Be strong and courageous...

 

                                                                                Source: joyshope.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

I saw this on Joy's Hope today and thought it was another fitting verse for our community.

faithfulness...

The stories I continue to hear about this storm are amazing.  Many are not mine to tell, but I'll share my husband's story.  Scott had the opportunity to work alongside a Samaritan's Purse relief team for part of the day yesterday.  They cleaned up debris at 2 houses and arrived at a third house.  

According to Scott, the family that lived in the house was emotionally broken.  The couple didn't own the home, but were renting-to-own.  They did not have insurance on their belongings, but would be able to make an insurance claim for the home if they had "proof" of the rent-to-own agreement.  The proof was in a jar in a room of their home, that was nearly destroyed. 

The husband had already searched this room twice, but searched through it again at Scott's urging.  The wife was praying with a group in the yard, pleading for the Lord to reveal the jar.  Within seconds, before Scott could even jump down into the debris to help, the man yelled "Here it is!" and handed the jar up to Scott.  He was able to hand the jar, with the "proof" intact, to the women. Our God is good!

Samaritan's Purse gives each family a Bible, and allows each team member to sign it.  Scott signed it and wrote this verse, Lamentations 3:22-23, on the inside.  I can't think of a more fitting verse.

After hearing his story, I couldn't get that verse and what it means for our community off of my mind.  So, I came up with this design in Photoshop Elements. I plan to print this out and hang it in our home as a reminder of God's faithfulness.  I encourage you to do the same.  Please leave me a comment if you download this!  If you'd like a larger size, leave it in the comments and I'll send one via e-mail.

Please continue to pray for our community!

link love: 05.28.2011

image credit|big fish tees

Today's link love is totally different than the others that I've posted.  I'm going to share links for ways that you can help our community. 

Friends and family who live out of town have asked, "Is it as bad as it looks?"  Unfortunately, it's much, much worse.  The videos and pictures on TV just don't capture the utter devastation that our community is experiencing right now.  I saw the main part of the devastation with my own eyes a few days ago and there are no words.

If you'd like to help Joplin, whether you're local or out of town,here are some links:

Samarian's Purse has been in Joplin since Sunday night.  They have been helping families salvage belongings, repair damage to homes, and removing trees and debris.  My husband, Scott, had a chance to work with them yesterday.

Several moms in my MOPS group have lost homes and many belongings.  An Amazon wishlist has been set up and items can be purchased to help these moms!
 
Big Fish Tees has designed a Hope for Joplin t-shirt.  100% of the proceeds is going to be donated to Convoy of Hope. 



Convoy of Hope has a large presence in Joplin right now.  It's a faith-based organization who is help out tremendously.

Tornadoes...

I'm not sure where to start with this one...We live about 4 miles outside of Joplin, Missouri, where the devastating tornado hit on Sunday night. Since Sunday night, we've been helping friends salvage their belongings from their homes that were destroyed, consoling teenagers (my husband is a youth pastor), praying for those who have lost family members, and watching our church and our community band together to help those in need.

This is a picture of St. Paul's United Methodist Church, where my son attended preschool twice a week.

I don't even know how to describe the whole situation, other than surreal.  We were under threat of more tornadoes last night, so we hurried to a friend's house with a basement to wait out the storm.  No one takes these things lightly anymore...

If you are interested in helping specific families, please contact me through Facebook or by e-mail.  We have several close friends who have lost homes, cars, and most belongings.

Our church, First Baptist Church of Webb City, is also taking donations to help families affected.  Contact me for their information.

I found this verse on a blog recently and thought that it was so fitting for this situation...

Please pray for our little town that we've so quickly grown to love.

link love: 05.21.2011

 image credit|Something Created Everyday

Happy Saturday!  We've had a busy weekend so far, but a "good" busy!  The weather this weekend is supposed to be gorgeous and I'm definitely going to enjoy it.

How awesome is that sewing notions wreath?!   It's definitely on my "to do" list for my sewing room, aka Guest Room, aka Mom Cave.

The blogs have been full of awesome links this week!  Here are a few that I love:

LOVE these pom-poms that Jodie made over at Love, Laughter, and Decor. They remind me of hydrangeas, my favorite flower!  What an awesome centerpiece for a bridal shower or baby shower.

This Pottery Barn Ruched Duvet Knock Off is FABULOUS!

I can't wait to print out and laminate a few of these Dinnertime Doodle Mats.  Genius.

Another pillow tutorial to add to my growing favorites list...a beautiful lattice pillow!

RH Knock Off: Vintage Synonym Flashcard Art

While looking through the RH Baby & Child website a few weeks ago, I came across this boy's room:

                                                                           Source: rhbabyandchild.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

I love the bed, the grayish/tan color on the walls, the navy blue accents....and I especially loved this:

                                                                 Source: rhbabyandchild.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

"Brave" and "valiant" are definitely 2 words that I'd like Grayson to look at every day!  I love the vintage flashcard look and LOVE the sheet metal frames, but didn't love the $65 for a set of 2 price tag.  

I had some dark wood frames laying around so I turned to my faithful friend, Photoshop Elements, and attempted to recreate the flashcards.  Here is my version hanging up in Gray's room:

I will probably buy some larger frame - or look for some at garage sales that I can spray paint to look metallic - and reframe these.  There's not enough "white space" around the words for my liking, but they look cute for now.

Would you like to print your own Vintage Synonyms?  Here you go!  Just save the file and print it as you would a picture.

  Linking up to:

Be Different Act Normal: Show and Tell Saturday

Giveaway over at Cap's Creations

Be sure to check out Cap's Creations for a fun little giveaway!  You could be one of the first to own one of our ruffled clutches before they hit our Etsy shop!

5/17 Giveaway!

A friend commented on my Facebook page that it was 5/17. How did I miss this?! I couldn't let today go by without a little celebration. What a GREAT day for a giveaway!

The winner will win their choice of a:

Crayon Roll (with crayons included) in your choice of fabric

OR

 

Your choice of one of the zippy pouches pictured above!

Want to know how to enter the giveaway??

1. Become a follower of our blog! 
2. “Like” us on Facebook!
3. Tell your Facebook friends about this giveaway and link to this post! 
4. Blog about this giveaway and link back to this post! 

Remember to leave a comment each time you do one of the above.

You can also gain entries by referring your friends! You do not need to leave comments for these – we’ll tally them up for you.

1. Refer your family, friends, neighbors, etc. to 517 Creations to become followers of our blog (using google friend connect). Your referrals must follow using google friend connect and they must leave a comment on the blog with the referrer's name and email address/ blog. 
2. Refer your friends on Facebook. Have your friends LIKE the page and leave a comment titled “Referred by (your name)”. 

 Winners will be announced on Saturday morning! The giveaway starts NOW! READY, SET, GOOOOOOO!

Anthropologie Knock Off: Cummerbund Pillow

Can we just talk a minute about my love for Anthropologie? They have amazing clothes, fabulous shoes, and awe-inspiring home decor items.  Their prices?  Not so fabulous...unless you have a money tree growing in your backyard.  Which, if you do, could you send me your address? :)

When we lived in Austin, there was an Anthropologie in the area, and I loved to walk through the store and browse.  Now that we live in small-town Missouri, there isn't a store within 100 miles.  So I tend to browse their website and dream of walking through that amazing-smelling store!

While browsing the site recently, I cam across this Cummerbund Pillow.

                                                                               Source: anthropologie.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

Love.it.  The $128 price tag? Not so much.  It is a silk pillow with a down insert, and hand-made in Ethiopia, but still!  I thought I'd try to recreate it out of the fabrics in my stash, so this project was FREE!

Here's my knock off:

This was my first time sewing a pin-tuck and it is a little tedious.  But, I'd say the whole pillow cover project took me a little over an hour.  Luckily the pin-tucks on the Anthro pillow are a little "wonky" so it made the ironing and sewing that much easier.

**I'm working on a tutorial for this pillow.  It will be posted as soon as these thunderstorms clear up and I can take pictures! :) **

Linked up to:

 

Pinterest

I have always had an “Inspiration” folder on the desktop of my computer. It was even organized by topic by different folders within. Then my hard drive crashed…ugh. I had almost all of my photos backed up, but not my Inspiration folder!

Now I have an even better way to file that inspiration away:

 It’s like a virtual pin board that you can “pin” all of your inspiration to.  Here are some of the things that I've pinned:

And for all of us with just a touch of OCD, Pinterest allows you to create different boards to organize all of your ideas to your little heart’s content!

You can find me on Pinterest right here. Need an invite? Leave me a comment with your e-mail!

our new house numbers...

When we moved into our house, it had "peel and stick" house numbers above the garage door...you know the kind that you're supposed to stick to your mailbox? They were doing more peeling than sticking and they looked awful.  I took them down as soon as possible.

We still had house numbers on our mailbox, so I didn't really worry about putting any back up.  Plus, all of the ones that I loved were expensive or they just wouldn't work for our house.  Here are some ideas I found on Pinterest that I love:

                                                        Source: homeshoppingspy.wordpress.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

                                                               Source: emilyaclark.blogspot.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

                                                                     Source: gallery.apartmenttherapy.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

                                                                           Source: marthastewart.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

                                                                                 Source: google.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

                                                                            Source: budgetwisehome.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

I love the vinyl on the front door, but it just doesn't work with the design of our front door.  The mid-centry modern font of some of the metal numbers are my favorite, but I wasn't really sure about where to put the house numbers as our house is mostly brick.  I didn't want to worry about attaching permanent numbers using a masonry bit and hating them.

So, we went 5 months without house numbers.  And then I made my own...

I took a scrap of wood that was laying around in our scrap pile and painted it with black acrylic paint.  I used Photoshop to design something that I liked, printed it out, and used the same method as my Ruler Growth Chart to transfer the design to the wood.  Then, using paint pens, I filled in the design.  Cute, easy, and FREE!

Here is a picture of how they look on our little front porch:

Can I tell you how much I love that green, chippy chair that a friend gave me?!

link love: 05.14.11

image credit|eighteen25

Happy Saturday!  Hope your weekend has been relaxing and fun! Here are a few of my favorites the interweb had to share this past week.  

Don’t you love the “filler print” above by the cute girls at eighteen 25?  Guess what…you can download it and print it out in several color schemes…for FREE!

Like the rest of the blog world, I’m loving the gray and yellow color combination.  Wait until you see what was used to make these awesome curtains at Creative Little Daisy!

Love, love, LOVE Amanda Carol’s Mom Cave!  I need to take pics to show you my own “mom cave.”

I came across this video tutorial for a LMSB – low, messy side bun.  So cute.

My symmetry-loving self really digs this asymmetrical arrangement of plates.

Another Pottery Barn knock off...by Wal-Mart?

I have been looking for new chairs to fit our kitchen table since we moved into our new home.  The table and chairs that we had in our previous home, though beautiful and a hand-me-down from family, just didn't fit our new space.  We had a round pedestal table from Scott's parents that never really seemed to fit my style...until we put it into our new space.  It just seemed to fit perfectly.

The chairs that we have are very cool and were hand-me-downs from Scott's grandparents.  Two of them are chippy, and painted my favorite shade of green.  But, the top-heavy ladder back style is a little tall for the table and tips very easily when Grayson is scooting around in them.

I have loved this table and chair combination from Pottery Barn since I first laid eyes on it.  However, I did not love the price tag of the chairs.  I'm sure they're wonderfully well-made, and they are certainly beautiful, but they just don't fit the budget.

                                                                       Source: potterybarn.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

Imagine my surprise when I came across these chairs...

                                                                              Source: walmart.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

You will NEVER guess where they're from...well unless you looked at the link below the photo. :)  Wal-Mart, people! I am definitely more of a Target girl myself, but I can buy 4 of these chairs from Wal-Mart for the price of 1 of the PB chairs!  Now I know they are a little different - they don't have the rush seat - but you can't beat the price!

Has anyone else seen any great department or discount store knock offs of Pottery Barn?

before & {happily ever} after...entry and hallway

Last Friday, I showed you the before and after of our kitchen.  There are still a few things that I'd change about our kitchen, but I love, love, LOVE how it looks now.

I said that the kitchen was one of the first things that we saw, but that's not entirely true.  Here was our view the moment our realtor opened the door...

 I loved the fireplace and the bookshelves that flank it on either side.  The spindles and sculptured carpet...not so much.  Here's what it looks like when you walk into our home today...

We took those spindles out - we actually opened that doorway into the playroom up about 6 extra feet - and replaced the carpet with laminate that is made to mimic hand-scraped hardwood.  There are still a few things on the "to do someday" list (like change out the fireplace door/insert), but I love it!

The hallway that leads to the bedrooms and bathrooms was another one of the first things that we saw.  Here's what it looked like in September 2010:

And what it looks like today...

Some of the frames area crooked (a 3-year old and a 90 pound dog running around will do that) and some of the frames are waiting to be filled (a Father's Day present for Scott is in the works for one of the frames), but I think that my work-in-progress gallery wall makes a long hallway a little more stylish.  Isn't it amazing what a little paint can do?!  Painting our dark oak trim white made a huge difference in our home!

Even though I was there for every step of the way, when I look at the "before" pictures, it's still hard to believe that it's the same house!

I'll be back with more before & {happily ever} afters of our home in the coming days!

Linked to:

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mommas and hopeful mommas! I hope your families are making you feel special today.

Here’s a picture of my mom and I when I was somewhere between 1 and 2 (right, Mom?) and she was 12…just kidding, but doesn’t she look young?? She STILL looks that young and gets compliments on it all the time!

my mom and I | circa 1980 or 1981

This is one of my favorite pictures of Grayson and I.  Oh my heart, how I love that beautiful boy.  I remember thinking that he looked so big when we had these pictures taken...

Grayson and Momma | circa 2008

And one of my mom and that beautiful boy, her grandson.

Grayson and Grandma| circa 2011

I’m so thankful for my mom and SO, SO thankful to be a mom!