Living as a Victorious Christian Woman

 

I’m so excited for Tuesday! Yes, I’m looking forward to today and tomorrow, too, but this is my planner spread for Tuesday, and I can’t wait to fill it in! I’m creating a Bible study notebook using Illustrated Faith’s Word Nerd devotional kit, with several add-on sets including this Back to Basics set. If you’re too young to recognize them, the die cuts are old-school Rolodex cards. (Please tell me you knew that.) They’re also lined, and the instructions are to write out definitions of each word, to journal what the word means to you or some other special writing.  So I went through and picked out my favorite words, though I hate telling the left-over words that they’re not good enough. On Tuesday I get to spend the day journaling my faith while I’m living my everyday life. Words are so precious, and I’m sure that having these journaling prompts will make for a fun and exciting day. I’ll let you see it when I’m done!

Since Wednesday was the official first day of fall, our teens started a fall mood board. If you’ve never seen a mood board before, it’s a fun collage of colors, textures, pictures, themes and all kinds of embellishments that all make you feel a certain way. They are literally attached to a board, changing shapes and layers as you go. For our youth group, we started a Wednesday night series on God’s blessings as we begin the season of thanks and giving. We had just hung a fall banner around the top of our teen room and there were two triangles too many, so they are now the base of our mood board. And no, it didn’t take long for them to figure out the two puns. I was concerned for a moment. The next things we looked for were hymns that have lyrics about blessings. A few were pretty obvious, so we started with Showers of Blessings, reading the words, finding the reference in Ezekiel 34:26 and learning a little bit about how songs have verses and a chorus. It was fun to see little light bu...

Let’s hold on to summer for one more moment. Share a glass of this light, refreshing smoothie with me, and we’ll pretend like we’re not celebrating the first day of fall tomorrow. Deal? Deal. Bring out the blender and get ready to sit on the porch with a sweet drink made from some of the healthiest ingredients out there. But don’t let the healthy part fool you - it tastes fruity and cold and wonderful. Health benefits are an added bonus. Ingredients: 1/2 cup coconut milk 2 kiwi fruit, peeled 2 handfuls fresh spinach 1 banana, cut in pieces 1 1/2 cups frozen pineapple Combine all ingredients in the blender, starting with the liquids. Blend until smooth and drink immediately from your favorite glass.

This was the planner page embellishment that got my mind working. I wanted a metallic page to go with this beautiful Scripture sticker, and I knew it would need to be layered to stand out. Clusters of embellishments don’t work too well in a planner if they’re thick or bulky, so you have to get creative with your layers. Here are a few ideas to get you started: Die cuts and stickers: These punched circles are left over from some die cuts I used to hang over the edge of a planner page. The scrap was the exact width I needed for one of my circle punches, so layering a sticker phrase on one side was super simple. And, purely by accident, the three lines of text going together beautifully. Washi tape and clear stickers: I’m in a washi tape phase right now, so I’m making so many layouts with borders and dividers. Since this metallic washi was so pretty, I layered a clear sticker over it so I could see as much of the washi as possible. Washi tape and block stickers: If you tear washi tape, it...

For the past few weeks I’ve had a craft table set up behind the living room couch. It’s been a place to work on my planner, make cards and get Stuff From Trees projects ready to put on Facebook. Now that I’m starting a new devotional, though, I’ve had to upgrade my workspace to the dining room table! I do have to admit now that I’ve felt a little distant from God recently, and I know that’s my fault, not His. So when I thought back to the times when I was most connected to Him, it was when I was creating and crafting and doing daily Bible study - not just reading but digging deeper so I can grow. Having all the tools of this growth right here in one place is truly making a huge difference in my spiritual life. Last week I started the newest Illustrated Faith devotional, Word Nerd, and nothing could be more perfect for me this month. It goes through four different ways to study Scripture, has tons of cute ephemera to decorate my journal as I go, and keeps me thinking and creating as I g...

If you were to come to the Carrell Wildlife Preserve today, you would probably see chewed-off branches in the ponds and piles of churned-up dirt all around the house. Between relocating beavers to curb their destruction and smashing down mole hills, we’re in full preservation-of-the-land mode. That’s why this quiet, unobtrusive resident of the property is a welcome sight. All of God’s creatures are amazing, but walking sticks are so unique. Believe it or not, there are actually 3,000 different species around the world, and the largest can be almost 2 feet long. This one was just palm-sized, though, and I have to admit that I couldn’t tell which end was which for a minute. Their camouflage lets them blend into the branches they’re snacking on, which means they can eat in peace. That camouflage also means you have to look closely to find a walking stick. Luckily he stood out on the side of the big garage because he was a different color. Just one more reason to keep your eyes open when y...

Today is definitely a fine, almost-fall day! In the spirit of cooler weather and warmer treats, let’s put together a mini book that celebrates the season. When I started this mini book, I had a couple dozen die cut journal blocks and cards with fall images. Using their size as my guide, I cut white card stock an inch larger all the way around and covered them with denim decorator paper. This makes super-sturdy pages to embellish on. On other pages, I used white card stock to make mats for photos, drawing paper or journal blocks. The variety of pages makes it interesting and versatile for absolutely everyone. If you don’t have preprinted cards and images to work with like I did, you can pull out all the stickers, washi tapes, die cuts and other fall embellishments you have and create your own patterned pages. We’re all about stoking the fire of creativity around here. The circles I used are punched in two different sizes to layer and creat some depth. Are your creative juices flowing? A...

 

Snacking doesn’t have to be a terrible thing, especially when you know what to eat and when. This is super important when you’re traveling because you may not always find something healthy at the next stop on your journey. When our group of ladies went on retreat last weekend, we had a total of 6 1/2 hours in the van together. We were driving through lunchtime, so we packed plenty of snacks for the trip. While we adored the pumpkin cookies and chocolate squares, we definitely needed something nutritious to balance out the sweets.  Here are a few practical, portable and perfect healthy snacks for the road: * bite-sized fruit * dried fruits * dried veggie chips * single-serve yogurts * energy balls made from oatmeal and peanut butter * trail mix * string cheese * healthy muffins * tortilla wraps * fresh sliced veggies * yogurt-covered pretzels * small containers of hummus * chips and crackers for dipping What’s your go-to travel snack?

This weekend was one of our church women’s favorite weekends of the year - the Iowa Regular Baptist Camp’s Renew Conference! This year’s theme was Adorned With Strength, looking at what God’s word says about femininity and holiness.  One of my favorite parts of our free time is visiting the Faith Bible College bookstore. Not only can the speakers recommend books, but the bookstore brings used books, sheet music and lots of fun gifts. And I limited myself to three new books. I’m so proud of myself. And the first snack and fellowship time features a popcorn bar, complete with chocolate, flavored popcorn and lots of sweet mix-ins. No two bags are ever the same! I’m a big fan of the zip line, which I was finally able to do again this year. I went down the first year, chickened out the second, we didn’t go last year, but this year was different. With support and encouragement from the greatest pastor’s wife ever, I conquered the zip line! Next we were going to try the crate stacking cha...

To prepare my heart for last weekend’s ladies’ retreat, I created seven planner spreads using my favorite Illustrated Faith Print & Pray Shop sets. I was so centered after a week of Scriptures and beautiful graphics. Monday’s set was from the Weeds & Wildflowers devotional, reminding me to be still for a bit so I can bloom and grow. For Tuesday, I used the hearts and flowers from Becca Bonneville’s Like Flowers in the Desert. So simple and so full of joy at the same time. The next day I used Like Flowers in the Desert again, but this time focused on the cactus and flower images. That hanging glass planter is one of my faves. This adorable Kelly Bangs set is called When I Rise, based on that wonderful praise and worship song. I shrink these three pages to half-sheet size so they will fit better in my planner.  In the Good News devotional kit, there were some beautiful flower ephemera that I’ve been using absolutely everywhere. I love the colors and shared of pinks and greens...

A few years ago when we were painting and redecorating our church’s teen room, Danny made this incredible prayer wall for us. He built two wooden boxes with bungee cord woven through them, and we’re able to clip our prayer request cards on them with binder clips. It’s right inside the door, so it’s one of the very first things you see when you walk in. While it breaks my heart to admit it, we’ve not been filling the prayer wall like we had planned. We’re still taking prayer requests and we’re still praying at the end of every meeting, but we’ve been pretty lax about writing them down. It doesn’t mean prayer isn’t important, we just haven’t made filling the wall a priority. So this past Wednesday night we had a very small group, so we made our prayer requests the main part of our evening lesson. We took down all the outdated requests, praised the Lord for answered prayer and sorted out the requests that we’re still praying for.   Then, in one of the best parts of my entire week, we ...

It’s amazing how people change and grow over the years while still keeping their great personality. This is probably the best description of owning your own business - times change, but who you are at the core of your brand remains the same. Stuff From Trees is the perfect example of this. We’ve had our own shop in many forms since 2009, going from Etsy to our own website and growing with each move. And now we’re going entirely to Facebook, another change that fits with who we are and what our priorities are right now. So many of our customers visit us and message us through Facebook already that this seemed like the logical move. Several times each week you’ll see new gift ideas, learn how we do what we do and start your own custom orders for one-of-a-kind treasures. Stuff From Trees has always been a creative outlet for both of us, and we look forward to seeing what God will use it for next! Message us today so we can start planning your next custom order.