Beauty in the Little Things

So many times we look to material items to make us happy.  We are jealous of our acquaintances things, we work hard for one more toy, one more car, one more pare of shoes that are just the right brand.  We often use our credit cards to buy things that will supposedly make us happy but we can’t actually afford.

But, today, I took a walk with friends and family and looked out over the surrounding countryside.  I listened to the birds singing, smelled the newly blossoming wild roses and the locust trees in bloom, watched my dogs canter along beside me and listened to the voices of my loved ones.

I am struck anew with the thought that what is really important in life doesn’t cost money.  There are no credit cards necessary to purchase the sound of your child’s voice as they take you into confidence with their struggles in making life decisions that are looming down on them after high school graduation.  There is no amount of hard work that can bring the sound of birds and the smell of flowers to your ears and nose.  There is no price that can be attached to the love of friends and family or the love that a pet gives unconditionally to it’s master.

So, again today, I vow to pay more attention to the “little things” around me and less attention to the material possessions that the world around me says I need so that I can have status.  I choose to appreciate the God given beauty of nature and the priceless relationships all around me.  I hope you too can take a step back and see the beauty in your life and appreciate the little things all around you and as you do let the stress melt away and lift up your praise to the One who provides His blessings for free!

As always, God bless…

Recycled Craft Ideas…

Today I have another recycling or up-cycling idea that I have had quite a bit of fun with!  With 8 people in our family we are always having to replace someones jeans and we end up with quite a pile of old jeans that have holes in the knees or some other problem that keeps them from being a candidate for reuse as clothing.  This made me start to think about what I could do to make them into some other useful item.

I always love to look at pinterest and find ideas there.  I think it’s kind of like the Ladies Home Journal or Good Housekeeping that my mom used to love to look at when I was a kid.  Some of the ideas that I decided to try were, potholders, Christmas stockings, Christmas ornaments, purses, pillows, gift bags, place mats, table runners, quilts and even a bean bag or chair covering.  It seems there is no end to the things that can be made out of used denim if you set your mind to figuring it out!

I really enjoy using the pockets from old jeans on things that I make.  I think they could be used by themselves to make a small phone purse or added to a skirt or pillow that you are making that are not made out of denim to add a little extra decoration.  They can even be glued to the front of a gift bag as an added decoration.

I’ve included a few pictures of some of the things I’ve made out of denim, if there is something unique that you have made I’d love to hear from you!  Sometimes, as in the potholders at the top of this post, the paint spots on the jeans can end up adding to the picture that you are creating!  I used the part of the jeans with paint in these potholders to be clouds in the sky of my picture.

As in all recycling and up-cycling projects there are some obvious benefits besides the fun of creating.  Some of these benefits are saving items from being dropped off at the landfill so quickly, saving money on gifts that you want to give and being able to give a gift from the heart that you have invested a bit of yourself and your imagination into.  I don’t know about you but those kinds of gifts are sometimes my favorite to receive.

Pallet Creations

It’s a rainy afternoon here on the farm and I thought I’d update you on the pallet tables that my husband has been making.  These pallet table tops worked out really well for our daughters wedding, making the carpeted walls look much more barn like.  Since then, however, they have been leaning up in a stack against the garage wall while we continued working on other projects.

We recently had new motivation to work on these table tops since our newly married daughter’s birthday is here.  We had promised her some customized tables for her new apartment and we needed to get into gear to fulfill that promise.  As often happens, I ended up being the idea generator and my husband did most of the work with me just holding the screws when needed and lifting the other end of the table top.

The new apartment is very small and our daughter had wanted two narrow tables that would extend her counter top space as well as serve as desk/eating area.  We were going to make two tables specifically to fit the space but since we waited until the “last second” so to speak, we decided to use one of the existing table tops that was a little bit wider than the rest and make it into two.  We unscrewed the boards that were in the middle of the table top, did our measuring and cutting and then added in the necessary pieces of wood to the underside that were needed to make the edges on both halves.  We then replaced the top pieces and my husband cut some new decorative edge pieces to finish the newly made edges to the tables.  These tables turned out to be approximately 20 inches wide by 6 feet long each.

We went to our local hardware store and chose pieces of black metal pipe to use as legs for the tables.  We brought them home where my husband connected them together to make four sets of legs, one for each end of the two tables.  The cost for these legs was about $285 which seemed like quite a bit.  We are already thinking about how to trim that up a bit for the next table top finishing.  The legs ended up costing more than all eight table tops that we had originally made from the pallets.

The legs were then attached to the bottom of the table tops with screws and the tables and legs numbered so that they could be disassembled and transported to their new home.  After they got these tables home, our daughter and son-in-law have done some finishing of the wood so that they will be preserved and easier to wipe off.

So, one of the original table tops made for the wedding has now come to it’s final resting place and we are on to more projects!  God’s blessings to you all…