Repurposing: A Love Story

Repurposing (or restoring) is near and dear to my heart. 
My love for it, and the back story, is something that I'd really like to share with my readers. 
Recently, John and I picked up a chair at goodwill for $4.50 while visiting my parents. It was love at first sight for me and I immediately began begging and pleading with him to have it. John saw an old, beaten up chair that would be extremely hard to get into the back of my car and haul back to our city with our luggage and bird.
But I saw something entirely different.
We had a bit of a disagreement about whether or not the chair was coming home with us. It wasn't strong or loud, I just wanted the chair and John couldn't understand what in the world we'd do with it. He relented in the end because it was so inexpensive and he admitted that he can never understand what I'll do with a project until it's finished, so he'd just have to trust me. He can never see the project through my eyes.
That led to an entire discussion between us about why I repurpose. I've stated before that when we create, we're like God since he's a creator. But I also feel a little closer to him when I repurpose as well. For me, it's about seeing something through the eyes of potential (la vie en rose) instead of the eyes of immediate. In the immediate, a lot of the things I've repurposed looked like junk.
They were dirty.
They were cheap.
They were cast aside.
They were considered valueless. 
I think that happens with people often, too. We look at a person and make judgments about them based on what we can see with our immediate eyes. But God looks deeper than that. He sees their potential and he loves them. They aren't dirty, cheap or valueless. They're beautiful. 
They're so important that he doesn't mind taking the time to clean them up, invest in them and maximize their potential. 
So, when I see a piece of discarded "junk", I try to see it through a different set of eyes. I like spending the time to make it beautiful again. 
Sometimes I like to imagine that God is doing the same thing with me. I'm still a work in progress... being slowly, carefully and lovingly crafted into something beautiful. It's a nice reminder for when I feel used up, dirty, incapable or frustrated. 
Have a brilliant day, and take some time to think about what God is fashioning you into. Remember as you encounter people to see them through different eyes.
As always, thanks for reading.

Traditions Part 4: A Christmas Party!

Today is potentially a super full day, so I'm reluctant to make anything just yet. Tomorrow will be a big day for crafting, though! Instead of creating something new today, I thought it would be fun to share another tradition. This one isn't from my childhood, it's one that John and I started when we began dating.

The very first Christmas party

John was a straight up bachelor. There was NO cooking or anything else of the domestic variety (except for incessant cleaning...never saw a cleaner toilet in my life). From time to time he would venture an attempt at Kraft Mac & Cheese or boxed spaghetti + a can of sauce, but generally he ate massive quantities of fast food. When our first Christmas together came along, we decided to ditch the bachelor-mode for a day and make a massive party at his little apartment (which was so dear and will always be missed!). We had so much fun at our personal Christmas party that we've had one every year since!

COOKIES!

Our Christmas party, which actually requires an entire day off from work in order to be acceptable and accommodate all of the festivities, includes a massive array of fun! This is the day that the tree goes up and the season officially begins for us. John loves the tree... the first thing he does when he gets up or comes home is to turn the lights on for the tree. It goes up for us asap, usually the weekend before Thanksgiving, and then stays up through January. Is that a long time? Yes. We just can't bring ourselves to take it down! Plus it just takes soooo much work, it needs to be there for a while. I'm not showing my tree in this blog yet because I'm going  to do an entire blog about it soon.

yum.

We always bake scads of cookies as well. As the list of allergies has increased, our cookie variation has decreased. In the glory days, we had several kinds of sugar cookies, lofthouse inspired creations, chocolate chip and so on. We also had different kinds of frosting (buttercream and icing), but now it's mostly sugar-based. For this year, we were able to find a pretty good GF sugar cookie mix. I'll blog it this Friday. The cookie decorating is fun because we don't take these cookies seriously. Generally, they're all gone within two days, so it doesn't matter how goofy or wild they look. And, believe me, the more frosting and sprinkles... the better. 

There are tons of other elements; Christmas movies: The Grinch, Frosty, Rudolph, Elf... all the goodies. Popcorn tubs! We go through several of those each season, from drug store versions to the gourmet, we love them all! We always make a delicious lunch and dinner, remember, this started off as a break from bachelor life for John! Christmas music kicks it off each year and plays the entire party, as long as we aren't watching a Christmas movie. We put up our little, tiny mistletoe as well as the rest of our decorations, too. Oh, and it always includes a little nonsense like reindeer ears (so hot, right?) and what not.

The Christmas party is a huge deal to us. We talk about it all year long! It's our favorite day together and our favorite tradition. Traditions are so important in life, they bring people together and give them something to look forward to. Maybe you already have a specific "Christmas party" with your little family or roommates or whoever, or maybe you'd like to start one! I promise, setting aside an entire day and turning it into an entire celebration makes the entire season, and the process of getting a home bedecked in tinsel, so much more fun. 

John decorating :)

So there you have it! Our favorite tradition. I used pictures from a few different years, and 3 different locations! I hope you have a fantastic day and as always, thanks for reading.