Plan B

So on my last post I shared with you the new comforter set I purchased online. Got and it was GREEN, I mean jade green, not even blue green. After the heartbreak, it decided to roll up my sleeves and go to plan B. Meanwhile I recieved an e-mail about the $20 Thomasville chaise, hopped in my car and came back with my find.

The fabric is hideous, but let me tell you, this is the MOST comfortable chair I have ever sat/laid on.

So how does one go about making their life over without spending any money?

"Shop your house" is an idea I first saw on the Nester's blog.

HHHMMMMMMMMM.........

It think this novel idea maybe just what the Diva ordered.

Bedroom Redo

Let the renovations begin!!

Last week I finally got my new comforter set in, the plan B one whenidiscoveredplanAwasgreen, not blue.

I Love it!!

It even came with 2 curtain panels. Since I like to layer my curtains, I immediately went out and bought some sale fabric and made a couple of extra panels and took some cream sheers from the dining room and added them. Unfortunately they were out of the valance to cover up that mess so I improvised. I ordered 2 more sets of the European Shams

and made my own valance out of them

Ok, ok, they are obviously too long, but they work!! I also plan on covering the 2 frames on the left with pretty coordinating fabrics, and for the right side I was inspired by Nester today

That is soooo pretty!

 I'm also going to cover my headboard with the pretty blue fabric I used on the curtains. I bought a nice thick foam, I'm going to drill a couple of holes, cover a couple of buttonswith said fabric, hand stitch them and hopefully have a beautiful upholstered looking headboard when I'm done.

Stay tuned...this should be a productive weekend!!

Accident

What if my recovery wasn't an accident, but instead something that resided in me waiting to be transformed and restored by God all along?

My need to please others had to be torn down and exposed for the fraudulence that it is. So that once the plucking and removing began, God could begin to replace it with a more concrete foundation, a reality that exists in Christ alone. That my "roots would grow down into Him and let your (my) lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness." Colossian 2:7 NLT

Maybe my mistake has been in the thinking God wasn't a part of my recovery when truth is this is His show and I was the one invited to be a part of it. To purge myself of self so that "He must increase and I must decrease" John 3:30 KJV

So I can shed the idea of living my life & instead embrace the reality that I am living the life He gave to me!

intentional

This weekend I listened to a sermon that, quite frankly, rocked my world. I was not only inspired, but convicted and encouraged by this God i serve and His Word.

There was a season right after my daughter died that i finally shed all my pretenses and humbled myself before this Almighty God. It wasn't long before I was on FIRE. I don't mean spiritually pleasing to everyone, but quite the contrary. The things I was learning from the Lord were so far out there it made most people uncomfortable. I even questioned my own sanity on occasion because my thinking was turning so radical. But inside I knew, I was living, breathing, depending on Christ for my very life. He was my respirator, my oxygen tank from which I drew breath. This life support that Jesus became for me was the absolute ONLY reason i lived on, because all of me died with my daughter. Yet the depths in Him he took me to, were so life changingly incredible, He infused my veins with a fire to live....for Him and for Him alone.

This may sound harsh because I do have a family, but my pain was greater than them...and only my God was greater than my pain.

The saddest part of this story up to now isn't that my daughter went home to be with Jesus, or that we came to financial ruin and had to begin all over because of the debt we incurred during my daughter's illness. No, the real tragedy is that I begin to listen to other people when they would say things to me like, " have you heard of being too heavenly minded to be any earthly good?" or when the director of a women's ministry quote out of Psalms the scripture about being zealous without knowledge.

If knowledge quenchs the Spirit, and i sit by as I watch my flame become more and more extinguished, and instead of screaming NOOOOO!! i let myself fade into my background until you can no longer make out who i am from the rest of the world, then shame on me. Shame, shame, shame on me.

 I am publicly repenting right here and right now and I'm have decided to live intentionally for the Lord every minute of every day from here on out. I want to depend on Him and Him alone no matter what that looks like or who that puts off. I know we like our little bit of Jesus, but I pray that i will desire Him far more than even money to feed my family.

My recovery is still very important to me, but I do not want God to take a backseat while I figure this stuff out. I need His eternity in my present.

I want to breathe Him.

The Art of Perspective

Daily I find myself working on my recovery, whether I choose to or not. Mostly, I choose to...consciously, based on my decision to not live the way I had been living up to now.

Sometimes I wish I was done with it, and moving on to less earth shattering subjects. It's been almost 2 years now, but seeing how I am a middle aged woman, well, it took me quite awhile to get here to begin with. So today I will remind myself this is a process, I can go from A to B instead of jumping ahead to Z. Plus I will remind myself that I can still enjoy myself and my life today while going "through" it. My perspective is constantly being readjusted to the point that some days it's as fluid as liquid. Other days, I just want to camp out on my most recent revelation and not move an inch.

 

I am getting healthy, and knowing that makes me feel good. Not just physically but emotionally and spiritually as well. It is a lovely thing to to begin to experience a sense of balance in all these areas of my being.

The best part, it is genuine this time. I'm not needing a 'quick fix' anymore, I may want one, but I am surviving this whole one-day-at-a-time. I know now that superficial self-confidence has a foundation of ice . It can be crushed so easily by any external circumstances in the blink of an eye. I have instead been substituting this thin veneer that by all appearance exudes strength for a deliberate resolution grounded in God's word. There is peace in that. Unfortunately this change in my mind-set is slow going. It is such a blessing when I find myself reponding from that mind-set as opposed to fear or emotion or that incessant "need to please and anticipate what they want me to say" place

Busy Weekend

I have had such a wonderfully productive weekend!! I worked on tassels, alterations, and household chores that seem to be endless sometimes.

Anyway here are some of the fruits of my labor..

As you can see...I have had alot of fun!

How was your weekend?

I WANT TO WIN

Hi All,

   One of my favorite decorative trim sources Warehouse Fabrics is having a $50 giveaway. 

Shameless as I am, I get 3 additional entries for posting about it.

HA!

Oh, and as for the transformations going on here at home, all is well.

I am redecorating as much as my singlemom status budget will allow, but I do love HSN's flexpay!

That technically is not a credit card, but just to be safe, please don't tell Dave Ramsey.

Here's one of my projects

I bought this chaise on Craig's List for $20 !!!!

This is the lucious chenille fabric I purchased to reupholster it with.

I can sew, so I figure it'll be a cinch, right?

Will let you know, maybe a DIY post?

Oh the lengths I would go for some good blog fodder!!