Be Thou My Vision

It is back to school time for me.  Recently at church we sang my favorite hymn "Be Thou My Vision." It was a good reminder as I start a new year to keep God first and foremost in everything I do and plan as I teach.  I adopted the phrase as my theme for the new year and made a "chalkboard" style poster to put in my classroom as a reminder.  (Click on the image above for a larger version - it is free for your personal use.)

Another phrase from the hymn is "Naught be all else to me, save that thou art."  I know all the "thous" are old fashioned, but sometimes I think it is a good poetic way to remind myself to reverence God.

As my last little creative fling of the summer, I made a soldered charm using the two images and wore it on the first day of school.  I really love how this turned out - hopefully can try it again with some other phrases.

Bucharest Grill

On Friday, I headed to downtown Detroit to go to the Tigers game.  We went down a bit early and grabbed a bite at the Bucharest Grill which is located just a couple blocks from Comerica Park.

I'd heard about this place from others, so I was excited to give it a try.  You order at the counter and they bring your order to your table.  (They also do a lot of take out traffic.)  The inside is open and industrial.  We had a great table by a window where we could people watch everyone heading to the game.

The menu has a variety of middle eastern foods and their speciality is the schawarma sandwiches.  Here is my chicken schawarma - it was huge, a good 3+ inches wide, filled with really tasty chicken, tomato, lettuce, and tangy garlic sauce. (I left off the pickle.)  We had a big order of curly fries that we shared and were very full when done.

Bucharest Grill is located at 2040 Park Ave and a great place to stop on the way to a game or the Fox Theater.

Key & Star Necklace

A simple necklace with a long antique gold chain with a few fancy flowers, combined with a skeleton key and sparkly star charm.

Antique photo effect via the free Miracam app.

Vintage Tablecloth Bed Canopy

So I had a little fun last week creating a canopy for my bed out of two vintage tablecloths.  I thought it turned out rather cute!

I was inspired by this display at Ikea.  I have the same bed and loved how they draped the fabric to make a simply canopy.

I sewed two tablecloths together.  I took the fringe off of an old chenille bedspread that I had cut up for other projects and basted that onto one edge.  I used inexpensive curtain rods from Ikea and pipe clamps.

The ceiling is slanted where the wall paper starts.  Simply tucked the clamp in behind the paneling here without a screw.  Next summer hope to take down the wallpaper and paint the pinewood paneling white.

I added old white shutters on each side.  I recently bought matching night stands from Meijers which flank each side of the bed.

And a few of my key necklaces hanging on the shutters.

Another look - the pillows are also vintage hankies and fabrics.