Ikea Shelves with Chelsea (!!!)

Preparing to drill. Ready?

The actual drilling. I must admit,
it was really fun to drill holes in my wall.

Yay! One finished sturdy shelf!

Yay! TWO finished sturdy shelves!

Screwing in the screws manually.
Yes, I know that is not how you are supposed to hold a screwdriver.
It was working, ok? :)

Ta-da! Three finished sturdy shelves.
And before I moved my desk to be center under the shelf configuration.

Tonight. SOME stuff on the shelves,
but more stuff on the floor.

The finished product for tonight.
Final organizing and sorting will come over the next week.
This girl is tired...but happy.
I am going to sleep!

Boxed In or Open Prairie?

Basically the story is, for the past two years or so, I'll be in church, prayer, worship, whatever and something will click in my head and I'll get an idea. Sometimes it's an idea for a painting, other times a paper collage, furniture, greeting cards, knitting, once a mural and recently blankets. When I get the idea, I'll write it on whatever I have handy. It usually ends up being on my sermon notes, which quickly fill up with more drawings than notes.

A few months ago, I decided to put them all in one place and bought a beautiful wonderful sketchbook that I love. Let's call her Ann, cause it's fun. I titled Ann "My Sketchbook" and filled it up with all these wonderous thoughts, ideas and plans, all with meticulous notes about the finished project. Then I put it away. I thought about actually doing these things, but not seriously.

Then, at the Women's Retreat with my church a few weeks ago, when I was lamenting to the Lord about how predictable, boring and busy my life is, He challenged me. I was seeing myself boxed in all around by my life situation right now and I felt a bit trapped and therefore unhappy. Over the course of that retreat, God lifted away every side to that box. He asked me a lot of "What if this or that?" questions and I began to realize, yet again, just how wide open my life options are or could be. One of things He asked me was what if I started making all the things I had dreamed about in my sketchbook?

It was amazing. I was scared and excited all at the same time. I knew it would be hard. I'm a perfectionist and when I get an idea in my head, I want it to end up just that way. However, it usually doesn't go that way! The creative process must be flexible and yielding as the project forms. One thing doesn't work, so you try another and it's ok. I try to tell myself this over and over in my head as I work.

All of my life right now, this process, handing it over to the Lord, working out the kinks, bumps, trying to answer all the questions that come up in my head....it's overwhelming. I have the nights where I've worked 5 hours on a few different projects and nothing is panning out like I wanted it to. I also have the nights where I sit down and in 2 hours have a perfect project that I love. All in all, I'm learning to be flexible. Flexible with myself, the process and with the Lord.

He is never done changing me.

New opportunities

I am so very sorry for leaving you all with such an unpleasant post at the top of my blog for nearly 10 days! Ugh. So very sorry. I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again. :)

Life has been...interesting lately.

1. --> I've read Amos. I have struggled with it, prayed over it, avoided God for a day or two because of it, received an answer, came to peace with it and was inspired by it. Wow. Such a lot of action for such a little book. It's good, really good. If you're interested in more, let me know. I probably (smile) could be convinced to write out my thoughts.

2. --> I've had some friendships renewed, some deepened and as we speak, some are potentially forming.

3. --> I've been challenged by the Lord to do something that I've really never thought about doing before...seriously that it. I've dreamed about it lots of times. Let me tell you, the actual doing it is much harder than dreaming about it! More about this later....

4. --> My living situation is changing. I have a roommate moving in shortly. I love it, but in my head I can't help but think, "Here we go again!".

5. --> Work is slowly becoming less awful as I remember and ask the Lord how to have JOY in EVERY circumstance, not just the good ones. I'm really working on not taking work so seriously and smiling more. Really, it's been sad. I don't know what happened to me, but over the last few weeks, I've just become a different person at work. Cynical, hard, always overwhelmed, taking things very personally, not compartmentalizing, very pessimistic, ugh. I just felt tired. I'm still not sure what happened, but I'm trying to make it better...which means I'm asking the Lord HOW (?!?) a lot.

The End Result --> I'm trying to have more joy in EVERY area of my life. It's been hard lately, but tonight I read these awesome articles that convicted and encouraged me. I thought I would share. They are below. Enjoy!

From My Love by George Halitzka which is about learning to love fully even though you've been hurt before.

AND

Opportunities for Joy by Brenna Kate Simonds I think this ones a little obvious. PLUS, the bonus is she's a new mom and yup, you guessed it! There is a baby involved.... :)

Warm liquid in bare hand

I caught a kid's puke in my bare hand the other day for the first time.

I was behind him and he was in the bed facing his poor Dad who was sleeping in his bed. I heard the noises, I knew puke was coming, and I had nothing but my hand. I didn't want poor sleeping Dad to get woken up with warm puke trickling down his face. GROSS.

This is the first time I've ever caught bodily fluids in my bare hand. (Although I did grab a paper towel to catch more puke in....I know! I couldn't find anything better, ok?) It was not as gross as I'd always imagined it to be and yes, I did wash my hands MOST thoroughly after that.

Ahhh, the joys of being a children's nurse.
I'm gonna be such a good mom!

Today

I wore heels to church. Felt pretty good about that. :)
10 hours later.... after the mall, JoAnn Fabrics, and Giant Eagle,
my feet hurt. And I feel pretty positive about that.
Plus, my leg muscles hurt! Crazy I think.
Heels are good for the calves.

I also took a step today and last night.
A step of faith that is exciting and yellow.
It's a blanket. Yes, I'm being vague.
You'll find out more later.
There will be pictures.

Oh and yeah?
The Lord likes me.
a lot.
I like Him lots, too.

And yes, I am very tired right now.
Yay for night shifts and 3 hours of sleep last night.
(!!)

the price of creativity

a living room you can't walk through. :)

Cords of Human Kindness

I love the Lord's love for Israel.
I love the Lord's love for me.

I am also a girl, so I LOVE the visuals in the Bible about this love. I am reading Hosea right now and I am finding it be-a-u-ti-ful.

I led them with cords of human kindness,
with ties of love;
I lifted the yoke from their neck
and bent down to feed them.
-Hosea 11:4

How amazing!!! I am glad that it is beautiful, that HE is beautiful. And I am glad that the Lord cares about it being beautiful, just like He cared enough about the Israelites to redeem them. I am thankful for the Lord's redemption in my life. He has redeemed much of late.

I feel loved tonight, and I like it.

Mmmmmm.....Cupcakes

Well, they aren't your traditional cupcakes.
More like little tiny cupcake muffins that taste really good in your belly
and look really cute on your counter.
Bethany and I made them today and they were good!!!
(Thanks for the recipe Kaylee!)

Little cupcake soldiers with only their bums on.
Their tops are yet to be dipped.

[They are crumbled up Red Velvet cake
mixed with Cream Cheese Frosting
and then dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. (!!)]

Tops dipped with white chocolate and toasted coconut.

Little flower jimmies!!

Red glowing jimmies and flower jimmies with some coconut thrown in.

Mmmmm....cupcake muffins. :)

I Fought With My Sewing Machine and Won

It fought tooth and nail with me for about two days before I won the fight with Susie.

(I named my sewing machine Susie.)

Yet, in the end, I emerge as the victor!

Now for the project. I saw these cute coasters online and was like, "I want to buy those!". THEN, my thrifty side was like, "No, I could make those!". Thus this project began.

I have been tired and frustrated with Susie
over the last two days, but now, because of my perseverance I am all so much wiser now.

James 1:2-4 (Go read it. It applies.)

Anyhow, do you think they are cute?! I love them. They aren't as perfect as I had imagined, but like I said, I learned a whole lot making them!

It's been an exciting time for me as the Lord is challenging me to bring to life projects I've been writing and sketching over the last few years.

This is just the first project.

P.S. - Thx Mom, for telling me how to fix Susie.