The other weekend, Matt and I drove out to the country for a birthday party for his cousin E. She turned a whopping 9 years old and for her birthday, she wanted everyone to bring shoes to donate for kids going back to school who might not have anything. I loved the idea! I was able to raid the sale racks at Payless and came up with 4 pairs of great shoes for kids. She made out like a bandit too.
I think more showed up after I took this picture, or they just arranged them out better. I don’t know why, but it seems like when I do decide to go shoe shopping, the ones I get at Payless last me 3x as long as ones I get elsewhere, like Famous Footwear. Although, it might have to do with the fact that I only get my Nike flip flops at Famous Footwear and those are the only shoes I wear most days.
Filbruns Pond is run by the Slades, Matt’s aunt and uncle. I hadn’t been here yet, what with wedding planning and then not having any vacation left for the year after the Homeymoon. So, I decided to trek around and take some pics of the activities and location. The family was allowed to fish and there were poles galore around the place. Lots of bluegill to be had (and thrown back, of course).
Here is the description from the website:
We offer swimming, a sand beach area. Outside the beach area is a maximum of 10′ depth. We have a 10’X16’ floating sun deck. We have horseshoes, volleyball, hillbilly golf in a beautiful, relaxing country setting. We have over a dozen large picnic tables. We provide a gas grill and charcoal grill, as well.
The party barn with rustic décor will seat approx. 60 people with tables….
We are typically open Memorial Day weekend thru Labor Day. Rental rates are $400 Monday-Friday and $450 Weekends and Holidays. We still have some 2013 dates available and are booking reservations for 2014.
We are also open for daily family recreation on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 12:00pm-5:30pm.
Age 7-12 $3
Age 13 and over $5
General Information
No alcohol is permitted.
No pets.
No fishing.
There is no lifeguard. You are here at your own risk.
We require that you exercise common sense.
The grounds are pretty and there are lots of quirky signs posted around the place. It makes for a fun afternoon during the summer.
I had bought, a couple years ago, some photoclips handy for putting together a photo collage on the wall …or wherever…but I didn’t actually decide to use them until this week. We have a lot of empty wall space in The House, but I’ve been hesitant to put anything up until I know exactly where I want everything. It’s a catch-22, that’s for sure.
One space, though, that I did know what I want, was the wall at the end of the hallway. The space is tiny, not even 40 inches wide, but it’s tall. We only just ordered prints of all our wedding photos and I decided that I would go to town with the leftover ones that didn’t make it into the “official” photo album to show people when they visit.
Here are the deets on the photo clips:
I used Lomography Fotoclips. They are everything that I love about an item: functional, unique, creative, adaptable, and a crazy mix of nations (Japanese, Russian, and Austrian [the Japanese might be just an inference on my part, but they feel soooo very Japanese]). I was first tipped off to them by one of the many photography folks I follow on Facebook/Instagram/etc. They put together a mural on their own wall and I loved the concept, so I bought some. They have a hole in the center for a nail for the wall, if you choose to hang up the collage that way,with two wedge openings on opposite sides that grip and connect the adjacent photos.
They grip the photos really well that I wasn’t sure I needed to anchor any clips other than the top ones, but I decided to go ahead and use some ribbon to accent and to hold them all together. Um, I’m not sure how much better I’ll be at describing these things, so you should probably just go to the link above if you’re interested. I will show how I used them below, though.
So, I began by arranging some of the pictures out on the floor. Then, I realized that I should probably measure the wall space before I arranged any more. I did, and then continued to arrange more photos. It was fun. Matt just watched and then I had to leave and then he had to go to work. Here’s the mess I left on the floor.
I like the alternating columns of horizontal and vertical, but it proved difficult when I decided to hang them. I wanted the whole collage to be centered on the wall, but then the divide between the left three columns and the right three columns was not the center of the photos. There was much more measuring, and mathing, and leveling, until I finally got the columns where I wanted them. I drove a nail through one of end of the ribbon and then began to add the photos. I decided that I would use the ribbon as the anchor and every second or third clip, I stitched the ribbon through the hole of the clip to keep it from sliding down or getting too heavy.
I left the ribbons hanging until I decided just how long I wanted the collage to hang. At this point, the columns are hanging by themselves, stitched to their ribbons, but not connected to each other. The clips work great vertically as well as horizontally, and with the extra support of the ribbons, I didn’t have to clip each and every photo to the others. Once it got to a manageable height, I cut the ends of the ribbons and began connecting the columns to each other. They were a tinge off kilter, but I was able to press them down in spots and get them to hang freely close to the wall.
I love the colors and that all the photos are such fun shots. We had a blast at our wedding and I wanted the collage to reflect that and remind us every day as we leave and enter our bedroom that we were made to encourage and live joyful lives. A joyful marriage is something that is so tangible and easily felt by others, and joy is contagious. I think that’s why it’s my favorite Fruit of the Spirit.
By the way, today, Matt and I arranged some stuff for the primary wall in the living room. I’m really pleased with how it turned out.
Don’t mind the obnoxious sun glare…or the blurriness of the following photos. Evidently my photo editing abilities went on vacation today.
I got an idea to turn a basket onto the wall and hang some photos inside it. The basket is a little deeper than I probably would prefer, but I still like how it looks.
I strung some twine through the basket and the attached some Lomo Fotoclips to the horizontal lines. Then, I clipped three photos that show off our whole family: My mom and sisters on the top, Matt’s side in the middle, and my dad and fam on the bottom (with the mustaches…of course). I did add a sunflower for an accent because it just wouldn’t be something of mine without a sunflower.
The map was a gift from my mom when I got home from Japan. I love it. There are pins to tack where I’ve been, where I want to go, and where I’m going next. I don’t have anything in the “next” part, but I have pins all over the map. The plate label says, “XAPA to the world” which is the Greek work for “joy.” It’s pronounced “chara”, by the way, like car-uh.
The shelves are from Ikea, but the knickknacks are from all over. Let’s see, elephants with heart were from my dad and step-mom. I bought the small snow-globe from the airport in Dubai, the next one was from the airport in Moscow, and then an alabaster elephant from Cairo, and I believe the camel came from Israel. On the second shelf is a frame from my aunt, a snowglobe from Tokyo, a big letter M from Michael’s, and the elephants from on top of our wedding cake.
I love traveling and I miss it a lot, but I am loving my new life. These shelves show how I am bringing those two parts of my life together. The paintings on the left were done by me at a paint studio called Paint by the Glass. I’ve done a review on them before. They are so much fun. I did these all over the course of three years, perhaps, and somehow they all ended up looking very similar and matchy, so we put them up together.
I am not done, by any means. There’s a little bit of a wall between this one and the front window where I want these pictures to go:
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I feel like it’s starting to all come together and I’m very excited for it. Yay for new homes!
For the reception, we gave out favors for the adults and the kids. Adults could pick out seed packets of either tall or short sunflower varieties. I had several packs leftover, but I couldn’t decide where to put them. I picked a spot right behind my tickseed to plant some of the short varieties. I only planted them on Saturday and look!
Only 4 days old! Already at least half an inch tall. And I know these aren’t weeds. They’re looking good.
For the tall ones, I’m going to become a living parable of the sower. If you don’t know the parable, it’s found in Mark 4:3-20 in the Bible. It could also be called The Parable of the Seed or The Parable of the Soils, since it’s really about the same sower, same seed, but different types of soils. Anyway, with the tall sunflower seeds, I opted to let them run wild along the fencing between ours and our neighbor’s home. There are lots of weeds there, it can be very dry, but sunflowers were “wild” once and I’m sure can hold their own. Here’s hoping that we can get at least some flowers coming up and be braced along the fence…and that Matt doesn’t weed-whack them to oblivion.
And here are some other grand residents of our garden.
I love the resilience of plants. Rose #1 has clearly been attacked by some sort of creature (and its several brothers, sisters and third cousins twice removed) but there is new growth! She is still kickin! I hammered a fertilizer spike near the plant We’ll see how that goes.
We’ve had a couple new visitors at our seed bag at the kitchen window. We’ve had a family of goldfinches that loooooove hanging around. They have got desensitized to Matt and I standing at the window and watching them. The new guests have not, but I was finally able to snap a photo of the pretty male house finch.
Sorry they’re not more clear. My camera would not focus properly for me. But those guys are so handsome!
We also pulled in the one bookcase that’s all painted. Took a while, and there’s another matching one, but I’ve unloaded some books on to it. Ok, a lot of books. We’re talking about stringing up some Christmas lights around the inside of the sides/tops to add some light. I am very pleased with how it’s all looking. Love it!
I’m in a Bible Study/accountability group with some pretty great ladies. I have known each of them for a range of time and in a range of ways, but we all are newly married (within the last 6 years…I believe) with me being the newest married. We decided at our last meeting that we would take part in a 30 Day Challenge to read Scripture each day. The idea is that you can start a habit in 30 days and so we’ll each be challenged to set a specific time aside each day to read our Bibles. I have been across the globe working as a missionary and yet I feel like I am one of the most undisciplined people out there when it comes to Scripture reading. I tend to gravitate towards making something, playing Farmville (yes, I’m one of those), or reading a classic novel. Those aren’t bad in themselves, but they do take my attention from learning more.
I looked up 30 day reading plans and found a few that looked pretty good. I decided to make up a flash card for each day of the 30 and write the different reading plans on them. Here is what I have for Day 7. I’m only reading the top two plans of each day, but I am really enjoying it.
If you would like to find a good reading plan, here are two great websites to check out.
Xapa to the World 