I Wish I May, I Wish I Might.......

For some reason this week has kicked my butt.

Seriously.

It's not even over and I am exhausted.

It's been super crazy busy and I am just pooped.

Maybe I'm just getting old?

So instead of spending time working on the

 118 things on my list that must be done by Friday afternoon,

I spent a little time on one of my favorite time wasting sites-

ETSY.

And of course, as always, I found millions of things I'd love to have.

Things like..........

this adorable ruffle pillow 

or this cute ruffle pillow

or this beautiful ruffled pillow

which would all look cute on my guest bed

or this precious ruffled lampshade

or this precious aqua fan

or this super cute apron

or these adorable locker baskets

Okay, enough wishing for now.

Back to work.............

It's Tough

Being a woman is tough sometimes.

Super stinkin' tough.

We worry about being enough.

About living up to the expectations of those around us

and the ones we set for ourselves.

We worry about what people think about what we do,

about what we wear,

about what we say,

about how we look,

about how much we weigh,

about how we mother,

about how we keep our house,

about how we live our lives,

about how we live out our faith.

We worry about everything.

We worry that in comparison we will fall short.

We worry that people will not like us if they know the "real" us.

Holley over at (In)Courage wrote a fabulous post

about these struggles we women face.

Go read what she had to say here, I promise you will be blessed!

New Math

New Math by Craig Damrauer

Links that Make me Laugh

Some days are just mentally exhausting and you just need to laugh.

Those are the days when I look at some mindless, silly websites that absolutely crack me up.

Here are a few of my recent faves......

Handmade Gone Wrong- a website full of things that were made but make you ask the question....should they have been?

For example.....these lovely tampon cozies. Seriously? Like they get cold?

Creative Pregnant Belly Photos- a page of some of the most creative pregnant tummy pics EVER!

The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotations- a blog full of signs where quotation marks are used incorrectly. Love it!

Cake Wrecks- Where professional cakes go wrong. Terribly wrong.

My Name is...

Shannon and I am a

big old blog slacker.

Life has been super busy these days and I've been getting up early and trying to go to bed early. Summer is over and I've been trying to get back into my school routine of going to the gym at 5am which means going to bed earlier- or trying to.

Somethings have had to give and one of those things has been blogging.

And I'm sorry and I promise to be back soon-

if anyone is still reading.

I'll be back soon with more little things, more recipes,

more silly stories, more pictures, more links, more projects,

and more things that make me laugh or cry.

Until then, I leave you with a link to one of the sweetest blogs ever.

It's Savoring the Details and it is absolutely beautiful.

It never fails to bring a smile to my face.

Her pictures are precious (especially the ones of her two precious boys)

and the quotes she writes on them are beautiful.

They are all beautiful but here are just a few of my favorites.......

Links I Love

It's been a busy week of

project finishing

farewell dinnering

(yes, I know that is not a word)

workshop attending

getting losting
(again, not a word)

workshop presenting

birthday celebrating

birthday party giving

and

house cleaning!

My poor little blog has been neglected lately and with sweet Dory and her family coming to visit on Sat. for the next week (woo stinkin' hoo!) I know I will be too busy playing to blog other than a tiny bit. But I do promise to come back soon with some new stories, pics of their visit, more randomness, and some new yummy recipes.

Until then, here a few fun links I've come across lately:

The "Blog" of Unnecessary Quotation Marks is a an absolute HOOT! It is full of signs that have unnecessary quotation marks. Too funny!

Pick The Perp is a ridiculous site where they post mug shots and your job is to decide who was booked for the listed crime. So ridiculous but so fun! (Thanks to Jennifer M. for this one!)

This tutorial on Instructables.com for making a recycle bag out of on an old t-shirt! What a brilliant idea!

Don't Quit is one of my favorite poems of all time. Here's a fabulous video of the poem!

This Cookie Dough Pie Recipe on Big Red Kitchen. com can be summed up in one word :YUM.

Have a wonderful weekend sweet friends!

Does it Suck or Rock?

This website cracks me up.

It's called Does it Suck?

You simply type in a word, name, or phrase- and it will tell give you a score to tell

you if it SUCKS or if it ROCKS.

The closer the score is to 10, the better.

So of course, I had to type in my name.

Shannon= 9.7

(woo hoo- I rock!)

And my blog's name.

Sweet Blessings= ?

(so I guess my blog neither sucks nor rocks?)

And my husband's name, Tony= 9.3.

(of course he rocks!)

You can try all sorts of people and things- it's a hoot!

For those who are wondering, here's how it works according to the website:

When you enter a search term, sucks/rocks searches the web

for several positive and negative phrases using that term.

The score is the fraction of positive results to the sum of

positive and negative results, normalized to 10.
The negative phrases are: X sucks, X is lame, X is crap, I hate X.
The positive phrases are: X rocks, X is sweet, X is awesome, I love X.

Isn't that fun?

Links I Love

Tape Swell- decorative packing tape.

LOVE the damask one. What a fun idea!!!!

These adorable FREE printable lists from Blah, Blah, Blahg!

Download them here:

If I can only do one thing today............

Task List

Some PRECIOUS cake/cupcake sets from Meri, Meri.

So many cute ones- love the baby and princess sets the best! Aren't they cute?

The website Stamps where you can create stamps using your own photos!

What a great idea for baby announcements and wedding invitations.

So fun!

The precious website Virtual Softie.

Here is the websites description:

Its a virtual softie! You can move the outfits and accessories and dress her however you like, just scroll down, click, hold and drag the images up.

Such a sweet idea for little ones!

This last site is absolutely hysterical!

No picture to post for it....you'll have to go see it on your own-

but trust me- it's worth clicking the link!

The name says it all...........

Awkward Family Photos

The Church Experiment

Last Sat. evening I was talking to my sweet friend Jen on Facebook and she told me about a blog that she thought I would like.

The blog is written by Steve Fuller and is called The Church Experiment.

The Church Experiment is his plan to visit 52 churches in 52 weeks in 2009. He visits a church on Sunday and then blogs about his experience.

Here's a quote from his blog about his plan:

I have a very limited view of church (through my experiences at the Vineyard and D'VINE) and God (because I am a skeptic), so I just want to make myself available, see what is out there, and then write about what happens. My goal is to attend a different church every week of 2009 (that is 52 churches), and write about the variety of experiences - good, bad, and ugly. I am planning to wear the exact same outfit every week (just to see how easily I am accepted based on appearance), and I will try my best to keep an open mind as I take part in the unique customs of that particular denomination and specific church.

I spent last Sat. night and early Sunday morning reading about his experiences. It was fascinating to read his observations and each entry truly made me think. He's visiting all types of churches- and for someone like myself who has only ever attended Baptist churches- it's been fascinating for me to read.

If you'd like to follow his journey- start HERE- and then follow the church links on the right side of the page.

YouHoogle

My sweet friend Donna sent this to me yesterday and I absolutely LOVE it!

Go here and you can create you own personalized Google-type home page.

How fun is that?

Kindness Matters

It's so easy to feel bombarded by all of the bad, the evil, the sadness in this world we live in.

It's easy to feel discouraged and completely depressed by it all.

I think that's why it's so refreshing and encouraging and lovely to read stories that show you the good that is still in this world. The kind of stories that make you want to be better, to do more, to be the good in the world.

If you are in a need of that kind of encouragement today, please read this precious story here.

It's a wonderful reminder of how far a little kindness can go and what a HUGE difference it can make to the people it is extended to.

A Treasure Trove

For someone who loves to make things, the Internet is an amazing source of ideas. I can literally spend hours and hours looking at ideas and gathering lists of things I would like to make.



During my hours of perusing creative blog sites I've stumbled across a treasure trove of FREE, down loadable things that you can print that I just had to share!




Vintage library bookplates from The Blah, Blah, Blahg here



Amazing, ADORABLE vintage gift tags from Sweet Jessie here.



Super cute chore charts at Little Brown Pen here.



An absolutely adorable Valentine's Day treat idea at Design, Wash, Rinse, Repeat here.



Tons of cute things- labels, notepads, stationery, etc. at Creature Comforts here.



A great cleaning list from Real Simple here. (Thanks Donna for the link!)



Monogram templates for every letter of the alphabet from Martha Stewart here.



So many ideas, so little time!

Links I Love

Blogtations- this site is a HOOT! Each day it features a funny quote from a blog. Most are absolutely hysterical and never fail to crack me up! Here's one recent example:

Note to Self: Do NOT get a bikini wax from someone who just found out her boyfriend is sleeping with someone else. (from I Found a Fatal Flaw in the Logic of Love)

Little Brown Photo Converter- this is a site where you can take a recent photo and turn it into a cool vintage looking photo. The site is in Japanese but it's easy to navigate regardless. Beware- it's addicting!

Upside Down Dogs- This site is just a fun one that is just pictures of cute doggies- upside down. Great for those days when you just need a little smile! So silly but so funny!

DIY Candy Bar Wrappers- I love anything personalized and these cuties from Rachel Ray are customizable candy bar wrappers. Simply choose a wrapper, fill in the information, print them out and fold around a candy bar. Such a cute party favor that's simple and oh so cute!