Vertical Stripes Galore!

Its been so long!! I am obviously a very erratic blogger. Seems like I will go months with nothing to write about and then BAM! I have a million! I have had a hard couple of months, but its getting better : )

Lately I have been doing a lot of loom knitting, the plan being that my MIL is going to try to sell some at the flea market. So whatever feedback I get will be much appreciated, even if you have some ideas I will gladly accept!





This personally is my favorite. I made a garter stitch brim with the standard e-wrap for the rest of it. The bow was my first, but I think it turned out pretty good.




I wish that I had a baby or a toddler with a small head
model these. My sons head is way too big!




As you can tell I love the pink/green combination








It seems like pink and brown are very popular lately.


I will have lots more to come. Different, styles and colors!


ps. ignore the date/time stamp, I took these pictures today.



Revelation 3:20

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.

So I have something else to show you! I made this a week or two ago and I am really proud of it because it is for my niece, Brinna, who is 7 months old. I don't have a picture of her wearing it, so I had to have a model, who better to model it than my two year old son Alex, and if I do say so myself he looks really cute in pink : )

I am really in love with this one because it is my very first hat in garter stitch, actually its my first in purl and knit stitch so the entire thing is basically a first : ) For those who don't know what I am speaking of, the garter stitch is a combination of knit stitch and purl stitch. One row of knit stitch's and then one row of purl stitch's. You have to keep track of them and since this is my first I did have a lot of trouble. As you can see there are two lines where I did the wrong stitch, at first I was kinda aggravated especially after I put in two days worth of work into it, Yes it takes FOREVER to do these stitches! Loom knitters out there who know there are much more complicated stitches, have mercy on me, a beginner! (pardon the biblical reference, no comparison intended!) Anyways, back to the point, the two lines actually ended up in the perfect place, so it looks like I intended for it to be that way. (P.s anyone loom knitters that can offer advice, I will graciously accept!)

I am really in love with this hat!!!

Up close garter stitch (sideways)

The flower that I just had to add!! I love flowers, reminds me of Spring.

My adorable baby Alex modeling his cousins hat! His heads a lot bigger than hers, so by my estimate it will fit her perfectly!

Hope everyone has a great day and God bless!

This is a song that is really blessing me, I hope that it blesses you too!

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“For YOU created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, Psalm 139:13

I just wanted to share with you this little hat I made for my son Alex. Its a very simple hat with a very cute little face : ) I did google elmo and knitting hoping I could find something that he would like and I think I hit it right on. At first when I made it I wondered if he would know what it was. Joke was on me. He seen it and got really excited so I figure he knew who it was.

Watching Elmo with his Elmo hat on!
(self explanatory, right?)

All it is, is a simple e-wrap hat in red (I used red heart, even though not my favorite yarn) I had to work with the eyes and nose to make them look right. I made that little nose twice. And even though they have a million different shades of everything, apparently orange is just something no body cares about. I am still not that happy with the shade of orange I ended up having to go with, but it works. The eyes are simple white balls with a piece of black felt glued (fabric glue) in the middle for eyeballs. At first I had been going to try to sew black circles on, but that didn't work.

(ignore his little dirty shirt : )

All in all I think it turned out pretty good for my first try. I am thinking about making a cookie monster hat next, but we will see.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has set eternity in the hearts of man; yet they cannot fathom what God has done beginning to end.

This is the pom-pom wreath I made a week or two ago. I used "I love this yarn" from Hobby lobby in white and peacock. I used the clover pom pom makers in large. Its very easy to make.

You just take a plain wreath (in my case I used foam) and wrap it in cloth (I used a cut up pillowcase!) LOL Then you just make bunches of pom poms! As you can see I had no definite pattern, just randomly placed pom-poms. If you are familiar with the Clover pom-pom maker then you know that you have to tie the pom pom before taking it off of the device. Well, when you do that leave enough yarn that you can tie to the wreath. (approximately 6 inches, depending on the size of wreath you use.

You may be asking why teal and white? Well, last year at Wal-Mart right after Christmas we found these really great teal and white snowflakes. This year we hung them up where we hang our hanging baskets (on yarn no less! ) So it made the most sense to just match those!

At first I ran out of yarn ( it took 4 skeins, two of each color) I had only bought 2 skeins. At first I wanted to be stingy and just leave it the way it was, but I knew every time I looked at it, that I had not done the best I could do so I decided just to finish it.

As you can see its pretty scrawny looking and as far as God goes with people scrawny is okay! But for a wreath its NOT acceptable! : )

So in the end it had three layers of pom-poms. On the outside, inside and on the front.

In retrospect I wish I would have used Valentine colors. I didn't even think about it : ( And I LOVE the color pink! I would have used a heart shaped wreath too! How cool would that have been?! But anyways, I didn't and now I have other things to do, so maybe I will make one next year!

My next wreath I want to make I want to do for Easter, in pastel colors, pink, yellow, blue, white. Maybe find some type of Easter figurine to sit in the middle, A cross, maybe? I don't know. We will see : ) Stay tuned!

When you read God's Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, "It is talking to me, and about me." --Soren Kierkegaard

.3+

Woo HOO! 2010! I really can't believe! I remember where I was 10 years ago, I never imagined I would be here where I am. With a wonderful husband and the greatest little 2 year old boy, a home, and being a stay at home mom. Its like God has fulfilled everything I ever wanted! I just feel so blessed. God is amazing!

Alex's birthday party was yesterday, even though his birthday was last Monday. We spent all day Saturday cleaning! ALL DAY! Taking down Christmas stuff, organizing, cleaning again, shampooing carpets, mopping, laundry. You name it we cleaned it LOL. My husband helped me the entire day, hes such a great husband. But I knew we were going to be wore out after all that cleaning so the entire week I prayed that God would give me the strength to get up and go to church even though I wanted to stay in my nice warm bed. Once again he proved faithful and I was able to get up! (today I'm feeling it, though) Although we had to rush (we got up a little late) we did somehow manage to get to church only 5 minutes late!

I had been so nervous about Alex going to the nursery. I had prayed all week about it! I was just a wreck. How was he going to do? Was he going to scream and cry? Was he going to pitch a fit? But amazingly once again God came through and he did great. We got him signed in with our little beeper. And we weren't even that late! YAY! I was so happy!

Little did I know that the sermon was going to touch me as deeply as it did and move me to such action. The preacher had such fervor and passion! It was so wonderful. He was speaking of reading the Bible and went through why and all that it encompasses! I am also very passionate about reading the Bible and the way that when I read the Bible, God works through that and changes me! Its amazing! So when he challenged us to read the Bible through in a year we jumped at the chance. He created the plan and it involves a chapter or two in Genesis, a chapter or two in the new testament, a couple of verses in psalms, and then a couple of verses in proverbs. I wasn't sure how that would work, I tend to stick to one book. But surprisingly it kept the reading very interesting! Then we have a verse every week that we are to memorize.

I do pray that we can keep up with it. It seems like on Friday and Saturday nights we stay up to late and by the time we go to bed we just don't feel like it. So those nights are going to be our biggest challenge. I know that God will be faithful to help us.

The other part of the challenge is that each week we do something to help someone else. This is the part of am wondering about. I stay at home, what can I do? But I have prayed that the Lord would point out what he would like me to do and I pray that I will be willing to listen and obey when he lets me know!

Please Pray for me and my family that we can stand up and be the Christians that God knows that we can be : )



http://www.life-community.com/Connect/empoweredtowin.html

This is the link for anyone who would like to join in on the Bible in a year plan!

When the world says, "Give up," Hope whispers, "Try one more time." - Author unknown.

Wow. I really can't believe that 2009 is almost over and by almost I mean 6 hours and 9 minutes. I am sitting on the couch with my honey covered in a blanket and seriously considering having a large mug of hot chocolate.. with LOTS of marshmallows. Yum..
I haven't been on here in awhile. I have been busy getting ready for and then cleaning up after Christmas. December was a very eventful month for us. Starting really badly and turning out pretty great.
First of all, we have been wanting a wii since it came out, but the moment when we REALLY decided that we just HAD to have it was when my brother in law and his family went on vacation and left it at home. So they were nice enough to let us use it while they were on vacation! All they had for it was wii sports (remember this was when it cost like $400). We used it all week, I was so sore! But we had so much fun. So this year we started thinking that its about time we get one. Winters coming up and there's just not really much that you can do.. other than watch movies and eat. So honey had the great idea of taking his games to Game stop and trading them in for credit for a wii. So that night we got all of our games together and when he got home from work we were going to go trade them in and see. I wasn't very hopeful. But when he went to work a guy told him about the deal from Wal-mart which was buy the wii ($200) and get a $50 Wal-mart gift card! Oh my gosh, right?! I was so excited all the signs were pointing toward yes you are going to be able to get it!!! That day was the last day of the sale and I was worried it being around Christmas that they would be sold out. Obviously my husband was too because he came up with the idea of me and Alex going before he got home. So I got us ready and we got on the road. It was So cold! First of all we went to High Point Wal-mart. Big store, gotta have it, right? NOT. I asked a sales lady and wow was she rude!

"Ma'am, do you have any wiis left?" smile.
"No were sold out." very gruffly, like shes smoking while she says it. Turns away and dismisses me. I'm still standing there, not moving.
"okay, so do you know if the other stores are sold out?" So I know that this woman is a low level cashier at best and I know that she doesn't personally communicate with the other stores, my bad.
"I don't know, were sold out," looking at another cashier and the cashier saying, "no were sold out." Umm... kinda got that.
"How long have you been sold out?" Once again smiling, hoping that she would take the hint and be friendly.
Wrong, she was getting so aggravated. "Ummm.. a couple of days...," ok I can take a hint, you don't care. I walk away, and she says " the sale ends today." yeah kinda knew that.

By the end of all that I was kinda aggravated, but I was persevering! I knew if I was persistent I would find one. It would just take a little driving around. Next store.. Randleman. 15-20 minutes away. I walk in and go straight back to electronics, no wiis. I walk out of the store. Feeling so bad about dragging my poor pitiful baby around that I go to McDonald's and buy lunch. I call the honey and tell him.. I can't do it anymore, I'm done. Yeah, persistence my butt. I was cold and hungry. I was sick of driving around. I wanted to go home and watch Wendy Williams. So I get home and look at the Wal-mart website to see if you can still get the gift card if you buy it online. That's when I see the little area that says "find in store" enter zip code and whoosh, you know which store to go too. UGH.... extreme aggravation ensues. Finish chicken nuggets or go to the Asheboro Walmart and get the wii. It take approximately 2 minutes to realize that if I didn't go then I would regret it. Bundle baby up.. put the lone chicken nugget in his hand to snack on going down the road... grab my drink and we are gone! Wendy Williams will be on tomorrow, no big deal.

I get to the Asheboro Walmart and they are there!!! I wanted to weep with joy! They were really magnificent in there square white boxes sitting there proudly with my name written all over it : )

Now all I had to do was get someone over there to open it and then I could buy it and go home!
So I'm standing there with a fussing baby, who has been very good up until now. A guy has come up and is opening the door for the woman standing next to me. And this part was quite funny since I have worked retail and I knew what was going on.

She was fidgeting excessively she was nervous and couldn't look anyone in the eye.

The guy who is really big opens the case and hands her a Nintendo DS.

"Can I open it?" She flips it over and scans the box.

"no," he says patiently.

"Umm.. can I pay for it up front?"

"no, you have to pay for it back here." calmly.

"okay.. "

She is still looking at it when I ask him to get my wii. (my wii! hahaha) He waited til she handed it back and then he got my wii : )

When I finally was able to hold it in my hands and finely able to go back home I was so happy!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

P.S. I love Wal-Mart.

"I have come that you may have life." John 10:10

continued...

After going to church and being obedient to the Lord I was felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulder. I had been wanting to go back to church for so long and every Sunday that passed, it got harder to go back. I knew I needed to go back, I wanted to go back, but I was scared. So after going to church I knew I couldn't go back and I just had to get online and do some research. The first thing I was looking for was where was it? I knew that if it took longer than 25 minutes to get there, we would have an easy excuse for not going. I didn't want excuses. The second thing was I wanted to non-denominational, but leaning towards Baptist. The third thing was that I wanted them to have stuff going on. A youth program, a good nursery, community outreach, etc. I didn't want to approach looking for a church like shopping for groceries, but you have to consider these things.

The church that I went to before me and my husband started dating, was very small. There was only 3 people in the youth group, 1 of which was my brother. I was the only single person in the entire church and let me tell you, when your single and you have absolutely NO ONE to relate to, its hard. Thankfully I went to church with my parents, so my situation (being single) was not so bad. I honestly respect those single people who go to church by themselves. I know that it must be hard. So it was very important to us that Alex have peers at church, who could encourage him and he could relate too.

I looked for a day or two. I was starting to think that we would be on the church search for a lot longer. When I found Life Community Church I was estatic! It has a million different things going on. It really seemed great. I was excited. I was apprehensive. I looked up directions on Map quest and it is 25 minutes from our house! As I said before, I was really excited! I told my husband when he got home. His unemotional response was, "okay we'll try in on Sunday." He is always like that, it drives me crazy! I get so emotional and he is just like... dead grass. He just doesn't get excited, at all. But on the flip side of that when something bad happens, he is the calm in the storm, and for that I am extremely grateful.

Back to the subject : )

Once again, we dropped the baby off at his mothers, which was on the way. I wore the same outfit as the Sunday before. The service we were going to started at 10:30, we got there at 10:20. It probably took 5 minutes to walk from our car to the front door. When we walked in people were standing around everywhere, and there were monitors in the entry way that had a countdown. I assumed that that was when the service started and we were waiting for the previous service to let out. I kinda liked how synchronized it was. It was cool. I like having a plan and an order. My husband later would tell me that he liked some spontaneity. At about three minutes till the service started we were able to go in and sit down. It was not a normal church, per-se. It was big, there was no stained glass windows, it was rather plan with beige walls and a long platform in the front. The choir was already moving to the front. I knew that had this down to the minute when the second the timer stopped the singing started. I loved it.

I really felt good during the singing, but then I remembered I had felt pretty good about the other church too. So I reserved judgement until the end. The sermon started and well. whoa. I loved it. The sermon was "why do bad things happen to good people?" Whoa. He did great. Hard topic, but great explanation.

http://www.yourlifecommunity.com/?p=669

There's the link so if you want to listen to it! How cool is that?!

Anyways one of the things that really stood out to me, was when we prayed the preacher actually knelt down. I have never seen anyone do it, but I was very effected by the humility of the gesture.

They sent around visitor cards during the singing. (you stay seated if your a visitor) we filled it out. We got a letter like two days later : ) We were also invited to meet the pastor in the hospitality room right off of the sanctuary. Which was nice because sometimes you get lost in the crowd and never really meet the pastor. We even got a $5.00 coupon for Brewster's Ice cream! You can't tell me that that's not really cool. Talk about treating visitors right! wow.

Needless to say, the church made quite an impression. If you live anywhere near Jamestown North Carolina, then you need to come see! Its great.

We talked about it and as usual, my husband, was, "it was okay. it was a good sermon." yeah that's his equivalent of fireworks. LOL

The next weekend we weren't able to go because the entire family was sick. : (

But that is my church search experience. I hope that you were able to glean something from my experience to maybe help with yours. God Bless!

The Cross, a Bible, and Jesus.

I seen something today that I wanted to share with you. I posted this morning, but this is pretty great so I want to share now. LOL

Today I went to visit and have lunch with my mom at work. She is a manager at Salvation Army. I am a HUGE thrift store lover so its really great that she works there! I was looking for some clothes to wear to church. I mean who wants to wear the same thing every Sunday?? Not me. And amazingly I actually found something!! I couldn't believe. I have the hardest time finding clothes anywhere much less at thrift store, then its almost impossible! But I did! I found a really great red and black blouse to go with my one pair of black dress pants. It fit perfect and I LOVE IT! But the real find of the day was this beautiful dark gray pant set from Sag Harbor!! It looked so good when I tried it on, I almost cried. God knew I needed clothes and he provided them, for $11 no less! That's a pretty huge God moment. I was really overwhelmed with gratitude.

We had a really great time, having lunch and talking. Sometimes it feels like we are more sisters than mother and daughter. As you may know, my father died in the middle of January. So she is really having a hard time. They were married 27 years. And although he is in Heaven now and out of pain. I know it still kills her to go to bed alone every night, and come home to find him not there. I know its killing her. But thankfully I also know God. The will of God will never take you were the grace of God won't keep you. Although sometimes its hard to remember that when the emotional pain is so hard to bear. Please keep her in your prayers.

On the way home, on the side of the road, there was a man. A young man with a life size wood cross that said Jesus and a Bible in his hand. He had this huge cheesy grin on his face, but it was beautiful. Because he was doing something that was just absolutely amazing. He was on the busiest road in the entire city and he wasn't ashamed. That's beautiful. I was astounded by the simplicity of his message. A bible, a cross, and Jesus. I loved it that he didn't see a reason to wear a sandwich board with a bible verse (although there is nothing wrong with that!) or a message of condemnation! It was absolutely amazing. I can honestly say I have never seen anything like it.

But it made me wonder.

Would I be willing to do that? On the busiest road? I doubt it. I don't even know if I would be willing to do that in my small neighborhood, much less the busiest road in town!
Then my next thought was, why? Was I ashamed? No. Was I too concerned that people may look at me like a freak? Maybe. Or was it that I was too concerned with myself to worry about someone else's salvation? I hope not, I seriously hope not. I know that I wasn't the only person that man effected. I know that I wasn't the only person amazed at his courage. I know that I am not the only one asking the question. "would I do that?"

All he had was a cross, a Bible and Jesus, but I think that's all he needed.


Theres only one song that can be here.

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

....continued


That Sunday we woke up and we got ready. I was so so nervous. I kept rushing everybody along and trying to get there early. We did end up getting there early. 20 minutes too early. lol. We drove into the parking lot and there was an older man who was sitting in his car, waiting on the time to go in I guess. (we were only going to preaching) So we waited and waited and waited. It felt like forever. But 10:45 did eventually arrive and we got out of the car. Where did we go?? The front door, the side door? We didn't know. I ,of course thought well that's easy go in the front door. Yeah not that easy. See on there website they had two services for there 11 o'clock service, one traditional, one contemporary. Which was one of the reasons I had thought this church was a good option. I didn't mind traditional , that was how I grew up. We didn't have contemporary services. I mean we were BAPTIST! Drums? umm.. no. that would surely send you to hell. A song that wasn't wrote back in 1755? nope.. obviously these young whipper snappers who write these songs today are led by some young radical God that we don't know! The God back then, can't be the same God as now! Okay, so maybe that was a drastic example, but still.
As I said, there was a traditional service and a contemporary service at 11 o'clock. We walked up to a side door and heard music so my husband, the logical non nervous one , led us there. I was having a hard time trusting him, I wanted to blend in! Act like we had been going there forever and it wasn't a big deal. I didn't want to ask for directions! Just go in the front door! Anyways, thankfully I just followed him and shut my big mouth. He went in and there was a young woman singing with a band made of teenagers! It was pretty cool, seeing these young kids being the band.

There was a large wood box thing on the back wall, when we walked in. (where they run the equipment) There was a guy there so honey asked him. And he said the contemporary service was held there and the traditional was held in the sanctuary. So we just say down and stayed in there. We sat in the back , of course, blending in and so we had a quick escape route! The service started with singing. It was pretty great, I knew the songs. I felt confident. I was praising the Lord and it felt great! I was were I needed to be! I was so happy!

The associate pastor got up on the platform and made some announcements. One made me pause. He said "next week we have something special planned for you. The preacher will be preaching live over here and I will be preaching live in the sanctuary. The preacher has asked me to preach a sermon about my vision for the church.." Okay did you catch that? Live, we will be preaching live? I already had a pretty good idea what he meant. But I was still hoping it wasn't true. It was putting A LOT of emphasis on it being LIVE. But I was like okay cool no big deal. I just assumed that the associate pastor would be the one preaching the sermon in this service. It made sense. I mean he seemed like a very easy going, friendly guy. I was still optimistic.

But then.. the associate pastor sat down on a chair in the corner of the platform and the projector was turned on. oh my. And the next thing I see in the preacher.. on the screen... preaching.

This next part may seem overly critical. It may seem like I am judging him. I'm not. What went on is between him and God.. and his congregation. I am only an observer honestly seeking a God-fearing, people loving church.

He started with a loud, orators voice. You know what I'm talking about. There voice goes up and down and up and down. It was like a roller coaster. But no big deal. as I said I'm baptist. Baptists probably invented that move! Next he introduces the topic for the sermon. Tithing. Now before you draw conclusions. I know that we are to tithe. Its a basic biblical principle. I also believe it should be taught in love.. and compassion and understanding. It wasn't, at all.
One of the first things he says, " I hate television evangelists..."

Umm.. Billy Graham, Joyce Meyer?? umm.. Charles Stanley? Are you serious? umm.. serious doubts are coming up now. Very serious doubts. Later on in the message he says, " you give money to TV evangelists?? Then next time you get sick call THEM and ask them to visit you when your sick!" ummm.. okay.. shifting in my seat.. very uncomfortable. You mean that's why we tithe?? To pay the preacher to come see us when we are sick.. hmm.. well, I didn't know that. I thought we did it in obedience to God and you visited out of love.. yeah crazy concept.

Then he talks about if you pay your tithes that God will bless you. God will provide all your needs and then he kept repeating, "Blessings don't mean bucks, blessings don't mean bucks." umm.. I understand that to a point, but if we are serving the same God. Then God def does give money as blessings, IF you can handle it. If its in his will. He just kept repeating it. Then he says "God will provide your needs not your wants." WHOA! What?? are you talking about GOD? Because in my experience God has provided a million of my wants, some of them even before I want it! God is constantly proving that HE is a giver of needs and WANTS. I could right now, at this very moment give you a list of the wants he has provided in the past month!

In the bible it says, "speak the truth in love." "without love you are as a clanging cymbal!"

I am by nature (human nature) a critical person. I know that. I pray about it and I'm honestly trying to work on it. That's why when we got out of church (running) and into the car (with the windows rolled up) and out of the parking lot (in case they could read lips) We discussed it.
My husband agreed with me. He seen the same thing I did. It seemed like the preacher was the controlling element of the church, nothing happened that he didn't want. Like maybe letting the associate pastor preach to the contemporary service. I can only imagine the battle that went into trying to get the contemporary service! And the drums to play in the service! I honestly can't imagine.

We prayed about it, seriously discussed it, and we decided later than evening, that we would not be going back to that church. I was extremely discouraged. I just didn't understand why God didn't bless our search and let us find the right church the first time! Then my husband said something that put it all in to prospective. "We did what we were supposed to do. we obeyed God." And that's when I realized that, that was the real reason for going.

Joyce Meyer has a sermon she teaches about mountains. Mountains being problems. When we have a mountain there is a lesson to learn every time. You learn the lesson, the mountain moves, you don't learn the lesson, the mountain stays and you just keep going around it. In this case my mountain was just obeying God. Do the right thing. Why do I know that? Because the next week.. that mountain was GONE!


...stay tuned for Part three, the final conclusion to our family church search!

I am the bride of Christ!

I am a christian, in case you didn't notice. : ) I am not perfect, I have a million flaws, but thankfully through Jesus I am without shame or guilt. He's still working on me, making me what I ought to be. I sang those words when I was younger, not understanding what they really meant, but in the past couple of weeks I have really started to cling to those words.

Since Alex has been born we have went not went to church, hardly at all. I have been really convicted and I know that I can't be what God wants me to be without it. I have struggled and come up the excuses, and I have struggled with my own insecurities. But I had finely decided that I needed to put those excuses away and go, for Alex's sake. I don't want him to go through life and not understand Jesus, not have Jesus. He is always watching Veggietales and I am always singing about Jesus and talking about Jesus, but that's not enough. I knew that we had to do something. One of the excuses was I didn't have anything to wear, I didn't. I did consider wearing jeans and a nice shirt and I knew that if the entire congregation frowned upon that , I would probably say, nah. not for us. I didn't want that pressure, I was nervous enough. I wanted to blend in, not stand out.

So I told God that if he would find me a shirt the next day (it was Saturday) we would go to church. I knew that God would help me. He always does.

We went to Carolina thrift in search for something to wear. I have not lost the baby weight from Alex, if anything I have gained, so its not a small task to find me something to wear. I found several things but they didn't look like they fit, and the others I found didn't match anything I had. So back to square one. I knew as I stood there that God would provide. He's constantly providing and surprising me with his generosity and love.

I decided that I could get away with my black dress pants, but what about a shirt? We went to Wal-mart next to get groceries. I found this really great Norma Kamali Blouse for $5!!! I absolutely love it!

Some of you may say that God doesn't work like that, but I disagree. I know that God knows all my needs and amazingly he understood my battle, he understood the way I felt and he said, "its okay, I'll take care of it."

Part 1 church battle was over. Clothes, check.

The next part of the battle was whether to take Alex to the first service. I wanted to, I really did, but the logical side said that it would be easier to try to out before we get into the whole nursery thing. I mean what of the church we went to were wackos? (Trust me, there out there!)

And not to mention hes never had to stay with anyone that wasn't family! So my husband called his mom and it was set up for him to stay with her during our adventure. (by now, that's what it was!)

Part 2 church battle was over. Alex, check.

I had already found the church I wanted to go to, it was Baptist. We where set. I was so nervous! I hate going to new places like that! But that night we prayed and I had been telling God about my battle, he understood. Because that night after me and my husband had had read the Bible and prayed about it, I laid down and tried to think about it logically.

Why was I going to church? To worship God and be obedient to him.

That was the bottom line. I wasn't going to do anything more than that. I didn't have to worry about people not liking me or not thinking I was dressed appropriately. That didn't matter!

And that's when God showed me the perfect illustration to get me through it!

Preparing for our wedding was kind of a nightmare. If it wasn't one thing to worry about it was the other. The church, the bridesmaids, the honeymoon, hectic, craziness! I was stressed out a lot of the time, We pretty much done it on our own. But even in all the craziness, when I walked through those church doors and laid my eyes on my beloved, none of it mattered. I didn't care if people were swinging from the chandeliers. All that matted was that I was marrying the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with!

And that's when the light bulb came on! As long as I kept my eyes one my beloved, nothing else mattered! I was his bride! I could handle this! Its amazing that God used that illustration to show me what it was all about, because in the bible, the church is the bridegroom of Christ! I am part of the church. I am saved and sanctified and every other thing that goes along with being the church!

Stayed tuned for part 2 of the Church search!

Hope everyone has a great day : )

Eclectic, thats me.

So I haven't blogged in a while and now I am back. : ) I was getting frustrated with coming up with only blog posts about my garden, since this is pretty much the first year of my garden. There really wasn't that much going on. Plus, I have hobby A.D.D. , meaning that after a week or two of doing something I need something new. Its aggravating and its frustrating. I see these people who are constantly blogging about there gardens and that's pretty much all they blog about. I am trying to be like you! But I can't. I am just too extremely eclectic. I am interested in everything! I have a million different ideas, plans, and interests. I want to start one thing and stick to it, but I can't!
For example, my husband found this really great (FREE) online game for us to play. No I am not a gamer, but in this situation, I was, BIG TIME! It took us a month and a half and we got to level 50. I was devoting way too much time to it, it took time away from things that were much more important, so I slowed down. And that was the death of the obsession. I haven't played in over a week and can't say that I will be again for awhile. Yup, A.D.D.
My current obsession is knitting! I found some really great Knifty Knitter looms and wah-lah. Obsession begins. Within a day of realizing that not only did I love it, but I could make Christmas gifts with it! So I started the project of knitting wonderful knit hats for everybody in my husbands family! Yeah, my family? another story all together. It took me a week and a half to knit 16 hats! When I get obsessed with something I go all out! LOL!
So the entire point of this rambling about my eclectic obsessions is that I now understand that I have to embrace the way God made me. Things always work out better that way anyways.
Now I will blog about anything, and everything. Well, except politics.

Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death. ~Author Unknown

I want to start this post by thanking everyone who commented about my last post. I really appreciate your comments. Thank you : )

If you have been following me this year or if you have looked at past posts then you will know that I started this garden from scratch this year and it has taken off! But as you can see from the bottom right corner that is where the down spout is, so the mulch has washed away. My honey is in the process of creating a french drain so we will not have that problem again.

This is the cockscomb I started from seed this year. I really need to divide them... Plus this is the only flower that honey has liked. ( the red one)



This is the limelight hydrangea before I cut the blooms off to use as cut flowers again. I can't believe they have bloomed again this soon!

This is one of the three Lisianthus's I bought on clearance at Wal-mart. This is the only survivor. : (

This is more cockscomb that needs dividing. I really love the fluffy blooms!

This is the frosty cherry hydrangea I planted last fall

I just love this watering can/planter. It has orange Ice geraniums planted in it.

LOOK! My $1 hibiscus tree bloomed! I LOVE IT!

Remember those really tacky* decorations from home interiors that EVERYONE owned?? Well, I found some at Salvation Army and just knew that they would be great as garden decor. Well, after I painted them of course.

*- tacky is a matter of opinion please do not be offended if you have some hanging in your house.

Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway. ~Mary Kay Ash

I haven't posted in awhile so I have a lot of pictures I want to share with, but I don't want to bore you with all of them in one post. So stay tuned : )

This is from the "Limelight" Hydrangea that my honey bought me for Mother's Day! I love using these blooms for cut flowers!


This is a cloche I got at Salvation Army for $1.99 and I couldn't resist after seeing everyone Else's vignettes with cloches. (sorry if I didn't spell that right) So here is mine that I filled with cherry Magellan zinnias.

This is a crappy picture, but these are the Zinnias near the driveway. They are great cut flowers!

This is the wall of morning Glory's.

I really didn't think it would ever get this full!

Here is the cherry Magellan zinnia.

I had to put the cherry zinnias with the marigolds since the all the seeds for the zinnias didn't germinate!! I think it looks happy : )

This has turned out to be my very favorite part of the yard. When I walk out the smell is intoxicating along with the butterfly's and bees that are constant visitors. Which was the entire point of the garden.

My husband thinks we should line the driveway with the balsam next year. What do you think?
The balsam is on the left side of the steps.

I trimmed down the Snapdragons that were in the front of the zinnias and they are currently sitting in the garage so I can steal the seeds : ) YAY! Hopefully they will re bloom in the fall!




I hope you have a great day and Happy Gardening!

Love is like a butterfly: It goes where it pleases and it pleases wherever it goes. ~Author Unknown

I haven't had much time to post lately, but I will soon. This is just a collage that I created and I wanted to share with you. You can click on the image to enlarge it. Enjoy : )

Hope everyone has a great day!

"Strive for excellence, not perfection, because we don't live in a perfect world." ~ Joyce Meyer

Just wanted to show some of the things we have been working on. We as in me and my honey, who helps cutting wood and other manly stuff. LOL not really I'm just scared of the skill saw!

That's me!

I think maybe this should of said "beware of the snap dragons" but alas. no more room. : )



My favorite quote from Joyce Meyer!

Anyone want any weeds?!

That is my fantastic husband staining the boards for our raised bed shade garden.

Now I'm just bragging. My husband built this fold down work bench for the garage because he was sick of me using his work space, now we have separate areas. Now if only I can convince him to paint it....

Its amazing what a coat of paint will do

The trellis my honey made me!!! But what do I put on it?? Clematis or climbing Roses???

The bed with the snapdragon sign...for obvious reasons : )



I hope everyone has a great day and Happy Gardening!

PS. We need a rain dance too!