Blissdom 2011

Blissdom - what is that?

That is the question I have gotten in my real life.

My answer before going was simply a blogging conference.

My answer after going is

Community,

 MY COMMUNITY.

At Blissdom I was able to connect with, talk with, laugh with and even cry with other women who are creative, wise, giving and beautiful.

Women who were more than willing to welcome strangers, who were giving of their knowledge and support.

I am proud to be apart of this group of amazing women.

                                           It would take me time and words that I do not have

to fully explain my experience.

I will however give you a glimpse into my time there.

Allison, Edie, ME, Kellie, and Lindsey

What a blessing it was to spend time with these ladies.  Edie was top of my list of people to meet, I had some very important letters to deliver to her and can I just say she is courageously vulnerable personified. 

Lisa, Cyndi, and ME

Can you tell how tired I am, this was the last day and I was wiped out.

Kellie ad Lisa were my my roomies and they were perfect.  I love them both dearly and know this is not the only time I will spend with them.

Cyndi and I have been online friends for a some time now and it was an honor to meet her in person. She is just as spunky as I thought she would be.

Photo credit

Of course you all know Jen from Tatertots and Jello she is incredibly sweet, and Beckie from Infarrantly Creative is such a hardcore crafter she brought crafts to work on in her room.

                                                This was the first night we were all fresh and excited.

These girls were all so fun to hang out with

.

Me, Gina and Laryssa

I stole this picture from Gina, I am so glad she took it.

These two women have invaded my soul and changed my heart.

If you don't know them you should, I watched each of them care for other women day after day.

They are not just words they are actions, and I am blessed to call them friends.

I met many other wonderful women, women that I did not get pictures of (I was a bad blogger and did not take many pictures).

I met Myra from My Blessed Life, she is lovely.

I met this mother and daughter, they were so open and fun

Caylie and Christi

I met Mrs. Q from Fed Up With Lunch, she is very interesting and I love her blog.

Then there is Lorie from Be Different Act Normal, I am her favorite paper craft bracelet taper, she made me laugh more times than I can count.

I am going to use her own word to describe Kate from Southern Belle Simple because they are perfect...

utterly southern...elaborately simple

The picture I am most sad to not have is one with Shannan from Flower Patch Farmgirl she is Hospitality.

On Friday morning there was a group of us who woke up early to meet in the Incourage suite and pray for one another....it was beautiful

These are a few of the women I met there

Robin

Lindsey

Richella

Alicia

and

Amanda

who BTW just lives down the road from me, how weird is that to go to a different city to meet someone from your area.

I will leave you with this one last dorky photo of me so you can see how goofy I looked most of the time.



Blissdom Bound--Scared To Death

Hello lovelies, as I write this my bags are packed and sitting beside the front door.  In the morning I will be going to Tennessee to the Blissdom conference.  I am scared to death--knees knocking, pit of the stomach belly ache scared.  Leaving my family is not something I have ever done, they will be fine and well cared for but I will not be here and that bothers me, I love my life and do not want to miss any part of it.  I am also very afraid of large groups of people that I don't know,  the very idea makes me sick at my stomach.  I have tried every way I can to back out of going, I even email to see if I could get my money back just a few days after I sent it--the answer is no by the way.  Each time I have come up with something to worry about God has taken care of it, so even in this I am learning a lesson in trust. 

Sunday while at church the pastor was talking about our God given gifts and how we all have different gifts and God has a purpose for each of them and will give us the ability to step out of our comfort zone to use them.  Well one of my gifts is hospitality and I love it.  I love to just love on people, but I have always looked at it as loving on the people I know. Well, God opened my eye to see that it just as much means loving on strangers.  That got me to thinking that there will be other people at the conference who are just as frighten as I am and I can use my gift and with God's help I can get out of my comfort zone and love on them.  I can not tell you what this did for my state of mind.  Yes, I am still scared but I have a purpose bigger than myself now and someone greater than I providing the strength.  It is amazing what happens when I take my mind off of me,me, me and put it on God and serving Him and others, suddenly my fear is not so big.  So girls just know if you see me and I talk to you don't think I am just one of those really confident girls because I am not.  One of those crazy girl---well yeah maybe.

If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.  If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.  To Him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.   1 Peter 4:11

BTW, if you are going to be there let me know I would love to meet you.



Our New School Desk

Today, I am going to show you what we were working hard on before Christmas.

Our new school desk.

We have converted our formal living room into our schoolroom.

Well, I had better change that we are working on converting it into the schoolroom.

We have two walls finished, and one to go (the forth wall is open to he family room).

I will start with some before shots.

Here is a picture of the wall in the formal living room before the desk.

The sofa was nice for extra seating but there is a sofa on the opposite wall also.

I was willing to let go of the sofa in order to have our schoolroom be in a better place.

This is what the cabinets looked like when they were in the dungeon (otherwise known as our scary, dirty, dark, cold basement).  You will be able to tell that we took the doors off of the top row of cabinets, closed in the middle with a self and added trim.  I will go over all those details in a future post with lots of how to's and pictures.  We also decided not to use the lower cabinets and built a table top, again I will cover that later.

For now I hope you enjoy our after photos.



You can read about how we built our desk here

Part 1

Part 2

And The Winner Is............................................

Kalleen at Second Street

 I will email you with all the information.

Granny Sweater Makeover

Okay, lovelies this will be long and rambling but stick with me.

I found a new favorite blog last month Grosgrain Fabulous.  It is a fabulous blog written by an amazing woman,

Kathleen

I have spent hours going through page after page of her blog.
I love it and it has reminded me how much I once loved sewing clothing.

There was a time,

a time.......

when I enjoyed sewing so much that I had offered to make my friends wedding dress.

I didn't make it but that is a story for another day.

But just know I loved it.

Last Summer I tried a few shirt makeovers (here and here), they were lots of fun to do.
But after reading Grosgrain and looking at all the beautiful thing she has made,
I am sold.
I can't wait to do more.

Okay enough of my rambling,

on with the good stuff.

1. go to thrift store and find a sweater to make over and another 100% wool sweater to felt.

this is my boxy granny sweater

2. put sweater on inside out and pin to fit

3. mark sweater where you pinned to get a smoother line

4. re pin neatly to sew

5. sew along line, remove pins

6. this was the first time I got nervous while doing this, cut on the outside of were you have sewn

checkout the difference already

See the difference between the sides

7. Fold the sweater in half and mark the other side to match the side you have done

pin and repeat all the steps above

Much better fit, you could stop here.  But where is the fun in that

8. use a shirt you like the neckline of and mark the sweater

9. Pin front and back together, hold your breath, say a prayer and cut

Oh Thank Goodness it worked

10. Pin a ribbon onto where you cut the neckline, leaving enough room to fold over half to the other side when it is time

(I would use a wider ribbon, this is all I had and we were snowed in. So I made do)

Here is what it will look like pinned

11. Sew ribbon on

12. fold ribbon over to other side and sew

 this neckline much better, and yes I know there is a button missing

13. Turn a 100% wool sweater into felt by washing in hot water and drying,

This was a woman's sweater before felting

14. Make a template for you design

and cut and cut and cut and then cut more

15. Pin "leaves" were you want them sew them on.

Sorry I lost the photo of me sewing them on

There you have it my made over Granny Sweater

My favorite part is the back.

So.....

Do you like my Granny Sweater?

Have you ever done anything like this?

See you later,



Cabin Fever

How we fight cabin fever.

1.  Build a huge fort

2. Cut and sew Yo Yo's while in the fort

3. Give ourselves manicures

4. Turn this boxy sweater into

this fun sweater

tutorial to come soon.

5. Dress crazy and bright to fight off snowed in blahhhhhsssss

6.  Snuggle under covers

7. Fold mountains of laundry

8. Clean up snow clothes 28.3 times

9. Turn this sweater into

this purse

Tutorial to come later

10. Paint and glitter snowflakes to hang on

this banner we made last year

it is hanging on our new school desk that I will do a post on soon.

11. Eating and eating and eating

these brownies

with ice cream and Carmel

homemade popcorn with black pepper and sea salt

taco soup and corn chips,

potato soup and garlic bread,

cinnamon rolls,

grilled cheese,

roast beef sandwiches,

and

snow cream--glorious snow cream

12. And last we have watch too much T.V.

So how do you fight cabin fever?