Exterior Lighting Upgrades

One day I will do a post about our exterior painting journey.  Until then, let's talk exterior lighting for a bit.  So back in the day, we had these beauties as exterior lights...

Ugly, old and half broken. I really couldn't stand them.  When we first moved in to our house we somehow got a memo about a big clearance secret sale going on at our local Lights Unlimited.  We weren't quite ready for lighting upgrades but knew that they would be in our near future, so we decided to take a peek at what the big clearance secret yard sale was all about.  It was one of those early morning sales where everything was hanging out in the parking lot in the back of the building so it was like a secret meeting of bargain hunters.  Anyway, at the sale we found our bathroom light for $10 and then spied out too exterior lights on sale for $5 a pop.  Originally these babies were $148 a piece - so I would say that was a pretty sweet deal.  The lights were not identical but, they had the same finish and similar shapes so we said why not?  After getting all of our exterior painting finished we were ready to install them - I was super excited because I love them (a vast improvement from the feeling I previously held about our old lights).

So here is our side door's new light...

And, our front door's new light...

$10 for a couple of pretty, new outdoor lights - yes and thank you.  Replacing lighting is really a pretty easy upgrade and sometimes an inexpensive one if you get invited to secret clearance sales.  

So I'm just thinking about the saving grace of Jesus this morning.  As people we are in desperate need of a savior, our lives are kind of like these lights.  We are sinners, old and broken, tired and in need of something new.  God's word tells us that when we accept Jesus as Lord we are a new creation, our old self is gone and we are made brand new.  That doesn't mean we are old and broken and have some bandaids slapped on and then are sent out to face the world but our old self has gone away - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17.  We are made new, whole, ready to shine light into a dark world, full of joy, full of God's love, mercies and grace.  It's all because of the work of Christ that we can be made new - He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit Titus 3:5. Here's the next part, don't be a secret sale, hiding behind in the back parking lot - be the new creations Jesus has made you to be and help others discover his mercies and truth - And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation" Mark 16:15, there is nothing more precious or more important in this world- For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 1 Peter 2:21.  It's because of Jesus Christ we have been made new and through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can share this truth with others, there is just nothing greater.

Thanks for joining today, Have a wonderful week!

Shabby Chic?

This past weekend we worked on several projects that had been waiting for some attention around here.  One of those projects was our bathroom shelf.  This shelf originally came to us from my grandmother when Justin and I first got married, she had owned it for a long time so it's a little antique piece.  We have used this shelf in many different ways and it's been painted a variety of colors over the years.  One thing I've learned is that I despise painting this shelf - too many crooks and crannies to fill in.   But somehow I've painted it at least 5 times since we owned it.  It was most recently painted gray and wasn't working in our newly painted green bathroom.  I didn't want to go out and buy paint for this shelf and felt like white was the way to go anyway.  Luckily I still have plenty of white paint laying around the house from all of the trim painting we have been doing so that would work just fine.   Now, as these projects go sometimes this one did not work out the way I had planned it in my head.  Originally my thought was to paint it white using a combo of the white eggshell finish paint and mixing in some white gloss paint that we bought by accident.  The problem was my mixing consistency.  This paint did not cover well and I quickly realized I would have to paint 4 or 5 coats to get the finish I was looking for.  This was not working for me since I already hated painting this thing so my plan changed.  Why not shabby chic this thing?   Have I done this before - no.  But, it couldn't be too hard to make something look old and tattered could it?  Was it the lazy thing to do - maybe - but, I actually kind of like the result, at least for now.  Here are the steps in case you are thinking of trying something like this out:

So, first off it was already painted gray, here's the before pic.  And I will admit we weren't really concerned with what we were throwing on this thing so it looks pretty messy.

First thing I did was to mix my paint, half eggshell white (off the shelf) Olympic Zero VOC paint with half Olympic Zero VOC white gloss base.  Then I just applied a nice thin coat of paint.  I had glops and drips but I didn't really care once I realized how my original plan wasn't working.  You can kind of see in this picture (especially on the sides) the gray showing through.

After it dried I just took a low grade sand paper and sanded until it had the shabby look I desired.  These are just some up close shots so you can see the result:

If you look closely you can see a little bump in the shelf -that's a little bent nail and I love it, my dad put it there when he was a little boy.

And here it is now, in all of it's shabby chic glory.

Shabby, yes...chic, maybe.

So in thinking about this shelf today I started thinking about brokenness.  Brokenness, when it comes to our relationship with God.  There are times in our life when things happen, we mess up and instead of taking it to our loving Heavenly Father and being honest with confession and repentance we brush it under our rug and try to forget or move on by ourselves.  The problem with this, living with unconfessed sin, is that we now have something between us and God, we aren't fully relying on his forgiveness and power.  Then, our unconfessed sin turns into guilt.  We start wondering how we got so far away from God and feel like we will never be able to get back to having a close relationship with Him.  That's when brokenness needs to enter the picture.  Coming before your Savior and being honest and humble about your shortcomings and acknowledging your need for His grace and mercy is the only solution.  In that place of confession you will start to rely on Him and Him only and that's where your relationship with your Lord begins to grow.  Just like any other relationship, your relationship with God should be honest.  God is our trustworthy Savior and only his grace is sufficient.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

Less is More- Goodbye Mount Stuffmore

Purge, Purge and Purge some more. That's pretty much our life motto right now as we have been painstakingly going through the boxes, bags, drawers, cabinets and closets that are now full of random items and junk we have accumulated over the past ten years and are now overflowing (well I should say were full).  How did it get like this?! -We ask each other this over and over as we sift and throw away bag after bag.  It's amazing the things a person will keep, for example:  A box full of old High school spiral notebooks chocked full with - you guessed it - notes from high school classes...hmmm glad we held on to that, but wait! there's more - my bedspread from when I was a teenager, seriously? who keeps that?  Especially when it's old and ripped.  Also on the list, a box full of lighthouse bathroom items - towels, soap dispensers, even a half-used border from about 9 years ago.  I'm almost embarrassed to admit that one, how overly "themed" was that bathroom? and, I'm even more embarrassed to say it was so hard letting that box go - Luckily I had my sweet husband and kind sister there by my side lending some encouragement as Justin exclaims (demands), "NO MORE LIGHTHOUSE BATHROOMS!" and my sister laughs and remarks - "Seriously, throw it away".  But, I finally see the ridiculousness of this and let it go and feel good about it later.  And, I hereby make the promise of no more lighthouse or any themed sort of bathroom in our new house or new houses hereafter.  Letting go and starting fresh is such a wonderful feeling.  Sometimes it can be a hard thing to let go of something that we have been holding onto for a while, something that really is just junk.  We tend to do that in our spiritual lives as well - hold onto sin, things that are just junk that are cluttering our hearts and taking up space that should be filled with good things - things that matter.  So as we purge our house of our junk we can't help but look at our spiritual house as well and find what needs to be thrown out and given away to God and replaced with his grace - the good stuff.

"In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace" Ephesians 2:7