From the monthly archives: April 2012
This weekend I had the honor of speaking at a conference for young ladies called The Princess Within. It was for Apostolic girls in Indiana, ages 9-19. The conference was about purity, self-esteem, identity, and femininity. We had such a great time!
Several young ladies from our church attended. The younger ones saved their allowance and bought tiaras for the occasion. They were adorable!
Conferences like this are invaluable to our girls. I think our culture doesn’t always value femininity as much as God intended. It is a wonderful, powerful thing to be a lady. I had the privilege of being raised by parents who taught me to celebrate my femininity. Dressing modestly wasn’t a burden, it was just something that ladies did. Keeping my mind and body pure wasn’t a burden, it was just something that ladies did.
I hope that I’ll be able to raise any daughters that I may have with the same philosophy.
But back to the princess conference. The girls attended sessions on dating, self-esteem, and etiquette. They learned new hairdos and ate pink cupcakes. They made friends and had a great time!
The class I taught was on dating and was called “Kissing a Frog or a Toad.” My age group was 9-13, so I had to be a little creative in my approach because 9-13 year-olds aren’t into dating. At least I hope they aren’t. I wasn’t even allowed to start dating until I was 16.
So we talked about Esther and how she spent a year preparing herself to meet the King. We talked about how this was the perfect time for the young girls to be preparing themselves for their future (which most likely included a Prince Charming). We talked about the importance of developing our relationship with God, making the right friends, keeping ourselves pure, and finding good role models.
We really didn’t talk too much about actual dating since the girls were so young. That was why my first comment of the day really surprised me. It was this young girl with a deep voice and hair covering her face. I had JUST started the class and she raised her hand. ”Yeah. Umm, I have two boyfriends right now. And one of them isn’t really in church. What should I do?”
Yowza. Slow down, 12-year-old!
I am not ready to be a parent. Ha!
~Whitney
I didn’t realize it until we had been married for a while, but I’m a sap. At least that’s what Timothy calls me. When he’s not calling me mushy.
I just love love. And I love that I’m in love. And I love to think about love. And I love to watch movies where they fall in love and I can cry with them. And Hallmark commercials. And diamond ring commercials. I tell ya, those marketing guys for diamond companies are genius. Every time I see the commercial about the little boy and the soldier dad overseas teaming up to buy the mom a necklace, I just want to cry. And I don’t even wear jewelry. But moving on.
Before I got married (or was even dating anyone for that matter), my friend loaned me the 5 Love Languages book by Gary Chapman. I thought it was pretty interesting, took the test, and found out my love language. It was all theoretical since I didn’t have a husband, but it was still interesting.
The other day I was snooping around on my Mom’s Kindle account and saw that she had that book on there. I immediately started reading it again. I went online and took the test, just to find out that I had the same results as before. So I e-mailed the test link to Timothy at work, called him 27 times, and asked him to please take it. Enter much sap name calling. Don’t be a hater, Gothra. I’m just trying to love you.
He took the test and we exchanged results. He said mine seemed to be right, but we thought his were off. No problem, I thought. I’ll read about ALL the love languages and love you in that way every.single.day.of.our.lives!
So I read about all the languages. Except I kind of just skimmed the Acts of Service one. Man, I bet he is sooo glad that Acts of Service isn’t my language. If it were, he would have to vacuum and mop to make me feel loved. You’re welcome, husband.
The past few days I have been trying to remember all the different languages and trying to show Timothy love in all five ways. And I can tell he has been doing the same. It’s good to be reminded to be intentional with your love.
But all that love reading has had an unintended result. See, there’s this person. Let’s call her Fiona. Fiona drives me crazy. She’s the thorn in my flesh. She’s very skilled at locating each of my nerves and then pouncing all upon them. I love her, in the Lord, but I don’t really like her. I’m sure we all have our Fionas.
The more I have been thinking about the idea of “showing love,” the more Fiona’s face has popped into my brain. My first thought was great. Just great. I already love her, in the Lord. I mean, do I need to go above and beyond that?
I’ll let you guess what God’s answer to that pathetic question was.
Oh, Fiona. I have no clue what her love language is. But I can grasp the concept of showing love. And not just by loving her in the Lord, as a child of God. But by showing love to her as a person. By finding all the good qualities that Fiona has and then showing love to her in a way that uplifts those good qualities.
That love language book convicted me in a way I didn’t even see coming.
So what about you? Have any of you read the book? What is your love language? Do you have your own Fiona? How do you show love? This is a place where all saps are welcome.
~Whitney
*if you don’t know your love language, or would like to learn more about them, you can go here.
This weekend Nonnie (Timothy’s grandmother) surprised us with an invitation to dinner at this delicious Afghanistan restaurant followed by a trip to the opera. I mean seriously, what a way to rock out at surprises! We adore ethnic food and the opera is one of our all-time favorite date spots.
Not too long ago we went to Winter Jam, an amazing concert full of Christian music artists for only $10 a ticket. I kind of adore Kari Jobe and want to be her best friend.
We took my brother to the concert with us. And he forced me to listen to some kind of Christian country stuff all.the.way.there. Only for you David, only for you. If my absurdly tall teenage brother can convince me to do anything, I feel sorry for myself when our children make their appearance.
I’ve been saving this healthy can of orange-glazed cinnamon rolls until I could make them when Timothy wasn’t home. So I could eat them all myself. Totally worth it.
Three words: Dairy Queen blizzards. Six words: buy one get one for $0.99. Heaven in a cup. And I’m now squishy around the waist. Totally worth it.
Our young adult group at church has been playing Risk a lot. Risk gives me heart palpitations, sweaty palms, and an uncontrollable mouth that won’t stop yelling at people for breaking alliances. So I solved that problem by bringing my knitting. It makes me look pretty cool.
The latest news in the home decorating front is that I’m having a hard time keeping out all the colors. And all the patterns. I’m really wanting to bring in some pink, but I don’t think that will fly. Timothy’s already asked me to stop adding so many different patterns in our living room. Since that time I bought material for a multi-colored paisley pillow, a floral pillow, and a pillow with Indian elephants on it.
I’m sorry, dear husband of mine. But solids just have no place in my heart.
Hopefully I made up for ignoring his plea by sewing on one of his buttons that popped off. We’ve been married over two years, and it was the first thing I had to mend for him! It was pretty monumental. It almost made me wish I could darn his socks. And then I realized how ridiculous that would be. He could darn his own socks. Whatever that even means.
And lately? I’ve fallen more and more in love with this handsome boy.
Lately has been lovely around here. What have you been up to lately?
~Whitney
Ever since I saw this amazing tutorial to turn a skirt into a dress on Welcome to the Good Life, I knew I had to try it. I kept my eye out for long pleated skirts at thrift stores for months, but to no avail. Then my Bibi decided to get rid of some her clothes and amidst all the suits, skirts, and blouses, I found my long pleated skirt soul mate. I’m pretty sure the angels sang.
This may be one of my favorite outfit DIYs! Minimal sewing but complete transformation. I used the tutorial to get a basic idea and then modified it to add sewn sleeves and a tighter neckline.
The skirt was everything it needed to be: a great color, super long, and a size 14. I like my dresses to hit right below my knee, so the length ended up perfectly. The larger size gave me plenty of material to work with. The only problem was that the skirt’s waist, which became the neckline, was way too big. It gaped everywhere and was really unflattering.
To cinch all the extra material in, I just pulled the material together in three spots and sewed little gathers in. The elastic of the waistband was really thick, so I went over the gathers several times with my sewing machine.
Sewing up the sleeves was a bit harder. In the original tutorial, she didn’t sew up the sleeves, so they were really flowy and open from the waist to the underarms. I’m not a fan of people seeing all that skin (to put it mildly, ha!), so I just messed around with the sleeves until they looked presentable. And they still aren’t perfect. See how the one on the right is a lot fuller than the one on the left? Oops.
It took me ages to get the sleeves measured correctly and then loose enough so that I could move around. And that would be why there’s no pictures of this dress in process. I was too busy scowling at those sleeves.
The twirly dress was just begging for a belt, so I grabbed a blingy sequin one that I got from my Bibi a few years ago. She gives away the best stuff.
So that would be my Easter dress for 2012. And since the skirt was given to me and I already had the thread, the whole thing cost $0. Boom. It’s crazy to think that last Easter I was busy sewing my very first dress. Sewing my very first anything, actually.
What about you all? Did any of you make (or remake) your Easter dress? Or your children’s clothes? I’d love to hear about it!
~Whitney
I just wrote and deleted an entire post that was basically a love letter to crochet. I felt so inspired and so happy and so witty and just kept typing and typing until it hit me. Just add a few cats and some Depends and I would be the oldest twenty-three-year-old I know.
But it’s true, I love crochet. I love crafts. The past few weeks I have planned and started so many crafts and projects that I have lost count. One corner of our living room has a big pile of fabric to cut apart and then sew back together to make a quilt. Our table is over run with sewing supplies and the makings of an Easter dress. There’s a huge vintage tv that I’m taking apart in our kitchen. And don’t even get me started on the disaster zone that is my craft area in our guest room.
Yet, tonight? Victory. Sweet victorious victory.
I started and finished a project in one day. And it feels good.
I need help with all the finishing of all the projects. And I need help with all the laundry. And I needed to come back to blogging. I’ve missed you. :)
~Whitney
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I'm honored that you took time to stop by my blog! My name is Whitney, and I'm a diy loving, piano playing, sewing obsessed, thrifty, non-house cleaning, crafty newlywed. I love God, my husband, and life as a wife. If you'd like to know more, just check out my About Me page. Much love!
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