My sister just politely notified that it had been 12 days since my last post.  Well...here you are:


This is an arrangement that she and I worked on together.  It originally had red tulips and the white flowers you will see still in the pictures.  We needed a new/updated arrangement for the front of the church for Spring into Summer.  There was a very pretty one using shades of purple, but it was too small for the front.  (No pictures - again I NEVER thought I would do a blog :-\)  I found a bush at Hobby Lobby that has a really nice variety of spring flowers as well as yellow tulips.  Hobby Lobby has the BEST flowers if you are using artificial!!!


We switched out the red tulips with the yellow which alone made a huge difference.  We left the small white flowers.  We took apart the small arrangement and used much of it in the new arrangement: large, full ivory roses with pink and lavender tips, dark purple gladiolas and some stems of small clusters of small purple flowers.  From the bush (HL) we used the large magenta & light pink lilies along with some dark pink freesia looking flowers :-)  I also used some brown ting ting  - just because I think that stuff is cool :-p

Here is a pic of the finished product!

Here is a pic of the flower in front of the church (this is Bro. Pete Cox preaching)

This was my first attempt at a real arrangement (even though we were just updating and changing out some color).  We agreed that it turned out well and got tons of compliments!!

 

My mom is the McGyver of crafting...you give her a box of random supplies and she can make something (s) out of it!!  My sister made nearly everything for her wedding a couple of weeks back.  I helped out with the wreaths on the front of the church :-D

I have found in the last 9 months or so that I have a decent talent at putting together arrangements.  I started out by helping Mrs P doing up the windows at church - changing out for the holidays.  I had never really done anything like that before, but at the time she didn't have help (the lady that had been helping her was sick).  I jumped right in.  :-) 

We didn't really have anything to put in for the fall so I started poking around on the internet and found Jo Pearson on the Michaels website.  I took my idea from her Fall 09 Fall Floral Arrangements video.  Jo introduced me to the Versa Tool and I fell in love :-)

I used cream colored craft pumpkins, floral foam, spanish moss and fall floral picks and bushes.  (I never anticipated having a blog, so I do not have progressive pictures)

I made the first one at the house and met Mrs P at the church and she helped me make the other 7 arrangements for the windows.  

• I cut the top of the pumpkin off, going in a circle around the top with the exacto blade on the versa tool - with the heat it took no time at all to cut all 8 pumpkins.  
• I then cut the floral foam bricks in half - using a half in each pumpkin (again using the versa tool).
• Then I added the flowers and fall fruit from the picks and bushes.  Since I was doing these on a smaller scale than the video I used wire cutters and cut sprigs from the picks and bushes.  This made it quite a bit easier to manipulate the design.

We set these pumpkins in the windows and we received lots of compliments on them!! 

We just moved our church memberships to Blairs Fork Baptist Church where we have been attending for a little over 2 years.  We both knew that we needed to listen to God about finding "our" church once we were married.  BFBC was the first one we attended together after we had A and this is where we are meant to be.  I grew up at Closer Walk Baptist Church while Mr. A attended East Flat Baptist Church.

We LOVE LOVE LOVE our little church!  We are blessed to have the most amazing friends - no one could ask for better people, men or women :-).  I help in the Pre-K Sunday school class and sing in the choir.   I get to sing beside my sister...who often rearranges the music to her liking with nice harmonies and other decoration in the chorus of some of our songs.  Her husband sang up there with us a couple of Sundays ago - I have been working on Mr. A...he isn’t biting though.

Our Pastor and his family are the greatest!!  They give their everything to us!!  He stands up for what is right according to the King James Version Bible and will preach it out loud for everyone to hear.  Mrs. P stands right there holding him up - she is one of my most cherished friends and I am so blessed to have her friendship.  Then there are the little P’s...three of them and I love them to pieces – really great kids.

Bible School is coming up at the end of July.  I helped last year in the toddler class.  It is my class this year with my sister!  I must admit that I am quite nervous.  So far I have come up with craft ideas for a few of the nights, but nothing concrete so far…gotta get a move on :-p     

Well, this is my first true post to a blog.  I'm new to this, only having read my sister's blog to stay up to date with the wedding, the house and her picture taking.  So, to start I will tell a little about ourselves:


Mr A and I met while working at Kmart in high school.  We dated throughout my last year of high school, all through college too.  While there were some rough patches, we have been together for most of 13 years and will have been married 4 years in July :-D.  We have been blessed with one son, A, who is 3 1/2.  We have been trying to conceive for 18 months.  While we have not sought fertility help yet, we are considering that option in the coming months.  


I am a graduate of Appalachian State University with a degree in accounting. I have worked for an accounting firm, a mental health provider, a NASCAR race team and now an eye care provider.  


Mr A is a graduate of Caldwell Community College and a retail store manager.  He has done retail for most of his working life :-).  I think he likes it, most of the time.  Like anyone else there are those days when you wonder.  

OK - that is enough for the first post!!