Fall Yarn Wreath DIY

Y'all, I made a yarn wreath. I have a lot of respect and admiration for those of you who make & sell them for a living. You either know something I don't or you have an excessive amount of patience. Can I please have some of yours?! I seem to be lacking. :) Anyway, here is how she turned out!

Oops, I should've grabbed the next size bigger straw wreath....it looks a little small for my front door so I'll have to find a spot for her inside the house. I shouldn't have a problem finding a spot though. And hey, looking on the bright side, I'll get to look at her all the time. So, you know what that means...I've got to make another wreath for my front door. I'm thinking burlap.

If you want to make a yarn wreath for yourself, do it! There are lots and lots of tutorials online. Just check pinterest. Here's the link of the one I referenced for help.

Happy Fall y'all!

Mandy

Insta-Friday

Yesterday was Noah's first day back to Mom's Day Out. He only goes once a week. It's a nice break for me and really great for him because he gets to socialize with other kiddos his age. Anyway, he usually isn't too happy about me leaving him but this time he gave me a hug and told me bye-bye. I guess he won't have to get used to it again this time. :( My little man is growing up!

And look what came in the mail for me while Noah was at MDO! You can safely bet I will be attempting to make some these little beauties in the near future. 

I decided I would take Noah for ice cream and to pick out a new car after MDO yesterday but he didn't really want ice cream. He was too excited about the prospect of getting a new car. As you can see from the picture below he ended up getting a whole set...when the price is right, right? Anyway, since he didn't want ice cream, what kid turns down ice cream? I decided to get a soda from sonic and popcorn from target. It took me back to when I was in elementary school and we would have movie and popcorn days. Did your school do that every once in a while? I remember it being a welcome treat.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I know were going to a camp-fire style fellowship tonight as well as venturing out to the lake tomorrow so we're planning to have all kinds of fun. Maybe I'll manage to find a little time to make some macarons too.

-mandy

DIY PLAY DOUGH

Yesterday I perused pinterest in search of fun things to do/make with toddlers, things that help them learn as well as have fun! Among other things I found an AWESOME play dough recipe that calls for JELL-O. Um, fun! Here's the link, you'll definitely want to do this with your kiddos on a rainy day or any day, really.

Noah and I had a lot of fun playing with our home-made play dough. We made pizza, cookies, a bird, we really enjoyed just squishing it with our hands AND since we used JELL-O (the berry flavor) it smelled really good, not to mention it's a pretty color. I know Noah really enjoyed it because he played with it quietly for a good 30-40 minutes. I'd say that's pretty good. We're definitely going to be making more, maybe even tomorrow. I think we'll make yellow so we can mix some blue with some yellow and make green! 

Here's the link to the recipe again (click the picture):

Wisdom Personified

Wisdom...

says noble things,

speaks what is right,

speaks truth.

wickedness is an abomination to her lips,

every word she speaks is righteous.

her instruction is more precious than gold, silver, & jewels.

nothing compares to wisdom.

pride, arrogance, evil, & perverted speech are her POLAR OPPOSITES.

she has counsel, sound wisdom, insight and strength.

she brings riches and honor, enduring wealth and righteousness.

(from Proverbs Chapter 8)

"I [wisdom] love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me." Proverbs 8:17

"For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death." Proverbs 8:35-36

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is insight." Proverbs 9:10

I've been thinking about wisdom in Proverbs lately. The verses seem to say a lot about the words we speak having a great deal of importance and power. According to what it says, a wise person would not speak perversely or utter untruths they would speak life, wisdom, and truth.

 Proverbs 10:11 says "The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life..."  

"The lips of the righteous feed many." Prov. 10:21

"The wise lay up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool brings ruin near." Prov. 10:14

There are a ton of verses similar to these in Proverbs that share the same ideas about wise/righteous words bringing forth life and blessing while perverse/wicked words bring ruin and death. 

"If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless." James 1:26

James Chapter 3 says a lot about taming the tongue and the importance of it. I wanted to type it all out but I you can just go read it if you want to. 

"With it [the tongue] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so." James 3:9-11

I am a child of God, a god of love. I am not of this world, I am a new creation and an ambassador for Christ. I want the words that leave my mouth to be representative of who I really am! I want my words to be a fountain of life. I want to build with gold, not hay and sticks that burn away. I want my words to be valuable not worthless as soon as they are spoken. If you're a brother or sister in Christ then you know what a struggle it is to control your mind and tongue. We literally bless God one second with our words and then say something completely ridiculous and uncalled for in the same breath. This really shouldn't be. I'm going to be working on this in my own life; purifying my mind and taming my tongue to be more like wisdom personified in Proverbs. Who's with me?!

Tickle Me Tuesday

Hi everyone! I thought I'd give some love to some of my favorite handmade shops for this Tickle Me Tuesday. 

I just bought this lovely ring from NSPottery and I've been wearing it nonstop. The ring is adjustable so you can wear it on any finger or either hand. I've been wearing it on my pointer finger like they have it displayed in the picture below. :)

NSPottery on Etsy

I've seen the lovely cards of riverandbridge floating around on instagram and decided I had to have this set of french macaron thank you cards. I've recently become obsessed with the actual french treat so these were a must have. I chose the pink set. 

riverandbridge on etsy

When I first saw this print I knew it was meant for my kitchen. I love tea, teal, and yellow. I've had this print sitting in my kitchen waiting to be framed and hung on the wall for awhile. Were getting an old hutch from my husband's parents and I'd like to hang it by it. I can't wait to get it on the wall!

penandpaints on etsy

Lastly, I couldn't pass up this lovely head wrap from Jacky of the sweetest petunia! She really makes the cutest hair accessories.

Petunia Blooms on Storenvy

That's it for this tickle me tuesday! Will YOU be a part of the next one? :)

Honesty

I'm not one to open up easily. I'm the type of person who has a lot of friends but only a few I'm really close to. Some of those friendships took a long time to establish with a lot of cultivating. I guess you could say I'm an introvert. I've often questioned my motives for this blog. I haven't been consistent and most of what I share besides what I've learned from reading the bible is...I can't really find the right word for it...empty? maybe? Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with inspiration posts filled with pictures from pinterest but I want to represent myself honestly and bare more of my soul. I think it would be good for me.

Having said that, I'm about to get real with you. I hope that's ok!

This past Spring and Summer I did a few craft shows with a friend. As our acceptance e-mails rolled in  from each show we grew more and more excited. I bought up lots of pretty fabrics and zippers and sewed each and everyday up until the shows, shoo-ing my 2 year old away because "mommy has to work!" If you didn't know, sewing continually is kind of exhausting.

The first show rolled around. We were so excited! We showed up, got set up, and saw some familiar faces which made us feel more at ease but as the day rolled on the show proved to be a bust. I didn't sell a single tote or clutch at the show, nor at the following two. I did end up selling one tote on etsy to a lady who had really liked it at the first show but didn't buy it at the time for whatever reason. All my hard work and basically nothing to show for it...what a bummer.

My etsy has been on vacation mode ever since. And I still have all of my product (what I haven't given away) just sitting in a box. I haven't had the desire to create anything in a long time. I kind of just shut the whole experience out of my mind.

But! I've finally been in the mood to create (for myself) again and it's been so wonderful!!

I made this headband on the 4th of July to complete my outfit.

I finally finished my flower pots from this post.

And I made this the other day just because I wanted to sew. I offered it up on instagram for $11 dollars shipping included {to test the waters}. I got a lot of likes but no luck so I'm using this little lovely in my purse. It's currently holding my lip stick, lip gloss, and lotion. I love it so I guess it's no longer for sale. :)

I hope I didn't come off as whiney or complain-y. I just wanted to share that I've been discouraged for a long time but I'm finally coming out of it and feeling inspired again. I'm even working on opening up a storenvy shop. I may get discouraged again but I don't ever want to give up.

Have you ever been discouraged in this way? Or felt inadequate? And finally came out of the funk? I'd love to hear about it.

-Mandy

Blackberry Grapefruit Popsicle

It's been so hot here in Arkansas we finally broke down and bought an 8 foot blow up pool for our little family. So far we love it, we spent most of the morning in it yesterday. Anyway, you know what goes great with Summer besides a pool? Popsicles. I love a good popsicle on a hot day...so refreshing right? I came up with a really delicious and basically calorie free popsicle the other day! I had two giant grapefruits sitting in the fruit bowl with every good intention of eating them for breakfasts; but lets face it, that wasn't going to happen so I decided to use them as the main ingredient...

Blackberry Grapefruit Popsicle

(yields 6)

INGREDIENTS

First you need popsicle molds. I think mine are from ikea, they were a gift. 

2 grapefruits - juice those babies

1- 2 tbsp. honey (mix into juice of grapefruits - taste as you sweeten)

12 blackberries - mash them a little put two in the bottom of each popsicle mold)

Then pour the grapefruit juice with honey mixed in into the molds

freeze

& enjoy!

I might be biased but this is literally the best tasting homemade popsicle I've ever had. 

Try it! Let me know what you think!