sey061

Remember a few weeks ago when I wrote this post about being a Goo Gone GooRu? I had just received my box of fabulous Goo Gone swag and I shared my thoughts about each item in the box. Of course the whole post was sort of tongue-in-cheek but hopefully it was clear that I was excited about the goodies and overall I was very pleased. Really the only negative things I said, again more tongue-in-cheek than actual criticism, had to do with the letter being a typed form letter instead of handwritten and the product they sent was sample sized instead of full sized. The truth is if I was Mrs. Goo Gone and I was sending free stuff to a total stranger who might end up doing me absolutely no good whatsoever, they'd be darn lucky to even get a sample size and I probably wouldn't waste paper on a letter of any kind. But that's just me. Today Fed Ex brought me an unexpected package which I fantasized was a bomb for about 3 minutes before opening it. If I'm not expecting a package and...

The outside temperature gauge in my car. Taylor and I spent this past week visiting family in Wichita Falls, TX. Temperatures hovered around 110, occasionally dipping down to a tepid 104. Wichita Falls has had 91 days of temperatures over 100 degrees this year which one might expect when living on the surface of the sun. When we were just about ready to leave Houston last week I got a call from my sister saying that her daughter was being transported to Children's Medical Center in Dallas. My niece has some pretty serious genetic/metabolic diseases that require very specialized medical care that she can't get at home. With this new piece of information, we altered our route and drove from Houston to Dallas instead of Wichita Falls. There was no way of knowing how long my niece would be in Dallas so we wanted to make sure we got to spend some time with her and my sister on our trip. This ended up working out really well since Taylor and I made it to the hospital be...

Chan Luu Wrap Bracelets Wrap bracelets are everywhere, have you noticed? Well, they're everywhere except Sam Moon. I searched high and low for a $5 wrap bracelet carefully made with love in a Chinese sweatshop but came up empty handed.  The obvious solution was to make one myself. I found several good tutorials online so I won't get too specific here. If you want specifics you should visit Sew Petite Gal who has a nice video tutorial that I found AFTER I had finished my bracelet. Figures. The Rings & Things Blog has some good instructions. Inspiration and Realisation has a tutorial but the one I found most helpful was from The Hollie Rogue . The technique reminds me a lot of the macrame we did in the 70s. So much so that I almost wanted to light some incense, listen to the Doobie Brothers and pop open a Tab. You can still buy Tab, ya know, only now it has slightly fewer carcinogens. Actually it doesn't have any. Remember when the FDA announced that saccharine could...

We've all seen this on Pinterest , right? You can buy one in JKCreate's Etsy shop for around $75 or you make one yourself for free if, like me, you just happen to already have all the stuff on hand. When I saw this I knew I'd be trying it for myself but I also knew I'd be doing it a little different. I like the colors in spectral order (even though she didn't start with red like she's supposed to but I guess we can call that creative license and let it go) but that just won't work for my little pastel house. I also knew I didn't want the wrappers left on my crayons and that has nothing to do with the fact that all of my crayons are different brands, sizes, shapes, etc. I just don't care for the wrapper look. Here's the supplies you will need:      a canvas      some crayons      some glue      a heat gun Complicated, I know. Before you ask, yes I divide my crayons into color groups and store them that way. ...

Summit Doodle #1 I didn't think anyone could top yesterday's Global Leadership Summit speakers but someone did. And she did it before she spoke her first word. At the beginning of the first session this morning we were handed a chunk of a broken clay pot and told to just hang on to it, we'd need it later. I love experiential worship and I've done the writing on the broken clay piece thing before so that was cool. The first speaker of the morning was supposed to have been Rev. Stephen Sundar from India but he wasn't able to get a visa for the trip. Wess  Stafford from Compassion International filled in for him. I've heard Wess speak at a previous Summit and he has a powerful story and a genuine love for the children he has devoted his life to. His topic was missional, of course, and was a good reminder of how complacent and even lazy some American Christians are compared to those in countries such as Ethiopia where at one time just owning a Bible could cost y...

Summit Doodle I was going to do an indepth recap of today's sessions from the Global Leadership Summit but the last speaker of the day blew my mind so badly that I've forgotten everything else. The best I can do is hit a few highlights. If you're not familiar with The Summit it's a leadership conference put on by Willow Creek Church that everyone should attend regardless of your leadership or spiritual position. Or lack thereof. It's just plain good stuff. They usually do a pretty good job of balancing the Jesus stuff with the business stuff and occasionally combining the two. The speakers always include a variety of church leaders, businessmen, authors, educators, non-profit pioneers, and celebrities. Some of my favorite past speakers are Terri Kelly of Gore-Tex, Jack Welch of GE, Christine Caine of A21, pastor Harvey Carey , Patrick Lencioni of the Table Group, authors Chip and Dan Heath and Bono of...do I really need to say it? I also enjoyed Blake Mycoski...

I hope you're not still buying expensive crackling medium at the craft store for all your crackle finish needs. You do know there's another way, right? It's cheap, easy and effective. I'll show you how. You start with whatever it is you want to put a crackle finish on. It works on just about any surface. I've crackled both wood and metal. Today I'm crackling a wooden frame I got at a thrift store for $3. It's actually a nice frame but all the other frames on my wall are light colored and this one just overpowers the whole wall. I taped off the areas I didn't want to get paint on. Whatever color your item is now is the color that will show through the crackles. So if you want the base color to be different, paint it now. I thought the golden brown color of the frame would look fine showing through the crackles. Actually, I was just too lazy to paint it. Now you slap on a fairly thick layer of plain ol' Elmer's glue. I buy it by the gallon at WalMa...

I know I'm probably going to make a lot of people jealous with this post and I'm sorry about that but it must be done. I recently mention in another post that I am an official Goo Gone GooRu. I got that status by being contacted by the advertising agency who represents Goo Gone and evidently read something I said about it in some post that I've forgotten about. Obviously it was flattering so I'm glad I didn't do to them what I did to the Tarn-X people. I doubt I'll be getting any Tarn-X coupons any time soon. The Goo Gone gal asked if I wanted to be an official Goo Gone GooRu. All I had to do to get this highly coveted title was share some Goo Gone tips on their Facebook page. In return I'd get some Goo Gone swag. To be honest, I thought this was some kind of hokey spam thing but I like Goo Gone and I don't mind telling people about products that I like so I agreed to be a GooRu. I figured I'd share maybe one or two tips but I wasn't going to i...