Oh come, Oh come, Emmanuel And ransom captive Israel That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear Rejoice, Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, Oh Israel! Oh come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer Thy people with Thine advent here; Disperse the gloomy clouds of night And death's dark shadows put to flight Rejoice, Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, Oh Israel! Oh come, Thou rod of Jesse, free Thine own from Satan's tyranny From depths of hell Thy people save And give them victory o'ver the grave Rejoice, Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, Oh Israel! Rejoice, Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, Oh Israel!
I love this song, an emotional reminder of the Redeemer, Light, God with Us....disperse the gloomy clouds of night and Death's dark shadows put to flight!
I have to admit, my spirit has been anything but Christmasy. I've been stuck in a funk that I wasn't able to shake...gloomy, sad...disappointed...wronged! That last feeling took until Saturday to actually rise to the surface. God, I was wronged! It's like the perfect 3 point basket...amazing arch, perfect follow through...straight shot to the hoop...only at the last moment it bounced right out of the rim! My wonderful prayer warrior friend prayed with me Saturday night. God just released me from so much pain, guilt, hurt.
The weight lifted from my heart is indescribable. I'm ready for Christmas now....in a different way, a new meaning for the birth of this Dayspring. After struggling with darkness these few weeks, the refilling of His light is such a blessing....one that I pray I won't soon forget!
How are you this Christmas season? Happy and filled with good cheer? Overwhelmed? Discouraged? Saddened by a loss? Our church is having a series on Hope and it is amazing, straight to the heart. Please, take a few minutes and listen to our pastor speak....and may the God of Hope fill you to the brim with healing, peace and His love!!!
I'll probably be gone for the rest of the week....lots and lots of crafting going on...and of course, lots of family time! So, if I don't get a chance to get another post in before---Merry Christmas!!!
Does anyone else have this problem with Christmas Pictures!?!?!!!
Ugh! It only took 30 million takes before we had one suitable for pictures for the grandparents....and a little shot of peppermint schnapps for the photographer ;)
Old folks--on Sunday, Kidzlink took the boys and a ton of other kids to a local nursing home where they decorated rooms, visited with old folks and sang carols (and if you were Corey, you did a little booty shakin too!...cracked the staff up!) I am so thankful for these opportunities that Kidzlink gives the kids to serve. We had 3 very excited boys who talked all the way home about their afternoon :)
While they were out, Jim and I watched movie and I finished wrapping balls for my new project!
I saw these beauties here and had to try and make some! After hunting down Anthropologies' version (whew---$68 for less than 6 feet of garland!!!!!) and then searching etsy for colored felt balls, I remembered that I had a huge stash of merino fiber waiting for me to spin up (shyeah...I'm never gonna do all of that!). I even had dye tucked safely away somewhere!!!!
So, here's my version of making your own felt balls (oh man....the joking done while making this project! Delicious Dish....why did you have to make balls So Funny!!!)
Anyway, gotta stop chuckling and start tutorialing ;)
I started with about 6 inch sections of wool. Firmly grasp the fiber and pull...Do Not Cut.
Divide each section in half length-wise. Then with the smaller section pull off about 1/3 and pull it out until it looks like a long fluff. Roll in a semi tight ball. Fluff the remaining 2/3rds and wrap around the small ball. It will look like a large cotton ball. Do this 30 or 40 times in order to make a 8 foot garland, spaced 2.5 inches apart.
Here's a shot of the smaller ball, pulled apart 2/3rds section and a finished ball, just in case I have you totally confused....really, it's not rocket science, just time consuming.
Once you have your balls rolled (ahhahaha), fill your sink with some hot suddsy water. (just think everything you Wouldn't do to a wool sweater).
In one hand hold the fluff ball, with the other gently scoop water on top. Toss ball l of back and forth like you're making a meatball, every once in a while scooping more water on top. Once it seems to have a good felt going on the outside (so you won't unwind your ball), dip it in the water and let it soak for a bit. Next step is to roll it in your hands like rolling a ball of playdough until it feels like a gumball.
Now the fun part! I had dye laying around (my favorite culinary colors is safer and easier to work with than normal yarn dyes)....but you can also use koolaide (not the sugared kind) or gel food dye.
To dye 12 balls, I added 1.5 cups hot water to a mason jar, 1/2 tsp dye and a good glug of white vinegar. Swirl it around, toss in your balls and microwave for 5 min (be careful because it will start to really bubble and might boil over).
Cool, Rinse and Dry.
There you have it! Lots and Lots of felt balls! (this is a gallon sized jar by the way...not a little quart) With an embroidery needle, thread the balls with crochet thread and viola!
Hang on your wall with book page snowflakes..... Hang on your tree.....
Make a wreath or a banner....the world is your oyster!
Also, this doesn't have to be just for Christmas....my friend Joyce loves pink so I dyed a few up for her :)
If you're loving the look, but not wanting to go through the hassle....I have a ton of them leftover. I don't have an etsy account, but leave me a message if you're interested! I have 2-10ft garlands that I'll sell for $15 each or $20 for both. I also have a bunch of fiber left if you want something custom!
Do you ever have one of those weekends where it takes you half the week just to process it all?
Yeah, that was mine....
Friday started it all off with 4 boxes of cake mix, a couple lbs of butter and a the biggest bag of powdered sugar that I've ever seen!
At Thanksgiving, my grandma asked if I could make her a baby shower cake for her neighbor. Alex and her family just moved into the house across the alley and my grandma being the insanely sweet person that she is, decided to throw this stranger a shower for her and her adorable 1 month old daughter!
This is what my kitchen looked like Friday afternoon: I had visions of a 3 layer cake....1st layer of baby blocks, 2nd a pink layer cake and then some cutesie little booties.
For the blocks, I used a Martha tutorial....tweeked a smidge. I filled a 1/2 sheet cake pan with almost 3 boxes of cake mix. The left over I used to make the cupcakes for the booties (ended up making 6 cupcakes....and needed EVERY single one! stupid cake sticking to the stupid pan!!!!)
So, back to the sheet cake....after the cake had cooled, I cut it in half (width-wise). On one half, I put a layer of frosting and then added the second half on top. This leaves you with a crazy thick cake....cut it into 6 blocks. Frost each block (crumb coat and then your regular colored frosting). Pipe and decorate to look like blocks. I also used each one to spell out "baby" but I highly doubt that anyone noticed!
Up next was the round layer cake. My original inspiration came from a Wilton cake from their website, but I decided to skip the whole "ribbon" look and just do some cute little daisies. The wonderful pink shell edging fell halfway to my grandma's house...thank God that I had the sense to grab the bag of icing just in case!!!!!
Ok...almost there....are you sick of cake (I sure am!). So the booties. If you google cupcake booties you get a whole slew of instructions. Basically you take 3 cupcakes, cut one in half and then flip the other 2 upside down so that the top is on bottom. To the upside down cupcake I frosted a half (also upside down..and I trimmed off the "top" to make it more boot shaped). Crumb coated and then piped it to look like crochet...small star tip with a "W" motion...yeah, I know (seriously rolling my eyes at how ridiculous this is!) Layer it all together, hold on your lap for an hour while traveling in a snowstorm....pray you don't end up with a frosting rainbow smeared all over your wool peacoat!
The cake was a hit, the shower was cute...the baby..oh, the baby! Cutest little girl with a head full of hair and a plaid bubble skirt...seriously made my womb hurt!!!!!!
Alright, lets check the list....Baby, Cake, Snow...now on to the Aussie! First I sweetened you up with talk of cake and babies..now onto the hard stuff----
Last weekend our church was blessed to have Christine Cain speak. She is a pastor from the Hillsong Church. She speaks all over the world and somehow by the grace of God she made it to our little neck of the woods!
Christine's mission is to abolish injustice in the 21st century......the A21 campaign. Their main focus is to stop human sex trafficing. This video tells a little bit more about it all.
She spoke to us about being the light in the darkness. We are called to be in the world, just not of it....boldly proclaiming hope, not trapped in our holy huddles scared by the big bad devil. It was really inspiring. It was like watering a seed deep in my heart...this dream that we have for Las Cruces and its people. I'm not sure what all this entails, but I'm praying and trying to process it all. There will be further posts on this for sure!
If you're so lead, check out the A21 campaign. These stories are heartbreaking....but Christine and her crew are out there one girl at a time saving lives, giving a hope and a future....loving the lost and afraid with a love that only comes from Jesus!
So, it's been awhile since my last fatty friday....it'd be safe to say that I've been trying very hard Not to console myself with a vat of cookie dough!!! Honestly, I've been pretty good, but haven't walked much (cold weather does nothing for my motivation!). 2 weeks ago, I cleared off the clothes and other assorted junk from the old treadmil....so far I've got 24 miles logged, and 3 blisters.
But one thing I didn't gain was pounds!!! Even with my trusty Aunt Flow visiting And Thanksgiving, I still managed to loose 4 lbs :)
Thank you Jesus that I've been able to finally get back on track since we got back from NM!!!!!!
On another completely random note, lots going on this weekend involving lots and lots of randomness!
-wool -dye -cakes -paint -snow -pictures -babies -old folks -an Aussie -lots and lots of Fun!
I've been brainstorming all afternoon ideas for some quick (and cheap) random acts of kindness for the boys to do this month---kind of like an advent wreath but the treat is helping others!
So here's my question---What are some acts of kindness that you do to share the joy of Christmas?
I took this picture after having a terrible day...one filled with self doubt and questioning if God was ever going to come through in our situation. On my way to meet a friend for coffee I saw this as I turned onto the highway. It was the biggest, brightest rainbow I had ever seen....the Perfect reminder that God does keep his promises! I decided to put this picture up as a reminder to myself of God's faithfullness.
All personal images are copyrighted by me, unless specified. You are welcome to link, but please don't take my stuff or else I'll be forced to turn into the Wicked Witch of the West :)
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