For when you are bored:

...AND feeling crafty! 

So this is my third edition of a crafting post, and I hope you get a small fraction of the enjoyment looking at my diy crafts as I did in making them.  Yesterday I had the day off and I decided to finally get around to doing some projects I had seen via the blog-o-sphere.  

Let me start off by saying I have a small addiction to frames.  Every time I happen to pass the local resale shop when they are open (which is a rarity) I find myself drawn inside to the back of the store where they have frames of all sorts and sizes.  Doesn't matter how ugly they are, if they are cheap I buy them, big or small I collect them all!  ;) 

Anyways, I have had quite the collection growing under my bed and I finally found use for 6 of them:

#1 Magnetic Chalk Board Frame

via this crafty chic's tutorial here

Cost:

Sheet metal: $2.50

Paint: $.65

Frame: $2

#2 Dry Erase Frame

via the same crafty chic here

 Cost:

Thrifted frame:  $1

Paint&Paper on hand

#3 Letter art

Did you know Hobby Lobby sells single letters?

And for you photographers out there, how fun would it be to do this yourself?

(I think I could  use the challenge...)

Cost:

4 letters @ $1.99 ea.

Thrifted Frame: $2

Grey Mat matte made from a poster board

#4 Scripture Picture framed

I printed this picture I took on TYB IS., GA and put a favorite verse of mine on it.

Before:

After:

Cost:

Thrifted Frame: $2

Picture printed at home and matte made with scrapbook paper

#5 Earring Display

I have so many earrings and I only wear dangles, so this was a perfect way to display them!

Tutorial found here

Cost:

Frame: on hand

Picture wire: $1.97

#6 Pinwheels

I know this has nothing to do with frames but I adored the idea of having a bouquet of pinwheels. (Don't judge me; I am a kid at heart) :)

Tutorial found via Lisa Leanord here

My sister, Lauren came home from work and I helped her make her own chalkboard frame & pinwheels to match her room!

Aren't they adorable? :)

So, what are you waiting for?

Get crafting! :)

Come see some of my photography over at Serendipity-Images.

How do people make it through life...

without a sister to share it with?

Couldn't ask for a better set of sisters!

Brooke Emily

my little 4-point-0  :)

Lauren Ashley
the sanguine sibling

Nicole Elizabeth

aka Me 

The best thing about having sisters...

...is that I always have friends.

Thanks for the fun evening, girls, and for putting up with all the picture taking despite the pesky mosquitoes!

I love you and I want you both to know I think you are the greatest blessing in my life.

Come see some of my photography over at Serendipity-Images.

God's will

 

Growing up at Fairhaven, I have heard one point pounded by my Preacher - "Find God's will and do it."  So much so that the college alumni had a rock engraved with those exact words.

Doing God's will has never been something difficult for me.  I grew up at Fairhaven and it was only natural that I attended the college on campus, which I believe to be the best Christian college in the nation.  As a girl growing up at Fairhaven the chronological events are usually, go to college, graduate college, get married and ride off into the sunset.  (maybe that is exaggerated a little;) 

And that is exactly how my life was going up until the end of my sophomore year.

Suddenly I knew nothing of what my future held and it was something I struggled with for the next two years through college.

Here is where I would like to insert that were it not for  godly Christian parents I would still be struggling with this concept.  I am so very thankful that I have parents who encourage me to study God's Word and find His will myself.  I am so thankful for my mother's notes to me that say,

God has a divine will for your life~isn't it wonderful to KNOW that you are in His will and He is going to bless you?  It is like opening a gift from God!

It is notes like this that I keep in my Bible and refer to often for encouragement. 

This past May, it had been two years since my college graduation.

The majority of my classmates have married, or are teaching in Christian schools, or are serving in some other church.  It is only through God's strength that I do not question Him or doubt His will.

I have been offered a few teaching jobs but none of them even required prayer.

I visited or would speak to my Preacher and I knew that God would not have me go there.

However, recently a teaching position opened up at a great Christian school in California.

I began to pray if God would have that position be offered to me and if so that I would know very clearly that that was where I should be.  Nothing scares me more than not being in the center of God's will, and this was not a small matter.

My visit to see Liz was already planned and as God would have it I was interviewed at the school where my best friend teaches.  The school was great, the church was wonderful, and the people there were so friendly.  PLUS, my best friend lives there!!!!  How much better could it get??

If I was not a Christian, I would have taken the job then and there!

After all, it sounded like a dream come true!

However I knew this was a very serious matter and that making a decision based on what I wanted would end up in disaster.  So, I came home and talked it over with my family and we began to pray.

Three weeks passed and not only was my family praying that God would give me peace in the decision I should make but also my church family.  In that time countless people would come tell me they were praying for me, something I will be eternally grateful for.

About two weeks ago, I knew my answer.  Or should I say God's answer...

It was not the easy route.

I would love to teach,

to have my own class,

to live on my own,

to experience a new place,

to teach to the class room next to my best friend...

But it was not God's will.

That I was certain.

And so God's will for me is to stay at my home church.

I don't know why and I don't know what the future holds.

Does God want me to teach?

Will I stay in the same town my whole life?

Will God bring my soul-mate here?

All these questions have run through my head, but this I know - that God's place for me now is to continue at Fairhaven, serving on the bus route, helping in a 5-6 grade girls Sunday School, singing in the choir...I have found God's will and I will do it.

 

God has led me to an Insurance Agency where I have been working for one month now. 

I love learning new things and going outside my comfort zone.

I still do not know what tomorrow holds, but I will take it one day at a time

after all the future is God's gift to me...

New Blog

Announcement::

Since I take way too many pictures and don't want to post them all here,  I have decided to start up a new blog where I will do just that!  So, that way I can continue to write here but still share pictures without feeling like I need to write a post with them.

Those of you who like photography are welcome to follow me over at Serendipity - Images!

Hope to see you there!

PS I know I am way overdue for a post; one is in progress, I promise...:)