Fabric Wall Art

What you need:

An appropriate size wooden frame. You can make your own or buy a pre-made one. I got these frames with cheap paper stapled on in a clearance aisle for $6/ea. Mine are 16"x20"

Scissors

Fabric of your choice
Hammer and Nails

Staple Gun
Lay the fabric fashion side down on the ground and position your frame over top of it, making sure everything lines up and the design on your fabric isn't crooked. Trim off excess fabric, leaving enough to pull over side of frame and turn under to leave a finished edge. Staple the fabric onto the frame upholstery style, starting in the center of one side, stapling, and then pulling taut on the other side and stapling directly opposite your first staple. Turn it over to check that there is no puckering and that everything lines up. Keep doing this until all the sides are stapled.

• Note: Get a friend to help. 4 hands work best, and 6 come in handy sometimes, too!

For the corners, you can really do it any way that you are comfortable with. This is what I did.
I hope the picture makes sense. I folded the triangle part of the fabric in towards the center so that the triangle pointed directly to the center of the frame. I stapled that down, cut off the excess fabric and folded in the sides, nice and tight and stapled them down too.

I decided to embellish one of my frames with some ribbon

I chose some ribbon and decided how I wanted them to look on the frame

Measured

Pinned them down
Stretched tight and folded the ends under and stapled down

Finished Product!!! It's just my kind of project: simple and different, you can pick whatever colors you want, and I did all three in about 2 hours start to finish (including shopping) and for less than $8/ea.Special Thanks to my sister Steph, who was my extra 2 hands, went shopping with me and just generally is really handy to have around since she knows how to use a staple gun, and can hang things on the wall straight the first time.

And Katie, for jumping up in the middle of your important computer work to play with the camera and take pictures!

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Music & Praise

We all arrange ourselves into neat rows, the last few stragglers hurrying to put down coats and water bottles, pull out sheet music. It’s one of the last few practices before our concert, our first rehearsal in the church where we will perform. Our sheet music is marked, penciled and yellow highlighted lines to remind us where to come in, where to pianissimo and where to fortissimo. We’re all shivering as the warmth from the heaters goes straight to the high-vaulted ceilings. Shivering, but laughing and talking away, just about every one of us.

The director claps her hands together, trying to quiet the chattering of all four sectionals. Finally, all: altos, tenors, basses and sopranos are hushed and expectant, waiting. The director lifts her hands.

We take a collective breath and begin to sing.

We’re singing Rutter’s Requiem, beautiful lyrics, including scripture, matched with gorgeous music. One of my favorite movements is number four: Sanctus. It is so joyous…I have to smile as I sing and praise God.

It’s beautiful. We’re still making mistakes and it still isn’t perfect, but…oh, it sounds gorgeous. We’re blending our voices to make amazing music to glorify God. I get chills as I hear our voices echoing off the high vaulted ceilings and wonder if God’s pleasure listening to us is anywhere near the thrill I get just singing and hearing others around me.

I think He must.

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth.
Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua, Hosanna in excelsis.
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini, Hosanna in excelsis.

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts.
Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory. Hosanna to God in the highest,
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna to God in the highest.

Holy is He, indeed! And so we sing. We sing and we praise and we give glory to God.

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If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain but what He pours through us that really counts.  God's purpose is not simply to make us beautiful plump grapes, but to make us grapes so that He may squeeze the sweetness out of us.
~Oswald Chambers

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Fought For

I don't know when it was I first discovered my love of adventurous period dramas.

But there it was, looking me in the face.

I'm a sucker for the old knight-rescues-the-lady line. I love the old-fashioned values of chivalry and femininity, as presented in so many stories set during a quieter time.

Especially when the gentleman pursued the lady at great risk to himself.

As I've thought about why these story lines fascinate me, why I'm so transfixed on these ideals and morals, the answer suddenly hit me.

I want to know I'm worth it.

Worth fighting for.

In nearly every girl, there is that same desire--to love and be loved.

To know we're worth fighting for.

Now, please don't misunderstand--I'm not talking about some sort of prideful attitude where we rejoice in just how amazing we are.

Rather it is the idea that we long to have someone show us their love for us will pay any price.

The truth is--

I've been fought for.

My Savior loved me so much, He paid the ultimate price--His death on a cross.

I didn't deserve it. Not at all. But He loved me enough to prove it. While I'm not suggesting that God is my "knight in shining armor" I am suggesting He is the Lover of My Soul, who bought me at a very dear price, and fought a heavy battle to buy me.

I still enjoy these period dramas.

I'm still a sucker for the old knight-rescues-the-lady line.

But I no longer must wait for a gentleman to show me I'm worth fighting for.

Someone Else already has.

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Stillness

I find God very restful. You see, I spend a good part of my life wrestling with words, beating them into shape, trying to be sure I find the perfect way to convey my precise meaning. Sometimes it's a joy and sometimes it's, well, not a joy.

But with God I don't need to anguish over words. I don't need to explain exactly what I mean by "happy" in this context because He knows. Before I even began to speak, He knew.

The Holy Fathers tell us that the highest form of prayer is wordless standing before God in your heart. Now, I am incredibly far from this kind of prayer. But I do know the joy of being able to simply say, "Lord, here is my heart. You know it. It has stains and rough spots. Clean it and perfect it" and to be sure that He does know, He does understand.

I dream of someday finding a man who will be, as Martine Leavitt puts it, a soul love. But in the end there's already One who knows me.


(Image from Stock Exchange)

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On Aging

I think I'm having belated reactions to my birthday a couple months ago.

Have you ever had that birthday?  You know... the depressing one?

Well, I thought 25 was bad.  Then I turned 26.  I had JUST gotten accustomed to being 25; and then I realized.  26 is older than 25.  I tried to keep my depression on the down-low.  Whenever I mentioned the shock at the passing of time and my own aging, I usually got about the same kind of response.  Some variation of: "You're not OLD!"

So, I'm not really.  But, still, I took 26 hard and I spent a lot of time wondering where my early 20s went to.  And trying to remember what I did with them.  Were there any accomplishments to speak of?  Did I make any significant advancements in life?  None were apparent.  I felt like the same person I was at 18, when I graduated from high school, put my life in God's hands, and settled in to wait on direction.
That was a tough birthday.  And for about 6 months afterward.

Then I turned 27.

I sort of dreaded this birthday, especially after my experience with the last one.  (Which, by the way, does not seem that it possibly could have been a year ago?)  But, it seemed to go pretty well.  The day was uneventful for the most part.  I still don't FEEL 27, and I certainly don't LOOK it... (some people still guess my age at 18 :) but, it went well.

Or so I thought.

Then it happened.

I found a gray hair.

By now you are probably thinking that I am a horribly dramatic person who is very easily thrown off her rocker.

Nothing brings the passage of time closer to home for me than repetition.  There are certain events that are regular as clockwork in my life.  Yearly events.  For instance the homeschool play that my brother and sister were in last weekend.  I remember sitting in that same auditorium 12 months ago thinking: "The next play is a YEAR away.  That's such a long time.  A lot can happen in a year.  Maybe next year, I won't be sitting here alone."  And, 24 months ago?  Same thing.  36 months ago?  Yep.  This is hard to admit, so bear with me?

I'm content being single.  I really am.  I'm enjoying it.  But, I'm one of those people that is always alone in a crowd.  Nothing makes me feel more desolate than a full house.  Have you ever been in a theater and noticed how many people are paired up?  Very few people go to these things alone.  Of course, I don't go strictly alone; I go with my (huge) family.  So, maybe I have no right to let the loneliness creep up on me and sit on my shoulders.

But, (even though it's hard) I'm being honest here.  Loneliness hurts.  It hurts to go to the same events year after year and watch the couples.  It's hard to watch everyone younger than you married and toting babies.  It's hard to know that people that know me wonder if I'll EVER find a guy.

Mostly, it's hard to realize that another year has gone by (and they keep coming faster and faster) and I'm still single.  And I'm sitting in the same auditorium again, with a couple in front of me.  And one behind me; and one on the left, and one on the right, and know that (based on previous experience) next year it will probably be the same.

And that's why I struggle with birthdays.  Not because I feel old.  Not really because I found a gray hair.  (Because, seriously, it's ONE gray hair) It's because it's another reminder that time marches on.  And that I'm not where I thought I'd be. 

I'm not sharing this with you all because I'm trying to get you depressed.  I'm saying it because it's true in my life.  And I have a feeling there are other young women out there feeling the same way.  I know that I'm exactly where I should be.  I know my future is in God's hands.  I know He loves me.
But, that doesn't mean that sometimes I don't hurt.  It just means that when I DO hurt He comforts me. 
And, maybe if we're honest with each other, and share our hurts, we can comfort each other?

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Puffy Pancakes You Bake

3 c. whole-wheat pastry or unbleached flour
3 T. sugar
3/4 tsp. saly
8 eggs
3 c. soy or regular milk
4 to 6 T. butter, cut in little bits.

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put two 9-inch cake pans in oven to heat them up. 
• Mix flour, sugar and salt.  Add milk and eggs, blending just until combined.  Take the pans from the oven.  Put 2 tablespoons butter in each.  Swirl to coat.  Divide the batter equally in half, pouring it in quickly.  Return pans to oven immediately.  Bake for approx 15 minutes.  They will get really puffy and that's supposed to happen.  Then they will fall as soon as you take them out of the oven. 
• Sprinkle with powdered sugar, syrup, lemons, butter whatever you like on your pancakes. (I know lemon sounds odd.  But it's YUMMY!

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