Prayer Card Giveaway

It's my birthday  and I want to give one of YOU a gift 

so I'm having a birthday giveaway!  

I'm giving away a set of personalized scripture prayer cards

 (for a child, grandchild or spouse). 

To enter just comment below with your favorite thing about your birthday- 

your favorite , your favorite tradition, anything you love about your birthday! 

I'll pick a winner tonight before I go to bed tonight and post the winner here!

Kari Jobe CD Winner

Michelle Tuller you are the winner!

Be on the lookout for an email requesting your address. 

Thanks to all who participated!

The Garden by Kari Jobe {with a Giveaway!}

I'm a firm believer that God is a God of details and that there are no coincidences. 

And so that fact that the incredible, beautiful new CD by Kari Jobe, 

The Garden, arrived in my mailbox the night before 

I traveled to MD Anderson for my pre-op appointments for Melanoma surgery

was like a sweet little gift from our Lord. 

This CD is beautiful and was truly a balm to my weary soul
on that 2 hour drive to MD Anderson

{which is THE most amazing hospital in the world!}.

God's Plans

It seems like this season of my life is ridiculously crazy busy. 

No matter how I try to let things go or say no to things, 

it just seems constantly overloaded and completely overwhelming. 

I almost laughed in the face of my surgeon at MDA last week when he 

told me that I needed to slow down and allow myself to heal

and that doing so would help the horrid headaches I'm having. 

If only, dear doctor, if only I could. 

I spoke at the women's conference at my church last Saturday 

and shared this printable below in the form of a bookmark. 

The quote and verse below are two things that I've said to

myself pretty much at least once a day every day for the last year.  

It's so easy to get caught up in the million things going on in a day

that seem so important and pressing

and become overwhelmed. 

Yet when I remind myself that although the day I'm in may 

be stinky, it is just a single day and 

God's plans are so so so much better

than I can ever imagine. 

In case you need a reminder you can print your own copy HERE.  

I'm also going to give away a few of the bookmarks! 

If you'd like to win a set of 10 bookmarks to share with friends 

who might need this reminder,

comment below with your favorite quote or verse that comforts you 

when life seems CRAZY and OVERWHELMING! 

I'll pick three winners on Sunday night! 

Giveaway Winner!

Winner winner chicken dinner! 

Random.org chose comment #18  out of 49 comments 

{47 via this blog and 2 via FB message}

so the winner is

Congratulations Kathy W!

If you'll pick out which two prints you'd like

and email me swtblessings {at} gmail.com to let me know

and with your address

I'll get them printed and in the mail later this week!

Thanks to all of you who entered!

I promise to do another one soon! 

Ruffle Tree Skirt WINNER!

And the winner is........................

Comment #19 was left by my sweet high school friend Cara 

who {whom?} I haven't seen in at least 22 years! 

Cara is the absolutely beautiful wife of Freddie and 

the mother of four amazing and talented kids! 

{Cara- send me your address on FB and I'll get it in the mail tomorrow!}

I so loved reading all of your comments about what you love about Christmas 

and I agree with every single one! 

Thanks so much for entering and have a fabulous weekend!

Ruffled Tree Skirt Tutorial and GIVEAWAY!

For the past month or two I had seen lots of ruffled Christmas skirts on Pinterest that I loved. 

{I big puffy heart ruffles of all kinds!}

So when my sweet cousin Amy and I planned a craft day for the Sat. after Thanksgiving,

 it was the first thing on our list of crafts to make.  

After spending quite some time figuring the best way to make ruffles on a sewing machine 

{tightest tension, longest stitch length} 

and fighting with Amy's sewing machine bobbin- 

we had finished our two ruffled skirts and they were super cute!  

And truthfully, super easy!

For those interested in making your own, here's how: 

Supplies:

• Canvas drop cloth or piece of canvas fabric {large enough to have a 4 ft x 4 ft square}
• 3 yards of fabric {I used muslin but cotton or linen would also work}
• sewing machine and thread
• glue gun and glue sticks {lots of glue sticks}
• scissors

1. Lay out your piece of canvas. We used a tree skirt of Amy's as a pattern, traced it, and cut it out.  If you don't have one to use as a pattern start by making sure your fabric is a square, fold it into quarters and then into a triangle. Then cut a piece off the end in a semi-circle. 

2.  Take and cut off the tip in a semi-circle for the center of the tree skirt. Choose one of the sides to cut up so that you have an opening in the skirt. 

3. Take your fabric and cut it into 3 inch strips.  I used a rotary cutter and mat which made  it go much faster.  If you don't have one- I totally suggest you add it to your Christmas list! 

4. Get your sewing machine out. I filled three bobbins so that when I needed them I could easily and quickly change them.  Set the tension to the highest and the stitch length on your machine to the longest.  Stitch about 1/2 inch from one side. As you sew....voila! You have ruffles.  Continue stitching until you have a pile o' ruffles!!!

5. Starting at the outside edge of the canvas circle, hot glue the ruffles onto the canvas. Once you finish one layer, start a new one that slightly overlaps the previous one- covering the stitching. 

At the end of each row, I went over the edge of the slit a bit,

 so that it was more finished on the edges of the opening. 

My sweet friend Dory loved the ruffled skirt

 {she loves ruffles as much as I do}

 so I decided to make one for her.  

Since I was going to purchase the supplies to make one, 

I decided to buy enough and made a second one to give away! 

So if you'd like a chance to win your very own ruffled tree skirt, 

just leave a comment telling me your favorite thing about Christmas! 


*Only one entry per person please and if you comment anonymously, please make sure to leave your name and email for me to contact you if you win!

The giveaway ends at 5pm on Friday. 

I'll pick a winner that evening 

and get it in the mail to the winner on Saturday morning! 

Chalkboard Winners

I

drew two names for the little chalk boards

(okay well I didn't actually draw them- I had my sweet friend Dory
pick two numbers between 1 and 25- she had no idea what it was for until afterwards)

and the winners are:

Heather from Domestic Extraordinaire

and

Morning T from Morning T

(Heather and Morning T- please email me at swtblessings@gmail.com

with your mailing address and I'll get them in the mail to you this week!)

I went to Michael's to see if they had any of the dollar frames left and sadly they did not.

But I did find some other cute things for a dollar,

so check back on Thursday and

I'll show you what I did with them.

It's a craft that is easy and inexpensive- two of my favorite things!

Oh....... and you may notice a few changes the next time you comment.

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Change is good......right?