When Sinners Say I Do for $1.99!

Friends!

When Sinners Say I Do by Dave Harvey

 I just saw on Amazon that this AMAZING book is on sale for $1.99 (kindle edition)!

 I can personally recommend this book, we're going through it right now and it is AWESOME! Whether you're engaged, newly married or have been married for 20 years, this book is for you!

 Not sure how long it will be on sale for, so pick it up NOW!

Rainy Day DIY Necklace!

Hi friends!

 Today it's been raining, which isn't too common here in Southern California. So I took advantage of the indoor weather, and decided to make a necklace inspired by a gorgeous piece I saw on Pinterest!

My oh-so-cute FREE Fabric Rose Necklace

Ok, so here's how to make it!

First, you start by making some Fabric Roses. I use a glue gun, twirl strips of fabric around the bud, gluing a couple of times here and there.

I then placed the roses how I wanted them to lay on a piece of felt and traced around them. After tracing, I cut on the inside of my line, so the felt would be slightly smaller than the actual rose necklace.

 I hot glued them onto the felt, and added two pieces of ribbon to the felt.

I made two cute little bows, and hot glued them on the ribbon (note--I originally was going to tie them onto the ribbon, but I couldn't get them to "sit straight" so I decided to just hot glue them on!)

 And there you have it! A super cheap, super easy fabric rose necklace!

 Seriously, I made it with materials I already had on hand, so it was basically FREE!!! WOOOHOOO!!!

 Happy Friday!!!

Valentine Burlap Banner

Hellllooooo everyone! How is the New Year going for you? 

 We're doing great! I'm excited to see what this year holds for our family--new years are always so much fun!

 So today I want to share with you this cute, simple banner I made. 

 My mantle was looking so pitiful after I took down my Christmas decorations. So I threw some stuff together, and left it alone. But the more I looked at it, the more I kept thinking that it needed SOMETHING extra....

 Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I thought this would be PERFECT!

 I printed out letters I found over at the delightful Shanty 2 Chic blog, and found some burlap remnants.

I cut out my letter triangles, traced the triangle with a slight overlap onto the burlap and cut out burlap triangles.

Using some twine, clothespins and my letters, I put this sweet banner up and BAM! Just what my mantle needed.

I noticed after taking these pictures that the bottom of the triangles were separating from the burlap, so I fixed that with my little ole glue gun.

 Lovin' it!

It's a New Year-2013

I don't make new year's resolutions. Simply because, I KNOW I'll never keep them. Lose weight, stop drinking Diet Coke (who would even WANT to do this?!), 32498732985723 projects for the house--you know, THOSE ones. I just don't go down that road.

 We rang in the new year watching a redbox movie and listening to illegal fireworks going off around our neighborhood (FANTASTIC, I KNOW!). I really wasn't feeling the new year vibe. 

Probably because this has been the hardest year of my life.

 So as I laid in bed at 1am, trying to fall asleep, I decided to make a "commitment" for this new year. No resolution; no goal--a commitment. 

I am going to commit 2013 to PRAYING FOR OTHERS MORE. I was totally convicted by the fact that I pray so much for myself or my current circumstances. But I'm not faithfully praying for others. And I NEED TO. Prayer is SO powerful, and definitely meant to be used for others. So there it is! I'm excited for the challenge, and look forward to seeing what God is going to do around me in other's lives!

Like I said, 2012 was by far the hardest year filled with a horribly painful trial. God has been refining me, and shaping me through it--most of the time, I've been struggling against it. But over the last month or so, I've actually been THANKFUL for the refining. It is helping me to see that I so needed to be walking a totally different pace in my walk--the way I was walking just wasn't cutting it. One area I'm working on is just living DAY BY DAY.....any more than that overwhelms me. That's just how I am. 

Yesterday morning, I was reading 2 verses that really stuck out to me--

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No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Philippians 3:13-14

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WOW! This totally hit home for me. It applies to many areas in my life, and circumstances that occurred in 2012. 

So this will be my verse for 2013. Oh Lord, help me live for you and allow this verse to penetrate me to the very depths of my soul! 

 Happy New Year, my friends! 

May the Lord bless you abundantly this year, and may this be the year you grow closer to Him more than EVER!

DIY Gift Bags

Almost Christmas! So excited! :)

 Here's some gift bags I put together for different family gifts! They were super easy--I picked up a few two pack of bags at the Dollar Tree, and came up with some ideas for the front. 

Cute Cute Cute!

I used scrapbooking paper, construction paper, jewels, dyed doilies and sticks--everything I already had!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Laffa Bread Recipe

Howdy! 

Today I want to share with you a DELICIOUS recipe I found for Laffa Bread. 

Laffa Bread is a thick, soft flatbread. It is usually used to dip in and eat hummus. I absolutely LOVE hummus, and Laffa Bread is the perfect bread to eat it with!

 So here's the recipe!

Laffa Bread  

*7 cups unbleached bread flour plus another ½ cup in case the dough is little too sticky

*1 package dry rapid rise yeast

*2 tablespoons sugar

*1 teaspoon salt

*4 tablespoons olive oil

*3 cups of warm water

 Combine the dry ingredients.  Add the oil and water. If using a mixer, mix with the dough hook until the dough is very smooth, soft and elastic.  If making by hand; after you add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients, mix by hand in the bowl for a few moments until well combined and coming together.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about ten minutes until smooth and elastic.

In all cases after the kneading, place the dough in an oiled bowl and loosely cover with plastic wrap.  Then cover the bowl with a tea towel and place it in a draft free warm corner so the dough may rise.  In about an hour, when the dough has doubled or more, punch the dough down.  Divide the dough into 10-12 equal balls, and then roll the balls until smooth.  Place the balls on an oiled cookie sheet.  Cover them with a damp tea towel and let the dough balls rest for about ten minutes.  Resting makes the dough easier to roll out.

Pre-heat a grill pan to medium. I found that the large non stick grill pan was the easiest to work with.  Take a ball of dough in your hands and flatten it out on an oiled wood surface.  Roll it out with a rolling pin or use your hands.  Make a circle about 12 inches in diameter and place the Laffa on the hot grill surface.  When you see the edges looking dry and the bread is poofing up turn it over.  Laffa only takes a few minutes to grill.  Place the finished Laffas in between some kitchen towels to keep warm.  

YUM YUM YUM!!

Christmas Card Door

So our house isn't the biggest. Sure, there's smaller houses. But it's a hair under 1500 square feet. So most of the time, I'm trying to come up with creative ideas on how to store and display things without taking up too much room.

 That's when I came up with my Christmas Card Door idea! 

 I wrapped my entryway closet door in a cute wrapping paper found at Target, and then hot glued twine on the inside of the door. Add some clothespins, and WOOHOO! You have a perfect spot to display your Christmas cards.

 Now if I could just get a few more, I could fill up my whole door!

SUPER easy fabric ruffled flower REFASHION!

Hey friends!

 Almost Christmas....16 days to be exact! Can you believe it?! Have you got your Christmas shopping done? Cuz I SURE haven't! YIKES!

 So today, I want to share with you this cute little revamp I did on my 2 year old's shoes.

 It began like this.

 Went out to pick up a few things at the stores. Crowded as HECK. Went to Target to look for tennis shoes for her, because she's growing out of all her converse (side note--we like our kiddos to have fashionable shoes--doesn't need to be expensive, just cute. I mean, cute kids need cute shoes right?!), so we took a looksie. Target didn't have ANY cute girl tennis shoes. They DID, however, have some cute BOY tennis shoes. When my husband showed me a pair, my first thought was NO!!! Then, I considered for a moment--If I got these shoes, I wouldn't have to go to....dun dun dun.....THE MALL on a Saturday afternoon. I would be done looking for tennis shoes for her, if only until I have the strength and energy to put in another round of shopping to find some cuter ones. And THEN, the thought crossed my mind....I could REFASHION these and make them CUTE! So we bought them. 

  Holy Moly, aren't these CUTE or WHAT?!

 Let's do a before and after:

Here they are. In all their "boy glory". Although super cute pattern. But very BOY.

ANNNNDDDDDD....

AFTER!

SQUEAL!!!!

 Look at these sweet little toddler tootsies! Oh, how I love them!

The tutorial I followed for the flowers is this one from Ruffles and Stuff (Disney, HOLLA!)

Only I added a small pink circle in the center and a pink button :)

Very cute, chic and just plain AWESOME!

 Do you agree?

Do you Advent? We DO!

We have never officially celebrated Advent before. But this year, when I came across this advent focused book Good News For Great Joy by John Piper, I was DELIGHTED to download it and start the advent tradition!

 So each day starting tomorrow leading up to Christmas Eve, we will be reading from this book! The layout is super simple, dating and titling the chapters for a daily devotional reading.

 You can download it onto you computer as a PDF, or you can download it as a  EPUB file which is formatted for readers like the Nook, Sony Reader, and Apple iBooks (iPad, iPhone, iPod).

It's also available for us kindle users in a MOBI file. 

How to transfer EPUB file to Nook

How to transfer MOBI file to kindle

PLEASE join us as we start this tradition tomorrow! We are so excited to see what Jesus is going to do in ALL of our hearts these next 23 days! 

 So, you in?! 

LET'S DO THIS THING!

Giveaway Time!

 It's that time again!

 With the holidays around the corner, this would make a perfect gift or even a nice piece in your home for your guests to oogle over!

This scripture plaque comes with a sawtooth picture hanger affixed to the back, and the scripture is from Proverbs 22:6! LOVE IT!

Giveaway will end December 10th  at 11:59pm! GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

PrintRunner.com Postcard Review

Hey everyone! Can you believe it's almost DECEMBER? What in the world?! Where has the year gone?! It's really flew by for me.

 Today, I want to share with you all how AWESOME PrintRunner is!

 Back in May, I did a giveaway of 100 customizable 5x7 Postcards from PrintRunner. I received 100 postcards in return, so I was so excited to get started and design away!

PrintRunner makes it so easy to design your own cards! I used Gimp to make my template, and then uploaded it. Within minutes, my customized card was uploaded and ready to order!

I wanted to do a simple postcard that I could send to anyone, letting them know that I'm thinking of them.

 When they arrived, they were EXACTLY what I wanted! I love them!

PrintRunner is extremely affordable! They do Banners & Signs, Business Cards, Calendars, Greeting Cards, Postcards, Stickers and even CHRISTMAS GREETING CARDS!

 So go over to PrintRunner and check them out!

I am thankful for...

November. Is it REALLY already November?! Did the year fly by for anyone else? Sheesh!

 Halloween....it was fun! The kids all dressed up and we went trick-or-treating. Lots of candy-which is GREAT for Me! LOL!

Ok, so today I want to share with you something we're doing for the whole month of November. When I saw these AWESOME "I am thankful for" printables over at Crafty Confessions, I KNEW I had to print them out right away for use! This is a great way to get your children thinking daily about the blessings in their lives, whether small or big. I laminated them and decided to hang them on the fire place, which is in the family room--we're always in here, so we'll be seeing them and being reminded of our blessings several times a day! I LOVE IT. 

 My children's ages are: 12, 8, 3, and 2. You can figure out which belongs to who-LOL!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Mega Swagbucks Friday!

Do you use Swagbucks? I DO! And I've earned $50 in Amazon Gift Cards in 8 months! Don't believe me? Well look!

See? And there's days where I don't even use it at all-so when I'm consistently using it, I'm sure I could get nearly $10 in Amazon Gift Cards a month. If I'm not making sense, well here's the bottom line:

You use the Swagbucks search engine, and you get FREE gift cards of your choice! It really is as simple as that!

I LOVE using amazon for kindle books, so it's PERFECT for me!

The best way to win Swag Bucks is to use the engine for genuine search and discovery. Doing a ton of searches, or clicking on search results, will not increase your chances of winning in any way.

What I have found is that you can generally win a maximum of 4 times per day. Searching over and over typically will not produce better results than just searching naturally. To be honest, in my experience you will almost always win some bucks within the first 5 searches everyday. If you are lucky you might win again in the next 10 minutes or so, but you are usually better off searching a few hours later, maybe around lunch time.

Friday is "Mega Swagbucks Day" meaning you have a chance to win very large amounts, maybe even a 1000 swagbucks in one search.

I also subscribe to SBCodez Facebook, where they instantly post any code that comes up so that's extra codes on TOP of your searching. Awesomeness!

 So what are you waiting for? Sign up under me and start earning giftcards! I promise, it really works! :)

As for us, we're heading to see a certain....MOUSE today.....

WOOOHOOOOOO! 

Happy Friday All!

10 Minute Jewelry Holder

Ok, so it's no secret that I love necklaces. And I needed a place to hold my necklaces. But....it got a little crowded. Would you agree?

(Excuse the quality of my pictures, my lighting is a little wacky in there!)

After brainstorming and perusing Pinterest, I came up with this idea!

I spent a total of $7: I bought a 6 foot round dowel, which is cut into three 2 foot pieces and some screw hooks! 

 Now I have so much room, I'm thinking I need to expand my necklace collection! 

Hee Hee.

DIY Tombstones!

Hi everyone! We are finally getting fall weather over here, PRAISE THE LORD! 

 So naturally, I've been getting in the fall mood. Usually we don't decorate for Halloween, except for our carved pumpkins, but this year I wanted to do a little something so I bought a few decorations and then decided to make some tombstones!

So here's a quick little tutorial on how to make your own tombstones!

 I used some leftover MDF I had, and traced out 3 tombstones.

 I cut them with the jigsaw, and then sat and admired them, crookedness and all.

I then painted them, cut out some funny names with my cricut and then hand painted the pictures on!

 I attached them to some wooden stakes, and had some awesome, ridiculously inexpensive tombstones! Super cute, if you ask me!