Redeemed

I've heard this song over and over and you probably have too if you listen to Christian music.

But today it was like a heard it for the first time.

You know what I mean?

Just thinking about what He has redeemed me from...

how He has changed me completely and everything I am about...

It's a lot to take in.

whew.

I'm thankful for the work He has done in my life and thankful that He is not done with me yet.

Hope you are as blessed as I am by the lyrics in this powerful song.

Grab a cup of coffee, turn up your speakers and soak up God's goodness.

"Redeemed"

by Big Daddy Weave

Seems like all I could see was the struggle
Haunted by ghosts that lived in my past
Bound up in shackles of all my failures
Wondering how long is this gonna last
Then You look at this prisoner and say to me "son
Stop fighting a fight it's already been won"

I am redeemed, You set me free
So I'll shake off these heavy chains
Wipe away every stain, now I'm not who I used to be
I am redeemed, I'm redeemed

All my life I have been called unworthy
Named by the voice of my shame and regret
But when I hear You whisper, "Child lift up your head"
I remember, oh God, You're not done with me yet

I am redeemed, You set me free
So I'll shake off these heavy chains
Wipe away every stain, now I'm not who I used to be

Because I don't have to be the old man inside of me
'Cause his day is long dead and gone
Because I've got a new name, a new life, I'm not the same
And a hope that will carry me home

I am redeemed, You set me free
So I'll shake off these heavy chains
Wipe away every stain, 'cause I'm not who I used to be

I am redeemed, You set me free
So I'll shake off these heavy chains
Wipe every stain, yeah, I'm not who I used to be
Oh, God, I'm not who I used to be
Jesus, I'm not who I used to be
'Cause I am redeemed
Thank God, redeemed

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

For His mercy endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,

who He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy"

Psalm 107:1-2

stephanie :)

Friday's Letters

Dear Honey Pot Blog,

 I'm sorry I have been neglecting you.  I have so much to share with you..recipes, fun adventures, wedding stuff, ... I'll get back to you soon. I promise.  And I'm slowly but surely catching up with all the wonderful ladies who leave me encouraging comments on you.  I'm like a snail but I'm doing it!

Dear everyone on Instagram who requested a nail from Nick,

   They are coming!  I'm gonna be working on them tomorrow and hopefully they will go in the mail on Monday! We were overjoyed with how many of you wanted one to share with others!  To God be the glory!.  ps. watch my shop....we will be putting them in there soon by the dozen for those who have requested them to witness with!  Woo hoo for spreading the gospel!!

Dear Christy,
  Thank you for sharing your talent with the world.  You bless me with your lyrics that draw me closer to the Lord.  And you make road trips more fun.  I want to sound like you in heaven.

Dear Husband of mine,
  I love sitting in the seat next to you everywhere you go.  So thankful that God interrupted our lives and changed us.   So thankful for how he used you this weekend at East Union Baptist Church and so thankful for the loving folks He allowed us to meet there.  Oh...and I've got my eye on you :)

Dear Mariachi Band who serenaded us last Saturday night,
    I've never felt so special as when you made your awesome donkey sound.  Incredible.  And seriously.... The. Best. rendition of Old McDonald had a farm EVER!!  And your "My Girl" wasn't too shabby either.   I wish I could have taken y'all home in my purse.  

Dear Cooler Weather,
  Thanks for making my straight hair that flops as soon as I walk out the door work better.  I appreciate it a lot.

Dear Beautiful New Back Door Bling,
    Your colorful little self makes me smile every time I look at you. I love your funkiness so much....but not as much as I love the person who gave you to me!

Dear Calah,
  I had so much fun traipsing through the woods of Porterville on the 4-wheeler with you.  I can't wait til the next time and hopefully you can bring those boys of yours too.  love you and praying for you.  I know the Lord has you in His mighty right hand girl and He is using you to glorify Himself. He's got this.

Dear Children of Mine,
  I'm so glad y'all love Porterville night as much as I do.

Dear little Pumpkin I painted,
 I adore you.  The end. 
oh and ps....please don't rot anytime soon.

Dear Elizabeth,

You bless me so much for being the mom that you are.  I know you don't always see yourself as others do but I'm telling you....you are amazing.  My grandchildren are so blessed to have you and Chris as their parents.  Keep teaching them about Jesus and living it out in front of them.  

Dear Lauren,
  I just wanted you to know that I forgive you for messing up your daddy and I's perfectly balanced formula for our 4 cup pot of coffee that we drink each morning.  Yes, your big green cup you like to drink on the way to school leaves one of us out to dry but we're all grown ups here right?  I'm getting over it.

Dearest Marcus Oh Son-in-law of mine,

   I'm filled with gratitude over the fancy hand drawn charcoal print you had to buy for me.  It's a treasure and since you bought it, I will make sure it's left to you when I die. You've let your wifey poison your mind over the "similarities" of Miss Piggy and me but I forgive you because I'm so sweet like that.

And you can read about how I am trying to overcome this complex they've given me here if you want to.  

ps.  I hung her her up already...and I still don't get what ya'll see...lol.

Lydia,  
 Thank you for finally sending me some of your doodles to create with.  I hope the new Lydia Linton Collection is a blessing to many.  

Dear Lake Placid,
 Watch out cuz here I come!!! Woo Hoo!!!

ps. if you've had your eye on anything in the shop, now is the time to scoop it up cuz for one...I'm having a sale!  love those!  And two....after this Tuesday, I won't be back in the shop til October 18th.  (I'll be loving on my grand babies until then)

Sincerely,

Stephanie

Friday's Letters

Dear Hannah,
  Thanks so much for posting this recipe that helped me turn my healthy less fattening snack into a sinful -full of calories- pan of deliciousness as I am trying to lose a few pounds. You're the best.  And in two weeks when I see you (!!!)  I'm gonna kick your butt for it....Miss Fancy Apple Eater.

Dear Momma,
   I can't tell you how proud I am of you for setting a goal and following through with it.  You are amazing and I want to be just like you.  Congratulations on your first 5k!!   So what's next on your list?....Bungee jumping? Skydiving? Sumo wrestling?  Fencing?  Whatever it is, I know you'll rock it!

Dear Julia Rose,

 Stop being so cute.  You're killing me. The End.

Dear Rosalyn,
  I'm so proud of you for counting so good!!  Wow!  It looks like you're gonna be a math lover like your momma.  This makes me so happy.  Keep up the good work and I can't wait to see you soon!!

Dear Ladies I met last weekend,

Ummm.....y'all are amazing. I'm so glad Heather talked me down off the ledge and convinced me not to back out from going....cuz I almost did.  I would have missed out big time.  So thankful for y'all.

Dear Christa,
 Thanks for teaching me how to crochet. I know you are getting tired of me saying this but I don't care.....you seriously are one of THE most patient and encouraging people I have ever met. If I ever make an afghan for my grand kids, they will be telling the story to their kids about the sweet lady with the amazing smile and huge heart that taught their Honey everything she knows.  ;)

Dear Kelli,
  Thank you so much for the sweetest of cards I had waiting for me when I got home.  Your words blessed me like crazy and uh....wow!....your handwriting is amazing!  How do you write so pretty and perfect?!?

Dear Lord,

  Thank you for Your grace. When I have weeks like this past one when I'm all weird in my thoughts, not myself,  feeling like the worst wife in the world, OK, OK...lets just call it what it is....way off course, in need of repentance so I can put my eyes back on YOU....even then Your love for me is incredible.  It's weeks like this when I understand just what it means to be rooted and grounded in Your love...the kind where the width and length and depth and height  passes comprehension. It's relentless. And I'm so thankful.

Sincerely and with much love,

Stephanie :)

Craft Weekend and The Momma of all Giveaways!!

I can't wait to tell y'all all about the weekend I had with these gorgeous ladies. 

 What  a blessing!!!

Lindsay, Alison, Autumn, Angie, Melissa, Heather, 

Amy,  Julie, Christa

On top of getting to fellowship with 9 incredible women all weekend, make ah-mazing crafts, eat delicious food and learn some new skills.....Santa Claus made an early visit to the Blue Ridge Mountains cuz let me tell you.....I had a basket full of the best swag in the land waiting for me there with my name on it!!    It was chock a block full of stuff I had been drooling over and wanting for months and it was like a little elf ...(or more like two little elves) went snooping through all my Etsy favorites and picked out everything my little heart had liked!
And guess what!!!

YOU have a chance to win what was in our baskets!!

Here is a link to all the lovely shops that have some of their goodness in there!

CREATE banner by Little Green Thread

8x10 art print by Pen & Paint

"love." wood block by Bubblewrappd

Set of "hello" note cards by Moon Beam Wishes

Natural Glycerin Soap by Sunbasil Garden

Fold-over clutch by Little Green Thread

Earrings by Happy Days

Paper Straws and Daisy Lids by Glitter and Gloss

Set of 16 "Handmade with Love" mini cards by Pen & Paint

20 yards of baker's twine by Milo & Molly

Ball Mason jar, wooden clothespins, wooden spools, scrapbook paper, 2 rolls of washi tape, supplies for geometric, wooden bead necklace.

And a special thanks to Baby Boy Bakery who provided yummy goodies for each of our swag baskets!

Just click on rafflecopter below to get in on the action!

The winner will be announced on Saturday, September 22nd and we'll be posting photos from the weekend and the projects we created!

Happy Wednesday!

Stephanie :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday's Letters

Dear Big Brother of Mine,
   Thank for coming to my rescue this past week when my car broke down.  I'll try to convince Nick to smoke you that brisket you requested for pay back.

Dear Ladies who I will meet this weekend,
   I've been excited and nervous all at the same time.  This kind of thing is out of my comfort zone but I can't wait to meet y'all and create some beautimous stuff together.   And please forgive me for not bringing "swag" with me like I've noticed in some of y'alls pics that you have been posting on Instagram.  I don't know what I was thinking...everyone brings happies to these kinds of things right?  And I'M usually the one giving happies.  Seriously. ~sigh. I hope maybe one (or two) other girls are slacking  like me.  #idontwantobetheonlyone!!

Dear Mom,
  I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of setting a goal and doing it!  I wish I was gonna be there this weekend when you cross the finish line of your first 5k and scratch that off your bucket list.  You are amazing and you inspire me every single day. I hope I'm just like you when I'm pushing 70 years old! I love you so much!

Dear United States Postal Service,
  You really let me down this time in the worst kind of way.  My daughter is 11 hrs away from her family for the first time on her birthday and to make it feel as festive as possible we entrusted 3 big packages filled of goodies that cost a small fortune to mail  just to make sure her birthday would be super special .....and you didn't deliver them on time.  Nope.   Lucky for you, my daughter is growing in grace and still had a special day in spite of the disappointment so I didn't call you up and give you an ear full.  If they don't show up today...well, you better watch out.  

Dear Nick,
  I miss you already and I haven't even left.  Seriously.  How can I be homesick and I haven't even pulled out the driveway.  How did we survive those six month med-cruises back in our Navy days?! I love you and can't wait to get back where I belong.  Hopefully bringing a really cute wreath for our naked front door.

Love,

Stephanie :)

ps.   To the ladies this weekend,
Since my brain wouldn't shut off when I laid down, I got up and made me some "swag" for our trip.  Woo Hoo! Now I'm all set.  I totally love it too....couldn't love better if I had planned it for weeks.
I can't wait to meet y'all!! Eeeep!! 

The "Great Wall of Fabric"....a fabric backdrop tutorial

You've seen all those fabric wall backdrops  haven't you?

They are so cute and easy and inexpensive right ......

Wrong.

 Yes, they are cute and they really aren't hard to make...just time consuming...
but they are not inexpensive! I repeat...they are NOT inexpensive!

Here is our story...
maybe it will help you if y'all are planning one of these in the near future.

We did not have a huge reception venue.  It was extremely charming but not overwhelming big. It is the bluegrass hall that Marcus and his family play at a couple times a month and Lydia kind of fell for her banjo playing man in this very building so it holds a special place in their heart .

We knew it wouldn't be as roomy as the family life center at the church. But we decided to go with.

It's a big open building with a gorgeous ceiling and hardwood floors...

But as you can see in this pic...the "kitchen" is right there in the open.

We wanted a way to separate it some and hide it.

and that is how The Great Wall of China Fabric came to be.

We found a web site that gave instructions on how to make the frame.

It is made of PVC pipe.

Here is the {link} we used. 

Your materials you need will depend on the measurements of your wall.

We wanted an eclectic look with lots of texture but we also were on a budget so we had to selective with our fabric.  Our wall was probably much longer than the average wall because of the size of the room and the length of the counter we were placing it behind. It was a massive 10 feet long and 7 feet high which made for lots of fabric.$$$$

**You need to start ripping your strips of fabric long before the day you need them.** 

This process takes time people.

Here is my my mom helping out on one of her visits

She is a fabric ripping beast I tell you!

She ripped all my fabric and then said I needed more. I was like, "No way mom...we have enough! That is a lot of fabric!"  But she kept insisting we would need more. 

Well, you are never too old to heed your momma advice and her word of warning kept running through my head so I convinced Nick to help me tie the strips to the pipe for a "test run"one day at home ....just to make sure.  (I definitely didn't want to be caught lacking the day of the wedding)

Well, we used up all the fabric.

It looks good right?..

Yeah....well that side of it does!  

My Momma was SO right. 

We only had enough fabric to cover half of it!

Yikes. I had to buy double than what I had anticipated.

Fortunately, there are a few Walmart stores left in the world that still has a fabric dept and we were able to get some extremely cheap fabric in the colors we wanted.

I so wish I would have kept track of how many yards we used.

Each strip was 2 1/2 yards long and you get around 15-18 strips in a 45in piece of fabric.....

This was Lydia the day before the wedding.

She loved The Great Wall of Fabric

Basically once you have your pvc frame made,

 you just have to tie on  the strips of fabric and viola! 

A beautiful backdrop.

But here are a few tips

• If you are making one as long as ours, you will need support in the center.  We ended up adding an extra pipe and t fitting in the middle of ours.  When you have this much fabric, it gets super heavy and will begin to sag. (see the above picture with Chris and Blake holding it up)
• We also added some extra support on the bottom by adding a "support foot" to the bottom of the frame and sat sandbags on top to weight it down.  (Are you now getting why I call this thing the Great Wall of Fabric?) ** if you have questions about this just send me an email
• Also  I had planned on wrapping my pipe with fabric but my amazing momma just whipped up some covers on the sewing machine. Just take a wide strip of material and sew it together leaving a hole large enough for the pipe to slip through.  You can see that in the pic below on each side and on the support pipe in the  center.
• Use any fabric you have on hand.  The sheer polka dot fabric was actually a curtain panel I bought at Dirt Cheap for $2!  

I pride myself in finding cheap ways to do really cute projects..
but this one snuck up and bit me.  I originally spent about $60 in fabric and about $20 on the pipe.
But for what what you see in the picture below, I had to buy double that.  So it ended up being an expensive project in my book!  But... even at approximately $150 ,give or take, that is pretty good for such a stunning backdrop.

It worked  out great for doing what we needed it to do in hiding the kitchen...

However, I don't intend to make another one any time soon....

At least not one 10 feet long and 7 feet tall!!!

Stephanie :)

Stuffed Bell Pepper Recipe

Ok...So Nick posted some stuffed peppers on Instagram and FB and bunch of you asked for the recipe.

I told him to tell y'all it was on my blog.  But actually it was on my friend Rachel's blog....from when I did a guest post back in April!  I tell you, my memory is fading fast! 

Anyways, here is the post along with some cute pics of the grand babies and Paw Paw Nick last year in the garden.  Oh how I missed having a garden this year. And I miss these girls even more!  Our next visit can't come fast enough.

We stuffed a bunch of bell peppers last summer.  I tried all kinds of ways.  Even stuffed some and froze them. So I thought I'd share my basic recipe with you.. you can throw a little of this and that into the mix and make it your own.  That's pretty much what I do each time I make some for us.

Make sure you cut off the tops of the  peppers and cut out all the seeds like in the above picture.

 This is the easy version:

1 box of Zatterains dirty rice mix
1 onion chopped
1 bell pepper chopped
2-3 toes of garlic minced
2-3 pounds of ground meat
1 pound of crawfish tails 
1 can of cream of chicken soup
touch of crab boil
cheese for top
***1 can tomato sauce for the bottom of pan (see note)

** you can make these without crawfish..they are still very tasty...just not AS tasty ;)

I cook the box of  Zatterains dirty rice according to the directions on the box. I add the onions, garlic, bell pepper and crab boil together as I'm browning the ground meat.  I use ground deer meat but you can use beef if you'd like.  After it's ready I add the crawfish tails and cream of chicken soup and stir it all together. Then you stuff the peppers with this yumminess.  I put a little water in the bottom of the pan and you can add tomato sauce too if you want the flavor...not a whole lot of water...you just need some moisture while the peppers bake.  I bake them on 350 for about 25 to45 minutes covered with foils.  You want the peppers to be tender. Remove the foil and sprinkle some cheese on top and let it melt for a few more minutes. 

***These are some I made recently and I changed up the sauce a little.

This time I mixed together some chili sauce, ketchup, Worcestershire and water.

It makes a great sauce to put on top the pepper for a different twist.

Well, there ya go! 

Hope you enjoy 

Stephanie :)