Updates and Wooden Letter Crafts

It's been a busy month.  I say that, but then when I look back I think I haven't been busy enough.  Most notably, I haven't written much on here.  I thought it time to update everyone on how life has been going lately.  Or rather, how lost I still am and how much my oven has been burning with all the desserts that I've been baking.

We almost have everything unpacked from the big move.  The first thing I unpacked, naturally, was the baking utensils.  It's truly sad how much of the cabinets I'm occupying with stuff dedicated only to cakes.  We still have some trinkets and personal touches that need a home, but otherwise we have begun to make this our home.  It feels enormous; much bigger than necessary for two people.  I suppose that will change one day and then it might actually be too small.

I quit the lab finally.  Right before the move.  It was an intense decision with many rationalizations affecting the course.  Most of them were due to inapporopriate actions or words spoken to me; everything else was just, may I say, icing on the cake.  I really had no other choice in the end.  Regardless, I cried.  A lot.  There's still turmoil in how to handle other aspects of that decision.  When it really gets to me, I make sugar cookies.  Again, a lot.

I still have no direction on what to do next. Which path will lead to the most happiness?  What will help others more?  What is it that God wants me to do?  How will I know?  Decifering my destiny is like trying to figure out if a cheesecake is done without opening the oven door.  It's a guessing game really.

A rather depressing one at times.  However, there are lots of possiblities and that makes me smile.  I've also had extra time to do those crafty projects I've always been jealous of others being able to complete.  One of those I'd like to share with you.

I love the new craze using wooden letters as wall decor.  Lots of people are doing them in baby rooms.  Like this one done by Kendra Townsely McGaugh.  She sells these by the way.  Contact me if you need info.

Adorable, right?  They can be on the expensive side if you have lots of letters to do.  About 10 bucks a letter if you get the big wood ones.  I managed to catch Hobby Lobby on a sale day though and I found some already painted and made of particle wood.  Less work for me and lighter and easier to hang on the wall.

Grabbing my hot glue gun, my 50% off ribbon and letters, plus some touch up paint, I got to work.

I cut the ribbon all about 7 inches long while heating up the glue gun.  Then I just dolloped a bit of glue on the back of each letter and attched the ribbon.  On the bigger letters, like the "W", it would have been helpful to have 8 inches of ribbon to insure that all the letters had the same size of ribbon overhang.  Oh well.

When my husband came home he put a little nail in the wall and I stood back telling him the appropriate spacing.  It was that easy! 

Want to make yours more unique?  Grab some scrapbook paper, decoupage glue, and acrylic paint and go to town!  It's a really neat way to add interest to your walls without putting aonther picture on the wall.

I'll show you the cute rosettes and hair pins I made later.  Really adorable!

Double Oven Baking {Answered Prayers}

This post only has to do with baking in a round about way, but I still wanted to share.  And keep checking back, I'm make some pink anemones for an upcoming bridal shower cake tonight.



Last year my husband and I decided to start checking out homes to purchase.  We wanted a little bigger place with room to expand.  Anyone who has shopped for homes before can tell you how exhausting the task can be.  The joy of looking through photos of beautiful homes can be time consuming and daunting, particularly if, like most of Americans, you are on a budget.  We really wanted to live within our means, careful not to stretch ourselves too thin so we could still afford important necessities, like flour and sugar electricity. 

So after careful searching we found the PERFECT house.  A Georgia colonial style home with two big front porches on 10 acres, half it that forrest and the other a field enclosed by trees, and a creek running on the backside of the land.  It even had a mighty oak with a wooden swing in the front yard.  It was breathtaking.  We could have the garden we'd always wanted and chickens too!  (I may not seem it, but I'm a country girl.)  So we put a bid on it.  Nothing.  It was a foreclosure and our agent wasn't familiar with the process.  Eventually we gave up.  Turns out it was a blessing because of things going on with my husband's job, his paychecks were a bit irregular.  Of course, at the time it seemed like a curse.  Why God?!  It's perfect!  Don't You want us to have it?!  "No, I have other plans for you."  But, of course I have a hard time hearing Him.  (I mean look at me!  I still don't know what to do for a career!)

Then in January we found another house.  Not as perfect, but much closer to my husband's workplace and little closer to our budget.  It was almost a "cookie cutter house" to me though.  My husband felt this was the house God was leading us to, but I was unsure.  We decided to pray.  I said, to my husband and God, if I'm going to do the city limit house, it's gotta be amazing; it has to have a double oven.  The only way I'm giving up my chickens is if I can bake twice as much, twice as fast.  And this house didn't have one.  Didn't matter anyway because it sold.  But the builder for the neighborhood said, "I can do the same house on the street behind this one."  Okay...and a double oven?  "Yep."  Wow.  So we took it as a sign.  (We prayed for a bit too.)

In two weeks, we should be homeowners, God willing.  All I can do is fantasize about what it will be like to have TWO ovens.  TWO!  I can do twice as many sugar cookies at once!  Eight loaves of chocolate babka!
Sixty macarons!  A whole wedding cake!  You get the picture.  I'm so excited and yet still fearful it won't come true.

I've been challenged lately to have faith in God's promises, even if I can't see them materializing.  Case in point: what I'm going to do career wise.  But the house is materializing.  I can see it.  It's almost finished.  There are walls, rooms, and flooring (most of it anyway).  And just a few months ago, it was just talk.  The point is, God provides, not always when you want Him to and obviously, not always the way you ask, but He provides.  So, if I begin to lose some of the huge faith depsoits I normally shell out for everyone as I go through the struggle of a new career please help me to remember this post.