Chalk and Pine

For as long as I can remember I have loved seeing beauty in different places and things. It is no exaggeration that I have always felt God's presence where I see beauty. To me God is not only an amazingly compassionate God but is the artistic and creative God who colors our world in amazing ways. I truly see the Lord's constant hand in my life in the dark days due to the beauty that surrounds us everyday. And I love that our Lord restores our lives and makes all things new. 

Several years ago the Lord planted a dream in my heart to start expounding the small borders of this little artsy soul. I started to explore and embrace opportunities to bring more color into my life- not only in my physical world but in the places that I spent life. Amidst giggles (I think they secretly loved it *smiles*) my students embraced the fact that their history lectures would include vision board power points with lots of colors (yes, there were some issues because some colors did not translate as well from the computer screen to the large vision board screen *smiles*) and that my room would be filled with lots of color. I spent lovely hours painting and decorating my apartment, thoroughly enjoyed ballroom dancing several nights a week, tried my hand at sewing, and enjoyed the moments of finding treasures from estate sales, thrifting, and garage sales to restore. Throughout this time the Lord continued to develop and provide lots of opportunities to explore, learn, and grow ways to live and embrace a creative life. 

A couple of years ago I knew part of this dream was to work with paper to accomplish this and that is how The Paper Sonnet was born. Another part of this dream was to inspire the beauty of snail mail through the creation of The Parcel Post Tribe.  Along with this though was the desire to expound on other areas and the dream to open a shop of lovely finds. I started to realize that the way that the Lord has designed me is in encouraging a love for simple beauty, finding vintage loveliness, and restoring old treasures. 

And so "Chalk and Pine" came to be.

Throughout this past year the Lord has opened all sorts of doors and I have had the privilege of finding vintage lovelies and restoring treasures for specific projects. And then I knew that it was time to open a store on instagram.  

I am so excited to share this journey with y'all and "invite" you to the first insta-sale on Sunday, January 19th. Right now the plan is that I will be having a sale once or twice a month and these items will all be "smaller" so that they can be easily shipped. The shop will include items to inspire beauty in different areas of life, vintage treasures, and beautifully restored items. 

Want to follow along? I am so honored! Currently the website for Chalk and Pine is being "restored" (*smiles*), and the facebook page is a newbie, so please feel free to follow along on its instagram site by clicking HERE!

The name "Chalk and Pine" has special meaning and I look forward to sharing with y'all very soon. Thank you so much for all of your support throughout this new adventure.