favorite things...

a little late this week, but worth it, i think...

the clutch
i am the original lover of 'big purse' syndrome. perhaps it is the minimum number of thing that i consider must-carries in whatever happens to be the bag du jour {wallet, Moleskine, pencil case, book—at least one, hand cream...you get the picture}. or maybe it's just because they are pretty in a grand sort of way, but i will admit to having some of the largest bags known to woman-kind.

but it really doesn't explain my new-found love of the clutch. tiny yet oh-so-pretty bags that if i was very, very lucky i might be able to get my tiny copy of Jane Austen's Emma and some lip gloss in, but not much else. i've recently started using a black clutch that used to be my grandmother's, and then my mother's, which just makes me so darn happy. then yesterday, at lunch with silvia, we came across the one pictured. it's velvety and absolutely perfect in it's clutchiness. {yes, i know, but i'm still using the word} it was ridiculously on sale, so i have taken it upon myself to give it a good home. it may be new, but it is definitely a favorite!

St. Jacobs
living in windsor, ON, one of my happy places was on the other side of the Detroit River, and north on I-75, Frankenmuth, MI. it is a happy, quaint little German town, complete with the world's largest Christmas store, and the Birch Run shopping outlet just outside of town. one of the saddest things about moving up here was being so far away from one of my truly happy places. one place that has saved me is the small Mennonite town of St. Jacobs.

the farmer's market outside of town is so perfectly full of beautiful fruit and vegetables, not to mention flowers and t-shirts you'd never in a million years wear but still laugh at, and a myriad of things that you had no idea that you needed, no idea how you might use it, but strangely, find yourself considering anyways! the town is perfection in its quaintness, with the black and white store being easily in my top three.

today, in just a couple of hours, my friends, alicia, barbara and jenn will arrive here to pick me up, and we are going to go to St. Jacobs. how amazingly perfect is that?


God's grace
like so many people, i have always struggled with understanding and accepting God's grace. unmerited favor. on my best days, i accept and try my best to understand it, knowing that without it, i am nothing. other days could find me wallowing somewhere between feeling that given all the mistakes i have made, i couldn't possibly be a recipient, to thinking that if i could only do it myself, i'm sure God would appreciate it more.

i make no claim to be the most intelligent person who follows Jesus.

but considering the amount of time that i think about God's grace, and how desperately i need it myself, i was reminded last night that i too often withhold this life-giving thing from those others.

can you say hypocrite?!

so, today i am grateful for God's grace, that not only saves me, but also helps me to remember that i still have far to go... but i'm not going it alone.