Misi's Display Challenge #8 'You Light Up My Life'

Misi's latest challenge was for us to show ways we display lighting in our homes, especially now that it is getting darker earlier.

We use a mixture of electric and natural lighting in each room. If we are more 'history heavy' we light up the candles and lamps. I have to admit it is funny to be watching television with candles burning though! I love the smell of beeswax candles lit on a cool Fall day and the burnt smell that exudes from Granny's old oil lamp.

This is an Oil lamp on the dining room table. Above it hangs an antique iron candelabra that we use often, always on birthdays. One day I lit it for no special occasion and my grandson said, "Nana, who's birthday is it?"

Battery powered candle around all the old wood. I love those candles that you dip in scented wax and then dust with clove or cinnamon. So easy but breathtaking,...literally!

Whalers lamp with electricity to keep the sheep happy. I love the star pattern on the wall from the piercings in the tin. I could stare at this for quite a while.

An old porch screen candle stand my husband made for the guest bedroom. Very primitive lighting that we use often for guests. They love the ambiance that old, rusty screening creates in the bedroom.

Electric oil lamp in guest bedroom. Another one of hubby's grandmother's lamps and I have it fitted with an electric 'burner'. It adds such a romantic glow to fresh linens.

Paul Revere Old North Church lantern in the hallway with an original glass plate photograph of a Confederate artilleryman. I have two of these lamps that were official 1975 Bicentennial fixtures and they are beautiful! The picture is someone's son, maybe a Georgia boy who gave his heart to the Confederacy he loved.

Our bedroom mantle! Ooh-la-la! This is the way it is displayed year round. I love the soft reflective glow of the candles in the mirror. The fireplace surround is carved oak and original to our home. The Staffordshire dogs in the center are original and, yes, I burn a ton of candles!

The tilt top table in the hallway corner is a perfect place for a candle display. It is out of the way and convenient if I want to pick up a candle and travel to another room that is unlit.

An old make-do in husband's office made from ancient Georgia heart pine. Simple but effective design that my husband came up with. It always amazes me at the amount of light that comes from just one simple candle.

My hands doing nimble fingerwork sewing by the light of the dining room Betty Lamp with oil and a braided cotton wick. I braid the wicks from cotton sheeting and place them into vegetable oil. Colonials sometimes used precious paper twisted into a tight coil and whale oil. It works very well and we use it at nearly every Living History event we attend. The folks just love seeing its simplicty and effectiveness. I am working on another quilt right now. It will be 100% cotton in vintage prints and every stitch will be done by my hands and with a great deal of love.

The most important light in our home is a battery powered candle that sits in the window over our bed. When my daughter left home in the mid-nineties for college, I lit a candle and place it in the window and told her there would always be a light waiting for her if she ever needed to 'turn her heart t'wards home'. It applies to our two sons, too, and remains lit even today. Through many moves to different states and townships in ministry the candle always finds a prominent place in a window in the front of our house as a reminder of our commitment to our children.

You know, Jesus is the Light of the world! I thank God for His Light that shines on the path before us. I have stumbled, I have fallen, I have walked as one in total darkness but with God in my heart I walk a straight path, I get knocked down but not knocked out and I walk with sight, using blind faith. He can be your Light, too.

Blessings,

Pamela and Frank