from dusty to dazzling

As the song goes, there are a few joys I count as "my favorite things": coca cola in glass bottles, spontaneous laughter, the way my dog cocks his fluffy ears at an inquisitive angle when desiring a nibble of whatever I'm eating, cooking something adventurously new or comfortingly old, and painting furniture.  I love taking something with promise and making it one-of-a-kind.  Here's my latest project: a coffee table my good friend Ashley picked up for me at Goodwill for the handsome sum of $2.50.  I've been looking for a coffee table, preferably something with a geometric, Moroccan feel to it and she discovered this diamond in the rough.  Here  it is when I first received it.

 And here is it after a bit of cleaning up, without the glass top.  I think it's lovely as is, but a bit bulky feeling all being brown wooden.  So, I decided to jazz it up a bit!

 Inspired by this beautiful Spanish cabinet from the 1940's, I decided to play up the star-like shapes on the top of the table and make it look a bit like an old Moroccan door.

After multiple coats of paint, gold gilding, distressing the wood and then cleaning the heck out of that glass, here's the finished product!  (Hayden's checking it out.)  It actually looks a bit Egyptian to me, and I love it.

Doesn't the golden top look like a bit like gilded stars?

I'm really happy with it.  And there's just something so cathartic about painstakingly adding coppery gold paint brushstroke by brushstroke (yes, I had to use a teeny brush on the top — whew!) and transforming it into something totally new.  What a rewarding little project.

Good Friday morning, blog buddies!

I hope your day's off to a great start.  (If you need a breakfast idea, head on over to my food blog.)  Mine is lovely so far: an early rise with full moon still shining in the sky, cold autumn air wrapping itself around me, and now an adorable cotton ball dog curled up next to me as I drink cinnamon-flecked coffee and read the (great smelling) paper.  I've been enjoying a bit of artistic expression this week through redoing a Goodwill coffee table my friend Ashley picked up for me and it's been cathartic and worthwhile work.  I'll post before and after pictures soon, probably later today.

I've received several wonderful glimpses of grace from you all that I'll be posting on my 5th Blogaversary (Lynn's clever word) Monday.  We're going to have us a fun party celebrating the little things in life. If any of you have been meaning to send a glimpse to me, go ahead and get-r-done and send it to revwhit11@gmail.com.  I look forward to the festivities.  Five years, don't they go by in a blink, and yet I have most days of them recorded here.  I'm not sure I ever realized when I started this whole joyful spiritual discipline of mine how much it would impact my life.  And how much it would bring me closer to all of you!  Feeling grateful this morning.  Okay, back to that cinnamon coffee...which is how this all got started.

Peace,
Whit

word art

-The smell of newspaper.

-Reading a bit of Frederick Buechner and continuing to be astounded by his writing ability that makes a text both deeply profound and viscerally down-to-earth at the same time.  I imagine that even his grocery list deserves a Pulitzer.

-Spending hours outside working on a painting project (a Goodwill-acquired coffee table) and ending the day with a sense of accomplishment.  It's not entirely finished yet, but when it is, I'll share some before-and-after pictures here.

seasonal joys

-Making one of my fall favorites for dinner last night (yes, it really is that vibrantly colored!): rosemary roasted butternut squash risotto.  The recipe will appear soon on my food blog.

-Going to the coffee shop to do a little sermonating and getting to also catch up with my buddy Ted while I was there.

-Walking down the sidewalk downtown, and enjoying the autumn air so much I took my time, admiring the old buildings and blue skies as I strolled.

**Don't forget!: Come to my blog birthday party by sending me your glimpses of grace at revwhit11@gmail.com by Friday if possible.  I've received some wonderful ones so far!

froth & flutter

-Having my morning coffee with vanilla Blue Bell ice cream in it instead of cream, because my sister likes hers that way best, and I seem to crave it when I'm around her.  I love the way it froths a bit like a latte and those tiny flecks of real vanilla bean are divine.

-The way my niece Olivia's eyelids droop sleepily as I give her a bottle.  There are so many lessons that come from babies: contentment and interdependence being two.

-A rapid gust of wind, sending leaves on trees rattling and Hayden's fur swirling around his face.  There's a change in the air.

overflowing grace

What a fantastic week this has been, full of delightful conversations and blissful time with my nieces and Ash and Clay.  I came to help out a bit, but I'm not sure I've done a lot more than be a live-in paparazzo, constantly taking pictures of them.  Case in point: these precious pictures of Olivia's bath time.

 This is the life.

 A wink and a smile.

 A clean and warm little glow worm.  

 We all have interesting hair in the morning!

Her staring contest with Aunt Weeza (she won). 

Playing with Nat and Gigi.  Pillows = lots of entertainment. 

 Natalie playing with her new Tinkerbell toy.  She loves Tink.

Gigi hugging her teddy.

What a wonderful week!

not so far away

-Stars twinkling through tree branches at night.  That just never gets old.

-An email from a friend in Ireland letting me know that he'd read a book I'd love and that a copy of it is on its way to me.

-Preaching yesterday at the wonderful church in Corpus my friend Karen grew up in. As I shook the hand of a sweet, older woman, she told me with a proud smile that she was Karen's Grandmother.  The handshake quickly turned into a hug.

Round Top, TX

What a fun couple of days.  My awesome Aunt Madelynn came for a visit and a quick trip to Round Top for their huge antique markets.  I've never been and it was just fantastic.  Stall after stall of antique and not-so-antique goodies, a sunny but not too hot day and fabulous company.

Good things come in tents. 

Look familiar?

(Here's my Nana's old hutch that I painted turquoise on the inside!  Perhaps I started a trend...)

There were plenty of colorful, peeling things to look at.  I love furniture that is peeling (you blog buddies know this after looking at so many pictures!).  From the slightly, er, rustic...

 ...to the elegant!

 From the massively beautiful...

 ...to the tiniest vibrant touches.

There was color in regal couches and mod windows...

  ...and in my aunt and mom's favorite form: fiesta dishes!

There was also some interesting animal furniture.

I found an adorable little pin (a $3 bargain!) in the shade of mustard I'm obsessed with these days.

The color was right, but sadly the price was slightly more than $3.  Loved this gramophone.  Interestingly, the man running the stall was filling his plastic cup with champagne when I approached.  He seemed to be really enjoying himself.

And here the color was right, the price was right and yet somehow I resisted these earrings.  Somehow.

There was a stall full of 1950's kitchenwares.  So vibrant and functional.  My mom said it felt like walking into the kitchen she grew up with.  I loved this little copper percolator coffee pot, but I'm guessing the handle's not the original one.  We did find some great treasures, though:

My creative aunt took three lovely china plates (a dinner plate, a luncheon plate and a salad plate) and made a beautiful three-tiered pedestal.

Stunning, huh?  Now to fill it with sandwiches or cupcakes, make some tea and throw a party!

This was an amazing find for me.  I gravitated towards a stall that had things just like markets I visited in South Africa years ago.  I hovered there, gripping this beautiful chalice until I could talk with the man running the stall.  Boy, did we talk!

He was a lovely older South African gent, and we discussed everything from mealie meal to horseback riding on the Drakensburg Mountains in Lesotho to those dusty, glorious sunsets that, as he put it, "call you back again."  I left with the carved wooden chalice (for a generously discounted price), the card of his Scottish Presbyterian wife who will want to visit with me and my memories of wonderful travels renewed again.  The reason this particular chalice spoke to me (other than being a minister and loving all things that remind me of communion) was that I own a small carved wooden jar that I discovered in one of the markets in Durban, South Africa.  The charming chalice is its twin.

 See?

 Aunt Madelynn very sneakily bought me this lovely peridot cross.  I'm going to wear it to lead worship tomorrow.

And my mom found these beautiful beads in a bargain bin full of jewelry, half price.  It turns out, they're black onyx with 14k gold spacers!  Quite a find.

Round Top, you're top notch.