In my Other Life

Hello Friends!  I have such a fun and special treat for you today.  For my Meditating Monday post I am submitting my own version of "My Other Life". 

  I have created this post after seeing my friend Rhonda's post over at Shellbelle's Tiki Hut.  I just loved her other life!  Be sure and visit her post here if you get the chance.  She encouraged us to do the same and I just couldn't pass it up.  Now,  I confess it didn't take much meditating though for me to figure this one out.   I already know exactly how I would love to live in my other life, given the chance. So, without more yakking on and on about it, let's get to it!

Of course in my other life it should go without saying that I would have plenty of this!

This would be my home and lucky for me it is right here on the shores of Lake Murray, SC, not far from where I live now.  Honestly, I would not want to live anywhere else at this time because most all my friends and family are nearby.  This house is actually for sale right now and I have provided a link to the tour at the bottom of this post.  While it is not among the finest or most exclusive homes on our lake, it is still out of our reach of affordability.  However, this home has every single aspect of casual living on our lake that I would love.  It has the million dollar view and..... 

 

a fantastic outdoor backyard!

It is also on deep water so we can park our boat, or anything bigger we might decide to get.

I would be able to do all of this because I would own my own little gift shop that would look much like this one.  It would be an old house that was renovated by me and stocked to the rafters with all sorts of goodies.  It would also have a small cafe run by one of my closest friends, or hey, maybe my son, if I could ever get him to return home from Charleston.  Mostly importantly, it would be hugely successful with oodles and oodles of customers daily!

I would want to own one of these on a beach nearby somewhere. 

So, I could spend lot's of time doing this with a few of my besties, on girls only weekends.

I would have quite a struggle deciding exactly where to put down roots for a vacation home.

But would look for a spot that would easily accommodate this must have pleasure!

I would have a close circle of friends who enjoyed going on chartered sailboat tours regularly to exotic places around the world.

 

We would always have plenty of these on hand.

And we would all share a similar mindset. 

 LOL!

Of course, there would be no real life worries among all my family and friends, and they would always feel like this!

My bags would look much like these.

From traveling to places like Greece....

Venice, Italy...

...Ireland

and Mexico.

I would eat foods like this...

tons of this.....

...and this...

and plenty of this....always! 

  And miracously, never ever gain a pound!

 I would still dress like this...in my jeans.

...And would always enjoy shopping for clothes that fit, because I'd look like this.

Forever!

Yes sirree, friends, that would be my other life. 

 Now how do I get it back from Cindy Crawford?

LoL!

I may not enjoy the life above but I do love the life I have and cannot complain.

Would you?

That was fun!   All of the photos shown above are not mine, with the exception of my sailboat pics, and were borrowed from the internet.  Be sure and click the link below entitled Island Treasure, for a complete tour of the home that is for sale on Lake Murray that I love, if you are interested in more beautiful eye candy. 

Thanks so much for joining me today on my daydream adventure!

Have a great day!

Mary

ISLAND TREASURE

No one knows about the day or the hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. – Matthew 24:36

Are you still here?  So am I! Have we all been left behind?

  Now, before you think I've gotten off track and have lost my focus in showing you Jesus's love for you, please just hear me out.  I most definitely have not!  If you read and retain anything from any of my Sunday posts,  I want you to remember this, he LOVED you so much that he left "His Word" for you..The Bible. 

I am always amazed at how many overlook the single most valuable tool that God has left for us.  Many even discount the words of The Bible as irrelevant altogether.  It is also sad, that so many close off their ears the minute you quote scripture because they do not like feeling preached to, yet will submit blindly to their preachers words.

  It is heartbreaking to think that there are fellow believers out there who expected the world to end yesterday because that is what they had been taught in their religious circle.  Heartbreaking because had they read the Bible for themselves, I am sure red flags would have been going off in their heads immediately.   Heartbreaking because there may be many whose faith is now shattered. 

Last night, I was talking with my husband after he returned home from work on Saturday, about how the world had not ended.  I was telling him how the thing that has struck me the most about all of this is that there are Christians who are obviously not reading the Bible at all.  He then told me he heard on the radio at work, of a man who has made quite a bit of money selling pet care and lodging for those pets who would be left behind. That man has also been in business for several years now.  Again, I was totally dumbfounded! 

As a fellow believer who has tried and failed to "grow" in faith without committing to reading The Bible, I can speak from experience.  If you truly want to know God, if you want to retain the Love that Jesus has for you, if you simply want to grow in your faith....then read your Bible.  God has not left us empty handed to figure it all out alone or to rely only on the words and stories from others.   You can rely on HIS Word!

Please join me in prayer today for those whose faith may be at a crossroad.  Pray that they will not turn away but instead will grow and deepen their faith.    I also pray that many, myself included will also have a renewed commitment to reading and relying on The Bible. 

Thank you for Sharing Jesus Sunday with me!

Have a blessed afternoon!

Mary

Parade of Homes - House No.5

Welcome back to the fifth and final home of the Parade of Homes tours.  Thank you so much to those who have joined me along the way.  It's been such a pleasure to share these homes with my blogging friends online.  It feels like I've gone back through the homes again, but this time with many of you!  How fun!

The last home was the most challenging to photograph as it began to get a little more crowded.  I myself was also a bit tired.   Waiting for people to move out of my picture, then for my camera to focus was not my strong suit as you will see in many of these shots.  I often clicked before the camera focused so I apologize ahead of time for these fuzzy shots.  Do the other cameras that most of you own take as long to focus?  Just wondering. 

Again, the fifth home I am showing you was actually the fourth home on the tour but we got turned around and it was the last home we personally walked through.  So for blogging purposes I am calling it home no.5.  So, home No. 5 that I am showing you is 3,231 sq.ft and is called The Berkshire. There are 104 photos in this tour so sit back and relax and let's take a look!

Beautiful entrance and fantastic landscaping!

I love the color of this front door!

Wow!  Now that is a dramatic foyer!

The dining room was immediately to the left of the foyer.  It was not very easy to photograph due to the fact that they had it roped off.  I was not happy about that.

I really did like this mirror.

I thought the glittery fuzzy details on the top of these drapes was very interesting.  I've never seen anything like it before, have you?

Very hard to photograph, but I think you can tell the walls were painted a shiny silver color.

This was the lighting fixture in the formal living room, another room that was roped off.  Ughh!

I love, love, loved this rug!

Half bath in the foyer.

Now we moved on to the two bedrooms on the right side of the house just past the foyer.

Bedroom No.1

So cute!  The walls were a mixture of paint and textiles.

I really liked the shared bathroom just off the hall between these to rooms.

I thought the interior decorator did a fantastic job picking out the shower curtain fabric to accent this wallpaper.  That would not have been easy to do but I love this choice!

Cute towel decor ideas!

Now let's move on.  I love this room!  I was very excited about this because it is painted by a local artist who just so happens to live on my side of town and is my mothers neighbor.  The artist is Susan Brush.  She has done many of the parades for years and has quite a portfolio of customers.  She has gotten many assignments all over the state.  I think if I remember correctly she started out painting furniture.  I remember many,many, years ago going over to her house to see what furniture pieces she was redoing in her basement.  I love her success story!

I bet I don't have to tell you the theme of this room, do I?

Fabulous work Susan!  This was absolutely magical!

Loved the drapes in here too!

Okay, now we make our wake back into the den and kitchen.

I loved these drapes!  So sorry, I didn't get a good shot of them for you.

We loved the color of these bar stools.

Beautiful glass tile back splash.

Isn't this just the neatest built in feature.  I thought so!

So glad I got focused to show you this.  I am not a fan of the barrel lighting but I really loved these! 

Now before we go into the Master Suite let's go out on the porch located off of the den.

Yes ladies!  Our beautiful blog land blue is in everywhere this year!

Gorgeous stamped concrete porch.

I had to get a photo of this to show my husband.  This railing is aluminum.  I loved this!  No painting required and worrying about your porch railing warping over time as ours has.  Excellent low maintenance idea!

I got extra photos of this fire pit because we thought it was definitely an achievable job for a DIY project.

I was surprised this was the only water feature we saw along the tour this year.  I guess with the economy still in recovery some things didn't make the cut.  After all the builders goal is to sell these homes and I'm sure expensive water features cost a bundle.  Personally, I would have to remove the fallen tree from this feature though as it would drive me crazy!  LOL!

Looky, looky!  A bottle tree!

I wish I could have captured how BIG this bowl was..it was seriously huge!

Okay, it' really hot out so let's go back in.

Beautiful built in nook in the hallway to the master.

Master Suite

Did you notice how much black was in this home, including the doors.  I certainly did!  Woohoo! 

Master Bath

I loved the accent tiles in this floor.  Look how it just shimmered!

I love the mirror on mirror look.

More beautiful glass tile.

Loved the wall!

Beautiful built in by the commode. 

Now we moved on from the master suite to the hall way that led to the garage, laundry room and a stairwell up to the bonus area.

The laundry room was very hard to photograph because it was dark wood and painted a deep orange.

Upstairs we come to a bathroom and bonus room for the kids.

More beautiful shower curtains.

And here we are peeking into the bonus room.  It was actually two spaces in one.

First was a very dark theatre type room.

That was separated into from a play area.   Now what kid would love this!

Talk about an indoor playground!

So creative!  What a wonderful way to end our tours!  Wasn't that fun?

I do hope you are glad you came along with me this week, I sure am!

I am also loving having these posts up because I know I will be referring back to them often when I want a little extra inspiration.  That's what these tours do for me.  Both my husband and my friends husband are always saying these home tours are going to cost them a bundle, because we come back wanting to change everything.  LOL!  Do we ever do it?  No!!!!!

But hey a gal can dream can't she???

I know I always do!

I hope you all have a great weekend!
Mary