Monday, May 30, 2011

Dandilion {seeds}

Dandilion Joy by Telstar Logistics
Dandilion Joy, a photo by Telstar Logistics on Flickr.

I spent a beautiful Memorial Day with my family lounging around home doing the unimportant, restful things you're supposed to do on a holiday weekend. The momma and I took a walk down by the lake. It was warm, windy and overcast, but refreshingly summer. As we walked and talked, enjoying eachother's company we were passed by bikers, joggers, and strollers. Everyone was taking in the view of the massive lake and the sharp white trails left behind by windsurfers.
We stopped a few times to admire blooming flowers, kneeling in close to get the concentrated scent of their sweet aroma. Walking on I bent down to grab a white fluffy dandilion. I couldn't resist the full white top, perfictly ripe for blowing seeds in the wind. I took a great breath and watched as the seeds floated carelessly away, very quickly I was left with a bare stem. The momma came up behind me and said with a smile," This is your summer." I shot her a puzzled look. "Yes, this is what your summer is like, just planting a bunch of seeds."
I laughed as I was getting such a marvelous revelatation from a weed. She was absolutley right. This summer, (and probably for the rest of my life) is all about planting little tiny seeds. It's like blowing the seeds away on the dandilion. We have no control where they land, how they're recieved, or what they become. The only part we are responsible for is taking that breathe.
Little seeds of kindness, of time spent with a friend, a smile or encouraging word to a stranger, an invitation, a prayer, a little seed of sometimes minute inconvient sacrifice.
Take a breath,
watch it float away,
no need to fret,
it shall bloom someday.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Welcome {Home}

Happy, happy, home for the summer! After a 16 hour drive with the momma and a two day pit stop in Chicago we finally arrived back home.
Isn't it funny how going back home seems to induce so many memories...good and bad. It's almost like induced child pains {or tickles depending on how you look at it}. The smell of the house, position of that old recliner, high school momentos clinging to, if any glory it once had.
Although I am glad to be back for a season to catch up with my wonderful family and friends, my room needed a new twist. I unpacked my hefty bags {that's a long "A" for you southerners} and started the unfinished process.
I squinted, moved several different times to regain different perspectives, sifted through some stuff, stood on my head, and prayed to God for some new inspiration for the look for my room. I started throwing away. Simplifying. Repurposing pretty old things that the momma and super sisters had collected.
I am pretty happy for now. I think the next step will be painting a mural on the wall by means of using a projector to project something to trace? Any suggestions?
It's amazing what a few changes can do. I'm looking forward to making some new memories in my home. Tea with the momma, random haircuts for my sister, lots of dreaming, and motercylcle rides with the guys.

Make something pretty today :)


These are some coral and shells I brought back from Haiti, now a background for my good smellies.
One of my walls is painted white corrugated metal, and next to it on the wall is an old-whitewashed farm door. I found some random hooks and viola, hat and necklace holders.

If you don't own any milk glass bowls...shame. They are the ultimate "workhorse" as my Aunt Pat puts it.
Darling tea pot on my dresser.
This is a picture frame that has been replaced with chicken wire. See that little blonde, crazy haired girld in the corner? Me.

This is just for fun. My dad found crow eggs and nurtured them until they hatched in his nest, it was love at first beak.

Tidbite*
For incredible vintage finds and eclectic ideas Pat Brown's Harvest Brown web-page, or follow her on twitter for amazing vintage finds and tips.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Tornado(s)



Wednesday, April 27th was a normal day. People all over the state woke up, most of them brushed their teeth,headed to work or school with a mediocre tasting cup of coffee,and hoped for the best. I however was at Orange Beach,AL enjoying lots of rays and the continual crash of beautiful powerful waves...
The last thing I was expecting was to come in from the beach late afternoon to crazy storm reports to my current home in Birmingham,AL. At first I didn't think anything of it, because southerners are uber paranoid it seems of storms. Sometimes I wait for a darkish clouds just to run errands because no one is on the roads.
Anyhow, we watched and waited as Twitter was blowing up with pictures and tweets of people finding debris from a hundred miles away in their yard. One picture sealed the deal, as we saw a whole street literally shaved off the face of the Earth. It was apparent that this was a record breaking,mean,ugly storm. Throughout the afternoon there was over 100 tornados reported that touched down all across the SouthEast.
My friends and I packed up a little earlier than planned to help with relief efforts that my incredible Church of the Highlands began initiating immediately.

FLASH FORWARD

Sunday was the first day that I arrived on the scene in Tuscaloosa. You can't even fathom the size of trees that had been flat-out uprooted. AND THEN MOVED. It was a waste land as I drove through commercial and residential areas. Church had a base at a nearby park with supplies up the wazoo that people were coming to collect for free. A small step in the major rebuilding process.
Monday, my fellow Highlands College crew and I headed to Hueytown which was another town ravanged by the tornado monster. The first day we did a lot of driving around to asses the needs and get a strategy. (The needs were glaringly obvious...houses! Food! Drinks! Because there were neighborhoods completely obliterated.) We came across a lady named Mrs.Terry,she was there with her 2 children and a few other family members trying to salvage anything they could find. She walked out of the bared open basement and greeted these strangers (us) with hugs and tears. She was overwhelmed. One of her first comments was "But do you know how good God is?" I asked her if she would let me take pictures as she told me of her and her families survival.
Her husband and 2 grandchildren were the only ones home. They heard the tornado coming like a thousand freight trains. The only place in the house that remained somewhat stable was the corner of the basement where they ran too. The grand daughter Kate slipped under a wooden structure as her brother Chase was right beside her. Mrs. Terry and her husband got down in the corner just second before the tornado plucked their home from existence. The two cars in the driveway flew and landed just a few feet beside them in the basement! Bricks them crumbled all around them. And within 20 seconds and a quick "whoosh" sound. It was over. They crawled out with nothing but bruises! They crawled out and found them standing in a pile of rubble, all that was standing was the front concrete steps.
Mrs.Terry recounts walking around her house and found a page of her Bible sticking to a broken tree. Matthew 6...

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?"

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself."

She held this precious page in her hands...her eyes filled with beautiful brokeness, at peace trusting in her Jesus. He confirmed His promise to take care of her and her family.
It seems unfair that some of the people around her did not make it, where was God for them?? I don't know. But I do know that whatever happens He promises to turn for good. And I do know that He knows what excruciating,"lose everything you have" feeling. And I do know that He makes everything work for good for those who love him. I ask God often that I would be able to "see" with my heart. Because lots of the times what I see with my eyes...well it's not always perfect. When we see with our hearts if you will...we see who He is, and what He is capeable of doing. That is hope my friends. You see I don't trust my eyes. I trust His heart in me.








The front steps is all that remains...







Chase pointed where him and his sister hid. Note the car next to him that flew from the driveway to the basement!
He walked out of the rubble with only bruises.

This was the page of her personal Bible she plucked from a tree after the storm.

"Do not worry..."