Saturday, April 30, 2011

Vintage Gwen Chapel-Inspired by C.S. Lewis Quote

"In Gethsemane the holiest of all petitioners prayed three times that a certain cup might pass from Him.  It did not."  C.S. Lewis



These words have got me thinking about a couple of things.
♦ We've been talking about servant hood at my church.  Jesus was the ultimate servant and by going to the cross finalized that.  Being a Christian means being a servant.  You can pray against it all you want, the need for servant hood will never go away.

♦ Most of the time we don't see a trial coming our way.  Jesus faced His head on and yet He prayed for it to pass.  He was human too.  And the fact that He prayed for it to pass, makes Him relatable. When He was done praying and they showed up to take Him away, He could of said "Let's just go straight to the cross."  But, I believe, it was necessary, among other things, for the crowd to choose who they wanted crucified.  See I think it brought to life this verse.....
"Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses.  Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make."
Deuteronomy 30:19a

The crowd chose a murderer-death. 
But. God. Wasn't. Finished!
Jesus had to die and be resurrected to redeem all those people who chose Barabbas.
And to redeem the rest of us!! Praise the Lord!!

Think about C.S. Lewis's words.....let them minister to you....they did me.
Have a great weekend!

Friday, April 29, 2011

Darling Day!

Well hello Friday!
Did you miss the last Necklace Redo yesterday?  You better go check it out if you did!
#6!
♥
On to the Darlings!!
Surely you know about the $1 silver trays at the Dollar store.  I found yet another use for them at Homespun With Love!




May just have to break out the Mod Podge and try one!  Thanks for the inspiration!!

Kohl's is one of the stores I get emails from.  And this week they sent one about their Kohl's Cares Breast Cancer Awareness items.  They teamed up with Food Network and oh my goodness, I'm having to strongly resist the urge to online shop!! It might be a good thing that these items are online and in Wisconsin only!

Uh huh!!  Look at the price points!!

Polka-Dot Snack Jar $10
It's my favorite!  Darn my admiration for housewares!!

2pk Kitchen Towels $5
I ♥ these!!


Reversible Coasters $5
The other side is stripes!
Happy Darling Day!!

Photos courtesy of Homespun with Love and Kohl's.com

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Necklace Redo Series #6

Well the end is here.  Sniff, sniff. This is the final Necklace Redo.  Not sure if I saved the best for last or not....I'm thinking they are all my favs!!
Supplies:
$2 Goodwill necklace
2 coordinating fabrics
Buttons
Pinky Shears
Needle and thread
Hot glue gun(not in pic)
Lids for tracing
Bracelet, to be used as an extender(I used one that I don't ever wear!)
Felt

Started by tracing 10 circles out of my floral fabric and 20 circles out of my polka dot fabric. 

Then cut, cut, cut!  With the pinky shears.  I made 3 flowers...one floral, and two smaller polka dot ones.


Then stacked the circles on top of each other.  I made these flowers based upon a flower pin/hair clip my mother saw in a local gift shop.  After showing her, I didn't do enough layers and she said that I should have added smaller circles....which might have been good to know....I was doing what she had said!!  So this flower needs to be tweaked but the way I did it still turned out great. 

Sorry it's blurry!  Then with needle and thread made some stitches in the middle to have a gathered look.



Took the button and sewed it the the middle.

Then made my 2 polka dot flowers.

Got out the trusty hot glue gun and glued the flowers to the side of the necklace.

Then I cut felt circles and glued them on to have a more finished look and add some sturdiness.  I was going to use plain navy fabric but thought felt would be better.  Attached the bracelet.



Wallah!!! 

Stay tuned for next Thursday....I'll do a recap and I have a surprise up my sleeve!!
But wait there's more!!
How would you like to own a Redo?  Yep...got a giveaway in the works to go with that surprise!!
Fun! Fun! Fun!

See my Link party page HERE to see where I'm linking to!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Show and Tell-400th Anniversary Edition King James Bible

I have a confession.  I still get a 'easter basket' from my momma!  Now that I'm married it's more family themed which is ok by me!  This year I thought it rather cool to get the 400th Anniversary Edition of the King James Bible.  It's our first family bible!  I was looking through it today and it's rather unique!









Definitely a family heirloom!

To celebrate this anniversary the bible reading site/app YouVersion is having a Read the Bible in 400 seconds event.  Yes...400 seconds(that's 6 minutes and 40 seconds, if you were wondering)!!  All you do is go to their website and sign up for a passage.  Then on May 2nd at Noon EDT, 11am CDT you read your passage out loud!  How cool is that?


Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Soiree Day!-Party Supply Resources

It's Tuesday and that means it's Soiree Day!!  Today I thought I'd share a couple of resources.  I like unique but I also like affordable!
is a cute, cute Big Cartel shop. (Big Cartel is similar to Etsy.) I love their unique items!
Plastic Vending Capsules
How cute are these? These have unique written all over them!


Ice Cream Cups
Even they way these come packaged is adorable!


Petite Treat Stands
I'm a sucker for any kind of stand.  These are under their Hostess Gift section and I would have never of thought of this as such but think it's brilliant!

is a threefold site.  Ideas, products and their blog, where they share what people like you and me do with their products. 
Knotted Pick
What a fancy substitute for the toothpick!!


Wood Berry Box
This pretty Mother's Day idea is on their blog.  And right now when you make a purchase they will email you free printables like these......


And lastly...
They have a great selection of solid color paper goods!  And if you need a lot and have to have a pattern then mix in a solid from the Dollar Tree to help cost.





And they have square plates too...I'm partial to square!

Dump Truck Foil Balloon
Flower Shaped Foil Balloons
They also have a great selection of balloons!  My Lil Hunkie loves balloons and when I was shopping at the Dollar store recently he had to have one...it's just a $1.  Then about a week or so later my Hunkies and I were in Walmart and what's the first thing Lil Hunkie wants.....a balloon! So being the good Dada that he is, Big Hunkie forks out $2.75 + tax for basically the same thing!!

So there you are....some resources that maybe you didn't know about or forgot about!  Would love to hear your resources!!

Happy Soiree Day!

Photos courtesy of Shop Sweet Lulu, Garnish and the Dollar Tree

Monday, April 25, 2011

A Rare Occasion......

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend!
Today I'm getting to do something special.  When I started this blog I knew I would not be sharing very much about my personal life.  My husband is a very private person....and out of respect for him there's not been a whole lot of pictures nor a whole lot about my personal/day to day life.  Vintage Gwen is about my creative side with crafts, baking, devotions and such.  But!  My husband and I were recently talking about how we met and he made the comment that it was Divine Intervention and indeed it was! My response was, is that we kinda have a cool story and that I'd like to share it with my new blogging friends and he said ".....Ok. But no pictures!"  So I'm taking what I get and getting to share really what I consider to be my testimony of my God given mate!

Courtesy of The Graphics Fairy

So over the next few Mondays (we'll see how long it takes me to share the story!) I'll be sharing our Divine Intervention!  I'm so excited!!  And I want to tell the whole story so today I just wanted to get you excited with me!  There is a document that I couldn't find before sitting down to write this post and I really want to find it.....it starts my journey into a long season of single hood and looking for 'the right one'.
So pray I can find it and stay tuned!!!



Saturday, April 23, 2011

Vintage Gwen Chapel-Happy Easter!


As we celebrate Easter this weekend wanted to share something I recently learned about offerings in the Bible.  From my devotion..."When in the Old Testament during a sacrifice, when the animal was completely consumed by fire, the sacrifice was called a 'holocaust'.  When only part of the animal was burned, it was considered a "peace offering", intended to restore communion with God."-Ann Spangler

I didn't realize there was a 'holocaust' sacrifice....if I've heard this before I sure didn't remember it.  So when I read about it my Spirit wheels started turning.  A few definitions of holocaust: 1.great destruction resulting in the extensive loss of life, especially by fire, 2. a sacrificial offering that is consumed entirely by flames.
I then looked up the definition of peace offering:  something given to an adversary in the hope of procuring or maintaining peace. 

So if I'm to offer my life to God, it needs to be a holocaust, not a peace offering!  He wants our life to be burnt whole till all that remains is Him.  After all, Jesus became the ultimate offering, overcoming our sin and securing our eternity.  He deserves all of me!  And in my opinion, when I'm burnt whole, I'm a better wife and mother.  A better child of God!!

I wish each and everyone you a Blessed Easter weekend!



Friday, April 22, 2011

Birthday Bash and Darling Day!

Another Friday!  Before I share my Darling's I wanted to give a blog shout out to Ashley at Eisy Morgan.  She's celebrating turning 30 with a week worth's of giveaways!!  What fun!! Today is the Ultimate Giveaway so head on over and enter away and wish her a Happy Birthday.  And in case you missed it I recreated her beaded headband tutorial earlier this week...here!

My first Darling is from Natalia of Ma Nouvelle Mode.  She made some Easter subway art this week and
I ♥ it!!
Courtesy of Ma Nouvelle Mode


Saw these cute blocks at Dayspring.com!
They are $49.99 but there are 10!
Photo courtesy of Dayspring


And finally, been seeing several ladies making these......
Wire bird's nest.  Rissa at Hazel and Honeysuckle made this one and it is my fav!  I love copper! Goes so well with pink!!
Photo courtesy of Hazel and Honeysuckle
♥

And one last thing....a new custom blog design!!  That's right custom! I'm loving how it's turned out....there's still a few details that are being worked on.  The extremely talented Natalia of Ma Nouvelle Mode is the designer.  I've been amazed at her speed!! Any feedback would be much appreciated!

Happy Darling Day!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Necklace Redo Series #5

Are you ready for this week's Redo?
Up until now they have all been easy.  I decided to make a bracelet and while I love how it turned out, I had to make some adjustments of how to construct it.  If anyone can tell me some other ways I'd love to know them!
Here's what I started with.......
....these are what I bought new besides the necklace for this project.  The beads were half off at Hobby Lobby. Since I didn't use all the beads this was about a $5 project!

Supplies:
Necklace
Bracelet clasp
Beads
Silk thread for beading
Crimping beads are in the photo but I didn't use them!


Started off by measuring about 7 1/2 inches of the pearl necklace and cut two strands from it.


Then I took the light green and pink beads only and beaded them on a piece of thread.
I had to add a clear bead to each end to make it long enough. I then tied it with a knot onto the clasp.


Here's where I had some road bumps!  I was hoping that I would be able to thread through the pearls. Nope! I even tried a straight pin! So I had to figure out a way to get the pearls attached to the clasp.  Enter the fancy bead cap!.........

........and cement!!


It was also a little tricky trying to figure out how to attach the bead cap....enter the jump ring!  I looped it through the bottom and out the side.


Here's one end...


.......and the other end.  I then glued the pearls into the bead caps.


A little tricky but a pretty result!




Hopes this inspires you today!!

See my Link Party page HERE to see where I'm linking up!