The winner of the Red Letter Words giveaway is…

Author: Leslie M

Comment: permalink

I really love the verse! it’s very special….. and your design is impecable! love it toooo

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The winner of the $25.00 gift certificate to Leen the Graphic Queen is….

Author: Tiffany

Comment: permalink

I love all the shapes and flourishes, I really just couldnt decide I love it all. Thank you for doing a giveaway and I am so glad your family is ok.

Congratulations, ladies!!!

I will be contacting you soon about claiming your prizes.

And a BIG thank you to Dee and Leen for such great giveaways!  Love you, girls!

Blessings!

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My sister and I had the honor of traveling to Harrisburg, PA this past weekend to the Relevant 10 conference.

I was looking forward to spending time with my sister, meeting new bloggers and reconnecting with others, and learning new ways to make my blog even better for my readers.

Relevant 10 did not disappoint! It provided me with the opportunity to do all of the above and more!

I knew it was a Christian blog conference, and I was looking forward to learning how to make my blog an even greater witness for the Lord.  And I did.

But the one thing that I didn’t expect from this blog conference was the message that if my blog is keeping me from keeping first things first in my home, then I needed to stop blogging.

Sometimes it was mentioned subtly, and sometimes the message was in my face.  It made me uncomfortable and convicted.

Because to be honest, many times over the past year and a half, I have put my blog before my family.  I didn’t have time for my kids because I HAD to get a project finished.  I laid in bed at night with my computer in my lap instead of cuddling with my husband and spending time with him.  And I will even confess that I have chosen to spend time writing a post… and hours later …complained that I didn’t have time for my quiet time with God.

Ugh.

It was painful to realize that my priorities have been all out of whack!  Relevant 10 reminded me that my priorities should go in this order:

GOD

HUSBAND

CHILDREN

BLOG and other ministries

I am so thankful for feeling uncomfortable and convicted at the conference, because it is in those uncomfortable places that God can change us and mold us to who He wants us to be.

I do not feel God calling me to quit blogging, but I do feel  I can only blog if I keep my priorities straight.

I love my blog, and I feel like it is a gift from God.  But I know that He wants me to honor Him in my home more than my blog.

I want my husband and children to always know and feel that they are my first priorities.

I am so very grateful to everyone who helped put together the Relevant 10 Conference.

Thank you to our wonderful sponsors! (see list HERE)

Thank you to the conference leaders, Sarah, Dawn, and Jessica.

Thank you to the wonderful speakers…(see list HERE)

Thank you to all the precious bloggers who came from all over the United States to share their stories.

And Thank You most of all to Jesus…from whom all blessings flow.

I wish I could have taken all of my readers there with me!  It was such a blessing to make my “online” friends my “real life” friends.

Here are a few more pictures from the conference with some links to other great bloggers.  Click on their names to visit their blogs.  Tell them I sent ya!  :)

The first day, we ate lunch we these beauties…

Me, Cyndi, Melissa, Beth, and Tracy

I complained that my hair looked “big” in all the pictures and that somebody needed to Photoshop it to make it look smaller.

Look what Beth  posted on her blog…

That little rascal!  I think I will stick with my BIG hair, what do you think?

Here is a picture of the conference room full of amazing bloggers…

We connected with these two fabulous girls the first night!  Darlene and Flamingo (well, I actually called her by her name).  Love them!

I was so excited about meeting one of my sponsors, Dee from Red Letter Words.

She is the most delightful person!  I could talk to her for hours.  :)

I cannot put into words what a thrill it is to meet your online friends in person.  It makes me love having her as a sponsor even more!  She is real and genuine and extremely talented.

Thank you, Dee, for being such a blessing!

Me and My Sis being serious

Me and My Sis being not so serious

Cyndi chit-chatting with Mandy

One of my favorite chicks from Relevant, Darlene from The Only Thing Worth Walking Toward.

She also has a brand new online design blog called, Fieldstone Hill.

I expect big things from this girl!!!

Her enthusiasm for life is infectious!  I can’t wait to hang with her again someday!  :)

I was so happy to connect with one of my online friends, Wendy from Relatively Unique.

She is a sweet, sweet spirit, and it was a joy to get to know her in real life (IRL).

I got to connect with Kimba,  from A Soft Place to Land, again at Relevant.  I had the pleasure of meeting her at Blissdom and have enjoyed getting to know her in blogland this past year.

You don’t have to be around Kimba for long to start envying her gorgeous hair.

It is thick, and luscious, and va-va-voomish…

I have serious “hair envy” when I am around her.

You can see more of her hair in this picture I snapped of her talking to Serena from Grace is for Sinners and Jen from Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

When I took my picture with Kimba, I was feeling a little bit insecure.  My hair can be so thin and stringy.

So I asked her if I could borrow a little of her hair for the picture and she kindly obliged.

Thanks, Kimba!

And lastly, I was so blessed to meet and get to know Laura from 10 Million Miles.

She is beautiful inside and out.  I was so inspired by her heart for Jesus.  Thank you, Laura, for sharing your heart with me!

I am so thankful for all of the many blessings I received at RELEVANT 10!

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Wow!  I am amazed at how many people entered this giveaway!

You guys love you some Lowe’s!  :)

I have read all 307 comments, and to be honest, it broke my heart.  As I read all the ways you wanted to use the gift card if you won, I found myself wishing I had 307 gift cards to give away.

I soooo wish I had the money to help all of you get your projects completed.  You sooooo deserve it.

So many of you wanted the gift card so you could do something for someone else.  You are precious.

So I want to say a big THANK YOU for stopping by and for entering my giveaway.

I also want to thank OneProjectCloser for sponsoring the DIY contest, and for giving me the $150.00 prize!  If you haven’t checked out their site, please stop by and tell them “hi”.  :)

It is an honor for me to share my prize with….

Dena ([email protected])

This is sooooo nice of you. I would use the gift card. To fix up or front yard. We just bought a new house and have fixed soooo much. We have neglected the front yard. Thanks.

Congratulations, Dena!!!

I will be contacting you as soon as I get home from Relevant.

Blessings!

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Just wanted to do a quick post to let you know that my sis and I are in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at the Relevant 10 Conference.

We drove through the night last night to get to our hotel.

Here we are in our room before lunch.

We were blessed to have lunch at Chili’s with these fabulous ladies…

Melissa, Beth, my sister, me, Myra, and Tracy

(Debbie also joined us after the picture was taken.)

Here we are at the hotel after lunch…

I was so happy to finally meet my blog buddy, Beth, in person!  It is so funny how you can feel like you already know somebody that you have never met in real life.  But Beth was just as beautiful as I expected…inside and out!  Beth isn’t attending Relevant but lives near by and coordinated our lunch date.  Thanks, Beth!

I will be posting some more pictures of our Relevant experience soon, but that is all for now.  It’s bedtime!  :)

If you haven’t entered my giveaway for a $75.00 gift card to Lowe’s, click HERE to enter.  The giveaway ends Friday at midnight and I will annouce the winner on Saturday!  Good luck!

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Hey Ya’ll!!!

I am soooooo very excited to announce this giveaway!

Do you remember the DIY contest I was entered in a couple of weeks ago at OneProjectCloser.com?

There were 14 wonderful DIY Projects to chose from in this contest.  If you didn’t get to check them all out, click HERE to see them.  They are amazing!

And the wonderful people at OneProjectCloser.com donated $100 to Habitat for Humanity for each of the weekly winners.

I asked you guys to vote for my Back Patio Concrete Makeover at OneProjectCloser.com.  (Okay, okay…I begged and pleaded.)

And you sweet ladies rose to the occasion.

With your help…

I won!!!!

I won!!!!

I won!!!!

I was so very excited!  (Can you tell by the excessive exclamation marks?!!!!)

Did you hear what I won?

I won a $150.00 Gift Card to the home improvement store of my choice.  And of course, I chose Lowe’s!

The guys at OneProjectCloser. com are class acts.  They have been super supportive and encouraging.  So when they emailed me about my prize, I asked them if I could share my prize with my readers.  They enthusiastically agreed and sent me TWO $75.00 gift cards to Lowes.

Eli wanted to show you the gift cards!

One for ME and one for YOU!!!

It’s a fact…I wouldn’t have won the contest without YOU.

YOU are the reason I have my blog.

YOU are the reason I am motivated to do projects around my house.

YOU are the ones who inspire me and motivate me everyday.

And YOU are the ones who voted for me.

So THANK YOU!!

Here are the ways you can be entered in this giveaway for a $75.00 gift card to Lowe’s:

1.  Leave a comment telling me what you would use your gift card for…DIY project, Christmas gift to hubby. etc.

2.  Tweet about this giveaway and come back and tell me in a separate comment. (leave your twitter name or link)

3.  Share this giveaway on your facebook page and come tell me about it in a separate comment.

4.  Mention this giveaway on your blog and come tell me about it in a separate comment.

That’s four chances to win!!!

The giveaway ends Friday. October 22nd at midnight EST.

I will announce the winner  on Saturday from the Relevant 10 Conference in Harrisburg, PA.

Good luck!

P.S.  You don’t have to follow me or subscribe to my blog to be entered in the giveaway, but I sure would love it if you would anyway.  :)

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Just had to let you know about a great sale that is going on through Sunday at midnight.

One of my sponsors, Leen the Graphics Queen, is having a 25% off sale on everything in her online store!!!

Look at these great sale prices…

Give Thanks to the Lord

Sale:  $3.75

:

“Custom Letter Number Decal

as seen on Lettered Cottage”

Sale:  $3.00

Bird Silhouettes

Sale:  $13.50

“Welcome”

Sale:  $6.00

His Eye is on the Sparrow

Sale:  $18.75

Her designs are beautiful and there are soooo many more, you just have to go look around!  I am sure you will find something you love.  :)

I know it’s only October, but these would make great Christmas gifts!

Click HERE to visit Leen’s online store.

Have a great weekend!

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I just wanted to give you a little update on the house situation.

Our house is officially up for sale, and we have only had one family look at it so far.

And just like I thought…it’s a pain to keep my house “show ready” with four little boys running around!

But it’s all good.

As far as the property/house we are wanting to buy…well, we were supposed to sign a contract on it last Friday, but didn’t get to.

The seller has some legal stuff he has to work out.

So we are supposed to sign the contract this week, but we are not getting our hopes up.

Our attitude is, if it works out…great.  If it doesn’t work out…that’s great too.  We are not going to stress over things that are out of our control!

When I posted the picture of the 1865(ish) house we wanted to buy, I thought you guys would think we were absolutely nuts.

But I was pleasantly surprised with all the comments from readers who thought it was great that we wanted to buy that old house.  I loved all the “go for it” attitudes! You guys are awesome.  :)

So I snapped a few more pictures of the inside of the house to show you actually had bad it is.

(You might just change your mind after you see these.)

This is a picture of the front door from inside the house…

As you walk in the front door of the house, you see this….(actually, there is a large entryway, but I didn’t get a picture of it all.)

The steps lead up to very small rooms upstairs…

Now come one ladies, can’t you picture how beautiful these would be?  They are the original hard wood stairs!!!  They just need a little TLC.  :)

If you look to your right when you walk in the entryway, you will see this…

The original hardwood floor had already been removed.  Ugh!  But we would install a beautiful dark hardwood floor  throughout the downstairs.  Can’t you picture that fireplace with a beautiful mantle?  We are thinking about leaving the brick exposed.  This would be the dining room.  I would love to find a beautiful chandelier for this room.

One the left side of the entry way, you see the same thing…

This would be the living room area.  Some of the original hardwood floor is still there, and some has been removed.  I would love another beautiful mantle and some custom-made bookshelves on each side (by my hubby, of course.)

I also picture beautiful (white) slipcovered love seats in this room.  There are two beautiful windows in the front of the room that let in beautiful light.

When you are standing in this room, you can look all the way across the house to the “dining room”…

Are you picturing the potential, ladies?  Couldn’t it be beautiful?!!

When you go upstairs, you see this small area on the right….(yes, those are vines growing through the open windows.)  This could be a cool playroom for the boys.

And you see this on the right…(yep! the roof is gone!)

When we build the roof back, we are wanting to add a large dormer to the back to make this room big enough to be a bedroom.

You can see the beauty of the subdivision from this “roof top” view… (front yard)

(back yard)…

The farm land to the left of the house and behind the house can NEVER be built on.  Isn’t that great?

Here are a few more pictures just to confirm our insanity…

The entry way…

The back of the house…

If we get the house, we will be able to add additions to both sides and the back.  We would be adding a basement, den, kitchen, laundry room, master bedroom/bath, garage, plus 3 bedrooms.  Whew!  And my hubby would be doing most of the work to save money and because he loves it!  And so do I.  I am dying to get my hands of this house.

Now, what do you think?

Do you still say “go for it”?

Or have you decided I have a few screws loose and that it might be a good idea to stop following my blog?

Some people see this…

But I see this…

.

I’ll keep you posted…

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Hey ladies!

I am so very happy to announce the winner of the Yellow Hope Cards Giveaway!

But first, I have another winner to announce...ME!!!

My back patio makeover won the OneProjectCloser.com contest for Best DIY Project!!!

Woohooo!

You can check out the winning announcement HERE.

And do you know how I won?

BECAUSE OF YOU!!!

I would have never won without your votes.  So THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

And it wouldn’t be fair for me to enjoy the prize all by myself, so I am sharing it with you.

As soon as I talk to a representative from OneProjectCloser, I will let you know the details.

Now to the winner of the Yellow Hope Cards Giveaway!…

I used a Random Number Generator and it gave me the number 4!  Which is…

Carrie~Farming On Faith

Congratulations, Carrie!!!!

I will be contacting you with the giveaway information.  :)

Thanks to everyone who entered.  And thanks to Rebecca for a wonderful giveaway!

If you didn’t win, but would like to purchase some scripture card sets now or in the future, just click HERE to visit Rebecca’s Etsy shop.

I have a lot of great giveaways coming up soon, so be sure to check back.

Have a great day!

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I am so excited to introduce you to one of my newest sponsors…

Yellow Hope Cards

Isn’t that the cutest little button?

Rebecca is the sweet soul behind this ministry.  She loves the Word of God and knows the importance of having it as a part of our daily lives.

She has created sets of scripture cards to display in your home or keep with you at all times to help you learn and know God’s word!

There are 14 scriptures in each set.

Some of the sets include:

Scriptures for Young Ladies

Scriptures for Young Men

Scriptures of Peace

Scriptures of God’s Guidance

and many more!

The Giveaway is…

Rebecca is giving away one set of scripture cards and a stand to display them on!  (The giveaway excludes the “featured items” in her Etsy Store.)

Just leave a comment telling me which set of scripture cards you would choose from Rebecca’s Etsy store and you will be entered!  :)

You can visit her store by clicking HERE.

Goodluck!

And I will announce the winner on Monday.  :)

P.S.  Voting for my back patio makeover ends Saturday, Oct. 9th at noon.  If you haven’t had a chance to vote for me yet, click HERE. (It only takes a couple seconds…promise!)  Thanks!

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