Wake Up! We Need to Talk!

Have you ever been awaken at 1:30AM by a gut punch to the stomach and the whisper of: "Wake up! We need to talk!"? Yeah, me neither. Until last night. When I felt the punch I cringed. When I heard the whisper...I wanted to hide. I knew that voice but this time I heard the urgency. It made the punch all the more real. God had called me.

I racked my brain to tried and figure out why. But He knew I knew. He waited. I didn't move. That  had been the problem. In a time I should have. I didn't. I pray for many people in the morning, throughout the day and at night, but I hadn't prayed for someone who had been in, and is in, desperate need right now.  He needed me to wake up, not just physically in this case.

I've spoken about being convicted when I have fallen short before. Gimme a break, I'm a sinner, I fall short of His Grace daily. For this person He wants me to move. Even as Christians we sometimes turn a blind eye when the Deceiver stands right before us. We listen when anger or spite manifest in others. We call it being sympathetic. We nod but say nothing when someone is gossiping, being spiteful or hateful and we call that: "letting them vent". Not that they "can't" but we need to move and suggest prayer. And if they don't want to do that, we do it on their behalf. Otherwise in our own way we aid the Deceiver to continue the deception and worming deeper into another's life.

When I heard what God wanted me to do for the person He laid on my heart, my first reaction was: "But I..." Then the thought trailed off. It wasn't about me. It was about what He has called all of us to do. Unmask the deception and reveal The Truth. I always ask God to let me know when He needs me to be called. Guess what? He did. He does.

 None of us may have the "right words" for people who God lays in our paths but we do have The Answer. We need to let others know what it is. Otherwise we only further Satan's Kingdom and we don't glorify God's. Prayer is a wonderful and powerful thing but sometimes we are called to do more and act  more, so God can BE more.

Giving Thanks Where Thanks is Due

Matthew 21:16 They asked Jesus, "Do you hear what these children are saying?" "Yes," Jesus replied. "Haven't you ever read the Scriptures? For they say, 'You have taught children and infants to give you praise.'"

Last Friday my husband picked our children up from school. Since my sister's office is on their way back through town, he and the children dropped by to see her. According to my sister, there was a gentleman there who is not the easiest or most pleasant person. Yet, for some reason he decided to strike up a conversation with our middle child. *sigh* He looked at her as she stood next to her Daddy and asked, "Where did you get those pretty eyes?" Without a missed beat she replied, "God." The man looked at my husband, who was smiling, and asked, "Don't you think maybe Daddy or Mommy had something to do with it?" Firm in her conviction, she shook her head and said, "No. God did." The gentleman was speechless but perhaps he left that office with more to think about.

Thank you Dear Heavenly Father for my eyes to see You, my heart to hear You and my lips to continue to encourage and teach our children to share Your blessings for their creation with others. Sometimes the littlest voice can be the one that is heard in the darkness so that another may find the Light.

The Surprises That Await You!!

Our middle child decided for her birthday this year (well...next year as her birthday is right after Christmas) she wanted a Willy Wonka themed birthday. My mind saw:

Mmm...candy...where was I? Oh! Yes, back to this party theme. As moms or event planners know, the invitation sets your theme so I decided what better than a Golden Ticket! I surfed the internet in search of one I could copy and make my own. The ones made by others are either too expensive or BLAH!!

You'd think this would be an easy task right? It wasn't.  I searched days  for one I could "alter" to fit my purposes. Finally I just found a Golden Ticket whose basic shape was what I was looking for and...well, I am not going to go on about de-colorizing...blah, blah, blah. Let's just say...it took some time. ;)

So I decided, rather than hide how to do this, I am going to share how I did it, add a link to the images and you can save them so NO other Mom out there need to go through the complete frustration of buying or creating their own from scratch. You'll just have to right click and save the images.

Here is the link to pictures: http://photobucket.com/wonkainvitations

The blank "ticket" is what I used as the base. Then used Photoscape to add text (which I included in case you'd like to use similar wording). Finally printed out on "gold" shimmer paper that I found at Michael's Craft Store (4 sheets for $1). Despite the clerk's adamant exclamation that I could not print on that type of scrapbook paper...I did! :p And with my crappy little HP printer too, thank you very much!  My advice is: 1.Make sure you print one page at a time and remove each page to fully dry before printing another and 2. Make sure the tray on the print is open or don't get distracted by a 4 yr old. Yeah..I think just opening the tray is a safer option too. :) The ink will smear if not given proper drying time, which is only a couple hours but I waited 24 to be safe.

Good luck and let me know if you used this and how it worked out for you!

So easy a monkey could do it...

No offense to monkeys of course. This is an UBER easy project. The idea came while flipping through some magazines and trying to find a new hanging for the front door that would cover both Fall and Halloween. Here it is:

Materials: 1 small grapevine wreath ($2 Pat Catan's)

2 stems of berry beads ($2 JoAnn Fabrics)

1 stem of fall leaves ($1 at Dollar Store)

1 pkg of 2" bells ($2.10 at Pat Catan's)

thin green wire (on hand)

orange spray paint (on hand)

Sharpie

sharp scissors

First I sprayed the bells orange like pumpkins and used a Sharpie to make faces once dry. Since the berry beads come in bunches and already on wire, I wired them individually around the stems on the wreath. I attached the pumpkins with thin green floral wire and then tucked the leaves into the wreath. Voile! No gluing. No sewing. All done! The best part is you can undo all the wires and re-use the wreath for other seasons using the same general idea. YEA!! Love being frugal :)

Jingling Jack-o-lanterns

In A World of My Own: Five Little Jack-o-lanterns

In A World of My Own: Five Little Jack-o-lanterns

Five Little Jack-o-lanterns

Five Little Jack-o-Lanterns sitting on a gate...

I think I ate magical beans back in June. Alright so it was actually candy corn, but since then I've been in a Fall state of mind (insert Billy Joel music here). So instead of finishing putting up shelves, sewing that quilt glaring at me in the corner, finish painting the living room, building that corner desk...(you get the picture) I dusted off my idea book. Like you don't have one too! :)

Man! I can't believe how this craft idea book grows larger with each year..uh...month...alright, alright...DAILY! The Pumpkin People actually started out as me looking for fabric pumpkin inspiration when I came across this: http://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/fall-sewing-projects#slide_16 Are those the CUTEST little things or what?! They needed to be made! Sorry other projects. So..

I had orange felt from out littlest's costume from last year, pipe cleaners (what Mom doesn't?) and pins for the buttons and noses but the other stuff? Uh..no. I was not deterred much to my husband's chagrin. I didn't have wood shavings but I had poly fiber fill (FYI: Get the wood shavings, makes punching holes easier). I didn't have 2" heavy wire but I had 1 1/2" nails. I didn't have waxed thread but I could double my cotton thread (this works). I didn't have black felt but I had plenty of black scrap fabric. I didn't have a doll needle but I had sharp scissors and an awl. I had resume paper, leftover when people, still sent resumes in hardcopy so it was "yellowed". I printed out what I wanted the banners to say and since I made five, it simply made sense to chose that Halloween poem. I aged the banners with some brown paint. I get "crafty" when I get crafty. LOL! I'm cheap, what can I say? This is a quick project. Took about 5 hours for all five spread over two days...gotta feed the monsters ya know.

So without further ado...

The first one said:

The second one said:

The third one said:

The fourth one said:

The fifth one said:

Then WHOOSH went the wind.

And out went the light.

And the five little jack-o-lanterns rooolled out of sight!

Happy Fall!

A vactioning husband + a torn down wall= new wall art

I found this cool vintage sign on Rosenberry Rooms , while meandering through various websites during a bout of insomnia:

 

I love the whimsical/folk feel of the piece but $64 for a 14X20 piece or more for larger?! Considering I wanted around 24X24 I was looking at around $100 or more. PLEASE! I can buy food for 8 meals (plus breakfasts and lunches) for that price. So I shelved the idea for a later time. *whistling*

Forward to this past week of my dear husband's vacation. Little did I know that his project of organizing the basement would finally bring this idea to fruition. While ripping down a wall he asked what I would like him to do with the old wooden slats...

I was SO excited. I know they look horrible but I thought, 'Ooo..wall art!' And I started working...

front

back

And finally...

I like it! Especially since it cost a total of $0 since I had all the stuff on hand. Can't beat that! Thanks my wonderful husband for your hard work ripping out a wall that let me create something new and to artist Flavia Weedn for the inspiration!