Season of Grace

March.

Month three.

 Cold, snowy evenings

slowly

gradually

give way to sun filled mornings and dripping icicles.

A new season.

A season for her to count whispered blessings.

And it was in this attitude of gratitude that she could feel the grace of it:
Yesterday … was our Lord’s grace.
Tomorrow… is our Lord willing.
Today… is our Lord’s gift —
which is why everyone, everywhere, calls right now the present.
 ~ Ann Voskamp

♥ Watching the first robin hopping through melting snow under brilliant blue skies.

♥ Hearing the pond bubbling happily and free of ice.

♥ Feeling weak-kneed, joyous gratitude for a clear MRI.

♥ Loving her messy, sunny studio.

♥ Grateful for a very large dream catcher order

for a sweet shop in North Carolina.

♥ Fingering soft fabric and yarns between her fingers.

Thinking back over the past six months.

♥ Playing with colorfully happy beads

while embracing a happy heart.

Her creation of a new Boho-prairie girl dream catcher.

Buying fresh roses for vases around the house.

Feeling so blessed.

Accepting humbled grace to see her gardens featured in a magazine.

You breathe different in a room when you know it’s not about the good you can accomplish but about the grace you can accept.
You breathe different through a season when you begin it by breathing in grace — 

when you begin it in a place just to be real. 

Only then can we begin to be changed this season into the realest versions of Grace Himself.

~Ann Voskamp

She smiles.

Breathes deeply.

Inhales peace.

Exhales joy.

Feeling blessed.

Content.

Changed.

Real.

Loved.

♥

"...God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.”
Psalm 72

~  Eucharisteo  ~

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Stolen Moments

It's been a very busy couple of weeks here at Heaven's Walk.

~ I had very successful sale at my booth over Labor Day weekend.

~ My husband and I finished up tomato season with the last session of canning our "world famous" salsa
(over 300 jars total).

~ One corner of my basement was reorganized by demolishing an old, dilapidated cupboard 

and replacing it with some new shelving units.

~ And I filled dream catcher and wooden oversize faux rosary orders for some of my new customers.

I had the opportunity to create a new style dream catcher for Peggy who wanted a pink one with roses.

They added such a sweet, feminine touch.

My sweet "prairie sister", Julie, requested a dream catcher with a vintage,

tea-stained look.

I dyed some fabric, and as I wrapped and tied it on,
mixing it with natural wood beads and shells,

visions of endless, windswept sand dunes in the first whispers of autumn came to mind.

"Windswept" was born.

After all the selling, demolishing, canning, and creating...

I needed to kick back and chill for a while.

So, I spent a couple hours playing in my studio,

and
just appreciating the space where I create.

I haven't decided which room this charming little vintage lamp will end up in.
Maybe the guest room.

It found it's way home with me from the antique market last month.
After a little rewiring, it works like a charm.

I also played around with making a miniature faux rosary

with wood and glass beads after a request from a good friend.

I found a few stolen moments to sink into the pages of my new Rachel Ashwell's
Couture Prairie & Flea Market Treasures.
The entire book is amazing.
Big, bold, beautiful photographs fill each page.
It's so inspiring that I want to recreate each and every room in this old farmhouse.

It will certainly be a huge source of reference for me while continuing with the
shabby prairie boho chic look Heaven's Walk has embraced.

I feel the sudden need to wallpaper a room....

I'll just add it to my never ending "to-do" list.


~  Blessings  ~

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Studio Barn Door

My husband is beginning to think that we're living in barn ~

especially after building these barn doors for me in the guest room
back in February,

and these prairie pink shutters in the kitchen and master bathroom
in May.

Not that living in a barn would be such a bad thing.

I actually wouldn't mind it at all.

I love the sweet fragrance of hay, 

the dusty, sweaty scent of horses,

the molasses-like smell of grain...

and I don't even mind mucking stalls.

So, when the Husband saw an old barn door (a recent antique market find)
leaning up against the house this weekend

with me holding a scrub brush in one hand and Murphy's Oil Soap in the other ~

the eyebrows went up

and I got... 

"The Look".

You know which one I mean, don't you?

That bemoaning facial expression that silently translates to,

"Oh no....NOW what?"

[Well, to tell you the truth, 

even though I still get "The Look" from time to time,

since there was a magazine shoot here at Heaven's Walk a couple months ago

(more on that soon, I promise),

"The Look" is no longer accompanied by a ginormous groan,

which is a very good thing.

Ginormous groans can get very irritating after a while.]

I think he's finally trusting my instincts about styling this old farmhouse

and taking each of my crazy ideas in stride.

No groans.

No suggestions.

No squabbling.

How nice!

So, after I helped him wash both of our SUVs,

(favours go along way, don't you know)

I asked him to help me lug this sweet beauty inside.

He managed about 1/2 of "The Look",

quickly squelched it, 

then tentatively said,

"Where do you want it?"

We leaned her up against one of the French doors leading into my studio,

pushed my workbench back in place....

and it was instant
love.

Even The Husband's eyebrows went up ~

in a very good way.

The pale, faded sea foam green brightened the room and added shabby prairie texture.

One single happy thought kept galloping through my mind ~

"There's a barn door in my studio!" 
♥

Full of chips, cracks, and holes,

she is a perfect fit.

Of course,

I spent the rest of the afternoon stroking it,
hanging things on it,
doing the "dash and turn",
asking Maizie if she liked it,

and taking way too many photos.

It will be the perfect place to display and photograph my dream catchers, 

wind catchers, and large rosaries...

...or even hang my hat.

Maizie, however,

was totally unimpressed with it all.

But Momma is one happy prairie chick!

~  Blessings  ~

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Vintage Paintings

While scrounging around in the my basement recently,

I came across a few paintings stacked in a corner
that I had somehow forgotten about over the years.

As I sorted through them,
I found myself smiling at the sweet memories they evoked in my heart.

This painting that was given to me a long time ago by someone who was going to toss it.
I grabbed it and stuffed it in my car.

I loved this tranquil scene with its soft edges and quiet feel.

I temporarily propped it in front of the large mirror on top of the bookcases in my studio

next to the vintage hatbox that my friend, Randi, gave me (top hatbox).

[I wallpapered the hatbox in a pretty blue floral print.]

Another painting that I rescued from the abyss in my basement was one that was created by my great grandmother, Grace Whitman.

It's approximately 60 years old.
(I think she may have had a bit of bohemian hippy in her sweet old soul.)

I always loved Grandma's name.

After some ancestory research many years ago,

it was discovered that I am related to Walt Whitman.

How cool is that?

Maybe that's where my love of writing, photography, and nature is rooted.

Three generations of my father's side of the family dabbled in painting on canvas.

My great-grandmother, Grace,

my grandmother, Lorena,

and my father, Gordon.

My Dad even helped my Mom paint a still-life once.
Dad painted his first and Mom loved it so much,
she wanted to try to make one.

I can vividly remember him sitting by her side at the kitchen table
evening after evening,
guiding her hand and patiently teaching her some basics of oil painting.

Of all the paintings I have, I treasure these two the most.
The one he painted is the smaller one on the right.
Mom's is the larger one on the left.

I feel blessed to own paintings from each of them.

This beautiful rose painting was originally purchased at the big Brimfield Flea Market,
found a temporary home with Stephanie Bradley,
and landed a forever home at Heaven's Walk.

Thank you, my sweet friend!

The blush pink rose painting on the right was purchased for a song at the Allegan Antique Market last summer. I couldn't pass up the soft pastel colors.

It's almost like a garden is blooming on the frantle in my kitchen.
The tangled prairie hearts I made lay scattered like silver petals...

"Little Girl Sitting" was painted by my father over 45 years ago

when he was a rookie student in his first painting class.

It's one of the largest of the paintings he created.

When I was just a child, I remember him saying that it reminded him of me.
It used to hang in the entry foyer of my childhood home.

"Be The Light" was another one of his creations.

I always loved this painting because of the beautiful shades of blues.

It was the main reason why I ended up getting married on the beach in front of a lighthouse in northern Michigan 29 years ago.

I also fell in love with coastal Maine when I attended a friend's wedding out there one summer,
where the Husband and I stayed in a bed & breakfast inn on the coast
and fell asleep each night to the sound of frothy blue waves crashing on the rocky shore.

History...

 memories...

and evidence of God-given talent

surrounds me in my studio.

It feels like great-Grandma Grace,

Grandma Lorena,

my mom and my dad

are right here with me.

Love poured onto canvas.

I can almost see them all smiling

as I work with my hands.
And  although I never quite captured an interest in painting on canvas,
I pour my own love into creating my dream catchers and rosaries.

"The most wonderful moment of the day is that when creation in its innocence asks permission to "be" once again, 
as it did on the first morning that ever was."
~Thomas Merton, 'A Book of Hours'

~ "Be" the Blessing ~

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Thank you all for your continued support, encouragement, and love!

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