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.