Happy Halloween!

it just seems right to be making spiderweb pillow covers while testing out the limits of my finger... rigggGHT? ;)  i mean, you add together one painful finger and one painfully slow sewing project and you get a bit of a match made in heaven i'd say!!  :P

wull... here's to hoping i finish them up before Thanksgiving! LOL  I also, want to give a big fat Thanks for all the well wishes!! it really brightens my spirit to know i can be such a complete ding dong and you all don't hold it against me!  SoOOooo...

Here's to a Happy Halloween kids!!  Be safe!!  :)

Xo, Heather

DIY Week Part 1

I absolutely love Do-It-Yourself projects because they're fun and they bring such a personal element to any event!



This week I want to highlight a few that I thought were the awesomesauce of DIY projects.



These mason jar name cards we found from Emmaline Bride and Style Me Pretty are so adorable and something your guests can use even after they find their table!

Photo By: Beaux Arts Photography 

How To:

          -Apply 2 coats of chalkboard paint on your jar

         -When dry, use a chalk marker to write your guests name or any other message!



What do you guys think of these jars? Are they not adorable?!?

i did it...

my new personal blog.

The Casual Housewife.

it's a journal of my real life, away from crafting.

swing by if you'd like! ;)

x, H

ps... it won't be PG.

2011-10-29: Weekend off-duty outfit – De folga no fim-de-semana

 During weekends I get to wear those clothes which usually feel too edgy for the office, like these bad-ass boots and the leather shorts. We had a long rainy week, but today the sun came out to say hi and I and the cats were able to come outside for a photo shoot… In this outfit only the pleather sleeve sweater was made by me. Have a lovely weekend, everybody!

É durante os fins-de-semana que posso usar certas peças um pouco ousadas demais para o ambiente de trabalho, como estes calções de cabedal e as botas à “motard”. Tivemos uma semana bastante chuvosa por cá, mas hoje o sol decidiu dar ares de sua graça e eu e os gatos aproveitámos para vir cá fora fazer uma sessão fotográfica… Neste conjunto só o top com mangas de napa foi feito por mim. Tenham um óptimo fim-de-semana!

Thoughts on II Samuel

The second half of the Book of Samuel is usually thought of as the story of King David’s reign over Israel. I’d never really thought about how it might provide some insight as to how Christians are supposed to behave. However, when I reread it earlier this year, something stood out to me. We’re presented with a number of stories that feature individuals giving and taking of advice: Good council. Bad council. Subjects reasoning with superiors. Women reasoning with men. The stories highlight how sympathy, inflated egos, desire for peace, desire for revenge, and imperfect and incomplete knowledge about the situations at hand can render desirable or undesirable results.

The women of II Samuel give good advice, yet in one case it’s not accepted. That’s the lot of Tamar, David’s daughter, as she tries to prevent her half-brother Amnon from raping her. Despite his love for her, Amnon ignores her warnings and suggestions (ch. 13). David didn’t love the wise woman who appealed to him, yet he listened to her even though he saw right through her story (ch. 14). The wise woman of Abel-Beth-Maacah was to be an insignificant war casualty, but despite her boldness, Joab listened to her (ch. 20). Amnon, however, makes for a strange case in that his regard for his sister in no way prevented him from violating her. And in the end, perhaps because of a guilty conscience or bruised ego caused by her rejection of him, he begins to hate her.

I can identify with Amnon in the sense that my humiliation can easily breed contempt for those who’ve witnessed it. But what’s interesting about his response is the Septuagint translators’ use what most of us consider extremes: ἀγαπάω (agapeo, “to love”) and μισέω (miseo, “to hate”). (The forms specifically used in the Greek are ἠγάπησεν, ἀγαπῶ, ἀγάπην in vv. 1, 4, and 15 and ἐμίσησεν and μῖσος in v. 15.) These are exactly the same words used to contrast God’s conduct toward Jacob and Esau, by Paul in Romans 9:13 (ἠγάπησα and ἐμίσησα in the Nestlé-Aland 26) and by Malachi in 1:2 (ἠγάπησα in the LXX). In no way do I mean to suggest that “love” and “hate” can’t each have a variety of meanings, but that that the words, as used in other Bible passages contextualize Amnon’s radical change in feelings.

For Christians, “love” and “hatred” are extremely powerful words, used throughout both the Old and New Testments. God is a great hater of our sin, but our salvation is made possible by God’s great love for us (e.g., John 3:16). It’s amazing to think that someone might love someone else so completely and yet still turn against them. We are repeatedly told not to hate but to love each other, and this becomes a lesson on changing our attitudes about those we already have ill feelings towards, such as our enemies (e.g., ἀγαπᾶτε and μισοῦσιν in Luke 6:27). However, I’m beginning to realize how important it is to protect those we love from our hatred also. That might be the point behind Colossians 3:19 & 21, which tells husbands not to be harsh with their wives and fathers not to provoke their children. A man might deeply love his family, but that love won’t necessarily stop him from hurting them physically or emotionally. Amnon, despite being one of the most unpopular Bible characters, can serve as a constant reminder that those we love are also in danger of being hated by us.

Fall Inspiration Board

You may or may not have noticed, but we love Autumn.

And pumpkins.

And fall colors.

And caramel apples

....well, lets be honest. Caramel anything.

The simple fact is, we're falling for fall so much that it inspired us to create an wedding inspiration board that features all things autumn!

I mean really, spun sugar on a wedding cake! How can you get yummier and prettier than that!

Cake, Car, Bride & Groom, Place Card, Bridesmaids & Flowers, Caramel Apples

We just love the warm colors and intimate harvesty feelings of fall weddings.

What about you? Do you fall in love with autumn themed weddings?

Social Security Reform…Through Student Loan Reform?

Raise your hand if you’ve ever looked at your paycheck stub and let out a groan. Social Security payroll withholdings are so depressing. We can’t spend the money on food, rent, and car payments now. We can’t borrow from this imaginary life savings account and repay it later. Worse yet, we’re coerced into contributing to the common pot with no guarantee that we’ll ever have a chance to eat from it.

The mainstream view of Social Security seems to be that it’s been a tremendous flop. Beneficiaries are living longer than they imagined as youths, collecting more than they initially contributed. The Federal government is tempted to use designated funds for other welfare projects, an action which, if committed by a non-profit organization, could result in serious legal trouble. With a track record like that, it’s no wonder that the current labor force generally distrusts the system. Americans constantly are told to take charge of their retirement savings with the expectation that Social Security won’t be around much longer.

Try as some may, no movement to eliminate or privatize Social Security has been successful. Legislators are reluctant to change, obviously because senior citizens and near-retirees make up the largest voting demographics. Stop collecting the Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax, and who’ll feed the “Baby-Boomers” who’ve contributed so faithfully to the cause? Yes, we might agree that the system is overdue on a major structural overhaul, but we need a feasible solution…that is, one that doesn’t cost anything to our elders who rule the voting booth.

As of now, what does the younger generation of workers do in face of a pending Social Security crisis? Work. Pay necessities. Repay college loans. Try and fail to save privately for retirement. And continue to pay for someone else’s retirement. No wonder most give up and party instead. No wonder few are interested in settling down and raising a family. Something must be done.

My suggestion? Allow one particular deduction from future payouts: student loans. Right now, “Gen-Xers” are too busy scrambling to pay for their post-secondary education to save for their own retirement. Eliminate that atrociously large debt burden that’s squishing a significant percentage of the young working population, but don’t change their tax contributions. Workers would be free to begin saving privately earlier. Retirees won’t feel threatened by a loss of payments.

I do recognize that the system can’t be changed overnight. This would require some serious coordination among the Department of Education, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Social Security Administration (SSA), and possibly other government agencies. And the Federal government, like private creditors, isn’t going to jump at a chance to lose interest payments on loans. However, as a potential means for Social Security reform, I think that it might have some promise.

confessions... of a Ding Dong!

i can honestly say without any reservations that I am a ding dong! I am far from perfect and in fact some days... i might even goes as far as to think, i may be far from even mediocre! LOL i still love me, but sometimes i want to spank my own ass for my ridiculous nature!

example you ask???... why sure... this week i actually flayed my knuckle ( on my dominate hand, pointer finger mind you ) on an aluminum can lid trying to dig out refried beans as fast as i could. yep, that's me... in all my glory of not paying attention to the task on hand, while attempting to use super human speed to achieve it! Uuugg...

thankfully, i have other hobbies ( like reading smutty books ) to keep me busy while i wait to heal from not only the finger, but the lovely tetanus shot i got to with it as a side note!   love, i love me, i love me so much... ;P

bright side???...  was that my mail days have been fabulous! If only i could sew, eh...

per Sew Mama Sew ( which is currently ** as in TODAY ** are doing a give-a-way for the book Pretty in Patchwork: Doll Quilts! )...

i found this little Etsy shop and treated myself to an adorable holiday kit!

and from this lovely swap... i received these trinkets of joy!!! Sigh... 

Thank you so much Melissa!!! They couldn't have been any more amazing! Perfect colors, detailing, and thought put into them! xoxoxo

then the sweetest little private swap arrived from one of my blog readers!! can you believe she agreed to make me flying geese!  MMMmwah... miss Natalie!! these are going to make the swankiest throw pillows for my living room! :) 

and being the dollface that she is... she totally sent me one of her book covers!! hello heaven! ;)

yeah... i guess it could have been worse week!   although, i'm still pretty peeved at myself!!( wink,wink )

xo, Heather

A Guestbook Set in Stone

Everyone knows the best part of a wedding are the memories you get to take with you-but what if those memories could be a little more set in stone? This was such an easy and awesome alternative to a guest book we found from Emmaline Bride!

Photo By: Cabana Pictures

Here's how it works- Each guest signs their name on one side of a stone and then chooses a word they think describes the bride or groom on the other, and places them in their respective buckets. Then after the wedding, the bride and groom are left with memories of how much all their friends and family love them!



This would be so great to decorate your garden or use to make a centerpiece to place in your house!



Have you guys ever signed personal guestbooks?? What were some of the ideas you loved??

Pumpkin Cake Topper

Cake toppers are a hit-or-miss for me, but when I saw these Pumpkin Cake Toppers over at Emmaline Bride I fell in LOVE. Obviously I had to share so you could obsess as well!

Via Indigo Twin Weddings Via Emmaline Bride

How adorable, right?! The hand-painted details and super fun font are just simply the sweetest.

Via Indigo Twin Weddings Via Emmaline Bride

This cake topper would be absolute perfection for a fall-themed wedding! And you could keep them and decorate every fall with them!

If you're in lovelovelove just like me, head over to the creator, Indigo Twin Weddings', shop and pick this topper up for yourself. There are tons of other toppers to browse through, as well.

Wedding Fitness

Via 31:17 Training

A lot of brides are looking to drop those last few pounds before the big day, but don't know the right type of workouts to do.



Plus, let's face it. You can only sweat your bum off on the elliptical for an hour so many times before you start getting a littttllleee bored. (that's what I've heard, anyway....)



But, thanks to A Paper Proposal, we found a great interval training Bridal Cardio Boost to get your metabolism working super fast and those pounds melting off!



If you go here, you can find step by step instruction guides on a few different cardio fat blasters. My personal favorite is the "Thirty Minute Slim-down." (I tried it yesterday. My glutes hate me but it was AWESOME)



What is your gym routine of choice?

Fun Place Cards

Creating place cards for your reception can be super fun, so we found a wonderfully creative and budget-friendly DIY idea at Green Wedding Shoes, we were ecstatic!



The wedding was a Beatles theme, so the bride and groom took old Cassette Tapes and wrote the guests name, along with a Beatles Tune on them.

Via Green Wedding Shoes

The couple used Beatles albums in lieu of table numbers, so the guests then got to test their Beatles knowledge and find the album that "their song" was a part of in order to find their seat! So fun!

Via Green Wedding Shoes

This is a really cute and clever way to do wedding placecards and you could use whichever artist you preferred.



Have you heard of any creative place card ideas?

Distractions... with a capital D!

such a simple post today filled with naughty distractions! it's no wonder i've gotten a LOT of everything done... and finished absolutely none of them! LOL OOohhh... well, Monday's tomorrow and i have a good feeling about my efforts! :)

it all started last week when i stumbled across my new crica 1968 New Home Janome sewing machine! This beauty still had all her bits to her and she's a JANOME!!! i heart her sooOOOoo...

then a whole crop of patterns arrived to further add to my distractions... yet, i'm i feel pretty damn good about it! hahaha...

it didn't help i had to finish up a little swappy-poo item either...

or decide if my new bundles of Robert Kaufman Radiance was going to possible make the best patchwork quilt EVER!!???... which it IS! :P  doesn't hurt that it looks like a Carmel Apple with Aneela Hoey's Little Apple fabric mixed in it!!  LOL

and to top it off... anytime the family wants to pull me away from the household duties to partake in a little Autumn fun... i always go!

yeah... i'm thinking next week i''ll be better! ( wink, wink )

xo, Heather

Wedding Templates

A friend of mine recently emailed me explaining that her bride-to-be friend was in a dilemma. She was going down her bridal to-do list and saw that ordering invitations was next on her agenda. She set out to find some wedding-invite options, but soon got some intense sticker shock at the costs she was given.



I think this happens often, you get engaged and just don't realized all of the costs associated with a wedding in general. Frankly, it all adds up. And paper, isn't expensive, but the work that goes into creating an invitation out of that paper, is costly and labor intensive.



Creating your wedding invitations can be a blast, but many brides don't realize that they can also put a decent sized dent in your bridal budget. For that reason, we are here with a suggestion: templates!

Via Marinaatmakina Via Etsy

Via Designwomb Via Etsy

Templates are an easy way to choose the invite image you want, the designer customizes your details (Name, Date, Location- you know the drill), emails it back to you and you take it to a printer- voila! Wedding Invites Galore!

Via PhotographicMVP Via Etsy

Esty has a wonderful selection and variety of beautiful wedding templates- so simple. so quick. so fun!



Just do some finger exercises, because you'll need to build up your using scissor muscles... most likely.


Have you ever used templates or know someone who has? Share your experience with us!

Thoughts on 1 Corinthians

Involuntary celibacy is on the rise. No one wants to do anything about it except advocate waiting, and waiting is a grossly inadequate policy rule. As I write this post, hundreds – thousands? millions? – of never-married believers are suffering from chronic sexual desire. Like many Keynesian-sympathizers who see deficit spending as the solution to economic woes, Christians – regardless of sex, race, and marital status – recommend patience as the only honorable choice for singles. As a short-run Band-Aid, waiting can work; but it hasn’t proven to be a viable solution in the long-run.

In my opinion, the biblical support for singles waiting is shaky. Yes, there are passages instructing us to be patient and persevere, but persecution and vengeance are generally the concern, not husband (or wife) hunting. We have the example of Hannah in 1 Samuel, but she was praying for a child, not a husband. We have Adam being put to sleep in the Garden of Eden, but his wait had an expressed divine purpose. (And if you ask a young-earth creationist, he’ll insist that Adam was asleep for, at most, a few hours.)

I’m not suggesting that patience isn’t a quality worth pursuing. It’s just being misapplied. Many Christians see waiting as part of a paradigm, sort of a worldview in which one’s marriage prospects are solely divine business while people exercise freewill in hunting for food, a job, a house, and everything else in life. Its advocates, although well-meaning, are generally naïve about temptation too. A single facing temptation to use pornography or sexual experiment is rightly told to flee (1 Corinthians 6:18; 2 Timothy 2:22; cf. Joseph and Potiphar’s wife in Genesis 39). This eliminates the immediate danger, but doesn’t solve the problem of having unmet sexual needs. Rebounds just encourage onlookers to lecture even more about fleeing and waiting.

It’s very suspicious that the Christians advising this are, more often than not, either married (i.e., have a legitimate sexual outlet) or admittedly uninterested in sex (i.e., asexual, voluntarily celibate, or in possession of a naturally low sex drive). And they generally don’t even stop lecturing a moment to put themselves in others’ shoes. Rather than give up belief that fleeing and waiting is the only solution, many even accuse struggling singles of neither trusting God nor attempting to control themselves.

The Apostle Paul was more sympathetic. He outright says that he wishes everyone – married and single – could be celibate, yet he admits that it’s a “gift” that few have (1 Corinthians 7:7; cf. Jesus discussing eunuchs in Matthew 19:12). To those who can’t control their sexual urges, he offers one and only one prescription: marry (1 Corinthians 7:2, 9, & 36). He doesn’t say to wait. In fact, he conveys a sense of urgency, something that Christians have failed to take seriously.

Uncomfortable as it might be to accept, the biblical solution for involuntary celibacy is marital sex. The flee-and-wait approach to life will never satisfy one’s God-given cravings. As Paul suggests, it just makes things worse. I know that from personal experience, as do many others. It’s not surprising that so many Christians succumb to sin when their fellow believers make light of their situation and the cure. Until the Christian community makes a conscious decision to change the way we address singles’ sexual needs, it will continue to lose the battle against pornography and fornication.

Isabel Marant inspired boots – Botas inspiradas em Isabel Marant

 When I was a teenager I had a similar pair of boots in camel and remember wearing them into exhaustion because they were kind of my lucky shoes at the time; this is the main reason why I couldn’t resist these babies the minute I saw them at the store, but they also reminded me of Isabel Marant’s Fall2011 show, where fringed boots and Native American motifs had a strong presence (following picture is courtesy of http://www.style.com/; see the complete Isabel Marant’s collection here). The stone color also appealed to me and made me dream of white on white coordinates (the kind that mix different shades of white, like the one pictured below), another trend I look forward to trying this year.

The dress was a online purchase and has a couple of interesting details not shown in the pictures; the sleeves have a hole for the thumb, so they can also function as fingerless gloves if desired, and the back neckline is draped (it’s a backwards cowl neckline actually). Next time I’m wearing the dress I’ll make sure to highlight these details.

Another frantic week is ending and I’m looking forward to the weekend, when I'm hoping on having some free time for my hobbies and also updating on my blog reading. Take care you all!

Na minha adolescência tive um par de botas muito semelhante a este, mas em camel e lembro-me de as usar sempre, porque eram uma espécie de talismã para mim. Esta foi a principal razão para não resistir a estas botas na loja mal as vi, mas também me lembraram as botas do desfile de pronto-a-vestir Outono-Inverno de Isabel Marant, onde botas com franjas e motivos tribais tiveram uma presença forte (a foto seguinte é cortesia de http://www.style.com/; vejam a colecção completa de Isabel Marant aqui). A cor branco-sujo também me atraiu e fez-me imaginar coordenados de branco sobre branco (do tipo em que vários tons de branco são combinados, como na foto abaixo), uma tendência que também queria experimentar.

O vestido foi uma compra online e tem dois detalhes interessantes, os quais não são evidentes nestas fotos: os punhos têm uma abertura para o polegar, sendo que as mangas podem funcionar também como luvas, e nas costas o decote é drapeado, como uma gola ao contrário. Da próxima vez que me fotografar com o vestido vou ver se mostro estes detalhes.

Outra semana frenética está a chegar ao fim e mal posso esperar pelo fim-de-semana, quando espero ter algum tempo livre para os meus hobbies e também para me por em dia na leitura dos blogues. Até à próxima!