Sometimes, We get questions, looks or judgements about our lifestyle...or our choice to remain young and have fun right now, even when that means eating Ramen Noodles 5 times a day. The truth to that all is everyone spends their money differently, and IMO to each his own...
But today my devotional is so RIGHT ON I have to share it...

July 10, 2009


Over the years, my pocket book has been stretched until it looks like a suitcase! Life is challenging with our world's economy, the cost of living, and the ever present bills that seem to crawl into our mailbox.

I have always believed in a comment made to me years ago that it was important to create memories and make that a priority with family. Empires fall, money fades, but we have our memories. That has been a foundational practice for me as I raised my kids. My purse may have been empty, but my heart was full. We created memories with adventures in the park, flying kites, walks along the beach, and campfires with my extended family. One such special memory was watching my kids bring their backpacks to my bed while I read and they did homework.

Sin in our world can create unpleasant and sad memories for us. Sometimes we cannot choose those and carry heavy scars because of that. One great thing is that we can create new positive memories ourselves. We have choices to heal, to move forward, and begin a new page in our scrapbook of memories.

I love watching my children open up our scrapbooks smiling and laughing, saying things such as "remember when...." I didn't have money for trips but what I had for them was TIME. Time creates memories. People climb corporate ladders in their workplace. How about climbing the corporate ladder as a parent? It takes time and creativity as we fill the pages of our scrapbook.

Solomon voiced these words in Ecclesiastes 5:18, "What is the best thing to do in the short life that God has given us? I think we should enjoy eating, drinking, and working hard. This is what God intends us to do." Our time on earth is limited, and each day gives us a great responsibility to do our job, to take care of our bodies, and enjoy life!

Memories don't have to be elaborate. They just need time. We have had our share of picnics and ants, bike rides, table games, baking in a total chaos, and new family traditions created.

Solomon continues to say, "It is better to enjoy what we have than to always want something else, because that makes no more sense than chasing the wind."

Summer holidays are coming up. Vacations need to be scheduled, kids activities need to be prepared to keep everyone's sanity and the scrap book of memories added to. What a great privilege to look back over the years and smile, though so needy financially and still have had the opportunity to choose positive memories with my kids despite the dollar value.

Make a list of memories you can create in the next days for your own scrapbook. Rejoice that despite the dollar value, there are so many memories that are at your fingertips. Be positive with your kids as you live out the importance of building memories.

Father God, thank you that you love making memories with us. You cherish listening to our hearts, You always have time for us, and You want us to enjoy the life we have here on planet Earth. Help us to discern positive memories that we can carry in the scrapbooks of our memories and thank You for those opportunities. Help us to remember that a dollar has just a dollar value and a memory is a lifetime! In Jesus' name, Amen.

Questions: What is keeping you from making memories with your family? What are your priorities in life? What is the most important thing you can do in the short life that God has given you?


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Today is an exciting day, as one of my mod podge projects is featured over on Mod Podge Rocks. Thanks to Amy!
Everyone head over there and check out all the fun projects she covers. Also you can add it to your google reader and get one new project idea a week!
I also have a new idea up my sleeve but that will be for next week, as today is all about COMPLETING my other projects! Good Day & Happy Friday!

I saw these in the background of a pic of someone's house on design sponge ( did you follow all of that) ha... anyway i searched for them until I found some on ebay. They were country blue ICK! so I painted them white and I love them. Now I must find some corks to plug up the bottom with.

This is a lamp I got at Goodwill which will be getting a complete makeover for our bedroom. I must find the right shade and a finial.

Here it has been painted.

Final picture coming soon ( maybe) :)

I learned a trick from Amy W. at Bonnaroo. She had a very convenient pop up trash can that we used all week. It came from an outdoor store and I thin is used for leaves and stuff, but what an AHA use ..to turn it into traveling trashcans! This is something we have ALWAYS needed when tailgating. Target has some now that are the perfect Titans Colors!
They are most easy to find this time of year, because of all the back to college stuff that is out. You can also buy several different colors to separate your recylcings from trash.

Not much progress.. but some growth..
Okra:


Tomato Plants ( need staking stat)

Pumpkins... since it takes them forever to grow I started early this year.

The majority of this day has been spent, cleaning up remnants of the 4th party! But in addition to that I started a new project that was inspired by THIS GIRL.
She makes some super cool clothes on both Ebay & Etsy in her store called HellHound Vintage. Notice how she has taken a Vintage dead shirt and reconstructed it to actually look kind of hot? ( those jeans are helping a lot too) but anyway I spent all night thinking of how I could do this and then remembered, my sewing machine is broken.

So I went to Target to buy another one, because the part to fix mine cost 1/4 of its actual value, and it is 10 years old. While in there I find this thing here: The Easy Stitcher $25.
What a fantastic little idea and so far I have to say its amazing. Very easy to use, can work on batteries or power, weighs like A pound, so, soooooo much smaller than my old machine, and much fewer buttons. I have not had to change any thread or bobbins yet so that will be the true test.


And here are a few of my creations. Not near as good as hers. I am sure hers are also done very professionally, while mine, could have been sewn by Ralphie, but I really like them. Below is a Vintage Pearl Jam shirt. Probably needs to be taken in a little on the sides but not bad!

Tie Dye much more my style!

Erik is freaking out about me digging in his 4 BAJILLION t-shirts so I shall probably, maybe stop now.

Don't Panic! Neither of the new additions are small and furry.. or even alive! I am talking about 2 long awaited upgrades to the house!
1. An Electrical outlet on the deck. We don't have any power outside which has caused lots of problems. Super excited to get this one! Notice we put it right to use.

#2. Ceiling Fan! We have fans almost everywhere but the living room! The room we spend the most time in! It has completely changed the temp around here and how we adjust the thermostat! Some dude from Lowe's installed it and he did a great job!

And because he worked on the house, he had to have his pic made.
This is probably the most pleasant experience I have had with anyone working on our house, other than Dodi the painter!

These are the patriotic Panna Cottas I made after reading about them on the Kitchen Mischief Blog. They were delish so head over to that blog and copy down that recipe!
Here are all the beautiful decorations and tables I had set up on the deck that were completely ruined by the rain. It did not just sprinkle.... but it FLOODED. It almost ruined the party...
Then the grill would not light. Turns out we messed some things up when we moved the grill to stain the deck, but Erikface figured it out and saved the day.
but the party really got started when Danny arrived. All the time we have known him, we never knew that he runs a fireworks stand on the side.
He shows up here not just with all the girly fireworks (i.e. gigantor sparklers) but also with HUGE GINORMOUS professional fireworks.
and just when you thought THAT was fun, he broke out the 25" confetti tube bombs, multiple ones, and the entire house was showered in beautiful rainbow bits!
All in all it was a great party with great food and fantastic friends! Thanks to everyone for coming!

Here you can see all the many many spindles that we had to stain by hand with paint brushes. WOAH! That too about 5 hours, maybe more. We started at 9 am yesterday and finished around 7pm.
Earlier in the week Erik pressure washed it and then treated it with "Brightener" so this has been quite a process. One of the many things that makes us a great team is our difference in this area. Anytime, any project I will dive right in, no prep work, and just figure it out or do the best I can. Erik, on the other hand, researches, reads up, memorizes and will know everything he can about deck maintenance and the differences between stains and name brands of stains and the best method etc... Its quite hilarious the 2 of us doing such projects.
He also, as you can see, is quite the deck model. ha

at this point, we ran out of stain and had to go back to lowes. Like I said, I have never done a project without having to leave and get something!



and now ALL done and ready for my 4th party! Hooray!
Now who wants to come over and do the Fence?

Go to itunes to redeem and use this code " P7PW9EHEH9WN"
Happy 4th!

Julie and I have been very busy over at the Brentwood House. We cleaned some stuff out of the basement, finished the kitchen and are back working on some porch furniture. This chair below is a work in progress. It has about 5 layers of old paint that I need to remove somehow... still working on that. I scrubbed it for about 30 minutes with a steel wool brush in the 100 degree weather and then wanted to drop kick it across the yard.
Marshica Colquett... that beautiful glider in your backyard needs to be painted with rustoleum asap and if you dont do it before I come home again, I am totally stealing it and bringing it here where it will get its proper love!

This bench here will be repainted.. not sure what color yet.
This table here got a new coat of rust proof white paint.
as did this lamp, you can see the before and after since this pic was taken mid way through
and Dr. G's sunchair will get repainted and a new cushion.
Bit by bit this porch is becoming a paradise!

Neat Majeat! It was really not that hard or time consuming. Kind of like wrapping a present. I think using a bigger print would probably have been better on this, or any larger projects cause that small print can make you dizzy! But I was shopping for discounted fabrics and this was the only one that really appealed to me.
If you are interested in doing this I would say you need:

• Large Size Mod Podge ( cheaper at JoAnne's than Michael's)
• 3 yards of fabric, although i really used only 2 b.c I patched it some places
• sponge paint brush
• Spray gloss (optional)
  

I think framed art always looks fantastic, BUT i NEVER, EVER want to pay for it. I don't know what it is about me that feels totally OK with dropping mad cash on a purse or a cell phone, but spending $5.99 on mod podge or $100 on framed art is soooo hard for me to do! ha But, I have finally done it ( sort of) I took 2 of our recent concert posters to JoAnne's fabrics b.c I had a coupon for 50% off custom framing. They turned out really well and it was just a tad over $100 to have both framed. I have some plans to tweak our living room a smidge. Still not satisfied with it and I don't know why! But I want to make a concert poster collage on one wall. Another Collage? yes... another one. I love them.

This could actually take the place of spray paint in my heart! I am loving it! I found out it is MUCH easier when you use fabric than stinking wrapping paper. I had this fabric on hand from a previous project and of coarse the spray paint from my other stuff this weekend so I touched up the frame, covered the cushion and mod podged that last step to match. Now it is not quite so atrocious sitting around the house, cause no matter how often I put this stool up, I always need it 5 mins later so mostly, it never gets put away :)

I went to the Flea Market Saturday and BOY was it HOT. I had to rally several times so that I didn't just leave. Having had to park 4 miles from the entrance was almost motivation enough ...
Bubs told me "Don't spend any money" which when translated into Laura, means about $30 ... so that is what I took and believe it or not I only spent about $20
I got:
some jewelry for $1 each
some breathe rights. ( If you dont know what these are .. go get some. sexy? no... totally awesome ? yes)
An old fashioned canning guide for my dad who's personal goal is to Can 100 cans of something every day. ( He is achieving that goal too! )
2 Retro Pillowcases. My collection is growing.
Some lavender incense for Juliel and Me.
Some Grateful Dead Bears on Guitar Picks earrings.
A Flock of Brown Plastic Birds.

The birds mystified everyone... so I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. I had big plans for them though. I spray painted them white see:
And then hung them in the bathroom to discover they are too small for that wall. Ohs wells. I will just move them to a new home never as soon as I feel like doing all that nail work again ha.
PS I did alot of spray painting this weekend. ALOT. More to come on that throughout the week.