Yesterday was Palm Sunday and if like me you have spent 50some years attending services that focus on the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, you may feel like you’ve heard that story from every angle.

Fortunately, I still have a lot to learn in God’s word. Our sermon yesterday by was entitled “Glad Hearts” and it contained a gem of knowledge that I haven’t considered before now.  Below is a little personal paraphrase of the sermon, but if you would like to hear the actual sermon from Pastor Scott Dermer, you can find  it here.

If you move forward in scripture from the donkey ride to the last supper, you’ll find in Matthew 26:30 the words “When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”  Such a little phrase, easily passed over. I guess I had always envisioned a boring little dirge, unknown and not worthy of any attention.

Although we don’t know the actual hymn, it would have been consistent with the traditions at Passover for the disciples to have sung The Great Hallel, from which we get the word hallelujah.  It comes from Psalm 113-118. Part of the scripture would have been sung before the meal and part after.  I invite you to read Psalm 118 and consider this; a man knowing he would face death soon, lifted his voice to sing and the last words of the song are “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”

This isn’t a dirge, it’s an old-time shoutin’ praise song.  How could he do that, sing in the midst of fear and sorrow?

I confess, sometimes it’s hard to understand. It is hard to describe this kind of joy. I’ve experienced it in my life. There have been days when grief seems to be overwhelming, but underneath there is a peace that cannot be explained. Consider this, Jesus could demonstrate the kind of joy that is soul-deep even in the darkest hours because of three things.

His relationship with God

His trust in God’s sovereignty.

His focus on loving others.

When I hold up his example as a mirror in front of my life, I must ask myself if I lack joy at times because I am not developing my relationship with God, or I lack trust in him, or I focus only on my own circumstances.

I hope for you during this Holy Week that even as we ponder the pain, suffering, and sacrifice of the Lord, we still have glad hearts filled with joy because we are growing in our relationship, trust, and service with him.

Special thanks to Pastor Scott for illuminating God’s word and continuing to give his flock new insights.

Thanks for reading,

Celeste

The funny thing is my son never exhibited much interest in football during high school. He was in the marching band and at his school that was the cool thing.  But when we moved to the Baltimore area, he had several friends who indoctrinated encouraged him in becoming a Ravens fan. Since we’ve moved from there, he is still a die hard Ravens fan. So I made this wall sign for him for Christmas and his birthday and another Christmas and birthday.

In the spirit of full disclosure, this project took me about two years from concept to full execution. It’s not that it was hard or even complicated, but I kept doing only a portion of the project and then coming back to do the next step months later. I know that’s ridiculous, but I just couldn’t seem to get it together. So, don’t worry that this is a difficult project, you just have to stay focused.

Supplies:

2 10×20 boards (deciding how big to make the boards is what took the longest time)

2 boards for securing the large boards together

screws

Gray stain (I recommend using latex gloves with this)

Paint brushes and plenty of rags.

Acrylic paint in the team colors (look closely the image also contains black, white, and red)

Yellow paint pen

Miss Mustard Seed Furniture Wax in clear and the Antiquing wax.

To create the sign, my husband assembled the boards. Next, I painted the boards with a gray stain. This is a messy, messy process.Wear gloves or you will have lovely gray finger nails for a while (not that that happened to me).  I immediately wiped the stain off with rags so that the wood grain would show through. I wanted an aged wood look, not solid gray boards.

I found the image I wanted online and increased the size. And increased the size several times, taping pieces together until it fit the space.  Actually, I used  three images. I used one as a color reference and the second is a line drawing which made it easier to transfer the image with transfer paper. And the third helped me draw the oval shaped behind the Raven. I use a red ink pen for transferring. It makes seeing where you have transferred the image easier and helps avoid that one line you missed.

I painted in the image using acrylic paints and I outlined the word Ravens with a yellow paint pen. Believe me, that was much easier than trying to paint a narrow straight line with a brush.

After it had dried (and several weeks later) I wiped clear furniture wax over the entire sign and antiquing wax on the corners and edges. I don’t think you can really see much difference, but I noticed the wax helped the board color look less flat and brought out the wood grain more.

The final product appears more blue in the photo than it actually is. It really is Ravens purple.My original intention was to sand the image down to give it an aged look and put heavier antiquing wax over the whole sign. My son, though, wanted the brighter image so I left it as is.

Guess what’s coming next? Well, my husband and son-in-law are Redskins fans. So…maybe two years from now I’ll have them done. Better late than…

Thanks for reading,

Celeste

p.s. Due to all that NFL licensing stuff, an item like this is for personal use, not selling.

This was a hard post to write. I realized after I had spent time putting it all together that it is basically a post about cleaning a room. I told my husband that the topic is probably not very riveting. My problem, though, is I find it very difficult to be creative in a chaotic environment. How ironic, since by the time November rolls around each year my Art/Craft/Sewing room (it needs a name) is a certifiable disaster area.

Exibit A:

This room has been used to create oil paintings, Ghost Buster costumes, choir costumes, Christmas crafts, and acts as a general dumping ground throughout the year. These photos were taken near the end of December and I thought I would clean it up quickly, take a few photos, and post about how nice and clean I made it. That was over two months ago. Please notice I could not actually walk anywhere in the room. I couldn’t walk to the craft shelves, I couldn’t walk to the closet, I couldn’t walk near the art desk or sewing machine. This was not very conducive to creativity. Frankly, I avoided being in this room because it was like one of those obstacle courses on Ninja Warrior.

So, I began at one corner and worked around the room clockwise. I went through every cubby and drawer. Two months later I found the floor. In the process I disposed of three large garbage bags  of junk and filled the back of the car with Goodwill donations. I did not tackle the closet. Fiddle-de-dee, I’ll do that another day.

Now if you’re expecting the typical blogger post showing new flooring and fantastic storage solutions, sorry you’ll be disappointed. Nobody got no budget for that!  Perhaps I should title this post “How to make a Creative Space on No Budget”.  Yeah, tip one: clean the room.

Exhibit B:

I did make two physical changes to the space. This room gets very hot in the afternoons summer and winter. I changed the light weight floral drapes for some lined brown drapes that I had left over from my master bedroom.  Even so, you can still see that light is shining through the heavier drapes. Now, light is great for painting, but not when you have heat exhaustion. The best time to paint in this room is the morning. I’m at work most mornings, so I have to compromise on the light situation.

I also changed out the drapery rods from heavy, hand-made wooden ones to slimmer black wrought-iron look rods. This is what I have been changing all the rods to throughout my home.

Secondly, I bought a basket for my small canvases. They were just piled in a mess under the desk. This desk by the way is an old mechanics bench that I bought at a local antique mall. It is the perfect height for working on paintings and crafts. The metal drawer at the front is where I now store all my extra paint brushes. I usually stand to work here which is why the stool is on the side.

And yes, that is a plastic Christmas motif table cloth over the desk. Not beautiful, not chic. The desk has a beautiful wooden surface that I can’t stand to see get paint and glue on it and that’s my current temporary solution to protect it.

A room ready for more creative processes, and plenty of walking space to each area. No Ninja Warrior moves necessary. Space for more messes. Space for more creativity.

I still have a mental list of things I’d like to do to improve this room. First of all, paint and carpet don’t mix. I’d like a wood laminate floor. Next, I’d love to reveal the wooden desktop. I want a glass sheet for the top. Expensive! I also would like a solution for storing the large canvases, both painted and unpainted. Finally, it could use some major redecorating, but since new purchases for this room are not at the top of my to do list, it will be awhile before this can be accomplished.

So now it is a place where I can create again. Wonder what it will look like in November!

Next post, I’ll show you more on the Baltimore Ravens wall plaque I made for my son. You can catch a glimpse of it on the desktop in the photo above.

Please take a moment and sign up for my newsletter so that you won’t miss a post.

Thanks for reading,

Celeste

One of my favorite bloggers, Layla, from The Lettered Cottage has a term for unexpected little blessings: God winks. Now I don’t know if she coined it or it’s a common term, but it struck a chord with me.

It’s those moments when you least expect something that would bless you and there it is. Like God winks and says “Just loving on you, sweety.”

One of my favorite God winks was during our move to Panama back in 1991. Before our move, we lived a 30 minute drive from our church. We were quite active in the choir and would drive back and forth several times a week. On top of that, my husband was often gone because of military duty. I would drive a 4 year old and a baby several times a week by myself, sometimes late at night with all the accouterment of young children.

When we moved to Panama, we initially were in temporary housing at the far end of the Air Force base. We were assigned a house in the same neighborhood, but it wouldn’t be ready for four weeks. It was pretty far from all the other base amenities. I sent up a quick prayer that if it didn’t matter to God, could we live close to the chapel and since it wasn’t a desperate plea or anything, I forgot about it.

A few days later, my husband called me to say that the original house would take longer than expected and if we were willing to move within just a few days, we could move to the older housing at the center of the base.

Guess where it was located! Right across the street from the chapel! And, in front of the chapel was the Parade Ground. There was a beautiful view from my front window and the house was within walking distance of most base amenities. And the older housing was bigger and sturdier too. Above is a picture of my children standing in our driveway. The house was built on pillars and looked similar to the one in the background. (Yes, I made those Halloween costumes)

Another God wink occurred when I wanted a navy blue blazer, but couldn’t really afford one. I was browsing through Von Mauer one day just “window shopping”, and came across a Pendelton navy blazer marked at $9. Surely that was a mistake since it was originally $200. Maybe they meant $90. I went to the counter and asked if it was an error. The sales lady said “No, a button fell off and it was in the back for three weeks and I just sewed it back on this morning. We don’t carry that anymore so it’s really $9.”  I just knew God had saved that blazer for me.

So, my most recent God wink was on a trip through Pier One. I have been wanting heavy blue glasses for my dining table. I kept finding green and purple, and when I did find blue, well, not in the budget.

We were killing time before we went to a movie and there in the very back of the store were blue hobnail goblets on sale for a ridiculous $1.98 each.  Ahhhh!

Now don’t get me wrong. God winks aren’t neccessarily things. They can also be phone calls or letters, just the right song on the radio, an unexpected compliment when you thought no one noticed. The one thing they have in common is that you feel God saying, “Even in the middle of the struggles, I remember you. I know what makes you happy. I love you.”

Have you had any God winks in your life lately? I’d love to read about them in the Comments.

Blessings,

Celeste

After putting away all the Christmas decorations, the house feels blah, bland, a little sad. So my goal this week was to bring a little life back into the beige living room. The fireplace is usually the focal point of the holiday decorations: evergreens, stockings, sparkly stuff. That’s the spot that feels the most barren after Christmas.

However, I also want a little breathing space and more relaxed atmosphere after the lushness of holiday decorating. Another limitation I’m facing is monetary. December brought us the challenges of replacing my car, paying for a funeral, and having to pay for maintenance on our rental home in Maryland because the tenants moved out. So I had to shop my own home for a new look.

I came up with three looks for the fireplace mantel. Each has some positives and negatives.

First up is a simple vintage look. I tried to highlight the turquoise and pink in the painting with the accessories. This mantel makes me feel good because it features my mother’s pink depression glass. She wasn’t a “collector”; she didn’t care what the pattern was or buying any piece she could find. She just liked the pretty pink glass. These pieces and others will soon be going to my daughter who also appreciates their sweet look.

Next is the Winter White mantel. This really looked so much better in real life. It’s main drawback is that doesn’t quite fill the space as much as I would like.

Finally, is the Blue & White mantel. Sorry, the sun was beginning to set as I was taking this last set of pictures and they turned out dark.

I asked my husband if it’s weird to have a portrait of yourself in the living room and of course he said no, cause he loves me. I’m still not sure. There is a lot of sentiment in that painting though. When I was four, my babysitter’s husband George, a fine artist, wanted to improve his portrait skills so he began three portraits: me, his daughter, and his wife.

I knew that if you sat for a portrait you had to sit very still. For a four year old anything over two minutes is torture, but, I was trying to cooperate fully. It’s like not being able to scratch your nose when it itches. Only later did I find out that the painting was based on a photo of me and I was sitting so that he could develop the color palette.

There is a companion painting of his daughter at about the same age, but the paintings are completely different. She was a cute brown haired/brown eyed girl. Unfortunately, George passed away before he could complete the last portrait. I believe his wife kept the initial sketch as he had done it instead of having it completed. This painting hung in my mom’s home most of my life. At her passing, it was one of two things that I especially wanted to protect and keep.

I just searched through the my cabinets for blue & white dishware and added a little faux greenery (come on, it’s January).

So, tell me which of these mantels would you choose: Vintage, Winter White, or Blue & White.

I’d love to hear what you think. If you’re enjoying following along with my posts, please subscribe to the newsletter (look on the right side of the screen).

Thanks for reading along,

Celeste