Christmas Cookie Traditions!

What a wonderful Christmas Break! The other day my mom, grandma and I make an assortment of delicious cookie treats =) I believe we made: Sugar cookies, snicker doodles, butterscotch brownies, regular brownies, butterscotch & frosted flake cookies, and those cookies with the Hersey kisses on top =D It was the first time we got to cook in the new finished kitchen! and having two ovens made for double the cookies. Hopefully this becomes a tradition.

Back to crafting!

It's been so long since I made something!! I have been so busy with school and such but I made these tulle tutu's for my two favorite 3 year old twins =) Hope you guys enjoy them!

Guilt

I have been going back and forth in my mind for ten minutes now on what to write about, and I realized that I feel the same about blogging as I do about God.

Let me explain before you start interpreting that yourself.

I go through phases, as I'm sure everyone does, with everything. My daily snack, my methods of distraction, the way I sort my time to do homework, and what nail polish I like the most. Obviously there are more but those are just a few examples. Unfortunately I also go through phases with God which is why I related it to blogging, but there is a deeper reason. Guilt. Every time I go for a long period without praying (or blogging) I feel guilty and not only do I feel guilty I feel unworthy. This normally causes a cycle of me not talking to God (or posting) because I feel as though its not worth it at this point because it has been too long and the damage is done. I never knew why I felt this and the other day as I was explaining it I figured it out.

Its because I hate when people do that to me.

When that friend who hasn't talked to you in 6 months, despite your efforts, just tries to start talking to you again like they haven't been ignoring you?! Yea thats annoying. And I guess it falls under that categorie of Do Unto Others...

So whenever I ignore God for a period of time, I think it is rude of me to just jump back in praying, asking for stuff, yada yada yada. So I don't do it. I'm not really sure of when this cycle actually stops but I know it does at some point.

Writing this got me thinking about how different we actually are from God, even though we are created in his image. By different I mean flawed. When my friend calls I should be beyond thankful to hear from them, no matter how long it had been. My selfish tendencies get in the way more than I notice I'm sure and hopefully I am become more aware of it.

I promise to try to start writing more, and thats more of a promise to myself than the few people who actually read this.

God is love
Christ is truth

COTW - tree wall hanging

I LOVE this! So you'll need paper towel rolls (or toilet paper rolls), and paper bags. 

-Cut the paper bags into 6in strips (I used two paper bags with 4 or 5 strips each)

-soak them in water for a couple minutes each, 

-then as you take them out to the water twist them to ring the water out, 

-then begin to form your tree! (I had to use heavy things to hold down the paper bags.)

-Let dry for 24 hours

Now it will not stay together I found out. So I had to glue the branches together to get them to stay in that form. 

Now for the toilet paper rolls. 

-Take a role and flatten it in half. (making an eye shape, or leaf in this case)

- cut one inch sections from the roll

- I used about 40 leafs for this tree.

You don't have to paint it but I thought it would make it look more unique than just a brown tree. I used my leftover Americana paint from my freshman year at DAAP. I had 8 colors and 40 leaves so each color was on 5 leaves. 

Here is the blog that I got the idea from! She has steps to her process on there too

Paper Roll Twisted Oak Tree

COTW - Jewelry Holder

Jewelry holder made from an old picture frame and fence wire. I found some old tomato fence wire in the basement and my mom let me use an old picture frame and I had some old felt pieces. I used a stapel gun to attach the wire to the back of the inside rectangle of the picture frame the felt was then glued around the outside of the frame to protect from the wire. I then glued seashells to the outside for fun =)

I loveeee it! such a good way to display jewelry!

Encompassing

Today I woke up to a thunder storm. I LOVE thunderstorms. I turned off my alarm and just laid in bed looking out all three of my windows at the large flashes of light. As I am writing this I am comparing lightning to God, which I'm sure has been done before but today it seems relevant. To me it seems there are two types of lightning, the kind that fills your room with a burst of light and the kind that you can see go to the ground and back to the sky. There is a more "pin point" type and an "all encompassing" type.

In comparison to God I believe he works in both ways. There are times when I can feel God in everything that I do, my life is filled with His love and grace. Other times I feel him pointing me to one aspect of my life. Recently I have FINALLY gotten myself into a routine of daily reading and prayer. Its taken me 4 years to get to this point but I can't tell you how happy I am to finally be here. It seems that the more I feel I am doing what I should the more attacks I come under, I have always told friends that attacks are a good sign because they mean you are a threat, but I still dislike them immensely. The more I read the more I see errors in my way of living. This summer I have been probably the happiest I have ever been and always have the mindset that nothing can take me down. That is an easy mindset to have when all is going right. Don't get me wrong hardly anything is going wrong in my life right now but it amazes me how one negative thought can't completely shatter my motivation to stay happy.

I spent this past Sunday and Monday with my family at Lake Cumberland and had a great time! On the drive back I began to think about negative things/thoughts/feelings in my life and for two hours those little things completely consumed me because I let them. I felt like a bad friend/girlfriend/daughter/sister etc. and as I fueled these thoughts the more depression came over me. I have been reading "Walking with God" by John Eldredge and he talks a lot about spiritual warfare and praying against things such as depression, defeat, fear etc. As much as I didn't want to pray in that moment I felt that I had to, so I did. After about 30 minutes I began to feel better and definitely less discouraged.

Sometimes God will pin point things in my life that I need to address and while that isn't the warm and fuzzy God feeling most people are looking for, that is when He is with you most.

Sometimes He consumes me as quick as a flash of lightning and I am reminded who I am living for.

God is Love

Christ is Truth

COTW - Toilet Paper Roll Wall Hanging

I also got this idea off of  http://pinterest.com/. Its made from toilet paper/paper towel rolls! I mean you throw those things away anyways! there are SO many cool ideas and patterns and I hope to make them all =) Anyways its super easy! 

-take a toilet paper roll and flatten it in half (this will give it that tear drop shape)

-mark off around one inch sections with a pen or something

-cut the roll into 1 in strips

-then glue them into any pattern you want! I would glue four of them together in the center then glue those bigger flower patterns together to make this =)

happy crafting! 

~In the life of Mariah~

-I got business cards last week! WOOP! Thanks to AlwaysClassy for passing them out at her shows =)

-I am also working on uploading a new WordPress website so HOPEFULLY I'll have that up soon...fingers crossed =) 

-I am working on a music video for Crossroads Kids Club, 3-4 year olds =) which I am SUPER excited about

-I got to spend this past weekend with Mark =) which is probably the most exciting thing of all :D I really can't describe how happy he makes me. Still trying to get used to this only seeing him once every couple of months... 

Thats about it for now! Hope everyone has a great day!

God is Love

Christ is Truth