Changeable Seasonal Wreath

One of my first Pinterest discoveries was this wreath.  It's simply burlap strips wrapped around a styrofoam form.  Three loops are placed on the wreath for you to connect different decor to it, so you can change it throughout the year!  Genius idea.  (My input on her tutorial is that painting the form black is an unnecessary step - white is fine!)  

I have a new love for felt flowers. My first wreath was for the spring.  Tutorial for the spring pom pom flowers.  These flowers were really easy and all you need is felt, something round for tracing, scissors, and a hot glue gun.

I switched up the flowers over the summer for the 4th of July!  These flowers were prettier, made a bigger statement, and were a really big hit.  They were also very easy.  Same materials required.  Tutorial here.  The only thing I did differently was hot glue these little gems in the center instead of a button.

I'm so excited that it's fall. I absolutely love fall decorations.  Maybe even a tiny bit more than I love Christmas decorations!  Here's my fall wreath and  Here's my inspiration blog.  I did change a few more things on these!  See below.

First of all I needed bigger flowers than this tutorial made.  So using a 12 inch long piece of felt, I drew out 4 big petals - roughly 1 3/4 inch high and 3in wide.  

I found it easiest to line the top of the petals with the ruler and to mark the width of them about halfway up from the bottom.  This got me the most evenly shaped petals.  Do slightly less than 3in to get the nice slopes on each end, you can see my dot is just shy of reaching the 9in mark on the ruler.  See my random dot in the middle there?  Am I really confusing you yet?  I am not skilled enough to cut evenly without a line so I draw it all out with a pen.  To avoid the pen marks on your flower, just cut right below the line.

To do the center part I used the same system but made them about 1 1/2 inches in both height and width and I used the shorter end of my felt sheet, so only about 8 inches long. 

  
If you don't have any sewing skills like me then the next part is tricky. If you have needle and thread skills then this next part is cake.  Weave your near matching colored thread in and out along the bottom.  Keep it pulled tight and then stitch together the ends so that it becomes a circle and completes your flower!  You really want the smaller piece pulled together tight so you have somewhere to stick your button or whatever you want to put in the middle.  If you have no needle and thread skills like me, I found it easiest to use a doubled up piece of thread that was only a little longer than the piece of felt I was working on.  Don't make it too long or it will become a knotted nightmare.

Weaving the thread, but keep it scrunched up tighter than this!

After you make your big petals and your smaller petals, you can either stitch them together or use hot glue like I did.  I want to use needle and thread as little as possible.  Here are the three pieces you'll be putting together.  Notice how a hole in the middle of the the larger flower is fine, but you want to minimize it as much as possible in the smaller flower that will be on top.  Just keep stitching it up like crazy!  It can be a mess, just cover up your crazy stitches with a cute button!  

To finish it, hot glue or stitch a clip onto the back that you can clip onto your wreath.  Using clips lets you move them around easily and put them on whatever you want!

The Views, The Pubs, and the Mountain Goats

December 5th will be our 3 year wedding anniversary!  We decided to take a celebratory trip early and escape to the mountains of Colorado for a few days at the end of the summer before life got hectic again.  I LOVE mountains.  It sounded like the perfect spot in the middle of the August heat.  100 degrees in Austin, 60-70 degrees in the mountains of Colorado. Yes, please!  I am admittedly NOT a skier, but maybe after this trip I'd be just a little more open to heading back up there in the winter.

The most beautiful area I have ever been to is Switzerland.  There were so many spots where I literally felt as if I was in a photoshopped magazine picture. A place that couldn't even be real in my dreams.  The colors were vibrant and the views were so stunning that I could find no flaws in them.  I love finding little gems of spots like this because they make me feel so close to God and his creation!  I imagine that when Jesus comes to redeem the world and create a New Heavens and New Earth that every inch will surpass spots such as these in their beauty.

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. Revelation 21:10

What a glorious day it will be!  Meanwhile, I love to find spots on Earth now that give me a taste of the coming kingdom.  We found a few of those spots in the Colorado Rockies.

We got an amazing deal through Groupon on a condo in Keystone.  We arrived on a Wednesday. Our condo was right at the bottom of one of the ski slopes.  The weather was rainy for the first few days we were there, but we loved seeing the clouds hang over the mountains.  You know you're in a beautiful place when it's still beautiful despite gross weather!

On Thursday morning we explored Breckenridge.  It's only about 20 minutes from Keystone.  We saw a gondola and when we found out it was free we didn't even stop to ask where it was going, we just jumped on!  It took us up to an adventure park where we were able to get on a ski lift and go up almost to the tree line, which is at about 11,000 feet.  When we went back down we explored the town, which has lots of sweet little shops and restaurants.  It took us forever to decide where to eat!

Speaking of places to eat, we discovered that you must go to the local pubs!  The Denver area and Summit County in the mountains have loads of microbreweries and pubs with tasty comfort food like fish and chips and bison burgers and Rocky Mountain Trout. We tried a couple of Pubs in Dillon, right next to Keystone:  Dillon Dam Brewery and Pug Ryan's.  Both were delicious.

Thursday afternoon we drove back out towards Denver to Red Rocks Park. God made the Red Rocks amphitheater acoustically perfect!  We saw Norah Jones there, a collective favorite of ours, and she was great as always.  While I listened I couldn't stop admiring the view over the Denver skyline and the horizon as it lit up as the sun went down.  Check out the link for better pictures, but...rock face!

On Friday we went to Vail which is about 40 minutes from Keystone.  If you've never been, Vail is a quaint little touristy town with lots of pedestrian streets and European-style buildings.  They have a gorgeous garden in one corner of it.  When we walked down the path out to the garden I loved this little picnic table that we spotted!

Wildflowers in the Rockies are extra bright and attract lots of wildlife, like hummingbirds!

On our last morning, we finally woke up to gorgeous blue skies!  On our way back to Denver to catch our late afternoon flight, we drove up to Mt. Evans.  This mountain has the highest paved road in North America, higher than Pikes Peak!  The drive is only open in the summer and it's quite literally a cliffhanger, but if you're in a car then you're not as crazy as the dozens of bikers that you'll see climbing to the top.  It's also one of the most convenient places to see wild mountain goats!! 

Mt. Evans is at 14,130 feet.

As I said at the beginning, we saw several of those "picture-perfect" views on our trip.  But this spot - Summit Lake on Mt. Evans - was by far our favorite.  The mountain lake was surrounded by tundra that was a beautiful fall-like reddish color.  A little oasis of perfection!

Lessons from Esther: Part 3 - How I was Convicted

To say that Esther was a courageous woman would be a massive understatement.  One of my new favorite moments from a woman in the bible is in chapter 4 of Esther.  Mordecai learns of Haman's plan to destroy the Jews throughout Persia.  Even though he knows it will put Esther at great risk, he also knows that she is their only hope, so he asks for her help.

I'm skipping a lot of really good stuff, but to cut straight to the chase, here is Esther's response. (Remember, anyone who approaches the king without a summons is facing a likely death penalty.  Esther also points out to Mordecai in vs. 14 that the king has not called on her in 30 days!)
Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day.  I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish. - Esther 4:15-16 (emphasis mine)

This was just one little thing among several that God used recently to convict me about fasting... and the fact that I never do it!  I think if we're honest a good majority of us don't.  We have excuses about how busy we are, how we need the energy, how it's unhealthy, how we would just fail and use it as a way to lose weight, or in my case, how grumpy I get without food.  But we are expected to fast.  Early followers did it so regularly that when Jesus spoke of fasting he said, "When you fast..." (Matt 6:16) Not if, but when. He spoke of it in the same way he spoke of prayer. They go hand in hand.  Jesus himself fasted for 40 days and 40 nights (Matthew 4).

Fortunately, we can start small.  I think the key is to make it a regular part of our worship.  So I've made a new commitment to fast for one meal per week.  Maybe eventually I can build on that, but so far I've already forgotten and found myself munching more than once!  I am not a perfect one here, for sure and for certain...

One thing I love about fasting is how it reinforces my efforts to be joyful always and pray continually.  Hunger is my cue to pray, which means that I do a lot of praying, pretty much continually.  Because hunger is on my mind, God is even more on my mind.  In order to fast, we must humble ourselves significantly and put ourselves in a vulnerable, physically weakened place. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Cor 12:10.  Spiritually, we soar!  It teaches us discipline and self-control that we need for a spiritually fruitful life.  God will bless any genuine effort we make to take a step of faith and humble ourselves. I have felt and experienced his joy and blessings almost immediately!  So if you're one who has lots of excuses, I challenge you to put them aside and try it!  Esther didn't hesitate to fast when she was in a bind.  In an already vulnerable position, she chose to weaken herself even further to truly let God work and speak in her life.  She even humbled herself to the threat of death.  I want to be more like her...and more like Jesus.

Here are some fasting resources for you:
Cru: Guide to Fasting and Prayer by Bill Bright
Adding Fasting to your Prayer Life - For Dummies!
Tips for Effective Fasting