a bit of sunshine

Ten on Ten :: February 2014

Happy Ten on Ten friends - hope you guys had a blessed day searching for that beauty in the ordinary, can't wait to see what you found! xoxo

I am always craving something sweet come friday afternoon and today Josie was too. This girl loves her chocolate even the deep dark good stuff, that's my girl! Today we melted a hunk of the huge 72% bar I got last week at Trader Joe's in the microwave with about a tablespoon of coconut oil to make it glossy. We thought it would be fun to pour some in our silicone heart mold and press in some sprouted almonds and dried cranberries. They turned out super cute and delicious after setting up in the freezer for a few, the perfect treat to get the weekend started off right! Do you have anything fun planned? Whatever it is I hope it's super sweet, happy friday!

how to make a loopy fork pom pom

I finally got a chance to photograph a little how-to for the loopy fork pom poms I made last week. They are super easy and quick and all you need is yarn, a fork (I used a larger silver serving fork) and scissors. It takes about three minutes to make one once you get the hang of it and are such a fun alternative to traditional pom poms, enjoy!!

Start by cutting about a six inch piece of yarn and laying it in the center prongs, this is the piece you will use to tie it all together so just hold it down with your hand the best you can while weaving back and forth with the skein of yarn until the entire fork is covered. Once you get to the top of the fork trim the yarn from the skein and then carefully pull that first short piece up and around and loosely tie it together before slowly sliding the pom pom off of the fork. Finish by tightly tying the pom pom with a few more knots and then trim the loose longer pieces and you're done! Easy and fun…hope your week is off to a great start! xo

thursday through my lens {on friday}

I've been fasting from social media after my last post showed me how distracting and discouraging it is for me sometimes. It's not been easy though and I have definitely not been perfect but planning to do a good social media free weekend. I've had my real camera out instead, I love how differently I see things when I have my camera out…it elevates a simple walk or a glass of homemade juice into an experience in the present. Hope you all have a great weekend I will be back Monday to share how to make the loopy fork pom pom's for those interested! xo

making much

This morning I sat in on a webinar led by the inspiring Laura Casey. If you are not familiar with her make sure to check out her site and story when you get a second. It's a new one for me but I have been deeply blessed by her words and life so much recently. The webinar was a freebie to all of us who purchased Laura's 2014 Powersheets - I received them about a week ago and have just been staring at them kind of nervous and worried to dive in and "make a mess" as she would say of the stuff that is on my heart to go after.

The Powersheets are designed to help you focus on the things that matter most to you and how to really simplify all the other stuff that gets our attention in order to move forward on the dreams and goals that are constantly being pushed aside for lack of time. I kept thinking about my post yesterday the entire hour as Laura shared and how I had just written about feeling uninspired, in a slump, stuck so to speak and it occurred to me that maybe I am feeling this way because I am sitting back participating in the feast of comparison that is so easy to feed my mind and heart with through social media.

Laura challenged us to really honestly think about how much time we spend on Facebook and Instagram...I conservatively wrote down 14 hours per week but would not be shocked if it was more like 28 hours. TWENTY EIGHT HOURS!!! Sitting there looking at my cute pink iPhone clearly picking apart how I don't add up as a mother, wife, friend, daughter, artist, blogger, creative because I am looking at someone else's beauty...reality check much? Oh man it was such a great eye opener to realize that half the problem here for me is that I desire to make my life look like much instead of making much of my life...yeah I said it. I value fitting in and connecting online and then get out that big old measuring stick every ten minutes to see if I am enough. Meanwhile the rest of my world is shrinking. Not to say all of social media is bad but I do think it can become an issue if given too much power and I am admitting it can be an issue for me.

This is all kind of a major brain dump here but you guys were so so gentle with me yesterday as I confessed to needing to just write a bit about what's going on in my mind - thank you for that truly! Honestly I do want to make much of my life, we all do right? But how to start? First of all I think we need to ask ourselves why we do all the things that we do - not just how...we need to make clear why we spend our time the way we do, like why do I like to make stuff?

I like to make stuff because when I focus my mind and hands on creating something beautiful with what I have it helps me feel closer to the one who created me and in doing so is an outpouring of worship. But here's a closer look...I have always wanted to be a part of encouraging other women to go after making beauty in the form of maybe teaching classes or workshops. My husband works at a rescue mission with a women's recovery program and he is constantly encouraging me to come down and host a craft hour. Why haven't I done it? Because I don't think I am "ready" or "good enough a crafter" to inspire someone else to make beauty.

Blogging has given me that outlet in a safe and controlled way but what if I were to peel back the layers of my passion and dreams a bit more - the fear I am feeling is simply not wanting to jump out and try something more for fear of it not being perfect.

This is where I get stuck and why I distract myself with social media because it keeps me busy and convinced that I will never add up to enough to go after my dreams because everyone else is doing it better.

I need to start focusing on the why's because in doing that I can ask God to give me the courage and strength to stretch myself and have a clear goal in mind. It says in proverbs 16:9 The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. A few days ago Laura wrote about how we can be so afraid to make a plan because we don't want to get in God's way of doing "His will for our lives" the problem is if we don't make a plan God can't change the plans and help us move forward better...we are simply just waiting.

Carpe Diem right..make something more with what has been given!

phew...maybe enough overexposing for one day here but I am really relishing this chance to capture what's on my heart during this season. I have so many more ideas and things rumbling around and I plan to really get after my Powersheets next and make a little by little, as Laura would call it, plan to go after the fullness of life that God has given me to live out.

One more little thought from the mouth of one of my babes for today though...about a year ago our little Levi who is really in love with art and drawing and making fun projects was sitting at the table with my husband. They were talking about life and Chris made the offhand comment that "wow Levi you are really good at art when you get older maybe you will become an artist" Levi looked up from his paper right in his eyes confused and he said "but Daddy I already am an artist"

Truth. It's in you, it's in me, let's get after it! xoxo

inspiration daily

I've been feeling so creatively zapped the past few months and what's worse is that I know it shows. I can't put my finger on it specifically but no matter what I do it's been hard to will myself to make something basically because I have, for one reason or another added this unspoken pressure onto my shoulders that if I am going to use my rare, precious free time to make something than it has to be perfect. Completely unique and original, photographed and made into a tutorial, be featured on craft gawker and adored by pretty much everybody…ha! Wow that's probably a little more revealing than I wanted to be but hey we're all friends here and I am in a creative slump so I am letting it all hang out like a sloppy glue gun.

Truthfully blogging and crafting has taken on a different shape for me mentally and if I am honest I sort of miss the old days. The days were I let it all hang out about my dire need for a fresh faced style after a mortifying shoe shopping trip when my second born was just a few months old (read about that here)…the days were I would share about how I stuffed some ugly dried roses in a jar and shared a mediocre picture of them to my friends online because that's what inspired me during nap time..I wasn't really worried about the numbers or the promotion of it all. I really have always been bad at that. I miss the days when a bunch of us kind of all just jumped in together and started searching for the beauty in the everyday and called it Ten on Ten, not because it was the best name in the world but because we wanted to work together on inspiring each other to do our days well in whatever shape and form they looked…I loved that season so much.

I still love blogging but the creative juices ebb and flow - I just hate it when I get fearful of not being enough, not producing enough good content, not having the most instagram followers or whatever. Is this making sense? Anyways this morning Levi asked me for a pom pom to glue onto a face he was making and it all of a sudden spurred my heart on to figure out how to make the loopy fork version because I have been wanting to for so long and never really had the time.

These took me like ten minutes and so far have been a ton of fun to play with. I don't know what I am going to do with them when I am finished…maybe just give them to my six year old to glue onto things or stuff em in a jar but all I know is it just felt good to make something out of nothing for no reason. I felt inspired again and I loved it!

Stacy and I had a long talk yesterday about creativity in the age of social media. Feeling deeply passionate about both but struggling in that balance of how not to find our identity wrapped up too tightly in how it's all "suppose to look". We are just missing the old days of blogging when it was all a bit less polished and more about sharing from our hearts. For the next week or so I think I am going to just try posting about what's going on in my brain as I juggle four kids and a husband who is deeply passionate in ministry. Giving myself freedom to have fun here and not worry so much about what everyone thinks, you know what I mean? Does any of this resonate with you? I would so love to hear your thoughts…feeling kind of vulnerable but really wanting to push forward and share freely like I use to!

Also I am willing to post a tutorial on how to make these little fork pom poms if anybody is interested just let me know…hoping you're feeling inspired in some way today!

ps. they kind of look like Seahawks pom poms :) can't wait for the game Sunday!

my darling

(photo credit)

My beloved spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.” - Song of Solomon 2:10-13

My sweet friend Alisha spoke this scripture over me the other night even before I told her that my word for the year was Rise! The words came tumbling out of her mouth like beautiful soothing honey for my soul and I began to weep for I knew it was from Jesus spoken through her straight to my heart. I can not get it out of my head. I wanted to share it with you too in case you needed to be reminded that you are a darling, beautiful one and Jesus is calling you to come away with Him, that whatever was holding you back in the past or has you locked in fear in the present (speaking to myself right now) is not to big a burden for Him to bear...happy Monday, beautiful!

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