who of you out there loves color?

oOOoooo, ooOOoo, me! me! pick me! I love color!

and I love this blog: Design Seeds. Where the whole focus is on color pallets from photographs. These are just a glimmer of the shining star that is her color blog. Inspirational. Beautiful. I want to decorate every room with each of her color pallet suggestions. Hhmmm...not a bad idea...

sunday afternoon crafts {fabric and gold bracelet}

So Sunday afternoon craft post has turned into Monday evening craft this week... never-the-less, here is a little do-it-yourself-completely-adorable-bracelet. Please proceed with enthusiasm.
Happy Monday!

The Civil Wars - 20 Years

Been listening to this entire album but am LOVING this song lately. It is eerily beautiful. Play on repeat? yes, yes I am.

I.O.U.S.

Read this on John Piper's blog today:

I.O.U.S is one prayer that helps us to humble ourselves before reading God's Word. You might consider printing it out and sticking it in your Bible.

Piper explains:

Ask God to Incline our hearts to him, not to money or fame or power (Psalm 119:36),

and to Open our eyes to see wonderful things in his Word (Psalm 119:18),

and to Unite our hearts in the fear of God rather than let them be fragmented over a dozen concerns (Psalm 86:11),

and to Satisfy us with his steadfast love (Psalm 90:14).

welcome home warm weather. you've been away far too long.

It reached the high 70's in the city today. That is in degrees everyone!
Can't wait for your full arrival to the city Spring. Please come soon. Pretty please.

wonderful weekend. a reflection of sorts.

It is Monday. Sooo naturally, I was reflecting on how much I enjoyed this past weekend and reflecting on how I loved the time I was able to spend chatting, running, dining, dancing, and communing with some of my best friends who came in town for their spring break, and it hit how much fun many of my weekends in Indy have been (not just this past one. a post on this past weekend soon to come... along with my post on fasting... I have not forgotten friends.)

The first weekend in March brought with it a weekend of reunions- of family and some of my best friends! First weekend in March weekend recap:

Friday & Saturday: 10K was calling our name - Emily, Mary K. and Katie visited and we ran the 10K together. We ran through rain, wind, and many many Hoosiers. Quite an accomplishment indeed. And quite a reunion. Loved it.
Saturday night through Monday: My brother came to visit my humble abode. We saw sights. Bought books. Drank lots and lots of coffee. So great. He loved Indy, I could tell.


Sunday afternoon: Welcome to Indy construction Anne. One of my dear friends Anne, was visiting from the great state of AZ. We caught up with other friends and dined at Patachou (one of the fave places) in downtown and walked a bit. So refreshing to see her.

Sunday night:My brother was a just a little taste of family before my entire immediate family came to visit Sunday night. But that visit requires a whole separate post. Soon to come friends, soon to come.

Pretty packed weekend. But I loved it. I love weekends.

sunday afternoon crafts {bow bookmarks}

Reading is one of my favorite Sunday afternoon activities so these adorable little bookmarks are easy to make and helpful for keeping your page straight if you happen to take a lil' Sunday nap while enjoying some Sunday afternoon reads. (p.s. love that the constitution is included in the bottom picture! I am such a nerd.)

Have a wonderful Sunday afternoon!!

lenton season

Today is Ash Wednesday, which traditionally marks the church calendar as the start of the church season of Lent. Now, I know that the nondenominational church often times does not recognize the church seasons- its for the more traditional congregations. Therefore, I thought it was a very Catholic tradition to celebrate, with many giving something up/fasting from something of their choosing for the entire season, starting with Ash Wednesday and ending at Easter.

With many coworkers who are Catholic discussing what they are giving up for Lent, having these conversations about what they are 'not going to do' rubbed me the wrong way and blurred the true picture of why we give something up for Lent. The reasonings behind the self induced sacrifice of many were completely focused on the 'do not do this or eat this' part of the giving something up for Lent. This misses gains we can partake in with the spiritual discipline of fasting (which is what everyone is doing whether they know it or not). Fasting should be the desires for the thing you have given up now focused on our Heavenly Father and using those desires to understand the desires we are to be have for learning of Christ, reading scriptures, and seeking Him in prayer. It seemed like everyone was fasting because they were told to rather than having it as an attitude of sacrifice of the heart and yearning to become into a deeper understanding of Christ.

(This got me thinking about fasting in general, not just in the context of Lent. I was going to include a paragraph about fasting in general but as it turns out, I learned far more things then can be divulged in one measly paragraph and the Lord revealed a lot about it, so I will post about fasting tomorrow!)

But sticking to the topic of Lent, I wanted to research Ash Wednesday and Lent a bit more on how we, as evangelical protestants, are suppose to recognize, celebrate, and acknowledge Lent. Through my research, I found this article on Relevant magazine's website that was very insightful. By no means, I'm not saying the article is scripture, but it does give a good perspective into why we should observe Lent. Read it. And read some excerpts below.

We should never be nervous about how God feels about us. At the very core of faith is the assurance that God loves each one of us incautiously and recklessly. We should find great comfort in the fact that He knows every stupid, silly, mean, ill-motived and outright sinful thing about you and me, and yet He still pursues and loves us. But on some level, we can’t just think about that; we should respond to that.

There is plenty of room for believers to love God more—room for us to be caught up in an infatuation with the Holy. Seasons like Lent provide space for us to intentionally do so. I’m not saying we should try to love Him extra in order to make Him love us more—He loves us, period, not in response to what we do or don’t do. But loving God back is a natural thing for those who have been deeply touched by Him.

We put so much emphasis on belief; to be sure, believing is where it all starts—I’m just not sure that believing is enough to make us world-changing, Kingdom people. Richard Foster wrote: “In our day heaven and earth are on tiptoe waiting for the emerging of a Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered people. All of creation watches expectantly for the springing up of a disciplined, freely gathered, martyr people who know in this life the life and power of the kingdom of God. It has happened before. It can happen again …”

Lent is a place where we can respond to the Lord's love for us. It is a way to harness a discipline as a body of believers and experience a deeper and more intimate understanding of Christ. To know how it is to sacrifice one tiny part of our lives so we can understand the complete sacrifice Christ made through sacrificing his entire life. Food for thought.

half price books

Look at that stack o' magazines. A huge thanks is owed to my brother for introducing me to the store Half Price Books. Its a used book store of sorts, who buy and sell books. So due to his visit to the wonderful city of Indianapolis this past weekend, we were able to venture out to one of their stores in the area. Best place ever. I ended up with 14 magazines- an assortment of Real Simple, Time, Newsweek, Fitness, The Economist (not current publications, but magazines that were dated from the past couple weeks and months)- for a whopping $3.50. That's right folks. My brother is an employee so he got me half off the original price, but the original price was only $0.50. 5-0 cents. Literally 2 quarters for magazines that costs $4-$6 originally (And I got a William Sonoma cookbook for dirt cheap too!).

You gotta go. See if there is one located near you here.