[faith] He Is Risen, Indeed

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter yesterday! We enjoyed the weekend with my parents and friends in town visiting. We worshiped together at church yesterday, rejoicing in our Risen Savior! We sang the song "Forever" by Kari Jobe/Brian Johnson: if you haven't heard it before, take a listen! "Now death, where is your sting? Our resurrected King has rendered you defeated! Forever, He is glorified! Forever, He is risen high!" 

Just gives me chills. We serve a Risen Savior who is living in the hearts of His church, the body of believers! We shouldn't recognize this truth just on Easter Sunday, but every single day.

Like I said, we celebrated the weekend with friends. They had never visited our area of TX before, so we showed them around (Warrenton and a couple of wineries, shopping, and eating too)! We had such a blast: here are snippets of the weekend we had together!

The most delicious creamed corn/Frito combination.

Washers at our local winery

Our communion table this Easter Sunday at church

Easter lunch selfie!

Such a fun weekend celebrating together and spending time with our favorite people on the planet. How did you celebrate this weekend? Have a great week!

[love] Junk Finds

One of my favorite pastimes is "junkin'", or the act of going through antique stores and garage/yard sales for new-to-me, prized possessions. And I LOVE the hunt of finding an amazing deal! Over the past three weeks, I've had a couple of opportunities to go junkin': one in Fredericksburg with Sam, and the other in my current town and the surrounding areas with my BFF gals Jen, Sam (different Sam), and Kelli. Here are my finds!

[Fredericksburg]

This is an old, ballot box! How neat is that?! $13. Still has the original markings, warning labels, and is in pretty good condition. I'm just using it as a chotch-kie (is that how you spell it? ha!) for decoration.

Scrabble tiles: who doesn't love scrabble tiles?! I found the letters to spell our last name, along with a stand to hold the letters. .25 for each letter, $1.50 for the stand. It's currently sitting on our piano.

Sheet music: I am a sucker for old sheet music! Since Nate is a music genius, I try to pick up old sheets of music whenever I can so he can analyze it :) Hopefully, I will get enough sheets to frame in matching frames and make a grid gallery wall above our piano. These sheets were around $4 each. One isn't marked and I don't remember the price.

 [Garage/Consignment Stores]

This ottoman was $12: a little pricey for a consignment store, but I've got big plans for it! I'm going to spray paint the wicker white and recover the seat. Plus, the seat opens up for more storage! Win.

I love me a good, ol' hymnal project! These babies were $1 and .50. I have found some CUTE projects that incorporate hymnal pages, so stay tuned for that. We were both raised Southern Baptist, and although we are now at a non-denominational church, we love us a classic hymn. Worship songs today are still well-written, but the text and lyrics in hymns are beautiful.

I've been recently on the hunt for old clipboards. I've seen some quirky projects completed with these, so I hope to re-create something of my own. I'm thinking of spray-painting the middle with chalkboard spray paint, leaving some brown around the edge as a border. I want to hang it on the wall in our guest bedroom as a welcome sign (or something: we will see)!

Isn't this dish adorable? $1. I'm going to put it on my nightstand or by our sink to hold my jewelry. Love the gold and white together!

These jars. Wow oh wow. Bargain of the day! They are HUGE, probably at least a foot tall. I paid .50 FOR ALL THREE OF THEM. What?! People have been raising the prices of glass jars since Mason jars are "all the rage" now. I was pumped to find these large jars at such a cheap price! I'm planning on using them as centerpieces for our farmhouse table. Stay tuned for that as well!

Mirrors. Another thing I'm on the hunt for. I don't think I've shown you all, but I am creating a mirror gallery wall in our front entry. So far, I have 5 mirrors of varying sizes. This $2 beauty is the newest addition, making it mirror #6. When I hang it, I'll post about my mirror gallery wall :) An idea I found on Pinterest, of course!

These embroidery hoops were .25 each, making my total $1.25. Again, on Pinterest, I have seen some cute ideas incorporating embroidery hoops into home decor. I saw one wall that had varying styles of lace inside each hoop: it was beautiful! Not sure how I will incorporate them yet, but I'm sure I will think of something (or borrow an idea on Pinterest).

The last find: a $3 vintage Scrabble board game! WHAT! I just spent $$$ on spelling out "Johnson" with scrabble tiles, but HELLOOOO, this game comes with all sorts of tiles plus their little stands! I haven't checked how many of each letter came with the game, but the pieces are in great condition. Pumped!

Okay, okay. Surely I am not the only one who loves a good deal, one-of-a-kind pieces, and digging through some questionable items in order to find the treasures. Do you? Share with me! I love hearing these kinds of stories!


Happy Wednesday! On Wednesdays, I teach a K-5th grade bible study at our church: tonight's story is on Job. Even after everything he loved and depended on was taken away, Job was still praising God's name. Read the verse below and know that even in the midst of suffering and trials, God is still sovereign, powerful, and good:

"And he said, 'Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.'" Job 1:21

[love] Secondhand Scores

There are many perks to living in a teensy tiny town. 30 second commute to work... Hardly any traffic... Everyone-knows-everyone community bond (in a good way: it can also be a bad thing). However, a downfall is that there is not much to offer in the form of shopping and entertainment. For example, the closest secondhand store is 20 minutes away in the next town and it is only open on Fridays and Saturdays. Hmph. BUT Nate and I have found some treasures each time we go, so it is definitely worth it to make the short trek for some sweet finds. Here's what we picked up this weekend!

First up: this wicker tray for $1. A great little caddy for my chalk mug, plant, and Scentsy (which I know is disgusting: I cleaned it immediately after taking this picture!) It gives a great texture along with a pop of neutral, natural fiber.

This huge basket/water canteen/thingy: $3.50. A new centerpiece for my farmhouse table! Now I need to find flowers to fill it. Probably fake ones. Don't judge ;)

Nate found this set of four "Learn-A-Language: Italian" records for $2: he loved the throwback "The Houston Post" label on it. It's unfortunate that it's ripped, but the second box in the stack has a much neater looking label. Also, if you look at the original mailing stamp, it says 1964 on it. Pretty neat! He will probably take the records out to hang up in his music nook in his office. I'll use the boxes as shelf decor :)

 He also picked up three books for $2... my little reader (photo taken from his Instagram)!

So there you have it. Please tell me I'm not the only one who loves to dig for treasures at secondhand stores! Okay, when I say the word "dig", I mean "look carefully". I'm a bit of a germ-a-phobe :)

Happy Monday!

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:21

[photoaday] Week Forty

Busy busy busy week and weekend! I haven't posted since Wednesday... oops! But it'll be alright. Here's a glimpse of my past week!

[psst: if you take photos this week, use my button on your blog post and leave me a comment on THIS post with the link to YOUR blog post with your photos.... that's not confusing at all, is it? once you do that (and assuming you're a follower of mine), I will feature your blog one time with a few of your photos! remember, sharing is caring :)]

[sunday] Our visit to Warrenton! It is here where we bought our amazingly antique-from-the-1880s dining room table that seats up to 10 people. Beautiful! Don't let this picture fool you. This antique/treasures show goes on for m-i-l-e-s.

[monday] Speaking of my beautiful table, here it is! Eight and a half feet long... bring on the dinner parties and events!

[tuesday] Fall plants, yay! I am so ready for those mums to bloom a beautiful rust color!

[wednesday] My main squeeze and our two darlings with him. A common event at our household.

[thursday] Guess who visited Kindergarten on Thursday?! She did so good!

[friday] Love my sisters in Christ! Diamond Belles are "like" a sorority (we are a social club that helps out with baseball primarily, but also other athletic events and teams), although now it is a full-fledged sorority. During my time at DBU, we didn't have sororities or fraternities, but apparently after I graduated, all sorts started up and now they have a Rush week and everything. It's nice to know that Belles were the "originals" :) Although I am bummed I am missing our 10 year reunion (we were established in 2002, I was a Belle from 2005-2009 at DBU) because I am in a wedding, I was so excited to receive this invite in the mail!

[saturday] No picture. Too busy cleaning, organizing the house, and then having dinner with friends!

[today- sunday] First all-day cool-day in Texas (high was 64, ha!) equals me wearing my boots!!! Happy fall, Y'ALL!

Have a great week, everybody! I need to share a house tour this week... Possibly a video IF I can work up the courage to hear my own voice recorded (I sound like I'm 7) and figure out how to do it on my MacBook :)

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Matthew 28:19

[dwell] New Dining Room Table For Us! #15

15. Purchase a large piece of furniture from the Round Top/Warrenton Antique Weekends.
Completed October 1st, 2012

Done!

Every 6 months, there is a h-u-g-e antique/"old" treasures show and sale in Warrenton and Round Top, TX. It's a pretty big deal to antiquers (?) across the country, who travel from state to state to sell their goods. One of my 30 before 30 items was to purchase a large piece of furniture from this show and this week, we did just that!

Meet my new dining room table. She hails from the 1880s-1890s. I know!!!

Isn't she gorgeous? Do you like how I am referring to it as a "she"? Psh. Anyways, it is solid wood, super heavy. It is 8 and a half feet long, hugeee! It seats 10 people but only came with these 8 chairs. Later on down the road, we plan on buying sturdier chairs. And we want to purchase two plush chairs for each end.

[You can also see how we moved the wing back chairs into the living room and moved our office bookshelves into the dining room!]

Close up: I have a simple fall center piece as well. During the month of October, I have black spider web fabric on the table with some burlap, fake leaves, and a wrought iron pumpkin candle holder. After Halloween, I'll take out the spider webs.

Isn't the wood gorgeous? Such a solid piece. They really don't build furniture like they used to!

Overhead shot. So pretty! It is narrow, probably about 3 feet wide. But it is gorgeous and we couldn't be happier with it!

These are the chairs the table came with. We will most likely purchase cushions for the chairs now and down the road buy new chairs. We will see!

Nate's pretty excited about it! (This was before we moved the other table out of the room)

So what do you think? Do you like the look of antique-y furniture in your home? We like to mix and match. We have decided that our house is "Farmhouse Modern" or whatever that means. Older/traditional pieces updated with newer accessories and patterns. But I would really like Emily Henderson to come diagnose Nate and I with a style diagnostic. A girl can dream, right?

Happy Wednesday! Half of your week is almost done, yay!

Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Matthew 4:4