Hi peeps! This is Emma again. I am writing to let you all know that Mom is still moving into her beautiful new home and hasn’t gotten the internet set up yet! So, no posts for a few days but of course as soon as they get all settled in she will be back!

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day!

I’ve posted this quote for several years in May for my sweet friends who’ve lost their precious mothers. It says best, most of what’s buried deep in my heart…

“The terrible things that happen to us in this life never make any sense when we’re in the middle of them, floundering, no end in sight. There is no rope to hang on to, it seems.  Mothers can soothe children during those times, through their reassurance. No one worries about you like your mother, and when she is gone, the world seems unsafe, things that happen unwieldy.

You cannot turn to her anymore, and it changes your life forever. There is no one on earth who knew you from the day your were born; who knew why you cried, or when you’d had enough food; who knew exactly what to say when you were hurting; and who encouraged you to grow a good heart. When that layer goes, whatever is left of your childhood goes with her. Memories are very different and cannot soothe you the same way her touch did.”

~Adriana Trigiani~Big Stone Gap

***

Missing my mom today and praying for all my sweet friends whose mothers watch them from the other side of eternity.

love love love to you

Words have power.

Most everyone over twenty-five has learned this lesson. Me…

I’ve learned it over and over. What you say matters.

A couple of months ago I had a … Hummmmm, I’ll call it a disappointment. I let my guard down and allowed myself to dream a dream I thought was long dead and buried.

It was nothing huge, at least it wasn’t huge from an outside perspective. But from in here where I live, from this heart of mine, the impact of the resurrection of that dream and once again it’s death,  opened a hidden wound.

And for a little while, I hurt.

I have this friend Shannon. I met Shan through Sara (Gitzen Girl). Sara and Shan were best friends…still are I suppose, only Sara’s living on the other side of eternity and Shan is still on her earthly journey.

Anyhoo, Shan is this tender hearted soul who loves well.

She sent me a text in the middle of my melt-down, asking how I was…so I told her.

“I’m hurting. I allowed myself to dream a dream I thought long dead…and it isn’t working out…so here I am again burying this dream…and it’s hurting my feelings.”

I left out the details of the dream, because honestly, I was embarrassed and felt silly allowing myself to dream it again…

What she wrote back brought me to my knees. Literally.

“How brave you are to dream again Sweet One…”

Weeping, on my knees I felt Gods arms around me. He wasn’t looking at me like I was silly or foolish, His words to me were Shannon’s words…

How brave you are to dream again…

Those words have replayed in my heart a hundred times in the past weeks. Every single time I’m overwhelmed with two things…

How great is His love towards us

and

The power of our words

Shannon’s heart is tender and full of God’s love and out of her heart came His words for me.

And those words…they comforted.

They healed.

I pray that like Shan, my heart would be so full of Jesus that my words would be His words bringing comfort and healing.

***

Enjoy your day my friends…as for me, I’ll be continuing our move  from the Little White House to Stone House Lane~Smooches & Hugs

Oh my gracious goodness Friends, I’m a packing fool.

Sunday night when we got home from vacation, The Husband said he’d help me pack for a couple of hours since we were on San Francisco time and since “there’s a lot of packing for one person”.

...a lot of packing for ONE person?! Who’s that ONE person???

Before that moment I hadn’t given a thought to the fact that the packing was MY job! It’s kind of a no-brainer considering The Husband works 60 hours a week, but I hadn’t seen it until then.

Can I just say…TWENTY-THREE years of stuff and I’m in charge of packing it????????

AHHHHHHHHHH!

Actually, for two years we’ve been purging, so we live pretty lean. I’m not having to go through and throw out or donate…we’ve done that. Nevertheless, we still have a lot of stuff and I wasn’t kidding about being a packing fool.

Fool I tell ya.

Here’s what I mean…

 I packed all the food in the pantry and was forced to eat jelly toast for lunch. Finally in the late afternoon I broke down and went to Publix for peanut butter and bananas.

I mindlessly packed all the towels, something I didn’t realize until I got into my bath.

(note to self…a hand towel does not have enough acreage to dry off)

Toothpaste…packed. But I do have my toothbrush.

The Husband came home last night after stopping off at Stone House Lane to do a little work, he had a nasty cut on his finger…

“Ummmm, I need a band aid, any ideas?” He asked, looking at a room stacked full of boxes.

“You have Got to be kidding me?” I said overreacting. “You haven’t needed a band aid in five years and tonight, when they are packed somewhere in one of these boxes you need one….”

His eyebrows shot upward and he said something like forget I asked. (That may not have been his exact response…moving is hard on serenity people!)

Anyhoo, it’s very much like camping around here this week! I’ve packed all of our essentials and honestly I’m wondering if subconsciously  I did it on purpose. Like a mother bird pushing her baby out of the nest, me and The Husband, we’re so uncomfortable here that we’ll have no time to be sad about leaving the little white house. We are an orderly people and at this moment, we have NO order!!!!

Chaos proceeds simplicity.

Breathe.

Get up – finish packing.

Ok, I’m off to throw some other necessity into a box my friends.  A tiny prayer would be oh-so appreciated~

~Sending you love from ground zero~

Hello everyone! This is Emma Gay (Robin’s favorite daughter). I have hijacked my moms blog since she is out of  town and has no say in the matter.  I have been meaning to do this all week, but the to-do list kept getting longer, so it was postponed until today, the day Mom and The Husband are coming home. I did that for you all…I do not call my dad “The Husband” (that would be weird).

What I  want to write about is my mom. I know you all know her very well from her blog posts, but perhaps I can shed some light into just how awesome she is and the impact she has had on my life. After all, Mothers Day is coming up and I am really in the mood to brag on my momma

Ever since I got pregnant with Lucy I started thinking about what kind of a mother I wanted to be. I want to be my daughters best friend, her home base when nothing is going right, her spiritual and moral guide, her protector and provider,  but also someone who doesn’t make her feel judged. I want to be someone that she can come to with her deepest fears and secrets and know that they are safe with me and I will always love her no matter what she does or who she becomes.  That is quite a wish list for a mother, and quite a huge load to bare. It seems these days that those qualities would be unattainable, but I feel thatIi have no option but to become all of those things because I want Lucy to know what having a truly amazing mom is like. I know that she needs this because it is exactly what I have, and there is simply no other option for my baby girl. Friends, when I tell you that my mother is all of these things wrapped up into one beautiful, wonderful woman, I cannot stress enough how true it is. My mom is just plain and simply the best.

I have gone through some rocky times in my life, as we all have, and even during my absolute darkest hour (and I  know the hour and minute still), when I was too broken and shocked to even drive a car, I had a friend bring me home in the middle of the night, woke my poor mother up and cried in her lap for hours. If you know anything about my mom, she does not get up in the middle of the night for anything…except her baby girl. Yep that’s me, one of her baby girls. She got up to pick up some pretty shattered and broken pieces, all the while knowing that I was indeed to blame for all of  it but she never once said that. I said it… about 100 times, but she gently tried to remove any guilt or blame from my broken heart even though she knew it was true. Instead of trying to fix things right away, she cried with me. She ran her fingers through my hair and cried with me because my pain is her pain. There is no one on this planet that really and truly physically feels your pain like your mother. Even my best friends who are wonderful at empathizing with me can not make me feel like they really hurt with me like my mom does. But, why is that so important? Why would you want someone to hurt with you? For me it is because it makes me feel like I am not alone. Like someone on this God forsaken planet hears me, understands me, and feels what I feel every day…and after that she still loves me. That person is my mother, for her that person was her mother and for Lucy that person absolutely must be me.

Sometimes, even when I know that she is completely and adamantly opposed to a choice i make, she still lets me make my choices and it doesn’t affect our relationship like with some moms. One thing I have learned in my old age is that the older you get the more you understand and agree with every bit of advice that your parents gave you. This is absolutely true for me. When I glimpse back on the highlights (and lowlights) of my life, and remember the long talks we shared,  sometimes I wish I could go back in time to find my young, immature self and strangle my neck while screaming “Listen to your mother! She is right whether you like it or not!”

Lessons. We have to learn them ourselves. Wouldn’t it be ah-mazing if we could indeed learn from others mistakes and life experiences? Then perhaps all of the heartache you went through in your life could mean a little bit more because someone that you love can learn from it and perhaps avoid a similar fate? But that is not the nature of the beast. Most of the time and we can be starring straight at a person who knows what the heck we are going through, has been there, done that, and we still don’t listen to their sound advice. That is the story of my life until now. I never listened….well i listened, but i didn’t change my path. My poor, sweet mother has tried and tried to get through to me and go figure…it never sunk in until now, after I have learned my lessons, made my bed and am now sleeping as comfortably as I can in it. This is what we do. We grow up all of the sudden and say “ohhhh, she was right…“.  Somehow I came out alive and now I have my own stories and experiences to share with my daughter one day. Stories and experiences that she will undoubtedly hear but not listen to. She will make her own mistakes and go her own way and I will do just as my mom did with me. I will love her through whatever she goes through. I will love her so much, and pray for her so often that she will come out of whatever it is and realize that maybe her momma and her Gigi were right all along. Life does seem to come around full circle doesn’t it?  It’s funny like that.

As i am talking about my mothers love for me, it would be impossible not to mention how much her love is like Jesus’ love for all of us. How beautiful is that? If you have a relationship with Him, you know that His love is patient, kind and strong. It doesn’t leave you feeling judged and you can always come back to it even after you have been making mistakes and ignoring it. So many people who feel the Love of Christ just want to give him a big hug because surely no one can love you like that. No one understands your pain like Him. No one can hug you like He could, right? Well for me, the absolute closest I can get to hugging my Father is hugging my earthly mother and father.  That is what they are there for. You see, it is my personal opinion that God knows how much we need big Heavenly Hug sometimes, and that’s why He gave us parents or whoever it is in your life that makes you feel like you are not alone. The closest we can get to hugging Him is hugging our person. Be it your mom, dad, aunt, uncle, best friend or even your dog, go right now and give them a hug. You deserve it.

So today, even though this post was a bit more serious, I want to end on a happy note. I want to know who your person is. Whether they are here or no longer with you, tell me who made sure you never felt alone and just for fun tell me your most potent memory of that person and their awesome love for you.

P.S. You may be hearing from me a bit more in the coming months because i will be redesigning my moms blog! Im starting a new design business called Yellow Door Creative. I have a shop on Etsy under that name as well and my website will be up soon with lots and lots of gooodies on it. If you are thinking about branding, rebranding or getting a facelift for your blog, i would love to help Anyone who mentions my awesome momma will get 10% off of my services or an Etsy order

Love you you all!

Emma <3

Photo by Anna Gay Photography – My wedding day, November 19, 2011

Are you guys getting tired of me talking about renovations???

Here’s the thing, this move is all consuming and my tiny brain is full of renovations to the point that I dream about painting and counter tops and light fixtures.

But today I’m switching gears…We planned a vacation months and months ago before we were even considering a move!  Get this….we’ll be leaving tomorrow! Right smack in the middle of the chaos we’re running away! I suspect God knew we’d need a break to completely change focus.

  The Husband and I are going  to San Francisco with our daughter Stephanie , SIL Jon and two of our granddaughters, Elliot and Finley. I’m completely unprepared, still covered in paint and haven’t packed a thing…but I can’t wait!

My daughter Emma and her hubby Ben and little Lucy Jean will be house and puppy sitting and Mr. Max – contractor – extraordinaire will be taking care of everything over at Stone House Lane!

By the way…Emma tells me she’s gonna hijack All Things Heart and Home and put up a post or two! No telling what she’ll post!

(As for me,  I’ll be updating facebook or twitter while we’re away and I’ll be back here next Monday!)

Before I go, here’s an update on Stone House Lane…Last week there was a whole lot of progress… I worked on painting, The Husband installed lighting and the dishwasher and Mr. Max and his crew did everything else!

The snafu of the week came when after the den was painted, I looked up and realized that the den ceiling looked yellow. Mr. Max to the rescue…

Much better…

The floors in the master bedroom are done…

And the kitchen is coming along…here it is 7 days ago…

And here is is yesterday before we left! The Husband insisted that we have the under the cabinet lights installed, I kept wanting to pull them off the list to help the budget…but he was right, they make a big difference.  I painted the cabinet bases, the doors are off being sprayed and should be finished by next week!

And here’s the best “deal” so far… see the old light fixture in the breakfast room…

This cutie is the replacement! I went to Progressive Lighting and they were having a huge clearance sale. This light started at $160.00 …I got her for $28.00!!!

While we’re away this week, Mr. Max, Buck and the gang will be building a little screen porch where the top of the deck is…although I love watching the process of the renovation, I kinda like the idea of coming back to a finished screen porch ~

~Have a great week my friends…

Getting into a remodel is revealing. The more you do, the closer you look and the closer you look…the more obvious are the flaws.

The past few days I’ve been painting walls and trim at Stone House Lane.  Soothing gray-blue rolled over and over her walls. Covering bumps in sheet rock and filled in holes.

Carefully spreading white on doors I see marks where maybe furniture scrapped when being moved or dark smudges where hard working hands opened it over and over.

I’ve not spent a night on Stone House Lane but I can tell you much about this house already.

We’re getting acquainted and I feel her coming to life.

But this process won’t happen over night. There are too many walls that need paint, to many places that have to be fixed.

The Husband and I  have years of projects ahead, and God willing, we’ll happily pour ourselves into them because this is a good work. This work, to us, is rewarding and brings joy.

~~~

Yesterday, rolling milky primer over faded cabinets I wondered if God sees me this way…all battered and in need of tender restoration.

He’s the lover of my soul and He knows well all the shadowy corners where anger waits. He knows what hurts I’ve wrestled into rooms closed off. He sees the dirt I ignore and the holes in my heart that, try as I might, I can’t fix myself.

And He is patiently, tenderly doing a work in me. A lifelong work.

“He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion…”

Philippians 1:6

I’m whispering a prayer of thanks today my friends, for God’s patient work in me and for His promise to finish what He started.

~Sending you love~

This is the second time in 5 months that my outside-life is in demo mode.

The first time was in January when we had a couple of walls knocked out to make our den bigger. The project took a little over a month(or was it 6 weeks?) from start to finish but the house was in absolute upheaval during those weeks.

One small project at a time and I thrive but I’ve discovered that when my whole world in in demo,  I have a hard time keeping my eye on the prize…the finished project. If I”m not careful I tend to focus only on the demolition.

I’m trying to remember that this time.

 This past weekend we spent long days working on the Stone House Lane project. The Husband tore out much of the kitchen and I painted like a mad woman.

Mr. Max has floors ripped out…

…and he’s working on that beautiful arch.

Demolition.

Messy.

Chaos.

Necessary.

Sitting here before dawn this morning I remember all those times when there was demo going on inside me. When my heart was broken or when I was consumed with anger or fear. When life looked like a complete mess and chaos ruled.

God used all those times, perhaps He even ordained them. While I was  only feeling the upheaval, only focusing on the demolition,  He was tearing down strongholds,  re-framing my attitudes, changing my reflection to look more like Him.

So often when a part of my life crumbles I don’t see past the turmoil. My choices are simple…I have to either keep focus on the Father, trusting that He is in control of the chaos or I focus on the demo which leaves me thrashing wildly until the dust settles.

I’m a life long thrasher my friends.

I’m thinking maybe if I can practice resting when my outside life is in chaos, like right now…that perhaps I’ll remember this lesson the next time Father is doing big work on the inside.

Maybe…

So this is what I’m thinking as I look at the mess on Stone House Lane and look at all the packing I need to do on Willow Creek…there is a plan and it reaches beyond the chaos of the moment~

~Sending prayers for peace your way my friends~

Color.

Everyone has a favorite, what’s yours?

Nothing can bring calm and serenity into a space like color.  There was a time I embraced warm saturated colors. The brick reds and deep golds made me feel cozy and secure. Lately though I’ve lightened everything, choosing instead to bathe my surroundings in softer, lighter hues.

Now that we’re moving, I’ve been working on a color palette for Stone House Lane. I wanted to narrow down the choices without painting 20 squares of color in every room – In researching the best way to decide on a color palette I ran across a blog written by a color specialist. She made the suggestion to paint pieces of poster board instead of your walls…but I can’t find that blog again! If you know who she is tell me so I can give her proper kudos! I love this idea!

After deciding to go with a soft toned-down color palette in the new house, I went through a hundred colors…Finally I narrowed my choices down to ten! Yikes! Since I like the colors in my house to flow smoothly from one room into another, all the colors I chose were similar. But still, I had to choose and the process of painting small pieces of poster board,  made it ever-so easy to narrow down my colors.

After getting my 10  Behr Ultra paint samples, foam brushes and poster board…

I painted each sheet of (small) poster board leaving a taped off strip at the bottom. After the first coat of paint dried, I put on a second coat and removed the tape leaving a place to label my color!

Here are the colors … (I added a couple from the Willow Creek house)

It’s kinda fun to play around with different combinations! I tried out combos and when I found one I liked I wrote it down in my design book…

After we closed on the new house,  I took the color boards to Stone House Lane and put them in the room I was considering…I was able to rule out lots of the colors immediately. Lighting totally changes color, that’s why it’s important to live with the color you have in mind for a few days. You’ll be amazed at how the color changes from morning to evening light.

In the end I chose Behr Dolphin Fin to be repeated throughout the living area…it’s soothing, calming and reminds me of the just before dawn moments when the sky goes from inky dark …to soft gray. I’m going to change the name of this paint color from Dolphin Fin to First Light.

The bottom of the walls in the dinning room and (I’m almost sure) the kitchen cabinet color will be Irish Mist…I will not change this color name because I like it!

In the great room, foyer and up the stairway I chose the soft- whipped taupe color (also Behr) … sadly for this Celiac, the name of the Behr color is Wheat Bread! Hence forth I will be calling this color Whipped Taupe.

And to add a bit of accent color…the guest bath will be Rhino…(not crazy about that name either!)

I spent all weekend painting the dinning room, the guest bath and the master bedroom- I’m so happy with the result. Mr. Max is sending his helper Tony to  paint the great room, foyer, up the staircase and the kitchen tomorrow, I’m so thankful I won’t have to paint all of that because some of those walls are really high!

Remember my one-word for 2012…Simplicity? And remember when I wrote earlier this year that Chaos proceeds Simplicity…?

I’m saying that to myself over and over all day long my friends…whew.

What colors do you have in your house and how did you pick them out?

Sending you love today my friends…xo

Before I get to the kitchen sink, I gotta tell you about all the progress at Stone House Lane!

Mr. Max – our amazing contractor, (The King’s Carpentry) started working on the projects at Stone House Lane yesterday. Before the flurry of activity began  Mr. Max, his son and partner in the business- Buck, and their friend and helper Tony and I stood in a circle in the driveway and bowed our heads in prayer. Mr. Max asked Father God to bless our day…to bless this project. ~Amen~

(Have I told you how much I love Mr. Max?)

Then the fun started! The guys ripped up carpet in the main level master bedroom, took up tile in the foyer and the guest bath,  getting the floors ready for hardwoods. The lumber for the screen porch addition was delivered! (They’ll start the porch today) The plumber was there and he replaced a pump in the basement and did something to other bathrooms in the house.

But my favorite thing that happened yesterday is this third arch that Buck made in the wall between the den and the kitchen! It was a quite a process and so much fun to watch!

Here’s the wall before the third arch-

The Husband and I wanted the floor plan to be open and you know we love to take out walls…(the other room Mr. Max opened up for us HERE!)

Here’s the wall while Buck was working on it…

And after he worked his magic!

Opening up a space  is one of my favorite projects!

****

Now…can we talk for a moment about sinks? I know a sink is just a sink, not important in the whole of life, but if you have to choose one, you still have to think about it! A kitchen sink is something that most people use every single day of their lives, so a little forethought is helpful…

I’ve always had this romantic notion about apron front sinks…aka: farmhouse sinks.

Black Farm Sink

They add charm to the heart of the home, like nothing else I can think of…

Copper Farm Sink

And I’ve set out to bring charm to Stone House Lane…

Cast Iron Apron Front Sink

We didn’t splurge a whole lot in the kitchen update…we decided on mid-range appliances and we’re painting the existing cabinets, so the sink was our splurge…

Farm sink with marble counter top

faucet with farm sink

We got our favorite sink (the one above)…a Rohl Fireclay apron front. Fireclay is a type of ceramic that is scratch and stain resistant. The Rohl sink is going to the give Stone House Lane kitchen a little charm that she deserves…

The faucet may also be a splurge (at least for our budget!), our friend Teresa at Kitchen & Bath Overstock helped us pick out is this one:

(except in brushed nickle finish)

This weekend The Husband will be reconstructing the cabinets, making a sturdy and secure home for the new sink!

~Hoping that you get to do something you love to do this weekend!~

xo