Give us This Day - Dressed in Pink

For many years I've relished the Lord's prayer and the daily bread kind of surrender that counts on God to give me what I need for each day. He encourages me to have an EVERYDAY trust in Him. He knows what I need, He likes me to ask Him for it, and He even tells me how to do so. You know me and decisions; I like not having to wonder. So I take the prayer He offers:

Matthew 6:9-13

Our Father which art in heaven, 

hallowed be thy name

Thy kingdom come, 

thy will be done in earth, 

as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, 

and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Lead us not into temptation, 

but deliver us from evil: 

for thine is the kingdom, 

the power and the glory forever. 

Amen.

I began praying this, not as rote recital, but as words of honor and acknowledgement, of provision and forgiveness, words given to me by God to offer back to Him so I would remember to lean on Him, the one who owns the kingdom, holds the power and reigns in glory forever. 

Granted, the repetition of something has a tendency to make it sort of invisible, inaudible, incomprehensible. The mind blocks it out and then thoughts wander because it's easy to go into auto pilot when something is very familiar. So instead of just reciting, I take my time, think it through, picture what I'm saying and what each line and word means. If my thoughts wander, I stop and repeat it until I'm speaking the thoughts TO God about right now, rather than just parroting old words strung together without careful thought.

The reason I tell you this is that after I finished painting the tall chest of drawers in my living room (I'll show you that next time), I got to work painting the bigger of the two trays in this load of stuff I showed you last week. It's one of the trays I found at Goodwill, and the words, "Give us this day our daily bread" are carved into the wood. Ah, ha! How appropriate!

Wouldn't you know I didn't have a good shot of the tray up close when it was brown. You think I'd learn, but no. It was a pretty dreary tray in it's brown phase. The words which I find so significant were difficult to make out on the tray as it was, and that was no good, because they mean something to me and I wanted them to stand out a bit.



Since this old house is also in need of some shots of happy color here and there, I decided to go bold with pinks and corals that might set off some stylish sparks of attraction with my aqua furniture. I had a sample of some pink paint, but by itself, "Double Bubble" came to mind. So I employed a blended treatment for some lights and darks and color variation.

Trying to play it smart, I practiced on a piece of scrap wood first, that way I could settle the look I was going for ahead of time. The practice wood was turning out, and I got distracted a bit attempting to add a wispy flower to it. (I'm not a painter, so I was almost impressed with myself because it actually looked a bit like a wispy flower.) Now it seems to be calling out for a certain verse. Kinda wish I had practiced on a better piece of wood so the accidental happy outcome wasn't wasted. This piece of wood broke off unevenly from a larger piece, so it isn't really very good for a sign.  I'll kinda like it in the right setting, despite it's odd shape. Perhaps some other painted boards could be connected to it with rope or whatnot to make something intruiging. Hmmm...we'll see about that later. Back to the tray!

For now, I give you the daily bread tray...in coral and pink. Painting the tray proved less than successful at first. It was hideous in fact, but after many layers and much trial and error, this was the result. Well, if you are scrunching up your nose trying to decide if you like it, or if you think it's iffy (or even hideous), I assure you, there was even more serious iffyness along the way. Upon seeing the first layer of bubble gum pink, Casey offered up her own iffy thoughts, "That's an interesting choice." she said, leaving her doubts hanging about in carefully crafted linguistics. She's a tactful little smarty pants. 

Okay, I know. It is a bit pink! But really, it's not this electric looking in the room.

Did you notice that I managed to match the color of the tray to the snapdragons?  Accidental talent, I tell ya!

To create this color blend, the tray was coated in white, then homemade chalk paint created with the pink paint was brushed over most of the surface. Using my finger(s), I smeared Deep Coral Shiny Fabric Writer paint around here and there and edged with some white. White paint was forced into the recessed picture and words and the excess was wiped off with a damp paper towel.

Some of the wood is still showing through the paint. I'll have to go back and fix that and give the recessed areas another treatment. I thought the dark of the wood would offer a nice contrast, but for this bright and colorful accent piece, the white seems more appropriate.

It's definitely vibrant, but that's what the house needs sometimes, and it really won't often be seen from the angle shown in the picture just above. It will have a smaller profile when in use, like this:



Plus, the pink and coral beats the original brown and gives this traditional tray a fresh, modern penache. Don't worry, it's a small dose of flamboyance, and I doubt I'll start painting everything in the house coral and pink like I did when I got going with the aqua...

...but then, one never knows, does one? Hey, at least I'm branching out.

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