50th post!!!! (...and other things)

Hurrah for the 50th post!!!!!  Thank you to all my wonderful followers who have been with me since August :)  This is a happy day.

-Fun stuff...today I hung out at the Spectrum with a few good Torrey friends...Grace Ciccarello, Amy Van Vlear, Tim Chan, and Cree McCook.  Amazing times...isn't torrey fun when you can hang out with great friends...and yet you haven't seen them above 3 or so times?

-Christmas is almost over...today is the 5th day of Christmas for those of you who weren't counting.

-A new bedspread can make your whole room look different.  Everything suddenly looks brighter because of my new quilt!

-It's been getting warmer and warmer...almost warm enough for new rainbows!!!

Hurrah for randomness, yes?

After Christmas Shopping

Hurrah for gift cards!!!  I went to Borders this morning and bought Manalive-GK Chesterton, Anna Karenina-Leo Tolstoy, and Wuthering Heights-Emily Bronte.  All very excellent books which I'm looking forward to re-reading!!!  After I finish deToqueville, that is...and my term paper...:)

Soundtrack to My Life-Part 10

I know this is a day late...but c'mon, yesterday was Christmas :)  So I am excused...but here we go!  A good amount of this music will be a compilation of favorite Christmas music and new music that I received...happiness!!!!

1) Someone Else's Arms-yes, Mae again...but really, they write such gorgeously beautiful music...and their theory that music should be engaged with all 5 senses...and the artwork in The Everglow...I just love this line from the song "I've got the feeling it's not the safest place to start.  This heavy breathing, it seems we're better off breaking hearts."....some of their lyrics are just like poetry :)

2)Everything-Michael Buble-I really like this guy, got 3 of his CDs for Christmas...such a sweet song and his music is perfect for Foundations reading since it's fun and light but not too distracting ;)  

3) Joy to the World/For Unto Us A Child Is Born-Amy Grant...For Unto Us is my absolute favorite part of the Messiah...and Amy Grant, as usual, does a splendid version of it

4) I'll Be Home For Christmas-Josh Groban-my absolute favorite non-Christian christmas song of all times...such a touching song...and such a gorgeous voice

5) The Sun and the Mon-Mae :)  Such beautiful lyrics...a lot of really good songs esp. from Waking Ashland seem to use the vocals/lyrics as merely another instrument, to blend with and add to the music but often take back stage...but with Mae, and this song especially, the song is like musical poetry, the words blend with and are surrounded by music but the words speak to you separately, they have their own meaning apart from merely sounding good with the music...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Merry Christmas, and God bless you all!!!!!   Remember Christ's amazing love to us during this special day!  You all are wonderful!  Have a very very merry Christmas!

Pictures of PJ's Abbey

Here they are!  More pictures!

Beauty in the Modern Church-part 2

To continue on this topic from a few days ago...this afternoon I took Sarah to lunch at a charming restaurant in Old Town Orange called PJ's Abbey.  Formerly a Victorian Baptist Church built in 1891, it is now an American style restaurant.  It was absolutely gorgeous :)  and I should be able to get some pictures up later today.  For now, here's the description that I wrote while there.

A restaurant in a church.  Strange, you say?  Almost as strange as a church housed within a warehouse, perhaps.  Though clearly a restaurant, with tables and chairs for a cozy meal, waiters bustling round, and cheery holiday music playing, the building still retains a very churchy atmosphere.

Spectacular stained windows tower of the room, reflecting the little bit of sun that shines through on this cloudy day.  A rather small and simple church, much care has been put into its design nonetheless.  High arched windows and a lofty ceiling draw one’s attention upwards to heaven.  Even the wooden beams supporting the antique architecture are carved with a simple, yet elegant picture, showing the amount of work put into each detail of the church.  Both older and more modern artwork adorn the walls in charmingly distressed wooden frames.  The needlepointed chairs, wooden benches resembling old pews, artwork, and indeed every detail, enhance the atmosphere of the old country church.  

Every detail serves a purpose, but every detail is made beautiful as well.  Here there is no division of the practical and the beautiful.  Here there can be seen no schism between functionality and artistry.  Take the old pulpit, for example.  Once it stood at the head of the church, as a stand for the preacher.  Now, it stands as a podium at the entrance to the restaurant.  Yet it is not only a purposeful tool, but a beautiful piece of artwork.  Here and throughout the restaurant/church is this mentality reflected; that a thing can be both useful and ornamental.  

Pictures of Cornerstone

The front of the building, with lovely palm trees reflected in the windows.  Looks very nice, and streamlined, but you can definitely tell that it was not always a church.  
The front entry hall and staircase, from the upper floor.  Clean lines, and angles, and I like the paint colour ;)
The church's theater.
Coffee shop right outside the main sanctuary. And actually I really like both the paint colours and the artwork on the wall.  The coffee shop is actually my favorite part of the whole church, design/artistry wise.
And here we have the main sanctuary...very big, open, huge stage.  This picture doesn't really give you much of an idea of the size...but it is big...very big.