Jewelry Storage

So, I've been trying to figure out a good way to hang my necklaces and earrings. I had this frame that I found on the clearance aisle at Hobby Lobby (I <3 Hobby Lobby) and I came up with this. I had to touch up a few spots on the frame...nothing a stain marker and a paper towel can't fix. The tool not shown is a drill. I didn't think I would need it. I did. I drilled holes 1" apart, screwed in the hooks, and stapled the screen material to the frame. I have extra screen material. I'm thinking of finding some more frames and making desktop earring holders to sell. I'm thinking Etsy.

Thought Provoking Thursday - July 28, 2011

Welcome to Thought Provoking Thursday! Link up below.

1. What makes you smile?

-Amelia Blakely at her voice lesson - such a funny kid
-thinking about the dancing portion of our wedding reception (Precious is NOT a dancer)
-my soon-to-be sis and bro-in-law when they 'fight' (I'm not sure I can really explain this one. They love each other and drive each other nuts which ends up being great entertainment for everyone who happens to be around.)
-going home after you've been away
-thoughts of decorating a house (or apartment - or cardboard box)
-cool weather
-sitting on the porch with friends (when it's not 5 million degrees)
-And just now: Kelly from Kelly's Corner posted a video of Harper singing (she's trying to figure out what song it is). You can check it out here. Too cute!

2. What do you want most?

God's will. I know that sounds very non-descript but I just feel like there are so many things going on in my life that I don't have answers for. So many things are up in the air. I want to live where God needs to use us-where He wants us to serve. I want Precious to have the job that God desires for him to have. I want to be open to whatever God has in store for us.


I also want to be able to eat whatever I want and still lose weight (without exercising because I HATE exercising - I am doing ZUMBA but it still sucks!). Heck, I would settle for being able to eat sensibly and lose weight but I can't seem to even do that. What is up with that? I am pretty sure my body wants to be fat so perhaps I'll just help it out. Ice cream. After Wednesday Hodgepodge I really want ice cream!

3. What three questions do you wish you knew the answers to?

-Did Precious get the job in Ohio (or at least make it to the next round)? Call people. We need to plan.

-How DO beauty queens get their perfect make-up to stay on for HOURS and their hair to stay in a perfect curly state for HOURS? It just isn't fair. My hair WON'T curl and after about 5 hours at work it looks like I don't have any makeup on. UGH!

-Did Noah miss the unicorns? (Yep, I'm serious. I think there were unicorns, they didn't make it on the ark and are no longer with us because of it.)

Link up!

Wednesday Hodgepodge - July 27, 2011

1. July is National Ice Cream month...your favorite flavor? Soft served, hand dipped, or frozen yogurt...which do you prefer? And technically yogurt is not ice cream but its hot outside so I'll let that slide for today.

I love ice cream! I love ice cream! Rah! Rah! Rah! I like vanilla, but I have recently discovered Kroger's Private Selection and I like Butter Pecan, English Toffee Caramel, Sea Salt Caramel Truffle, and Cookie Dough. I really just like ice cream. I'll pretty much eat any ice cream you give me.


I love frozen custard too! We recently got a Culver's. YUMMMMMMY!

2. When you travel do you tend to pack too much or too little?

HA! Are you kidding me? I ALWAYS pack just the right amount (however, most people would probably say too much). A couple years ago I went to a conference and I had to fly, so one suitcase was ideal. Except one suitcase was NOT enough for all of my stuff UNTIL...until I found space bags. Pretty easy to squish stuff in them. Suck the air out with a vacuum cleaner and pack. I DID think about what I was going to do when I repacked, but I thought, "certainly I can find a vacuum where I'm staying" - except NOT. So, I laid on the bags, squishing as much as I could and I sucked the air out during my last attempt to lay on the Space Bags. It was sad! I DID get everything back in my suitcase, thought. Go me!

3. What's your favorite cleaning product?

If we're talking old school things that clean really well: Vinegar and Baking Soda.


If we're talking ones that you purchase: Method's All-Purpose Cleaner (Pink Grapefruit)

4. Which is the greater tragedy-an innocent person imprisoned or a guilty person set free? Explain.

That's tough. I think I'm gonna go with an innocent person imprisoned being the greater tragedy. A guilty person set free may feel like they've won the lottery, but I honestly believe that God repays evil for evil. I don't like the idea of a guilty person being set free, but I think the idea of an innocent person being imprisoned bothers me more.

5. What's the longest trip you've taken by car?

NYC by bus - 24 hours. SHOOT ME! NEVER AGAIN! It was a college trip. Our music department took enough people to fill an entire bus. The trip was good, the ride was miserable. And THEN we had to come back.

6. tennis-golf-canoeing-biking...pick one.

umm...none of the above. I don't particularly care for outdoor activities. I suck at tennis and golf. My dad always tipped the canoe, so I refuse to get in one - EVER. Biking. HA! BAHAHAHAHA! Right!

7. What sound drives you crazy?

Clicking. Like when someone sits around clicking an ink pen.
The lawn mower at 7AM.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Ok, so I totally tried baking bacon in the oven. My aunt told me that's how she did it, so when we decided to have BLTs I thought I would try it. I HATE to fry bacon. It pops and you smell like bacon when you're done and you have to stand over it and turn.
I will NEVER fry bacon again! I placed it on a broiler pan and baked it at 400 degrees for about 20-30 min (until it's brown and crispy - probably depends on your oven and the thickness of the bacon). The grease drained down. So easy and clean-up was too. Try it!

Tomorrow is Thursday - time for Thought Provoking Thursday. Answer the questions, post them on your blog and come back Thursday to link up!

Questions for Thought Provoking Thursday:

1. What makes you smile?

2. What do you want most?

3. What three questions do you wish you knew the answers to?

Prayer Mondays - July 25, 2011

 

Join us for Prayer Mondays. You simply state your prayer requests, link up, then visit others who have linked up. You pray for them then leave a comment telling them you did so. Join us @ A Life in Ordinary.

I am posting this from my phone....we'll see how it goes (and I just typed 'hoe' instead of 'how' so not very well). NOTE: I can't format on my phone so I had to drag out the computer.

The biggie this week is Precious' job interview results. Please just pray that God would have His way. We are both a little nervous and there are a lot of things up in the air until we hear from them. We are praying that doors would open and doors will close and that God would make His Will abundantly clear.

Please also pray for my mom. She goes for another round of chemo today. Please pray that God will continue to heal her body.

And for me, please pray that God will draw me closer to His side. I feel like in the middle of all of this chaos in my life I often lose focus. I want to be more passionate about the things God wants to use me to do...I want to be more enthusiastic about serving Him. I don't want to miss a 'divine appointment' because I was too busy to see it when it passed my way.

Buying a Mature Woman's Bathing Suit

So, a friend sent this to me today and it made me laugh. I had to share.

The Bathing Suit

When I was a child in the 1950s, the bathing suit for the mature figure was-boned, trussed and reinforced, not so much sewn as engineered.  They were built to hold back and uplift, and they did a good job.  Today's stretch fabrics are designed for the prepubescent girl with a figure carved from a potato chip.  The mature woman has a choice, she can either go up front to the maternity department and try on a floral suit with a skirt, coming away looking like a hippopotamus that escaped from Disney's Fantasia, or she can wander around every run-of-the-mill department store trying to make a sensible choice from what amounts to a designer range of fluorescent rubber bands.  What choice did I have?  I wandered around, made my sensible choice and entered the chamber of horrors known as the fitting room.  The first thing I noticed was the extraordinary tensile strength of the stretch material.  The Lycra used in bathing costumes was developed, I believe, by NASA to launch small rockets from a slingshot, which gives the added bonus that if you manage to actually lever yourself into one, you would be protected from shark attacks.  Any shark taking a swipe at your passing midriff would immediately suffer whiplash.  I fought my way into the bathing suit, but as I twanged the shoulder strap in place I gasped in horror, my boobs had disappeared!  Eventually, I found one boob cowering under my left armpit.  It took a while to find the other.  At last I located it flattened beside my seventh rib.  The problem is that modern bathing suits have no bra cups.  The mature woman is meant to wear her boobs spread across her chest like a speed bump.  I realigned my speed bump and lurched toward the mirror to take a full view assessment.  The bathing suit fit all right, but unfortunately it only fit those bits of me willing to stay inside it.  The rest of me oozed out rebelliously from top, bottom and sides.  I looked like a lump of Play-Doh wearing undersized cling wrap.  As I tried to work out where all those extra bits had come from, the prepubescent sales girl popped her head through the curtain, "Oh, there you are," she said, admiring the bathing suit.  I replied that I wasn't so sure and asked what else she had to show me.  I tried on a cream crinkled one that made me look like a lump of masking tape, and a floral two-piece that gave the appearance of an oversized napkin in a serving ring.  I struggled into a pair of leopard-skin bathers with ragged frills and came out looking like Tarzan's Jane, pregnant with triplets and having a rough day.  I tried on a black number with a midriff and looked like a jellyfish in mourning.  I tried on a bright pink pair with such a high cut leg I thought I would have to wax my eyebrows to wear them.  Finally, I found a suit that fitted, it was a two-piece affair with a shorts-style bottom and a loose blouse-type top.  It was cheap, comfortable, and bulge-friendly, so I bought it.  My ridiculous search had a successful outcome, I figured.  When I got it home, I found a label that read, "Material might become transparent in water."  So, if you happen to be on the beach or near any other body of water this year and I'm there too, I'll be the one in cut-off jeans and a T-shirt!  

Thought Provoking Thursday - July 21, 2011

Join us back here tomorrow. Answer the questions on your blog then link up.

1. WHAT do you love?
I LOVE cookies. A LOT!
I LOVE eating (mostly sweets). I eat when I'm happy, when I'm sad, when I'm stressed, when I'm relaxed, when I'm with a group of people, when I'm by myself, when I'm....well, you get the picture.
I LOVE cool weather (although it seems to be MIA).
I LOVE the color green.
I LOVE cooking (guess that's good since I like to eat - or maybe not).
I LOVE spending time with my Precious - he's not feeling the love - says I'm getting on his nerves (not his last nerve just his nerves).
I LOVE the fact that a little girl at church thinks I'm "awesome".
I LOVE my new phone.
I LOVE my wedding dress.
I LOVE my family and Precious' family.


2. What makes you uncomfortable?
-Unruly children in public make me uncomfortable. It really makes me think twice about having children myself. Some people say it's because they lack discipline and others say its because they're kids. Its the 'its because they're kids' part that bothers me because I'm pretty sure I would institute some serious spankings right there in front of God and everybody - they'll put me in jail and the rest is history. I'm labeled a bad mother all because I was attempting to discipline my children because they were 'just being kids'. Such a dilemma.
-Being left alone with someone I barely know and can't seem to find anything in common with. Awkward silence makes me uncomfortable.
-Church people make me uncomfortable. Don't get me wrong - I go to church and I love people at my church, but there are far too many people who are worried about their own agendas and it makes church really uncomfortable for me. And sometimes church people can just be downright rude and mean. Also uncomfortable.
-I thought I was finished with this question, but I just saw and advertisement for a new show on Lifetime called Dance Moms. IT made me uncomfortable!


3. What do you think about when you lie awake in bed?
You mean at 4AM which is when my body insists on being awake? My thought process is a little something like this: (looking at the clock) UGH! Not again. Might as well go pee. (I go pee and lay back down) Ok, back to sleep. Hmm...I have 2 more invitations I need to send out - gotta get those addresses and I have to get that PowerPoint done. My foot itches. (looking at the clock again - 4:07) If I go back to sleep now, I can still sleep for almost 2 1/2 hours before I have to get up and exercise. Oh how I HATE to exercise. Do I hate exercise more than I hate being fat? I think I might - especially at 6:30 in the morning. GO TO SLEEP. GO TO SLEEP. (insert prayers for everyone I can think of - at least something good is coming from my 4AM insomnia!).


Link up and visit the other links.

Prayer Monday - July 18, 2011

So, this morning I got up early. I exercised (SHOCK!). I fixed myself breakfast (scrambled eggs with sauteed peppers and onions and blueberries). I took a shower and got ready (sweating the whole time because my body doesn't seem to want to come back to a normal temperature EVER but especially after I exercise and sweat half to death - then add to that the fact that it's supposed to be 12,000 degree with 520% humidity this week...just sayin'). So, back to my story - The Knot told me yesterday that I have 90 days until our wedding (today it says 88 - someone doesn't know how to count). Regardless, I have decided that I have no control over practically anything in my life and I don't have a job (other than teaching at the studio - grateful, but it alone will not pay the bills), so my job is now to take care of me. My body doesn't respond like I want it to when I exercise or eat healthy, however, I know it's better for me. So, I'm choosing to focus on my 'temple'. Pray for me people. I'm not good at this whole being healthy thing. I HATE exercising - mostly because I don't like to sweat and I sweat profusely when I do. I don't mind the whole eating healthy, but it requires a lot of time and preparation and I run a lot (not like run exercise run - yeah, right - fat chance of that EVER happening, but run as in I'm never home).

My mom and dad (and other Neely family members), are heading home this week from a motorcycle trip. It's supposed to be HOT. Please remember them as they travel. My prayer: God bless the crazies that decided it was a good idea to ride on motorcycles in the middle of flippin' July. They're obviously suffering from some mental malfunctions. :-)

I have had a rather trying week with people in general. Truth be told, I don't like most people right now. Pray for me as I work on this. I'm thinking Jesus needs me to like people in order to love people, in order to be his light...I'm not even at the like people part today and I'm finding myself especially not fond of 'church people'. Sad, I know.