Block of Faith

I needed something to put on my flower cart on the porch that would elevate my lantern... so I came up with this idea. Using a 6x6 block of wood (that I took from my brother in law's scrap after building a deck), I created this:



I was able to use my Cricut and vinyl to cut the word "faith" mulitple times. I then applied it to the block of wood so that it looked like this:



I suppose you could go all the way around the block but, nah... that was too much trouble.

Using black spray paint, I spray painted over the letters and covered the block of wood. And it was at this point that I discovered that I stink at spray painting. But luckily, it didn't matter with this project. And I have my wonderful husband to do all the "serious" spray painting for me... whew. So, after it's spray painted, it looks like this: (this wasn't the final coat, but close to it... it didn't matter too much with this block b/c I was gonna distress it anyway.)



Pull off the letters, sand a bit to distress it and that's it!



I wish that I had stained the block first before applying the vinyl... I think that would have given it a more distressed look. Maybe I'll do that next time. I promise to show pictures of my porch soon. We've changed our mind and are going to stain the floor now. We have SO many gallons of stain that my daddy gave us and so we finally decided to go with it and stain it. So... you'll have to wait a bit longer. I know, I know. The suspense is killing you... :)

Head on over to Beneath My Heart for other great Do it Yourself projects!

Graduation gifts

It's that time of year again when I try to figure out what to get all the graduates. There are always so many and my budget is limited. So, this year I did something a little bit different. I got them a cup and a book. A book? Really? Say it ain't so! The last thing they need is a book seeing as how they will be going to college (hopefully) and they will be overwhelmed with books. But I think this is a perfect opportunity to arm them with great Christian classics like Pilgrim's Progress, Fox's Book of Martyrs and maybe even a commentary. I like to scoop up books when they are on clearance or if I find a really good deal on them.

I bought this cup at Target for $6.49. It's usually around $8 so pair this with a book and what a great gift! Hey... Father's Day is coming up and it can easily be made into a "manly" cup. I gave my hubby one of these. It's Camo on the inside. Quite manly indeed.



I then took the paper out and used it as a template and put my own scrapping paper in it.



To add a little "extraness" to it, I added a vinyl initial using my Cricut.



So, that's it... I hope they enjoy it! Oh, and Desiring God has a graduation sale going on that includes John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life. That would make for a great gift set as well.

Theology Thursday

Well, it is late but it is still Thursday. I am going to begin a five part series for the Theology Thursday post with a brief discussion on total depravity. In order to understand why we need a Savior, we must first understand our condition. When I say our condition, I mean the state we are in as sinners apart from God's grace. We are a fallen race. One thing that seems to be a forgotten truth in most churches today is this - as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. (Roman 3:10-11) You see we must understand that since the fall we have no desire to seek God or understand God, and that is because we now are naturally opposed to Him - The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14) The natural (or man in his fallen state) does not seek, love or want to know the one true God of the bible... we are actually opposed to Him - For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Roman 8:7-8) This is *briefly* total depravity. We are sinners by nature and we will not seek God apart from His grace imparted to us to transform us. Of course, it is not total in the sense that we are as bad as we could be, rather it is total in the sense that we are unable to submit to God and do good in our natural state. We are totally lost apart from the supernatural work of God in our life to change our nature and cause us to seek Him.

However, the glorious truth of the gospel is that Christ came to save sinners, and He will not lose any for whom he died - And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. (John 6:39)

Sidetracked...

I was going to work on my porch this weekend. But I got sidetracked. By this little girl...

and this little boy...


And their wonderful daddy. And the detour was sooo worth it. I'll get to the porch. Tomorrow.

His mercies are new every morning

When I pulled the curtains back on my front door and windows this morning, this is the image I got. How marvelous is our God to show us through His creation that His mercies are new every morning. The green in the trees, the dew on the ground and the suns rays peeking through the woods. Wow. Thank you Lord for refreshment.



I plan to work on my porch this weekend so watch for more before and after pictures!

Theology Thursday

I had all intentions of talking about total depravity this week for Theology Thursday. But it's not gonna happen. Because I didn't start preparing early enough, time got away from me. Add in a couple of bad days with Shep and there you have it. But, all is not lost! My brother in law has been talking for quite some time about the church he attends while he is working at the fire station. It's The Church at Brook Hills and David Platt is the pastor. Check out this video that details his new book Radical. It contrasts the American dream that we've been taught to pursue versus what the Bible says about what we should pursue.

Just a swingin...

We got a little crazy when we decided to redo our front porch. Our budget is $zero dollars$ so we are being quite creative! We went a little wild with the swing but I like the way it's turning out. I've always wanted to do something to my swings but staining them has been the extent of my ideas for them. That is... until we found this in the garage:



Here is the before... it's really bad. I didn't realize how bad it looked until I saw this picture.



We even painted the chains bronze... don't they look yummy?




I'm not quite finished with it. Why not? Well... a momma's life is go, stop, go, stop. The go's are usually doing things like laundry, dinner, school etc. And the stops? The stops are feeding Shep becuause I have no choice but to sit down. I think that's God's way of slowing us down sometimes, ya think? So, during some of my go's, I've been working on finishing the swing. I want to distress it and not make it look so... so... bzzzt. No, that's not a word but if you try to sound it out, you'll get the sound effect I'm going for!

Here is a sneak peek:



I'm working on an idea in my head for some cushions for the swing... and they involve burlap!! So fun! I SO appreciate my husband for braving the hot Alabama weather on Saturday to paint this for me. He knows I prefer not to sweat, being the southern gal I am.

Front Porch redo

This weekend, we worked a little bit on revamping the front porch. We really want to make the redo with things that we already have. We are trying very hard to be resourceful with the things that we have and not buy anything new. And honestly... that's very hard to do! I'll admit, I'm very frugal and thrifty. But it's hard to be resourceful with things I have when I'd love to be finding a good bargain somewhere. But as great as the bargains may be, I'm making myself use the blessings the Lord has given us and not buy STUFF just to be buying. I read a blog post on Life in Grace that calls this "redecoranging"... :)

Here are before pictures of the porch:

I had pretty much cleared everything off when I took these pictures.






I can't wait to show the after pictures to you! We are still working on it... maybe we will be finished by the weekend and I'll reveal it!!

Theology Thursday

While looking through some archived folders on my computer, I came across this that Ella wrote a few years ago. She was five at the time. Only five, but speaking volumes. She's written several things about God but for whatever reason, this one has always been our favorite.



It says:
(added punctuation, etc. for accurate reading)
Thank you. In the heart God you are good. It's nice to be with you Lord. In the heart of you, you are glory. Bless yourself. You are good God. You can save people. You make people die when you want to.

Wow! Bless you all.
For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in truth. 3 John 3,4 ESV)

Burp cloths

Oh, thank goodness for burp cloths! I can probably count on one hand the number of burp cloths I used with Ella. With Shep... well let's just say that I have about a dozen and we wash them quite regularly. He spits up like nobody's business! At least he's a happy spitter and it doesn't bother him at all. It's just annoying to always have that smell on him and us.
Luckily, before he was born, I found a great tutorial online about making burp cloths. For the life of me, I can't remember the site but if I find it or you know it please let me know. I'll link to it because this was something that I saw as inspiratation and I don't want anyone to think I stole it and made it my idea!!

I simply bought a pack of diapers. I bought Gerber prefold birdseye weave. They don't look the best (in that boutiquey kind of way) but they are ultra absorbent and I'm glad *now* that I bought these. I had no idea then how useful they would be! I also bought some cute ribbon, ric rac and double fold bias quilt binding. NOTE: I did NOT pre-wash mine and they have been just fine.

First, get the diaper. Choose your ribbon and cut 2 strips the length of the burp cloth. Starting at the top of the diaper, sew the ribbon onto the burp cloth. I try to keep the sewing machine in the center of the ribbon. Do this for both strips of ribbon.

Next, measure your quilt binding to the diaper and cut. Do this for the top and the bottom. Fold it over the diaper and sew. Do this for both ends. Zig Zag the stitch for that "extraness"! That's it!









I will definitely be giving these to new mommies in the future. I just hope they don't have a spitter-upper like I have!!

Head on over to Today's Creative Blog for more DIY ideas!

Deal of the week

I actually got this last week but I forgot about it because I took a picture of it on my phone and not my camera. But here is the deal:



loofah sponge
2 Oral B toothbrushes
1 box Fig Newtons
Glade plug ins (2pk)
softsoap
After coupons... I spent a whopping $.96 out of pocket! I love CVS!

Theology Thursday

As I was contemplating what to write about today, the nursery rhyme "Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?" kept going through my mind. It could be because we recently planted a small, *tiny* garden in our backyard for Ella. It has tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and blackberries in it. Oh, and some flowers for decoration! So, as I go out to look at the garden each morning, "How does your garden grow?" runs through my mind. Of course we have to maintain the garden. We have to water, feed, weed, and nurture the tiny little box garden. If we don't commit to maintaining it, it simply will die!
Now, what does that have to do with Theology Thursday? Well, I think we can all ask ourselves, "How does our garden grow?" Can our lives as God's children grow, as gardens do, without nurture? Without water? Without food? Without commitment? NO! Therefore, I urge you...and most certainly myself... to nurture ourselves on the word of God. He is our source of life.

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. (John 6:35)
Here are some images from our garden planting... we had a great time and can't wait to harvest the fresh veggies!

Being crafty is in her DNA...

Even Ella likes to be crafty. With a 1x6 piece of wood and some nails, she made this, um... er... craft. She thought it would be perfect for her Papa's workshop. She says he can use it to hang his tools on. Ahhh... through the eyes of a child. I love it.

Place mat pillow

I found this great place mat at the Dollar Tree and decided it would make a great pillow. It's perfect for Shep's room. The great thing about this place mat is that it already had a backing so all I needed to do was unstitch a section, fill with stuffing and re-stitch the place mat. I went one step further and added Shep's name to it.


















Materials
Cricut
place mat
fabric paint
freezer paper
sponge paint brush
iron

Using your cricut machine, choose your design. In this case, I wanted to personalize the pillow, so I did "Shep" using my SCAL software and the CAC One Seventy font. Place freezer paper shiny side down in your cricut machine. Set the cricut (pressure 4, blade 3 and speed3) and cut the design.
Place place mat on ironing board and place the cut out design onto the place mat shiny side down. It must be shiny side down so that the freezer paper will adhere to the fabric. Iron over the place mat for approximately 10 seconds to ensure all parts are adhered.
Take another piece of freezer paper and place on the inside of the place mat before painting. This will keep the paint from bleeding through.


















Once that paper is in place, you are ready to paint. Using a sponge paintbrush, sponge the paint onto the place mat where it is cut out. I use a sort of pouncing method and NOT a stroking method. Once it is dry... that's it!! Fill with stuffing and restitch.