Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

Adam Sabados, the Digital Media Coordinator for Tyndale House Publishers, just sent me an email letting me know about a great new contest from the New Living Translation Bible. Here's the scoop according to Adam:

The New Living Translation is sponsoring a contest that highlights three very important ministries: Wycliffe Bible Translators, Oasis International, and The Dream Center, (click on the link to learn more details about these ministries) and by voting for one of these ministries you’ll be entered to win one of many prizes. To enter, visit the NLT Facebook page by clicking here.

With the Give the Word Bible Contest and Giveaway:


• Ministries win: Each time the NLT Facebook Page reaches a fan count milestone, votes will be tallied and the three ministries will receive cash donations from the New Living Translation and Tyndale House Publishers.

• Everyone wins: Everyone who enters on the Bible Contest website wins a free download of Matthew West reading the Christmas story.

• Daily NLT Study Bible winners: Vote on the NLT Facebook page and you will be entered to win two NLT Study Bibles—one to keep and one to give away. A new winner will be chosen every day.

• Weekly Give the Word Locally winners: Tell us about a deserving local ministry on the NLT Bible Contest website and they could win five NLT Study Bibles and $250 worth of NLT products.

• One Grand Prize winner will enjoy a unique trip customized just for them and their family (or three guests of their choice), to Wycliffe Bible Translators world headquarters and the WordSpring Discovery Center where they will experience firsthand the exciting world of Bible translation. The Grand Prize winner could also choose to donate the value of the trip--$2000--to Wycliffe instead.

Take a minute to click over to find out about the contest and about the three ministries spotlighted and to the NLT's Facebook page. You might even win a prize!

Our Jesse Tree...

This year, the G-Man and I are enjoying a new activity that I hope will become a yearly tradition. After finding Ann Voskamp's blog "A Holy Experience", I decided to put together a Jesse Tree. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Jesse Tree, it is an Advent-long family activity that counts down the days until Christmas with lessons and stories from the Old Testament, each one pointing to the coming Messiah.

From the first day, the G-Man was on board and excited! In fact, it was a struggle for him to do just one story and ornament a day.  He could have done the whole thing in one sitting!  As soon as we started, however, I noticed that the text was written a bit above his 6 year-old understanding. I didn't have to worry, though. As soon as he heard the scripture text (the Creation), he remembered reading about it in one of his Bible storybooks:

He ran to get it and wanted to read that part in his book.  We've continued this each night; I read the scripture text and he reads from his book (so far we've only found one lesson that isn't in his book). He gets to place the ornament on the tree, and to see little by little the reason for the Messiah. 

There are many other sites with information and ornament ideas for a Jesse Tree. Here are just a few:

http://www.crivoice.org/jesse.html

http://www.eriercd.org/jessetree.htm

http://www.shalfleet.net/advent/makeajessetree.htm

Here is a blog post about a Jesse Tree Ornament party that the author attended. There are some great pictures of the ornaments that the ladies made: http://beentherelearnedthat.blogspot.com/2009/12/jesse-tree-ornament-exchange-part-2.html

For a copy of Ann's free book with daily lessons and ornaments to copy and cut out, click here.

Christmas Cards...

Every Christmas, I look forward to the task of choosing and sending Christmas cards. Since I had children, I've always chosen photo cards, giving friends and family who live far away a chance to see how the kids have grown each year.  The other day, I started perusing the cards available, and after checking out a couple different sites, realized that many of the same designs were offered on both sites. Hmmm...I'd really like to see something different, something special. I found it as soon as I logged onto Shutterfly. There were so many designs and not a one of them was anything I'd seen anywhere else. Unfortunately, I had a hard time deciding! There were just too many gorgeous cards!

Not only did they have beautiful cards, but there are gifts as well. They can make a photo calendar (a great gift!). Having a holiday party? They have the invitations covered!

Get on over to shutterfly.com and check it out!

For a limited time, you can receive 50 free Christmas cards from Shutterfly just for Blogging and Tweeting about their products.  Go to http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/ to register.  You'll be glad you did!

My 100th Post!

So, it was pretty much by accident that I happened to notice that this is my 100th post. What a milestone! I must admit I've had fun over the last couple of years...

To celebrate, I'm sharing some of our humble Christmas decor...enjoy!

We don't have a mantel, so I decorate the piano instead:

The nativity set I've had since I was a child (notice the cow in the loft...its a very agile cow):

Our tree, with a note for Santa from the G-man underneath:

The G-Man's Room Reveal...

I had the MOST fun working on the G-Man's room! After months of admiring board and batten projects online, I finally got to try it myself!

Here are some pictures:

 Had to make a new bedskirt to replace the light blue one he had...made this out of a queen flat sheet I had in the linen closet. Still looking for a new quilt or comforter.

Drapes made from a canvas drop cloth. Looks like I need to adjust the length on the left one!  



Update...

Got the G-Man's room done! Well, almost. We got the Board and Batten and the painting finished. And I am proud to say that I not only used a compound mitre saw for the first time (Loved it! Its now on my Christmas list!), but I also switched out an old putty colored outlet for a white one! And no sparks or smoke!

I still have curtains to fix (doing the canvas drop cloth kind) and a few "pretties". 

I'll post pics soon!

Laboring on Labor Day...

Well, I am happy to say that I am celebrating Labor Day weekend in a way worthy of its name: by laboring! I told y'all about the new project I had planned for the G-Man's room a while back. Saturday I finally got it started.

We began with some 1x4s that we cut down to about 46 inches long.

Then I attached them to the wall with Liquid Nails (I used a 16" long piece to space them out evenly around the room).

As you can see, I've left off the top piece.  We decided that since we're going to repaint the top of the wall too, we'd paint first, then put the top piece of wood up. 

Today it was time to prime...I got some help with that job from my little guy!

Did I mention that I'm also painting all the woodwork in the room white? I don't think I told Hubby that part of my plan. That may land me in the doghouse, since Hubby really likes stained woodwork!

That's about as far as I've gotten for now. Hubby is on his way home with the paint, so as soon as the primer is dry, I'll be getting my paint rollers out!

Stay tuned!

My next project...

Have you seen this?

Its the Little Things that Make a House a Home

Or this?

A Soft Place to Land

Or even this?

Shanty2Chic

Do you see a pattern here?

I've fallen in love with the board and batten wall treatment!

The G-man's room would look great with B&B. Yesterday I emailed the hubster at work and told him that I'd like to do this, and he replied saying to make a list of what I need. Well, that was all I needed to spring into action!

I must have worked about 2 hours making sketches and taking measurements and figuring out how it all would work out. By the time he got home, I had drawings and a materials list done. I don't know when I'll get to start, but I can't wait! 

Done painting (this room, anyway)...

The red is gone!  Wahoo!  I've been wanting to cover up that paint since about a month after we put it on. Don't get me wrong, I like red. Its just not the peaceful, serene color I wanted for our bedroom. 

It took a lot of convincing, but I finally talked the hubster into bringing home some more paint. He wasn't thrilled with the color; if it were left up to him, every room would be painted in a different bright, bold hue of the rainbow. I'm not opposed to color, but sometimes the eye needs a rest. So for our room I chose "Jute" by Porter (its the second from the top). The blue on the bottom is "Prussian Blue", which is the master bathroom color.

Now usually, when we paint, Derek does the cutting in and I do the rolling. However, since he was at work when I painted, I did everything on my own. And I must say I'm pleased with how it turned out. And to top it off, no smudges of paint on the ceiling!

(The color doesn't show well in these pictures. Trust me when I say its not nearly as green as it looks here!)

I also took the opportunity to make a few other small changes. First, I moved the bedside table on Derek's side of the bed (he doesn't really use it and hasn't missed it). Actually, it is just a tray table. In order to make it a round, I used a round piece of wood that Mom was about to throw out. She said it was the base of Dad's recliner (it had to be replaced when the chair was repaired), and was going to be thrown out unless I wanted it for something. It turned into the perfect table top!

I hung a shelf (also something Mom was getting rid of) to hold part of my teacup collection and some antique books.

I was going to change the drapes and comforter, but after seeing it with the new paint color, I've decided to keep it for now.

I am so pleased with the result. Our room is a calming spot where I can relax. What a difference paint makes!

Silhouettes...

Just a little something I whipped up...

So easy to make! Here's how:

1. Take a profile picture.

2. Print picture and cut out.

3. Trace onto black cardstock and cut out.

4. Secure to background paper.

5. Put in frame (mine came from the Dollar Tree).

Little birdies...

Stopped by the Dollar Tree yesterday after dropping Derek off at work and having breakfast at DQ with the kiddos. The kids were excited about spending their dollars, but I was even more excited about finding this:

I picked up 2 of them and was going to use them just the way they are, but being brown, they didn't really show up. So, of course, I thought about spray paint. Not so fast-the little clear votive cups were glued in. I really didn't want to paint over them, so I decided to brush on the paint. Since I couldn't find any craft paint in the color I wanted, I searched the garage for some old interior latex paint. I found some that we'd used to paint the G-Man's room a few years ago. To say that it had thickened up a bit is an understatement!

I put it on kinda thin at first, leaving a lot of the brown to show through.

I liked it, but thought I'd add a bit more paint.

I really like how they turned out!

This one's for you, Julie Rae!

The other day, I got to meet Julie Rae, who, along with some of the gals at the London Sentinel Echo, have been checking out this blog for a while. I had to sheepishly apologize for not posting in, well, how long has it been? Well, in honor of Julie, here's my first post in ages!

I wish I could say that I haven't posted here because I've been so busy with projects around the house. The truth is, I've been so busy that I've put off house projects! Derek and I finally got some time to do a few things around here. Yesterday we finally got the thorn-in-our-sides project done: the master bathroom.

We actually started this project a few months ago, but it has been at a stand-still for a while (funny how running out of money for building stuff will do that...). However, about a month ago, Derek came home with 3 boxes of tile and some stuff to adhere it to the floor.  So the fun began...

For several evenings, I worked a little at a time until the plywood floor (so not a good look!) was covered.  We put up the freshly painted baseboards, a new shower curtain, and a few new "pretties". And we finally have a master bath we enjoy being in.

(Sorry for the not-so-great pictures.)

vinyl tile: Do It Best

paint: Porter Paint-Prussian Blue

shower curtain: Dollar General

bird prints: Dollar Tree

May you have a blessed and happy Easter Sunday!

A New Project...

I'm back!  I know its been a very long while since my last post, but we've had internet issues and have been very busy since the G-Man started playing Upwards Basketball.  The season is over now, so hopefully I'll have a moment to stop and take a breath!

The beginning of Spring has me thinking lately about new projects. There's one that I've been contemplating all winter ( I hadn't started since the garage was just too cold, and working inside was out of the question since spray paint is involved!).

A few months ago, I saw something over on Susie's blog, Bienvenue, that caught my eye. Actually, just about everything on her blog catches my eye-she's very talented! But this eye-catching thing was something that I thought I could recreate myself (I'm not nearly as talented as Susie!).  A coat rack:

Isn't it pretty?   So I'm thinking that maybe I could make something similar for my house.  I have a scrap of moulding, but I still need some beadboard and either hooks or knobs.  I'm thinking of going with hooks. Something like these:

So now that the weather's warmer and I have a little more time, I think I'll start looking around for the rest of the supplies and make myself a coat rack. 

What projects have you been putting off?