Our dream house: just pinch me!

It's not exactly indicative of living over the rainbow when you are so busy that you can't even find time to blog. Between running a ministry, trying to be an attentive wife, homeschooling three kids, volunteering as scorekeeper and game blogger for my son's high school baseball team, running all three kids to multiple practices, leading a 4-H club, working as a free-lance writer for the local newspaper I used to edit--well, you get the idea. Blogging can only be done late at night, and by that time, this little gal is often zombiefied.

Since this blog focuses on living the dream, I guess you could say I am dreaming of a time of refreshing right about now! My house is a mess; who has time to clean it when there are not even enough minutes in the day to eat a decent meal sometimes?

Perhaps that's why tonight I am longing to live in a place like the one I visit occasionally--the Ruby Rose Tea Room in Stoneville, NC. I went a few weeks ago on a beautiful Saturday morning with some precious women in my family. I have made plans to go again this coming Saturday with church friends and family. I thought you might want to have a look at this gorgeously decorated place!

I spent a precious time of fellowship with my mother (middle), her sister Audrey (left) and her sister Darlene (right). Talk about living the dream--would you believe these ladies are all ages 69-74?! Aren't they lovely?

See the pinkish tea in the lovely glass? That's a raspberry tea that'll make ya wanna slap yer granny! Most of us ended up ordering the daily special of soup and sandwich, accompanied by a delicious dessert (Aunt Audrey and I split chocolate chip cheesecake and fresh cobbler!)

Also on our little field trip were my daughter Chelsea (left), my mother's other sister Carol (center) and my first cousin Susie. It was a girls' day out!

Notice the elegant table settings. The color pink predominates in this lovely restaurant which emanates peace and tranquility.

This was another table in what I call the green and pink room. I go to this tea room and then go home dreaming of living in a house this beautifully decorated.

(Granted, the hubster might feel it's too girly, but I like it.) If I were handier with stenciling, I figure I could do something like this. Look at the pretty flowers stenciled on the chairs.

Stenciling on the ceilings at occasional outjets of the wall, vine-like flower garlands around pictures--I like it.


Our church group is a small one called Times of Refreshing in Walnut Cove, NC. I am an ordained minister and founded the ministry.

We are being given a big, two-story white house that is one of the oldest in our town--to use for our nonprofit organization. I go to the Ruby Rose Tea Room to get ideas for how to decorate our place once the legalities are handled and it's ours.

This fireplace has the potential to look cluttered but somehow pulls off the look. I love a mirror on a mantel.


















I dream of pretty stenciling across thresholds. And white lacy sheers draped in a doorway, held back with greenery.

Stenciling on stairways, hanging lamps, flower arrangements scattered strategically, lace doilies on the banister post. . .elegant. The house we are being given for the glory of God has a grand staircase that could be restored to its previous elegance. Leaving a house vacant for over a decade is not a good way to preserve it, but it could not be helped in the case of our ministry house. It needs tender loving care now.

Look at the stenciling on the individual stairs. What a quaint idea! (And the plant, by the way, is not real, but painted!)

The tricks you can play with mirrors! Great way to enlarge a room. This is another room in the expansive restaurant. Almost all of the rooms have tables for parties to eat.

I like the idea of lighted trees in each room--and not just at Christmas time either! I adore low-hanging light fixtures as well. My son is a terrific artist--wonder how he'd do at painting murals such as the one on this wall?

A house with a motif like this--one of flowers, vines, pastorally painted scenery--seems the natural way to go for a ministry called Times of Refreshing, doesn't it? We want to use it as a place to heal broken people and to refresh those who have perhaps been burned out by life in this fallen world.

This is the floor in the foyer outside the bathroom. I can't imagine how this paint job doesn't wear down after so long.

Even the bathroom is a place of refreshing in this tea room atmosphere. I like the use of hats that you see just randomly hanging here and there.

Lighting is important in a place designed to refresh people. Who wants darkness? Depressed people traditionally close the shades and hide in darkness. We want to bring in the healing light of day that God gave us!







This little nook is hidden away in the foyer outside of the bathroom. I could sit here and meditate, but that might not be appropriate! The house we will soon have has a front porch. Properly redone, it could be a great place for meditation as it looks out on the little town.

I am in love with cabinets, especially those with stenciling. An ugly piece of furniture can be beautified with such art.

This fountain made soothing bubbling sounds as we examined the decor of this room. I want indoor fountains gurgling in our house one day. Running water is reminiscent of peaceful mountain settings which tend to be calming influences for troubled people.














White columns are so regal to me. I think of the beauty of ancient Greece.










A fake window painted onto a wall? I like it. How could anyone remain unhappy and troubled in such an environment? I can imagine Christian music playing in the background of our house or just CDs of nature sounds.





















The top of the stairs is just as pretty as the bottom!

Downstairs in the house that our ministry hopes to soon occupy, there is a master bedroom suite that we intend to make a gorgeous place of retreat. We will then offer it to missionaries, preachers, Christian workers who may need a place to steal away to seek God in times of prayer, praise, worship and Bible study.

We want to offer this master suite to all local churches to house their revival speakers, visiting missionaries or maybe even just for the pastor to take some time away. There is an outdoor entrance to this suite, so that they would never have to enter the main part of the house where we might be working. Everything of course would be free of charge.

This is the upstairs bedroom of the Ruby Rose Tea Room. What a reflective getaway!

There is even a clawfoot bathtub in the bedroom with a curtain for privacy.

Purple is my favorite color and does much to rest my soul!

This dining room is upstairs at the Tea Room. We will have three LARGE upstairs rooms in the house we are being given. I dream of making one of them a Walnut Cove Historical Room, named after the elderly lady whose idea it was to give her house to us. Before she died, I told her that I wanted to name such a room after her. She beamed.

It took some doing to convince my little girl when she saw this picture that the plants were painted on! She was just sure they were real.

Chelsea and I were in Heaven in the little gift shop upstairs. Lovely gift ideas of all sorts there!

Yes, the Tea Room provides a door for me to enter the house of my dreams--the house we hope to one day have in our little town--where the broken can be mended, the bitter can be soothed, the weary can be refreshed and the sick can be healed.

It is my dream.

From one daydream believer to another

I had this exact Tiger Beat as a child!

Dreams are a large part of the world of adolescent girls. And many of these young girls' dreams involve boys--often boys who aren't attainable. Yeah, we'll "go with" ("go out with," "go steady with," "talk to") the little fella in our second period class, but we'll dream of the latest teen idol movie star or singer/musician.

This fact hasn't changed much since the advent of modern communication. (I mean, who did the 18th-century girls dream of? Young princes? Minuet composers? There was no TV to rocket Bonnie Prince Charlie to stardom, no radio to make young Beethoven famous, no teen magazines with pull-out posters of Lord Byron in the middle.)

But mass media changed young girls' dreams. In the '40s, they swooned over young crooners like Bing Crosby and movie heroes like Gary Cooper. The '50s brought James Dean, Pat Boone and many more. Girls of the '60s got a little more radical in their dreaming, with fantasies of the Beatles and other long-haired rock 'n roll stars, Ricky Nelson, and Elvis--left over from the '50s and still hot.

A new group that emerged in the '60s was a long-haired crew called The Monkees. They peaked from 1966-68 but never totally vanished from the music scene, with many young people today still familiar with their music.

Hey, hey, we're the Monkees!

I was too young to appreciate The Monkees in their heyday, but I remember their TV show in syndication. I even have this strangely vivid memory of my cousin Mickey Smith and I chasing each other around the coffee table in his living room to the sounds of "Last Train to Clarksville."

He'll forever look like this in our memories.

I was crazy about one of The Monkees' lead singers, Micky Dolenz. But I also couldn't resist their ever-youthful cutie pie of a lead singer, Davy Jones. He was small--making him seem closer to my age although he was WAY older than I was (could've been my daddy)--plus his dark good looks were boyishly charming. And let's face it--a British accent will make the most stoic of us gals swoon.

I watched the Brady Bunch and agonized with Marsha as she tried to get Davy Jones for her school prom. And oh, the thrill when Davy walked into her home to announce he would indeed sing at her prom! I'll even admit I was envious when Marsha kissed him on the cheek and he said, "Flip side" and she got to kiss him on the other cheek.

(Click on the link below to see Marsha Brady meet Davy Jones on the "Brady Bunch"!)

Davy's charm persisted through the years. He had a cameo appearance in The Brady Bunch Movie released in 1995. The man was nearly 50 years old by then and still looked like a teeny-bopper. It is a thrill to see him come out on stage at Marsha's high school dance and sing "Girl," the same song he sang in the 1971 episode of the show. (What's hilarious is all of the middle-aged female teachers and chaperones who are stunned to see Davy and run screaming to the front of the stage to sway to his music and act all twitterpated, like teenage girls.)

Well, Davy Jones died today. Although I don't exactly think of The Monkees very often these days, I was still stunned to hear the news. How can this be? The perpetually young teen idol dead? My brain still can't wrap itself around the fact that one of The Monkees is gone. Aren't they still those long-haired (okay, medium-haired) guys bouncing around on stage (well, everyone except for ole laid back Mike), singing "I'm a Believer" and other Monkees standards?

Older but still cute!

I cannot comprehend that Davy Jones was almost as old as my dad when he passed away this morning. Why, my dad is nearly elderly now; he's gray, wears glasses, gets stiff these days. The Davy Jones in my mind is still black-headed and dancing around on stage (the boy had some smooth moves).

So much for another Monkees reunion tour such as the one they tried to do this past year until they allegedly canceled the remainder of the dates due to internal strife and other mysterious conflicts.

But I don't choose to think on the negative. I will remember the made-perfect-for-television group that was cute, funny and ever-young.

Because if Davy Jones was (gulp) 66, then where does that leave my other teen idols David Cassidy, the Bay City Rollers, Rick Springfield and Bobby Sherman? And what does that make me?

I am truly a daydream believer!

Am I not still that teenage girl poring avidly over her Tiger Beat magazine, carefully tearing out the centerfold poster of Leif Erickson? Don't tell me Prince Andrew is aging and balding; in my mind I'm still a young teenager sitting in the coolness of my basement on a hot summer day, daydreaming of capturing his attention somehow and becoming Princess Leslie of Great Britain.

I may not have been a homecoming queen, but I was a daydream believer then, and I am a daydream believer now. "I could hide 'neath the wings, of the bluebird as she sings, The six o'clock alarm would never ring. . ."

But the cold reality of six o'clock in the morning comes daily, and none of us can hide 'neath the wings of the bluebird or any other bird. Tiger Beat centerfolds get wrinkled and gray. Time bows to no man (or young girl with her dreams), and our teen idols, along with us, will eventually get old and pass from this life.

But as long as we have CDs and the Internet, the music will, in a sense, immortalize the singers. Davy Jones may be gone, but his youthful voice lingers over the airwaves.

And we will remember the innocence and naivete of our youthful days when we sang along with those memorable words, "Here we come, walking down the street, We get the funniest looks from, everyone we meet. . .Hey, hey, we're the Monkees! And people say we monkey around, But we're too busy singing, To put anybody down!"

(Click on this link to hear Davy Jones and The Monkees sing "Daydream Believer." You'll see Davy's smooth dance moves!)