Finally...

a weekend at home to relax, bake and sew.

Now that is my kind of weekend :)

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy busy weekends and traveling and such

but sometimes it's just nice to be, isn't it?

I am SO excited that my honey wheat bread has finally turned out!

I made Delia's bread even though it has failed me before.

Third times a charm :)

Kyle loved it! He ate basically the whole loaf picture above in one night.

Good thing it made three loaves!

"God is not a white Man"

This video was showed at Gulfcoast Getaway one night. Isn't it great!

Thanks Gungor for making such a great song and video with a beautiful message! 

Birthday Wishes to the Ever So Lovely Karen Ferguson

Happy Birthday Karen!

If ever someone deserved the most wonderful birthday it's this lady!

I hope it's the best one yet Karen :)

You're the best mother-in-law a girl could ask for.

Seriously, I wish I could explain how thankful I am for such a great mil.

Love you so much!!!

Weekend and a Way to Help a Family!

This past weekend I was at Gulfcoast Getaway. It was amazing. Gulfcoast is a gathering of over one thousand college students who come together to praise God, participate in service, and grow from classes and lectures. For the last four years I've gone as a student but this year I was there as a volunteer.

This years theme was Holos: Reimagining Campus Ministry.

 Worship!

Prayers Squares 

A beautiful adoption story shared.

Community Prayer Portraid by Laura Amstutz.

Throughout the conference students wrote down thoughts, prayers, scriptures, etc. At the end of the weekend Laura put together this inspiring painting. Really I guess you'd call it more of a mixed media art but anyway, it's amazing.

Check out more of her stuff here. She is seriously talented.

Randy Harris spoke this year and talked about how your context changes but what you do doesn't. He also spoke on living cruciform which means cross-shaped. Another of the main topics was using our puzzle piece for God. I'm not so good at summing things up (why I started a crafty blog and not so much a my deep [ha] thoughts blog) but perhaps I'll share more later. On to what I really want to talk about:

Perhaps the coolest thing these college students do over this getaway weekend is getting involved with things going on in the world by donating to non profit organizations and to families in need.

This weekend over $34,000 - that's right, college students gave over 34,000 dollars - was given to Honduras Hope and to the King family.

Marc and Terri Tindal founded Honduras Hope. They have a children's home, build houses for people who don't have them and they are doing a lot of work in the city dump of Honduras where hundreds of people live. What they're doing in Honduras is truly bringing hope to thousands.

Now I'll tell you a little bit about the King family. In early November Jeremy died on a hunting trip. He left behind his wonderful wife Veronica, two beautiful children and another baby on the way due on Valentine's Day. Jeremy and Veronica were both on the praise team for Gulfcoast in previous years and Veronica led worship again this year. My heart just breaks for this family. Please pray for them.

College students gave a lot of money to this family and that is so awesome.

Yesterday I was reading Veronica's blog and saw that another blog is raising money for her family too!

Nikki, from Pennies on a Platter makes a certain amount of money for every hit on her page that she gets and for the month of January she is giving all that money she makes from hits to Veronica and her family! All you need to do is visit the website a ton! Make sure the page loads all the way. She also has a  Paypal donate button thing on her blog that you can click and donate to the Kings.

And you'll love that you visited the blog too because she has a ton of delicious recipes. Like, on my list to make already is this Mac n' Cheese, Queso Blanco and Pretzel Bites.

~Special thanks to Kay Ledet for letting me use her pictures! I brought my camera but didn't take a single one, I've got to get better at that. Her pics are better than mine would have been anyway :)

Reci-please

Bahaha what a clever title!

Or perhaps I am the only lame one in this world who finds this funny  ;)
Regardless, I am amused.

Anyway...

This post is all about recipes. I have searched the internets high and low to find recipes that strike my fancy and ladies and gentlemen, I have found several to share.

isn't this kitchen so cute! found it here

I've been trying new things in the kitchen lately. One such thing is soup. I've never made homemade soup. A shame really. So last week I made this recipe. I really like that it is made with real cheese (not a fan of recipes that call for cheeses like Velveeta) and frozen corn (not canned). However, it was just a little bland for me - not enough flava flav. Good base though, next time I'm going to add my own twist.

Another first dinner try for me were these Oven Baked Chicken Fingers complete with homemade dipping sauce from Sugarlaws. These were delicious and a great alternative to the yucky, bad-for-you chicken fingers you order at restaurants and fast food joints. These were quick and easy to make: definitely a go to me for me now! And I love my chicken.

Another in the kitchen attempt that I am super happy about is baking bread and it turning out super good. My friend Kayla and I made this French Peasant Bread recipe from Bloom the other night. And it worked! I definitely recommend trying this recipe, especially if you are journeying

into the world of bread baking for the first time.

Lastly, Kyle and I are baking these during halftime.
Anybody else watching the National Championship Game?
I've wanted to try my hand at sea salty caramel brownies since the first time I saw them out in blogland.
I hope they turn out amazing so I can make them for my mom next time I'm home!
She loves caramel and the salty sweet combo and I love her so it just makes sense :)

Handmade Gifts

I can at last post these because they have now been given.

I made these clutches for my sisters and for Kyle's cousin's wife whose name I drew in the gift game.

I used this great tutorial from Anna to make them and even learned zippers in the process!

Kyle helped me with that one haha

The first picture is of the first one I made. This one was a bit crooked as you can see, but it was amazing to see how much I improved on each one! Very encouraging :)

The one above is the third I made and the picture below is an inside view. These clutches were complete with a divider pocket and card holders. They were a fun project, I highly suggest this tutorial!

This is def not the last bag you'll see from me. I have some ideas and plans floating in my head ;)

Excited to share later!

A St. Louisy New Years Eve

Kyle and I went on a fun little weekend getaway for New Years Eve this year to St. Louis.
I'm sure the title gave this all away though...

We had a lot of exploring to do-neither of us have spent a ton of time there.
Kyle has been more recently than I have: I just remember Grant's Farm from when I was teeny.
The first place we went was of course the park. We have a thing for city parks.
Forest Park in St. Louis is excellent! Easily in my top three. Easy.
And there is so so so much to do there!

No trip to St. Louis is complete without ooing and ahhing over the Gateway Arch.

We actually went to the very top! Very frightening might I add.
This is what one of the little tram shuttle thingies look like:

Yes, itty bitty.
I'm so glad we went up.
Definitely overcoming some fear there.
I'll never do it again though ;)

That night we went to First Night which is a really neat community festival. It's a celebration of the New Year expressed through the arts. This year there was an underwater theme and over 150 artists were there to perform. It was a really fun way to ring in the New Year. 

One of my favorite artist that I got to see was Kim Massie. She had such a strong voice and also quite a personality. Another one of my favorites was being led in meditation at St. Francis Xavier College Church (pictured below) to the tones of ancient instruments. That was quite interesting and I thought a very good way to begin the New Year, not to mention, it was very warm in there and not so much outside...

Saturday morning we went back to Forest Park and spent hours in the Science Center.
It was fascinating! I loved it.
Sadly I don't have very many pictures from our visit there, I was too busy enjoying it to bother with pictures. But I do have these:

I know, ridiculous that those are the two pictures I took at the Science Center but I thought it was way cool! Like an I Spy game display and we all know how much I love Christmas.
I think I should make one for next year...or maybe when we have kids. I think that would make us the coolest parents ever. But that's way down the line :)

So since I did a horrible job documenting the Science Center visit you should def check out more here or just go for yourself! Yea, second option is best :)

And Kyle has some great pics from the trip on facebook so check'em out.
His photography skills put mine to shame!

Next trips' agenda definitely includes: City Museum,  Art Museum,  zoo, Grant's Farm, and I think I should explore and find some awesome fabric shops and such. Any suggestions?