Dear Avery

Dear Avery,
    Oh baby girl your mama is sad tonight.....
I almost feel like you're slipping away from me and  I don' t know what to do....
You will have a new brother or sister in a few months and this baby will need to use your little bed  and someday share your room.... and that feels wrong to me right now, but I'm pretty sure it will be ok when the time comes. It will still be your things too, just sharing them.....and sharing is good.
  But I need you to know that I love you still...
just as much now as i did the minute I knew you existed, and I never for a minute stop thinking about you.  You are my beautiful little angel girl and  I still miss you so much.
Mama's heart is big enough to love you both, I promise.
Love you forever,
your mama

Ruffle shower curtain before and after

I know I've said this before but I am totally

loving ruffles right now,

 so when I saw THIS ruffle shower curtain at Anthro I wanted needed it...

and then I saw how much it was!!  118 bucks!  

seriously??  

So I decided to make my own.... 

 I absolutely LOVE it!

Here is the before....

it looks so .... ugly now.

 It actually is a nicer blue than it looks in the picture

 but,  wow,  what a difference the new one makes!

 This is what it looked like when I ran out of fabric

and I had to put it up anyway because I was using the original shower curtain

to make the new one.....

I added that little blue ruffle because I thought about leaving it like this,

 but I wasn't satisfied, it just looked unfinished.

So back to the store I went and was happy they had

the exact colors I was looking for.

Here is the finished product again

not gonna lie and tell you this was  a quick project.

It took quite a while to cut the strips of fabric, ruffle each strip,

pin and then sew it on.... making sure it was straight...etc...

Then the unfortunate running out of fabric, running back to the store

ripping off the little joke 

of a ruffle that I sewed on trying to make it look finished, and 

starting all over again with the added fabric.

All that work was totally worth it....

It makes me happy every time I see it 

and best of all it only cost me $20

whew!! Glad that project is done ... 
Now to paint those black "relax" and "enjoy" words  a
color that matches....

P.S.   There are already quite

a few tutorials out there for this and although I did mine a little different 

than they did.... it's all pretty much the same idea.

And if you do give it a go.... I recommend Elastic thread! 

It made the ruffles that much easier

Hope, second chances and God's love

 I have been thinking a lot about Hope, Second Chances and God's unending love for us.
Even when life looks dark and  there is nothing right in the world, God is there for and
with us, encouraging us to keep going.  There IS a light at the end of the tunnel,  we just have to choose faith and MOVE FORWARD towards that light.  There is no standing still in life, it may feel like a  maze, sometimes making wrong turns, mistakes, but we are learning and growing along the way.

I was at a place in my life where there didn't seem to be a light, I was done here, but when you reach bottom you finally start looking up.... and that's where hope is, that's where God is just waiting for you to reach out to Him, to just place your life in His hands.  He can change everything, He can give second chances and that is where hope starts.   He knows what He is doing, what is best for us.


Here is a song that I have been listening to often....

  Rend Collective Experiment- Second Chance

I am holding on to  hope, praying for faith and thanking God for second chances

God is in control....

2012 "more" list

I know it's  January 9th and I'm just 

now getting around to telling you all.... but here goes anyway

Happy New Year!

Just doesn't have the same fun ring to it now....

so anyway

I've been seeing everyone all over blog land pick their "word" for  2012

 and I really think thats cool and all, 

but I just couldn't come up with

 one word that sums up everything I'm hoping

for this year

So here is my list of "words" for 2012

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!