Okay, so before you pass out because I’m actually posting to my blog, there’s something really important I want you to know - I’ve missed you!!! Now that that’s out of the way, I have something really important to ask you…

When someone compliments you on something you’ve made, do you say, “Thanks, I made it” or does a simple “thank you” suffice? I’ve carried this purse a handful of times, and each time a stranger has complimented it. While I was tempted to tell them I made it, I chickened out every time and just said thanks. Of course I knew I would come to my blog and show you all my purse.

So here it is! And did I forget to mention that I made it? ‘Cause I did.

So what do you say in that situation?

I hope you all have a wonderful day!  Even though it is a bit of a rainy day, I was able to get a picture of my rhododendrons which are blooming.  There are certain flowers which remind me of my mom, and this is one of them.  We had a big bush growing next to our driveway in the house where I grew up.

For this Mother’s Day we have had a very quiet day, which is exactly what the doctor ordered.  On the way home from church we picked up Chinese food, I took a nice nap, and actually read my book in peace.

Looks like we’ll be able to put off committing me to the funny farm for at least another week!

My dearest friends,

It is with a humble and contrite heart that I must offer an apology to you all. You’ve heard of judging a book by its cover?  Well I am guilty of judging a shoe before trying it on.  Trust me when I tell you, my head is bowed in shame.

There’s more.

I am also sorry for all of the unclean thoughts I have had towards people who wear Crocs; people whom I’ve secretly accused of committing serious fashion faux pas.  I had no right to judge you without walking a mile in your shoes.  Literally.

You see, I have always been a form over function type person.  In other words, the way something looks is more important to me than how well it functions.  Form over function my friends, form over function.  This has always been an issue in our home because Steve and I are polar opposites.  He is a function over form kind of a guy.  He doesn’t care how something looks.  If it works well, it is beautiful in his eyes.  Take a couch for example.  I don’t care if it is the most comfortable couch you have ever had the pleasure of sitting upon, if it doesn’t match my living room decor, it doesn’t stay.  Not the case with Steve.  He shops for couches with eyes closed, relying solely on feedback from his derrière.  I suppose there are upsides to the way he approaches life.  For one, he’s not faced with the predicament I now find myself in.

Fear and fret not friends, for there is hope.  God, in His infinite grace, has allowed me to walk boldly out of my closet with these on my feet:

And yes, yes they are.  They are Crocs!  I never thought the day would come when I would actually own what I have called (in the past mind you - let’s let bygones be bygones) the ugliest shoes known to man.  And let me tell you, had I taken the time to actually slip my foot into one, and experience the massage generated from all of that rubbery goodness, I would not have become the naysayer some know me as today.

So again, to all of you Croc lovers out there - my deepest sympathies have turned into my sincerest apologies.  I am so sorry for judging the Croc based solely on the way it looks.  Because my word, this is the most comfortable shoe I have ever worn.  Ever.  And I’ve worn a lot of shoes.

Since I am baring my deepest emotions here, I feel I should be honest with you.  While I did buy an official pair of Crocs, and while I will no longer secretly laugh at people who actually leave the house wearing Crocs, I am not quite ready to buy a pair of the original style of Crocs.  No, I’m taking baby steps on this one and will stick with what I call my “cute Crocs.”

I hope you can forgive me.

My friend Sara came over yesterday and we spent the morning beading!

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And our final products - I made a necklace that well, you can’t really see. And Sara made a bracelet that well, you can’t really see either. So you’ll just have to take my word for it - we made some cute jewelry!

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Sara is an artist and brought me a print of one of her paintings - isn’t it GREAT!! I love it and can’t wait to frame it and hang it up in my craft room - I have the perfect spot for it.

Thank you Sara - we had a great time having you and your kiddos over!

I made car organizers for my boys before our trip to Williamsburg last week. They each designed their own organizer on a piece of graph paper. Special pockets were made for water bottles, PSPs, their DS, game cartridges, books, snacks…all kinds of fun nooks and crannies for storing their treasures.

This one pictured belongs to my oldest and he was very specific about what he wanted to be able to put in each pocket. You can see there is a spot for his pocketknife (very important), pencils, books, the blue box where he keeps his drawing pencils and tools, and a place for a notebook.  He put heavy things into his organizer which caused it to pull down in the center quite a bit.  I was concerned that the strap might not hold, so I fastened his with a giant safety pin in the back.  It worked great and proved, once again, that I really can chose function over form.

I was pleasantly surprised how much the boys loved their organizers and having a place for their stuff. And best of all?  The car managed to stay relatively clean.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

One of my regular blog reads is Holy Experience. Not only am I blown away by Ann’s amazing gift as a writer, I am challenged each day. She has a unique way of gently prodding me to look at life a bit differently; to look at it a bit more Christ centered than my “me centered” life has a tendency of being.

Back in November, Ann posted about The Thousand Gifts which subsequently let to the Gratitude Community. The Gratitude Community is a community of bloggers who have joined Ann in creating a list of a thousand gifts. As I have visited with others in the community, I’ve been encouraged to begin a list of my own. Here’s the original post that started it all:

“It is the beginning of the list season: lists of menus, lists of hand-made projects, lists of addresses, lists of baking goodies … lists of gifts.

I too begin… but only, currently, one list: A List of a Thousand Things, beginning with #1. I am daily jotting down items on my Thousand Gifts List, working, one-by-one, up to a thousand gifts. Not of gifts I want. But of gifts I have.

As the moments slip down the hour glass of time, I am scratching down the gifts—just as they happen, as they arrive, as they are unwrapped—that He has given that make my life grace, the daily graces that He gives in an infinite number of ways, that stir me.

“…windmills lazying in twilight’s last breeze…. soft wool sweaters with turtle neck collars…. the faint smell of cattle and straw….”

I am seeing things I have never seen before, atuned and aware of this constant, endless stream of gifts from His hand. I am one waking from slumber….from the stupor of indifference and ignorance. I have sight, fresh and keen—the world is new and full of His gifts.

Too often I miss Him, oblivious, blind. I don’t see all the good things that He is giving me, gracing me with, brushing my life with. True, He is everywhere, always. But maybe, before The Gift List, I thought of Him as further off, not so close. When I started to see all the things that I love bestowed upon me, I started to see Him as near, present, everywhere, showering me with good things. Seeing the things I love all around me gives me eyes to see that I am loved, that He loves me.

It is happening to me as John Milton wrote: “Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.”

Everyday epiphanies everywhere, indeed: gifts….Grace.

“… the smell of the florist’s… the sound of kernels of corn streaming, tinkling…. leaves floating in puddles…” Just writing them down as they happen.

Yet my list is different than another’s for a reason: God has made me uniquely me. The Gift List is about gratitude… but it is more. It is about what defines me and my own personal identity. Reflecting on The Thousand Gifts List… “…cracking open a new book… pushing children on the swing…. old men looking at cards in the stationery aisle…” I am thankful for the things on it, yes, but I am also thankful that He has given the gift of me; that God made me who I am and I am one who sees and experiences the world in a way uniquely her own. The Thousand Gifts list is about the gifts Abba gives this child every day… and, ultimately, about the very gift of self, life as I know it.

George MacDonald wrote, “No gift unrecognized as coming from God is at its own best…when in all gifts we find Him, then in Him we shall find all things.”

It is the season of lists. Care to begin a list of a Thousand Gifts? You’ll find Him in all things—the very best gift of all.

Father, You are the Giver of all Good Gifts. They are everywhere. I can hardly jot them down fast enough. How You love.

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Will you too begin your list of a Thousand Gifts? It will change your life. Guaranteed.

Researchers studying those who kept gratitude journals concluded:

At the end of the 10 weeks, participants who’d kept a gratitude journal felt better about their lives as a whole and were more optimistic about the future than participants in either of the other two conditions. To put it into numbers, according to the scale we used to calculate well-being, they were a full 25 percent happier than the other participants. Those in the gratitude condition reported fewer health
complaints.

People who kept a gratitude journal reported feeling more joyful, enthusiastic, interested, attentive, energetic, excited, determined, and strong than those in the hassles condition. They also reported offering others more emotional support or help with a personal problem— supporting the notion that gratitude motivates people to do good. And this was not limited to what they said about themselves. We sent surveys to people who knew them well, and these significant others rated participants in the gratitude group as more helpful than those in the other groups.” The Thousand Gifts

Won’t you join me in creating your own Thousand Gifts List?

We’re back! We had such a great vacation in Colonial Williamsburg. Since I’ll be spending the rest of today getting my lesson plans ready for next week, I thought this video would be a perfect post. Enjoy!

I had a lot of fun making this apron, and I love how it turned out.  It is just the cutest thing and I almost love it too much to get it dirty. The denim front is from an itty bitty pair of Calvins that I’ll never get my post-baby hips into. Rather than continue the delusion that I’ll someday fit into them, I took my scissors to them and transformed the backside of the jeans into the front of the apron. The other part of the apron is made up of a gauze type material skirt. To finish it off, I added a satin ribbon for the tie.

I think I am going to use this for a gardening apron - I love the pockets and think they will come in really handy!

Today was one of those rare, rare times when I left Wal-mart feeling better about life than I had when I got there. And all because the bad guys got caught.

I had a few things to pick up at Sally’s and decided to stop into Wal-mart for more things I couldn’t live without. A new shower curtain liner for example. Since our shower curtain liner was in desperate need of being replaced, and my being the quintessential Proverbs 31 woman that I am, I thought there is no time like the present to replace it. Okay, I am lying. It was only because I couldn’t put it off any longer. The curtain was hanging by its last hole. Literally. And I can only blame my husband for my procrastination (or frugality as I like to say). You see, Steve is such a do-it-yourselfer, that when the original holes tore, he poked his own holes in the liner beneath the original holes. And so on, and so on, until the liner no longer reached the floor of the shower. Trust me when I tell you - it was time.

I also wanted to pick up fabric for the car organizers I am going to sew (more on that in a few days), and needed to buy it before our Wal-mart closed its fabric department. I was told by the lady in the fabric department that it would close in 8 months to a year, but I’m not taking any chances. That, and I love to buy fabric. The lady told me that Wal-mart decided to close the fabric department because it didn’t make enough money for the amount of floor space it was taking up. I didn’t tell her it was probably due to the fact that Wal-mart’s fabric prices were way lower than they are everywhere else. I didn’t tell her that the woman at the flea market charges $7.99 a yard for the camo fabric Wal-mart sells for $3.50 a yard. Oh no, I’m not telling her that. After all, I want another 8 months to build up my stash at rock bottom prices.

So anyway, we are checking out and another cashier runs up to my cashier and whispers something in her ear. My cashier’s expression turned to shocked, then transformed into something I can only describe as pure satisfaction. It was an “uh-huh you know it” kind of a look. Of course I had to get the scoop, so I told her it isn’t nice to tell secrets. No I didn’t. But I did ask her what happened. She told me some people were just arrested for shop lifting 2 large cartons of meat. Evidently this was the shoplifter’s 3rd time stealing meat. Of course after I got in the car I was kicking myself for not asking more questions. Questions like - did they get caught all 3 times? Did the store recognize them? Did they get handcuffed? Who caught them? Was it a man or a woman or a family? I think I was so taken aback by the simplicity of their plan that I didn’t think of the questions. It seems the shoplifters took their own Wal-mart bags into the store, and bagged their own meat. I’m sure Wal-mart doesn’t have a problem with alleged shoppers bagging their own groceries, but rather the fact that they bypassed the cashiers altogether. Yeah - Wal-mart has a problem with that.

So I left the store feeling pretty good about my local Wal-mart and its ability to catch a thief. I bet that’s how they keep their prices so low. Too bad the bad guys didn’t go on a fabric stealing spree.

I love doing swaps. Recently I did a color swap where we crafted things for each other based on the other person’s favorite color. My swap partner gave me some specific ideas of what she’d like to receive and so this is what I made for her:

This is a circle skirt made from a gorgeous Amy Butler fabric. It has a zippered size and she said it was a perfect fit. Yeah!!

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This is a little wallet/key chain with a snap closure. It is made from the same Amy Butler fabric as the skirt, and the inside fabric is a blue with white circles print. And I added a little heart charm on the key chain.

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This bracelet is a dangle bracelet that looks like a lot of fun to wear. And of course it matches the skirt. Have you figured out her favorite color yet?

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This is a bulletin board made out of the same blue and white circle fabric that is the inside lining to the wallet. To make this I glued cork board squares onto a piece of heavy cardboard. I then made a fabric sleeve to go over it complete with a pocket lined at the top with a satin ribbon. At the top of the bulletin board I added grommets and tied a ribbon for hanging. I also made her some thumbtacks that spell out her name. They turned out really cute!

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The last thing I sent is this little heart box I painted blue and covered with pastel colored buttons. The colors in the picture aren’t showing the button colors very well - the yellow ones are a lot softer looking in real life.

This swap was an especially fun swap because it was wide open to craft whatever I wanted as long as it was around her favorite color!