This year has started off so fantastic! We've kicked off our workshops and I just have to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU to everyone who is coming out, sharing us, supporting us and having fun with us. You are so very appreciated, I just can't even put it in to words.
As all our friends and family know, Morton and I are not rich, have not won the lottery and are just working people who have a big dream. When you see projects like this happening, they usually include fat bank accounts, big loans, grants or other financial details that make things happen faster. Not with us.
Morton works a regular job, long hours and I spend lots of my time doing things like painting, cleaning, fixing, finding and trying to create something really special in our dear old church. It really is a labor of love for the both of us. I'm always stressing that it's a work in progress and that the best is yet to come, but I have to admit, we're all having so much fun along the way.
There are days I'm working before the sun is out on a little weird project, like pulling out all this old speaker wire and random cut wires, that seem to line the place. Since I'm an artist and crafter at heart, I save so much of what would end up in the dump to use in projects or it's reused somewhere in the church for something else.
My to do list is a note book. I have real things in there, then dreams, which will only happen if Morton actually wins the lottery. :) There are about twenty full pages of things we need to do. Then a list of priorities. Then sketches. Then dreams. It's a bit odd, but it works for us.
The thing is, there is no real set schedule for when things happen. So much of that is determined by money.
The workshops and the selling of the arts and crafts I create in the studio there are going to finance all the paints, the tiles, the new bricks, the restoration of the bell tower, replacing all the windows that just have plywood in the, redoing all the plaster in the bell tower that has been soaked from years of leaks, new roofs all over the place and the list just goes on and on.
The success of my sales and workshops will directly go to getting these projects finished much faster than we could ever do without them. When you take a workshop or purchase something from our shop, you're helping to restore this magnificent old church that has sat on this beautiful mountain for 147 years. You are really helping in an amazing way and we thank you for it from the bottom of our hearts!
Just watching what we are doing and dropping us a message from time to time really helps too! When we get tired of pulling staples out of the floor, sanding down splintered wood, painting yet another wall or arch, your messages really lift our spirits when we feel like the job might never end.
This just happened with a lovely message from someone on Facebook who sent us some historic information about this place, which Morton and I have fallen in love with and are devoted to restoring. I want to share some beautiful pictures with you.
I also invite you to knock on our door and say HELLO if you're in the area! The place is always a work in progress, but you're welcome to take a peek! See you here...Priscilla :)
Old drawings of the inside of the church structure.
Can you believe it use to look like this?
Finally, an old lithograph from 1874 of our lovely church, before additions were made. Inside you can tell from the front and back basements we have, just where the new addition was added, I believe around 1910. There is also no cemetery behind and no parish house in this picture. I love the people, the horse and buggy and seeing that something so historic and wonderful isn't left in ruin to crumble away.