Faithful Friday! He has plans!

Have you ever read Jeremiah 29:11???

I have read it over and over and over!  Especially right now.  It says, "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future."  WOW!  That is major to me.  Oftentimes, we make our own plans for our future, but God may have other plans.  I think it is very important that we be open to His plans and seek what He wants for us.

My husband and I had our "path" mapped out, until we hit a bump in the road.  He lost his job back in April.  It is now August, and he still does not have a job.  Believe me, it not for lack of searching!  There is not much out there in his field.  He has had a bunch of interviews, but God just has not put the right job in his path.  That is a very difficult concept to grasp right now.  And, it is something that I am having to pray about on a VERY regular basis.

Side note here:  In 2008-09, I was teaching preschool and resigned from my position for the next year (last year) to help more in the elementary school that my older 2 children attend.  Well, I am very happy to tell you that this year, my position became available and I will be teaching again!  This was a HUGE blessing and answer to prayer.

On to more of the verse that the Lord has used to speak to me...If you read the first few words, it says "For I know the plans I have for you".  Let me just emphasize "I" for a moment.  "I" is the Lord, not me!  He has plans for me and my family that I don't even know about yet.  Let me just throw away MY plans totally.

If you read on it says "plans to prosper you and not to harm you".  That means that He has the very best for me in His plan. Love that!  Plans that are going to help me grow and become a better person.   Plans that He will use to mold me into the person that He wants me to become.

Lastly, it says, "plans to give you hope and a future".  My hope is in Him and knowing that His plans are better than any that I could ever think of is so comforting to me. 

When I stop and think about this particular verse, I gain more confidence in the fact that He loves me unconditionally and truly has the best for me in His plans.  I just have to be patient and wait on that plan to be revealed.

I do hope this verse has spoken to you as well and would love to hear about it!
Thanks for stopping by on this Faithful Friday!

Stamped Jewelry

Not too long ago, I decided to try hand stamping jewelry.  Surprise, surprise...I LOVE IT!!

It is not too difficult to learn, but purchasing the tools can be costly.  Here are some pieces that I have created for others...

Don't you love the simplicity of this?  JOY is my favorite word, so yes, this piece is mine!  It reminds me that true joy can only come from Jesus.  Since I have a relationship with Jesus, I can have "joy" in my life even during the most difficult times when I am not "happy".

This is another one of my favorites.  Have you heard Chris Tomlin's song "Amazing Love"?  Well, that is where the inspiration for this piece came from.  God's love is truly amazing!!

Yes, this one says "GODIVA"...as in chocolates!  When my aunt saw my piece that said "JOY" and I explained that joy is my favorite word, she commented that she needed one that said "CHOCOLATE".  My mind started spinning with how I could fit CHOCOLATE on a piece.  There are too many letters to fit on the tag, so I opted for "GODIVA".  She loves this!!  It is so fun and whimsical.

Here is another whimsical piece..."CUTE as a button".  The tiny disc in the center is punched to look like a button.  My daughter wears this one with her colorful outfits.

I have many more to show you, but I won't bore you with the other photos.  If you would like to have one of these for yourself, let me know.  Obviously, they can be custom stamped to suit your personality.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday's Tips!

I am so excited to bring you a new post!  Every Tuesday, I will be posting organizing tips.  They will either be tips that I use, have found or others have shared with me.  If you have any, feel free to send them my way.

School starts next Monday for 2 of my kids, so I thought "what an appropriate time to get organized".  Hmmm, seems that I "think" that every year at this time and in January.  Maybe I will actually implement these tips to help keep get my home organized.

This first tip is from a friend of mine, Debbie.  She has three boys in her household...two of them are her kids and the other is her husband.  They are such a neat family, so I wanted to share her tip with you!

She has 4 color coded bins/baskets/containers at the bottom of her stairs.  Each color is for a different person in the house.  Throughout the day, she will toss miscellaneous items, that need to be put away, into the appropriate container.  At the end of the day, each person takes their basket to their bedroom and puts those items away.
I love this!  She lives in a 2 story house, so she has stairs to her bedrooms, and this works well.  I live in a ranch style house, so I think I need to have cute containers outside of each bedroom.

Here is what her tip looks like:

Debbie also noted under her photo that if company comes, the bins go to the bedrooms early.

Look how they fit perfectly beside her stairs in the foyer!  Thanks for the great tip, Debbie!!

Keep your eyes open for a special post series starting on Friday..."Faithful Fridays".  Each Friday, I hope to share a special bible verse or short devotional that the Lord has used to speak to me throughout the week.

Remember to "Follow" me, if you like the blog!

a little giveaway

So, this adorable blog is doing a great giveaway!

Click on the picture below to read about it and enter to win!

Good luck!

Bathroom Re-do

I have been working my my bathroom for a couple of weeks and wanted to share my projects.  There are still a few things left to do, but this gives you an idea.  Unfortunately, I don't have any before pictures, so I'll just have to explain some.

First of all, I wanted to do all of this for under $100, AND  I did!!!

My old bathroom had yellow walls, a cream cabinet with silver hardware.   Here is what I did..

.When you open the door, you look a this wall...very plain, so I made this cute canvas that is a 16 x 20 with whimsical lettering....what do you think?

Here is a better picture of the canvas....

I worked on the cabinet for a few days, and this is what I came up with.  Remember, the cabinet was a dingy cream color.

So, I removed all doors and drawers, spray painted the hardware black and painted the cabinet a light tan color.  Once that dried, I took a dark stain and brushed it on the cabinet then immediately wiped it off with a clean cloth.  I love the distressed look that it gave to the cabinet.  It was EXACTLY the look I was going for.

The rest is decor...

I love blue and brown (my husband does NOT), so, I chose a blue for the walls and brown for accents.  I have not sewn the window treatment yet, but plan to finish that this week.  Then I had these white plaques from Southern Living at Home stored in a chest.  I pulled them out and they got a little touch of brown paint to make the design show up just a little more.

This is one of my favorite parts of the room.  The plant is in an old candy dish that was my great-grandmother's.  I love the sweet touch that it adds to the bathroom.  The lamp came from Wal-mart for $10 and the brown leather box came up from the basement.  I love the look of personalized items in any part of the house, so I added an ivory linen hemstitched handtowel with an "L" on it. (These will be offered on my etsy shop!)
The angel planter at the top is something that I will hold on to forever.  Yes, there is a story behind that precious cherub.  I had a baby boy (my 2nd child out of 4) who was stillborn at 39 weeks.  This planter was given to me with a beautiful plant after his death.  The plant was re-planted and the planter was put in this bathroom.  That was 7 years ago, and the planter has never been anywhere else in my house.  I am planning on giving him a fresh coat of paint, but not just yet.

Here is a closer look at the hemstitched towel...

I have so much enjoyed my bathroom re-do and can't wait until it is "completely" finshed.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Stationery Special!

I'm back from the beach with the kids and my mom.  I was ready to get home to see my hubby!  But, we did have a great time!

I came home to find this awesome stationery special.  I am a consultant with the cutest stationery company around.  It is called Yours Truly Deisngs.   We have all kinds of notepads and notecards.  There are some that are PERFECT for school.  The "From the Mom of..." notepads.  You MUST check those out before school starts.  One notepad for all of your kids notes to the teachers.

Also, the laminated calendar is a MUST have for the school year.  If you are like me, life is very busy with sports, school, church and all of the little appointments here and there.  This calendar can go on your fridge and you use a wet erase maker to write everything on it for the week.

 And, here are the new designs....

And...here is the special...place an order with any of the new designs and receive a FREE 25 sheet notepad or a set of 4 flat notecards!  The FREE product does have to be the same design and text as what you order.  Please let me know if you have any questions! I would be happy to help you with your order. If you do not need help, plese add me as your consultant...Julie Lewis.

Let me know your thoughts on these products and designs...we love feedback!!!

Family Photo Frame

So, this weekend, my Grandmother (Maw-Maw) turned 92 years old!  She is an amazing lady and I love her dearly.  I think if the blogging world had been around in her day, she definitely would have been involved in it.

A few things about Maw-Maw...she loves her family and loves Jesus!  She was always an amazing cook.  I would ask her how to make something, like biscuits, and here is what she would say. "You take your flour in a big bowl, just a few handfuls of flour.  Then, you take about 5 fingers ful of shortning and work that in real good, but not too much.  Your buscits will be hard if you work it too much.  Then you just pour in your buttermilk and work that in just a little."  Ok, now, who in the world can follow that recipe???  I couldn't, but I will always remember that this is how she told me to make homemade biscuits.   I love to cook and I think that came from her.

Another thing, my Maw-Maw sewed A LOT! Well, I have also followed along in those footsteps as well.  I enjoy sewing, and especially enjoy teaching people how to sew.

My Maw-Maw also has (yes, still does) a green thumb.  She can make anything grow!  I can remember my mom talking about taking what she thought was a "dead" plant to my grandmother to see if she could save it, and guess what...she did!!  I wish I could say that I got a green thumb from her, but unfortunately, I didn't.

Now, since it was her birthday, I wanted to give her something special from my family (including my brothers and their families).  So, I printed off a photo of my whole family from the beach, then found a wooden frame and painted it for her.  I like how it turned out.  Now, my Maw-Maw has 3 children...my dad, and his 2 sisters.  This photo is of my dad's part of her family.  Maw-Maw has the 3 children, 3 in-laws, 6 grandchildren plus in-laws and 7 great-grandchildren with 2 more on the way.  I'd say she is a very blessed lady!

Here is the frame, after a little story of her...

We had a great time at her party, thanks to my aunt being an awesome hostess!  It was great to see family that we haven't seen in a really long time.

I am linking this up here...

and here....