A Softer Shade of Blue

Hi Friends!

I hope you and your family had a beautiful Resurrection Sunday as we celebrated the life, death and resurrection of Jesus! I was so blessed to see social media filled with proclamations of Jesus. He is our hope, our joy and our life!

We had an extremely harsh winter here in Michigan this year. And one snowy, icy day I decided to redecorate our entry. I genuinely loved this room before but always felt it didn't flow as well with the rest of the house as I'd like. I wanted less Traditional and more French Country.  

The picture below was taken by the photographer from Romantic Homes a couple of years ago. The walls were blue a soft blue with a painted stencil and below the chair rail and trim was all bright white. 

 

I started the redo by painting the trim and closet doors a light wood tone to match the rest of the house. I painted the walls in Sand by Sherwin Williams as a base coat, from top to bottom, including the chair rail. I'll share the paint technique and raised plaster stencil I did in a later post. 

And then I repainted our blue dresser.

The new color is much lighter and more the color that shows up around our house in almost every room. I'm sorry I can't give you a color name. I used the same color that I custom mixed for our family room a few years ago and then added colors to it and layered it on until I got the look I wanted.

I always use a chalk paint additive I bought on Amazon.   It gives your paint that smooth chalky finish but I can add it to any color that I already have. 

For those of you who are new to this site, I bought this dresser second hand several years ago. It was an old, maple bedroom dresser that someone had in storage. It was in great shape and we paid $100 for it. It's definitely one of my favorite pieces of furniture in our home and I love the impact it gives when you walk in our front door.

I added a little of the light blue to our HomeGoods mirror so that it coordinated better. This mirror was on clearance at HomeGoods a couple of years ago. It was all a uniform cream color and I painted it to match the dresser. 

I layered one of our cowhide rugs over another rug. I love the mix of rustic with the feminine furniture.

Our entry is a pass-through with doors on all four sides. Below is the view from the front door. The door on the left goes into the rest of our house. The patio door you see goes out onto the deck and into the back yard and pool. The door you see reflected in the mirror goes into our garage.  

I haven't shown you the other side of the room in a while. I'll share more details about recovering the antique settee on another post. I'd like to change our light fixtures in here to a soft gold, whether I refinish the ones we have or buy new ones.

There are a few other changes in here I'd still like to make and will give you updates in the future. 

Thank you to those that have messaged me this past year. Your kind comments were a blessing to me and I appreciate it so much.

love and blessings~

"The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and He adds no sorrow with it." Proverbs 10:22

sources: 
dresser, chair - Craigslist
mirror - HomeGoods
wooden bowl, vase and roses - HobbyLobby
lamp and candlesticks - Furniture City Consignment
french shopping basket - World Market
cherry blossoms - Joann's Fabrics
cowhide rug - Twisted Pine, Estes Park, CO
wall color - Sand by Sherwin Williams

Elijah List - Rise Up, Josephine! Spear of Destiny

Good morning, beautiful friends!

I confess~ I may be in overload! But I am so thankful and joyous over the things the Lord has been showing me that I'm about to bust! And just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I saw this on Elijah List last night.  Elijah List  

If you don't follow this, I would encourage you to do so! It has been such a wonderful confirmation to me so many times of what I hear the Lord saying!
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Rise up Josephine, Spear of Destiny!”
by Anne Janssens

Jehovah is about to pour out an INCREASE of GRACE upon the Josephines!

In a vision I saw a powerful woman warrior with a long SPEAR in hand. She stood with one foot firmly planted on top of a mountain and her other foot lifted up in the air as if she was ready to strike something with it. She kicked out at an ancient-looking wooden door that opened with much force. It swung wide open and crashed against the wall with a loud thud. I then heard a voice declare, "JOSEPHINE IS SPEAR-HEADING THE WAY!"

The definition of spearhead is: (1) sharp pointed head of a spear (2) an individual or group chosen to lead an attack or movement.

I once read that combat troops which are sent to the forefront of battles are very often referred to as the “tip of the spear”, and that their role is to be at the leading edge of the fighting, ahead of everyone else.

In Genesis 37-47 we read the story of Joseph. The call on his life was very evident at a very young age, being favored over his brothers by his father, and having dreams about his greatness (see Genesis 37). God prepared him to become a spearhead, being sent to the forefront many years before famine came upon the land. He went from being a dreamer-interpreter-shepherd to being the most powerful and wise leader during a time of great economic crisis in Egypt—in charge of all of the nation's storehouses and wealth.

The Spears of Destiny

In this vision, I heard the Lord calling the Josephines: “The Spears of Destiny”. I heard Him say, “Josephine, a strong and powerful woman FORGED in the fire of the changes of life—she's the Spear of Destiny and she's arising in this season.”

Josephine is the prophetic entrepreneur that is marching forth into her destiny, unafraid of the threats of male and female counterparts that feel somewhat threatened by her strength and immovable faith. She has grace and abilities beyond her human capabilities which often surprise her more than it does others.

Josephine is a gifted market entrepreneur by nature, but she's also prophetic by her calling. Her mantle, her coat of many colors, represents the diversity of gifts upon her life and her unique ability to multi-task. I saw a convergence of her gifts, abilities and anointing to manage, direct and handle valuable resources entrusted to her.

I saw other Josephines as they stood TOGETHER, side by side, shoulder to shoulder. This COMPANY of WOMEN OF WISDOM with prophetic and management skills are being brought together by divine intervention because of their unique ability to effectively gather, manage and distribute Kingdom resources.

I also saw established Josephines who are stepping out to MENTOR and EQUIP younger and less experienced Josephines who are just beginning to come into their destiny and call. Some resources are going towards this noble cause of raising up ANOINTED WOMEN OF DESTINY in this coming season.

The Lord is stirring up hearts, to SHAKE and AWAKEN Josephines for such a time as this. Many Josephines are not even aware of who they really are. Some of them are about to experience an “aha” moment when they realize what exactly they've been gestating for so long.

Those of you that know you're a Josephine, this will be a confirmation for you. For others, it will be a fresh revelation and one that's going to change how you think and do things. Suddenly, things will all make sense!

Labor Room Of Grace

Whether you know it already or this message is confirming something for you, Abba is drawing you into the LABOR ROOM of His grace for the birthing of His call upon your life.

In 1 Kings 18, Elijah knew that God was about to end the drought and he declared it to Ahab. He did not go about his way until he saw the first SIGNS of the coming rain. Now is not the time to sit and do nothing, but rather it's time to posture yourself and start to PUSH! It's time to position yourself in prayer to birth your destiny, for you carry within you the seed of promise in your spiritual womb.

Some of you may find yourselves on your knees for an extend period of time while you wait for your gift to mature. You may have to bury your heads between your knees like Elijah did and wait for the first glimpse of the promise. Don't give up! KEEP PUSHING until it's BIRTHED!

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I can't tell you how many way this ministered to me and how many things in my life this matched up with! I can't remember if I said in my YouTube video (search Lynda Brandly to find my channel) that I saw a beautiful robe of jewel colors and gold coming down on women right now so when I saw the robe of many colors in this prophecy, I was stunned!

Yesterday, a woman from Michigan won the Boston Marathon. Our son lives in Boston. We live in Michigan. This is the first time in 33 years a woman has won. 

Our daughter is expecting a baby and her due date is today!  Our beautiful circle of women have felt that this beautiful baby is an expression of what God is doing right now.

I spoke to a friend recently who expressed that in a major circumstance a few years that I was 'the tip of the spear!' For a long time, I have felt I was 'an arrow' and a beautiful artist friend drew me an arrow last summer and said, "you're close to hitting your mark!"

It's a new season, Women! If you've been in a long season of growth (pain), get ready! The Lord spoke to me the word "fortify" and said, "I have fortified you in this past season." I looked it up and it means to be strong and courageous in the face of pain and adversity!

I speak 'FORTIFICATION!!!' to you, dear women! Be fortified in Christ!

love and blessings~

          

Changes to our Family Room

Happy Spring, Friends!

I hope you're having a great start to your week! We're on day four of rain, freezing rain, sleet, wind, and snow. All the churches in our area canceled their services yesterday and all the schools have been closed today! So, that's Spring in Michigan!

We've made several changes to our family room in the last several months. The biggest change is the wall color. It's now 'Antique White' by Sherwin Williams. I painted the walls and ceiling the same color.

The other big change is our fireplace.  Our fireplace mantel, that my husband built many years ago, was white and we had added moulding that went to the ceiling. When the walls were blue, it set the fireplace apart, but because we were painting the walls a more neutral color, I didn't like the white going to the ceiling. So my husband built a French trumeau for each of our fireplaces on the main floor.

The whole thing is attached semi-permanently to the wall. The mirror is the same one that used to be here. I painted it to match the trumeau and we used screws to attach it. I wanted it to look like it was part of the trumeau. The mirror will be easy to remove if we want to but I think it will be there for a long time.

Here's a before~

And here's the after!

 He also built one above our fireplace in the living room that I'll show you soon.

Another new addition in this room is this coffee table. I found it on Craig's List and I love it! It looks like it was made to go with our armoire.

It's not in perfect condition but that doesn't bother me. (Then I don't have to worry about keeping it perfect!)

The 'book' on the table is actually a box and we keep our remotes in it, as well as a few other items that are nice to have handy when you're lounging on the couch. The armoire is an entertainment center and holds a tv.

I realized after I took the picture below that I forgot to remove our kleenex box that sits behind our couch. Oh well! (real life) My friends joke that it's the 'arc of the covenant' kleenex box! Ha!

The rug in here is also new and was purchased at HomeGoods several months ago. It's very thick and plush and much better for our grandbabies to play on the floor. 

Hope you're getting some warm weather where you are! I know that not many people are!

love and blessings~

 "But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven."  

Deuteronomy 11:11