31 Day Challenge: Day 30

Today was a lovely day filled with wonderful blessings and friends from years gone by (notice I called none of you old!).  I was able to visit both my former home churches for service today. 

First I had a wonderful time of fellowship with the church I started attending at the age of 12 after we moved to Kirbyville.  I was able to hug so many familiar necks and share stories and memories with loved ones.  To see children who are kids no more.  Children I once taught in Sunday-School are now older than me!  They made me feel OLD!

Then tonight I went back to my roots.  To the church of my heritage.  The church I have my first spiritual memories of, and where my Grandfather who was an awesome and mighty man of God pastored.  It is the church where my personal relationship with God began, Where I was baptised in the precious name of Jesus, and received the Holy Ghost.  I have so many memories of that place along with the building itself.  DO you know I dream of it?  Crazy that something that was a part of my life so long ago regularly is part of my night times now.  Anyway I think I have sufficiently expressed the importance of the people and the facilities as well as the Spirit of God that I always feel when I am there in my life.  So it is no wonder that being in service with them tonight was absolutely beautiful.

Nothing is more beautiful to me that worshiping my Savior with beloved family and friends. 
On that note for those of you who are reading and are believers, I am asking you to pray for a childhood friend of mine.  She is my age (32) and is facing surgery on what the doctors call cancer.  We are claiming her healing and she refuses to accept the diagnosis of cancer, but should they find any evidence of it when they take her into surgery tomorrow there will be 5 hours of surgery to completely remove the tumor from her neck and facial nerve, and then another 5 hours of surgery to reconstruct her jaw, teeth, nerves, and side of her face.  A grand total of 10 hours of surgery after which she will be placed immediately into ICU for a few days before going to a private room.  I am asking for you to pray that when they make the first incision it is only to find that there is nothing there and that our healer has already taken care of the problem.  We serve a mighty God and I know He is well able.  Please hold Alayna up tomorrow.  As well as her family (a sweet husband and two beautiful girls), and the physicians performing whatever procedures are necessary.

So many beautiful and nostalgic moments the past few days with today as the icing on the cake in what has truly been a walk down memory lane.

I hope your Sunday was wonderful, beautiful, and blessed.

Have a great day & God Bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 29

Please forgive the lateness of these postings.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, the internet coverage has been sparse on this trip!

So for day 29 my beautiful moment was watching my kids have a ball at Chuck E Cheese and my dad and brother have maybe even more fun play all the video games.  It was so funny and the kids loved it when at the end of the night my brother gave me a handful of tickets he had won.  This meant a much bigger prize could be had from the treasure area. 

Afterward we went to a fall festival in my home town for about 45 min.  Which was plenty long enough with the temperatures being in the 40's (Fahrenheit).  It was long enough for the kids to get candy from all the communities emergency response vehicles, have their faces painted, play some games, get prizes, and even for Madeline and the hubby to ride the mule drawn wagon.  It was a lovely (and blessedly short) 45 min of fun.

Then we went back to my dads house and had a great time just sitting around visiting.  I LOVE my family and enjoyed every minute I was able to spend and have fun with them!  Too bad my bonus mom (she HATES the connotation the word "step" brings so its always been bonus for her) was too sick to make it, but we enjoyed a visit at the house.

So many beautiful moments filled with family and fun.  I just wish I could have the family part WAY more often!  Once or twice a year is just too little!!

I hope you had a beautiful Saturday!

Have a great day & God Bless!!

31 Day Challenge: Day 28

I had two beautiful moments today.  The first was being able to attend my little brothers senior game (last home football game) at my Alma Mater.  He is a band geek extraordinaire.  He totally rock the trumpet, and this year the mellophone (like a trumpet with a bigger bell that gives it, yup you guessed it, a more mellow tone).  It was so great to get to see him strut his stuff on the field during halftime as the band did their marching maneuvers.  Its a great time! 
My next beautiful moment was when I surprised one of my very best friends by dropping by after I left the game.  I figured I'd get to talk for about 30 min and see her family before they went to bed for the night.  Instead I find out that her hubby and boys are gone to North Texas for the night so this morning they can hunt for kids hunting opening weekend.  Which means she was all alone and we could talk as much as we wanted to. So we pretty much re-created one of our old slumber parties from high school by staying up talking about everything going on in our lives until 3am.  That's when I finally left to go get my Hubby from my dads house where he was sleeping patiently.  So it ended up being a 5.5 hour gab fest! i love it when you have those kind of friends you haven't seen in a year, but you can sit down and it seems like it was just last wee you were together and you can talk talk talk and have a great time together.  I love my Bestie!!!

So those were the beautiful moments of my day yesterday.  I hope you had some as well!

Have a great day and God Bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 27

My beautiful Moment (yes posted late because where I am staying for vacation doesn't have the most reliable Internet or cell signals) was arriving at my Mom's house in Texas safe and sound after a looooong 12 hour car ride with three kiddos 6 and under. So finally we are having a great time with my family and friends Beautiful times!

Hope you are having beautiful memories!

Have a great day & God Bless!

A Cutie Patootie Outfit

I told you I would be busy last week with my hiatus from posting projects.  And busy I was!  I worked this outfit out for my girls.  Only one of them is pictured because the other one just couldn't hold her eyes open any longer since I waited to snap them after church Sunday night.

Here is the finished product:

I made the skirt using two different sized fabric pieces.  The bottom two pieces came from a yard of fabric and the top three came from fat quarters.  Make sure this will work with your measurements.  Be sure to measure both the width you will need around your little angel as well as the length.  I like my skirts to run a little on the longer side for mine (especially now that its cooling off), but you may only need three strips plus a waistband or smaller width in your strips if you don't need them as long as I did.  Just keep in mind that this is NOT an exact science.  If they are not all the same width...OK it will add character.  I can honestly say not one of my strips was the same width as another, and I love how it looks!  Again if you want to be a perfectionist about it (and I usually am, but I wanted to get these DONE) that's fine.  Take the time to make them exact, but if you want it to have a degree of whimsy let them all be different widths.  The length of your fabric strips is the most important measurement here.  You will understand all of this as you read on.

So lets get started...

I started by cutting the fat quarters into 4 strips roughly 22 inches long and 4-5 inches wide.

Out of the yard I cut two strips 26 inches long and 4-6inches wide for the next to bottom layer,

and for the bottom layer I cut two strip 30 inches long and 4-6 inches wide.

For each layer I sewed two strips together making them (fat quarter strips) 44 inches long by 4-5 inches wide and (yard strips) 52 - 60 inches long and 4-6 inches wide.  I had both strips as the same fabric so each layer was the same on front and back (all the way around), but I am considering switching it up on the next one and letting the front strip differ from the back strip.  Still using only four fabrics for my layers, but mix-matching them.  It could be really cute.  I will have to let you know!

My top two layers are from the fat quarter 22 inches sewed together to make a total of 44 inches long.  I sewed the top two layers (not counting the waistband)  together since they were the same length.  

Next I gathered the very bottom layer to the 52inches needed for it to match the bottom of the layer above it, and sewed them together.  Now you are looking at two separate pieces with two layers each.  To combine them you will need to gather the next to bottom layer that is 52 inches long until it is only 44 inches long and sew it to the bottom of the top two layers.  

I hope this isn't too confusing.  To clarify the top two  layers are flat and not gathered, and the bottom two are graduated lengths gathered and sewn together.  This gives you a flared slightly A-line look.  You could do all of the layers in graduated lengths gathering each layer before attaching it, but I chose to leave my top two plain/ungathered.  Its just a personal preference.

Now that you have all four layers sewn together, and laid flat you will want to make your waist band.  You do this by taking the strip you have reserved that is 44 inches long by 4-5 inches wide and folding it in half making a tube.  This can be done two different ways.  You can 1. sew it inside out and pull it back through itself making the seam on the inside or you can 2. sew it plain and have the seam on the outside.  I did it both ways actually.  Let me tell you just do it the easy way, and leave the seam on the outside.  When you attach it to your skirt no one will be able to see it, and holding them side by side I couldn't tell which waist band was done which way without looking. Sew the tube you have made to your skirt making sure the seam is on what will be the inside of the skirt.  Then thread your elastic through the tube.  The best way to do that is to attach a safety pin to one end, and feed it through with the pin to grab through the fabric.  Just don't let it come open!  Ouch!  I neglected to say that you will need to measure the waist that you are wanting this waistband to go around.  My girls wear a 5-6 so I made their elastic about 19-21 inches long, but it really depends on the give that your elastic has.  After you have put your elastic through your tube you will need to sew the elastic on each end to each end of your tube of fabric.  This will gather the waist of your skirt in.   I also go to where the side seam is at and sew through the waistband and elastic a few times so that it wont twist while they are wearing it later.  Remember to go back over where you sewed your layers together and your side seams surging them or using a zig zag stitch to over-lock them giving them that finished look.  Either way will work.  

Now I cheated on my hem and used the fabrics finished edge that I knew wouldn't fray.  If you don't cheat like I did then you will want to put in an inch wide hem.

For the belt I took another strip  44 inches by 4-5inches and sewed the edges together like the waistband of the skirt, but I did do this inside out so that the rough seam would be inside.  I turned it right side out and threaded the elastic through it just like the waistband.  Sewing the elastic to each end of the fabric.

For the flower I took a piece of fabric that was about 36 inches long and 2.5 inches wide ran a small hem down the full length and the sides leaving on long length unhemmed.  If you wanted the frayed look then don't hem it, but I wanted a cleaner finished look.  Then I a ran a tight gathering stitch down the unhemmed length and pulled it tight.  I wound the gathered strip into a circle to make the flower and sewed the middle of the circle to itself.  This isn't the clearest instructions in the world, and I will make another one soon in order to really demonstrate how to do this.   Next I made a yo-yo out of a contrasting fabric and hot glued it to the center of the flower.  That served two purposes 1: it was stinking cute and 2: it hid all the center stitching I did to make the flower stay wound up.  Next I got reeeeaaalll professional (it was 3am and I just wanted it done to be honest) and hot glued a jumbo safety pin to the back of the flower. I used the pin attached to the flower to the two ends of the belt and hold it all together.  I do intend to go back and make an actual buckle for the belt other than just a safety pin on the flower, but hey it worked and looked soooo cute.  Bonus if the girls don't want to wear the belt you can just pin the flower to the shirt!!  We actually did this on one of them and it looked very cute as well!

Here is another picture of my oh so cute model hamming it up for the camera

The hair clip flower tutorial is going to be in a future post so keep your eyes peeled for it!

Hope you enjoyed my instructions (HAR) on how I made the skirt and belt on this cute outfit.  I will try to take more pictures of the process next time and get more detailed explanation.  For now if you have any questions feel free to e-mail me or comment and I will get right back with you.

Leave me a comment letting me know what you think and if you have any tips or tricks that I didn't mention here.  I am always up for learning something new!!

Have a great day and God Bless!!

31 Day Challenge: Day 26

Today's Beautiful moment was laying down with my son to put him to bed.  Playing, giggling, and finally praying with him as he started to fall asleep.  He comes up with some of the funniest things!  His most recent phase is to say "I CAN'T" or "No it aint" (drives me CRAZY! I cant stand the word aint! and we cant figure out where he picked it up).  If you ask him to go somewhere (ie. get in the car or take something to his room) his immediate response is "I Can't!".  My usual reply is "yes you can!" to which he responds "I can't walk".  Meaning: I dont want to do it or I want you to carry me, depending on what he is being asked or told to do.  Puh-leeeese!!!  Lord, this has to end soon! is often my prayer.  Of course, this child has been unlike the other two in every way, and its not just because of his gender either!  So I love my sweet, adorable, lovable, exasperating little boy, and he, along with his sisters, gives me so many beautiful moments.

I hope your day was filled with beautiful moments, and I love to hear about them so drop me a comments!

Have a great day and God Bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 25

My Beautiful Moment today was a phone call telling me that my external hard drive (it was totally crashed during the aftermath of the tornadoes that hit our city hard on April 27, 2011) was completely restored.  It was done pro-bono due to the circumstances surrounding the crash.   I intend to write a post later going into deep detail about exactly how big of a deal this is, and how it all came about. But for now know that for me, this is an absolute miracle.  Also there are several close friends who are very excited that I will be able to give them some pictures that I took for them just before that fateful day.

I hope you had a beautiful day today.  That it was as miraculous for you as mine was for me.

Have a great day and God Bless!!

31 Day Challenge: Day 24

I had a beautiful time today chatting with a friend.  Isn't it amazing what a chat with a good friend can do for you and for them as well?

Hope you had a beautiful day today!

Have a great day & God Bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 23

Today's Beautiful Moment came tonight as we were on our way home from our evening service.  My eldest daughter was quoting her Sunday School verses to me, and as she finished saying them perfectly I said "Madeline that was perfect!  You are so Awesome!  Did you know that you are completely Awesome?!?!".  Her reply cracked me up "Yes I did.  I have always been Awesome!".  Yes, she has, and I am so glad that she knows it.  It wasn't said in a stuck up way, just matter of factly by someone who knows she is loved and understands that I value her and think she rocks.  It makes me feel as if, maybe I am doing something right as a parent whenever my children display a  positive self esteem and self worth.  There are so many children out there who aren't sure of their value, and even more adults.  I wonder if that parental pride that I feel isn't a little like what God feels when we completely place our trust in Him and say I know its all going to be OK because I am a child of the King.  What a beautiful moment as both a parent and a Child of God.

I hope your Sunday was wonderful and I would love to hear about your beautiful moments!

Have a great day and God Bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 22

OMW halfway through service today I realized that I completely forgot to post my beautiful moments post last night...so this is it a day late.  A beautiful Moment yesterday was about 11:30pm when some of the teen-aged boys from our church who were having a sleepover decide going toilet papering houses was a fun idea.  They got the Pastors home then decided to hit the Assistant Pastors house (mine).  We were forewarned though and decided to have a surprise of our own waiting for them when they made it here.  My husband and our good friend who is our neighbor (and coincidentally one of the boys daddy's) decided they would wait until the boys started throwing TP rolls then set off fireworks and scare them good.  Our friend even took it a step further and actually climbed up into the big tree in our yard that seems to always be the target for our TPers.  It was hilarious to watch those boys take off as if running for their lives when those firecrackers came raining down on them.  We laughed so hard!! After they had caught their breath and realized they had been had I called them in for hot chocolate and popcorn.  they had a fun time hanging out and rehashing it all. Laughing at the memory of so and so's face as he was scared, and on and on.  It was so much fun to watch boys be boys and be a part of their revelry.  What a beautiful moment!

I hope your Saturday had many beautiful moments and I would love to hear about them!

have a great day and God Bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 21

Whew, I got so busy crafting yesterday, and writing up the patch post, that I completely forgot my Beautiful moment...well I didn't forget it completely as I actually mentioned part of it in the patch post.  Basically it was my baby boy's expressions as he saw all the cool things I made for him.  I barely got him out of one outfit after his bath.  He decided he wanted to sleep in it rather than his jammies.    We had a lot of fun creating together.  Most of the creating I had to do on my own though since it was one of the few days lately that was warm enough for the kids to play outside all day.  I loved listening to them run, play, giggle, fuss, and just have a wonderful time being kids in God's creation and the best playground in the world: nature.

So much fun and beauty can be found in our very own families.  I hope you found beauty in your day yesterday and I would love to hear about it!

Have a great day and God Bless!

Lets Patch Things Up!

So I have been in a crafting frenzy today.  Mostly creating for my Kiddos and finishing up projects for around the house.  My absolutely FAVORITE is a Pinterest inspired patch up job I did on a pair of my son's pants.  Here's the final result:

I was inspired by this picture I found on Pinterest:

You can look it over at the parent blog/idea originator here called bymiek.blogspot.com

As you can see mine is a little different.  I used buttons for eyes, have an additional mini one-eyed monster, and gave mine crazy stitching to outline the mouth.

Here was my process:

First I started by cutting out the excess strings (shown below) in a hole on a pair of already lined jeans (Sooooooo much easier being already lined!!).

Next I took some white felt and cut out my monster teeth:

Then I hot glued the teeth with just a smidgen/dab of glue to keep them in place for me until I could stitch them in. Stitched on the eyes of both monsters.  Changed thread and did my crazy stitches around the mouths which play double duty.  The stitches keep the teeth in place as well as keep the hole from growing any as the denim continues to fray. (these steps aren't pictured...sorry I got busy and completely forgot about the camera!)

Here is another shot with the teeth laid flat rather than fanging out at you.

I am completely in love with how it turned out and so is my Li'l Man!  He was mesmerized by it at first then walked up and stuck his finger in the hole yanking it out quickly hollering "Ouch...that monster bit me!!".  He cracks me up!

After I finished that pair I had to patch up another and then a friend whose son I was watching decided to strike while the iron was hot and brought a pair of his jeans to be patched when she picked him up. Here are the other two pair:

 Both knees on my friend's little guys jeans had to be patched up.  I am supposed to be making a matching "tie" tee for him as well.  It is going to be the sweetest outfit! (I will have the "tie" tees in another post you WONT want to miss this too cute shirt embellishment!)

Here is the other pair I did for my guy.

We are very much University of Alabama fans around here and some of his favorite shirts are Alabama ones.  So I had to make these "Bama" to match them.  Now he will be ready to holler Roll Tide when wearing these cute jeans. He had a ball helping me pick out the mismatched red buttons, and telling me where they should go. Did I mention that he LOVES them???

I hope you are inspired to patch things up and have a ball doing so.  It was very easy and a whole lot of fun with great results! Please let me know what you think about mine!  I would love to hear about any patching ideas you come up with!

Please scroll to the bottom of the page to find the parties I love to link up with!

Hope you have a great day and God Bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 20

It was a Beautiful day spent with my family.  we hung out, laughed, went to a fall festival, and just had a great time.  Basically there was no specific beautiful moment because it was all beautiful.

Hope you have days like that as well!

Have a great day & God bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 19

Today's Beautiful Moment...Watching my hubby build the first fire of the season.  I LOVE FALL!!  We are having our first cold snap of the year, and my hubby was absolutely giddy about getting to build a fire today.  Its toasty warmness is awesome and helps out with the bills too.  Gotta love that!  So Happy Fall Y'all (recently my favorite saying)

How are you enjoying this time of year?

Have a great day and God bless you!

31 Day Challenge: Day 18

I have so many Beautiful memories of all the funny things my kids come up with.  Like today: How many mothers have the privileged of having their two year old son tell them "Duh, Mom!  I LOVE Mac-E-Oni N Cheeez" when asked if would like some for lunch.  Only after having being told "No, I HATE that" after every other option you have given him (3 others to be exact).  My goodness, where does he come up with this stuff?  My girls aren't even allowed to say "Duh" or "Hate"!  and its so hard to be upset with/discipline him when that kind of stuff comes out of his mouth. It will have to stop soon, but in the meantime its so hard to keep a straight face.   I try to ignore it so he isn't encouraged to keep it up, but awill have to start taking more drastic steps to cut it off if it doesn't stop soon.  Anyway,y sweet little man has kept me rolling today with his comments and funny personality.  We have had so much fun playing together.  Beautiful moments all, even the words I'm not too happy about hearing come out of his mouth made me smile.

Hope you had a beautiful day full of sweet moments. I love hearing about them!

have a great day and God bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 17

It was a BEAUTIFUL day today!  Inside and outside of my house.  The kids had so much fun playing inside with my hubby and myself.  We had a major family tickle wrestle fest on our king sized bed today (the location of choice if you are planning a wrestle tickle fest including three hyper young-uns and two parents who are preparing to be jumped and bounced on while giving tickles for retribution).  After that we sent the wired up hyper giggling kiddos outside to run and play off all that energy.  They played and had so much fun in our gorgeous weather.  The sun setting was the cue for life to return to normal schedule of bath-time, dinner, homework, and finally bedtime.  Those few hours out of the normal work schedule were absolutely beautiful!

Hope you had a great day and are enjoying your own beautiful moments.  I would love to hear about them.

Have a great day and God bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 16

Today's Beautiful Moment was sleeping off a fever (how sad is that!!)...seriously I was sick all morning.  I came straight home from church and went to bed (took my shoes off and fell into bed fully clothed)!  I slept for 3 1/2 hours woke up, grabbed a grilled chicken pita and double shot espresso iced coffee drink , and headed back to church for pre-service music practice.  That 3 1/2 hours was absolutely beautiful!! I hope these last few days of  beautiful moments haven't been absolutely depressing for you to read.  It was a rough week to say the least.  I almost didn't even do a beautiful moment post for today.  Not, because there weren't any, but because when your sick, while they are beautiful, they all seem to be in a fuzz.  So I'm going with clearly the best part of my day which was a great nap.

On that note, due to a very stressful week last week, and now poor health.  I will only be posting one creative post this week, and doing my daily beautiful moment posts.  Otherwise I will be off the computer completely for a week.  I hope everyone understands, and I will have to catch up with everything next week.  I'll let you know what I came up with this week during my hiatus.  I am going to take this week to spend more time with my family, and for myself (which usually means crafting so there will probably be a WHOLE lot to share!).

I hope everyone had a beautiful day and has a great week!!
God bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 15

Today's Beautiful Moment has been happening all day and is just about over with.  I have completely cleaned out my sons closet and chest of drawers!  His closet is practically empty (compared to how it looked before), and I think at least one of his drawers is completely empty!  I am taking a rest in the process of bagging everything up to take to my SIL house for my nephew to wear this winter and next spring.  So the first Beautiful moment is the feeling of accomplishment I have right now!

Second is my sweet sweet SWEET hubby stopped by the house on the way to his Nanny and Pawpaws, to watch Alabama (Roll Tide!) beat whoever it is they are playing today, to pick up my son.  His sisters are already gone to our aunts house.  Which means I am completely 100% alone!!!  you hear that?  its nothing...NOTHING!!! so silent I can hear the sound of my key's as I push them on the keyboard!!

So it is now time to bring this appreciation of today's beautiful moments to a close. I still have a lot more work to do yet, and a few places I have to run to.  So I hope you had a few beautiful moments today!!  God bless!!!

Straight from me to you

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Straight Talk for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Okay I don't know about you, but my contract phone service is about to drive me crazy.  We have been with two different carriers over the last few years, and with both it sometimes feels like we are chained into a program that we aren't sure will even be the same six months from now.

**Soap Box Alert**

Don't you love how two years ago they made it mandatory  to have an unlimited data plan if you purchased a smart phone.  They hyped the biggest and best phones then forced you to take a large plan reassuring you that it was for your own protection because you would be using all that data anyway.  So if you had a small plan you would rack up exorbitant charges when you used all the data they said we would be using.    Then two months ago they say they are now going to limit the data usage, and you never really used all that much after all, so you wont miss it. Yah they really wanted to protect me...riiiigghhht.  AARRGGGHHh it makes me want to pull out my hair! 

(Okay off the soap box now)

Well, over the past year or so I have been hearing more and more about this company called Straight Talk from my friends and family members.  They don't require contracts, and they actually have (gasp) various plans to choose from that DON'T break the budget! Everything I get on my contract plan for my (Oh how I LOVE it) Droid, I can get through smart talk for what looks to be much less moolah.  Wonder how much fabric I could buy with the extra money every month???    Shhh don't tell my hubby he would want to go golfing with it or something!

When I realized that the contract carriers were never going to stop pulling stunts like this I started looking into Straight talk.  it just blew me away to learn that: yes they have Android smart phones, they have Aps, they have games, awesome monthly plans, and all with the coveted NO CONTRACT.  You aren't tied down to one company for a looong time.  Also they still offer the unlimited data plan, and let me tell you its at a MUCH better price than what you have to pay the contract carriers for one now.  Try unlimited calls, text, MMS, and web for only $45! THAT'S IT ...not in addition to another base amount just $45!!   With nation wide coverage to boot!

Another thing I like about them is their sense of humor this video had me ROLLING!!

You Don't Need the Crown Jewels for Straight Talk -

and this one: Feel Richer with Android

For information on my beloved Android check out this one:The power of Android

So let me know what you think... should I give my contract company the boot and switch?  Have you tried Straight talk?  What do you think about them? Give me honesty here people!!!! I have a decision to make next month when my contract is up!!

Have a great day and God bless!!

A New Button

So if you have ever wondered how blogs get those cute little buttons I will let you in on the secret....they go read "Blogging with Amy"  to see how its done.  At least that's what I did! She is sooooo easy to follow! and understandable??? Talk about!  Anyway if you have a blog you reeeaaally should have one of these for other bloggers to put in their sidebar when they fall in love with reading your blog.  I have a few of my favorite bloggers in my sidebar...see???----------------------------->

So here are my two newest Buttons:

They weren't that difficult to make and I LOVE how they came out.... aren't your fingers just itching to click them???  Good that was my intended response!

Oh, and yes that is a button for a Link Party.  No, I am not currently hosting one, but I will be...this is a hint of what is soon to come ;)

Hope you had a great day and I cant wait to see all your buttons!  If you have any blogging advice drop it my way.  I love hearing all your ideas!

Have a great day and God bless!!!

Its A Frame Up

This is an update on some projects I have recently completed....

Do you remember this picture from a while back?

It was of a wonderful yard sale find...LOVED it!  Hubby, not so much.  He cant really see potential...he sees what it is right in front of him.  He's kinda literal that way. Anyway, I got to work on them.  I wanted subtle so I went with white, and this is the result.

That's not a great picture and, just a warning, the rest aren't that great either...lol.  I spray painted both the mirror and shelf a matte white.  Then I went back and touched up the beaded edging on the mirror with a glossy white craft paint.  It looks great in my bathroom!  and I love it!!! (you really cant see the glossy part in this poorly lit picture...sorry)

(yes those are my red no sew curtains I made about a year ago...still going strong!!  Goooooo Glue Gun!!!)

Next is a combo picture featuring the shelf that I left matte white, and a lovely gold gaudy mirror I had from way back when.  I love the details on the frame, but I wasn't too crazy about the gold color anymore.  

(Yes, I realize this is horribly poorly lit, and slightly a lot off center, and I fixed it immediately after snapping it.  But, oh well, that's how it is in the picture.  Maybeeeee I did it just to drive all you picture and mirror perfectionists out there, like me, crazy! Mwaahahaha)

To get this look, I first painted it white.  Then I rubbed a wax candle over the edges of the frame, the corner detailing, and some of the beaded area.  Next I spray painted it red, and let that almost dry completely  (drier than tacky on the non waxed areas, and still very tacky on they waxed ares). Finally I took an old towel and started rubbing at the paint where I had ran the wax over it.  The red paint came off like a dream and left white areas.  BONUS: some of the white even came off where I rubbed super hard, and now some of the gold glints through too.  

I love the layered shabby chic look of it.  It fits my shabby chic red and white charmer of a bathroom to perfection.  I am in LOVE with the results!

So, those are a few of the projects I have completed recently, and there are SO many more to go!! 

I hope you try the whole candle wax trick and let me know how it comes out for you.  Worked like a charm for me!  Tell me what you think about the results and what you might have tried differently.  You know I love to hear your ideas.

Have a great day and God bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 14

Today's Beautiful Moment was going out to dinner ALONE with my husband, and then talking him into taking me to shop at Hobby Lobby where I bought FABRIC!!!  I cant wait to get to work on three of the  3 million projects on my to do list...of which about one million are in the half way state of being completed. Dear Lord, Please  help me start a project, and stick to it until its completed before moving on to another one!!!  Okay I think that might just be every crafting person and bloggers prayer!!!  am I right?? Oh, I think I am!!!

Then on top of dinner we had a crisis that resulted in an AWESOMELY majorly relieved beautiful moment.  I ummmm, kinda lost my Paypal credit card tonight...yeeeaaahhh.  NOT GOOD!!!  See, after I paid for dinner I thought I stuck it in my purse.  Well, somehow it got on my lap, and when I got out at Hobby Lobby it hit the ground.  I didn't realize it was missing until we got across town to the Krispy Kreme (don't judge me my diet starts Nov. 1st sharp...hey who knows I may do a daily/semi-daily on the progress of that next).  Anyway, long story short we went back to the restaurant looked around the parking lot and inside.  Then drove back to Hobby Lobby, and as we pull through the empty parking lot (we closed the joint down...yeah we be baaaddd like that...lol) I see a little square glinting in the light of our headlights where we had parked earlier.  So prayers of thanksgiving went up!!!  After all the prayers of supplication that had went up earlier I hope the thanksgiving ones were sufficient!!!  Thank You JESUS!!  I have my card back and all is well with me!

Hope you had a wonderful day/night full of beautiful moments!  Oh wait I forgot one...

Tonight my sweet little buddy was sitting in my lap facing me watching a Sesame Street YouTube video on my phone, and I leaned forward and kissed his sweet forehead a couple of times.  He looked up at me so seriously and said "Mommy STOP, you mess my hair up!"    I about fell off my chair, I laughed so hard!!  first of all the child has SUPER short hair that I keep cut regularly, and secondly it was 1am!!!  Why is he worried about his hair when I'm trying to talk him into going to bed???? Okay, and third he is TWO...when did he start worrying about his hair?!?!?!?  Kids are SO much fun!!  and they come up with the funniest, cutest things!

Okay, I really am done now...I think....hmmmmm.. hang on...yep, that's it!

Tell me about your beautiful moments from today!  You know I love to hear about them!!

Have a great day and God bless!!!

31 Day Challenge: Day 13

AArrrggghhhh a day late AGAIN! I crashed again last night!! Night before last it was deliberate, but last night it was a two year old that had to have mommy, and instead of getting back up after he was asleep like planned... well lets just say I got a FULL nights sleep last night lol.
I had my whole post planned out ans was ready to sit down and share, but life happened. Oh well that's life...lol

So my beautiful Moment yesterday came about when visiting with my neighbor and friend. She is an older lady who was married to an even older gentleman. She lost her Husband early Wednesday morning in the most beautiful way possible. I know! I can hear you thinking a beautiful death? It was though! She was so in love with this man and they had a truly beautiful love story. As his his health had failed and he was placed on hospice her prayer had been that her voice was the last he would hear and her face the last he would see. Her prayers were answered and as he entered the arms of our savior she was telling him how much she loved him. The nurse told her after his passing that every time she said "I love You" and kissed his forehead his heartbeat would go up and as she would sit back it would slowness go down. Three times this happened as she loved on him until the final time when she sat back and he breathed his last peaceful breath. What beautiful love. To be so connected to another soul, to be so completely one in marriage that your very life is maintained and continued with love.
It is beautiful to listen to her stories about how they met, how their relationship was a wonder to even her. To listen as she tells you how happy she was with this man who she will plainly tell you was her soul mate. Marriages like that are something special, and was beautiful to watch and now to remember. I pray that when my Hubby and I reach our final breaths we have had the same joy and love in ours as they have in theirs. I know I could easily echo her sentiments now for mine. I am blessed in my marriage and with my husband. A Godly love and marriage is such a beautiful blessing.

I hope you had a beautiful day and are blessed with a Godly love in your life.

I would love to hear about your day!

Have a great day today and God bless!

Sticky Ooey Gooey Buns

I came across a picture of some Sticky Buns on Pinterest and KNEW I had to make them! I love all things, nutty, cinnamony, and buttery.  That is exactly what these are!  So yummy and best of all SO easy!!
 Here is my after picture:

After meaning: after they were cooked and after they were almost completely demolished! My camera battery was dead, and my family was NOT going to wait for it to charge for me to be able to take pictures while I whipped this dish up!  They were hungry and when I told them what I was making they wanted it NOW!! Once it was charged I went ahead and snapped away.

I found the original recipe here, at a lovely Blog I stumbled across called All Things Delicious

So anyhow It got rave reviews from everyone except my oldest daughter who decided she didn't like nuts in it but otherwise loved it!  There were a few things I am going to tweak on the recipe to make it suit my taste a little more.

My Recipe time:
You will need
1 pkg Grands buttermilk biscuits (what I used), or two pkgs of small buttermilk biscuits
1/2 cup Syrup (your choice but my hubby loves Eggo syrup and that's what we used)
1/2 cup Brown sugar packed down (original recipe calls for only 1/3 cup)
1Tbsp cinnamon (original recipe calls for 1tsp, but it wasn't cinnamony enough for me)
3Tbsp butter
1/3-1/2cup chopped nuts of your choice*optional* (original only calls for 1/4 cup but I put a good 1/3-1/2 cup in and the adults all loved the nuttiness)

You will need to preheat your oven to 375 degrees F

**Revised: a MAJOR typo has been corrected somehow in the original typing I put 475 instead of 375...ummm not good!  I made these again with the temp set wrong and the top (bottom after flipped) burned.  I cut off the burned part and flipped em.  They were still stinking awesome and devoured.  Then I came back to discover what in the world happened...yah I messed up! So please please PLEASE put the temp at 375 and forgive me the MAJOR typo** .

Next grease a bundt pan.
Next you will melt the butter and mix it in a small bowl with the syrup. Set aside
Next mix the cinnamon, brown sugar, and nuts (if you choose to use them)
Now you will pour half of the syrup and butter mixture around int he bottom of the bundt pan and sprinkle half of the cinnamon/ brown sugar/nut mixture around on top of the syrup.
Then lay the biscuits overlapping in the bundt pan
finally pour the remaining butter/syrup mixture over the top of the biscuits and sprinkle the remaining sugar/cinnamon/nut mixture over the top
Cook for 17-20 min (original recipe called for only 15 min but mine were still a little doughy so they really needed a few more minutes)
After they are done take them out and let them cool for 3-5min then put a plate over the top of the pan (top of the plate facing down toward the sticky buns) and flip the entire thing upside down.
let the now upside down pan and buns sit on the plate for at least a min while all the ooey gooeyness drains out of the pan.  Finally remove the pan and your buns should be in a pretty little circle on your plate, ready to pull apart and feast on.

total time to make this
Prep 10 min
Cook 17-20 (we will say 20)
Cool 6 min

Total time 36 min.  Fast easy and DELICIOUS!!!



Like I said they were delicious done by the original recipe, but they definitely needed a little more brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts (I did add my revised amount of nuts, and it was perfect.  So what the original recipe calls for would not have been enough for us!).  I hope you try this for a quick Saturday family breakfast or for a treat on a movie night because you WONT regret it!  My hubby had eaten two bites of his, and started listing all the things I need to bake it for: church functions, family breakfasts, Thanksgiving, Christmas...and he kept mumbling between bites the more he ate of it.  lol It was a major success. My SIL even stopped by on her lunch break and had a piece she loved it too! So this will be a repeat around here!

Try it out and let me know what you think!  I hope your family loves it as much as mine did!  Let me know if you do anything differently!  I love to hear you comments!

Have a great day and God bless!!

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31 Day Challenge: Day 12

Okay we are just going to pretend that this is actually last night I am making this post and not the nexts morning...Mkaaayyy? K!
So my Beautiful Moment for the 12th day is the fact that I got to go to bed earlier than normal.  I was TIRED. With not just a capitol "T" but the whole stinking word capitolized!  We have a sinus/allergy/cold thing going around our family right now, and it looks like no one is excempt.  So to say I needed rest was an understatement!  So I closed down my computer and crashed early. Completely forgetting my 31 Days post, but hey thats what made the moment beautiful. Completely putting everything aside to embrace sweet sleep! Beautiful

31 Day Challenge: day 11

Today I curled up and snuggled with my two youngest for a group nap.  It was a beautiful moment of giggles, snuggles, and love. I love being a Mommy!

Hope you had a beautiful moment today no matter how big or small.

Have a great day and God bless!

WINNER

The winner was selected for my first giveaway!

Dzoli you have 24hrs to respond via e-mail to your announcement e-mail and claim your prize or another winner will be randomly chosen.

the giveaway was to celebrate reaching 1500 visits to my blog and we blew through that number during the contest as well as the 2000 mark!  I am completely floored at the love you all are showing my simple blog.  I love blogging and crafting and eveidentaly there are a few people who dont mind humoring me by coming back to see what trouble I've gotten myself into this time...lol  Thank you all so much for taking the time to read over my ramblings.  It makes me feel super awesome!

Congratulations again Dzoli!!

Oh yah, be on the lookout I will have another giveaway soon ;)

hope you have a great day and god bless!

31 Day Challenge: day 10

Today's "Beautiful Moment" was a moment of absolute almost silence.  Seriously, it was so very quiet, all I could here was a tv quietly playing, and the lady doing my nails breathing.  LOL I had 30 min to relax this afternoon while being pampered for my birthday!  I know my birthday was a month ago, but hey sometimes it takes a while to collect on all the gifts!  I still have a gift certificate for a massage that I have yet to schedule, but I'm thinking that it might not be too much longer before I indulge in that gift as well.  Anyway back to the very quiet and relaxed moment I experienced today. It was just me and the manicurist and the afore mentioned quietly playing tv.  No kids or hubby (who were all at home eating the dinner I made sure was ready before I deserted them).  I must tell you I almost fell asleep, that manicure felt so relaxing.  Wow it was a great time, and I have pretty nails now too!!!

Its not a great picture, its just a cell phone pic, but you can see they are all pretty and cut evenly.  All that wonderful manicure induced stuff having to do with cuticles and nail beds etc.  

So that was today's "Beautiful Moment"..me all alone with a manicurist :) 

Hope you had a great day, and when you look back over it you have those moments that make you say ahhh that was just beautiful! 

Have a great day and God bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 9

WARNING.....WARNING....WARNING....WARNING

this is NOT that great of an uplifting or inspiring post...more like a blah kinda post

WARNING.....WARNING...WARNING...WARNING

Something Beautiful, something beautiful, hmmmmmmmm reality check...it has been a looong tiring day.  Yes lots of beautiful things happened and yes, I did notice them.  We had two awesome church services today.  There were several who were blessed and blessing are some of the most beautiful moments to experience.  Lives were changed today during service.  The music department did a wonderful job (everyone makes my job easy peezy!) and the choir did awesome tonight!! My kids were well behaved aside from a cranky sicky li'l baby boy.  Now that i mention that I think I know why even with all these awesome events that happened today, I still am not feeling all that inspired.  I feel bbbllleeeecccchhhhh yes BLECH!  as in I completely lost my voice singing tonight, I have been sniffling, coughing, and feeling SO congested in my chest. Now that I have figured out my problem I know what my beautiful moment is for today...the moment of BEDTIME!  :)  I pray you had a wonderful and inspiring day of worship filled with the blessings of the Lord like my church family and I did.  That is complete beauty, but now I think I am going to enjoy my final beautiful moment of the day....bedtime!

Its a fun Pumpkin Wreath

I have just finished up a project that turned out way more sophisticated than I expected... Have you ever had that happen?  I was going for a cutesy vibe, and when I was done it was more of a Chic vibe.  All I know is I LOVE it!
I love fall and I love pumpkins in the fall!  On Pinterest I have seen this little dryer vent coil thingie pumpkin that are just sooo cute!

You can click here to learn more from the orriginal creator at a wonderful blog called a diamond in the stuff.

I liked the way the lines made it seem pumpkiny with a twist on the traditional, but I like to be unique and I had not seen a wreath done like this.  Since I am in need of one for my kitchen door I thought this could be just the thing to spruce it up.  So the first thing I did was to head down to my local hardware store to pick up some of this dryer vent and some orange spray paint. I was out a total of 8 bucks. Since I only used half of my dryer vent, and half of the pray paint I am calling this a $4 craft.
Anywho my first snag was in the dryer vent section where this type of vent was NOWHERE!  only a hard metallic type of vent could be found.  I mean like weapons grade "I'm gonna cut ya" metal/aluminum can type ends. So that's what I brought home along with the afore mentioned orange spray paint.

 Anyway, after being sliced a few times while extending it out and finally getting the ends duct taped together, I commenced to priming it and then spray painting it with my lovely pumpkin orange paint.

With that task completed I went scavenger hunting in my yard, and came up with this awesome specimen for a pumpkin stem!

I attached it to the wreath with hot glue (I tried E6000 which is usually the best long lasting permanent glue but it just wouldn't adhere well to this rough stick).  Then it looked a little bare, so I dug this moss out of my craft stash.

I squirted a little more hot glue all over the top of the wreath and front of the stem, pressed the moss onto it, and voila!

I adore how it turned out.  I was a little worried that it didn't look very pumpkinish, or as cute as I thought.  My worried were relieved when a couple of friends stopped by, and started ooing and ahhhing over it.  They honestly didn't believe me when I told them I made it.  They thought I had purchased it somewhere like Kirklands (that's how upscale it looks not cutesy like I was expecting!).  I think its the hard metal venting I used that gives it such a professional air, and not just a crafty look.  Anyway, I then attached a scrap piece of brown knit, stretchy fabric to the back with hot glue.  I used that to tie it the wreath hook that hangs over my door, since the hook doesn't fit around the hard wreath.  Here is the final picture of it hanging on my kitchen door greeting all who come to visit with a fall cheerfulness.

What do you think?  I would love to hear how you might have made it different.  Leave me a comment you know I CRAVE them!!!  lol

Hope you had a great day and God bless

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