Crate-ling my books.

 

Bought a couple of wooden crates from the Goodwill store in Fullerton (same time I bought my lighthouse lamp). They were just so cute and CHEAP. I mean.. who wouldn't buy cute crates that were only $2 each?! You guys can't see the front of the crates but they have the words "Napa Valley" carved on it. WHICH MADE ME LOVE IT EVEN MORE.. cause I wanna visit Napa Valley one day and see the vineyards. Sooo my point is.. I think I JUST found a use for one of them:)

Wooden crate = mini/portable book shelf

I think I'm gonna make the other crate hold old vintage bottles cause I already have a collection going! 

yeah. I collect a bunch of random stuff. THAT'S RACHEL FOR YA! I'll post up a picture once I get enough bottles.. If anyone has any bottles they want to give, or wants to buy vintage glass bottles for me.. feel free  :)

you'd make a little girl happy.

                                                                                                      

                                                                                                  - Rachel Marie

My Lighthouse

So I went to the goodwill near my school today... and I stumbled upon a magnificent piece to add to my random collection!
                                                                         A lighthouse.
                                                                                         I think I have a new fetish for lighthouses.
I wasn't going to buy it... but I could not resist.. I kept passing by it. It captivated me and for some reason,  I HAD TO HAVE IT.  Don't worry, I didn't spend a fortune. Just $5:)

 

When I bought this little lighthouse, I couldn't help but think about the purpose of the lighthouse.

A lighthouse is meant for guidance. It is meant to shine light upon one's pathway and direct one away from the dangers ahead.

How beautiful to think that...

God is my Lighthouse

He lights my way.

He guides me.

He protects me.

WHY?

because He loves me.

ISAIAH 42:16

¹⁶ I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,

   along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;

I will turn the darkness into light before them

   and make the rough places smooth.

These are the things I will do;

   I will not forsake them.

I love how God can use simple little objects to remind me of his goodness and his love. I tend to forget that he is always with me. No matter how far I stray away, he is there as my light. Ready to direct my path. I am nothing but a lost ship and he, my lighthouse.

                                                                                                           - Rachel Marie

Balcony Garden

So I went to the flower mart in LA with my sister and my mom. I still LOVE that place so much.. and it inspired me to create a garden of my own. So I got some desert plants from the flower mart and decided to fix up my balcony and create a mini garden of my own.
First off, before I show my newly decorated balcony... I'd like to show you guys how to create a cool piece of decor. I made a weird backboard piece just for balcony. I started off with a plain piece of wood I found just sitting in my backyard.

 The only materials I used were black acrylic paint, a candle, a lighter, and assorted colors of crayons (crayola has always seemed like the best crayons!)

 

Then I used the black paint to paint a design on the board. Then to create the splatter look with the crayons.. all you need to do is to use fire (on a candle or lighter)! yes.. fire. Fire can be used in art. WHO KNEW! well.. the reason for the fire is to melt the crayons. For those of you who didn't know.. crayons are wax based, so they pretty much melt like a candle stick! All you have to do is put the crayon next to the fire and splatter the melted crayon all over your canvas! Real easy to do:] I did this technique when I was a kid. Apparently... my parents let me play with fire! But we did this technique on glass

bottles (so if you ever have a chance, try it! It gives the bottle a really cool look)

BACK TO MY BALCONY MAKEOVER!

These are the things I added to my balcony! Cute desert plants/ cacti from the market and rustic/vintage decor I found laying around at my house.

 

the picture below is actually an old shower hanger, but I found ways to recycle it! turns out its a great plant holder! just fastened it with some zip ties.

 

 

So this is the BEFORE picture:

AND THE AFTER PICTURES:

God has truly blessed me with a beautiful weekend. The weather was amazing, got to spend quality time with my mom and sister, got to redecorate and be creative with my balcony, and got to watch Ryan's awesome play with my friends and best friend! The only thing I'm sad about was missing the annual fall antique fair near my house! Which is my favorite :( I came towards the end of it when everyone was packing up to leave. So sad, but it's ok, there's always next year! 

Well.. now... it's time for another week! YAY!

                                                           - Rachel Marie

Yard Adventures.

I love my Yard. I never realized how picturesque it could be.

 

I'm not a pro.. but I think I am truly falling in love with photography.

NEED TO GO ON A PICTURE TAKING/HIKING ADVENTURE WITH THE GIRLS SOON!!

To Infinity and Beyond

My magnificent friend, Tori, gave me an old scarf that she no longer used. I decided the scarf just needed a little fixer-upping and it turned out to be an AWESOME piece to wear for the fall/winter! Now I'm excited to wear it.  
Shout out to Tori! Who let me have her old scarf and use the cute nail polish I'm wearing! (nail polish:Millennium by China glaze)

well.. pretty much what I did with the scarf was take a regular scarf and turn it into an infinity scarf.
Here's some easy steps I took which you could take to revamp your old/wide/loosely knit scarves! :

This is how the scarf looks in the beginning (this one had tassels tied to the ends. yours may not which will be a lot easier for you to work with!)

 

 These are the tassels in the end which should be easily removed. All you have to do is un-knot it by hand, if the knot is too tight.. you can easily cut the tassels off with scissors. Just make sure to not cut the scarf itself.

 This is how it should look after you've taken the tassels off ( make sure to keep the excess yarn that has been removed to later tie both ends of the scarf together)

 Take both ends of the scarf and take the excess yarn (from the tassels) and tie the ends together. Input and tie in multiple pieces of yarn to create a seam between the scarves. If the excess yarn was too short for you to create double knots, you can use/buy some yarn similar in color with your scarf to tie the ends together.

 This is how it should look after you tie the ends together. After this.. carefully cut out the excess long pieces of yarn leaving only the knot between the scarves.

 Then you're left with an awesome infinity scarf for the cool weather! :]

 It's a real easy thing to do when  you wanna change things up! Not complicated at all:] I think it turned out pretty cute! HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOY THE WONDERFUL COOL WEATHER! reminds me that Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming!

                                                        - Rachel Marie

Monster Mash

Made some Monster cookies with some friends (tori and koda) to fund raise for our upcoming Harvest Night festival at my church! My friend tori and I made these cookies before for our choir members during our senior year in high school (which was..awhile agoo). Maybe its time to make it a tradition!
I would definitely recommend monster cookie making to anyone with kids. Its a real easy thing to do, plus it's a GREAT way to bond and utilize your creativity skills! How to make them:

• You can either make the cookies or buy store bought ones (I'd recommend the plain sugar cookies cause you'd still have other candies to mount on it in the end!) 
• buy some white frosting and colored dyed. Experiment with colors and mix the color with frosting!
• spread the frosting on the cookie and add any type of candy to it! (I'd recommend twizzlers, peach rings, smarties, gummy worms, and skittles: great for making eyes, hair, and mouths!)

       you can find everything at your local grocery store!

and Voila! Magnificent-monsteriffic cookies!
you can probably get a sugar high off of one cookie, but they are sure fun to make. And safe to say, kids love to make em.. and eat em!
I hope everyone is enjoying the month of October! I'm definitely loving it!
                                                                                -  Rachel Marie

This Heat Wave...

...Is really making me miss summer. 
The weather has to decide if it wants to be summer or winter, ASAP.
despite the weather's indecisiveness, it is a beautiful day outside.


This weather makes me wanna go back to Pismo beach and hang out with the kiddies again.
this is a picture of the kids at camp (in august) when they found a preying mantis:

 

Now that summer has definitely passed,

I am so ready for this holiday season:)

God, I can't wait to see what else you have in store for me for the rest of the year!

Exciting things to look forward to this year:

1. My momma's birthday on the 5th. 
2. My dog, Reese's birthday on the 8th.
3. Thanksgiving!
4. My niece, Aubrey Jane, is turning 1 this year!
5. Aubrey Jane's brother, Nathan Hudson is coming right after that! yay for more babies in the family!
6. CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS!
7.  I'm turning 22 on the 27th of December. crazy..
8. 2012.

wow. God, although a lot of things have happened this year, I know you are so faithful and are continually blessing me with things to look forward to.. Thank you.
                                                            
                                                                                -Rachel Marie

Let me tell you 'bout my Best Friend

Everyone Meet Nieman.

 

10 things we like to do together:

1. hang around random parks
2. eat Mcdonalds ( and never get tired of it)
3. have study sessions at Starbucks.
4. Listen to Christmas music all year 'round.
5. have contests as to who has memorized the most Relient K songs.
6. make up our own dumb/meaningless songs (he sings melody, I sing harmony)
7. talk about our ministries in praise and worship
8. Yell out references from movies and incorporate it into our conversations
9. Talk about the past
10. Talk about the future

 

I will always care about this guy.

on the flip side (thought of the day):

Sometimes we can question our reasons for caring for others. We may question "why persist in keeping certain relationships? Why do we continue to love in situations where we have been wronged or have suffered dire consequences for our actions?"

                       A fast, easy answer to that is: "I don't know, just happens"

But the way I see it..  is that through all life's consequences, God continues to reveal and display his love for me- His enduring, unfailing, unbreakable love. I fail... countless times. And yet, God still loves me. 

With that simple and life-changing thought, I should practice the love in which God has given me since the very beginning. Our pride has the ability to take over our good sense and virtue. Although we may feel as though others do not deserve our love, we have to go back and realize that WE all didn't deserve God's love and yet.. it was still given to us, 

                                                           the undeserving.

to put it simply:

We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19

unfortunately, sometimes its easier said than done, that's when we know.. We all need a Savior.

-Rachel Marie

 

Hello Blogging world!

Hello all!


Im Rachel Marie.

The main reason I decided to create this blog was to share my hopes, dreams, interests, hobbies, and also to take record of the things I've done and want to do. Life is truly is a gift and with that thought... I'd like to share my wonderful gift with all of you who decide to take the time look at this insignificant website!

One thing that's always been a hobby of mine: Photography ( I'm not amazing but expect to see a lot of pictures!)
What I did today was go to a nephew's 4th birthday. The theme was candy land which was adorable.


Cakes in a Jar

 Rice Crispy cones

 The nephews... cruisin:)

 The candy centerpieces

 They had a shave ice truck rented out for the party which absoluuuuuutely made my day.


I am excited to post more pictures in the future...
until then..
I guess it's time to go on more adventures!
                    "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
                                                                  - Helen Keller


                                                 - Rachel Marie