A Valentine Vignette

I am finding that cake stands make wonderful pedestals for dining table vignettes. So many possibilities!

Wall Makeover

Just look what a snow day, tacks, and coordinating scrapbook papers can do! 

 Bye-bye boring beige.

Hello happy color!

 

P.S. While the way the light reflects in this picture does indeed make my hall appear soft pink, the other walls are still in fact beige. This is a side note for my hubby in case he reads this from work and thinks I've gone and done something rash while he was away ;-) I love you, Baby! 

Sunday Scripture

"You have been so gracious to me and saved my life, and you have shown such great kindness. But I cannot go to the mountains. Disaster would soon catch up to me there, and I would soon die. 

See, there is a small village nearby. 

Please, let me go there instead" 

~ Genesis 19:19 (NLT)

{Image Source}

In reading this chapter, I noticed that while Lot was directly told by God to flee to the mountains for safety and protection from the destruction He was about to rain down on Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot gave God an excuse as to why he could not follow what God intended for him to do. Lot thought he would be better off under his own discretion going to Zoar (the "small village nearby").  Surprisingly enough to me, God doesn't get mad with Lot, but instead grants him his request. However, we read just a little while later in verse 30 that "Afterward Lot left Zoar because he was afraid of the people there, and he went to live in a cave in the mountains..." 

Made me realize that while God cares for us deeply, He will not force His ways upon us. God will let us do things our own way if we so choose. Sad to say, we often tend to choose the harder way, rationalizing it to ourselves as the better option when we would be better off to do it God's way to begin with. Lot knew fear he would not have had to know if he had just listened to God's leading the first time. I wonder how many times I have done the same thing to myself? Quite a thought to ponder, huh?

My prayer for this week is that may God grant me the ears 

to hear His voice the first time and may I have an obedient heart

to initially choose His way over my own.

Cupcake Round-Up

{Cherry Almond Cupcakes}

 

 {Cherry Coke Float Cupcakes}

{Shirley Temple Cupcakes}

{Cherry Chocolate Swirl Cupcakes}

 

Hope you enjoyed this delicious post brought to you courtesy of Pinterest. I must bake some of these soon! Mmmmm!

Happy day to you!

 

P.S. Each picture is hyperlinked to its original source.

Vintage Hankie Line

My kitchen is far from the dream I have envisioned for it, so I have been inventing little ways to pep it up with cheer until I can paint it Aqua Glow this summer.

 This project has been brewing in my head for years, but finally came to fruition a couple Saturday evenings ago while hubby was away at his Fantasy Football team's award ceremony. This year, his fantasy team sadly came in last place which means he gets to keep the toilet award in our home for the whole of the coming year! *shudder*

Anyway... back to happier things.

I chose a cheery assortment from my collection of vintage hankies and then laid them out in a pleasing pattern of colors. To make it span the full length of the back door, I cut each hankie in half with pinking shears before pinning them up in repeating pattern along the line of vintage bias tape I had tacked up previously with clear thumbtacks. Every other hankie was either pinned with one of the all ready hammered thumbtacks or clipped up with a clothespin from the new Shabby Chic line for the Michael's dollar bins. 

It is always such a highly satisfying feeling to finally make a project that has been swirling around in one's brain for ever so long an actual reality. *happy sigh*

Now for some tea and cookies!

Valentine's Day Project

It is nearly that time of year... VALENTINE'S DAY❣ 

Since it will be mine and John's first one together as husband and wife, I wanted to find ways to make it extra special. One way I am doing this is by outfitting our home with plenty of homemade love!

So, once again, I looked to see what I might have on hand.  

And let me tell you. 

A handmade wedding really leaves the bride 

with a lot of creative resources after the fact!

I took just a few of the silver squares used to harbor tealights on the reception tables and transformed them into a fridge saying. After attaching one heavy-duty round magnet to the back of each silver square via the crafter's best friend (a hot glue gun), I then did likewise to the front with an assortment of shiny red and hot pink chip board letters retrieved from my scrapbook stash. 

 

This was a very cheap project since the chipboard letters were purchased years ago in bulk from the $1.99 bin of our local Archiver's store. The silver squares cost less than a penny a piece at Pat Catan's when bought in a 12 pack. The heavy-duty magnets were the most expensive item. If I remember correctly, I paid around $8.00 for a 40 pack at Walmart. Enough blathering from me, though.  

Go out there and do something creative today!

Too cute not to post!

 My wonderful sister Becky crocheted each of us a stocking as part of our Christmas gift this year and then proceeded to fill it with all kinds of wonderful goodies. Before returning it to her (to be delightfully refilled again next year... yay!), I thought I would share with you how adorable mine was. She chose a lovely shade of aqua and vibrant pink (one of my favorite color combos!) to crochet the sweetest stocking. 

I especially adore the ruffle edging at the top.

Hope this bit of Christmas 2011, conjured up 

special memories of your own holiday past. 

Happy day to you!

Once upon a time...

... I was tired of our bare, blank stairwell. I had originally wanted to line it with white framed pictures matted in white or aqua, but experienced severe sticker shock when I priced even the cheapest Walmart 
frames in the volume I would need.

Then, I remembered!

{Image courtesy of Amber Nicole Photo}

Why not use the left over picture hangings I had made for my wedding reception? As you can see in the picture above, I had used them as backdrop decorations for the Send Off Table. 

So... my total cost for the stairwell? Free! I had everything on hand and hadn't even realized it until after 3 months of married life! Crazy how we can be so oblivious to the piles of things we stumble over 

in our craft rooms every day.

The original project for the wedding only cost me $1.00 for each picture. 

How? Glad you asked!

① Well, I am a member of Shutterfly.com and they sent me a promotional offer for 50 free prints which I gladly redeemed for all the photos you see above.

② I frequent the local Dollar Tree and had all ready purchased several of these nickel-plated platters as centerpiece bases for the wedding reception. One day, to my delight, I discovered that a magnet would stick to them! I quickly zipped back to buy some for the pictures I had recently printed from Shutterfly. 

③ Then, I used hot glue and silver ribbon from After-Christmas-Sales-Past to affix the bows by which I hung the tray/frames on the wall. Cost to me? Again. Free! I all ready had this stuff on hand!

④ I stuck bits from a self-adhesive magnet role to the back of each photo and VOILA! My picture frames were complete! 

Since I all ready had all the materials on hand, this project in essence cost me zero buckaroos! You cannot beat that! Even if you count the dollar I originally paid for each tray before the wedding ($14 total) and even if you had to buy a magnet role from Walmart (only an 

additional $5-7), this project is still a steal!

Now, my hall is no longer sad and bare, but shining with lots of happy memories John and I have made together. 

May you find the treasure of renewed uses among items you all ready possess. Happy day to you!

Wanna know my little Pinterest secret?

   Thought you might.

I have been using these two websites ~ FSymbols & Facebook Emoticons ~ to dress up my Pinterest board titles. Here are just a few examples of how:

♕ Aurora Blythe ♕

☃ Christmas ☃

☂ Colorlicious ☂

✂ Crafty Goodness ✂

❁ Doily Adoration ❁

ⓔⓜⓑⓡⓞⓘⓓⓔⓡⓨ

❣ Felt Good ❣

Pretty cute, huh?

Happy day to you!

(and may your pins be repinned a thousand fold ;-)

Sunday Scripture

Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, 

"You are the God who sees me." 

~ Genesis 16:13 (NLT)

{Image Source}

Hagar, the servant of Sarai (later called Sarah the wife of Abraham), tried to run away from her difficult situation, but God met her in the desert both literally and metaphorically. He comforted her by giving her a promise - not that everything would be okay, but that her descendants would rise above the situation even though a difficult way lay ahead for her. After this very personal experience with God, Hagar no longer simply called him God, but gave him a name specific to the way He met her in her time of great need. She called him "The God/The Living One who sees me." 

What a beautiful promise we have today as followers of Christ. God sees us at all times and will see us through every situation whether it is good or bad. God is reaching out to us all - through each and every type of situation that comes into our life - in order to show us how very precious we are in His eyes. 

May you sense the presence of "The God Who Sees You" close by 

your side and may that blessed realization give you peace 

for what lies ahead in your own life.

Long time no see!

Well, I did see some of you on Pinterest ;-) It has been so much fun finding new ideas, new projects for the home, new recipes, and most of all - connecting with new people who share my interests! I definitely see now how blogging and Pinterest can go hand in hand. 

For example: 

See this pin above from the Mod Podge Rocks blog? It inspired me to use materials I all ready had on hand to make this.

 The frame was picked up years ago for 10 cents at a thrift store. I created a backing from scrapbook paper stock. The keys were a fairly recent purchase from the Michael's dollar bin. (and since I am a teacher, I now get an additional 15% off which made the keys 85 cents each... oh my cow, I love a good deal!)

I hung it beneath the wreath that was the backdrop for our wedding cake last July. It has white twinkle lights woven through it which make a lovely golden glow in this corner during the cozy winter evenings.

❄❄❄❄❄

Meanwhile, even though my blog has been woefully neglected, my hands have still been busy with more than a few happifying makes. And now that we are finally getting inches and inches of the fluffy white stuff, snow days have given me the opportunity to get even more projects done around our home. 

To briefly catch you up on our corner of the world, the last week of 2011 was full of beautiful memories of times spent together with friends and family. Lucy (aka Punkin Bear as John has affectionately nicknamed her) enjoyed our first Christmas together as a family.Her antics keep us in stitches and her sweet, loving cuddles warm the cockles of our hearts. Since we do not plan to start a family right away, she is truly our furry child and we are eating up every minute of being her "mom" and  "dad."

Hope your 2012 is off to a wonderful start. May every day of this year bring you more joy and less sorrow!