November 1

It's November already! Can't believe it, can you?
Last year, I did a Thankful Challenge for the month of November.  I am in a pretty thankful mood today - just thinking about all of my blessings.  I'd like to start the month counting my blessings.

I am blessed with a loving husband who works hard to provide for our family.  He leads our family spiritually and would do anything to protect us. He would give the shirt off his back to anyone in need and he sets a good example of generosity and compassion.  Love him!

I am blessed with beautiful step-daughters who let me love them and love me more than they have to.

I am blessed with parents who have always shown unconditional love to me.  There's nothing I can do to make them stop loving me - of this I'm sure!

I am blessed with the best girl friends I could ask for.  I don't know what I would do without them!

I am blessed with a sweet church family who loves and supports and welcomes without ceasing.

I am blessed with knowing what it means to serve.  I wouldn't trade anything for my experiences in Honduras.  I am thankful for Mission Lazarus and my friends in Honduras.

I am blessed with a group of children that I get to spend time with weekly.  I am especially thankful for getting to go trick-or-treating with them last night and being part of their joy!

My list could go on and on!  

What are you blessed with?

Fall Festival Craft Fair

Happy Fall, Y'all!
It's been a while - again.  I've been super busy with my Etsy shop, family, and other duties.  But, I think I'm caught up enough to get back into a regular blogging routine.  We will see how that works out!

This past weekend was the Fall Festival at my church.  It is always a fun time for not only our church, but the people in community.   This year we added a craft fair to help raise money for missions.  The amount each person paid for a table plus donations made at the fair all went to buy Bibles for our jail ministry.
I decided to try selling some things at the fair.  I was hoping to earn a little money towards something I've been saving for in order to grow my business.  I was blown away by the response to my items!!!  I can't wait to start adding to my line in the Etsy shop - stay tuned to see what I'm doing with the money!!!

I haven't done many fairs/shows, so I wasn't sure how good my table would look.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!  Those owls were almost gone after 3 hours!  I sold several towels and a few sweatshirts too!

Better Arms - Challenge!

Now that tank top season is over, it's time to make my arms look better, right?  Ha!  I always do things at the least logical time, but at least I'm doing something, right?

I found this pin on Pinterest a long time ago.

Those arms on April 29 - yup!  I recognize them.  I'd like to have the July 9 arms, please!

I clicked the link and found a very easy (please don't be too good to be true) arm workout that can be done in just a few minutes with a set of hand weights.  I deflated my exercise ball and I can't find the pump, so I used the edge of my couch as my ball.

I started today and plan to do it every week day all the way until November 7.  Hoping for some great results!

Here's the workout from losing-every-extra-pound.tumblr.com

I Love My Husband 2

Today I wan to focus on changing myself.
Do I think I need to change?  Of course not!  I'm a perfect wife and my husband should thank God every day for a woman like me! :)  Right?
I can think of things that my husband needs to change to make me happy, but I can't change him.  And every time I try to force him to be different, it backfires.
Please tell me I'm not alone on this!

So, today I will try to see what I can change to cultivate more peace in my marriage.

I cannot control his tone of voice.  BUT I can control my own reaction to it.
I cannot control what time he gets home for dinner.  BUT I can change how much of my mood depends on the hands of the clock.
I cannot change whether he rinses his dishes or not.  BUT I can control whether I give him the silent treatment for  "not respecting my job as homemaker."
Now, I know that these are all minor details, but I promise they feel major when I'm letting them rob my household and my marriage of peace.
Today I focus on peace and MY role in that peace.

Father, please bring your peace into our home.  Help us be aware of our own moods and attitudes.  Help us desire Your perfect peace above our own pride.  Remove the hurt, attitudes, and misconceptions that create distress.  Help us treat each other with respect without judgment.  Keep our expectations of each other realistic.  Protect us from elevating stress that can lead to fights.  Thank you for loving us and for giving us each other.  We love you, Lord.

Amen!

I Love My Husband

I really really really love my husband, BUT...
Marriage ain't easy.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about relationships of all kinds lately.  I'm truly blessed with a good man for a husband, parents and siblings who love me, amazing girlfriends who would do anything for me, and step-daughters who I adore.

I am blessed with relationships.

But they are hard!

Especially marriage!
This week, I want to focus on praying, not only for my own marriage, but for marriage as an institution.  Of course, I'll focus on the wife's perspective because...well, because I am one!

***Let me remind you that I am no marriage expert/counselor/Biblical Scholar.  I'm just a plain old housewife with a desire to make my marriage the best it can be and I'm inviting you to come along!***

I think we live in a very interesting time in society.  While I appreciate a lot about the feminist movement (mostly that women were created with as much value as men), there are a lot of things about it that have damaged relationships between men and women.
While we ARE created equal, we are NOT created the same.  Men and women are just different!  It is a fact and it gives the world balance.  I'm not saying that every man or every woman can be put in the same box either...which adds even more complication!  I am saying that there are things that are typically "male" and typically "female" and putting those things together can be both beautiful and disastrous.

So...onto my focus for today!

Think about the days when you first met each other.  Maybe it was love at first sight.  Maybe a friendship (like our relationship).  Maybe you couldn't stand the sight of him!  No matter the start, we all had those first few months, maybe even years, of romantic "perfection" (a.k.a. infatuation).  Think about when you fell in love.  Look at pictures, listen to music, visit a place - do whatever it takes to remember those days.  Try to revive some of those giddy feelings.  Remember the butterflies in your stomach or the way you couldn't fall asleep without thinking about him.  

Now try to hold onto those memories and those feelings all day today.  Try to have that same giddy attitude when you see your husband today.  No matter what his mood is!

Father, I love you.  I know you love my husband more than I ever could.  Please pour your love for him through me today.  Let me be an instrument of your amazing mercy and grace and adoring love to him.  Help me remember the way I so easily adored him in the beginning. Protect us from being jaded by the mess of life.  Protect us from distractions from each other.  Protect us from distractions of being one in You.  Help me make my husband feel the way I did when we first met.  Please give us that spark  of romance and excitement.  Let it return at the right time in the future as well. Thank you for creating marriage and giving us a partner through this life.  You are the author of it all.  Your will be done in our marriage and in all marriages.

AMEN

New Favorite Bible Verse

So, I'm reading through the Bible in a year.
I was recently reading about Abraham and Sarah.  When Sarah found out that she was to have a baby in her old age, she said:

I LOVE that!!!

I love to laugh, and even more, I love to share my laughter.  All of those sayings: If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane, Laughter is the best medicine, etc. are so true!

This decal is on my MacBook Pro.  If you'd like one in your favorite verse or quote, visit my etsy shop!

My Genius Pin Cushion!

I've been a busy little sewing bee lately!  Now that I've found the hang of it, I'm really enjoying it and I'm trying more and more projects.
One thing that has been bugging me is trying to find a place for straight pins as I pull them out while I'm sewing on the machine.  And slightly less irritating is trying to pull a pin out of the tangle of pins in the little box they come in without poking myself!
Well, a pincushion wasn't quite what I was looking for.  I wanted a magnetic contraption of some sort (because I'm also tired of spilling pins and picking them out of the carpet).
So, on one of my many trips to the many craft store in my area, I looked at the various pin holding devices.  The cute little magnetic piece of plastic was $15.  Seriously?  No thanks.
Yesterday I was in another of the many craft stores and I decided i would make my own.  I went to the magnet section and found that one package of magnets that would be strong enough to hold a bunch of pins was $7.99.  I now that $8 isn't that much in the grand scheme of things, but I wasn't interested in paying that much for magnets.
Suddenly, the heavens opened...
and the angels sang...
and a bright light shone down from above.

Ok

That didn't actually happen, but I did find this little thing.

This little magnetic eraser is meant for cleaning a dry erase board, but genius struck and I decided to give it a shot!  Besides, it was only $1.49!!!

Guess what!  It is perfect!  The pink part is kind of grippy, so it stays where I put it on my sewing table.  The magnet is strong enough to hold several pins at one time.  I can even carry it around with me without losing pins.

The eraser part of it is soft and self-healing (so far) so I can poke the pins into if I want.

I'm very very proud of this little find!!!

Give a Hoot - New Project

Hey y'all!
I've been MIA for a little while - traveling, getting a daughter off to college, taking care of a friend's cutie pie kids.  Writing has taken a back-burner to those things, as it should have.
But I have been busy working on a few things that I want to share; my favorite of which I want to share today!
If you know me, you know my heart lives in the mountains of Honduras at Mission Lazarus.  Our family travels there about 3 times a year and I fall more and more in love every time.  I hope to share more about our trip in July with you in a future post.  For now, I want to share an opportunity for you to help me support ML.
It's called....(drumroll, please)...

Here's how it works:

• Think of Toms or Bobs - Buy one, Give one
• I'm making one of a kind owls in all sorts of textures and patterns.
• You buy an owl (small, medium, or large) and I make a coordinating small owl toy to give to a child in Honduras.  (get it?!?!  GIVE a HOOT!!!)
• The owl for the child will be delivered by me on my next trip that involves food and clothing distribution.
• I'm really excited about having a sewing circle at church with women and girls.  We can teach the children to sew and maybe a little more than that too!  They will help me stuff and close the owls that will be delivered.  The children at church love to be part of the Honduras mission too!

My first Owl was for my daughter, a freshman in college.  I had scraps leftover from making pillows for her bed and knew I wanted to make an accent pillow with it.  That's how the owl was born!

Here is part of the clutch?/flock?/whatever a group of owls is called.  Each one has a name - and you get to name the donated owl!

And here is my etsy page, where my little friends will soon appear!  Don't forget, every owl you buy means a cute little Honduran kid gets a new toy!!!

Chalk Paint

First things first - have you missed me?
I've been busy doing non-crafty things and doing nothing.  I just needed a break from sharing.  I've needed to re-charge my batteries and find some new inspiriation.

With that said, I'm on a new crafting roll!  My current obsession is Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.
My BFF bought a new table at Ikea and decided to paint it and embellish it herself.  She visited out local Annie Sloan dealer and was welcomed into a whole new world of painting possibilities!
And when one of us is welcomed to a new world, we all are!
Since I won't be refinishing any large pieces until we have a house, I had to start small.

I bought this black glossy frame at 50% off at least a year ago.  I've been waiting to find just the right treatment for it.
Annie Sloan Paint is very high quality and VERY expensive.  I decided to try to make my own.
I found Valspar paint in sample size at Lowe's for about $3.  The color is Tropical Oasis.

I just added a table spoon of the grout to half a cup of the paint (about half of the sample size) and started painting it on with a brush I already had.

Some of the crevices looked a little cracked, but I forged ahead!

Sanding was next.  I had a simple little sanding block that I rubbed all over my frame in a very deliberate hap-hazard way.  I just sanded until it looked worn.

I was afraid to start glazing/waxing without ever doing that before so i grabbed a candle stick off the mantel and roughed it up too.

I brushed on some antique glaze and rubbed it off with a cheese cloth.

seriously...

It was that simple and I love the result!

So then I felt brave enough to continue with the frame.

 And I LOVE her!!!  It is pretty much exactly what I had in mind, but better!  And so easy!
I think my total cost was something like this:
Frame: Already had it, but paid $16
Paint: $3
Un-sanded Grout: $12, but will make TONS of paint in the future
Glaze: $20, but will be used for many many more projects

What to do next???

She's Ready to POP Baby Shower!

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before that I have some of the greatest friends in the world.

Seriously.

You should be jealous . . . don't hate.

One of my very bestest friends is having a BABY!!!  We can't wait to meet baby #3 and find out who he/she is!

This pasty Sunday, we had a fabulous gender neutral red and aqua She's Ready to Pop baby shower!!!

Everything went with our theme- including the food.

We had popcorn, veggie pops, cake pops, fruit pops, Soda pop, and Cherry Poppin' Punch!

Our favors even matched the them - Ring Pops, Tootise Pops, and Blow Pops!