The Ruddy Autumn Wedding

 In the season of white wild roses
We two went hand in hand:
But now in the ruddy autumn
Together already we stand.
-Francis Turner Palgrave

Keep some room in your heart

for the unimaginable.

 -Mary Oliver

A woman seldom asks advice

before she has bought her wedding clothes.

-Joseph Addison

I've bought my wedding dress. Just like that. I woke up this morning, was piddling on my iPhone, and came across an article that linked up several sites to score beautiful, budget-friendly wedding gowns. And then, there she was: my dress.

There was one left.

It was my size. (Or... the size I should order based on the reviews.)

It was 30% off.

I've bought my wedding dress!

Post Pilgrimage: Slow, Gathered, and Grown

As I make my slow pilgrimage through the world, 

a certain sense of beautiful mystery

seems to gather and grow. 

- A.C. Benson

I went out to the garden, picked basil, and came in and made pesto last night. 

It was a hot, tiring week in Houston. I was sent there Sunday for a 4-day conference in a giant glass building with fast elevators. The pace was all wrong- too fast and frantic, then boring and blah. The hotel (didn't I used to enjoy them?) was impersonal and loud. The presentations were slick but slow. The traffic set me on edge. I felt out of place all week, and when I got in the rental car to make the drive home, I nearly cried out with relief.

I got home, went out to the garden, picked basil, and made pesto. Then I smeared it over chicken, potatoes, peppers... whatever, didn't matter... and set the table. Then I lit candles and opened a bottle of wine for friends and we filled our plates and everything was okay again.

Pilgrimages around the world are great, but I like them slow with gathered and grown dinners and flickering candles at the end. 

 Beautiful mystery optional. 

Chapter One of the Great Story

Now at last they were 

beginning Chapter One

of the Great Story

no one on earth

has ever read,

which goes on forever:

in which every chapter

is better than the one before.

-C.S. Lewis

 

 Source

If you follow my ever-growing Pinterest boards, you've probably guessed my secret: I am getting married.  

I am getting married!

Our story is, as you'd expect, thrilling. Moving. And deeply, deeply beautiful. At least, we think so. Do you know what it is to have found the one God has for you? It is transforming. It is freeing. It leaves you with the profound sense of being utterly loved- not just by the one who's holding your hand, but by the One who's been holding your heart... moving, waiting, loving...

I am getting married!

We are excited to tell our story and share our experience(s). For now, we are planning a fall wedding stuffed with all the lovely people, music, candles and flowers we can pull off. Since I will have six months to plan this wedding, it's going to require every bit of creativity and DIY projects I can manage. Yipes!

For those who've asked, the cabin project is on hold for a year or two- until we can tackle it together- and we've decided to relocate it to a former national wilderness property where we own five acres. He wants to get a goat or two. I want more chickens. We both want to start a family. But for now, we're dreaming of a wedding day, making a home for two, and starting our Great Story.

I am getting married! -Brin

 The ache for home lives in all of us,

 the safe place where we can go as we are 

and not be questioned.
-Maya Angelou

 

I love that: the idea of home as a safe place where I am not questioned. Today I'm longing for such a place! (There's a huge back story that I'll skip here. You're glad for that, trust me.)

So. News! The bathroom in my little place is framed and ready for electrical, plumbing, walls and floors. And fixtures. Lighting. Tile, perhaps. Then mirrors, rugs, and decorations. In other words, I've barely begun. But it's so much fun working on this little place!

I am more excited about the cabin than ever. Seeing walls going up is thrilling! Everyone who's come over has looked at me with crazy eyes and asked, slowly and with feeling, whether I intended to put the bathroom in the middle of the cabin? I mean, did I realize that it's facing folks as they walk in the front door? That it slices the cabin into two separate living areas? That no one makes design decisions like this?

Yes. Why, yes, I did. Come on in.

This weekend the electrical goes to the cabin and in the cabin. I'll be moving in right away. (Having lived in Freeman House for three months without power or water, this will be a cake walk!) It will be a relief to be near everything: my chickens, the garden, the before-now-unattended cabin, and the peace and tranquility that come with being near the woods in the center of exactly nowhere.

Grateful today for my walls, however placed, and all the unquestioning quiet they afford....

Cottage Cabin Project #1: Lose That Loft!

There are elements of intrinsic beauty 

in the simplification of a house...
-Gustav Stickley

Work on the cabin is underway! Project Number One? Remove one of two lofts- the one over what will be the living room area- to take advantage of those 12-foot ceilings.

And what a difference that made!

With that extra loft cleared away, plans are to build the walls for the bathroom this week. It's taken me awhile to settle on an arrangement for the cabin. Non-negotiable? A full bathroom, a full kitchen (with my I-will-never-part-with-this-awesome-thing! oven), and room for my books. 

Some girls are all about the closets. Me? I'm all about the bookshelves. *wink*

I'm still trying to decide exactly where I want my windows- and what style/size. And where in the world am I going to stash a water heater? I'm working with 360 square feet, so options are limited. So many decisions! I wish I could throw open the doors and walk you through and collect the many suggestions and ideas. Part of me is concerned that once I cut holes in the outer wall, decide on room placement, etc.,, some shockingly brilliant and perfect idea will come along and then what will I do?

Wonderful, happy worries!

Your New Year is off to a pleasant start, right? Hope so.  -Brin