It all started when I was driving down overcrowded Interstate 75 near the city of Atlanta. I was simply trying to enjoy the day and stay alive while maneuvering my way home on one of the worst Interstates in the entire galaxy.

Although my knuckles were turning white from gripping the steering wheel I was as I said, trying to enjoy the day. Singing along with my CD …

“make me an instrument of peace, where there is hate let me sow love…”

When suddenly a work truck full of men cut in front of me causing me to have to slam on my breaks! Okay, slamming on the breaks was my own interpretation of what I needed to do, nevertheless the break debacle nearly caused me to get rear-ended by someone going 110 mph! (I’m estimating here. They could have been going 80…)

“What are you doing…you stupid idiot” is what I screamed.

After a moment of heart pounding and hands shaking I resumed singing along…

“…it’s in the loving we find love, it’s in the giving we receive…”

And then it hit me. The words. The ones I was singing and the ones I’d just yelled.

I’m sorry…I breathed to the One who was listening.

Shoulda known I hadn’t heard the last of this.

*****

In my morning reading I’m going through the New Testament. A few days ago I got to Galatians 5:22 and read over the familiar fruits-of-the-Spirit. My Bible had a note: “other lists of virtues: 1 Co 6:9, 2Co 6:6, Eph 4:2, 5:9, Col 3:12″

On a whim I looked up all the virtues from each verse. It would be interesting, I thought, to see which virtue is listed the most…sigh.

It is with a very heavy heart that I tell you which virtue was in fact listed over and over and over and over…

~Patience~

Really?

Although I didn’t get any of those virtues built into my personality if there was one that is almost void in me it’s the “P” word.

I’m pretty certain this will get more and more interesting as it usually does when The Father shines a light on something He wants to grow in me…stay tuned.

*****

How about you? Out of the virtues I found in those verses above, which were:

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control, purity, understanding, humility, righteousness, truth, compassion and forgiveness…

Is there one that stands out that you’d like to see grow in your life?

Come on…I can’t be the only one.

Love to each one of you…xoxo

It started life as a Large Old Navy shirt. I love the color it was under $3.00! And I was dying to cut up another shirt! I started to do another twist kind of shirt, which required cutting the front away from the back…but see that little pattern? Well I made that little one, a big one and did a trial run with one of The Husbands old tees and I kid you not, I couldn’t get it to work…so I cut my losses and went to Plan B. (That should be the name of a book!)

I cut out the neck and hacked off the sleeves.
Then cut the shirt down to more my size and sewed the sides back together.

Then hemmed the neck and sleeve openings…

And…having no idea what I’d do next… I started looking through scraps of fabric…hummmm…

Then I remembered this pretty spring scarf (I never wore since it was 100* here in May! I may be exaggerating but not by much…)

So I cut a strip (app. 3″) and hemmed one side and sewed a basting stich down the center to make a ruffle…Pinned it on the neck of the shirt and sewed into place!

WaaLaa!

If you use a thin piece of fabric for the ruffle you’ll need to wash it on the delicate cycle and expect a little unraveling…I don’t mind a bit of unraveling…

I’ll be linking…(HERE)

xo

Enjoy the last holiday of Summer 2010 Peeps…

I’m playing today, be back tomorrow…

xoxo

How many times have I heard that: let go and let God?  But last night those simple words rescued me.

A couple of months ago one of my precious blog-friend, Nita J, asked for prayer in her Facebook status for a friend of hers, Sarah, who’d just given birth at twenty-something weeks.  Sarah’s  tiny boy captured my heart immediately. Over the past 2 months Baby Evan has been through so many things. Day after day after day, through all the ups and downs Sarah posts updates on Facebook and I’m always amazed at her humility, strength and faith.

Evan’s been doing really well of late. Yesterday Sara asked for prayer for Evan’s eyes. He’s having laser surgery today (Friday September 3, 2010) and will most likely keep his direct vision while losing his peripheral vision. My heart sank as I read, my mind already forming a prayer. Then I saw the last line…

“please pray…at this point I’ve learned to let go and let God.”

Sarah’s long journey and her strong trust amazed me.

*****

At bed time, I lay awake with thoughts about Emma and her possible early delivery. The thoughts spiraled and very quickly created a storm of worry and fear. Saying a prayer for Em and Baby Lucy, instantly my mind shifted and thoughts about my son Timothy who’s in a difficult season in his life, started the storm of worry all over again. More prayers. But just as I finished praying for Timothy, near panic for Emma and Lucy crashed through me.  Back and forth this went on for so long.

But at some point in this ridiculous cycle I remembered Sarah’s words…

I’ve learned to let go and let God…

I don’t care how often I’ve heard it, at that moment I grabbed onto the hope and the trust behind that little saying and held on tight.

Within moments I felt myself being pulled from the storm of obsessive worry. I pictured Emma, Baby Lucy and Timothy in my God’s Hands. That picture filled my mind as I drifted off to sleep.

*****

The next time you find yourself in a storm of worry and fear, maybe remember Sarah’s words and the beautiful trust behind them.

Oh, and would you join me in saying a prayer for Sweet Baby Evan?

xo

My daughter Emma was admitted to the hospital yesterday at just over 31 weeks pregnant. She’s been having major timed contractions among other things…

They are giving her steroids to help Baby Lucy develop at a quicker pace.

Her doctors are hesitant to give Emma meds to stop the contractions because the side effects are dropping blood pressure and racing heart. Emma has extremely low blood pressure all the time and has SVT, which causes her heart rate to go sky high when she’s just sitting still.

Emma says Lucy is busy plotting her escape .

If you think of us, please say a prayer that Baby Lucy Jean stays right where she is.

Love to you my friends…I’ll try to post an update later today…

xo

Please don’t judge. I try not to talk too much about it until after August is done, but I am not a fan. Remember where I live…the deep south. In August if feels like me and my neighbors have settled in a sweet little town smack in the center of hell.

But enough ’bout that! It’s September and Praise Be, autumn is on the way!

In the celebratory spirit of autumn I’m going to show you my little version of the Faux Mercury Glass Pumpkins that are sweeeeeeping through blog-land!

Here’s the gorgeous inspiration…(Image: Pottery Barn)

Lots of Mercury Glass looks a bit splotched with light brown…(Image: Bassett Furniture)

This is what I was going for…I like the brown.

Now I tried 2 ways one was super easy…

Start with a little punkin and some spray paint…

I sprayed the punkin (primer first then metallic silver) and then used light brown craft paint and a stencil brush to splatter …

Cute but I wasn’t tickled…and I like to be tickled.

So I got The Husband involved…the 2 of us came up with this:

After spraying with Primer and then Metallic Aluminum The Husband flipped the tiny sprayer off of the ‘Brushed Satin Sesame Shimmer’

Then he showed me how to use fine point tweasers to gently press the release button allowing paint to sputter out…

Okay…this is touchy. And messy. For the love of Pete wear disposable gloves and practice a few times on some paper before attempting it on the pumpkins. BUT, even if you mess up…you can always spray some more silver to correct your mistake!

I liked these better!

I’m not done with this faux mercury glass Peeps…I’m going to try a few other techniques…stay tuned!

xo

I’ll be linking…

Do you want some inspiration? Pour a cup of coffee and snuggle in for an hour and click HERE to visit some delightful and uber creative linky-parties!

“Teach us to number our days…that we may gain a heart of wisdom. “Psalm 90:12

I heard an Andy Stanley message on this last week. (It’s first in the series: Time of Your Life. Listen HERE.)

The message was great but it’s the scripture that I didn’t remember that so impacted me. I’ve been looking for a scripture like this ever since my mom left this planet 5 years ago. I wanted a verse to help me understand what’s been happening in my heart.

It was a subtle shift… becoming more focused on the end of my life.Realizing that my ordinary days are in fact not so ordinary.

I tried to wrap words around the change… living today, the legacy that I will one day leave.

But perhaps what God’s been teaching me is simply…to number my days.

*****

Do you ever think of your life with the end in mind and if you do does it make a difference in how you live your moments?

~Just wondering…love to you my friends~

While I was  taking a brief respite from Home DIY Projects, I’ve been trying my hand at re-making tee shirts!

I’m adding a new category in the left-hand column pull-down menu: All Things to Wear! I’ve been on a bit of a roll and done several re-makes! I’ll be sharing in the coming weeks!

They’re all over blog-land, these brilliant young ladies that take regular tees and cut them down and add J Crew inspired (or Anthropologie inspired) embellishment.

One site I’ve come to love is: A Few of my Favorite Things!

Jessica did a shirt similar to this one & that’s where I got the idea!

I started my tee shirt projects with one that’s super easy…this is a shirt from Target ($10.00). I didn’t have to cut it down, it fit perfectly.

I cut up another old tee and made a couple of ruffles

Making ruffles out of knit couldn’t be easier Peeps…cut a long strip, no need to hem the sides. Sew a straight stitch down the center of the strip with machine set to a wide length and width. You can do this by hand too, just sew a basting stitch down the center of the fabric strip.

Then carefully pull the thread to gather until you have the ruffled look you like!

I played around with where to put them and then pinned…

Turned out kinda cute huh?

I thought I may wear it to my daughter Emma’s baby shower…who knows!

Okay…I’ll be linking my friends!

Click HERE to be inspired!

I loved reading all the comments and hearing what you guys want to paint! When I went to Random.org to pick 3 numbers I made up my mind, if I ever play the lottery and win, I’m going to have a giveaway as good as this one and everybody’s gonna get a prize! I hate leaving anyone out. Makes me sad. Truly.

Before the winners…

The kitchen…

Remember how it looked just the other day…(Below)

Ever noticed that big projects give birth to little projects?

The kitchen was the big project…but there were lots of little ones…

I repainted the little TV table when I did the cabinets…

Made little chair cushions out of a shower curtain!

And remember the kitchen wall before…

I changed the plates and added some paint here and there…

And the pantry doors…(posted HERE)

These projects turned out pretty good! But there was a fail…

Here it is…I had the great idea of re-covering the shades of the chandelier! When I peeled off the paper I discovered the paper IS theactual shade. Woops! I’m going to have to order some…I can’t find this size any where.

All The DIY Projects are posted HERE.

*****

Okay…And the winners along with their winning comments are:

***Carmen***

So am I supposed to be commenting on THIS post to be entered again? I love your kitchen so much now. So what color did you use? If you named it already, sorry for asking again. If I won, I’d really like to repaint my kitchen and paint my powder room but my two younger kids share a room and it’s dingy and blah. We moved in about a year and a half ago and I keep telling them we’ll redo their room soon. So I think I’d do their room.

***Gitz***

Me!!! Imma gonna wanna win some paint Your doors are DARLING

***Steph***

(this is not the Steph that is the fruit of my womb!)

Oh how I would love to win! I have just decided that I am going to use this paint that you have talked so much about when I paint two side tables that I am using in my bedroom

Congrats!

And to all the rest of you…I’m soooooo sorry. xoxo. sniff-sniff.

I’ll be emailing the winners this morning with details so keep an eye out! Don’t let me end up in your spam!

And the my wondermus Peeps at Behr Paint…thank you to the moon and back!

If you haven’t checked out all my projects using Behr Ultra Paint with Primer click HERE! You won’t believe all I’ve done with this FANTASTIC paint!

xoxo

As you know, we’ve been doing this Summer DIY Project that has been the project that just wouldn’t end!(See more posts under: All Things Home DIY)

Most of our project utilized one of two things…

Behr Paint or fabric!

This little one-day side-project included both!

“I think we need new pantry doors” I told The Husband after I painted the old ones…

He glared at me.

In all fairness my “totally free” Summer DIY Project was proving to be just on the other side of free.

Nevertheless…these doors were in desperate neeeed…(old paint-old cabinets…)

First I painted the doors with the trim color…Behr Ultra  Sandstone Cove.

Then I set my tiny brain in motion and told it to find a solution to my pantry door problems.

Here’s what The Tiny Brain came up with…

I took apart 2 new pillow cases so they were 2 longer pieces of single layer fabric .

(Pretty sheet sets are a great way to get fabric at really good prices!)

And added a tiny ruffle…then hemmed and ruffled the bottom part making a cute little curtain!

Then I hot glued my little curtain right to the glass in the pantry doors…

Remember the doors before? Very 80’s…

Much better!

A little fabric. A little Behr Ultra.  And the door is as cute as a button!

~Love to you my friends~