Soiree Day-Under The Sea Party

Happy Tuesday!  

Today's feature is full of easy diy inspiration! This cute, cute Under The Sea birthday party makes me want to have a girl even more!  Here's a look....

Under The Sea Party by D.I.Y. Louisville

All photos courtesy of D.I.Y. Louisville.

I love, love the oyster cookies! And that coral candy is too fun!

Even better that they are so easy!!

Make sure and visit the girls at D.I.Y. Louisville for a look at the entire party and to pin away!!

Happy Soiree Day!

Vintage Gwen Chapel-Adam & Eve's Spiritual Death

Our Pastor is taking us through a study about grace in our Wednesday service.  It's been good, a lot of info, but good.  Wanted to share one thing that has stuck out to me thus far.  

All of my life I've heard several ministers and probably even myself, say that when Adam & Eve sinned they died spiritually.  But guess what? They didn't!  (Because of grace!) They could still hear God! Being dead as we know it means you can't hear.   And being spiritually dead well you probably aren't listening to the truth, to the voice of reason....you just aren't listening. 

God knew what they had done and He didn't even leave their presence!!

Remember what the Bible says?

Genesis Chapter 3 GWT....

⁶ The woman saw that the tree had fruit that was good to eat, nice to look at, and desirable for making someone wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

⁷ Then their eyes were opened, and they both realized that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made clothes for themselves.

⁸ In the cool of the evening, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking around in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees in the garden. ⁹ The Lord God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?”

Shortly after Adam & Eve did have to leave the Garden of Eden.  Their sin had consequences. And as I'm writing this I'm realizing that their sin placed them in a different kind of God's presence. No longer could they walk with him.  Now they had to rely on what you and I rely on and that's God in His Holy Spirit form with us, where ever we are.  

Wow. God's just proven to me again how graceful and merciful He truly is.  

Wow!

Happy Saturday!!

GlassesUSA

Did you know I wear glasses?  Yep! Unfortunately my eyes are too dry for contacts. Fooey! About two years ago I got serious about taking care of my eyes and got my 3rd pair of frames then. {above}  Got to admit, to get fashionable frames can cost an arm and a leg!!

GlassesUSA.com offers very affordable and fashionable frames online! Who would have thought you could achieve this online? I'm pretty sure I paid close to $100 for a no name brand for my last pair and GlassesUSA offers glasses for as low as $38!

Now I now what you may be thinking. What about trying eyeglasses on first? Well they have a new Virtual Mirror tool that allows you to 'try' them on! 

I was so pleased with the tool that I have a few pairs to show you!!

Notice the 'scale' and 'rotate' at the bottom of my picture? You can try and fit the frame to your face as best as possible!

Which do you like?

I'm really needing some black ones and really like the vintagey, nerdy styles they offer.  Looks like there just might be some online eyeglasses in my future!

Besides offering  high quality glasses frames and lenses, GlassesUSA also offers a 110% lowest price guarantee and a 100% satisfaction guarantee along with a generous refer-a-friend program.

Needing new glasses? Or even wanting? GlassesUSA has some great offers going on now too!
Take 15% off an entire order amount plus get free shipping on orders over $50.  That's storewide! Use code FS15.

Or take 10% off any order of prescription glasses using code Blog10.  

Now go try some on! It was fun!!

Happy Thursday!!

{This is a sponsored post.  All opinions are 100% mine.}

Soiree Day-Crazy About Color

I don't know about you but when planning or brainstorming (Remember that from school? I still do it!) color always plays a part!  I wanted to share some sites today that are great tools for planning!

{Of course there's always Pinterest but these specific sites are fantastic and deserve to be used just as much!}

Design Seeds

Image courtesy of Design Seeds

I love this palette from The Sea category!! So modern to me!

♦

Chip It by Sherwin Williams

Image courtesy of letschipit.com

This is too cool! You can upload an image or use an url and it will pull colors from your inspiration photo and basically give you a paint chip! You probably already new about this I bet!

♦

Photo Card Boutique

Board courtesy of Photo Card Boutique/Image courtesy of Style Me Pretty

Yes this is a photo card business but the owner creates very lovely "Color Crush Palettes"!

♦

The Perfect Palette

 Image courtesy of The Perfect Palette

I've suggested The Perfect Palette before.  Seems like she's been around a while and definitely knows what she's doing!! I used her site for color references for my blog designs!

♦

Know of any other sites? I'd love to hear about them!!

Here's to your next reason to plan a party!!

Happy Soiree Day!

August Bash Giveaway WINNER!

Thanks so much to all of you lovelies for entering my August Bash giveaway!!

And congrats to Jennifer!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

August Birchbox

This month's Birchbox just might have the best thing they could ever put in a box.  A razor. Yep that's what I think!  I always buy the cheapest disposable pack there is because the ones with refills just seem so expensive to me! Am I the only one who thinks this? I'm busting that sucker out here shortly!!

{Yes it's 2:30 in the afternoon and I have yet to shower....that's what happens when your a momma!|

I got my box 2 days ago so again haven't tried anything yet except smelling the oh so lovely Juicy Couture sample. Viva la Juicy La Fleur just might have to go on the Christmas list!

Cute back to school theme and I love the Beauty 101 series booklet! So fun!

Here's what is what:

Caldrea Hand Soap

Juicy Couture Viva la Juicy La Fleur

DDF Brightening Cleanser

Pixi Beauty Blush in Purest Peach

Shick Hydro Silk Razor

Pretty excited to try all of these!!

What did you get this month?

Hope you'll link it up next Friday!!

To find out more about Birchbox go here.

And this is the last call for the August Bash Giveaway!! It's ending tonight at midnight!!

Go HERE!!

Happy Friday!!

{Home} Entryway

Why yes I have decorated the entryway!! And guess what? It was a goal to complete before hosting Bunco this month!  Yippee!! I am happily excited!!

Here's a before picture...see to the right? Nothing!

And here's an IG from a different angle...

And now.....

Ahem...don't mind the dust!

Cost breakdown:

Sofa table was a $25 Craiglist find! Half moon benches were 1/2 off at Garden Ridge so I paid a total of $60 for them! Rug was an Overstock.com purchase for $73. (Rugs are expensive! And if  you need a long one like I did then they can get very pricey!)  The two decor pieces to the right were Hobby Lobby clearance items...one was $3 and one was $2!! Copper tray was from our wedding and the glass bell was a gift from a friend a while back.  The flower arrangement was bought at Hobby Lobby with a gift card I got from my Pastor for my birthday just this week!  And I had most of the items for the gallery wall...the Established sign I made (tutorial coming soon!), the two small subway prints were from Walmart of all places and were $3.97 each! And the key was a clearance item from Hobby Lobby  too, about $5. All the pictures I had! Just framed the 2 biggest ones of Lil' Hunkie with the cheapest frames from Walmart to keep from spending a boo coo!  

I love how this turned out and I still have room to add to it!! 

{Once again one of my very good friends and her daughter came and helped me arrange & put the gallery wall up! I don't know what I'd do without them!!}

So how did I do cost wise?  I really worked hard at trying to find good deals! I've recently added curtains to the living room too and am now done decorating it!! It really feels like a home now!

(Both boys were napping in the living room while I snapped these pictures so I couldn't take any of the new curtains! I promise to show you soon!)

Ahhhhh, home sweet home!

Hey! Time is running out to enter my August Bash Giveaway!!

Go HERE!

Happy Thursday!

{Linking up to the fun parties on my Link Parties Page.}

Soiree Day-Back To School!

Many of you have already started back into a school year routine.  My niece and nephews start on Thursday.  I thought it was cute how excited my niece is to start her junior year and I must say she has a very fashionable outfit ready to go!  

So why not do a fun Back to School soiree roundup!  

{To pin please click on titles to go directly to the source to pin! Thanks!}

Back to School Apple Party by Just Call Me Martha

Back to School by The TomKat Studio

Bookworm Back to School Party by Giggles Galore

And here's a few places to get some free printables!

Anna and Blue Paperie

Shindig Parties To Go

{All photos courtesy of their respective sites.}

Happy Soiree Day!!

{Recipe} Bacon & Cream Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

Well I realized recently that it's been a while since a shared a recipe! And that I better fix that! On my last grocery shopping trip I bought stuff for some yummy stuffed mushrooms, a favorite!  It was after all my birthday last week so why not!  This recipe came from the mushroom container itself!! 

Bacon & Cream Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients:

8oz cream cheese, softened

1 sm finely diced onion

4-6 strips of cooked bacon, crumbled

{reserve bacon fat}

16oz mushrooms

Shredded cheese

8 mushroom stems, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350.  Clean mushrooms, remove stems. Saute onion & mushroom stems in bacon fat until tender.  Drain off excess fat.  Mix crumbled bacon, onion & stems with softened cream cheese until smooth. Stuff each mushroom cap with cream cheese mixture.  Place in a shallow baking dish.  Top with shredded cheese. Bake for 20 minutes or can use broiler for 10-15 minutes.  Serve hot.

*A few notes...

(1) This time I used dehydrated onion to see how it would work.  Worked like a charm without crying my eyes out! Yay for a shortcut!  

(2) When you mix creamy cream cheese with bacon fat you get a 'rich' flavor.  I drained off some fat before sauteing my stems and onions so just know you might need to make adjustments with the bacon fat!

(3) I cooked this batch in my toaster oven with the broil setting and they turned out great!

Enjoy!! Let me know if you try these out!!

Happy Monday!

{Have you entered the August Bash giveaway yet?}

Vintage Gwen Chapel-Journaling

I am loving the #SheReadsTruth community! {I think I've said that already somewhere!}  It has really helped me with my devotion time and the latest study really is keeping me charged.  I have never been one to journal.  I know it can be very beneficial but it just never really appealed to me. One aspect of the #SheReadsTruth community is sharing.  And there are some ladies out there that have been sharing their excellent journaling skills! Well I got inspired and was ready to give journaling a try starting with the current plan to see what kind of difference it would make. 

Got this cute notebook and colored ink pens from Target, spent about $5.

This was my first day and day #6 of the Photo A Day Challenge I do.

 4th Day, I collaged with "focus" from Textgram in Diptic.  

How about that eye & foot! Ha!

I'm not going to lie...journaling with colored ink is like adult coloring!  It has been very calming!!

It has been a week now and I can tell a huge difference!  Journaling and creating a pic to share what I get out of the day's reading is really speaking to the creative part of me. And I love that I'm connecting God to what He's blessed me with!

Here's today's share...

What helps you with your devotion time? What's your take on journaling?

Happy Sunday!

August Bash-The Bash Bag

Sorry for the delay in this post!! There's no better way to explain it other than just life happening! Whew!!

And because of that I made the Bash Bag last night at 1am!! I just couldn't ever decide what to do!

So there's not step by step but it's pretty easy!

I took some scraps from my sofa pillows and my sewing machine cover, made a ruffle, sewed it to the lace strip and then sewed it to the bag and done!

I'm so excited to have filled it with Stella & Dot, Scentsy, and Pick Your Plum!! Tomorrow will just be some extra goodies I picked up today and it will be time to enter!  Which I'm sure you guys are ready to!!

Go HERE for complete details and I'll see ya tomorrow!!

Happy Thursday!!

Vintage Gwen Chapel-Mastering Our Relationship With God

For yesterday's post I had gotten on Pinterest and searched 'nail stamping' to see if I could find any tips and/or tricks.  You know, research.  I mentioned yesterday that I read several comments about how some people thought that the stamper didn't work.  My opinion about nail stamping.....it takes practice before it's mastered.  And it seemed to me that those saying it didn't work didn't practice to master it. 

This of course got me to thinking about my relationship with God.  

Oh how many times have I felt like 'it just wasn't working'.

Let's face it, a healthy relationship with the Lord takes daily work, takes practice to master it.  It doesn't always work out but that's no reason to quit.  Honestly I don't think we're ever meant to master it.  But we are meant to learn from what doesn't work and keep going.  Just like a nail stamper is a tool, we have so many tools at our disposal.  The Bible, the Holy Spirit, church, books, magazines, music, communities like #SheReadsTruth.  Each other.  

I don't know about you but I usually don't give up easily.  I know God doesn't want us to!

Between last Saturday's Chapel and today God maybe trying to tell me something.  

No matter how I feel keep working on my relationship with Him. 

Master it, Jennifer, master it!!

2 Corinthians 4:15-17 NLT

"All of this is for your benefit. And as God's grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.  That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.  For our present troubles are small and won't last very long.  Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!" 

That's some exciting truth right there!

What works for you to master your relationship with God?

Happy Weekend!