I Do Designs

2 Ingredient Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-11-06T17:46:00.000-08:00

Oh yah… you read that right!! TWO ingredients!!! Refrigerator cookie dough, and Nutella!!

I was just recently introduced to Nutella and became instantly addicted. For some reason, I have been craving Nutella something (anything) today. I’ve been sick all weekend, and have spent a lot of my time “Pinteresting” (is that even a word?). I have come across tons of recipes using Nutella. I was quite sure it would help me feel better, but didn’t have many of the ingredients, and certainly didn’t have much energy. So I decided to improvise. I had a package of refrigerated chocolate chip cookies, and of course, the Nutella – ta dah!!!!! Oh, I’m feeling so brilliant!!

Now, how to do it?? What would be the best way? So I made a few at a time in different ways to see which way turned out best. (Sorry, I was so excited about making the cookies that I didn’t get the best pictures.)

#1 – Flatten out 2 cookies

Put a teaspoon of Nutella in the center of one cookie…

Press the two cookies together, sealing in the creamy center.

#2 – Take one cookie, make a small “bowl” and put a scoop of Nutella in the center. Bring the sides of the “bowl” up to partially enclose the Nutella.

OR
#3 – Put a scoop of Nutella in the center of the cookie, form a ball around it, and kind of kneed it in so it will be throughout the entire cookie.

This is what they looked like after they were baked…

Of course I had to “try” each cookie to see which was best… I decided on the “sandwich type” because the Nutella “oozed” out throughout the entire cookie. Here they are before they were topped with the second cookie.

I FINALLY… here they are in all their ooey, gooey, Nutelledness!!! (Is that another made up word? – Well, it fits!!)

Sat down with my plate of cookies, and a big old glass of cold milk. I’m feeling SO much better now.

Well, I’ve gotta go spread the word to all the other Nutella fanatics out there!!! If you ask me, I believe this is “Pinterest” worthy!!!

Whatcha think? Gonna give them a try? If you do, be sure to let me know what you think.

Mom to the Rescue

2011-10-27T17:14:00.000-07:00

This past weekend my Hubby and I went to visit our son and daughter-in-law. (Man it's the pits when your kids move away... just say'in!) Anyway, Bethany and I were sitting at the table eating breakfast one morning, and I was looking into her kitchen. I made the comment that I had always wanted an open area on top of my cabinets because I think it's such a neat area to decorate. Bethany had that open area, but had not yet decorated it, so I asked her about it. She said that she had wanted to put things up there, but wasn't sure what to do. We started discussing a few ideas and I could see she thought it would be a fun thing to do. She knew that she wanted black and white, with a modern flare. Wellllll, say no more... it was time for a trip to GW!!!!!!

As soon as we walked into Goodwill I saw a set of white dishes that I knew would work. Add to that a few black dishes, several glass vases, and some black frames. OH, and we even found two sets of horseshoe bookends which were perfect since they have horses. This is we left GW with...

White dishes (place setting for 8)

Some black dishes

Frames, vases, and horse-shoe bookends

We made one more quick stop on the way home to get some fillers for the vases (rice and black beans), a small bottle of black paint, and some plate stands. For a total of about $30 to $35 we had everything we needed.

The next day everyone left to go to a cross country meet. I stayed at their house because I wasn't feeling well. I started looking at all those things just waiting to be put in place. I had an idea to make some of the dishes look a little more "modern", so I sat down with a few of the plates, black paint, and a small paint brush and started seeing what I could do. I just worked with the design of the plate and added a little black here and there.

Put some paint on the sugar bowl as well...

Now, this was as far as I was going to go. After all, this wasn't MY home (you know, the "mother-in-law" and all"), I shouldn't take it upon myself to actually decorate the area... or should I??? Well, my hubby called and said that Jason and Bethany made the comment, "I bet we get home and Mom will have that entire area decorated!!" OH MY WORD... you mean they wouldn't MIND if I did it???. That was it... that was all I needed... let the decorating begin. Now mind you, I had very limited items to work with, and I knew they didn't have the exact same decorating style as me, so I wanted to keep it simple for them. This is what I ended up doing.

I started in the corner with one of the black plates and worked my way out. The one vase was to tall for the area, so I tilted it and rested it on one of the horseshoe bookends. I filled the vases with the rice and beans.

I made a few more "tweaks" after these pictures were taken, but that was basically it. (I should have taken some pictures from farther back to give you the full effect... sorry!) Now... what would they think? They walked in and immediately checked the top of the cabinets. Drum roll please... THEY LOVED IT!!! I assured them that they were NOT going to hurt my feelings if they didn't like it or wanted to change things, but they said, "Nope... we love it just the way it is!" SUCCESS!!!!

Sooooooo, I guess even when I'm on vacation, the crafting juices continue to flow. What about you? Are you able to turn off your brain, or are you always thinking about your next craft project? Would love to hear from you.

Great Gift – Lemon Scrub

2011-10-25T18:13:00.000-07:00

Last year I made a number of different things to give as little gifts. You know, sometimes you just need a “little something” to give to co-workers, or perhaps a hostess gift, or whatever. I started searching the web for some ideas. They all turned out so cute, and were loved by everyone, so I thought maybe I would share the ideas/recipes/pictures with you. Maybe you’ll get some ideas for your own gifts!!

The first posting that I’m sharing is “Lemon Scrub”. I’m sure if you look around, you will find many different recipes on line, but this is the recipe I used and it turned out great. I found it at this post: http://meanmommyacademy.blogspot.com/2010/05/lemon-sugar-hand-scrub.html (Thanks Jordan for sharing!)

1 C Sugar
1/4 C Canola Oil
2 T Lemon Juice
Lemon essential oil
(Many of the recipes call for extra virgin olive oil, but, like Jordan, I found that the smell was a bit overwhelming.)

Mix everything together and quickly fill your jars before it separates. They will need to mix it before using.
I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased some cute little jars, and to Crafts 2000 for the little wooden spoons…

I made some labels, and then personalized each one with the name of the person receiving the gift. I also created a label to go on the top of the jar to explain what it was. I printed it on card stock and then used a decorative punch to cut it out. Finally I made a label to go on back with some directions.

Just in case you would like to make some Lemon Scrub for your friends, I’ve included the labels I made which you are free to use. There is one label with a name (just to show you how I did it), and a few that just say “Lemon Scrub” in case you just want a generic gift. You should be able to size these to fit your jars. (If the resolution is not good enough just e-mail me and I will send you the higher resolution files.)

TOP LABEL

FRONT LABEL

BACK LABEL

Hope your friends enjoy this little gift as much as mine did. Oh, and while you are making one for your friends, be sure to make one for yourself at the same time. It’s GREAT stuff!!!!

I'm gonna go party now...
Making the World Cuter
DebbieDoos Newbie Party
Hope Studios - Tutorial Tuesday

Coffee Table to Ottoman

2011-10-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe that a year has passed since I told you about a coffee table that I was making over. If you have never seen what happened to the table, be sure to check out this posting: http://debbie-idodesigns.blogspot.com/2010/10/oh-oh-that-was-not-good.html
For a long time I had the table sitting around awaiting its makeover. Well, during my time of absence I DID complete a few projects. This was one of them. Let me share this little beauty’s transformation.
This is what the original table looked like before it’s paint job…

Poor little thing… it was painted so perfectly, and then got all scratched up on the way back into the house…

First I gathered my supplies: Padding, old plastic tablecloth (to be used for waterproofing just in case something spilled or I needed to clean the fabric), and decorative fabric. I also had a staple gun, electric knife (yes, you read that correctly), glue gun, and some decorative cording.

I placed the padding on top of the table so I could cut it to the correct shape. (The box of books on top of the table was just to hold the padding in place.)

I used the electric knife to cut the padding (it was really thick, so I found that the electric knife worked best.)

I then flipped the whole table over so I could staple the fabric to the underside of the top. I put the plastic tablecloth between the fabric and the padding.

Once I had secured all of the fabric to the table I covered up the staples and finished it off by hot gluing black cording around the entire table.

I reattached the hardware and TA DAAAAH… FINISHED!!!! Oh baby… I love it!!!!

All that was left to do was to decorate the top of the ~~table~~… errrrrr, OTTOMAN!!! :-)

I LOVE my table. Not to brag, but people can’t believe that I did it all by myself. Not only does it look good, but it also gives us a nice cushioned place to prop up our feet after a long hard day!!

I would love to hear what you think… be sure to leave me a comment. Oh, and while you’re at it, why don’tcha click that little button to your right and follow my blog!!!

Sunday Scoop (I Heart Nap Time)
DIY Project Parade (The DIY Showoff)
Just Something I Whipped Up (The Girl Creative)
Making the World Cuter Monday
Market Yourself Monday (Sumo's Sweet Stuff)
Motivate Me Monday (Keeping It Simple)
Creative Me Monday (The Southern Institute)
Show Off Your Cottage Monday (The House in the Roses)
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday (Coastal Charm)
Get Your Craft On (Today's Creative Blog)
Hoo Are You? (Night Owl Crafting)
Newbies Linkie Party (Debbiedoos Blogging and Blabbing)
http://www.iheartnaptime.net/
Trash to Treasure Tuesday (Kammy's Korner)

Remembrance Gifts

2011-10-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

One of the things that my dear Mother-in-Law loved was jewelry and scarves. After she passed away and we started going through her drawers, the sweet memories started flooding in. In her better days, she was always dressed up. We could remember how she would pair up a suit with a beautiful scarf, or dress up a pretty sweater with a piece of jewelry. That was something that she was known for by all her friends and family. Several family members had asked if they could have something to remember her by. When we saw all the scarves and jewelry we thought that would make a perfect gift for them!!

At that point I went through the process of trying to match up each scarf with a necklace and a pair of earrings. That done, I started thinking about how to package them up. I didn’t want to just put the things in a box, so I started thinking about a way to present them. The first thing I decided to make up was a card to be included with the gift. This is what I came up with.

Next I decided to make up a pretty cardboard shape thing that we could use with the scarf and jewelry items. I came up with this… (the holes were to feed the ends of the scarf through).

Finally, I took each set that I had made up and put everything together in a box. They turned out SO nice and made wonderful remembrance gifts which we gave to her sisters, niece, and close friends. Here are some pictures of the final gifts (the pictures don’t really do them justice though).

(The “dots” on this scarf really were red, not pink like the picture makes it look.)

This is what the final package look like – including the gift card. Not only did they look pretty, but they smelled just like her as well because they still had her favorite perfume lingering on them.

Everyone loved their packages and were very touched to have a sweet remembrance of such a dear lady!

Linking up to a few parties.

Sunday Scoop (I Heart Nap Time)

Sunday Showcase Party (Under The Table and Dreaming)

DIY Project Parade (The DIY Showoff)
Making the World Cuter Monday
Just Something I Whipped Up (The Girl Creative)
Motivate Me Monday (Keeping it Simple)
The DIY Showoff
Metamorphosis Monday (Between Naps on the Porch)
Making Monday Marvelous (Creating Really Awesome Free Things)
Made By You Monday (Skip to my Lou)
Turquoise Loving Link Party (Sweet Little Gals)

Condo Redo – What a difference “Staging” makes!

2011-09-29T19:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone!!! MY OH MY… where has the time gone?? (Hang on, this is going to be a looooong posting – lots to tell you and show you!!!). It just seems like there is no time to “blog” these days. So much of my time has been spent with my grandchildren, working, and of course… getting my Mother-in-Law’s condo ready to sell. As you may remember, she passed away in January. Once Phil’s brother and wife (Steve and Harriet) were able to come for a few days, we started the tedious process of going through closets, drawers, cabinets, etc. At times it was painful, but there were also many pleasant finds. You realize just how important certain things are when you go through someone’s keepsakes. Know what we found? Cards… lots, and LOTS of cards. Drawers FULL of cards that she had kept over the years. She had moved into that condo about 16 years ago, and I think she kept every single card since she moved in. Birthday cards, Christmas cards, Mother’s Day Cards, Thinking of You Cards, and cards sent just for the heck of it. Especially ALL cards she received from her grandchildren. I guess you just never know how much a simple little thing like a card can mean to someone!!!!

Once all the sorting/pitching/dividing/giving/cleaning, was done, we sat down to discuss just what we needed to do to get the place ready to sell. I told them that there were four things we HAD to do.

Paint the entire place… walls, doors, woodwork, closets, shelves, etc. (and that we needed to HIRE a professional painter to do it).
Remove the wallpaper from the 2 bathrooms.
Get the carpet cleaned.
Stage the entire place.

They all looked at me as if I had grown a horn or something. I heard things like, “The paint’s not THAT bad”… “I think the wallpaper is fine”… “If we paint it should just be white”… “What do you mean by ‘staging’… that will cost a lot of money!” Oh my, obviously they don’t watch the home makeover shows!!! I KNEW that if we had a prayer of a chance to sell this thing (especially with the economy the way it is), that I HAD to win these battles! Mom had lived in that place for 16 years and had NEVER painted, or even moved the furniture around. Well I won the battle. (I can be rather convincing!) Of course “winning the battle” also meant that the brunt of everything was going to fall on my shoulders – especially since Steve and Harriet live in PA!

PAINTING: I wanted to give the walls a bit of color (NOT white). I wanted something that would go with any color scheme someone wanted to decorate with. I knew I wanted to use Behr because we had used it in our house. It truly is a one-coat paint, and goes on beautifully. I went to Home Depot and picked up about a bazillion color samples – all different hues of white/tan/cream/yellow… etc. I laid them out on the floor of the condo, and by process of elimination finally settled on “Navaho White” and placed the swatch up on the mantle. We couldn’t get the painting done for a few weeks, so I started “second guessing” myself. Back to Home Depot – whole new stack of colors to choose from – went through the entire process again. Narrowed it down to 3 swatches, and finally selected the “winner”. I asked my hubby to hand me the other swatch from off of the mantle. Guess what??? SAME COLOR… “Navaho White”!!!! Guess it was meant to be! Might I say “I absolutely LOVE this color!!!!” It turned out to be a very soft off-white/yellow color. All the woodwork was painted bright white, so it really “popped”, and made everything look nice and clean. Anyway, we had a professional painter come in and paint EVERYTHING. We couldn’t believe the difference it made. Everything looked fantastic!!

WALLPAPER: Yep, DOWN came the wallpaper. That too had been in place all those years, so you can imagine it was not in the best shape!! I was going to try and take it down myself, but after about an hour of working on it, and only removing a small section, I decided that we would ask our painter to do it – I would have gladly paid out of my own pocket for that!!! The two bathrooms were painted a slightly darker color than the rest of the rooms. They looked fantastic! We ended up leaving the wallpaper in the kitchen because it was in pretty good shape and very neutral.

CARPET: It was professionally cleaned and, although not perfect, was MUCH better.

STAGING: Next came the FUN!!! Although it was a LOT of work, it WAS fun. Thankfully I had JUST redone my own house, so I had lots of things that I could use. Plus, I had been doing so much GW shopping that I had PLENTY of nick-knacks to choose from. Sooooo, instead of taking things OUT of the condo, every time I pulled up I took boxes and boxes IN. I think the neighbors thought I was crazy. I had to buy SOME things, but for the most part, I either used what was still at the house, or brought my stuff in. Basic furniture was kept in place, but old items, or things that made it look cluttered were removed. I opened up the floor space as much as possible.

The first time Steve and Harriet returned once everything was done, I was there to greet them at the door. When Harriet took her first glimpse of the living room she started crying. Thinking that she was missing Mom, I gave her a hug and said, “are you crying because it looks so different, not like Mom’s house any more, and that you are missing her?” She said, “NO! I’m crying because it is soooooo beautiful!!! She continued crying throughout the entire tour.

I DO WISH I had pictures of “before” so that you could fully appreciate the transformation. The only other way that I could make you see the difference was to take pictures of the condo after we moved everything out. OH… did I tell you that we SOLD the condo??? Yep!!! So obviously everything I had brought in had to be taken back out and returned to my house. (You can’t even get through my garage right now!!!) The new owner did ask to buy the TV cabinet, dining room outfit, and small kitchen table, so those things are still in place in the pictures. Once everything was packed up, removed, and final cleaning was done, I took pictures. Looking at the empty rooms (even though they were nicely painted) I asked my sister-in-law if she thought the place was very impressive. She said no! I asked her if she thought the “staging” had made a difference. She agreed that everything I did had been well worth the effort and made a HUGH difference.

So… are you ready for a tour? First, the “before” pictures. Imagine yourself coming in the front door and taking a tour. There are several other condos for sale in that same complex, and this is basically how you would find them – except most of them have not bothered to even paint. You just walk into empty rooms with bare walls.

CONDO FROM THE OUTSIDE

ENTRY

LIVING ROOM / DINING ROOM

KITCHEN

GUEST BATH

GUEST BEDROOM

MASTER BEDROOM

MASTER BATHROOM

Well, what do you think? Did you find it very impressive? After all, it WAS freshly painted, carpet cleaned, and everything spic and span. No? Well I agree... looks kind of boring doesn't it!! Now let's take a tour again, but this time you will see that it is fully staged. Keep in mind that I had to work with the basic furniture, but everything else I brought in. Also, one of my goals as I was staging was to show people that no matter what colors they wanted to decorate with, that the wall color would work with it. Here we go...

ENTRY AREA

LIVING ROOM / DINING ROOM

KITCHEN

GUEST BATHROOM

GUEST BEDROOM

MASTER BEDROOM

MASTER BATHROOM

So, does staging make a difference? I actually asked the buyer that question. He told us, "It made ALL THE DIFFERENCE!!" He told us that he had looked at MANY places, several within the same development as our condo. He said that the moment he walked in he knew it was perfect. He asked if I did staging for a business. I laughed and said "no!" He said, "Well you SHOULD!!" Evidently when the Realtor showed him the condo he said, "I would usually point out all the different things that need to be done if you moved in, but there is absolutely nothing to be done here!" When we went to the closing, the Realtor said "This was the best staging I've ever seen - better than professionals I hire to stage homes." WOW!!! All the hard work was well worth it!!

So folks - that's where I have been spending a lot of my time. PHEW!!! It's finally over. Had to go in and take everything apart, pack it up, and bring it back home. It was sad actually... to pack everything away, to do a final clean up, close the door for the last time, and drive away. All that's left are many wonderful memories of the years that Mom spent in that condo.

So now that I am back among all my blogging friends, I would love to hear what you think. Hopefully I will be able to catch up on my blogging and show you some of the other projects that I have worked on real soon.

I'm linking up to the following parties:

Saturday Nite Special; Link Party Thursday (Somewhat Simple); Transformation Thursday (Shabby Creek Cottage); The Girl Creative; Feature Yourself Friday (Fingerprints on the Fridge); Look at me I'm so Crafty (Fun To Craft); Show & Share (Just a Girl); Whatcha Got Weekend (Lolly Jane Boutique); Saturday is Craft Day (Along for the Ride); Show and Tell Saturday (Be Different Act Normal); VIP Party (Designer Garden); Think Pink Sundays (Flamingo Toes); Sunday Scoop (I Heart Nap Time); Sunday Showcase Party (Under The Table and Dreaming); Making the World Cuter Monday; Just Something I Whipped Up (The Girl Creative); Motivate Me Monday (Keeping it Simple); Made By You Monday (Skip to my Lou)

I’m Baaaaaaack!!!!! With a new little one!!

2011-04-13T19:13:00.001-07:00

Oh good heaven’s, where oh where has the time gone? i can’t believe that I have not posted anything since mid January!!! Things have been K-R-A-Z-Y around here!!! Ever since my Mother-in-Law passed away it seems like it has been one thing or another taking up my time. We have been busy trying to settle her estate and clean out her condo. We are now in the process of getting it painted, carpet cleaned, and then “staged”. I’m getting all the things together that I will need to take over there to update it a little bit. Don’t exactly want to sell a place that looks like an 81 year old lady lived there. Seriously, the decorations were ALL from the time she moved into her place 16 years ago. Country blue and mauve… need I say more??? The next couple of weeks are going to be crazy as we (attempt to) get everything done and get it on the market. Wish the housing market was a little better right now, but we don’t have time to wait.
Now for the BIG news – the thing that is making me take time out of my busy life to FINALLY post on my blog – I’m a grandma again!!!! WAHOO!!!!
Yep, Phil and I are the (very) proud grandparents of a new little Grandson. Evan Scott Franz (yah, we’re kind of proud of the middle name!) was born on Monday, April 11^th at 3:23 pm. He decided to make his appearance a little earlier than planned. (Mommy – my daughter Angela - was scheduled for a C-Section on the 17^th). However, Evan is very healthy and is doing well. He weighed in at 7 lbs 4 oz, and was 20 ½ inches. Mommy and Daddy are doing great. Big brother, Noah, has a pretty nasty cold and cough right now, so he has not been able to get close to his baby brother yet. Thank heaven for Skype – he has been able to at least see him that way. Noah is staying with Phil and I this week. Oh my, I've forgotten what it's like to have a 4 year old in the house while trying to get ready for work. Especially when "said little one" wakes up on the wrong side of bed, doesn't want to get up, doesn't want to go potty, doesn't want to dress, doesn't want to go to school, has a cold, AND is missing Mommy and Daddy!! Regardless, we are loving every minute!!
Anyway, I thought I would include a few pictures of this precious little one. Now I know that I’m his Grandma, and just MIGHT be a little prejudice, but I do believe he is just the cutest little guy ever (along with Noah of course)!!!! There are pictures of Noah as he sees his little brother for the first time. He was smiling from ear to ear! Also, if you remember, back in October my Mom turned 90. This little one makes her 19th Great Grandchild. You can tell from the pictures below she has not lost her touch!!

And here's the most precious picture ever - Matt and Angela snapped this when Evan got to go home. The hat and blanket are extra special because they were made by my Mom - his Great Grandma (or "GG" as they call her).

Being a grandparent is one of the BEST things ever! Noah is getting to be so much fun to be with, and now we have a new little one to cuddle. We praise the Lord for this precious new life and are so thankful that he came into this world perfect in every way!
Thanks for allowing me to brag just a bit. Of course I would be more than happy to hear all your comments about just HOW PRECISIOUS he is!!! LOL

“Blinging Up” My New Chandelier

2011-01-14T18:37:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks before Christmas I was walking through Goodwill and was about ready to walk out. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something big and shiny sitting on a table. I glanced over and low-and-behold I saw a beautiful light fixture. Price? $19.95!!!! I can’t believe that I almost walked away because I was afraid my hubby would kill me. I stood there and debated, then I picked it up. Oh good heaven’s… that thing was HEAVY. I was a GOOD fixture and in perfect condition – not even any dust on it!!! The thing I didn’t really like were the metal shades – which I knew could be removed. I was beginning to see the potential. Well, at that point I said, “I don’t care if my hubby rolls his eyes when he sees this or not, I’m gonna get it!” I’m telling you, that thing was so heavy that I could hardly carry it to the register and then out to my car. I DID get a slight eye-roll from my hubby, but he also knew we wanted a new light for our dining room, PLUS even he knew it was a GOOD fixture. This is what it looked like when I brought it in the house… see how it shines?

I just “casually” mentioned to my hubby that maaaaybe we could install it sometime in the near future… hopefully before Christmas??? You know what? He said, “Well let’s do it!” Well knock me over with a feather!! I got the tools together before he could change his mind and quick as a wink we had that baby installed (with a “dimmer” to boot!!!!!).
Why is it that I don’t see things are crooked/upside down/etc. until I post pictures?? I also forgot to take a “before” picture of the light. Trust me, it was a very basic CHEAP builder’s quality fixture.
Now this was quite an improvement, and I was already loving it, but of course – never to be satisfied – I felt it could be improved upon. I seen so many different people post on how they improved a chandelier. One in particular that inspired me to try was Diane (http://inmyownstyle.com/2010/11/dining-room-chandelier-make-over.html). I thought... could I???… should I???… “bling” it up???? But of course I should!! Besides, with it being Christmas time I figured I might be able to find some crystal items to use. I was right. Not only did I find crystal items, but they were half price!!! WAHOO!!!! The beaded garland was a little larger than I wanted, but it would do. I thought that maybe these crystals might look “cheap”, but they really don’t. Everyone that has seen it thinks it is beautiful, so I guess price doesn’t really matter.
I didn’t want to do anything that would be “permanent” or damage the light in any way, plus I didn't want the beads to slide, so I wanted to use some hooks to hang the crystals. The light itself had perfect areas to hang hooks. I found some brass ornament hangers at Hobby Lobby which I knew would work perfect (1/2 price!!!). I cut them and made new hooks out of them.
They work so well that they blend right in with the light.
I figured out how much of a drop I wanted between hooks and started hanging them and then hot-glued the two ends together. I did this several times in different areas. I also made some drop crystals to hang down.
The top portion had to have a little different hook, so I worked with them a little more and made a perfect little hook for that as well.

The only place I had to use glue (hot glue) was on the crystals that dropped from the top portion down to the “candle light-bulb” area (or whatever you call it).

One final thing and I would be done… the center drop crystal. I had a beautiful REAL crystal that my boss had given to me a couple of years ago. I made that into another drop that would hang below everything else. Oh my gosh… this thing was looking AWESOME!!!!
I had a bit of a hard time getting good pictures, because the crystal garland wants to reflect so much, but I think you’ll get the general idea. Between the cost of the light, and all the crystals, I have created a beautiful Chandelier for about $35!!!!

One more time… here’s the “before”
And here’s the “after”.

I’m really happy with it!!! The nice thing is that if I want to change it, get tired of it, or even want to clean it, all I have to do is unhook everything.

So what do you think? Do you like the “Before” or the “After” better????? I really WOULD LOVE to hear what you think!!!

I think I'm going to find a few parties to link up to...

Saturday Is Crafty Day! (Along for the Ride) / Saturday Nite Special (Funky Junk) / Flaunt It Friday (Chic on Shoestring Decorating) / FAB Friday (Frugal & Fabulous Design) / Feature Yourself Friday (Fingerprints on the Frig) / Frugalicious Friday (Finding Fabulous) / Motivate Me Monday (Keeping it Simple) / Making the World Cuter Monday / The DIY Show Off / Metamorphosis Monday (Between Naps on the Porch) / Making Monday Marvelous (Creating Really Awesome Free Things) / Made By You Monday (Skip to my Lou) / Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays (Costal Charm) / Mad Skills

Goodbye to my Mother-in-Law

2011-01-11T07:38:00.000-08:00

Today's posting is dedicated to my dear Mother-in-Law. On Friday, January 7, 2011, Roxie Darlene Scott went home to be with the Lord. She had been suffering with COPD for about 8 years. During the last couple of years we have been in the process of that "long goodbye" as she slipped further from us with Alzheimer's.

She went to the hospital in early December, was there for two weeks, and then on Christmas Eve was transferred to a nursing facility. The final two weeks there in the nursing home were difficult, so we knew things were beginning to come to an end.

The family that she left behind... 2 sons (2 daughter-in-laws); 5 grandchildren; and 5 great grandchildren, will truly miss her smiling little face. She had been a widow since 1984, and especially enjoyed time with her friends and family.

We are so thankful that Mom was a born again Christian and loved the Lord. We know that as she slipped from her earthly body she was immediately in the presence of the Lord and was rejoicing with friends and family who were awaiting her arrival.

Today is the viewing, and there is a snow storm hitting us right now. Family and friends are traveling here right now, so we ask for prayer - that they may have traveling mercies. Also, a number of people - including myself - have the flu right now, We would appreciate it if you would keep our family in prayer during the next couple of days.

Skates Makeover – A Winter Decoration

2011-01-05T19:50:00.001-08:00

Early in December I came across a new blog “Forever Decorating”, (well, new to ME anyway) and fell in love with one of her projects. When I saw her pictures of some skates she had decorated, I knew that was a project I wanted work on right away. Check out what Terry did with her skates… http://foreverdecorating.blogspot.com/2010/11/its-beginning-to-look-lot-like.html I had JUST gotten some skates (my daughter found them for me at a thrift shop for $3), so my little brain started rolling.
The first thing I did was to stamp and emboss some snowflakes onto the skates. (I have fallen in love with embossing lately.!! It makes something plain into something really special.) I then added a little bit of “bling” in the center of each snowflake.

I removed the shoestrings and replaced them with some pretty ribbon and added some shiny silver bells.

Of course I NEVER do anything nice and simple. I decided to add some lights to the skates. I purchased the real small mini lights, figured out how many little lights I needed for each skate, as well as enough to go between the two skates, and then hot glued the lights into the skates (hope they don’t burn out any time soon!!).

I cut and added a soft feather boa to the top of each skate – hot gluing it in place. The final touches included adding another beautiful ribbon to hold the skates together and hang the skates with, some greenery and beautiful red berries.

I then took the skates outside, sprayed the bottom portion with spray adhesive, and sprinkled it with some shimmering glitter to make them look like they had just been brought in from ice skating.

The final touch was to add a pretty little white bird – landing on top of the skates.

Last thing I needed to do? Hang them of course (and plug in the lights)!!!

Don’tcha just love ‘em?? I think they are so pretty that I’m just going to leave them up as a Winter decoration.
I would love to hear what you think of this little project. I found Terry (my inspiration) because she had come to my site and left a comment. I returned the favor by visiting her blog… so the love just goes on and on!!! Thanks Terry!!
NOTE: I loved these skates so much that I decided to make a pair to bring as my "Exchange Gift" for our ladies Sunday School Christmas Party. Let's just say that they were fought over quite a bit, but once my friend (who LOVES "bling") got hold of them she just "dared" someone to take them from her!!! It was quite funny. Anyway, I obviously did not want to give MY pair, so we (actually my hubby did it for me) started looking on Craigs list and found a pair without any problem at all. Sooooo, check your local ads to see if you can find a pair. Good luck!!

I'm gonna go "party" now!!!!

Christmas 2010… Just a memory (and a few... actually a LOT of pictures!)

2011-01-03T18:32:00.000-08:00

Well, 2010 ended on a rather difficult and unusual way. It will be one for the memory books – that’s for sure!! At the beginning of December I started pulling out all our Christmas decorations, with visions of FINALLY getting all the redecorating done once and for all. You know how it is, you actually start out by making a BIGGER mess, and it takes forever to figure out what goes where, rearrange everything until it's just perfect, and then clean up all the mess you made.

Things started out ok – I was able to create my first tablescape, ordered a few gifts online (even started to wrap them with special packaging) and had purchased the supplies to make a bunch of DIY gifts. Unfortunately, those best-laid plans came to a screeching halt when I received a call from “Lifeline” and was told that my mother-in-law had activated her alarm. She went into the hospital for the next 2 weeks, then was transferred to a nursing facility. She has COPD and Alzheimer's, which has been made MUCH worse since she’s been sick. It proved to be a very rough few weeks… trying to get everything done for company, make the gifts, etc., etc., etc. I was sick as a dog on Christmas day, and to top it off, my husband and I both got sick on New Years Day, and are still fighting stupid fevers and colds.

Sooooo, as you can see, there has not been a lot of time for “blogging”. Shoot – I really wanted to post all the projects that I finished during this whirl-wind month. So, if you will indulge me, I’m going to go ahead and post those pictures now... better late than never as they say!! Considering everything that was going on, and how many nights I worked into the weeeeeee hours of the morning, I think everything turned out pretty good. Perhaps not the way I originally thought, but nice none-the-less. There are still redecorating projects yet to be completed, but hopefully I can get these completed within the next few months. Anyway – here we go:

I had posted pictures of my first tablescape, but at that time I didn’t have a tablecloth or my place settings, so I thought I would show the final pictures here. Added a white tablecloth, two napkins (one white, one black) bound together with some pretty rhinestone napkin rings and my good china. I don’t usually use my good china in the kitchen, but I wanted the white and silver, so it was exactly what I needed.

Added in our initial with a little more “bling”.

Moving on to the kitchen, here’s a little vignette and a few other little decorations.

One of MANY Santa's you will see throughout the house. Just love having a special little fella all dressed up and ready to help in the kitchen!!!

A BIG old rusty spoon - picked up at a garage sale for $.50 became a perfect little hanger for my apron.

The little bird cage was one of my "Thrifty Finds" some time ago. It's "Supposed" to be turned over, on the wall as a shelf, but I felt it was perfect to make into a cage and sit flat against the wall.

Recognize the silverware wall art? It was just PERFECT for this space. (Please don't pay any attention to my curtain-less window. Sill working on that one!

This is the ledge between my kitchen and dining area.

You know that paper they use at Hobby Lobby or Marshall's to wrap your stuff in? Well it works perfect to use on various projects. For this candle I just used a piece, stamped on it, and then put it on the candle along with the ribbon. Turns a plain candle into a real decoration.

Didn't do a lot in this area other than sticking a few flowers in this pitcher, along with some antique spoons.

My sweet hubby helped me make this shelf to go above the ledge. I actually used MY OWN power saw to cut the wood and mitre the molding around the edge. I'm getting to be quite handy with the power tools!!

This little Santa sat watch over us on my new shelf.

This table separated my eating area from the family room. In keeping with my new black and white theme that I had going, I just HAD to get this new Santa this year. When I saw his gray suit I snatched him up quick as a wink and brought him home.

I've never even had a chance to share my first hutch makeover, but here is it. I'll post more about it later, but I absolutely love the way it turned out.

We found the "Garfield" street sign at a flea market. I was born and lived some of the most memorable years of my life on Garfield. Sweet memories every time I see it!

Don'tcha just love the little Santa with his striped PJ's to match my candy canes???!!!

This is a look at my entry way and another couple of pieces of furniture I've redone and never posted about. I'm not quite done with either of the pieces (obviously since there are no knobs on the chest) shown below, so once they are completed I'll post about them with the before and after pictures.

Even some "goodies" for Santa to snack on!

This is the other piece in my entry. Perfect spot for me to hang the ice skates I decorated. (Yep... more on the skates later too!)

Obviously the chairs are yet to be redone... hey - at least I got them painted!! I have the fabric, just no time to get them done. Now my biggest fear is that I've taken them apart and will forget how to put everything back together again.

This is my beautiful new WHITE couch that I purchased for the living room. This is NOT a slip cover, so it's pretty much off limits unless you have clean hands, clean pants, and DEFINITELY NOOOOO beverages in hand!!!! WHOOPS!!! Didn't realize the Santa pillow was upside-down until I started posting these pictures.

One Santa on the right side of the couch, and another Santa on the left.

Oh, and another sitting atop the hutch in the living room.

As well as a Santa on the desk...

Oh, and one more on the piano (yes! I love Santa!!)

Moving into the Dining Room. I absolutely love, Love, LOVE the pale yellow and white that we just recently redid. I used cream, gold, and blue accents.

My Mom thought it was funny that I put a snowman in my birdcage. I told her it was "climate controlled"!! LOL

This is my husband's beloved High Wheel bike (yes, he DOES ride it!!). Not sure if this will be it's final "resting place" or not. It's kind of hard to find the right place for something this large!!!

The centerpiece in the Dining Room had some special elements... old family photos.

I made these small family photo frames a number of years ago (sometime I'll have to explain how I made them). Everyone sitting at the table enjoyed looking at the pictures and trying to figure out who was who.

I used a few photos on the buffet as well.

Of course there was another Santa! LOVE his cream and gold outfit!

Clock was a thrifty find, as was the bugle that holds a silver and gold ornament.

WHAT??? No Santa sitting atop my china cabinet??? Nope - used my beautiful angel for this one.

I added in a few sprigs of greenery to finalize the decorations on the napkins. Oh, there there are the individual parfaits that I made for each person.
Oh, I just have to show you my pretty glassware. Isn't it beautiful??!!! I have eight place settings of 7 different sizes. Cost me a pretty penny??? NOPE! Not ONE CENT!!! It was a curbside find - thanks to my sweetie-pie hubby!!!! Yep, he's on the lookout for great finds too!!!!
Before we leave the dining room, I have to show you what I'm doing with the chairs. I'm in the process of redoing them, but due to unforeseen circumstances have only completed two. I'm going from this...

to this!!!! I'm looking forward to getting them all done.

Finally, into the Family Room. I would have liked to purchase all new stuff for the tree - to match my new style and color of decorating, but no $$$ for that, so it's the same old stuff as I have used. I think that it still looked fine.

These pictures were taken AFTER Christmas, so presents had already been opened.

This table has not been done yet, but hopefully I can get to it soon.

This is what ALL my packages were SUPPOSED to look like. Yeah... that didn't happen. Because of sickness and everything else going on, my hubby finished wrapping all the gifts. It's safe to assume that they looked NOTHING like this!!!!

I was making gift tags for each package with photos of the recipient... most of the pictures were from the past. I made them not only as gifts tags, but so they could be kept and used as ornaments.

Well, that's it folks... that should have kept you occupied for some time. I've found that it's a lot harder to catch up on posting than trying to keep up every few days. PHEW!!!! I have a lot of projects that I need to break down by showing the "before" and "after" pictures. HOPEFULLY I'll get to those real soon.

I hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas and pray that you will have a BLESSED 2011!!!!!

I would LOVE to hear what you think about all the decorating I did. Geeeezzzz, it seems like I JUST put them up (which I did), and now I have to take it all back down. :-( So sad!!!!

I'm going to link up with a few parties to "strut my stuff"!!

My FIRST Tablescape

2010-12-08T19:19:00.000-08:00

Oh, how I wish I could say that all my Christmas decorating is done and my house is now a “wonder to behold”, but sadly that is not the case. My husband tells me that if I would stop doing all these DIY projects I would get done, but he just doesn’t understand… I need those DIY projects to FINISH my decorating!!! Case in point? My kitchen table. I’ve had an idea in my head about what I wanted to do for a Christmas centerpiece, but just haven’t had the time to create the items I needed – until last night that is!!!! WAHOO!!!! F-I-N-A-L-L-Y had a chance to put everything together. Know what’s weird? I would have NEVER thought I would end up with black and white decorations for Christmas!!!! You ever have something in your head as to color schemes, etc. that you want to use, then find just one single item that completely takes you in a different direction? Well, that’s what happened to me! When we had the kitchen and family room painted, my intention was to decorate in white, brown, and teal colors. After finding several things which were black and white that I really liked, that plan went out the window. Anyway… back to the matter at hand… my tablescape!!!! Without further ado… below are pictures of what I came up with. Unfortunately, I don’t have a big ole “fancy-smancy” camera, so these pictures are not the best, but they should give you a good idea of the finished product.
First I started with some beautiful placemats. Several have a design beautifully cut into them, and the one for under my tablescape has a black and white design… perfect to use as the base to bring all the pieces together.

I started out by decorating a teacup. I was able to find this cute little teacup and saucer at our local Crafts 2000 store (LOVE that place!!!) for just $5. I used one of my “thrifty finds” candle holders to elevate the teacup. Turned it upside down and hot glued it to the saucer (also hot glued the teacup to the saucer).

I used some Glue Dots to attach some “Bling” to the cups.

I then filled the cup with black and white beans so I had something to hold the decorations in place, and then hot glued some decorations into and around the cup. I placed one of my small vintage spoons in the cup and perched a little blue glass birdie (ornament) on the saucer… that part was done.

I made two candles by purchasing some cheap 6” white pillar candles. I found some black and white tissue paper that perfectly matched my teacup. I cut one piece for each candle to cover the bottom three-fourths of the candle and hot glued it onto the candle. (I TRIED using my heat gun to make the candle melt into the tissue paper, but I think the tissue paper was too thick or something because it didn’t work.) I found some beautiful jewelry charms at Wal-Mart and added them to a black ribbon which I also hot glued on the candle. Wanted to add a little “bling” to those as well, so I once again used my “handy-dandy” Glue Dots (I’m telling you people, Glue Dots are quick and easy to use!!!) to strategically add some gems.

The white bowl/pedestal was another “thrifty find” which I picked up for a mere $3. Unfortunately I actually broke it before I even got it home… sadness! But, I glued that baby back together and I don’t think anyone will even be able to tell (if they can, then they are looking too close!! LOL). I put some greenery in the bottom of the bowl and stacked several beautiful black and white ornaments on top. Added some white berry picks here and there.

One more “thrifty find”… this cute little bird cage. It was already white, so other than pulling off the ~~ugly~~ disgusting decorations that were already on there, it was ready to go. I filled the cage with a little bit of greenery and some small ornaments. Put a few decorations on the top, and added another blue glass bird. I used a white candle holder on the bottom of the cage so I could elevate it up a little.

One final item was a small black vase (yep… another “thrifty find”).

Now the only thing left to do was put everything together. Taa Daaaaaaahhhhh!!! Here it is…

Added just a little greenery and a few pine cones around the base to finish it up.

I think it turned pretty good for my first tablescape. It’s hard to actually get good pictures, but hopefully you can get a good enough idea of what it looks like. Whatcha think? Did I do ok? Do you think I should have a tablecloth on the table? If so… white??? I believe I’m going to go and find a few parties to link up to.
Thanks for paying me a visit… I would like – no… I would LOVE to hear from you, so be sure to drop me a line. Also, I've been in the "50s" with my number of "followers" FOREVER... wanna help me escape from the fifties? Come on... get in the Christmas spirit and join up to "follow"!!!! Hopefully my journey has just begun and I'll have lots of new and exciting ideas to share with you!!!

Silverware Wall Art

2010-12-01T17:19:00.000-08:00

Slooooowly but surely I keep working on projects that have been in my head. Things have been so KRAAAAZY around here that there hasn’t been a lot of time for crafting. Last week I spent a few minutes working on some “Silverware Wall Art”. I’ve been collecting everything I knew I would need for some time. Here’s what I needed:
Got out my glue gun and fired it up!

One Goodwill find… $1.98
I removed the glass, then took out the picture to use as a backing for my project. Since the frame was already black I didn’t have to do anything to it.

One coffee burlap sack… FREE!! Yep… FREE! I called one of our local coffee shops and asked if they ever had any coffee sacks. The guy said I could stop by and pick one up. :-) I cut a piece of the burlap to fit the backing I took out of the frame. I wasn’t sure if I should use the glue gun to attach the burlap to the cardboard backing or not, but hey, I didn’t have a lot of time, so I gave it a go. Worked just fine.

Another small frame… $1.50
I knew that I wanted to use a small picture at the top of the larger frame so that it wasn't JUST silverware thrown on there. I found this small frame in my stash which was the perfect size. I took out the glass and spray painted it black.

Picture I already had (scanned and resized)… FREE!
I hot glued the picture into the small frame. I then took that small frame and hot glued it to the upper portion of the larger frame.

Goodwill silverware finds… $.19 each
This picture is just a small sampling of the silverware I have been collecting. I went through all of the pieces and pulled out some of my favorites to use.

Final step was to lay out the silverware in a pattern that I liked. Once I was happy with the layout I hot glued each piece unto the burlap backing.

The only thing left to do was to hang it on the wall!! (Once I’ve finished the whole kitchen I’ll post all the final pictures!!) It’s safe to say though, that I absolutely LOVE it. Even my hubby said it was one of his favorite things! Not bad for a little over five bucks!!!!!!

Now I've got to go find some parties to link up to... come on, LET'S PARTY!!!!! Can you do me a favor? When you leave a comment can you let me know which Linking Party brought you here. Thanks!!!!

Someday Crafts
Blue Cricket Design
Welcome Wednesday Blog Hop... Take It From Me
Tutorial Tuesday... Hope Studios
Strut Your Stuff Thursday... Somewhat Simple
Get Your Craft On Thursday... Life as Lori
Transformation Thursdays... The Shabby Chic Cottage
Yesterday on Tuesday
Inspiration Friday Party... Southern In My Heart
Show and Tell Friday... My Romantic Home

I'm Thankful For YOU!!!

2010-11-23T19:43:00.000-08:00

I find it almost impossible to believe that this year has passed so quickly. As I sit writing this there is Christmas music playing in the background, a yummy Pumpkin Roll sits sliced on my desk for others to enjoy, our “Adopt A Family” tree is being assembled in our lunch room, and people are discussing their plans for Thanksgiving. Is it REALLY possible that 2010 will soon be over?

As I reflect on the past year I realize that it has not been without its’ share of difficulties, nor its’ share of blessings. We have concluded our year of “firsts” without Dad. Each “first” passed with mixed emotions. It’s still difficult to believe that he is gone, and is sorely missed, but yet we rejoice that he is celebrating with his Lord and is out of the pain and “fog” he lived in for his last few years.

It has been a difficult year for me physically. An illness that came upon me at the beginning of the year still raises its ugly head whenever I do too much and makes me step back and slow down – a VERY hard thing for me to do. I guess God is watching over me this Thanksgiving to make sure I don’t overdo things. This is the first time… EVER… that we will NOT be spending the day with all of our family. With marriages and people moving away, this year is one where everyone is going in different directions. Instead, we will spend a quiet day with my mother-in-law who is in the midst of “that long goodbye”.

However, along with the difficulties and trials, God has shown His many blessings as well. Of course Mom celebrated her 90th birthday, which is a blessing indeed. She is still very active and healthy – something we are so thankful for. We are also awaiting a new little addition to our family. Although I secretly wish for a little girl, I’ll be just as happy with a boy, and pray this little one is healthy and happy.

One of the biggest blessings this year has been quiet unexpected. That blessing is YOU… my dear blogging friends. When I started this blog back in March, I NEVER in my wildest dreams believed that it would be looked at by anyone other than myself and perhaps a few family members that I could shame into checking it out. NEVER did I believe it would bring me treasured friendships from people I have never even met. NEVER did I believe that “strangers” would be a source of encouragement when I have been down or share a laugh with me through e-mail messages or comments they have left. NEVER did I believe that there would be so many wonderful people out there who have been ready, willing, and able to help me with a DIY project when I needed advice. NEVER did I believe that something I posted would be of significance to anyone else, and that in some way has impacted their life. NEVER did I believe that I would be able to help a perfect stranger who I now consider as my “Blog Daughter”. How I wish I could meet you, chit chat, work on a DIY project with you, or better yet, tour some of your beautiful homes!!

Although I don’t have that many people who are “Followers”, I know there are a lot of people who visit my site and either e-mail or leave me comments. Obviously I would like for all of you to become “Followers”, but regardless I’m happy you stop by for a visit every now and then. To each of you I want to say a BIG “Thank You”! Thank you for visiting me and letting me know that this blog has more meaning than just sharing DIY projects. It has become an avenue to meeting people all over the world who share common interests. It has become a means to reach out to others by visiting their blogs and encouraging them. By reading postings from all of you, I have learned that it’s ok to be less than perfect. I’ve learned that other people have many of the same fears, concerns, and passions that I have – I’m not alone. I’ve learned that it’s ok to be transparent, and in doing so you can be an encouragement to others. I always respond to every comment that is left for me because I have learned from others just how important it is to acknowledge the time people take to encourage you.

So once again I thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for sharing this whole new world with me. I look forward to having some give-away postings in the near future, sharing more projects, and most of all learning more from all of you. I believe that 2011 will be a great year.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, I hope you will look around you and see the many blessings the have been bestowed on you this year – some that are quite evident, and others that were subtle, but blessings none-the-less! May you and your family have a wonderful holiday!

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20

I’ve Been Featured… By Glue Dots!

2010-11-18T17:22:00.001-08:00

I’m dancing the “Happy Dance” on being featured… by GLUE DOTS - of all people!!! One of their representatives found my posting on the “Personalized Aisle Runner Tutorial”. In this tutorial I talk about how we used Glue Dots to “bejewel” the aisle cloth. She contacted me and asked if they could feature my tutorial on their site. Let me consider a moment… Yesssss!

I have to say that Glue Dots are WONDERFUL!!! Keep them on hand and use them in all kinds of projects. I would highly recommend them for your crafting projects.

Wall Art Wedding Gift

2010-11-10T19:37:00.000-08:00

In going through some posts the other day, I came across one from Amy from “My 3 Monsters”, where she was showing some wall art she had made. I loved the look of it and thought it would make a great house warming/wedding gift for my niece. Did it matter that I only had one day until I had to fly out to her wedding??? Heck no… no problem!! In Amy’s post she gave the links to a photo letter and number collection where you can download everything for free!!!! WAHOO, I’m all about FREE!! (This is what Amy said on her post: I happened upon the Flickr photostream of Leo Reynolds. He has posted thousands of photos of typography and signage (and other interesting things) and he is kind enough to let us, the general public, use them with a very few restrictions.)
Here are the links for the letters http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/collections/72157594587080023/,
and here are the numbers http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/collections/72157594587095340/.
I went and started checking out the photo letters and became even more inspired!!! I HAD to make one of these for my niece and soon-to-be hubby. Sooooo, I started downloading the appropriate letters and numbers to make up their sign. Like Amy said, the hardest part is deciding on which pictures to use. I had it designed by that evening, and planned to print it and frame it the next day. Did it matter that I had not even packed yet??? Heck no… no problem!!
Now this is the point where I rather strayed from the original idea that Amy posted. I wanted something with a little more substance than just a printed sheet that was framed. When I printed the sign out, it reminded me of tiles. Hmmmmm, would it be possible to “kick this up a notch” using tiles. Wellllll, my little mind got to thinking, I came up with a plan, and I made out a list of all the things I wanted to look for.

First I needed to print out the letters and numbers to the appropriate size. Not knowing the exact size of the tiles I had to guess. I sized each letter and number to 1.75” x 1.75”. They fit perfectly!!! (If you want a larger piece of wall art you could use 4" x 4" tiles.) I wasn’t sure if I might want a black boarder around letter, so I made the background black. I then printed out the letters and numbers on white card stock. I used a laser color printer, but next time I’m going to try using photo paper on an inkjet because the quality of the letters will be even better.
Now mind you, I was leaving at 5:00 AM the next morning for CA, had to work half a day, needed to purchase supplies, make the gift (which I still wasn’t sure would work), pack and try to get a few hours of sleep. Nothing like waiting until the last minute… right?? Well, I was determined to complete this project, so I had to get busy.

I headed to Lowes to try and find the tiles. I had plain white tiles in mind, but once I got there and saw some of the other tiles available I opted for something a little different. Instead I decided on some tiles that were more of a natural color, and somewhat of a “frame” around each tile. That set me back a whole whopping $2.89 for a sheet of tiles. I needed 16 tiles for my project. Since there are 36 tiles to one sheet, I would have more than enough for 2 projects, plus extra in case I messed up.
The next thing I needed to find was a frame that would work. I headed over to Big Lots to see what they had. After looking around a while I found the perfect thing. It was a square black frame with a raised center area that was the EXACT size for the tiles. No glass, just a raised area. I snagged that baby for $6, and headed home to start my project. I pealed off the picture that was glued on the raised area. The only problem with pealing it off, was it left the white backing on the board. Hmmmm, that wasn’t going to look very good. I tried putting a piece of burlap on the area, but didn’t really like the look. What I needed was just a plain black background. Well, there was certainly an easy fix to that problem… black spray paint. Now I didn’t really want to take off the corner cardboard pieces (because I wanted it to travel), so I needed to find a way around that.

Foil to the rescue. I use foil a lot when I paint. It’s cheap, can mold around anything, and is easy to take off after the paint is dry. I wrapped everything except the raised area, and spray painted it black.

Next I cut out all the letters and numbers. Since I had decided to use the nice tiles, I determined that I did NOT want the black border, so I cut that off and just laid out everything to see how it would look. Each letter fit perfectly within the tile area, leaving enough tile to serve as a border. I broke apart all the tiles, and cut off the glue areas between the tiles. I had decided that I was going to just use some spray adhesive, but you could use regular glue, Mod Podge, or even a glue stick. Doesn’t really matter as long as you make sure it is well adhered.

Now… how to finish off the tiles? Idea #1: Spray Polyurethane over the top. #2: Mod Podge over the top. #3: Use embossing powder to make a coating.
I tried Idea #1 first. Looked nice, but didn’t really seal off the letter like I wanted. I was not really interested in #2, so I went straight on to idea #3. I placed a tile on a piece of foil, covered it with a HEAVY coating of the embossing powder, stuck it in a 350 degree oven for about 3 minutes (long enough for the embossing powder to melt), took it out, and let it cool. It was EXACTLY what I was looking for!!!! It’s hard to tell from the picture, but there is now a clear heavy glaze over the tile.

Once I had established that this was the look I was happy with I proceeded with the rest of the tiles. Rather than doing one at a time (I had to hurry since I still had to pack) I took out a cookie sheet, covered it with foil, covered each tile with a HEAVY coating of embossing powder, and placed the whole thing in the oven. You can see that the embossing powder was slowly melting, and eventually became clear over the entire tile. Because I did so many at a time it did take a little longer in the oven, but I just carefully watched them and took them out as soon as all the powder was melted. ONE SUGGESTION I WOULD MAKE: If I were to do it again, I would place something under each tile to raise it up. I have used nuts before (no silly, NOT “nuts” that you eat… one that you use with a bolt!! LOL). Place one or two under each tile. This allows the powder to melt down over the sides without the melting powder making the tile stick to the foil.

Once the tiles had a chance to cool down it was time to secure them to the frame. I wanted to make sure that the spacing was equal, so I used tile spacers and then I glued the tiles to the frame. I used my favorite glue, E6000, to adhere the tiles.

I also decided to add a little “bling” to some of the letters.

Once the glue had time to set up I removed the spacers and “called ‘er done”! I absolutely LOVED it, and couldn’t wait to deliver it to the newlyweds… Oh! Guess I better get some packing done!!!

Perfect gift for the perfect couple… Matt & Stacey Bates, Established 2010

They loved it, but I forgot to take a picture of them with it. Hopefully I can get one once they return from their honeymoon.

As far as I know, this idea is original with me... at least I have not seen it anyplace else, so if you end up making something like this, but sure to give me a shout-out (along with my link) on your post, and of course let me see a picture of what you came up with. I would LOVE to see what you do!!!!

I'm linking up to the following parties:

Get Your Craft On Thurs. - Life as Lori

Show off Your Stuff Party @ Fireflies and Jellybeans

Transformation Thursdays @ The Shabby Chic Cottage

Hookin' Up with House of Hepworths Every Thursday

Saturday Nite Special

Sunday Showcase Party - Under the Table and Dreaming

Metamorphosis Monday - Between Naps on the Porch

Show and Tell Saturdays - Be Different Act Normal
Not "Baaad" Sundays - Lamb Around
Saturday Nite Special - Funky Junk Interiors
Tutorial Tuesday - With Hope Studios

Here Comes The Bride!

2010-11-08T22:23:00.001-08:00

This past weekend we had the privilege of attending my niece, Stacey's wedding. Our family (hubby, daughter, son-in-law, grandson, my Mom, sister Cheryl, and brother-in-law Olan) all hopped on a plane and headed to sunny San Diego, CA. Stacey and Matt were married outside. Although the weather earlier in the week had reached record highs, by Saturday, it was absolutely perfect California weather. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves showing how beautiful the setting was, how gorgeous the bride was, and of course how cute the little ring bearer was!!!! Everything was amazing, and we all had a wonderful time!!! A few of these pictures were borrowed from photos that one of their friends posted on Facebook. (Since we were not sitting on the center aisle I was not able to catch some of those shots.)

Look at this backdrop… isn’t it gorgeous!!??

Noah carried my Dad’s bible (Grandfather to the bride) who passed away last year. Tied on the bible was the wedding ring of Stacey’s Dad who passed away when she was only 4 years old.

Stacey’s nieces… Avalyn and Brinley.

My brother-in-law John became Stacey’s Dad when she was only 7 years old.

Noah along with the 2 flower girls and Jr. Bridesmaid (also Stacey’s niece).

My sister (Bonnie) and brother-in-law (John) along with the happy couple.

“Killer shoes”!!!!

Noah with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa’s Bible.

Grandma with her little man.

Anyone that knows my hubby knows that this is his “signature move”… a little squeeze on the cheek.

Welcome to the family Matt… we wish you and Stacey the very best!!!! Love you both!!!

Mom’s Birthday Bash - 90 YEARS!!!

2010-11-01T07:59:00.000-07:00

First of all, I want to thank every single person that responded to my "Can Ya? Could Ya? Would Ya?" posting and sent a card or message to my Mom. I couldn't have done it without you, and trust me, she absolutely LOVED every single one. We had about 100 cards/messages, but since MANY of the cards had multiple names on them there were well over 250 people that sent their greetings!!! Make sure you read all the way to the bottom for a "thank you" note from Mom!

WOW! What a day!!!! Mom’s 90th birthday celebration could NOT have gone any better!!!! Everything went just has we had planned, and even had a surprise thrown in for US!!! Although I want to share the day with everyone, this posting is also so the I can have a record for myself. After all, how many people have the opportunity to celebrate their parent’s 90 birthday. Although we were able to celebrate Dad’s 90th birthday, we were in the midst of our “long goodbye”, so it was quite different. Mom is in great health, so other than getting a little tired during the day she was able to keep up with us just fine! So on with the details and pictures!!!

This celebration has been in the works for months by us girls. (BTW, Mom has four daughters, 12 grandchildren, soon to be 20 great grandchildren!!) Since two of the daughters are out of town, it was left up to Cheryl and I to work out all the details. We both took the day off of work in order to carry out all the plans, so the two of us, along with our hubbies were kept quite busy all day long.

Cheryl and I had written some poems that would give her clues about what would be happening throughout the day. "THE PLAN"... Start her day at 9:00 AM, and do something every 90 minutes throughout the day. The night before Mom's birthday I went to Cheryl's house so we could get everything organized for the "BIG" day.

Signs made up... CHECK!
Gift bags/boxes put together... CHECK!
90+ cards/messages received for Mom... CHECK!
Poems written and placed with each package... CHECK!
Balloons blown up... CHECK!
Flowers purchased and ready for delivery... CHECK!
Cake picked up... CHECK!
EXCITED for the BIG DAY... CHECK!!!!!! (I think Cheryl and I were as excited about pulling this off as Mom would be when everything started happening!!)

At 8:15 AM the day began for Cheryl, myself, and our husbands.

At 8:30 we placed the flowers and balloons outside of her door. Once we were set up we rang her doorbell and ran! We hid in a guest area and listened for her to open her door. Ahhhhhh!! Sweet success... The day had begun.

This is the poem that was in the flowers.

9:00 AM - Mom steps out of the elevator - right on time!!!

10:30 AM - We give Mom her next package. It was so funny that everyone in the coffee shop was just as excited as her to find out what would be happening. They all wanted to know what was planned throughout the day!

At about 10:45 we walked Mom back up to her apartment, and suggested that perhaps she get a little rest before her lunch date arrived. While there I received a call from the family friend (Carolyn) who was planning to take her to lunch. I stepped outside of Mom's apartment in order to talk to her. This was the conversation:

Carolyn: "Debbie... what are you and Cheryl doing for lunch?"
Me.: "Well, nothing really... we just have to set up her apartment for the next event."
Carolyn: "You want to go to lunch with us?"
Me: "Oh, I don't know, this was supposed to be your time with her."
Carolyn: "I've got a stretch limo to take us to lunch."
Me: "WHAT??????"
Carolyn: "Yep... I called to rent it and they said they had a 6 passenger limo. I said, 'NOPE! It has got to be the BIG one!!'"
Me: By this time I was DYING laughing. "You've GOT TO BE KIDDING!!!!???"
Carolyn: "They told me the stretch limo had not been cleaned, so I paid to get it cleaned too!! We're going to be there at exactly 12:00!!!!

Seriously - I think SHE was as excited about this as me, or the thought of the look on Mom's face!!!

So, Cheryl and I promptly decided that our husbands could take care of the next set up, and decided to join Mom and Carolyn for lunch. We left Mom to rest in her apartment (wondering what in the heck was going on), and we headed back downstairs to give detailed instructions to our hubbies. A few minutes before noon Mom came back down and was surprised to find us sitting there. We kept her back to the window and waited for them to arrive. Once they pulled up we made Mom close her eyes and we walked her outside. She wasn't allowed to look until the limo was in place and Carolyn had gotten out to greet her. The look on Mom's face was PRICELESS!!! We climbed into the limo and off we went - to Red Lobster!! LOL!!! Carolyn thought of everything, including some "Sparkling Water" (since we don't drink). SUCH FUN!!!! I loved looking out the window and watching people trying to see in and wonder what "celebrity" was inside. Well it was MOM of course!!!!!! She was "Queen for the Day!!"

1:30 PM - We get back and walk Mom up to her apartment. The guys did a TERRIFIC job of decorating, filling her apartment with all the balloons, and having the next package ready for her.

3:00 PM - Mom was allowed to look for her next gift. It was the pretty box filled with all the wonderful cards and messages that everyone sent. In the end we had well over 100 cards/messages for her! I designed special paper for all the messages, so the box was filled with beautiful letters.

4:00 PM - Yes, I know it wasn't 90 minutes, but we had to give her time to get dressed for dinner! :-)

5:00 PM - Picked Mom up to go to dinner. She had NO idea where we were taking her. We had made reservations at a local dinner theatre for the evening. The dinner was delicious, and the musical (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) was lots of fun! We had arranged for the celebration package which included a balloon, non-alcoholic drink, cake, and having her name announced. Needless to say, when they announced that she was "Ninety" there was quite a round of applause!!

What a FABULOUS day!! It was a lot of work, but something I would do all over again in a heartbeat, just to see Mom's delight!! On Saturday she said, "I know that you girls put a lot of hard work into the day, but I want you to know that it was worth EVERY SECOND!!! It was the best day ever!!!"

Mom wanted to send her appreciation for all the cards and notes, so here is a "Thank You" from her.

UPDATE: Our family traveled to CA to attend my niece's wedding the week after Mom's birthday. Since everyone could not be with her on her birthday, all the daughters and granddaughters (less one who was not able to come), surprised her with one more celebration. We all met at a beautiful restaurant overlooking the ocean and had another little party. My oldest sister, Joanne (who lives in AZ) had been putting together a pictorial book from the past 70 years (when Mom got married), through the present. She did a WONDERFUL job, and Mom was absolutely thrilled!!! Here's just a few pages out of that photo book - you can see that Joanne did a lot of great work on it!!!

Sooooo, I guess that's about it for now. We'll have to get busy planning her 100th birthday before too long... it will be hard to outdo this celebration!! :-)

Linking up to:

Can Ya? Could Ya? Would Ya?

2010-10-15T19:53:00.001-07:00

Ok, here’s another unique/unusual post for ya. I’m wondering if I could solicit your help on something.

On October 29th my Mom is going to be 90 years old!!! Can you believe it??? No one thinks she looks 90!!! In fact, in 2005 – when she was 85 years old she had open heart surgery. When she was returned to her room, these are the things we heard from the nurses (now keep in mind – she was STILL hooked up to all the tubes and machines!!):

- Are you SURE she is 85? There is NO way she is that old!

- What does she use on her skin? We’ve never seen someone that old with such beautiful skin! (BTW – that was one of the first questions they asked her. What does she use? Dove!! Hahaha! She should be in a commercial!!) (Almost anyone that meets mom believes that she is in her 70s.)

Mom’s only concern at that time was getting better and getting back home to take care of Dad who was in the midst of his “long good-bye”. They had been married for 64 years, and Dad, as always, was Mom’s number one priority. The final 4 years of their marriage were especially difficult on her as she devoted herself to his care.

Last year Dad went home to be with the Lord, and after almost 69 years together, Mom was on her own. She has done really well. She moved out of the retirement cottage they had shared, into a beautiful apartment in the same facility, and has gotten involved in many activities around the Village. It’s funny that at 90 years old, she is more active now than she has been in years. She loves going to the coffee shop every day to meet with all her friends, and every evening they meet for dinner in the dining room. If you were to go to the grocery store with her you would be hard put to keep up with her. She loves to go “gallivanting” with us, and keeps up just fine!! There are four of us girls, and, to be quite frank, Mom is in better health than all of us!!

Mom is TRULY my best friend. We talk almost every day She is the first person (after my husband of course) that I want to go to when I have problems and just need to talk.

So what in the world does this have to do with YOU or this blog??? Welllllllll, as I said, Mom’s birthday is on the 29th of this month. We have quite a day planned out for her (all a BIG SURPRISE of course). We plan to start the day with the delivery of flowers – at 9:00 am – then we will do something every 90 minutes throughout the day. Some of the things are simple – such as a heart-shaped box with 90 Hershey “Hugs and Kisses”. At one point we are going to give her a box filled with cards and notes. Today I got to thinking that it would be REALLY COOL if we could give her 90 cards from old friends or perfect strangers. How awesome would that be to receive e-mail messages or cards from all over the country – most of them from people you don’t even know??? I know it would mean so much to her!

This is where YOU come in!!!! Can ya? Could ya? Would ya? be willing to be one of those old friends or perfect strangers? Would you be willing to send her an e-mail message... or even a card (via ME) to put in the box for her? I can’t tell you how excited we would be to present her with such a unique gift.

If you want to participate, could you please send an e-mail message to me? (If you want to participate with a card, just let me know and I will reply with my address so I can collect them all for her special day.) Those messages should be sent to: DScott585@woh.rr.com. Mom’s name is Carolyn Farnsworth, so those notes can be addressed to her. If you don't mind, can you please include what state or part of the country you are from, I think that will make it even more interesting. (I've already had one from Canada, and one from Germany... how cool is that???!!!!)

As I said, I know this is an unusual request, but hopefully it will be a lot of fun to participate in something that will bring joy to someone who has been such a source of joy to others for 90 years!!!

REMEMBER… 90 notes/cards from 90 people.
You want to be one of those people???

DScott585@woh.rr.com

Blessings to you all!!!!

UPDATE 10/16/10:

A few people have already jumped on the bandwagon by sending me e-mail messages to pass on to Mom. The first one to repond was Mel from Junkin' Junky. In fact, she even took it one step further by posting a little note and link back to me on her own blog. That was SO sweet of her to think of doing that. (BTW - she has an great Blog, so please go check her out... Junkin' Junky) If you would like to do the same thing (in order for me to ultimately get 90 responses), that would be awesome! (I should have thought of this request sooner!!!) I'm designing some pretty paper to print the messages on for her. WAHOO... I'm even having people participate by having their kids make cards for Mom... she is going to LOVE this!!!!!

SO FAR WE HAVE: 6 0 Messages for Mom

Mandy over at "Sugar Bee-Craft Edition" and Sherry at "Southern Girl Creations" are being kind enough to let me post this information on their sites. Please go check them out!

FINAL UPDATE

WE DID IT!!!!!!! I now have OVER 90 messages/cards for Mom!! Thank you to everyone who responded to my request. Special thanks to Sherry (Southern Girl Creations) who went out of her way to help reach that goal!! (She took cards into work and had people sign them AND also had co-workers send me e-mail messages.)

THANKS AGAIN! Be sure to check back for pictures and an update on Mom's special day!!

It's MY Blog...

2010-10-12T20:01:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's my blog, so I figure I can depart from my usual postings and talk about whatever I want to - something that is so close to my heart.

As many of you have experienced, being a Grandma is one of the greatest joys every. There is such a difference between having your own children, and then having grandchildren. You can't really understand it until you actually BECOME a grandparent. Yep, you can love 'em, feed 'em all the sugar you want, then send 'em home to let their parents deal with 'em!! LOL Anyway, this little buddy has been, and always will be the delight of this Grandma's heart...

This is my Grandson, Noah...

Who wouldn't love a little face like this?

This is my daughter and Noah.

Noah with Mommy and Daddy.

Grandpa and Noah...

Great Grandma (or "GG") Grandma, and Noah.

(Can you believe GG is going to be 90 the end of this month !!!???)

Uncle Jason and Noah. I think the admiration is mutual... they adore each other!

What a little show-off!

AND goofy!!!

Isn't he just the cutest little boy ever!!!!??

Well, it's not going to be long and Noah will have to share the spotlight...

because he's going to be a BIG BROTHER!!!!!

W A H O O !!!!!

Yep! In April we will become grandparents to our second grandchild. Just as we did when Angela was pregnant with Noah, we are praying daily for this little one. We pray for an uneventful pregnancy, and that he/she will be healthy and happy. We thank the Lord for blessing Matt and Angela, and our entire family, with the promise of this little one, and can't wait until we are able to hold him or her in our arms.

CONGRATULATIONS MATT & ANGELA

(The countdown begins!!)

I'VE BEEN FEATURED!!

2010-10-09T18:21:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to tell you that my "Paris Inspired Entry" blog posting has been featured!!!!! And what better place to be featured for a "Paris Inspiration" than by "Le Chateau des fleurs by Frenchy"????

As a fairly new blogger, still trying to learn the "ins and outs" of blogging, linking up parties, waiting for new "followers", and getting thrilled when someone leaves a new comment, it means a LOT to have someone like your project enough to feature you. So a BIG "Thank You Frenchy" for seeing something of value in my post and sharing it with all your followers!!

UPDATE: OH MY GOODNESS... Is this my lucky day or what??? I had no more than published this post when I received an e-mail from "LambAround" thanking me for linking up to "Not "Baaad" Sundays with LambAround ". She then told me to stop by her blog again because she had left me "a little surprise". Guess what... she featured my Paris Inspired Entry as well. WAHOO!!!! Thanks for featuring me... I get to display another button!! :-)

Oh oh… That was NOT good!!!!

2010-10-06T19:46:00.000-07:00

After a long, hard day at work, I came home and decided to take on the task of painting some furniture that has been calling my name. The weather was perfect – something we will not see for much longer. The days are getting shorter, and soon it will be to cold to paint, so I figured I better take advantage of a good day when I had it. Sooooo, hubs helped me cart out several pieces of furniture to my beloved “painting booth”. You remember the “painting booth”… right!!???

It’s been a while since I’ve been out there... a lot of leaves have fallen and there have been a few storms, but it was pretty much still intact. I realized that it was a stroke of genius to have my netting roof. It has not only been catching the leaves all this time, but it kept the leaves from falling on my projects as I was painting today. Yep! I’m pretty darn smart!

So here are some of the things I painted today…

View Full Album

Two end tables, and one coffee table. All were being painted black. Oh baby… they were looking great!!! Yes, that’s the Hubs helping me. He’s being pretty helpful with all these projects. He helps with set up, carries out the stuff I’m painting, and even likes to grab the paint gun from me occasionally. Ok, so the “carrying” part is where the “oh, oh” comes in. Like I said, the pieces were looking GREAT! Nice smooth paint job with great coverage… couldn’t wait for the day they would be finished and put in my family room.

Welllllll, it was getting late, dusk was setting in, and before long the dew would begin to cover everything outside, so Hubs and I decided that we best get our butts in motion and move our freshly painted (yes, they were dry to the touch) items back into the house. Perhaps the one negative thing about having the paint booth back in the woods is that it’s not always easy to move the piece back to the house. That was the case today. Oh my, that coffee table was a lot heavier than I thought it was!!!! However, we set about the task of carrying it into the house… getting a firm grip on the table we carefully proceeded across the back yard, up the hill, and around the side of the house. Whew… this thing was getting heavier by the ~~minute~~ second. Let’s stop and rest just a moment. Ohhhhh, my aching back!! Ok, enough of the resting, let’s get this baby into the house. We picked it up… although I didn’t seem to have quite as good of a grip on it this time. As we proceeded around to the front of the house (in order to go in the front door) it started to wobble just a little. Then…

“ooooooooh nooooooooo…

that was NOT good!!!!”

Yep, you guessed it… we dropped it!!!! No, not on the legs, and no, not in the grass. The whole thing flipped over – on to it’s top, right on top of our stone edging.

Well, it wasn’t going to help to cry, so we just picked it up (wait, let me rephrase that… HUBS picked it up) and carried it into the house. I mean at this point, he wasn’t really going to mess up the paint job was he!!!??? The nice, smooth paint job now looks like this…

View Full Album

So what’s the solution? Well, something I was trying to decide anyway… make a cushion to go on top of the table and make it into an ottoman instead. So I guess my project is just a little farther from being done than I thought. Have to go find some foam and fabric, gather all my supplies, and turn this baby into a lovely ottoman. Sometimes projects don’t turn out quite the way we originally plan, but every good DIY blogger can turn those lemons into lemonade. Can’t wait to show you the final project – when I get the time to do it that is!!!

"Devotions From Dad" (Message #11 – Prayerless Disciples)

2010-10-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

If you have not previously read the reason for these postings, please go here so you can start at the beginning.

MESSAGE #11

Delivered on Aug 22, 1943 at Centerline Baptist Church

PRAYERLESS DISCIPLES

Matthew 26:36-46

INTRODUCTION:
We have been trying to place before you during the last three weeks the value and power of prayer. We have looked at the pattern of prevailing prayer. Last week we saw the power of agonizing prayer. There is no basis for doubt in prayer – God has said it, and that should settle it. Prayer answers should be as positive as life itself. Last week we saw a praying, powerful church. Now we shall look at sleeping, prayerless, disciples. The scene is the garden of Gethsemane. The time: The evening before the crucifixion. The events leading up to this setting were stupendous. They had just come from the upper room where the Lord had instituted the Lord’s supper. There he had again warned them of the coming persecution and his death. As he had handed them the cup he had said, “This is my blood which is shed for you.” Then he had taken the bread and said, “This is my body which is broken for you.” Then, “As oft as ye eat of this bread and drink of this cup, ye do show forth my death until I come.” Then he led them out into the night and into the garden and there he confessed his agony and said, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” That tremendous events were to take place was certain. To the very Son of God himself they were so tremendous that he must spend time in prayer to the Father, but the poor, stumbling, failing disciples, slept. In these prayerless disciples we see three lessons and I pray that they might be so impressed upon you that you will never forget them.

I. IT IS THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE

Praying is one of the hardest things to do. You’ll find that you can find time for everything else but prayer. Prayer takes time, energy, and pains. The greatest men of the world have been men who lived a great prayer life. Not just spending a few minutes each day in prayer, but spending hours upon hours until God heard and answered. Such prayer as this carries with it the greatest blessings that God can bestow upon man.

The lack of prayer and also lack of power can be attributed to laziness on your part and following the path of least resistance. It is not that you don’t want the power and blessings and results that go with prayer; but it is simply that you don’t want to pay the price. So with these disciples… their spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. As a Christian you want to see this church grow, you want to see souls saved, you want unsaved husbands saved, but alas the weakness of the flesh is too great and so you stay away from prayer meetings; neither do you spend time at home. The day of fasting and prayer that has been called is not expected to be a day of ease. It will mean you will have to forsake your dinner and the pangs of pain may creep into your stomach. The knees are going to ache from being on the hard floor so much. The joints of the legs are going to stiffen. But to those who dare to come out and claim the promises of God, there will be the greatest blessings of God upon you. Oh, I know you can take the path of least resistance and make all kinds of excuses as to why you can’t be here. Perhaps some relatives are coming over – but you’ve known about this for a month and you could ask them to come the following Sunday. Sure the children need to have something to eat, but you can to home and get them something and then hasten back. Before anything can be accomplished for Christ, it must be proceeded in prayer. Before Christ entered upon His ministry He spent forty days in fasting and prayer in the wilderness. Before He chose His twelve disciples, we read, “And it came to pass in those days, that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.” When Saul and Barnabas were separated unto the task that God had for them they did so in prayer. (Acts 13:3) One of the marks of a Christian is that they pray. (Acts 9:11) May it not be said of you that “The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak.” Determine by the grace and for the glory of God that you will overcome the weak flesh.

II. IT IS THE PATH OF LURKING TEMPTATIONS

Prayer will keep you from temptations. “Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil.” Many Christians are failing in their Christian life and are constantly falling into sin because they do not take everything to God in prayer. “Casting all your cares upon Him for He careth for you.”

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer!

O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.

Oh the pity of it all; instead of victors, victims. Look at these same disciples just a short time afterward (Matt. 26:56, and Peter 26:58). Peter and all of the disciples could have escaped this shameful recording if they had spent the hours in prayer that Christ did. (Luke 22:32)

III. IT IS THE PATH OF LOST OPPORTUNITY

“Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.” Beloved, are you guilty of betraying Jesus Christ? Are you giving Him over into the hands of sinners. Someone has said that, “The devil trembles when he sees the weakest child of God on his knees.” This is not a time of sleeping, but a time of labor. Work for the night is coming when man works no more. Redeeming the time for the days are evil. Sleep on now: Those unsaved husbands have gone to an eternal hell. Sleep on now: Those boys and girls who you could have led to Christ are in the devil’s hands. That church which could have been such a great power in the community, all lost. Those disciples would have given anything in the days to follow if they had only spent that time in prayer instead of sleep. AH, BUT SLEEP ON NOW, the opportunity is lost. These disciples learned their lesson, but at a great cost – may YOU profit by it. Acts 1:14.

SLEEP ON NOW

Sleep on now

The day of conflict is o’re,

Sleep on now

Your safe on eternities shore.

Sleep on now

Your hour on earth is done

Sleep on now

There’s a task left – that was never begun.

Sleep on now

But there’s a soul crying out in hell:

“God curse the sleeper

That pretended to be

A child of thine, but

Never prayed for me.

He could have warned me

Of this awful place

He could have pleaded

And sought Thy face,

But prayer seemed such a waste of time

He lived his life; I lived mine.

And now; O now it is to late,

My heart is only filled with hate

For one who had so much to do

He couldn’t spare the time

To pray for me to you.

Sleep on now! Sleep on.”

By Kenneth G. Farnsworth

August 21, 1943

I'VE BEEN FEATURED!!!!!

2010-10-03T19:25:00.000-07:00

I am BEYOND excited right now!!!! (Oh baby, I'm gonna have a hard time sleeping tonight!!!) As I previously told you, I just recently redid my blog (all by myself mind you!!!). The graphics that I used came from "Jaguar Woman". I have used her graphics for a number of years now, but this is my first try at creating a blog background using these graphics. Once I completed my new blog I sent her a quick note to let her know how I had used the graphics and invited her to check it out. Well she immediately responded by telling me how much she loved it and said she wanted to feature it in her "Customer Showcase" as well as putting my info in her monthly newsletter. Well, today her monthly newsletter was released, and WAHOO... THERE I AM!!!!!! This is what she had to say...

I've got another customer to show off in my Customer Showcase: Debbie Scott, of "I-Do-Designs" . Debbie artfully used one of my products to design her blog, where she advertises her own clever and creative real-world designs for custom gifts and home decor. Please visit my Customer Showcase to read about her creative business and see how she used Jaguarwoman graphics to design her blog/website.

I would LOVE for you to go to her website to not only see what she had to say about me, but to check out her unbelievable graphics as well!!!! http://www.jaguarwoman.com/jagcustomer.html

I've been featured on:

Paris Inspired Entry

2010-10-02T08:32:00.000-07:00

I am SO excited to F-I-N-A-L-L-Y be able to start sharing some DIY and redecorating projects with you! Seems like it’s been “all work” and “no play” up to this point.

This first project is one that I have had in my head for months. Do you have projects like that? You get a really good deal on something, and dream about ways you can use it? Well MONTHS ago I picked up these beauties at a Boy Scout sale close to our home. I saw ONE of these windows out of the crate and asked the gentleman there how much it was. He pointed to the crate and said “how about $5?” I said, “for the whole crate???” He said, “sure, does that seem fair?” Well, fair for who?????? It certainly was “fair” for me, but I think they lost out on the deal!!! I could hardly whip out $5 fast enough. There were FOUR windows in the crate!!! That means each window was only $1.25 each!!! WAHOO!!! My only regret is that I didn’t buy the other crate!!!! (The picture of the windows in the crate looks a little weird because it was raining and the paper between was wet.) Once I got the windows out to start working with them I figured out why someone had donated them. Evidently the seal was broken and moisture had gotten between the panes of glass, leaving them a little foggy. Obviously I wouldn’t want them “installed” in my home, but I knew they would be just fine for my purposes.
Sooooooo, after much thought about how I wanted to use them, I came up with the following project. This is the window itself. I decided that I was going to use three windows together and knew I wanted to put a frame around them. I went to Lowes and selected some molding that would work as a frame. I painted the wood then had my hubby cut them to the correct sizes. I then gathered all my supplies. My staple gun, clamps, and my favorite glue “E-6000”. (I know a lot of people love Gorilla glue, but I have found that this works best for me.)

I put a dab of glue on the corner, then secured the corner with a couple of staples. I then placed a clamp on each corner to hold it in place until the glue was completely dry. (I left it to dry for 24 hours.)

The next day I ran a bead of glue around the edge of the window and clamped the completed frame to the window. Again, I let it dry for 24 hours. Here’s the frame, and then the frame around the window. Already looking better!

I felt that the frame needed to have an aged look to it, so I proceeded to lightly distress it and then used my Ralph Lauren glaze over it.

Now for the fun part!!!! I wanted it to appear that you were looking through the windows at one scene. I started searching for just the right picture for the area. I had determined that I was going to use these windows above the ledge in my entry, along with my antique bicycle. I searched for a picture I could use and came across a painting of a scene in Paris. The picture is actually entitled "Post office building, Paris, France, 1886" PERFECT!!!!!!

This is where my graphic design experience comes into play… I enlarged the photo to a size that would stretch across all three windows, printed out the pieces on 12 x 18 card stock, trimmed the paper, and then taped everything together. It took 4 sheets for each window. (Here are the four pieces for one window.) I repeated this process for each window until I had the entire scene completed. Oh baby… I was getting excited!!!!!

Only ONE little problem… I had not quite figured out how to hang these things. They were very heavy, and there was not very much wood on the edge of the windows, so we had to come up with a different solution. The solution was to use two small “L” brackets and screw them together (like this)…

Before we screwed them together we measured the space, determined placement, put mollies in the wall, and secured one side of the “L” bracket to the wall. Once it was screwed in the other “L” bracket was attached with a small screw and nut. It provided the perfect “holder” for the window.

Now for the BIG REVEAL… are you ready??

I added my 1896 bicycle (that was restored by my dear hubby... I used to ride in parades in full costume), an antique picnic basked, my Victorian hat, a pair of antique binoculars, a pedestal with an arrangement that I already had, and a basket of greenery. Oh, and while we're talking about the hubs… do you see that small ledge? Poor guy had to stand out on the ledge and do all the installation of those windows. Needless to say, I was glad when he was safely back on the other side of the banister. Don’t you just LOVE the antique picture with the scene from Paris? I think it’s PERFECT with the antique bike. I'm not "loving" the greenery on top of the windows - still need to fix that, but I wanted to cover up the brackets holding the windows. Here’s several other views, including a couple of views from downstairs looking up.

One idea that I have for the windows is to change out the picture with the different seasons. Wouldn’t it look beautiful to have a winter scene, or a spring garden behind the window. I can’t say that hubby is very enthusiastic about that idea, but maybe by the time I want to change it out he will have forgotten what a pain it was to hang those things!!!! LOL!!!!

Little bit added on here. I just came across some pictures last night. I decided that as long as I was highlighting my bike, I might as well include a few pictures of me and my family in my costume. We used to ride in parades years ago... it's been a while since we've done that.

This first picture is of me in my costume along with my restored bicycle. My Mom made this beautiful costume from an actual antique pattern. Let me just say, that the cream-colored outfit, along with my cream-colored bicycle was quite eye-catching!!!

This is a picture of the hat that I wear. It was an antique hat to begin with, but my Mom took it and made it into a real thing of beauty! Guess you can see where I get all my "crafting" ability can't you!!!!???!!!

The pictures just don't do this outfit justice! The collar and slim portion of the sleeves, along with the buttons, are all covered with lace.

This is my hubby and son in costume too. My hubby rides a large high-wheel bicycle, and at that time my son rode a small high wheel.

Golly Miss Molly - those were the days!!!

I'm linking up to:

I’m really anxious to hear what you think about this project, so be sure to leave me a comment - I LOVE reading every single one!!!

I Did It Myself!!!!

2010-09-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

I am SO excited about my new blog background!!! It might not be as fancy or gorgeous as some of the blogs out there, but I did it MYSELF - that's why I'm so excited!!!! I read tons of other postings by people who are SO willing to share their knowledge. Two of the most helpful blogs were "The Cutest Blog on the Block" and "Easy Custom Blogs". They have TONS of information, and are more than happy to help you when you run into problems. The beautiful graphics come from Jaguar Woman (who has a boatload of wonderful graphics at fantastic prices), and then I created my own design in Corel Draw. I hope you like my new look, now that I "kind of" know what I'm doing it will be fun to make new designs.

UPDATE: I need a favor! I didn't realize until I asked a friend to pull up my blog on her computer, that it looked COMPLETELY different on HER screen than it did on mine. I had previously used a background from "The Cutest Blog on the Block" and did not have that problem, but with MY design I'm finding that there seem to be some issues.

My blog should look like this (or pretty close to it):

It should NOT look like this!!!!

(Can you see why I was disappointed with the way my friend saw it??!!)

Could you let me know how it looks on your screen? If you know your screen size or resolution that would help too. Thanks in advance for helping me out!!

I would love to hear what you think!!

Tuesday Thrifting Treasures!

2010-09-22T11:40:00.000-07:00

I decided to stop at a few of my favorite Goodwill stores on the way home from work last night and found quite a few more items to add to my stash. For some reason things seemed to be unusually cheap today... spent under $30 for the whole lot. Let’s see what I came home with…

1 milk glass vase;
2 deep frames (that I hope to display some keys in);
2 small black mirrors; some small books I needed for stacking (plan to paint and stamp them);
2 nice shaped bottles; and one glass “thingy” that I hope to use as a dome;
1 large bird cage (YES… the flowers are being trashed!!);
2 white glass candle holders;
2 small matching angel vases;
1 bird dish (top comes off);
1 globe (my favorite find... cost $4.95 – going to antique it);
1 decorative shelf (but going to use it in a different way);
1 small bird cage with bird on top;
1 small glass bell with bird on top; and
1 white bird.

PHEW!!! Not bad at all for a Tuesday!!!

I’m really excited that I’m FINALLY getting to the point where I can start displaying/using some of these treasures. It seems like the painting and redecorating has been going on FOREVER!!! Having been ill for so long, I have had to take it slow and easy to get everything done. Trying to look through all the boxes I have stashed away has proven to be a bit difficult, so I decided to set out everything in my dining room. It’s been so long since I’ve seen some of these things that it’s almost like going shopping in my own house!! LOL I’m almost embarrassed to show you this, but this is what my dining room looks like right now. Keep in mind that I am pretty much redoing our entire downstairs, plus a bathroom upstairs, AND I've been collecting this items for quite a while (yes, I’m trying to justify all this stuff!!!) Plus... there are still a bunch of frames and a couple more boxes in the garage. And just in case you’re wondering… this is BEFORE I bought the stuff today. I’m sure that you can understand that I DID need all the ~~junk~~ treasures I brought home.

Keep in mind that almost everything you see was bought on sale… either purchased at Goodwill, garage sales, or 80% to 90% off at Hobby Lobby. I would NEVER have been able to get all these things at full price!! I can’t wait to put everything together!!

I LOVE to read all your comments!!!

Please Don’t Hate Me!

2010-09-09T19:01:00.000-07:00

As I have been going through recent posting out there in “blog world”, many of you are embracing the fact that “Fall” is upon us. You happily talk about the leaves turning all their beautiful shades of yellow, red, and orange. You’re looking forward to curling up in front of the fire with a good book, all wrapped up in a snuggly blanket or one of your favorite sweaters, while sipping on a delicious cup of hot chocolate. Well, I guess it’s time I jump on the bandwagon and post my two-cents worth, so here goes…

WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE????

ARE YOU NUTS????

I HATE (with a passion) H-A-T-E – with a capital “H” FALL AND WINTER!!!!!!!!!

Oh my, there… I’ve gone and done it. I’ve gotten that off my chest, but now I’m sure I’ve offended all my new blogger friends. But seriously, think about it. What exactly does “Fall” mean???

It means FALLING leaves!...They have color for a bit, but you know what? They quickly turn BROWN. Why do they turn brown???? Because they are DEAD… D-E-A-D!!
It means the trees will soon be bare!!!
The grass will no longer be green.
The pretty-colored flowers will be replaced with yellow and orange ones (YUCK)
WINTER will soon set in!
You will be wrapped up to your eyeballs and still have your shoulders hunched up to your ears because you are so cold. (In fact, I’m sure I’m about 2 inches shorter during the winter months because my head is scrunched into my neck!)
Driving will become hazardous!
Beautiful snow or ice-laden trees will snap under the weight.
White snow on the roads will quickly be replaced with dirty slush!
With each new snowfall you must go out and clean off your car and shovel your driveway..
You have to soak in a hot bathtub just to get the chill out of your bones.
Your feet are always cold when you get in bed and it takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R to warm up!
Daily exercise must now be confined to your home instead of enjoying the great outdoors.
You can’t just walk out the door; you have to take 10 minutes to bundle up!
You have to stand out in the freezing cold, with the wind blowing 50 mph, just to brush off the snow or scrape the ice off the windshield. (Only to have it freeze back up on you as you’re driving.)
Your car just never seems to get warm enough.
The beautiful tan that you worked on all summer fades to a pasty white.
Pumping gas is put off as long as possible because you can’t even THINK about getting out there and filling your car up.
Your car is covered in salt and trying to wash it any time before April will cause the locks to freeze up!
It’s dark when you wake up, and it’s dark by the time you eat dinner.
No sun to help your mood!
And yes, even those nightly cups of hot chocolate can add on a pound or two.
WORST OF ALL??? WAY too cold to do any spray painting – thus many DIY projects are put off until Spring!!!!!!

I know, I know… there are those of you out there that will talk about all the wonderful smells of the season – pumpkin pie, the pine from the Christmas Tree, gingerbread cookies, etc. Did you EVER think about buying a nice scented candle??? Heck – you can get almost any smell you want. Oh, and you talk about the beautiful fall colors. I honestly think I’m allergic to brown and orange because I used it so much when I first got married in the 70s. Come on… if you’re old enough to remember “Harvest Gold” and “Avocado Green” appliances you KNOW what I mean!!! GAG ME!!!

Now as for me, I MUCH prefer Spring and Summer. After all, it brings us:

New life
Green grass (ok, this year due to dry weather it’s been rather “brown”)
Multi-color flowers
Beautiful GREEN trees
Being able to open the windows to get some fresh air and hear the birds chirping.
You can throw on shorts, a t-shirt, and flip-flops and be out the door, into the car, and half-way to the grocery store in the same amount of time you would still be dressing in layers during the winter!
You can get in the car immediately, open a window or two while the air conditioner cools off the car.
It is light when you wake up, and you have a WHOLE EVENING to play, exercise or work outside before it gets dark.
You can choose to work on a tan, sit under a shady tree, or relax in your air conditioned home.
“Sunshine” makes you happy!!!!!!!

Oh my, I could go on and on with the “Love Spring/Hate Fall” relationship, but I will spare you any more details. I have to believe that those of you who “love Fall” must live in the south where your evening temperatures drop to an “ungodly” 40 degrees or something. Try coming to the north and experiencing -10 degrees!! Why don’t we move you say? Caring for elderly parents, jobs, kids, grandkids… you know – all those things that make it next to impossible to pick up and move.

Well, now that I’ve offended all my dear blogger friends out there, I hope there is at least one or two of you that agree with me and will perhaps be kind enough to keep visiting my posts.

I guess I better sign off for now and get a few of those painting projects done while there is still light outside and it’s warm enough to paint, cuz the days are getting colder and shorter every day!!!!! Oh, how I wish I could just go into hibernation until Spring!! LOL!!!

No runs, No drips, No errors!!!!

2010-09-07T19:42:00.000-07:00

Phew!!! Our "Labor Day" was really a day of labor!!! I was FINALLY able to do something that I have been itching to do for a number of weeks... PAINT!!!!! It has been so blasted hot around here, and I've been so busy, that there just has not been time.

I've had an idea in my head for a painting booth, so I was anxious to see if I could actually pull it off. Let me just tell you - before you read on any further - you are going to be EXTREMELY jealous!! This is definitely a "one-of-a-kind" painting booth. Perhaps you might have seen one of my "Thrifty Finds" back in July... this is what I posted:

Finally, something I know everyone is going to be extremely jealous about.

Don'tcha just LOVE the pink floral sheet? And the netting canopy is just "to die for"!!!! Ohhhhhh, the PROJECTS I can do with these things.

WAIT!!!!! I can hear your screams all the way through my computer. You're probably saying, "Just when we thought she was getting into this whole blogging and shabby chic thing, she goes and buys this????" Never fret my friends.. DON'T quit following my blog... I DO have something WONDERFUL in mind for this, but it doesn't have anything to do with decorating. Well, yes it does, but not really. Oh, I don't know - you'll just have to wait until I can complete my project and post a blog on it. It only cost me $9 for this project, so if it doesn't work out I haven't lost a whole lot. Guess we'll just have to see how it goes. Be sure to check back!!!

Ok, so today is the day that these little beauties FINALLY came into use and turned into my latest project - a painting booth!!! YEAH!!! This is what I did...

We own a half acre of woods behind our house. Several years ago our son went back into the woods and cleared out an area for doing some motor biking. It has grown up a lot since that time, but I knew my hubby would be able to clean it up enough for my purposes. This morning, bright and early, my hubby and I made a trek out back to check the situation. After a bit of clean up, I scoped out some trees that would work nicely to tie some rope on.

We were then able to use clothes pins to hang up my Goodwill Sheets and a tarp. I ended up with a "U" shaped booth.

Then came the Pièce de résistance (yes, I DID have to look up the spelling for that one)... the netting to catch the falling leaves!!! (I didn't realize how totally "brilliant" this move was until all the leaves started falling as I was painting!!) We threw a rope over tree limb and pulled up the netting and pulled it out from all sides to form a roof. Who knew that a netting hoop that is generally used to create a canopy over a bed could be put to such good use!!!???

We had an old piece of AstroTurf grass that we laid out on the ground. Finally, we went to a place where we could pick up some free skids and put those in the "painting booth" as well so I had a flat surface to work with.

My hubby ran a looooooong extension cord out to the woods and hooked up his compressor. It's pretty old and doesn't hold the pressure very long, but hey, it worked!!!

This was going to be my first time using my brand new spray gun.

I've got to tell ya people - this spray gun was worth EVERY CENT I paid for it. One gallon of paint ($22), tinted Heirloom White, used a little water to thin it down, and wha-laaa - we were ready to go!!! I painted one small table, 2 chairs, and one large mirror frame, and hardly used any paint at all!! I figure I would have probably used a good 10 cans of spray paint if I had gone the old route. The paint went on SO MUCH easier. I didn't have any problem with running or dripping - and it dried really fast.

Here's my first painting projects using my paint booth...

One little old table. Purchased at Goodwill for about $4. I figured that was a good one to use as a test project.

Two chair frames (can't WAIT to get the fabric on them!!!)

And one large mirror frame.

Not bad for my "labor day" projects!!!! Now I'm quite aware that this "paint booth" is a "fair weather" booth, but hopefully I can get a majority of my painting jobs done before the weather changes too drastically. It's going to take a little extra work to haul the pieces of furniture out there, but seeing as I don't have anyplace else available that will have to do.

Like I said - I KNOW you're jealous. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid this one will be hard to duplicate. LOL!!! (I'm thankful this is back in the woods where my neighbors can't see it or I would be run out of the development for sure!!) Be sure to let me know what you think of my "ever so brilliant" project!!

I’m linking up to the following parties:

Thrifty Finds

2010-09-02T20:07:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to stop at a garage sale that was in it's second week. You know the kind... not much great stuff left, but practically giving everything away. There wasn't anything SUPER great, but I did pick up a few things - for a total of only $4.00!!!!

A little desk light that I figure will look cute with a coat of Heirloom White spray paint. Their dog chewed off the cord, so I was able to pick it up for the low, low price of $.20!!

Four sterling silver spoons and a relish fork. ($.10 each)

Two white vases and one glass top. Yes, I know the glass top does not belong on there - it's only on there for the picture. I figured at $.10 I couldn't pass it up. The vases were $1.00 for the pair.

Cute little bottle which can easily be fixed up with a picture from the Graphics Fairy and maybe a little twine. $.10

Nice little clock - $1.00

Roll of textured vinyl wallpaper. I know of several projects I can use this on. - $.10

I needed a basket for some towels in my bathroom. I think this will work nicely. $1.00

We're getting closer to actually USING all these things as my remodeling is starting to come together.

I'm in LOVE... with my new light that is!!!

2010-08-31T19:49:00.000-07:00

Changes are certainly taking place around our house. In the next few days I will be posting some "sneak peak" pictures of a few of those changes. (We still have a LONG ways to go before everything is actually done!!) Today I just HAVE to share my new light with you. Nothing spectacular, I didn't do a thing for it - not a DIY project. Wellllll, wait a minute... I DID lace the electrical cord through the chain, and I DID put on the globes, AND I DID screw in the light bulbs - does that count???

Anyway, I'm in L-O-V-E with my new light. Sure, I would have preferred the $750 cut glass chandelier, but seeing as that was just a "tad" out of our price range, we had to settle for something a little less expensive. Unfortunately I only have a picture of the previous light after we were doing some patching and painting, but this was the basic light that came with the house when we built it 22 years ago (please forgive the dust - we were remodeling!). Obviously in need of a major update!!

Ready for the big reveal??? Here it is!!!

We actually changed out the glass globes with some that match other fixtures in the house.

I know, it's probably not as exciting to you as it is for me, but it's just nice to have a change after all this time. I'm not sure if you can see from the picture or not, but the walls have gone from tan to a beautiful soft yellow color.

See you back here real soon with a few more changes taking place!

"Devotions From Dad" (Message #10 - Prayer Power)

2010-08-30T06:26:00.000-07:00

If you have not previously read the reason for these postings, please go here so you can start at the beginning.

Just a quick note. There have been times that I have questioned whether or not this is the right place for me to post these messages. Satan has tried to discourage me and make me think that people were not reading them. However; just when I start to "second-guess" myself, someone comes across my blog and actually thanks me for posting this series. That is just what I need to know that this is the right thing to do. I guess in this day and age it is more important than ever to be a nation of prayer! Sooooo, I will continue posting, and pray that someone - somewhere along the way - will be blessed by the messages my Dad preached so long ago. As I have said, if you are not interested in these postings, just skip over them and come back for one of my craft postings. (BTW - Dad wrote many poems to end his messages with - I think the one is especially meaningful!!)

MESSAGE #10

(Delivered on Aug 15, 1943 at Centerline Baptist Church)

PRAYER POWER

Acts 12:1-17

INTRODUCTION:
As we look into the book of Acts, where is recorded the history of the early Christian church, we are amazed that it could prosper under such trying and hard conditions. However, we find that the key to their growth was prayer, unity, and power. You will always find that a praying people are a unified people. When you spend your time on your knees before God you don’t have time to think about other’s faults. It also holds true that a unified church is a powerful church. “Ye shall receive power after that the Hold Ghost is come upon you.” God’s work is a Divine work and no power in heaven or on earth can hold it back. Bitter persecution was heaped upon this early church and such a persecution was now in process as we come to this particular portion of scripture. James, the brother of John, had just been beheaded. When Herod saw how it pleased the people he also cast Peter into prison. Herod is a type of the devil who is constantly trying to win the favor of his own by heaping persecution upon the church. Today, although we still have freedom of religion, we find that true Christianity is being restrained. It is getting harder and harder to do Christian work. The devil is as-it-were casting true gospel ministers into prison and binding them with the chains of formality, modernism, denominationalism, and politics. The only way we can be delivered from such powers of darkness is by the means of prayer. We are going to study this incident before us – not so much for the view of Peter’s deliverance from prison – but with the thought before us of prayer power.

I. AGONIZING PRAYER

The most impressive scene in this whole chapter is the view of the whole church on their knees in prayer for Pete’s deliverance. It was not just one or two of the faithful members who gathered to pray, but THE WHOLE CHURCH. It is no wonder that they had such power in their prayer. We’re calling a day of prayer the last Sunday of this month – I wonder if the whole church will be out?

Furthermore, prayer was made without ceasing. Peter was in a serious situation; there was no time to waste. Oh, these housewives had their dishes to do, houses to clean, and babies to take care of, but here was an emergency and it called for action. The word here means “agonizing”. These folks were in earnest; they cried out from their very souls. We can think of several instances of such agonizing prayer in the scriptures. Daniel prayed. Dan. 9:1-6 & 17-19; Jonah 2:1-2 Peter cried, “Lord save me.” The repentant thief cried, “Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” Jesus Christ was in agony in Gathesamy.

II. ASTONISHED PETITIONERS

There’s rather a comical setting here. Here was a great number of people gathered together praying for Peter’s deliverance, and when he finally comes to the door they refuse to believe it is him, and even go so far as to say it must be his angel or ghost. I’m afraid we have a good many folds like this today. They pray for something and when God answers they are more astonished at it than anyone else. There is absolutely no basis for astonishment in prayer. God has made definite promises in scripture. If we fulfill the conditions of prayer the conditions of prayer that he has set forth the answer should be as spontaneous as the light lighting when you turn on the switch. Matt. 17:14-21; 18:19; Mark 9:20-23; 11:22-24; John 15:7; I John 5:14-15.

III. ADMINISTERING PARISHIONERS

Here’s one parish that really got busy. Go show these things unto James and the brethren. There’s nothing like a real demonstration of prayer power to set the people of the Lord on fire. When you have just witnessed such a miraculous answer to prayer as this you just can’t keep quite about it. I don’t believe Peter had to plead with these people to go out and witness for the Lord. Beloved, get on fire for the Lord but first wait upon Him. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

PRAYER POWER

It matters not how great the test,

The Lord’s above, in Him I rest;

He promised that He would answer prayer,

I can but trust and leave it there.

It matters not how dark the way,

The Lord’s above, He is my stay;

He promised all my pathway clear,

With trust in Him I have no fear.

It matters not low long may be,

Before the Lord may answer me,

For as in simple faith I pray,

I know the answers on the way.

By Kenneth G. Farnsworth

August 12, 1943