my personal style

everytime i watch a show on HGTV or catch a glimpse of a design blog, it makes me want to be a designer. my friend anelieze has started a design blog, and i found this quiz on there. i've always had a hard time putting a name to my style, so i guess now i finally know. :) here's what it told me about my personal style...

46% Rustic Revival
31% Traditional Country
23% French Eclectic

Rustic Revival

You can take kid out of the country but you can't take the country out of the kid... or is your theme "you can take the kid out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the kid?".

Either way you play it, you are one of the unique individuals who loves a mix of modern and country. The clean lines of the modern softened by rustic/vintage elements is the perfect mix in your mind. And can we blame you? You've taken the best aspects of two popular designs and mixed them in a manner that appeals to young and old alike. A subtle background of white or light colors provides a nice canvas for all the wonderful flea market, eBay, or garage sale finds as well as the classic modern pieces that you love.
Traditional Country
Even if your backyard isn't acres of farmland and you don't actually have a cow out in the barn, your house sure brings you back to a time when that was the case for many.
You love spaces that feel casual and lived in. Furniture is practical and comfortable, and yet at the same time its very stylish. The best part of country style is how much it highlights collection and found objects. Antiques here, garage sale finds there and Aunt Milly's hand-me-downs throughout. Unique items that used to serve very practical purposes are now on display, and their history seems to permeate the home. Each space in the home seems to invite friends and family to come in and stay a while. There is a true sense of home felt throughout.
French Eclectic

Parlez-vous français? Even if the answer is no, you can confidently say your home does! French Eclectic somehow manages to be both formal and casual, classy and unassuming at the same time. You like your spaces to feel inviting from the moment you (or your guest) opens the front door and this feeling should continue even after you've entered your most formal room.
Even though there are French antiques here and gold details there, the rustic country elements provide a balance and warmth that seems to say, "come in, relax and stay a while." Your love of antiques leads you to flea markets, garage sales and hours of eBay hunting.
apparently i need to shop more on eBay and garage sales... what's your style?

photo tag

Here are the official rules:

1. Go to my documents/pictures.
2. Go to your 6th folder.
3. Go to your 6th picture.
4. Blog about it.
5. Tag 5 people to do the same.



this is from halloween, a looooong time ago, before kate existed. i think i actually stole it from callie and saved it to my computer. i'm the pumpkin, if you can't tell.

i tag callie, kate, and 3 other people who want to do it. :)

meditation

i haven't posted in awhile, but i HAVE been thinking a lot lately. a lot. it seems like life is all about decisions. every day decisions that may not affect anybody but ourselves, but also huge life changing decisions that can affect our families and friends, and even people we don't know and future generations. to me, that's a lot of responsibility. how do you go about making decisions like that?

i have also been feeling the need to study lately, almost like a hungering for more knowledge. i want to learn, i want to go back to school, i want to read about anything and everything i get my hands on.

what it comes down to is that i am trying to figure out what the next step in life should be, and i want to make it a good one. something that challenges me, but not to the breaking point. something that will let me feel like i'm contributing and doing my part, not just existing from day to day.

i've been reading a book the my mom gave me awhile back, called "a twenty-something's guide to spirituality- questions you hesitate to ask, answers you rarely hear." there are two sections in particular that hit home to me. one about lds women and education, and one about diverging roads. these haven't necessarily answered all my questions, but they have at least given me comfort to know that i'm not the only one who struggles with these things. anyway, here is a question that is asked in this book that i can really, really relate to. i'm going to quote it, but it sounds exactly like something that i have asked before.

"Sometimes I find myself growing dizzy from my own indecisiveness. Each road has different people to meet and different experiences to be had; these things shape who I ultimately will become. I find myself becoming unduly anxious to make the right choice between two great options; of course, what I really want to do is the Lord's will. Sometimes it seems the importance of the question has little correlation with the clarity of His answer.

The decisions between two goods are hard, and I have constantly inquired of the Lord for guidance. With some decisions, however, there have been no 'bolts of lightening.' With these decisions I have tried to be guided by the peace that I felt. Sometimes I have simply had to start down one of the possible paths, hoping for the best. This has not always proven successful, resulting in self-doubt and fear with respect to later decision-making efforts.

Why does the Lord give stronger answers to some questions than others? Are there circumstances when the Lord really doesn't care what I choose to do? How much does He leave up to me? What is the Lord's role in my agency?"
there is a response to this question by Virginia H. Pearce, which i am currently reading and meditating upon. which leads to the reason for the video... this is meditation from thais by jules massenet, my absolute favorite violin piece of all time. i have done a ton of meditating to it, and it still continues to inspire me. i have a goal of learning to play it before i die...