Let Me Explain...

Hey, everyone!

It has been a while since I posted to this blog! So many things in my life has changed but one thing has remained the same....I still love crafting, trying new recipes, spending time with friends and family, and even more importantly...spending time with God! I am SO excited to share my life with you all again! I have a LOT to share and you can be as excited as I am about some of the new projects coming up!!! My husband and I are working on remodeling my crafting space and it is going to be SO MUCH BETTER than what I had before! I am over-the-moon excited about the transformation in that room! And the even better part is that I am going to offer up a really big blog candy! You will totally NOT want to miss a thing!

So, let me share a few things to get you all up to date. I am currently a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and I do still have a blog for that. It is HERE if you want to check out my projects and videos. I am a Senior Associate and I have two people in my downline. I do love Stampin' Up! and it is an EXCELLENT company. They have some policies in place that says if I am a demonstrator with them, they want me to share projects and videos with ONLY their products. I get that! It helps me, it helps them: win-win... But it also limits my creativity. I mean there are SO many other products on the market that I love! I own a lot of other tools and things from other companies and it has been hard to not get to use them. I don't expect my customers to only purchase Stampin' Up! supplies for all of their papercrafting needs. Many of my best customers use all kinds of products and purchase stamps from other companies. I don't mind. I understand. I am SO thankful for my customers and I love that they order from me, but I understand that there are other things available, so if you are one of my followers here and I share projects that have NOTHING to do with stamping, or if I create a video using products from another company, don't freak out on me! LOL I have not abandoned Stampin' Up! or lost interest in that amazing company! But I will share projects and ideas that are very different from my Stampin' Up! creations.

I love to cook and bake. I don't get to do that as often as I would like, and I will explain more about that later. But I enjoy creating tasty creations in the kitchen. I will definitely be sharing photographs and recipes here. I am new to sewing but I have a few projects I am going to post to this blog that I am really proud of. I love to knit and definitely don't get to do that as much as I want, but I will be sharing some knitting-related things, too, very soon. Other things I enjoy doing include: saving money, (love getting a great deal!), altering items (before and after photos really make me happy!), and sharing my faith (which is stronger than ever!). I also scrapbook and desperately need to get back to that. I take a lot of pictures of my children and family and will post those. I like challenges so check back often to see which ones I link up to.

So on the homefront....my dad had a massive stroke in January 2012. He was given 10% chance to make it through the night, but God saw that he did. We were told to prepare for Dad to be bedfast and unable to do things for himself, but God saw the he wasn't! He was in a wonderful hospital for a week or so and then transferred to another hospital for three weeks or so for rehabilitation. In July 2012 he was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer that already spread to his liver. He has been through so much and hopefully I can share some of that here ... because God has done and is still doing so many great and wonderful things! Prayers are definitely appreciated and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for them!

My daughter is now 11 and I can nearly cry as I type this. She is going to be in middle school in August! I cannot believe that! She is so sweet and kind and caring. I love her to the moon and back. She started a prayer club at her elementary school this year with her sweet little friend. God reunited these two girls and I am sure God is going to do great things through them both. I am eager to watch them grow in Him and in His grace!

My son is growing up so fast. He is my baby and I try so hard to keep him that way, but today we had to go to the elementary school my daughter is currently in and get him screened for Kindergarten. I wish I could keep them small forever but I know that is selfish and I am so grateful for the opportunity to watch them learn and grow. They are healthy and happy. What more could I ask for? Javan is quite the athletic little guy and it is fun to watch him play sports and spend time with friends. He is quite the lady's man at his age, too, and that definitely gives me even more to pray about! Apparently you can never start too early to pray for God to guide their hearts, amen?

My husband was promoted to Assistant Team Leader at his job. God has blessed him so much with that job. He has a special procedure coming up next week for you all to be in prayer about. He has a kidney stone and it is stuck...so they are going to help it out! Ouch! I passed a kidney stone and gosh, those hurt so much!!!!! I am so proud of how far Paul is growing in faith. He is now in a leadership role in the church we attend and he does great! He even sings and I know God loves to hear the joyful praise Paul offers up!

I am in my second year of college. I want to become a nurse but it has been a long, hard journey. I still want to be a nurse, don't get me wrong, but it's so competitive and school has been a challenge with so many health concerns with my dad. It's just been keeping me prayed up. Earlier in this post I said it was hard for me to cook and bake much anymore. Well it has been hard to do anything...including crafting.

I share some of my faith in a new blog I created called Bridge-ing The Gap. If you get a chance to check it out, I hope you will. I don't have an option to leave comments but there is a link to my email on the sidebar so you can always leave a comment that way if you want. I just want to share my thoughts and faith and you can use it to help you search out some things. Pray about it and see how God speaks to you! And before anyone tells me I spelled "Bridge-ing" wrong...I know! It is a play on my name....

So, very soon I am going to be out of school! I have one week left! My project list is growing more and more and many of those things I will be sharing here. I hope that you will come and check out all the fun things I have planned for the upcoming weeks. I promise there will be recipes, photos, projects, giveaways, and more!

Hugs,