Homemade countdown calendar and update on kitchen

I made a Christmas countdown calendar today.  It's stuck to our mirror in the living room. I had some blue card, which had been given me a while ago.  I LOVE the colour and the texture is great.  I created a frame effect by putting some purple paper bordered with silver paint pen and then more blue card on top. You can't tell by the photograph but it has a bit of a decoupage effect as I used sticky pads rather than glue to stick everything together.  The pudding is a clip art picture I found on the 'net.  I cut it out of brown paper and then used white paper for the white sauce, pink paper for the plate and of course red and green paper for the holly.  There is a touch of green glitter glue on the large holly and it is all finished off with the silver paint pen.

We haven't put up our Christmas decorations yet.  When do you put up yours?

~oOo~

The decorating (painting and papering) in the kitchen is finished now - yay!  I'm just waiting to be sure the paint is dry before I hang the curtains.  We had a bit of a set-back though.  We have laminate wood floors in the kitchen.  Yesterday after running the washing machine I heard a squelch noise as I walked across the floor.  Water seeped up between the laminate planks.  I called my Dad (hubs was at work) and we discovered that we've had a drip from a pipe behind the washer for a while.  Under the flooring water was everywhere.  It's warped all the planks.

I could have cried.  I'd finally got the kitchen looking nice and then the floor is ruined.  *Sigh*  I will have to put up with concrete floor now until we can sort it out.

BUT - God is with us, He cares for us.  Despite my homemaker despair, I know that I have everything in Him.  He is in control.

Lol, the fact is the flooring we had down was the remnants of flood damaged flooring from Hubs' parents' house.  They had a flood a few years ago and we got all the pieces that weren't damaged. I thought that was quite funny that those that escaped their flood were damaged by our own little flood!

22 Days 'til Christmas!

Christmas is coming,
The goose is getting fat
Please put a penny
In the old man's hat.

If you haven't got a penny,
A ha'penny will do,
If you haven't got a ha'penny,
Then God bless you.

Kitchen decorating

Our kitchen has desperately needed decorating for quite a while.  Time and money have prevented it.

When we first moved in, in November 2001, our house needed new roof, rewiring, new windows and doors, a boiler, central heating.  There was no kitchen fitted either.  There was a lot of work needed doing, and still does.  When we decorated the kitchen/diner and papered the walls the edges just would NOT stop curling.  We tried all kinds of glues and devices.   Well, because there was so much glue, every bit of dust and cat hair in the air stuck to it - besides the fact it looked awful because the edges wouldn't stick down.  I have put up with this state of affairs until this year.

We finally got enough money together and bought paper, paint and some new curtains for the diner end.  Because hubs is so busy with work and church we weren't sure when we would do it all, but we started the stripping of paper and the rubbing down of woodwork.

Hub's Dad took pity on us and asked us if we wanted his neighbour, who is a decorator, to come and get it all finished in time for Christmas!  What a blessing!

So it's nearly finished.  I thought I'd give you a snapshot of the wallpaper and the new curtains.  It's a bit different, but I love the colours.

Wallpaper

Close-up

Curtains - not yet hung up

I'll try to post some pictures when it's all finished.

Christmas card designs

My church asked me to design a Christmas card that we can send out with service times on. At the time of designing the preaching had been all about the sacrifice that Jesus made leaving His throne in Heaven to be born in a manger (basically a feeding trough). That He came to suffer and die and we can forget this in all the glitz and cosiness of a modern Christmas.

The first card that I designed is the one you can see on the right with the baby Jesus in the hay but shown on the cross - obviously not nailed to the cross but shown with the cross as the background to show what He was born to do. But this was after some consideration deemed a little too sensitive and could be misunderstood. So I then very quickly designed the second one which shows the baby Jesus in the feeding trough or manger. I tried to get the effect of a stone trough (based on some pictures I found of 1st century feeding troughs)...but I am not entirely happy with the aspect of the baby in the manger. It doesn't quite look right to me. But I didn't have time to correct the picture as they needed printing.

The Like Sunshine in the Home is obviously not emblazoned across the originals! :)

The Bible text is from the NIV John 6:38  "For I have come down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me".  I didn't add the verse this was done on the computer at church, but I think it looks good and it's a wonderful scripture.

Simply breathtaking video

Tempest Milky Way from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.

There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

Psalm 8:1-3

Kitteh vs Air Purifier

This really made me giggle...



I had a 'deeper' post in my mind but it's late and it's beddy-byes time for me.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Happy Mummy, Happy Home

Puritan kitty....

I thought it might be worthwhile just to mention that in all my pondering about TV and Facebook, I'm not embarking on a ultra-Puritan lifestyle where I abstain from all fun things and ban Christmas and birthdays. :) I think the John Piper quote that I had at the top of the page could perhaps give that impression! I'll change that I think, although I do very much agree with the sentiment of the quote. I rather like John Piper, I like to listen to him talk, gentle and not all dramatic and shouty.