Crowned

This past Friday night, I went with several girls from our youth group at church to an event called "Crowned."  A young man named Matt Pitt spoke to the girls about purity and conducting themselves as the princesses they are - as daughters of the King of Kings.  He stressed, in his own energetic and comical way, how valuable we are in God's eyes. Something we all need to hear from time to time, no matter how old or young we are. It was a powerful service. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house.

Here are our girls as we were waiting to get into the auditorium. Aren't they beautiful? 

The photo above was taken during a drama they were performing during the service (sorry for the poor photo quality). I wish I had a video to show you.  It was awesome!

And here are the girls with Matt after the service.

Oops, we left out Kyla....

See why the kids love him! 

What amazes me is the tremendous gift Matt Pitt has been given to reach our youth.  He went through a period of his young life with drug and alcohol problems.  His parents found out he had a problem when they visited him in college. They promptly took him home to get help.  Then, one night in their basement, after his parents had come to the conclusion that there wasn't much more they could do to help him, his dad sat him down and gave him an ultimatum.  That very night, in the basement, Matt was led to the Lord by his father.

After that night, Matt began inviting friends to his house, to the basement, so they, too, could experience God the way he had. What began with about four people gathering in his basement worshiping together turned into a huge gathering of hundreds, if not thousands, of youth, moving from church to church to accommodate the growing numbers.

Now, this group meets at The Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama. The event is known simply as "The Basement." 

Lives are being changed. Droves of kids are being led to Christ and it's all because God has used the life of this one young man. God led Matt from a life of hopeless addiction to a life of ministry. Truly amazing.
 
We should never under estimate our trials because who knows what wonderful things God has planned as a result.

For more information on this wonderful ministry, you can visit their website here.  I've not been to a regular service before, but I plan to go with my kids over the summer. Maybe I'll see you there!

Blessings,

Mirror Makeover

My in-laws recently cleaned out their old house and we had a huge yard sale together at my sister-in-law's house. Sadly, in the five hours I helped work the yard sale, I only made $20 (but, hey, that's $20, right?). My sister-in-law raked in over $200, though, so it wasn't a total waste. Plus, I brought home several of her cast-offs, so I can definitely say that it was worth it and you'll see why.

I have several projects in the works, but I recently completed one. Yay!! This mirror was included in the junk that I brought home from the yard sale.

It was originally a gold-ish color (I think), but she decided she wanted it to be a pewter color, so she got hold of it with some spray paint and, lucky for me, didn't like the result.  I, too, had big plans for this mirror.

It was a little rough to the touch, sort of like the paint that was previously used had a texture to it, kind of like sand.  So, I used some 180 grit sand paper and lightly sanded away the rough spots. (Sorry, I didn't think to take close-up before pictures).

I placed newspaper over the mirror and then taped it in place with painter's tape all the way around. Now for the fun part. Two or three good coats of Heirloom White spray paint.

I'm kind of new to this blogging thing and didn't think about how my "during" pictures would look. You can see how sophisticated my work area is.  I didn't have enough newspaper to go all the way around, so I kept sliding it over to get the spots that I needed to paint. The wind was also blowing a little, so that made it a little more frustrating. See the wood pieces on top of the newspaper? Paper weights. Next time, I'll know better.  Hopefully.

I really like the way it looked painted white. So much so that I almost didn't do the final step - glazing.  I decided to go for it because I could always re-paint it white if it turned out horrible.  Because there are so many little crevices in the details, I used a small artist's brush to be sure I got every little nook and cranny. Then, after a couple of minutes, wiped it off with a damp paper towel. I used q-tips and a clean paint brush to wipe out the crevices to my liking.

I really like the way it turned out! I haven't decided where, exactly, I want to hang it, so I leaned it against the wall on my buffet to see if it grows on me. It may end up in my bedroom (another work in progress).

Here's the before again...

and after...

So, I'm ready to start my next project. Here's a peek...

Another freebie from the yard sale.  Stay tuned.

Blessings,

Christa

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