Pink Paper Peppermints Sweet ♥ Crafty ♥ Goodness

it's the most wonderful time of the year

I'm a little late for the Christmas Tour, but this is what Christmas is looking like around here (mouse over the photos for a description)...

   

 

 

 

 

I'm baking Italian Cream Cake and Chocolate Cream Pie and making macaroni salad and wrapping presents like crazy (even though I told myself I wouldn't wait 'til the last minute this year) and listening to Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra sing Christmas carols and having a very merry Christmas...how about you?

Happy Christmas Eve eve...

His Grace and Peace,

♥ Melissa~

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"And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
-Luke 2:9-12

ten on tuesday

ten random thoughts on tuesday (on thursday)

*I'm thinking maybe I should change the name to just "time for ten" or something, huh?*

one
Remember this post? and this one?  According to sitemeter I had visitors from Fannie Mae and Target Corporation on those two days.  Weird, huh?

two
I think it is time to give up the ghost on these little turkey candlestick holders, what do you think?

I love them so much because they were some of the first holiday decorations I ever bought when I was first married.  I have such a warm feeling and fond memories when I look at them.

Well, I did until they became headless and tail-less.

I think the head may be rolling around in the thanksgiving box somewhere. 

Maybe I'll glue it back on and give them one more year.

three
I was right about the candy problem.  Right now there are three different bags of candy in the kitchen. 

The orange slices are calling my name.

four
Sometimes when I pray I think I must sound like a five year old little girl to the Lord.  I can just manage to get out, "oh please, oh please, oh pleeeeeasseee Lord."  

I don't think He minds though.  He did say we're supposed to come as little children.

five
I'm not telling you what the above prayer was in reference to.

six
I've been working on a really fun project this week.  I'm a member of the Christian Paper Artists group and every couple of years, 52 of us get together and design a deck of cards around a scriptural theme.

Last time the theme was "proverbs".  Here's my card from that deck:

The edges are square when we send them in, but the card company prints them on rounded cards. 

The deck came out so, so pretty last time.  52 little works of art.

seven
This year the theme was love.  I chose Romans 8:39 as my scripture.  One of my favorites:

I printed the scripture on the back of a pink ticket. I have to say I was pretty excited when it worked without jamming up my printer...heh-heh.

eight
We also vote on our favorites for the back of the card.  I entered this design:

It's a compilation of all the love scriptures that everyone chose.  Just reading those all in a row will bless your socks off!

nine
If you're interested in purchasing a deck of these cards let me know and I will get you in touch with our group leader.  She's taking orders right now.  I gave some out for Christmas last time and they were a big hit.

ten
Finally here is a fun freebie for crafty types and homeschoolers! 



DJ Inkers is giving away a "Vote 2008" set of clip art and borders!  One of the sheets would make a great notebooking page. 

Here's the link:

DJ Inkers Freebie

Hope you're all having a blessed week.

Grace and Peace,

♥ Melissa~
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"And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.

No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord."
-Romans 8:38-39

feeling fallish

Today I felt very fallish (like lemurish, but more pumpkin spicy, heh-heh)  I got all the fall decorations out and started planning pumpkin spice bread and pumpkin cranberry muffins and other wonderful fall baking moments.

 

I think what started it all was this little glass turkey I found at Jo-ann this weekend.

Isn't it sweet?  My grandmother had one like it, (or maybe it was my great-grandmother, sort of  hard to remember now) and I just felt all mushy when I saw it. 

(Plus it was 60% off and I had a coupon so they practically gave it to me.

No. Really. They said, "Please, take this turkey and here's five dollars too"...

well, you know what I mean.)

The coupon I had was a teacher discount coupon.  If you're a homeschooler did you know that you can sign up for the teacher discount program at Jo-ann?

I don't  know about you, but I buy a ton of supplies there for school projects and crafty educational things.

There are all kinds of specials for teachers and you get a card for 15% off *all* your purchases!  You need a homeschooler I.D. card (like from your support group) to sign up in the store.

Or you can get an access code from PEAH (Parents Educating at Home) here if you want to sign up online. Neat, huh?

While I'm on the subject, another great place for homeschooler bargains is the Homeschool Buyers Co-op.

We've been able to get lots of great deals on educational supplies through the group buys they set up.  Plus they have a field trip database and free printable student/teacher I.D. cards for members. And it's free to join!

So back to my fall feeling.  I thought I'd share one of my family's favorite fall recipes and a little flickr inspiration too.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients:

3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil (can be replaced with applesauce)
2 eggs
1 15 oz can of of pumpkin (not pie mix)
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup of chocolate chips plus a tablespoon of additional flour.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Prepare muffin pan with grease and flour or use paper tin liners. (look at these cute ones! Or maybe you are the eco-friendly type!)
3. Mix sugar, oil and eggs.  Add pumpkin and buttermilk.
4. In a separate bowl mix together the baking powder, baking soda, flour, spices and salt.
5. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
6. Add tablespoon of flour to chocolate chips and stir (the flour keeps the chocolate chips from sinking to the bottom of your muffins.) Add chips to batter.
7. Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full with batter.
8. Bake in pre-heated oven for 15 to 25 minutes, depending on your oven.

And here is more fall decorating inspiration for you.  My favorites from flickr:

1. Fall Centrepieces, 2. Candle Light Glow, 3. Pumpkin Centrepiece, 4. Centerpiece, 5. Pumpkin Centerpiece, 6. more pumpkins!, 7. fresh pumpkin and white chocolate cupcakes, 8. pumpkin pie pumpkins, 9. Pumpkin-Cranberry Muffins, 10. A Sea of Pumpkins, 11. Pumpkin Pecan Cupcakes, 12. Scarecrows guard pumpkins at Matices Riversbank Farm Blenheim, 13. Thanksgiving Table, 14. Thanksgiving Table Detail, 15. thanksgiving decorations, 16. Thanksgiving Decorations, 17. Pumpkin family, 18. DSC07468, 19. autumn decor, 20. Cute pumpkins in Mishawaka, 21. Fall Cookies, 22. Fall Decorating, 23. Autumn's Bounty, 24. Fall Decorating

So have you started decorating for fall yet?  What are some of your favorite recipes or traditions?  I'd love to hear about them!

Grace and Peace,

♥ Melissa~

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"...the Word of God makes them happy, and they think about it day and night. They are like trees growing beside a stream, trees that produce fruit in season and always have leaves. Those people succeed in everything they do."
-Psalm 1:2-4

ten on tuesday - let's talk crafty

ten cRaFtY thoughts on tuesday

(wednesday morning - but it's still tuesday somewhere isn't it?)

one

Well, first of all I'm pretty excited to have been featured as an "Honorary Cr8tv Diva" at Cr8 Everyday Crafts! 

The interview was actually done a while ago and went live while we were on vacation so I haven't had a chance to mention it until now!

If you haven't joined Cr8 Everyday Crafts yet you should!  It is one fun and crafty place to hang out.  There are tons of how-to videos and lots of crafty eye candy plus so many other crafty "peeps" to chat with!

Visit Cr8 Everyday Crafts

You can read my interview and tell me how dorky I sound here.

two

Another crafty thing that happened while we were on vacation was that I discovered the podcast CraftSanity by Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood. 

I downloaded *every* episode before we left and listened to hours and hours of them on the long drive to Wisconsin and back.

It is so much fun to listen to my favorite crafty bloggers talk about how they got crafty and what they are up to now.  Crafters and Artists like Emily Martin, Amy Carrol, Amanda Blake Soule, Claudine Hellmuth and more!

And I just *love* Jennifer.  She always asks the best questions - some that I never would've thought of and always the exact questions I was thinking at the moment! 

If you haven't listened to Craftsanity yet then head over there now and start downloading!

And Jennifer if you're reading this, thanks for helping me keep *my* sanity for 36 hours in the car with three boys!

three

Wordle is my new favorite online/crafty thing to play with. 

oh. my. goodness. 

If you are a visual person and like playing with words then you are going to *love* Wordle.

In fact I feel bad telling you about it because you probably won't get anything else done for the rest of the time you're online now!  (but hey finish reading my blog first, k? heh-heh)

You can play with words a few different ways.  One is to just plug your blog address in (what I did above) and you'll see what you talk about most.  The larger the words the more those words appear in your blog.

I apparently say "just" and "really" way too much and O-man was mildly disturbed that "paper" was the same size as "God". 

I do like paper.

I was puzzled by the words "butter" and "toast" showing up as large as they did.  Do I talk about toast and butter a lot?? 

I do like butter.

You can also just put whatever words you want in to create a neat art piece.  I can't wait to play with this. I'm going to try all of our family's names.

You can experiment with different colors and backgrounds and changing the maximum word count changes the way it looks as well.

four

Here are some others I created (click on them to see them larger):

I put all the names of Jesus in for this one:

Crafty Words:

Cooking words:

As you can see Wordle can be dangerous but oh so fun! 

If you make one, leave me a comment with the link so I can see it!  I know there are a thousand more creative things that could be done with this cool tool!

five

One of the highlights of the trip for me was when I walked into the library of a tiny town in Wisconsin and saw a sign on a table of books that said, "Free to a good home".

I glanced at it casually and didn't really see anything that caught my eye at first and then suddenly there it was, a giant collection of crafty magazines from the seventies!

six
It was huge and covered and dust and just calling my name.  I was so excited.  You should see all the wonderful photos in these magazines.

And the kitschy craftiness! It's heaven!

Actually you will be seeing them, because I'm going to be posting them in the weeks to come, they are just too good not to share.

seven

Again I have to apologize to you (and possibly your neglected children-heh-heh) in advance for the following links.

I found two great blogs that are nothing but craft tutorials!  Can you imagine? 

Well you don't have to!  Just click on over!

Craft Tutorials

30 Handmade Days

eight

Love this one!  It's a search engine just for crafty blogs!

nine

A sneak peek of something I'm working on:

(any guess as to what it is?)

A little sign I made (inspired by a greeting card) to hang on the fridge and remind me of my blessings.

 

Remember those ad magnets?  I just glued one to the back of this.  I think it would help if you mounted your sign on chipboard first for stability.

The scripture is Psalm 124:7 and says,

"My soul escaped like a bird, out of the snare of the fowler."

We used to sing a song with those words in Bible school that I just adored.

I love how poetic the Bible is...an escaped soul is such a beautiful picture.  I want to do more art with that...

ten

It's very hard to blog about crafty things where you have to insert links because

when you go to get the links

you get very distracted

by the new crafty things.

very.

distracted.

I actually started this blog post yesterday.

God's Grace & Peace,

♥ Melissa~
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"She loves to work with her hands..."
-Proverbs 31:13 (NIRV)

Punch Flower Ball Garland | 31 Crafty Flowers in 31 Days - Day 22

Day Twenty-Two only 9 more flowers before we're through!

Today's flower tutorial for the 31 Crafty Flowers in 31 Days is a pretty punched flower garland.

 

 Here's what you need to get started:

-Flower Punch (or die cut or trace or draw your own)
-Glue Dots (or other dry adhesive)
-Patterned or plain scrapbook paper  (this would also be cute with recycled paper like yesterday's flower)
-Baker's Twine or other ribbon or string

Step One

Punch flowers in your desired colors. 

You'll need six flowers for each flower ball. 

You'll need about three or four flower balls per foot of garland.

Step Two

 
I've drawn a little face & body on this flower to make the instructions easier to understand. 

You can do the same for the first flower you create to help you get the hang of it, but after that, it probably won't be necessary.

Step Three

Join five flowers together at the "arms" using glue dots or other dry adhesive.

It should look something like this:

Step Four

 

Now put adhesive on all five petals of another flower and join each petal to one of the "faces" on your flowers. 

Then attach the last two "arms".

It should look something like this now:

Step Five

 

Now flip the flower upside down and  you'll see five little pairs of "legs". 

Adhere each "leg" to the one next to it as above.

Your finished flower should look something like this:

 

Step Six

 

Once you've finished all your flowers, string them on bakery twine or ribbon to create the garland.

That's it, now string your garland somewhere summery-ish and enjoy!

You could do this with red,white & blue flowers for a fourth of July barbecue or in bright primary colors for a birthday party too!

Have Fun!

Grace & Peace,

♥ Melissa~
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"As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field;"
-Psalm 103:15

i {heart} ironing -seriously, i do

Today is the continuing story of my Bible Cover.

From yesterday:

Guess what I'm working on?  My very own Bible Cover!  I found the directions to make my own pattern and let me tell you that was *the* hardest part so far. 

There was much "wailing and gnashing of teeth" if you know what I mean.  I typically don't enjoy measuring and I have learned that sewing is *all about measuring*. 

There are a lot of fractions. (1/4" seam anyone?)

There is measuring

There is actual math.

But I *still* love it!

Look how it looks so far!

Today:

I changed the pattern up a little because I wanted to use lots of little patches of my fabric (see I am actually using it and reading my own posts Amy...heh-heh)

After I sewed the patches together I knew I needed to do something with the seams, (thanks to my mama and my sweet sister-in-law who are coaching me) but I wasn't sure if I was supposed to press them flat open or to one side.

I put an emergency "seam pressing" call into my mom, but she wasn't home so I went online to try and figure it out.

Did you know there is actually *controversy* in the quilting world over which way to press a seam?

 

Well anyway I eventually decided to press the seam out flat, (which mom later confirmed) but you know, I had no idea how to do that (remember the "softie cellulite" problem?) 

To give you an idea about how much ironing I do....when I went to get the ironing board out my *FIVE* year old son said, "What's that mama?"

oh the shame.

So back to doing research and guess what I found?  A seam-pressing tutorial!  Pretty neat.  So I followed her directions exactly and I have to say that my seams are quite beautiful.  Wanna see?

I don't mean to brag, but can you believe how flat they are??  My seam pressing teacher, Mrs. Debbie,  said the seam should be so flat it becomes part of the fabric and guess what hubby said when I showed him?

"They're so flat they look like the same piece of fabric."

I was abnormally pleased with this.

I discovered two things when I was ironing those seams.

One is I really need a new ironing board cover if I'm going to keep sewing, because there is *a lot* of ironing involved and I have to look at that board for a looooonnnng time and the one I have is ug-a-leee.

Maybe I should sew some scripture patches on it so I can be hiding the word in my heart while I'm ironing?

The second thing I learned is that ironing is kind of relaxing.  Isn't that crazy? 

I guess part of it has to do with the fact that you're staring lovingly at some beautiful fabric and thinking about the neat project that you're going to make, but also there's just something about the repetitiveness of  it that is soothing.

It reminds me of a quote that my mom sent me that I have just fallen in love with:

"It is a token of healthy and gentle characteristics when women of high thoughts and accomplishments love to sew; especially as they are never more at home with their own hearts than while so occupied."
-Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hope you're having a great day!

God's peace and sweet grace to you,

♥ Melissa~
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"She's skilled in the crafts of home and hearth, diligent in homemaking."
-Proverbs 31:19 (the message)

ten on tuesday - the fabric edition

ten random thoughts on tuesday (on wednesday night)

one

Easter was lovely and long.   We had quite a fun (which translates to exhausting for mama & daddy) three-day extravaganza.  I won't bore you with tons of photos, but I do have to show you this one:

I found these little plushie peeps and I cannot stop taking photos of them.  They are so cute!  I always buy peeps for the kids Easter baskets because...well..it's tradition...but you know...they taste ...um...  disgusting! 

And we almost always throw them out *unopened*.  *ugh*  I really don't like that, so when I found these little stuffed peeps this year I was so excited!  These will be the new tradition. Yay.

two

After the egg coloring was finished hubby was cleaning up for me (yes, that's right, I have *the* best husband in the world - see number 4 for more proof), and he asked,

"So can I throw this egg dye out?" 

I don't know why, but the words "can I throw this out?" just trigger something in me and my natural reaction is to say,

"No way I can make something with that!"

I got that *I can make something* gleam in my eye and Oman looked just slightly annoyed so I knew I better jump up and make something immediately to prove that I wasn't being the ultimate pack rat. 

The first thing I saw on my desk as I went into the kitchen was a little stack of manila tags...so into the dye they went!  And you can't believe how cute they turned out!

I also experimented with the little white wax crayon that came with the kit for the eggs and that looked even cuter!  See my little birdie?  (can you tell that Molly Chicken is influencing me?)

So now I have quite the collection of tags to use for projects.  I'm thinking of adding some stitching to them too.

If you like these and want to try it you should run to the grocery store right now and see if they have the egg dye kits on clearance.  I usually pick these up the week after Easter for less than 50 cents!

And if you *really* like them, but have no desire to make them yourself then check my etsy shop in a couple days because I'll have some listed there. :)

three

Things you hear frequently in a house of boys:
"Ha-ha...you will never defeat me!"
"Why can't I just wear *this*?"
"What? I don't smell anything."

Things you don't hear:

"Would you braid my hair?"
"I think we need more pink around here"
"Wanna play barbies with me?"

four

My husband can fix anything.  Really, he is a genius.  He has fixed everything that's ever broken in our house or figured out a way to replace it with almost no money. 

Last night the dryer made the most awful sound and it wouldn't stop.  This morning he opens it up, does some tool-y things to it and now it works better than before!  Really, it had gotten so loud and now you can barely hear it.  I {heart} my handy hubby.

(and also, tonight when I told him supper was ready he said "yay!" as if he was about to go on vacation...and that is even better than handiness to me.)

five

Let's talk about the quilt show some more shall we?  I didn't get to finish showing you everything anyway.

There was so, so much beautiful fabric.

Did I mention the fabric was beautiful??

Lollipops of bias tape.  yum!

Cutest pillow case kits *ever*.

six

Mom bought me this one for LittleO's room.  I'm going to be re-doing it this summer and I just fell in *love* with this!  It's so sweet and retro and I just love all the little sayings about the Lord.  I want to do a mural with those little birds and sun!  Can't wait.

seven

My mom bought me the pattern for this one too!!  I'm so excited, my first quilt!  Isn't it gorgeous?

It's called French Roses by Heather French.   I just love the way the flowers are all rustic looking and fuzzy around the edges.

I like the colors they've used here, but the fabric I want to use is the Ginger Blossom collection by Sandi Henderson. 

I am *so* in love with that fabric.  Gotta sell some stuff on etsy to raise the money to buy me a whole lot of Ginger Blossom! 

And then you will get to see the journey of a first time quilter which may or may not be pretty.  I don't know...*LOL*...

And here is all the beautiful fabric she bought me:

Notice a color trend at all?

I just love the birdy paint by number one...

eight

Can you guess what these are?

They are these:

Gorgeous quilted hearts cut from all sorts & styles of vintage quilts.  They are so beautiful. 

I'm making all kinds of wonderful things with them that hopefully will end up in my shop if I can manage to let them go!

Each one is so sweet and unique.  I just love them. I may put a few of them all on their own in the shop so you can play too!

nine

Here are some of  my first sew-y things.  I am trying not to be too pefectionistic about it, but I do see a lot of flaws when I look at these.  I still love them though and I'm falling more and more in love with fabric everyday!

The first one is this little bunny.  I made him from an old bandana because I wanted to practice on something besides my lovely fabric.

I found him at Crafty Carnival.  She has a wonderful tutorial for him and a little pillow to put him in as well!  You have to go see, they are so cute.

He didn't come out looking like the pillow type to me though.  He kinda looks like he has an attitude...you know?  Like he's saying..."you want somma this?" 

This is my angel baby:

She is from a pattern my mom gave me called "Small Snippets" from Mary's Patterns.  I have to say even with her imperfections I am really crazy about her.  I have never made anything like her before and I just can't stop picking her up and looking at her. It's so amazing to take little bits of thread and fabric and create a beautiful little thing.

She is *very* tiny.  I should have put a quarter in the pic with her to show you.  It would have taken
up her whole dress, that's how tiny she is. 

And I just love her.  Did I mention that?

I want to make lots more of these little snippets.  Oh if only there were 48 hours in day. (24 of them occurring after children went to sleep...wouldn't that be fabulous??  Oh...but then I would miss the children....a little...)

ten

Look what my library just got in!!!

I am so excited!!!

I must go fall asleep reading these now and dream sweet, fabric-y dreams...

Hope you're all having a fantastic week!

Grace and Peace,

♥ M~

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"She shops around for the best yarns and cottons, and enjoys knitting and sewing."
-Proverbs 31:13 (the message)

a celebration of His lavish gift-giving

What a lovely, happy Easter we had.  And we are still having...on our way to grandma's today.  Here's a few snaps 'til tomorrow....Hope yours was lovely and happy too...

More tomorrow....

♥ M~
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"How blessed is God! And what a blessing He is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in Him.

Long before He laid down earth's foundations, He had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love.

Long, long ago He decided to adopt us into His family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure He took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of His lavish gift-giving by the hand of His beloved Son."
-Ephesians 1:3 (the message)

quilty mcquilterkin

Remember a couple of week's ago, the ten on tuesday about the quilt tablecloth?  Well I tried it and it looks *fantastic* (um...if I do say so myself..heh-heh).

Not only that, but I  found a remnant of clear vinyl at the craft store for a dollar and I didn't know what I would do with it, but thought it was cool so I bought it. 

Well, after putting the quilt on the table I realized it would be pretty labor intensive to wash it after every meal...(um...yeah....ya think?)...so I was trying to figure out what to do when I remembered that vinyl. 

It was all rolled up so I unrolled it and it was the *perfect* size for the table!  I didn't even have to trim it!  Was God takin' care of me or what?

So then looking at the layer of vinyl and pretty pink quilt I started to think how cool it would be to put something between the layers...and came up with this:

These are some old family photos.  The one in the center is my grandfather at a barbecue restaurant he owned in downtown Dallas in the fifties.  Cool, huh?  I used the originals to try the idea out, but I think I'm going to take them out and put photocopies of them in instead.

This is my dad (the tall one) and uncle and aunt on Easter morning circa 1950-something.  So cute.

Next I put together a centerpiece for Easter.  I have been working on little bits & pieces of this for awhile.  I got the idea at Christmas actually.  We have a "candy cane tree" that I bought at the "after-Christmas" sales at Target  a couple of years ago (love those sales).  This is what it looks like with candy canes on it:

So I was thinking for other holidays I could just cover up the star and hang little paper pretties on the rings instead of candy canes.  I wanted to do this for Valentines day, but ran out of time, so the Easter version is my first attempt.

It was fun to work on and I really like how it turned out.

How it looks all together:

And a view with the kitchen banner (don't you just love how I manage to work that spring banner into every post? *LOL*)

So lots of Easter-y things to get ready for this weekend.  I won't be around until Tuesday, but I've scheduled some of my favorite Easter posts for the weekend.

Hope you all have a blessed and wonderful holiday with your loved ones.

♥ M~

P.S.  I made a little easter egg coloring sheet for my LittleO...thought you might like to have a copy.  Just click here to download.
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"Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call!

What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in His life-saving resurrection.

We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word.

When Jesus died, He took sin down with Him, but alive He brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word.

You are dead to sin and alive to God.

That's what Jesus did."

-Romans 6:6 (the message)