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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What I'm Listening to:

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]

What I'm Listening to:

DIY Updates

So here are some of the new projects that I have done with my past DIY tutorials:

Ikea Lamp Hack

I used handmade paper instead of photo negatives for this project:

Jar Lid Magnets

A clean/dirty magnet for the dishwasher:

Easy Watercolors

For my roommate's birthday I used the watercolor/ink technique to frame her name in Arabic:

Now go make some for yourself and let me know how your project turns out!!


What I'm Listening to:

String of Shells DIY

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     The beach is a large part of me, since I am a mermaid at heart, and so one of the things that I love to do is collect sea shells.  After awhile I came to realize that I have more shells than I know what to do with! So I started coming up with projects for them. This project is how to make a string of shells :)

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      La playa es un gran parte de mi personalidad, porque estoy una sirena en mi corazón, y por eso unas de las cosas que me gustan juntar son las conchas marinas.  Después de unos años de coleccionando, se me da cuenta que tengo más conchas que yo sé para hacerlo!  Por eso, empezaba hacer proyectos con ellas. En éste proyecto, describo cómo hacer una cadena de conchas :)

See the DIY after the jump!

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Ver el DIY depués de la conexión que viene!

True Love

If there is one thing about God that I am always amazed about, it is how much He really loves us! And I mean a love like no one else could ever love, His love is so everlasting that it goes beyond death.

      A few months ago I was in an extremely dry place, my bones felt so dry, and I was crying out for help.  Since then He has answered every single prayer and has brought me into His everlasting and overwhelming love, and has infused me with something bigger than myself... Life.  THANK YOU GOD!

      I want to encourage you to seek Him and learn to receive His Love in full measure. It IS possible and it is absolutely amazing. This is an act of faith, believing that He loves you with a boundless and everlasting love.  "Be strengthened with power through his Spirit... so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith -- that you, being grounded in LOVE, may have strength to comprehend... the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the LOVE of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." -Ephesians 4:16-17.

      You also need to draw near to Him with confidence so that you will receive every single drop that He has to offer. "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." -Hebrews 4:16

He will not let you down. 

      I know that is hard to believe, everyone in my life has let me down in some way or another.  But He isn't just someone in my life, He is the creator of my life and He knows what to do with my crazy self more than I could ever know. As long as you "delight yourself in the Lord," then He will grant you "the desires of your heart." -Psalms 34:4  That is so amazing to me because I have a lot of desires for my life. I know that if I delight him then those desires will be granted because they are the same things that He desires for my life.

      I have found that since I started seeking Him with a strong fervency that it has been a complete joy to spend time with Him every morning and throughout the day, and it definitely has become a delight to be in His presence. I do not worry about things as much as I used to because He takes care of them for me. I simply have to listen quietly to hear Him tell me what to do.

      The devil will try to get you off track. He will lie to you and tell you that God isn't doing anything for you because the devil "is a liar and the father of lies" -John 8:44

The trick is to fight against those lies. FIGHT by submitting yourself to God, "resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." -James 4:7-8

      I promise that if you do these things then your whole being will begin to fill up with Love. Soon it will overflow with Love and just keep on flowing! Love is the most important thing in life. Love God, love your family, love your friends, and remember to love yourself... if you do not love yourself then how can you expect to love anyone else? Remember that you are made in the image of God, if you hate yourself then you are telling God that you hate his work.

Love is essential, it is not a hard thing to do, and it is absolutely amazing to love and be loved.

Strawberry, Utah

Here are some stories that are taken from my memories of life in Strawberry, Utah.  If you want to get the whole experience please listen to the song below while reading, I feel like it appropriately conveys the feeling of these memories.

            When I was really young, my family and I lived in Strawberry, Utah for an un-determined amount of time.  In my memory it remains a mysterious and magical place. I was about three or four years old when I lived there and so my memories are snippets in a fog that fades in and out.

[Found on google images, search: strawberry, utah]

            My parents were the managers of a campground that was located next to a lake.  My dad would clean the boats for some extra money while I searched for fishing sinkers like they were lost treasures.  I had two friends who were my age and we would roam freely around the lake playing hide and seek and eating grilled cheese sandwiches under the staircase in the restaurant (their grandparents were the owners of the restaurant).

            

[Found on google images, search: strawberry, utah]

            My mom had the wonderful job of walking around the campground to make sure that the visitors were being lawful.  A lot of times they would park on the grass and my mom would have to make sure that they did not because it would kill the grass. I would ride my tricycle alongside her and I think that it was my job to be super cute in order to keep the visitors from getting mad at mom.

            In addition to making sure that the visitors followed the rules, my mom also had the dirty task of knocking down the swallows nests that were built in obnoxious groups around the restrooms.  This must have something difficult to do; I cannot imagine knocking down birds nests because it would probably be killing baby birds and eggs. The birds did not like this either and so our car was usually singled out by the swallows to be used as ‘target practice,’ in other words they would retaliate by covering the car in bird poop. 

[Found on google images, search: strawberry, utah]

            I remember one day in particular, my mom was making her rounds and I was on my tricycle.  My sister was just a baby so she was in the stroller.  My mom left her for a second and during that time my fearless sister managed to climb out of the stroller. She fell into the gravel, splitting open her forehead.  To this day I have a very distinct memory of my baby sister crying loudly while being strapped down to an operating board before they sewed her forehead shut.  In the middle of her forehead she still carries a scar that is shaped like a star.

            As I mentioned before, the campground was located on a lake.  This lake also housed a fishery to raise fish that would eventually be put back into the lake in order to keep the fish population at a healthy level.  I remember walking around the fishery with my dad and he would explain the purpose of the fishery and the different kinds of fish that grew up there.  I would climb up on the rails and look into the pools that contained the young fish, there were hundreds of them in each rectangular pool.

[Found on google images, search: strawberry, utah]

            The first time that I got stung by a bee I was sitting in my mom’s bed.  I sat there watching a huge bumblebee fly around the room; it suddenly landed on me and stung me for no reason at all.  I know that there has to be more to this story because bees do not just sting people, but my mom says that she does not remember this ever happening.  She thinks that I am making it up, but I promise that I am not. I distinctly remember how big it looked as it flew, the pain of the sting, and my reaction to it (which was of course screaming and running to mom).

            Occasionally it would rain in Strawberry and on those days the grass and shrubs would come alive; it was like living in a lush green wonderland.  One day I was standing at the door looking out at the rain when I spied a pitiful looking creature making its way across the yard.  The poor thing was totally soaked and it was slowly dragging its once fluffy tail along behind it.  Very concerned, I ran to mom and begged her to let me bring the creature inside to let it get dry and warm. “No Lydia, you cannot bring it inside, that is a skunk!”

[Found on google images, search: strawberry, utah]