Beauty in Everything

So it has been a very crazy week.  And let me tell you, I have failed often!  Thankfully God doesn't leave me there.  So for some of the Beauty in my week.

1. I am thankful for my family.  I am truly blessed with my family and my kids love their grandparents and aunts and uncles.  It is so awesome to see them in love with their family.

2. I am finding beauty in my husbands new job.  He is working further away from home now so he isn't home as much.  And he had an overnight training this week.  Even though its hard for him to be gone more, I am so thankful for this new opportunity.  I love seeing him in a job he loves and wants to do.  I also am thankful for the absence as it makes what time we do have more precious!

3. I am LOVING watching the twins learn new things and seeing their personalities flourish!  They are so different from each other.  Caiden has just finally started to crawl as opposed to belly flop everywhere (but he still mainly uses his upper body)  And Ada is an absolute crack up! Her facial expressions are hysterical.  I love that God has blessed me with them.  It can be very hard at times, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!



Ecclesiastes 3:9-15

⁹ What do people really get for all their hard work? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. ¹¹ Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. ¹² So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. ¹³ And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

 ¹⁴ And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him. ¹⁵ What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.

Reframing

So I got a couple of our pictures printed from our last photo shoot with a lady in our church.  She is wonderful, check out her work here! 

So I had this frame laying around and I personally HATE it lol.  Sorry to all those who like this color wood, but I can't stand it lol.  So, I thought to myself, why not paint it black and put our one BW photo in it?!  So I asked my wonderful mother if I could use some of her black  acrylic paint.  So I used a sponge brush and started painting.  The front did take 2 coats of paint.

  

But I think the finished product is perfect.  I think I shall be buying more "ugly" cheaper frames and painting them to my liking!

So for my next picture project I wanted to make some canvases of the photo session we had done a couple months back.  So I had some canvases laying around and went at it.  So here are my supplies...

So here are the steps:

1. You need some Mod Podge.  Mine was homemade - 1/2 water, 1/2 elmers glue.

2. My pictures are just printed onto paper from my printer  

3.  You cover the canvass with the mixture

4. Lay the picture onto the canvass the cover the print with the mixture

Now this takes some finesse, and it ended up drying like this.....

So then, I rewet it with the mixture and it did lay a little better... but not perfect.  But that's ok, I will explain later.

Now I did experience some smudging in this picture.  I don't  know if you can tell in this picture, but you can't see it in real life anyway so no biggy!

5.  Now paint the edges black.  This is the beauty of this project.  You can cover all your goof ups in your work!  I painted it rough so that you can't really notice the "not so perfect spots"

This is the corner that wasn't laying perfectly.  Can't even tell :)

The finished projects and all hung up on the wall :) I must say, I like it a lot.  Thank you mommy for helping with the arrangement and hanging :)

Ambassadors for the King

So I was very encouraged and set straight during Sunday School this week.  Now I haven't been in Sunday school for a long time due to some family issues, so I'm not sure exactly what the series is about.  However this weeks topic was on being ambassadors for the King in you home/life.  We were working from the passage 2 Cor. 5:11-21.  

One of the main things that was discussed was the idea that some people need an ambassador that is gentle and encouraging, and others need a rebuke.  It is this idea that Christ meets us where we are at and asks us to do the same for others.  As I thought about this with my personal life I realized how, even though I have been very opinionated and felt very strongly about this meeting people where they're at idea, I am failing miserably at it.  And all because of my own convenience.  I realized that I have this idea that my children mainly need the harsh rebuking and not the gentle, coming along side love.  And that adults need the coming along side love.  As I looked at my heart to find out why I thought this way- I found its all for my comfort.   I don't want to be in a confrontation with adults, so I'm gentle at times when I need to be bold.  And with my Kids, I want them to be obedient and well behaved children (especially in public as I don't want to be embarrassed- not at all concerned about their hearts.) Not to mention it tends to be more work to come along side your children.  Now Im not saying I never do.  But in my selfish moments I do the quick barking of a command.  

I am so thankful that God put me in that Sunday School class and gave me the opportunity to be able to listen with an open heart to hear His Word.  I am and ever failing sinner, with a Great God who loves me and knows exactly what I need to hear, when I need to hear it, and how to deliver it to me.  Praise Him for his love and wisdom.  Through Him I can be the ambassador He calls me to be!

From bar to liquid

Ok, sooo I thought I would try another frugal idea I saw here.  It's taking  bar of soap and making it into liquid soap.  The direction are "simple." So here's my go at it.

First the supplies:
2Tbsp of Glycerin, found in the bandaid section
8 oz bar of favorite soap
1 gallon of water
grater
stock pot







So first things first, Shave that bar of soap!  I must say I really don't enjoy this step lol.  But hey, who said work is easy?!

Then you add your glycerin, and water to your soap shavings and heat on medium/high heat until the shavings melt.  It will look like soapy water, mine was quite clear, some are more milky.
















So that's it! Well that's supposed to be it.  Your supposed to let it cool for 10-12 hours.  Ya- mine was still water lol.  Well I wasn't willing to give up on it so I just let it sit lol.  And after two days its started to finally cloud up.  So I thought "Let's put it in the fridge and see what happens..."

 HAHAHA this is what happened!!!! A solid pot of gel soap!

Well that won't work, so the girl I got the idea from said she put hers in the mixer... Oh why not...     Well that made a mess cuz of course I put too much in lol  But it did get it more liquid like.  

So I poured it into these containers (later pouring it into 1 gallon jug) It still has some tiny gel clumps, but I think it shall work! It was an adventure but I'm hoping for the best!