Praying Circles around the Curio Cabinet

I inherited a desk and a curio cabinet from my mom.  I had no room for these large pieces but  they were special to her and I couldn't part with them  Along with 5000 other things I had no room for but couldn't part with. Seriously.  My house is packed with extra furniture and things and if you ask anyone who knows me, I already had plenty!  

The desk was in my parents bedroom when I was very young and then always in the "den" (extra bedroom) in later years. As with all their things, it was in perfect condition and has a glass top.  Where to put it?  These was absolutely no room after all the other stuff was brought in. Well! when there is a will, there is a way!  Our upstairs bathroom is huge. This is a very old house and it has an upper porch off the back of the house.  There was once a hallway to the door to the porch but somewhere in its 91 years someone took out the wall and made a huge bathroom with the porch off of it.  We had a 55 gallon aquarium in there just to take up space.  We had recently gotten rid of it because there was a discrepancy in whose responsibility it was to keep it clean. Hey! it came with the marriage so I WAS SURE it wasn't mine :)  So up went the desk and chair. Turns out with the door and the window in that room it is mighty bright and light in there for me to draw...

Now mind you, I have a bedroom studio and crap in my dining room too... Just sayin.

But the bedroom is for making my "folks" and no flat nice surface to draw.

Then there was the curio cabinet.  I had already managed to fit in the grandfather clock, her hope chest and another buffet and china cabinet....don't even ask.  So what the heck was I gonna do with that??

Luckily old houses have lots of spaces and my breakfast nook took some of my stuff in to fit her stuff in somewhere else.  Again, you don't even want to know.

And as usual, it turned into a blessing.  It now houses my folks. My mom was ALWAYS so proud of my artwork.  It was like  her grandchildren from me because I didn't give her any. (Don't worry my brother did).  She carried around a little photo book, it was embarrassing.  Her friends would see her coming with the book... Look what my daughter made!  Brag brag brag.  Whatever, I was very lucky to have such a wonderful loving and proud mom even tho I certainly didn't turn out the way she would have wanted.   

I incorporated both our crystal along with the folks. I must say it really looks good. These photos are before I had it all the way filled but you get the idea.

During this time I had read the book, The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson.  He teaches to pray circles around things.  Everyday I would put my arms around this cabinet and 

 reach around the best I could with my nose smashed into it (to make a circle) and pray that my folks that I had submitted to Stampington & Co. magazines would be chosen to get published. Prayed for months. Arms wrapped around, nose smashed.

  And guess what!

Kept circling and praying

AND GUESS WHAT!

I submitted 5 more and they are doing a feature article in June on them 

AND

 I submitted my Eggs and they will be in another Spotlight article in June

AND

I submitted a coloring page to another of their magazines called THE COLORING STUDIO and I will be in that magazine in June.

Yup, prayer works.  

I have seen miracle after miracle, blessing after blessing, answered prayer after answered prayer.

I am so Blessed.

We have an Awesome God!

The Tables

I cannot sew. I hate sewing. I had to take sewing in high school and we all had to make something for a fashion show.  Mine was so bad they had me work the lights at the fashion show. LOL!!!  My gift is NOT sewing.  But I can paint!  And I have those creative eyes that God gave me to see a blank canvas that needs me!  I figure he had to balance it out because He gave me that awful food addiction...just sayin :)  If something is all blank white I have to change it.  A huge picnic table came with our cottage. It was ugly so it needed me to paint it!  When I was done I was going to varnish it.  I have a ginormous fir tree over the deck and it is always breezy by the lake so as fast as I was varnishing it, little fir crud was falling and sticking to it. One of my friends had to stand next to me with a leaf blower as I varnished.  Suffice it to say there is a few of  God's little art pieces varnished into my picnic table.

The Garage Sale Table

Found this little table at a garage sale for $2!

Differently

Those who know me personally know I love vintage stuff.  Most of those people think I am a junk collector. That's ok with me. The Good Lord gave me different eyes. I see it differently. I have a whole room of differently...hehehe.  They are arms, legs, bodies, hats and parts of my folks.  I cannot not begin to explain the fun and joy I have in my little room. I find myself talking to my folks as I create them.  A fly on the wall would think I was a bit off. And I just might be!  Enjoy some photos of my differently.

  

The Cottage Blessing

My husband and I had a camper. We camped all over the place and explored everywhere. Inevitably we would end up driving around some lake or another looking at all the cottages and wishing we could have one.  A cottage on a lake was not in our radar.  Then when my parents needed me everyday and I couldn't earn anything, (because I would never take money from them), we only had my husbands income and a mechanic doesn't make enough for a cottage on a lake.  I would do my ebay selling early in the morning or late at night and to pitch in and pay a utility bill and squeeze in a little of my artwork here and there.  But when you have such a huge and emotional burden of 2 sick peoples lives on your back its hard to relax enough to enjoy doing anything. Not that I am complaining.  If they were here today I would still be taking care of them. I loved them very much,  they took great care of me and I never wanted them to go into a nursing home and they never did. 

So anyway, I was starting to have conversations with God that I felt like I was getting older and my life and dreams were slipping away. I was so torn. I was dedicated to my folks, but I wanted to be an artist, I wanted to live in the country with an art studio on our property. I wanted nature! But again, never wanted mom and dad to die. When would it be MY turn?  And what do you think our Awesome God did? He provided a cottage. Yep. And one on a LAKE in the country! A place where I could get my country fix, be with nature, do my art on weekends and still have my parents.  The best of both worlds!

We were daydreaming about a cottage when we went on a Saturday drive to visit a friends cottage and took a wrong turn going home.  We ended up on a dead end street and I saw a For Sale sign on a cottage. It had a huge deck over looking the lake and no one was there.  I said to Kirk, " lets just go on that deck",  and we did.  We walked out on the deck and looked over the lake and both us of immediately felt burdens fall off our shoulders and peace come over us. So then the rationalization process started. Maybe we could buy a cottage, after all, we had just paid off our house.  Maybe we could afford a little payment, how much was this place anyway?  Nah. get back to reality! Let's go home.  But THEN!  Here comes this cute little old man walking up to us from down the street. Angelo.    "Hi!  This is my nieces cottage, my sister in law passed away and I have the key.  Do you want to see inside?  My son says I shouldn't show it and let the real estate show it. But I have the key. I will go get the key."  Honest, that's almost the exact conversation.  Ok, so I guess we are going to see the inside.  And oh! it was a large open cottage with 3 bedrooms and a large living room, neat a as pin and clean.  Crap!  We loved it. Maybe we could afford it. Maybe I could get up earlier and sell more stuff on ebay. Maybe! maybe!! maybe!!!

And the story has many little miraculous twists and turns that I promise you could only be God.  In the end the little piece of Heaven became ours. We got it for $25,000 UNDER asking price.  We sold our camper and put the $ towards the down payment. The sellers, 4 sisters, sold us ALL the furnishings and every cupboard full for a small cost, very generous people.  They left a scrapbook with pictures of the history of the cottage. 

The first morning I woke up there in Sept. of 2012 the lake was a mirror. I had never seen such a thing before. I was in awe. I later found out that their father loved that mirrored lake.  I know he would have wanted us to have that cottage. That we love it as much as he did. He wanted to retire there but passed away before he could.  I talk to Owen all the time.  I tell him how much I love his cottage and that our family will love and enjoy and take care of it for him.

Footnote:  My stepdaughters live in Northern Michigan. We would only see their families a few times a year. Wouldn'tcha know our cottage is about 20 min to half hour from both. We get to see them all spring, summer and fall. 

GOD IS GOOD!!!

p.s. I constantly take pictures there of what I call GOD'S ARTWORK.  Its all so beautiful!