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At The Picket Fence with Vanessa Hunt

Where Ideas for your Home Meet Inspiration for your Heart

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May 3, 2014

Parade of Homes Tour ~ Hymns and Verses

We are so thrilled to have another beautiful home for you to tour today as part of our ongoing Parade of Homes Series here At the Picket Fence!

hymns and verses home tour

We absolutely adore our friend Doreen from the blog Hymns and Verses. Not only because she inspires us daily with her inspiring creations, but also because she exudes grace and beauty and her faith in God shines through in all she does.

Now, grab that cup of coffee or tea, sit back and enjoy taking the tour of Doreen’s gorgeous home!

at the picket fence parade of homes

 

I’m so excited today to be here At the Picket Fence!  I’ve followed these two girls since before I began my own blog!  I was so excited to meet them in person last year at the Haven Conference.  I was lucky enough to sit near Vanessa while she watched Heather’s presentation!  She was so proud of her sister!

I’m Doreen and I blog at Hymns and Verses, a DIY and home decor blog. Hymns and Verses is also the name of my Etsy shop where I sell home decor items based on song lyrics.   I love it when you listen to or see the words of a song, you remember all the memories that go with it!
My home is in Lancaster County, PA, where I live with my husband and my three sons.   Last spring we painted the front door and shutters.  I have to say, I’m still in love with my blue front door!

My living room was one of the first rooms I made over when I began my blog.  The barn door sign that hangs above the sofa is one of my favorite projects.

There is a lot of DIY decor throughout my home – like this hymn page wreath.

I love to decorate with natural elements – like this wire vine topiary on my mantel.

This is a shot from the living room into the dining room.

This is another project piece that I love and we actually use!  It’s an old door turned into a family message center.  You can see all the details here.  This song kept running through my head when we had our first real taste of spring a few weeks ago and I decided to write the lyrics on the chalkboard.

This little cottage style buffet has a real trash to treasure story – isn’t the power of paint amazing!

Some of my favorite pieces of furniture are those that have been passed down through my family.  The corner cabinet belonged to my grandmother  and my dad had his first meals at the yellow high chair (although it wasn’t yellow then!).

This past winter we did some work in the kitchen area.  We updated our cabinets with some trim and paint, build the range hood,  and made over the formica counters with concrete.

This eye chart is one of the newer items for sale in my shop!

This is a view of the other side of the kitchen – my antique bucket bench decorated for spring.

Off the dining room is my favorite place this time of year – the screen porch!  Last spring I found the vintage glider and chairs!  They were in pretty rough shape, but I took them to a local shop to be sandblasted and powder coated and love them!  Where the back yard ends, the farmer’s field begins.  When I’m outside late at night, I can hear the horse drawn Amish buggy’s clip clopping down the road.

I love the outdoors and my back yard almost seems like an extension to my home.  Here’s my potting bench made from an old door.

My sister’s Schwinn bicycle circa early 1960’s.


My potting shed shutters and window boxes are the same blue as my front door!

Thanks, again, Heather and Vanessa, for having me today!   If you’d like to see more of my home, I’d love for you to come by for a visit at Hymns and Verses.

Doreen

14 Comments Filed Under: Decorating, Parade of Homes

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Comments

  1. Holly says

    May 3, 2014 at 9:08 AM

    L.O.V.E. it all!! Ü

    Reply
  2. Kerry Purcell says

    May 3, 2014 at 9:15 AM

    What a beautiful area and a wonderful inspiration! Thanks so much for sharing . . .

    Reply
  3. martina says

    May 3, 2014 at 9:38 AM

    Fabulous tour ladies…love Dorren’s beautiful home!!

    Reply
  4. FABBY says

    May 3, 2014 at 11:36 AM

    Thank you so much for the tour, it’s great and I enjoyed it so much! Very charming, lovely and cozy home!
    Enjoy your weekend ladies!

    FABBY

    Reply
  5. Shannon @ Fox Hollow Cottage says

    May 3, 2014 at 4:19 PM

    Hi girls! Love seeing Doreen over here with you. Such a treat to get to see lots of her pretties in one post. I don’t recall seeing her porch or that darling patio set before. And her door turned mail station is an all time fav in all of blog land!

    Happy weekend 🙂 Shannon

    Reply
  6. Barbara from 21 Rosemary Lane says

    May 3, 2014 at 6:20 PM

    Oh what a fairy tale home!!! And such beautiful photos to boot. I love Lancaster Pa…it is where I went to college back some 30 years ago and never stopped loving all of the captivating farms and countryside. Truly a very special place indeed. The porch and its view are really spectacular! Thank you so much for sharing. Have a wonderful weekend!!
    XO Barbara

    Reply
  7. Kathy @ Creative Home Expressions says

    May 3, 2014 at 7:24 PM

    I just recently found Doreen’s blog and have enjoyed seeing the pictures of her home. She has done a great job! So nice to see her featured here today. I have to go back and check out her concrete counters post now because my husband and I were just discussing some way to update our kitchen counters.

    Reply
  8. Ginny says

    May 4, 2014 at 5:56 AM

    I too loved this tour! What color is your front door?I am redoing my kitchen and would love that on my walls!

    Reply
  9. Shirley@Housepitality Designs says

    May 4, 2014 at 2:33 PM

    I so love Doreen’s home…the details in her home are so wonderful and I love seeing her outdoor areas…the property is beautiful and such a beautiful sense of serenity…Her home is one that from the moment you approach the front door says a very loving family lives here!!

    Reply
  10. Jane @ Cottage at the Crossroads says

    May 4, 2014 at 6:03 PM

    Loved seeing more of Doreen’s home here today! I think I realized how talented she was when I saw her home decorated for Christmas! And I was so delighted to actually meet her last year at Haven.

    Reply
  11. Yvonne @ StoneGable says

    May 5, 2014 at 6:44 AM

    Heather and Vanessa, you picked one of my very favorite bloggers! I adore Doreen and her home! Couldn’t you just move right in! What a wonderful, God centered home!!!!

    Thanks so much for Parade of Homes! I love seeing every guest’s house! And you picked such a lovely lady and a beautiful home this week!

    Love to all 3 of you!

    Reply
  12. Julie says

    May 5, 2014 at 7:57 AM

    Beautiful Home! Loved everything, Doreen!

    Reply
  13. Sharon says

    June 22, 2019 at 10:24 AM

    I love that your home reflects both your unique decorating style and your faith in God.

    Reply
    • At The Picket Fence says

      June 24, 2019 at 3:26 PM

      Thank you so much Sharon! Your encouragement words mean so much!

      Reply

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I've been watching our cherry trees bloom for 12 y I've been watching our cherry trees bloom for 12 years now and every year I ohhhh and ahhhh over the blossoms like it's the first time I've ever seen them. I gush and I take photos (that look exactly like the ones I took the year before and the year before that) and I make my family come outside and look at them with me which you know they just LOVE to do. 😉 I think that is one of the main reasons why I love spring so much. On the one hand, it's predictable and yet, on the other hand, it still feels like such a surprise after the long months of barren branches.

And yesterday, as I was staring at the gorgeous blossoms for the umpteenth time, I couldn't help but think that I hope this is how I feel when our lives return to some semblance of normalcy.

I hope that the predictable feels special and that the typical feels anything but. I hope that I ohhh and ahhh over the simple things I've realized I've taken for granted. And, most of all, I hope that feeling doesn't go away for a very, very long time! 💗
Are you living with great expectation friends? Bec Are you living with great expectation friends? Because He is risen!

Happy Easter from my home to yours!
Lemon bars all ready for tomorrow! It’s going to Lemon bars all ready for tomorrow! It’s going to be a different kind of Easter for sure but some things don’t change. Have you been baking and getting ready for tomorrow? What’s one thing on your menu that you have to have every year?
If this is Good Friday, why doesn’t it feel so “good”? It all seems backward doesn’t it?

What could be good about the unspeakable pain he suffered? What could be good about the shame and betrayal?

Easter Sunday is so joyful, bright and cheery. Shouldn’t that be the day we call “good”? It just feels so much better!

But, I don’t know how to rejoice over His resurrection, unless I have felt the pain of His death. I have realized that in life the sweetest victories are the ones which were realized after a pain-filled journey.

And, so it is with Good Friday. I know there will be victory over death, but I can’t skip ahead in the story.

Jesus knew what was coming. He knew what he would experience. And he knew why he would go through it. He did it for me. He did it for you.

Do you know that? Have you felt it down in the very core of your soul? 
Sometimes it makes me squirm a bit. Why would anyone do that for me?

Well, because, I can’t do it for myself!

There is nothing I can do to earn that kind of love and mercy.

That is why it is called GRACE.

His grace is freely given. We don’t have to pay for it. He paid the price for us already.

Do you remember that movie from years ago called “Ransom”? A couple’s young son was kidnapped and the parents went to hell and back trying to find him and pay the “ransom” demanded by the kidnappers.

Well, Jesus is our “ransom”. (1 Timothy 2:6) His life was the payment.

Why is it called “Good Friday”? Because that wasn’t the end of the story….
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Raise your hand if there’s a table in your house Raise your hand if there’s a table in your house that’s become the landing zone for ALL THE THINGS! 🙋🏻‍♀️🤪 I’ve never been more thankful for our rarely used dining room table as it’s become command central for school books and laptops and games.

Where are things collecting in your house right now?
“Sighing, tears, frustration, anger.” Every si “Sighing, tears, frustration, anger.” Every single one of these emotions has made their way through our home in recent days and, my guess is, they have in your home too.

I SO needed this reminder today from the new book ‘Adore’ by @sarahagertywrites.

Adoration isn’t just sitting at His feet gazing longingly with stars in my eyes. It’s bringing my fears and my sorrows and gray roots in my hair that desperately needs to be colored and my messy house and all of the things that threaten to send me over the edge right now and laying them down before Him, soaking up His word and His presence so that when I stand back up, I am changed for having spent the time adoring the ONE who is... Healer, comforter, peace-giver, deliverer, redeemer.

What do you need to bring to Him today? I’ll share mine in the comments and I’d love to hear from you too!
I’ve always loved evenings, but since this whole I’ve always loved evenings, but since this whole lockdown thing began, I’ve come to appreciate this time of day even more.

It feels the most...normal. Daytime is strange and foreign right now. My husband has taken over our home office, I’m suddenly taking over the responsibility of managing my kids’ distance learning and let me just say that teaching 7th grade algebra to my daughter is hugely ironic since I struggled with math all the way through school. I’m trying to do my own work but it feels utterly futile with the constant interruptions which take precedence right now. In the daytime, I’m constantly reminded of how upside down life feels.

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So now I love evenings even more than I ever did before and I’m so grateful for this little chunk of time where the rhythms we established years ago are helping to sustain us now when so much of life feels outside of our control.

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If you don’t absolutely HAVE to make a decision right now, I want to encourage you to wait until life gets back to normal. If you are finding yourself over-analyzing relationships and family dynamics, I want to encourage you to remember that everything seems more dramatic when looked at under a microscope. And, let’s face it, being homebound with our loved ones non-stop makes us all feel like lab rats in an experiment.

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