A Baby Shower Gift

I am going to a baby shower on Tuesday night and wanted to make the mommy-to-be something special for her new little one. This is what I came up with:


A wreath made of onesies and socks! Perfect for a beautiful baby girl! And bonus, it was very simple to make! Here is what I did.

I took some onesies and rolled them like I would roll fabric flowers. First, I laid the onesie out flat on the table, front side up,


folded the sides to the middle,


then folded it again.


Then, I started at the neck end of the onesie and began rolling. I rolled it with the open end of the fold on top because I liked the way it ended when the flower was finished, but you can do whatever you like.


Then, I twisted the onesie (twist toward the center of the flower) and kept rolling until I ran out of material. I got about three twists for each of the flowers. Then I simply pinned the fabric at the end and I was finished! See? Easy! Here are some more pictures of the rest of the process:


And the finished flower!


After that, I took a styrofoam wreath form, wrapped it in pretty pink ribbon, and pinned the flowers to the wreath. I used four pins for each flower to help hold each one in place. After that, I used cute little socks that I bunched up to look like rosettes and filled in holes. Two pins were used for each of the socks.

To make the sock rosettes, I just unfolded the sock, ran both thumbs down to the toe, and then pulled everything together. The cuff of the sock holds the bunching in place and you can hide the pins in the middle of the socks when you attach them to the wreath. A close-up of the socks:


Here is another look at my finished present. I can't wait to give it to my friend at her shower!



I am linking this project to the following blogs:

Tatertots and Jello
WhipperBerry
Tip Junkie

What I'm Learning Wednesday: Healing

For the past several weeks, I have been listening to a song called "Healing is in Your Hands" by Christy Nockels. I get one song that I love and will listen to it on repeat for hours at a time! Anyway, I sang it at church this past Sunday and it just really made me think about the healing power of God. You can listen to the song below with the lyrics:



God loves us so much that nothing can ever separate us from Him if we are His children, His followers. Nothing will ever take us away from Him. It reminds me of one of my favorite verses in Scripture, 1 John 4:10. "This is love, it is not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His son as a sacrifice to take away our sins."

This song, as much as it is about the healing power of God and His awesome love for us, also makes me think about why we need healing in the first place. We easily get warm fuzzies if we just concentrate on how God heals us and how much He loves us. We don't like to think, though, about why He had to heal us. We need healing because of our sin. If sin had never entered the world, there would be no sickness, no pain, no mourning. Unfortunately, it did. We are sinful people. God broke His own heart by sending Jesus, His only Son, into the world to die for sinners like me. It is truly by His grace that we can stand, that we can even get out of bed in the morning.

So with that, let us not forget to praise Him for His awesome healing power and his unending and unchanging love for us. But let us also not forget all the reasons we need that healing and that love. Let us consciously live in the shadow of His grace to us all. After all, He is all that matters.

Jeweled Letter

Recently, I saw a tutorial on Tip Junkie on how to make jeweled letters. I didn't think much of it until I found a box full of old pins from my aunt, grandmother and great-grandmother. Immediately when I saw them, I knew this is what I wanted to do with them! Here is the final result!



Please ignore my reflection in the pictures. Here's what I did:

1. I bought a wooden letter "A" and a shadowbox frame from Hobby Lobby. (I stuck with my first name initial because I want to be able to still display it after I get married, and you know there is a good chance I won't marry someone with a last name that begins with "F")
2. I painted the letter black.
3. I hot glued the jewelry to the letter and then attached it to the back of the shadowbox.

That's it!

I think it's a great way to display all of the pins and jewelry that were so dear to my grandmothers and aunt. Even though they aren't my style to wear, I love how they look when they are all put together! And it also jazzes up my decor! What could be better?!

Here are some closeups of the finished product along with what it looks like on my dresser next to my favorite picture of my brother:



PS: If you like what you see, follow my blog! Once I get to 25 followers, I will draw a name and give something away that I make especially for the winner. You could win!

A Valentine's Treat

I have a new obsession for making things. I like to blame, at least in part, my friend Sandra for her beginning influence in the world of homemade things. She has a blog, you see, and I love to read it. In her blog, she posts ideas she finds online along with other fun things that she makes. Also on her blog is a list of other blogs that she reads. This list is full of crafty people with wonderful ideas, most of which I would never even dream up if I tried.

Now, at least partly because of her, I feel the need to make people things. Holidays, special occasions, and random gifts are now all about the newest ideas and how I can put my own spin on them.

My latest project has been for a member of Refresh, my young women's group at church. We exchanged names and were responsible for sending our person a Valentine's card with some encouraging words enclosed. Of course, I wanted to make her something special, too. So last night, I worked with my friend Shanna to make something to make our "Refresh Valentine's Friends" feel loved this Valentine's Day. This is what we came up with:

Hot Chocolate on a Stick!

(sorry about the bad lighting...this pic was taken with my cell phone)

I found this idea from a blog called Whipperberry (you can find the recipe here). This blog is great and has tons of ideas from event planning to recipes to gift ideas.

Shanna and I had a wonderful time making these treats for our friends. We cut them up, stuck them in a treat bag, and tied them up with a ribbon! Shanna made some cute notes to include with the treats with instructions on how to make the hot chocolate, too. And, of course, we had to include some yummy marshmallows! One of these days I'm going to learn how to make homemade marshmallows...that candy thermometer is pretty intimidating.

My Valentine's Friend loved her special treat! I even got a text message from her saying that the hot chocolate was yummy. That's why I love giving gifts...I love to help someone feel loved and appreciated.

The best part about this treat idea is that it makes TONS of treats! We had lots of leftovers to share with family and friends (and some to enjoy ourselves!). We even mailed some to a mutual friend.

How about you? Are you doing anything special for someone this Valentine's Day?

What I'm Learning Wednesday: Faithfulness

Well, I have a confession to make. I have not done well in spending concentrated time with the Lord this week. I haven't been reading and I haven't been praying like I should. So, with this confession comes a resolution to do better next week. I hated to tell my accountability partner that yesterday at our weekly meeting. Next week will not be the case, though!

Okay, with my confession, I still need to tell you what I'm learning! Aren't you just chomping at the bit to find out?! In Sunday School this past week, we had a wonderful lesson on Hosea, which gets to me every time I read it. If you aren't familiar with the story, Hosea is called by God to marry a prostitute, someone he knew would be unfaithful to him. Later on in the story, Hosea had to go and buy his wife back from a sex slave trade. Can you imagine?! (That is the very, very short version of the story...there are lots more details I am leaving out)

Above all else, this story always reminds me of the faithfulness of God. He created us knowing the heartbreak that awaited Him. He chose to have a relationship with us, even though He knew we would be unfaithful to Him. He longs for closeness to us when He knows we are going to push Him away with our thoughts and actions. I have been doing just that. I have been unfaithful to Him with my thoughts and actions because I have not spent the necessary time investing in our relationship. He is faithful, though, when I am unfaithful.

Even though He remains faithful to me, this does not give me an excuse to remain unfaithful to Him. If I truly want to exemplify Christ through my life, I have to put in the work to know who He is and what He expects of me. I hope you will do the same. Remember He is faithful. He is constant. And He longs to be close to you.

Cardboard Crafting: Finally Finished!

Whew! It's been a long week of working on my cardboard project, but it is finally finished!

It went from this:



To this!



I made this dump truck for my cousin who will turn four on Monday. He is one of my favorite kids in the whole world! The truck is almost as tall as him! His birthday party has a construction theme and he got a preview of the truck last night as we were decorating for the party. He loves it!! I made 'rocks' out of wadded up newspaper, but he just calls it trash. That's okay by me...as long as he liked it. The back end also lifts up so he can dump the rocks, or trash, out of it. Anything became trash last night...even my shoes! It was a big hit!

What I'm Learning Wednesday: Interruptions

This is "What I'm Learning Wednesday", a place for me to write about things that the Lord is teaching me. Please feel free to share what He is teaching you!

Have you ever been interrupted? I’m not simply talking about conversation. You’re going on about your life and something happens that changes everything. Changes the course of your life for a bit. Or maybe forever.

These interruptions can take on lots of different forms. An opportunity to help someone unexpectedly. A project that comes up with a quick deadline. Illness. A sudden death. Interruptions are both good and bad. But I would venture to say that they are all beneficial.

I read a tiny book by Priscilla Shirer called “The Interrupted Life” and it really brought to life some of the things I struggle with. I try to take ownership of my life when it is clearly not mine. I try to do things on my time instead of waiting on the Lord’s plans for me. I try to ‘do better’ before I believe I am fit for service to Him. I try to take shortcuts in my relationship with Him. And I forget that the interruptions are His way of getting my attention, His way of using me to accomplish His purposes, His way of speaking to me and through me.

Sometimes, I forget that interruptions are part of the journey. And you never know what the Lord is going to teach you through them. I am so thankful that He interrupted my life and accepted me as one of His children. I am more than willing to take His interruptions anytime!