Friday Favorites: 5-13-11 (on Tuesday 5-17--Thanks, Blogger!)

I heard about Idea Paint this week from my friend Ashley. This stuff is amazing! I haven't tried it yet, but supposedly, it paints a white board surface onto anything, and it is actually easier to clean than a normal white board (no lingering streaks of dry erase marker are left behind). You can buy it at Lowe's or Home Depot. Check out the examples and the pictures at their website: http://www.ideapaint.com/home/ideapaint. I am excited to try this in our kitchen in order to make a wall space for Bible verses!



Now let's look at other people's fabulous ideas! Enjoy Friday Favorites and the creative inspiration!



Funky Pokadot Giraffe made a ruffled bookmark that is so darling! She gives us a tutorial so we can make it too. This would be a wonderful way to dress up a book gift to a teacher at the end of the year.







If you are short on yard space but love a garden, Homeroad gives us a great tutorial on creating a window box herb garden.  I love the black painted box with white writing.  This would look beautiful in any kitchen.







I had a lot of people ask me how I made the French chair backs for my Paris tea table. Truly, I took the idea for tissue paper pom poms and adapted it a little.  Many of you have made these, but I thought I'd post it for those who haven't.  Martha Stewart has a great tutorial on making tissue paper pom poms for parties.







The Shabby French Cottage featured a low budget kitchen redo.  It is fabulous!  I can't imagine an all white kitchen with my two boys, but maybe I can try it someday.  I am always drawn to happy, bright kitchens!







C.R.A.F.T. gave us a tutorial on making an interactive cork map.  If you are a family who likes to travel or you have a husband who travels and you want to show the kids where his work is taking him, then this is a fun idea!





Landee See, Landee Do made some vase filler balls from thumbtacks.  They are really pretty.  The texture on them is just as great as a bean ball.  This would be a fun project to do while you are watching TV--am I the only one who has to multitask if the TV is on?







Of Pinks and Fairy Tales made a darling pleated tie necklace.  I have seen this trend in a few places, and it has to be done JUST right to look cute.  She did a perfect job.  She got her tutorial from Rachel at Maybe Matilda. 







Pressed Down, Shaken Together made flowers from bottle caps.  She added buttons and then decorated a wreath and made the CUTEST project.  It is a low cost craft that is absolutely beautiful!







Green Gracie Home guestposted on Sugar Bee Craft Edition and gave us a great recipe tutorial for Whoopie Pies.  These have lots of chocolate and gooey frosting, so I had to share.  Yum!







Let's end on a healthy and summery note.  Real Food, Allergy Free shared a summer salad recipe with artichoke hearts and asparagus.  I am craving this since I saw it--maybe it will be on the meal plan for next week!

Not Happy With Blogger: Friday Favorites

                             
Well folks, in doing site maintenance, blogger has erased/lost my draft of my Friday Favorites post for the week.  Unfortunately, as I write the Friday Favorites, I delete the saved sites off my saved favorites since they are now in my post for future reference.  SO, I hate to say it, but there will be no Friday Favorites this week unless Blogger somehow finds my draft again.  This is a huge bummer, as there were some amazing projects in there, and it takes about an hour to put that post together--more if you count the searching for time.

I did mention a new idea in Friday Favorites that I will mention again here.  Have you heard of idea paint?  My friend Ashley told me about it this week.  You can go to Lowe's or Home Depot and buy a can of idea paint, which is essentially white board paint that can be written on with dry erase marker.  Supposedly, it cleans off better than your average white board, so you aren't left with marker dust and streaks all over.  I can't wait to get a can and try this on a small area of our kitchen.  We could write down AWANA verses and family calendars!  Here is the idea paint website if you want to try it out . . .
http://www.ideapaint.com/

Women in the Word Wednesday: Responding to Those Bad Days 5-12-11

Psalm 73:25-26 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

I needed to read this verse today, and, of course, God sent it my way.  What encouragement there is in this truth.  All we need is God, and all we truly have is God.  All other things and people will fail, but, if you are in Christ, God is your Father forever!  He doesn't take days off, and He is all powerful.  When it seems like the day is a mess and nothing more could go wrong, just remember He is sovereign and loving, and you are being made into the image of Christ!

Here is an old post, from August, 2007, I wrote about being thankful in trials.  Five years later, I am still clinging to these truths daily to guide my attitude, check my reactions to trials, and to give me wisdom in encouraging others:

8-07

Indeed, this week has not been my favorite. Ryan is in the midst of his month long busy season, and he has been working late a couple of nights a week. When I say late, I mean midnight. With impeccable timing, Carter has also come down with a very bad cold--coughing, sneezing, oozing mucous and generally whining in discontent. The hardest part of Carter being sick is that he doesn't sleep, and when he is awake, he is exceedingly fussy. He cries for a long time before he falls asleep, his once long naps have become an hour long at most, and he wakes up at the crack of dawn. This, of course, cuts into my sleep, which has whittled away my patience and left me crabby and, upon reflection, prone to more sin in my speech and attitude.

What I find most ironic about my sin in this trial is that I JUST finished a chapter about thankfulness in trials the day before Carter got sick. I finished Martha Peace's Damsels in Distress, which ended with a chapter entitled, Be Thankful? You Can't Be Serious!--Trials. It was easy to read that chapter with a good attitude and close it with an "Amen" when I wasn't facing too many challenges. God humbled me immediately. This trial has certainly exposed my need to repent and work on my attitude in trials--even small ones.

Martha Peace gives some wonderful, biblical perspective on trials. She gives three reasons as to why God might put a person through a trial:

1. As Pastor Mike discussed a few weeks ago, God may be pruning us so that we may bear more fruit for His glory. He cuts off "dead" areas in our life in order to harvest wonderful fruit for His purposes.

2. God may give a trial as discipline. Perhaps we have stubborn sin in our lives. God loves us and does not want us to continue in a sin with a hard heart. We know God disciplines us with a pure, holy motive and purpose. Hebrews 12:11 tells us that

"No chastening seems joyful for the moment, but painful. Nevertheless,
afterward, it produces the peacable fruit of righteousness to those who have
been trained by it."

3. Finally, God might use a trial to exposes whether or not our faith is proven genuine. As with myself in this particular trial, I was overly confident in my faith and endurance during trials. God had to show me how shallow my patience and confidence can potentially be. This is an opportunity to mature in my faith. James 2:1-4 explains,

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing
that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have
its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in
nothing."

The chapter on trials ends with three ways we SHOULD respond when facing a trial. First, we should be grateful to God. Thankful for pain? Yes. As I Thessalonians 5:18 tells us, we should give thanks in everything, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. I like how Mrs. Peace says that sometimes we might not FEEL thankful, but we need to act thankful. Just as loving someone is sometimes hard, it is a choice and action we show, even when we don't feel loving. Our feelings often follow close behind our choices and actions. We know the trial is for our good, God is sovereign and we are being made closer to His image. This should give us joy and hope--leading to thankfulness.

In addition to responding with gratitude, we need to be convinced of God's goodness. If your doctor calls with worries about a test you just took, or you have a loved one pass away unexpectedly, you will feel grief. However, this grief can give way to hope and confidence because we know that God is loving and good. Focus on the positive--"I have been healthy for so and so years", or "I am so blessed to have known this person who just passed away for thus and thus time." As Pastor Mike has said in his sermons, do not ask why bad things happen to good people. No one is good but God. Ask why in the world God allows any good to happen to BAD people (that is all of us, by the way). God's goodness will never change, despite our circumstances.

Finally, we need to respond to a trial knowing that God loves us. If you are a believer, you know God loves you dearly. As I John 4:10 says,

"In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son
to be the propitiation for our sins."

We even know the discipline found in some trials comes from love (Hebrews 12:6). No matter what trial God allows, you can never doubt his love. This gives us comfort and a soft place to turn for peace when the tempest is billowing around us. God is gently keeping us close to Him, steering us away from our own sinfulness. He loves us profoundly.

Versatile Blogger Award

Oh, dear. I got this award a couple of weeks ago when Micah was just getting the stomach flu--which lasted for 5 days. The e-mail got buried, and even with a reminder e-mail, I forgot to post about it! Please forgive me, Shelley! Life has been just a LITTLE busier than normal. Why are May/June and September always so crazy busy? Even when I'm not teaching and my kids aren't really in school (preschool doesn't really count), ministry has the same calendar and seems to make us JUST as busy.

Shelley, over at Crazy Wonderful, awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award! Fun!  It is always encouraging to get an award and hear positive feedback about blogging!  Check out her fun blog!

So, I have to give 7 facts about myself.  A lot of my normal readers know the usual stuff about me, our ministry, my past jobs, etc.  Here are some REALLY random facts:

1.  I despise canned tuna fish.  It smells. It tastes fishy.  It is one of the rare instances where I won't eat a type of food.  I'm usually pretty adventurous with food.

2.  I crack my knuckles. . . my toes. . . my back . . . my elbows . . . my ankles.  Seriously, I crack any joint in my body.  It releases stress and it is a bad habit I haven't been able to break.  It drives some people crazy, but I don't even notice I'm doing it.

3.  I  have scoliosis (born with it--"S" curve) and a herniated disc in my back (as a result), which keep me from doing impact exercise.  I will never be a girl who can run a marathon.  I am thankful for the elliptical trainer and low impact exercise options. 

4.  I am a macro-organizer, but not a micro-organizer.  It drives my husband crazy.  He is the opposite.  I walk in a room, see a pile of paper and stuff it in a drawer.  Voila.  It LOOKS organized.  I hate clutter in a room that you SEE.  Ryan doesn't care about the appearance of the room.  He opens that drawer and gets stressed out that the drawer isn't organized.  I say, "But you can't see it unless you open the drawer. Don't sweat the small stuff."  Between the two of us, our house is insanely clean and organized.  (Oh, except my closet and dresser drawers, which Ryan lets me keep kind of messy since he doesn't have to use them).

5.  I am a complete American mutt.  My dad is half mexican, half English, Irish.  My mom is part Cherokee Indian, part German.  Oh, and my first name is Italian, which is the one ethnicity I don't have in me.  It is all very complicated.  If they ever did my geneology, they would be so confused.

6.  I love logic puzzles.  This is very strange since I am a writer/English major who avoids math, science, etc. at all costs. 

7.  The movie A.I. makes me bawl like a baby--not many movies make me cry.  I'm pretty cynical.  I don't understand why people hate that movie.  If you took out the whole Jude Law part (I get the Pinnocchio nod, Stephen Spielberg, but it still is a weird scene), the movie is so sad.  All he wants is his "mom" and her to love him--he sacrifices EVERYTHING to have a moment of being loved like a real son.  The first time I saw it, Ryan and I were dating, and I don't think I stopped sobbing for about an hour after the movie ended.  Ryan was a little scared.  I PROMISE I am usually not an emotional mess at all--rarely cry.  There is just something about that movie.

Okay.  There you are--seven random facts about me. 
I am not sure of 7 blogs to give this to, so I'll have to think about it and get back to you. 
Praying you are all having a great week!

Oooo-La-La. A Tea Table in Paris.

I'm sorry I didn't post pictures sooner, but I am STILL in full swing with entertaining and crafting.  I have the last of my busy weekends in a row this upcoming weekend.  I am hosting a baby shower at my house and also throwing an appreciation dinner for our Thrive ministry leaders at church.  The baby shower is an owl theme, and the ministry dinner is a red carpet/Hollywood theme.  They both should be a ton of fun, but this should be a busy week!

I chose to do a very non-traditional tea table this last weekend.  It all started with my sister in law's Eiffel Tower decor she has at home.  I didn't want to create or buy a centerpiece, so I thought about what was accessible and worked from there.  We placed the tower on a platform in the middle of the table and added some tulle and battery operated white lights under the base of the Eiffel Tower.

I saw some gorgeous ostrich feather arrangements when I googled Paris themed parties, so, because I could not afford ostrich feathers, I took red boas and hot glued them to round styrofoam to make feather topiaries.  I spray painted the wood stick and the glass vase black so the topiary had our table colors.  They were fun and whimsical, though they still make me think of Animal from the Muppet Show.
I apologize for the pictures.  Not only is the lighting not perfect in the church auditorium (no windows for natural light), but we also had tables extremely close together, so everyone's decorations are melting into my tablescape.

We used my mom's beautiful cream china and red napkins, so our color palate was red, black, cream and white.  I wanted to do black and white stripes as the pattern for the accents, but it was almost impossible to find the striped materials we needed.  Instead, we went with a black background and white polka dots on ribbons and the crafting paper placemats.

For favors, I melted chocolate into a fleur de lis mold.  I gave each person three of these chocolates in a clear bag, with a red, fabric flower pin attached to the outside of the bag.  Finally, I tied them shut with a black and white polka dotted ribbon and a matching piece of paper with scripture.  Because of space issues, we stuffed the cute favors into the water glasses.

I made nametags out of red stock paper and the same polka dotted ribbon. 

Finally, I made chair back decor.  I had visions of tissue pom poms hanging from the back of each chair, but my poms were too big and round.  I played around with them and realized I loved them as really full HALF poms.  With the black and white scalloped tissue paper, they looked just like a can-can dancer's dress.  It was just an "accidental" craft that worked. 

The tea was fabulous.  I am going to share some of the other tables.  Some were traditional, some creative and fun (I love Lucy theme and a classic Hollywood theme), and some whimsical and magical (Tinkerbell).  All of them were wonderful. 

There were 70-something tables in all!  The event had over 500 women in attendance.  The lesson was on the biography of Fanny Crosby, who wrote a zillion hymns, including Blessed Assurance.  Her life was a convicting lesson to both non-believers and Christians alike. 

Have fun looking at all the tea tables.  If your church doesn't do something like this, you have to mention it to the staff.  It is such a FUN and successful event! 

"Ethel" and "Lucy" from the I Love Lucy table.

My mom and I ready to start the tea.

I linked this post to:

Today's Creative Blog







Blue Cricket Design