All Things Bright and Beautiful

Lately, I have been celebrating beauty. Looking around, I've seen the most beautiful things - of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, that's something I believe with all my heart. Some may look at a landscape of colorful trees in the fall and feel there is no greater beauty. Others may prefer to go to an art museum and look at oil paintings. A man may look at a woman and think there is nothing more beautiful in the world. All these things are beautiful, of course. But today, I want to give a glimpse of some things I find to be extraordinarily beautiful. Man-made or not, glory to God for creating such things and the people who make them.


Vincent Olinet
Pas encore mon histoire - installation view Wanderland, Tilburg, 2008
Via laurentgodin.com


Via schalott.tumblr.com


Via september-irises.tumblr.com

Not much to this post, but just felt like sharing some pretty things with you.
Here's a quote to end on:

“Love beauty; it is the shadow of God on the universe.”
Gabriela Mistral

And a verse:

"He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end."
Ecclesiastes 3:11

As I'm getting further and further into my wedding planning, I am getting so excited to become Mrs. McVey! Today I am going to write about my fiance and how great he is, so for the un-romantic and cynical, you have been warned.

How We Met

At the beginning of my sophomore year of college, I was a music major. I was required to take an instrumental course (besides Piano, which I'd taken already). I had signed up to take the introductory guitar class with my roommate. It was a once-a-week class, and I ended up dropping it so I could take Opera instead. I only went to the class 3 or 4 times. Patrick was in the class, too. However, I wouldn't say I met him there - we never talked in Guitar class, but that was when we first became aware of one another's existence. I noticed him (what girl doesn't notice a cute guy in her class?) but didn't think much of it, because I didn't know the guy :) But then, a few days or weeks (hard to remember now) later, he added me as a friend on Facebook. A moment of honesty: I had to ask my roommate who he was. She had a class with him the previous semester, so she reminded me that he had been in Guitar class with us, so I accepted his friend request. He started "facebook chatting" me. At the time, I thought this was SO ridiculous! What a silly boy. We had some mutual friends, one of whom tried to set us up by inviting both to hang out at the same place at the same time, but Patrick just didn't talk to me! At some point, he actually asked me to go get coffee with him, and I said yes (sure, the facebook chatting was lame, but he was so cute! I couldn't turn him down!) so we went to a local coffee shop. I expected him to be a little shy, just because he hadn't spoken to me outside facebook... boy, was I wrong. We were there a few hours, and I barely had to contribute to the conversation! I can be a bit of an introvert, so I was happy that he was so talkative. After that, we started hanging out more often, going on walks, eating Dominoes Pizza, and watching movies. Through our conversations, he had learned that I was very protective over my heart and would not give it to any man who had not promised his heart to me. Unfair, but it was something I felt very strongly about. One night, Patrick pulled me aside and said something that has changed my entire life: He told me that he wanted to offer his heart to me, and to take my time and consider if I would like to offer mine to him as well. And I did take my time. Soon after this, I went on a trip to Guatemala and had NO communication with him for over 3 weeks. Even after I got home from Guatemala, I didn't see him for a few weeks, as it was Christmas break and we live a state away from each other. When I got back to school, we started hanging out a lot again, talking a lot about dating, but he knew I wanted to take things slowly. I'd never been anyone's "girlfriend" before. But he waited until I was ready, and when I was, I told him so.

My First Boyfriend

One night, I went with Patrick to his parents' house, where he was living at the time. We were going to eat dinner with his family and watch a movie. When it got later and his family started going to bed, he said he had something for me. He gave me a small piece of paper with a clue. Which led to another clue. And another. And another. I went all through his house finding these clues, some of which came with presents (because who doesn't love those?). The second to last clue led me to his bedroom, where his closet was filled with TONS of balloons. I was told to pop the balloons until I found the final clue (which wasn't really a clue at all). It simply said "Turn around." Patrick was standing behind me, and he said some of the sweetest things to me, and asked me to be his girlfriend. There was nothing that would have made me happier.



We're engaged now, of course, and I am so happy to be getting ready to marry this sweet, wonderful man, and I am so grateful that God led me to Patrick! That wedding and the lifetime that will follow couldn't come soon enough.

Materialism

On my Tumblr the other day, I received the following message:

You are incredibly materialistic :( Looking at your blog makes me sad for you. You say you love Jesus? And I am confused because Jesus did not love material things? Perhaps stop blogging and read your Bible?

When I first read this, I was deeply saddened that someone felt this way about me. Of course, as the message was anonymous and I do not typically advertise my Tumblr to people I know in real life, I am almost positive whoever sent the message knows nothing about me except what I post on Tumblr. However, I wanted to share the message on this blog as well as my response in a more detailed manner, because I do think it's important.
Here was my response (which I have edited a bit after re-reading) to the message:

Dear Anon,

If I ran a blog about art, sports, or music would you think twice about it? Why am I allowed to be passionate about those things, but not about fashion?

Newsflash: fashion IS art. I am blogging about things that make me happy, things that I enjoy. Besides that, Lolita is extraordinarily modest. I feel NO moral guilt for this blog, because I have no reason to.

Lolita is expensive, and if that is where you’re getting the “materialistic” thing from, that is also unfair. Growing up, I did musical theatre, and my parents had to pay a fairly large fee for every show I was in, not to mention the gas money to drive across town every day for rehearsals. It was not a cheap hobby, but I loved it, and it made me feel like I was good at something, and gave me a sense of worth. So… was it sinful for me to do musical theatre? If someone loves football, would you judge them for buying expensive season tickets for their favourite team? If someone wants to be a musician, should they feel shameful for paying for piano lessons? No.

God never asked us not to be passionate about anything. I am still passionate about God. I only buy new clothes when I can afford it—honestly, that’s not very often. I have exactly ONE Lolita outfit, despite blogging about the fashion regularly. Regardless - even if I had a thousand Lolita outfits, you have no idea what I do with the rest of my money, how much I spend, or how much I love Jesus. You especially do not know how much I read the Bible.

Now, please don't get me wrong - I'm not saying we should use our money selfishly. But I AM saying no one should feel guilty for being passionate about something (unless, of course, the thing they are passionate about is sinful). Give what you can, both financially and prayerfully, give your time or expertise to help when help is needed, and do NOT be selfish with your money. But don't feel guilt for loving something, either.

My Favourite Styles

Over the past few years, I have been going gaga over a few different fashion trends. Many of those who follow my Tumblr have asked me about the pictures I post there, because they show some very unique and interesting styles that most people don't see every day, especially where I'm from. I have been thinking for quite awhile, "Wouldn't it be nice if I wrote out a post that I could direct people to when they are curious about my unique interests?" So today, I'll be making a list of some of my personal favourite trends with descriptions and pictures.


1. Lolita
Lolita is a fashion from Japan. It is based off of clothing from the 18th century, with many twists and sub-styles. The two types of lolita I am most fond of are Sweet Lolita and Classical Lolita. There are a few things that are constant in Lolita, despite the sub-style. For something to be considered Lolita, it must have a distinct shape that is obtained by wearing a petticoat. Lolita is also a style that values modesty, which means the skirts are typically to the knee and the necklines are modest. There are other constants, of course, but in seeing some photo examples, hopefully you will be have a better idea of what Lolita is and is not.

Sweet lolita:
Sweet lolita is defined by pastels and cutesy themes/accessories. Here are some of my favourite examples of Sweet:

Classic lolita:
Classic lolita offers a much more mature look than Sweet. Here are some of my favourite examples of Classic:

2. Fairy Kei
Another style with pastels! Fairy Kei is sometimes confused with Sweet Lolita, but it is very different. It's much more casual, for one thing! Fairy Kei is also a Japanese style, but it takes inspiration from the 80's, not the 18th century like Lolita! You'll see what I mean with some examples:

3. Soft Grunge/Pastel Goth
Stay with me here - I know the term "Goth" can be a turn-off to some people, but this is not what you are expecting. Pastel Goth (again with the pastels!) is beautiful to me! A few of my favourites:

As far as the details of what these styles are (and what they are not), hopefully someday I can do a more detailed post on each of them. For now, I hope the very basic introduction will peak your interest! Thanks for reading!


*Note: I own none of the photos in this post. The majority of them have been found floating around the internet, and I do not even have a source for many of them. If any of these photos are your property, please let me know. I would be happy to credit you OR remove the photo. Thanks.