Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
Ephesians 4:31, NIV
It was a beautiful Sunday morning I thought to myself as I popped into my kitchen before church and began mixing up some blueberry muffin batter. I was in my element as I pulled a carton of eggs from the fridge and opened it up. There were 6 white eggs and one brown egg remaining in the carton. I didn’t think twice about this-we were often gifted with brown eggs from friends and family. I probably had just consolidated the last of a carton of brown eggs in with the store bought eggs. Grabbing a white egg I cracked it into my measuring cup. Yay, no shells! I grabbed the brown egg and gently touched it to the edge of the measuring cup. There was a pop, like when you open those scary pop open biscuits, and the next thing I know a terrible stench is permeating the room and I’m looking down at my hand covered in yellow and black egg rot. Disgusting. So gross! Like extremely gross!! On further examination I realized that little egg hadn’t been brown at all. It was a white egg that must have had a slight crack in it and then had slowly started to rot from the inside out. First infecting all of the egg’s inside, then starting to eat away from the inside to the outside turning the outside from white to brown. On the surface it looked okay- for a brown egg! But as soon as a little tension was put on it, the egg broke. Not only broke but exploded!
It dawned on me that bitterness eats away at us in much the same manner. We think we are fine. We don’t notice that we wear a frown more and more often. That we snap at friends and family for little, or no reason. We stress about minor things that normally wouldn’t bother us at all. Then the wrong thing happens at the wrong time and we crack. Exploding and letting all that filth out for the world to see, infecting everything close to us.
How much better to give our hurt to God before it can fester into bitterness! We can serve others so much better when we are not preoccupied recounting every past hurt. Instead of spewing rot into the lives of others when pressed, we can deliver fresh goodness from a whole and healthy heart. I don’t want to be the egg that cracks under the slightest pressure, I want to be the one that can withstand being jostled about in life’s storms. And when the pressure does become too great and cracks appear and we are broke open, I want ooze of only goodness. Father, please fill us with Your goodness, so that when broken we show only You and Your graciousness.
I resisted learning to play the piano for a long time. I think my mother first broached the subject of my taking lessons when I was six or seven but it wasn’t until I was 10 that she finally ended the discussion and signed me up for lessons. I was surprised to learn that I loved them!
Now I will never be a concert pianist, I can only read music- not play by ear- and as far as timing goes… the less said about that the better! However sitting down and playing a few of my favorite old hymns feels like one of the biggest luxuries. There’s a connection that is formed, something beautiful that happens when I make the piano sing out. When I bring a tune that was penned by someone who passed on ages ago to life yet again, it connects me to the past, and brings the history to life filling me with inspiration. When I play my antique old upright piano that is nearly as tall as I am, it has yet another chance to make a joyful noise.
My piano is nearly 100 years old, beat up, and worn from a hard life. It has lived in many different places. When we met, it was living in the church of my childhood and when they upgraded, the piano came to live at my parents house. Years later when I bought a house of my own, it came to live with me. It doesn’t hold its tune for very long, and consequently needs tuning frequently. The ivories are missing on several keys and a piece of the decorative wood scroll work has chipped. It is far from perfect, but it’s the imperfections that make me love it all the more! I love the depth and richness of the music that reverberates from within it. I love the heritage, the age, and the past it carries with it. There it is again- that connection to the past.
It was funny, I missed playing when I was first married and had no piano to sit down and play. But I was happy and busy and didn’t think of it much. When we moved into our very first house, I began to feather our new nest. We painted, put up pictures and curtains and started to make it our own. It helped. But. When we moved the heavy mammoth of a piano from my parents house into our own house, and I sat down to play for the first time, my house became a home.
What is the thing that you forgot about? The little grace note in your day that you pause to be refreshed by before the wave of craziness hits? What is the thing that connects you to parts of yourself that you put away, locked up, and walked away from years ago? What’s the thing that you know you’ll never pursue past anything but pure pleasure that you know inspires you, makes you come alive, and connects you to the things you hold most dear? Find that thing; dust it off, polish it up, tune it, and make it sing again.
I believe creating a cohesive color palette is foundational for creating a well decorated home. How does one go about creating a cohesive color theme? That’s the fun part! Chances are you probably already have several colors that you are primarily using in your home. Whether you are starting from scratch or just needing to tweak what you already have in your house, here are a few starting points:
What are your favorite colors?
Are you attracted to the colors of the sea? Blues, greens, purples and beiges? Or are you more of a desert flower, preferring tans, browns, and creams, punctuated by bright red, orange and dark green?
What colors are you already using?
You don’t have to scratch everything you already have going on in your house- after all you probably bought that stuff because you liked it! But maybe that purple throw blanket isn’t working with your green, blue, and burnt sienna accents in the living room. Instead move it into the guest bedroom decorated in different shades of blue and viola!
Looking up different color palettes on Pinterest is one of the most energizing things for me! I love seeing different arrays of colors, by switching out just a shade or two you can totally change the vibe of a whole pallette!
How Many Colors Should I Use in my Palette?
Again, personal taste plays a large part here: the fewer the colors the more versatile your palette will be; the more colors you use the trickier it can be to make it all coordinate and work together, but this doesn’t mean it can’t be done! If you are a newbie or really trying to cull your decor, I suggest you start with 3 main accent colors, and then have a base of neutral colors for back up.
In her book, ”The Curated Closet,” Anuschka Rees talks about creating a versatile color palette for your closet. I think applying the same principle to your decor greatly simplifies and reduces the stress of the decorating process. Using her method you create a color palette utilizing about six to twelve different colors in all. This doesn’t mean you can never add a small pop of a color outside these colors but it will serve as a guide and when you really break it down twelve colors is a lot!
You have your main colors, usually about 3, and these are the colors you use the most. For me this means a soft greige,(my wall color), wood,(the floors and a lot of my furniture), and light heather gray,(my larger pieces of furniture like my sofa and loveseat). If this was a play, these are the main characters.
Next you have your neutral colors or supporting actors, essential to the plot of the story but not the key players. This could be anywhere from 2-4 different neutral colors. For my color scheme this is black, white, and cream and are items such as an end table, a throw blanket and the anchor for any vignettes I may arrange in my decor.
Lastly you have your accent colors, the characters that give the play life and keep things entertaining! My accent colors are sage green, (I will vary a shade or two), dusty teal, sunflower yellow, gold, silver, and a few minute touches of blush pink. These are my throw pillows, throw blankets, dishes used as part of my decor, and framed pictures.
I hope this helps your decorating process, remember it is a process and is rarely, if ever, a one and done thing! For more learning check out; “The Curated Closet” by Anshuka Rees. While this book is about creating a closet you love, many of the themes can be applied to decor as well.
The podcast, “Decorating Tips and Tricks”, where they have several podcasts delving deeper into the topic of color palettes. Happy decorating!
Hi! So nice to meet you! My name is Alaina. “What?!” You say, who is Emma Marie then? I shall tell you. I wanted to start this little blog and I didn’t just want to do my name, I love my name but I wanted to do something a little chicer, a little different, something with a little sparkle to it. While still ruminating on a name for my blog I was listening to an audio book by Jessica Herrin, founder of Stella and Dot. The name Stella and Dot was derived from her grandmothers’ names. That struck a chord within me. Family is very important to me, and I am especially close with my grandma. I started thinking about my grandmother’s name. Velma is my grandmother on my father’s side and while I love her dearly, well, lets just say Velma didn’t have exactly the ring I was going for. But her middle name is Marie. Ooh, I like that, a lot.
Then there is my maternal grandma. Her name is Luemma. An aside; she was named Helen at her birth but she abhorred that name so when she turned eighteen she changed it! Luemma is a mouthful and doesn’t need anything added to it, but Emma? Yes!
As I thought about the name, I realized that the essence of these two women epitomized what I hope to cover on this blog. Velma Marie was the quintessential 1950’s housewife. I say that with all the love and respect in the world, look up perfect 1950s housewife and you will see her picture! The last of five children, she grew up in the 30’s as a little farm girl in Iowa. After high school she went on to major in Home Economics at Iowa state university, ultimately obtaining her Mrs. degree in a union that lasted over 71 years!
Luemma, I never had the privilege of knowing. But here is what I do know about her: she could sing and yodel. Neither of these talents did she pass on to any of her five children. In addition to being a mother she was also a teacher. She then became the sole provider for her family when my grandfather died. She rose to the challenge and raised those five children, all between the ages of 7-13, on her own in the turbulent era of the 1960s.
From these two women I believe I draw a lot of what brings me joy. My love of “housekeeping,” if you will, I draw from my grandma Velma Marie, I love to cook, bake, decorate, and create any variety of things from jewelry to wooden signs. From my grandma Luemma I derive my love of history, reading, learning, and teaching. She passed down to my mother the importance of looking ones best no matter the budget.
These traits and interests sum up what I will primarily talk about here; anything from books to housekeeping, decorating to fashion, history to DIY. It is my hope that these little posts will inspire you and bring you joy. I hope that sitting down to read for a few minutes will feel like a deep breath of fresh air for your soul. I know they will certainly bring me joy to create them for you!
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