Posts Tagged ‘wishes and dreams’

This is what I want my living room to look like.

{image source unknown – If you know where this is from, please let me know so I can give proper credit.}

Bucket list. Goal sheet. Life list. Everybody has one, whether it’s written down or just tucked away in the corners of their minds. Mine, however, seems to be a little longer than most. A friend of mine once told me she loved me because I had “no shortage of dreams.” She was certainly right – my “List of Dreams” never seems to get shorter, even after I cross things off, because I’m constantly adding to it.

My dreamer tendencies make me abstract and scatter-brained though, and I can’t keep track of just one list. I think I have a few dozen scattered around, in journals, in old computer files, and on loose leaf paper. What’s below is not a complete list, but it is a good sampling.

A Dreamer’s List {in no particular order}

• learn to speak Telugu
• read through the entire Bible
• open an orphanage in India (or two or three…)
• open a family-oriented theatre/performing arts school
• run a bed & breakfast
• become proficient at piano
• learn to play the cello
• become fluent in ASL
• perform at a local theatre
• play Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker
• play the part of Jean in Brigadoon
• be in a movie
• publish a poetry book
• get married
• take care of my family the best I can
• learn to write music
• smile all the time
• become proficient at sewing
• learn to quilt
• publish a children’s book
• read 100+ classics
• learn to knit
• learn to crochet
• exhibit more of the fruits of the Spirit more of the time
• read the 1828 Dictionary
• learn French
• travel the continental US by car
• visit Europe
• choreograph/write and produce a theatrical presentation
• visit the Galapagos Islands
• visit Lithuania
• visit Slovenia
• write a book about Grandpap

I’ve omitted some of the list, just to keep it from being too terribly long. And some of what I left has already been accomplished. But that’s a post for another day.

• These cake stands by Clara French Ceramique look good enough to eat. I’ve been drooling over them all morning.
• Have you always dreamed about creating your own chocolate bar? Well, now’s your chance. Ghiradelli Intense Dark is holding a contest to find a new flavor.
• Papier Valise is an online boutique for vintage and vintage-esque notions, paper goods, and other goodies to delight any crafter.
• Because the kitchen in our new house leaves much, okay, pretty much all, to be desired, I get to start almost from scratch in deciding how it will look. This kitchen from All You magazine is the look I’m aiming for.

Image of the week:

{image source unknown}

I’m getting married in July. I don’t have a dress yet. Well, actually, I do. But I’m not going to be wearing it. See, I bought a dress back in September, being proactive and thinking that I had something checked off my lengthy wedding-planning to-do list. But I was wrong. The dress just isn’t right. And so I’ve been on the hunt for that one dress that is. So far nothing has come close, at least within my budget.

So last week my mom and I went to the fabric store and spent an hour scouring through the pattern books, looking for something that could be adapted slightly (and lengthened a lot) to make a suitable wedding dress. One I would love, look gorgeous in, and be able to afford within being in debt for the first decade of marriage. We found several patterns that I liked, all fairly similar in style, and then finally narrowed it down to just one. Several yards of a white brocade “test” fabric, lining material, and one zipper later, and we have the beginning of a “practice dress.”

We don’t know how this will turn out, but we’re holding out hope that this will be how my dress moment comes to pass. Mom’s an excellent seamstress and I don’t doubt her abilities to sew me a beautiful gown, but I doubt my own abilities to express to her exactly what it is that I want. And that’s because I don’t know. I lack a vision of my perfect dress. But I think I’ll know when I try it on. And hopefully, prayerfully, that will be what Mom is able to create.

And because I do have at least an inkling of what I like, even though I lack a mental image of the final product, here are two of my favorite wedding dress inspiration photos.

{Both above dresses are from The Vintage Wedding Dress Company}

. . . to splurge on something absolutely unnecessary . . .

. . . this is what I’d buy . . .

{from Some Like it Vintage}