My Living Room

I can't believe it's been almost 3 years since I bought my house. I'll never forget the day I got the keys. Mom and I were walking around it, and I was jabbering on about all my plans to renovate it. Momma lovingly said, "You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into." And she was kind of right. I thought it was going to be a simple make over of painting and decorating, but it ended up being insulation, roofing, flooring, tearing out tile, etc, etc, etc. Lucky for me, I have a Daddy who works hard and has more knowledge about building and fixing than anyone I know, and the major renovations were finished within months. Since then I've decorated, redecorated, and tried my best to keep it clean, which is really where Momma's line of me having no idea comes into play. Who knew keeping a three bedroom ranch house with only one occupant (and a huge dog) clean would be so much work?

Regardless, I love my house. The place I love the most is either the kitchen or the living room, so today I'm going to talk about the living room. When I bought my house, it looked like this....

After pulling the carpet, laying down hardwood, removing the built in, and switching up a few things, it now looks like this.

You may remember that I got new couches about a year ago. Nothing has really changed since then.

I'm kind of getting an itch to switch it up, but I really like the way it is, so we'll see.

Since you all have seen this before, I thought I'd get into a few details. You should know that I did not decorate the place by myself. My Momma, Grandma, and her friend, Paulette, helped me a lot. And here are the three lessons I learned from them while decorating my living room.

1. It's all about balance.

Sometimes I sit in a room, and something just isn't right. All of the furniture is beautiful, the nicknacks are adorable, but it just isn't quite right. A lot of times that's because it isn't balanced. 

This took me a bit to learn, but if you use a pop of color on one side of the room, it needs to appear on the other side. Like the color orange below. The same with furniture. You can't put a heave couch on one side, and a small TV stand on the other. It isn't balanced if you do that. At the same time, negative space has it's place. Notice that I don't have anything hanging to the left of the door. It's all about balance.

2. Think outside of the box.

When I decorated my living room, I couldn't really afford a lot of stuff because I'm a poor teacher. So I had to get a little creative. I knew I needed something large scale for above the couch (which goes back to balance). To find a painting the size I needed, I would have been spending a few hundred dollars. There was one at Pier 1 that I adored. It was $499. I didn't adore it that much. One day we were in Hobby Lobby and I found a mirror that had cracked. They marked it down from $300 to $30 because of the crack. Paulette told me to buy it, so I did. When we got home, Daddy removed the mirror from the frame for us, and we hung it above the couch. Then we put two smaller paintings that we got from a garage sale for $5. For $35 I got a large scale wall piece that is perfect. (Side note: I never did like the smaller paintings, but the colors are right, so it works beautifully.)

3. Use pieces that you love

It's kind of ironic that I just said the thing abut not loving the leave prints in the large frame, but I don't hate them. They are just a little formal for me. In the end though, it's important to use the things you love. That's why I have Scrabble Tiles in a bowl on one of my tables. I have orange glass on my piano which most people would find a little gaudy. I have a coffee table made from a rusted cart. It's the little things that I love that make it home. That's why my house will never look like the pages of Pottery Barn, because I don't love perfectly matched sets. I love the random things that are found at garage sales and my grandma's basement. I love that my house is eclectic. If you love it, it's worth living in.

Like I said, I'm not a decorating expert, but hopefully if you're looking to re-do your room, these little tips will help. 

:j

P.S. This post is linked up to Kelly's Korner - Show Us Your Life!

Hooked on Fishing

Yesterday, I saw this tweet from @Jeffersonbethke

[...] Ladies, stop using your bodies to manipulate dude's emotions & actions. Your bodies are holy, they're not fish hooks.

At first I read it and I was said a hearty, "Amen!" and went on with my day.

Now, I am not at all the kind of girl who parades around town in a short skirt and halter top. I'm not the type of girl who dresses up just around men. I'm not even the type of girl who openly flirts with guys. Because my Momma raised me right - with the understanding that a lady doesn't flaunt it all. I could give you a string of sayings that I've heard growing up about not giving the milk away with the bath water or something like that, but I'll spare you my colloquialisms. At first, I didn't really think that tweet applied to me, but it was definitely something that I needed to share with a few friends. You know, sometimes the Lord shows us something convicting so we can share it with the appropriate person, right?

Seriously though, later that evening when it popped up on my Twitter Home Page again, I realized that maybe it did apply to me. Maybe there were times that I said things to get a positive response from a guy. Maybe I did wear just the right color in order to catch a man's attention. Maybe I did put on that one specific dress for church on Sunday in hopes that a gentleman would notice. And are these things wrong? Honestly, I think not. I think God has given women certain gifts for a reason. It's when we forget that our bodies are holy, and we start using them just to get noticed, that we begin stepping in places we shouldn't be stepping.

I love the following quote from Elisabeth Elliot in response to a woman asking the question, "What can I do to get him to notice me?"

“My answer is ‘nothing.’ That is, nothing toward the man. Don’t call him. Don’t write a little note with a smiley face or a flower or fish under the signature and put it in his campus mailbox. Don’t slide up to him in the hall and gasp, ‘I’ve just got to talk to you!’ Don’t look woebegone, don’t ignore him, don’t pursue him, don’t do him favors, don’t talk about him to nine carefully selected listeners.”

There is one thing you can do: turn the whole business over to God. If he’s the man God has for you, ‘…No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly’ (Ps. 84:11). Direct your energies to obedience, not to nailing the man. God has His own methods of getting the two of you together. He doesn’t need any help or advice from you.  The word nothing is a little dose of reality that will help you constantly check your motives whenever relating to a guy. This is not saying you can’t do nice things for a man; it is simply a warning to check your motives.

Don't get me wrong. I think there are appropriate times to encourage a man in his pursuit, but it's so easy to get caught up in the flirting games. We all want that one person to find us, cherish us, and love us for a lifetime. I all too often put that desire before my desire to honor the Lord, so I do what I can with what I have to try to push my agenda. But here's the thing: God made me a woman. He gave me my hazel eyes for a reason. He blessed me with red hair for a reason. He specifically formed me for a reason. And I can tell you right now that the reason isn't solely to gain attention from the opposite sex, but it shows how much He loves me to pay so much attention to my details.

All of this is to say, that I want to encourage each of you to remember that you are not a fish hook. You are a treasured and cherished daughter of God. And don't you dare forget that, "Charm is deceptive & beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised!" - Proverbs 31:30

:j

Curt & Liz

My Memorial Day weekend started off by shooting my friend's wedding. Liz and Curt had a beautiful ceremony by the lake and then topped the day off with a huge reception full of dancing and fun. I'm so grateful that I got to be part of their day.



Oh, and now that it is summer, I hope to be back to blogging because I know cousin Tracy is sittin' down in Arkansas just waiting for a new post.

:j