vintage by {h}art: sweet finds!

{since everyone is waiting on tenterhooks...}

76. saturday nights at home in a quiet house, Relyn's blog music playing, fire crackling, pretty glass of reisling... clock ticking... these are good things.

77. a day spent at a writer's exchange workshop makes it even better. i'm curious... how does one know if they're 'a writer'? do they just say it? or do they get a permit somewhere?

78. time spent reading back through this random blog makes me giggle. happy.

79. i'm going to Paris in May. a paris street market in denver - to be more specific. {ok, truthful.} with my sister. she invites me on vintage adventures...

80. so many of the pieces on Relyn's blog playlist are also on my iPod. and the rest, i want.

81. i've been meaning to talk about how much i hate clothes. that's all. oh, and to reiterate the fact that, like Gilda Radner, i base my 'style' on what doesn't itch. and most things do.

82. and then there's the whole brazierre ordeal. i've spent so much there... promised to be theee most comfortable in the world. to not ride up. to not require tugging, adjusting. ugh. {that's indian for 'puhleez'.} ack. ick. they are so flippin' expensive. i almost have no need, but just enough to definitely require some sort of decency panelling. the best so far are these that have inserts for 'privacy'. but they shuffle around, migrate {like, head for midline or armpit} and when reminded of their place, {ok, tugged} sound like styrofoam cups being packed into a small space. ckssshh... that's all. the end.

{not.} why?

83. i'm starting to teach Pilates again. exciting. scary. a passion i can't let go...

84. '...the blessings of the Lord have no sorrows added to them...' -financial peace university. ever learning.

85. last sunday. notes. the Lord's table. 'remember.' {we help each other forget.} we remember the things that are important to us. to be still means to stop fighting, for one thing.

86. i love to tear the perfume sample flappies out of magazines and put them in my books.

87. i went to the writer's workshop because i'm writing a blog to promote Pilates... and i need all the 'learnin' i can get. the workshop was about feature writing; specifically magazine submittals. not that i have any intention of trying that! but the whole day was fascinating. does sitting a room of writers make one a writer? does writing make one a writer? does writing 270 blog posts make one a writer? these are serious questions! :o) anyway, ...i.learned.so.much.today.

88. ...as the Dark and Middle Ages are my favorite time periods of history, and i so love reading about them... a bonus of the workshop was to find that the woman teaching it is a published author, one of her most recent books being this... and i bought a copy from her, which she autographed to me, 'and so are we, body and soul- clothed in the goodness of God.'

89. i also went because someone has asked me to collaberate on a book... ...shiver!

90. it's time to choose some fabulous spa-like paint colors for the walls of the master suite... it's coming together. we saw the completed vanities with vessel lavs and faucets the other day. beautiful.

91. credibility? 'writer's are notoriously unreliable human beings.' -amy frykholm -the shoe fits me. still not sure about the 'writer' part tho'. :o)

92. it's ok to seek out 'mentor text' and immitate. amy said so. immitation is the sincerest form of flattery, yes? {not plagiarism, of course.}

93. a lot of rejection is just reality.

94. i saw this quote today in passing... took note, and just googled: 'chastity makes us familiar with God.' -i find it's by a 6th century monk, john climacus. hmmm... another monk. *God Wink*

95. still doing quite well with the clean eating and intentional, more intense workouts. not perfect, but quite well. happiness quotient high.

96. tonight, for instance- leaving the workshop, i was a really hungry girl -and tired. i did not go buy a latte, which i desperately wanted. i did not grab some fast food, which i desperatedly wanted. i came home and made a healthy fritatta {while talking to dh long distance.} yum. that feels good.

97. i'm absolutely loving reading one thousand gifts - a dare to LIVE FULLY right where you are by ann voskamp. it's not like any English book i've ever read... but like some foreign-yet-so-familiar language; not letters and words and punctuation on a page- but living color, incomplete sentences but complete, true thoughts that float off the page. like she's been inside my heart and read it. but i know it's because she's a daughter of the King. and we're sisters. both knowing Him as a Father. along with thousands of other women who are reading this book at the same time... it's. so. beautiful.

98. regarding this 'itch' to write that some experience, i often think, 'of the making of many books there is no end... many books...' Eccl. 12:12. why more? when we were homeschooling, we read that the Library of Congress {at that time} having one copy of every published book in the US, filled shelves measuring 535 miles in distance. why more? what more can be written? what more need be said? and yet, there is more. the insatiable 'itch.' and then i'm thankful when a rare blessing of a gem comes along. some writers are definitely 'called.'

99. ...26 letters. those few letters make so many words. i love words. {beautiful words.} our words are so important. they're either a blessing ...or a curse. they can speak life or death. they're powerful.

100. fave quotes from 1000 gifts:

'eucharisteo always precedes the miracle,' -ann voskamp

'if you want to change the world, pick up your pen.' -martin luther,

'there are eyes in pencils and in pens' -john piper.

cup overflowing,

jpb