Beautiful Blog...My House of Giggles

Great stuff can be found on this beautiful Blog..My House of Giggles....there's also a giveaway!

Check it out...you might find some great decorating ideas for your own home...I love looking at blogs and finding different & clever ideas to decorate in a way that makes a home feel cozy, inviting & beautiful all at the same time....check out this blog...you'll find just that!

Can You tell I'm All About Sweet Giveaways?!?!

My Sweet Savannah is giving away these

GORGEOUS clock hands that I'm

in LOVE with!!!

I already have a beautiful idea of how

I would display them when I have my

own home.

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Stop by and look at her blog...it's full of

eye candy for the bargin shopper, thrift

store lover & decorator!

Beautiful Giveaway....I'm Determined to Win One of These Things!!

A GORGEOUS blog that I follow, Dreamy Whites, is having a very GENEROUS giveaway...one that I'm very excited about in particular....I've been wanting new bedding but can't justify buying it when mine is still in great condition...just a bit outdated....enter...Annette Tatum!!!

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She's generously giving away a Queen Duvet from her new Spring collection...browse the beautiful and relaxing catalog.


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She also has this amazing book called the Well Dressed Home

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Happy Browsing...it's beautiful stuff!

P.S...keep your fingers crossed...I would really love to win this one!

Pretty Things

Sooo....one of my favorite Bloggers is having a Pretty Things Give Away...Stop by Lola B's and enjoy the beautiful things she's giving away...then keep looking and enjoy her Blog...it's rather enjoyable and full of beautiful and fun ideas!

Who Wants to Join Me?!?!?

Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon

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Sooo, I like to take on new challenges. I'm no marathon runner by any means of the word but I love to challenge myself. I also feel like the Lord is taking me through a season of my life where I want to set more goals and have new adventures in my life. I will NOT be running the marathon for many reasons, one being, I haven't even trained...BUT, I can start small and do the 5K walk...who knows, this may ignite something in me to start training to run in the future!

Who wants to join me?!?!

My recollection of April 19, 1995:

It was my senior year of college. I was getting ready to leave second hour when the news came on that there had been a bombing in Oklahoma City. That moment rocked Oklahoma City and our state tremendously. I remember, shortly after it happened, driving from Jenks to Oklahoma city and walking the grounds of this tragic event. The fence was covered with pictures of men, women and children that lost their lives, stuffed animals, ribbons, poems and flowers. It was a sobering moment...a moment where you realize you aren't invincible...being a teenager at the time, I erred on the side of "nothing bad will happen to me". I remember having a sense of hope with the sight of this one small tree that survived the blast...strong, man made buildings around this tree crumbled but God's creation remained...A symbol that God is our strength and that Oklahoma would make it through this...that we would not crumble!

Camera Purchasing Tips From an Ameature Photographer

A dear friend blogged about the need to purchase a great camera since hers just died :-( She is a busy mom of 3 sweet little boys and you MUST have a great camera to capture all the fun moments of life they have ahead of them!


I LOVE taking picture and I know how important it is to have a nice yet affordable camera that takes great pictures and won't break the bank! So, I sent her this information and thought...this might be helpful to other bloggers...Soooo....


Below are 3 recommendations I have...they're listed in order of cost from least to greatest :-) Canon Powershot SD1000 Elph- This is the one I bought before I went to India and I LOVE IT!!! It's small, takes fantastic pictures, lots of different settings to choose from, video, great zoom, etc.

I chose this picture so you could see the size

Canon Powershot G11- I saw this one in Malawi, my friend had just purchased it...it's not as cumbersome as the one listed below. It has great resolution, the distance that it can zoom is great, has video, an Lcd screen that flips out, and the list goes on and on...my friend that has this camera had a much larger camera when we were in Ethiopia and multiple lenses. She LOVES this one over her other camera...it was a Canon as well.



Canon Eos Rebel T1i This one is that my cousin Josh got for Christmas...it's fantastic...it's more on the semi-pro level...you can attach different lenses. It's a good size and a bit heavy but I was impressed with the pictures it took. I know lots of Mom's like to buy a great camera that will last through the years and grow with the needs of their children...My cousin Rhonda had one similar to this because she wanted good quality pictures and her boys play sports so she wanted to be able to zoom in and get nice clear action shots. Sometimes with a smaller camera, when you zoom, the pictures can come out a bit grainy.

Ok...I LOVE taking pictures...and these are the 3 I would suggest depending on how much you want to spend, your needs and size. If I were to go out today and pick one...I would get the Powershot G11...I think it's a great combination of the other 2...light weight, great zoom and all around great quality pictures! As you can see...they're all Canon...I'm pretty much sold...they make GREAT cameras!

Hope this is helpful.

Happy Shopping! :-))))

My Decorating Style

A friend of mine had this on her blog and I couldn't resist tryin' it out!
Go to Sproost if you're curious to see what your design style is!
Sproost says my interior design style is:

40% French Eclectic

40% Classic

20% Nantucket Style

I think this is right on with the things that I like. I LOVE textures and all of these design styles offer lots of texture. I'm usually into neutral, warm and comforting colors but I'm open to brighter yet relaxing colors too.
I often find myself doubting my ability to have a home decorated in these styles because I automatically think...too expensive, but thanks to my friends that LOVE to go thrift shopping and garage saling...I don't think it's impossible!
Maybe the first place I'll start is my bedroom...since I am renting in a friends home...don't think she would want me taking over the whole house with my designs! LOL

Here are some pictures of the different design styles....LOVE THEM ALL!!!!

French Eclectic

Love the colors in this one (below)

Classic

Nantucket Style

Enjoy Finding your Design Style!!!

Running- Klaus Featuring Kari Jobe

I hear the voice
It’s the voice of the One I love
He’s callin my name
I hear the voice
The voice of the One I love,
Hes callin my name
Hes sayin…
Come up higher
I hear the angels sing
Come up higher, my beloved
Come up higher and leave this world behind
I find you to be beautiful
I am running, running after You
Youve become my soul’s delight
I am running, running after You
Here with You I find my life.

It's been a long time.... but after hearing this song, I had to post and let everyone in on something that really ministered to my heart last night.
I heard this song during a prayer time at a friends church. It reminds me so much of God's relentless pursuit of our hearts. It's absolutely beautiful....enjoy, I hope it ministers to your heart as much as it did mine!

Ebates

For my thrifty friends that enjoy great deals and money back Ebates is the site for you!!!
You get $5 for signing up and for referring friends! You also get money back on your purchases!!! Pretty sweet deal. Couldn't resist sharing this with you all.

Happy Shopping!

A New Hobby & Passion Ignited

I LOVE photography and it's a hobby that I'm trying to refine every day. I'm also fascinated by the art of Editing and decided to try my hand at it. I started with the program that's on my computer (Microsoft Office Photo Manager), you know, since Photoshop is for PROS and costs an arm and a leg! After editing a few, I posted some on my Facebook. Some friends informed me of some free on-line editing so I'm trying those out as well.

If you like Photoshop, GIMP is a free download that is VERY similar to it.

Then there's Picnik, VERY user friendly and with one click of a button, your photo is changed...you can also combine different effects to get the picture just like you want it! Below are some of my creations...I don't have any from GIMP yet because I need to watch the tutorial first :-)

These were edited with Picnik

These were done with Microsoft Office Photo Manager