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.

A Taste of Royal Oak

Only a few more days of summer vacation before it is back to school!  I decided to wander downtown Royal Oak for a bit today and enjoy the sunny (but cool) weather.  I wandered into the a bunch of shops, and made a few stops for treats.

First food stop was Taste Love Cupcakes.  I've been here a couple times before.  Here is the orange cream cupcake I tried today.  It was pretty good, very moist, although I've had other cupcakes from other places that I like better.   But when I asked if I could also have a cup of water, I was told they don't give water, I'd have to buy a bottle of water.  SERIOUSLY???  I buy a cupcake for $3.50 and you can't give me a cup of water????  Hmmm, not sure I will be heading back there, I think that is pretty sad.

Second food stop was Pizza Rustica.  Been wanting to stop in here for quite a while.  The person behind the counter was very informative.  They have Roman style pizza in many varieties, partly baked.  The pieces are large rectangles and they finish baking it and cut it into 6 pieces.   I had the sausage with peppers.  I probably prefer pizza made fresh, but I think this would be a good option to get a quick bite before a movie in Royal Oak.

Nothing like going into all the shops in Royal Oak to realize how unhip and uncool your taste actually is!  Didn't buy anything, but had great fun exploring.  

Final taste was some bubble tea at Goldfish Tea.  I've had bubble tea a few times out in the Pacific Northwest a number of years ago - so fun to discover a place here that serves it.  I had green tea with peach flavor and passionfruit bubbles.  The bubbles were kind of like capsules that burst in your mouth - sweet pops in the sweet tea.  Next time I think I would go with the traditional tapioca bubbles, it was a bit too sweet after several sips.  

I noticed several other restaurants I would like to try sometime. So it ended up being an enjoyable way to spend a few hours.

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.