Sheesh!! I got all caught up in telling about my great eBay finds, I forgot to tell you all how great our now-traditional Christmas Morning breakfast went!!
For about 5 years now, Tommy and I have been hosting a family gathering at our home on Christmas Morning. This has to be juggled around a bit on the years when Christmas falls on a Sunday, but the rest of the time, it's pretty peaceful & this year was especially awesome.
We have family from both sides here... my parents, our kids, including of course, our daughter-in-law and usually at least one or two friends who don't have family around here. We also have Tommy's parents here and for the past couple of years, that also includes my mother-in-law's mentally handicapped sister.
This year, we had just my one friend whose sons were my boys' best friends growing up. Two of her three sons are now in the military, one of those is married with a family of his own, the other is stationed in California and the other lives around here, but had celebrated with his mom earlier. Corey did a neat thing and called one of the boys on iPhone's facetime, then handed the phone to my friend, so she got to see and chat with her youngest.
The really amazing thing about this year was how my parents hung around for games and stuff. Normally Christmas is a really hard time for my mom. Her mother passed away on Christmas morning about 6 years ago, so she's usually pretty sullen along with being tired because she pushes herself so much.
I am not sure what happened this year, but I pray it's a new tradition. She and Daddy both will usually be ready to go as soon as the meal is over, but Mom came to me and suggested we play a game.
Now folks, THAT is an odd request coming from my mother. Tommy's parents play games all the time and they usually end up staying hours and hours on Christmas morning because our Casey loves Monopoly about as much as they do. I seldom ever play that with them because I can't stand how long it drags on, but they all love it.
ANYway, so Mom suggests a game. I know she won't enjoy something like Monopoly, so I pull out Taboo. We ALL played that for over an hour and had the best time!! So much so, that for New Year's Eve, Mom asked that we all come up for supper and bring the game with us!
It was really amazing and SUCH a fun time. When we normally are left feeling like... I dunno, like anyone would feel if someone just wanted to take off as soon as possible instead of joining in any fun and games. Kinda like a slap, ya know? But not this year. I really hope this is a new tradition!
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
long time, no post...
Ah, yes. I'm back. My life got a little hectic during the holidays. I'm sure yours wasn't though, right? Mmhmm.. I didn't think so.
Our family had a beautiful Christmas, even though this was one of the tightest financial times of our lives. None of the family really had the extra money to do our usual week at the cabin, and we are just out of the habit of trying to buy everyone gifts... besides the fact that we just flat had no money to do that with.
*sigh* Yeah, it's a little depressing, but God kept us busy & we didn't focus on what we didn't have.
So, let me tell you what we did have...
We had two non-family get-togethers at our house. One was for my ladies group of Emmaus chicks. It's the local group of women who have all been on the Walk to Emmaus. Normally we meet each Thursday at a restaurant, or occasionally at a church or someone's home if we're making agape gifts for a walk. But with us getting the finishing touches on the house, both Tommy & I wanted to host some parties at our home. So I had about 25 people here in the middle of December. We played an ornament exchange game, had tons of food & good fellowship. It was so awesome & I was so blessed to have everyone here.
The very next night, we hosted our church's community group here. Unfortunately, three of the couples couldn't come, but of the three couples we had here, I think we all had a great time. We've grown really close to some of these people, and I guess, as our group has grown & there are basically just three of us couples who have been here all along, those other two couples were so good to us when I was injured & not able to get around back in the summer... I just wanted to do something for them. So for this gathering, I didn't ask anyone to bring food. Tommy & I did all the cooking. It turned out great.
I used quite a few recipes I'd found on Pinterest, and they were a hit. I did a lot of cooking for my Emmaus group too, but did ask for the ladies to bring something to share because I was afraid of not having enough. Man! We had a TON of food!!
During all of this, Tommy & I had been working with the First Touch group at church. This is the group that includes the ushers, parking lot guys and the greeters who are stationed not only at the doors, but all through the outer area before you get to the auditorium. I love doing this except for one thing... it means we miss out on the first of the worship service. But still, I love it. I get to see people that I normally don't, which means a lot in a church as big as ours. The last Sunday we worked, I got to see two people I'd gone to high school with that I hadn't seen in ages!!
So God kept us very busy with those things and with doing the Advent devotionals we did corporately with our church. That helped a lot and I'm so thankful that we stuck with it this year. We kinda failed big time last year!
We did spend about $50 on very small gifts for our kids & parents & I'd bought a couple of things earlier in the year for my sister & her husband, so we weren't completely empty handed, which is what I HATE, especially with my parents because my mom always buys such nice things for everyone.
She & dad gave us all some money as well, which was really REALLY nice and put both Tommy and me on eBay looking for things we wanted.
For him it was all kinds of light-weight backpacking equipment for the trip he and our boys are planning for later this year. For me? Well, I have wanted to get some Thirty-One bags for eons. I even thought about hosting a party, but I HATE doing those buy-something deals. I don't go to them because I can't afford to buy stuff, so I figure most people are likely in the same situation. I also wanted to find a really good leather purse. Well, I went over my Christmas-cash budget, but thankfully I have Bill Me Later & could go ahead and get not one, but but SEVERAL of EACH of these wish-list items!!
God's so good, isn't He?? :)
I got one Dooney & Bourke all leather drawstring bag in excellent condition for several hundred dollars less than it would have cost new. I got one of those huge 31 Weekender totes, brand-new in the package AND in that new purple paisley pattern I love! Not only that, but I saved over $30 off retail. I dunno why someone wasn't pleased with this as a gift, but I am thrilled with my purchase! I also got a barely-used All In One Organizing totes to hold all the things we need to keep in the truck. It's in a nice discontinued pattern with the snowy pine trees? I wiped a couple of smudged out of the inside & it looks like new. Saved a TON on it, too. Then I found another 31 Large Utility tote in the brown dot pattern. And I unexpectedly won another Dooney & Bourke bag that should be here any day. It's almost like new too and I only gave $30-something for it. It's all leather & looks great.
Now my problem will be being seen with the aforementioned 31 bags by the ladies I know who are 31 reps. *sigh* I'm thinking about posting a status on facebook explaining what I've done. I mean, c'mon, how can anyone fault me for buying these things used &/or for WAY less than retail? Hopefully, no one, but we'll see. *sigh* I can't let that worry me right now.
Well, I think that's it for me for right now. I'm going to try to upload some pix of the stuff we've got finished around the house. I absolutely LOVE my new green walls in the family room. It's got such a warm cozy feel now and the redo of the mantle is just awesome! Hang tight... I'll get some pix up ASAP!!
hugs~
Our family had a beautiful Christmas, even though this was one of the tightest financial times of our lives. None of the family really had the extra money to do our usual week at the cabin, and we are just out of the habit of trying to buy everyone gifts... besides the fact that we just flat had no money to do that with.
*sigh* Yeah, it's a little depressing, but God kept us busy & we didn't focus on what we didn't have.
So, let me tell you what we did have...
We had two non-family get-togethers at our house. One was for my ladies group of Emmaus chicks. It's the local group of women who have all been on the Walk to Emmaus. Normally we meet each Thursday at a restaurant, or occasionally at a church or someone's home if we're making agape gifts for a walk. But with us getting the finishing touches on the house, both Tommy & I wanted to host some parties at our home. So I had about 25 people here in the middle of December. We played an ornament exchange game, had tons of food & good fellowship. It was so awesome & I was so blessed to have everyone here.
The very next night, we hosted our church's community group here. Unfortunately, three of the couples couldn't come, but of the three couples we had here, I think we all had a great time. We've grown really close to some of these people, and I guess, as our group has grown & there are basically just three of us couples who have been here all along, those other two couples were so good to us when I was injured & not able to get around back in the summer... I just wanted to do something for them. So for this gathering, I didn't ask anyone to bring food. Tommy & I did all the cooking. It turned out great.
I used quite a few recipes I'd found on Pinterest, and they were a hit. I did a lot of cooking for my Emmaus group too, but did ask for the ladies to bring something to share because I was afraid of not having enough. Man! We had a TON of food!!
During all of this, Tommy & I had been working with the First Touch group at church. This is the group that includes the ushers, parking lot guys and the greeters who are stationed not only at the doors, but all through the outer area before you get to the auditorium. I love doing this except for one thing... it means we miss out on the first of the worship service. But still, I love it. I get to see people that I normally don't, which means a lot in a church as big as ours. The last Sunday we worked, I got to see two people I'd gone to high school with that I hadn't seen in ages!!
So God kept us very busy with those things and with doing the Advent devotionals we did corporately with our church. That helped a lot and I'm so thankful that we stuck with it this year. We kinda failed big time last year!
We did spend about $50 on very small gifts for our kids & parents & I'd bought a couple of things earlier in the year for my sister & her husband, so we weren't completely empty handed, which is what I HATE, especially with my parents because my mom always buys such nice things for everyone.
She & dad gave us all some money as well, which was really REALLY nice and put both Tommy and me on eBay looking for things we wanted.
For him it was all kinds of light-weight backpacking equipment for the trip he and our boys are planning for later this year. For me? Well, I have wanted to get some Thirty-One bags for eons. I even thought about hosting a party, but I HATE doing those buy-something deals. I don't go to them because I can't afford to buy stuff, so I figure most people are likely in the same situation. I also wanted to find a really good leather purse. Well, I went over my Christmas-cash budget, but thankfully I have Bill Me Later & could go ahead and get not one, but but SEVERAL of EACH of these wish-list items!!
God's so good, isn't He?? :)
I got one Dooney & Bourke all leather drawstring bag in excellent condition for several hundred dollars less than it would have cost new. I got one of those huge 31 Weekender totes, brand-new in the package AND in that new purple paisley pattern I love! Not only that, but I saved over $30 off retail. I dunno why someone wasn't pleased with this as a gift, but I am thrilled with my purchase! I also got a barely-used All In One Organizing totes to hold all the things we need to keep in the truck. It's in a nice discontinued pattern with the snowy pine trees? I wiped a couple of smudged out of the inside & it looks like new. Saved a TON on it, too. Then I found another 31 Large Utility tote in the brown dot pattern. And I unexpectedly won another Dooney & Bourke bag that should be here any day. It's almost like new too and I only gave $30-something for it. It's all leather & looks great.
Now my problem will be being seen with the aforementioned 31 bags by the ladies I know who are 31 reps. *sigh* I'm thinking about posting a status on facebook explaining what I've done. I mean, c'mon, how can anyone fault me for buying these things used &/or for WAY less than retail? Hopefully, no one, but we'll see. *sigh* I can't let that worry me right now.
Well, I think that's it for me for right now. I'm going to try to upload some pix of the stuff we've got finished around the house. I absolutely LOVE my new green walls in the family room. It's got such a warm cozy feel now and the redo of the mantle is just awesome! Hang tight... I'll get some pix up ASAP!!
hugs~
Friday, September 21, 2012
lows, migraines & a stroke?
So, last Friday morning, my poor daughter-in-law, Melissa, got word that her grandmother had finally passed away after a long, hard battle with cancer. She called me around 7am, but I didn't know it.
I must have answered the phone, I remember looking at it and seeing that it was Mel, but then all I remember is not knowing what to do with the phone. *sigh* My sugar was low. Thank God she called because lately, Tommy's been leaving me asleep when he goes to work!!
He tried to get me to talk to him, but I don't remember any of that. He said I was not able to communicate so he checked my sugar, which was 58. That's not very low, not low enough to affect my speech at least.
He brought me some grape juice, which I promptly drank down. I don't remember too much then til the next time he checked my sugar. I don't know if I went back to sleep or what, but the kids, Corey and Melissa, were there by this time. My sugar was up to 118, but I still couldn't put my words together and at this point, I KNEW it too.
My head was killing me at this point. The left side around my eye was just pounding and it didn't seem to ease up no matter what I did. I apparently kept complaining about it or rubbing it because someone brought me an ice pack. That helped a little but then it would get too cold and I'd have to take it off.
By the time I could understand and realize what was going on, Tommy & the kids were discussing what to do with me. *weeps* I hate when I am incapacitated like that. Feels like I'm such a failure, even if I know there's nothing I can do about it, I just feel like such a heavy burden to my family. :(
Anyhow, I was able to speak a little by now although I had to think a little harder to put my sentences together. I was really scared. And yes, they all thought I was having a stroke. They said the right side of my face was a little droopy, but I couldn't tell that it was.
I started to get up and get some clothes on to head to the hospital. I was still feeling very weak, but could talk a little better all the time. We'd about decided not to go by the time I had my shoes on, but then suddenly, I got sick & ran Corey over on my way to the bathroom to throw up.
Weird.
We went to the ER, of course. By the time I was there, my sugar was around 200. I had a horrific migraine but the sick feeling was gone and I could speak okay for the most part. It still was taking a little extra effort to choose my words, but nothing like the difficulty I'd had before.
We ended up being in the ER for about 3 hours, having blood work and a urine test and a CT scan to check for stroke.
Everything came back normal. The migraine was still as bad as ever, though. They'd given me some pathetic "migraine cocktail" that included acetaminophen, ibuprofen, benedryl and caffeine. They gave me that within about 45 minutes of my arrival and it did NOTHING for the pain. I was in tears for a good hour or so the pain was so bad.
The ER doctor asked if I took migraine meds and I told him no. I hadn't had one in a few years. So he asked what I'd taken before that worked and I told him Lortab. He, of course, didn't want to give me that. I told him I'd tried Maxalt, Midrin and Axert with no results, but the Lortab allowed me to rest and sometimes sleep off the migraine. He finally agreed to give me a dose there, but sent me home with naprosen (what a joke!) and a zithro pack for what he thought might be a sinus infection.
What a waste!! Thank God, though, the pain started easing about 30 minutes after the Lortab & by the time I got home, it was almost gone.
I still have no clue what happened to me. It was SO scary. It's been a long time since I've been unable to communicate like that, and then it was always with a much lower blood sugar than 58. I'm just thankful God brought me through it and hope & pray that I learned whatever it was He wanted to teach me.
I feel horrible knowing that Melissa was in tears when she called me and I wasn't able to comfort her. You just can't imagine how awful that feels unless you've been there.
And I hope you never are.
I must have answered the phone, I remember looking at it and seeing that it was Mel, but then all I remember is not knowing what to do with the phone. *sigh* My sugar was low. Thank God she called because lately, Tommy's been leaving me asleep when he goes to work!!
He tried to get me to talk to him, but I don't remember any of that. He said I was not able to communicate so he checked my sugar, which was 58. That's not very low, not low enough to affect my speech at least.
He brought me some grape juice, which I promptly drank down. I don't remember too much then til the next time he checked my sugar. I don't know if I went back to sleep or what, but the kids, Corey and Melissa, were there by this time. My sugar was up to 118, but I still couldn't put my words together and at this point, I KNEW it too.
My head was killing me at this point. The left side around my eye was just pounding and it didn't seem to ease up no matter what I did. I apparently kept complaining about it or rubbing it because someone brought me an ice pack. That helped a little but then it would get too cold and I'd have to take it off.
By the time I could understand and realize what was going on, Tommy & the kids were discussing what to do with me. *weeps* I hate when I am incapacitated like that. Feels like I'm such a failure, even if I know there's nothing I can do about it, I just feel like such a heavy burden to my family. :(
Anyhow, I was able to speak a little by now although I had to think a little harder to put my sentences together. I was really scared. And yes, they all thought I was having a stroke. They said the right side of my face was a little droopy, but I couldn't tell that it was.
I started to get up and get some clothes on to head to the hospital. I was still feeling very weak, but could talk a little better all the time. We'd about decided not to go by the time I had my shoes on, but then suddenly, I got sick & ran Corey over on my way to the bathroom to throw up.
Weird.
We went to the ER, of course. By the time I was there, my sugar was around 200. I had a horrific migraine but the sick feeling was gone and I could speak okay for the most part. It still was taking a little extra effort to choose my words, but nothing like the difficulty I'd had before.
We ended up being in the ER for about 3 hours, having blood work and a urine test and a CT scan to check for stroke.
Everything came back normal. The migraine was still as bad as ever, though. They'd given me some pathetic "migraine cocktail" that included acetaminophen, ibuprofen, benedryl and caffeine. They gave me that within about 45 minutes of my arrival and it did NOTHING for the pain. I was in tears for a good hour or so the pain was so bad.
The ER doctor asked if I took migraine meds and I told him no. I hadn't had one in a few years. So he asked what I'd taken before that worked and I told him Lortab. He, of course, didn't want to give me that. I told him I'd tried Maxalt, Midrin and Axert with no results, but the Lortab allowed me to rest and sometimes sleep off the migraine. He finally agreed to give me a dose there, but sent me home with naprosen (what a joke!) and a zithro pack for what he thought might be a sinus infection.
What a waste!! Thank God, though, the pain started easing about 30 minutes after the Lortab & by the time I got home, it was almost gone.
I still have no clue what happened to me. It was SO scary. It's been a long time since I've been unable to communicate like that, and then it was always with a much lower blood sugar than 58. I'm just thankful God brought me through it and hope & pray that I learned whatever it was He wanted to teach me.
I feel horrible knowing that Melissa was in tears when she called me and I wasn't able to comfort her. You just can't imagine how awful that feels unless you've been there.
And I hope you never are.
save the brushes!
If you haven't seen this advice on Pinterest or elsewhere, you've gotta be made aware!! There IS a way to resurrect those paint brushes you think are ruined by dried-in paint!
What's the secret? Vinegar. Plain, white vinegar. That's it!!
Just pop enough vinegar to cover the bristles into the microwave & nuke til it's at the boiling point. Then sock your brush in & wait for the magic! This brush was completely dried FULL of paint!!! I like to wrap my brushes when I'm painting but don't get finished or if I'm using more than one color, I keep one brush, wet with paint, wrapped in plastic. The great thing about doing this is you don't have to wash the brush each time you take a break or switch colors. The bad part is that sometimes, you kinda like forget about said brush and end up with what I found today at the bottom of a bucket of paint tools. A brush left completely FULL of paint, dried hard as a rock! Egads!
Now, I didn't just leave this one sitting the vinegar since it was so horribly neglected. After it had sat in the stuff a few minutes, I swished it around to separate the bristles, then I let it sit awhile longer. After that, I used a butter knife to force the more solid sections apart and let it sit again. Then I laid the bristles across the middle section of my kitchen sink with hot water running on it and used the toothed edge of the butter knife to force the stuck-on paint off the tips of the bristles. You need to be gentle doing this so you don't pull the bristles loose, but if you have as big a mess as I did, you'll have to work the paint off somehow.
I'm telling you, my brush is like new now!! And it's just a moderately priced Rubbermaid brush, not a high-dollar brand. Now go, try it for yourself!! You'll be glad you happened upon this piece of advice. I sure am!Sunday, September 9, 2012
fix your eyes upon Jesus...
I don't recall right now exactly how much I've posted here about our move almost a year ago from a very traditional church to the one we now attend. I remember it was hard. All our children and my parents went there too. Still go there, matter of fact. My dad's a deacon there.
But we felt a distinct urging to leave. So we did. And it wasn't very pretty. Dad didn't really speak to me for almost a month. It was a rough time. However, things are good now. Dad slowly realized we had not "forsaken" our Christianity or whatever. We hadn't even left "our" denomination. Just traded in what to us was discouraging church for one that was so alive and totally focused on Jesus and people.
So anyway, now we have some friends who are going through the same thing. They've been coming to our church for a few weeks and not their families, but their church is responding in such an ugly way!! It breaks my heart to see my friends going through this. From being hung up on by the pastor to having someone come by their house and taking the church van without so much as a by-your-leave.
How sad to see a church, of all people, reacting this way. Don't they see it's not about them?? Can't they realize that sometimes God calls us to other places and other duties?
*sigh*
So, in other news, Tommy's been gone since Friday morning. He is serving on a REC (Residents Encounter Christ - an Emmaus style weekend for those who are incarcerated) at a prison. I'm so anxious to see him this evening and hear how it all went.
I have been asked to serve on the next Women's Walk at the camp in a few weeks. I wanted to let the lay director know that while I was back up and walking, I wasn't nearly at 100% with my foot and needed to be put somewhere I wouldn't be on them so much.
Then I found out I had been assigned to the kitchen! Egads! I couldn't believe it since I had emailed to let her know, and THEN at the first organizational meeting, she gets up and says that she'd had to turn people away from helping and she'd prayed about where to put people. I felt HORRIBLE for saying anything about not wanting to serve in the kitchen because of my foot. But... *sigh*... I did.
While the skin graft has taken and the foot is healing well, it's still extremely tender. I've accidentally touched it with one of those foot sanding blocks and it bled like crazy. I can't imagine having my feet swell up like they usually do if I'm on them for extended periods. I just didn't want to risk that. So, I spoke with the LD and she ended up telling me she didn't really have another spot for me, but maybe I could tag-team with someone else on the prayer team "or something".
*siiigh* I really hate feeling like someone's having to make a job for me to do. Hate feeling like I'm not pulling my weight. Hate feeling awkwardly out of place...
Once I got home, I emailed the LD, telling her I really appreciated her calling me and I hated that I could not serve where she needed me, but if she had folks who'd volunteered but she'd had to turn down, that I'd be thrilled if she would allow them to serve in my place. I said that I didn't want her having to create something for me to do when she had people who were willing and able to serve. I told her she would not hurt my feelings one bit if she did that and that I hoped to work with her sometime in the future.
I didn't think anything of it when I got no reply since I hadn't the first time either & knowing she's so busy! I figured I'd just go to the next meeting if I hadn't heard from her and see what she had to say then. But then I got a phone call.
It was the LD saying she really appreciated my email, appreciated that I was willing to step down and give my spot to someone else. She said most people wouldn't have done that and she appreciated the offer. ...but she didn't want to accept it. She said she needed people with a heart for service (aw!) and a willing spirit and there always ended up being a job with no worker and she wanted me on her team.
Wow. If that wasn't a confirmation for me to be on this walk, I don't know what is!! I seriously never had any of those thoughts about myself. I'm a pretty selfish person, matter of fact. And I do hate feeling as if I'm being a drain on a team if I can't do what's needed of me. I feel like such a louse for ever saying, "Well, I DO have diabetes, so I might have a problem doing this or that" so I usually don't say it. I mean, do you realize how lame that sounds when you say it out loud? I DO usually tell people because it sounds much lamer when you're in the middle of a low blood sugar and you can't even talk properly or you don't realize you're having a low til you're in the middle of some important task. Then of course, you can't finish said task OR tell anyone why.
*sigh* Have I mentioned that diabetes kinda sucks? Oh... well, never mind then.
Anyway, I love being able to serve on these walks, but I feel so inadequate in so many ways. Spiritually, physically.... I'm just thankful God doesn't call the equipped but He equips the called.
Hallelujah!
But we felt a distinct urging to leave. So we did. And it wasn't very pretty. Dad didn't really speak to me for almost a month. It was a rough time. However, things are good now. Dad slowly realized we had not "forsaken" our Christianity or whatever. We hadn't even left "our" denomination. Just traded in what to us was discouraging church for one that was so alive and totally focused on Jesus and people.
So anyway, now we have some friends who are going through the same thing. They've been coming to our church for a few weeks and not their families, but their church is responding in such an ugly way!! It breaks my heart to see my friends going through this. From being hung up on by the pastor to having someone come by their house and taking the church van without so much as a by-your-leave.
How sad to see a church, of all people, reacting this way. Don't they see it's not about them?? Can't they realize that sometimes God calls us to other places and other duties?
*sigh*
So, in other news, Tommy's been gone since Friday morning. He is serving on a REC (Residents Encounter Christ - an Emmaus style weekend for those who are incarcerated) at a prison. I'm so anxious to see him this evening and hear how it all went.
I have been asked to serve on the next Women's Walk at the camp in a few weeks. I wanted to let the lay director know that while I was back up and walking, I wasn't nearly at 100% with my foot and needed to be put somewhere I wouldn't be on them so much.
Then I found out I had been assigned to the kitchen! Egads! I couldn't believe it since I had emailed to let her know, and THEN at the first organizational meeting, she gets up and says that she'd had to turn people away from helping and she'd prayed about where to put people. I felt HORRIBLE for saying anything about not wanting to serve in the kitchen because of my foot. But... *sigh*... I did.
While the skin graft has taken and the foot is healing well, it's still extremely tender. I've accidentally touched it with one of those foot sanding blocks and it bled like crazy. I can't imagine having my feet swell up like they usually do if I'm on them for extended periods. I just didn't want to risk that. So, I spoke with the LD and she ended up telling me she didn't really have another spot for me, but maybe I could tag-team with someone else on the prayer team "or something".
*siiigh* I really hate feeling like someone's having to make a job for me to do. Hate feeling like I'm not pulling my weight. Hate feeling awkwardly out of place...
Once I got home, I emailed the LD, telling her I really appreciated her calling me and I hated that I could not serve where she needed me, but if she had folks who'd volunteered but she'd had to turn down, that I'd be thrilled if she would allow them to serve in my place. I said that I didn't want her having to create something for me to do when she had people who were willing and able to serve. I told her she would not hurt my feelings one bit if she did that and that I hoped to work with her sometime in the future.
I didn't think anything of it when I got no reply since I hadn't the first time either & knowing she's so busy! I figured I'd just go to the next meeting if I hadn't heard from her and see what she had to say then. But then I got a phone call.
It was the LD saying she really appreciated my email, appreciated that I was willing to step down and give my spot to someone else. She said most people wouldn't have done that and she appreciated the offer. ...but she didn't want to accept it. She said she needed people with a heart for service (aw!) and a willing spirit and there always ended up being a job with no worker and she wanted me on her team.
Wow. If that wasn't a confirmation for me to be on this walk, I don't know what is!! I seriously never had any of those thoughts about myself. I'm a pretty selfish person, matter of fact. And I do hate feeling as if I'm being a drain on a team if I can't do what's needed of me. I feel like such a louse for ever saying, "Well, I DO have diabetes, so I might have a problem doing this or that" so I usually don't say it. I mean, do you realize how lame that sounds when you say it out loud? I DO usually tell people because it sounds much lamer when you're in the middle of a low blood sugar and you can't even talk properly or you don't realize you're having a low til you're in the middle of some important task. Then of course, you can't finish said task OR tell anyone why.
*sigh* Have I mentioned that diabetes kinda sucks? Oh... well, never mind then.
Anyway, I love being able to serve on these walks, but I feel so inadequate in so many ways. Spiritually, physically.... I'm just thankful God doesn't call the equipped but He equips the called.
Hallelujah!
more craftiness...
Okay, so the blue room... it needs some help. Mom gave me a lamp that is very pretty. It's a brown metal, slender-ish with a couple of thin leaves, sort of like a flower. She has a octagon shaped shade on it in a damask type of fabric. It's too yellowy for the room, though.
I found a cool idea on, where else, Pinterest, taking fabric ruffle & wrapping it around the shade. Of course, having NO crafty store around town though, I have not been able to find any such ruffle. There is Sexton's that I didn't try, but it's a tad late now. *sheesh* My idea was to use blue and brown with maybe some green ribbon wound through it. But like I said, absolutely no luck finding ruffle.
And actually, it's about impossible to find fabric with my colors. See, my problem is that I've incorporated green into the room. Matter of fact, the bedspread is entirely green with a white floral outline on it. !! Remember I said I was trying to keep the room gender neutral to suit whatever purpose the Lord might have for the room... but that's about impossible too!! One of my sweet cousins had bought a comforter for in there... it was a bit darker blue than the walls with a large white flower outline and a bit of green leaves. It would have been great color-wise, but it looked entirely too feminine. And besides that, Tommy didn't like it at all. *sigh*
So, I took it back and found the green one. Originally we got the green comforter hoping to use the opposite side, which was a white background with little blue and green stripes. But once I got it on the bed, it just looked like pajamas!! Egads!!
The dust ruffle is dark brown & my thoughts were to find some fabric with blue, green & brown to make a couple extra throw pillows. But man, it's about impossible to find those colors together and of course, there are only fify bazillion shades of green and blue.
I was able to find a few pieces of fabric with these colors at Walmart in an entirely overpriced bundle. Seven bucks for 6 small sheets of fabric?!/ I'm still kicking myself, but what do you do when you get desperate? (You spend too much money, that's what!)
My materials: gel glue (Elmer's brand is what I used), mix the glue with water til you get something that's not too thin but brushable. A 1/2 inch brush, my lamp shade and fabric cut into approximately 1/2" strips.
Here's what I started with:
My original thought was to make a paper pattern of the panel, cut the fabric to fit & glue it to the shade, but I finally gave up on EVER being able to get an accurate pattern. Between the flare of the panel and the outward curve, it was impossible. So I thought I'd just cut my fabric into strips & glue it on vertically.
However after getting a few strips on, I realized that wasn't going to work. *sigh* That daggone flare was going to make it impossible!!
So, I took all that back off, and started winding it around the same way the ruffle deal was supposed to be.
That seemed to work lots better til I got to that curve where the shade starts flaring out at the bottom. Then I ended up with little poochy puckery sticky-ups... see?
Everywhere the fabric crossed the wire frame, I had one of those poochies sticking out.
At this point, I was brushing the glue over the fabric as well as underneath. I took the tip of my scissors & cut the fold down to where the fabric laid down correctly. Then I brushed the two flaps created down one over the other. That seemed to work fine.
Here's what I ended up with:
I tucked the edges of the fabric underneath the ...whatever you call it.. the binding at the top and bottom of the shade. I didn't cover those, but if it still doesn't suit me, I will probably use flat grossgrain ribbon to cover that.
Here's the lamp on the nightstand... still wet, so it's darker than it will be when dry, but I'm pretty pleased with it!
same room, different project
I have these two gorgeous pictures Mom gave me, but the frames are too glitzy to suit me. I wanted to tone them down a bit. So I did a little paint job on them.
Before:
After:
I used a "dry brush" brush... I dunno the technical name for it, but that's what it's used for. This brush is probably at least 30 years old. It came from Mom's ceramic shop eons ago. Tip of the day: take care of your brushes!! :) You'll need one with short, fairly stiff bristles. And you'll want to get some scrap paper or cardboard to "rub" most of the paint out of your brush.
I will probably regret not taking the glass out of these and doing them "right" but I was being lazy & trying to fill time in between studying on what to do with my lamp shade. To properly do this to your frames, you should definitely at least spray them with some satin sealer so you have a better finish for underneath your paint. Seriously, there's a sheen to these frames to begin with & the paint basically just pushed around on the surface. I'm just hoping it doesn't rub off while I'm trying to hang them. I originally was going to base coat them a cream color, but I didn't totally hate the gold... but if I'd used the spray. I'd have had something to hold the paint on. This is call do as I say, not as I do... and yes, if the paint all rubs off while I'm hanging the pictures, I'll tell you. *sigh*
Have fun & let me know if you try any of my ideas. :D
I found a cool idea on, where else, Pinterest, taking fabric ruffle & wrapping it around the shade. Of course, having NO crafty store around town though, I have not been able to find any such ruffle. There is Sexton's that I didn't try, but it's a tad late now. *sheesh* My idea was to use blue and brown with maybe some green ribbon wound through it. But like I said, absolutely no luck finding ruffle.
And actually, it's about impossible to find fabric with my colors. See, my problem is that I've incorporated green into the room. Matter of fact, the bedspread is entirely green with a white floral outline on it. !! Remember I said I was trying to keep the room gender neutral to suit whatever purpose the Lord might have for the room... but that's about impossible too!! One of my sweet cousins had bought a comforter for in there... it was a bit darker blue than the walls with a large white flower outline and a bit of green leaves. It would have been great color-wise, but it looked entirely too feminine. And besides that, Tommy didn't like it at all. *sigh*
So, I took it back and found the green one. Originally we got the green comforter hoping to use the opposite side, which was a white background with little blue and green stripes. But once I got it on the bed, it just looked like pajamas!! Egads!!
The dust ruffle is dark brown & my thoughts were to find some fabric with blue, green & brown to make a couple extra throw pillows. But man, it's about impossible to find those colors together and of course, there are only fify bazillion shades of green and blue.
I was able to find a few pieces of fabric with these colors at Walmart in an entirely overpriced bundle. Seven bucks for 6 small sheets of fabric?!/ I'm still kicking myself, but what do you do when you get desperate? (You spend too much money, that's what!)
My materials: gel glue (Elmer's brand is what I used), mix the glue with water til you get something that's not too thin but brushable. A 1/2 inch brush, my lamp shade and fabric cut into approximately 1/2" strips.
Here's what I started with:
My original thought was to make a paper pattern of the panel, cut the fabric to fit & glue it to the shade, but I finally gave up on EVER being able to get an accurate pattern. Between the flare of the panel and the outward curve, it was impossible. So I thought I'd just cut my fabric into strips & glue it on vertically.
However after getting a few strips on, I realized that wasn't going to work. *sigh* That daggone flare was going to make it impossible!!
So, I took all that back off, and started winding it around the same way the ruffle deal was supposed to be.
That seemed to work lots better til I got to that curve where the shade starts flaring out at the bottom. Then I ended up with little poochy puckery sticky-ups... see?
Everywhere the fabric crossed the wire frame, I had one of those poochies sticking out.
At this point, I was brushing the glue over the fabric as well as underneath. I took the tip of my scissors & cut the fold down to where the fabric laid down correctly. Then I brushed the two flaps created down one over the other. That seemed to work fine.
Here's what I ended up with:
I tucked the edges of the fabric underneath the ...whatever you call it.. the binding at the top and bottom of the shade. I didn't cover those, but if it still doesn't suit me, I will probably use flat grossgrain ribbon to cover that.
Here's the lamp on the nightstand... still wet, so it's darker than it will be when dry, but I'm pretty pleased with it!
same room, different project
I have these two gorgeous pictures Mom gave me, but the frames are too glitzy to suit me. I wanted to tone them down a bit. So I did a little paint job on them.
Before:
After:
I used a "dry brush" brush... I dunno the technical name for it, but that's what it's used for. This brush is probably at least 30 years old. It came from Mom's ceramic shop eons ago. Tip of the day: take care of your brushes!! :) You'll need one with short, fairly stiff bristles. And you'll want to get some scrap paper or cardboard to "rub" most of the paint out of your brush.
I will probably regret not taking the glass out of these and doing them "right" but I was being lazy & trying to fill time in between studying on what to do with my lamp shade. To properly do this to your frames, you should definitely at least spray them with some satin sealer so you have a better finish for underneath your paint. Seriously, there's a sheen to these frames to begin with & the paint basically just pushed around on the surface. I'm just hoping it doesn't rub off while I'm trying to hang them. I originally was going to base coat them a cream color, but I didn't totally hate the gold... but if I'd used the spray. I'd have had something to hold the paint on. This is call do as I say, not as I do... and yes, if the paint all rubs off while I'm hanging the pictures, I'll tell you. *sigh*
Have fun & let me know if you try any of my ideas. :D
Monday, September 3, 2012
some snazziness goin' on...
So, my time lately has been taken up with all the TONS of projects we have going on around the house. We've been working on several painting projects since last fall. We got the kitchen done just barely in time to host Thanksgiving & kinda stopped there.
We were just too pooped to attempt anything else for awhile. We'd done the living room already, which wasn't too bad a job (I'll try to get some pix up here... they're mostly on facebook, so I can't just toss the code on here to show you how awesome things turned out. ;) The kitchen was next & it was crazy... we used three colors: a rich chocolately brown, an deep slightly burnt red & a color called, very appropriately, Coffee With Creme. Our kitchen is weird b/c the center wall leads through an open doorway into the family room & there's no place to break the color from one room to the next on that wall. Our bedroom door frame extends just a smidge into the family room, so you just cannot break from one color to another... so that wall must be the same all the way through.
When we first built the house & realized this, we "solved" that problem by painting both rooms the same color, but that was NOT my idea of a fix. ;) So then we realized if we could come up with a neutral color for that center wall, we could do different colors on the remaining three walls in each room.
This time around, in the kitchen we added chair rail, in the Antique White color of all our trim with the brown on the bottom & the red on top, then on the center wall, it's brown on bottom & cream on top. It looks awesome & we just love it.
Anyhows, we stopped the cream color at the edge of our that pesky door frame & it's been that way almost a whole year now.
After the kitchen, we did paint Corey's room, put in new carpet (cheap remnant, which works for us). It's a beautiful mossy green color. The guy mixing our living room paint screwed up & ended up w/that awesome color, so we bought it too at a discount. Woo! Then, just before I had my accident, I'd started painting Casey's room a beautiful sort-of robin's egg blue color. Thank God for my father-in-law & Aunt Faye, who helped finish painting! We got some more remnant for in there. & in the past couple weeks, I've been working on painting some furniture to go in there.
We had some nice wood bedroom furniture that had been the boys' & was painted a denim blue color. I don't have any before shots, which stinks b/c I'd have loved to have been able to paint the Antique White I used & then sanded the edges. We weren't able to do that though b/c at one point, we gave Corey the desk from the set to use when he got married & they'd painted it a tan color. *sigh*
No worries, though, b/c I came up with another solution....
[I'm too lazy to resize my pix today, deal with it! ;)]
We've been trying to make the room not too girly & not overly boyish b/c our hope is to someday have a child who needs a safe place to live come & stay with us. We don't know which God might send, but it's so hard to keep such a room very "gender neutral" when there's SO much pretty flowery stuff that goes with the blue & my mother tends to pick up any feminine decor she finds at a steal w/that color in it. LOL!
c
Anyhow, here's what I did to the furniture:
This is a shot of the Antique White and my idea for modding a brush to create the effect I was going for... This is a 3" crummy old brush. Really too course for much of anything I wanted to do, so I cut "Vs" out in it, leaving varying sized gaps.
A shot of the before-technique along with the brown paint I used (left over from the kitchen)
I'm testing how the cuts will spread once I apply pressure on the wood. I ended up making the cuts a bit deeper by increasing the angle.
Keep in mind, I was working outta my own head here.. had never tried this before, had no real clue what exactly I wanted it to look like, just a vague idea....
This is how my brush turned out in the end.
This is sort-of a dry brushing technique I learned when my mom had a ceramics shop eons ago. So you'll need something to rub almost all of the paint off your brush. I used an old box. Old newspaper or junk mail works great too, doesn't have to be cardboard.
What I did is just gently pull the brush across the surface. I wasn't really going for a wood grain look, but it was similar to that, though nowhere near "right" enough to be considered actual wood grain finish. Although my hubby felt duty-bound to tell me that I should not have let my "grain" cross each other. LOL!
When I realized it was going to look like a sorry attempt at wood grain, I swiped around on it at varying angles to take away all those assumptions! Also, along all the corners/edges and raised areas on the drawers, I laid the brush flat, so the tip of the bristles didn't even touch and brushed sideways so the sides of the bristles were all that rubbed against the sharp edge. I love how that looked and how easy it was to do!!
Have I mentioned how thankful I am to have an awesome shop to do stuff like this in?!! Woo!
Since I don't have the room all fixed up, I'm not posting any whole-room shots right now, but here's a peek at what the furniture looks like in the room...
Those last few pix are not the best, I know, but at least the one of the desk shows fairly well how nicely the whole effect blends into the room. We also changed the hardware from the 18th Century style stuff it had. I love the effect it had on the furniture! Oh... and I DID find one shot of that denim blue color we'd painted the stuff when the boys were little:
Please let me know what you think of this and share your furniture painting projects, too!
We were just too pooped to attempt anything else for awhile. We'd done the living room already, which wasn't too bad a job (I'll try to get some pix up here... they're mostly on facebook, so I can't just toss the code on here to show you how awesome things turned out. ;) The kitchen was next & it was crazy... we used three colors: a rich chocolately brown, an deep slightly burnt red & a color called, very appropriately, Coffee With Creme. Our kitchen is weird b/c the center wall leads through an open doorway into the family room & there's no place to break the color from one room to the next on that wall. Our bedroom door frame extends just a smidge into the family room, so you just cannot break from one color to another... so that wall must be the same all the way through.
When we first built the house & realized this, we "solved" that problem by painting both rooms the same color, but that was NOT my idea of a fix. ;) So then we realized if we could come up with a neutral color for that center wall, we could do different colors on the remaining three walls in each room.
This time around, in the kitchen we added chair rail, in the Antique White color of all our trim with the brown on the bottom & the red on top, then on the center wall, it's brown on bottom & cream on top. It looks awesome & we just love it.
Anyhows, we stopped the cream color at the edge of our that pesky door frame & it's been that way almost a whole year now.
After the kitchen, we did paint Corey's room, put in new carpet (cheap remnant, which works for us). It's a beautiful mossy green color. The guy mixing our living room paint screwed up & ended up w/that awesome color, so we bought it too at a discount. Woo! Then, just before I had my accident, I'd started painting Casey's room a beautiful sort-of robin's egg blue color. Thank God for my father-in-law & Aunt Faye, who helped finish painting! We got some more remnant for in there. & in the past couple weeks, I've been working on painting some furniture to go in there.
We had some nice wood bedroom furniture that had been the boys' & was painted a denim blue color. I don't have any before shots, which stinks b/c I'd have loved to have been able to paint the Antique White I used & then sanded the edges. We weren't able to do that though b/c at one point, we gave Corey the desk from the set to use when he got married & they'd painted it a tan color. *sigh*
No worries, though, b/c I came up with another solution....
[I'm too lazy to resize my pix today, deal with it! ;)]
We've been trying to make the room not too girly & not overly boyish b/c our hope is to someday have a child who needs a safe place to live come & stay with us. We don't know which God might send, but it's so hard to keep such a room very "gender neutral" when there's SO much pretty flowery stuff that goes with the blue & my mother tends to pick up any feminine decor she finds at a steal w/that color in it. LOL!
c
Anyhow, here's what I did to the furniture:
This is a shot of the Antique White and my idea for modding a brush to create the effect I was going for... This is a 3" crummy old brush. Really too course for much of anything I wanted to do, so I cut "Vs" out in it, leaving varying sized gaps.
A shot of the before-technique along with the brown paint I used (left over from the kitchen)
I'm testing how the cuts will spread once I apply pressure on the wood. I ended up making the cuts a bit deeper by increasing the angle.
Keep in mind, I was working outta my own head here.. had never tried this before, had no real clue what exactly I wanted it to look like, just a vague idea....
This is how my brush turned out in the end.
This is sort-of a dry brushing technique I learned when my mom had a ceramics shop eons ago. So you'll need something to rub almost all of the paint off your brush. I used an old box. Old newspaper or junk mail works great too, doesn't have to be cardboard.
What I did is just gently pull the brush across the surface. I wasn't really going for a wood grain look, but it was similar to that, though nowhere near "right" enough to be considered actual wood grain finish. Although my hubby felt duty-bound to tell me that I should not have let my "grain" cross each other. LOL!
When I realized it was going to look like a sorry attempt at wood grain, I swiped around on it at varying angles to take away all those assumptions! Also, along all the corners/edges and raised areas on the drawers, I laid the brush flat, so the tip of the bristles didn't even touch and brushed sideways so the sides of the bristles were all that rubbed against the sharp edge. I love how that looked and how easy it was to do!!
Have I mentioned how thankful I am to have an awesome shop to do stuff like this in?!! Woo!
Since I don't have the room all fixed up, I'm not posting any whole-room shots right now, but here's a peek at what the furniture looks like in the room...
Those last few pix are not the best, I know, but at least the one of the desk shows fairly well how nicely the whole effect blends into the room. We also changed the hardware from the 18th Century style stuff it had. I love the effect it had on the furniture! Oh... and I DID find one shot of that denim blue color we'd painted the stuff when the boys were little:
Please let me know what you think of this and share your furniture painting projects, too!
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