Thinking Things Through...

Flower Girl Wands

2011-02-27T17:27:00.000-08:00

Hey Girls,

Thanks OODLES AND BUNCHES to all of you girls that were able to help me on Saturday to make these flower girl wands!

And we wish all of you could have been there - understandable that some of you couldn't make it.

Here are the results of our hours of labor (Actually it seemed like you girlies were able to take quite a few breaks to try on bridesmaid dresses, eat lunch, and offer advice to me on how long my veil should be).

A special thanks to my dearest of mothers and mother-in-law! You both contributed a lot to Saturday - Mom for making lunch and buying supplies for the wands. Mother Frantz for putting such an effort into the dresses (both bridesmaid and mine).

Love you girls,

-Katy

Now for pictures.

A vase full of flower girl wands!

1 Flower Girl Wand

The Flower

You girls put a lot of work into these!

And here is a picture of the flower girl wand along with MY flower wand - I just had to have one for myself! hehe.

Hair Styles and Veils

2011-02-13T14:01:00.000-08:00

Hey Girlies,

Here are some hair styles I was looking at for the wedding. Just ideas. I like a low hair-do, but am wondering how my veil would look under that kind of style.

This one looked a bit messy. :)

Haha! I can tell she has thick hair - I do not. :)

I sort of liked the twist on this hairstyle.

I liked the "lowness" of this do, but not the formalness of it.

I like the length of this veil, but of course this girl has her hair up fairly high. Hm.

I think the edge on this veil (below), along with the flower pattern. It's probably too complex to make ourselves, but it sure is beautiful!

Beads are pretty here, though I'm not a fan of them being ivory. :)

So there is a random list of my ideas. ;)

Love you all!

-Katy

Cakes & Cupcakes

2011-02-05T18:38:00.000-08:00

Hello from me again!

My mom and I decided this week to have cupcakes (and perhaps even chocolate chip cookies) at the wedding.

We imagine that our set up would look something like this, with the cupcakes on the tier, and the small cake on top.

Then (Praise the Lord!) having been in 4-H Cake Decorating, making purple drop flowers, like the ones on the cupcakes below won't be very hard. We thought we could make the purple drop flowers and give them to anyone from church who would be willing to help make the cupcakes.

We're going to be deciding on our favorite recipes for the cupcakes, and will give those to whoever will help.
More ideas for cupcakes below:

Then, I saw this, what I call, "fluffy cake." I absolutely love it! And am thinking this would be what I would place on the top of the tier. I'm looking forward to making the cake with Andrea - how fun! :)

And as I was browsing through cake and cupcake pictures I came across some beautiful, unusual, and some very far-out cakes! I thought they would make you girlies smile. haha!

I think the Dr. Seuss one takes the cake! :)

What an amazing cake!

Needless to say, I had a blast looking through all these cakes. It's about as addicting as facebook. hehe.

Love you, girls!

-Katy

Ties and Table Settings

2011-02-02T11:37:00.000-08:00

Life has been busy here, despite the two days that I've been cooped up in my house! ;)

We've formed our ideas, and anything I showed you back in December has changed and turned into what it is now.

So, this has become what we have decided to decorate with:

This heart shaped stand, with the "F" in the middle, will be a decoration for either the card table or a memory table that we may have: with a picture of my dad and other grandparents who were unable to be there.

BELOW: this is what the picture frame and flowers have turned into, and I think this is what we will go with. Any advice though, on a way to improve it, girls? I'm open to advice. :)

All the Frames that we will spray paint white. There are a wide assortment of them, so each table will have it's own special look. I know we're taking a bit of a chance, but I think it will be interesting. haha. :)

Each table setting is going to be a bit different. The picture above, along with the other two below are using the same flowers, but in a different way. They'll be up on a bronze-finished stand. We may or may not paint the stands white. Still thinking about that. :)

Below you'll see the ties and suit alongside the dress. I had a hard time accepting the ties, but we're going with them, and they do look nice. :)

Close-up of the flowers we are using as table decorations at the wedding. You each will get a bouquet after the wedding. We'll most likely incorporate them into the photo shoot we do on Saturday, but alas, they'll need to be in vases on Sunday. So, you won't be able to carry them around with you at the reception. Sorry! :)

I hope these updates are keeping you filled in, my dears! :)

Love you all,

-Katy

Dresses

2011-01-17T16:53:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Sunday Mother Frantz came over to my house after church and found a way that our dresses could work out.

I took a picture of how we're envisioning the solution to our dresses.

So, instead of the v-neck, we would have fabric coming across both the front and back.

It will have a similar pattern to the band in the middle of the dress.

Thoughts?

Hope this works out!

Thank you, Mother Frantz, for all your help! :)

Love you all,

-Katy

Bridesmaids Matter!

2011-01-09T17:53:00.001-08:00

Hi, Girlies!

I've decided to post some pictures of ideas I have for the wedding on this blog of mine.

And if you so desire, you can then give me some comments! I love feedback! :)

You are, in fact, my bridesmaids. Which gives you every right to tell me, "Katy, you're crazy!"

In regards to any of my outlandish ideas. ;)

I'll start off with the most recent decision I made, and

am starting to build on in these wedding plans.

1. Table Decor.

2. Flower Girl Dresses and Fun!

First, I took a trip with Suzanne to Hobby Lobby for inspiration on how to decorate my tables at the reception.

Then Suzanne and I took off for Goodwill, and the sanity of cheap priced items that would help us with our inspiration.

So, here's my inspiration. It's sort of half way to perfection, and needs a bit more help.

But hopefully you girlies can get a sense of what I'm wanting.

Table Decor:

This is a picture frame (spray painted white), with some yellow Forsythia flowers, and a tea light. I would either put this purple fabric, or some other purple material underneath it. Fun, huh?

Suz and I were pretty excited.

Let me know your thoughts. :)

Then there was a thought about what decor to put by either the guestbook.

Suzanne had this creative idea.

It's a unique picture frame, also spray painted white.

We could put other engagement pics of me and Eric in the frame.

It's kind of strange, but I like it.

Flower Girls:

Dresses that I'm going to order for my nine nieces.

Here's a pic of the one we want. They're fun, simple, and inexpensive! Yes! Praise the Lord!

Along with these dresses, I thought it would be fun to give the girls "flower girl wands." I call them that, because I'm really not sure what other name to give them. :)

They're fabric flowers that have been sewn onto ribbon, and then the ribbon has been tied or glued to a stick (or wand). :)

I think making these "wands" would be the perfect opportunity for those of you bridesmaids who are available, to get together to make them. It would fun...and I believe rather simple.

I've been making fabric flowers over break, and it's been easy. Though I hesitate to say that, because now this project may turn out to be hard. But, I think we could set a date for sometime in February - a Friday evening or Saturday evening to do this together.

I love all you girlies, and think of you often!

Love you, my dear bridesmaids!

-Katy

Thank You for Understanding

2009-03-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

For no apparent reason, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude toward my Mom. I had to express my feelings somehow, but couldn't think of words that rhymed, or verses that flowed in a perfect rhythm. The result, this free verse poem:

Thank you for understanding.

Thank you for speaking the Truth.

Thank you for taking the time to hear me speak.

Thank you for encouraging.

Thank you for spreading God’s love.

Thank you for sharing wisdom I needed to hear.

Thank you for giving.

Thank you for exemplifying Christ.

Thank you for admonishing me in my faith.

Thank you for hoping.

Thank you for seeking God’s face.

Thank you for hugging all the anger out of me.

Thank you for enduring.

Thank for expressing your belief.

Thank you for esteeming others better than yourself.

Thank you for trusting.

Thank you for committing me to God.

Thank you for understanding when I thought no one ever would.

Thank you for disciplining. [as well as discipling]

Thank you for building me up.

Thank you for being my dearest, loveliest mother!

I LOVE my mom so, so much, and I suppose this was the only way I could express it.

Who Cares?

2009-03-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

Should I care what people think about me?

It’s true that we all care what other people think about us, but my question is, should we? My friend mentioned that she cared what people thought about her, and she seemed frustrated with the whole thing.

Come to think of it…I am too!

We put our heads together and came up with a few (in my opinion) good points. They are basically, truthful thoughts about the obvious.

· We want everyone to like us, yet we can’t please every, single person.
· Everyone is different! We all are made so uniquely, even our fingerprints are not the same as anyone else’s.
· Even if we told people who didn’t like us that we are all made individually, would they care? Our answer was “No.”

It was a hard conversation to cover, because from Stephanie’s worldview there is little hope from that point. She said something like, “(this problem) will keep going on, and on, and on forever. There’s no end to it!”
How sad!
Lord, why didn’t I think to say this at the time?
God alone cares.
Lord, you made the vast heavens and the sunrise that I saw this morning. Did anyone stop to watch such a magnificent display of your creation? As humans, we are too distracted to notice the GREAT things of your creation, like a sunrise, let alone a small thing, like individual fingerprints. The amazing thing is you care for us anyway!

If only Stephanie could see that no human being cares much about each individual person! We may try, but how can we love every, single individual in the world. It's not even possible for us to do!
BUT…God is the one who made each and every individual! Read Psalm 139 and you’ll see that he formed us and breathed life into us! We are his creation…and he loves us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3)!

Should we care what people think? Uh, no, since more than likely none of them think about us very often. But let’s care about the opinion of the One who does think of us at all times. There is never a moment that he doesn’t completely and fully love us!

Praise your name, Lord!

“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” ~ Jeremiah 29:11-13

Self Struggles

2009-01-02T15:04:00.000-08:00

I have been reading through A. W. Tozer's The Pursuit of God, and he has brought up so many profound and life changing thoughts and ideals, that it's hard to practically apply all that he says.
I need to take several weeks to digest just one chapter (or even one page) of his writing. And yet I want to "eat up" everything he says, that I end up reading his book so quickly that I only pick up on the very obvious thoughts.
If you have never read anything by A.W. Tozer I would highly recommend this book. Since it's the only one I've read by him...though it won't be that last, I'm sure. :)
One very real struggle that Tozer brought to my attention was the idea that everyone struggles with what he called "self sins". These "self sins" really surprised me, becuase I hadn't considered that fact that I had to deal with these normal, seemingly small, and everyday emotions. Yet Tozer was very serious when he said that our focus on ourselves keeps us from a full and vibrant relationship with God.
Let me just quote him, rather than try to put it in my own words: "What is it? (what is it that keeps us from drawing nearer and even nearer to God?) What but the presence of a veil in our hearts? A veil not taken away, as the first veil was, (at Jesus' death the veil in the temple was rent in two) but which remains there still shutting out the light and hiding the face of God from us. It is the veil of our fleshly, fallen nature living on, unjudged within us, uncrucified and unrepudiated. It is the close woven veil of the self-life which we have never truly acknowledged, of which we have been secretly ashamed, and which we for these reasons we have never brought to the judgement of the cross. It is not too mysterious, this opaque veil, nor is it too hard to identify. We have but to look into our own hearts and we shall see it there, sewn and patched and repaired it may be, but there nevertheless, an enemy to our lives and an effective block to our spiritual progress." Some of the self sins that Tozer mentioned were eye-opening, and convicting.

Self-indulgence.
Self-seeking.
Self-sufficiency.
Self-righteous.
Self-pity.
Self-consciousness.
Self-confidence.

Wow. I was a bit humbled by that list. My first reaction was, "I don't struggle with those...I mean, I do...but it's not all that serious. Is it?"
Well...is it?
As I looked for scripture that would fight against these very normal sins, I found that God's Word repeatedly speaks against them.
God wants us to be cleansed from ALL unrighteouness! (1 John 1:9)
Paul also exhorted the Corinthians to keep their mind clean. Aren't we to cast down every imagination...and every high thing that exalts itself against what we know about God?
God isn't selfish in the least. I think that makes the point that "self sins", are to be confronted and defeated in our walk with Christ.
Sadly, I forget that the battle in this life begins in my mind. If I allow an opening in my thought life Satan is free to roam in that area...then, my relationship with God suffers...and my actions show a less-than-godly lifestyle.
*sigh*
I concluded my study on the notorious "self sins" with practical bible verses that I could use in open battle against them.
Here are the references for each of the "self sins" listed. I would encourage you to look these up and write them down on note cards! Study them. Hide the Truth in your heart.
These are not the only verses that combat these sins. If you find another verse that applies much better to your life - use that one!

Self-indulgence. - 1 Corinthians 9:25
Self-seeking. - Philippians 2:3
Self-sufficiency. - Deuteronomy 8:3
Self-righteous. - Philippians 3:9
Self-pity. - Psalm 42:11
Self-consciousness. - 2 Corinthians 12:10
Self-confidence. - 1 Corinthians 15:10

May God bless you this week!
Seek Him in this new year - He is waiting!

-Katy

College Weekend: Starting off the Week

2008-10-19T16:02:00.000-07:00

It's interesting that we call Saturday and Sunday the weekend. I'm back from college weekend, and I feel energized for the week - so I feel like saying this weekend was actually a great week- beginning for me. After church on Sunday evening I always dread the next morning: Monday morning. That's when I usually consider that my week starts.
If I wanted to change my perspective though, I could think of Sunday evening as the starting of my week. I don't mean that I would get out my school books and say, "well, I'm going to get ahead by starting my week tonight."
I mean, I could be still.
I could examine myself.
I could start the week with a fresh perspective, by asking myself:

Who am I?

Who is God?

And, how do I act based on my answer to those questions?

That way on Monday morning, with it's usual business and new stressful situations, I can't think, "Oh, this week is starting off horribly!" I have already started my week on Sunday evening...and I am prepared for the coming week.