.....Magnifique......

 ~The Library~

 ~Small collections of books, photographs, and treasured objects~

 ~The entry foyer~

 ~A treasure discovered on a day of antique shopping~

 ~My husband made the beautiful French mirror for Ava Grace~

 ~The silk curtains add warmth to the beautiful windows~

~We found the sea blue fabric made into pillows to pull the look perfectly together~

~French Essence is a new book by Vicki Archer~

"It is a celebration of life in Provence......"

Inspiration for my precious daughter, Kristen, as she moves to a new home, a new city,

and travels the path that God has after much prayer led her and her family to follow......."

In English the word wonderful or in French "magnifique" is the only way to properly describe the past twelve years for one of our daughters' life.  Over those years, she has changed from a young bride to a young mother of three and a loving wife with a passion for her family and home. She has enriched the lives of her friends and they have enriched hers...... so I know it is bittersweet for her to be moving to a new home, new city, and begin a new chapter in her family's life.  She has grown up in those years!  Grown up to be a beautiful Christ-like young woman.  The photos above are of her home and it is with a farewell that I decided to post them today.  She created a warmth and acceptance in her home that always offered a warm welcome to others.  She reached her hand and heart to help her friends and family when needed and prayed and loved each one through the events of their lives.  She loves to entertain and open her gifts of life to others.  So.........today they will pack the last box into the moving truck and tomorrow will be their final day to stroll through the house and yard and begin again.  New beginnings are good!  They are gifts that unfold gradually and with purpose for the next chapter!  Enjoy the photos, most of the window treatments  I made for her for  another home and she just found the right windows to hang them~that will happen again as they discover just the  right home.  She is an example of being open to new experiences and new friends.  The new friends will be blessed as will she and her family........God is already preparing their hearts to connect!

Please let me leave you with a quote from  the book A Gift from the Sea by one of my favorite author's, Anne Morrow Lindbergh,  who inspired the name for my designs........"It is a difficult lesson to learn today~to leave one's friends and family and deliberately practice the art of solitude for an hour or a day or a week.  For me, the break is the most difficult.  Parting is inevitably painful, even for a short time.  It is like an amputation, I feel.  A limb is being torn off, without which I shall be unable to function.  And yet, once it is done, I find there is a quality to being alone that is incredibly precious.  Life rushes back into the void, richer, more vivid, fuller than before.  It is as if in parting one did actually lose an arm.  And then, like the star~fish, one grows it anew, one is whole again, complete and round.....more whole, even, than before, when the other people had pieces of one."

I have found a beautiful new book for her which has just been published and which I have shown above.......French Essence.......by Vicki Archer.  Her style, her home, her labors of love for her family  and her outlook on creating a warm and beautiful environment for ones family reminds me of all four of my daughters and others who read my blog!  Embrace today, embrace each day as a gift to share with those you love and care about!  Your family is truly all that is lasting on this earth!  Live, love, and laugh!!!!  Enjoy your weekend!!!