Connect with us and Pfister will donate $1.00 to Rebuilding Together!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Pfister for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Hey guys! I love helping and serving people, so as soon as I saw this opportunity, I knew I wanted to write about it! So... here are the basics: Pfister is a company that has been a leader in the plumbing field for nearly 100 years. They've even created products that have defined their industry! Their products aren't the only thing that makes them awesome-- they are paying it forward!

 

For every Facebook like on the official Pfister Facebook page, Pfister will donate $1.00 in materials for use in Rebuilding Together's reconstruction projects (up to $20,000). If you don't have a facebook, you can still help by visiting the Friends of Pfister campaign site! Isn't that such a super simple way to help!?

 

Why should you help Rebuilding Together?

• Rebuilding Together is a nonprofit organization that provides critical home repairs and improvements for  low-income homeowners in America.

• They do all of that work at no cost to those who are helped.

• They started over 30 years ago in Midland, Texas and are truly engaged in the community there.

• They've completed work on more than 100,000 homes across America.

• Rebuilding Together has delivered over $1.3 billion in market value since they were founded. They couldn't do all of this work on their own though-- they had the help of 3.4 million volunteers!

In other words, Rebuilding Together knows what they're doing and they are helping tons of people! So, why are you still here? Head over to the Pfister Facebook page or the Friends of Pfister campaign site and help! I've already clicked "like" and it took me like, 2 seconds!

A Decorative Bird's Nest for Spring!

Hello! Like I mentioned in my rambling post the other day, I've taken an unintentional blog break. Between stress with finding a job and then my mom coming to visit this week from Florida, I've had little motivation to do anything. However, last week I did do this post for Crafting a Green World and I thought I would share it with you guys! I made a decorative bird's nest for spring!

The best part: all you need is a hot glue gun and sticks.

How To Do It:

1. Take your thicker sticks and make the "base" of your bird's nest like so:

2. Start adding sticks to the top of the base. Try to form a circle/oval shape like this:

3. Keep adding sticks to the base by randomly stacking them on top of one another. I just pretended like I was a little bird making a nest for my kiddies... okay, not really, but you get the point. Once you add a few more sticks it should start looking like this:

Remember, a little bit of hot glue goes a long way-- don't over do it or it will look like a hot glue mess.

Once I was finished building the nest, I used some of the magazine filler I made in the Mini Easter Basket post to fill the nest and make it pretty!

For an adorable picture, I added an egg from the fridge haha :)

I love the rustic feel that it has! You could even make a few of these for Easter centerpieces. What do you guys think? Would you make this cute bird's nest?

Linking up to these awesome parties:

Monday-- Bedazzle Me Monday @ Everything Under the Moon; Make It Monday at Brassy Apple; What's In the Gunny Sack Link Party at The Gunny Sack; Weekend Warrior Mondays at Ask Anna; Motivate Me Monday at Keeping it Simple; Life Made Lovely Monday at Life Made Lovely; Amaze Me Monday at Dittle Dattle; Tuesday--  Tute Tuesdays at A Law Student's Journey; Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm; Be Inspired at Elizabeth & Co.; Show Me What Ya Got at Not Just a Housewife; Naturally-Nifty Linky Party at Natural Nesters; Wednesday-- Show Off Your Stuff Party at Fireflies and Jellybeans; Link Party at Passionately Artistic; Under $100 Linky Party at Beyond the Picket Fence; Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style; Thursday-- Thriving on Thursdays at Domesblissity; Catch a Glimpse Thursday at a Glimpse Inside; Hookin' Up With House of Hepworths; Transformation Thursday at Shabby Creek Cottage; Everything But The Kitchen Sink at A Little Knick Knack; Friday-- Financial Friday Link-Up at The Grant Life; Feature Friday at Blissful and Domestic; A Pinteresting Link Party at Tutus and Tea Parties; Tickled Pink at 504 Main; Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge; Freestyle Friday at Happy Hour Projects; Friday Frolic at Pocket Full of Pink; Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello; Simply Creations Friday at My Simple Home Life; Fabulous Friday at Ohh Baby Designs; Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now; Frugal Friday at the Shabby Nest; Functional Friday at The Not So Functional Housewife; Saturday-- Show Off Saturday at Nutmeg Place; Spotlight Saturday at Classy Clutter; Head to Head Showdown Saturday at I Can't Stop Crafting; Funky Junk's Saturday Night Special; Sunday-- Sundae Scoop on I Heart Nap Time; So Creative Party Time at So Very Creative; Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop at Homemaker on a Dime; Sunday Showcase Party at Under the Table and Dreaming; Think Pink Sundays at Flamingo Toes; Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper;

My Bestest Friend-- I Need Your Help!!

Hello! Sorry I've taken an uninentional blogging break this week-- lacking motivation! I need to get back into the swing of things! I would also love your prayers for job stuff-- I've been very discouraged, as are many others right now in this economy! Anyway.. on to what this post is about:

You guys hear about Crystal all the time-- she's my right hand lady for all of my craft projects, I force her to model her tan, hispanic hands in my tutorials so you all don't make fun of my pasty ones, she's an amazing musican, she is absolutely in love with the Lord, she's my roommate.. I could go on. Basically, as a 5 year old would say, "she's my bestest friend in the whole wide world." She supports me and this blog in so many ways and I would like to kind of "pay it forward" in this post.

Crystal entered a female drumming competition called Hit Like a Girl 2012. She is currently in the top 25, but needs to make it into the top 12 in order to go onto the next round. To keep this short and sweet, she'll win tons of drum gear, endorsements, etc, if she wins. This could really help her and her ministry with the band and many other churches/ministries she is involved in. So.. all of this to say.. will you please go vote for her? Pretty please with a cherry on top?

You don't have to register or anything, just click on the link below, scroll down a bit, and click the circle icon that says "Vote for this video." You can only vote once per device, so if you have a phone, ipad, or more than one computer, vote on all of them if you can!

If you vote for her, leave a comment on this post to let me know-- I'd love to thank you by becoming a follower or something :)

VOTE HERE

Share Your Story Sunday #7-- Mandy from Biblical Homemaking

Hey guys! It's Share Your Story Sunday time.. yesssssss! These make my heart happy! This week Mandy from Biblical Homemaking is sharing her story. What I love about Mandy: her amazing red hair (totally jealous!), the fact that she had the guts to paint her sofa, she loves garage sales, her beautiful red hair, her sense of style (I need lessons, people.. it's bad), her gorgeous red hair... just kidding, but really. Of course, like I always say about those who share on Share Your Story Sunday (and I mean this sincerely every time I say it), what I love most about her is her love for the Lord. So... now that I'm done rambling, it's Mandy's turn to share :)

Hi! I'm Mandy!

I'm a daughter of the King.

I usually introduce myself with something like I'm a mom of four, or I'm Robert's wife, or I'm a group fitness instructor, or I'm a homemaker, or I'm a blogger but I find my identity is changing these days.

You see, those are the things I've become. Things I've accomplished in my 29 years.

I'm still learning that the first statement- the title I didn't earn in any way- is actually the one that's my true identity.

My sinful flesh would like to think I did something to earn it, but God keeps breaking my heart into a million pieces and I keep losing my pride in who I am on my own.

I was saved at the age of 5. I'm honestly not a huge fan of childhood professions of faith, because I believe they can {and often} deceive so many adults into thinking they're saved when there is no evidence of it in their life. But I do believe Jesus genuinely captured my heart from a very young age and He's kept my heart for Him ever since {even saving me from myself in my college years!}.

In the sixth grade, I can just remember closing my eyes to feel the wind blowing while I worshipped Jesus on my country porch swing. In the eighth grade, I'd never been so close to God in my life. I would pray for hours at night, and I felt very certain God was calling me to be a missionary.

Sadly, during my late teenage years I didn't keep my eyes too set on Him, and I let the cares of the world- success, school, jobs, dreams, take over my vision for my life, and it wasn't until after I got married that He turned my heart back to Him.

We were young- I was only 19 when I married my high school sweetheart, 20 when I graduated from college, and I was only 3 days past 21 when I had my first baby.

I was the only girl I knew in that stage of life at barely 21. My friends were still in school, and marriage was not even on their radar, much less babies!

We moved out of our college town, and I became very lonely all day when my husband was at work. Today my heart goes out to new stay-at-home mommies whose world has been suddenly radically changed with a tiny, needy baby. It's such a hard transition.

Thanks to a sweet women's Bible study leader who invited us, we got involved in a small group and that was a huge blessing to us. We made friends, grew in Christ, and actually met people with kids! That was a sweet time in our lives. Our loving friends brought us food and showered us with love and gifts as we had three more babies.

In just five years, we paid off our debts, moved lots, changed jobs, had four children 5 and under, and I fell in love with Jesus even more.

In 2010, we felt God was calling us to move out of our place into a less-safe part of town. We took the risk, and God led us to this house where we are now.

We felt like we were called to be missionaries at some point, and if we couldn't live in on the less than nice side of town in the safe USA, how could we ever go anywhere and truly be in unsafe territory?

So God led us here. We started a Bible study here at our house that's changed our life. We've met more people who want to follow Jesus- people who want to be crazy for God like we do and made even more friends! How cool is that?

Last year I turned 29 in October, and on my birthday {and for many days since then}, I prayed that God would radically change my heart and visibly change my life by the time I turned 30.

And He's doing just that.

He's totally messing me up, and I couldn't be more thrilled.

My views on Christmas radically changed last year- I lost my thrill for gifts and the season, and He put it strongly on my heart to care for those who had no one to spend holidays with. I started the "share your feast" challenge on my blog, and we did it at our house too!

It was so weird, but He brought just the right people into our lives and we shared our feast in our home on Thanksgiving and out in the city on Christmas. It was awesome!

This year, I made a list of character things I wanted to work on. I called them my "be" goals for the year.

He hit me hard again on my complaining spirit- my second month's experiment. Little did I know my complaining came from core lies about motherhood I was believing and acting on deep inside my heart.

It was a humbling, awful, wonderful month. I really never understood what discipline was exactly in the life of a Christian, but I think He gave me a little dose of it last month. :)

Right now, we are on the brink of starting a brand new small group at our house. God's doing crazy things again at our house. Oh, I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Really, if there's anything I've learned in the last 10 years of being a follower of Christ, it's that true salvation isn't something you just tell somebody you have.

It's something that radically changes your life.

To love Jesus is to keep His commandments.

You see, you could never keep them on your own- but once you're saved He starts transforming your heart through His Word, and you see yourself starting to follow what He says.

It's unbelievable. It really is, because it's a miracle!

You know you could never do it on your own.

It's experiencing the miracle of grace- the mercy of a Father loving and saving His children, His elect.

I'm so incredibly grateful He gave me this gift of salvation. He's so, so, so good to me!

My desire is to please Him and to glorify Him in my time on this earth- to fall at His feet and hear Him say, "well done, good and faithful servant." And I hope and pray that my time spent writing at my blog is for His glory and points others to Him as well!

Following Jesus is a crazy awesome ride, and it's always so exciting to hear and see what He is doing! Thank you Bonnie, for letting me share my story! :D

--------------------------------------

If you would like to share your story on Share Your Story Sunday, please contact me! 

I would love to hear from you :)

Toilet Paper Roll Shamrocks!

 The fact that I have a label for toilet paper roll projects on my blog both excites me and makes me nervous. Am I turning into the tp lady? Hopefully not.. because as we speak I'm working on another project with tp rolls (and I'm not talking about the one I'm about to share with you...)

Anyway.. St. Patrick's Day is coming up and I was looking for a fun, eco-friendly project to make for Crafting a Green World. I found some totally cute projects but one of my favorites was an adorable St. Patrick's Day banner from The Crafting Chicks. I loved that the "leaves" were made from hearts! From there, a project from Tpcraft.com popped into my head-- you know, the one where she takes toilet paper rolls and turns them into hearts. Do you see where I'm going with this? :)

Here's What You Will Need:

1. Toilet paper rolls or paper towel rolls. The amount you will need will depend on how many shamrocks you plan on making. For the two shamrocks I made, I used almost 1 paper towel roll.

2. Scissors.

3. Hot glue/hot glue gun.

How To Do It:

1.  Cut your toilet paper rolls into 1/2 sections.

2. Form each section into a heart.

3. Make the stem. Making the stem is quite simple-- just cut one of your tp sections at the end. I left the stem long at first and then trimmed it a little bit later on-- that part is completely up to you, though.

4. Glue everything together. I started by gluing one of the "leaves" to the stem.

Then, I worked my way around like so:

Once you get everything glued together, you're finished!

Here is one shamrock with three "leaves." I think I like the four "leaves" better, though.

To make your shamrock fancy:

• Add green paper to the back of the shamrock like we did with the Toilet Paper Roll Christmas Lights.

• You could also add color to your shamrock by spray painting it like we did with the Christmas "Candle" Cover.

• Make a shamrock banner like The Crafting Chicks did!

PS-- After reading several blogger's frustrations about how people write "linking up to these parties" at the end of their post, I've decided to start listing what parties I link to within my post. It might look a little messy, but I want to respect the hostesses that spend so much time on their parties each week.

Linking up to these awesome parties:

Monday-- Bedazzle Me Monday @ Everything Under the Moon; Make It Monday at Brassy Apple; What's In the Gunny Sack Link Party at The Gunny Sack; Weekend Warrior Mondays at Ask Anna; Motivate Me Monday at Keeping it Simple; Life Made Lovely Monday at Life Made Lovely; Amaze Me Monday at Dittle Dattle; Tuesday--  Tute Tuesdays at A Law Student's Journey; Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm; Be Inspired at Elizabeth & Co.; Show Me What Ya Got at Not Just a Housewife; Naturally-Nifty Linky Party at Natural Nesters; Wednesday-- Show Off Your Stuff Party at Fireflies and Jellybeans; Link Party at Passionately Artistic; Under $100 Linky Party at Beyond the Picket Fence; Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style; Thursday-- Thriving on Thursdays at Domesblissity; Catch a Glimpse Thursday at a Glimpse Inside; Hookin' Up With House of Hepworths; Transformation Thursday at Shabby Creek Cottage; Everything But The Kitchen Sink at A Little Knick Knack; Friday-- Financial Friday Link-Up at The Grant Life; Feature Friday at Blissful and Domestic; A Pinteresting Link Party at Tutus and Tea Parties; Tickled Pink at 504 Main; Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge; Freestyle Friday at Happy Hour Projects; Friday Frolic at Pocket Full of Pink; Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello; Simply Creations Friday at My Simple Home Life; Fabulous Friday at Ohh Baby Designs; Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now; Frugal Friday at the Shabby Nest; Functional Friday at The Not So Functional Housewife; Saturday-- Show Off Saturday at Nutmeg Place; Spotlight Saturday at Classy Clutter; Head to Head Showdown Saturday at I Can't Stop Crafting; Funky Junk's Saturday Night Special; Sunday-- Sundae Scoop on I Heart Nap Time; So Creative Party Time at So Very Creative; Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop at Homemaker on a Dime; Sunday Showcase Party at Under the Table and Dreaming; Think Pink Sundays at Flamingo Toes; Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper;

Upcycled Candle Holder into a Mini Easter Basket

When writing for Crafting a Green World, I really have to think outside of the box as far as what items I can upcycle, recycle, etc. I was having a hard time last week coming up with a project to share on the site until my roommate found these red candle holders and said, "I bet you could make something for Easter with these!" With her help, we came up with an awesome idea-- mini Easter baskets!

You Will Need:

1. Candle holders, candle jars, or any small jar that you have around your home.

2. Scrapbook paper. I used scrap paper from the Upcycle Your Chocolate Heart Boxes into Wall Art post and from other random projects. If you're looking for an eco-friendly scrapbook paper, check out the original post at Crafting a Green World!

3. Scissors.

4. School glue.

5. Magazine.

 

6. Tape.

How To Do It:

1. Measure and cut out a piece of paper to wrap around your candle holder. To go with the Easter theme, I used pastel colors, but it's completely up to you. Tape the beginning of the paper to the candle holder, wrap it around, and then tape the end of the paper as well. I have no idea if that last sentence made sense so, like this:

2. Cut small strips of paper for the "handle" of the basket. I used colors that were different from the basket color to make it a bit more whimsical-- again, though, that's up to you!

3. Tuck your "handles" into the sides of your basket. I didn't tape them or anything because they're only for decoration, but if you have little ones that might try to pick the basket up by the handle, you might want to secure them with tape.

[Thank you Crystal for modeling your tan hands for us.]

Here are the three baskets with their handles:

4. Add cute decorations! I know my weaknesses, so Crystal did this part for me-- she's more talented in the drawing category.  She cut out an egg, a flower, and a bunny. If you have children, you could have them decorate their own basket or you could personalize it with their name.

5. Glue your decorations onto your basket.

6. I also made a filler to put inside the baskets instead of buying that green plastic filler. All you have to do is cut up 1 page from a magazine into little strips like so:

7. Then, fold the strips back and forth. They should look like this when you're done folding:

Once your filler is done, put it in your baskets.

Isn't it cute? It adds so much more interest and personality than the plastic green filler. You could put wrapped candy in the baskets and give them as gifts, or just keep them as decoration in your home. Who would you make these adorable baskets for?

If you're looking for more ideas for recycled candle jars/holders, check this post out 

or click the picture below!

Linking up at these amazing parties

and