beauty in everyday things. :)

Today’s blog is a craft idea! :)

You know those days when you wake up, start the day, and all of sudden it’s like 5:00 in the afternoon? Thursday was one of those days. When I got back to my room, I just wanted to paint! To sit still, and try to make something, piece by piece. Do you ever feel like that?

I have this “craft dresser” underneath the bed in my dorm room filled with tissue paper, cards, brushes, paint, sketch books, sparkly pipe cleaners, bottle caps, a bent fork and a lot of other random things I figured I could use someday! Today, I wanted to make a picture of a bird, holding a little plant in it’s mouth with a little saying off to the side. :)

For this particular project, I grabbed:

~a small blank canvas

~modge podge (both glittery and normal)

~a paint brush and foam brush

~buttons

~black and white paint

~thin black sharpie

~glue gun

~and a lot of colored gift wrap tissue (I startes keeping pretty gift tissue after my graduation party from high school. There were so many cool colors and designs, they’ve very often come in handy)

I picked out several different designs and shades of pink for the background, one by one ripped off the pieces I need, and brushed modge podge on to the canvas with a foam brush for each lit

tle section. Spread a thin layer of modge podge on the canvas, lay the tissue on that small area and modge podge on top of the tissue as well to ensure it stays in place. Continue this until the canvas is covered! :)

After the modge podge dries, which takes about five-ten minutes, I hot glued various sizes and colored buttons to the bottom and trickling up the sides of the canvas. Now, I finally got to paint a little! Using the black paint and a fairly firm paint brush, I outlined a little cartoon bird.

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Brush white paint lightly in the birds body and tail to make it stand out. You can use black or green to paint the little, sweepy plant in the bird's mouth. Then use the thin, black sharpie to write a saying, quote, or verse to the left of the bird. I also ended up using the room at the top to write 1 Thess. 5:16-18, "Be joyful always, pray continually, rejoice in all circumstances. For this is God's will for you..." (what a great verse! God's general will for us is to thank Him, rejoicing in every circumstance, learn to live a life of prayer by grace, and find joy- despite our circumstances because we have an firm hope.) Quick Paul Miller quote I read earlier today...

"as we learn to pray well, we'll discover that this is my Father's world. Because my Father is in control of everything, I can ask, and He will listen and act. Since I am His child, change is possible- and hope is born."

And now the finished product! :) "Look for the beauty in everyday things." The more thankful you are and aware of the good in your life, the sweeter your life will be! :)

Dreamer not a Planner

My friend, Polly, reminded me of something very important once. "Karis is a dreamer, not a planner. She comes up with so many ideas, many of which never happen."

She couldn't be more right! I started making memos in my phone for fun ideas for gifts, dates, road trips, crafts, and more. But truthfully, 90% of those dreams never become a reality. I've also really enjoyed blogs as of late. So, putting those two together, I thought maybe blogging would help me make some of my thoughts and ideas a reality. Whether I get around to doing them myself and I can share the story or throw ideas out there for others to use if they want, it's a win win situation.

For the first blog: a date idea.

I'm dating one of my best friends. It is a

blast and blessing. His name is Brandon

and he's really good at making life fun and

meaningful.

Last fall, he was having a pretty stressful week. While walking back from sonic and verbally processing all of these thoughts and worries, we decided to set aside one hour that night: one stress-free, no homework allowed, cell phone off hour.

I got the opportunity to decide what we were going to do in that time so it would be a surprise for him! So, I went to Walmart and bought:

~ a big, plain white sheet

~ paint

~ and foam plates.

I ran back to my room and gathered duct tape and old blanket and towel and threw it in the back of my car.

I told him to wear old clothes and put on the blind fold I provided. Playing music in the car and talking, I drove us to Lake Degray (where there is a big parking lot with lots of lights).

I had him sit in the car with his blindfold while I attempted to duct tape the sheet to the ground but it works better if you just weight it there with some rocks and heavier objects in the corners. After squirting paint out on the plates, I led Brandon out of the car and took off his blindfold.

The only real rule was, no paintbrushes? Use your hands, feet, roll around, throw paint, just make a masterpiece with what you have. :) (life lesson there?)

The result was awesome! It reminded Jackson Pollock type of painting! And of course we were covered in paint ourselves. Which is basically inevitable but really cool looking! As my very good friend, Bethany, would say, "what a beautiful mess" :) (you can see Brandon's blue footprints in the top right hand corner- he tried to get them all the way across but the blue paint ran out)

After we finished, the lake came in handy, seeing as we were absolutely plastered in color. :)

So ..."here's to lookin at you kid." One of my favorite dates.