I'm alive!!!!!!

I just looked at my blog and realized I haven't posted in over a month! What?!
Oh yeah, I was moving! My husband and I moved into our house and we are still in the midst of unpacking. Who knew we had so much stuff?

So needless to say, the blog has taken a back seat to making our home liveable.

I've got a few things going though and I'll post some sneak peak pictures. And my parents are coming over this weekend for our first company visit/real meal with other people.
I'll make a post about our meal and what not.

I'm itching to get our house unpacked and my new craft room done so I can get back to making things. I'm going nuts!!
Plus, my hubby and I have crazy schedules since I started leading a BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) children's class. I'm not alone in my class though. I have a wonderful co-teacher Judy. She's super super smart and I can tell she is going to be a great friend.

More to come!

Future projects (trust me, it'll all make sense when it's together):

New spin on the friendship bracelet

I found these wonderful bracelet tutorials on the blog Honestly WTF. If you've never been to that blog check it out. They are some talented ladies.

Here is my version of one of their friendship bracelets that they themselves say is a knock off of a bracelet they saw in a magazine. It's not my original design, but I did tweak it a bit.




I love the look of this one and the simplicity. Start to finish it takes less than ten minutes.

Supplies:
-leather cord
-embroidery thread in two colors (your choice!)
-diamante chain
-scissors




Here is the tutorial from the Honestly WTF website. It's pretty detailed and they have great pictures.

My only changes are that I chose embroidery thread doubled up instead of the hemp thread in the picture.


I love the fun tie-dyed-esque look. Plus, you can make one to go with every outfit.





I made these for a friend's birthday. Which she will receive at her birthday party tomorrow!! :)

Just a few pics of some key points.

How to start:



Wrap the thread around the chain. I do it twice to cover and make the color pop!



I tied a knot at the end to finish it.




I'll be linking to the parties on the right.

Have a great weekend!!

Random Thoughts

Random thoughts for the eleventh day of August.

-Don't you hate it when you take a dark colored nail polish off in a hurry and are left with nasty stained finger nails and pink yuckiness around your nail bed? My finger nails are tinted a lovely shade of pink that is reminiscent of a pink stained tongue after eating too many hot tamales. Yeah, that's a weird analogy.



-I think I may officially be going blind. I'm sitting with face about two feet (maybe one and a half) away from the computer monitor and these words are just barely legible. I'm typing this solely on my ability to type without looking. Which I learned my senior year of high school. Kinda late. I finally had to take typing my senior year because I finished all my science credits and they wouldn't let me take three history classes. So I signed up for typing. I actually really liked it. It didn't feel like a school course. Just felt like I was typing for a hour straight. Took me about half the school year before I could do it without looking and now six and a half years in a clerical position...it's paid off.


(possibly in my future)

So, yeah, I can't see clear detail past a two feet in front of my face. Go ahead and get in the car with me. I dare ya.


-Pinterest might be my downfall. It's the equivalent of buying craft supplies when an idea hits you. You collect things and then file them away in the craft room and when you go to clean one day, you're suddenly asking yourself, "Why do I have three rolls of magenta ribbon? I don't really like this color."
Pinterest is starting to look like that. Pinning left and right all these ideas that you may never have the time to complete. And one day down the road you'll look back and say, "Why do I have so many pictures of embroidery hoops?" **



**Side note: I've been on pinterest almost two months and have saved several pictures of fabric covered embroidery hoops in hopes of doing a display on a wall that I may or may not one day own. You'd think one pic would be enough to spark my memory of doing this one day.


-I'm hunting for a chocolate/espresso brown bridesmaid dress for an upcoming wedding for a friend. To lose weight or to not lose weight? That is the question.


-I'm turning 26 next week. That is all.


-Finished The Help. Excellent book if you have not read it. My book club is heading off to see it this weekend some time.
We're reading a Philippa Gregory book now. The White Queen


I'm having a harder time than usual reading this. I usually love Philippa Gregory and have read so many of her other books. It's probably that I just don't know this particular part of history so it's harder to get into. I've heard from the people on Goodreads that it's excellent actually, so I will sojourn on.


-I want to get a dog. And this is the kind:


Schnauzer's are adorable and smart and great with kids (which will come one day).

Just a random brain dump. Birthday gifts for now two friends will be finished by the weekend. One will go in the mail and the other will be delivered in person to her fete on Saturday.
I'll show pictures of them when I know said long distance friend receives them so she'll be left in suspense. Mwahahaha!!

I need to pack!! (A.k.a. Brain dump)

Well, since our offer was accepted on the house a few weeks ago, we've gone through a round of shuffling paperwork here and there. We've met with inspectors, we've had our minds officially blown by the amount of work that has to go into it and we've avoided packing.

All in all it's pretty successful. :)

I have the desire the pack, but not the drive. Part of me doesn't want to start because I know it will be more shifting stuff from one room to another as opposed to packing it up.
I need to start a "Garage Sale" pile, "Throw out" pile, and "Pack" pile. We obviously can't pack everything because we still have to live here another month, but I can pack the non-essentials. Books, winter clothes (because Lord knows we aren't using them in this 1000 degree heat), movies. Yes, I'll pack up my movies. I haven't been watchimg them lately because of the book I'm reading.

Which brings me to reason #35 why I am not packing right now. The Help is such a good book!!!


I've had it for over a year and haven't cracked it open. Which is shameful. It's such a good, griping, funny story.
I love the characters and the story is heartfelt and powerful.
I highly recommend it. Before seeing the movie, of course.

I'm putting together a gift package for friend's birthday that is coming soon. :)
I'll show you what I put in it, after I've completed and mailed it, but then it might not be terribly surprising for the friend who receives it though because I know she reads this. Hmmmmm. Decisions.

I've got a new pen pal too!! She lives in Michigan. Found her via the blog Crafted Love. Allison decided to open up the possibility of pen pals to her readers and she got such a huge response that she divided us all up so we could correspond with each other and with her. Pretty clever.

Anyway, we just started corresponding and I can already tell I'm going to like her. She's into art journaling and looks pretty darn good at it. Which is a God send because I just started art journaling. Emphasis on the start. I've got a few pages all prettified but haven't added any writing to them. I'm so bad at that.....

I could write my prayers and what I talk to God about. That could be a great start. :)

TTFN everyone!! Thanks for reading, drop a note, I'm still here!

Praying for you all!

Phew!! We found a house!

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."--Jeremiah 29:11

We found a house!!!!

Praise to God because it was all Him in our search for a home. I was close to giving up a few times. Especially after homes were taken out from under us twice while we were searching.
Another couple came in with a better offer on a house shortly after we expressed interest and on another house we liked, the owner's just decided to stay put.
All in all we looked at about 25-ish houses.
Some were nice, others were bleh.
But God blessed us with the one.

So, it's been a whirlwind of getting paperwork to a bunch of different places and now we have to clean, pack, buy furniture, decided on whether or not to use a moving company or just have all our friends throw out their backs.
I'm thinking a moving company now. We had friends and family help us move into the second story apartment, but now that I know the temp is probably going to be 150 degrees. I don't know if I want to lose friends as they try to maneuver our massive, heavy, solid wood dresser and chest of drawers down the stairs. Plus there is the corner to consider.

I totally see it turning into that friends episode where Rachel and Chandler help Ross move a couch into his apartment.
PIVOT!! PIVOT!! PIVOT!!


With all that considered I've been busy trying to arrange and organize my craft room so it'll be easier to pack up. I did make a few things and I'll show you soon!

See ya guys!!

P.S. I'm praying for all of you and whatever life may be throwing at you. :)