Basket Full ofGoodies

I think I’ve missed the point again. In a nutshell I started the BNN challenge to steer my focus away from things and worldly treasures so that I’d have more time, money and energy to focus on others, God and the pursuit of eternal treasure.  I veered a little off course the other day.

I went thrift store shopping in search of some old doll houses to fix up for some little girl birthdays coming up and for some wedding gifts. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME WITH IDEAS FOR WEDDING GIFTS, EITHER SECOND HAND OR HANDMADE??? Anyway, I was on the right track until I saw a beautiful leather bag. I was going to ask my mom or mother in law to scour thrift stores for one for my birthday. My current purse is cloth which is great because I can just throw it in the wash but I wanted something that I could wipe clean at the end of each day. I also wanted something big and with lots of pockets and something not as beat up as my current purse. So I gave in when I saw this 5 pocket, smooth-as-butter leather purse. $3- p.s. it’s Armani….I don’t really know much about name brands but I’ve heard of that one before and so I think this probably cost someone a lot more than $3 at some point.  

And the purse created a terrible snowball effect where one "justified" purchase led to another. As I was walking through the store this beautiful, bold print caught my eye. 

I unfolded the fabric to find they were pinch pleat curtains. I measured them and noted the hole in the middle and tried to come up with more reasons why these wouldn’t work. But the measurements are pretty close to what I need and most importantly, these curtains are barkcloth. For those who don’t know, I looked up barkcloth on Wikipedia for you and found this: "Barkcloth or bark cloth is a versatile material that was once common in Asia, Africa, Indonesia, and the Pacific. Barkcloth comes primarily from trees of the Moraceae family, including Broussonetia papyrifera, Artocarpus altilis, and Ficus. It is made by beating sodden strips of the fibrous inner bark of these trees into sheets, which are then finished into a variety of items. Many texts that mention "paper" clothing are actually referring to barkcloth."

I love the fabric! It’s rough to the touch (and so it got its name) and it’s absolutely reminiscent of the 30’s to 60’s, a time period which I’ve always been fascinated by. Some may argue that my 15 dollar drapes from WalMart were much better from a design point of view, but these make me very, very happy and were only $5 (cuz they have a “love mark” or “character hole”). Oh and since they are an old pinch pleat style they would typically require drapery hooks which I would have to look for a while to find used.  Instead, I used giant safety pins (I know, cringe, I put holes in the fabric) to hang these up on the rod.

Reading corner in progress, I sat here with Laura and
read yesterday and it was great to relax while not
in front of the TV and to be able to look outside.
The length of these curtains is really bothering me
in this picture....hmmmm?

And since I was on such a roll, I also picked up this basket….

One of my ideas for a wedding gift was to paint an old vintage basket, and while I still might do that, this basket is a little too big to lug to Cincinnati and is already painted, so I’m just saying that I bought it as inspiration. You can’t really tell how big it is, but it’s a good size and I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to put in it or where I’ll put it, but for some reason it had to come home with me the other day. I suppose it was just one of those days. So I didn’t buy anything new, and I didn’t find the dollhouses I was looking for but I still managed to come home with a basket full of goodies.

Please, please, please, any ideas for wedding gifts? I would love some help with this!

Galatians 6:8-10

8 If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.9 So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.10 So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.