Coffee Bean Candle - A Dollar Store Craft

 I am SO excited to be blogging again - especially with my sister!

Everything is more fun with your sister, right?!

I wanted to start off by sharing a simple craft with you.

It's a coffee bean candle!

 I have been waiting a long time to make this candle! My friend made one & had it on display in her store & I thought it was genius!! If you love the smell of coffee, this is a must try!

It's basically a vase, loaded with coffee beans & has a candle burning in the center.

The candle warms the beans enough to fill the room with a delicious COFFEE scent! You can't go wrong...unless you hate coffee...but if that's the case maybe there's something wrong with YOU ;)
just kidding!

Supplies & Cost

Glass Vase - $4

Ribbon - Free/Scrap (I should've ironed it...)

Candle $1

Kroger French Vanilla Coffee Beans $6

Total Cost: $11.00 

(That's a cheap & thoughtful gift right there!!)

OXOX,

Julie


*I'm not only excited to be blogging again, but I'm really excited to be connected with other bloggers & partying again too! I'm sharing this craft at these linky parties*

 

OFFICIAL LAUNCH of 'Sister See Sister Do'

We're Michelle & Julie & we're excited to announce the OFFICIAL LAUNCH of our joint blog - SISTER SEE SISTER DO!!
  

Once upon a time we were two sisters who loved to play dress up and help in the kitchen.  We spent our childhood growing up in a small rural community in Ohio.  We grew up in the country with no cable TV & no close neighbors.  We spent as much time as possible outdoors - playing 'Little House on the Prairie' and 'Dukes of Hazard' (including climbing in and out of our gray station wagon windows).  We spent many hours reading and pretending. If we weren't playing barbies & shooing our little brother away, we were pretending to be cousins named 'Amanda & Cleo' - who were college students and working girls.

All of this has led up to today.  You may know Julie from www.frecklesandfun.blogspot.com or Michelle from www.thriftstorerockstar.blogspot.com or maybe you're meeting us here in our new endeavor as Sister See Sister Do!  Either way we can't wait to share our lives and talents with you!!

What kind of posts can you expect from our joint blog?

-Cooking

-Sewing

-Crafting

-Kids
-Parenting

-Fashion

-Frugality

-Makeovers

-Inspiring Moments

Through our lives God has given us beauty from ashes and this blog will share a portion of our journey with you as God continues to shape our hearts and lives!!

Stay tuned for a Blog Launch Give-a-way in April!! 

~M~ 

*We're sharing this great news at several of our favorite blogs. Check them out on our Where we PARTY page!

Time is precious...

Hey friends!
I didn't mean to take a sabbatical or anything...it just kinda happened!  But it's been a good thing. There's a lot going on in my life right now so my blog just hasn't been a high priority. I have tried to keep up on facebook but even that is on the back-burner. 
God has been doing a big work in my life & showing me how important it is for me to be present in my role as a mother & wife. I don't ignore my family, but I'm not always quick to deal with what's going on when I'm checking my blog/facebook/texting...or when my mind is stirring with ideas that have nothing to do with my #1 priority. Because of that my relationship with my children & their growth as children of God has suffered. It makes me sad to admit that. I've been selfish.
What God is showing me isn't exactly easy for me to embrace, but I'm so glad that He's revealing himself to me. His ways are wise & are best...and they bring me joy! 
This doesn't mean that I can't sew or blog or express myself creatively because I believe God created me with the desire & ability to do all of those things - especially to glorify HIM. But He has also given me 4 precious gifts & instilled in me the desire to be a Godly mother and wife. I'm to glorify HIM in those roles as well!
So right now I'm working on balance & staying sensitive each day to The Lord's voice as he shows me what that balance looks like.

Time is so precious & how we spend it matters.

On another note, there are some HUGE changes coming to my blog. It will be so fun & so much better! And it also will be less time consuming for me! Don't be surprised if my posts are very few before January :) That's when the big change will be revealed! I'm dying to tell you what it is! (You may be able to guess what it is...go ahead, guess!)

Until then, enjoy the Christmas season & please, won't you take time to reflect on WHY Jesus came as a baby so many years ago?!  You are precious, my friends, and I pray God's love warms your heart & changes your life this Christmas!

Love & Hugs,

Julie

Hello my friends!

By now you may be wondering where in the world I've been.  I haven't fallen off my craft-wagon or anything (actually, I've been on it a lot more than normal)!

Everything is going very, very well here!! So well in fact, that I've decided to take a short break from my blog to juggle all the GOODY-GREATNESS that's going on! When I return, I've got SO much to show you & something rather BIG to share with you also.

So don't forget about me! Give me a few more weeks!

"...I'LL BE BACK..."

love,

julie

Insta-Friday!!

It’s Friiiiiday!!!!!

Insta-Friday! And I’m linking up at Life rearranged to share my week through my cell phone pictures.

There’s our sweet “baby” boy!He always gives us so many reasons to laugh One of these Fridays I’ll have to post a video. We had ice cream after dinner one night & his fell out of his cone. He didn’t like holding the cold ice cream in his hands so he kept leaning over to try to eat & lick the ice cream off his tray. Pretty cute!

Wondering what this is?? I’ll be posting about it soon, but it’s rice! Rainbow Rice!

I got my hair cut this week!!! Yay!! It’s healthy again!!!

This is something very fun that we got in the mail this week. It’s an invitation to our friend Nash’s 1st birthday party! His mommy & daddy are both very clever & creative to come up with such a cute invitation. It sure made opening our mail a little more delightful!

Mr Coffee failed me this week when his coffee pot broke. Now I’m not a big coffee drinker (I don’t even think you can call it coffee after I load it with cream & sugar) but I do like to have a cup or two a few days a week. Well, one afternoon I really wanted a cup so I got creative. I used a toothpick to wedge into the springy thing that releases the coffee. Bliss!! Then last night my friend dug through her stash of saved pots & gave me a pot identical to the one that broke. No more hillbilly coffee makin’!

Adventures in Babysitting! This week I was asked to babysit for 2 amazing little people, twice. We had a wonderful time together! We played with the rainbow rice, made play dough together, played pretend in costumes, made potato soup together (This was SO fun. The kids counted out the veggies & helped me figure out how many more I needed or many I needed to put away. GREAT way to learn math!), and we also painted with watercolors, & read lots & lots of books! Our days were filled with fun as usual, but having two friends to join us made the days extra special!

 

snack time outside, table top time, & painting with watercolors

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed the review of my week!

Now here’s a question that I have for you, Have you ever had a babysitter? What was your favorite activity that he or she did…with your kids or with you?

Insta-Friday

Welcome to Insta-Friday, a review of our week through my cell phone pictures!

It’s been a rather normal week at house…and by normal I definitely mean crazy! I spare you all the details. I did snap some pics here & there so…yeah, take a look!

Keston is my busiest boy. When he wakes up from nap I like to have something for him to do. I don’t always take time to plan activities, but one day this week I got out the water-table & we played a game called “Sink or Float.” We put lots of different kinds of things in the water & talked about whether they were heavy or not, how they felt & then we put them in the water to see what happened. It was a great time & when we were done he soaked himself even more  

Pretty pretty flowers that I’ve been working on (for therapy) after my boys go to bed.

Meet Monster. She’s a sweet kitty that spend all day Wednesday at our house. I’m not a big cat fan (sorry!). But I did like this cat. She played so well with our boys, seemed desperate to come into our house & was obviously someone’s pet. So we loved on her & fed her & after dinner we found her owner.

Today was FOOTBALL day at Caleb’s preschool. All week they’ve been talking about sports & wearing sports themed clothes. Today he picked his Colts jersey & was so proud! He wanted me to take this picture to send to his Uncle Dan who LOVES the colts & gave Caleb the jersey when he was just a baby. Now it fits pretty good!

 

   

Today was not just Football day but it was also COOKIE day! My friend Deb hosts Cookie day almost every Thursday & several moms/dads & kids get together to hang out & play (if they don’t have work/school). It’s always fun!  Eli had a ball with his buddy Wade. They are a week apart so are both 18 months old now. I snapped a few good shots of them with my phone today & couldn’t resist sharing them. They’re so cute!

 

Have a great weekend everyone! We hope you find many reasons to SMILE!!!

But before you go, tell me - What was the big highlight of your week???

 

AND

If you want to see more of Insta-Friday, head over to Life Rearranged!

Fruit is good for monsters.

My blogging days have been very few lately. If you're friends with me on facebook you can probably have read my updates, seen my pictures & know why I haven't been on the computer much. Three days in a row there has been a 3ft monster in my house. And no matter how consistent I am with our routine or with discipline, it has just been one ROUGH road!  I just finished the book The Strong Willed Child & it's as if the Lord is putting me to the test. And from this test I'm learning that no matter what knowledge I have about good parenting, I MUST rely on the Holy Spirit to help me mother my boys. I MUST. Without him I am a terrible mother. I am a defeated mother. I can't do it.

Galatians 5:22-23 "But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!"

See, that's all I need to prove my point!
...and now I'm hungry for fruit. maybe i'll go whip up some apple crisp!