A Bad Case of Identity Crisis

Y'all, it has been a rough week.  The days have seemed long, and the nights, late. Lots of piled up laundry and dirty dishes, toddler and adult tantrums (me...not the hubby).  Going to bed without cleaning the kitchen, which I despise, leaving a candle burning all night...I'm done with candles by the way, but praise God for His protection and never ending mercies.  

Just one of those weeks.  

It has been a productive one.  I completed a mural in the boys room and got several orders filled for Etsy and neighbors, but productivity comes at a cost with little ones sometimes.  And that cost this week was what could have been some precious moments with my boys and a bit of my sanity.  Looking back, I see that my focus was mostly on my failures.  I saw the mess as opposed to the blessing, I chose to see more ashes than beauty I guess you could say.  Feelings of inadequacies and frustrations, upset with myself for not reacting how I would have liked or for being more truth and less grace...Ticked off that I believed the lie.

A Story about the Prodigal Son and a Weepy Mother

Every morning, after coffee and breakfast have been fixed for the hubby and he's out the door and off to work, after diapers have been changed, after the babe has nursed and little bear has had his fill of cheerios, milk, and whatever was fixed for breakfast, we head to the playroom for an hour or so of early morning play time still in our jammies.  

A Little Heart-to-Heart over Coffee

  Goodness, I have missed you friend!  It's been a long 5 months and SO much has happened.  Little man is down for his morning snooze so I figured a little chat with you over coffee would be nice...we have some catching up to do!  If you were sitting with me right now, well, I'd be a little embarrassed.  Toys are everywhere, I'm still in my pj's, hairs a mess, and I haven't gotten around to brushing my teeth yet, but I would sure love your company.  For your sake, it's probably best that you are only reading this.  

  Where do we start.  I guess I can bring you up to date on all of the changes going on with our growing boy.  Our last chat was in May...I'm so sorry.  Bless you for being so patient with me, with my rants and whining, and for bearing with me in my sporadic posts.  May was a rough month and June, July, August, and September were pretty hard as well.  You've heard of Sleepless in Seattle, well June and July were Sleepless in North Carolina.  Teething and desiring to crawl and trying new foods kicked our backsides, along with a few other changes we weren't yet aware of.  But, we survived. 

28 Weeks and the Bump Transformation

Well my little man is just a growing…and dancing…and kicking… and I am loving every minute of this.  God has definitely blessed me with a wonderful pregnancy.  

I wanted to share my growth with y’all.  We started weekly pictures around Week 18 and I am so glad we did because it has been so much fun to look back and see what the belly looked like then and now.  

a few things I've been working on...and a few things He has been working on in me...

My oh my, how the time does fly!  We are a third of the way through 2014, folks!  I'm having a hard time taking it all in!  Life has been super busy around here lately, with job transitions, and school, (oh yeah, I forgot to mention I've gone back to school), and spring cleaning, and projects!  

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas...The Home Tour

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  And with that comes lots of projects, parties, get-togethers, and goodies.  It's been an extra busy season in our home this year with craft shows and Christmas orders. My apologies for the lack of posts this season.  I had so many fun and frugal projects to share with y'all but they will just have to wait until next year.  So, I thought I might give you the grand tour of our home sweet home...all "Christmas-fide."  

Grab a cup of cocoa or cider, turn on some Bing Crosby, and enjoy the home tour...

A Love for Sara Groves and Cabinet Doors

Here is my confession...

I have 150 gazillion projects to show y'all and tons of photos already edited to be blogged about...but sometimes, the words just won't come.  I know, it's a lame excuse to not blog and keep y'all up to date with all the things that I have been working on.  Sometimes, I get on here and upload all my pictures and start to type....

and nothing...

I'm sorry..really, I am...and I've got to do better...even if this means posts with no words, only pictures, which, let's be honest, for the most part, the pictures are the only thing we really care to see, right?!  Unless we're in need of a tutorial or a few directions...

So, here's to posts without words and only pictures, or with lots of words and no pictures, or with a little of both.

I have registered for a really exciting craft show in November...

Pour it Out...

It's that time of the year...

...for endings and new beginnings...

I was recently contacted to make a custom canvas for a sweet girl graduating from college.  Her mama wanted something special, something she could hold on to, and something in her school colors {ie... Appalachain State University...Go Mountaineers!!!}

She requested Erma L Bombeck's quote,

"When I stand before God at the end of my life,

I would hope that I would not have a single bit

of talent left and could say,
"I used everything You gave me.""

Tea Cups and Easter

I have a guilty pleasure....I do!  Well, several of them actually, when I really think about it.  None of them are bad, though, or harmful to my health, or harmful to anyone else's health, either.  

Here, I'll give you a few examples... 

biscuits

burlap

pinterest

anything covered in moss

vintage linens

sweet tea

craft supplies ( that's a big one)

all things kitchen

southern isms

Ryan Gosling and those Hey Girl quotes (LOVE)

A Christmas Simile..and a Farewall Christmas Tour

Tonight, I decided that I could equate taking down the Christmas decorations....

well...
It's like a bad break-up.

Easter Sunrises

"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.  They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.  While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.  In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen!" 

~Luke 24:1-6

I have been very blessed to have had the opportunity to spend most of my Easters at the beach...and most Easter mornings attending a sunrise service.  As a child and teenager, I remember throwing the covers back over my head and going back to sleep when Mama would call for me to get up and get ready...5:30, really?  So early!!  Funny, now that I'm 25, I still groaned a little bit at the thought of how early it was...and how cold the wind would be out on the beach. "What if Jesus would've thought it was too early, or He was too tired, or it was too cold?" Of course, leave it to Mama to make a comment like that...and the more I thought about it, I was glad she did.  It got me to thinking...

what if He had felt that way.  

Matthew 26:36-46 gives us a glimpse into the heart of Jesus at the garden the night before His death...

        "Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”  He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.  Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”  Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”  Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping.  “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter.  “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”  When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.  So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.  Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.  Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

....He stayed awake all night...IN PRAYER.  Weeping and pleading with His Father.  And can you imagine how this may have felt for God?  To hear His beloved Son cry out for another way... "but not as I will but as you will."  When I think about this scene in the garden, I see the part of Jesus that was fully man...Our finite minds cannot grasp how someone could be both fully man and fully God, and when I think of Jesus, I lean more towards the fully God part.  But this scene shows me how this affected the mortal man Jesus.  He was "overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death."  

As you read on in Matthew, you read about the horrific events that took place after He spent His night praying... He was arrested, flogged, beaten, accused, spit on, called horrible names, made to carry His own cross, nailed to, and then hung upon that same cross.  And with each step he took, each hateful word spoken, He knew that what He was doing was for them,  for me, for us...  What strength!  The world saw weakness in this Man, but the strength it must have taken to not call down 10,000 angels.  As the sky grew dark over the next 3 hours, and as the earth quaked, and the veil was torn, and the tombs released the bodies of the saints, Jesus breathed His last...  And I think about His precious little Mama, watching all of this, brokenhearted  and in anguish, just wishing she could take His place....

As I walked out on the beach in the dark, all of those verses and scenes played through in my head and my heart.  What He did for me...and it was hard for me to wake up early?  Really?  I felt so guilty and so sorry, but I was so thankful to attend that service Sunday morning.  Because as the sun rose, and the glory of God stretched out across the sea....all I could think about were those angels saying "He is not here, He has risen!"

He is so gracious to have given His life for me...and for you.  I am so thankful for His sacrifice but even more so for that glorious resurrection!  That awesome Easter Sunday some 2000 years ago brought hope...and eternal and everlasting joy to cling to....makes me think of that verse in Psalm, "Weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning."  Or in the KJV... "joy cometh."  What a blessed promise to cling to....

I don't know that I will ever see a sunrise the same...that promise that joy cometh.  Not just in the morning, but in the end, when it is finished, joy cometh, eternally.  Glory!  What a day that will be!

Thanks for allowing me to share my heart.  I did not intend on teaching a bible study or anything, I just wanted to show you some of the glorious pictures from the sunrise on Easter morning.  But I guess the good Lord had other plans...maybe you needed to hear those words today.

 Joy Cometh!

25 Ways...

So far, 2012 has been a year of lists...to do lists, shopping lists, grocery lists, things I am thankful for lists, prayer lists... For this reason, the best way I can think to commemorate 25 is with...A LIST!  And not just any list, the "25-Ways-To-Spend-My-25th-Year" List! I'm sharing it with y'all, I'm making it public, so that you can hold me (and my husband, he came up with a few of these) accountable...Here goes...

"25-Ways-To-Spend-My-25th-Year"

1. Lose 25 pounds
2. Make 25 new friends
3. Memorize 25 scriptures
4. Spend at least 25 minutes each day in prayer
5. Save $25 a week (already behind on this one)
6. Read my Bible at least 25 minutes each day
7. Try 25 new recipes
8. Tell 25 people about Jesus
9.  Visit 25 new towns or cities
10. Create 25 new projects, crafts, or tutorials
11. Eat at 25 new restaurants
12. Buy 25 new pair of shoes (this one was the hubby's idea, he's good, huh?!
13. Walk or Dance or Exercise 25 minutes a day
14. Log 25 miles on the kayak (also the hubby's idea)
15. Send at least 25 cards
16. Bake/Cook and take out 25 meals to others
17. Make 25 pints of apple butter
18. Make 25 people smile
19. Read 25 books
20. Learn (& retain) 25 new words
21. Donate at least 25 pieces of clothing
22. Try 25 new hairstyles
23. Make 25 spontaneous decisions
24. Discover 25 new flea markets, shops, etc
25. Visit the coast 25 times 

 

Here's my first new hairstyle, that's right, I'm rocking the bangs!!

...1 down 24 to go!

Resting in Him

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

Phillipians 4:6

This verse really eased my tired soul this morning. There are plenty of things in this world to be anxious about and, to be completely honest, I could find more things to be anxious about than not. But, when it comes to trials, struggles, and everyday hurdles, when it comes to life, and all the things Satan may try to place in front of me, causing that anxiety to creep up and blur my spiritual vision...all I need to know is this...

God IS enough!

He is enough. He was yesterday, He is right now, and He will be tomorrow.

I know this, but sometimes I just need the reminder. And today, I think I'll rest in this.

Today, I will not be anxious about anything, nothing at all, but I will pray and present my request to my Heavenly Father, I'll tell him what I need and how I feel, and then, I'll thank Him. I'll thank Him for hearing me, for listening, for sending me Jesus, the Mediator, my High Priest. I'll thank Him because I can boldy approach His throne and He will find me worthy, not for anything I have done or can ever do, but because Jesus was enough...because He is enough!

Pull Over, Honey... I Need a Picture!

Ok, so I know that I am not the only person who has driven past wild flowers or cotton fields and wanted to stop to take pictures. Usually I'm by myself, so that's not a possibility. But today... TODAY my darling husband was driving! I kept talking about how great a picture would look of someone and those wildflowers...I guess I talked about it enough, because before I knew it, he was pulling over onto the side of the road...YES!! As cars drove past us, me and the love of my life were in our own little world, laughing at ourselves, wondering what people driving past us might be saying. God is so good like that. To put this man into my life, and to allow us these little moments.

Life seems so busy some times, most of the times actually. Here lately, the time has been flying by....day after day, week after week. I've been trying to figure out how to make it slow down...just how exactly do you live life to the fullest? How do you make each moment count? Maybe if I lived with more intention, what if I intentionally called my daddy on my lunch break, or if I intentionally stopped to visit that widow from church, or if, with intention, I baked a pie for that sweet old man who lives down the street? What if I intentionally turned off the TV, signed off of Facebook, turned my cell phone to silent and just spent an evening with my husband, or intentionally got up an hour early to have coffee with a darling friend before work?

God's Word is full of reminders of how fleeting time is. We hear it from Job, "Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath..."(7:7), James,"What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes..." (4:14), the Psalmist "Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow..." (144:4). But those beautiful wild flowers growing on the side of the road today, they reminded me of a scripture, too. Isaiah 40:8 says, "The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever." Now this is a scripture that breathes life into my soul. My tired, overworked, super busy, not enough hours in the day, Lord, let me sleep a little longer this morning soul. Sure, life is fleeting, but thanks to God, and His Son Jesus, it doesn't end here.

No matter how quickly our life passes, God stands forever. His Word, His love, His faithfulness, His goodness, His mercy, His grace, and His offer of salvation. Forever, that means eternally. Those pretty little yellow flowers, they whispered a promise to me. In this fast-paced life, God hasn't forgotten me. You see, those flower, God put them there, He adorned them in all of their beauty, and He did it only for a moment. That grass will soon wither, and those flowers, well, they will fade...and one day, so will I...and at that moment, when my last breath is drawn, and I close my eyes, I will reopen them and find myself in the arms of Jesus. He'll sit me down, and He will take my hand, and He'll welcome His child into eternity. There, there will be no deadlines, no hurries, no worrying about being late, or if I spent enough time with my family. There, there will be forever, in front of me, and I think I will smile as I remember today. Not because of the flowers, or because of the cool fall breeze, or because of some fun pictures...but because today, I had a forever moment. A moment where, with my husband by my side, we decided to just press the pause button on life, to pull over on the side of the road, and let the world drive by. To allow the simplicity of life to breathe into our tired, busy souls, and to rejuvenate our worn-out bodies, to laugh, to be silly, to enjoy this tiny moment.

Today, I learned that, yes, I need to live my life with more intention, to open my eyes to those forever moments, and that sometimes, He's telling me to just pull over. And today, I was intentional, you see, I've driven past those flowers for years, never taking the time to stop...and today, I pulled onto the side of the road. My intentions were to take pictures, but God, His intentions were to meet me there. On His calendar that spans eternal, He had September 18, 2011 written in Bold sharpie with my name beside it, because my God, well He is an intentional God, who intentionally loves His creation, and intentionally allowed His Son to die, who intentionally conquered death, so that He could and can intentionally meet with His children.

Junking...Parte Uno

It's been a long hot summer, and I have been to "Z-E-R-O" yard sales...do you have any clue how big of a deal that is?

Typically, when it comes to 6:30 AM on Saturday morning, between the months of April and August, whether I'm here in my hometown, or down on the coast, this lady has the coffee pot brewing and is busy mapping out a detailed plan of the best spots to find treasures amidst peoples "junk." But not this summer, that is, until last weekend!!

The weather is starting to turn cool, Fall is finally tapping at my front door, and I couldn't pass up all the junk sales beckoning me to come check them out. I meant to tell you about my Saturday Steals earlier in the week, but the time has quickly slipped past me. I apologize. I thought I would share these with you because, hopefully, you'll be seeing a lot of this pop up in the future, with re-do's, tutorials, and some good old-fashioned craft-a-thons!

...Enjoy!

I made several stop before I found anything "good," and at my next to last stop, I hit the jack pot! The family called it..."The Yard Sale Before The Estate Sale" sale...anyways, I sure hate I missed gettin' to know the sweet lady that had lived here because, from all of her "stuff", we would have made great friends! I went through box after box of "crafting" supplies...this lady did anything from cross stitch, to knitting, to sewing, to iron on appliques. I guess I will refer to her as...The Matriarch of Crafting.

After about an hour of sitting on the front porch, in craft heaven, i ended up with a whole box FULL of goodies! Embellishments, thread, old jewelry, wiggly eyes, ribbon, yarn, rick-rack, etc...but my favorite...LACE! Oh, what a lovely box of goodness!! And all for only $10.00!! I really hope this lady knew Jesus, because I'd love to meet up with her in Heaven, spending time chatting it up with this precious woman, spending hours on end talking, and laughing, and creating!


...The next place I found was by complete accident. I decided to stop by one of our local basement flea markets, and someone was having a Junk Sale right outside. Here I found another beauty... a cute 4 foot tree with grapevine sprigs! Are you ready for this?... $2.00!!

I'd like to say that this was my favorite piece, but I really love everything that I found that day. They are each favorites, but in different categories!! SO this favorite would be, um, My Favorite Best Deal...no let's make that Steal, My Favorite Best Steal!

Inside the flea market, I found a nice, big, black frame and a really pretty silvery spray. You will definitely being seeing these two items later. I'm already in the process of working on that frame, although, it's not black anymore...spray paint can do wonders!! And those sprays will be finding themselves part of some beautiful Christmas wreaths! The frame was a favorite, My Favorite Future Re-Do, I can just feel that it is gonna be wonderful.

...And last but not least, the last stop of the day...Habitat for Humanity. This place will never let you down!!

Words can't describe the treasures I found here...these were totally a favorite, too!! I'll call these My Favorite Because They Are Yellow!...Ya'll I didn't even know I liked yellow. After Saturday, yellow has a new meaning to me, it is now one of those c0lors that makes my heart dance! Are they not just gorgeous!!

I bet I took about 25 pictures of these saucers...LOVE them! I'll be honest, I have NO idea what I'm gonna do with them yet, but whatever it is, it is gonna be FANTASTICO!!! You will be seeing a lot more pictures of these, too, probably!!

I promise, I will not break them! I'll, maybe, re-gift, if I can part with them, or hang on a wall, or just take lots of pictures of them and post on my blog...WHO KNOWS!!

I almost forgot to tell you how these just about broke the bank...just kidding. I bought a total of 22 saucers and 1 little bowl for...drum roll please...
a whopping $2.00!