My Ephiphany..A Storm Is Coming

If you have been dealing with a lot..click my babble below this picture.............I took this at my apartments and what I wrote came to mind while looking out the window.

  A Storm Is Coming

Family Craft Moment

Christmas cannot be defined in one single sentence or word. I like that it means different things to different people. Amongst the baked m&m cookies, fun just sitting in the livingroom with family while Christmas shows come on, and a graduation celebration for James, I picked up some foam crafts from Wal-mart that I thought would be easy enough for everyone to participate in. I think it was relatively easy to assembly, but the little adhesive dots that comes in the kit was extremely stubborn and would not let my gingerbread man's buttons stay on.

OK, So I cheated and used a glue-stick..but it ended up great anyway and we decorated the tree with them..poor ornaments didn't stand a chance near them! Kortney would have won if it were a contest, then Amy with her cute Snowman, and then mine, coming in last due to the eyeballs threatning to fall off my gingerbread man..(and what gingerbread man has curly hair?)but besides that I would say this would make a super-fun kid craft..and only 2 bucks..you know I was estatic about that! I wish real gingerbread decor was this easy..then maybe I wouldn't want to throw them against the wall next time and feel like Ebenezer Scrooge. Merry Christmas, all...6 more days!

Newest Project: B'Leggings A.K.A Baby Leggings

Unlike my more artisticly inclined blogger collegues, I seem to shutdown after about 10 steps of trying to learn a new project- I am a simple girl and if it appears complex, I get frustrated easily. However, this is the opposite of what I have to say about the new feat I have finally performed, what I like to call "B'Leggings" or Baby leggings. All I have to say is...It was pretty fun! I had planned to pick up the sewing machine from my mother-in-law's to assist me in the sewing section of this craft project, however, the sewing machine decided to stay out of commission, leaving me to depend upon my crude hand-sewing skills.

Usually at the sound of that- I would cringe, but the God of arts and crafts (the same one who loves me even when I want to throw a wad of knotted up thread in the air after getting tangled up) seemed to smile upon me and much to my surprise- allowed me to finish this quite successfully with my meager skills.

So, let's get down to the nitty gritty. First of all, the materials required were minimal, only a pair of longer socks that have a pattern you would like..in this case, I chose some cute striped socks from Wally-World, only cost me about 3 bucks, some thread, and a needle.

 (Note: Exciting part..You save a good chunk of change on doing this..as most baby leggings run about $15.00+ on the internet!)

Once you have your items before you, the first thing you will want to do is to cut off the section that ends at the heel of the sock. See where my scissors are..you will want to cut about here- but be sure to keep this cut off section..you will need it in a minute.

Now, along with my unprofessional sewing, I was blessed with not being able to cut straight, so as a forenote, if you can trim your edges straight, they will not be jagged and will not be as apt to curl while you are working with them later.

What you will want to cut next will be your toe section from the part you have just set aside. (Please see the placement of the scissors once again..)

So now, you are left with just two pieces- the small square section you have just cut, and the long section of the sock.  For the sake of  future reference purposes, let's call it the longer section and the smaller, square section. You can discard the toe and the heel section now.

 With the smaller, square section, you will be folding half inside-out. (Almost like you are folding in socks but you will only fold halfway where the two sections meet together.) This will leave you with a small section with a raw side where you had cut previously and a folded side.

Your section should look like this...

 Once your edges have met (your result will look like a small wristband) you will be placing your longer section INSIDE this little section. You will end up having all of your layers lined up with one another and will end up with three layers. The raw edges will be facing downward, and the folded section will be facing upwards toward. This little section is going to be the cuff where the ankle goes.

Once you have all of these sections lined up (be sure to make sure they are--this will not work correctly if not) you will be sewing around the entire circumference on the top where your fingers are. If it is easier, you can put in some small pins to keep the layers lined up as you sew,

You can either use a sewing machine, or if you are limited such as I, your hands. However, remember that if you use a sewing machine, you will want to sew on the INSIDE, not outside of the smaller section- as it will be hard to keep all the layers together, otherwise. Also, you will want to remove the pins as you sew.

Once, you have finished sewing this section all the way around, you will pull the cuff down. And, ta-da... you are finished!

Repeat the same steps for your other sock, and you have a pair of cute little baby leggings a.k.a..B'Leggings!

Wordle=Addicting!

So Crafty Crystal got me addicted to Wordle! Love it! Can make your own design just through words! Here's mine!

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/2886266/Things_Daphne_Likes

I have been really been thinking of some new projects to start working on and am thinking of baby leggings next!  Got to get me some cute patterns in the next day or so so I can begin..but first I will have to pick up the sewing machine from my mother-in-law's house..so excited! Thank goodness I don't have to search for a million Christmas gifts, I have pretty much all of them except for a small select few- thank goodness for the internet!
-daph

Preparing for the 1st Year Birthday Celebration of Madeline Grace

Not only do I express my undying affection for my daughter through the any means of celebration that I can, but I am thoroughly estatic on any chance of opportunity for me to create, craft or construct something that will not fall apart 5 seconds later with my hands.

This little art escapade has flourished into a cupcake theme, the main colors consisting mostly of bright pink, lavendar and brown. I have already found an awesome tutorial online on how to create a baby tu-tu and happened across a thousand baby boutiques that feature "boutique baby party hats" which I evaluated and summed up that it would be relatively easy to recreate myself.

A trip to Hobby Lobby and a few runs to Wal-mart later, I finished the tu-tu in about a night and half an afternoon (I will remember next time not to wear a sweater when dealing with tulle in the winter as I am not a huge fan of electricity and objects sticking to my bum and pant legs and only to find out I have a large piece still attached after I go to work) and was quite pleased with the turnout.

Lesson- when you are judging the size of the waist band, a smart thing to do before working on it would be to fit the baby first. I used baby head bands and sewed them together because they have the elastic in them- but you can use elastic, adult headbands or ribbon. If you don't want to sew- you may want to stick with headbands!

Basically, from there, I just cut 16" strips of tulle, ( you will want to cut out double the size of how long you want the strip to be...ex: if you want the strip to hang about 8 inches from the waist band- cut 16"). Then you tie knots of the tulle all around- I alternated colors. You can put ribbons on too to add flourishes. If you have a chunky baby like Madeline, you may want a bit more of a scrunchy, poofy tutu like I made- but the longer the strips, the more flatter the tutu will be.

Also, I decided to make the hat match- basically took a regular party had, cut the pattern from scrapbooking paper (polka dots), hot glued feathery boa material around the bottom, glued a little pom to the top and hot glued a number one to the middle. Simple as that- and fun..especially on a day when it was as cold and attempting to snow with half the city out of power like our town was!

I'm going to start working on the highchair kit- pendants or a highchair tutu (that may overdo it..we'll see) and I am working on my first ever cupcake pops!

If you have never heard of them, you can find out what I mean by this link: Cupcake Pops

I will try to remember to come back and post pictures next time!

Adios,

-Daphne 

Every Second Counts

Every second counts
Every minute's deep
Tossed like a wave
Always bittersweet

It will wrap you in it's arms
Take you for a ride
Touch you in a way
Somewhere far away, inside

You hold on longingly
Both hands clasping tight
Afraid of letting go,
You are consumed in all your fright

But the longer you hold on
The wearier you are
You can't look left or right
You can't look very far

Never looking forward
Because you're always looking back
The small joys in life you'd find
They are something that you lack

Don't worry about tomorrow
Don't stress about your past
Hold on to what's good and true
Because nothing ever lasts

Instead of looking backward
Instead of staying still
Look upont  the one who's pierced
Who died upon the hill

Look upon the one who's splintered
Where thorns encrust his head
Look upon the one who gave us life, his body is our bread

Look upon the one whose blood is showered upon our souls
It gives us everlasting life and its cost is more than gold

If you are looking where you should you will find three things of truth
One, you'll never thirst again, or hunger, is number two

And third, your joy will return to you as if it never fled
But none of these things would come to pass if his blood was never shed.

By: Daphne Caldwell

Nothing is ever certain in life, but change itself..

Change scares many people. It gives them fear, causes them to do crazy things. They lash out, panic, fight it with both feet dragging in the sand or frown upon it and look down on it from their big nose. But, it can be a good thing. I live in a small town. I have lived in small towns for quite some time now, and one thing  I know is change in such a place can be best described as something bitter you have left in your mouth like a bad aftertaste--lingering and a bit unpleasant. You often find it more obvious in older people, for some reason. Maybe because they lived with so much change in their lives, seen so many things that they think they have earned for once a title of a well-respected know-it-all and everything is a certain way as they see it. Or maybe they are just tired of change by that age and refuse to embrace it. Regardless of the matter, they usually despise change. You will hear a whisper of opposition as a new store is built, a rumor of a different program is soon to be established or the possibility of a large factory coming that will bring many jobs to the area to replace the loss from the previous large industry closing up. "What do they think they will accomplish?" "That will never go over here" or "Humph, that is just ridiculous, do they think we are Atlanta or something?". The harsh response to anything that basically seems like it may bring a new change of pace to a particular topic, place or subject.

An old latin proverb comes to mind when the discussion of change comes up: "People fear what they don't understand".  I could go further and say "What people don't understand, they tend to hate". Which seems to ring true, in most cases.

However, change can be refreshing. It can be enlightening. I once used to greet change with hostility, much like most of the locals here, who are quite content asking every week "How's your mom and dem?" or "Looks like it's going to rain."

However, stagnant waters tend to smell pretty rotten after a while. Fresh water is much more pleasant.

I found myself very unhappy with the way my life has been going, pretty much a rut would be the best description. And what better way to describe it then what my pastor would quote " A rut is nothing more than a grave with the sides kicked out."

Boy was he telling the truth. The same routine gets old quickly. And if you find yourself going nowhere at a hundred miles an hour, you get a bunch of nothing when you finally stop. I wrote a song once that said "Laughter can hide heavy heart, but when the laughter fades, only grief remains, if you're running fast at a million miles, when you finally stop, all you'll feel is pain."

Funny how it is labeled "Everybody's going somewhere". But I don't want to go just anywhere. I want to go SOMEWHERE and with a purpose. We all want to be somebody, and make a difference. What is so fun about just living life only to end up riding in a hearse?

Morbid as that may sound, it is the truth. And it's reality. So I started evaluating myself.I realized I didn't like what I saw in the mirror. The only way my void could be filled is for me to stop running from what  God wants from me and just give in. It makes things so much easier.

It took Jonah the point where he was drowning and being digested in a large fish's belly to realize things weren't looking up. No pun intended.

And I don't want to be that far gone before I realize I only have one escape route. God has really been working in my life, and in small, subtle ways, which is really kind of cool. We all expect these huge flashing fireworks of signs and wonders or a big neon sign pointing "Go here". But, it really makes it worth it to look back and think, Man, he didn't force me at all, he gave me a CHOICE. Best part of it all is if everything was perfect...why would I need Him in the first place?

But the fact is I do. I need him badly. I'm on recall and the only one  to fix the defect of sin in my life is Jesus.

Corny, but true. And we all are scared to death of the change he can bring us. So we end up hating him in our own small little ways. And we don't realize it. We do it by loving other things more than him, turning away from him, or just being ignorant.

We get warped on our views of God, thinking him as the enemy, an unfair God, because we judge him by what we think is fair in our standards, and we only know such a small piece of the puzzle. It's like a movie where you think something about this one character the whole time until a big piece of the plot comes into play and you are stunned because you had no idea really what it was all about.

I think God is just like that.

It has been fulfilling to see him work in my husband's life, seeking after God with excitement in the skating rink that he has placed on my husband's heart. Big dreams, but not impossible. A song I really like says that impossible is just an excuse for those who don't want to try. I believe it 100 percent. Most people would try to say that we dream to big for owning a skating rink, but I say it's all God. How else would it be possible?

They haven't seen the strength in my mom when my grandmother gets worse from cancer. They haven't seen the faith in my grandmother as she tiredly goes back, each time sicker than before. They haven't seen the battles, the tears, and the sweat I have pored over my own endeavors only to seem them be radically changed to something I never thought I would try to do in my life. They haven't seen my beautiful daughter, my angel be born before my eyes and think how that creature grew inside of me when for others it couldn't. They haven't seen how countless times we have been saved from growing bills, chaotic breakdowns from relationships, communication or just appliance parts in our home only to be put back together like they were never broken.

My God is everything. Therefore, I am everything. I am a part of a bigger picture, and change is what did it all.

Some think change is a bad thing. But I think it is the definition of my life.