Sewing project #1: Blue Owl Tote

I have really been feeling the creativity fever lately and it has sparked in me a desire to learn to sew.  I have absolutely no talent when it comes to the drawing/sketching side of art.  Doad disagrees with me, but I think he just likes my childhood artwork for sentimental reasons ;)  He's sweet like that.

I did learn to knit and crochet as a child and loved it... for like a minute.  I have so many half-made scarves, it's embarrassing. Sometimes I still think about picking it back up again and finishing all those scarves... maybe someday.

 Anways, the point is that I'm not very artsy, but have been feeling the need to do something creative and make something beautiful.  Ever feel that way?

I decided to give sewing a try.  I saw this way cute bag online that was WAY out of my budget, but thought it might be possible to sew something similar.  I'm still working up to that bag, but the one I did sew for my first project this past week will more than do in the mean time. 

Isn't she beautiful??  

I'm so happy with how it turned out.  And proud! I guess I do have an artsy bone in my body after all.  I mean, I did follow a pattern, being a concrete, sequential type of person and all that.  But not too shabby, right?  

This was my first stitch ever sewn on a machine.  Sorry for the poor phone-camera quality, but this was a momentous occasion after all and could not do without a photo - high quality or not. ;)

I just love the little owls, so adorable!  Still can't believe that turned into this:

Teehee, I'm almost giddy with excitement! I made something! And it's really cute!! :)

I've already picked out fabric and a new pattern and CANNOT wait to get started on project #2.  :)  It's sort of a surprise for someone really special and I can't wait to give it to her!  Aaaand, to post pictures of it on here.  The fabric is just tooooo cute! I'm super, super excited!

Ok, enough gushing, Jess. Calm. Down.

How about you?  I'd love to see what projects you are currently working on.  I promise to gush over them with you. ;) Email me, K?

JessicaDanae7@gmail.com :)

First official post and a tutorial! :)

First official post! Yay! :)

I took forever with this because I'm sort of a perfectionist and couldn't decide on the perfect "first post" material.  Then I finally just decided to just go with whatever I wanted so here's a fun little nail tutorial I've been planning for a while.

Simple Color Blocking

What you will need:

Three nail colors - I'm an Avon rep, so I used Avon's Nailwear Pro in Loving Lavender and Cotton Candy.  The white was Avon's Mosaic Effects top coat in White.

Top coat - All I had was cheap drug store top coat tonight.  Nothing special. :/

Scotch tape.  Good ol' Scotch. :)

1.  Paint your nails with the purple color.  Let dry and add a second coat.  

2.  Make sure nails are completely dry and then cover bottom corner of nail diagonally with scotch tape.  Press firmly.

2.5.  Apply pink color to untaped part of nail. Remove tape and let dry... for a long time. 
3.  Apply tape at same diagonal over pink and purple, covering about 2/3 of the nail. Paint untaped part of nail with the white and let dry.
4.  Apply top coat, let dry, and "voila!" :)


Variations:
-  I just wanted a tiny bit of snazz so I only did the thumb nail, but this looks cute on every nail too.  
-  Or, if you have a steady hand, you can add a white tip to the other nails and just leave the thumb as the accent.  


Some other things to remember:
-  Make sure you wait until the nail is really dry before applying tape.  If it's even a little bit tacky, the paint will come up when you take off the tape.
-  To help minimize that issue, before you put the tape on your nail, stick it to the palm of your hand so it loses a little bit of the stickiness.
-  Take the tape off as soon as you finish painting.  Don't leave it on while you dry or... you guessed it... the paint will come off with the tape.


Hope you  enjoyed it!
Happy painting :)

Gettin' a Little Real and a Blog Announcement

I've been pretty proud this week that I have stuck to my She Reads Truth goals.  I did miss one day and one posting, but I blame the electricity outage from the storm this weekend.  I had a lot planned for Friday and Saturday... and none of it got done :(  

But moving on... The heart behind these goals is to make sure that I do more than just read a paragraph or two each day and then move on unchanged.  I don't want to forget the little lessons being whispered to me each morning.  

If there is one message that has really stuck out to me, it would be from the devotional on Day 2.  It talks about disappointment when things don't go our way or when our dreams for our lives seem slow in coming.  The author reminds us that, "Our plans, even on our very best day, are nothing compared to the amazing plans God has for us."

This is comforting for me, a major dreamer.  I love the author's reminder that God is sovereign in his timing, never too early or late in fulfilling his dreams in and for my life. I know that some of my dreams are from the Lord, and that they will come to pass some day. 

I don't talk about my dreams very often.  They're hard to explain and some are pretty wild.  But I will say that I don't think I've ever struggled with dreaming big for myself or the future.  Even as a youngster, I dreamt of being the next child actress or famous singer.  But it wasn't really the fame or spotlight I craved, believe it or not.  When I day-dreamt about celebrity life, I dreamt about the influence I would have.  I pictured TV interviews where I shared about my faith in Christ.  I saw myself singing and sharing the gospel to huge crowds.  I imagined lives changed by the Jesus they saw in me.

So proud to be the angel in a Christmas Nativity play!

Those dreams have changed and evolved over the years.  Ovbiously, I'm not a child star and I've never been on TV.  But I still dream of impacting others in a large way for Christ.  So when I read that last question in Day 2 of the devotional about chasing after a mediocre future when God wants to give you the extravagant, it really resonated with me.  I know God has extravagant dreams for me.  Even bigger than my own wild dreams for myself.  And that is super encouraging :)

But I also don't want to settle for the mediocre while I'm waiting for the extravagant.  And I don't want to miss the great moments and opportunities I come across in the present because I'm looking for something bigger and better in the future.  So I've made another goal and decided to make it a priority to blog more regularly about the things the Lord is doing in my life.  

1. To keep me in the present and to show myself the progress I am making in becoming more Christ-like.  And...
2. Because when God does do extravagant things in my life, I am sure going to want to write those down!

On the blogging note, I've been thinking about my blog: the look, the name, all of it.  And I just wasn't feeling it anymore... so... *brace for blog announcement*

We're Moving!

Just down the street in the blogger neighborhood, nothing too crazy. *wink*  But I'm really excited about a fresh look as I share my hopes, dreams, and all that God is teaching me.  My new blog is called Extravagant Dreams and I think both the name and the new look are a better fit for me. But I'd also love to know what you think. Won't you come share this journey with me?

  These are the thoughts I've been chewing on and mulling over this week.  I apologize if this was a little all over the place.  Thanks for letting me share! :)

A little kick in the bum for myself :)

So I'm following this blog called She Reads Truth.  It's basically a bunch of women going through the same devotional together and they're using social media to encourage, challenge, and pray for each other.  An online accountability group or Bible study, so to speak.

I did the first devotional sort of non-committedly (is that a word?).  I didn't get much out of it, but that's probably because I read sporadically and sort of hurried through them.  But when that devotional ended and they started a new one, I made up my mind to do things differently this month.  I really love this idea and I really want to be involved this time.  I need the accountability, challenges, and encouragement. So I decided to make some goals and challenge myself to be more involved.

There are a lot of blogs that I follow pretty anonymously - meaning, I read, but don't comment *hangs head in shame*.  I haven't gotten over my blog shyness yet.  :/ I should probably address that sometime.... But this blog and She Reads Truth community is going to be different.  I want to really be a part of this.  I want it to change me.  So even though I'm posting this about six days late, here are the goals I've set for myself.

• To read the devotional every day
• To talk to someone about it once a week
• To journal about it twice a week
• To post, comment, or tweet about it three times a week.

So here goes post #1.  Check back soon for post #2 and a fun little blog surprise! :)

In the meantime:  What has the Lord been teaching you lately?  I'd love to hear!

Weekend of Awesome-ness

So after writing this post and mentioning that we weren't going to be able to go to Canada, my wonderful, amazing, awesome hubby comes home the next day and asks if I want to go to the beach for the weekend since we couldn't do our family vaca.  Ummm... YES!!!!

I am a total beach bum and am so down for spontaneous beach weekends.  Looks like we got our mini vacation after all. :)  Isn't God kind?

Our hotel was right near a Sonic.  I sort of have a major addiction to Sonic (formed during my two years in Texas when I lived 1.5 minutes away from one.  Happy hour slushies?  Every. DAY.)   I think we ate at Sonic a total of four times during our short weekend there.  Yea, my stomach kind of hates me now, but it was so worth it! 

The US Airforce Thunderbirds also happened to be in town, so we got a cool airshow all weekend.  The traffic it caused wasn't so awesome, but it was pretty nifty watching these huge planes swirl and twirl, and dip and dive-bomb.  

We spent the day lazing in the perfect, warm, sun, and then cooling off in the chilly, but refreshing water.  We read books, tossed a football around, people watched, ate way too much greasy food, and just basically had the most awesome two-day vacation ever.  

Sorry for the blurriness - I can't figure out how to fix it! :/

One of the things I love about OC is the street performers that come out at night.  My favorite is the Spray Paint Artist.  He is so cool!!!!!  

We also saw a hyperactive kid playing guitar and harmonica so fast we thought he was going to pass out.  We're horrible people so we sat and giggled at him while we ate our ice cream.  Don't worry, he didn't know.  *sheepish smile*

The last time we went to OC we sort of got hooked on this arcade game.  We played so much we ended up with enough tickets for a football, a lanyard, and cute little beach decorations that make our bathroom look pretty.  This time?  We got addicted to an even bigger, better game.  

You know those weirdos you see with a million tickets coming out of their machine?  They have to practically wear their tickets in order to carry them all around.  They're the ones that win those awesome prizes that cost thousands of tickets and not the measly 100 or so that normal people win.  Well... We were THAT couple.  

Seriously, guys.  We had almost 12,000 tickets... I was carrying them around in a plastic bag because I couldn't hold it all in my hands.  But I'm not ashamed of our geeky-ness; we totally had a blast and made some hilarious memories.  We also won an awesome Coleman tent that I carried around proudly for the rest of the day.  Funny, right? Who wins a tent at an arcade??  

We do. :)

Suffice it to say, it turned out to be a pretty spectacular weekend.   While I still wish we could have made it to Canada with our family, our weekend at the beach turned out to be just what we needed.  We both came back rested, de-stressed, and definitely tanner.  Or redder in my husband's case (hehe!) 

We are blessed indeed. :)