CHB Lesson #1

{CHB- Christian HomeBuilding Class}

"A graceful walk gives impression of mental and physical harmony.

Your body talks all the time--the tattle tale.
Also your body is a canvas.What kind of picture are you painting?"


"Your smile should radiate your inner-self.
The expression of your face speaks louder than you sometimes."

building a home

Every time I see my Nana (my Dad's Mom) she has a package, folder, or brown sack for me with something special inside, sometimes a handwritten letter or an old photo she came across,
but last week Nana handed me something that I have not been able to put down.

Well, she really gave me two things...

The first was a little wooden dove. It went on a Noah's Ark set she had passed down to me earlier, and she recently found the lonely dove hiding in another box.

The second item- the one I have not put down-
was a collection of college class notes from 1954-55...

My grandmother studied at Ozark Bible College during the mid 1950's
and was required to take a class her freshman year called "Christian Homebuilding".
In a faded green folder, she had saved all of her typed notes from the class
and let me just say- they are VERY detailed!!!
I have limited my reading to a couple pages a day, savoring every word.

Page after page, quote after quote... it is all so precious and insightful.
I don't know what grade Nana received in the class, but I can attest to her wonderful
Christian Homebuilding. An A+ does not even come close to the godly woman, wife and mother that she is. Nana told me that she remembers a lot from the class and has reminded herself throughout the years of the many lessons she learned her freshman year of college. The main professor was Mrs. Chester Williamson, however, there were many guest speakers. Every professor's wife had a chance to speak on something they were passionate about or in their area of talent.

As I read flip through each page, I would like to share bits and pieces of it with you. This folder is full of wisdom from godly women, funny out-of-date words and lessons we can learn that are still relevant today.

I hope you enjoy what I find :)

black and white

{better homes}

{etsy}

{andrea galvani}

{flickr}

Our Home part One

The first room I am going to show you
is actually one of the places I put the two
plants I told you about from Ikea:

I don't know why you need to see the
bathroom first but here ya go:

This is what it looked like when we first moved in:

I added this little tree for Christmas
that I got for $5 from the famous Snooty Fox :)
(oh, you can barely see it, but on the shelf
is my favorite nativity when I was little)

Here is how it looks today with my new plant that I love:

a sneak peek at the next room and the 2nd plant:

DIY project #1

My Papaw gave me this old suitcase that was
from his years at Eastern Kentucky University
(you can kinda see the sticker in the middle)

It has been holding Patrick's books for awhile now

but thanks to the DIY idea that I posted [here]
I have turned my vintage suitcase into a craft organizer:

with leftover drawer liner from my kitchen,
I lined the inside of the suitcase.
Then I super glued envelopes, a notepad,
and a pencil holder to the lid

Now I have a cute place to store extra fabric and stationary.

While organizing my craft supplies,
I took a wire tree "thingy", that originally
was the home of pink and red candles
during Valentine's season, and switched out
the candles with tiny sewing items:

Now, my next mission
is to find an old shutter :)

Unfashionable

Patrick just bought a book called:
Unfashionable
by: Tullian Tchividjian
(try to pronounce that name!)

He has not read the book yet,
so I can't say whether it's good or not,
but I want to share with you the first page
as the author describes what he
means by the term unfashionable:

"You May Be Too Fashionable If...

• You can look around at church and notice that everybody is basically the same age as you are, and they look and dress pretty much like you do.
• You think it's very uncool to sing a worship song that was "in" five years ago- much less sing a hymn from another century.
• It's been a long time since you disagreed with anything said by Oprah.
• You've attended a "leadership" conference where you learned more about organization and props (structural renovation) than proclamation and prayer (spiritual reformation).
• Your goal in spending time with non-Christians is to demonstrate that you're really no different than they are, and to prove this you curse like a sailor, drink like a fish, and smoke like a chimney.
• You've concluded that everything new is better than anything old or that everything old is better than anything new.
• You think that the way Jesus lived is more important than what he said- that his deeds are more important than his doctrine.
• You believe that the best way to change our culture is to elect a certain kind of politician.
• The church you've chosen is defined more by its reaction to "boring traditional" churches than by its response to a needy world.
• The one verse you most wish wasn't in the Bible is John 14:6, where Jesus says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." That's way too close minded!"

Are you unfashionable?

DIY

Do It Yourself
is a wonderful website
that I visit frequently.
Let me share with you a few
simple ideas/projects:

old bottle carrier into a kitchen towel holder

vintage suitcase into craft storage/organizer

light fixture into a flower vase

plain dresser into a work of art

dark outdoor party into candlelit beauty

window shutters into a mail holder

I am going to try some the these
and I'll let you know how it goes :)