I saw this story a while ago when I had PJ and it made me cry and cry. It was so sweet. I had to share it with all of you. Since Mother’s Day was yesterday.

A newborn’s conversation with God….

A baby asked God, ‘They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?’

God said, ‘Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you.’

The child further inquired, ‘But tell me, here in heaven I don’t have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy.’

God said, ‘Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you. And you will feel your angel’s love and be very happy.’

Again the child asked, ‘And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don’t know the language?’

God said, ‘Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak.’

‘And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?’

God said, ‘Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray.’

‘Who will protect me?’

God said, ‘Your angel will defend you even if it means risking its life.’

‘But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore.’

God said, ‘Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you.’ At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, ‘God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel’s name.’

God said, ‘You will simply call her, ‘Mother.’

- Author: Unknown

I have been so incredibly blessed to not only be a mother, but to have the amazing mother that I have been given. She was at every play, practice, game cheering for me and rooting me on. She has been my biggest fan and my example. She is my best friend. I love her with all my heart. I am so grateful that she is my angel and that I have such amazing footsteps to follow.
To all of you mothers out there, whether you have children of your own, or are aunts, sisters, teachers etc. I hope you had an amazing Mother’s Day. To me, we are all mothers. “Motherhood is more than bearing children. … It is the essence of who we are as women” -Sheri Dew. God Bless You for the amazing examples you set and the efforts you give to help raise future generations. You are loved, you are appreciated, you are prayed for.

I can’t believe that we had almost 200 projects linked up at last weeks party!
I’ll be honest, it was tough narrowing it down to just five to feature. Seriously! You are all SO talented.

Here are my features for this weeks party!
I think this idea is AMAZING from Allison from Polka Dots and Paisley. I totally plan on doing something similar for our kitchen cupboards at home! Be sure to head over there to see how she did it!

 This quote will be going up in Baby Sis’ room when we move! For sure. Meredith from Unoriginal Mom shared a tutorial on how to do an Image Transfer and she made it seem so easy! I think I’m going to actually give it a shot sometime!
It’s funny, I actually found this tutorial BEFORE Christine from DIY Dreamer linked it up. So of course I had to feature it to make sure that others found it too! I will be reupholstering a chair for our future front porch soon, and while I had an idea of how I was going to do it, she shared some awesome pointers!
I seriously love the added touch to these tissue flowers! And you know what! They actually are a twist on the normal ones! Go check out how  Yvonne from Dress this Nest made these darling flowers. Seriously, Go.

Last but not least, I am loving on this Upcycled Lantern by Emily from The Benson Street. I just bought a little lantern for our porch and I think the touches she added to hers are darling! See how she did it.

If you were featured, be sure to grab a button from my sidebar! You deserve it!

Time for this weeks party!

• Please follow both of your hosts, Artsy-Fartsy Mama and Cox’s Corner
• Link to a specific post {not your home page, or link parties please}
• Please share your own projects, not someone else’s.
• Visit other links and leave some comment love {because we all love comments!}
• Post our party button {the code is below} anywhere on your blog

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You can link up your awesomeness here:

Hey Friends!
I’m sure you’ve seen the bleach t-shirts ALL OVER the internet. You know the kind I’m talking about. The ones that somebody put bleach in a spray bottle and sprayed the heck out of it to get their design to show through.

For me, I liked the concept but I didn’t exactly love the way they turned out. I wanted to make a t-shirt for my nephew for his heart gift for Christmas but I wanted it to be more polished. I thought Vinyl would be ok, but I really wanted it to look more professional. I wish I would have taken an after picture! But you get the idea!

Here’s what the shirt looks like during the process:

 Would you like to know what I did? I cut out a shape on my personal cutter. If you don’t have one you could always print out your design and cut it out yourself and trace it onto the back of the vinyl. I highly recommend using Vinyl as your stencil because the bleach doesn’t seep under it.
I then gathered my supplies:
a foam brush
bleach
a plastic cup
a t-shirt
my vinyl design
cardboard to use as a barrier for the shirt.

I put the cardboard in between the shirt and then I placed my Vinyl where I wanted the design to be.
From there I put a little bit of bleach in the cup. Beware of the fumes.
I dipped my foam brush in my cup and started blotting the bleach on my design. It’s important to make sure the bleach soaks in, but work quickly! You don’t want it to sit too long on your shirt because as it sits it could cause holes in your fabric.

I seriously let my bleach sit about 30 seconds then rinsed it off in the sink. From there, I took off the vinyl and tossed my shirt in the washer and washed and dried it.

And that’s it! The shirt turned out AMAZING and I have to be honest, I think it was my favorite heart gift I gave this year! If you make one you’ll have to let me know what you think!

Have you ever made a bleached shirt before? What design did you use/what design would you use if you make one?

 Hi friends! I just wanted to share one more about SNAP! It was an amazing experience and I’d really like to do a conference recap justice! Heads up, this post is kind of picture heavy, but I can’t help it! I LOVE pictures.
At least I condensed them into collages for you right?

I feel like SNAP was a needed conference for me both blog wise and personally. The whole experience was better than words could describe. We had dinners provided by some of the amazing conference Sponsors. Keynote speakers who were all inspiring. As soon as we have our own yard, I plan on starting my own garden and attempting to become “one with the bugs”. We’ll see how that goes though…I’ll definitely keep you “post”ed. See what I just did there? Blog post…get it?! The theme for SNAP was “Create Joy”. We received beautiful necklaces from The R-house Couture with the theme of the conference hand stamped on it.
I feel like that theme helped me to narrow down my mission for my blog and my life. It is: “The mission of Cox’s Corner is to help inspire others to Create Joy in their lives by providing motivation, inspiration and friendship.” I think that’s a pretty good mission right?

I had a blast hanging with Lindsey from Artsy Fartsy Mama the entire conference. She was so much fun and I loved laughing with her so much. The conference provided so many opportunities and I LOVED the hands on workshops. For me, crafting is therapeutic. It calms me and helps me clear my mind. I was excited to have the realization at SNAP to. I don’t need a therapist, I need crafts!

And do you see that cookie spread?! It was AMAZING! Seriously…that spread alone inspired me to also have something similar at an upcoming party I am planning.

crafting picture from natalme.com

The classes…OH the classes. I’ll be honest, the chairs were not so comfy for this big booty, but boy were they worth it! I am counting down the days until SNAP 2014. I asked for a ticket for my birthday present. I loved it that much. I must admit, I LOVED the RYOBI power tools class with Ana White. I’m just letting you know there may be some (ok hopefully lots) DIY posts in the near future. I want some tools SO bad!

class picture from natalme.com

And last but not least the friends. Like I mentioned earlier, I LOVED hanging out with Lindsey. She is seriously amazing. But I also loved seeing old friends and new friends. It was so nice to see Kristen Duke from Capturing Joy with Kristen Duke again, she is such a talented girl! And she’s seriously so nice! I also loved meeting Kara from Mine for the Making, Jonie from Just Between Friends, and other friends not pictured: Jill from Create, Craft, Love, Meredith from Wait til Your Father Gets Home, Sarah from Becoming Martha and Barbara from Chase the Star. There were also so many more amazing ladies that I met that I can’t wait to become better friends with!

Tauni and the Snapettes did an AMAZING job if you’re considering attending a blog conference, SNAP is it! Seriously go. And then introduce yourself to me while you’re there because I’d LOVE to meet you!

 Oh my goodness you guys! It was so hard to choose just 5 features this week! There were so many fun projects to link up! I’m gonna be spending a lot of time getting my pin on this week!

Since we do choose five projects to feature, these are the ones that I chose.

I absolutely adore this little cupcake stand by Summer from Summer Scraps. This girl is so creative! You need to head to her blog to see how she created them and while you’re there check out the cute decor she used them for! I’m so making these for a party!

 Speaking of parties…how adorable is this candle? Debbie from One Little Project shows how she personalized this darling candle for her little ones birthday. I will definitely be making some of these too! My goodness. She also includes 5 more ways to make unique birthday candles.

This is just one picture of plenty by Linda from Night Owl Corner‘s Garden Party. You seriously need to head over and check out her fun party. My absolute favorite part is their party favors! I LOVE IT! And isn’t her little girlie just darling?! I think I must be in a partying mood of something.

I love this awesome tutorial by Angela from a Typical English Home. Not everybody is able to get a cutter so this tutorial really helps in making your own labels in Microsoft Word! I do have a cutter and I might be using this tutorial!

I haven’t fully decided on what kind of banner or garland I’m doing to put in my baby girls room, but this style is DEFINITELY in the running. Doesn’t this Garland by Eva from Tales of the Scotts just make you feel happy inside?! I LOVE it. Head on over to her blog to see her tutorial!

If you were featured, be sure to grab a button from my sidebar! You deserve it!

Time for this weeks party!

• Please follow both of your hosts, Artsy-Fartsy Mama and Cox’s Corner
• Link to a specific post {not your home page, or link parties please}
• Please share your own projects, not someone else’s.
• Visit other links and leave some comment love {because we all love comments!}
• Post our party button {the code is below} anywhere on your blog

SNAP was seriously such a blast! They were so many informative, fun and hands-on classes! It was so hard to choose between which one to attend. One of my favorite classes I attended was held by Poppyseed Projects. It was a hands on craft involving paint and it was right up my alley!

My favorite thing about the class is that they explained the different projects available. Had you pick up your supplies and then let you go for it. I was so excited that I got to do an “&” since I had decided that I wanted one to decorate our master bedroom with. I wanted to share with you what I did just in case you would like to recreate it for yourself. It was seriously SO easy!

To start out you will need:
-wood “&” from poppyseed projects-sand paper
-cloth to dust off the sanding dust
-2 foam brushes
-white paint
-turquoise paint
-chevron stencil

First, sand down your “&” to make it nice and smooth so that it will look nice painted.
Then clean it off with your cloth to make sure no dust is left on it from sanding.

Continue reading →

 Friends! I am so very excited to share with you how the process of building our first home has been going! It has been exciting and we are so looking forward to having a home of our own, and I’m looking forward to adding some Cox’s Corner flair to it!

We decided to build a home because I really couldn’t see myself living in any of the homes that were on the market at the time. Something just seemed off or there was too much to fix or too many things to compromise. So we decided to look into building.

We looked at tons of different floor plans within our budget range. We definitely HAD to stick with our budget because we didn’t want to be “House Poor”. You know, living in your “dream home” but not being able to afford to do anything else…ever. I knew that with building and some personalization I could make this home into my dream home. We really fell in love with this floor plan with Edge Homes. We met with one of their amazing Realtor’s Todd along with our Realtor Brent and we starting talking shop. By Thursday of that week we turned in our earnest money and claimed our lot!
From there you have two appointments at the Edge Homes office with the Design Center. Their office was darling, I just love how it represents their Edge Homes color…Orange. When we walked in it was so neat to see the Welcome Board with our names on it. It made us feel so special! Then to top it off they offered us fresh baked cookies and Diet Coke. They really go the extra mile. I knew that a company that would really look into simple details like welcoming us to their design center and giving us amazing goodies would take good care of our home. I haven’t been proven wrong yet and I don’t think I will be. A few weeks later after permits were approved and the ground stopped being frozen, they started to dig. Our contractor Wade is awesome. He has called us twice so far, just to let us know about the progress of our home. I love that they keep you in the loop!  Little does he know we pass by there at least twice a week just to see the progress and it is so awesome to see our home being built right before our eyes. They seem to work so efficiently! It’s funny, whenever we drive by we never see anybody working, but there is always progress made! I wonder if Edge Homes really just has magic elves working for them…When I saw that they started framing our house I was so excited. I may have shouted, “WE HAVE WALLS!” True story…

And THEN, the next time I drove by, I saw we had a roof. WE HAVE A ROOF GUYS! We could totally move in right now and it wouldn’t rain on us! Ok so it’s not move in ready yet. But they are making amazing progress. I simply can’t wait to drive by again…and again. In fact, as I type this I am told that they actually have put the roof on! I’m going to have to drive by and take another picture!
Do you have any advice for a first time home owner? I’d love to hear it!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted to the Artsy Corner Party! But like I said, I feel renewed and refreshed since SNAP and I’m ready to get back to blogging! I went over to Artsy Fartsy Mama and checked out the amazing links!

Here are my top 5 features from the last linky party!

I am really interested in learning to quilt, but it just looks way too advanced for my sewing skills! Sweet Benanna & Sam linked up their resources for first time quilters and beginners! I’m definitely going to pin this and save it for when I’m ready to try it!

I think these Enchiritos look delicious! Sourdoughnative Living in the Midwest shares her recipe and added bonus, she also shares the recipe for the Red Chile Papas served with it! I’m definitely going to have to give these a try!

I LOVE this cute little owl! Baby girl’s room will be owl themed in the new house, I think I may have to put a spin on this idea for her room. It adds a fun little touch to the room. Titi Crafty shares her tutorial on how she created this cute little thing!

This dip looks so yummy! And it’s a skinny recipe too! Can’t beat that! A Peek Into My Paradise shares her recipe for skinny funfetti dip! Bonus: it only has three ingredients! Woot woot.

I must be hungry or something…I was drawn to a lot of food recipes this week! Crumbs and Chaos shares their amazing ultimate queso, salsa & dip list! I’m gonna have to try some of these! I love dips! I’ve been told I’m condiment dependent…I feel like dips are right there with them! Yum! If you were featured, be sure to grab a button from my sidebar! You deserve it!

Time for this weeks party!

• Please follow both of your hosts, Artsy-Fartsy Mama and Cox’s Corner
• Link to a specific post {not your home page, or link parties please}
• Please share your own projects, not someone else’s.
• Visit other links and leave some comment love {because we all love comments!}
• Post our party button {the code is below} anywhere on your blog

You guys, SNAP was a blast! I don’t think I can even begin to tell you how enlightened and empowered I feel after attending such an amazing event. I learned so much and I feel like I’m ready to get back to blogging and connecting again.
There were so many different classes to choose from. At times it was difficult to decide which to attend. I had a blast with Lindsay from Artsy Fartsy Mama and we laughed a lot and learned a lot. Some of my favorite things that I’m taking away from SNAP that I wanted to share with you are:

From the lovely Lisa Leonard:
-Kindness goes a long way.
-Joy is there to be found.
-It’s a risk to move forward, but it’s also a risk to stand still.

From Jessica Sprague:
-”We write to taste life twice. Once in the moment, and once in retrospection.”-Anais Nin
-Your stories deserve to be told in a way that makes your heart sing.

From Ana White:
-The more variables you can take out of a situation, the safer you’ll be.

From Michelle at Maddycakes Muse:
-2013 is the year of gourmet donuts.
-Embrace YOUR extraordinary.

From Julie De Azevedo Hanks:
Instead of having a To-Do list, try having a Ta-Da list.

There was so much to be learned, I can’t wait until next year to learn more and take my blogging to the next level. All of the classes I attended were so informative. I can’t wait to apply what I’ve learned!

Did you attend SNAP? If so, what was your favorite thing about it?

I’ll be writing a post soon on what I wish I’d known before my first blog conference.

 Guys! I can’t believe that I haven’t posted since January! I should be ashamed I know…
I gotta be honest, since my little blog broke and it took so long to get it fixed, it really sucked a lot of the fun out of blogging for me.
THEN, we bought a home, and it’s being built and I’m so excited about that. I keep thinking that my blogging will really take off once it’s built and I have all sorts of fun new projects and DIY’s for my new home (which it will). But I didn’t realize that I’d be in such a funk in between!
Excuses, excuses I know, but I’m back and I’m excited to get ya’ll updated on what’s been going on. Can I just tell you that I’ve missed you guys? It’s true. I honestly have!

I bet you’re wondering why I’m so excited right?! Well tomorrow is SNAP! It is my very first blog conference and I am so excited. I guess a better description would be excitedly nervous, but either way, I can’t wait to go and learn from talented people on how to make my little corner the best it can be!

This week it has been my goal to just remember to go and have fun and learn…but my biggest goal is to just be me. You see, at SNAP! there are going to be over 100 (closer to 200 I think) incredibly talented and beautiful bloggers. And that can be really overwhelming! I’ve seen some of the outfits that these cute ladies have put together and my first thought is…”I shop at Walmart.” And then I realized that’s OK!

Why is it ok? Because on top of being incredibly talented and beautiful bloggers, I’ve already met some of the local ladies that will be attending and you know what? They are incredibly kind, and welcoming and stinking awesome! It’s gonna be a blast I just know it! I can’t wait to come back with a renewed vision for Cox’s Corner as well as to share some things that I’ve learned!

I think the most important thing that preparing for SNAP! has taught me is that “there is nobody else I’d rather be than me” (name that movie). Although having some of their wardrobes would be kinda nice .

How many of you are attending SNAP? Also…how many of you are still out there reading? I really did miss you!