Mission Minded

Today (and for quite some time) my heart is filled with prayers for one of my best friends, Megan. On November 4th she is leaving for France and less than 2 months after that she will be in Madagascar, Africa. She is going to be a teacher for a missionary family as they start a team of missionaries to reach out to the Bara. Her trip to France before hand is to help welcome this missionary family's newest member into the world. How exciting! She just got back from a 3-day orientation in Georgia and I can feel her excitement, fear, anxiety, nervousness and pretty much every emotion known to man, just by talking to her. I am so excited for this journey she is about to take. Totally opening up her heart and giving up herself and her life to what the Lord has in store for her.

As my thoughts have been on her, they have also been on what she is doing - missions. 

I saw this video over a year ago and I haven't been able to get it out of my head lately.

What if....???

Have you thought about what your role might be?
What does the Lord want you to do today?

(if you think of it in the upcoming months, pray with me for Megan)

Reminiscent Tuesday

Just when I thought I was coming down with a case of writers block, I came across a baggie full of old USB drives which contained a bunch of fun memories, some of which I just could not keep to myself : )

 Proof that my family is crazy.....

 Oldies but goodies....

 My fuzzy little friend, Ash

My adorable nephew when he was just a little tyke! 

 My girls <3 

Hope you enjoyed going down memory lane with me! I could have made this post about 15 pages long so I had to pick my favorites the best that I could : )

Stay tuned for some more fun ideas I have!

Heart Strings

Alright guys - it's my last craft for now! 

I have one more in mind but I still need to get a couple supplies for it. 

I'm hoping that this weekend we can get to work on putting all of my creations on the wall ~ so stay tuned for updated room pics : )

All you need is a piece of wood - I got mine at Lowes for less than $4! 

Then some string, nails & a hammer!

(also some paper, pencil & some tape)

Draw your heart out on paper and tape it down 

(LOL this is all we had in the house)

 then you just put nails in where the heart is traced!

until it looks like this!

 then rip all of the paper off....

& you will end up with this!

I forgot to take pictures as I was tying the string but its really simple. 

Just start out by tying a knot around one of the nails and then just string from nail to nail. There is no pattern, its just random!

I'm not super crazy about it....what do you guys think?!

The Little Things

I wrote a post earlier this morning about my birthday 

but I felt so silly writing about myself.

So instead I decided to write about my hero of the day.

This post is dedicated to my husband: continue at your own risk : )

This past Friday was my 23rd birthday 

and my first one away from home and my family. 

But did that stop it from being awesome?

No.

Wanna know why? 

Jeremy Thomas. 

Now - there were a ton of people who contributed to the specialness of my day. 

Like how my sister did a surprise skype tea party with me (explanation to follow)

& how my sister in law posted a video of my adorable nephew singing to me

& that my parents called & sang to me

and of course many many wishes via facebook & text messages

(also lots of goodies in the mail) 

But my husband - he really stood up.

See my family has this tradition where on our birthdays my mom would get out this china tea set and we would have a hot chocolate party. At least when we were little. But I have continued to do it every year, no matter how old I get! My mom gave me our tea set when I got married so this year I could still do it! So, Jeremy and I woke up a little earlier than usual to get him ready for work and have time to do just that!

The day was pretty long waiting for him to get home from work and anticipation of the night to come - but when the time finally came for him to be at the door, 

so was all of this!

He is absolutely the most thoughtful person ever. 

There's no need to go out and buy some expensive piece of sparkly metal.

This says so much more.

All little things that I love but will never buy for myself; a movie that i've been wanting forever & silly little corn holders that I won't ever buy but am so excited to finally own!

Seriously - how silly - but it meant so much!

Then, that husband of mine took me out to Olive Garden, my favorite restaurant.

We decided we could go there just for salad and breadsticks and be totally satisfied. 

Then he took me to see the Bourne Legacy (yes, I picked it) - which was awesome! 

Much better than I think a lot of people are thinking. 

Also, the movie theatre was in this really cool place that reminded us of a place near where Jeremy went to school so we will definitely be going back to explore! 

The night ended with us eating ice cream cake, watching glee and staying up past 3am which we never do anymore! Very fun : ) 

He is the love of my life.

If you had asked me 5 years ago where I saw myself 

- it would not have been here or anywhere near this happy. 

Thank you Lord! 

I love you Jeremy Kyle <3

The latest & greatest!

So far this is my favorite project that i've done...

(in close second would probably come the 'T' that I did)

I used:

• 2 20x30 foam core boards
•  foam brushes
•  mod podge
•  adhesive squares
•  duct tape
•  hot glue gun
•  pictures

 Now my source did not do this because she cut all her pictures into 4x4 squares so her pictures did not overlap where the boards come together, but mine do - so I duct taped the back of the boards together...

& then applied some good ole' hot glue in the crack just to make sure it was secure.

 ta-da!

 Now comes the fun part of laying your pictures out the way you want them. I had actually done this the day before and let me tell you - what a headache! I almost threw it and gave up. But, with the help from a friend I finally got it the way I wanted it. I figured on using a lot more pictures so I just picked my favorite ones.

 After Jeremy got home and checked it out, this is what the final design would be....

 Then I took the adhesive squares and put 4 on each photo to secure it in place...

 ...surrounded the board with paper to protect the floor...

 & prepared the mod podge! 

(I have to admit I was a little scared!)

 Then I just brushed it on! I dabbed the brush around the pictures to make sure that I got the edges real good and then once the row was done I just swiped the brush from top to bottom to make it look smooth.

 ...the drying process...

 Two coats later -- & its done!!!

I absolutely LOVE it! & thanks to my sister-in-law and early birthday presents I have the perfect decoration to go right above it!

I've been asked where all of these fun crafts are going on the walls but I decided that it would be better for me to make them all, see what I have and then put them up so - they haven't gone anywhere yet LOL probably within the next week or so! 

Sooo...what do you guys think?!

Craft Day Take 2 - with a little weekend fun!

More pinsperations put into action guys! 

These were my projects from Friday, but my weekend was filled with enjoying my hubby being home so there was no blogging to be done : ) We went to the DMV to try and get everything finished, although YET again - we did not. I never knew this process would be so difficult. 7 trips later, maybe we will be done LOL But then we wandered over to the beach and enjoyed the cool, refreshing water, jumped some waves & soaked up the sun.

 ...is this a fishing boat? (Dad)

 : )

On sunday we ventured off to another church which was the best one so far, by far! The message was really really good and the music was our style! They did a few things differently than we were used to, which we really liked. We will be going again next Sunday so pray that the Lord shows us things to see if they are there or speaks to our hearts if this is where we belong. 

Then we enjoyed watching our bills take another win on the football field!

(although I may have fallen asleep for the ending)

Now another week begins and my hubby is gone for 10 hours out of the day...so you get to here from me on here! The rest of my day will be filled with Christmas idea searching and sorting through my 600+ wedding photos to figure out which ones are for which projects & which ones I need to send out : )

But anywho - without further ado - here they are!

This is a project I had been wanting to do with the first letter of our last name...

                    

....draw your letter...

...cut it out...

        
...& start wrapping!
It was a little tricky to do the edges and corners but I got the hang of it...

I LOVE the way it turned out! Very rustic : )

& here's the next one....Cherry Blossom Soda Bottle Art

...cut the poster board in half so that its more of an art piece than a poster...

...paint the 'tree' free hand...

& stamp away!

: ) i love it!

Alright, once again - what do you guys think?! 

Do you think I should add some little green leaves to the tree?