the dawn of redeeming grace!

Longing for the radiant beams from His glorious face to shine on us today, and so thankful for the dawn of redeeming grace that He brings, for we need it so. I can hardly believe it is Christmas morning, and truly cannot fathom that this time next year, we will be celebrating the birth of Jesus with our own little girl. Oh yes, that grace is much needed! Praying that we would be prepared to love and raise this baby to know her deep value and to love God and others well, what a crazy huge responsibility and honor. We can't do this alone, praise to the One who loves baby girl and her flawed parents perfectly and with that sweet redeeming grace.

Merry Christmas!

-E

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! Here are my celebratory nails, inspired by a sweet student who had the watermelon nails back in May. I decided to go for it, even though I am almost 30...and now I'm off to the lake for a few days of rest and refreshment, yahoo!

favorite places...

Hobby Lobby. JoAnn's. Michael's. Happy, wonderful (somewhat dangerous!) places for me...

I feel the urge to start singing "These are a few of my favorite things" when I think about strolling through these stores. But where I really want to be is back at home in my sweet, special little nook...I love sitting and playing here, as much as possible!

Speaking of favorite places, this is one of my favorite spots in the whole house. The couch just makes me feel so happy. I don't sit here nearly enough, need to remedy that....

Such a rush comes over me when I survey the ribbon collection...if you are thinking she has WAY too much ribbon, shh! I know....but I do use it!

So, I thought I would attempt to continue the blog because I would love to have a journal of sorts to chart my projects, favorite finds, and random parts of life...we'll see how it turns out!

I'm on a kick lately with making some new things...I love finding new things to make or embellish and man, have I been inspired by the countless talented and crafty bloggers out there!

Just a few recent projects:

One of several flower headbands, this one with paper flowers inspired by them (my crafty heroes!)

Cupcakes from the darling book, "Hello Cupcake"

Photo blocks inspired from this amazing blog

Clipboards for school

My to-craft list is pretty endless right now, so many things I'm wanting to do, so glad it's summer with lots more time to spend creating.....

love like that

We have so stinkin' much to be thankful for and we want to be more thankful for everything that has been given to us....

We have this beautiful home that is such a blessing. I would love to share this particular blessing with others more this year by having people over, and certainly just to be more appreciative of it....

We have food, water, tons of clothes, warm beds, working cars, phones, crafty nooks (this is my personal favorite spot in our house) computers, ipods and so many comforts. But they are not the kind of comfort I need and long for. That comes from looking to the loving God, that loves me even though I don't deserve it. So much grace has been heaped on us...it is overwhelming. Why I try to find comfort in other places is baffling, I need to be reminded every day where my hope comes from.

on another note, I have always been ministered to and blessed through music that draws me to the throne of God and there are several songs that have especially moved me lately. One is a song called "that guy" by Andy Gullahorn, where he describes a couple of people who have made huge mistakes and we would likely judge, one who straps a bomb to himself and another who has an affair and sings about how God loves that guy, and asks God to teach him to love like that, rather than write people off in judgement like we normally do. At the end he's singing about a guy who's messed up and wants to disappear but can't because he sees him everyday in the mirror and reminds himself that God loves that guy, too, it's himself. Even in our messed up state, we are loved. And we are so not better than any one else. His grace is truly amazing.

a new year....

A new year is here, I am so stunned by this fact... the time is just rolling by and I feel as though it is just passing me by. I want to be exhilarated by life as I once was, and appreciative for all the moments in it, both the amazingly wonderful and the painfully hard, for what they produce in me. I want to really believe that God's mercies are new every morning and His grace is sufficient for me and my family, just the way it always has been. His faithfulness....I want to consciously remember how faithful God has proved Himself to be to me in the past and trust Him with my broken and messed up heart in the future. The future, what does it hold? I don't know, but I am reminding myself as this year starts that God does know what it holds and I can hold on to him. That I have to. How thankful I am that I don't have to muster up all the strength and courage and ability in myself, but lean wholly on the one that gave it all....He never changes. But I'm praying He will change me this year.