So Blessed

So there are many things today that didn't go as I had planned. 

Today at church I had nursery duty.  I got to hang out with the coolest/cutest little 2 year old.  I just love him to pieces.  Each time he sees me now he's super duper happy about it.  I love it!  I also got to hang out with a rocking little 8 month old.  What I hadn't planned on was that the 8 month old is now CRAWLING!!! Crazy!  She looks too little to be crawling, but she is.  Also, normally the 2-year-old is really good about putting away the toys he gets out.  Today he just couldn't focus.  He wasn't trying to be disobedient just too distracted by EVERYTHING.  But you know what, even still, I'm so blessed to be able to influence these little ones for Christ in small ways even just by caring for/playing with them.  Hopefully in the years to come they'll remember these days fondly. 

^That's our church :).  I love it so much!

After church we had planned to watch the Steelers game with our friends Andrew and Sky.  Only in Erie, they don't always broadcast the Steelers games.  So we ate some yummy mac and cheese and talked for quite a while.  Then we decided to play the board game WordThief.  My husband and I love this game, and Sky and Andrew also like it (I think, I hope).  So even though things didn't go as I expected, we still had a very nice afternoon. We are blessed to live so close to some of our great friends. 

That's Andrew and Sky.  We loff them.

Then I came home and washed some dishes (because I was lazy yesterday) and tried to sew some new items for the shop.  They will be available for purchase but more will just be an example of some custom items that I can do.  Only, I broke part of my machine.  The part that holds the spool of thread on came out and I can't get it to go back in.  I tried.  It's not working.  So I decided I would just give up for now.  Then I tried to play a video game and we failed pretty hard.  So realized that must not be what I was supposed to do at the time so I hand stitched the opening closed on a project.  That was nice to be able to do :).  But even still, I'm praising God that I have a sewing machine and don't have to sew everything by hand.  I've done some hand quilting before and trust me, it's way easier to use a machine to sew ;). 

Source

I was going to take 21 week bump pictures today also but got a text from our friends we visited on Friday saying I forgot my camera there.  I only have a little point and shoot so it must have fallen out of my purse (someday I will learn to zipper my purse).  But you know what, praise God that I have a little point and shoot camera.  And praise God that we got to hang out with our good friends Carol and Bill the other day.  It was such a blessing to just be adults and to talk about the things of God with them. 

For tonight, I think I'm going to go make some brownies, because I'm pregnant and craving chocolate and haven't had any in a while. Ok it's been a week, but I can't remember what my midwife said I should eat when craving chocolate instead of chocolate, so brownies it is (with peanut butter).  

I got distracted from making the brownies though by thinking of how blessed I am just to have a personal relationship with Christ and to know that He cares about me so much.  Why wouldn't I want to share Him with others??? He has changed me so much over the years.  In little ways, in big ways, and all the in between ways, I'm not who I was and I refuse to go back to that person.  We are studying prophecy in our sermons at church lately and tonight's message was very good and I hope to get a recording of the one from this morning since it's just hard to pay attention to the message when you are watching little ones.  

Source

Although this doesn't perfectly illustrate how Christ will return, I still appreciate the picture.

All that to say though that Jesus IS coming back.  It could be any day now. And as much as I would love to have our little one in our arms, if He came back tomorrow I would be THRILLED to go spend eternity with Him.  Although there are things that make me hope He doesn't come back tomorrow.  There are so many people that I love that don't know Him yet and that just frightens/makes me so sad.  It makes me realize I need to be praying for them more and more everyday.  I also know that if He came back tomorrow and I faced the judgement seat of Christ I would be very ashamed of myself that I have not served Him more.  There are too many times when I've been too selfish and wanting to entertain myself.  

I'm praying that over the next few months, Christ turns me into a better wife for my husband, a better homemaker.  I want our child to grow up in a nicely kept home.  Right now I'm so TERRIBLE at that.  I've never been very good at keeping things picked up.  That needs to change before our little one arrives.  I also need to make sure that I am trying to live for Christ every day.  Praying that I never miss an opportunity to share Him with others.  Praying that God will use me in any way possible to bring Him glory. 

I'm sorry that this was such a long post but there were just some things that I needed to write out today to hopefully encourage others but more as a reminder to myself of how I should be living my life.  

What are some of the ways Christ has blessed you lately???  Are you prepared if He returns soon?

Of OJ, Ovens, and Craft Rooms

Last week, Lindsay of  From the Aisle to Aloha, wrote a "Little Things" post and asked if anyone would be interested in linking up.  I absolutely wanted to link up.  Her challenge is for us to find the little things throughout the week that God has done for us or little things that have made us smile/be thankful about.  Great idea right???

This week, I have been pretty sick with a cold.  Thankfully it seemed to disappear yesterday so that makes me so much happier.  When being pregnant, (who am I kidding), anytime I get sick I really prefer not to take medicine.  So one huge blessing this week has been God's natural healer: OJ or Orange Juice (not OJ Simpson, *shudders*).  I'm so thankful we were able to pick up some OJ this week.

Photo found here

Then there was the morning this week I woke up to get my glass of said orange juice and walked past the oven and thought, "Wow, that is really warm."  I looked down to see that the oven had been on ALL NIGHT.  Apparently when we got the casserole out of the oven we forgot to shut it off.  I'm praising God that we are still alive and doing well.  I'm also very thankful for our oven.  It was provided for us in our apartment and is definitely vintage.  Plus I love to bake, so it has served me well over these last three years.  It made me sad one day when our landlord said he was thinking of replacing it.  I mean just look at this beauty!

A few months ago, I was really pining for a space all of my own where I could create.  Instead our apartment had turned into a disaster area for my craft supplies looked like they had grown legs and crawled into every area of our apartment.  SO, my husband very kindly decide we would change our "game room" (really it's basically a large closet) into the craft room and set up the table for me and moved all of my wonderful supplies into the craft room.  

This is my space.  It may be little, but it's my space.  It may look messy, but it's my space.  For that I am so thankful.  And despite the mess, these were all items that I was working on this week.  YAY!  I'm also very thankful for that little pink glue gun that I received via FreeCycle.  I lost mine and someone gave me one for FREE.  Praise God for that! 

If you have some little things that you are thankful for this week, why don't you link up with Lindsay??? 

I'd also love to hear about the little things you are thankful for this week!

Truly Trashing the Dress

You know the new thing in photography called "Trash the Dress?"  You know what I mean where brides will wear their gown and purposefully get it dirty? I did that once and it was WAY fun. 

All photos used courtesy of Kat Ritenour Photography

All photos used courtesy of Kat Ritenour Photography

 All photos used courtesy of Kat Ritenour Photography

We nearly literally froze our behinds off but had a ton of fun.  In the photos we're actually standing on a frozen lake.  Craziness!  

That's not the kind of trash the dress I'm talking about today though.  I'm talking about taking this dress:

The one on the left (Aren't my sister and I so cute back in high school!?) 

And I'm trashing it. . . well, sorta.  I'm taking it and using it for fabric for items in my shop.  So far I've made:

All of the ones with pink in them, from this dress.

And some flowers for some wreaths that should be up in the shop hopefully tomorrow. 

And many many more projects to come. 

Don't worry though, I don't feel so bad about trashing this dress.  It wasn't very expensive when I bought it.  It was on sale way before dress shopping season.  Shhhhhhhh it was less than $20.

Have you ever taken something totally apart and used it in a different way?  I would love to see some of your creative ideas!

Yesterday's Photoshoot and Recipe for Worst Night's Sleep

Yesterday I went to visit my family at their camper 20 minutes away.  I hadn't been able to visit them earlier in the week and so I wanted to visit them and I thought maybe I could have my sister do a little modeling for me.  She wasn't super thrilled to be modeling but we still got some good photos.

 The Snapdragon Clip/Pin

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun clip/pin

Fraggle Rock Pin/Clip

Hey look she does know how to smile! 

The Jem Blossom pin/clip

The Girlie Girl Blossom

I love the 80s clip/pin

And this is what happens when you're too lazy to walk over to the table to put the ones you've already modeled over there!  HAHAHA I just started attaching them to my dress.  Yay fun times.  There will hopefully be more products added soon, just as soon as this cold goes away!

I was hoping to take more pictures of products today but when I came home yesterday my face started melting (not a good sign).  Apparently, my husband, the sweetheart that he is, decided to share his cold with me.  By 4 o'clock, my eyes were watering, then the sneezing began and the runny nose.

Last night, I slept terribly.  So did my poor husband because of me.  The cycle went something like this: nose is stuffed up so I breathe out of my mouth, wake up and my throat's sore so I drink lots of water, go back to sleep for a bit again breathing out of my mouth, wake up to drink water/blow my nose, realize I have to go to the bathroom, struggle to fall asleep again, and repeat at least three times.

Today, I knew I had a free breakfast sandwich thanks to Chick-Fil-A so I got up and got showered and even  dried my hair, not because I wanted to look cute, not because my husband likes my hair better straight, but because I'm sick and it's pretty chilly outside.  HAHA How's that for motivation?  Then we went to the store and got TP and tissues and some other necessities.  I came home and crafted for a bit, but I think for now I'll take a break.  Just too tired/sick to do much.

I told Aaron I'd have dinner ready for when he gets back from tutoring.  Any good suggestions of casseroles containing chicken and rice that would be easy to make??? We have some rice we need to use up and my some I mean my husband made way more than we could eat with stir-fry recently.

Linking up with Jana for Tuesday Glam Party #45..

Would you look at that bump???

Can you believe it, this past Saturday was the 20 week mark which means we're halfway done with our pregnancy (unless our little one comes late like daddy did).  The morning sickness is gone!  Praise our sweet Lord for that one.  I didn't know how much longer I could stand it.  I can finally cook again!  I even made dinner last night and a couple of times this week.  

On Sunday after church, I had my dear friend Sky take some bump pictures for me and they turned out great!

20 weeks in my favorite shirt :) 

I know you are there even though I can't feel you yet. 

Can't wait to meet this precious little jewel growing inside. 

Then yesterday, I went to visit my family so my sister could help model some of the new products for the shop.  I wore a belt that will be going in the shop soon so she took some pictures too.  Check out that cute little bump!

Definitely a baby in there (or a watermelon)!

I hope you had a terrific holiday weekend!  

Great Lord's Day

I decided today that I would like this blog to focus more on my faith as well as the other things going on in my life.  So today's post will be about the morning service at church this morning.

Today, Aaron was feeling under the weather and didn't make it to church, but I still had a great morning in church worshiping the Lord.  The music this morning was mostly focused around the holiness of God.  What a great way to worship Him.  Our pastor preached about the Rapture from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.  It was a terrific message and he's going to be starting a series on eschatology/prophecy dealing with the end times.  I'm so excited because in my quiet times I've been reading through the minor prophets and not really understanding them super well.  We don't normally go to Sunday night services because we live on the other side of town and don't have much income right now.  I'm pleased/thankful to say that Aaron said we could certainly go to Sunday evening services while Pastor preaches this series.  Praise God!!!

Today was also communion Sunday for our church.  Our worship leader sang the song "How Deep the Father's Love For Us" by Stuart Townend.  I was so moved by the words today as I sat there eyes closed, ready to partake in communion.

I particularly like this version of the song.  You don't need to watch the video if you don't want to but it does have the lyrics also if you'd like to follow along.

How deep the Father's love for us,

How vast beyond all measure

That He should give His only Son

To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,

The Father turns His face away

As wounds which mar the chosen One,

Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,

My sin upon His shoulders

Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,

Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there

Until it was accomplished

His dying breath has brought me life

I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything

No gifts, no power, no wisdom

But I will boast in Jesus Christ

His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?

I cannot give an answer

But this I know with all my heart

His wounds have paid my ransom

(REPEAT)

The line underlined above is the one that really got me thinking.  I know that often I'm not actually thinking about what communion means to me while we partake but today, I was thinking about how Christ really did suffer for my sins.  Praise God that He would willingly give His Son to take my punishment.  It's totally unfathomable.  I'm so thankful for the redemption we have through Christ.  Praise God for His Mercy.

Did you attend a service today?  I'd love to hear what you learned about this morning!

Works in Progress

This week on the Scatter Girls Blog, they asked what were some of our works in progress.  I took these pictures yesterday of some of the things I've been working on in my craft room to add to my shop.  I received some free fabric from a friend's Mom, (thanks Sky).  So I've been using those a lot lately.  I have to admit the new items have an 80s feel but I'm totally ok with that for some reason. :)

One 80s inspired pin/hair clip in the making

New pretty fabrics from Sky's mom, plus the pink from an old dress I cut up. 

80's kick??? Just maybe. . . or it's that whole I use what I have thing going on ;)

Just need a touch of rhinestones, a felt back, a pin and hair clip, then it's ready to be put in the shop. 

Loving all the bright colors, hope you do too!

And something new.  This wreath will be available in shop when finished.  

I'm also linking up with my friend Laura over here.

I'm also linking up here. 

And I'm linking up here:

What do you think of the new products?? Too 80s?  

I'm also thinking of just having one blog since 2 are too hard to keep up with.  Unfortunately since I started this one, I think I'll stick with this one and just include shop updates every once in a while.  Do you think that's an ok idea??? 

Have any projects you've been working on lately?  I'd love to see pictures!