Exhilarating, Exciting, Extraordinary NEWS!!

Well, with a title like THAT, you MUST read this post, right? :D
I am thrilled and delighted to announce that we sold our house.

WE. SOLD. OUR. HOUSE!

(imagine me dancing in circles right now)

We really have been wanting to move for about.... six years now? We've lived in this home for 10 years, and loved it so much, but there are several reasons why we desperately need a change. More on that later.

So where are we moving?

A beautiful little spot between two larger spots about 20 minutes south of Atlanta. :D 'suburbs' of Atlanta are cities in their own right, with actual awesome stores (not just super-Walmart) :D But more on that later...

My plan, honestly, was to do a bunch of sweet and cinnamon-esque fall posts on Julia's Journal during September. That got blown out of the water with all the craziness of a HUGE pre-moving yard sale we did and then the mind-whirling week of sale offers, counter-offers, contract terminology, and finally, sheer and utter bliss. :)

But I have another announcement!

I'm starting a brand-new blog, because:

1. Our new address is so charming, I'm still floating four feet above the ground. Ladies (and gentlemen?), we will be living on... London Lane. *be still my pounding heart*. 
2. Our new house needs some updates. It's a lovely home in great shape but it's been lived in for years by an older couple and it needs a fresh look. That's where I come in. :) I'll be chronicling all my DIY redecorating projects, one-by-one. 
3. I'm really ready for a new chapter in my blogging journey!

Julia's Journal isn't going anywhere, and I'll probably post more personal stories and non house-related things on this blog (including more Singleness Series posts) but my new blog is going to be such fun. In fact, I'm still building it (so pardon the blank corners) but... here it is. 

INTRODUCING:

Life on London Lane.

The address is LifeonLondonLane.Wordpress.com!

I actually have a first post written up for you to read, plus a cute About page --- I can't decide whether it is silly or clever. Probably a combination of the two. But anyway, I just had to let YOU know about it!

Prayers for simple, smooth closings on both our old and new homes would be MOST appreciated!
Love & Blessings,

Becoming a Woman of Worth | The Singleness Adventure

Huge thanks to a certain reader named Ashley Rose who left me a super-sized comment on the introduction to this series, because she totally sparked the idea for this post in my little head! :)

Have you stopped to think, in between adding more things to your "Future Husband's Must-Have Qualities" list... that perhaps there is work to do on YOU? That it isn't all on the guy's shoulders to make himself ready for your marriage, preparing and improving himself?

*Nods* I'm sure you have. I have too. But all the grand intentions of the world come to naught if they're not followed up by actions.

For example, let's talk about becoming a woman of worth.

(absolutely no mention of that woman in that certain 31st chapter of a certain book in the holy scriptures will be contained herein this blog post. Ya'll have read that over and over again. We know, already. ;) I'll try to keep this fresh!)

When I think of a woman of worth, the person who instantly springs to my mind is my mom. She has incredibly desirable qualities and it's no small wonder my dad was instantly drawn to her like a moth to a candle flame. For one thing, when they met she was a slim beauty with a mass of golden hair and a dazzling smile.

But the real catch was her character. This lady is a go-to gal. She will GET THINGS DONE. Her attention to detail, organizational skills, born teaching talent, and selfless servant's heart are huge benefits in a helpmeet. She's also an inventive entrepreneur! Time and time again she has made our household flourish because of these many gifts.

If I can be half the awesome wife my mom has been over the years, I'll be doing well! No pressure, right?! ;)

Me, on the other hand - I still have work to do, although in all fairness I've been attempting my whole life to learn and do things that will benefit my present and future family. Just the other day my dad was enthusiastically saying "Mmmm!" over a meal I'd cooked (Lemon-Rosemary slow-roasted crockpot chicken) and told me the fellow I marry will be a blessed one. May those words be true!

I'm glad to be able to know how to plan a menu, cook delicious and healthy meals, clean + organize a house (We've got Dutch ancestry, so cleanliness is highly valued) and I can tackle any load of laundry with confidence that I won't cause something to bleed or shrink. All of these skills are things my own mom learned after she was in college. (Therefore, I have hope) ;)

But is there more? Oh yes! I am grateful for many talents that I've pursued with equal energy. Graphic design, photography, writing, jewelry-making (for profit) and several other hobbies have all had the nice side effect of giving me skills I can use in the future.

But no, I haven't really thrown myself full-steam into learning as much as I can while I'm still free and single. But I am now. 

These are some things I'm working towards.

• Treat my body like a temple (Stay hydrated, active, eating well, and getting better sleep)
• Draw closer to my Lord (earnestly seeking wisdom through daily morning quiet time)
• Be a Christlike, uncomplaining servant at every possible opportunity
• Earn more money to save for my future (and save more than I spend!)...
• Start a wedding fund for someday
• Make my writing career flourish, publish more novels
• Blog regularly again (check!) 
• Get into more graphic design projects
• Run a successful Etsy shop for my jewelry (coming soon!) 
• Take self-defense classes and get a concealed carry permit
• Take regular voice lessons from my mom (instead of sporadic coaching)
• Take photoshop lessons from my brother (Using photoshop is a valuable life skill!) 
• Dance again
• Crochet things to donate to worthy causes
• Branch out, be social, make new friends

Be doing. Be learning! Don't be like me and excel in procrastination until you're of the age of 24! :D

I do have a small word of encouragement in the opposite direction. (Balance is everything!) NOBODY IS WONDER-WOMAN. (Except my mom. But she's the only exception.) You will not be able to learn 100% of all the great wifely skills out there by the time you get married. Unless you put it off to, oh, about age 75! But do this - give it your best shot!

Pray about what the Lord would have you learn to best assist YOUR future husband in your delightful future together. Not every man is going to need a woman who knows how to fix the plumbing, but maybe yours will find that a very beneficial skill for some reason we don't know now. (I do advise learning how to cook, though. I have two grown brothers and one father and they all very much enjoy their meals).

Get out there. DO things. Meet people. Forge new friendships. Share with the body of Christ, and be edified likewise by their heart-stories.

 But all that great work of polishing up your resume and everything on the outside PALES in comparison to the job of refining your character.

 To anyone who has read or seen Pride & Prejudice (the real version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle) that ^ is a powerful kick in the gut. We do not want to be a Lydia, laughing and snorting and cavorting with any red-coated Officer that casts her half a glance. We want to be the witty, principled, courageous Lizzie Bennet, who captivated Mr. Darcy, a man of estimable judgment and high character.

I don't know about you, but I want to be a prize worth winning!

Saw this on Pinterest and had to share it. It's so true. Great guys are looking for girls who have hearts of gold and are doing wonderful things. 

Also, girlies, I have a Pinterest Board dedicated to the topic of "Becoming" - everything inspiring in any way that molds me into a better version of myself. I thought some of you would enjoy perusing it! Find it here. :D

I hope this post encouraged and challenged you today. I tried not to "slap you upside the head" with the thoughts I was attempting to share. But I know for sure I needed a little fire lit under me, so here I come with my matchbox to help my fellow fair maidens! :D

Now - get thee to the comment box and fire away! Is there a particular point of The Singleness Adventure you are curious about/struggle with/want my perspective on? What are some new goals you'll be working on?

At last, my novel has a face!

Hey readers!

I know I'm going about this all backwards and that I should have a bunch of fellow bloggers release this at the same time with lots of pomp and fanfare and confetti, but since the rules are more like 'guidelines' - I have something VERY SPECIAL to show you.

Drum roll please....

INTRODUCING- 

The cover for my novel, ASHBURN. 

I designed it myself. 

(comments, thoughts... do you like it?!? I DO!)

Release date coming soon! I'll be in the final editing process for the next few weeks, but I am self-publishing this book to Kindle and CreateSpace on Amazon in paperback form. After a lot of procrastination, the time has come to share it with the world!

If you are a fellow blogger and are interested in an interview or a review copy of my book, (Or want to splash my pretty book cover on your blog or website!)... please let me know. I would greatly appreciate any support and help to spread the word about this exciting story. :)

Also, I'm pretty sure I want to hang out a shingle as a graphic designer and start doing book covers and other projects for real, live customers. More info on that coming soon as well. :)

Delightedly yours,

Good Morning, January!

Well, what a wonderful year this looks to be. :) 2013 is filled with promise!

2012 was over too fast, it seems to me. I blinked and it switched from 2011 to 2013. How exactly does that happen? ;)

Of course, when I stop and think about it, a lot happened this year. I wasn't a very good blogger for most of it... but I lived it to the fullest. I had a blast. It was exhilarating, and wonderful, and heartbreaking, and joyous, and sobering, and just plain awesome.

A few highlights. (Not in perfect chronological order.)

~ I finished my novel Lissie a few minutes before midnight on December 31, 2011.
~ I wrote ASHBURN, the first story in my agents series
~ I started book 2 of my agents series.
~ I gave my cousin Katie a crocheted afghan for her wedding present
~ I passed my driver's license test with flying colors.
~ I went to see Courageous with my dad and brothers, which was amazing.
~ I discovered the old TV show Scarecrow and Mrs. King (Wow, has it only been a year?)
~ I traveled to South Carolina to go to the Teach Them Diligently Convention and sold jewelry and ebooks while my brothers sold swords and ebooks.
~ I went to the GHEA convention in Atlanta, GA and also the NCHE convention in North Carolina, selling jewelry and ebooks again!
~ We began hosting Ultimate Frisbee at the field near our house
~ We went to Florida for a week with another family and stayed at my grandmother's house near the beach, and had an absolutely wonderful time!
~ We watched the 2012 Olympics and saw the USA creaming everybody else (Lol!)
~ I got a Kindle Touch and and iPhone (which us kids will share).
~ I learned how to play the Bass guitar and played it in the church we visited for several months
~ I started selling jewelry in the Rescue Me Market store in town on the square
~ We started going to the English country dances up in McDonough every month (SO FUN)
~ I tried Wordpress and decided to stick with Blogger.
~ I discovered Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, and was completely captivated... and I totally cannot wait until they film and release season three
~ I took a month off the computer - and I did not expect this to be a good thing - but it really was. I was amazed.
~ I started reading my Bible and praying every single morning. WOW. I am so glad I've done this.
~ I stopped eating sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and hydrogenated oils, and began exercising regularly in various ways, and, as a result...
~ I lost fourteen pounds.
~ We thought we might be moving to Virginia... but then Daddy got a job an hour north of here, so now we're moving a little farther north but still in Georgia. (I'm so excited!!)
~ I voted for the first time, ever, in my first presidential election, ever... even though my candidate did not win.
~ We celebrated Thanksgiving all alone, and it was the most peaceful, joyful day I've ever spent with my family.
~ We went to Florida again to go to my cousin Denise's wedding and to see my grandma, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at the beach... warm, salty breezes and abundant sunshine in the middle of December. :D

It was an amazing year. I hope 2013 is even better, and by God's grace, I believe it will be.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

It Was a Great Success!

A heartfelt "Thank You!" to all of you who actually and sincerely said a prayer for our Yard Sale! It was an immense success and we sold lots and lots of our junk (A-HEM,) I mean, extra and unwanted items. :D We had almost nothing left at the end of the sale... and lots of cash rustling and clinking in our pockets. :D Hurray! God is SoooooOOOOOO good.
Just so you have some small clue as to how much we actually got rid of, here are some pictures!

 Yup. Too much stuff. :) We had mostly clothes but lots of other things as well. And I added two stands of my handmade earrings to the array of available things to buy. We had a huge rack of clothes hanging along one whole wall of the carport and by the end of the garage sale it was almost EMPTY! Whew!

We cut some pretty great bargains for people and met some very interesting folks. ;)
I think I've heard enough twangy southern accents to last me for a while! :D Lol!

Our poor gravel driveway got all torn up with people trying to drive the wrong way up the hill in light little trucks or back out the wrong way with huge suburbans... *cringe* But everybody was ok and nothing too terrible happened that can't be fixed with a little raking smooth again. :D

 I was surprised that my Meow-Chi toys sold! :D Nobody knew what they were... I had to explain several times to clueless shoppers what the little robotic cats actually 'did'. They sing and dance and meow in cute robotic tones, people. How hard is that to understand? Haha!

In this picture you can see how tightly packed the clothes were on this rack (Later they looked a lot better because I color-coordinated them) ;) At the end of the sale we only had about 20 things hanging on it instead of the however many we started with! Yay! :)

We only had about 30 books or so but they all sold, even some old, dusty, piano music books!

All my Bath & Body Works perfume sold, thanks in part to the help of my sweet Mennonite friends. And most of the nail polish was bought. I was astonished! :)

Well, I hope you have a wonderful week! If you have nothing to do... you could go on over and see the newest batch of backgrounds at "I Love it!" Blog Designs. :D I love hearing which are your favorites!
Blessings,

Post-a-Day #30

Last post-a-day! Wow! I made it! :D Some of my posts were rather insipid updates on what I'd done that day, but overall I think it was good for me to have something consistently posted. :) It will be nice to take a break if I want to, though. :)

My custom earring giveaway is ending today at 12:00 noon, so hurry and enter before it's done! I will be closing the comment section to tally up the entries.

I would like to wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dear friend Taylor! :) Her family and mine get together very well and we love to get together for things like crocheting (just her and I) and riding around on their gator and golf cart... and making medieval movies and having medieval feasts... :) yeah. :D



In closing, I would like to 'dare' whoever wants to participate to write a post-a-day for one month. Pick any month you like, and see if you can accomplish it as well! It was a lot of fun, really. However, I do have a tip if you're doing this ... schedule a whole bunch of them way ahead of time! :D

That way, you won't be staying up late, realizing you forgot to post that day and.... scrambling for 'something to post about'! :D

Post-a-Day #9

Today I have a random fact to share with you.
The date today is 09/09/09! September 9th, 2009.

This will not happen again for 1000 years - until September 9, 3009.

So... enjoy it while it is here! :)

p.s.
I meant to reply a little earlier to a question I was asked "What did you do for Labor Day? You didn't say!" oops! :D

My family and I stayed home for Labor day and had a nice time resting... we've had a kind of busy time recently, and my brothers are sick with what we now call the "Terrible Two-Month Cough" and aren't really up to doing much.

Update from Bird-In-Hand, PA!

Hello there!

I am sitting in a lovely hotel breakfast room in Bird-In-Hand, Pennsylvania! We have been enjoying the countryside and farms, and we've caught sight of several buggies driven by Amishmen and pulled by horses! :) It's been very exciting for me especially because I've read so many novels based on the Amish and now I'm getting to see it in real life! :)

Since I last posted, we've been hiking up a mountain and climbed a 9-story firetower to see the incredible view, we went to the Blue Mountain Lake Museum and got an amazing glimpse into the Adirondacks, we toured the Barton Garnet Mine and got to 'mine' some real garnets, (that was SO COOL!) we swam in an actual Adirondack lake and took a boat ride around it.

Of course I've been taking a LOT of pictures but I'm currently using the Wi-Fi in the hotel and you will have to wait a little bit for pictures. Thank you for your patience!

We miss you all, and though we are having a blast on our vacation, I am also looking forward to being home again and seeing all our dear friends! :)

Hugs and Blessings,

I Am Going to...

New York! :)

My family and I are leaving Saturday (the 11th of July) to go visit my Grandma and her sister, my Great-Aunt Barbara. We should be back on Sunday the 19th. We will take 2 days to drive up and 2 days to drive back, but the remainder of the time will be spent with these wonderful ladies! :)

I am so looking forward to seeing my Grandma and Aunt Barbara again. The last time I saw them was a little over a year ago. I wish you could meet them... they are so spunky, energetic, and fun! I want to be just as active as they are when I reach their ages... which are somewhere in the 70's and 80's, respectively.

We plan on seeing some of the Adirondack Mountains, and we may even go Garnet mining. :) That will be fun! But the most fun thing of the trip will be seeing my Grandma and Aunt again. :)

How to Add a Navigation Bar to Your Blog

Miss Elizabeth has asked me how I made my Navbar (navigation bar... the thing at the top of my blog that has different links to click)

• I followed the tutorial Here -> This Tutorial ... To make the actual Navbar.

• And I used -> This Tutorial... to help make pages, or links, for the Navbar.

• And if you want groups of posts on your Navbar, see -> This Tutorial . :) Hope that helps!

How to Change the Font of Your Blog Post Titles, Sidebar Titles, & dates

Today I changed my fonts around a bit. It was a neat learning experience for me and I eventually did it, with the help of this *great tutorial* from KevinandAmanda.com.

I used the font 'CAC Pinafore' which can be downloaded from dafont.com (To find it, type the font name into the searchbox) and to read how to download it go right >here<. A few of the fonts on that website are rather unsavoury, so just use discretion. :)

Announcing The High School Graduation of...

We celebrate the blessing of our homeschooling journey by announcing the High School graduation of our daughter,

Julia.
We thank God for the privilege it is to invest in her life and education.
Robert & Gloria

I would like to take this opportunity to say how extremely grateful I am to my loving parents, Bob and Gloria, for caring so tenderly for me all my life, giving me the best possible education by schooling me in our home, and being such excellent role models for me to look up to and strive to reflect. I love them more than words can express, and I firmly believe that God has been very, very good to me in providing me with such wonderful parents.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My homeschooling has been such a pleasure to me. I have learned valuable life lessons and I have been protected from so much of the heartache, struggles, and pain that I would have been subjected to if I hadn't been homeschooled. I have developed an awesome relationship with my two younger brothers and my parents are my two best mentors, guardians, and friends.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mama, you are such an inspiration to me. The way you have persevered and kept on homeschooling us in the midst of many trials and constant pain from your Rheumatoid Arthritis is truly awe-inspiring. I am so glad that we have hope for the first time in 12 years for your recovery! You are the true picture of a Proverbs 31 woman, and I am hereby rising up and calling you blessed. I love you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Daddy - thank you so much for being the best father, protector, leader of our home, and wise patriarch that I could have ever had. You are the shining example by which I will measure all the potential suitors that will come across my path in the years to come. I am so blessed by the fact that until the time comes for me to start my own family, I will be under your loving protection and care. I love you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mark and Steven,

I am so thankful that you are my brothers. It is so exciting to see the many ways you are growing up and maturing into godly young men. What would I have ever done if I had not had you two around? The house would have been so still and silent and lonely without you. You guys are the best brothers I could ever wish for. I love you.

Shabby Blogs - abounding loveliness!

I fell in love with this sweet website! They have amazing, lovely backgrounds, headers, post dividers, tag sets, buttons and blinkies for your blog! The best part, you ask? They're ALL FREE! I know! Incredible, right?

I'm currently using the Everything sidebar tag set on my sidebar... that's the pink pictures that say things like "about" "follow me" and "friends". Miss Elizabeth has asked me how I put them on my sidebar.They were not that easy to install, but this is how I did it.

• I went to shabbyblogs.com. and clicked on their 'Shabby Extras' section.
• I picked out a tag set and clicked 'download tags'.
• It took me to a free file-sharing website called mediafire. If you look carefully you can find where it says 'click here to download' inside a light-yellow box. click that.
• I then clicked 'open'
• Then instead of saving the files, I simply clicked on each file and saved the pictures of the tags to my computer.
• Once the pictures were in my computer, I put each of them into a picture gadget in my blogger layout page and dragged them to where I wanted them in my sidebar.

Hope that helps, Miss Elizabeth! :)

Let me know what you all think about the Shabby Blogs website! :)

Daddy & Mommy - Married for 20 years...

Yep, today's the day! Mama & Daddy have been married for 20 whole years.



Together they've been walking a path. A straight and narrow way, but such a beautiful journey. My parents are a wonderful example of a loving, caring, patient, peaceful, happy marriage. It's the best one I've ever had the pleasure to see. Our home is joyful. Someday, when I meet my Prince Charming, my future husband, I want to have a marriage just like the one my parents have.

Mama wrote a loving tribute to Daddy over on her blog. You can stop by and wish her a Happy Anniversary there! :)

For those who are curious, today we spent the day at home, had delectable barbecued baby back ribs for dinner with steaming corn on the cob, drizzled with melted butter, and homemade hearty oatmeal bread on the side. It was delicious!
Daddy is going to take Mama out to dinner this Friday to the Seafood Buffet at the Callaway Gardens Plant Room Restaurant for an 'extra-special' meal.

And we are planning to finally put our family photos (Yes, the ones we took before converting to digital) into scrapbooks, so we can look over, remember, and enjoy the memories of the past 20 years.

Happy Anniversary, Daddy and Mama! :) I love you!

My 1st Blogoversary

Julia's Journal is officially 1 year old! :) Happy birthday to my little blog! :D

It's been a wild ride this past year - me growing up, sharing my world with all of you... it's been precious. I'm so glad I started this blog. I've met such lovely young women through blogging, and I've even had the privilege of meeting some of them in person.

Blogging has broadened my world, given me an outlet to share about all sorts of things, enlightened, encouraged, uplifted, and inspired me.

If you have enjoyed my blog in the least in this past year, (that includes today!) would you consider leaving me a comment on this special, one of a kind post? I'd love to hear from you.

Love & Hugs,

Night At The Museum, Battle of the Smithsonian - A review

My first impression was - Wow! Great movie. I really liked the first one and this one was awesome as well. There wasn't the initial wonder at the discovery that yes, the museum does come to life, but "Battle at the Smithsonian" captures all the feeling of the first movie.



Things to watch out for-



Amelia Earhart is ...uh, shall we say, a little... forward. She has a rather 'feministic' attitude - but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't stomach it. 2 swear words, but the movie in general was pretty clean, as far as movies go. The mysticism was kept in check, which I appreciated.



Kahmunrah (sp?) was the perfect 'badguy' for this film - he's so funny! He has a slight lisp so even in his most scary moments he's really not that scary. I loved the fight scene between him and Larry (Ben Stiller) - I was like "Wow, they really look like they're dueling!"


General Custer joins the cast in this movie and (Hint-hint!) even gets a chance to redeem his bungled 'last stand'.



Jedediah and Octavius also re-appear in this movie. (They have to be some of my very favorite characters!)

Jedediah gets imprisoned by Kahmunrah in an hourglass and Octavius goes for help while Larry and Amelia Earhart try to figure out how to translate the tablet of Akmunrah. Akmunrah was the Egyptian king in the last movie, and his big brother Kahmunrah stars in this one.

You can see the hilarious trailer video HERE.

And read as much about the movie as you want HERE on Wikipedia.

We Need Ideas ... and some of my life ramblings

My dear parents are celebrating their 20th anniversary on June 10th - and we are looking for suggestions as to how to make it 'memorable' for them. Do you have any ideas for making this special day a wonderful memory? If so please leave me a comment and tell me! :)

My life has been busy the last few days - no, make that weeks.... ;) We had some car trouble on Friday and our van is in the shop. We are praying that it can be fixed easily and that it will not be a burden on our finances.

I found an exercise DVD at a garage sale for 75 cents, decided to try it, and I love it! I didn't realize it until I played it at home but one whole section of the DVD is all exercise moves taken straight from ballet. I was thrilled. I've missed my ballet classes since moving here to GA and now I can do my own ballet at home! :)

Last Sunday we attended a delightful birthday celebration for one of our friends, and they had a 'golf-cart scavenger hunt'. That was extremely fun. They divided our large group up into teams of about 5 or 6 people and sent us out with a list that had over 100 items on it that we had to photograph with our digital cameras to prove we'd seen it. Some of the items were activities to do, such as spelling out a word using your team members as the letters.
My team ended up winning with 527 points. I'm not sure how many things we had crossed off our list, but it was a 5-page list and on each page there were only 1 or 2 things we had not found or done... so that means we found about 95 out of the 100. :) In two hours, no less, driving all around town.

I've been busy with my etsy banner shop, my etsy jewelry store, and writing for Meditations of His Love, a young ladies' devotional blog.

And with all else that's going on in my life right now I read the Viking Quest series by Lois Walfrid Johnson, one of my very favorite children's book authors. The books are easy for me to read, as I am used to delving through complicated works like The Complete Sherlock Holmes collection and G. A. Henty's historical fiction, but the Viking Quest series is compelling and so interesting that I was on the edge of my seat through the whole series. :) Especially in the last book.

I have changed my background yet again :D but this time I really like it. I designed the header myself and this look will be here for quite a while. (really! :D)

Love & Hugs!

There Could Never Be A More Beautiful You!

I heard this song, More Beautiful You, written by Jonny Diaz, on the radio today and I wanted to share part of the lyrics with you. Our world today is so corrupt. Even as a young christian woman I also have felt the pressure to conform to its demands. These lyrics might lift someone up today like they did me - I know I have several young readers, so this was posted with you in mind!

More Beautiful You
Little girl fourteen flipping through a magazine

Says she wants to look that way

But her hair isn’t straight her body isn’t fake

And she’s always felt overweight

Well little girl fourteen I wish that you could see

That beauty is within your heart

And you were made with such care your skin your body and your hair

Are perfect just the way they are

There could never be a more beautiful you

Don’t buy the lies disguises and hoops they make you jump through

You were made to fill a purpose that only you could do

So there could never be a more beautiful you

Blessings!

I Just Had To Let You Know...

...that I have some new, exciting creations in my Etsy Shop! Go take a look-see if you wish. :)

I really like this one. :)

And this one is just so mysterious and sophisticated...

Have a blessed, delightful day!

A Pay It Forward

Surprise, surprise! I won a Pay it forward by Rachel and so in turn am now doing my pay it forward! Here are the rules:

The first three commentors on this post will win a special surprise made by me, and then will be required to post a Pay it Forward on their own blogs and give three surprise prizes away to their first three commentors.

You have up to a year to do the Pay it Forward if you win, but it must be done in that time period. :D I should think that's enough time to get it ready! :)

For my Pay it forward, please tell me the color you wear the most. (And that's all the hint you get!)

So hurry and comment if you want to win! :D