Come to the table - Food for thought. Food for the tummy.

Food For Thought:

Source: theocentric.com via Callie on Pinterest

I was reading up on one of my friends facebook pages to see how she was doing. (obviously we aren't THAT great of friends anymore haha) Anyway, she had the following statement as her status:

"Today I found myself waiting at a crosswalk that didn't have a light, and realized, what am I waiting for? I think that's applicable in life as well."

I Just thought it was interesting and it got me ta thinkin'...I'm going to stop waiting, and start doing.

Source: etsy.com via Callie on Pinterest

If you are loving the Lord in your decisions, then you are "living life..." Below are some verses I use to help me make big decisions.

Luke 10:27

New International Version (NIV)

²⁷ He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Micah 6:8

The Message (MSG)

⁸But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do,
what God is looking for in men and women.
It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don't take yourself too seriously—
take God seriously.

Colossians 3:23

New International Version (NIV)

²³ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.

I mean goodness gracious isn't God's Word refreshing?!

And now lets hear it for a little UNRELATED comic relief!!!

Source: 9gag.com via Callie on Pinterest

Food for the tummy.

So I thought I would share a secret ingredient with you. My Great Aunt June (AKA one of the greatest cooks I've ever known) had the best and easiest chicken salad recipe.

Cut up a breast of grilled chicken (none of that icky canned stuff), and cut up a stick (stem, stalk??) of green onion.

Salt and pepper the chicken and onions with cracked black pepper and Sea Salt.

And here is the BIG HUGE SECRET (I thought it was a secret at least... it may be old news to you "MATURE" cooks. ;)

drum roll please....

1/8 of a cup of HONEY. and of course the mayonnaise. I use a little less than a 1/4 of a cup of the olive oil mayo. Makes me feel a little healthier. :)

And TA DA...

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

-Callie

Wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it...

Well hello there Tuesday morning!

Whoa... it has been about two months since I lasted blogged. Sorry everyone! Well, Brad and I have had a pretty exciting and busy summer. We PURCHASED our first "Home." Its actually a condo that had gone into foreclosure. So far, it has been a huge, but amazing project. I'll be sharing some of the before and after pictures on here. I also wanted to share some awesome workouts I've started recently, and some of my daily Bible studies.

First, here is today's workout. Its from a great fitness blog called BodyRock. Check em out!

Source: bodyrock.tv via Callie on Pinterest

I love "athletic girl" bodies, and I dream of having a body like hers!

Also here is a picture of one of the bathrooms in our condo.



We have two bathrooms, one upstairs and one downstairs. The downstairs bathroom will have the single sink vanity (shown below) with some cute baskets.

Source: homedepot.com via Callie on Pinterest

And, the master/ upstairs bathroom will have two of these smaller vanities.

Source: homedepot.com via Callie on Pinterest

We're still on the look out for some cute/ creative/ CHEAP mirrors. Let me know if you have some ideas! Here are some ideas to go off of... (I like to mix modern with shabby chic)

Source: etsy.com via polkahontas on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Aga on Pinterest

I'm not really into "matching".... I mean, its a miracle if my socks match! So I'm thinking I want very different mirrors in the master bathroom.

Finally, I wanted to share my Bible study from yesterday. I was reminded of this Bible verse from a friends blog, Paints and Pistols.

Source: paintsandpistols.blogspot.com via Callie on Pinterest

Here is what I used to apply it...


Today I spent a couple hours going through my “memory” box. My “memory box” is just a big, pink plastic tub that contains all the notes, photos, news paper articles and ticket stubs since junior high that remind me of special times in my life. While going through this, I remembered some exciting times along with some tough times (and some notes and photos which probably needed to be chunked a long time ago haha). As I read through old journals, the one thing which was always constant was my dependence upon Christ. It seems that with each entry, there was a verse tagged to it. Since college, for some reason, I have drifted away from my “alone time” with God. I have begun to place other things before my relationship with Christ.

Starting today, I have decided to use the following verse to help guide me back to a “Life tagged with Bible verses.

Colossians 3:12-14 (The Message)

"So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it."

Compassion: Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it.

Kindness: The act of being friendly, generous, or warm-hearted in nature.

Humility: Being Marked by meekness or modesty in behavior, attitude, or spirit; not arrogant or prideful.

Quiet Strength: Meekness – Showing patience

Discipline: Patiently enduring wrongs or difficulties.

Although I love the way the Message words things, I think it is helpful to study with a different version. Below is the version from the NIV.
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

What to do next:
I am going to journal about how I can better implement each of these characteristics into my life.
Compassion: Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it.
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Kindness: The act of being friendly, generous, or warm-hearted in nature.
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Humility: Being Marked by meekness or modesty in behavior, attitude, or spirit; not arrogant or prideful.
__________________________________________________________________

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Quiet Strength: Meekness – Showing patience
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Discipline: Patiently enduring wrongs or difficulties.
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Have a wonderful Tuesday my friends...
Callie

"One day I'm going to have THAT in my house..."

Currently, Brad, myself and Lily (Our really cute, sweet and wonderful chocolate lab) are all sharing about 650 sq. ft of apartment. Well, you know that feeling you get when you go on a REALLY long road trip, and you start to get annoyed with the person sitting next to you? Well I think Brad and Lily are starting to feel that way about each other. In the last two days, Lily has chewed the soles out of two pairs of Brad's shoes. Also, Brad and I both like to do projects, so we're just getting a little anxious to have some room to work.

As a way to allow myself the feeling of having a "project," I've been designing my "one day" house. I've been scouring the web, and have found some great DIY projects and designs. Check em' out!

Below is the "Shutter wall" I'm DEFINITELY going to recreate. In fact I bought about eight shutters for $20.00 at a garage sale yesterday.

Source: todayscreativeblog.net via Libby on Pinterest

Also, I've recently gotten on a burlap kick. I love these dainty white curtains coupled with the rough, more masculine tie back and crystals. I found this on a precious blog called Buckets of Burlap.

I found about a million cool things to do with old ladders. I've pasted a couple ideas below:

Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Cecilia on Pinterest

Source: oliveandlove.com via Carol on Pinterest

And "one day" I'm going to have a swing hanging in my bedroom...

Source: herecomesthesunblog.com via Lauren on Pinterest

I'm looking forward to sharing more "One day" posts with you, and hopefully "one day" I'll be able to show you the REAL THING. :)

I do, however, have a fun and easy "today" project to share with you. First, I just have to say I have an AWESOME husband. Brad woke up with me in the 7's on a Saturday morning, and headed out to a morning of non-stop garage sales. One of my favorite finds was 5 brass candle sticks we picked up for $.50 each (what a deal right?!). I cleaned them up and gave a quick spray of grey spray paint and wa-la... Updated/Retro candle stick holders.

These candle stick holders have a great shape, and I love all of the different heights, but they also have some old wax plastered on.

A little lesson I learned from my sweet mom-in-law... dip the holders (Or glass votives) in very hot water. (Be careful the metal gets seriously HOT!)

Pull them out using tongs or something to keep from burning your little phalanges. :) Wipe them clean and dry using a paper towel.

Ok.... so here's where have to I admit to Brad... "I should have used a primer." ok I did it...

Sadly, I like to cut corners, so I didn't prime the holders, but I really do recommend adding that little step.

I just used a glossy grey spay paint, but it covered pretty well.

And there ya go. A cute and quick Sunday project.

Thanks for hanging out!

-Callie

A Fast and Fabulous Trip to the Beach!

On Friday afternoon, Brad and I loaded up in the mini-van with my sister, my twin 7 year old nieces and my 1 and 1/2 year old nephew, and headed to Corpus Christi. After staying the night with my parents in Bastrop - which, by the way, is one of the coolest towns in Texas - we started the "short" second half of the trip. Well it was supposed to be short, but we quickly learned that traveling with lots of little ones can delay the trip a bit... After one baby being constipated, and a failed attempt at "Authentic Mexican Food," we finally made it to the beach.

This weekend was full of FUN, FAMILY and FOOD. We enjoyed some great sea food at Landry's Seafood and Snoopy's Pier - you should try them some time!

Throughout the weekend I couldn't help but think about how blessed Brad and I are to have such a big and wonderful family. Growing up, we always took a lot of fun weekend trips, and this one definitely didn't disappoint. Check out some of the pics...

Wow-wee!
Even better :)
A little blurry, but its the only picture I made it into.
Audrey and Mason were troopers this weekend!
She wasn't really playing Frisbee :)


I absolutely love Haley in this one!

Well that's all I have for you today. My bed is in the near future.

Love,

Callie

Ladies night out got a little hotter than expected...

So, on Thursday evening I met up with my sister, Amy, and some ladies from her church (that I didn't know YET) to get a pedicure in Frisco. I hardly ever get pedicures, so this was an extremely relaxing and exciting event for me. Well, it started out relaxing, and ended very stressful (stayed pretty exciting the whole time).

After getting my toes painted the color "Lava Lamp" (don't you love the names of fingernail polish???), Amy and I were the last ones out of the salon. When we walked out, we noticed a couple ladies trying to open the hoods of their car to jump one of the cars off. After seeing them struggling for a few minutes, I decided that I could be the hero, and fix the car. I mean, I had seen my dad do it many times, so it couldn't be that difficult right?!

Well After calling my dad to ensure I didn't do anything completely stupid, I had managed to unscrew the weird plastic thing that was over the battery, and hooked both of the clamps to the "correct" post on the battery of the car which wouldn't start. I then managed to connect the positive clamp up to the new Tahoe. Now, it was the moment of truth one clamp left. Amy had this one, and clamped it up to the metal "ground," and then came the "stressful" part of the evening...

SPARKS, SMOKE, MELTING CABLES & FIRE - all of which occurred in the next oh... 60 seconds or so. At this point my heart was stuck somewhere below my belly button, and I was very close to tears - I mean I had just started a couple fires in other people's cars!

Well by the time the TWO firetrucks and a police car made it to the salon parking lot, the fire had burned out and no one was hurt (Thank you Lord!). Not only was this terrible and embarrassing and all things awful, but it was the middle of the Mavs game, so the firemen were upset as well!

I was completely confused with this entire event, since I was pretty sure I had connected everything correctly, so when the Fireman called me over to the "Scene," they explained that that the cables connecting the car to it's batter had been labeled wrong. I was a little relieved to find this out, but the moral of the story---

When jumping a car off, ALWAYS read the labels on the battery, NOT the ones on the cables.

So... I now have another "Expensive lesson learned" to add to my list.

• A free dog is NOT really free.
• Always check the cost of shipping before selling orders of cookies.
• and... ALWAYS read the labels on the battery, NOT the ones on the cables.

On a different note, I have the "After" picture of the night stand.

And the winner is...

I also had some extra wall paper, so I lined the inside of the drawers with it.

It's still shabby, and if I had a yard or a garage or something, I might paint it, but for now, its just great!

I'm thinking about a posting a recipe next. So stayed tuned!

-Callie

Happy Tuesday my friends! So, today was a bit of a draining day. On days like today, other girls might go buy a couple chocolate bars, but not me. Me? Yes, I headed straight to Hobby Lobby.

On my previous post I gave you a quick glance at the cute little bed side table I'm working on. Well soon you will start to learn that I don't really "re-do" furniture. I like to say I'm a little more "shabby" than Chic`. So I'm not going to change it up too much.

All that to say, on my trip to Hobby Lobby to get knobs for the three draws, I some how made it home with three separate sets. I need a little help deciding on the "right" knobs. Check them out below, and leave a comment to let me know which ones you like.

So, here's one option:

Option two:

And finally... Option three:

So leave me a comment, and let me know what you think!

Also, since today was a little stressful, I'll take a deep deep deep breath, and leave you with this:

"Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken."

Psalm 55:22

-Callie