Misadventures in love and life

Hope everyone is having a creatively fun National Scrapbooking Weekend!  Thought I would share a fun layout I created while on vacation with my family.  Y'all know my favorite lines of paper are always the travel oriented types.  No matter the brands I usually find a way to use them in some way.  Today I'm merging two brands of paper to make this layout.  The woodgrain, stripe, and red flower paper is the new Downtown Loft Stack from DCWV.  I'm a bit of a junkie with my DCWV paper slabs.  They are always so innovative and have the best designs.  The map paper is from the Me & My Big Ideas Journey paper slab.  I found this paper last year on clearance and let me tell you I wish I would've bought several more.  This is my go-to travel paper slab.  I've made Mini Albums, Photo art, several scrap albums, and countless layouts with this pack of paper.  It's amazing.  Hope you're enjoying NSD as much as I am.  Have a great weekend everyone!!  I'm off to create a few more layouts and make time to tickle my 22-month old nephew for a bit.  He is the cutest little man ever but then again I'm a bit biased.  What do you think?

When I was in Home Ec in high school, Mrs Scott had us looking at book after book of colonial style furniture and homes.  Hmm wonder what her house looked like. We watched a woman on video giving birth which probably scarred most of the kids in the class.  How's that for planned parenthood.  Just scare them to death.  When it was finally time for us to learn how to cook and not burn the house down, I became excited.  You see this area I'm very comfortable with.  From the time I was a child I have been cooking.  When I was five my grandmother pulled a chair up to counter and said it was time I learned how to make biscuits.  She tied one of her handmade aprons on me and up I went.  The first time I put my hands in the gooey mess to mix I fell in love. 

About two weeks ago the One2One Network sent me an email to say that they thought I would be a perfect candidate to blog about a new book, Home-Ec 101: Skills for everyday living.  Good grief, here we go again...more ugly furniture.  But they know me y'all.  They sent me the chapter on cooking!!  Yep pretty great match.



The chapter I received of the book is designed to help create a weekly meal plan for your family.  I cannot praise this concept enough.  Now in my house it's just my hubby and I, but with our crazy schedules if we didn't plan we wouldn't eat.  It's that simple.  Don't be afraid to plan out your meals.  There are so many great websites out there to help with weekly planning for a family.  Just google "meal planning." Considering that the author already had a couple of weeks of meals planned out, I simply used her guidelines for the past two weeks.  Let me tell you pretty great meals were had at our house.  Easy meals.  Less than 20 minute meals sometimes.  Love it. 




I think my favorite part was when she talked about creating new family traditions.  The scrapbooker in me just jumps for joy at the thought of making new traditions to pass down.  And yes y'all, you can do this with weekly meal planning.  Her suggestions were simple, Taco Tuesday, Soup and Sandwich Saturday, Sunday Brunch, etc...  Mix it up.  Think about your families schedule and how this can be a great way to spend time together as a family.  One of my fondest memories is going to my Mamaw Slagle's house on Sundays after church.  My mother is the youngest child of 12 and Mamaw would fix Sunday dinner for the entire family.  Now there's quite a few of us.  We're talking all the brothers and sisters, their spouses and children!  Yeah that's some food.  We would all pitch in to help and prepare the big meal.  But the smile on my Mamaw and Papaw's faces when we all sat at the tables, simply priceless.  It's something I will remember forever.  These are traditions that are cherished.  That make us into better people.  That teach our kids why family is so important.  That pass down recipes that have been shared for generations. 



I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  I loved the way it was written, the ideas presented, and most of all the fun recipes.  Check it out on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  I really think you will enjoy it too.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the One2One Network bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Oftentimes I find myself watching late night television because my hubby usually works the graveyard shift.  While flipping through the channels last night I came across the fabulous Ms. Adele performing on Letterman. 





OMG!  She's simply amazing!  I think she even stunned Letterman.  I'm so excited about her new album that releases today!







This is her much anticipated follow up album from her previous album 19.  As much as I loved that album, honestly I think 21 may be better.  Judge for yourself.  You can listen to snippets of the album tracks here.

If you didn't catch her performance on the Late Show you must see her in her element.  This chick has such an amazing talent and it shines through her. 



Enjoy!  And go get this album!

Personally I always enjoy receiving selected books from the BookSneeze blogger program.  This time wasn't any different that is until I opened and started reading this book.  "Love & Respect" by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs was quite possibly the most sexist, inappropriate, frankly rude thing I've ever read.  I couldn't even finish it.  I've always been against burning any books but let me tell you I'm seriously considering it.  It's that bad.



Somehow it seems that according to Dr. Eggerichs all women should unconditionally show respect to their husbands no matter what.  Seems this is a commandment according to scripture.  Must have missed that one Moses.  One of the examples that he used to convey this lovely message was an argument between a wife and husband over their anniversary.  It goes a little something like this: A wife was hoping that her husband would remember their 10th wedding anniversary all on his own so she didn't remind him or even hint about it.  Her husband is really proud of himself when he remembers it on the day of the anniversary and rushes off to the store to find the perfect card to convey his feelings.  Sounds pretty nice, huh? Just wait.  He finds the card that seems to put his feelings into words and rushes home.  He excitedly presents the card to his wife.  She's touched that he remembered without being reminded and reads the card.  Then she opens it.  Happy Birthday is the message inside.  Of course she's hurt so she asks him if he even read the card.  Then asks him if this had been his car being detailed wouldn't he have paid close attention to make sure that it was correctly done.  Seems this upsets him so they argue then he storms off.  Ok stop right there.  Did you read all that?  Get this...It's her FAULT!  Yep you read that correctly.  According to Dr. Eggerichs's book she was disrespectful which caused her husband to behave in an unloving way! Oh and by the way that was in Chapter 1.

The attitude throughout this book was that the wife was to be completely submissive to her husbands needs and feelings regardless if he behaved and treated her in a loving manner.  Who cares if he's abusive, an alcoholic, a womanizer, or any manner of bad behavior...she's commanded to be respectful because it's a commandment according to Dr. Eggerichs.  Every single problem that he explained also seemed to trail back to it being the wife's fault for not showing proper respect.  Food not on the table when dear old hubby gets home from work= disrespect.  House not perfectly clean= disrespect.  Headache when he's in the mood= disrespect.  Seems the good Dr. needs to learn how to change the channel.  He must be watching a Leave it to Beaver marathon on TV Land.

I had such a huge problem with the theories in this book.  Love and Respect, in my opinion, should be equal between a couple.  Period. You can't have one without the other.  By showing respect to one another you also show you're love for one another.  That's the scriptures that I've read.  That's what I understood from Ephesians 5:33.  But then again who knows, after all I'm not Doris Day.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

MADE: TUTORIAL: Wallflowers




Every now and then you run across a really amazingly simple craft and think to yourself, now why didn't I think of that. This is one of those times. I've noticed lately that the Ho3 girls make these all the time and wondered how do they think of this stuff. Well today 1/3 of the Ho3 girls, the lovely Rhonna, blogged about her addiction and how she found out about these fabulous flowers. What the Ho3 girls learn? I assumed that they have magical dreams filled with lovely glimmer mist filled ideas and the craft fairies share their goodness among them. Hey it could happen..lol. Hey craft fairies over here please. I cannot get over how simple and easy these flowers are to make. Well it seems that the Ho3 girls have learned this lovely flower technique from the fabulous Dana.   I'm taken back to the days of making tissue paper flowers in school as a child.  I'm filled with so many ideas and now need to go napkin shopping. But the possibilities are endless! How fun these would be with several different layers of fabric? I think some vintage fabric patterns would be perfect. Hmmm think I'm going to go raid my mother's linen closet now. Thanks mom. Ha! Enjoy.

I'm so addicted to this show!  In the spirit of Valentine's Day they are showing how to make some amazing and easy decorations.  Check it out and vote for your favorite heart.

Today I'm decorating for Valentine's Day. It's one of my favorite days of the year. Ahh love is in the air so I thought I would share my favorite go to places with y'all.

I'm a vintage junkie. I love it all and use it for anything from home decor to my scrapbook pages. When in need of some fun clip art I always run to The Graphics Fairy site. They are amazing!!! So they make number one on my list of favorite things. I use my home printer to print off several of these images and hang them up banner style.  You could use your favorite printer service too.  Oooh now I'm thinking of these on pretty metallic paper.  Ha!

1.



*The Graphics Fairy*: Vintage Valentine Clip Art - Cherub Riding Giant Heart

2.
 I make these lovely coffee filter flowers all the time!  They are so simple and beautiful.  Bonus all your friends will not believe how crafty you are.  Add some spray ink and glitter and viola masterpiece!  If you don't know how to make them check out this fun video from Rhonna. 

Coffee Filter Flowers Tutorial from Rhonna Farrer on Vimeo.



3.

Of course how can you have Valentine's Day without some romantic movies. 




4.

And music to dance around with your sweetie.

Yep it's that time of year again to become the gushing, romantic, lovey dovey people that we love to be.  Part of that fun is creating new home decor to get us in the spirit.  That's why I absolutely love these girls!  They always have the best ideas that are super simple.  Check out the video and I hope you have as much fun playing as I have. 

The Lucado Life Lessons Study Bible (NKJV)









This study bible is perfect for anyone who is a fan of Max Lucado's previous works.  It has several special sections to help you study the bible more thoroughly.  It offers a two-year devotional study plan, study guides, studies by subject, among all of the life lessons provided throughout the text.  The text is in the New King James Version so it's very easy to read.

Personally, I'm a huge fan of Max Lucado.  I was really impressed with the design and format of how this version is presented.  The life lessons Max has written on the sidebars help to understand the text easily.  He always has a way to make the reader think outside of the box. The study guides have been so easy to use for group discussion with my study group.  The hardback edition is not only very durable but guaranteed for life!  The typeface of the text is the perfect size for any reader.  I would highly recommend The Lucado Life Lessons Study Bible to everyone no matter where they are on their walk.  The life application lessons and stories are a perfect companion for any christian living through faith.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com  book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”