D I Y Spring Wreath

Today I wanted to bring to you this very simple yet pretty country wreath I made for Spring to hang on my front door.

The supplies you’ll need.

A Grapevine wreath

Two kinds of ribbon in varying sizes

Nice artificial flowers.

Wire Snippers

Tape, Straight Pins or Glue

I chose to use a grapevine wreath because with this type you don’t need to use any hot glue or anything to attach your pieces, unless you want to of course. With this kind of wreath you can simply tuck in your ends and they will stay. The other added plus is because you haven’t had to permanently attach anything to the wreath you can swap it out all year long if you chose with different ornaments on it.

I also did not use burlap on this project because while I know burlap is a very hot item in the crafting world, my skin does not seem to like burlap. It makes me very itchy so I went with a ribbon that sort of looks like burlap. For the my second ribbon I chose a very pale pink.

To begin all you need to do is to start wrapping your ribbon around your wreath form tucking in the first end of your ribbon on the back of the grapevine wreath then you continue all the way around the wreath until you reach the end where you will then tuck your ending piece in as well. The ribbon should be secure but not wrapped so tightly that it distorts the ribbon or the wreath. When finished it should look like this.

Next you want to begin wrapping your second ribbon choice around your original ribbon. This can get tricky but with a little patience it will work. Also, since I did not want to use any kind of hot glue to adhere permanently I took a small piece of shipping tape and taped the beginning end of my second ribbon to the back of my original ribbon so it would stay in place. And I did the same thing for the ending piece of the second ribbon as well. Here’s a photo to show you what I did. May not be pretty but it worked.

Once you’ve completed your second ribbon your wreath should look something like this.

Next step is adding the flowers. I took some wire snips and cut them off the bunch they were in but leaving enough stem in order to stick them into my grapevine wreath. You can arrange yours any way you choose. I chose to do mine more to the side than the center. Carefully placing your flowers in the wreath being sure not to disturb your ribbon too much. When completed it should look something like this.

I hope you enjoyed this DIY and if you decide to make one please let me know about and post a photo of your completed wreath to my Facebook page. I would love to see it!

When Its Real

Many hundreds of thousands of people have heard of Joey + Rory. Country music stars and now Grammy winners as well. Maybe they are only famous to some due to Rory’s blog called, 

This Life I Live 

where for the last two years he has blogged about his life and mostly about his wife Joey’s battle with stage IV cervical cancer. That is how I found them and I am better off for it. 

Recently, Rory wrote a book titled the same name as his blog, This Life I Live .

On the blog we don’t get to learn about Rory himself as the blog was always more geared towards his wife and his precious daughter Indy. In the book however, readers got to know a lot about Rory’s life from the beginning up until this present. It was actually really nice to learn more about this unique man although he would be the last one to call himself unique. The reader also gets to learn a little bit more about his beloved Joey that was not shared in the book nor in the movie.

What fascinated me most about this man, Joey and their lives is how no matter how hard times got, and we all know about hard times, faith is what brought them through. The deep connection to the Lord, the complete and total dependence on Divine Providence when most of us would have given up. 

Rory came from shall we say extremely humble beginnings and those beginnings were far from easy. Joey came from a wonderful, loving, faithful family. Two complete opposite puzzle pieces that God in His wisdom and love for us made to fit perfectly together. 

This book, to me was so good that I read it completely in one day. In these 250 pages you find, struggle, love, loss and beauty all together. It’s a book I recommend to everyone and anyone. 

Drowning In Fear

These last ten months have been very hard on me. You see, my Mr had a heart attack in April of last year. My worst nightmare had come to be a reality. Thanks be to God he survived it but, since then he has had trouble with his feet, ankles and lower legs swelling. We have had every heart test done with the exception of a catherization which is not something you just want to easily do. It comes with it’s own set of extremes including death. 

The cardiologist put him on a water pill which really is just a band-aid. Mr also has a 50% blockage in the same artery a way down the line which at this point, I want fixed immediately but Mr wants to wait until his appointment in March to discuss what tests will be needed first and then proceed from there. In the meantime, Mr’s feet keep swelling up like balloons with no rhyme or reason despite the water pill. Now I am not a doctor but I am pretty medically savvy having had my own misfortune of being ill for the last twenty some odd years so I have learned a lot over the years. What this tells me is that Mr’s heart is not working properly and he could have another heart attack at any time and this time we may not be so blessed and if that weren’t enough, Mr went to the dentist the other day to have two teeth pulled and the doctor found something in his cheek so in March we are off to an oral surgeon to have it biopsied as our dentist is concerned about cancer. 

So you see, my anxiety and fear has been at an all time high. 

As I was sitting tonight trying to catch up on the Mass readings for the entire week ( I fell behind due to my own poor health) I came to Tuesday’s reading and it’s from the book of Sirach. I believe the Lord is telling me to listen to him through this scripture but I have to be honest when I tell you that lately it’s been extremely hard for me. I have been praying and begging the Lord to help me trust Him but it’s been a deep, deep struggle for me but this scripture passage has stood out to me like a neon sign and one I think I’m going to try and read every single day. I thought I would share it here for you all in case there are others who like me are dealing with real fear and anxiety over serious life circumstances. 

Sirach 2:1-11

My son, When you come to serve the Lord, stand in justice and fear, prepare yourself for trials. Be sincere of heart and steadfast, incline your ear and receive the word of understanding, undisturbed in time of adversity. Wait on God, with patience, cling to Him, forsake him not thus you will be wise in all your ways.  Accept whatever befalls you, when sorrowful, be steadfast, and in crushing misfortune be patient. For in fire gold and silver are tested, and worthy people in the crucible of humiliation.  Trust God and God will help you, trust in Him and He will direct your way; keep His fear and grow old therein. 

I am trying.. Please pray for us…

 

Pamper Me

I had a nice morning of Pampering today.. I literally took the phrase “Friyay” and  “Fryayed” myself. (Grammar police leave me be, I like it!)  I haven’t had a pedicure in ages. I usually just get my nails done but today I thought, you deserve this.. I don’t really but, I’d like to think I do 🙂

After my tech got done working on my toes and my feet she used a Mango scrub for a foot and leg massage and then she used this Mango cream for another leg and foot massage. Can we say a little slice of heaven ?

I’ve never seen this stuff before but wow! did it smell and feel so nice!

Yes, those are my funky lookin legs and feet. I won’t say ugly cause God don’t make nothin ugly. They ain’t the pertiest but they’re mine and I’m okay with them. 

After the Mango scrub massage and the cream massage, she wrapped my legs and feet in hot towels. Yep, I was like spaghetti by that point. Afterwards I was given a hot rock massage on both my legs and feet.

I have pudgy toes. I always have. Oddly enough I only weigh 105 pounds soaking wet but my toes and fingers have always been on the pudgy side. 

Then it was off to get my nails done.  My nails were super long before I had the manicure. So much that they started to curl under on the sides. They were driving me nuts. They kept getting in the way, getting caught on things and texting was a nightmare so I had her cut them way down . They feel so much more comfortable and look better too!.

I hope you enjoyed seeing a little of how I pampered myself today and for those of you men out there who say “That’s a girl thing”.. I’m tellin ya, lots of men go and honey? You don’t know what you’re missing! 

 

And So, It Begins

In my last post I talked to you about a Spiritual Reading Program I was about to start. As of tonight, I have begun that journey. You may be wondering why would someone go on a Spiritual Reading Quest? Well, for me, it’s because I want to be closer to God. I want to know Him more, I want to love Him more, I want to serve Him and be pleasing to Him. How can I do any of these things if I don’t know Him as much as possible?

As with any relationship we can’t truly love someone if we don’t take the time to truly get to know them. Same goes with God. Our purpose here is to know, love and serve God and it begins with the first step. Mine is what I like to do best. Reading. 

I also shared this book with you…

And the author of this book is very confident that once someone begins a spiritual reading program such as this, one will feel benefits right away. I am here to tell you, she’s right. I spent much more time this evening with God through reading than I normally do, I was able to more deeply contemplate, meditate on the Scripture passage I read as well and I already feel a closer connection to Him and I can not wait to get even closer. This I believe is His gift to me and I can’t think of a better gift. 

Faith , Family, Friends & Fun

Hello Friends, 

It’s been a while since I’ve said hello and I apologize for that. Strike it up to the business of life and well, just flat out laziness when it comes to my blog but, I’m hoping to change that. Actually, I’m hoping to change a few things. I’ll tell you about that in a different post. In the past I have done YouTube videos sharing my weekends on a Sunday morning video but I’ve decided I like putting it on my blog So, I thought I would share this past weekend with you and what we did.. 

For once it was actually a nice quiet weekend which, for those of you who know me is a real rarity in our lives. But this weekend I truly enjoyed myself. The only thing that was missing was being able to attend Mass but my body seems to predict most of what I do and don’t do whether my mind agrees or not. 

Being I wasn’t feeling up to par to go out anywhere, on Saturday night we had our best friends Linda and Bill over for some coffee and fun. We played this card game called “bulls*it”. Yes you read that right. It was so much fun! We had a lot of laughs and played quite a few hands. 

On Sunday, it was just Lou and I and the four legged kiddos. We didn’t do much at all . I did my usual morning stuff like, feed the dogs, clean the kitchen, make the bed but other than that I pretty much lazed around the house for most of the day doing what I wanted.  We actually sat in quiet for a long time watching the kiddos play then Lou and I played some Gin Rummy. He always wins! but that’s okay, we haven’t done that together in a long, long time. It’s the little things people. 

I spent a lot of time in the morning catching up on my reading. I’ve started a five year spiritual reading journey and I needed to get caught up and I surely did! 

No, we didn’t watch the Super Bowl. My team wasn’t in it and I just well, couldn’t ‘get into it ‘ this year so instead, Sunday night I spent working on my crochet and catching up on the few TV shows I had on my DVR. It was a nice quiet weekend with no real cooking to do because I had so many left overs. Score!

Thank you for reading my post and please stay tuned to my blog as I will be adding more posts this week. 

I hope you all had an enjoyable peaceful weekend. 

 

 

 

Faith , Family, Friends & Fun

Hello Friends, 

It’s been a while since I’ve said hello and I apologize for that. Strike it up to the business of life and well, just flat out laziness when it comes to my blog but, I’m hoping to change that. Actually, I’m hoping to change a few things. I’ll tell you about that in a different post. In the past I have done YouTube videos sharing my weekends on a Sunday morning video but I’ve decided I like putting it on my blog So, I thought I would share this past weekend with you and what we did.. 

For once it was actually a nice quiet weekend which, for those of you who know me is a real rarity in our lives. But this weekend I truly enjoyed myself. The only thing that was missing was being able to attend Mass but my body seems to predict most of what I do and don’t do whether my mind agrees or not. 

Being I wasn’t feeling up to par to go out anywhere, on Saturday night we had our best friends Linda and Bill over for some coffee and fun. We played this card game called “bulls*it”. Yes you read that right. It was so much fun! We had a lot of laughs and played quite a few hands. 

On Sunday, it was just Lou and I and the four legged kiddos. We didn’t do much at all . I did my usual morning stuff like, feed the dogs, clean the kitchen, make the bed but other than that I pretty much lazed around the house for most of the day doing what I wanted.  We actually sat in quiet for a long time watching the kiddos play then Lou and I played some Gin Rummy. He always wins! but that’s okay, we haven’t done that together in a long, long time. It’s the little things people. 

I spent a lot of time in the morning catching up on my reading. I’ve started a five year spiritual reading journey and I needed to get caught up and I surely did! 

No, we didn’t watch the Super Bowl. My team wasn’t in it and I just well, couldn’t ‘get into it ‘ this year so instead, Sunday night I spent working on my crochet and catching up on the few TV shows I had on my DVR. It was a nice quiet weekend with no real cooking to do because I had so many left overs. Score!

Thank you for reading my post and please stay tuned to my blog as I will be adding more posts this week. 

I hope you all had an enjoyable peaceful weekend.