's beautiful, and makes me think God's plan is so beautiful, too. the whole album is worthy to listen to. one of my favorite lines comes from the song 'heaven help me'. he sings 'i lift You up and i lay me down'. isn't that the truth of every step of the Christian walk? i think it's just profound.

if you have a penchant for buying music, please, don't delay. go buy this album NOW.





one little observation: from the sound of his voice, i've always pictured matt maher looking something like kris kristofferson circa 1976 in 'a star is born'.

um. instead, he sort of looks like a cross between elvis costello and andy warhol. which does not change a thing about how i feel about him :)

mellow.

siesta and i road-tripped over to fern yesterday for a whopping FIVE hours. i was dreading the whole thought, but still, she has to get used to a new life sometime.

a couple of weeks ago, i put her in the car during an open house, and thought seriously she was going to die from whaling and pacing during the 10-minute ride. it was pitiful. then, she circled around and around in the basement and would not come upstairs. too scarey.



yesterday was more of the same on the ride over. but i have employed a secret magic potion to entice her into loving the house itself. it's called feliway, and it's a magic cat drug. made of pheromones, the same ones that cats use when they rub their faces on things because they are happy. siesta likes pheromones.

anyway, initially, she had the same behavior. over the course of a couple hours, i sat down on the living room floor (where i had placed the diffuser)...and coaxed her over.

much to my surprise, she stretched out and flipped upside down, purring....!!!

yay! she also managed to find what i knew would be her favorite spot, my lovely just re-finished buffet.

the only problem of the night was when i thought she got outside, and then accidentally locked myself out of the house with a faulty screen door. which i broke to get in. another thing to add to my wish list, apparently.


anyway, if you have a nervous kitty, i would highly recommend trying. i know for sure that I AM CALMER because i have hope that she will adjust easily!

manna.

i have been going to blog about manna for awhile. it seems that during this house transition thing, God is choosing to give me manna.

for those of you who need 'brushing up' on your manna description, here's what the bible says in exodus:

The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.

it actually doesn't sound too bad, does it? why then, does manna make me nervous? well, because as God intended it, HE was the supply of what the israelites would need. for the record, He gave em some quail to go with that manna....so they should have been quite fulfilled as far as their stomachs went.

but the reality was, they weren't. here's one comment:

"But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

ha. ha. i laugh, but yet i don't. i tell God it would have been better to kill me in egypt than to have me out in the middle of nowhere eating manna. he mocks me when i ask if i can go to sam's club and get my manna, just so i KNOW i will have enough. which is kind of not the point of manna.

he whispers to me in the middle of the night His reasons for the manna:

He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.


Lord, for today, thank you thank you thank you for your manna.



ps. some people described the manna as looking like this (hoar frost)....okay. maybe REAL manna would be cool to see.