Bow-dacious

I love bows. Big bows, small bows- it doesn't matter! I love 'em! Here's a little post of some of my favorite bows.  Scroll down and I'll give a quick tutorial on how to make your own hair bows.  It's easier than you think!

 All images from we heart it. 

And now for the tutorial.... drumroll please!

 Cut two small rectangles of fabric. One you will use for the actual bow and the other will be a small sash that goes 'round the middle of the bow.

 Fold the fabric in half.

 Make a tiny triangle at each of the ends.

 Fold the ends to meet in the middle.

 Scrunch it with a pinch in the middle.

Wrap the middle with a thin florist wire.

 Make a little sash and fold the middle.

 Wrap it around the bow and dab the middle with a tiny bit of hot glue.

 Hot glue a little tiny clip to the bow.

 Smile and say cheese! 

(It's me!) 

The art of being happy

You may not have it all. Chances are you don't. However, compared to the rest of the world you have it awesome. A few weeks ago I spent a very cold night outdoors. The non-profit I started hosts an event called Orphan for a Night where we raise funds for the most destitute of orphans- the abandoned and homeless. The whole theme for the evening is to spend one night in their reality- but the honest truth was most of us were headed home to get some "good sleep" in our beds. Yet, for many around the world this is the reality that they face... Check out Global Rich list and you can see where you live compared to most of the world. Most likely- you are blessed beyond measure.

I know blogging is all about beautiful things and finding sources of inspiration- but in our quest to find things that are beautiful let us not ungratefully overlook our own life- which is indeed beautiful.

Everyday Greg comes home from work and Zion and I throw a party. We run up to the door, cheer, shout and yell. Greg rests from the day for a few minutes and I put dinner on the table. After dinner we all play. It is true beauty and one of the most joyous moments of my day. Comment below and tell me something "ordinary" in your life that you can extract happiness from... sharing it will inspire others to see happiness in their ordinary.

You are a classy Lady

Image: We Heart It

It was Coco Chanel who said, "A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous." I am often reminded of this when I come in contact with ladies who seem to be lacking in the fundamental elements of class. I asked several of my girlfriends what it means to be a classy lady and the words they used over and over were: "graceful, poised, kind, beautiful, able to handle tough situations with kindness."

I think as women we can all use a little more classiness- after all, isn't that what being fabulous is all about?

Happy travels

Image: We Heart It

No matter where you go in life, this is the quote that puts the journey in perspective. Travel along my dears, but don't forget that it is the days that add into weeks, the weeks to months, and the months to years. How we live each day matters.

DIY Earring Holder

Behold, the vintage shutter. A.K.A.-- earring holder.

Picked this beauty up for about $3 at a local antique dealer. I knew exactly what to do with it when I bought it- earring holder. I kept it as-is with it's well worn scrapes and bruises, that is of course the beauty of buying antique. Although, I made one modification- I hot glued one of the shutters so that it wouldn't flip down when I hung my heavy earrings on it.

This is one of those five min projects that you can do to add a little spruce to your earring displays. You could also replace the knob or hot glue a vintage cameo or button over the current knob.

My previous "earring organization" was a couple of cardboard jewelry boxes. But sweet earrings like this shouldn't be thrown in a cardboard box! They deserve the royal treatment.

Definitely a fun project to do over the weekend. Your earrings have been waiting for this kind of treatment!

Lony online mag

Ready for a fun read? Check out Lony magazine, it's a free online magazine. It's only their second edition, but it has a lot of really cute things in it. On a side note, I am dying to know what font they used in this photo shown above. Lot's of other cute things inside the mag... take a gander here to read.

I don't know about you; but I think online magazines are where everything is headed. Do you have any favorite online reads?

Freebie: Lists to help you meet your healthy lifestyle goals!

 I don't know about you, but this time of year I always get motivated to get into shape.  Perhaps it is the impending thought of the public appearance my thighs are about to make in my swimsuit- but something about this time of year makes it easier to kick my butt and get moving.  So... with that said, I have a present for you!

I made a new list for you called "Health Goals". I created it to help us all get in shape and make good healthy choices.  I firmly believe that making small movement in the direction of your goals will add up in BIG ways when done over time! The front of the lists help you tackle the hard stuff: working out, eating those fruits and veggies and saying no to bad things and YES to good things!  

 

The back of the list will let you at a glance see everything that you have eaten that week.  

Let's do it guys!  Let's get in the best shape of our lives!  Who's with me?  I will start by declaring to you all what my fitness and food goals are for the week.  

Workout Goal: 6 times a week, at least 20 minutes a day.  It doesn't have to be all in one work out.  (Meaning I can lift weights for 10 minutes in the morning and walk for ten minutes at night after work.) The key is that it just needs to happen sometime. 

Eating Goal: Say, "NO" to frappachinos! They are my weakness guys!  That frozen delectable treat...I can't seem to help myself.  So, I am only going to say "Yes" twice a week this week.  

I hope that these lists will jump start you into getting healthier.  At the front of my post I was talking about swimsuits- and even though I was joking around about looking good in one (and I know that we all want to!) I really want to encourage you to get healthy for reasons other than superficial ones.  Be healthy because this is the one life you have been given.  Be healthy so you can run and play with your grandkids.  Be healthy because life is short and we should make the most of it.  

What about you all? What are your fitness goals? Download your lists here and comment and tell us all what your goals for the week are!

Wow, this is inspiring

Please watch this-- it will inspire you beyond words.  

Sometimes we need to be reminded on Mondays

{Photo via I can read}

Today, be reminded that anything is possible.  Throw off restrictions, take a deep breath and LIVE LIFE!  

Girls who inspire me

So her name is Victory Chen and if you've ever had the opportunity to meet her you will know why she is an inspiration to everyone who knows her.  Talking with V (as we like to call her) is like getting a shot in the arm of inspiration.  She puts her all into everything she does and she makes you feel like a million bucks when she talks to you.  

Victory currently makes her home in NYC and pursuing her career as a dancer.  Not very many people have the guts to drop everything and go for their dream 100%- but then Victory is the essence of living life at 100%.  You can check out her blog here- but I'm not sure that she updates it much as she is always dancing, dancing, dancing.  

Under my Umbrella

It's rainy season here in Tulsa.  We like to celebrate by paying extra attention to the news anchor;  as there are a lot of tornado warnings this time of year.  Loved these umbrella pics from toxel.com .   

Podcast

Encouraging podcast from one of my dearest friends Liz Turner.  You gotta check it out. 

New Years Letter

Since the year 2001 I have written a letter to myself every New Years to be read the following year.  It is a wonderful, quaint tradition in which I am magically surprised about how "right on" I was the previous year about the direction I felt my life was heading.  I always like to start my letters by saying, "What wonders this new year will hold, if only you knew then what you know now..."  It's kind of like a time capsule of sorts- peering into the future and describing what we see there.  Some of my friends have adopted this tradition and it has been a moving experience for them.  One said, "It was one of the most crazy, life changing, amazing things I have ever done. When I read the letter to myself, I couldn't help but cry.  I had done everything that I had hoped."  

I like to close each letter to myself with ten wishes that I hope for the coming year.  It may be things like; I wish I would become a more peaceful person or I wish that I would look back on this year and be pleased.  These are not so much "goals" (I do write those up every year) but more attributes that I hope when I look back on the passing of a year that I would have amassed into my character.  

This is a wonderful tradition to incorporate in your New Years traditions, and to help spur you on I have designed some fab stationary you can print off to begin your own New Years Letter.  Click Here to enjoy!

Here is a sample of the stationary: 

DREAMS

Ready to be inspired?

Steve Jobs.
One word: inspirational.

PAINTING IN YELLOW: DO WHAT YOU LOVE

PAINTING IN YELLOW

The events that are told in this story are completely true. Sick. But true.

So, one day I am waiting my turn to go tanning and I start fiddling with the zipper on my purse. I’m zipping it back and forth to the tune of “jingle bells”- when I notice there is something in the pocket. I hadn’t used this purse in over a year. Now, most girls know that finding something hidden in the bottomless pockets of your purse can be very exhilarating. (Kind of like finding buried treasure.) We stuff all kinds of things in our purses and every once in a while; you find something you haven’t seen in a really long time.

So that day, I reached deep inside my purse pocket and pulled out… a taco.

Yes, a taco.

Please don’t ask how it made it’s way into my purse. What was I thinking? “Oh, I have nowhere to put my taco. I know! (unzip). I’ll put it in my purse.” Honestly, I don’t know which is scarier, that I knowingly put a taco in my purse or that I have no memory of how it got there.

Do you want to know the really sick thing about the whole deal? Remember how I said that I hadn’t used the purse in over a year? The taco had been unknowingly nestled in my purse and was completely unscathed, like I had just ordered it an hour ago. No mold, no nasty stench- nothing. Just a greasy taco. In my purse. For over a year. (Can you say preservatives?)

Now, I’m not writing a diatribe about the inherent dangers of fast food (Although I think my story may cause you to wonder if it really is “more bueno” to grab a taco on the run.) What I really want to talk about is all the stuff we have deep inside our hearts that sits unused.

Let me explain.

Ever feel like your life doesn’t make much sense, like the things you want to do in life are kind of random? I know I have.

Recently I have been talking with a lot of young people who feel the same way. Their life just doesn’t fit into a neat package. “I want to be a painter and a missionary.” or “I feel a call to business and ministry.” They look at me in confusion and embarrassment as they share their hearts, their expressions revealing the turmoil within. They think it can’t possibly be right to do both.

Personally, I have always tried to embrace the season that God has me in. I simply do what He tells me to do. If He tells me to leave my job as a children’s pastor and take a job as a youth secretary half way across the United States, I do it. My life may seem random to most. (Graphic artist, youth pastor, mission’s director, children’s pastor, youth secretary, drama instructor, painter, schoolteacher, fashion designer, writer, and wife are a few random titles I’ve held.) But now, at age twenty-nine and quickly closing the gap to age thirty, life is starting to make sense to me. What seemed disjointed is finally beginning to come together.

(If you are wondering when I was going to explain about what the taco has to do with all this- keep reading. It’s coming. )

In the midst of daily mundane living, the uniqueness of where God has us can be lost. I’ve thought about it lately like this: imagine a huge blank canvas. You pick up a tube of yellow paint and start painting away. Then you pick up a green tube, a little orange, and some purple and continue on with your masterpiece. No one thinks it’s weird to use different colors to paint. All the colors together make something beautiful in the end. It’s kind of like life. You may be painting in yellow right now and wondering what God is doing, maybe even feeling a little like He’s forgotten about the big dreams He told you about. Maybe you feel like you’ve been stuck in a holding pattern, a big merry-go-round of routine. Maybe you feel like you are doing a little of this and a little of that- and everything is pretty half hazard. Take a step back, Make sure you are still painting on the canvas (doing what God has spoken for this season) and see the big picture. God is doing something amazing with the details of your life. When you commit to obey the voice of God in each new season, you will one day look back and see the master design God has been painting all along.

“For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10 (New International Version)

You may feel like you’re all alone out there, living this segmented life of desires that God has placed in your heart. Well, you’re not alone. In fact, I have met a whole bunch of young people just like you. It seems that God is doing something new with this generation.

And it’s needed.

If you’re like me, there is something inside of you that wants to throw off labels and titles. Something that doesn’t want to be placed in a box. This new generation cries out to be recognized as a follower of Christ, void of titles and stigmas, to be assimilated into society. Kind of like Paul, who was a tentmaker, missionary, apostle, and servant. (Acts 18:3, Titus 1:1) This young generation is a group of creative people. They are multi-skilled. They are diverse. They are different- and they are not ashamed. There is a stirring in the hearts of this generation. A cry to be real. To embrace the call of God for their life- however different it may look.

So if you are wondering why you have been painting in yellow in this season, it is for the divine call that God has placed on this generation. You have a new task ahead of you and it is a call that only you can answer yourself. Will you rise up and embrace the call that God has on your life? Will you stand up and be different? Will you pave the way for generations to come? Don’t shrink back from who God has called you to be because you’ve never seen it modeled before. Unzip your potential and discover the treasure that has been locked deep within your heart…no, it’s not a taco. It’s you.