My Beautiful City

 

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Shells in a Vase DIY

Do you have extra seashells just lying around the house? I do and quite an abundance of them. Well, here is a pretty cool idea on how to put those shells to use!

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Usted tiene conchas marinas por la casa? Las tengo y hay muchas.  Aqui es un idea buena para usarlas!

You only need a glass jar or vase, fill it up halfway with shells, add water, and find some pretty flowers to make it beautiful :)

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Simplemente se necesita un tarro de cristal o un jarrón, se pone las conchas marinas adentro, se pone agua y flores bellas!

What I'm Listening to:

True Punishment

      Once upon a time, when I was a mere youngster, my family and I lived in neighborhood and I had a lot of neighborhood friends.  One day my friends came over and proceeded to convince me to climb the fence with them in order to explore the creepy abandoned trailer that was hidden in the shrubbery a little ways from my house.  Now, being the upstanding little girl that I was and knowing that my mother had told me multiple times NOT to go anywhere near that trailer, I decided that it was best for me to write my mother a little note telling her where I was and to not worry about me. 
      I remember practically shaking as I wrote the note, left it on her dresser, and followed my friends over the fence.  I remember approaching the tall wooden fence that surrounded the trailer's yard and hoping, wishing, and praying that it contained a fairy world on the other side instead of what I knew would really be there. I remember walking into the trailer to see it completely trashed with graffiti covering the walls. I remember the sound of my mother's panic whistle as I raced back home. I remember the guilt and what I know understand is apprehension as my mother told me to wait until my father gets home for punishment. Most of all, I remember how long it took for dad to get home, how long it took for him to bring it up, and just how extremely terrible I felt waiting for that punishment to arrive.

In the end I learned that true punishment is knowing that you did something that disappoints your parents and that waiting for the spanking is worse than actually receiving the spanking.

Trust

Trust is a scary thing sometimes.  

I trust people a lot, maybe a little too much, but so far I have been ok.  It can be scary to know that they could easily hurt me, but without trust then there is no relationship. 

In the same way, if you do not trust God then it is impossible to have a relationship with Him.  He desperately wants to have a deep relationship and I simply have to trust that He knows better than I do what to do with my life.  I have found out the hard way that when I do not trust Him with my circumstances I end up messing things up pretty quickly.  He tells me that "the steps of man are established by the Lord when he delights in His way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand" --Psalm 37:23-24.
No matter what, God will always be there holding my hand.  The fall is inevitable, but God will keep me from being "cast headlong."

He knows what will happen in your, He has complete control, so there is no point in trying to control your own life or trying to predict what will happen in the future.  I know that it is hard to give up control, but when you "commit your way to the Lord... He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday" --Psalm 37:5-6.
That means that just as you know the light will come and noon will come, in the same way He will bring righteousness and justice to your life. 

The beauty of this is that all you have to do is sit and enjoy His everlasting love!  Trusting Him with everything means that He will "supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus" --Philippians 4:19.  It is important to understand that we are nothing without God and that everything comes straight from Him, including trust and faith.

I challenge you to trust God with every little thing in your life, I am challenging myself as well.  He loves you so much that He will give you more than you ever asked for!  Also, He will not relent until your heart is His so you might as well just save yourself the trouble and give it up now :) It is actually a beautiful process.

The Shiflets }:{ July 30,2011

 

 

Congratulations and Best Wishes!

Thank You!

I want to dedicate this post to my two newest followers: Leovi and Christy Peffly.  Thank you! It really means a lot to me that you take time out of your day to read what I have to say/show.  I hope that you find my words/photos/tutorials/stories encouraging and inspiring.  I love reading your comments and I am always open to suggestions :)

To Judge or Not to Judge? (Yes, that is the question)

      Sometimes I have a problem with judging people before I get to know them.  In every case I have been wrong in some way and yet I still tend to do it. I think that it's just human nature, but it's not something that God wants me to do.  Some of the best people that I know I judged wrongly in the beginning.  Honestly, I have found that if I just ignore my judgements then my life is a lot more full of love as well as adventure because I get to know people who I would have originally written off.

      It is also important not to judge because with "the judgement you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you" Matthew 7:1 (Jesus' own words).  Wow, so if I judge someone harshly then I will be judged harshly as well? I have never liked to be judged, so what makes me think that it's ok to judge someone else?

      I want to encourage you to see people for what they are not for what they are not. If that means taking a few extra minutes to ask questions with an open mind and become friends, then do it! What if God put you into their life for a specific reason and you fail see them as God sees them? That is a very sad thought to me, so I will be striving to love everyone I meet and share God and joy as often as possible.  I challenge you to do the same!

Conch Shell Tie-Back for Curtains DIY

So you know when you're on the beach looking for shells and you come across what you think is a whole conch shell? It goes something like this: "Ooh it's my lucky day! I finally found one!"  but alas, it was a fake. Instead you have a conch shell with a hole through the middle (it reminds me of an old fashioned sword handle).

It looks like this:

Well, keep it! There is an artsy use for it

and it looks like this:

 

Materials

• A "broken" conch shell / Una caracola "roto"
• Curtain / Una cortina
• Something to attach to wall, i.e. a tack / Algo para sujetar al pared, por ejemplo una tachuela

Step 1

      Enjoy yourself at the beach and go shelling, bring home a "broken" conch shell.

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      Se disfruta un día a la playa y recoja una caracola "roto".

Step 2

      Clean the shell of all sand and salt.  String the curtain through the middle and adjust to the point that you like. I used a tack in the wall to hang the shell but you can do whatever you want to keep it in place.

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      Se limpia la caracola de la arena y sal.  Se pone la cortina por el medio y se sujeta al lugar que querías.  Se pone una tachuela en la pared para colgar la caracola en la pared.

El fin!

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Tribute to Summer

It is finally October! I would have to say that this is my absolute favorite month of the year. It is my favorite for many reasons: it is my birthday, my dad's birthday, it has halloween, the weather is just GORGEOUS, and the leaves start to change. I love October. :)

In light of the changing of seasons, I am posting some photos in memory of the summer. 

Dear summer, you went too fast and I will miss you dearly.  I look forward to seeing you again next year!

Las Flores

La Playa

[The textures used in the images above are by Kim Klassen]

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