Book Review: Adorned
Tim Challies wrote a review about this wonderful book - Adorned. I just ordered it and can't wait to see how Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth blesses us as readers. I can't wait to read it!

If You're Looking for Romance....
Another awesome post by Melissa about true romance in marriage.
"Someday when I’m sitting in a rocking chair looking back over our life together, it won’t be the big trips or the diamond rings that I remember most. It’ll be all the little things."

Hope For the Non-Morning Person
This SPOKE to me... The morning hours and I are not friends, but Jen's helpful tips are encouraging.

Do Children Destroy Romance?
"Ask any parent this question, and they’ll probably laugh out loud." 

"Help me to find a blog or resource written by a seasoned, wise pilot's wife. A women with knowledge, helpful hints and a heart after your word who can direct me in this season of life."

"Your eyes saw my unformed subsatnce; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them."  - Psalm 139:16

This year was the first that I decide to embark on making Christmas sugar cookies. I tend to stick to pain free, simple Christmas baking. I not overly skilled in the kitchen.. as most of you probably know, so I waited till my wonderful hubby was home so he could help me NOT screw up the recipe. I used Sally's recipe, and they taste delicious. For icing we just made a very simple icing sugar icing in three colours: blue, green and white, and then I had a gel red icing tube left over from other baking quests I guess.

(note: I wouldn't use the gel in the future, as I didn't realize that the gel doesn't harden making it impossible to stack your cookies without ruining the design... yes these things occur to me always after the fact... sigh.)








As you can cookies came out well and it was really fun for me to sit down and ice them. I am a nerd for creative artsy crafts and projects. I even printed off some inspirational cookie designs from Pinterest to help me out. Now... to stop myself and Andrew from eating them all before we have our little party this weekend... hmm.

My sister in law was creating a box of encouragements for a friend the other day and asked if I have ever designed "promise cards". I had never heard of such cards, so I quickly did some research and figured out what she was talking about.

A few posts ago I mentioned the memory verse cards that I was creating for myself, to help me memorize scripture, well these are a lot like that. They are cards of encouragement with verses specific to the promises of God, which he has given to his children in his Word.

I am going to challenge myself and try and memorize these 6 verses I've designed. I hope they can bring some encouragement to you as well. If you'd like to purchase them for yourself (to use as a bookmark in your bible, or maybe to encourage a friend) you can find them as an easy digital download in my etsy store. Just print them out yourself :)

I am super excited for my sister in law, Cheryl & her mom, Ruth over at Peck Cloths. They will be having an open house on December 6th (which Kelsi and I will be attending of course!). Check out this fun little announcement I was able to make up for them to advertise the date :)

If you'd like to see more of their selection of cloths and others goods, make sure to check out peckcloths.com and definitely come check out the open house on December 6th.

My friend Nicole came over the other day and was sharing with me an idea of felt books made for children (find examples here), they are SO NEAT!

Nicole inspired me to make a board book for Emma, one which I was going to buy here. But WHY NOT create it myself. Its no gorgeous felt book, but its really great for her age right now. I'll work on the felt when she might appreciate it more (2 years old maybe?)

I used this post that I found via pinterest as my guide. She takes a real board book that she got for free from a Wendy's and simply covers it with her own design on card stock, so simple. So that is what I've done.

I've been thinking about what to do with my Christmas greeting this year. Since we are on a new budget (as I recently resigned from Compassion to stay home full time with Emma - yay!) I decided that getting cards printed, even though I design them, is a bit more then I would like to spend this year, so I am trying to get resourceful.

I decided to do a fun little "year in review" page that I can send out to far away family in a simple letter envelope on 8.5 x 11 printer paper. I was still able to have a little fun, especially with all the hand drawn titles and little vector graphics. I can't wait to send it out to our loved ones!

Here is a little sneak preview of my design:

Emma has ben busy getting her eye teeth in all week...
so if you're a mom I am sure you can imagine what my week has been like.


Here are some wonderful links I'd love to share this week.

I really enjoyed reading Kristi's post Reading the Bible vs. Studying the Bible: What’s the Difference?
over on And Babies Don't Keep (off topic: her blog title comes from a poem that pulls at my heart strings) Anyways, I loved her reminder of just simply taking time to read and relish in God's word as well as study it. Thanks Kristi.

My sister-in-law (@ peck cloths) makes these cute washcloths for babes, I have about a million that I use everyday for Emma after mealtimes and bath. They are so soft and durable, you can wash them over and over, but my favourite part is that the patterns are actually cute (that can be hard to find) check them out.

Ouch, Narcissistic By Nature written by Jen over on her blog Adorned hit me hard and really convicted me.

"Christian narcissism is when we believe, talk, and act as though the Christian life is all about one’s self: it’s about my progress, my failures, my growth in holiness, my sins, my quiet time, my walk with Jesus."

Such a good read for all of us.