For such a time as this....

  For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” - Esther 4:14 (NKJV)

I did a Beth Moore bible study several years ago on the book of Esther. One thing that stuck with me and still stays with me today, was the last part of chapter 4 verse 14. The words FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS are very powerful.

When you are filled with doubt and you want to question God, do you sometimes think why me? Why now? WHY WHY WHY?

Since I have learned the power of those simple words "for such a time as this", I have come to realize that He truly does have a plan for my life. He does know best despite what we may think at times. There are times of change that I end up thinking, "Well that worked out okay after all." But I still will never know WHY it had to happen in the first place. 

We may never know the reasons and we may never see results of changes He provides. But we can rest assured that He leads us where He leads for a reason and we need to understand that we don't always need to know why. Unquestionable faith should simply allow us to follow where He wants us to go and trust in Him to direct our paths. 

Is it always easy? No, it never seems to be. But if it is God leading you there, no matter how hard you fight Him or struggle with what He wants, it is right. 

You have to wonder how many more blessings we may receive and how much more contentment would we have if we simply accepted what He expects of us and realize that we are where we are, doing what we do "for such a time as this." Trust and Faith. They go hand in hand. If we could learn to simply follow those two words as our rule of life, we could make things easier on ourselves.

The Cat's Meow

I love cats to sit around the house. I especially like the tall skinny figurines. I have two tall ones and one sleeping kitty. But I would like to find more. Here are my Top 10 I would love to find "in the wild."

This one would be perfect for my bedroom. 

I would put this in the beach bathroom because of the color of blue it is.

I like this one simply because it is tall and skinny.

That's a unique pattern and would be cute in my craft/office room.

These aren't as skinny as I'm looking for but they were such a cute pair I had to add them to my list. 

If you are familiar with the Jim Shore angel collection, you may have seen his cat designs. I love these.

This set went on my list because they are by Fenton Glass. Beautiful.

This is my favorite of all of them. I just love the skinny bottom and the cute as can be face.

Would be so pretty in my kitchen.

Perfect for the living room.

I can't wait for yard sale time to get here.

Weekend wrap up...

Friday after work I got some new Thirty-One spring products in from the Facebook party I had. Got a new thermal, new wallet and new zipper pouch in coordinating patterns. These were all free for my hostess rewards. 

I should be getting this bag soon. It is the new Crossbody Organizing Tote and I can't wait to get it.

I have several milk glass pieces and my daughter asked me yesterday if I wanted this vase. Of course I said yes. The romantic, feminine elegance of the flowers would be perfect for my bedroom. 

So I brought it home and added some flowers I had on hand and found a few pieces to set with it.

I am very happy with the way my nightstand turned out.

Sunday's song

Now isn't that neat....

Do you ever have such an amazing beach vacation that you want to bring some sand and shells back home? Well, my bathroom has many shells from different trips in many unique containers. But I have never brought sand back because I couldn't figure out what to do with it. I won't do this but I think it is a very cute idea. 

Here was another jar craft I saw. The big one is a pickle jar and the little ones were candle jars. I just need to figure out what kind of paint to do lids with. I don't Google or You Tube when it comes to paint advice. I go straight to the Queen of Paints, Ms. Debbie at Breathing in Grace. I sent her a Facebook question on what she recommends.

A few weeks ago, I posted this cute idea folks for a hot glue station. I love the idea.

I loved the idea so I went to Dollar Tree and got me the tray, glass jar and ash tray. Mine is not staged in front of pretty floral or setting on pretty stripes. It's just on my bland table that I use to craft. I loved this idea because the ashtray will hold the drips of glue and I can easily clean up the mess after a project. 

And it is the perfect size for my glue sticks (which I need to pick up more), my glue gun and my ashtray. Just for $3.

That's it for today. I have a busy day ahead of me and need to get started on it. Hope you have a great Saturday.

Really? A pickle jar?

I love using Mason jars and baby food jars for crafts, but I never considered the possibilities of a pickle jar. I buy 3 different types of pickles and my jars are almost empty so I was going to be tossing them over the next week as I finish off each of the pickles. Imagine my delight when I stumbled on this quite by accident. DIY projects using pickles jars. I am definitely doing some of these. Paint, labels, knobs, all simple things to make a unique jar.

I want to do these next ones to set on the wide spot of my tub so I can have a nice soothing bath with lit candles. Plus it goes great with my beach decor.

Not sure what they used for the base. I will have to investigate further.

These are not pickle jars, but spaghetti sauce jars. Which I buy a lot of. I love spaghetti.

I did worry a little bit about the smell, even if you wash them good will they still smell. Then I found this idea to get smells out of pickle jars. 

Looks like I'm good to go!

The Month of Love

Our Children's Church theme this year is all about Jesus. In January, we kicked off with John 3:16. We learn each week different ways God & Jesus loves us and how we can love others.  So this would be a good craft for the month of February.

This week we are learning about the special bond Jesus and Peter shared. I am looking for some craft ideas for the month of February as we lead in to the greatest love Jesus showed for us as we stuff the Crucifixion and Resurrection in March. I have a large hallway outside our room that we get to decorate. I'm thinking they could do something like this for the wall. Except the top heart will say Jesus loves.... and the little hearts they can do their name and decorate around it.

I am sure one Sunday I will serve some treats. I did see some things I think they would like.

Another Sunday we may make one of these for them to take home with them. They love things with a little bling on them. And crazy as it seems, they get excited when we write with markers instead of crayons. 

I adore the month of February simply because it is all about love.