August Inspiration Board

A few beautiful, share worthy images...

because sometimes it's fun to just sit back, look and be inspired

I'm on a bit of a boho kick.  I'm fully embracing the southwest New Mexico style, and loving it.  It only took three years to take the "Texas" out of me, so to speak.  There will always be a special place in my heart for Texas but New Mexico is growing on me more and more every day.  

Here's a few things that I've pinned.

I NEED one of these.

photo source Pinterest
Traced back to this website

So perfectly pretty!!

Photo source Pinterest
Traced back to Etsy

This one would require a lot more thinking and dedication but the end

 result would be totally worth it I think.  

Photo source Pinterest
Traced back to this website

I love everything about this shawl.  

Photo source Pinterest
Traced to this website

Drool...

Photo source Pinterest

And who can resist Baby Groot?

Photo source Pinterest
Traced back to this website

Hubby and I are probably too old for this movie but I talked him into taking me to see it a few months ago when it first came out.  By chance I had just watched the first movie at home on cable tv and liked it.  My kids informed me that there was a new one coming out so I checked our local theater and it happened to be playing.  The second movie was good too although the ending dragged on too long but even so I enjoyed it.  Hubby thought it was funny too.

I may have to make ones of these.  He makes me smile.
:)

Hope you're as inspired as I am.

♥♥♥

Bouquet of Sharpened Pencils

"Don't you love New York in the Fall?

It makes me want to buy school supplies."

(Joe Fox in You've Got Mail)

Gaaawww I love this movie.  It never gets old.

As we've been scrambling around these last couple of weeks buying back to school items, this movie has been playing over and over in my mind.  I want to say I've watched this movie at least a hundred times over the years but I don't know if that's true.   It's definitely been several, several times.

 We only have one child left in high school.  Today is the first day of her junior year.  It's a little sad that the summer break is over but it's also a little exciting to start a new school year.  

She got her license over the summer and drove herself to school this morning.  She's getting all grown up and independent.  I awoke early this morning worrying about the school traffic.  I knew it would be crazy this morning and this being her first day to drive among the early morning madness.  She had a little anxiety as well but she texted me a little before eight and said she made it alright.  

I think I'll pop in my favorite movie today.  I'll let it play in the background while I do my household chores.  She took my car to school so it's not like I can go anywhere anyway.

I might as well enjoy it.

:)

Bible Journaling

And so it begins,

a new hobby for me.

I started coloring in my new Bible.

Can I just say how enjoyable this is.

Who says coloring is just for kids?

I sat down last night to color my first page.  I left everything out on the table and this morning when I went to grab a cup of coffee I saw it sitting there waiting for me so I sat down and colored my second page.  Now I'm thinking I need to buy more colored pencils in a wider variety of colors.  

I added the swirl on my own.  Not very adventurous I know but I wanted to give it a personal touch even it was a small one.  I think it adds the right amount of flair.

When my father passed away in September of last year, the only thing I ever asked for was his Bible.  I didn't care about the material things.  In fact I never received any of his material things.   The only things I have in my possession that belonged to my father are two pairs of his shoes and a garbage bag with a few of his clothes that my sisters and I divided up shortly after his death.

My mother hasn't turned over his Bible to me yet.  Who knows why.  I know it's not for sentimental reasons.  My mother is not a sentimental person.  The morning after my father passed away she was going through his closet bagging up his clothes for "donation", which is how each of my sisters and I ended up with a bag of his clothes.

I, however, am the sentimental kind and I would have loved to have my fathers Bible. Maybe someday she'll go ahead and give it to me.  I can only hope.  

So I've been very conscious about personalizing a few Bibles to leave behind for my kids someday.  I have a couple of the traditional Bibles but I thought these journaling Bibles might be something my daughters might like someday after I'm gone.

I take pleasure in working on my Bibles.  Not just drawing and coloring but I intend to write many notes as well and personalize it as much as I can over the years.  

 There's no time like the present to prepare something special.  The Bible has special meaning to me because of my faith but even a sketchbook or a writing journal would be a beautiful legacy as well.  It's something to think about anyway.

(This post contains affiliate links)

                      

Church Nursery Schedule Printable for August

Hello and Happy Monday!

Some of you may know that aside from being a crocheter, knitter and domestic homebody, I am also a pastor's wife.  And with that role come many, many responsibilities.  It's been in my heart for a while now to share some of the things I do for our church in hopes that it might be of some help to someone else out there who is also working in the same ministry.   

 

I am the nursery coordinator at our church.  One of the things I have to do on a regular basis is make up a schedule for all of our volunteer workers.  I have tried different methods over the years and this is the one that works the best for me.  Keep in mind that we live in a small town so our church is small.  We don't need anything more elaborate or complicated.

Simply download the pdf and print.  Write in the volunteer names by hand and you are good to go.  Or if you'd rather, click on the calendar image and save to your computer.  Open it up in any photo editing software like Photoshop or you can use Picmonkey for free and use the text tool to type in the names.  Easy Peasy.

Download the pdf here.

I hope this will help other nursery workers out there.  Keeping the nursery organized and running smoothly is a lot of work.  Hopefully this will make the job of writing out a schedule a little bit easier.  Us nursery workers have to stick together and help each other out.

Happy Birthday to Me ♥

This is my birthday month.

Another reason to love July.

Birthdays seem to come around quicker and quicker every year.

I've reached the point where I have to pause for a few seconds to figure out hold old I am.

I do math in my brain.   I subtract my birth year from the current year to be sure.  Does anyone else do that?  

I remember as a kid thinking people in their forties were horribly old.

Now I'm in my mid forties and let me just say...

...it's not so bad.  It's actually pretty good.

:)

I bought something for myself.  My family gave me some lovely presents but these last few years I've been giving myself something too.  A gift to me from me.  I've been wanting one of those journaling Bibles I've seen all over Pinterest so I went online and ordered me not one, but two of them.

Only one has come in.  The other one was a pre-order and won't be shipped out until August.

I'm better at coloring than drawing so I am thrilled that it comes with a few of these cute illustrations already in place.  

I also ordered these other two coloring books.

They were on sale and a steal at 3.99 each.  

Coloring books aren't just for kids anymore.  They are supposed to be good for you as they relieve stress.  Plus it's like art so it's a win win.  Now I just need to buy some good coloring pencils and I'll be set.

On the day of my birthday, hubby took the afternoon off and we all headed to the zoo.  I hadn't been to the zoo in years and it was quite relaxing and enjoyable.  The best part was spending the day with my favorite people.

Here's one of those rooster ornaments I managed to finish.  The body was a breeze to make but it was all those finishing touches that made this "small" project take forever to finish.

This is a favorite blouse made even better with a little crochet.  I really don't like wearing tank tops under my shirts.  I feel I am already bulky on top I don't need an extra layer of clothing especially in these summer temperatures.  I whipped this up and it did the trick.

I know I'm late finding this out but I just recently discovered the Wish app.  I've ordered a handful of things but these acrylic crochet hooks were the first to come in.  I didn't expect much for the price.  The smaller hooks are flimsy and none of them have a size marked on them.  Probably the thicker ones are usable if I file off the rough edges.

 At least they look pretty in a jar. 

That's worth three bucks right?

:)

Happy birthday to all my July born readers out there.

Hope this month has been a blessed one for you too.

My First Mammogram

I went in and got my first mammogram yesterday.

I'd heard several stories about what all was involved and I was a bit anxious about it.  Yes it was everything I expected it to be but considering what it helps prevent I suppose it wasn't all that bad.

 I actually went in last week for an annual exam.  With my history of uterine cancer and my father having passed away last September of gastric cancer, I've been a little concerned with my health.  I've been feeling alright.  I just wanted to get a proper check up.  We did all the other female tests too.  None of those are very pleasant but I'm glad I had them done.  We have to take care of ourselves even if it's invasive, inconvenient, and sometimes embarrassing.

We're worth it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

July so far...

This is the only thing blooming in my yard at the moment.  

Beautiful orange marigolds.

These are my favorite flowers because they are so easy to grow.

They are supposed to be annuals but the seed spreads so easy they come back year after year.

Love, love, love that cheery pop of color.

My creative project at this time.

These little chicks are the cutest things.  Pattern is here.  It's taken me longer to finish them than I thought it would but I only work on them for bits at a time here and there.   I always think in the summer break I'll have more time to do stuff but it never turns out that way.

A photo of the family last week on July 4th.  We picnicked at a local state park that we had never been to.  It was actually very nice.  I don't know why we hadn't ever visited.  It's only about five miles outside the city limits and it has a small lake that local residents use for fishing.  It was very peaceful and quiet.  There wasn't very many people so we had a lot of privacy too which was nice.

  There was a roadrunner that stayed nearby and kept running from here to there which was fun to watch.  You can see the rustic dry landscape which is typical in New Mexico.

I've gotten used to it and I've grown to love it.  There's beauty in everything if you look for it, as is the case with everything in life. 

Don't you agree?

♥♥♥

It's July

My favorite month.

My favorite season.

My favorite colors.

Can't get much better than that.

A little red, white, and blue for you 

on this Independence day weekend.

  

The colors of the flag...

  

White represents purity and innocence.

Blue represents perseverance and justice.

Red represents valor and strength.

It's a beautiful combination.

My plans for the fourth are simple.  I'm going to do as little as possible, maybe watch some movies on Netflix, have a picnic with the family and go watch fireworks in the evening.  Sometimes it's nice to just chill and enjoy the holiday.

Happy Independence Day weekend!

♥♥♥

Summertime...♥

 Hello there!

Happy official start of the Summer season.

Can you believe it?

Is your head spinning?

Mine is.

I'm still wondering what happened to Spring.

It came and went and left me in the dust.

I'm in the mood for some red, white, and blue.  I'm already looking forward to July fourth and all it's celebratory glory.  I love this time of year.  I know everyone always complains about the heat and all that but this time of year is one of my favorites.  I love the long days and the sunshine.  I love the Patriotic theme and seeing the American flags that start popping up all around town.  Ahhh...it's a magical time.

 Found this beauty at my favorite charity chop last week.

It was dusty and dirty and priced cheap and I said,

"Uhh, Yes Please" and I snatched it up and brought it home with me.

The first thing I did was give it a good washing.  The next morning I filled it with water and a couple of tea bags and left it out on my front lawn for a few hours and made sun tea.

I don't know what I enjoyed better, 

the refreshing sun tea or using my cool patriotic vintage jar...

(thinking, thinking, thinking)

...Still can't decide. 

;)

Last Sunday was Fathers day. 

This was the first Fathers day since losing my Dad in September.  I was actually dreading it because I didn't know how I would feel.  It went ok.  I wasn't too sad surprisingly.  Instead I felt proud that God blessed me with a good daddy.  He was gentle and kind in every way possible.  That was his gift to the world  and I strive to let those gifts live on through me.  

Those are the thoughts that keep me going on rough days.

♥♥♥

Happy new season to all of you dear sweet readers. 

I hope it's a magical time for you as well.

I wish you much fun and creativity.