Vintage Joy
By: Staci Johnston
Some people meditate to relax or take hot bubble bathes. Well for me my version of that is refurbishing furniture. I absolutely love repainting things to make them new again. Bringing their inner beauty to the outside. It's like creating art only with furniture. The furniture is my blank canvas with its endless possibilities. I just love turning something old into something new or different. There is something about working with my hands to create that is just calming, soothing and relaxing to me. Like Mr. Miyagi use to say to Daniel Son, "Wax on, wax off." There was a purpose and secret to his method for work-life balance. He knew what he was talking about when it came to finding inner peace within yourself. So I totally understand where he was coming from there. When you start with something old, broken, drab or even ugly and turn it into something beautiful the process or transformation is just so awesome to me. It just feels so good to my soul. To me there is something soothing about the motions of sanding and painting, There is something magical about taking the top layer off of something and finding beauty underneath. Kind of like the saying "Don't judge a book by its cover" or "beauty is only skin deep". Even with people we always say it's the inside that really counts right? Same thing applies here I do believe.
I just love the whole entire process of refurbishing. I enjoy looking at a new project and picturing in my head what it could potentially look like in the end when I am done with it. It is just so exciting to me! Exciting yet calming at the same time really. Its almost like time just stops for a little while and I have no worries at that certain moment. Nothing else matters around me. Its just me with my creative thoughts. It allows me to be alone and enjoy some quality "me time." But also in the end when I am finished with the project it also allows me to share it with not only the person I am doing it for but family and friends as well. I usually end up posting all my projects online for all of my friends and family to enjoy. Its fun being able to share with others what I've created and possibly the great story behind it. It allows me to not only feel joy but to spread the joy as well. Because what fun is happiness if you can't share it, right? I enjoy every minute of the process from the beginning, to the middle of the creating portion and then to the most rewarding part the very end when you have the finished product. All of it just puts me in my happy place. I just love it. Another reason I love doing it is because it gives me time away from all of life's stressors like work, house work, paying bills and taking care of my family. It also gives me time to do something for just me . Being a Mother, daughter, significant other, friend and working in the medical field makes it hard to focus on something for me. So this is something that is just mine that I choose to do. What else I really enjoy about it is it allows me to jam out to my favorite music while working. Music just intensifies the effect or feelings I have while being creative. Music is also life for me. It is good for the soul as well. Who doesn't love doing two of their favorite things together at the same time when it just works together right? Its my happy place and everyone should have something they do that takes them to that place. Somewhere they can retreat to every now and then. Having a hobby is very healthy I do believe. I know it makes my heart and soul both very happy and content so much that it makes it easier to focus on being a better mother, daughter, worker and friend. Another reason is because you can create whatever you want and you get to use your imagination. Which in today's world we don't get to do that very often anymore. Sometimes people even forget how. Which is a shame really. So this is my way of not forgetting how to use my imagination. You start with basically something that looks old, worn out or even possibly broken and turn it into something amazing . Something amazing that you did all by yourself. There is a certain power in that I feel. An intense high euphoric feeling that I get when I am working on a project that I don't get when doing anything else. I've even gotten goose bumps before from just thinking about it and how much I enjoy it. So it is very special to me in so many ways.
To me fixing furniture is fun but its especially poetic when it is sentimental to someone or even me because it has been passed down from generation to generation. It is already special to them but I am making It even more special when they can still enjoy it for many more years to come after I am finished. I enjoy it when the person I am working on a piece for has a back story behind the piece. I love hearing the stories behind the pieces. It makes the whole thing that more intense and important to me really. It does make it more intense I think when I know that the furniture is something important to somebody as opposed to it being something they just picked up from Good Will. That can actually motivate me to make it that much more for them. Even though no matter what I want to do a good job on any piece that I work on but the ones that have the special stories attached to them are just a lot more interesting and personal to me. For instance, I had gotten a call from a cousin of mine who was pregnant with their first child. A little girl to be exact. She went on to tell me during our phone conversation that her mother had gifted her a rocking chair that her great grandmother owned . She went on to explain to me that every single generation in their family had been rocked to sleep in that rocking chair when they were little. She said that the rocking chair had taken a beaten over the years and was looking its age but still had lots of potential. So she pleaded with me to please fix it for her so she could rock her baby girl to sleep in it just as her mother had done with her when she was just a baby. I could tell in her voice how special this was to her. So how could I say no? It made it special to me to fix it for her as well. So I did and I also added her own little special touch to it too. She had mentioned that her living room had some red in it and that she would like for me to paint it red but also distress it to make it still look like it was vintage looking. So I promised her I would do everything in my power to bring her vision to life. This was actually the very first piece I had done that had a special back story to it and that's when I realized how much more special it made it for not only her but for me as well. It turned out perfect! You will be surprised what a little tender love and care can do to an old piece of furniture when you fix it up and turn it into something useable again. Something they are proud to show off in their home as opposed to having it sitting in their basement unused or buying something new from Cosco that has no sentimental value to them at all. My absolute favorite part is when I first show the finished product to the owner and watch their face light up. Its such a magical moment for me. Spreading joy and smiles is good for the soul as well. Therapeutic in every way possible to me.
I enjoyed it so much that I actually tried turning it into a full time business for myself but later realized that was a big mistake. All that did was turn it into deadlines with lots of pressure and caused me to feel rushed all the time. I soon realized that it was so much better as just a hobby for me. Just something I enjoy doing when I have free time or even when I feel stressed out and need a break and need to get away from everyday life. So in closing, my hope is that everyone out there finds their hobby that is good for their soul and everyone else's as well. Because in the end that's what will make our world a better place to live in for all of us. Stay crafty folks or whatever that thing is that makes your soul happy and whatever you do don't ever lose your imagination!
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Ruby and The Phoenix Order
Sent from Mail for Windows 10 "Ruby and the Phoenix Order " I remember so many amazing things about my Grandmother Ruby. It would be incredibly hard not to remember her actually. She was such an amazing inspirational person in my life. There are of course a few things that stick out to me the most about her which I always love to share and reminisce about. My Grandma Ruby was just an amazing person. She was a very smart, brave and strong woman but she also had a funny side to her which evened it out or made her just perfect in my eyes. She was just one of a kind really. One of those women you just look up to and strive to be like. Have you ever associated a certain smell with a person. I love that I can do that. Especially with her. My grandmother always smelled of roses. So now when I smell a rose I think of nothing but her and how much she loved me. I remember all the stories she used to tell me. Most of stories she shared with me happened before I was even born. Back when the land we lived in was called "The Phoenix Order". She always said to me that it was a better time back then. The time we spent together was some of my most fondest memories as a child. It all seems like a distant memory now of course but I will never forget them or her. Sadly, she passed away when I was only eight years old. Yesterday just so happened to be my 16th birthday, so that means it has been eight long years since I last saw her human form. All I have left of her now is a heart shaped locket that she placed around my neck the morning of her death, her fiery spirit that lives on within me and of course all of our wonderful memories from the precious time that we did get to spend together. She always had the knack of knowing exactly what was going to happen before it actually happened. So it didn’t surprise me when It seemed like she knew exactly what was going to happen that day. She was so very good at doing that. I remember her soft wrinkled hands placing that long sparkly silver chain with her cherished heart locket dangling from it over my head that was full of big bouncy brown curls. Then she said “Just like my very own little Curly Sue”, It was a nickname she had given to me the day I was born. She called me it all the time. Then she bent down and gently whispered into my ear.....”My beautiful, sweet strong girl , My little Miss Sutton Rose Avalon Brady”….(she always loved calling me by my full name as well when she wasn't calling me Curly Sue of course), “my dear heart I want you to always remember that you have the power to save us all”. "It's right here" she said as she pointed to the heart locket she had just placed around my neck. Those certain things have just stuck with me and I can remember them so clearly. Everything else that comes to mind comes in flashes or waves all jumbled up like someone scrambled my brain like an egg. It's like those certain memories are from a past life or like I have amnesia or something at times. Like I am slowly remembering my past but only in little bits and pieces. Sometimes I wonder if these memory flashes that I am having are actually real or are they just dreams I've had coming back to me during the day while I am awake. My heart yearns to remember every little thing about her memory. Sometimes I wonder, am I just crazy? My heart tells me that I am not and that it is all in fact true. So that is what I choose to believe and follow. That is what she taught me to do. I don't speak of these memory flashes to anyone in fear of the Chosen Ones finding out. The Chosen Ones are the people who have banned all learning from our new society which they have in fact also renamed The Dominance Tribe. They have totally rewritten everything on the internet and throughout history. They have banned and/or destroyed all books they could find and outlawed free speech. Basically they have taken all our rights away to try and make us powerless. They only allow propaganda to be given out that has been written or approved by them. If they found out some of the things I know, remember and write down they would banish me for sure straight to the Land of the Lost Souls with the rest of the "Nothings " they call them. Those poor souls. They have been banished from our society for no reason at all except for being themselves. Thrown away like a piece of trash. Even though to me they are not the ones who smell rotten inside. To me the Chosen Ones are the only thing that stinks of rottenness. The Chosen Ones are threatened by the elders because they are the ones who are old enough to remember the better days when our land was called The Phoenix Order. The elders remember what was lost, taken from us or burned by the Chosen Ones. The Chosen Ones call themselves that because they think it makes them sound important and above everyone else but really I know exactly what they truly are. They are just rich snobs with lots of money who only care about themselves. As far as the Outcasts or what I call them the Elders go I don't know them or I guess I should say I don't remember them but still I feel like I do in my heart somehow. It bothers me because I can feel their pain, their hunger and their suffering. It makes me so angry that I want to stand up and revolt against the Chosen Ones! My grandmother tells me that this is the Empath in me. The fact that I can feel what others are feeling. Thank goodness I can still hear my grandmothers voice. I mostly hear her at night and she explains everything that is happening to me. If I didn't have her here in spirit still guiding me I don’t know what I would do. I would definitely think I was seriously losing my mind! The only ones left after the Nothings were cast away to the Land of the Lost Souls were the Chosen Ones and the Younger Ones. They call us this because we were too young to remember the Lost Souls or our past. Which would of included me or it did until I found out about my special gift thanks to my grandmother. I have these so called memory flashes daily. Most of them are of my grandmother telling me about certain things from when she was alive. That's how I know all about the past is because of her. I owe everything to her. She told me that I possess certain abilities that others don't. That I am extremely special. She told me that I am what they call an Empath and that I have special psychic abilities just like her. She said that I just have to learn how to use them one day as well as the heart necklace she gave me. Of course back then I had no idea what either of those things meant but now I have it all written down in my dream of hope book I call it. I hide this so called dream book under a wooden slab in the floor of my tiny bedroom and nobody but me knows that it is there. I love getting it out at night and reading through it. Its the one time that I get to feel my grandmother's presence with me more than ever. Like she is really right next to me telling me amazing stories and teaching me things like she use to when she was alive. Sometimes I picture her when she use to wear the locket around her neck. She would grasp it tightly, tilt her head down like she was praying and mumble words under her breath. Then she would be silent for a long time like her spirit had left her body for a short time. Then when she would open her eyes they would open really wide with excitement and she would have this huge smile on her face like she had just received all the secret answers to life. I still talk to her when I'm alone and sometimes she even answers me. I am not sure if this is my imagination or if its really her spirit talking to me for real, but I like to think that it is the latter. She is the only person who understands what happens to me. Understands who I am and who I will become. Without this special secret time with her and my dream of hope book I would feel so completely lost and alone in this world more than I already do. It's what gives me hope and keeps me going. So I am going to choose to believe.
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