Psalm 5:11 "But let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread Your protection over them, that those who love Your name may rejoice in You." While I sit here in my safe, protected little bubble I think about all the Christian missionaries around the world who live in constant danger while spreading Christ's light and the life-saving Good News to the darkness. I think about those who are persecuted and killed because of their faith. I think about the fighting and wars that have reigned in areas for centuries. It is so easy to become so content in our safe space and so immune to the hardships and struggles of those around the world. I just pray this psalm over them, that God's protection be spread over all who love His wonderful name, spread to all who rejoice and take refuge in our mighty Creator. Praise the Lord for His goodness and love. Praise the Lord for each person risking their lives for the sake of the Kingdom and the Gospel.
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Well the nursery is finished except for just one teeny tiny little detail, such as the crib...which won't be delivered until a couple weeks after my due date. But not to fear, backup plan B is in effect. As I was working on a collage wall over the rocking chair, I just kept commenting to myself, Angelo, James, but mainly to myself {don't judge, some of my best conversations take place that way} that it was missing....something. You know those times when it just irks you every time you look at it? You just know it needs one more finishing touch? Anyone else that obsessive out there? Moving on.
After searching high and low at TJ Maxx and Homegoods, which failed to come through for me for the first time ever, I decided to forgo the store-bought decor and create my own. Which means I had to do it right then-that minute-no time to waste. These moments always occur on a Sunday when the beloved Hobby Lobby is closed. And so my impatient and immediate desire to start a new project had to wait. In the meantime, I scoured Pinterest and assorted blogs to find exactly what I wanted to make. Little did I know that this project, originally intended to take an afternoon or two, took about a week altogether. Not what I expected, but a learning experience nonetheless. And now I pass that learning on to you, in hopes that if you desire to make a wooden sign you have success on the first try on the first day rather than the tenth try by the end of the week, by presenting....
"My Guide to a DIY Wooden Sign"
1. Decide to make a wooden sign. Overestimate your ability and shoot for the stars, aiming to create a sign with an incredibly long quote.
2. Go to Lowe's or Home Depot and purchase a cheap wooden board. Debate with yourself over the size and type of wood for so long that an old man standing in the board aisle {who knows exactly what he's doing} comments about the project you {who does not know exactly what she's doing} are trying to accomplish.
3. Take the decided-upon board home and realize it is too long for the space on your collage wall.
4. Sweetly ask husband to cut said board to the correct size. Now. No I mean right now. This. Cannot. Wait.
5. Paint background a nice cream color and let dry. Begin to stencil a damask pattern on top of the cream with a light pink. Realize the light pink is way too light and bright. Hold it up to the other items on the wall and notice that it does not go at all. Paint over the damask pattern
and let dry.
6. Stencil a damask pattern on top of the cream with a light taupe. Fall in love with it. Discover the awesome trick of using a Mr. Clean magic eraser to distress the paint instead of sand paper. Bask in this accomplishment. Paint over taupe damask with a thin coat of cream to really get a cool distressed vintage look. Feel so proud of this paint job that you consider hanging just a board with a pattern on the wall.
7. Begin the task of lettering your quote onto the board. Find the quote {in this case, I aspired to writing "Let her sleep for when she wakes, she will move mountains"}. Print out the quote in a fun font off your computer. Hand write the quote painstakingly carefully with pencil, copying the font exactly. Feel as though this will be the best DIY project ever.
8. Drive to Hobby Lobby and purchase paint pens in light pink and gray {not silver...take special note of this. Specifically do not buy the pen that says "silver", but choose the gray one instead}. Spend way too long debating in the aisle of HobLob, calling and texting your sister so many times you feel you may actually be stalking her. Drive home, ready and excited to trace those perfectly written words.
9. Follow directions on the pen {shake well, depress tip until paint starts flowing}. Trace over a word in pink. Notice that the paint is not flowing freely and instead looks like you tried to write with a dried out marker. Make that a dried out highlighter because the pink is waaayyyy brighter than the label indicated. Trace over the paint again before it has a chance to dry, making it look worse rather than better. Call sister to vent.
10. While waiting for the pink to dry, begin to trace the other words in gray. Notice that the gray paint pen is so metallic that it looks like silver. Notice that when you hold it up on the wall, it catches and reflects the light so much that you can't read what it says. Also notice that it too does not flow smoothly. Comment to husband that this paint pen is extremely metallic, only to have him comment back, "That's because you bought a silver paint pen". Momentarily explode as you shove the pen in his face and adamantly shout that you did NOT buy a silver pen, you made sure it was NOT silver, and you specifically bought a GRAY pen. Have husband laugh at your intensity while shaking his head
and walking away.
11. Before the silver gray paint even dries, flip the board over and begin, once again, to paint the background cream. Pull out that stinkin' damask pattern and begin, once again, to stencil the stinkin' pattern all over the board, this time with pink. Use the magical Mr. Clean eraser to distress up the board {at least by this time you are a pro at the background technique}. Look up other ways to letter a sign. Find a DIY post on a blog about printing words backwards on regular paper with a regular printer, taping them ink-side down onto the piece of wood, then "burning" them into the wood by dampening them with water and rubbing them with the cap of a marker. See photographic evidence of this technique on the blog and know deep in your bones that this will work and
this will be amazing.
12. Decide that the quote was way too lofty of a goal and choose instead a three-word phrase.
13. Print out the phrase backwards and follow the water "burning" directions to a T. Remove wet paper and notice that it did not do anything. Not a single thing. Laugh at this point and how ridiculous this project has become.
14. Decide to use the printer and good ol' Modge Podge. Print out the phrase in black ink and cut out each individual letter. Lay them out on the board and have a very good feeling that this will work and this will be amazing. As you lay them out on the board and hold it up to the collage wall as best you can without the letters falling off, notice that the black stands out more than anything else on the wall. Decide to paint the letters gray. Why not just print them out in gray ink? That would have been a good idea...prior to the fact that you would have to cut out each letter again. Dab some gray paint on each letter and decide you like that better than gray ink because it gives a cooler textured effect {or at least justify the added step like that}.
15. Before gluing, make sure the letters are centered on the board, begin very careful and particular in the beginning then just eyeball it by the end. Dab modge podge on the back of each letter and press it onto the board. Without realizing it, glue each word slightly lower than the previous board. Realize it when it's all said and done, and decide to call it "rustic". Be amazed at how well the modge podge bonds the paper to the painted wood and wonder why you didn't do this is in the first place. Dream of all the possibilities of wooden signs {one for every holiday, every sports team, etc.} now that you know the easiest way to do it.
16. Hang the sign, feel very satisfied with the finished product, wash your hands of the matter, and call it a day. Or week.
I did not pose Angelo like that. I swear.
Next order of business...muffins! {Did not have a good transition into that one, sorry}. I promise these do not have nearly as many steps as the sign, not to fret. I found a recipe via Pinterest for lemon berry muffins using frozen berries, which we keep in the freezer for smoothies. The original recipe called for lemon extract and butter extract in the batter, which I omitted and replaced with the zest and juice of one fresh lemon. In addition to the delicious streusel-y topping the original recipe called for a lemon glaze. I decided to forgo the powdered sugar-lemon juice glaze, especially since it had the lemon juice in the muffin, and save us some calories. Actually, I did it to justify eating these for breakfast, mid-morning snack, and late-afternoon snack. Oh yeah, and dessert. Moist, fluffy, lemony, buttery, fruity....I could go on and on. If only they lasted more than three days in our house I would go eat one now.
Adapted from: myfairbaking.blogspot.com
What you need....
For the muffins:
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
{if I had applesauce on hand I think I'd do half oil-half applesauce}
1 tsp vanilla
Zest and juice of 1 whole lemon
1 1/2 cups flour + a little extra to sprinkle on berries
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup mixed frozen berries
{I used blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries}
For the streusel topping:
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
1/4 brown sugar
4 Tbsp cold butter
What to do....
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a muffin tin with liners or spray with cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, oil, vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
3. In a separate large bowl, sift together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Slowly and gently stir in the wet ingredients until mixed.
4. Toss the berries with a tablespoon or so of flour until coated so they do not sink when baked in the batter. Gently and quickly stir them into the batter.
5. Spoon batter evenly into the muffin tin {mine made 12 muffins exactly}. Mix together the crumble ingredients and cut in the cold butter. Sprinkle generously all over the muffins and press down slightly.
6. Bake for 15-18 minutes {mine took 18} or until the tops are golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes then remove to a wire rack.
These are best eaten warm and often :)
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