Re-Post

Re-posting a blog...is it allowed? Hope so, cause' I'm doin' it :) I was going back through all my old posts after I gave my blog a lil' face lift and realized in the beginning, yeah...ummm...hmmm...I had no idea what I was doing. O.K. so, I still don't know a lot about what I'm doing, just a tad bit more. I realized what I thought I was posting as a "blog-post" was actually a page element at the bottom of my blog. Not wanting it to sit all lonely down at the underbelly of my creative, adorable, humorous, crafty (your smiling right now, aren't you?) memorable blog, I've decided to correct this horrendous mistake and repost, O.k.?
....O.k...now that that's out of the way this bag I made for my cousin Jody. The patchwork purse is a really fun to make. Looking back on it now, I'm seeing it's time to do a little upgrading. I'm sure Jody definitely needs a new purse :) The purse itself, well, it needs some help, too. I'm gonna give it a little pizazz (did I spell that right?) The second bag I made for my Nan. I used Amy Butler fabric, of course who doesn't love Amy Butler fabric, and a round mesh place mat for the bottom. I threw together my own pattern, and in the end I think it turned out very cute and Nan really liked it. Here they are in all their glory.... and first timer mistakes :)

Birthday Blessings

Just wanted to share with you my 35th birthday. As we grow older we don't much care to celebrate aging, well I don't anyway. My 30th was extremely difficult for me, just ask Big Daddy...he can tell you a story about that day! To be honest, my birthdays haven't gotten any easier to handle, but I manage through them I suppose. This year, however I cannot explain to you how blessed I truly am! God is AMAZING! He is truly a miracle worker...

Even though I've obsessed over growing older, somehow this year...he erased it from my heart! Erased it! Girls, do you know what I'm saying? This is powerful for me...if you know me, my personality, my guts, the "soul" of me, this is a real miracle of the spirit! An epiphany...God has changed me. Through my children, my husband, and my great friends God revealed his true and perfect acceptance of me. It didn't matter that I wasn't 21, it didn't matter that I wasn't a size 2, it didn't matter that my make-up wasn't perfect, that my hair wasn't colored or my clothes were from the Goodwill. The people around me, My people loved me and celebrated with me that I was here and God created me. How awesome! How great! I know, for most of you out there...you realized this a long time ago, but for some of us...well, we're just slow learners. I think maybe I just let the world tell me different, ya know? I let myself think that I needed to always be better, be more, be different than what God made me to be. Always striving to be this perfect ageless, "young" mother of 4 who doesn't look like the mother of 4. I know...stupid, but to my demise, I strived to achieve the unattainable. Indeed, I never got any younger, only older every year (imagine that?) depressed because I could not find the magic "pill", fatter because I was depressed, and well you see the snowball effect here, right? Something so far out there, yet I was on the train, like so many other women today...trying to be something that we're not, just because the world tells us that's what we should be!

It's time to listen to the Lord our God, what is He telling us? Do you hear him? Are you taking the time to hear him? For so long I wasn't. I was so busy listening to the world that it drowned out my God's voice...I couldn't even hear him if I wanted to. The verse in the bible Proverbs 31:10 "Who can find a virtuous woman, for her price is far above rubies?" is a great way to start focusing in on God's word. The definition of virtuous: strong moral character. We definitely need that in our world today, right? So, I've decided that's where I'm going to start. Slowly and faithfully with God by my side. I visit Passionate Homemaking often, that's where I came across the Virtuous Woman study and I really feel the Lord prompting me to take another step closer to him. So this is it...I'm taking the step, are you with me?

Thank you God for awarding me a birthday I will never forget...

Here are some presents that came along with all the other wonderful birthday blessings in 2009. Early in the morning "J" 15 woke to make my favorite breakfast... waffles! I was served on the "Red, You are Special Today" plate. I was so suprised, I forgot to take pictures :( I quickly recovered and started snapping away later on in the day.

Here they are in the afternoon when these two handsome guys started decorating after they cleaned the entire house while Big Daddy took me shopping for my birthday present!

They even baked me a cake...(of course "J" 15 did most of the baking)

"J" 11 thought it would make Fabulous Mom feel even more Fabulous to think she was 25 again!

Beautiful Flowers from LeAnn...so sweet! I loved them, thank-you...

Big Daddy took me to Borders to get me this...it's been on the list for a while now :) I love it!

Lastly...the Proudfoots totally Rock! My new Marble board...we've played marbles every night since you gave it to me! Love you guys...

Inspired Project Update

So here we go, I'm going to let you ladies into my sewing room before the make-over. Let me just say that this room is not just the "crafty" room, it's also the office, the exercise room, the "I don't know where to put this" room, as well as the room I used to do nails in. It has many faces, as you will see in this upcoming photo. As I'm typing away, I'm beginning to get a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, knowing that I'm sharing such an intimate area of my life (I feel a bit vulnerable) when I let my self look a little too real. Anybody identify with these feelings or is just me right now? So here goes...take a good long look at my mess. Just to clarify, the rest of my house looks nothing like this room :) P.S. thank you tres birds for sharing your secret with me I've had so much fun, as you can tell with all the pictures!

Mucho Progress...

Moving on to the Fun Stuff...

Final outcome...so what's the verdict? Wow, is all I can say! I'm so excited :) I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! What do you think? There's still fabric in the center of the room that needs to be folded and put away, papers to be shredded, and books to be shelved, but I'm so happy with the end result, it's everything I wanted and more! Here it is....

Labor of Love

Back tracking just a little bit...we had a low-key Valentines Day this year. I don't mean that in a bad way, it's just not the stereo-typed, commercialized, typical "Valentines" Day...the one I've become so accustomed to. Yes, I admit ladies I'm the woman who thinks she should get a gift every single Valentines Day, a card, flowers,candy, jewelry...something just because I need another gift (yeah right!) maybe it's that "significance" thing...or maybe it's just that society sets us up for these unrealistic expectations of how marriage, love, and romance in real life is expressed. I'm leaning towards the last one...how about you? I think it's high time I change my expectations! ...But it's really hard, although I debated with myself all weekend long, reasoned, even sort of argued, it still hurt when I felt like Big Daddy didn't take the time to show me that he really appreciated me (sniff, sniff)... I sound like a big baby as I'm reading this back to myself, LOL! By the way, Pastor S. started the whole Big Daddy thing...my guy, as you all know is rather slender in physic, and not too tall in the height department, so it has now stuck- Big Daddy it is-

I, the fabulous wife that I am, did however wake early in wee morning hours on Valentines Day...rouse my sweet adorable daughters to come and bake for their dashingly, dear, father who so unselfishly drove to work on Sat. morning. "Let's go bake Chocolate Cupcakes for Dad and surprise him when he gets home...we can get all dressed up, too..." "Yes, yes...they squealed to each other..." And so the morning began...

Not a very good shot of the finished product, but some chocolaty cupcakes left on the cupcake tree for Big Daddy to enjoy...and he did! Lots of home made cards, made with love and candy hearts to go with...all the labor of Love. Oh yeah...me bragging about being the Fabulous wife earlier...I actually should be hanging my head in shame, I didn't even capture my sweet card and rose from Big Daddy on film...how's that for Fabulous? Pretty Pathetic if we want reality...hope you and yours had a Happy Valentines Day!

Inspired Project

I've been Inspired! Yes...it's happened. I've done it again...I've sat at my computer clicking through blogville, letting myself wonder...thinking, pondering, praying, commenting, visiting, sharing, asking, inviting, and yes I happened upon some wonderful items! Of course I visited my usual Tres Birds, Tinker Verve, La Te Da, Conversation Queen, Random Thoughts, and Water Girl...these gals are the real deal. They are the physical face to face women in my life that keep me real. As I continued on my stroll I visited another blog that's a fav of mine and she had one of the most beautiful quilts, instantly- I was in Love! The colors were gorgeous...I was smitten, that was all there was to it. I knew I had to make something with those colors. I knew I couldn't buy the quilt...ummm,( thank-you Dave) soooo...I did the next best thing...I did some digging in my fabric stash and found what I could. I was going to make something like it, even if it took me forever! Next I went to work on an old shelf-thingy I had in my office/craft/sewing room. What to do with it...where to put it? For some reason I decided it would go up in my laundry space. It's not a laundry room, it's a sort-of closet. I had to take the doors off because the kids kept jerking them off the tracks causing them to fall forward and knock big gashes into the walls. Nice...I know :) So now I have a nice washer and dryer nook :) I'd like to have something else going up there, but have no idea what to do. Different Post I guess...any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Now I'm rambling...onward...with the rest of my project, back to the Love Story. I forgot to take before pictures of the icky-ugly shelf, but I did take pictures of the doors, so you can get my drift when I say "it wasn't pretty to look at". I gave "J" 15 the job of painting it white...which he takes very seriously. He's my project "go to" guy. He's going to make some woman a very happy husband someday :) (He likes to bake, also) Anyhoo...I proceeded to whip up this very pretty, quilt-like, and dare I say "eye candyish" curtain...

So tell me what'cha all think?... Before:

After:

Iside:

I don't think I really like the new shelf in the laundry area...it's too cute to be stuck upstairs where no one can see or appreciate it's cuteness. I think I may move it down stairs into my sewing/craft/office room. Don't you think? I LOVED the way it turned out...in fact I loved it so much that I took some $$$ that I earned (yes, I discussed this with Big Daddy P.S.) and I went and bought this...I need all 5 of you ladies that read this blog to give me your HONEST opinion! I'm going to paint my sewing room this color....

TA-DA!

Good Morning Lord...

We had another 40 days of 24/7 prayer at church, again I can't tell you how awesome it really was. So much so...I have to start my day with prayer, get through it with prayer and end it that way too. Not just meditating on it, but just conversing with my heavenly Father all day long. Yeah, it probably would sound nutty if you walked in on me and I was rambling on about this or that, but I've decided I can't live life not being connected to him ALL the time. It's the only way I can survive. Just follow the signs...this way please...

My 2 girls "J" 9 and "J" 6 heading in to pray with Mom...it was a blessing praying along w/ them

As we ( myself and the oldest "J") let's call him 15, drove to SVE this morning, we moaned and groaned over the new fallen snow. Oh how we were so sick of it...tired of it...enough already! Please bring us some sun, just a little, it's not like we're asking for a lot, right? Complain, complain, complain...blah, blah, blah....

...And on the way home the Lord whispered in my ear...look, I gave you something this morning, did you miss it my daughter? Did you not see it? I made it just for you! Oh, I hope you see it, don't let it pass you by for there may not be another one like this one...

Thank you Father for this precious day you've given me. I will do what I can for you today. I almost let it pass me by. Forgive me for fretting and fussing, complaining when really I had nothing to complain about. I love you, and I thank you for the many blessings in my wonderful life. You are my light, and my hope, my sustainer, my strength. I pray that I am as faithful to you today as you ALWAYS have been to me. Be with all of my family throughout their day and be with all of my friends...lift all of their spirits high. I praise you God my Father. In Jesus name...Amen.

Thank you all my blog buddies for hanging around, sometimes I get a little lax on the blogging. I'll keep trying...even if I do feel like there's not much going on, I guess I could just blog about "nothing much". Love ya!