I'm dedicating this post today to the most brilliant person that has ever been in my life. He was inspiring, calm, gentle, kind, giving, loving, and the most upstanding person ever. He was huge...towered over everyone at 6'5! He had the biggest softest hands and I loved loved loved hugging him or hearing him joke with me about the clothes i would wear! I loved his sense of humor! He was the best example i could have ever hoped to have about how to live my life. he was NEVER negative. Not one time did i ever hear a negative response come from him. He never talked bad about ANYONE! And he would probably be sure to put anyone that did in their place. He told it like it was. But his words were few! He was such an amazing person..and 6 years ago today...he went to be with the LORD in a new body! He is now flawlesss...although im pretty sure he always was. I love you Grandpa.

Diary of a former skinny girl

So, as my post earlier this weekend said..I'm embarking on a journey to skinyness. lol. I am extremely motivated and I can't wait to get back into the swing of things..i'm sure by about wednesday of this week...that will have changed! Isn't that how it always goes? You get really fired up about something....but then you realize when your alarm is going off at 5 am ....the gym is the last place on earth you want to be. I am not giving myself the choice though!

A few months ago I bought a shirt that I love love love. I bought it in a large and when I got home I was appalled to see that it would not fit. When I had I let myself gain so much weight? Anyways, I never took the shirt back...it was just too cute...so I am using that as well as another stack of clothes as my motivation!

Tonight I began rummaging through my closet to find about 8 pairs of Silver jeans that I cannot fit into anymore! All of them are almost new! Makes me sick! Silvers are about 80 bucks a pair..and so that is just more motivation! I pulled out a pair of jeans that I use to LOVE...they were a little snug when i bought them but I always loved them...WELL OH MY GOODNESS....they don't even come past my thighs now...i can barely fit both legs into them! SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO hopefully in a few months...I will begin to see progress.

DIY: jewelry organizer finished product

Well, a few posts ago I said I would post pictures of a very simple do it yourself jewelry organizer project that I read about doing on a blog. It was such a great idea that I just had to try.

What you need:

Frame
Wire(i used welded wire from lowes 7.00)

Spray paint(if you want to paint it)
Staple gun

S hooks (lowes, 3.00 for a bag of 6)

You just paint the frame, wait for it to try, measure the wire and staple it down securely over the back of frame...and voila!

The frame was a deep brown before, I loved this green...it was different and funky so I decided to give it a try!

And here is the final product hanging on the wall. You just hang your S hooks and begin to organize the jewelry! I haven't hung up all my jewelry yet, but you get the idea:)

You gotta just pick a place and start...again! My diet journal.

Okay, so...nothing like a beautiful fall day. Family sitting around the fire pit roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, laughing, joking...and then....the dreaded

"you've put on a lot of weight" comment.

Okay so it didn't happen quite like that. But my beautiful day was ruined when a family member told me that they saw a picture of me from a few years back and "DANG, girl, you use to be tiny!" Burn. Yeah, that didn't feel good. Actually twice in the last week that I have had that comment made....it hurts.

It made me think though. I really have put on the weight. About 4 years back I was just starting college, living on my own for the first time, and I made the decision to make the gym and eating healthy a huge part of my life...almost too much so. I lost between 60-70 pounds in about 5 months. It became an obsession....it's all i did. I would eat too much salad and punish myself by running miles upon miles. I could not function unless I spent hours everyday in the gym on the elliptical...never missing a Pilates or kickboxing class. I hid it,but i was so miserable. It was this horrible obsession of mine, losing weight! I did it though...i lost every single pound and I felt that I looked so much better! I had a TINY waist....i got more attention... the boys like me better lol...and my friends were in awe...but inside i was miserable.

Enter C. My lovely boyfriend he LOVES me the way I am. He was with me when i was skinny, and he is with me now! When we started dating I slowly got out of the horrible gym habit(the gym wasn't horrible, my obsession was) and i slowly started eating out again. With him I ate my first hamburger in years, ate my first french fry in years...and slowly started eating whatever he did! The problem being...it didn't affect him...but i packed back on the weight plus more!

I've known for a while that I need to get back in the gym. But a mixture of disappointment at myself and fear plus the worry of becoming an obsessive gym going freak has kept me from doing what needs to be done. HOWEVER, those little comments pushed me over the edge.

Starting Monday I will slowly get back in the gym. I don't know how I will do this without becoming an obsessive freak, but it will happen. I'm just having to pick a "place" and start...making 10 pounds my goal. Then another 10..then another...then hopefully it will become a habit and I will be on my way to getting skinny;) haha.

Why am i blogging about this? well....because I figure, even though i only have 4 followers...that if i put this on the Internet, i cant back out! It'll be out there. So Monday begins my diet journey...it won't be easy...but by this time next year...i'll be looking back at this so happy that i took that first step! SOOOO, if you happen to read this...and you have ever been on a similar journey..or maybe you want to take this journey with me..then let's do it!

Pictures coming soon!

DIY: jewelry organizer

What a great long day! I am so tired and it is only 6 pm. This morning C and I decided to do something very rare....yard sale/thrift store shop. Sounds enthralling right? ha, it really was. We got up early and grabbed a paper and checked out some yard sales and garage sales. I didn't find anything really. I was looking for crafty stuff of course...and he was looking for old video games(such a boy). I was SPECIFICALLY looking for an old picture frame. My guidelines were that the frame had some old antiquey or molding(i don't know if this makes sense..but i get it) like look to it. I didn't care the color or anything else...however, i couldn't find ANYTHING! At one yard sale I found one that would have worked, however, it was 20.00...and not in good shape at all. I kept shopping. We went to goodwill, salvation army, and a few other thrift stores and I was so disappointed to see the price on such old frames that were in bad shape. I didn't find anything cheaper than 15.00. How annoying. So what sent me on such a quest for a frame? I saw this amazing DIY project on someones blog on how to make a jewelry organizer. It was so unique and I was instantly begging the weekend to hurry along so that I could make this!

After searching I ended up empty handed and gave up momentarily. We ran into hobby lobby and I realized this weekend they just happened to be having a 50% off sale on all FRAMES...WOO! I ended up snagging one that isn't EXACTLY what I was looking for, but would work, for 13.00! It will work.

So, my DIY jewelry organizer is complete...and I cannot wait to show it off to blog land...but first the paint must dry and then I'll get everything organized and show pics:)! STAY TUNED, YOU WANT TO SEE IT!

In the meantime, I must go get all this paint off me(I'm such a messy crafter) and stop C from breaking something.....we are watching the ARKANSAS/auburn game....so unimpressed! Something will be broken before it's over i'm sure! C'MON HOGS!

Happy Saturday!

Take me and pull me through..I can't do this without you

I've always liked blogging. I used xanga back in the day then eventually started blogging with myspace(i know! who even uses myspace anymore) and now here I am at blogger. I think i've said this before, but I really did just start using blogger as a way to get my sewing projects out there and to look at other amazing crazy people, however, I am going to use my blog today just to get some "stuff" off my chest.

I love talking about how blessed I am, because I truly believe I am blessed! I think that I life such an amazing life, with that said...this year has been hard for me! The beginning of the year was hard because I was in a moving frenzy, lived 3 hours away from my love, finishing up my college life, watching good friends move away when they were done with school, and losing the best friend I thought I could ever have. It was such a crazy time in my life and I think I honestly dealt with it pretty poorly. I hate change in the first place, especially such monumental change, and that felt crazy monumental to me. However, here I am...10 months later...and I feel so much stronger than I was at the begging of this year. I moved (and it worked out), C moved back home and found a teaching job so much closer (YAY WE NOW LIVE IN THE SAME TOWN AND THAT YEAR APART MADE US SO MUCH BETTER), I finished college (AND now I'm so excited about starting a new job teaching and tutoring and pursuing a master's degree), I watched good friends head off for the summer (but we still talk and laugh and i'm happy for them), and I did lose my best friend (we still talk occasionally but it'll never be the same)...SO with all that said and broken down to say this...i lived...i survived..and im a better person because of each of those things happened to me..and hurt..and sometimes I felt like it would never be okay again...but it was..and it is.

I know in the grand scheme of life...all of those things seem so tiny and insignificant..and they really truly are. It amazes me what we put our focus on and what we prioritize and make such a HUGE part of our lives. But, it also amazes me that God takes time out to care about each of these things...to really REALLY and i mean REALLY care about them. He sees every tear and he says to us "JUST HOLD ON..YOU'LL SEE" and then we do....that amazes me.

I have felt so sick for the last month probably..my right leg is so swollen. It was over 3 inches bigger than my left. I originally thought it was just a side effect of the injury last month when i fell down the stairs..but after some coaxing from my mom I headed to the dr to find out I needed some tests ran to make sure it was not a blood clot! THAT WAS SCARY! At 23, hearing that is scary. I had the test ran and that was that...they said it was negative which is great. But they had no explanation for my HUGE leg and my fever and my chest hurting! I have seen FOUR DOCTORS to no avail. Well finally last night after a visit to the ER i got some answers....they ran more tests to make sure there was no blood clot in my lungs..and PRAISE GOD there wasn't...they also did an EKG and other scary tests and I found out that the fever and high blood pressure and chest pains are a cause of infection and fluid buildup WHICH IS GREAT NEWS considering what it could have been! I was so thankful and I had been praying so hard and when the doctor came in finally with answers I felt the biggest weight of my life just come off my shoulders. Life is so short..and wasting our time worrying about little BITTY STUPID things is not important. But when it matters to US, it matters to God!

The other day i was praying and I had such a "God Moment" and basically I can sum it up to say this GOD HEARS US...EVERY SINGLE PRAYER..EVER SINGLE WORD...he hears us..and He listens...and He is working to put his perfect play into action! Just hold on...he HEARS!