color

Tiny House Part 15: More Shelving

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

In retrospect, I could probably have put this information in my last post, but we’ll see. Here’s the other end of the top shelf I showed you last week.

On the far right, you can see the left side of the Monet piece. I’ve mentioned it before, but it and the framed art you can see clearly in this picture are in inexpensive acrylic box frames from Hobby Lobby. They’re lightweight enough that I hang them with pushpins. The art print on the left is just something I cut out of a calendar. Calendars are great resources for art!

You can also, on the right, see part of my blue wire snack basket. This is where I toss candies, toaster pastries, popcorn packets, and other such things. Sometimes it’s mostly empty, and at other times it’s packed, like on Christmas day after I’d opened all of my gifts.

The next thing you see is the green vinyl basket that matches the two in my bathroom. This jewel hides all sorts of things that I don’t use often, including my knives, measuring spoons, plates…and I’m not entirely sure what else is in there. It’s wonderful, though, for keeping things out of reach that I wouldn’t want a child getting their hands on, and I do occasionally have children in the house.

The tin next to the basket is both decorative and practical. I bought it years ago, full of tea bags, and keep my tea in it still. Yes, I enjoy hot tea. I like cold sweet tea too, but don’t do that much at home. Give me a cup of hot tea with honey and sugar and I’m happy. I use both loose leaf and bagged teas. I’ve purchased from several companies, but if you enjoy a cup too, I particularly suggest you check out Adagio Teas. They have some amazing blends!

The cup sitting on top of the tin is the one I use most. It is from Amazon and, like so many of the things I’ve purchased, comes in an array of colors. It’s the Yundu 12 OZ Matte Blue Porcelain Teacup with Infuser and Lid, Mug with Lid for Steeping. It sells for around $12 and has been my favorite for a couple of years.

And then we come to one of my favorite purchases ever! Truly, TikTok made me buy it, and I have never experienced one moment of buyer’s remorse. In following several Europeans on TikTok, I began to see just why they were all about their electric kettles. This one is lightweight, easily pulled down for use and put back up for storage. It heats up super-fast, and sometimes I keep it on the counter for days simply because I use it so much – and it’s pretty. It boils water for my tea, of course, but also for my Solle CinnaMâte, which I like to drink hot, (Check out Tired of Exhaustion? for more info on that), hot cocoa, and such things as ramen noodles, which I enjoy on occasion even though I do know they’re not good for you.

Mine is fuchsia pink, of course, but the Ovente Portable Electric Glass Kettle 1.5 Liter with Blue LED Light and Stainless Steel Base, Fast Heating Countertop Tea Maker Hot Water Boiler with Auto Shut-Off & Boil Dry Protection (Yes, I sometimes share these long descriptions in part because they make me laugh.), as you can see, is available in a variety of decorate-your-home colors.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Inspire Bible

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

The Inspire Bible (NLT), by Tyndale Publishers, is my current read-through Bible. By that, I mean it’s the one I started reading in Genesis 1 and am working my way through. I’m not just reading, however, and that is why this Bible is perfect.

The New Living Translation has been my favorite for many years, and I’ve read through it several times in various Bibles. It is a cross between word-for-word translations and thought-for-thought translations. This approach is a result of the translators striving to provide an option that would strike modern readers in a way similar to the manner in which the original texts affected the readers of their time. I will delve more deeply into this translation, or perhaps translations in general, in another post in the future.

One reason they called this the Inspire Bible is because it is filled with line drawings that can inspire you on their own, but also serve as coloring pages. If you’ve never experienced the therapeutic benefits of coloring on an adult level, you’re missing out. In my case, as you can see by this picture, I often color part of a drawing while listening to a recording of the passage. (My method is read [taking notes], listen to Through the Word’s guide on the chapter [taking notes], and listen to a recording of the chapter.) I didn’t realize until after I’d taken this photo that I’d never finished coloring this particular illustration; I must have stopped when the recording ended.

My favorite thing about this Bible, however, is the journaling lines that you can see in this second photo. As I explained, I’m making notes constantly as I read and study. This is something I recommend everyone do. Simply reading the Bible isn’t enough. We’re meant to meditate on it – to really think about what we read. This is why I often limit myself to a single chapter a day. While deeper thoughts, for instance thoughts that might turn into blog posts, send me to my journal, I can fill my Bible with individual notes as I read and experience the Word. This means I can come back to any passage I’ve already studied and find the treasure I discovered still lying there in the open.

I have owned, and still own, a variety of Bibles. This is definitely one of my favorites.

The Inspire Bible is available in several formats. You can get it on Amazon by clicking here. Full Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I do earn money from qualifying purchases.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

If You See Me Coloring in Church

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment
Copyright: Happy Color

Don’t freak out.

It seems I’m always learning new things about myself. Or perhaps, more accurately, I’m gaining more understanding about what I’ve known for years. In school I couldn’t just listen to lectures; I had to take notes. I may never look at them again, but they made all the difference between getting nearly nothing from the lecture and getting…well, maybe not everything, but certainly a whole lot more. Taking the notes, handwritten notes, helped my sometimes overactive brain focus on what I was hearing rather than running off in a hundred different directions.

So let’s head to church. Like most, I used to sit in a pew with my Bible in hand. I had to take notes, of course, but I eventually realized that I also had a secondary problem. Way too often, my eye would be caught by a verse near the one the minister had us reading and my self-propelled brain would dash off into thoughts about that verse, sometimes never to return to the ministry going on in front of me.

I tried all sorts of things through the years, eventually settling on restricting myself to a Bible app on my phone, thus limiting the rabbit trail options, but that only helped with part of the problem. Hand writing the notes wasn’t helping as much anymore, so I switched to taking notes on my phone. Switching between apps slowed me down and helped, but I still had trouble concentrating and retaining.

And then I had some fascinating conversations with a friend who has dealt with similar issues. She explained that she needed to be doodling or sketching while listening if she wanted to retain, that it helped her stay focused. I don’t sketch, but I do have a color-by-number app on my phone, so I dared to disobey tradition and open it during a sermon.

Oh

My

Word

It made all the difference! Being color by number, it’s a virtually mindless activity. It’s not enough to distract me from the message, but is enough to keep my eyes and hands occupied so that THEY don’t distract me from the message. It gives my antsy brain that one little bit of extra work required to make it settle down and actually concentrate on what’s being said.

Since I started doing this, I am more connected with Pastor’s messages than ever, take better sermon notes now than I have in a very long time, and leave service without the frustration that used to stalk me when I knew I’d missed too much. It is an absolutely amazing solution that works for me, and I’m so glad my friend helped me head in the right direction.

So if you see me coloring in church, don’t freak out; it’s a good thing.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

It’s Just Color

Tammy M Cardwell1 Comment

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Sapphires and rubies: They’re two very popular stones, and have been through the ages. I may be mistaken, but as I recall the ruby has consistently been the more valuable of the two.

When people think of sapphires, they generally envision a rich blue, but in reality sapphires come in a wide range of colors. My personal favorite is the pink sapphire—the hotter the better. I’ve never bought one for myself, though, because jewelers generally label them as rubies so they can get higher prices for them. Deceptive, no?

Well, it depends on how you define deception…and which deception you’re talking about. You see, rubies and sapphires are both corundum. They’re the same stone. Red, yellow, blue, or white, the only differences are their color and their perceived value.

The same is true of people. We were all made from dirt and will return to dirt. Yes, there are different colors of dirt, but it’s all dirt. Other than our delightfully variegated cultures, the only differences between the so-called races are color and perceived value. Like a customer who walks into a jewelry store, many have bought into the idea that one color is more valuable than another.

But it’s just color.

Celebrating Jesus!

Tammy C