A Few Things I've Made

Do you ever feel like you've been running and running and running?! And then when you finally sit down, you can't even remember what you've been so busy doing? That's how I've felt lately. We've had so much going on, and it's not over yet.

We've had vacation, wedding showers, visiting family, weddings, funerals, church events. It seems like if you can name it, we've done it. : ) Anyways, I have had a little bit of free time - I don't know where it came from!  - but I've been able to do a little bit of crafting.

I had a friend have a baby about a month or so ago. So I decided to make her a cute little scrapbook to document all those precious moments with her new baby boy. Here are a few of the pages:

I was also able to make a pair of pants for The Husband to match a jacket I made a few years ago.

There were a few flaws, but nothing I couldn't hide with a few more stitches... : )

Have a good weekend!

Jennifer: An O'Malley Love Story by Dee Henderson

The final piece of the puzzle: Jennifer O'Malley. The story of how Jennifer meets her Tom. If you've read the O'Malley series, you'll definitely want to pick up this book!

It's a summer of change for Jennifer O'Malley.

The busy physician has a pediatrics practice in Dallas, Texas, and meeting and falling in love with surgeon Tom Peterson is adding a rich layer to her life. She's sorting out how to introduce Tom to her family - she's the youngest of seven - and thinking about marriage.

She's falling in love with Jesus too, and knows God is good. But that faith is about to be tested, and in a way she didn't expect. The results will soon transform her entire family. 

Just 154 pages - you can have it read in a weekend! I couldn't put this book down! Dee Henderson is an amazing writer. She pulls you into the story as if you belonged. The O'Malley siblings become family; their friends become your friends. Reading about Jennifer was like catching up with a friend who I hadn't seen in a few years. It's a short but very sweet book, and it'll make you want to reread all the other O'Malley books! 

After reading this book, the story of the O'Malley family is finally complete.

Bethany House supplied a copy of this book for me, but the review is completely my own opinion.

Paintings

Hello! It's been quite a while since I've written. So, what have I been up to? Not much... : ) A little working, a little gardening, a little reading, and a little crafting. After attending a painting party back home, I've been in a painting kind of mood. Here's the paintings I've done so far.

Painting I did at the painting party

Enjoy! 

The Full Armor of God by Larry Richards

Paul describes this armor in Ephesians 6 and draws an analogy between the pieces of the infantryman's armor and the spiritual armor God provides so that we can stand against demonic enemies.

Paul explains each part of the armor throughout the entire letter to the Ephesians:
Ephesians 1:1-23 explains the helmet of salvation
Ephesians 2:1-10 explains the shield of faith
Ephesians 2:11-4:16 explains the sandals which is the preparation that comes from the gospel of peace
Ephesians 4:17-5:7 explains the breastplate of righteousness
Ephesians 5:8-6:9 explains the belt of truth
Ephesians 6:10-24 is a summary of everything which includes the sword which is explained as the Word of God

The Full Armor of God is divided into six parts. After the introduction, Richards begins each part with a scheme of Satan - a lie Satan uses to keep us away from God and in sin.

Then he explains a relevant piece of armor. Each piece has an important role for the soldier. And each piece of the armor of God has an important role for us. We need to understand these pieces so that we can stand against the Devil and his lies.

Next he looks at the lesson Paul is teaching and then moves on to how you can claim it and put it into practice. This is a very important part of the book. If we don't learn how to use the armor of God then what good is it to us. We must learn how to use the pieces so that we can become strong soldiers for God.

Although it took me a while to read this book - as does any informational book - I did enjoy it. There is a lot of information in this book and would make for a great small group Bible study. Richards also includes two Appendixes in the back of the book. One is information about Christian counseling and evil. The other is lesson plans for a "Live Free Support Group".

Richards conducts Freedom Workshops where he teaches about the concepts in this book. The lesson plans are used as resources for those who have attended one of his Freedom Workshops.

Chosen Books did supply me with a copy of The Full Armor of God; however, this review is 100% my opinion.

Weekend Getaway to Natchez, MS

The Husband and I took a trip over to Natchez, MS a few weekends ago just to get away for a few days.

We walked around the downtown area and looked at all the antique stores, ate at a few local places, went bowling, went shopping, went to a winery, and just relaxed. It was a very nice getaway.

One thing interesting that we did was go to the  Longwood House.

If I'm correct, this is the only octagon shaped house in Mississippi. We were also told by a local shop owner that part of the movie series Twilight was filmed here.

What's interesting about this house is that only the bottom floor is completely finished. While it was being built, the Civil War began and everyone left the house just as it stood - tools and all.

{one of the women in this family married a Yankee and lived on Park Ave. : ) }

Because of this nice getaway and then Mother's Day weekend, my weekend house projects have been put on hold for a while except for one very important project: our kitchen floor.

Yes, it seems that we have gotten a hole in our kitchen floor. So come back to check out our new floor!! I'm so excited! : )

House to Home Project #1: Mailbox Numbers

This past weekend I was able to do one of my House Projects and a few other things. My first house project was to replace the numbers on our mailbox. These are the numbers that were my inspiration:

Lowes.com

The Husband had some left over wood from a project he had done so used that for my bases. Instead of buying black numbers, I just used some black vinyl I had left over. The paint I also had already as well as the screws to hang them by so this project was free! Free projects are the best. : ) 

Our new mailbox numbers:

I'm wondering now if I should redo our name.... Maybe another day. 

I was also able to get a few more crosses made this weekend, and decided to hang one from our own door! I do believe this one is now my favorite! 

Here are a few other crosses:

This cross above is a bit different. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but I tried to have the crystals go along the form of the wood grain. 

For my next House Project, I think I'll try tackling our front porch. There are a few gaps in between the wooden pieces so I think I'll try fixing that. 

Oh! Have I told you I'm thinking of painting our hallway?! In stripes!! Big, fat stripes. Our hallway isn't that long so it won't be a drastic change, just adding a little pop of color! Maybe something like this:

But probably not even that many stripes. I'm excited! That may be coming up soon as well!! : ) 

Enjoy!

Future Projects!

Recently my crafting ideas have turned to things I would like to do around our house to fix it up a little better. As much as I hate to admit it, I think I haven't really been living in our house as if it's our home. For nearly three years, I've been living here waiting for the piece of land where we will be settled; I've been waiting for the house we want to build one day.

That's no way to live.

We live here now. This is our home. And it's time I start acting like it.

So that means it's time to start dressing it up like I live here! I'm getting excited, aren't you?! I've done that a little bit by fixing up our mailbox

and adding these beautiful green shelves,

but now I'm ready to do so much more!! : ) Here are a few of my ideas (all gathered from Pinterest of course! And a few from Lowes):

House numbers on colored blocks 

Lowes.com

Porch mat made from multi-colored wooden strips

Lowes.com

Vertical garden planters

Lowes.com

DIY Slide Out Drawers

Familyhandyman.com

Use plate hangers to display photo albums

indulgy.com

These are just a few ideas I have right now. Won't our house just look so cute when I get done with it?! : ) You can see more of my Project To Do List here on Pinterest!

Enjoy!

Shattered by Dani Pettrey

I'm such a nerd... : )

I can't tell you how excited I was when this book came in the mail! I've been waiting for it to come out since I finished reading Submerged, the first book in the Alaskan Courage Series. I think I finished this book in less than a week!

Shattered is full of adventure! The McKenna siblings are on the hunt to prove one of their own is innocent of a terrible crime - murder! Reef McKenna is found over the dead body with the murder weapon in his hand. The police chief is positive he's guilty. Reef's sister Piper is positive he's innocent. Deputy Landon Grainger doesn't know who to believe.

On a mission to find the real killer, Piper leads her family from Alaska to Canada to California to Oregon then back to Alaska. She won't stop until her brother is out of jail. However, the real killer has a few surprises for them along the way.

Will she be able to prove her brother's innocence, or will the real killer get to her before she can find the evidence she needs to help Reef?

Everything about this book was great! There were twists and unexpected turns throughout the entire book. Everyone and every situation seemed realistic. I would catch myself throughout the day thinking about the book and it's characters, wondering if Reef really was innocent or did he have everyone fooled. This book is definitely a must read!

If you missed my review of the first book - Submerged - you can find it here.

Bethany House Publishers supplied me with this book; however, the opinions are completely my own.

Create a Critter Room Decor

I love the Cricut cartridge Create a Critter! The animals are so cute! I made some of the animals and put them inside a white photo frame. I think these would go great in a baby's room!

I'm not real happy about the frames. They were originally black. I spray painted them white, and they just didn't come out as good as I was hoping. You may not can tell in the pictures, but up close you can tell they were spray painted. I think I'm going to keep looking for some frames that are already white.

What do you think? Would you put these up in your baby's room?

Enjoy!