The seal. We took the monogram our friend made and made it into a stamp :) Less costly and messy than doing the wax seal or stickers, but still looks really fancy!

Our invite and magnet :)

Real Wedding! Stole these pics off facebook from an aquaintance of mine. Her wedding was so lovely. Very personalized and vintage. Some really nice ideas and great color choice.

 Frame the invite for a cute decor addition. 

 Love the blues and peach - the fabric banner is cute, plus how perfect to use the vintage blue and white plates.

 How adorable is this cake? The icing is actually pretty easy to replicate too if you wanted to do this yourself. And just stick the babies breath in the top. 

 Really cute cake table.

 Nice set up, with old window and lace (probably an old lace curtain - watch out for these at thrift stores and when your grandma is clearing out her linens. depending on the material you could die one that is too bright white in some brewed tea to get the vintage look).

They had a banner that said "here comes the bride" and this one that said "mr and mrs". Good idea to use it in photos!

I'm excited to post these because then I can pin it to pinterest....I know I'm lame. But after browsing so many wedding things, I want to post what I actually did on my interest because it's real life and not just wishes! We had a friend design the invites/save the dates/and eventually programs and a friend took our photos. More photos to come!

The Rest of God

A goal of mine this semester is to learn to REST! So, I'm reading this book called "The Rest of God" by Mark Buchanan. Not only is it great, but it made me realize something that I think is pretty profound. Not only is is good for us to rest and have greater peace, not be stressed, and not be tired, but also when you rest it opens you up to experience the REST of God, as in all the things you miss when you don't take the time to rest, when you are too busy to let God speak to you and to notice all His blessings.

Please pray for me that this semester I learn to rest. No matter how busy I am...to rest in God and begin to see all the REST of Him. :)

SUCCESS!!!

I finally got brave enough to try to beat baking at it's game and won!!
The thing is, I'm not a baker.
But I REALLY want to be.
And I can't follow a recipe.
Because I'm a chef, NOT a baker.

Are you following?

So I found a good recipe and did it again and again just as it said to do it.
But I got bored.
So the following is a successful attempt to be brave, smart, and healthy.
Enjoy. :)


Liz's Banana Muffins
Mix together in a bowl just until all ingredients are moist (I HATE THE WORD MOIST!):
1 1/2 cups peeled, cored apples (small chop)
1/2 cup sugar (original called for a WHOLE CUP!!!)
1/4 cup almond or peanut butter (I'm slightly allergic to peanuts, so I go with almond, you could use any nut butter really)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs
4 bananas, mashed
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla (ok, honestly, I never measure vanilla...but just in case you want to, I would go about that much)

Mix and then portion into greased muffin tin. Bake at 350 degrees in a preheated oven for around 20 minutes, but check them around 15 minutes to see how they are doing. I know for sure when muffins are done by checking out the tops. If they are dry and springy, they are done, but if you push on one and it is wet and doesn't bounce back, not done.

I really want to post a pic with this because that makes it more fun, but my camera is at my sister's place...sad.

Interesting Banana bread recipe!

Try this and tell me what you think. My friend Maria is awesome and loves to create healthy, unique recipes. I'm always interested in a new banana bread recipe, but haven't ever seen one quite like this. It really sounds tastey, but I have NO TIME to try it out right now. Please click here to try it!

Cakes and cakes and cakes and cakes and cakes

My first attempt at cake making. I'm getting ready for my brother and his wife's big wedding party (they got married in August in Hawaii). I'm making cakes for each table, or something like that. This is a "Lady Baltimore Cake" found in a really cool cookbook called, "Southern Cakes" by Nancie McDermott. It has some wonderful cake recipes in it, beautiful pictures, and cool stories about where the recipes came from. I'm not sold on this recipe because of the frosting. It just seems too much like marshmallow fluff to me...however, I may just not have made it right...I need to borrow my sister's hand mixer so I don't have to whisk everything myself. Pretty intense stuff.

I dabble....

I just started playing guitar sort-of-for-real this past semester, so I've been playing now for about 8ish months. This is a pic of me playing at our open mic night this past Friday night at the Chi Alpha camping trip. It was so fun/awkward to play in front of people. But I really love playing because anytime I want now I can grab my guitar and play worship. I love going out to our pool and sitting out there early in the morning with my guitar and my bible. Good stuff. :)

COFFEE!!!

I'm done with my Daniel Fast as of TODAY!! Last night me and my roommie Ruth went to Pita Pit right at midnight and got FREE PITA'S which was an amazing way to break a fast let me tell ya. (We had coupons from a UNT event). Anyway, currently I'm slightly light headed after drinking coffee for the first time in 3 WHOLE WEEKS! But I'm cool with that because I love coffee. Speaking of coffee, I have decided to start roasting my own coffee. If you are interested in this please comment because I would love to share some tips and stories with you! Basically though I did it with a hot air popcorn popper. It is super simple and only takes about 5-8 minutes to roast enough for a pot-full. I got the coffee from a friend of mine who owns a coffee shop/restaurant in Slayton, MN called "The Leftbank Cafe." My brother-in-law Chuck took this picture. He thinks he "wins" when it comes to the best coffee picture (all my siblings were attempting to take artsy pictures of my first roast), but I really like Ginger's picture which you can see here at her blog.

Tatoos and Tater Tots

I'm going to get a tattoo soon and I wanted to share why. I think it is a beautiful expression of something that is inside you. I think it should be divinely inspired and as silly as it sounds I feel I was inspired by the Lord to get a sun tattoo on my foot (yes, one of the most painful places...). When it struck me initially I was thinking about a few verses in particular, but have since kept finding more and more meaning. The two that stick out the most for me are Psalm 119 and Revelation 21. Psalm 119 contains the well known verse "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path," however, if you look at the entire psalm you see that it really is entirely about God leading us on the right path. It begins with "Blessed are those who are blameless, who WALK in the way of the Lord" and continues on to explain what this looks like, how God keeps us on this path, etc. It is a great description of our walk here and now. However, there is more than just the here and now. God shows us something greater in Revelation when he describes a new heaven and new earth. In Revelation 21 a description of this is given and it says that "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it." It is just a reminder to me that there is something more! Something greater! That as much as the sun is an amazing gift to us that is huge and awesome, God made it...and He is bigger and more awesome and more shiny? :)

So...that's all I've got to say about that...and the tater tot thing...well, I was just thinking about the Daniel fast I'm doing and about Daniel's Daniel Fast in the bible, and how I complain (sort of jokingly, but complain none the less) about not being able to eat things like meat, but I still have the ability to eat way more than Daniel probably got to because I have access to food from every single country on this planet...how crazy is that? Basically this thought came upon a potluck at Eaglepointe this morning at which someone made tater tot casserole (hotdish) and I thought to myself, I can eat tater tots on my fast!!! But I couldn't really because of all the other stuff in the hotdish. But then it got me thinking about how technically that is within the guidelines of the fast, as well as things like salsa and potato chips (as long as they are all natural and only have potato, salt, and oil). So I mean, come on...Daniel definitely didn't have things like that. I'm really not that bad off, even doing this fast where I can't eat meat, sugar, dairy, bread etc.

More on both of these things later, but here is a link to a website that inspires me. Art Deco is cool! The stained glass sun about half way down is very close to what my tattoo will look like, although not exactly like that.

Just a quick note!

Some things I did this summer:
1. Read all of "the Cat's Pajama's" which is a collection of stories by Ray Bradbury. Great author!!
2. Explored the the Great Plains with my family at Pipestone National Monument in Pipestone, MN. Yay history! (although not if you are American Indian....)
3. Made jam and canned it with my Grandma
4. Learned how to use tools but still can't remember what they are called...

Things I am excited for this semester (BECAUSE SCHOOL STARTS TODAY!!)
1. learning Spanish with my new friends from Mexico and Venezuela
2. Only taking 4 classes!
3. babysitting my niece and nephew :)
4. Continuing Friday night bible study at my place and enjoying all the awesome international food
5. What God has in store for UNT, my family, and my own heart this year

Hope the new school year is great for everyone!

Quick cooking note:

Yesterday I made awesome banana bread that called for 4 bananas, but I used 3 and substituted about a 1/2 cup, or so..., of canned apple slices, which broke up into pieces as I mixed. It was delicious. Also, if you normally really make banana NUT bread, I recommend trying it without the nuts. It tastes totally different in my opinion. I'm not actually a big fan of banana nut bread, but love banana bread.

Michelangelo at 1 in the morning. Yes please.

I feel full of fun facts this week since it is finals and all you do during this time is cram knowledge into your head like it's going out of style. I just spent the past the past 6 hours straight studying for my beverage survey final and then my english lit final, both of which are "this morning" meaning in a few hours...but no worries, I promise to sleep in between now and then. I just wanted to take a break and share an interesting poem written by Michelangelo (yes, the one who sculpted "David" and did the Sistine Chapel. He was also a poet). He struggled throughout his life with sin. I wish I knew more about him, but I don't know what the outcome was. I do know that he was searching...check out this poem.

I wish to want, Lord, what eludes my will:
between your passion and my heart a block
of ice deflects your fire, and makes a mock
of everything I write with perjured quill.
I love you with my lips, then groan that still
your love can't reach my heart, nor will it knock
and force the door, that joys of all kinds flock
about my heart, your purpose to fulfill.
Dissolve that block, my lord, tear down the wall
whose thickness keeps me from the piercing light
of your sweet presence, no longer seen on earth.
Be like a bridegroom, let your brightness fall
upon a yearning soul which at your sight
is warmed at heart, having from you its birth.

Running Away

This is something I wrote in my journal about a year ago and is something I think a lot of people struggle with. I thought it was interesting because although I still struggle with it, God has been showing me what commitment means and what truly living life abundantly means.

"I confess my want to just run away every time things get hard, every time I feel like I am getting in over my head. It's funny because I totally do it to myself and just dig a hole, it seems like, and then just jump in; I look up, realizing, I'm in a hole...
I know you don't want me to run away from my responsibility in fact, I feel like you are just waiting for me to invite you in to my responsibilities and let you be Lord of them again, or maybe for the first time in my life. Help me hand it over to you!"

It is so hard to give God back the lives we owe, but I'll leave you with this poem that often swims around in my head on days when I really want to skirt responsibility. It helps me to know I can trust God with my life and that He gives me rest and makes life so much better than I can ever make it.

"O Love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in Thee. I give Thee back the life I owe, that in Thine ocean depths it's flow, may richer, fuller, be."
- George Matheson

Procrastination

...has been my downfall lately. It's a good thing I have God taking care of me or else i would never get anything done. People think I'm so darn organized, and I am pretty organized, but man am I good at procrastinating...sort of like right now as I update my blog instead of getting homework done. So here is my battle and I know people always say that they struggle with procrastination but then never do anything about it, well, it has got to stop and so if you are looking for something to pray about please pray about procrastination in my life and in the world because it really isn't a good thing. I'm going to go make a list and start checking things off it!!!!!

Liz

Chi Alpha SLA (Student Leadership Advance) 2010

Welcome to the weekend! As I begin a pretty chill weekend I would like to reflect on the past weekend which was not so chill. Through the grace of God the event I coordinated last weekend for college students went really well! See the pics below.

Strength

Finally updating my blog...mostly for my dad. So here you go Big Pumpkin.

"I have heard it said that every weakness in a capable person is generally a strength abused." - Ravi Zacharias in "Jesus Among Other Gods"

I am a junior in college with about a month and a half left before I can officially say that I am a senior with about a year left of school. I can't explain the weirdness of that statement. You just have to live it to understand, but I can really see how God has been guiding me through life, noticed most fully starting in high school, then the transition to college, and now in college. I am seeing that transition from college to...something else...a lot more clearly now as the semesters pass by and I am having to think more and more about how life will change and grow when I move into a new season. I look back on the past three years excited because I have grown so much. Not just the normal "grown up" kind of idea, but in every part of me. Spiritually, maturity, knowledge, wisdom, discipline, life skills, relationally, job skills, and even physically (seriously, my roommate and I measured the other day how tall we were and I am 5 ft 5 inches...I grew an inch since like sophomore yr of high school...either that or we measured wrong...). I think God is teaching me so much and I don't even realize it until I look back. However, especially right now I feel Him working on some of my biggest weaknesses.

I have always been a talker. I am fluent in speech and generally comfortable speaking in front of people, but I am also an external processor, meaning basically that I think out loud. I can be long winded and repeat myself frequently. Even just these past couple months I have felt this push to teach classes through Chi Alpha and do other things that involve me speaking and He has also put people and scripture in my life that first showed me my weaknesses and then encouraged me and even now continue to guide me in working on those areas.

Discipline is an issue for me, but through a cool event I have made some lifestyle changes to be healthier. Last semester I was meeting with my mentor Jaime and another friend to talk and she said before we started that she had a sort of random word from the Lord for me. She said I was supposed to work out today, that I should actually not take that time to talk, but rather go to the gym. Random, yes, but I decided to be faithful to what God has spoken to her and go to the gym. Well, at the gym that day was an acquaintance of mine through Chi Alpha, Abby, and we got to talking...started working out every friday...now we have made the decision together to work out three times a week and have been doing it ALL semester. That is pretty huge for me. It is the perfect accountability situation and we push each other, keep each other healthy. Not only that, but we are good friends now! :)

Along with discipline is my quiet time in the mornings. First, when I was at a conference last may I went to a class and the teacher gave us a schedule of scripture to read the bible in a year, which was something I have wanted to do for a long time to get a good overview of the entire bible. This has kept me fairly on track and accountable to actually being in the Word every day. Then, at Thanksgiving my bro-in-law's Grandpa (Bipaw!) who is my adopted Bipaw too and a retired minister sat down with me and talked to me about how he spends his time in the morning with God and it really helped me a lot. It is awesome to have mentors and Christian leaders in your life!

It is hard to explain because it is going on inside of me and not always visible, but in general I feel I am being sharpened. The bible talks about that somewhere. I am excited because I can feel the purposefulness in this sharpening, but at the same time I don't entirely know what it is preparing me for. I don't know what is next, so don't bother asking me. :) But I am excited for it regardless. I know God is going to use my strengths and weaknesses for His Glory and I know that my true STRENGTH comes from the Lord!

A recap

The semester in pictures. Not necessarily in the correct order...because I don't know how to get them in the right order.. :)

The Saga of my car

Step 1. Buy a car

About a month ago I bought my first car ever. Because of my new job working for the North Texas regional Chi Alpha director helping him with events and conferences I needed to be able to travel a couple times a week to work. So my bro-in-law helped me search cars on craigslist and eventually we found one. On the way to check that car out, we took a strange route Chuck wasn't planning on taking and ended up driving past a small automotive shop with cars for sale by the curb. We ended up stopping and looking at a white saturn that was in really good condition. It was in my price range so we took it for a test drive and found it to be a really great little car. Strangley enough, we looked at the car off craiglist right after this and it was broken down and not near as nice as the one we had just seen. We ended up purchasing the Saturn!

Step 2. Legalize/do maintenance on said car

Considering that the car we bought (White Saturn) was a 1996 it was in great shape...minus needing new tires and some random other repairs. However because of a mess up with the title the paperwork took about a month to accomplish, partially because it was so difficult finding rides to go to the different places to do it all. Also, when we took it in to get new tires, we ended up having to get new wheels as well (which are two different things...go figure). Then I proceeded to leave the lights on one night and the battery died...yeah, I'm an idiot. And this wasn't the newest battery so it wouldn't hold a new charge...so then we bought a new battery. Then there were the wiper blades, the taillight, the headlights, and some wiring issues, oh and flushing out something or other and changing the oil. BLAH.

You'd think after all that it would be good to go. Well...

Step 3. Drive car and have it work

Self explanatory

Step 4. Drive car, have it not work, then work, then not work again

So Sunday come home from church, stop in my apartment, jump back in car to go see Chuck and Ginger and my Dad who is in town, car doesn't start....but I wait a few minutes (after frantically calling Chuck) and it starts...
Tuesday (today) I drove it to UNT to run an errand before my class and when I come back out to my car it doesn't work AGAIN! Oh No! Is what I'm thinking. Needless to say Chuck had to come by after getting off work to help me figure out what to do. He jiggled a few things and ended up getting it started.

SOooooo. What can we learn from all this? I mean, it's hard to say and I'm still realizing all the reasons why my first car story is turning out this way. But as I was reading this pretty good book today called Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot there was a passage that stuck out to me as food for thought and action.

"If God gave it to me," we say, "it's mine. I can do what I want with it." No. The truth is that it is ours to thank Him for and ours to offer back to Him, ours to relinquish, ours to lose, ours to let go of - if we want to find our true selves, if we want real Life, if our hearts are set on glory.

The car is not mine and I have to keep remembering why I have it in the first place. God gives and takes away. Someday I may have to give it up and will I be ok with that? In fact, tomorrow the car may explode or something. There will be a reason for it and there is a reason I have it now. Ahh...the beauty of having a car. I have learned so much about it all and that is pretty fantastic. I'm glad to have had so much help too. What a blessing to have two awesome big brothers who know things about cars, and a Dad who loves helping his daughter. Anyway, just wanted to write it all down. also -

some things I did today I wouldn't normally do:
1. Noticed the weather...it was beautiful and the sky, especially around sunset was fantastic. So glorious and just filled with God's glory.
2. Bought McDonalds coffee for me and a security guard who was really nice.
3. Took a nap in the back seat of my car...sort of a random activity that everyone should do.
4. Walked home in the nice weather
5. Played with my niece in a beautiful patch of green grass. her laugh and smile is worth so much more than a car.
6. read part of a good book and just sat and thought about it

Days don't always go as one plans....but that's cool. God shows us some cool things through total weird change.