Dayne&Amy=MARRIED

Just a few piccy's from the wedding we attended on Saturday. The groom had been on friend of my hubby's for 15 years and he has known the bride for almost as long. Their wedding was at a farm, and the reception in a barn. Couldn't be more up this country-girl's alley! The quiet, the smell, the atmosphere, very much brought me back to growing up on a farm, making forts with haybails as a child.
Amy created a beautiful event with purple and country and peacock feathers made up the palate and I absolutely loved it!








Congrats D&A and thank you for including us on your day....we had a blast!

{A Special Visit}

I've got great inlaws.

A few weeks ago, Trevor's parents got up at an un-godly hour, got on a ferry and were at our house at 8:00am. We had yummy cinnamon baked french toast (you can find the recipe here, thanks Pioneer Woman) for breakfast, enjoyed a play-by-play photo recap of my father-in-law's recent missions trip to Zambia then packed up and headed down to Victoria. It was a lovely day, and unbeknownst to us, there was a huge bike race going on so the whole waterfront was shut down to vehicles. We meandered, enjoyed the sun and buskers, had lunch at The Spaghetti Factory and made our way home again for supper.

Thanks Mum and Dad for wonderful visit....

:: Change VS Transformation ::

This past Sunday at church, the Pastor spent a few moments to highlight one of the studies that was restarting this week called "Life's Healing Choices". One of the women who got up to speak, read a couple verses that God had given her while she went throught he study and one of them was Romans 12:2, which reads "Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good pleasing and perfect will".

I've spent the last few days rolling the verse over in my mind, and more specifically the word transformed. I started thinking about transformation.

I recalled that most often, when I'm seeking to be different in an area of my life, I'm asking God to change me. I ask Him to change me to be more like Him, change my attitude, change my outlook.

Change is far from being a bad thing, but I got to considering the difference between a change and a transformation.

Let's liken it to a home.

It's relatively simple to make changes around a house. Maybe hang some new picture frames, buy some new throw pillows, change a paint color. Maybe you'd go a little farther and invest in some new furniture or decor. It doesn't need to take a lot of time or energy. People would walk into your home and kindly remark about how nice it looks.

But to make a real transformation is much different. It takes tearing down and moving walls. Most often when those walls come down, more issues are revealed. Leaks, poor insulation, inproper construction. And once those problems are brought to light, they must be dealt with before the structure is covered again. Floors must be ripped up, ineffective plumbing and electrical must be updated. Rusty fixtures need to be removed and replaced, old worn carpet and underlay is torn up. Your furniture and life must be shuffled around to accomodate the efforts. It could take weeks, months or even upto a year. It consumes all your time, attention and energy. And when it's all done, we can't just move on and never give anymore time to it. It must be maintained and upkept. When people walk into your home, stagger back in astonishment and exclaim, "This doesn't even look like the same house!". They would wander around in amazement, remarking about every detail and how incredibly different it looks.

That's the kind of transformation I want in my own life.

I want people to barely be able to recognize me because everything old and rotten, damaged and ruined, dead and unproductive has been completely stripped away. The weak and feeble walls I'd tried to erect myself have been torn down to allow healing, forgiveness and peace to flow and restore my broken and reluctant heart to the pristine condition it was intended to be.

My God is the ultimate renovater.

"....being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ."

Philippians 1:6

{Wordless......Tuesday}

Do It Yourself :: A Coffee Filter Wreath

If you care to know the reason I've been such an absentee Blogger lately, this.......

......is why. Long story short, my SIL sent me a few of these handmade paper flowers on the gift she sent me for Mother's Day. I saw them again on a mutal friend's FB page and underneath the photo she had mentioned the Jones Design Co. website. So I checked it out and was immediately in love! Her tutorials page is absolutely jam-packed with amazing, fun and easy do-it-yourself home decor ideas. I opened the page for her coffee filter foof, and seeing the photo of the Nester's coffee filter wreath, ALL combined with being totally inspired by the homemade wreath hanging in the kitchen window over at Jones', I was going to have one.

This was my second go at it, as I had already made one for my momma (complete with butterflies), and I did find things moved along with a little more ease on mine, it sure took no less time!
I'll forwarn you that this wreath took me a good six (if not more) hours to complete, HOWEVER, I think the way I chose to roll my filters had a lot to do with that.
SO! Let's get to it!
I started out with a 12" wreath form I picked up at Michael's (but any size would work!)

Then I wrapped the wreath in ribbon and glued with a hot glue gun (you will need lots of glue sticks!). You could skip this step if you intend to hang your wreath on a wall or door not a window (where people will not see the backside) but I recommend it anyways to give it a nice, finished and crisp look.

THEN, you're going to want to start on the outer edge, right in the middle. So you're first row of filters will lie parallel to your surface....

I will confess that I took these photos after my wreath was done.
I had read a few different tutorials on filter wreaths and while I really like the full, foofy, big look of Nester's wreath, I was looking for a more tight, neat, flower look to mine. So this is where I made quite a bit of work for myself. Instead of scrunching up the filter, folding the bottom and gluing it down, I did this......

I folded the filter in half......

.......then in half again.....

.......and then one more time.

Then I trimmed about an inch off of the bottom on the folded filter......

Then with the filter folded just in half, I started with one end, and rolled it (quite tightly).....

......and keep rolling.....

........and rolling......

.......and you will wind up with a sort-of rosette. I would do about 50 filters in a row so that when I starting gluing, I could just keep going.

Keeping the filter rolled up, put a good sized dab of glue on the tip and press it to the wreath form. I found the first, outer edge took the longest because you'll need to hold the filter to the form until the glue dries, otherwise, the filter will slide out of place (waiting for the glue to set seemed to take the longest)

Once your outer layer is done, things move along more quickly because the amount of filter you need per round decreases and you are able to move onto the next filter before allowing the previous one to dry completely since it's resting on the layer before it. I also found that if you tuck the outer seam into the previous filter, it will keep it from unraveling before the glue is dry and allow you to move to the next one even sooner!
Again, it took me a ridiculous amount of time to finish it, but seeing it hang, in all it's glory in my front window, makes it ALL worth it!

Here are a few other sites I found with instructions:

12 Stone Dance - she laid her filters flat and glued the folded bottom.

A Glimpse Inside - she layered an inner, then outer circle and chalked the edge before she glued for a pop of color.

The Little Brown House - She used unbleached filters and scrunched and pinned them to her wreath form.

Live Love & Craft -She also pinned her filters.

Tanda Plain & Tall - Used a similar folding technique but didn't trim the ends.

Our Daily Chocolate - She used she same folding technique I did but instead of cutting the end off, she folded it up and then stapled the filters on.

Happy Crafting!!