Loveseat not Self

  Guess what? 

  I finished redoing  the love seat/settee. 

  Yeh.

  Sure I was excited and then something happened. Myself got in the way and all the excitement and pride of it deflated like a balloon with a not-too-slow but not-fast leak. The anti-climatic type leak where the balloon just shrivels but then looks like an old dried up pear. 

 Earthly things have a tendency to do that - momentarily satisfying and then you are left feeling empty. Maybe it is just me. I am quirky...or is it glitchy???
Either way, I know I am getting too distracted by what I am doing when I let it sink me into a funk. Something may seem to be going really well and then when I am done, I second guess my work and get embarrassed about it. Then I want to hide it. 

 Ahhh pride, it's a nasty little biting booger but it is such a good gauge of what you are holding too tightly. When you start putting what you do or your value in what something looks like, then you are guaranteed to suffer a fall. 

  God is good to bring us out of the muck and mire if we have not dulled our senses to Truth. The problem is we tend to take the fall and then with our ego bruised, we limp along huffing and grumbling or we play the martyr and wallow in the suffering. Been there, done that, got the muck and mire stains. 

 Soooo...what am I going to do to grow from this? Well, my tried and true remedy is to talk to Truth to myself. When I am really wearing myself down, I list off what I know to be True starting from the beginning of time. 

 "God always existed. God created all things. God made us in His image. God gave us everything we need including commandments to live by...."

 I just go on and on until I cannot remember what silly minutia I was dwelling on. It is hard to be self-focused when you redirect your thoughts to God and He is so gracious to move us from the traps we get ourselves into each day...or each hour. 

  So, here's the pic and I am not thinking twice about it. 

BEFORE 

AFTER - Patsy Recline the Settee

 "...and God gave His Son to save a wretch like me. Amen"

Satisfying Comfort

  The junktique business can be overwhelming. Pieces are piling up in the garage, in the entry, in the study, in the dining room...

  Yikes, could I be a classified as a hoarder now????

 Just to be sure I stay focused, I put in a request for some Godly ladies to pray that  I use my time wisely and to honor God. So far, I am encouraged. Several pieces are in the process of getting done. My favorite, by far, is a settee that I knew as soon as I saw it what I wanted to do. Design at first!

 It has great appeal and just needed just a bit of TLC - a minor repair, dirty and faded green upholstery, dings and scratches. I am not done with it yet but during one work session with the settee, my brain immediately thought of pillows. I love pillows! So comforting, so fashionable. It was the perfect time to try out the embroidery settings on my sewing machine. I know...I have Craft ADD.

 I must confess, too, that I have had this sewing machine for over a year and have not touched the embroidery settings or parts at all. Everything was still packaged. After some frustrating fumbling with the hoop and layout settings, it was running like a dream and in no time, I whipped up two adorable pillows. 

  If you look close there is a bit of the settee's new upholstery and paint peeking through but I won't reveal it until I am completely finished. 

  This is dirty and tiring work. Digging through dusty piles and stacks, loading and unloading pieces, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning again, and dismantling pieces is enough to wear out anyone, much less an old, tired woman who is lacking sleep but it is fun. And, working on all these pieces has been a constant reminder of  2 Corinthians 5:17. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 

  Chalk paint can hide a multitude of imperfections but only Jesus can completely remove ours. With junk, I am just redoing what already exists but He doesn't just spiff up what we already have, Jesus makes us brand new. The old is totally wiped away and it is utterly satisfying and comforting. 

The more things change, the more they stay different

  Yes, yes I have been gone a while. Life kicked into high gear and my body went into low gear and it was just a hot mess. Raising a toddler when you are older is a workout. Jellybean is growing and he actually made it on to the growth chart. Not the adjusted one, the  regular one. Okay, he's at the bottom but, hey, he's on it. He is a whiz at pushing a wheelchair and can use a walker for a short period. He is a speed demon at crawling so we are busy chasing him most days. The feeding pump is still part of our life but Jellybean is trying to eat on his own and we are learning sign language at a snail's pace (us not him).

  See...

  Busy, busy, busy. 

  And now, this little piggy is trying to start a teeny little business. One day while we were out looking at junktiques, the hubby said, "We should have a junk business." And, BOOM! It was born with the purchase of this sweet little wooden sewing box which became an outdoor planter. 

(Mary, Mary Quite Contrary, the sewing box that started it all...now a sowing box)

   It has been so nice to be creative again with something besides medical equipment. Not that I am grumbling but I think I have been in a funk. Could be the sleep I miss at least once a week. At my age, you don't bounce back from it. The only statement I make when I go out is "this is what 2 week old lettuce that has been sitting in the hot sun for a week looks like." 

  My prayer was "God refresh me, renew me, give me something I can do." It is still hard to get out and our schedule is pretty tight but sometimes on Saturday, we all wander the junk store for a bit. One of my fave things is to find something that might look like trash to others and give it a new life. It was skill acquired from growing up broke. You can be really creative when you do not have any money. 

  Now what will God do with this?  Whatever He wants. Does He really lead you to buy junk and repurpose it? I think He gives us all a place where He can use us for His purpose. We all can't write amazing Bible study books or be conference speakers but we can honor God in whatever He leads us to do. Any talent we possess is a gift from Him in the first place. In this season, this a feasible for me while I maintain caring for Jellybean so we shall see what happens. 

  Hopefully, you will come back and check out my projects. Who knows what this little piggy will get into next????