Thankful Thursday- October 11th

Good morning!

Before I start with this post, thank you all for sharing in my excitement last week {post here} about my unexpected blessing. I am still so excited about this and am looking forward to arranging everything. My dad put up my embellishment shelves and now I can actually start putting things up. Now comes the fun process of finding organization bins/ jars and make everything pretty. :)

Here is my Thankful Thursday list for this week.

  • My sister and her team {who were in the International Culinary Olympics in Germany} got Gold and Silver for their dishes! After a year+ of commuting between WA and OR, numerous practices and trips across the country for fund raisers, this journey is coming to an end. I’m so proud of her!
  • My sparkly pink glitter tipped nails. Yes, it’s such a tiny thing, but it makes me happy.
  • Fitting into smaller size jeans! I recently had to go shopping for new jeans and was so excited to see I fit a smaller size!
  • New blog friends who have joined in various blog posts and left comments. I truly love getting to know you all, and your comments make it possible.
  • This past week, I set aside fears and finally contacted one of my favorite bloggers {who is famous in a certain circle} and asked if she would be my Featured Blogger for next month. She graciously accepted and I cannot wait to introduce you all to her- she’s amazing.

How has your week been going? What are YOU thankful for this week? Big, small, life-changing or funny, I can’t wait to hear about it.  

I am so excited for the DeNami Halloween Blog Hop on Sunday, I couldn’t stop creating cards! I’ll be back tomorrow with one of the Halloween cards I made. :)

Find Pretty Pink Posh on Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Pinterest

 

FAITH

Faith…..it’s a tough subject.

After my accident almost seven weeks ago {story here}, my faith has been tested quite a bit. Right after the accident, the first thing I felt was gratefulness to be alive. There’s no doubt about it, it’s a miracle I’m alive. Even if you don’t consider yourself a religious person, it’s hard to deny this truth.

About a week after the accident, a pain I’ve never felt started to set in. At first it wasn’t all that bad, and then it got perpetually worse. I couldn’t move my neck, could barely function and not to mention I was having panic attacks and couldn’t drive for a month. During this time, I started feeling discouraged and depressed. Why would God allow this to happen to me? Life was just starting to get to a place where I felt like things were going smoothly. After nine months of insomnia, a break up, death in the family, along with other things, I was excited that things were starting to look up…..and then this happened.

You know I try to be as honest as possible here on the blog. I hate to admit this, but MANY of my prayers after the accident went like this, “God, why would you allow this?”, “Why do I have to go through this pain, it would have been so much better to have died.”, “I’ve been living my life for You, why me?”.

Shortly after the accident, a song was playing that has stood out to me. I’ve sung this song in church for months, but after everything, it’s gone to the depth of my heart. “My flesh may fail, my God you never will”. My flesh DID fail but my God has been faithful through it all. He has given me just enough strength for each day. He has provided numerous ways to show His love through all of this. He has used many people to bless and encourage me. He’s taught me it’s OKAY to ask for help, it’s okay to be vulnerable and rely on people. There have been countless blessings that have occurred because of this.

After my battle with discouragement and struggling with my faith, God has shown Himself faithful to me. He has been healing me and has provided the finances/ insurance to help with some of the bills. He has restored my passion for life and given me new joy and excitement to pursue things I’ve had dreams for. Things I was way too scared to try before, I’m starting to take steps to do them. The accident has made me realize the term “YOLO” is so true. You only live once.

There are three reasons for me to write this:
1) to show that I still struggle often with my faith and I’m a work in progress
2) writing this will allow me to look back and see what I have overcome
3) to allow you to see that my God is truly faithful and good.

I’m sure down the road, there will be another chapter in this story. For now, this is where it ends. Some of you may be going through tough times, whether it be physically, emotionally, financially….I want you to know it’s going to be okay. Call out to Jesus, He is so faithful.

If you have a prayer request, or questions, feel free to leave a comment below or you can email me. {Click the about button at the top} I hope this encouraged you. I know this was a long post, so I’m going to wrap this up.

Big hugs to you, sweet blog friends.

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Christmas in October?

Hi there!
This is going to be a short post….I’m fighting a sickness bug and shouldn’t even be on the computer. However, I just couldn’t let another day go by without bringing you another card using the current 10 Minute Craft Dash colors. Oh how I love this color combo!
My card today features all DeNami Design stamps/ products. I wanted to do something a little different and went the route of creating a Christmas card with these colors. I’m so happy with how it turned out!
 Time it took to create: 8 minutes 9 seconds
Don’t you just love the Berry Vine Sprig? I haven’t played with it too much {yet!}, but I just puffy heart it. It would be great for Thanksgiving cards, everyday cards…..it’s a good one to have!

I hope YOU come join us in the 10 Minute Craft Dash. There are still four days left to enter– hurry and get your entries in. Oh, did I mention there’s a great prize? *wink*

Thanks for visiting!

Influence

Hello and Happy Monday!

Recently, I’ve had different emails and conversations with others and they’ve said that I have somehow inspired/ influenced them. Whether it be challenging them to grow {in their faith or thinking} or possibly in their fitness goals. I won’t lie, I NEVER in a million years would have thought I would have an influence on someone.

If you’ve followed my blog, you know that I do quite a few posts under the “My Life” tab section. These posts are based on things that I am going through, learning or things I’ve gone through in the past. These posts tend to be the “hardest” ones to write, since they hit so close to home, but I also have received the most feedback from them. I’m amazed at how many struggles, or things I am going through, others can relate to.

Going back to the topic……When I received the emails, I stopped in my tracks. Wait, me? Influence someone? I never really thought little ‘ol me would have any sort of impact. I have tried my best to write posts that would inspire people, but I guess I never heard a lot of feedback so I didn’t think they made much of a difference. It’s funny how even in the midst of quietness, there are things working……

Reading from various blog readers that I have challenged/ influenced them was eye opening. Granted, I have always wanted to do this, but actually hearing that I DO was so humbling. In the midst of living life and just “doing my thing”, I was influencing people and didn’t even realize it. I won’t lie, knowing that people look up to me makes me think twice about everything I do/ say.

In my day to day life, I try to have a positive outlook on life and be encouraging to people as much as possible.Yes, I realize I fail many times. Life isn’t always rainbows and butterflies but I want to be one of the people to brighten someone’s day, give a hug or smile when needed, or be a positive role model. Goodness knows we have enough “bad ones” out there on tv and in the limelight.

People may be watching you at work/ school/ church/ on your blog, are you using your influence for good? 

Gals that are reading this, if you are one of the people who have emailed, thank you. You have made my heart swell with gratitude and brought new perspective to everything I do and say.

I’m looking forward to reading your comments on these answers. We are all works in progress and I think it’s important to see the areas we need to work on.  Thanks for stopping by and visiting me today!

World Card Making Day

  
 Hello! 
For my crafty friends, I’m sure you know that Monday was officially World Card Making Day. All over blog land, people are celebrating this weekend and I thought I would join in on the fun. After all, it’s a party already over here {with my blog birthday giveaways} and I thought I would continue with the theme.
My card today features many of my favorite things: pink, scallops, aqua, polka dots and ribbon. Each of these in itself are great, but bring them together and you have a winning combo. 
Recently, I’ve had a lot of friends that have had birthdays, so I’ve needed to stock up on my birthday card stash. Thankfully, since I have a nice {and pretty} calendar, it is easy to make sure I stay on top of it.

What are you all up to this weekend? Crafty friends: are you participating in World Card Making Day? If so, leave a comment with your creation and I’ll check it out!
Thanks for stopping by, have a great rest of your Saturday!
 
NOT LISTED: green ribbon/ cardstock, patterned papers, scallop dies

Four Years of Blogging= 4 Giveaways!

Hello, sweet blog friends! 
It’s a special time of the year here on the blog…. I’m celebrating 4 years of blogging! It’s so hard to believe that much time has passed– I still remember typing up those very first posts! Looking back, it’s been so neat to see the progression I have made as a crafter and blogger, but also as a person. I’ve had some blog followers from the very beginning (thank you!), and then some have just found my blog. Whatever the case may be, I’m so thrilled and honored to have you as followers of my blog!
In honor of this special occasion, I’ll be giving away FOUR gift certificates (one for each year, of course!). Also, since I turned 25 this year, I thought I would bring that into the equation and make them each $25! Pretty awesome, right? 
I wanted to make sure I didn’t exclude any of my blog followers, so I’m including two crafty gift certificates, but also two for everyday things. Up for grabs is one gift certificate to the following places: Amazon, Target, DeNami Design and Simon Says Stamp! There will be four winners total, one person for each GC!
 
For this giveaway, I’m going to be using a new system- this will enable you to get in multiple entries and make it easy for me to choose winners. If you do all of the different options, you’ll actually have 12 entries total- pretty neat, right? It’s super easy too! 
a Rafflecopter giveaway
 Note: I cannot guarantee that you will receive the GC that you would like the most– I’ll do my best though! Winners will be chosen at random and be announced on my blog.

Are you a fan of my blog? I would love for you to spread the word to your friends! As I’ve mentioned in the past, I have big dreams and plans for this blog and wholeheartedly agree with the saying “the more the merrier”!
If you would like to add the giveaway graphic above to your blogs, please feel free– in fact, I would LOVE it! Best of luck to those who enter!

Thankful Thursday- October 4th + Unexpected Blessing

My heart is just overflowing with joy and happiness today. Yesterday I launched the fourth 10 Minute Craft Dash challenge and my heart is just giddy from all the excitement. On top of that, tomorrow I have a giveaway post in honor of my 4th blog birthday. But that’s not all, as you may have noticed, I recently did a re-design of my blog and Pretty Pink Posh Facebook page and well, it just makes my heart happy. :)

This week hasn’t been the best in regards to pain {my back and neck have decided to flare up big time}  and migraines. However, in the midst of all of this, I’ve had some unexpected joys and great things come recently from the blog. Also, I received a big blessing, which I’ll share below.

  • Up to this point, all of my chiropractor visits have been covered by insurance.
  • My sister made it to Germany (for the International Culinary Olympics) safely. Now we just wait for the competition….hoping for gold!
  • Homemade cooking. Lately my mom has been making lots of delicious goodness and we have had many family dinners together. Oh how I enjoy family time!
  • Found out that I qualify for my iPhone upgrade in a month and with the buy back program, I’ll be able to get a new phone for very little out of pocket. Yay!

Okay, now onto my unexpected blessing…..Quite a few months back, I got a new craft studio area in the house. With the passing of my grandfather, the busyness of Summer and then the accident, organizing and arranging everything was put on hold. I needed a larger storage unit for my new area (to fit my expanding collection),  but it was a lot more pricey than I could afford at the moment.

On Tuesday, while I was at work, my dad text me a photo of this white unit and asked if I would want it. I wasn’t too sure, since it looked like a great quality and didn’t know how much it would cost. I responded that I would need better pictures and wanted more details. A few moments later he sent over a better picture and then said it was waiting for me in my craft studio. While my mom was heading out to do errands, she saw it at the end of our street (which is in the country and pretty much in the middle of nowhere) and it had a free sign on it. How awesome and amazing is that?!

My unspoken hearts desire was fulfilled and it was WHITE and beautiful, just like I had envisioned in my head! God knew exactly what I wanted and I know it was a blessing sent from Him. With all the craziness of the physical pain and migraines, and then these doctors bills, it was truly the thing I needed right now.

I am loving the different drawers and shelves- I can’t wait to figure out how I’ll organize everything! I’m going to see if I can find some different knobs and am thinking about possibly painting the wood on the top. When I get it all finished with my crafty items on it, I’ll take a picture. :)

Thank you for bearing with me in this long post and for sharing in my joy! What are YOU all thankful for this week? I can’t wait to see your lists!

See you tomorrow, blog friends, for the giveaways!

10 Minute Craft Dash #4

Hello!

Ready for a brand new 10 Minute Craft Dash? This particular color palette is one that I am utterly in love with and it works SO well with cards for either gender! Not only can you use these colors for everyday cards, they can also be used for holiday cards!

I have had the privilege of being a guest designer for the company that is sponsoring this challenge, WPlus 9 Design Studio. Over the years, my collection of their stamps has grown- they have so many awesome sets! For my card today, I paired Funky Foliage and Very Vintage Greetings. Love how quick this card came together!

Time it took to create: 7 minutes 25 seconds

Here’s a sneak peek at what Ginny created for the challenge. Be sure to visit her blog for the whole thing- it’s super cute!

Time it took to create: 7 minutes 29 seconds

I’m so thrilled to have WPlus9 Design Studio sponsoring a prize. Right now, they’re in the middle of sneak peeks for their new release, so I’m SUPER thrilled some of the DT gals were able to find time to play along in this challenge. Each of these gals have unique styles and I know that they have created some beauties to share. Be sure to take a peek at their blogs to see their 10 Minute Craft Dash creations!

Elise Durenberger

Kerrianne Gwin

Lea Lawson 

Savitri Wilder

Now onto the fun prize! Dawn has graciously offered up a $20 gift certficiate to the WPlus9 website. With their new release in just a few days (and the holidays coming up), this will definitely be a great prize to win!

How to Play

1) Create a card/craft project within 10 minutes using the color palette above

2) Post the time it took to create

You can pull out your supplies before your timer starts!  

  • Post the challenge graphic in your post, link to the challenge
  • You may combine a total of three challenges with your entry. You may enter the challenge a maximum of two times.
  • Challenge ends October 13, 2012 at 11:59pm, PST.



10 Minute Craft Dash #3 Highlights

Hello!
The 10 Minute Craft Dash #4 starts tomorrow, October 3rd! We have a fabulous color palette and a prize that I would love to get my hands on. Oh how I wish I could win. :)
If you are interested in getting a head start on your project, I have the colors that will be featured on the Pretty Pink Posh Facebook page. This is EXCLUSIVE to those who like my page. If you go there and go to “exclusives”, you get to see the next 10 Minute Craft Dash challenge colors a day early!
Well, it is time to announce the winner and favorites from the 10 Minute Craft Dash Challenge #3. Ginny and I had such a great time going through all of the entries. This color combination was the perfect last hoorah of the Summer. :)
Now for the winner…..
Congratulations to Jeni Allen
Please email me (click the contact on the top right) with your contact info and the Lawn Fawn set you would like to claim your prize. Also, you get to grab the badge below and proudly display it on your blog!
CD_winner
There were so many amazing entries (some of them I’m still in awe took under 10 minutes!) in this challenge. Be sure to take a look at the other cards that caught our eye. (Also, you five gals are more than welcome to snag this fun badge!)
CD_favorite
Thank you  for your excitement and participation in the 10 Minute Craft Dash- be sure to keep on spreading the word about the challenge! We have some amazing sponsors in store for future challenges and I would love to see this challenge grow even more.
See you all tomorrow for the new challenge!

Featured Blogger- Dawn Woleslagle

Hello and Happy 1st day of October!

I am so excited you have stopped by today- it’s time for a new Featured Blogger post! For those new to my blog, on the first Monday of each month, I feature one of my favorite bloggers. When I read blogs, I always enjoy getting to know the person BEHIND the blog. Whether it be a crafty blogger, a lifestyle blogger or a fellow young single gal- I love putting away the formalities and having a “conversation” with a blogger I enjoy.

This month, I’m feature a fellow crafter, but also someone who has become a real life friend. I’ve had the amazing privilege of meeting this person and she is just as sweet in person {okay, maybe ever sweeter} as she is in blog land. Not only have I been able to meet this person, I’ve also had the opportunity to work with her as a guest designer for her company, WPlus9 Design Studio. Beautiful, down to earth and also extremely talented- I’m thrilled to introduce you to Dawn Woleslagle.

Let’s start off with some crafty questions!   

How would you describe your cardmaking style?

Is there an “all over the place” style?  Because I think I’d fit that one perfectly!  I really don’t know that I have a particular style.  I am quite the rebel at heart and hate to be boxed in. I love to challenge myself and absolutely love to learn new things.  So once I get bored with a style, I’ll switch.  Currently, I’m obsessed with all of the textiles and layers incorporated in the shabby-chic style. I know it’s cliche, but for me, crafting really is all about the process.  I don’t really care if the “finished” product looks good as long as I enjoyed the time it took to create it. Some days I may not even end up with a finished project, but man did I have fun playing!

What is your go-to color combination?

I tend to gravitate towards a neutral card base {Oatmeal, white, or kraft} and then add pops of color. Right now I’m using deep red, light blue, and green a lot.

If you could meet anyone in the crafting world, who would it be?

  1. My Design Team: I’m going to count them as one.  I would love to meet all of these talented ladies in person.  I can’t even begin to express how grateful I am for these incredible ladies and how much I admire each of them.
  2. Jennifer McGuire: Not only is she the most talented woman who seems to never run out of creative ideas, but she seems like a truly kind and generous person.  Did I mention how humble and real she comes across?
  3. Karolyn Loncon: Karolyn placed the very first Wplus9 order. I would love to personally meet and thank Karolyn from the bottom of my heart.

What are five things that never leave your craft table?

  1. Distress Ink (Fine Linen and Vintage Photo)
  2. Scissors/Paper Trimmer
  3. Baby Wipes
  4. Tape Runner
  5. Oatmeal card stock

 Okay, now onto some fun questions…..

Tell us about your blog. When and why did you start it?

I started blogging in March of 2009.  I was a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator at the time and I thought it would be a good way for customers to revisit project ideas.

What has been your favorite part about blogging?

Hands down, all of the wonderful friendships that have been created with such wonderful people that I otherwise would not have crossed paths with.

Are there blogs that you visit on a daily basis? If so, which ones?

I follow blogs through Google Reader, and I subscribe to waaaay too many to list. And yep, I do try to check it everyday.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

I am a hair and makeup fanatic. So when I’m not with the family or working, I’m usually watching YouTube tutorials and trying them out. Some of my favorites channels are Pixiwoo, LisaEldridgedotcom, cutepolish, itsjudytime, dope2111, and GossMakeupArtist.

Name 5 things that you are most passionate about: 

  1. my family and friends
  2. setting a good example for my children
  3. learning and sharing – seriously – never.stop.learning. And once you’ve learned it, share it.
  4. graphic design and art
  5. coffee (there’s always a fresh pot at my house, ask anyone) ;)
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Now that you see what a sweetie Dawn is, I’m sure you want to follow her and her company too! Here’s where you can find her:

 

I hope that you’ll browse Dawn’s blog and other sites- there is so much inspiration and beautiful eye candy! Also, she has release week running right now- beautiful, new products about to be released! :)

Have a great rest of your Monday, I’ll see you tomorrow for the 10 Minute Craft Dash #3 Highlights!