something beautiful

Yeah, that's right. I'm calling this post the same thing as my blog TITLE. Betcha didn't know you could do that. But I just did.

I'd like to think of it like this: you know how sometimes an artist will name their CD the same thing as one of the tracks? (Tangent: do they even make CDs anymore?) This is kinda like that. Only I named the CD 4 years ago, and today I'm writing the title track.

Today my friend Diana came over to craft. Being a good houseguest and friend, she came bearing gifts. Gifts of the crafty persuasion. Like vintage postcards. Some random scrapbook circles in 'my colors.' A fabric tree project she'd given up on but thought I might like to rescue. And some hymnals.

 Hymnals, you see, are quite the crafter's dream. This crafter, anyway. The uses for those beautiful pages of music and timeless poetry are endless. And it turns out that she brought the very same hymnals that I grew up using (The United Methodist Hymnal, anyone?)...so this, in my opinion, is THE hymnal. At least I know where to find things. Ya know, before I cut them up and decoupage the crap out of them. (Note: I saved one of the hymnals to actually like, set on the piano and use. I have been wanting one of these for my own home for years! Then I felt less guilty tearing up the other one.)

And that's exactly what I did today.  

 A lot of tearing and Mod Podge-ing.

We're messy crafters, I guess. Look at that dining room. At one point I made the mistake of referring to it as the "craft room," and Matt let me know-- in no uncertain terms-- that it was a dining room and is not and will never be a craft room. Duly noted.

My craft isn't finished yet, so there are no pictures of a final project to brag on. But you can see what I was doing. Now I have a hymn-covered canvas.

But in order to make said canvas, I first had to find a bunch of suitable hymns to tear up. Sure, I could have just used the first 20 pages or whatever. But I'm going to be hanging this on the wall (or something). I wanted them to be hymns that I particularly love. So I hunted them down.

Which meant a lot of time spent flipping through the 962 page hymnal. And as I flipped, guess what I found?

JUST GUESS!!!!

Yep, yep it is!!

A hymn named after my blog!!!!!

Who knew?!!

Wanna know the lyrics? (Can you call the words to a hymn 'lyrics'? It sounds disrespectful.)

Something beautiful, something good;
all my confusion he understood;
all I had to offer him was brokenness and strife,
but he made something beautiful of my life.

That's it. The whole song. And also, ya know, my hope and my prayer. That's all.

To say I was slightly excited when I found this would be quite the understatement. Luckily, Diana was equally jazzed at my find.

And no, I did not tear that one up. That one's a framer. Or something. Something...beautiful, dare I say? Haha.

Anyway. And don't you fret-- of COURSE I am going to learn to play it on the piano and then make a music video of myself. And never post it here. You can just imagine how awesome it will be.

So, that's my happy story for the day. In addition to discovering the Best Hymn Ever, I did some Quality Crafting, enjoyed Hanging With a Friend (not to be confused with the game app of the almost-same name, which I also enjoyed), and successfully repainted (okay, watched Matt repaint) the laundry room. I'd call it a good day. And now...good night!