SonRise Women's Gathering : Missions Preparation!

Tonight, I joined the women of SonRise to represent our small team of people heading out in a few short weeks to Panama. Our goal tonight was to gather together, fellowship, pray over the trip and the team and put together the care bags for each separate trip. [There is a separate trip heading out to Haiti in April, as well!]

ready, set, go! 

goodies for haiti ♥

For the Panama trip, we put together the little baggies containing Salvation Bracelets, which we will take with us and share with the Ngobe people. It's an awesome, simple little project that I'd forgotten about until tonight, that provides an easy, daily reminding visual for the wearer of what it represents.

salvation bracelets!

If you're unfamiliar with, or like me and need a refresher now and then :) - of what the six different colors of the salvation bracelet represent, here's a quick visual for you!

colors of the salvation bracelet

1. Black - Sin

2. Red - Blood of Christ

3. White - Cleansing/Purity

4. Blue - Baptism

5. Green - Growth/Development in Christ

6. Yellow - Heaven! 

Here's the individual breakdown, in case you'd like that too visual, too! 

1. Black - Sin

2. Red - Blood of Christ

3. White - Cleansed/Pure

4. Blue - Baptism

5. Green - Growth & Development in Christ 

6. Heaven [Our Ultimate GOAL!]

What a great way to start off the week! Tomorrow we've got our team meeting; it's amazing to see how close we are getting to our launch date. Please, please please continue to pray for my team and me as we inch closer to heading out into the mountains of Panama! 

xo | cmd 

Birthday Twins [Moll&Care] & Beads Galore!

It would be one thing to have ONE friend as cute as Molly or Carrie, but it just so happens that there are TWO of the, equally friggin' adorable gals to whom I would like to wish the happiest of happy birthdays!

I miss 'em.. it's been way too long since I last saw either one of them, but either way, girls, have the best birthday yet!! [Super shout out, because they're adopted, too. That adoption thing really pays off ;) haha.. ]

Happy Birthday, Molly & Carrie!

moll & care | cute friends.
happy birthday, girlies!

circa 2009..ish? | toooold ya it's been too long.. :(

Gotta love birthdays, yeah? Yeah :).

----

You know what ELSE I love?! My pastor and his wife. I also love amazing dinners and a few hours of playing with boxes and boxes.. and boxes of BEADS. Ms. Debbie had asked me on Sunday if I wanted to come by this week for dinner since Joe is out of town, more purposefully to help her sort through some boxes of beads that had come from Jarod and Ms. Ellen during the cleaning process. By some, I mean almost a matching equivelant of my current inventory. Beads, everywhere was where we started in an effort to sort and consolidate. I gave her some pointers on simple wire working, explained the various tools, and even fixed one of her plaque bracelets that had broken. Sydni kept herself busy in the play room, and when it was all said and done, I toted home an incredible variety of new beads, fixtures, pins, etc. I'm like a little kd when it comes to this... lol. I'm in heaven ;)

almost half of what i now own... whoa.

Craft party, anyone?!?! I need to go to bed before I pass the point at which I won't be able to function in about 8 hours or so. Plus, I'm starting on the mini's birthday shopping tomorrow. She'll be three, all too quickly. Any suggestions?

xo | cmd

Christine's Creative, Too!



christine's DIY watch



I hope I'm not the only halfway creative person out there who occasionally goes through a lull in craft productivity. I'll find myself lapsing through spurts of weeks on end where I'm essentially pining to get my hands on some beads or yarn and needles, to forge some sort of necklace, earring set, scarf, something. Adversely, I'm known to lay all creative urge to rest for another few weeks in order to pursue some other endeavor.

Todayyyy, Christine waltzed on by with a little diddy on her wrist that prompted my asking of where she'd found it. As it turns out, she made it. High FIVE! Another kindred DIY spirit. I shouldn't really be so surprised, what with Pinterest taking over the world one household at a time, but it was a watch that she'd made, and I realized quickly I've yet to make a watch. I was actually a little shocked at that revelation, but hey, that just gives me another halfway-justifiable reason to make a trip to Goodwill, maybe eeeeven Michael's or Hobby Lobby... << You know it's serious when I volunteer to pay full MSRP on anything, even craft material. Just sayin'.

Anyway, so I'm going to bid adieu for now to the computer and get my brain warmed up for some designing. I'll letcha know how this one pans out.

xo | cmd

Jewelry Blitz

I went on a bit of a rampage tonight.

Over the past few weeks, I've re-engulfed myself into Pinterest, and I've gathered a definite amount of pinspiration from doing such. Tonight, I devoted the evening to channeling that inspired thought into the boxes of beads, fixtures, and chain that comprise my collection.

Result?

See for yourself.

bake marbles at 350 degrees for 25 minutes
glue on end caps

add jingle and jangle :)

 

matching earrings



touch of turquoise and copper



pewter trumpet and bits of red

So I got a little carried away. It's cool :) 

You know what else is cool? 

It's FRIDAY!
[hello, weekend!]

xo | cmd

I Haven't Forgotten....

It dawned on me today that in the midst of my newly-fashioned obsession with knitting, I've let my beadwork fall to the wayside. How rude of me. I made a resolution today to fish the bins of un-assigned beads, wire, fastenings, and other random trinkets out from hiding and give them some long-absent attention.



current knitting endeavor

 With Christmas just around the corner, I tend to be a little more bold in color selections and textures, simply because I feel like this is a brilliant time to celebrate boldness and color. Don't ask me how I arrived at that particular correlation, but I felt the distinct need to hone in on the array of ceramics over which I've always debated in adding to pieces. Why? Well, for starters, they're not cheap, and once I've incorporated them into a necklace or other piece, they are then no longer available for anything else. It's a ridiculous battle I'm constantly perpetuating in my own head, which could easily be remedied if I weren't so stinkin' fickle.

Whatev'.


ceramics: o, how i love you.

 Either way, I sorted out some ceramics today that, along the way, became part of a collection instead of a wearable item. I wound up losing focus on beads and leaning back on knitting when I realized that I should be crafting jewelry to match knitting projects, and vice versa. Hello, genius. Wake up.

That being said, I'll be taking Christmas gifts to a whole new level this week. Haha.
I'll keep you posted.

xo | cmd

Baby Beads

First things first:

See that?

Yeah.
That's a big smiley on what is now my clean, clear coffee table.

I am celebrating because this marks the finishing date of all those wedding programs!
After almost 2 and a half months of meticulously laboring over these things, I tied the last ribbon and glued the last insert today! [Woo!] It's official: they are now boxed up and I won't see them again until the big day. I'm ok with that. :)

In other news, it just sort of happened that the ladies at my work enjoyed some of the jewelry work I've done, so I started taking orders. One of my biggest challenges thus far hasn't been the designing or creating, it's actually been completing the process while a 2-yr-old tries to touch everything I'm doing. 

Solution? 

I got Sydni a long, solid elasti-plastic beading cord and some of those plastic heart beads with holes easy enough for her to maneuver. She flatters me in that she always wants to be doing whatever it is Mommy or Daddy are doing, and I could tell right away that she felt like the biggest of big girls as she sat alongside me on the couch for nearly an hour making her own strand of pretty colors. Every few beads, she would stop, hold it up, and say, "Mommy, Look!"

Eventually, though, as with all her toys, she remembers that the floor is still clean, and we must, at that point, remember that she is still at toddler with the innate abilities to create a mess twice the size of what an average adult could probably make if he/she were trying. It took just shy of five seconds for the spotless floor to become the spotted floor. I'm sure there are a few renegade beads are going to remain hidden behind the couch, tv stand, and desk until those pieces of furniture are moved. It was worth it.

We're on our way to a good weekend!

xo | cmd

 

Pillows

Somewhere back when I was about 3, I caught a case of the DIY [Do It Yourself] bug and as of now, it's still here. I think my first major undertaking was when I started designing those little seed beed safety pins (come on, pretend like you don't know what those were), and a passion for creativity blossomed from there. I remember entering kindergarten believing that I would make a killing off those things, because hey, the lemonade had been a smash hit that summer. These things lasted a lot longer than lemonade.


originally uploaded by obstinatepursuit | seed bead safety pins

That was my thinking, at least. :)



shirt design | easy enough...



Over the years, I found myself attempting to create or re-create everything from my own haircuts to dress designs to screenprints. Some attempts were gratifying successes; others proved to be valued learning experiences. Along the way, as with every budding DIY'er, I found certain niches that worked for me, and I've been running with those and a few others here and there.



pillow patches

One of my favorite things as a DIY'er is to take a break from creating my own designs and find concepts I know I could develop on my own. Today was one of those days when I ran across two that I found at the Galleria. I thought they were simple enough, and that type of design that has plenty of room for open alteration and conformation to any style. I couldn't imagine paying the price listed for these, so what better way to own them than to make them myself. Once this wedding business is said and done, I'll get down to it.

I'm on a quest today... new design inspirations.

I'll keep ya'll posted :p.

xo | cmd