Christmas Entry

Hi all!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We were blessed to have all of our children, grandchildren, and my 93 year old mom at our house all day.  We had a perfect day of family, food, festivities and faith in Christ!

I have loved seeing all the blogger's beautiful Christmas decorations!  There are so many beautiful ways to do things!  Don't you wish you could do it all!

I got the walls in my entry done several weeks ago and just haven't had the time or ambition to post. Now our entry is all decorated for Christmas and I can share both sides of the room with you.

I added some sparkling trees, gifts and a wreath to our new French buffet.  I love the mix of silver and gold. A small artificial tree fills an urn.  

All of my greenery is artificial.  My husband has severe allergies and having real evergreen in the house bothers him.

A little French wheel barrow is filled with a cream poinsettia on the other end of the room.  I love the white and cream poinsettias and I grab them every year at this time as there usually aren't as many available as red.  I always get my mom a pink poinsettia because they go best with her home decor and they're just so pretty!

I recovered my antique settee to match the chair in this room.

I like having the plaid fabric in here as well as the living room, which I'll show you soon!  I am still tweaking some of the decorations in the rest of the house.

I filled our baker's rack with more poinsettias.  My daughter knows I love them and bought me a couple also.  She painted this sweet angel on a piece of wood when she was about 7 or 8 years old.  I love getting it out every year.

I hope you're enjoying the holiday season!  I am loving shopping for our sweet grandchildren and planning surprises for each member of our family.  

I'll be back soon with more Christmas decor around our house!

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love and blessings~

"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.  And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.  But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.  "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."  Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which translated means, "God with us."  And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife,  but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus." Matthew 1:18-25

I'm joining these parties:

thewickerhouse

RattlebridgeFarm

dwellings

oursouthernhomesc.

thoughtsfromalice

lifeonlakeshoredrive

.karensuponthehill.com/diy-birch-wood-candle-holder-home-for-christmas-blog-hop/

betweennapsontheporch

-coastalcharm

.thriftydecorchick'

.stonegableblog

.savvysouthernstyle

northernnesting

frommyfrontporchtoyours

craftberrybush

tatertotsandjello

homeremedies

adelightsomelife

Grant us Repentance, Lord!

I had been spending the afternoon with the Lord a few weeks ago, reading, praying, worshiping and listening. The Lord had been telling me lately, "Just be yourself" although 'just being myself (in Christ) has gotten me in a lot of trouble over the years!  lol

Later that evening, I decided to watch the movie, "Tomorrowland,"  It's the story about a young girl who picks up a button and is immediately transported to a future world where everything is bright and modern.  As the story continues, she meets George Clooney, who tells her that something has happened and Tomorrowland is never going to come!  She immediately begins to declare and come against that and when she does, George gets a glimpse of Tomorrowland.

Her words bring him new hope and he begins to fight again for Tomorrowland.

As I'm watching this movie, God is speaking to me that I (we) are the girl and as we speak the Truth of God and come against the enemy's plans to stop what God is bringing, we bring the Kingdom into the earth. The presence of God was all over me as I watched this movie and then I hear God say again to me, "Just be yourself."

Then George says to the girl, "Just be yourself!"  I about fell off the couch!

I was reading in Luke 11:37-54 this morning and a Pharisee asks Jesus to have lunch with him.  Jesus sits down at the table without ceremonially washing His hands (Fence Laws) and this offends the Pharisee right off the bat.  Then Jesus begins to attack the Pharisees for their impure hearts.  A lawyer who is present says, "Teacher, when you say this, you insult us too," and Jesus begins to attack the lawyer.

I laughed out loud!  How many of us have imagined how amazing it would be to sit down with Jesus! But I wonder...would we be Mary, who sat at His feet and Jesus defends us saying we have chosen the righteous thing?  Or would we find out we were a Pharisee who had presented the world a Christian facade but in reality, we were dead inside?

And I'm also amazed that Jesus didn't worry about offending these men!  Jesus never sinned. His intent was not to offend but to share the Truth of God.  These men chose to become offended instead of repenting of their sin. How many times have I wondered if I did something wrong when I have shared the Truth of God with other Christians and they have become offended?  God help me.

The Word says in John 8: 32 that you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free and I always want to add 'but first it might make you really mad!' Ha!  Jesus said, "Blessed is he who is not offended by Me." (Matthew 11:6)

Are you hearing God today?  Have you chosen to hear with an open heart and are you willing to ask God, "Judge me and correct me"?  If someone corrected you today would you receive it with humility, seeking God, and repent of sin?  Or would you become offended?  Have you remained teachable?

Pride is the throne where all our sin resides.  Pride will cause us to defend our sin instead of repenting.  We need to ask God to grant us humility and repentance, for all of us have fallen short of the Glory of God.

Love and blessings~

Stenciled Walls in the Entry

Hi all!

Hope you're having a wonderful week!  We are having the most beautiful weather here in Michigan and have broken records for warm temperatures in November.  What a blessing!

Sorry to be gone for so long!  I took a break from decorating my own house and helped my daughter with several projects at her house.  I'm also a 'slow' decorator.  Sometimes I have to think about what I want to do for a while before I know.

But, this week I did something I've been thinking about for a long time!  I repainted our entry way walls and I am so much happier with it!

In my last post I showed you how I painted this dresser.  I had put a very large painting over it and just wasn't loving it.  I found this mirror at HomeGoods.  It was all white and I painted the blue and gold to tie it in with the dresser.

Inspiration picture

And then I just kept being dissatisfied with the walls. I painted this room SW Interesting Aqua about three years ago and even though I liked the color, I just wasn't loving the look.  When I showed my daughter my inspiration picture, she laughed and said, "I like clean and bright.  YOU like 'ruins!'" Ha!  She's right!

I also love patterned walls.  I stenciled this room with the same damask stencil several years ago.  It took me three months to finish and then I wasn't happy with my color choice!  So I didn't want to work that hard again.

I started out with the original color I had on the walls.

Then using this roller and tray, I put our family room color (which I mixed myself and is about 1/2 the intensity of SW Rain) on one side and a small amount of Valspar Gold Glaze on the other side.

I rolled over the walls until my colors were blended well.  I added the stencil...spacing it around the room. I used SW Interesting Aqua and a little of the gold for the stencil pattern.

I dry brushed over the pattern after I removed the stencil, softening the edges.  

The walls in this room, and a lot of the walls in our house, have a textured wall paper on them that we were not able to remove when we bought our house. The good news is that it was applied so perfectly that there are no seams. The bad news is you can't get new wallpaper to stick on top of this old wall paper. So if I want pattern, I need to use a stencil.

I haven't finished the other side of the room yet.  I'm hoping to have time to finish tomorrow.

I got the wooden wheel barrow at Joss & Main.  The cement garden angel was a gift when we lived in Alabama and I bought the lamps at a discount store in Virginia.

So this room has changed dramatically in the last several months!  I liked it a lot before.  I love it now!

love and blessings~

 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." John 13:34

I'm joining these linky parties:
thededicatedhouse
addisonmeadowslane
too-much-time

rootedinthyme
frommyfrontporchtoyours
shabbyfufublog
rattlebridgefarm
funkyjunkinteriors