20 AMAZON FAVORITES FROM THIS PAST YEAR- ON SALE FOR PRIME DAY!

Hi friends!  Before I get in to sharing a few Amazon Prime Day picks today,  I wanted to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your kind comments on my last post .  You all are so encouraging and I can't tell you how grateful I am for such a sweet group of readers!  I will keep you posted on any developments there in the weeks to come, but for now we are taking some time to travel.  We were scheduled to start a big road trip this week- working our way north through the Grand Tetons and then Yellowstone to spend time with a park ranger friend there, then heading on up to Glacier and back home.  However, the shutdown caused us to pivot and save those plans for another time, so now were headed to the beach and then the Great Smoky Mountains area.  The beach is our only set plan so far, but we plan to drive north towards the Asheville area then work our way back west across I-40 towards home.  Haven't made any plans or reservations yet for tha......

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TURNING THE PAGE... A NEW CHAPTER IN OUR LIVES

I'm sharing a personal life update post today. So many of you have been faithful readers over a lot of years and have been so sweet to be interested in the happenings of our family that I felt we needed to share this news with you.  We are in the middle of a huge change and are turning the page to start a new chapter in our lives! After 22 years of Ray being a Minister on staff, last Sunday we said farewell to  Quail Springs Baptist Church .   As we shared the news early in September with our new pastor and the church family that the Lord told us that our time at Quail was over, everyone was shocked and surprised but the Lord has been working in our hearts about this decision for almost 4 years.  We came to QSBC in 2003 when Ray was called as the Minister of Education.  In 2009 he transitioned to the Executive Pastor and through our 22 years there he's worked with 3 Senior Pastors and led the church through 2 significant interim seasons in between pastors.......

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FIVE FRIDAY FAVORITES

Happy first Friday of October!  Still waiting for cooler weather in Oklahoma but otherwise ready for all things Fall!  Emily and one of her roommates passed through town today headed south to meet up with some of her friends that she made while interning this summer.  They go to Texas A&M so she'll be getting to experience all of that hoopla and a game at Kyle Field.  We grabbed lunch together with my Mom so that was fun to visit for a minute.  Otherwise I have weekend plans of finishing up some Fall decor inside the house (even though it doesn't feel like Fall), spending time with some old friends, trying to squeeze in a quick project, playing catch-up on chores and making plans for an upcoming trip.  Do you have any fun plans?  OK, let's get to those favorites for this week!  Carmel and I have been "blog friends" for years, and I'm so excited for her as she has written her first book!   Her homes have been such an inspiration to me ove......

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DIMPLES AND TANGLES READS: BOOKS I'M LOVING LATELY {7}

Happy October 1!!  Goodness this year is flying by, I've already got sugarplums dancing in my head and Christmas will be here before we know it! But today, I've got a new list of books I'm loving lately to share with you- m y list reflects the aforementioned sugarplums with several holiday themed selections included.  I only share books I enjoyed with you, usually a combo of historical fiction, family dramas, suspense, and lighthearted beach reads. I hope you find some winners, see the end of this post for previous book lists I've shared if you missed those.  Happy reading!  (Yes, I still like to use my wired headphones from time to time... 😂) As a reminder, I'll give a brief summary here (enough to tell you I recommend the book!) without a lot of details, but am linking each book here out of convenience if you'd like to read the more detailed summaries.  However,  I generally check them out from the library, either the physical copy or digital copies thro......

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BOTANICAL GALLERY WALL UPDATE AND SOURCE GUIDE

One of the first projects I shared on my blog (over 13 years ago!) was the botanical gallery wall that I hung in our breakfast nook.  Well I'm happy to say that project has stood the test of time, it's still up and I still love it all these years later!  That's quite a feat with how quickly and frequently things can change around here.  It's also a project that I get asked about often, and when referring readers back to the original post I realized that it needed an update with additional details and sources in order to be a current helpful resource.  So, I'm taking this opportunity to update all of my botanical gallery wall info. and share it with you here. As a refresher, this was a budget friendly project because I used the pages from a botanical book for the artwork, inexpensive plastic frames, and poster board to mimic photo mats (refer to the original post for assembly how-to details). Even though I didn't spend a lot considering the wall coverage I achi......

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