Kindred Spirits and the Chest Hair Onsie

One of my favorite quotes of all time is by C.S. Lewis:
Friendship is born in that moment when one person says to another, "What? You too?! I thought I was the only one!"  
Anne of Green Gables would call a friend like that a "Bosom Friend" or a kindred spirit.

I am truly blessed to have met some amazing kindred spirits along my crazy journey.

People you meet and within five minutes you instantly know that you could seriously have some fun with this person.

One of my favorite kindred spirit friends is one I have never even lived in the same town with. In fact, it wasn't until I moved to Texas that we even lived in the same state. Though... we live on opposite ends of Texas which still doesn't help our predicament of always wanting to be together.

I met Dannette on a Ski trip in 2008. My first ski trip and first ever experience with snow. Epic.

We had gone with a group including their parents and I'd grown up with her hubby in my church back home. (I don't remember him but he has super vivid and embarrassing memories of me... awesome.)


And we hit it off amazingly. We were pretty convinced God made us to be friends with one another and we just needed to work on living in the same town....

While we are always working on that, yet obviously have not been successful, we made every effort to get ourselves in one place together over the years. We went on mission trips, church conferences and visited each other's homes. 


This was easier to do since our husbands are kindred spirits too. 



I affectionately call Dannette my “Older Woman” as she is older (though you can barely tell) and possesses massive wisdom I could only hope to attain one day.

I've been Blessed by her example of how much she adores and supports
her hubby Allen. We've delighted in sharing stories and ideas on how to keep knocking our hubby's socks off.

And throughout these years of friendship we've been praying over and over (as along with a slew of people who all know Allen and Dannette) that God would bless them with a little bambino.

After years of trying, medical tests, assessments, surgeries, ect... we had watched with 
love and respect as each time though they may have gotten discouraged it did not dissuade them from the Truth that they knew God had a promise of children in store for them. 


And as always... God is Faithful to deliver His promises.

In 2012 Allen and Dannette went forward with Snowflake Adoption and...
Baby Dicharry was on his way!

It wasn't an easy journey and it wasn't always fun but the Lord was always with them. When they cried He comforted them. When they wanted to give up, He sustained them. He opened their minds to an understanding of Him that I can probably only hope to know as I grow older.

As we eagerly await July and this little dude's arrival it was only my deepest honor and pleasure to make stuff for their little man, Benjamin:


This wooden sign was designed for Little Man's nursery.


Yet, my favorite gift... is the Chest Hair Onesie.

Now, I love Allen Dicharry.
He is my brother, he takes excellent care of my Best friend and he is an AMAZING friend to my Husband but the man...

He's got some Chest Hair.
And only like in one spot... ya know right up top and it creeps out of your shirt.

Yea...

I totally over the years have tortured him about it and in jest I told his wife that we'd glue some hair to their bambino whenever he came out so he'd look like dear old dad.

This below idea... was a smarter alternative to that:




Now Benjamin really can be just like Dad...

So excited for my dear sweet friends and cannot wait to meet little Benjamin!


God Bless and Much Love,


 Jessica






Upholstering Adventure!


It’s Summer!



Being a stay at home mom with non-school age kids... summer really doesn't do much for us except that now it's unbearably hot all the time. Awesome...

Yet, summer time now has some perks as our teacher friends are free to come over and play!

My gamer friend Leslie stopped by today to hang out and she didn't have really anything in mind to do, she just wanted to talk and catch up. <3

She's so awesome.

So I decided to teach her how to upholster.

Me: "Wanna learn how to upholster?"
Leslie: "Uh... I'm sure I'll need to know that."

She is such a trooper!

Bryan and I have been working on these Ikea windowseats that have been all over Pinterest and were now on our final step... assembling the seat cushions.

We had purchased our Ikea Expedit Bookcases long ago and put them together and much to my awesome yet not really a surprise anymore... they didn't fit in the space I wanted them in. BUT awesome hubby that he is fixed them perfectly.




I used the Ikea bins that are made for the Expedit. They look amazing and are a 
redonkulous amount of storage! I simply glued some round wooden labels I painted with chalkboard paint to them and voila! Toy storage. 


So, Bryan and I had purchased some thick particle board and cut out all the foam (50% off sale from Jo'Ann's!) so all that was needed was the fabric... which I didn't have. I didn't have a clue what to use. It was a huge decision... I mean the fabric would have to tie in with all the colors on the wall (which there aren't any) and any theme I choose (which I don't have) and for decorations... (again don't have) yea I had a mini meltdown over this fabric... so I just pretended like I didn't need to finish this project.

While the kids got use to the foam and board lying in our dinning room... Bryan didn't.

Finally on a random trip to Hobby Lobby to buy a fancy paintbrush... I spotted it!!
It was perfect. It would match anything, it was a cute boy them... yea it worked perfect so I snatched it up and Bryan and I cut/ironed it yet ran out of time to actually Upholster it to the waiting boards and foam.




Than came Leslie. :)


Shoot... we made upholstering look easy. We were almost pro's!


Sure.... we accidentally did one backwards and upside down BUT it was a special cut out that Bryan had lovingly cut out to go around the window. Super easy mistake!


After that... it all came out perfect.





Now the boys have a window seat and toy storage and I have another project I can scratch off my list.

Much love and many thanks Leslie! You rock and you now know how to Upholster.





God Bless and Much Love,


 Jessica

A little Office/Craft Room Organization

Bryan and I have grand dreams for our office space.
Completely different yet equally Grand dreams all the same.

He envisions an office he can quietly retreat to in order to keep being the awesome man he is. A space he can work uninterrupted to bring home the bacon and also have a place to read his Bible and think awesome thoughts about me. A manly space with beautiful photos of trumpets and ships and bridges... ya know... things he finds interesting and unique.

I imagine it and have made huge strides (much to Bryan's sadness) to make it a crafter heaven
 with everything perfectly in it's place and at the ready at all times. A place full of bright colors, glue guns, sewing machines and Baker's Twine. Lots... and lots of Baker's Twine.

For the sake of my happiness Bryan has relented his grand dream. Probably because I was sort of hostile (look, at the time I just happened to be carrying a hammer working on something, it had nothing to do with what he was saying) when he suggested his design preferences. But... I do adore the man, I'm sure I'll sneak in some bridge or trumpet photos in there.

It will probably look great next to my Baker's Twine. ;)

Now I always have grand dreams of showing you rooms fully completed.

Let's be honest... I don't have a room fully completed and I don't think I ever will. So than my blog would be even more boring than it is...

So, as I finish pieces I might as well show you! And than one day... in the very far future... we can have another chat about a completed room but until then... here are the MILLION AND ONE steps it takes to actually make one.

Pinterest is so handy. I've been looking up ways to store all the crap... I mean awesomeness I keep collecting to use on future projects that have yet to be imagined. (You just never know what you will need so I keep everything... and that has now rubbed off on Bryan so at any moment we pretty much have a well stocked arsonal of unusual yet maybe useful items around the house. Score.)

Well, my minor OCD kind of kicks in when it comes to my crafting stuff. It isn't fun to craft if you have to pull out seven boxes to get one thing that you need.

So, we have started some solutions!!


I stalk cragistlist and when this beauty came up we jumped on it. It is so nice to have a place to actually sit my Cricut on. Before I had to pull it out of the box, grab all the supplies than put it back in the box with all the pieces... It was exhausting. Now I can cut something out in no time flat. 

I love my vintage flashlight I got off Etsy too. It serves no purpose except looking awesome. Sometimes you just need those kind of items...



I love these two crates and finally just nailed them to the wall. One houses my Baker's Twine. I wrap everything with that and decorate a lot of my custom designs with it as well. 

The other has this adorable frame one of my bestie's Kristen gave me before I moved. It says, "Given enough thread I could rule the world..." Love her. 

The two white boxes are from the all awesome Ikea and house all my fancy and solid cardstock. I have a lot of cardstock. 


Here is a better shot of the cabinet. Ignore underneath. I'm going to eventually get some locker baskets to put under there but a million other things to do first... The basket next to it with all the papers sticking out are actually my old Theatre layouts I use to do in college as well as some specialty rolled paper. 



These beauties are from Ikea. I think you are supposed to use them for kitchen organization?
I have drawers for that but man did I need a place to put sissors, hole punches, nails and tape! This is so helpful I can't even tell you. Instead of having to fish through drawers it is right at my fingertips. 

Hubby had a fun time hanging them but they came out stunning.


We have two giant desks in our office. This one is mine and my husband has a stunning old executive desk that use to belong to my Great Grandfather. 

This beast of a desk before you though I actually got for free off a movie set back in Louisiana. It's redonkulously heavy. But it works! I converted one half of it into nothing but sewing things.

I adore to sew. I'm not good at it but it's super gratifying. 

I happen to have a killer sewing machine. My husband bought it for me for my birthday last year and it was love at first stitch. The serger my mom owned and gave it to me when she was cleaning out her closets. Currently... the serger is untamed frontier in our house but one day I will fire that puppy up and see how it goes. I need to desperately make some covers for them. 

Hopefully that will be a project I can show you later.


I bought this small filing cabinet at Good Will for $6. I spraypainted it yellow and used hanging folders to store all of my fabric by color and pattern. I use to have them in random baskets all over so this is so nice!


Now this piece of awesomeness is an antique sewing box.

I've been wanting one for two years and have been stalking Ebay and Etsy like a crazy person for them. I just could never bring myself to spend over $70 for one! 

One day my bestie Dannette and I were in a flea market and this little beauty was just sitting there... calling my name! I acted all nonchalant about it and offered like $8 for it. I acted so great Dannette thought I didn't even want to the thing. Oh no... I wanted it and I scored it for $8!!!!

It was a little worse for wear, needed some screws and a new bottom but Bryan and I whiped it into shape in a day and now I have some serious thread storage. 



Well, that was a little sneak peek.

Life can't always be fully organized... especially mine... but having some small pieces here and there really bring a smile to my face.


God Bless and Much Love,


 Jessica