Here we go again!

A few weeks back, a very sweet lady I know was offering me decorating tips on my house. I'll admit, my decorating style is a little "schizophrenic" (I have antler chandeliers in my living room as well a modern, abstract painting and some delicate vases), but I'm OK with it. I try to decorate with things that make me happy, however odd and out of place they may seem. She went from room to room offering bits of advice and re-arranging as she saw fit, offending me only a little with her suggestions. :)


After making her way through our living room into the kitchen, she stopped short when she saw a porcelain coffee set I have sitting on my kitchen window sill above the sink. It's pictured above--white, with blue flowery designs. I found it at a yard sale and it's been my favorite piece of kitchen decor since. Her eyes widened and she asked me where I got it, who made it, etc. etc. Of course I had no answers; I only knew it was cute and cost me hardly a thing. Apparently she thought it looked like a design from some famous artist, whose sets like these go for thousands of dollars. She walked over to it, picked up the sugar bowl and looked at the bottom, only to find a "made in china" sticker. It was just a copy-cat.

After we caught our breath and laughed for a bit about my almost fortune, she showed me how to position the set in front of the window so that the silhouette stood out. Then she showed me how I could always keep fresh flowers in the little milk pitcher, just to make me happy. Then, she told me a story about her grandmother's sugar bowl. She said, "Whenever my grandmother had a request, a thought, a prayer, ANYTHING she wanted God to know, she wrote it down and stuck it in the sugar bowl. Then she'd walk away, and know that it was in good hands. It became 'God's sugar bowl'."

This was not a new concept to me--I had gone through a little Anne Lamott phase in college and in one of her books she talked about having a "God box" for the same purpose. I had taken an old shoe box and tried it for a couple of months, and sure enough, it had been kind of refreshing. Some of my requests were eventually answered, others were not. Sometimes I just needed to vent a little, other times I wrote thank-you notes. There was something nice about having a physical place to put my thoughts, and to walk away from them.

Now, I am no expert blogger. I have tried this before and failed. I may fail again. But I do think there is something nice about having a place to share my thoughts, ideas, etc. I don't, however, want this to become a diary. And I am not quite talented enough for this to be a blog solely devoted to my creative endeavors, like many of my good friends. :) And, I don't take enough pictures for this to be a kind of online photo album for my family and friends. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this blog is going to look just as schizophrenic as my decorating style. It's not going to be "God's sugar bowl", but rather "Jenny's sugar bowl", and I may leave some people confused often. But I have had to realize over the years that I tend to give up on things when I try to copy someone else, or fit into one category or another. So, similarly to how I decorate my house (or how I parent, or do ANYTHING for that matter), I'll just write about what is me, no matter how odd or out of place it may seem. If you choose to read, you're brave! And Thank you!

(Here is a picture of my living room)