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.

next up.

finally, the wheels are starting to turn. i am in 'project land' now, and i love it. i should be concentrating on packing, but i have not even started yet. tomorrow. always tomorrow :)

ha. the good news is that i have to be out of here by october 31. i work better with deadlines. i really do. so hopefully, that will kick some motivation into me.

in the meantime, i found another project yesterday. the buffet turned out awesomely! i want to show you, but since some sweet friends offered to help me paint the living/dining room this weekend, it will be better to have a big reveal next week! woo hoo! i'm ready for things to be semi-finished over at fern. too much disarray going on there right now.

so, okay, back to the project. it's a vintage metal typewriter table. since industrial is waaaaaaaay 'in' right now, i've been eyeing these for awhile. mine is in pretty good shape, although i'm going to have to make friends with steel wool as a first step (there is a little rust on the leg bottoms). otherwise, i'm thinking prep, paint, and decorate! should be a fun little item to keep somewhere in the new abode. i could seriously work full-time bringing back the oldies. LOVE to do this. you'll probably have to wait and see for a few weeks, however, because i don't really have time right at the moment for this :)


okay. fridays rule! going to go and get some stuff done, and enjoy the sunshine-filled day! hope you have a fab weekend, too!







ps. orange cats like sunshine, too :)

seasonally.

i found a post for cinnamon coffee pumpkin cupcakes over at a site called 'tater tots and jello' - ha. staples of my youth.

anyway. i would love to make some of these. i don't currently possess instant coffee, but i suppose i could get some for emergencies. i have crushed up instant coffee and added it to cookie dough before, so it's not too much of a stretch to add it to frosting, i don't suppose.



lot's of stuff going on around here. there has been some activity on the house, so i've been walking on some pins and needles, but actually feeling quite peaceful. i have friends at 2 churches who have been praying for mabel and i, and i'll tell you folks, you can FEEL prayer. it really matters, so remember that when you think that prayer is kind of ineffective.

ah. other news. what do you think of the new blog template? I am anxious to hear your responses!

Click here to take survey

in other news. it's cloudy today. cloudy is not the same as sunny. cloudy makes me freak out and fear the big 'w' that is coming! go away, cloudy!


he he. have a good day :)

sneaky peek.

oh, the excitement of it all. very happy with the stripped down dresser!

hope to show pics in a couple of days, living in its new home!







be blessed today!

stripping away.

oh no. i'll probably get a ton of unwanted blog traffic with THAT header.

oh well. it's what has been going on in my life lately!

as i am spending my days being 'stripped away' once again because of uncomfortable circumstances, it's interesting to ALSO literally have a 'stripping away' project.

to be sure, stripping is not fun. but it is oh-so-necessary if you don't want something to stay the way it is.


look at the ugliness bubbling up on the surface. ps. if you ever plan to do this yourself, don't bother with 'earth-friendly' options. i use the most toxic stuff on the planet to get this kind of action.


the ACTUAL stripping is a horrible process. it's messy and things look way worse before they can even begin to look better. i hate, HATE it!


it's also a painfully slow, slow process. but as you dig down further in the layers, you start to see more beautiful things being revealed. it's very gratifying to see wood grain where there once was none, and a little brass keyhole that used to be totally hidden.





so, that's where i'm at. i need to keep at it, more stripping to come. i'll keep you posted on the progress ;)

Who did this?

i sat here for about 15 minutes, trying to think about a good blog post. i have very little to say about the weekend, except that open houses are kind of a violation...it's weird to have people lollygagging their way thru your house for no da*n reason except to snoop. icky.

i also did nothing in the area of crafts. i do have a vision for the dresser, but the stripper in the basement didn't work too well. he he. that is kind of a funny statement. anyway, you know what i mean.




so, i'll blog about my new bible study. i will also whine about the fact that my used book from amazon that i ordered over 3 weeks ago is STILL not here, so i downloaded a version for my phone. this is the first time that amazon has let me down! but whew. it was handy to get the book in a 1-click touch. i may be asking for a kindle from santa at some point :)


back to the book. it's not one that was really jumping off the shelf for me to pick up. but, if you've read greg boyd at all (most famous is probably 'letters from a skeptic'), you know he has some pretty interesting perspectives. in this book, boyd is seeming to challenge a ton of 'accepted' chrisitian beliefs about God that are simply false. i admit, i do tend to see God in ways that perhaps don't match perfectly together all the time. i get bound up sometimes in the disciplinarian God of the old testament, rather than the God that paul talks about in the new testament. i get confused by some of the parables of Jesus. sometimes, his behavior confuses me, too.

i don't usually admit this kind of stuff, but in the group i'm in, it's okay to question. wow, i never knew how much that HELPS in terms of God growth. last week, i had a real, serious meltdown on the phone with carey. i admitted that i was completely confused by God most of the time. i asked some really hard, scary questions that i would NEVER ask God himself, but that it seemed safe to vent to a friend about. that very night, at church, the video i was watching ASKED THE SAME QUESTIONS. i am taking that as a sign that God understands that i'm still in the dark about some foundational things. i don't think he wants me to stay there. that is the good news, that the questions i have are something God cares about me knowing.



in the meantime, i was hit with romans 5 three times last week. a three-time reminder is a pretty sure sign that God is wanting you to get it. i admit, i usually don't read the verse in context, but a lightbulb went off when i did....!

By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that's not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

^3-5There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

^6-8Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

^9-11Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!

i think what this passage says is that God thinks i'm okay, because i DO have faith in his son! i cannot boast about a ton of things as a christian, but i do KNOW in my heart that Christ is real, alive and working on earth today. that i know. for today, is that enough? i sure hope so :)

happy monday!

new ideas

how is everyone today? the sun is out here! it's a bit chilly, and the furnace is on, but still. i am hopeful it will stay sunny all day.

i think i have finally hit a wall on the 'working every weekend' thing. i have to clean up around here a bit for the open house on saturday, but there are a couple of projects that i have been wanting to dig into that are more on the fun side of things. fun might be good.



one of them is to redo the 'free' dresser i found on the sidewalk this summer. i'm not sure where in the new house it will live, but oh well. i found some old 'stripper' in the basement, so i would like to give it a try. after looking at it up close, the damage on the sides is pretty bad, so i'll probably just refinish the drawers if they clean up well, and paint the rest out. i already have a set of fun knobs, and the brass knobs on the lower two shelves are pretty cute. oh. i am so ready for something visual and pretty :)


i also have an idea for a repurposed vintage painting, to apply text over the top of it. i have my phrase picked out, but i don't have the art yet. so, i need to go and see if any vintage landscape art is out there. for super cheap, because i don't know how well it will work. but it sounds like a good excuse to go thrifting, i guess ;)



as for the house selling, today (and hopefully for at least the next few days), i am going to let God handle the details. i kind of need the break :)


happy day!

creamy.

From foodiesathome.com

doesn't THIS look yummy?

i want to make some. i even bought bacon, but i did not get the kind without nitrates (sorry, anne). bacon is kind of 'spensive.

recipe is in the link, this looks like a great blog!




okay. change of subject.


in the past couple days, i've had another epiphany, and it's that EMOTIONS suck. seriously. they do. i know that they have waaaay too much power in my life. this house switching journey is teaching me to NOT look at emotions as markers of what is really going on.

here's an example of how my weeks go; i think you'll see why i am having this thought:

"oh my gosh. the economy is getting seriously WORSE! there is no way this house will sell anytime soon." :(

"woo hoo! two people are going to see the house today! everything is going to be okay!" :))

" crap. the people i thought were going to buy the house cancelled. i'm SURE they bought some other house. i am going to eat a donut now." ;-((

"oh God. why is it cloudy today? nobody looks at houses when it's cloudy." :((((((((

"well, i'll have an open house this weekend. i'm SURE it will be sunny then." :-\

"oh God. nobody is available to have an open house? that must mean God doesn't want to help me sell this house!" :-8(






and on and on it goes. i swear, if i go UP the rollercoaster one more time, and then down again, i will NOT MAKE IT.

hmmmph. for today, i am choosing to stand by this TRUTH instead of being held captive by those pesky emotions. Lord, this day is yours. please use it for your glory, and let me be of sound mind and joyful heart. yay!

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

clean.

i took advantage of the beautiful day yesterday to clean off the garden in the back forty. usually, i leave the work until spring, so the birds and bunnies have some nice shelter in the winter. it wasn't too 'realtor-friendly' though, so now it's gone.

i admit it makes me a little sad.

i am torn between desperately wanting an offer on the house, so that the roller coaster will stop, and not really yet realizing that mabel will not be MINE. it's hard.

today, i show the house twice. i am grateful that there has been a pretty steady stream of people coming thru...hopefully, that is a good sign.


i hope that whoever buys her knows that HE comes with the deal.






have a great tuesday!