Weekend

This weekend was our friends Madison and Jordan's wedding!! I was able to go up to Charlotte for it!

Madison was such a beautiful bride!!
(I stole this off someones facebook :)


Me and Britt- Madison's sister

Me and Linds


In other news....Lindsey found out she got accepted to The University of North Carolina School of Law!!! Saturday she got her letter in the mail!! We couldn't be more proud!!!




(Not sure why this is turned like this)

Book Review

Have you ever heard of Precept Ministries? I was not familiar with it until I moved to Huntsville. This is the Bible study program the womens ministry uses at our church. It was founded by Jack & Kay Arthur in 1970. They write several different types of studies, but the one I have been involved with is Precept upon Precept- John. It has opened up my eyes to a whole new way of studying the Bible! I love it! I would encourage any one to find a class in your area!

This is a book Kay Arthur wrote on how to study your Bible.

This book gives you a step by step guide on how to inductively study the Bible. Many things explained in the book are things we specifically do in the Precept study, but it can be applied to anyone who is desiring to learn how to effectively study the Bible. It has changed the way I study the Bible, and has allowed me to learn and see things I have never seen before! So exciting!!

Weekend Fun

This past weekend, Mandy and Jackie came to visit John and I!! What a treat!! It was SOOOO sweet of them to come!! I had so much fun!!! I only got one pic of us---but I think it was because we were too busy having fun :) We went to eat at Rosies, hit up Dirt Cheap, and several other stores!! Miss Ya'll! Thank you again for coming!! Hope to see you soon!!!

P.S. Please ignore the lamp in the background with no shade...working on that...and it just happens to be sitting on a PIANO!! YEA!! I will be posting about that soon!!

The Bathroom Countertop

So I endeavored upon a little project, something I had seen on a few other blogs, painting the bathroom counter top. Lowes carries a product called Counter top Coating.

There are several different colors you can get it stained to. I got it stained to what I thought was a dark chocolate brown. When I started painting, I realized it was going to be lighter, almost the color of the walls, which was a little disappointing. It was very difficult to paint it on smoothly. I used foam brushes, but it showed every streak, so I ended up painting in circles, trying to make it look "textured:". HA! In the end, I like it a lot more than the blue :) but I am also glad I didn't attempt to do anything more than my small bathroom countertop.
Before

After


During my painting...I got a little careless and accidently did this on one of the cabinets.....

So I did some unplanned cabinet distressing...but I like how it turned out!

All in all, I probably wouldn't use the countertop coating again unless it was just a temporary fix to something I really didn't like. It gets the job done, but it did turn out a little differently than I thought! But hey, not all projects are going to go perfect! But that's the fun of it!!

Book Reviews

One of my New Years Resolutions was to read more. I have really enjoyed the two books I have read so far. I wanted to give a sort of a book review, in case any of you are looking for a good read! :)

"The Man Whisperer"- Rick Johnson

I heard about this book when I was in Columbia, SC. On a Worship Radio Station I listened to, they would sometimes have an "Encouragement Segment" and read a small portion of a book. I don't remember exactly what part of this book they read, but I remember liking it and thinking I should get that book. I always get books used online through DealOz. I think this book cost me $2. It was a great read on how to relate to/understand/encourage/your husband. My favorite chapter in the whole book was Chapter 7. It talks in depth about girls relationships to their dads, and how that directly plays in to the relationship women have with their spouses. I cried reading it, just so thankful for the relationship I have with my dad, and sad for those who may not have had as good of a relationship. This would be an awesome chapter for John to read if someday we happen to have a Gossett Girl. :)

"The Power of a Praying Wife"

What a great reminder of the importance to daily lift our husbands up in prayer, and an awesome guide on how to do that. This book lays out I believe 29 different areas in our husbands life that we can pray about, and demonstrates a prayer for each thing.

Both great books I would encourage anyone to read!!

Congrats Sean & Carmen

Sean and Carmen got married!!

Congrats!! We Are Excited For Ya'll!!!

The Mr. & Mrs. Pillows

I have seen this done on a few other blogs and I loved it! I had to give it a try! I am so excited about how they turned out. The original company to come out with these pillows was Ballard Designs. For just the inserts, they are $59 each!! I think I paid a total of $20 for both, insert and all! So here is a little tutorial on how I did it...

After reading how people have done it, I decided I would make my own stencil.
I printed the letters off of my computer.

Then I traced them on to some heavy duty cardstock.

Then I cut them out with an exacto knife. They were no where near perfect, but that ended up not mattering.

I bought black acryllic paint and that little round foam brush you see in the picture. I made sure to hold the stencil real still and I put the paint on pretty thick. I did practice on the piece of paper first :)

I was so nervouse to pull back the stencil, but I was pleasantly surprised when I did! I thought it looked great! Ecspecially for a homemade stencil!!

I then sewed the pillows right sides facing each other, leaving a small hole to put the insert in.

If you notice in the picture on the Ballard Designs website, the pillows look a little more tapered around the edges, and I really wanted to get that look. After I sewed the pillows right sides together, turned them inside out, and stuffed them, I then went and sewed around the entire outside of the pillow.

If you can tell by this picture, the pillow has a more tapered look, rather than a "normal" looking one with a straight sew.




I love how these turned out! It adds a little more character to our bedroom and it was a fun project!