God is Working on Me

I debated about really writing anything about my faith, my church, or anything of the God nature on here because I was afraid I would lose my audience.

Quite frankly, I've lost some friendships throughout my growing process. I don't feel the loss was intentional or angry, just a growing apart process. It happens sometimes and I was afraid to lose anything else. 

This blog has always been a mish mash of DIY, day-in-the-life, and me getting my thoughts and opinions out in writing. So, there's never been a difinitive theme to my blog. This has been bothersome to me because it breaks all kinds of blog and author cohesiveness rules. 

But, you know what? 

My personality is a mish mash of random ramblings, so it's fitting my writing would be the same. 

Anyways, I've decided to go ahead and include posts about my faith in here since it's also a huge part of my life. If you don't particularly want to read these, then I understand. If you choose to quit reading my blog because of them, I just want you to know that I have appreciated your following and I hope one day in the future we can be friends again. 

With that being said, this last week has been depleting for me. I tend to have rose colored glasses about most situations. As most adults know, however, this world is really good at turning everything rose colored into that nasty gray that snow turns after it's been plowed. 

This week the world did that to me. Imagine my horror when (SURPRISE!) people were human and let me down with their behavior!

*gasp*

Oh! The horror!

You may have scoffed at that, but really, I had my blinders on about certain things (not just church) this week. 

By the end of Saturday night, I was depleted and skeptical of the world. 

If you know me,  you know that I have honest faith in people to the point of it being crippling to me at times. 

Then, it happened. 

I was let down. 

Imagine a child standing there in awe of their beautiful pink helium balloon... Just staring at it with a big, drooling smile. 

Then, imagine some jerk walking by, poking the balloon with a needle. 

Imagine the horror on the child's face as she watches her glorious pink balloon dangle from a string, shriveled and broken. 

That was me. 

I was angry. 

I was hurt. 

I wanted to immediately prepare for war. 

My balloon was burst. 

I went to church yesterday caring less about God's word. 

I mouthed angrily my worship song during practice. I didn't even really bother singing the hymns out loud. 

I sat in Sunday school participating in the discussion, but really at that point I just wanted to make silly faces at the cute baby sitting next to me. 

I stood, stoically, half-heartedly singing our songs in front of the congregation.

I shuffled/ stomped back to our pew after worship was over and prepared myself to get through my preacher's sermon that I typically enjoy. 

I just really, really didn't want to be there. 

Then it happened...

God placed in my pastor's heart one of the most humbling sermons I've heard in awhile. 

Every sentence made me cringe because it could have been talking about me. 

By the end of the service, I just wanted to get to the car before I burst into tears in front of the congregation. Not because I was hurt anymore, but because I was embarrassed. 

When I arrived at church that morning, I was angry for a good reason.  No one would argue that. However, instead of mirroring Jesus' actions, I was stuck in a continuous pity-party cycle and was throwing a hissy fit. 

I suppose it's that same gene that makes me naive to the world at times. 

We'll call it the Peter Pan gene. 

Or just immaturity. That would work, too.

I hate conflict, I want to like people. 

When I'm mad at someone, I'm mad at them for their actions, but I'm equally mad at them for giving me a reason to be mad at them. I just want to like everyone!

So that's what I have decided to do. 

I've decided to let my love for people overshadow their faults, because I have my faults, too, and I would hope they would show me that grace. 

I don't have to be mad. 

I don't have to feel let down. 

I don't have to be cynical. 

I choose to feel/be those things...

... And I simply choose not to anymore. 

You know what? It's freeing. 

Just as often as I have to remind myself that God is working on other people, I have to remind myself that He is working on me, too. 

I'm so thankful for that grace. 

Year of Pinterest #3- Chalkboard Key Holder

First of all, this project was inspired by many pins, so I couldn't 'pin' down one particular pin. 

See what I did there?

Also, this project was done at night, so the lighting on the pictures is very poor. 

Sorry!

Anyways, we've had the same key holder since we got married. It's painted hunter green (I thought that color was amazing back then.) Well, now it really, really doesn't match our color scheme... Or possibly any color scheme anywhere. 

So I kind of threw together a Frankenstein project and it goes something like this:

First, I found an empty picture frame with cardboard backing ( it needs to have plenty of wood at the bottom to be able to insert eye hooks.) I removed the glass because I want to change the message on mine frequently, but you don't have to. My picture frame was already the color I wanted, so I didn't have to paint it. 

Then I found some eye hooks. Mine were already white, so I didn't have to paint. 

See, this project was meant to happen. 

Once you've removed the cardboard from the picture frame, pull out your trusty Duck brand chalkboard contact paper and cut out the size of your backing. 

At our Wal-Mart, it was with the shelf liners in the home goods department. 

I would show you the picture, but these pictures really sucked. 

After the contact paper is cut,peel the   backing off and place the contact paper on the cardboard. 

Knees! I didn't crop out my knees! 

*sigh* Oh well. 

Push the contact paper covered cardboard back into the frame, and secure it. 

Then have your lovely husband drill holes and place eye hooks on the bottom of your frame. 

Then....

You get this! Woo hoo!

Good luck!

Year of Pinterest #2 - Button Tree

About two years ago I found a pin on Pinterest of a pretty tree with button leaves. 

Unfortunately, there was no website associated with this pin, so it sat on one of my boards, longing to be created. 

Today I grew a pair and made my button tree. 

I'm pretty crafty, I must admit, however, as far as painting and drawing, I skipped out on that gene pool. 

My mom is an amazing artist, but my drawings look like a 1st grader's art piece at best. So, taking a stab at this free-handed was terrifying. (I don't like to fail.)

First, I grabbed a pencil, eraser, sharpie, and a canvass. 

I traced out my tree (very timidly and lightly so I could erase mistakes easily) then I traced the outline with my sharpie. 

Next, I painted the tree black. Pretty simple, right? 

Touch up sloppy outlines with your sharpie. 

Also, neat tip (this one is my own) use a double up cupcake liner to hold your paint. Small, contained, and easy clean up. Just toss it when you're finished. 

After your paint dries, take some buttons (I chose white, but you can use any color, and the more variety of shapes and shades, the neater) and practice your placement. This is a good time to recruit your husband and children. It's a lot neater when you can look at your finished product an know everyone had a hand in it. 

Once you're happy with your button placement, start the tedious gluing process. I just used Elmer's glue. 

Lay on a flat surface to dry for about an hour, then...

TA-DA!

You have your finished product!

I would love to see your end product if you tried this pin out! Hopefully your tree trunk will be less wibbly-wobbly than mine!

The Year of Pinterest #1- Hiding that ugly modem and router

One of my biggest pet peeves in my living room was our ugly router and modem that sat atop our china cabinet. 

Here is this huge, beautiful cabinet filled with carnival glass, yet the only thing I  ever saw was the blinking lights of the router and modem. 

I had come across this tip on Pinterest yesterday and knew I had to give it a whirl. 

I couldn't bring myself to tear up any of the books we have, so I used dust covers instead. 

I have a tendency to trash book covers (I feel they take away from the actual book for some reason and at my house they get ripped quickly anyways) but I still had these two (because they were Josh's).

So on I slapped them...

Quick, painless, and no more blinky lights. In the future, I'll get prettier ones, but these will do for now. 

I placed more books on top of the cabinet so these two wouldn't be so lonely. 

There you have it... Camo success! 

The year of Pinterest

Hi, friends! 

After taking a little over a month off to collect myself after a long holiday season, I'm back!

This year though, I intend to commit my blog to cleaning out my Pinterest list. I feel that this will make me be both accountable to cleaning out my Pinterest boards as well as continuity in my posts here. 

And trust me, when I say I'm going to share my experience in all things DIY, I mean share my experience- both good and bad. 

This should be interesting at worst and hilarious at best. 

Wish me luck!