Chickens Are Here

March 1st Mike and I got started on building a chicken house. The process to have chickens started a long time before that. We had to make sure that we were allowed to have chickens on our property, then we had to get the supplies to build. Little by little Mike bought dog kennel fencing from Craigs list. A few trips to Home Depot, Ace Hardware and Brooksheer Feed store and we were set with everything we needed for chickens.
Here is a slide show of pictures from Day 1 to today. Enjoy!

Bloggy Giveaway Winner

Update: Since I never heard back from Carrie & Jeff... the new winner now is Jodibee... Congrats Jodi... your cards will be put in the mail tonight. Enjoy!

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Who is the lucky winner of the 10 handmade cards?

Well, I received 72 comments (somehow I approved one comment twice and it posted twice) so I asked my husband to write down a number between 1 and 72 and he wrote down...
He informed me this is the number of days left until I turn 30... isn't he a sweet husband. He always remembers my birthday :-)

And the winner is...

Carrie & Jeff

Carrie & Jeff - I don't have any contact information for you, so please contact me. If I don't hear from you within 48 hours, then I will have to draw another winner.

Thanks to everyone who visited my blog and voted for my Kroger bag. I appreciate the support. Come back anytime, visit my blog and check out my card website http://www.zizziecards.com/

God Bless,

Elizabeth

Bloggy Giveaway

What I’m giving Away
Ten handmade greeting cards valued over $20

Who is Eligible
Everyone! US and International are welcome.

How to Enter
Go to http://www.designagreenbag.com/vote-for-designs/bag.aspx?BagId=22313 and vote for my bag, then come back to my blog and leave a comment letting me know you voted. It’s that simple! You don’t have to have a blog to enter this contest, but make sure you enter a valid email address… if I can’t contact you, I can’t give you the prize! Note: All comments are moderated, I'll approve them as soon as I can!

How to Get Extra Entries
Each comment counts as one entry, you can vote for my bag once a day so come back each day, vote and put your comment on my blog. If you pass my link on to your friends and family and you tell me about it I will give you 5 extra entries.

The rest of the details
Submissions will be open until Midnight Sunday April 27th. The winner will be announced Monday April 28th and the prize will be on it’s way as soon as I have your information.

To view the other giveaways, click here!

Grace Greater Than All My Sins

Today I am just meditating on the words of this song. Such a powerful thought... Praise the Lord for His Grace!

Grace Greater Than All My Sins
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt
Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured,
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

Sin and despair, like the sea-waves cold,
Threaten the soul with infinite loss;
Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold
Points to the refuge, the mighty cross.

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide,
What can avail to wash it away?
Look! There is flowing a crimson tide;
Whiter than snow you may be today.

Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
Freely bestowed on all who believe
All who are longing to see His face,
Will you this moment His grace receive?

Refrain:
Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sins.

Man Card

I need to make some manly cards and that seems to always be hard for me. There aren't very many manly stamps and accessories available. I bought this stamp set last year since there are so many men at church that enjoy hunting.
I just made 2 somewhat different cards. I like the second card better but I thought I would see what everyone else thought.
Please give me your honest opinion... do you like the first card or the second card better?

Baby Cards

I found this really cute card on splitcoaststampers. I love looking through this site to get ideas. Some people are so creative and have a true gift. Most of the time I start with an idea that I find on splitcoaststampers and end up making my own version. The template for these baby cards came from the website and then I stamped them.

I thought I better make a neutral one to have on hand also.

Psalm 127:3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

God is so Good

Last week I found a freezer listed on Craig's list. A family was moving and wanted to sell their 3 year old Heavy Duty Commercial Kenmore Upright Freezer. They originally listed it for $200 but after a few weeks they dropped the price to $150. Yesterday we went to look at it. The freezer looks brand new. It's in excellent condition so Mike decided to go ahead with the purchase.

Lord willing this freezer will last us many, many years.

After that we stopped to shop at CVS. This CVS opened about a year ago and it is huge, very clean and well stocked. They even had this scanner by the pharmacy section that you scan your CVS card and it prints out a random coupon for you. Our total for everything we bought was $97.44 after coupons and ECBs we paid $1.55

God is so good,

God is so good,

God is so good,

He's so good to me!

He answers prayer,

He answers prayer,

He answers prayer,

He’s so good to me!

He cares for me,

He cares for me,

He cares for me,

He’s so good to me!

I love Him so,

I love Him so,

I love Him so,

He’s so good to me!

1 Chronicles 16:34 O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever.

Mother's Day

I know I am early but with making cards I have to plan ahead. Mother's Day is May 11 (less than a month away) and I need to have cards to give as well as some to sell.

Here are some of the Mother's Day cards I have made in the last few days.
What is a Mother?
A Mother has so many things to do,
From washing, ironing, cleaning to tying a shoe.
She scrubs, she mends, she cooks and sews,
She bathes the children and washes their clothes.
When they forget to wash their faces clean,
And their clothes are the muddiest you've ever seen,
Who repairs the clothes and scrubs them like new?
Of course, that is what a Mother will do.

Who becomes the doctor or the nurse when they are ill,
Applying a bandage or giving them a pill?
Who becomes a teacher when a child has homework?
She must never her duty shirk.
Who becomes a detective to find a toy or a book?
For missing things she must look and look?
Who becomes a listener to every heartache,
To every accomplishment that a child makes?
Who scolds their children when they are naughty,
Or remind them of God when they are to haughty?
Who tends her family with love and patience, too?
Of course that is what a Mother will do. - Unknown

God's Beauty

Yesterday was such a gorgeous day. Mike and I spent all day outside building our hen house. We are almost done but have some minor details to finish before we can get the chickens. I will post all the pictures once we are all done, if you want a sneak peek you can check out Mike's blog.

After spending all day outside I noticed some really pretty blooms on some of the trees on our property. I don't know the names of the trees but I do enjoy the beauty of them. Each one a different color, shape and size.

Sorry about the quality of these pictures. It was windy when I was trying to take the pictures so the camera was having a hard time figuring out what to focus on.

Three Special Boys

I made 3 cards today for 3 special boys at our church.

• Carlisle is turning 4 on April 15. He has been waiting patiently for his birthday card. He asks every Sunday about it :-)
• Joseph just had his tonsils removed and is recuperating at home. We are praying for a quick recovery.
• John Thomas is turning one on April 18. He is such a happy boy and he has the most adorable blue eyes.

Price Increase

Prices on everything just keep going up.
I just found out this weekend that postage is going up yet again. As of May 12, 2008 first class stamps will be 42¢. Yes, it's true, here it is on the USPS website.
Now is the time to buy those "Forever" stamps. The USPS has 5 billion of them available to sell before the price increase.
Happy shopping everyone!

Kroger Trip

We actually made it to Kroger today and here is what we bought.

• 1 Iams dog food (Betsy is happy)
• 1 Milkbone treats (Betsy is very happy)
• 2 half gallons of milk
• 1 soda
• 2 Fresh Express bags of salad
• 3 Clorox bleach
• 2 Breyers ice cream (Mike is happy)
• 4 Betty Crocker brownie mixes (Mike is very happy)
• 2 Betty Crocker muffin mixes
• 1 Pillsbury sweet rolls
• 6 Pillsbury biscuits
• 4 Pillsbury crescents
• 2 Progresso soup
• 2 Hot Pocket calzones
• 2 Kelloggs cereal
• 2 Kelloggs cereal bars

Total $33.55*
Savings $63.16
*Plus I have a form to mail in to get a $10 gift card to Kroger. It was from a magazine insert (don't remember exactly which magazine - I think something I picked up at Publix once) It is a Kelloggs promotion, buy 4 Kelloggs products get a $10 gift card.

Count Your Blessings

There is a song that says "Count your blessings name them one by one, count your blessings see what God has done" We are so blessed that we end up taking things for granted. Today I just wanted to give thanks for the many things with which God has blessed me.

• My loving husband
• Our beautiful little home
• Our Bible teaching church
• The privilege to be a housewife
• The beauty of springtime
• Being raised in a Christian home
• For all the freedoms we have
• For every trial I go through that strengthens my faith in Christ

Job 5:17 Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty

Don't forget to count your blessings!

Craft Room Madness

I have been trying to get my craft room organized so things would be easier for me to make cards on a daily basis. I am starting to sell some of my craft supplies/stamp sets to help with the organization process. I just have too much stuff for such a small room.

So far I've sold 5 stamp sets :-)

Since it's raining outside today I decided to pull some things out and sit at the kitchen table and make some cards for my inventory. I made a birthday card and then thought it would probably be nice as a Mother's day card. So I made 5 Mother's day cards and 20 birthday cards. Since we give cards to everyone at our church, I will go through these birthday cards in no time. I am going to try and set some aside to sell but I don't normally sell that many cards.

I did make one thing different between the 2 cards because I couldn't decide if I liked it better with the brads or without. What do you think?