Risky Business

So I had this conversation with a friend recently who is thinking about moving to a different state.
She said she feels like it would be a great community for her, she knows people there and she really feels like it would be a good move....but....
But what?
Why not just pick up and move?

It is complicated.....always, but fear is totally part ot it.


And I totally get it. I'm right there.
A good friend asked me a couple of weeks ago what I wanted to do if I could do anything.
I had no answer. I mean-there are things I like to do.....but I don't dream of becoming a senator or owning a bakery (you get up too early), or of being a missionary.
I am afraid to even try new things....to see explore what I like to do or not because of fear of failure.
Failure is a big deal to people who want to make sure everyone likes them.....to people who find their identity in making others happy.....

God revealed something new to me a couple days ago. You know that verse where is says that God works all things to good of those who love him? And then the one that says what Satan meant for evil God meant for good?
Those two hit me in a huge way last week. In my fear of failure in trying something new (plug in for your fear) I wasn't trusting God. I don't think that I need to hear an audible voice from God to say-Hey Jenny....I think it would be nice if you tried to paint. Pick up a brush.
Or, even a specific call to move somewhere new. If I trust that God can work even my 'messes', my 'failures' out for good......then, is it even a failure?
I should feel empowered to take risks. Because in taking a risk I'm opening up space for God to move! If I'm just standing still I have no momentum for God to push me in any direction right?

So I don't know if trying my hand at painting is going to reveal a new passion for me......but maybe it will. And even if it doesn't I'll know whether or not I like to paint right?
Because I don't have to be perfect to be loved, I don't have to save the world for God to use me as long as I'm moving.

My friend can move and experience that and even if it doesn't work out and she comes back to Boise-even if it 'fails', at least she was moving, at least she was OPEN to a new experience and I can promise that she will grow from challenging herself to be in a new place.
And WHO knows how God can use a risk like that?? Maybe she'll meet someone or have a life-altering conversation over there she wouldn't have had here.

God is like that. He wants us to live risky lives for HIM.
Trusting HIM. And by listening to HIM.

So go try something new.
Take that risk.
Have that conversation.

Our lives aren't measured in how safe we were..... we won't recount how fiscally responsible we were when we're on our death bed. We'll remember our lives greatest experiences....how we've loved and been loved.
Our lives are measured in our experiences and as long as we are moving and honestly seeking to glorify the Lord...He'll use them!
Good or seemingly bad.

I'm gonna go find that paintbrush....


Jenny G*

A peek!

House Tour Continued!

So first things first.
Well, second since I have already shown you the home decor of much of the house....lol-you can tell what I'm most excited about huh?
Anyway-this is the front of our house....you cannot see is the little landing and a paved path that goes almost out to the street but not quite.
I don't really get that part...why pave up until there is two feet and leave grass?
We have big plans for the front of this place. See that planter area? We're going to rip it out and put up a lovely front porch complete w/a porch swing.
When Mr. Gill and I were dating I lived in a great house w/a screened in porch w/a big wicker swing and a lot of our memories of falling in love happened on that swing....*sigh*.
Yea-we're planning on putting up another gable and making it a nice big porch....maybe even wrap it around to the side entrance....which is the one we use most often anyway.

Here is the living room-see the front door and fireplace!

This is probably one of my favorite paint colors EVER!!!
Oh its just so great. It's the mud room/laundry room....the laundry room was um....being used...by all my dirty laundry so I didn't take a picture.
Next time.

Anyway this is where the door off of the driveway leads-and this room also connects to the kitchen or the hallway.....

This is our old-timey backyard patio-
I couldn't help but put an old filter on it and let me tell you why.
The awning (I had to look up how to spell that) is Soooo old store-front style. I kinda want to print out Life in the Fish Bowl in vinyl letters and stick 'em up there.
Also-notice the steps to the back door...they look like steps for the shallow end of the pool! It patio is totally great though, its nice and big and we'll be able to have lots of dinner parties out there w/out being cramped like we were at our last place. And that tree has the perfect bend of branch for a rope swing! :)

This is the view from the patio-our big backyard. What you can't see is the trash heap of yard clippings the previous renters left for us. We're working on getting rid of it slowly.
I'm planning on having a garden this year-our yard gets lots of nice sun, and I hope to be able to grow something to eat. We'll see how it goes-I've enlisted the help of people who know what they are doing and I've spent some time reading up on it. I'm not quite ready to start composting yet....
Expect updates on that throughout the summer.

The house tour has not yet concluded, but will take some time as we're still finding boxes we shoved into the spare bedroom a couple of months ago :/

*Jenny G

What Jenny Wore

So I have been blog stalking for a little bit and some of the blogs I like to read do a little segment they call 'What I Wore'.
Boise is a little more hipster than Indy-or maybe I have more hipster-inclined friends here than I did in Indiana-either way....I feel like my style has change uh-just a little bit.

I am NOT a fashionista, I do not dress up often....um-and I usually don't wear make-up.

Sorry.

But, I do have some outfits I really like and since they make me feel pretty I'm going to share some with you.

I really really like this outfit. The cardigan is from Target (bought on a whim), the t-shirt from Wal-mart (don't hate) and belt and skirt thrifted from Goodwill, the sweater tights are from Target as well and the boots are from the Free Store which I mentioned here.
I love this! I feel like its nice and fun but casual all at the same time. It doesn't feel like much more work than wearing jeans but I feel cooler for sure :)
The only problem is that the sweater tights and wool skirt make for MAJOR static and every time I walk the skirt keeps on creepin'.
I may need to invest in some static-guard.
Also-please notice how un-organized my bedroom is....like all the shoes on our floor and the rubbermaid containers that are Mr. Gill's dresser! :/

What are some of your favorite outfits?

Other Things

Hello Friends!
I don't have many tidbits for you today except to point out that I also occasionally blog over at our Church website www.northendcollective.org!
The whole website is full of fun information but I am pretty much only involved with the blog.
This week we're talking about Lent!

**Hey Ya Ash Wed**

:)

Jenny G

Finally!

So I finally found my little camera!
This means two things.
#1 I'm not going to get a brand new camera with our tax return. I like my little one enough for now AND Mr. Gill is going to maybe get some new recording software so he can start producing higher quality tunes.
#2 You get to see pictures of our house!!! :)
I'll be doing them as a series-mostly because I don't want one post of a bajillion pictures AND this is my sneaky trick to keep you checking back....muwhahaha (my evil laugh).

This is our front door/entry into the living room. It's more for looks than actual use by us....because there is a door right off of the driveway BUT people who come to visit us use this door often so, I put up some little coat hooks.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE how this looks! I of COURSE love the teal w/the yellow-and surprisingly-this is the most teal-ish thing we have in the house, besides the couch pillows and my bedspread.
The other thing I love about this frame/hook idea is that I didn't steal it off of Pinterest-like I did almost everything else in our house :)

Our mantle! It's taken @ a funny angle (sorry) but you can see everything on it-the Ampersand, a picture of Mr. Gill and I in Chicago, the camera my grandfather gave me, our photo book, the little carving my friend Kestelle gave us for our wedding-our salt covenant from our wedding, and a nice big tin star, along w/a photo of Chicago and a little plant in a Chicago mug.....a theme maybe?
I really value the years I got the opportunity to live in the Windy City-for real! I moved there very naive (maybe I still am a little bit), but I learned how to navigate that city on my own and took that time to figure out, at least in part, who I am and what I want to be about. I got to spend loads of time with my grandparents and be there with them through some difficult times. I made some beautiful friendships there and I still feel like a real city girl when I ride the El! But anyway-that's our mantle! :)

So this is the wall directly opposite the front door.
I am realizing that I didn't actually take any pictures of the layout of the room-just the decorating tidbits that I'm super excited about.
Expect a layout photo in the next post :)

Anyway-this is a engagement photo, a pic of us taking communion @ our wedding, the lyrics to our first dance (partially) and our wedding feet!
For all but the feet photo I did a little bit of editing on PS and then had them printed @ Wal-mart. I know, I'm so a cheater but my photographer/best friend lives in Indiana AND I didn't decide which photos I wanted until like 5 days before our housewarming party.
So anyway I had them printed there and I picked up some canvases @ HobbyLobby on the cheap. Using a technique I've pinned on my favorite website Pinterest I ModPodged the photos onto the canvas, using acrylics to paint in the edges to give it a finished look and then ModPodged over it all after it was dry to give the brush-stroke look of a canvas photo print. Way cheaper and I feel good about doing it myself! I did the same thing for the lyrics except I just typed them up, printed it out on my home printer and did it. It was a little hard keeping air bubbles out of regular paper-I think next time I'd use the aersol spray adhesive and then ModPodge.

So this is the wall to the left of the wedding photo wall, and is directly across from the fireplace....does that make any sense? Don't worry-I'll take a picture to
show how this all goes together and isn't just random walls.
Anyway-these are super cheap floating shelves I've had from my Chicago days from Ikea (I miss Ikea). I spray painted them black and then we just have some fun stuff up there. Mostly photos of family or things I've taken, a little russian doll, our guest book, vases and gifts and in the branches I have prayer cards and cards of saints.
I really like the layered look-I totally stole the idea from Pottery Barn....although it was Mr. Gill's idea to off-set the shelves, and I really like that a lot. Especially when his guitar is up against the wall in the corner filling in that empty space.

This is the incredibly awesome COUCH I found on Craigslist!! I stalked it for a couple of days....and it took me a while to convince Mr. Gill that we'd actually love it....but-we got it!!!
Isn't it so beautifully old lady?
Oh man. It really was the wood framing around the edges that stole my heart.
Anyway....I also thrifted some suitcases from a side table and I already had a book that was falling apart of I just tied some twine around it to be all vintagey and that photo is of the head of Mr. Gill's guitar....taken though back when it belonged to my baby sister.

A photo is just of the transition between the living room (yellow) and the dining room (gray).
Nothing too wonderful here except that I LOVE this color combo.
And yes-I did pin lots of pictures of yellow and gray rooms before we painted so I would know what I wanted.

I just love Pinterest!

Stay tuned for a tour of the rest of our new little nest!

*Jenny G

Money Money

psssssssst.


I'm still here.


I'm still looking for my camera.

But in the mean time I've been trying to convince Mr. Gill that we should use some of our tax return to purchase a DSLR!!!

Like, perhaps one like this-

photo credit

Its a Canon Rebel. Could you imagine how many ridiculously awesome photos I'd put up on this blog after I had actually figured out how to USE this camera???

Oh man!!!! Yay!

or we could save our money....

Or um....pay on our student loans.

What do YOU think we should spend it on???

You already know my vote :)


*Jenny G

B is for Baby

This past Saturday Mr. Gill and I went to a baby shower.
It was for a couple that attends The Collective with us, who recently moved here from Michigan.
They are just the sweetest couple and we were super excited to share in the anticipation of the arrival of their baby.
I was asked to make cupcakes for the party, and I was really pumped to do so because I had to make a bunch AND I haven't really been baking much since I stopped baking for The District.
They have decided to not know the gender of their child before they deliver, so I went with a yellow and green color pallet.
I was googling for recipe ideas and came across this blog where I didn't really find a recipe BUT I found a great idea for the look of the cupcakes!

Instagram by Mr. Biggerstaff

Although this looks like I was going for Packers colors....I was not. I just purchased the food coloring paste and apparently it is MUCH more powerful than those traditional drops.
They were lemon cupcakes with a lovely light frosting, although the green coloring didn't really get completely whipped together so it kinda looks like AstroTurf BUT it tasted great!

I made flags that said J is for Jackson and B is for Baby.
It was such a nice party and a great excuse to bake! :)

*Jenny G