You ought to know...

I wanted to share a few random sites and shops that if you do not already know about, you ought to.

First off can I just share that a marriage is one of the most important but hardest things you will ever work on. I think you learn constantly with everything you do, and there is always room to grow! Though each marriage is different, they can all grow, and use knowledge from others.
The first you ought to know is a facebook page by my friend Christina called my marriage matters to me. The name says it all. Make sure you check it out, and like it!

Amanda is a friend of mine from church, and I have learned so much from her. God has really used her and she is inspirational to me. Her and her husbands testimony is all God, and she is really a blessing in my life. She has an awesome book, Prayers of agreement for wives, and facebook page. It is so important to pray for your husbands, and this book is a wonderful way to do it. Starting tomorrow, Nov. 1st we will be praying together for the month. Even if you do not have the book, you can pray along with facebook, just "like" the page.

Next is a new bloggy friend, Teresa. She makes and sells beautiful jewelry, and also has a blog and facebook page. Go on and "like" her as well.

If you have never been inspired by this next lady, then read her blog and you will. She is going through some crazy medical problems right now, but she still is able to be strong and beautiful. So many people are praying for her and her family, but I know that her story is helping others and we can all praise God for her healing. Have I also mentioned how ridiculously talented she is? Oh and my toilet paper wreath was featured on her little ole (really it is HUGE) blog! I was starstruck!

Last for today is a shop that needs no intro. Stefani ordered some nail shields, and I did not realize that she was behind this super famous etsy shop. Well I had to get some pendants, and she even threw in a few surprises for me. They are so cute and fun. I am thinking I need a charm bracelet of different pendants. This is just one of the five I have. Addicting, but very reasonably priced, they would make a great gift!

Well those are my suggestions for today. Do you know how much you help a business or page by liking them, or buying from a handmade shop? A ton! So help someone out, and look at the links above! Do you have any links that I need to check out? Any handmade Christmas shopping I should know about, I would love to hear about them!

Celebrate

Everyone has different preferences when it comes to celebrating certain holidays. We are the same way.
One day I struggle with is Halloween. Every year I kind of dread it. Growing up I did many different things for Halloween. My hubby did a church festival, and I think that is it. Now that Brady is 3, and in school it is even harder to figure out what our family will participate in, and what we won't.
We definitely do not do scary. No ghost or witches, or anything like that. I decorate the house in fall decor, but nothing really Halloweenish. We get pumpkins, and carve them, but they are nice pumpkins.
It is hard to find where to draw the line. We could ignore the day completely. If that was the case, Brady would not have been able to attend his christian pre-school for the last month and a half. They talk about Halloween, and pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns. We probably would not go to our church's harvest festival, which kids dress up at, and are encouraged to do so. I struggle with having innocent fun, and letting the world influence our behavior too much. On one hand, Brady has no idea that Halloween is associated with anything other than candy. On the other, shouldn't we be teaching him that we are held at a different standard? So I dread it every year. And we are taking it year by year.

Last year Brady dressed up and went to our church festival, which is so much fun and also introduces kids and parents to a church and God when they otherwise might not have.  On the 31st we went to our zoo and got candy, and got to see all the animals at night. It was a great night.

On Thursday Brady had a costume parade and a little party at school. Very cute. We brought his little friends treats, and they were a big hit.

Last night we went to church and the harvest festival. My nephew, niece, and her friend won a contest for their costumes. Brady was Buzz, even though I offered to make him a great costume. Bryson was a little toy story alien with a hat I made him.

On the actual day we are going to have a few friends over, eat pizza, watch Monday night football, and pass out candy. This year, I think we are going to add some bible verses to our candy. Something about this day can be to glorify God, and hopefully touch someones heart.

So that is what we are up to this year. We reserve the right to change our minds at any time. What do you do, what are your opinions? I would love to hear input!

It is actually also my Grandma's birthday, maybe we should just start celebrating that. Happy Birthday Grandma, We love you!

Growing

I have not been blogging much lately. You can read more about it here. The gist is that my time blogging, though I enjoy it, was not productive. I was spending too much time on the computer and not enough time doing things that are really important. Even reading blogs, and looking at pintrest was effecting me, not in a good way,(more on that another day).

I started thinking about not blogging at all anymore, but I love it so much. Then I realized, (really the Holy Spirit revealed to me) that I was unhappy with the blog because it did not bring God any glory. Though I love doing crafty things, and there are things that I make that bless our family, but this blog was not really glorifying God. It was strictly crafty. But who said it has to be? There are a ton of things I feel lead to share with others, and I am going to!  

Source: the-carrie-monster.tumblr.com via max on Pinterest

There might be less crafts but it will still be great stuff! It feels like my blog is maturing into its own. Not trying to copy anyone else, but to be myself. Do what I like, and maybe you will like it also! Most importantly, I want someone to leave this blog better and happier. Really excited!

So then, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you may do, do all for the honor and glory of God. 
1 Corinthians 10:31 

Chalkboard project

After finishing my picture wall, I had a few ideas of what to do with the large frame I took down.

I have been wanting some sort of chalkboard in our kitchen area for awhile. I was thinking of something like this:

Source: pureandnoble.blogspot.com via Melissa on Pinterest                                                                                                                                       

I knew that I was not that brave, and plus I think our walls are too textured. I think that once we finish the basement, and have a little play nook, I will chalk board paint one wall, but this wall just is not right for it.

So instead I decided to use my large frame as a chalk board.
Here is what I started out with.

After removing the glass, and reusing the inner frame for my Jamberry Nail Shields set up, I spray painted the outer frame teal. (I am slooowly adding some teal accents to our decor. Going for a black, white, deep red, teal, hodge podge, and it may take years!)

After painting the frame, I needed something to go inside to use as the chalkboard. At first I really wanted to do a magnetic chalkboard. But the guy at home depot talked me out of it, because I did not want to try to use sheet metal, and magnetic paint is expensive. Next thought was ply wood, but I did not want to cut it, and I did not want to go back and forth to home depot with my crew. (Plus I am a little intimidated of that place!)

 So plan C, was to use the chip board like backing that was orignailly in the frame. It was super smooth, so no sanding. Perfect size, so not cutting. Lightweight, so minimal holes in my wall when hanging.
I used a can of chalkboard spray paint, and painted my chip board. I used an entire can, and it still did not look too great. I was determned to make it work, so after chalk priming it, I thought it would be fine.

Next step was to glue it to the frame. For some insane reason, I thought gorilla glue was a good idea for this. I had never used gorialla glue before, but thought, what the hey. After basicly glueing everything to everything, and getting glue on my hands, I seriously regretted cheating on my hot glue, with this ridiculous stuff! Always know how to properly remove gorilla glue from hands before starting your project. It was a disaster  and my hands took days to recover. Bryson woke up mid glue disaster and had to be tended to by his 3 year old brother. My biggest craft fail yet, and everything almost went into the trash. Of course, the chalkboard now looked horrible with glue all over it. But I put it up anyway.

Then my final mistake was using the chalk markers on my board. For some reason, they do not come off! So I took it back down and repainted it with this stuff.

After drying, it looked much better. 

It is thicker, and made it look so much better. Now we are using real chalk, and it is coming off nicely. This project was way too difficult, but in the end, it turned out pretty great.

Our family is enjoying the chalkboard, and now we have more room for artwork on our fridge. most important lesson learned, never using gorilla glue again!

Chicken Wire Frame

After I finished the picture wall, I could not just leave the frame that was previously on the wall alone. In fact I was able to make two functional things out of a picture that would have otherwise just sat in our basement. 

I will show you soon what I did with the outer frame, but today I would like to show off the inner frame.

 First I spray painted the frame a teal color that I am currently obsessed with. Once it was dry I hot glued some chicken wire to the back. The chicken wire was my only purchase for this project, and at $3, I think that is a good deal! After the chicken wire was on, I hot glued some felt scraps on so that the chicken wire was not coming off, and there were no more sharp edges. 

I am using this frame as part of my Jamberry set up. I use this frame on an easel at parties to display the nail shield styles I currently have in stock. So far it is working out well, easy to see the designs, and everyone likes the chicken wire. 

I think this is a great idea to use for memos and pictures also. 

Here is my typical Jamberry Party set up. 

 Just in case you have not heard about Jamberry nail shields, they are an awesome alternative to nail polish. They do not chip, and come in awesome intricate designs you can't get with nail polish. 

 In this picture, my nail shields had been on my toes for about 4 weeks, and still looking pretty great! 

 My nails grow out before my nail shields come off! 

 Aren't my sweet niece's fingers the cutest? 

 She loves them! 

Let me know if you would like some free samples and a catalog. We have a buy three, get one free special right now! And a ton of new fall, and holiday styles! I love them, and I know you will too!