Randomness.

I've been doing a lot of designing, glazing, gluing, cutting, 

sewing and packaging around my house this week. 

What I haven't been doing a lot of this week is cooking, cleaning, laundry, 

wearing make-up and paying attention to what day of the month it is. 

I've managed somehow to think this week was not til next week ( I know...weird) and

 because of my brain overload, Lauren missed out on a few of her senior events. 

 Not good.

Fortunately for me, she is a very forgiving and understanding young lady. 

And I'm so thankful for grace when I foul it up as a momma.

I did manage a few snaps of this and that in the midst of the chaos.

Here I am gettin my hair did. (last week)

Lauren is not my "beauty operator" but she happened to pop in while I was there, and my girl, Amber, let her get some practice in under her careful eye.   Even though Lauren has been doing hair for some time now, she's going to school in the fall to make it all official and stuff.

Here's some sneak peaks Elizabeth sent me from a little photo shoot she did with the kids.

I can't wait to see the actual pics when she gets them edited!

Love what I see already!

Me and Lydia last weekend...

We make the exact same faces and expressions. It's really weird and pleasant all at the same time.

More weird for Lydia.   More pleasant for me.

A text from Lydia...

We started the annual packing up of our winter clothes to make room in our closets for our summer clothes and it dawned on Lydia there was no need to pack her winter coats away because next winter she won't be here.  Yeah, it was a sad moment for both us of.  

She brought them to Marcus's and hung them up over there.

....and so it begins.

My man, the Turkey Thug,  brought home supper on Tuesday.

This was that morning....

This was that evening.

I did slap a little makeup on once this week but didn't get around to fixing my hair so it ended up in braids. My go to "do" when my hair needs washing.

Lydia got her custom made wedding band for Marcus today in the mail and she

 immediately instagrammed it.

.....and I instagrammed her instagramming  :)

And I got some happy mail too!

I love this vintage fabric and buttons :)

There are so many possibilities!

Hmmm... what to do? What to do? 

I hope y'all have a happy Friday!

Stephanie:)

ps. don't forget to go sign up for {this give away} over at my friend Sarah's!

I'd love to send YOU the  Hymn necklace :)

What I love Wednesday

Free stuff!!
I do love me some freebies!
Don't y'all like it to?
Here is just a few freebies and cute ideas I've had my eyes on lately.
Hope you enjoy...

Paper Dolls!!
I loved these as a little girl!  And I had this exact book of paper dolls of the Gingham family....it's about their visit to their Grandma's house.
 I can't believe I already have little granddaughters who can come visit and I'm the grandma!  Life is happening at warp speed!
Hope you enjoy these...you can print the entire book at this site!

source

I love these "super shopper"free printable stickers at arrmommy.com
She shares on her blog about how challenging it is to take her 4 kiddie poos with her to run errands and she came up with this idea.   She lets them pick out their job before they leave and gives them a sticker to wear while shopping.  I think it's brilliant.  My little grand daughter, whose 3, loves responsibility....she takes her job's seriously, I tell you.  And her little sis likes to copy anything she does...so I'm thinking this could be a life saver for a mom of little people. 

ARRMOMMY

 There isn't one thing I DON"T like over at the decorated cookie!!
 Everything is adorable, fun and EDIBLE!!

I thought these little lambs were cute with Easter on it's way...

I'm not so sure how well the coconut would go over with most kids though, so I included this little caterpillar that I KNOW my grand babies would devour!  Cute and easy.

source

And my  sweet and talented friend Kellie at Nest of Posies has this awesome tutorial for this trendy little woven chain bracelet that she made for a whopping....$5.75!


Just look how cute and sassy it looks on her!
(i'm loving her nail polish too!)


She also has this beautiful free printable Easter printable that you will most definitely want to have!


And last but not least...the mother load of ALL free printable sites....
Cue the angels singing........
Have y'all been to Everything Etsy yet?

This one link has a link to 101 AMAZING free pintables!
And not only this one....she has one for every season and every category you can think of!
So run as fast as your little fingers can type and go check out all of the awesomeness over there!!


Oh...And I'm over at my friend Sarah's today doing a giveaway on her blog,
Racing Towards Joy.
Go check it out and tell her hi for me.
 She's had a rough few week lately with illness in her family and  I know some
 lovin from you would make her day :)
I'm giving away one of my Hymn Necklaces!

 

Well...I hope you enjoyed some of the freebies!
I'll be sure to share some more again soon :)

Stephanie :)

A lesson in faith

While we spent a couple of days visiting my daughter and her family recently,

the Lord reminded me of what it is to have childlike faith.

To believe that He is and that He can and will do what He says.

It all started with the $1.00 bin at Target.

I saw these cute little flower pot eggs that came with dirt and the seeds and thought that would be a fun project for the girls to do with their momma.  I like to send them happies from time to time and this was perfect.   What I didn't expect is that I would get to do the project with them myself. ...double fun stuff. Unplanned, impromptu trips brings unexpected delight too :)

So, here I am with the girls, helping them plant their flowers.  

Julia Rose has a gerber daisy.  Rosalyn has petunias.

I love the looks on their faces....they are really listening as I tell them about taking care of their tiny little seed and watching it grow.

Mixing up the dirt with water...

Getting the seeds ready....

Her little wheels were spinning as she took it all in.  As I was opening the little packs, I told her about how teeny tiny the seeds were but they were gonna grow into a big beautiful flower...

She was so excited to see the seeds as she sprinkled them in her pots.

She was unusually quiet during this whole process. ..

 She and Julia Rose found a home for their flowers and decided the window sill was the perfect place with lots of sunshine.

And then she waited....

And they waited some more.....

We told them a flower takes time to grow.  Their Paw Paw told them it was like when their baby brother was in their mommy's tummy....he took a long time to grow before he was ready to come out.  Rosalyn understood that and nodded in agreement ......Yet they still stood there waiting for the flower to pop out of the dirt.

That evening we all piled into the mini van to go out to eat and I was sitting in the "way back" with Rosalyn and everything was really quiet and all of a sudden, Rosalyn squealed with excitement...as if she had just remembered something.."Honey!,  When we get home, I'm gonna have a biiiiig beautiful flower!!!"  


Wow. It hit me square in the heart....how she thoroughly believes, without a doubt that she is gonna have a flower.  Why?  Because I told her she will.  She has no doubt that what I told her is true.  I told her IF she took care of it, if she watered it, if she gave it the sunlight it needed it, then those little seeds will grow into a flower.  She believes me.  Not for one second in her little mind is she even concerned about the circumstances that could hinder it....Like I'm thinking.. what if the seeds were old? What if they are a dud?  What if she waters them too much?  What if she doesn't water them enough?  These are all of the things that we worry about.  But she isn't concerned .....she believes that we did what we were supposed to do and now she is waiting, with expectation, for her flower to bloom.

I want to have complete trust and faith in the Lord like that.
He has given us "instructions" and when we follow what He has told us, we will have the results He has promised.  We don't have to worry about anything being a "dud" when it  comes to a promise from God.  If He says it.  It's true.  In fact His word tells us that all the promises of God  are Yes and in Him Amen. (2 Corinthians 1:20)  And that the word of the Lord is right and all His work is done in truth! (Psalm  33:4) Oh to have the faith of that centurion in Luke 7 that even caused Jesus to marvel!  That story always intrigues me....I mean, what can make Jesus, the One who has power over death, marvel ? The man's faith, that's what.

I'm more like the father in Mark 9 who Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."  And then the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe;
help my unbelief!"

God is for us.  And His promises are for us...always for His glory.
As I think back on Rosalyn listening to every instruction I gave as we planted her seeds,
 She listened intently.
 She followed directions.
Then she expected results!


Wow.  What a lesson for this grandma.  SO simple and exactly how we should live each day as a believer. Listening to the Lord as we spend time with him in fellowship.
Following the directions He gives us through His word!
And then expecting Him to do what He promises!!

And I thought we were just gonna play a little with some dirt that day! Ha. 

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

nor stands in the path of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither;

and whatever he does shall prosper.

Psalm 1:1-3

I so want to bear fruit.  I don't plan on withering anytime soon.

 I'm listening Lord.

Stephanie :)

The Mushroom Incident

This weekend while Lydia and I were scouring a local flea market looking for a few more things needed for the wedding, I stumbled across something that whisked me back in time to one of my most favorite childhood memories.

Back when my momma's kitchen was still painted avocado green and mushroom hung on the wall.

Mushrooms almost just like these that I found on Saturday.  

What's so special about  mushrooms  is how when I was a kid, they bonded me and my bother together one afternoon.....literally.  You see I have two big brothers who are 6 and 8 years older than me.  They were typical brothers who like to tease little sisters except my middle brother, Greg, did more than tease...he liked to torture.   I even have a bald spot on my head to this day as proof!  lol.

So with all this in mind, my momma very rarely ever left me at home with just Greg babysitting me.  But there were a few rare exceptions when she did and the "mushroom incident" was one of them.   

We lived in a very small town with a local grocery store that everyone shopped at....long before Super Walmart.  The owners were family friends and all of their kids grew up with us...that kind of thing.  If your mom was in the store, you could call and Ms Brenda would announce over the intercom, "So and So , you have a phone call", and your mom would zip her little buggy over to the checkout line and answer the phone.  Everybody knew everybody back in those days and this was loooong before cell phones so once your mom had left, if you suddenly needed to talk to her about something, Pennington's Grocery was about the only way to catch her if you were lucky. 

Well on this particular day, my mom, for some reason I have still yet to figure out, left me at home alone with my brother.   Not only that, she left us STRICT instructions about calling her while she was shopping. "Do not call me at that store for any reason!  Unless someone is bleeding, I better not get  paged over the intercom!! Do you understand?!"  So with that, off she went down the road leaving me there with  Greg rubbing his hands together already plotting what all he was gonna do to me while she was gone.

After about 30 minutes of torture, I tell Greg, "I'm calling MOM and telling on you!".  Now this is where the mushroom incident takes place.  We had a yellow rotary dial wall phone in the kitchen and right next to it hung my momma's mushrooms.  So I call Penningtons Grocery, Ms Brenda answers and I ask for my mom and she pages her "Ilona, phone call from Stephanie".  Now while I'm waiting for my mom to come to the phone, Greg throws something at me and knocks the mushrooms off the wall and we watch in slow motion as they hit the floor and break in two.  This happens just as my very annoyed mom comes to the phone and asks me what the emergency is...cuz in her words, "There BETTER be an emergency since you called me when I told you not to." 

Well, now we were in a pickle.  Bigger things were at stake than just getting Greg in trouble because now I knew I would be in trouble since something had gotten broken.  So, I quickly stuttered, "Uh...could you bring us home a treat?"  Well, THAT didn't go over well. But it got me off the phone without many questions asked and it gave me and Greg about 30 minutes to "fix" the problem.

So, five minutes after tying to kill each other,  we were now partners in crime.  We got out the super glue and began our work.  We pieced it back together and hung in back on the wall with the hopes it wouldn't get noticed.  The best part of the entire thing was the feeling I had being on "the other side" with my brother.  Usually he was always plotting against me.  This time he was plotting with me. It was nice. :)

I think we would have pulled the whole thing off if we hadn't made two crucial mistakes.

Mistake #1... You gotta let stuff dry completely before you hang them on the wall.  There is a sliding effect that takes place if you don't. And being that my momma spent a lot of time on that phone (before the days of cordless), she checked out that little corner of the kitchen on a regular basis and noticed the "remodeled" mushrooms pretty quickly.

And mistake #2 ....  the fact that we were laying there all sweet in the living room watching Saturday morning cartoons, not tormenting each other was kind of a dead giveaway something was up. 

Live and learn I guess.  lol.

It was a great memory.  One that me and my brother always laughed about together as we got older.  He passed away almost 8 years ago and I'm so thankful that I can't see a mushroom without thinking about him.

Precious memories.

Stephanie:)

"You will miss what matters most in life if you are only ever looking for the spectacular"  

Everyday Gratitude Week 12

 Week 12!

Can you believe we are already finished with twelve weeks of 2012!!

I anticipated that it was gonna fly by for me because I am so task/event oriented.

Does time fly for y'all too when you have something you're anticipating and looking forward too?

....You can't wait for it to get here and then..wham!  It's here.

Then it's on to the next thing ...

 

These last two months brought several out of town revivals to plan, pack and prepare for.

We still have a few more coming up that we are excited about.

We have graduation events, graduation parties, graduation,  several wedding showers mixed in there and then the wedding. I feel if I'm not careful, life is just gonna zing by me in a blur with all the activity.

I'm trying y'all....really trying to slow down and breathe and not look so much at the calendar.

I want to enjoy each event... each moment...and take it all in and live there as if it's the only day I have left.

Blocking out the next thing I have to do (in a responsible kind of way)  is hard for me but I'm asking the Prince of Peace to help me with this.  You can pray for me too if you think about it.  I'd be so grateful!

With all that said..... 

Here is this past weeks little things that made me choose gratitude.

Day 78: This kiss.

Day 79: These four people.

Day 80: This flower picked by {this big brother}

Day 81: The man who plays with this hair! Yikes.

Day 82: Getting to see {this movie} with these people.

Day 83: Getting handed this sample in SAM's .

Day 84: Getting to visit and catch up with these people.

So how about you?

 "Are you humbly grateful or grumbly hateful?  What's your attitude?

Do you grumble and groan, mumble and moan or are ya grateful for what God's done for you?"

(does anybody know that song?!)

Stephanie :)

Insta-Friday Hunger Games Edition

Beings I've been sick most of this week, I haven't snapped a bunch of pics....until last night that is.

At midnight when normal people above the age of 40 are all tucked in their beds dreaming,

I was in a jammed packed hot humid movie theater with surrounded by a bunch of teenagers about to squeeze Nick's hand off with excitement.

I now get to scratch attending a midnight premiere off my bucket list!

 Standing in line, I thought me and Nick were two of the only people above the age 24 but after getting in the theater and sitting down for the hour and half wait, I began to see all the other older folks congregated in the back of the theater where I like to sit.  Mostly moms and a few dads of 14 year olds years who had caved in to all the begging and reasoning of why it would be ok for them to be out until 3am on a school night.  Upon talking to several of these moms, most of them had not even read the books.  I didn't bother to tell some of them, I was just a big a fan as their kids  and that I came on my own choosing!

And the best part is my sweet husband who is SO not into all they hype came too!!  Those of y'all that know him personally can appreciate his sacrifice.  He is such an awesome daddy and good sport!

Here is the crew.  

We were in the somewhat front of the line where it curved in front of the police sub station we have in our mall.....  I wish we had taken it from the other side so you could have seen the massive line of craziness we were a part of!

 And to kill time we practiced our "game faces". Ha.

I had put this one on fb and a guy that is the same age as our oldest daughter commented that Bro Nick still makes him nervous! lol.  I actually thought my face was most convincing...I was going for the "I'm a little crazy and I'm ok with that"  look.  ha!!    

Well, after door prizes were given  away "reaping style".... which was really fun, the movie FINALLY  started and it was AWESOME from start to finish.  

For all you moms wondering about content.  There wasn't one thing sexual in it.  They actually cut back on the violence...there was more in the book.  But I did count several "D" words in it....I don't know why they had to throw those in.

It's very true to the book.  You fellow book lovers won't be disappointed.

I am loving Effie's wardrobe.  She cracked me up in the movie.

Cinna is cool beans.  I might just have to try out some gold eyeliner now.

Rue is adorable!  I want to take her home with me...and I want her hair.

And of course Katniss, Peeta and Gale do not disappoint!

So what about it?  Are you a fan?

As I drove in the pouring rain, coughing my head off to be in the midst of screaming teenagers doing the wave and chanting "Dis-trict 12" over and over again, I realized I'm either a bonafide fan or crazy. I decided its a little of both.  :)

And because its opening day today of the movie, I'm offering a discount in my {shop}.

In honor of District 12, today only get 12% off anything in my shop.

Just use the code DISTRICT12 when you check out!

woo hoo!

In my best Effie voice....

"Happy Hunger Games

and may the odds be EVAH in your favor."

Stephanie :)