Small Purchase

I bought quilt batting this weekend... :)

The Newest Addition!

I loooove the color on these red hydrangeas. I'm still on the lookout for white Annabelle's but these are still pretty awesome.

No crafting lately?

Its because my mind is still here:





With these lovely ladies:


It will return shortly. Maybe after a weekend in Pittsburgh...

Garden Update

Well, at least my garden didn't take a vacation!

I was watering last night and nearly stepped on one of these! I didn't even see them before now. I thought I was weeks from having cucumbers still.


And my tomatoes are getting ginormous! This is the first one to turn red.


All the rest still look like this:


But there's lots of promise!

There was some sewing!

This month has been absolutely insane! My girlfriend, Angie, got married in Punta Cana and I travelled with her as her MOH. It was a wonderfully beautiful and relaxing trip. The wedding was gorgeous and of course, so was the bride. I made these garters for her and embroidered her wedding date on the inside as her "something blue". This is one of the pictures I took as the supplement to the professional. (More to come!)

More answered prayer...

So lately I've been feeling a little down about my financial situation. I have some lingering credit card debt where I mixed a very emotional time in my life with a lot of retail therapy and short term memory loss. I haven't added to the balances on those cards in over two year and have slowly paid off all but two. Well, then I bought a house. And a needed a few things. And I wanted a few things. So I added to the balances. I nearly maxed two again that had been paid off for a year. I was feeling the stress and the sick icky feeling of not having enough money to live on after I paid all my bills for the month and then minimum payments on the credit cards. I hate that life. I've been there, done that, crawled out of that hole. And here I was putting myself back in it.
Well, I had been telling myself everything will sort itself out when my tax return comes. I'll pay off the new damage plus more. I'll be able to nearly clear all my credit card debt. I just had to wait for that check to come. And wait. And wait some more. And face another round of monthly bills that was coming close to taking my last penny. It was making me nervous. It was making me sick. And I was getting very stressed.

For the last few weeks I've really been wanting to tithe. I've really felt like God placed a burden on my heart. But I couldn't. There was no money left to tithe. I couldn't not pay my bills. I couldn't not buy groceries. I was back to shopping at the Dollar Tree for crying out loud! While I waited. And got more stressed and more sick and more nervous. And still I kept wanting to tithe.

So I prayed. I prayed and prayed. Please God, let that check come next week. (This was Friday) Please, God, please let that check come next week. I'll tithe. The first money to come out of that check will be given back to You. Please just let that check come next week.

This went on all weekend. But I slowly started to talk myself out of it. It hasn't been long enough. I'm going to have to wait longer. It hasn't shown up yet, why will it come next week. It may not come til the end of the summer. And so my prayers turned to please God, just let it show up soon. I'm sorry for my debt, forgive me, I'm ready to move on. I just want to tithe. If I can get this check in my hands and clear my debts I can tithe. Please just let that check come soon.

All day Tuesday (remember Memorial Day weekend, no mail Monday) I convinced myself that if the check just showed up by the end of the summer I'd be able to make things work. I just knew that check wasn't coming. I was going to have to make it work. I was going to be eating Dollar Tree groceries all summer and whatever came out of my garden. (Not that this is a bad thing, its just making myself not stop at any other store)

When I got home, I checked my mailbox. The only piece of mail was my tax return. Praise God! I was shaking. I tried to convince myself I could deposit it the next day no big deal. Not half an hour later I was on my way to the bank, check in hand. My prayers had been answered!

Not the end of the story though. On my way to the bank and the whole way home I kept hearing myself trying to rationalize why I really didn't need to tithe the tax return. I could do it later. I didn't need to tithe the return, I could just wait for my next paycheck to tithe. I heard it all running through my head. And I kept saying, "No! I promised!" And then after I wrote the check and put it in the mailbox to go out the next morning, that little voice in my head was telling me all the reasons I should take the envelope back out of the mailbox. And I just kept telling myself, "No! I promised!"

God answers prayers. John 14:13-14. And despite Satan's attempts to get inside my head and prevent me from doing God's will, that check went to Central Baptist Church. And I've been tithing ever since. And I pray that I keep it up, in Jesus name.

Good Morning Sunshine

I found these at Walmart hiding in with the boring yellow ones. (I'm not a yellow fan, sorry) And this is the first bloom. What a beautiful greating as I stepped out the door on my way to work in the morning.

There is sewing in progress. Can't post pics til after the wedding. The bride has this link. :)

Pungo Strawberry Festival

My mom and my little sis came to visit for the weekend. It was their first time seeing the new house! My older sis, who lives in the area, and I took them to the Pungo Strawberry Festival Saturday afternoon. We had fun despite the rain showers.

Lil sis had her first soft shell crab


We posed with a Marine on top of a tank

I cannot believe they expect grown men to function inside these things. I got stuck trying to climb over the driver's seat. They wouldn't let me climb down the side in my flip flops... Little do they know... I've climbed mountains and cathedral domes in flip flops...

Older sis offered rides on her big green tractor.


We caught up with the country folks.




We always knew Lil Sis was Queen Bee.


And when it rained... we found a tree to hide under.


There weren't many strawberries at the Strawberry Festival but still an enjoyable afternoon with Farmer Johnson's daughters. Oh, and his wife, too. :)