What's your passion?

Yesterday I was watching that preacher Creflo Dollar on TV. I was kinda slow getting moving because I had stayed up all night painting due to my procrastination. I had to get Lavenderchick's furniture ready for her debut trip to Dallas Market. Well thank God I was lounging about, making myself available to hear Creflo Dollar's message of the day. He, like so many other preachers these days, was trying to help his mega-church audience find their true calling. As I lay there, on my wonderful bed that did not cost what it is worth, he asked me: "What are you passionate about?"

And I said, "well, beautification of all things. Furniture, walls, ceilings and souls. And then there's the outdoors: plants, landscapes, even views. I want to make the world beautiful to my eyes, wherever possible." Apparently, according to what Dr. Dollar told me personally yesterday morning, this passion of mine is God-given and that's why it is so intense and so fulfilling when I'm actually doing it. When you are floundering about without knowing what you were put here on earth to do, you first need to listen to your guts, your spirit, whatever you want to call it. Your calling is in there, just dying to get out.

I am so guilty of this in my former lives. We waste a lot of time listening to outside influences that tell us we need to be "professional," make lots of money, all that. So we do what we think we're supposed to do and don't feel good doing it. Who are we living for?

So Dr. Dollar further explained that the way we know that we're doing the right thing is that when you're doing it, you feel good, you're happy to do it, and your efforts bear fruit, to use a Biblical phrase. What I thought was really cool was when he referred to Luke 13:6-9, which is a parable Jesus used. In it he actually gives this guy a timeframe we can apply to our efforts and how to know when to give up the fight when it's not right. Mira!

"A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' " 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' "

So where am I going with all this? Due to my procastination issue, I had to stay up all night painting furniture for Lavenderchick's first trip to market. Her furniture had to be beautified at any cost to complement her extraordinary lavender products. Being tired as hell forced me to languish, and in my exhaustion I was finally still enough to hear the message so that I could tell all of you about it. I could go on and on, but my daughter tells me my blogs are too long. She, of the myspace generation that types in ghetto speak like dis and dat.

Here's a picture of Lavenderchick's little hutch "before." It's just starting to get it's first coat of Faux Effects Natural White Setcoat, which, by the way, is a superior base coat. It sticks to almost everything.


Here's the shelves we're transforming to hold additional product:

The shiny stuff is liquid sander. I wanted to be sure the Setcoat would stick and this finish was pretty glossy. This beautiful shelving unit is actually pressboard and the back is something akin to cardboard with graining imaged upon it. I tell you this only so you'll be impressed with the transformed product.

Tadaaaaaa! Isn't this a much better canvas to complement Lavenderchick's creations? Up close you can see the textures better (Faux Effects Faux Stone for a little texture), plus a glaze of Faux Effects Color Solvent mixed with Lusterstone in Antique Parchment (I kind of made that up), then a glaze of Color Solvent mixed with Earth Brown Faux Creme Color. Then Activator II. Thennnn, it needed a white wash so I mixed Color Solvent with white Setcoat real thin and activated that some too. It's really cool. You can see the pressboard shelf over to the right.


Here's some closeups:

Good Luck Deb and Jack at market.