Copycat

Yup, I'm not gonna lie.  I'm a copycat.  When I see a good idea I just have to try it for myself.

A while back I got a set of 5 pairs of BabyLegs on BabySteals...however neither of my girls had anything to match one of the pairs, so when I saw the onesie Virginia made for Arianna I knew that was the way to go for these BabyLegs too..and then low and behold the Holiday Hangover kit matched them perfectly!

So I got out my needle and thread and set to work. 

(these were just taken today...isn't my girl such a cute chub?!?! )

Holiday Hangover

Yup, that's what a lot of us have isn't it?  It's also the name of the January kit at Scrap-Tastic.  It's got lots of bright and colorful goodies in it to help you over even the worst Holiday Hangover. 

*On a side note, I know this is a bit of a "scrappy" blog that has been rather scrapless lately but fear not, I've been working on that and have lots to show you over the next few day and lots more to do to!*

Here are a few of the things I've done with the kit so far.  

I made some "thank you" bag toppers for the workers in my daughter "Cubbie" class...there are 7 workers!  However, there are 45 to 50 preschoolers every wednesday night so they deserve a lot more than a little "Thank you!"  The stamps are by Stampin' Up.

and this is a 2 pager (but only 8x8) that I did for a circle journal about favorite Christmas memories.  I just LOVE stockings...they're so much a part of Christmas for me.  I loosely based this on a sketch by Julie Bonner.   

(Virginia taught me how to make those super cute Christmas trees!)

And just a simple little page with a quote I adore about good books.

                          

(I'm totally addicted to these tiny alphas!)

The Gift of gifts

(photo by mtsofan)

This puritan prayer spoke volumes to me when I read it.  It is so perfect, it is my hearts cry to know and remember that in Him I have so much even heaven has nothing better to offer. 

O Source of All Good,

What shal I render to thee for the Gift of gifts,

thine own dear Son, begotten, not created,

my redeemer, proxy, surety, substitute,

his self-emptying incomprehensible, 

his infinity of love beyond the hearts grasp.

Herein is wonder of wonders: 

he came below to raise me above,

was born like me that I might become like him.

Herein is love:

when I cannot rise to him he draws near to me on wings of grace,

to raise me to himself.

Herein is power:

when Deity and humanity were infinietly apart

he untied them in dissoluble unity, the uncreate and the created.

Herein is wisdom:

when I was undone, with no will to return to him,

and no intellect to devise recover,

he came, God-incarnet, to same me to the uttermost,

as man to die my death,

to shed satisfying blood on my behalf,

to work out a perfect righteousness for me.

O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shephers, and

enlarge my mind;

let me hear good tidings of great joy,

and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore,

my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose,

my eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father;

place me with ox, ass, camel, goat,

to look with them upon my redeemer's face,

and in him account myself delivered from sin;

let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child to my heart,

embrace him with undying faith,

exulting that he is mine and I am his.

In him thou hast given me so much that heaven can give no more.

Merry CHRISTmas!

Favorite Photos '09 - Part 2

and on with part 2!  (btw these pictures were picked with no rhyme or reason really...just whichever one happened to jump out at me when I was looking back through that month's folder...although a TON more jumped out than I'm showing you!  lol)

August

AND (I couldn't pick just one!)

September

(it's getting harder!)

 

Ok, I guess we'll make this a three parter because I need to edit some of my other favs. and I don't have time.  I'm off to make rice crispy ornaments and wrap presents! 

Merry Christmas Eve! 

Enjoy our Savior's Birthday!

Favorite Photos '09 - Part 1

I've seen some people doing posts of their favorite photos from the year around blogland and I thought it would be fun to look back through all my photos and pick one from each month too. 

So...here we go!

January

Zeke "enjoying" his DQ star for his 1st birthday.

Febuary

March

April

May

June

July

Wow...there are so many great ones!  And so many I had forgotten about...and so many I haven't scrapped!

A Little Glimmer

Glimmer Mist that is.  If you've hung around here for long you know that I just LOVE me some Glimmer Mist.  (I'll even go so far as to say I like it WAAAAAAAAY better than Maya Mist.) 

It's the perfect touch for so many different things.  Anyway, I thought because I love it so much I'd let you in on a little secret. 

You can get some FREE.  

Yup, I said FREE!!!  Becky over at Scrap-Tastic is having a sale (it ends on the 29th!) and you get a free bottle of Glimmer Mist when you buy two...or TWO free bottles when you buy three...or THREE free bottles when you buy four!!!!!!!

I'm SERIOUSLY thinking about buying her out!  lol.  All you have to do is add what colors of Glimmer mist you'd  in the comments when you order.  SO there ya go, Merry Christmas to you!!!!

Also, I just found this...did you know that you can go here and Tattered Angels has a "matching" service?  You pick out the paper you're using and they'll tell you which Glimmer Mist which looks the best! 

Time...

Ladies, I am ITCHING to create.

Positively giddy at the ideas spinning around in my head...

but alas there seems to be no time for it!

I may just drink some caffeine and suffer the consequences (think nursing babe + caffeine in my world = gassy grouchy girl) so I can stay up late tonight after everyone else is in bed and the house is quite and just CREATE.

The holiday season is one I love but life just seems to be piling up in every corner of the house and pushing out creativity.

I'm pretty sure sometimes I can feel it screaming "FREEDOM!" from somewhere inside me just TRYING to get out.

Maybe today...maybe today will be the day.

But not right now.

Right now I have to get dressed.

and comb my hair.

and pay bills.

and go grocery shopping (silly family thinks they need to EAT!)

and go to the bank.

and decorate a gingerbread house with my littles (ok, that one will be FUN!)

oh...and the laundry.  The laundry will NEVER be done will it?

I fully agree with Molly on this one...moms going "postal" over laundry.

and believe it or not, I'm looking forward to *most* of these chores because they're more time with my little crew and today I can't wait talk with them and watching them and ENJOY them.

"Fall Cleaning" Continued

So if you remember this post, and this one you remember that I had a lot more I was working on and I forgot to show you!  Oops.  Anyway, I don't have any before pictures of the kitchen which is really too bad because it was quite a difference for just changing up what was on the counters and taking off the cabinet doors.  Here are the afters though.

Just imagine those cabinets on the right on both sides and lots of clutter on the counters and you'll have a pretty good idea of how the "before" looked!  lol

And a close up of my doorless cabinets (which I LOVE!  Got the idea from here.)

(yes, I know my blue dishes don't match my red and green kitchen...but the dishes are MINE and I love them and the kitchen...it's a rental!  lol ;)

And I also have tackled our bedroom.  This is the before of what I've done so far:

I had to move those bookcases there because we have SOOO many books we couldn't just get rid of them and there was litterally NO WHERE else to put them!  lol.  I think they might be getting a coat of white paint and some distressing come spring.  I love the way they look but I'm not digging so much woodgrain.

And this is after! (oh, and what you don't know is that the bottom four shelves are cram packed with books as full as they could possibly be so that I could make these upper ones more attractive!)

and a shot of the bed too.  I got the pillow idea from her. (I think...)

(it really is just a couple towels rolled up with some white fabric and ribbon pinned around it!  Can't beat that...aside from the fact that my kids want to destroy it and I'm afraid they're going to get poked!)

Ok, I think that's it for me tonight.  I'm off to try and scrap for the first time in I bet a MONTH!!!

sorry the pictures are being weird...blogger is the devil!

Raising Small Children

I know a lot of you who read my blog are in a similar time of life and have small children.  That means that many of us probably have the same struggles and thoughts.  One of the things I struggled with (more mentally than ever not requiring good behavior) was Why Require Unregenerate Children to Act Like They're Good?   The biggest thing that had struck me and stuck with me was that when I required behavior of them that they aren't able to fulfill it's an opportunity for me to point them to their need for Christ.  However as I was reading my mail today I saw that John Piper had written a new article on is very topic (see the link above) and he did mention that but also had other points that are very valid and important.  I strongly encourage you to read the article and think about these things yourself. 

Finally he encouraged us to not simply require good behavior but to also:
be forgiving and longsuffering.
praise and encourage each hopeful sign of life in our children.
apologize when we fail (I'm big on letting my kids know I fail and letting them see and hear me ask Christ for help.)
saturate them with the word.
pray for them without ceasing.
and many other things. 

Read the full article here.



And because she actually smiled for me...

Shabby Blogs

I've been playing around with my blog again...I still can't get my post titles font size changed but I did get some of the other stuff that was bugging me fixed!  lol.  I figured as long as I was messing around on my blog I'd change it up a bit too.  I've been wanting a new header for a while and when I saw that my friend Virginia had given her blog a "facelift" it gave me the motivation to actually do it!  lol. 

Anyway, I just wanted to share the AMAZING site that I pretty much always get my backgrounds from.  It's called Shabby Blogs and they're great!  Their Shabby Blogs Blog is really cool too and they've got freebies all the time...and it's all so super cute! 

  I'm off to bed finally. 

Oh, and just because he's so stinkin' cute!

Advent Calendar

I've been thinking about what type of "advent" calendar or "count down to Christmas" I wanted to have and I finally settled on an idea and just did it! I wanted something unique and that wouldn't be too expensive to make. (my total cost was $.53 because I ran out of red embroidery floss!)

I'd seen people use tiny stockings and things like that for this idea but I didn't want to go out and buy 25 of those suckers...plus I wanted it to be a little more personal. So, what's more personal than socks?! (ok, underware are but there is NO WAY I'm making something for the whole world to see out of my underware! lol)

I grabbed all our "divorced" socks and a couple pairs too because I didn't have 25 mismatched ones and started stitching. I made sure I had socks from everyone in our family so they would be all different sizes and then I just embroidered the numbers on the top of them. After I did all that I decided they needed a little something more so I used fabric glue to add the pompom trim and buttons to some of them. Then I used clothes pins to hang them from a ribbon and was done!

Each sock has either a treat (for days I know we're going to be busy busy) or something fun to do.


(sorry the picture is so bad, this is hanging in a hallway and there was just no way to get a good picture of all of it. Oh, and i just noticed I need to take down the hangers for the pictures that are usually there! )

Just Playing

Finally! It felt like it had been FOREVER since I had just sat down and scrapped. No deadlines, not projects to do, just scrapping. I pulled out my Season's Change kit from Color Me Daisy and had fun putting together this simple LO about my little monkey man's love of climbing. Yup...I got me a climber. Anything and everything...he can get up there!


That orange star is by Sassafras and it was in the July kit and the Thickers are from my stash. I outlined everything and added Glossy Accents to a few of the stars too.

And finally, stitched around the edges of the "Junoish" paper (I named that myself, because seriously, how can you look at it and NOT start singing this? LOVE this soundtrack but I still haven't broken down and bought it.)

Dreaming...

What is it about sleeping children that just gets us?
It doesn't matter what they've done...what has happened...how often they've been in trouble...or even how much of a failure they've caused us to feel like, when we see them sleeping we just melt.


We melt, and I know that I for one and ALWAYS reminded of how very blessed I am to have them.


From the Scrap-tastic Vanilla Frosting kit.

Vanilla Frosting

Yup, not gonna lie. I'm a vanilla girl. Always have been, always will be. So obviously this kit was totally for me! This is the first time I've worked with any Webster's Pages products and let me tell you what...WOW! Umm...yea, love them. Like, drooling love them. LURVE. (as a certain home decor blogger likes to say.)

So, enough about how much I LOVED the papers...wanna see the rest of the kit?
Yup, it's pretty yummy!!! I've got one project I'm still working on that my whole family is excited about, but for now, how about some cards? (I am SOOO not a card maker, so just smile and nod and pretend like you love them!)

(In case you couldn't tell, I'm rather addicted to my new Stampin Up "Modern Label" punch these days..)

and a little 2 pager I did for a circle journal about my "style."

(isn't that lamp post just amazing?!?!)

Enough for today..but I do have more to share!

Valley Of Vision

A prayer to Him whom my heart loves and to Him who has given all that I am and will ever be thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day.

O God of the Highest heaven,
occupy the throne of my heart,
take full possession and reign supreme,
lay low every rebel lust,
let no vile passion resist thy holy war;
manifest thy mighty power,
and make me thine forever.

Thou art worthy to be praised with my every breath,
loved with my every faculty of soul,
served with my every act of life.
Thou hast loved me, espoused me, received me,
purchased, washed, favoured, clothed, adorned me,
when I was worthless, vile, soiled polluted.

I was dead in iniquities,
having no eyes to see thee,
no taste to relish thy joys,
no intelligence to know thee;

But thy Spirit has quickened me,
has brought me into a new world as a new creature,
has given me spiritual perception,
has opened to me they Word as light, guide, solace, joy.

Thy presence is to me a treasure of unending peace;
No provocation can part me from thy sympathy,
for thou hast drawn me with cords of love,
and dost forgive me daily, HOURLY.
O help me then to walk worthy of thy love,
of my hopes, and my vocation.

Keep me, for I cannot keep myself;
Protect me that no evil befall me;
Let me lay aside every sin admired of many;
Help me to walk by thy side, lean on thy arm,
hold converse with thee,
That henceforth I may be salt of the earth and a blessing to all.

(from the Valley of Vision, a book of Puritan prayers)

Under the Misteltoe

There is sooo much to gush about in this kit. I mean, look at that musical fabric!

The full reveal will be Nov. 30th on Color Me Daisy.


Don't those flowers look divine?! and let me tell you...the add ons are great as always too!

and last but not least..this is my week to host the Color Me Daisy blog so stop by and say hi! :)

Paper Flowers

This was my week for Tips and Techniques at Scrap-Tastic. I posted a tutorial on how to make this flower.
You can click here for the complete tutorial.

The List

If you remember this post I gave you a little sneak of this LO that I made with the Scrap-Tastic Flirtatious kit (and there are only 1 or 2 left I think!) and I also linked up my inspiration for making this list.

The black and white card is actually an Urban Lily Secret Keeper that I'm planning on jotting notes in as I mark things off my list.

So what's on my list you ask? here it is!

27 Things to do Before I'm 27

1. Memorize a new Bible verse each week.
2. Start hiking with the kids (we've already been twice since I made this LO!)
3. Run a half marathon.
4. Go outside everyday.
5. Get (and use! lol) a bike trailer. (not sure how this will work with 3...but I'll figure something out. *snicker*)
6. Lose baby weight and then some.
7. Go on a scrap retreat weekend.
8. Plant a garden.
9. Spend less time on the computer. (I think I'm already doing better with this one!)
10. Know God better by studying His Word more deeply.
11. Monthly "dates" with each child (well...just the two older ones for now.)
12. Weekends away with Tim.
13. Redecorate/paint/move kids rooms (partially done...half to wait till Grace is older to finish.)
14. Be more BOLD.
15. Get ears pierced.
16. Go rock climbing.
17. Go to Garden of the Gods.
18. Have a birthday party.
19. Learn more about prayer.
20. Foster a love of the outdoors in the kids.
21. Make our home a fun place to be.
22. Write love notes.
23. Call an old friend. (done!)
24. Write letters.
25. Enjoy my kids toddlerhood...without stressing over stuff as much!
26. Try new recipes.
and finally...
27. Run a faster mile.

Just a Little Tease

I took some family pictures for some dear friends last Sunday and I'm having a horrible time getting them all finished up. I know they're very anxious to see them though, so here's a little sneak peek for you Windes Family! :) Enjoy!!!

The First Gift

Water. More talk about water. Why? Because we need water to survive. Water is life giving. Jesus compares himself to water because He is the ultimate source of life.

But what if you don't have water?
Every day 4500 children DIE due to contaminated drinking water.
It DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY.

Today, November 13, 2009, is the day people all over bloggerland are joining together asking you to give. I'm not asking you to do something I haven't done. I have. What moved me more than simply the fact that sooo many people are DYING because they don't have something we take for granted was this thought...how many of them don't have LIVING WATER? How many of them have never heard of Christ? Maybe if we give...just $10...maybe they'll get a chance to hear about the TRUE source of life. Maybe Christ will save them.

$10 will buy clean drinking water for one person for 10 years.

So, I'm asking...let the first give you buy this year (or the last, or one somewhere in the middle) be water.

1/3 of the amount the world spends on presents EVERY year could provide clean drinking water for the ENTIRE WORLD. How selfish does that make you feel?

but remember, God tells us to not give "reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a CHEERFUL giver."

Click the link below to donate. 100% of the proceeds go straight to buying water in Liberia, West Africa. They are tax deductible and the site is secure.



or click here for more info.

all images from the lovely lady at Whatever. Be sure to check out her amazing blog.

I'm sure giving the gift of water is one of the most best ways to have a Beautiful Life I can think of!