Crickett B'day

Lillie Ann 27th Birthday - Sunflower Cake

Happy Birthday - We love you

Smoke Signal ..

(Got this in an email today,, thought i'd share it here. Thanks honey)

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions.
One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his lit tle hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost. He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger.. He cried out, 'God! How could you do this to me?'
Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island! It had come to rescue him! 'How did you know I was here?' asked the weary man of his rescuers. 'We saw your smoke signal,' they replied.

The Moral of This Story:It's easy to get discouraged when things are going bad, but we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain and suffering.

Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground, it just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God.

P.S. Please pass this on because you never know who feels as if their hut is on fire today

More cake

Cake for Rowdy's mamaw. Yellow cake and buttercream icing.. yum!

DIY day -- lunch bag

I'm linking up today to Kimba"s DIY day ,, and if you wanna see a lot of cool things others have done and leave with lots of inspiration go by Kimba's blog ~ A soft place to land and you wont be disappointed..



Here is a little bag i whipped up just using ideas from several different tutorials that I had seen,, Its replacing the ugly plastic bag i usually take my lunch to work in,, (dont look too close or you'll see all the flaws,, IT. IS . NOT. PERFECT and I dont care.. i still like it..
















WOO HOO,, its been a year since i started this blog and I'm just now getting to my 100th post,, maybe i'll make something and have a give-a-way..

Birthday Greetings

Happy Birthday Rowdy !!

Rowdy is Amberly's boyfriend and today is his special day. Hope you have a great one.

Sign your name .. Hang it high

When the kids were little and we were going to birthday partys for cousins and neices and nephews all the time we got in the habit of signing the card ... The Mann Clan...just cause it was easier than signing 5 names to the bottom of the card ... mainly because it was usually last minute and done ,, in the car... on the way to the party.. Anyway,, so i've been wanting to make us a sign with our name on it.. I thought about doing the usual ,, (Mann,, est. 1987,,) but decided to do our usual signature .. The Mann Clan.

Used just a "scrap" piece of wood, printed the letters out in Microsoft word, size 400, cut them out and decoupaged onto the board. And voila,, this is how it turned out.

Is it perfect? NO.. Will you be able to see flaws if you enlarge the picture? PROBABLY ... Do I care? NO,, Because as a this blogger says,, It Doesnt Have to be Perfect to be Beautiful !! And it'll be hangin high in the living room and noone will notice . Have a great weekend everyone!

Gotta go back, back, back to school,, WooHoo!

Tyler starts 9th grade tomorrow,, sooo hard to believe.. We went and got his schedule tonight. I hope he stays focused and studies and does good this year.



*******************

Many of us have kids that are going back to school tomorrow or next week.. Please be in prayer for all of our kids that they''ll have a successful and safe 2009-'10 school year. And pray for the teachers and staff that have the responsiblity and honor to teach them. It's not a job, its a calling, and it's not easy.




( Melanie, Jeff, Tyler & Amberly at Bradley wedding)

And now they are one,,,

Congratulations Bradley & Mallory
August 1, 2009

Bradley's groom cake.

Just let it go !

Looking around some of the blogs this morning I came across this piece talking about letting go on NanaBananaDesigns and parts of it really "stepped on my toes" (as my mama would say). I have a REALLY hard time letting go of some things and its something i struggle with all the time even though I KNOW i should just let it go (forgiveness in some cases) and let God handle the rest.

LETTING GO
by T. D Jakes

There are people who can walk away from you.
And hear me when I tell you this! When people can walk away from you: let them walk. I don't want you to try to talk another person into staying with you, loving you, calling you, caring about you, coming to see you, staying attached to you. When people can walk away from you let them walk.
Your destiny is never tied to anybody that left.
The Bible says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. (I John 2:19)
People leave you because they are not joined to you.

And if they are not joined to you, you can't make them stay.
Let them go!!

And it doesn't mean that they are a bad person it just means that their part in the story is over. And you've got to know when people's part in your story is over so that you don't keep trying to raise the dead. You've got to know when it's dead. You've got to know when it's over.

Let them go!!
If you are holding on to something that doesn't belong to you and was never intended for your

life, then you need to......

LET IT GO!!!
If you are holding on to past hurts and pains ......

LET IT GO!!!
If someone can't treat you right, love you back, and see your worth.....

LET IT GO!!!
If someone has angered you....

LET IT GO!!!
If you are holding on to some thoughts of evil and revenge.....

LET IT GO!!!
If you are involved in a wrong relationship or addiction......

LET IT GO!!!
If you are holding on to a job that no longer meets your needs or talents.....

LET IT GO!!!
If you have a bad attitude.....

LET IT GO!!!
If you keep judging others to make yourself feel better......

LET IT GO!!!
If you're stuck in the past and God is trying to take you to a new level in Him.......

LET IT GO!!!
If you are struggling with the healing of a broken relationship.....

LET IT GO!!!
If you keep trying to help someone who won't even try to help themselves.....

LET IT GO!!!
If you're feeling depressed and stressed ........

LET IT GO!!!
If there is a particular situation that you are so used to handling yourself and God is saying "take your hands off of it"....then you need to......

LET IT GO!!!

Little bit' a this & that

Been doing a lot of this lately!!

Finished a chair for Tyler's room. It was an old office chair that I bought for $1. I already had the camo material so very little was spent for a new look for this old chair

Salvaged some stuff recently from an old trailer that my dad bought so there will be

More to come . . . . . .

repurposed shutters

Ever since my adventure into the blog world i have seen shutters used as home decor everywhere,, I kept my eyes open for some at yard sales and flea markets but never found any and then one day we found some on the side of the road and Jeff rescued them for me.
I was first inspired by thehappyhomebody and how she uses shutters to hang pictures on and from.. and then i've seen them used plain as wall decoration.. as headboards and the list goes on and on.. recently I saw where somebody ( and for the life of me i cant remember who.. i'll give proper credit later) used a shutter to hold magazines. And thats when i decided what to do with mine... I combined two ideas that i found in blogland. The other day while reading through thediyshowoff blog , which is really great for DIY'ers.. lots of good ideas.. anyway I saw this post where the diy'er used alphabet stickers and made a really cool alphabet chair. I had purchased some chipboard alphabet at walmart on clearance and knew they would be perfect for this project.


So to begin with I picked out all the letters to spell "magazines" and glued them across the top using tacky glue. After that i spray/primed with gray primer, let it dry and used Bahama Sea spray paint to finish it up.. applied 2 saw tooth hangers on each side on the back and hung 'er up.. thats it ,, easy as pie and now i have a place for all those magazines... I hung the other shutter as is and it looks good too for what it is.


I dont have a before shot,, but it was a white shutter,, just imagine it,,

and here is a close up of the letters at the top.. I love it!

Happy Birthday Melanie,,

Happy 19th Birthday Melanie

We love you!

July 6, 1990 and then there were 4 of us in the Mann Clan and we were very blessed to be able to say that we had another beautiful healthy baby girl . . . . Melanie D'Ann Mann

Celebrated with a birthday dinner with family and friends at the house. The night before we met some very good friends that were in town from North Carolina and went to eat at Cock of the Walk,, (Tina HAS to eat there when she's in town, they dont have one where she lives).. Jeff and I and the kids had never eaten there but the food was delicous and we had a wonderful time catching up with some old friends that we had not seen in awhile.. Of course we had to get them to sing Happy Birthday to Melanie,, at least they didnt put cake in her face this time.

and the little cutie sitting beside her is Paige,, Angie's little girl.

Just Dew it ..

Hello,, hope everybody had a fun and safe 4th of July. I took some time off this week and enjoyed a fun day at Blue Bayou water park in Baton Rouge with some of the family .. we all had a great time. But it was soooo very hot.

Also had some very lazy days at home doing very little or nothing at all. I did manage to finish a flag for my mother-in-law (sorry Judy didnt get it done in time for this year)..

and i also finished some"redneck" windchimes.

We cooked some ribs and stuff on the grill on Saturday and it was sooo good, had plenty of leftovers so it was good again on Sunday.. ha ha.

Melanie is turning "19" tomorrow,, my baby girl is growing up. Celebrating her birthday with a party/dinner next weekend. We're planning on making a topsy turvy cake, we'll see how that turns out.

Rested and ready for a brand new week !

Free Paint,,,

Hey, everybody , Sara over at Thrifty Chick gave us the heads up this morning for a freebie.
You can go to Glidden and get a free quart of paint. Simple as that. Honestly. And they have some beautiful colors. And its FREE!

Time began in a garden

I saw this sign that another blogger did at, A Cottage industry, and decided to try and make one for my little flower bed,, I'm not 100% pleased with it, but for the first time to try this method I think it'll do (except that hers is made from a headboard and alot cuter. )