In His Grip

Three Word Thursday

24 churches worshiping together!

 
 

 

Am I Beautiful?

I believe every woman no matter where she lives or what she does for a living deep down, somewhere in her soul, wants to be beautiful.  There are gals I have met that insist this is not true, but you know what, I don't believe them.  I will admit that I want to be beautiful, maybe it is not as important to be beautiful to everyone, but there are certainly people in my life I want to think that I am beautiful.  Now I am going to say, I have had people in my life that I never doubted thought I was beautiful.  My Dad told me from the time I can remember, every time I saw him just how beautiful he thought that I was.  Although, I am sure this was a biased opinion, that did not matter.  I knew that he thought I was beautiful.  As a little girl to a grown woman I never got tired of him telling me just that.  One of the first things that I told Jeff after my Dad passed away was that I was going to need to hear him tell me I was beautiful because my Dad was no longer here to do that for me.  And what a great husband I have because he has really stepped it up in the "Judy, you look great today".  He is really not a "beautiful" word kind of guy, but you know what, it works for me.  I want my beauty to come from inside as well and that is where I have to rely on God to give me the beauty that will permeate from His heart into mine allowing myself full exposure and vulnerability to those I do life with.  To trust Him and offer my true self to those around me is hard at times but I know, again, deep down God says I am beautiful and I want to live in that. 

Show me your face, let me hear your voice;

For your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.

Song of Solomon 2:14

Pink Bench is a Hit!

So apparently this fun, pink bench has been a big hit in the world of blogs.  Last week I had a huge amount of people visiting my blog to check out my bench.  I cannot take the credit for the idea as I found it over a year ago on Junk Market Style. Now I will take credit for choosing to make my bench pink, what other choice was there? Junk Market Style is a great website for all kinds of re-purpose items and I visit them regularly for creative inspiration.  But I cannot help but let everyone know that this bench is now being featured on two different websites, The DIY Show Off and Keeping it Simple.  I have to say that it is so much fun to have others like a project that you do so much so that they show others on their blog.  Go on over and visit these sites and see not only my bench but some other very fun projects.  Have a great Monday and take a little time to make something pink today!

Spruced up Planting Containers

In looking at the pots that hold my hibiscus trees, I realized that they were looking a little faded and worn out.  My kids gave me these trees for Mother's Day five years ago and they have be re-potted once, but with the harsh Kansas sun the plastic type pots tend to fade pretty quickly.  With the price of the beautiful ceramic pots of over $75 each, I put my creative mind to work to find a way to re-purpose my faded, tired containers that I already have.  I really like the black pots with a white accent on the textured areas.  So I asked Jeff if he thought spray paint would work.  Now why I asked him I am not sure because of course he did not think that spray paint would stick.  Whatever!

 
You can always count on your handy, dandy, Rust-olem spray paint.  I happen to choose a black satin, indoor/outdoor variety and went to town covering my faded, tired, plastic pots.

I wanted the texture to show up a little better so I added a white with a technique called dry brushing.  Yeah, I know, it sounds hard, but it is really quite easy and is simply using a very stiff brush putting paint on it and then wiping most of it off and then dabbing your project.  You are using hardly any paint and just add a little bit at a time until you have the desired effect.

I love how they turned out.  Although I wanted black, the contrast would have been too much with the other pink things on the porch as well as cooking the roots of my hibiscus trees.  So I like how the white tones down the black and really shows off the design of the pots.  My final step was to spray a clear coat just to seal it and give it a little more protection from the elements. 

 

Three Word Thursday

Two "payback" children!

Game On Mr. Squirrel!

I have had these adirondack chairs on my patio for over ten years.  My father made a set for me and my sisters one year as gifts.  They happen to be my favorite lounge chairs.  Just last week, my Mom put a new coat of stain on them for me and we were talking about how much I wanted to take care of them even more now that my Dad had passed away.  I went out and purchased another can of stain to get one more coat on to help give them that added protection against the harsh elements of Kansas.  Who knew that one of the harsh elements would include "Mr. Squirrel".  I have never been a big fan of Mr. Squirrel and have been known to call him a rat with a bushy tail.  There has also been times when I have declared war on these pesky little animals in the past.  That was when he was only eating my bird seed and pulling up a couple of bulbs.  But this is a whole new level of violation.

But Mr. Squirrel will not know what hit him after I found this evidence of his destructive little teeth on my beloved adirondack chairs.  Earlier in the day, I saw Mr. Squirrel sitting on my chair and did not really think much about it.  The chairs were sitting out in the yard and later I went to move them to the patio so that Jeff could mow when he got home and that is when I found this destruction.

Mr. Squirrel, just so you know, you will not win this game against my precious adirondack chairs.  I am bigger then you, smarter than you, and dog gone it I DO NOT LIKE YOU.  Back away from the chairs, because you are going down. 

I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Oh, I'm not going to lie, I know exactly what I'm going to do but I will not incriminate myself here.  Just know the game is on and Mr. Squirrel will not win!  If you have any suggestions on how to win against Mr. Squirrel please leave a comment.

Bed to Front Porch Bench

I have been looking forward to spring so that I could break out my latest inspiration.  About a year and half ago I read this post on Junk Market Style about how to make an old bed into a bench.  With my bench on the front porch almost rotten clear through I knew that this would be my solution and started looking for an old bed that would work. 

Last week at the Goodwill I cam upon this twin bed frame for all of $7.00.  What a great deal, don't you think?  I figured it would be perfect for my front porch project.

I started by cutting the foot board in half.  Actually, I ended up taking an additional 3" off each half to make the bench more in proportion. 

 
Before I started screwing anything together, I sanded each of the pieces to take some of the paint off so that when I gave it my finial coat of paint the wood would show through.  The next step was to screw the foot board onto the headboard to create the right and left sides of the bench.

 
If you notice, I also shaped the foot board pieces so that they would fit better at the back and look like they were made that way.  Otherwise the foot board pieces would have hit the headboard above the flat part of the legs and it just would have been weird.

I then built a box inside the bench out of 2x4's.  This gave a place to attach the slats for the seat of the bench.  I also painted the 2x4's and the slats with Kilz to help keep this bench from rotting as it will be outside on the front porch. 

I went to our local Wal-Mart on a quest for a soft pink spray paint and found this great ballet pink.  So being the spray paint artist that I am, I coated the bench with the two coast of the pink paint and when it was dry I took my handy sander to it.  I love the shabby chic look that sanding off part of the paint gives.  
  
This bench will make its debut on our front porch this Spring.  I cannot wait for the pink porch.  Check back here and I will have more pictures as the pink porch emerges.

 

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The Pink Door

Back in the spring of 2007  I wanted to spruce up the front of our house so I decided to paint the front door pink.  I had no idea at the time what a BIG deal this was.   I had so many people make comments about the color of the door, from friends, people at church, and co-workers.  Who knew that a pink door would make such an impression on those around us.  Not only did I have people who liked it, but that quart of paint went fast as pink doors popped up all over town. This door has changed colors many times since then.  But all good things will always come back and so the pink front door is back. The color is the same, but I have decided to change things up this time.  I will post next week with some of the changes I have made to the front porch.  We are going with a pink porch motif.  I asked Jeff if he was okay with it, he said "After the pink Christmas, I kind of expected it."  You gotta to love the man who lets me express my love for color even if it is on the front porch.

Three Word Thursday

She's been hired!!!!!!!!!

 

Crocheted Spring Flowers

 
My newest craft obsession, if you want to call it that, is making crochet flowers.  They are quick and easy and can be used for so many things.  I have made a bunch and even wore one to church today on my dress as a corsage.  My girls are starting to confiscate them too to wear on t-shirts, to dress up a sweater, and even on a purse.

 

This crocheted flower obsession all started when began seeing crocheted flowers showing up in stores as pins and on sweaters.  The prices for these crocheted beauties were a little high for me.  My quest began to make my own and I found this book that has a wide variety of flowers, as well as skill levels.  I began practicing to see if I could actually make these colorful blossoms of fun.  As I am a self-taught crocheter, I am never quite sure I can actually read and accomplish what the pattern is trying to tell me.  But I found if you just follow the instructions step-by-step you will end up with a flower.  It is so freaking exciting!

I started gathering all different colors of yarn, colored string, and even some shinny raffia that I use for wrapping gifts.  If you could put a crochet hook around it I would try to make it into a flower.

 

 

Here are some of the flowers that I have made and I plan on making more as I find things to spruce up a bit with a little blossom of two, or three, or four!
 

Colors of Spring

Our yard is starting to burst with spring.  This is the tree in our front yard and the blossoms are only on the tree for about a week.  Although I love to look at it, the smell of these blossoms are not so good.  Since my girls were little they have called Bradford Pear trees in blossom, dirty pantie trees.  You gotta love the descriptions of small children.  However, this description has stuck with our family and does not always find itself appropriate in some company.  Which some how does not stop my girls, ha, ha:)

This is the third year for my bleeding hearts and they are coming up with a lot of blooms.  I love this plant and how great the flowers are.  Too bad they do not blossom all season.

 

Vinca minor is the best ground cover ever.  This is also the third year of this plant in our yard and it has gone crazy which is one of the reasons I planted it.  We have a creek that runs along the back of our yard and we were getting erosion along the creek bank so we needed a ground cover to help hold the soil in place.  It is now a cover of green with these wonderfull purple flowers.  I love it when flowers start appearing in my yard and I have not even gotten out there and work it.  Reminds me that spring comes every year whether I am out planting flowers or not.  God is good that way!!!!!! 

Three Word Thursday

Babies are coming!

The Last Song

My girls and I went and saw The Last Song this past weekend.  We had all read the book and knew that we wanted to see it together.  This is a great movie about family reconciliation more than it is a love story.  There are parts of the movie that are different than the book but that did not take away from the good message that the movie sends.  However, I would strongly reccomend the book as it goes into so much more detail of the lives of this family and how the father has had a heart change and renewing his relationship with God and wanting to make things right with his family.  This book ranks right up there with my all time favorites.  The story just affirms that when we let God make a difference in us it can't help but spill out on those around us. 

Tapestry From India

This is a tapestry that I purchased in September of 2008 on a trip to India.  I have known that I wanted, no, I needed to display it somewhere I would see it everyday and remember the people of India.  This week while shopping I found the perfect hooks to hang my tapestry on.  They started out a kind of worn beige and of course I wanted them to be a worn out red.  So out came my handy colonial red spray paint and a little wipe with a rag and, wa-lah, worn out red hooks.  Now this beautiful tapestry made of antique pieces of sarees  hangs in my studio where I will see it everyday and remember in prayer the people of India.  A part of my heart remains in the land of India, where I have seen the beauty of a people so different than me. 

Before I painted the hooks.

This is after I had spray painted and wiped off some of the paint.  You need to work quickly as spray paint begins to dry right away.  You need to paint and then wipe one at a time or the paint will be too dry to wipe off. 

Easter Cupcakes in Heaven?

With the big cupcake craze going on right now what else would we make for Easter dinner?  A couple of weeks ago I was shopping at Crate & Barrel and found these super fun giant sprinkles.  It went without saying that I would use them on our Easter dessert.  In keeping with the sprinkle theme, I used a Fun Fettie cake mix.  I always use an extra tablespoon of oil to make my cake just a little bit more moist.  On my way to church this morning I heard the song, Come to Jesus, by Chris Rice, and it made me think of my Dad and what this first Easter morning must be like for him in heaven.  Was he celebrating the day with all the rest of the heavenly hosts? Does he get to hear all of the wonderful Easter messages being shared throughout the world and cheer every time a new believer finds their way back to God?  One thing I do know, my Dad would have loved my Easter cupcakes along with a great big bowl of ice cream!  I just wonder if there are cupcakes and ice cream in heaven?  Happy Easter!

Three Word Thursday

A vintage Easter!