All I want is a room somewhere...and some other stuff.

The other day I posted about New Year resolutions. New Year's eve we watched My Fair Lady and during Eliza's song "All I Want" I thought a bit about what I want for life. I've posted before what my life's goal is, but in addition to that I do have a dream for what my life will be like.

I've always wanted to get married and have a family. A big family. At my grandmother's funeral I looked around and saw her 10 children, their children and the grandchildren and even great grandchildren and I couldn't help but think that I want to leave a legacy like that. It was so beautiful. I've always wanted to have a home where people felt welcome and comfortable. I want to live far away enough from people to have privacy and freedom for my kids to run and yell and play without bothering anyone, but close enough to people to easily keep them a part of my life. I want to be a wife and be the best friend to some man. I want to help him as he becomes everything God wants him to be. I want to grow in my faith with him. I want to grow old with him.

I want to be a homemaker. I want a place to call my own that I can decorate, clean and live in. I want to cook and bake healthy, nourishing foods for family and friends. I want a community. I want to work with my hands. Ideally I'd love to be a potter and make pottery but also make books, prints and take photographs. A jack-of-all-trades artist or something. And I want to be fluent in Mandarin as well.

I don't want things to come too easily. I don't want to be wealthy. I never want to be a high-society girl. I don't want big fancy stores and restaurants to be second nature to me. I want big cities and fancy places to always be a novelty. I want to be thrilled by simple things. Like nature, friendships, and experiencing life. I want to work hard and play hard. And be festive. I want to be the kind of person who makes a special dinner for friends and family...just because the day was so lovely. Or so hard. I want to be the kind of person who dresses up for no occasion other than the fact that I'm alive and that's a reason to celebrate.

I want my life to be about serving God and seeing others come to know how much He loves them. I want to see others love and serve Him. I want to see God change lives and communities. I want to see the promises He made in the Bible can come to pass. I want to experience friendship with my creator and always rest in the security of His love and power.

I want to end each day counting all my blessings and being grateful for how much I've been blessed and I want to wake up each morning with an enthusiasm and zeal for life.

Already I've found myself overwhelmed with how GOOD life is. It's hard. Finances are tight. Relationships can be strenuous. There are plenty of things to worry and stress and complain about. But sometimes I can't believe how fortunate I am. I love this life I've been given. I haven't attained that entire dream yet. I'm unmarried; I don't have kids. I'm a student. I'm in debt. But I wouldn't trade the experiences God has given me and what He has taught and is teaching me for anything right now. I'm completely content to be right where God has me and I look forward to what He brings me next. I don't want to wait until I have everything I think I want to be happy, joyful and thankful. I guess what I really want is an attitude of trust and joy in my Savior.

Anyway, in my wildest dreams that is a glimpse of what I want. It probably sounds silly and girlish, but I guess I am both of those things.

Little sweater refashion...

Excuse the bad photos...but I did an easy little project this past week on this sweater I got from Gabes this semester. It was missing a button. So...

I replaced all the buttons with colorful ones I scrounged up and sewed lace around the top.

I like it better this way. :) It was so hard for me to get any good photos of this project. I think my camera is on its way out. This is just to give the general idea I guess.

Seagrove Pottery

Yesterday Dad and I drove out to Seagrove to check out the town and some of the potteries. Our first stop was at the North Carolina Pottery Center where we found information on some of the potters and viewed some exhibits they had up. My favorite part was this little set by Leah Leitson. I'd never heard of her before, but I really like her work.

We chose a sort of bad time to go look around because a lot of potteries were closed for the holiday. The best time to go would have been last week, but we still got to visit a couple of places. One of them being Why Not pottery. I got lucky and was given a tour of their studio space and a peek at their kilns! I liked her little wall tiles as well as the textures she had in her work.
Another place we visited was Jeff Brown and Michelle Hastings shop/studio. I didn't get a studio tour here, but I got a little info on applying textures to work and got to chat about kilns and woodfiring, etc.
And I saw the most fun and ingenius idea ever for making cone packs:
Way more fun than the kind that I ever make. I think my teachers will get a kick out of these guys.

It was a very nice day.

PS: Happy birthday to my brother-in-law, Matt!

*things I find miraculous...

Charlestown, WV

*the fact that we have minds that think and reason.

*cameras.

*sunsets.

*the way music makes us feel things we can't describe with words.

*the way dancing has the ability to make me so happy.

*language...that we recognize symbols as words that represent sounds that we all agree mean certain things. I mean, it's one of the only things that people agree upon.

*that things have smells.

*the way nature and our bodies work. It's so complicated, but it works so perfectly.

*that in spite of the fact that He knows EVERYTHING about me, Jesus wanted to save me so much that He died for me and loves me no matter what.

When you stop and think about it, the world around us is one big miracle. But we're so very used to it that we miss it all the time. None of us could have dreamed this world up. It's too fantastic. The colors, textures, sounds, sights, smells, cycles, beginnings, endings and so much more that we see and experience every day are so awesome. And the fact that we are allowed to experience it every day should make us feel so privileged.

One of my goals is to view each day as a gift and to be on the lookout for all the little miracles life holds.

Christmas this year...

A few photos of our holiday...
Christmas eve with old family friends...only food was photographed since my camera does not take good pictures in dim lighting.
Skyping with my sister, brother-in-law and niece on Christmas morning...
The peppermint bark my sister, Holly, made.
The dogs watching the food preparations from a distance...
An afternoon drive around town with my dad including pit-stops to look at the park, an old house I like and the places he lived and worked as a kid and teenager.
Not pictured: the copious amounts of sugar consumed, wii played and computer surfing as well as sleeping. A very relaxing holiday.

Merry Christmas. :)

Old house

The photo doesn't do the house justice. So adorable. It reminds me of the house on UP. I wonder what kind of people lived there. What their lives were like. Does the house have a happy story?

Christmas in the City

Tonight Dad and I took a drive into Raleigh to look at the lights. The city is decorated for Christmas and it looks pretty dandy.


I love Christmas lights.
When we came home I did a little painting for fun while my family watched a movie that I didn't want to see (I scare easily during movies...it's a flaw) and later my sister came up and showed me some paintings she has been working on this fall. They're beautiful! I'll have to show them off on here soon. I think we may have to do some crafting days. I brought some clay and watercolors with me to play with so there will be plenty to do.