diy: inspiration

The next addition for my room:

if i had a book club, i'd tell you about the book that

I just finished:

The story of the Zeitoun family, located in the heart of New Orleans immediately before & after Katrina. I found the layers of family dynamics, culture, religion, integrity and justice in perfect intersections as I got lost in the reality of a modern day New Orleans.

I'm working on:

A book that is in much less need of introduction. One afternoon Jason let me borrow his copy of this intricate character's tale. Beautifully penned and undeniably entertaining.

I just broke the binding on:

A book that traveled to Hong Kong and back with me late this summer. A timely complying of truth spoken directly to the ideas and culture that are ingrained in each one of us as Americans. It is not a call to life radically for the sake of living radically. Rather, a call to live truly following Christ, surrendered to the truth laid out in scripture and written across our hearts as believers. Currently bookmarked at page 30, my soul is already refreshed and challenged by God's truth spoken through these pages.

slicing and dicing

Confession #1: Today I was in the kitchen for 4 hours straight.

Confession #2: I really love being in the kitchen. I think it used to be a place that scared me. Yep, scared. Not nightmare, scared for my life scared. Scared in the sense that it was more than likely I was going to burn whatever I was cooking, or myself (which I still frequently do). I find myself lingering in the kitchen wondering what I could bake, or how I could make a meal out of whatever may happen to be in the refrigerator, or trying a new recipe when no one is home just in case it tanks miserably. This recent love affair with trying to be a culinary legend in my own mind has been accompanied by a repeat disorder with an Otis Redding album. Over and over. I'm sure my roommates are sick of it, but the kitchen doesn't seem to function as smoothly without some good music in my book. So, here's to more "Try A Little Tenderness" & olive oil.

Because I know you're just dying to know tonight's menu:

Cowboy Chicken

Fluffy New Potatoes

Steamed Broccoli

Fresh Corn on the Cob

and the finale: chocolate chip doozies (sorry Cat, I know you little less than hate that word)

because i love the snail mail

Seeing the revival of the telegram made my heart happy today. Who wouldn't want to find of of these in their mailbox?

thoughts on rotation from Sunday

"Love costs us the whole concept of self-preservation."

a playlist & a project

A few good tunes.

• "Try A little Tenderness": Otis Redding
• "May Waltz (Acoustic)": Brooke Fraser
• "Our Kind of Love": Lady Antebellum
• "Feeling Good": Nina Simone
• "I Got That Feeling": James Brown

[play all the way through.]

• "Where the Light Is": John Mayer
• "Legends of Soul": Otis Redding

Add in: buttons.

1/3 yard of fabric.

tearing.

folding. tacking. repeating.

again, and again. 38 times, again.

a snap to the side.

a button to cover.

and voila: a swell little anchor pillow sham.

hello, my name is...

I have been asked a lot lately, "How do you feel being back in the states?" There are so many facets of transition that intersect the answer to that question. Of course it has been so fun to see friends and family, to hear the sound of that distinctive slow Southern draw, and to interact without having to translate using hand motions. But if I boil down all the prefaces and the intersecting factors, I feel like the new kid in class. You know the first day of school feeling? It's so wonderfully nerve-racking. Pushing through awkward introductions, getting lost, going the wrong way (down a one-way street: can we talk about embarrassing?), making new friends, and finding a new rhythm of life. I'm still trying to figure out where I fit in this new place. I'm different than I was a year ago, the place is different, the people are different. Different is most certainly OK, and today it just means that life is contrasting what it once was. Really thankful to be in a place where I am still learning each day. Most of the time lessons have revealed themselves so unexpectedly, but then again don't the best ones always come that way? Here's to a deep breath and a fresh start.