Thoughts on Dough

Some interesting thoughts from John Piper:

"For a moment, forget the political puzzle of getting money back when the country is nine trillion dollars in debt. The more immediate question is: How will you make much of Christ with your "economic stimulus payment"? The president says it will be in the mail in time for Cinco de Mayo.

Clue: Nobody in the world will see you spend your money on yourself and conclude that Christ is your treasure. They will assume you are just like them, no matter how loudly you thank God for this boon. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t spend it on yourself (the way we do with most of what we earn). Not everything we do can look different from the world—eat, pay utilities, fill up the car, wear clothes (even thrift-store clothes). And yes, we hope (somehow) that spending on ourselves in some way contributes to our being more Christ-exalting people.

But do we really need this money? Very few do. We would have gotten on fine without it. If we didn’t know it was coming, we wouldn’t even be feeling the desires we are feeling right now.

May I encourage you to be radically creative and hedonistic. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). And those crazy Macedonians in a “severe test of affliction” and in “extreme poverty” had an “abundance of joy” that overflowed in a “wealth of generosity.” They even begged Paul “for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints” (2 Corinthians 8:2-4). They really believed what Jesus said. Really.

Before the check comes dream of some person or ministry which might make much of Christ because you treasured him above your next home project.

The reason God created money and enabled us to earn it is so that we could show by the way we use it that money is not our treasure, Christ is. That’s why the checks are coming. So we can make Christ look great.

“Be content with what you have, for he has said, 

‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5-6)."

Turning My Room into a Studio...Pt. 1

I am getting organized...

And I am SOOOOO excited!!!!

My messy stacks of fabric all over the kitchen floor were the first items on the list...Now they are neat little stacks on shelves...

Small Stacks:

Not As Small Stacks:

...even my books are color schemed! (the poor darlings never get read, so I decided they should look pretty while they sit there)...

Blues Stack:

And right now, I am very much in love with my eclectic treasure shelf, filled with varying levels of sentiment. It will soon be undergoing an overhaul, so I thought I'd share it with you while I can..

.

I found this interesting...

Dear Daddy Obama a Daddy Dearest on Abortion

April 3rd, 2008 www.mothermayibeborn.com

This post comes with no intention to intrude upon or disrespect Barack Obama’s private relationship with his children.  No doubt, the Democratic presidential hopeful loves his little girls. 

I address only Obama’s public relationship with the issue of abortion, as Ben Smith’s Blog on Politico.com reports here.   

When a woman at an Obama gathering in Johnstown, Pa., pleaded with him to “stop these abortions,” his response included: 

“This is a very difficult issue, and I understand sort of the passions on both sides of the issue,” he said. “I have two precious daughters — they are miracles [my emphasis in bold letters].”

and

“Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old,” he said. “I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at age 16, so it doesn’t make sense to not give them information [my emphasis in bold letters]. ”

Obama’s selective life values speak for themselves.  If we make a mistake, we will be punished with a President Obama.

(c) 2008  Marybeth T. Hagan

Cartoon by Lisa Benson on Townhall.com

www.mothermayibeborn.com

Success!

After my recent post on my upcoming dresses, I am sorry to say the burgundy dress has been pulled, due to a calamity involving my inexperience with taffeta...
This tragic experience nearly sent me over the edge of sanity, plunging me into a time where absolutely nothing I tried to make worked. Nothing. (Even my thread started fraying)
I know you have all been anticipating the listings, and now you know that when I am stressed out I tend to shut down entirely. (Thus my "C"s in college...another tragic story for later) And in this case, "soon" turns out to be an incredibly relative amount of time.
However, today I was able to pull out of my creative slump, pose Barbie, find my camera, charge the battery, take the pictures, edit them, and get her party dress listed!!

(I even found time to take her to the zoo to visit someone with equally long limbs...if a neck can be considered a limb...)

How did I force myself out of said slump, when my stressed self only wanted to crawl back in bed with a bowl of cookie dough?

1. a LOT of prayer
2. a lot of cussing
3. Mew's "Comforting Sounds"
4. Muse's "Invincible"

I could not function without my ipod, really.
Moreso(a word that means "More so", but looks like"morose", an acceptable alternative for "morso" because it means "having a sullen or gloomy disposition." Which I have had lately when I try to work on things. But "morose" is not what I meant, I meant "More So."), I cannot forget that this store is God's doing, and the icky depression I am prone to is only a fight against that purpose. Icky devil.

My inspired self will now go work on more Quite Lovely clothing for my lovely long-legged model. Bimbo...

~Dutchess

are you HAPPY?? (e.g. "Treating Yourself Kindly"

Never having done this, I will do it now....

here's an awesome blog entry I found by the one and only Kris Vallatton!

"Whether you are young or old, male or female, or introverted or extroverted, you have more conversations with yourself than you have with anyone one else in the world. There was a study completed by a large university that found that the average person hears twelve hundred words a minute of self-talk. The study found that eleven hundred of these words are negative in most people! If you add to that fact that we tend to trust ourselves more than anyone else, what do you think happens when we talk down, punish or talk negatively to our self? I’ll tell you what happens; it destroys our confidence, kills are self-esteem and yields the fruit of depression, hopeless and fear.

Christians should be the happiest people on the planet! Think about it, Jesus prayed, “But now I come to You (Father); and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves” (John 17:13). ... "Read the rest here!

After reading the whole thing, I can tell myself (and my wonderful readers) that I am so proud of myself for using pictures I took myself, instead of googling random people! I love all those grins!

~joy, joy, joy...joey, joey, joey! Happy 1st birthday!

~Dutchess

A Dolly's Tale

While digging through my old Barbie clothes for inspiration, I was once again mindboggled by how they have changed her shape, thus rendering all my now-vintage doll clothes useless to my modern model. (see: enlarged hips, and shrunken chest...it makes altering the patterns very tricky...)

Frustrated, I decided to send her to the gym, since her hips are now so huge. Unfortunately, this get-up is the best I had in gym wear, and we lamented her once-fashionable duds......She was far too embarrassed to leave the house looking like this, so I am stuck with her and all her friends who now line the shelves of every Wal-Mart in the nation...

Now, I leave you with some Etsy sneak peaks of my upcoming listings for Quite Lovely Boutique:

I knew you were wanting some party dresses! They will be listed very soon, do make sure you visit them...

~Dutchess

Hello February!

I see you there, right around the corner!

January's project---Barbie Tights!

They were a doozy to figure out, but they came out nicely!

And look great with her little dresses!