Showing posts with label grace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grace. Show all posts

Monday, June 20, 2016

Summer's Here!

Summer's here and we've been enjoying our studio garden so much that we almost forgot to share a few photos with you on this first day of summer!





 




























































We have buttercups, walking lilies, swiss chard, spiderwort and flowers yet to be named, just bursting-out all over our garden. Every morning there's a fresh, dew-kissed face, framed in petals, peeking up us!  

They're daily inspiration and gentle reminders of the grace God wraps us up in every day.

"My grace is enough to cover and sustain you..." 
 2 Corinthians 12:9 - The Voice


Happy first day of summer,
The Velvet Lime Girls

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Purple Grace

Just beyond the last coreopsis still standing in our studio garden, a cloud of purple flowers floats above the flowerbeds closing up for winter.  
The purple mist appeared just as fall began, carrying a bright hope that covered all the weary, heavy-burdened, faded flowers, standing valiantly in the face of the soon coming chill. 
With its soft, purple blanket, the flowers draped the garden in a silent, beautiful grace. 

A beautiful purple grace.
A grace that carried our hearts and minds back to the grace given to all of us by God. 


A grace that covers weary, heavy-burdened, faded lives and brings a beauty to all who reach out and let grace pull a heavy blanket of love over their lives. 
It's beautiful, it's life changing, it's amazing.  
It's amazing grace.






"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."  2 Corinthians 12:9


With temperatures dipping below freezing tonight, we wanted to warm your heart and soul with the  
purple grace that blooms in our garden, gently reminding us of God's beautiful, amazing grace.

The Velvet Lime Girls




Thursday, January 30, 2014

Atlanta Snow

It snowed in Atlanta a couple of days ago, settling into our world and studio garden with a shimmering, white drape that lounged over tree limbs, moss, and fences.
                                                           

                                                                      

Even our bird houses slipped under snowy embellishments.


And tree boughs cradled the white wonder with gentle embraces.

                                                                

It was a silent, serene covering of grace that seemed to soften everything that was hard, ugly and beat-up underneath.

Outside our studio garden though, the world was seeing a different picture of Atlanta.

This snowfall ushered in one of the biggest traffic jams in history for our city and tales of unimaginable challenges have sifted in today in a steady stream. Cars, stalled for hours, filled with mothers, fathers, children, babies, elderly, handicapped, sick and hungry have shivered along the roadways throughout the night and into this day. The 7 hour drive home, normally 15 minutes, by one of our own, pales in comparison to what others endured last night. 

And yet, in the midst of all this misery, we've heard reports of grace that, like this snow, seem to soften some of the hard moments people have endured. Stories of people bringing water, food, and supplies to stranded drivers, of others opening up their homes to strangers for a place to rest and warm up, of restaurants closing their cash registers and serving food to the hungry, of Dads and Moms walking miles to be with their children stranded at schools overnight, of devoted teachers staying with students throughout the night, and of a gentle soul who created a facebook page that helped so many. You just have to read the stories @ Snowed Out Atlanta 

The list goes on an on with these random acts of kindness that settled in between some of the very hard spots, and very hard moments that have occurred in Atlanta these last two days.
It's as if GRACE has just wrapped itself around our city through these acts of kindness. Softening some of the rough, hard edges of the lives stretched out on these roads. And right smack in the middle of it, as if to remind us all of how powerful GRACE can be, a baby was born, on one of these treacherous stretches of road. In harsh, cold conditions, the grace of God came down, covering all the things that weren't perfect, and allowed a beautiful, tender, little baby girl to be born. Perfectly.

And her name? Why, it's Grace, of course.  
To remind us of God's grace, that softly falls and covers hard places with unexpected beauty. 
Read more about little Grace here:



Praying for those affected by the snow,
Grateful for those who made it home,
The Velvet Lime Girls

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  2 Corinthians 12:9
















Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Transformations

Mounds of freshly washed celery stalks with colorful, leafy heads of celadon, sulphur springs and soft as summer green are glistening in our studio today. Earlier, they frolicked in a kitchen sink water bath and then stretched themselves out on a long wire basket, like sunbathers on a beach, to let the final drops of water evaporate one by one. They were just too beautiful to ignore with their green reflections in the morning sun and we had to snap a photo to capture their colors and shapes!


As beautiful as these firm, strong stalks are, they were destined for something much more magnificent. Along with onions, garlic, parsley, peppercorns and an array of vegetables, they formed the base of a hearty stock that now simmers in our studio.  
The aroma is absolutely divine and wraps itself around everyone with a deep culinary fragrance hug.


This stock that will nourish our bodies and souls later, in a savory soup, was quite a transformation story. The firm, hard stalks softened and became a smooth, savory, epicurean delight as they yielded to the seasoned broth around them. Their flavor was brought to an entirely new level as they allowed themselves to be changed, enriched and re-created. It's hard to believe that the final creation, a luxurious, silky, smooth stock, was anything like the hard, original celery stalk.




It's a metamorphosis that parallels our own lives, when we yield to the master Creator and allow:

                our hard edges to be softened by grace

                our rough exteriors to be smoothed by love

               our flavors to be enriched by embracing others. 


Like stock, we'll develop a deeper, richer, well-matured, full-bodied quality. What a flavor we can become in the hands of a Master Chef. Little pièces de résistance! 
It's a recipe of divine proportions that we'd like to share with you:
"If anyone is ingrafted in Christ, they're a new creation (a new creature altogether);
the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. 
The fresh and new has come!2 Corinthians 5:17

We hope our stock story simmers in your spirit today and reminds you of the total  transformation that is possible for all of us.


Sipping on soup in our studio,
The Velvet Lime Girls