In His Grip

Wedding Post #2 -- The Fashion

On day two of the wedding post I will be highlighting the fashion that was part of the big day.  We have known for a long time that Paula would fit right into the family but when she said the colors for the wedding were pink and gray, confirmed it for us. I always say, when in doubt, pink is always the right choice.  As far as we are concerned the "right" choice has been made all around.  I helped Paula with the alterations for her dress, so it was at our house in Kansas City for a couple of weeks.  I came upon the idea to embroider the wedding date into the hem of her dress as a surprise. Needless, to say she loved the added special touch.  Paula's dress was beautiful and she was a stunner.  For the reception she added a pink satin sash with a fabric flower and antique broach in the middle.  I am so disappointed that I did not get a good picture of the sash, as it added a fun, yet sophisticated element to the dress for the party.  In looking through photos of Ryan for the slide show at the reception, I realized I had been posing him for pictures of his clothes since he was a little boy.  So why would that be any different on his wedding day.  All I had to say was, I need to take a piccture of your outfit and he struck "the" pose.  The entire bridal party wore Toms shoes, the gals wearing gray wedges and the guys black lace ups. What a great looking group the wedding party made.  More detail to come.  

 

Wedding Post #1 -- Crafts & Details

This is the first of several posts that will highlight the fabulous wedding that my son and his new wife (I love saying that) created for us all to celebrate. On August 19th our son married the one that stole his heart and we added another daughter to our family. I arrived on the Tuesday before the wedding to help with some last minute details.  Ryan, Paula, and I had a great time finishing up some of the crafty kinds of things that they wanted to make their wedding a one of a kind.

The two of them came up with the idea that instead of having a guest book, they had a guest box that they made. The guests were able to write a note of well wishes to the bride and groom and place it in the box behind the proper alphabetical heart.  

The large gray bucket had all of the bubbles for the bride and groom get away and the small pink damask buckets were for the flower girls to drop their petals from.  We spent a couple of late nights embellishing all of these items. The small buckets were Mod Podged with pink and white scrapbook paper and I love how they turned out.  

Ryan and Paula designed and put together the programs as well.  I cannot tell how long it took to punch all those holes and then run the ribbon through each one, but in the end, the additional effort was so worth it.  There are more details to come so check back real soon.

Digging for Key Chains

Not long ago I found this great key chain tutorial on-line. Because I am forever digging in my purse to find my keys, I thought that if I had a bright, cheery key chain it just might make this unearthing process a bit easier. The fact that I carry a purse the size of a small carry on bag is beside the point. Cute, cheery, and size makes finding my keys a whole lot easier.  Knowing my friends might have this, mining for keys trouble as well, I found these initials, stitched them to wool felt, trimmed the edges and stitched them to my circles of fabric and easy peasy, key chains that are cute, cheery and quite frankly, the size matters.

I am participating in the following link ups:  Sew Can Do, Boogieboard Cottage, Sew Chatty, Dittle Dattle, Pinkapotmus, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Making the World Cuter, Its So Very Cheri, Keeping It Simple, The DIY Showoff, Fabric Bows and More, My Girlish Whims, Goodbye City, Hello Suburbs, Its So Stinkin Cute, Somewhat Simple, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Tales From Blogeritaville, Gluesticks, Mommivore's Dilemma, Beyond the Picket Fence, Happy Hour, Between Naps on the Porch, Skip to My Lou

Scab Dab Miracle

I have found this fabulous miracle cure for a wicked blister I got from my "mother of the groom" shoes over the weekend.  The shoes that I wore were a beautiful light bronze pointy toed pump and to be honest with you I spent more on my shoes than I did my dress.  I was bound and determined to wear them the entire night so I did not even bring any change of shoes with me to the reception.  Half way through the night I just could not even walk because not only did I have a blister but the skin had torn as well.  Luckily our hotel was right across the street and my niece Rebekah was willing to go over and get my bronze flip flop, urgh!  I went from a very sophisticated pump to $2 Old Navy flip flops, seriously?  Unless, I was going to sit the entire party this was the only option and I am not a barefoot kind of gal.  However,  Scab Dab to the rescue.  I just dabbed a little on my blister and the pain is gone and it is almost totally healed, yay!  This is the best stuff ever and it is natural too, if that matters to you.  All I know is, it really does work.

Shoes. . .Does there have to be a reason?

There is a something about me that you might not know.  If there is a big event going on in my life I buy shoes.  I never really noticed this about myself until my friends pointed it out to me. Apparently, I have "my Dad is having heart surgery shoes", "I am supporting my friend because her Dad had a heart attack shoes", "my Dad has lung disease shoes", of course there are now "I am the mother of the groom shoes", and the most recent purchase, "I am supporting my friend through her grief shoes."  According to my daughters the list is much longer than this. Now, I know this makes me seem very sallow and I am not sure why in my highs and lows of life I buy shoes, but as pointed out by those closest to me it is true.  I think it comes from my growing up.  After all, we had "back-to-school shoes", "Christmas shoes", "Easter shoes", I believe there was a "I am going to my Aunt's funeral shoes" in there too.  Granted as a child these shoes were necessary as I was probably growing fast enough to require shoes for all those events. I guess as an adult in order to get new shoes I need some kind of event, not necessarily somewhere to go, just a reason to buy shoes.  Call a girl crazy, but I like shoes.

Living Life Together

In the past I may have used the phrase living life together a little flippantly.  This group of women are the gals that I often talk about who meet at 6:30am each Saturday morning for coffee and spending time together.  Over the course of 30 days we will have truly lived the very highest and lowest of lows in life.  As a group we have and will continue to help each other live, the death of a 22 year old nephew, the death of an American hero, and the passing of a much loved father-in-law. And yet these gals will also live and celebrate the birth of a grand baby and the marriage of a child.  How is one such precious group of women able to live this roller coaster?  We are doing this together, along with our faith and hope in Christ.  We may not know how to do this the "right" way, but just walking through it hand in hand knowing that someone is always there to prop you up when you can no longer stand, is "right" in and of itself. Loving each other enough to be there to weep and mourn and in that grief recognizing that there are celebrations as well is a true testament of the deepest kind of friendship there is.  I love these gals and we are truly living life together.

Three Word Thursday

Honoring a soldier . . .

Material Obsession

Yesterday, my daughter Anna and I went to the local Borders Book store closing sale.  We were in search of fun craft books that we would not normally buy but rather borrow from our public library.  With the "everything must go" sale going on we figured these books would be more reasonably priced and besides that we had a gift card that needed using before the store went out of business.  Material Obsession 2 book was the one that I just had to have.  Just look at the picture of the rows of fabrics.  I open to this picture fist and the book had me. This kind of image just makes my mind go crazy with ideas and inspiration.  I can spend hours in a fabric store, my children can back me up on this one, just looking at all of the artistic design and bright colors.  

Here is a picture of me taken back last January at a great little fabric store in Lawrence, Sarah's Fabrics.  I could have spent hours there just browsing.  There is just something about textiles that makes me want to touch them, imagine, and then ultimately create something from them.  Now this is going to sound a little "cheese ball", but I think they speak to me.  For real!!!

Three Word Thursday

Serving hungry families . . .

Roadside Pick Up

Look at this great little chest of drawers.  Jeff and I were driving in a neighborhood near our home and I saw this chest out by the trash can with a FREE sign taped to it.  Seriously, of course I shout to my husband stop we have to pick up that chest.  His response is "We are not stopping and picking that up in the light of day.  You can wait until it is dark."  Clearly with the cute factor of the chest involved here I knew that it would not be there when it got dark.  I dropped Jeff off at the house that we were going to and went back and loaded up the little chest in broad daylight.  I am just not that proud when it comes to a cute chest just waiting for me for FREE, hello!  I think is it fine just like it is and it is a bit wobbly, but I am thinking a new coat of paint and some creative fixing to one of the feet in back it will go from trash to a fabulous treasure.   I will post the makeover soon.   Hmmm, what color should it be?

Life Can Overflow

What if my life was like a fountain? What if hope, grace, peace, and love flowed freely, never drying up or feeling depleted?  Try as I might to fill that top bowl of my "fountain" with the things of this world, approval, accumulating stuff, gaining advantage, etc. it never seems to fill up enough to spill out into the bowl below and then the bowl beyond that.  Trying to fill my own fountain makes me weary and ultimately burned out.  But when I build into my day time to pray and do a devotion, somehow that top bowl begins to fill and the more often I do this, the fuller that bowl becomes and starts to spill over into the next bowl and my fountain begins to flow over into other areas of life.  My desire and quite frankly, struggle, is to live a life that is overflowing with the love of Christ that it may even be splashing onto things I do not even expect or imagine.  

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." ~ John 7:37-38