My Prayer Journal

If you know me at all, you know I have a slight love affair with binders. They're pretty awesome. I think it stems back from my nerd-ness in college. I was obsessed with my class notes, often rewriting them if they weren't perfect. Yes, major geekiness, but I graduated Summa Cum Laude, so my anal retentiveness paid off.

Anyway, after purchasing this prayer tool for a friend's birthday, I decided that I wanted one. But I wasn't in love with the binder (I'm not a fan of displaying logos, hence my LV aversion) so I figured I could make my own. And I loved the results!

I simply ordered a small binder, some notebook paper that fit, section dividers, a daily planner and voila! A simple prayer journal that I could customize and fit my needs exactly! :) And bonus that the binder came with an attached little pocket for my pens and highligher! :)

I separated the notebook into four sections so far:

1. Daily Planner: Since I carry this around my house and to church functions, it seemed wise to put a planner inside. I gave my pretty 2011 planner to my younger (and much in need of organization) sister. 

2. Notes: I use this to take notes when I listen to mass or radio programs that I love to learn from. Most of the time, I just download them to my iPod and listen right after my quiet morning time. I mainly listen to the following...

• FamilyLife Today with Dennis Rainey (love this one!)
• Homemakers By Choice with Donna Otto
• The Village Church with Matt Chandler (while I love the majority of his messages, he can be a bit too much for me at times, just FYI

3. Thanks & Praise: I used this part of the notebook to worship, praise and give thanks to God for he    has done in my life. Sometimes I write out Bible verses that say it better than me. Other times I write out the song lyrics to wonderful songs that uplift him (My Sweet Lord by George Harrison is amazing and takes my breath away sometimes.) I often just write a list of gratitudes for that day. Even the smallest things show God you recognize His work in your life. ;)

4. Requests: Here is where I write down prayer requests that I have. I also use this place to write down the requests others have asked me to pray for. I once wrote down a request that was weighing heavily on my mind. The very next day, while listening to a particular sermon, God answered my request. It was amazing and so direct, I couldn't believe it. I'm hoping to be able to go back and see where He spoke to me regarding my petitions. Now, I have a record of them!

There are other tabs I'd like to use in the future. For example, a confessions one. Right now, I just confess while praying but I'd like to have the courage to actually write them down. It's such a private thing right now and I'm working up to putting it on paper.

I hope this inspires you to make one of your own and to spend some much needed time with God. I love, love this tool! It's such a wonderful aid that one can use to record their quiet time with God. It inspires me and motivates me to not rush through my prayer time. My life whizzes right by me when I don't slow down and I don't want to miss even one of His blessings.

If you don't feel like going through the trouble of making one, you can find them already made all over the Internet. Some good ones can be found here , here, here and here. Good luck! :)

Wanna Be J.Crew Ruffle Shirt Tutorial

Disclaimer: I hardly ever do tutorials, so please pardon my mistakes or anything I may have overlooked. I didn't take exact measurements either- I just eyeballed it, because I'm pretty much Martha Stewart. Not really- it's cause I'm lazy. ;) But you, you'll be fine. Promise.

Disclaimer 2: Dear J.Crew, I apologize if I just cost you hundreds of dollars, but please- $50 for a tee shirt? I love you. I really do. But not that much.

I got many emails with questions about how I made this shirt. And these shirts are all over the place, but it's because they're so easy to make! Very do-able... even for novice seamstresseseses! Not to mention that ruffles are very forgiving (and oh, so cute!). You'd never tell I made several mistakes on this shirt. (Ok, maybe you could tell...) But here's the low down for those who read my disclaimers and want to try it on thier own anyway.

Materials:
* One plain shirt (the one I used was a v-neck, by the way)
* One old knit shirt from your Goodwill pile (make sure it is knit material or else it will fray) This shirt can be in a contrasting, but complimentary color, or it can be the same color. It's up to you!
* rotary cutters (or good quality scissors)
* a self healing cutting mat for, you guessed it, cutting
* matching thread
* sewing machine (duh)
* optional: another knit shirt in a complimentary color for the decorative 'floral' accents

Step 1:
Measure the length of the neck hole. You'll want to make sure the strips of fabric you'll be cutting for you ruffles will be at least twice this length, depending on how 'ruffly' you want it to be. Yes, I know that ruffly is not a word.

Step 2:
Use your rotary cutter to start slicing through your old knit shirt. There are no exact measurements, but make your width big or small depending on how thick you want your ruffles to be.

Step 3:
Set your sewing machine to the longest/widest stitch setting. (If you don't know where this is, consult your manual) I put mine to the longest setting at 6.0.

Step 4:

Stich in a straight line right down the center of the strips. Do this same thing to all your strips. They will start to ruffle and scrunch a bit on their own as you slide them through. You'll enhance this more in the next step.

Step 5:

Once all strips are complete, grab the top stich and very gently, pull. You will see they will scrunch in and will become full fledged ruffles now! :) 

Step 6:
Now comes the tedious part of the project... start pinning the ruffles onto the collar of your shirt. I'm normally not a pinner, but for this project, I think it's essential. And pin alot.! I placed a pin once ever inch or so. It will really help to keep your ruffles in place as you go through them.

Step 7:
Change your stitch length setting back to what is normal for your machine. Find the middle stitch that you already sewed, and try to follow it. Start stitching.

Step 8:
Once you've gone around the entire neck opening, turn the shirt inside out, and stitch around again one more time. I don't think this step is essential, but it made me feel better about the stitches not coming out in the wash. Unless you want to add another ruffle 'rose' in a different color, your done!!

Step 9:
For the pink/red rose ruffles I added, I cut a couple of strips from another old knit shirt from Old Navy that I though would compliment the brown and ivory.

Complete steps two through five.

I sort of wound them up into a floral shape, pinned them, and then handsewed them on the shirt starting in the center. You can use the regular thread but I think embroidery thread might anchor it better. This method gave the floral accents a neater, more fluffy appearance than if I would have run them through the machine again.

And there you have it folks. It's pretty simple, really. I tried to break it down to as many small steps as I could. Let me know if you have any questions. And if you do this, I'd LOOOOVE to see it!!!

Happy crafting!
xoxo