Thrifty Love {link party #22}

Back for another round of Thrifty Love? Yeah!!! Thanks much to those of you who took the time to answer my questions about the thumbnail images for the link up. I appreciate your time and am taking your comments into consideration.

I love having you all link up each week and love that when it comes to thrifted. vintage items most everyone is willing to help eachother out with information. I know lots of you sell your thrifty items. And am wondering if anyone wants to share any info about pricing. How do you price your items? Especially if it's a rare item not found on etsy or ebay to compair? I'd love your input and I am sure others would too. Also wanted to share that I finally added a few vintage listings to my etsy shop. I plan to add more soon. You can see them over there ----->,

Now how about those features?

A great school desk from Smallgood Hearth. And love how she said 

it only had a few carvings (no four letter words except "love"). That's great!

Woman in Real Life shares some lovely dishes from her fruit cellar that were picked up at a church sale.

Love those church sales!

Glimpses of Joy shows us this fantastic purse that I

absolutely love and would have snatched up too!

Now for a few things I picked up starting with these great vintage jumbo push pins, still in the package. Why is stuff like this neat to me? Is that odd? I love office stuff!

An old school book. My how times have changed, you can tell just from the content of the book.

And a fun coffee mug for "Mother".



Linking up at:

S- Fleamarket Finds  M- Apron Thrift Girl  Tu-  Coastal Charm, Frugal Treasures Tuesday T- Vintage Thingie Thursday, Treasure Hunt Thursday F- The Thrifty Groove, Vintage Inspiration Friday S- Penny Worthy Project, Happy Girl Collectibles

{What Do I Know of Holy}: 12 Ways to Make Easter about Jesus

Erin here again with another edition of What Do I Know of Holy. You can find more of Erin over at her blog Worthy of the Prize.

I love Easter. It is absolutely my favorite holiday.

Truth. I am addicted to Cadbury Mini Eggs.

Seriously. Every Easter I make myself sick on them because I know that they will not be in the stores again until next year.

This year I have really had to control myself because I am trying to lose weight for my sister's upcoming wedding. I have only had 2 small bags, individual sized servings. So far I am down 16 lbs. - Wooooohoooo!!! :)

Yes, one reason I love Easter so much is the yummy candy.

Another reason is these little things..

Oh how I love tulips. Such simple beauty. They covered the grounds of my college every spring. They were my wedding flower. Big A and I even had our pictures made in them {at TCU} before we got married, to display at the wedding.

Taken 10 years ago, ha!

I can't help but be joyful when spring is in the air. It's as if God himself is painting his masterpiece on a clean, fresh canvas. Writing his story all over again, for all the world to see.

But of course, the main reason I love Easter is because of the resurrection. It is the very reason why we have Easter. It is the foundation of the Christian faith. Without the resurrection, Jesus is not who he claimed to be.

Next week I will tell you why I absolutely believe that the resurrection really happened.

With this in mind, I want to make sure that Easter at our house is not about egg hunts, bunnies and candy! Don't get me wrong...we do all of these things and have a fabulous time. But I want to make sure my boys know why we do these things. Why we celebrate Easter. Why Jesus died for us.

1. Read the Easter Story {Matthew 28} together as a family. If your children are young, read it from the Jesus Story Bible. Watch this video for the visual story.

2. Download this Free Easter Printable to display in your home and enter to win the Matching Easter Banner.

3. Make Resurrection Eggs.

4. Attend church together as a family - not just at Easter but all year round.

5. Paint Handprint Easter Lambs.

6. Fill your child's Easter basket with Fun Faith Reminders.

7. Bake Resurrection Rolls for Easter Morning. Or prepare an entire Christian Passover Meal .

8. Create a Family Handprint Tree and have everyone add things that God has done for them that they are thankful for onto the palm of their hand, reminding them that Jesus' death on the cross is the greatest thing he ever did for us.

9. Do a service project together as a family. Maybe take a meal to a family in need, reminding everyone that it is important to make sacrifices for others, in the same way that Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for us on the cross.

10. Display Easter Crosses in your home as a visual reminder to all who enter.

11. Listen to Laura Story's What a Savior.

12. Plant a flower garden together as a family, take a trip to the botanic gardens or make a Resurrection Garden and discuss  how God gave us new life in Christ.

Go here to see other Easter Ideas that I have pinned. Feel free to leave comments with your own Easter ideas and I will pin them to my board as well.

May you all have a blessed Easter with loved ones!

But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said." {Matthew 28:5-6} 

Adoption Happens!

You may or may not know this but I partner with Worthy of the Prize Ministries for their Chosen Child Adoption Ministry. We are very happy that these families are bringing their children home! Here are a few pieces specifically for our families, the ones we've supported! Each and every one of these charms represent a child that is now home with their forever family! Yippee!!!

Here's how it works:

For every single Chosen necklace sold $10 is donated to help a family bring their child home!

And over at Worthy of the Prize they donate the entire proceeds from their Chosen Child Fit Bands!

Each month we will feature 1 family and they will have the opportunity to earn for that entire month. After their month is over we will blog about a new family for the following month.

Everyone can help by purchasing these products!!!

Interested in joining this program? To be eligible, you must be working with an adoption agency. Email Julie at worthyoftheprize.julie@yahoo.com if you would like to be added to the list. She will work with you to select your designated month or will put you on a wait list if the program is full.

Now check this!!! In 2011 alone, we helped bring 11 children home!!!

Sing to God, sing praise to His name, extol Him who rides on the clouds---His name is the Lord---and rejoice before Him. A father to the fatherless, a defender of the widows, is God in His holy dwelling! {Psalm 68:4-5}

Ken and Sarah Lovett, who are the reason we began this adoption ministry, brought their son home from the Ukraine last spring!

Jeff, Amber, Carson and Kolby brought home Baby Adelyn on June 22nd! 

She was 10 months old when we brought her home at the end of June.  Being a teacher, I actually got the call on the last day of school that all of her documents were set and she was ready to go home.  I remember jumping up an down and screaming with tears running down my face!  Everyone was so happy for us!  We traveled to Korea one week later and spent 7 days experiencing the culture and the beautiful country.  It was the most incredible experience of my life!!  I will never forget seeing her on her foster mother's back for the first time.  I just started crying immediately.  She wasn't too sure of us for the first 45 minutes, but then my husband be-friended her with Gerber puffs and soon she was sitting in his lap!  She has had Daddy wrapped around her finger ever since!  In fact, she has pretty much everyone wrapped around her finger. Her Gotcha Day was June 22- the day they put her in our arms forever!  She laid her head on Jeff's shoulder like she just knew we were Mommy and Daddy!  We landed in the USA two days later and she met her brothers for the first time who immediately fell in love with her too!  She is such a happy, outgoing little girl.  She is always smiling and laughing and its just so contagious!  Everyone who meets her falls in love with her.  She is such a blessing to us.  Some people say that she is so lucky to have us as her family, but we think its the other way around... we are so so so lucky to have her.  I feel like she has been with us forever!  I can't imagine my family any more perfect than what it is now.  To God be all the glory!!  Read the rest of her story here.

Baby Helen Hope came home on June 27th! Watch the beautiful, moving slideshow here.

The Hartmans rescued Judd from a mental institution in Eastern Europe in June!

Judd was put in an institution because he had down syndrome - he is lucky to be alive! His story will be featured in our upcoming ebook, "Find Joy in the Journey," which will debut Summer 2012, so stay tuned for more details. There are many more who need to be rescued as well and as a result, Melanie has started an online shop to support missionaries who are committed to meeting the needs of the boys in the institution and more importantly, sharing the gospel message of salvation through Christ alone with them. Please consider supporting this ministry by donating to or purchasing products in The Lost Boys Boutique.

Megan and Nat brought their baby girl home on July 2nd!

In February, we received the referral for a precious little girl - only 6 pounds and two months of age.  We were instantly smitten...now if only we could get her home.  We finally traveled in May for our first trip to Ethiopia.  We had the amazing opportunity to meet our daughter for the first time, and spent every possible moment at the orphanage with her!  It was an amazing experience...but the miraculous moment came when we went to our court appointment with the Ethiopian courts and PASSED....the first time!  We considered her our daughter from the first time we saw her face...but now we were LEGALLY a family of four!  We left Ethiopia a short week later with a heavy heart and prayed that we would make our second journey SOON.  5 miserable weeks later we were on our way to BRING HER HOME.  We were united on June 26th and July 2nd, 2011...family and friends joined us at the airport to help us welcome home our precious daughter!  She has now been home for 4 1/2 months and is 10 months old.  It has been such a joy to watch her break out of her shell!  She has the most vivacious and contagious personality and is SUCH a joy!  Her older brother is in love with her too...we are so thrilled to see their bond already.  Thank you everyone for your assistance in fundraising - you have been such a blessing to us!  We thank God every day for our little love. Feel free to follow our journey and read more about our two trips to Ethiopia here.

Baby Connor came home on July 25th! Read his story here.

This beautiful baby girl was united with her forever family on August 5th!

The Farrells brought their 14 year old daughter home on September 18th!

Twin boys, Kingston and Kyrie, were united with their forever family in November!

 

The Dears brought their daughter Rae home on December 20th!

Our family has been on an amazing journey to bring home our little girl, Rae.  We started our journey in August of 2010. After many months of filling out paperwork and getting our dossier to China, we were matched with a 6 year old girl named Yang Rui in July 2011.  At the time of her referral she was diagnosed with a blood disorder and strabismus and was living in Sichuan Province.  She was abandoned a few months after the big earthquake at the age of approximately 3. We know nothing about her life before the orphanage.   We were very excited to be finally matched, and after gathering all info about her disorder we happily accepted her and sent in our LOI.

The next part of the waiting was tough, but we received our travel approval to go and get our girl.  We were able to travel to China as family the week before Christmas.  Even though we knew we would be spending Christmas in China, it was very worth it.  Our Gotcha Day was December 19^th, and we were excited to finally meet her in person.Her caregivers told us that she showed everyone our pictures we had sent her and loved taking pictures with the camera in her care package.  She was very shy at first, but she eventually warmed up to us.  When it was time to leave, she realized her nanny had already left.  She was very sad to say the least.  For the next several hours, she majorly grieved.  There was a lot of crying and screaming and wanting her nanny.  We knew about this phase, but it was very tough to watch. Noel had gone out to McDonald’s for dinner because we knew there was no going out together.  We tried and tried to get her to eat, and then finally she started eating the FRIES! The fries magically stopped the crying and she was happier and smiling.  We also found out she loved taking pictures with our camera phone. 

After learning how to correctly pronounce her Chinese name, we changed her name to the English spelling. On December 20th Yang Rui became, Rae Michelle, a forever member of our family.  She happily placed her handprint on the paperwork. While in China, there was a lot to learn about what she liked and didn’t like.  We had wonderful bonding moments with everyone in our family. We had fun at different museums, parks, and zoos.  Our favorite part may have been seeing the pandas in Chengdu. She was becoming another Dear girl forever cemented in our hearts.

We have been home for a month now, and we cannot imagine our family without this little girl.  She has been a trooper through her dental surgery, blood draws, and other doctor visits.  We are thankful that the hospital provides translators for us to help her understand what is going on.  Rae is learning to say more and more English words and loves to copy her ABCs.  She is great little helper around the house.  We love watching her learn about her new world and see her thriving.  We are looking forward to teaching her more about the love of Jesus, and one day accepting Him as her Savior.  You can read more about our experiences at http://increasingheartandhome.blogspot.com/.  

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will---to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. {Ephesians 1:3-6}

 

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. {John 14:18}

Thrifty Love {link party #21}

Hello friends and welcome back to another edition of Thrifty Love. I hope you've all been able to get out and find something neat!

I have a quick question if you don't mind taking a moment to answer in the comments box. How important is it that the link collection below have the little thumbnail images each week? To me it's not a big deal but what are your thoughts? Is that something you'd like to see here or are you cool with just the text links? Thanks for taking a moment to answer!

Thanks to all who linked up last week now lets take a look at some of the great things you found.

Sweetpea's GoodJunks found these vintage bingo cards.
I'd love to display these in my living room somehow.



Salt & Wine found some milk-glass candlesticks.

Messy Merci picked up 2 typewriters including this one.

And for some of my goodies this week! I love sharing my things here cause if I'm unsure what something is I can ask you and someone here usually knows. Like my Pyrex bottles from last week and like this one for instance. I'm not exactly sure what it is use for. I think it's a spoon rest and that is how I plan on using it. See the opening on the side. But is it REALLY a spoon rest? I've never EVER seen one in this type of glass or vintage style. ???

Next is this great desk calendar. Love it!

And this really neat milk-glass, Virgo coffee cup dated 1976.

Thinking of giving it to my friend for her bday, she's a Virgo, however she does not drink coffee. Hum???

I also picked up a few other things that you may or may not see in the background of these photos. I'm gonna save those for next week. Hope you don't mind.

Were you able to get out lately and find anything?

If you'd like to snag the button it's on the sidebar over there

<-------------------.

Linking up at:

S- Fleamarket Finds  M- Apron Thrift Girl  Tu- Knick of Time Tuesday, Coastal Charm, Frugal Treasures Tuesday T- Vintage Thingie Thursday, Treasure Hunt Thursday F- The Thrifty Groove, Vintage Inspiration Friday S- Penny Worthy Project, Happy Girl Collectibles

{What Do I Know of Holy}: Finding True Beauty

I interrupt our regularly scheduled I HATE RELIGION series again, to bring to you another message that I believe all women should hear.

This was posted on my blog  for our {Hope for the Home} series. Enjoy!


I'm Cyndi and I blog at Walking in Grace and Beauty. I'm a 40 something wife and mother and I share tips on fashion, make-up, and beauty, as well as reminders that true beauty begins on the inside with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Do you ever struggle with your outward appearance?

We are inundated with pictures of women in magazines, on television, and on the internet that seem to have the perfect body, the perfect hair and the perfect skin.

Recently, I was reading some scripture verses and 2 Corinthians 3:18 spoke to me loud and clear~~“So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”


Ladies that verse tells us that if we have the Holy Spirit living in us then we are being transformed to look more and more like Jesus.

That’s amazing and I don’t know about you but I want to look more like Him everyday!

More than having the best makeup or the best eye cream or the perfect hair~~I want to look like Jesus.

I want to see people the way He sees people, I want to love people the way He loves people.

True inner beauty starts with Jesus. 

I love this quote by Ann Voskamp, “What if we wanted to BE beautiful more than we wanted to BUY beautiful?”  Yes! Yes! I want that kind of beautiful.

We can be beautiful not because of all the products we use, or the makeup we put on, or the clothes we wear, but because we have the Holy Spirit living in us and He is shaping us to look like Jesus. 


That is true beauty~and God looks at our inner beauty because the beauty displayed by our inner person far outweighs what we look like from the outside.

Every-body's Free to Wear Sunscreen

I may be dating myself here but...do you remember this song? I loved this song when it came out. I actually still do! He shares some great advice. How about you, did you like it? Or if it's all new to you, what do you think about it?

Thrifty Love {link party #20}

Time for some Thrifty Love! I love checking out your cool finds. Thanks so much for linking up. Here are a couple that caught my eye this week.

Diddle & Ro shares this fantastic turquoise clock. I love that handle on the top!

And A Little Bit of Everything shows us this vintage shortening container. How cool is that? Come on Crisco get with the program we like pretty containers!

My husband and I got to have a small getaway recently. While on our getaway one thing we definitely did was hit up a couple of thrift shops and swap meets! It is so fun thrifting in another town. Fresh inventory! Sorry for the picture overload but hey I found some great things!

Our family number is 4 so I am drawn to the number 4. I definitely had to pick up this 4 ball.

Next are these vintage mason jars with the zinc lids. Apparently the green one is older than the blue one??? Gonna make some of these!

I picked up these glass Pyrex bottles with glass stoppers for 25¢ each! Really Pyrex??? What ever were these used for? I have a thing for small bottles lately.

I love these cast iron skeleton keys! I am always on the look out for keys and don't come across them too often. And they are fairly large at about 6 inches long.

More bottles. These were spice jars.

Vintage earrings.

And some pretty vintage silverware. Hum what to do with these...lots of ideas running through my mind!

So what have you found lately?

If you want to snag the button copy & paste the code to your website or blog!
<a href="http://blog.capscreations.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.capscreations.com/images/thriftylovebutton.jpg" /></a>

Linking up at:

S- Fleamarket Finds  M- Apron Thrift Girl  Tu- Knick of Time Tuesday, Coastal Charm, Frugal Treasures Tuesday T- Vintage Thingie Thursday, Treasure Hunt Thursday F- The Thrifty Groove, Vintage Inspiration Friday S- Penny Worthy Project, Happy Girl Collectibles

Perfect time for teacup bird feeders.

Things are looking pretty pretty around here. Perfect weather coming soon! And just about the perfect time to get some teacup bird feeders made.

I needed a last minute gift cause yeah I procrastinate on things like that! And since I love to thrift shop I have plenty of cups and saucers around and was able to whip this up in a day!

Now you can't wait till the last minute last minute cause you have to let the glue dry but at least 24 hrs in advance should do. Is it not the most adorable bird feeder ever?! I had to snag a picture!

You can get the full teacup bird feeder tutorial here and make one too. Don't forget Mother's Day and Teacher Appreciation Day is coming real soon and these would make fantastic gifts for mamas and teachers! Yeah?

Lucky Penny with Free Printable

Do you have a lucky penny? Lets make one! These are perfect for St. Patrick's day. 

Supplies:
• 4 Leaf Clover Confetti (I have a clover hole puncher but someone must sell this confetti right?)
• Glue Stick
• Pennies
• Diamond Glaze

Shine your pennies if you like, this is optional but I tell you how later. Glue a clover to a penny using a glue stick like photo below. If your confetti is that thick plastic then there is no need to glue it. Just place it on the penny.

Using the Diamond Glaze put a layer of glaze over the clover and cover the entire face of the penny as well. And let dry, drying takes a few hours. No photo of me applying the glaze so just imagine! The glaze comes out a bit white but will dry clear. 

Now you have a lucky penny with a permanent 4 leaf clover! Make lots and  attach them to the free card below using double stick tape, a dab of glue from a glue gun or glue dots. Pass them out to your friends and enjoy!

Click HERE or on image below to download the free tags. Then use a 2 inch hole puncher to punch them out. You can also cut them into squares if you do not have a large hole puncher.

To shine pennies pour some vinegar and salt into a bowl, add pennies to this mixture and let set for just a few minutes. Next rub your pennies with some baking soda, rinse and they are done. As you can see in the photo below, the pennies on the right are the ones that I shined. They looked just like the ones on the left before I shined them.

I'd love to hear if you make these. So don't be shy, let me know!