An old door to fill in a "blank wall"

Yes I'm a little embarrassed to admit

I did get an old door out of the trash.

But it was the perfect size,  shape and color!

How often does exactly what you've been looking

for drop in your lap like that?

If you're anything like me your saying "never" .

 

So I looked around to make sure no one was looking 

and grabbed that door right up.

and when I say "grabbed" I actually mean "lugged

That thing was heavy!

And after a lot of scrubbing 

it was perfect...

Looking at this now I'm thinking the birdcage has 

got to go... but otherwise I'm loving

the shabby chic look

3 Miles is getting easier!

Yes I have officially run a 5K !

and I could still breathe when I was done

Quite the accomplishment for me.

I guess I should say I jogged a 5k...

I don't think a 10 minute mile is considered running, 

Actually I might look that up.....

It was so much easier today and it felt so good!

I took a week off last week and I'm wondering if 

the people at the gas station and the playground missed me.

Ha ha  just kidding, but seriously people are starting

to wave as I go by now.  

Maybe I need to change my route a little bit.

O and I forgot to mention...

I got an early Christmas present that I am totally loving...

new running shoes!

I am a happy girl.

Black and white photo letter art

Hello friends,

      Today I'm sharing a very special artwork project I have been working on for a few months now.

I love the photo letter art that I've seen a few places, 

and decided to make my own. 

It's finally finished and I love it!!

This is just a small sample of how much  EVERYTHING
I see reminds me of her.

The most time consuming, but fun ,  part of this was getting pictures
of the right letters.
I  wanted them to be naturally formed intoarchitecture,
but the options are endless!
I was surprised how easy this was.

Once I had all the photos
I just made a collage using the 'picture pile' setting in Picasa 3.
 



Picasa is a free software download from Google that helps you:

• Locate and organize all your photos
  
• Edit and add effects to your photos
• Create galleries
• Can update your Picasa web albums automatically

 

Click Here to download

I finally ran three miles!!

Well I finally made it....puff puff...  3 miles.

I wish I could say it was a breeze, but it WAS NOT.

I was jogging while in the mountains and let me tell you....

After 2 1/2  miles, I could hardly breathe.

 It makes me feel good to say that the 

air is thinner in the mountains and I'm not used 

to the steep hills and all that good stuff.... and I made it anyway,

but the reality is 

I'm just not quite there yet.

It was hard at the end, but it was enjoyable at the same time.

The lake was beautiful,

 the weather was warm and sunny, (just the way I like it)

 and I shared the road with some deer.

Perfect

Annnddd  the calories I burned were just an added bonus!

Hope you all have a great day!!

 

Happy Thanksgiving !!

 If the only prayer you said in your whole life was,

"thank you," that would suffice. 

~Meister Eckhart

 

photo courtesy of   Cooking with Nyla

 

 

Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men;

but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude. 

~E.P. Powell

 

Hope you are enjoying this holiday with 

friends, family

  good food and football :)

I sure am.

Best Rolls Ever Recipe

I make these rolls for holidays and when I 

am having a lot of people over.

We LOVE them!   They are soft, light and  yummy!

Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 2 sticks  butter  cut into cubes
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 3 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 7 1/2 cups self-rising flour

Directions

1. In microwavable bowl place 2 cups water and butter or margarine. Microwave about 2 minutes.
2. In mixing bowl, blend 1 cup sugar and eggs.
3. In a separate cup, microwave 1/2 cup water for 30 seconds. Add 1 teaspoon sugar and dissolve/stir yeast in this.     (let set for 3-5 minutes  if it foams up a lot , your yeast is working.)
4. Mix butter water and sugar and eggs mixture together; add salt. Mix in yeast water. Stir in 7 to 7 1/2 cups flour. Mix well.  Dough will be sticky.   Put in lightly greased bowl and let rise in the refrigerator overnight, covered.  
5. When ready to use, dump onto floured surface (DO NOT PUNCH DOWN!) and let warm to room temperature. LIGHTLY KNEAD! Only work in enough extra flour to handle.
6. Shape into rolls and place on greased sheet(s). Let rest 30 minutes, or until doubled in size.
7. Bake in a preheated 400 degree F (205 degrees C) oven until tops are golden.  8- 10 minutes. (optional Brush with oil or butter immediately out of the oven

30 days of photography Day 2

Welcome back to my photography challenge!

This is Day 2 and I'm really enjoying this,

now that I got

past that painful  self portrait business.   haha.

Day 2     Bridge

I took this while I was walking around in a local park.

It was so beautiful!   I wish I could say it was peaceful and 

all, but it wasn't .  It is located near some high traffic roads.

but it's okay to just look at it and pretend.   I do.

Aaahhhh   gotta love fall.

Have a great day!!

Wooden tray redo

A friend of mine gave me this tray.

It's one of those trays that the wooden letter blocks come in.

 she was organizing their toys into bins and didn't have use for it.

  I was sure I could make it useful for something.

It was a perfect size, but not very pretty...

so I pulled out my handy craft paints and scrapbook paper and

painted and mod podged like crazy!

I overlapped two 12 x12 pieces of scrap paper and after gluing them down I had to smooth out the bubbles

VOILA!

pretty tray for my new ruffle lampshade.

30 days of photography Day 1

I decided to try the 30 days of photography challenge.

I like to take random pictures and I would love to share them with my readers,

maybe when I don' t have any fun projects finished.

A tiny problem of mine.....  why finish one thing when

you can have ,like, ten going at the same time??

Makes life so much more interesting...... and chaotic :)

I certainly won' t be finished in 30 days, my "short attention span" mind

would never be able to pull that off, but it will be thrown 

in hopefully once or twice a week.

So stay tuned for some pictures that will probably help

you get to know me a little more.

 Day 1     Self portrait

Day 3

Hello all!
Although I'm going to be busy, I am so happy the weekend is almost here!
I have flowers to do for This wedding, and so far , so good :)  Just gotta keep my fingers crossed with that.

So anyway,  Day 3   is a picture of you and your friends.
that's an easy one:   This is me and my absolute best friend,  the person who knows me better than I know myself,  and fortunately loves me anyway :)

 St. Thomas last March

aaannnndd   these are my best girlfriends:

Not sure what I would do without my sisters!  Taken at my wedding 6/24/2006

Thanks for stopping by,
Debby

How To Arrange Flowers

I recieved an absolutely beautiful arrangement

from one of my best friends the other day.

And as I was taking them out of the clear cellophane and green tissue they

were wrapped in, I thought that I should share some simple tips 

on how to arrange loose flowers in your own vase.

Fill your vase with water.

tips:

criss crossing  the stems will help hold your flowers up.

your tallest flower should be at least 1 1/2 times the height of the vase.

cut each flower just before you place it in the vase

the "main flowers"  are usually the largest and heaviest flowers

and then adjust anything that looks wonky...

and you're done!

Hope this helps you a little bit....

Just write any questions you might have in a comment 

and I would be happy to help you out!

Something I Love Saturday 4

It is SUCH a beautiful day today!

Sunny and mild... my kind of weather.

I did "Something I Love Saturday" a few times

 quite a few months ago but it's been on hold ever since.

Just the other day I went back and read the 3  ( whoa... big number) posts

and I was just like ,  wow it's encouraging to me to see how far

I've come from only months earlier. So I think I will keep it up.

No promises there.... You never know:)

So this weeks LOVE is....

and please don't get offended, but I needed a laugh so bad 

and this totally did it for me :)

Kiss your babies for Avery

This has been a sad few days for me.

Avery's birthday is tomorrow and I'm having a hard 

time not wondering what she would look like.

Would she be walking?  Would she still have that soft blond hair?
Would she still look just like her daddy, with that little heart
shaped face and perfect little mouth?
What would her little babbling noises sound like?
 

I miss her more than anything!

She brought so much joy to our lives before she was even here.

But as her mother I shouldn't wish her back.... this 

world is so awful and Heaven is so perfect...

Why would I not want that for her??

Because I'm selfish! I want to hold her, to kiss her soft skin

and most of all just love her.

I wonder sometimes ...  does she see me?

Does she know I'm her mom and  how much I love and miss her?

I used to sing to her all the time, I remember 

thinking I wanted her to know about our Loving Heavenly Father 

even before she was born, if that was possible.

One of my favorite songs to sing was

How He Loves Us  by the David Crowder Band

I just have to remind myself that she is 

happy and singing to Jesus now.

So  all of you mamas who have your 

babies with you, kiss them for Avery and Me.

And all of you mamas who have little angels in Heaven 

I'm praying for your peace and sharing your pain.

Suitcase for Cosmetics

I may have found a home

for all my hair and make up necessities!

I say "may have"  because I might decide in a week that it doesn't work

but as for right now.... I'm loving it :)

 I am totally obsessed right now with 

vintage suitcases for decor.  

So when I found  them at thrift stores for like $4 I couldn't resist.

And then (too late) I realized that 

6 just might be too many....  less is more and so on  blah blah....

So I needed to find a use for my last suitcase 

and I also needed to clean up the mess that was always 

spread all over this bureau.

this is on a good day... Semi organized... but still not pretty

and what it looks like now.   Not beautiful, but so much better.

 I just added a drawer organizer, put my make up brushes in small jars,

(they don't get crushed by the lid because the suitcase is just deep enough).

put the bottles in that stretchy little pocket, and keep my hair clips on the big pocket.

so easily accessible

and when I'm finished with everything I close the lid

and just like that...everything is hidden away!

Love it :)

Linking to Eisy Morgan Inspired By You Wednesday, 

DIY by Designs Fall into Fall It's a party

Simple Ruffle Lampshade Tutorial

I had this lavender lamp  that was very cute, BUT it didn't match any room in my house and because  I needed a lamp in the computer/craft/dressing room.   I decided to give it a facelift.

I had some burlapish fabric

 ( leftover from another project)  that I cut into strips.

I didn't bother making straight lines or finishing the raw edges, 

I wanted it to look a little... shabby chic.

My lampshade is small so I didn't need that much, but if you're doing

a regular size shade  cut lots!  You use more than you think.

just do the last 2 steps all the way around the lampshade until
it's completely covered.
and that's it!    Easy peasy

 I painted the base blue to match the room better
and glued the fabric flowers to the shade

Now I need to get some cleaning done!
After all..... it is Monday :)
Hope you're having a great day!!


Linking to  We Did It! Wednesday , Inspired By You Wednesday
and Fall Into Fall - It's a Party