Let's be real!

So I'm a girl who's committed to being transparent and I think in most situations I'm pretty uncomplicated, but I know for some people I can be overwhelming, which is sometimes complicated, but here's the deal, I like to be real and I love people who are willing to be also!

My sweet Mum-in-law is here visiting from New Zealand and we we're talking about a certain trend in where Mom's and wives can maybe give off the impression that they are accomplishing a little more that what's realistic... I mean who can make all their meals for the day from scratch in their perfectly gleaming house with a baby on thier hip and the other arm tied behind there backs (that's hard, I wouldn't recommend trying this) while they sew their 6 children's clothes without a pattern ;) ... and I'm not saying they can't do it, but are we being real here?

I'm not saying I don't like it when my friends jokingly call me Betty Crocker or Martha, but I don't ever want to give off the wrong impression that it's soooo easy and that I don't need any help... Let's face it, if you happen to be invited to the Weeks' for supper, I WILL have thought about what I'm gonna make for days and I will have spent extra time cleaning up my house than usual and I will spend most of that day preparing for you to come over... and hopefully I won't act like that's how we roll everyday...
I do have a really sweet friend, Janell and with her there's no pretense, if you're invited over your gonna eat what their family would eat every night and the house is gonna be like it always is, and I LOVE that about her, I love being invited over to be part of the family!

Now that doesn't mean that I'm pretensious, I just like to put my energy into making it really special for people to come over... It's an outlet for me I guess...

So I'm letting the cat out of the bag, I can't write 10 blog posts a day, bake fresh bread, make chicken piard for dinner and sew 5 slings in a day while doing crafts with my perfectly behaved children... Not saying that I wouldn't love to! I wish there was 50 hours in a day, I'd rule the world! But since that's not likely to happen I just have to pick and chose from day to day where my energy's spent and some days that's on cleaning and other's it on blog posts or sewing... but I just wanna keep it real for all you moms out there, we can't do it all... so don't feel like you have to convince everyone that you can! I mean I love the idea of the perfect 50's housewife, but she doesn't really exist, only in our imaginations...

Just keepin' it real...

Paint by el numeros

I LOVE Paint by numbers, and now I commission you my beloved readers to love them too!

Fun Fact: Paint by numbers was the brain child of Dan Robbins in the early 1950's, an artist who remembered that DaVinci used to put numbers into his paintings so that his apprentices could help him finish his works of art.

So Robbins takes his idea to a major paint company and the rest is history! And guess who is hanging in more living rooms than any artist ever? That's right Dan Robbins + You... well not you, cuz we have too much to do with our busy lives than sit around for hours filling in blanks...

But thankfully for me and now you, (cuz you're gonna love them) our forefathers had the courtesy to spends hours upon hours filling them in for our enjoyment!

My Mom recalls when everyone was doing them and she thought they were terribly tacky. Luckily not everyone thought they were, cuz there's thousands upon thousands of them hanging around and they can be purchased for mere dollars! There are crazy people like me who have quite a few in their collection and some who will pay more than a few dollars for some of the more rare examples. But usually they can be found for around $10-$20 smackers...

So I've posted some of my collection for you to enjoy, and I hope now you will love them as I do, and if you still aren't convinced, that's fine, just next time you see one at a garage sale, pick it up for your old time friend, Cyndi ;)

Song writing woes

This is me like a gazillion years ago, when I thought everything needed and I do mean needed, to be pink.. but it's also me back when I'd sit down for 15 maybe 20 minutes and have an awesome song! Well at least I though it was... but then again maybe all the pink was going to my brain.So fast forward 30 years and here I am no real major trials in my life, no issues almost pushing me over the edge (by issues I mean no possibility of a budding romance to inspire gads of songs)
And I look pretty sad... What's my deal, I have another one where I look much more friendly but it doesn't have the awesome 1941 picture of surfer Jesus in the background... I don't even think long haired surfers were around back then... But I am a bit sad cuz the songs won't flow like they once did, like rays of light flowing from my finger tips! And I'm so frustrated! I think I over think everything and I'm so concerned with thee perfect melody building into the perfect chorus with the perfect words that I've hindered the creative process! HELP! How do I get back to being simple again??



I feel like I have tons of good material, you know the Bible and stuff and all I've been set free from I just need my flow back... Any writers out there with any suggestions??? Send help or I might end up looking permanently like this!

BTW: Emmy took this and she thinks it's awesome...

Fruit Salad Frenzy!

I triple dog dare you to try my fruit salad recipe... go ahead try it! OK enough bullying, but seriously try this and you will thank me. I don't know why the secret ingredient in my fruit salad makes it so magical but it does...

So little known fact about me, I have a fruit stand in front of my house! What you don't believe me?? It's too late for photos tonight, but you'll see, it's true... and right now, it's filled with the juciest, sweetest most wonderful oranges you've ever eaten . Don't be too jealous, since it's inception I think we've made a whopping $32... nothing we could live off of, but we can make a really good fruit salad from it's proceeds, so check it out!
Don't worry there's not a tutorial on how to slice and dice your fruit below, I'm sure you're competient enough to figure that one out on your own, but there are a few things we need to discuss!


For instance, you can make this fruit salad with whatever you have hanging around in your fridge, like I did, BUT and that's a big BUT, you must have an orange, at least one!


So get your fruits ready for the choppin and place all but your orange in zee bowl.
I used some pineapple, strawberries, blackberries, 1 banana (cuz it was all I had) and 2 oranges... I just kept adding until I had reached the capacity of the bowl, be creative there's no rules with this one, oh except for the rule about the orange...
(I really like making this with blueberries and kiwi fruit too)
Take your orange and your zester, and get them well aquainted! Add the zest of one orange to your bowl of diced fruit...


Now cut your orange that you zested in half and add the juice of just half of it if your orange is really juicy like mine, I'm not bragging it's just really juicy and really delicious, seriously! But if it's not as juicy you can use the whole thing...
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Now add 1-2 tbsp. of honey depending on how sweet you like it... I used 2 cuz I like it sweet!

Now for the magical mystery ingredient!!! Bom bada bom ba badda da bom! Nutmeg, yep that's right... I know that this might be bringing up some trust issues for some of you, but I promise I won't let you down, you can trust me, this will make your salad sing!
I don't have pre-ground nutmeg so I dusted the top of my fruit salad until I could see a little bit covering the whole top... my educated guess was 1/2 teaspoon, but if that scares you, start with a 1/4 add a little more if you don't sense it's presence there making you swoon! Now mix it all up real good... THEN...

Now comes the really hard part, let it sit for 30 min. before you serve... Go catch up on some you time, go read your kid a story, floss your teeth, or go google how big the largest invertebrate to ever be found is... just walk away and let it sit, you'll thank me... cuz all it's juicy goodness is coming out and it's guaranteed to make it's recipents face look like this! OK maybe not as cute, but definately worth the wait!

There's purpose in the pain

Why is it that the moment trails begin I forget everything I've learned that 's gotten me this far... it's like the pain or frustrations somehow block out that really important part of my brain that could reassure me that every thing's gonna be OK and there is a purpose in all this ...

Some of my friends have mildly accused me of living a charmed life, it's true I have never lost a relative that's really close to me, I've never really experienced any hardship due to financial woes or real sickness and for the most part my husband and I kinda like each other... So we've established that I don't have the market cornered on suffering but they say that suffering is relative, so in my small puny way I can understand what it's like to struggle. And for the last couple of months I can say a little better I know what it's like to struggle.
Since having my sweet dream of a little boy, I've been struggling with my health, and more than anything, it's been messing with my head. I really didn't realize how much I took my health for granted until this all went down...

But that's not really the point of this post... the point is, where do we go when the pain or frustrations start?

For a lot of us it's worry for others it's anger, I'm sure there's a whole host of emotions that we face when we feel out of control of our circumstances... but thankfulness is not one that quickly comes to mind.

For years, when these trails rear their ugly heads, an old stand by of mine has been Hebrews 10. Here the author reminds the recipients of this letter how they went through great suffering in the first days after they were illuminated... he says, "hey you've gotten through rougher patches before, you just have need of endurance, that's why you're going through this." He encourages them to not cast away their confidence in God, because in their confidence they will find great reward. And isn't that true, have you ever taken the high road? Have you ever buckled down and just decided to have a good attitude and trust that good is gonna come out of your difficult circumstance? I'd love to hear your story and what you gained from your positive stance!
I'm sounding like the opposite of Debbie Downer here... we could call me "Polly Positive" but it is bigger than that, I hope this doesn't sound like a glorified pep talk.
I really do believe that there is a valuable spiritual discipline here that a lot of us forget about when the trouble starts...

1Peter 1 reminds us that we only are grieved by trails if we need them... they prove our faith, they show us what we really believe, and what is it that I believe when I'm going through tough times? If I'm really honest, it's that I'm the master of my destiny and I need to get control of the situation and quick... and I can have a real stinky attitude that can sound like this... "seriously! this is so inconvient, how am I gonna write 10 blog posts a day, make my cake pops, sew 15 slings and be the perfectly attentive mom now that I have to deal with this!"

So lately I've been trying to skip that step and go straight to realizing that I am a toothless tiger in the face of roaring trials and simply just give thanks! This time I'm thankful that God is taking me to a new level of discipline. And that is something I know I would never achieve with out the help of difficult circumstances! Seriously I have to laugh that God has figured out a way to "trick" me into being disciplined! I love Him for that! I love the fruit of being disciplined just not the general discomfort it requires...So I can recognize that this trial is doing some work for me that I might not otherwise be able to to accomplish, so for that I can give thanks!

On a more serious note 1st Thessalonians 5:18 tells us that the will of God for our lives is that we give thanks in everything! And yes, that does mean everything... even when our husband might leave, when our dog might die, when the lump is diagnosed malignant, or when we're losing it all... give thanks!
Please don't misunderstand me, I really don't mean to trivialize anyone's pain, if anything I mean to validate it! There is purpose in the pain, I just pray I can encourage you to grasp it's full potential...

I remember a time about 9 years ago when I had just given my life back to the Lord and I was sooooo broken! Oh man, we're talkin' ugly broken, nose swollen, snotty sobbin', mascara runnin' broken! I can just remember falling on my knees and saying thank you Lord, I don't understand why you're allowing this but I'm gonna say thank you just the same... Woah! Overwhelming peace like I've never experienced before... still ugly broken, but I had peace. And that's what God promises us! A peace that surpasses our understanding . And I can understand it now, I'm so thankful I'm not that same girl I was 9 years ago, but at the time the pain was so deep, so real I couldn't understand why I had to go through it.

So the bottom line.......... don't be discouraged, don't let those thoughts of worry or anger get out of control... be like David and preach to your soul, remind yourself of God's goodness and give thanks for whatever it is...
2nd Corinthians reminds us that our light affliction is only momentary and working out for us something far greater than we could ever imagine! Remember we're just passing through, this is not our home! Let's give thanks and give purpose to our pain!

And please, let me know if I can pray for you if you're going through a difficult time and if you have a story of giving thanks through hard circumstances please feel free to share!

Grace and Peace!

Isn't she lovely! (an owl doll tutorial)

So I love photo tutorials! Photo tutorials are my new favorite thing on the internet, it's amazing to me that thru blogs and people's websites how much is accesable to us! so I decided I was gonna do my very own!

I have a thing for owls that started when I was 4... you say how do you know, how can you remember so far back??? Well my grandpa died when I was 5 and I know he used to scold me for fiddling with his AWESOME owl clock with bakelite eyes that told the time... kinda creepy though when it's 9:25... so I know owls are kinda trendy right now, so why not join in, cuz I love to be trendy!!! and make a cute little owl doll for my girlfriend's daughter's birthday! And lucky you are the benefactors of this labor of love as well... So if sewing isn't your thing feel free to skip on down to another post, or maybe you'll see how incredibly easy this is and you'll want to learn and start making some of your very own crafty creations!

Here we go!
You will need:

hoaky owl drawing for pseudo pattern (done on 8x11 paper)
4 -8x11 pieces of felt
2 coordinating pieces of fabric, or not if you're feeling kinda crazy!
Some frilly ribbon or lace
fiber-fill or batting

Now get the two colors of felt that you want for the front and back and begin to cut out the pieces of your owl using your pattern, feel free to cut a little extra room for your seam-allowance and don't feel like it has to be perfect, just go for the general shape...

Now take your pattern and cut out the wings, as you can see here, I wanted mine a little bigger than what I had drawn so I cut the wings a bit bigger
Now pin your patterns wings to your fabric of choice and cut around and now get your coordinating fabric and cut out the piece that you'll use for the chest feathers...

Note: cut the chest feathers part bigger on the sides so that it can sit underneath the wings and get sewn down when you get to that part (see below)

Now get the scraps from the color you used on the back side of your owl and pin the top of your chest feather pattern and cut the arch at the top then scallop the bottom edge (see below,) remembering to keep it a bit wider than what will show, so that you will catch it when you sew your wings down
Then cut your coordinating piece of frilly ribbon or lace... then lather, rinse, repeat... Ok skip the later and the rinse, but repeat until you have 4 rows of scalloped felt and frilly ribbon...

Ok so after you have that all layed out, it's time to give her some really cute big eyes... I really liked how having big round perfect circles looked, so I used the bottom of my cup to make an imprint to see if that was big enough for me then I traced that size onto a piece of paper

So I did the same as before, I pinned my pattern to my white felt and cut out my circle, then I did the same with the black then later went back and cut the black slightly smaller than the white... I did the same with the nose... I started out here with two small triangles for the eye sparkle, but decided that I like another set of circles instead in the end.

Now it's time to sew!!!

Deconstruct your owl and set your pieces all aside...
We'll begin with the chest feather pieces and the fabric that sits underneath
Pin your fabric to your owl and sew it down, then begin to sew your scalloped felt at the top followed by your frilly ribbon...

leaving a bit of space so that your fabric shows thru a little bit...

Now pin your wings onto your owl, and begin to sew them down
Note: when you pin the wings it's most important that the wings cover the sides of the chest feathers

I started to go around just once, but then I thought hmmmm if I keep going it's gonna look even more feathery... so I just sewed around and around and around following the pattern of the wing

Now it's time to change your thread out, as you sew your eyes down you'll want white to match... Sew down the first part of your eyes... the whites and if you're really lazy like me and hate changing out the thread more times than absolutely necessary, proceed to sew down the eye sparkle before the blacks of the eyes...

Time to change out the thread to black and sew down the blacks of your owlys eyes...

Then one more time for her little nose... (Note: I cheated here, since I didn't have orange felt, I used white and an orange sharpie!!, I'm so ghetto!)

Now I did a little flower detail on the back of the owl, which it totally optional and since I have 10 million photos on here already, use your imagination and maybe I'll show you one at the end if you just have to know! If you do put a detail on the back, make sure that you have the "right" side out so that when you sew your doll together your sides match!

Now it's time to sew our little owl together! This is very simple... put the "right" sides or the sides that you want to show together, so that they're not showing and proceed to sew leaving a small gap at the bottom to turn right side out and for stuffing... When you have finished sewing her together trim any excess felt off of the edges...

Now turn your little gal "right" side out

and introduce her to her new best friend mr. stuffy stuff... and you guessed it stuff her tight!

(Note: her nose is missing here because I was going to use a cute vintage button, but didn't end up liking how it looked, your nose should be attached at this point)

After you have gotten her as full as you possibly can, paying close attention to her little ears, and getting out all dents and puckers, sew together your hole using a needle and thread...
Guess what! You did it! Or if you're crazy like me, you can keep going... what can I say, I love details!

Sooooo I gave her a cute barrett, by cutting out 2 contrasting colors of felt into the shape of a flower, then sewing on a button with thread detail around it with two loops of grosgain ribbon on the back... I just simply attached it to her little head with my needle and thread...

Lastly to make it special and make sure your lucky recipient will always remember you, I embroidered "To: Friend... Love: Emmy..." my little girl, who contributed by saying "oooohh cool!"

Well I hope you've had as much fun as I have had and I hope if you make one, you'll show me how yours turned out!

Isn't it cool to make something handmade to give to someone special! It used to be that storebought was special, but now it's so much more rare to get that special handmade treat!

Have fun!