wedding flowers....

'Tis the season for weddings! Woo-freaking-Hoo!






















They're all from Style Me Pretty...except for the last two which are from MY wedding. :-)

For Berna...

I periodically favorite stuff for friends and most frequently its for
Britt... so I figured I'd show her. :-) Happy Graduation BFF!
I wish I could buy you all of them.





















And finally, love from Baltimore:

Pages and Pages of Esty Favorites...

Here's just a few...


































PS In case you're wondering where I get all the money for all this... I'm the internet version of a window shopper, have yet to buy myself anything from Etsy. lol.

V for Vendetta and The Usual Suspects: Tightwads and Martyrs Part III

(You can read Part I and II here and here)

"I'd only told them the truth. Was that so selfish? Our integrity sells for so little, but it's all that we really have. It is the very last inch of us, but within that inch, we are free... I shall die here. Every last inch of me shall perish. Except one. An inch. It's small and it's fragile and it's the only thing in the world worth having. We must never lose it, or sell it, or give it away. We must never let them take it from us."-Valerie in V for Vendetta


"They realized that to be in power you didn't need guns, or money or even numbers. You just needed the will to do what the other guy wouldn't." -Verbal Kent in The Usual Suspects


What is true freedom?

What is true power?

Are the stoics right? Like this man, should we all strive to through off the shackles of our mortal bodies and cease to need?

Should we throw off all emotional entanglements and go our way leaving everyone behind, because to love is to hurt? Is that freedom?

Should we oppress and manipulate and play with the world around us to gain the upper hand, so no one dares stand in our way as Verbal did?

The story of Valerie in V for Vendetta is sad to me because she was ultimately martyred for her sexuality, and sexuality is only for this life, not the next. But the broader application of what she says is, I believe, true. When we cling to the truth. We are free. They can't touch us. "The truth will set you free."

But it means so much more when that truth is a promise. A sure promise. From a God who changeth not.

When we cling to Jesus, He can lift us up. The Martyrs can sing in the flames and preach from the rack and walk through the Lion's Den. They stand unbound and unburnt in the fiery furnace because Jesus, the Truth, the Word "who became flesh and dwelt among us," still dwells among us. He walks in the furnace. And there, We are Free.


(P.S. Both movies are rated R for good reason. This not a blanket recommendation of them or their content. lol)

Brooke Fraser's "Hymn"

"Hymn"

If to distant lands I scatter
If I sail to farthest seas
Would you find and firm and gather
'Til I only dwell in Thee?


If I flee from greenest pastures
Would you leave to look for me?
Forfeit glory to come after
'Til I only dwell in Thee


If my heart has one ambition
If my soul one goal to seek
This my solitary vision 'til I only dwell in Thee
That I only dwell in Thee


'Til I only dwell in Thee

A deep thought from... Dr. Horrible?

If you haven't yet watched Dr. Horrible's sing-a-long blog i recommend it. If you like ridiculously silly online musicals about mad scientists, that is. Which I do.

This is one of the prettiest songs.

Here are the lyrics:

Here’s a story of a girl
Who grew up lost and lonely
Thinkin’ love was fairy tales
And trouble was made only
For me

Even in the darkness
Every color can be found
And every day of rain brings
Water flowing to things growing in the ground

Grief replaced with pity
For a city barely copin’
Dreams are easy to achieve
If hope is all I’m hopin’
to be

Anytime you’re hurt there’s one who
has it worse around
And every drop of rain will keep you
growing seeds you’re sowing in the ground

So keep your head up, Billy buddy…

I love the line that I bolded. Its so sweetly true. If you make it your ambition to bring hope to the hopeless your dream can come true. Especially if you know the gospel which "sets the prisoners free"!

More pretty spaces from 1st Option

All images from 1st Option.

Hodge Podge of Homes from Scandinavia

Just some miscellaneous pics that I love and a line about why.
These people make room art.

Ah... white:


High ceilings, white colored wood and a cast iron wood stove. sigh:


Loving subway tile and mix matched furniture:


Books! And lots of vertical lines on top of a soft colorful rug:


Vines! and mossy flagstone:


Books! Even in the kitchen!:


images from here

Darling old English House

Doesn't this look just like where Marianne or Lizzy or Fanny would live?















images from 1st Option