Good Friday and Easter!

Good Friday!  Please remember what this day is about....Jesus will sit down and have his Last Supper with his friends. A lot will happen in the next 3 days...He will be denied by one of His best friends, He will be beaten, and He will die along with two thieves...one who doesn't believe He is the Messiah, the other who becomes a believer. He does this for you and me, the sinners, the believers, the non-believers, the straight, the gay, EVERYONE!  All you have to do is ask for forgiveness and flee from your sinful ways, and you have eternity in Heaven because God sacrificed His Son, Jesus!  What an amazing gift!  May everyone have a wonderful Easter rejoicing HE IS RISEN!!

REJOICE...Easter project

I love the popular burlap door hangings that are out now.   They are so easy to make, the burlap comes in many colors, and so inexpensive, you can make them for every holiday or occasion.  This time I made a Easter Cross "Rejoice".  You can make this too and put "Welcome" or  your last name's letter or just leave it with the dots to decorate your door for Spring.

Start with burlap in your choice of colors.....there are so many to choice from for only $3.99 a yard at Hobby Lobby or your area fabric store.

Make a template of the shape you desire....in this case, a cross.

Keep your fabric folded in half to be able to cut both sides at the same time. It takes about 3/4 of a yard to make this size cross.  I buy 1 1/2 yards at a time to have enough to make two hangings with that color.  Cut your fabric a little bigger than your template.

Then place the fabric's top shape on paper to paint.  Put the backside fabric aside.  Because burlap is very porous, the paint will seep through so be sure to do it on a covered surface.

I used a variety of brush sizes to do each color.  I free handed mine, but you can made a template and draw around it with a sharpie or pen and then paint it if you like.

Again I add "Rejoice" but you can do what you like.  I used a small, pencil tip brush to write it out first, then came back with a thicker brush to make the letters.  Again make a template if you are not comfortable doing it free hand.

Then go back around the letters with white dots of paint to make it stand out better.

NOW after all that is dry....it's time for the assembly of your cross.  Have some Walmart bags for stuffing and a small hot glue gun (or you can sew it as well).  The sides will be fray a bit, but I will show you what to do at the end to stop that from happening.

When glue gun is hot, put cross back to back and go around with the hot glue gun leaving a side or bottom open to stuff with bags.

After it is completely stuffed to your satisfaction, glue the rest together.

Now let's address the fraying....you can use Fray Check at the fabric store if you like, but it is real messy and doesn't soak in well to burlap.  So I use paint, in this case, the closest to the burlap color.  You can can do a design or a different color.  I've seen it done many ways.  But I didn't want a design on mine and wanted it to blend in as much as possible.  SO I painted the edges with a fairly wide brush all the way around the sides.  After it dried, I took my sissors and trimmed the extra strings.  By this time, the paint has made the sides hard and the strings hard and you can just do some cleaning up.

Then for hanging, I use a wire hanger...why buy wire.  You can use ribbon, or floral wire.  I choose to use what I already have from our weekly dry cleaners...wire hangers that I would normally throw away.  Needle nose pliers help to bend as you need and wire cutters to cut to the length you want.  Just puncture through the burlap where you want to add the wire and twist with pliers to the desired look and length.

And now the finished product!  Add cute ribbon or even different colors of burlap strips and put on your door!  People will think you bought it when you can tell them you made it!

ENJOY!  My next door hanger will be a birthday theme since I have two birthdays coming up in the family!  Keep checking for recipes for my March/April monthly menu and this next week, I will be posting my Easter lunch that I am serving so please subscribe to my blog!

Psalm 40:16 
But may all who seek you REJOICE and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, "The LORD be exalted!"

First Day of Spring

It is the first day of Spring.  Spring reminds me of new beginnings.  Easter is at the end of the month.  Jesus died for us and is Risen again all to give us a new start, a new beginning with Him.  He sacrificed all so we could have new life with Him and live with Him for eternity.  What a great feeling!

I had a scare on Monday that I wasn't at all expecting.  I had my post op appointment with my surgeon after my appendectomy and hospital stay.  The words I never thought I would hear...malignancy, tumor, cancer, carcinoid.   Even though my appendix appeared to look normal, pathologists found a small tumor forming with carcinoid cells that was appendix cancer.  It was very small and caught in time.  600-1000 people are diagnosed with this a year and most are not lucky enough to be cured because there are NO symptoms.  Well, that is what they are saying.  My pain was unknown and they didn't know why I was hurting right were the appendix was because the tumor would not have caused that pain.  But my pain is gone so I believe the Lord caused that pain.  He wanted me to hurt so that I would have them look and keep looking until they found the source.  Thanks be to God for the pain, thanks for my husband who insisted I go to the doctor and ER, and for my wonderful children and parents who were with me while I was in the hospital.  I couldn't ask for a better family.

Now let's get to a lighter note!  IT'S OFFICIALLY SPRING TODAY!!  So I decided to redo the entryway and will be working on a great cross for my front door that I will post tomorrow.

Today's project was painting a rabbit and brightening up the front table.  I have to say I LOVE IT!  Thanks to my mother-in-law, Carol, who gave me these bunny dolls a few years ago and the flower pot arrangement.  I just love it!  I think I might add some colored wooden eggs distressed as well but need to take a trip to Hobby Lobby, one of my favorite places!

In PROCESS

First, the painting.  I started with red and them started the bunny.  I just played with it until I got what I wanted.  As I stated before in my other posts, I am trying to incorporate turquoise into my decor so this worked out perfectly!

Complete!

Now for the front table

I used a turquoise pillow case to help give a pop of color.  Will add some distressed wooden eggs and that will be my table for March and April.

Now for the front door, I am making a cute, burlap hanging.  I already have my cute hanging outside from last year...but wanted something more specific to Easter so I will be posting that tomorrow or Friday!  You don't want to miss it!  I will include step my step how to make one yourself!

Happy Spring!  Hope it's sunny where you are today!

2 Corinthians 5:17 - Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Hello Everyone and Happy March!  For those who don't know me personally, I've been out of pocket for a bit.  I was hospitalized the end of February with horrible right side pain. After a colon procedure and a few hours later, surgery to remove my appendix, it looks like I'm on the mend.   Thanks for all my family and friends who were there for me and prayed for me.

Now that I'm back, and healing, I am getting back into cooking for my family!  I love to cook.  I have cut out  of my diet potatoes, rice, breads, and pastas, so I make sure to make something for all of us as a family.  Tonight, I grilled out steaks on the grill (Yeah!!  It's officially Spring Break!) and this morning I started a crockpot of cabbage.  Only my daughter and I like cabbage so I made sure to make some baked scalloped potatoes for the men!!  As I promised my friends on Facebook  I am posting the recipe and pics of the cabbage.  I have to say, it is the BEST cabbage I've ever eaten!  And I'm a Southern girl and eaten lots of cabbage made all different ways!  But this was FANTASTIC!  I plan on making a pot for Easter to go with Ham, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, and whatever else I decide to make.  I haven't finalized the menu yet!

Anyways....Here is the recipe!  ENJOY!!

Crockpot Cabbage

1 head of cabbage (green) remove core, quartered and then each of those cut in half.

4 cups of chicken broth (I had two cups left in freezer of my homemade broth from my blog post of recipes #1, and then I used 2 tsp. of chicken boullion and 2 cups of water.  Use what you like or what you have on hand.  Of course, homemade is best.)  I probably will make more broth next time, so if you like lots of broth, make it 6 cups of broth.

1 small bag of baby carrots

2 stalks celery, sliced

1 large onion, cut in large chunks

1 tsp garlic, minced

1 or 2 Large Bay leaves

1-2 tsp salt...you can add 1 tsp before cooking and then add more after it cooks to suit taste

1/2-1 tsp black pepper

4 thick sliced peppered bacon strips cut in bite-size chunks) (I didn't cook my bacon first
(you can also add 3-5 cups of ham, cooked and cut into chunks, ribs, sausage....the list goes on)

Low 8-10 hours, High 6-8 hours

DELICIOUS!!!

(If you'd like to make this a meal, you can add 5 potatoes, peeled and cut in chunks.)

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

– Ephesians 6:10-12 (NIV)