Homemade Chocolate Chips

Put a few inches of water in a small saucepan and bring to

simmering. Place 1 stick of unsalted butter and 1/4 cup each

of cocoa and sugar into a bowl. Place the bowl on top of the saucepan.

Stir the mixture until it is nice and smooth (about 7 minutes).

Remove bowl and pot from the heat.

Pour the warm chocolate into a parchment lined square baking dish,

and place it in the freezer for a few hours to harden.

This is what it should look like when you take it out of the freezer.

Feel free to break of a small piece to sample... you know just

to make sure it's safe to feed to your family. :)  

Chop the chocolate into little squares, whatever size you desire.

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Our little winter wonderland - that I'm absolutely loving! Perfect day

for reading, baking, crafting, hot chocolate, movie watching, blogging,

and just a dash of school work for Tony. Lots of togetherness time!!

Beautiful Sky

Pink Suede Piggy

This cute little piggy is looking for a new mud puddle

to roll around in ~ A new home with lovely parents

and a little child that will carry her everywhere and

rub her soft belly lots. Come visit her in the shop!

Late Night ~ Odds&Ends

It's well past midnight and I think we'll still be up for a while longer. I do know that the bedtime will be really nice when we get there. Tony has been working on his philosophy paper for most of the evening. I've mostly just sat beside him here at our school desk (aka the kitchen table), looking over his assignments for the week, crocheting, listening to him read his paper as it progresses, browsing the internet, organizing Tony's e-mails, and other miscellaneous things. I figured I'd share a few things that are on my mind at this crazy hour...

Today I really enjoyed following Elsie's blog party ~ all kinds of crafty goodness and inspiration.

I also gleaned much wisdom from these two ladies in the blog-o-sphere this week. I have actually been following their blogs for a couple years now and God has taught me so much through them. These are just a small snippet of the words that rang so true with my heart. I would encourage you to read their posts in entirety to get the context.

"...But I've been thinking about this whole area of relationships alot this last week...
having some old hurts re visited. some new ones made.
And sheesh! people can just be downright baffling.
I mean, I throw myself in there as well cause I'm sure I've baffled more than just one person in my lifetime with my behavior. :)
We're humans. It's life.
But this is what God's been bringing me back to....
Though some relationships are optional,
love never is. {Matt.22}..."

"...there will always be those who question your motives...
people who will misjudge and misunderstand.
And though that's hard and hurtful and there's still times I feel like I need to put a sticky note on a card or gift "explaining" my reasons behind it...
bottom line, there is ONLY ONE judge of my heart - -

ONLY ONE who sees and knows my motives - -

and ONLY ONE who I will give an account to someday.

And when I feel I'm obeying what He's given me to do, I owe no one else an explanation!..."  {Amber @ Hutch5}

"...The Lord has been so gracious to reveal to me in the kindest of ways that He is my defense. I need no other. I need not to plug along, wasting time on accusations, defending my very existence to some and defending the very petty to others. I will instead fling myself into the arms of my God who understands me completely and who also knows so very much what it means to be misunderstood, and let Him be my defense..."  {Alyssa @Resolved2Worship}

Here I am {anxiously} waiting for Tony to get home from work today... always a highlight of my day!! ;)

And I'm pretty excited about our bridesmaid shoes for Joey & Chrissie's wedding, come September. They're so fun! And will look so pretty with our long brown dresses and sunflower bouquets!!  

A glimpse into my craft room

On this cold, rainy day, I spent much time in my craft room... organizing and going through boxes of "old" stuff; like pictures, papers from highschool and college, sentimental items collected over the years, notes from friends, lots of birthday cards, etc. Much of it hadn't been touched in a good two years, if not more... it had been somewhat organized in different shoeboxes and containers of all sizes. I figured it was high time to weed some of it out and consolidate the boxes. I ended up with several cardboard boxes to take to the dump, one bag of trash, and a rather large box of misc items to give to the goodwill. "One ladies junk, is another ladies treasure." :)

Rather than being stuffed in a large tupperware bin, now my yarn is sitting pretty on the shelf.

 

All my material (mostly old clothing) is no longer piled on the floor. I would love to turn a lot of this material into a quilt... a goal for this year!

Crafty books and magazines... and my collection of various flutes.

  

My Baby So Beautiful, Snuggles and Fisherprice elephant that I've had since I was a little girl.

Me & Tony in a little frame! :) The year was 2003. So weird to think that was seven years ago?!

Many drawers that hold all kinds of crafty items: markers, crayons, chalk, ribbon, spools of thread, scissors, rulers, stickers, cutting tools, scrapbooking embellisments, rick rack, etc. I think you get the picture. Haha. On top is the yarn I'm currently using on a project, some things I need to mend, and my button container.

My sewing machine! And inside that little door is school supplies.

 

I have lots of notecards that were crammed into an old shoebox. When I was younger, I sent handwritten notes all the time to about four different pen pals! But now it just don't happen very much, especially with e-mail and all the social networking. So another goal for this year is to mail out some handwritten "just because" notes. Who doesn't like to recieve real mail?

   

Cross stitched pictures from my mommy!! :)

New on Etsy!!

Circle scarves and little animals are now for sale in my etsy shop!!

Take a look!!

shaynamade.etsy.com

Over the weekend and beyond

Tony's mini-vacation from school has officially come to an end. :) Monday he started three new classes: The Study of Human Nature, Integrated Arts, and Marketing. He plans on taking three classes per semester from here on out. I'm sure it will be a lot of work, late nights, ample coffee, little sleep... keeping things pretty busy for the both of us. But we know that God will provide overflowing grace to us over the next year. There has already been some interesting conversation on the message boards, particularly the philosophy class.

Friday evening we joined my parents, Brittany, and Harry at the new Upper Crust Pizza for dinner (dad's treat). The pizza was so good!! And we enjoyed talking with Harry. From there we went to town to start our search for a new GPS. What happened to our beloved Tom Tom, you ask?  Well, last Thursday morning when Tony got in his truck to leave for work, he noticed that the rim around his radio was on the floor of his truck. He asked if I had knocked it off when I started the truck. "Not that I'm aware of." Then he noticed his work ID card laying on the floor of the truck and a container of oil sitting in the seat of his truck. "I know for sure I didn't put that in the seat. I think someone's been in the truck." He takes a closer look at the radio and sees where someone tried to steal it, but they couldn't get it out because it is bolted in a weird way. "What about the car?" I glance through the passenger side window and notice an old keychain sitting in the seat and see that the driver door is unlocked. I walked around the car and noticed the gas tank was opened, which can only be opened from inside the car. Sure enough, someone had broke into both vehicles at some point during the night. It appears that the only thing stolen was our GPS, the cords to go with it, and the transmitter for Tony's Ipod. A sheriff arrived 30 minutes later and  a police report was filed. My prayer journal that morning "...Lord, thank you so very much for protecting us! I thank you that only the GPS was stolen. That no personal information was obtained. I thank you for protecting our land, house, and shed. I thank you for giving me much peace...I pray for the individual(s) that did this. May the wicked not get away with their evil deeds...May we not complain. May we trust you and tell of your greatness!! Your faithfulness..." So bye, bye Tom Tom ~ you served us well!   

Saturday morning, Tony joined a few guys for breakfast and a time of fellowship. We had a relaxing day at home, and that evening we met up with some friends for dinner in Fayetteville; a reunion of sorts. It was nice seeing everyone.

Sunday morning we were reminded of God's faithfulness and purposes in our afflictions and trials. You can listen to the message here: Suffering and Self-Reliance. Tony & I ate a quick lunch, and then went to  Sheri P's baby shower. Can't wait to meet baby Phillips! I made him a little pig with a mohawk (per Kevin's request). Haha. We spent the evening at home and finished our little vacation with "The Cove"- an interesting, eye-opening documentary on dolphins.

Yesterday, I joined Mom, Brittany, and Candace on a little excursion to Trader Joes and Whole Foods! We had a great time!!

And today marks seven years of togetherness with my bestest friend! We celebrated with a veggie casserole and lots of school work. ;)

Handwarmers for Brittany

Lovely!

Not the greatest picture, but it's a memory captured. A lovely memory at that. Last night we braved the cold weather and spent a night in town ~ eating carolina cheeseburgers, drinking yummy milkshakes, smelling a variety of perfumes and colognes (Play by Givenchy was the best!), and treasure hunting at TJMaxx. So grateful to God for the time I was able to spend with my Bestest friend!!

A New Year

I have been enjoying all the togetherness time this past week, so very much. Tony was off most of the week, only going into work on Monday and a few hours on Wednesday. It has been a lovely break from school and work. Knowing that in another week life will be busy again with school (time and a half) plus work full-time, we are trying to soak in as much relaxation as possible. Being home. sleeping in. reading. spending gift cards. an evening with the Thompson's. starting a puzzel. watching movies. eating popcorn. sipping on tasty wine. cuddling. blogging. taking naps. family time. hospitality. breakfast with friends.

New years eve we joined some others in Raleigh to proclaim the everlasting gospel of Jesus! As the clock struck midnight and the fireworks went off, we sang a few songs praising God for bringing us safely into the new year. Into 2010.