holidays a' happenin!

Happy Holiday's Everyone!

Yes, I know it isn't even Thanksgiving yet but I cannot help but to explode with christmas songs, christmas lights, pre-black friday shopping, present searching, and best of all...holiday crafts! Pinterest has my full attention these days with all of the super cute and cheap holiday crafts. I'll share some of my recents below...

Since we are coming up to the end of 2012, I have to look back and see what all was accomplished and learned to bring into the new year. So I guess a couple things I have learned have been...

1) If you have a dog, TRAIN HIM/HER!

    The reason this is number one is because Dozer takes up a lot of our time and a lot of our lives. Don't get me wrong he is beyond the best dog I have ever had but there was a season where he just straight up did not care what we said. He is so smart its crazy! After getting him in basic obedience training I realized that HE wasn't really the problem...I WAS. I really needed to learn how to stand my ground (I'm kind of a push over, especially with those sweet puppy eyes). Anyhoo...

2) My identity is in Christ and in Him ALONE.

   This is something that I have basically struggled with my whole life. All through Junior high and High school especially. Basically I don't believe that anyone ever had true faith in me, that I could accomplish my dreams (and I actually did accomplish a few). Sad I know! It became worse once Keenan and I were married. It was nothing at all that Keenan did. It was all of the lies I was believing. I believed that because Keenan is so smart (and capable of many things because of that) he was always trying to one-up me. I believed the lie that he thought I was a stupid women who didnt know pretty much anything. LIE! If anything Keenan was extremely patient and loving to me during that time. It took a lot of tears and wrestling satan to the ground for me to truly believe that I do have special gift sets and I am an intelligent women of God. There are moments when I still compare myself to other women but I am always quickly reminded that God loves me and created me to please Him in a very specific way. *Psalm 139:14

{side note on that- I just recently got a job with a company that is huge in the finance world (who woulda thunk!? It is going very well and it is part of how God has shown me that I am capable of anything with Him.}

...well thats it, I only got two things. I figured thats all I would share for now because it would be a VERY long post if I kept going.

Things are going pretty well for the Kruskamp's. We are still trying to figure a few things out. God is good though.

{Here are a few snapshots of life lately :: & a holiday craft tutorial}

YHL!

There is no complaining in the Kruskamp house on Friday's

                                   {Original}                                                                                          {My Version}        

So this was very a very easy craft. I didn't use the glitter version because, well I didn't have any glitter. But I did have everything else to make a different version. You'll need...

. Canvas (whatever size you want (I used a small one)

. Book pages

. Tissue paper (whatever color you want, I chose red)

. Glue

. Mod Podge

. Reindeer silhouette (from google images)

. Exacto knife

So basically what I did is...

1- Tear out book pages and glue them on the canvas

2- Mod podge over the book pages on the canvas (wait to dry)

3- Print out your reindeer silhouette to the size of the canvas

4- Place printed silhouette on top of folded tissue paper 

5- Using your Exacto knife (very carefully) trace the silhouette on through the tissue paper

6- Glue tissue reindeer on top of book pages on canvas

7- Mod Podge over everything one more time (wait to dry)

8- Hang up to enjoy!