Mission accomplished!

Hey ya'll. (Woah. That was weird. I never say ya'll.) Sorry about ditching you. Again. I fail, right? Right. So anyway..

Bible wreath
I finally finished it!! I decided to go with the second link I posted (the loopy one) and it turned out really well. Here's some pictures of the process:

Close-up of the pages. It was cool to see individual verses on the wreath.

Halfway done! :)

The final product! Once all the pages were on, I lightly spray painted it gold to give it kind of a "royal" look and hung it on a simple red ribbon.

So there you go! It only took me a few hours to put the loops on, and another couple hours to paint it and let the paint dry and everything. Overall it was a fun project that my youth leader and peers will love.

Hope your Christmas was great and your New Year is great!!
♥kelli

Bible Wreath - part 2!

Hah. Scratch that. I found two different, & hopefully better, Bible wreath guides. Check them out or just look at the final picture; I don't really care, but if you could help me out and let me know which one you like better! :D (click on the picture to be taken to the site if you so desire. Haha.)

 (go to page 5 on the little blue arrows to view)
-or-


Comment below and let me know which wreath you think I should make with Bible pages :)

♥kelli

Bible Wreath :D

Somebody slap me, I'm terrible at this. I'm sorry.

On the bright side, I have a new craft I want to do!! Recently my youth pastor cleaned out our "Bible Bucket," the bin of Bibles we have on hand for those who forget them. Anyway, at the bottom there were at least 50 pages of the Bible that had fallen out over the years. I expressed interest in them, saying they would make a fun medium for some kind of craft, and he asked me to try and make a Christmas wreath out of them. I, being the overly crafty and creative kind of person I am, accepted the challenge and went home to do my research. I came up with this tutorial video:

(there's also a second video on how to decorate it if anyone's interested: http://youtu.be/dhRyy7N3H-k )
I haven't started it yet, sadly. But this is for multiple reasons: one, I haven't had time. Hehe, surprised? And two, IT'S NOT EVEN THANKSGIVING YET!! (Granted, that's tomorrow, but still. It's a little early for Christmas wreaths, even for me.) So... yeah. I'll definitely post pics when I'm done :) I'm so excited!! :D

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

♥kelli

Epic Fail.

I have not posted in almost a month. I. AM. SO. SORRY. :'(

ANYWAY... At youth group tonight, our pastor taught on 7 tips on living and praying like Jesus. All these instructions come from Jesus's prayer for himself at the Last Supper, found in John 17:1-5.

1. Lift your eyes to Him.

• Jesus looks up to Heaven when praying, much like we do - we close our eyes and focus on Heaven. I believe this helps us become closer to God and Jesus and have a stronger "connection" (for lack of a better word) to him.

2. Call out to God by name - Father

• Jesus calls God Father, as he often does, and so should we! I mean, he really IS our Father - we were all born again in and unto him!! So really, we should have such a close relationship with him that we can call on him and say "hey dad, thanks for ___. It was perfect, of course...." and so on.

3. Align yourself to God's timetable

• Jesus says that "the time has come." He knew that God's plan for his crucifixion included a specific time. This is important because it applies to all of us - we so often think something should happen when WE want it to, but God's timing is so much more accurate and always ends up better.

4. Go after God's glory

• When we accomplish something we're proud of, for example, dropping time at a swim meet, we are supposed to give GOD the glory for our success. Because really, OUR success isn't even our own - it's GOD'S, because he GAVE us the ability and strength to do whatever  we did. Simple put: give God the glory in all you do so that he will glorify you in Heaven.

5. Embrace eternal life

• We all know (hopefully anyway) that God promises us eternal life for following Jesus's example. So, obviously, to embrace eternal life, we must embrace Jesus and all his love.

6. Rest in His finished work

• Though many look anxiously to the future, with apprehensive thoughts like "what am I going to do?" or "I don't know where I'm going in life," we are all told - by Jesus - to rest because we are a completed work. God created us perfectly, and we are complete in him. So, we are told to find rest and peace in that.

7. Look forward to the glory to come

• Be EXCITED for Heaven!!! It seems many people are scared or nervous or even weirded out by the thought of Heaven. But it's not going to be weird or scary at all!! It's going to be PARADISE, people!! Imagine: We'll get to walk around with all our Christian friends, and even better, we get to hang out with Jesus himself!! LET'S GET EXCITED!!! :D

So... yeah. I hope these simple notes are encouraging / helpful / useful to you in some way :) Have a great rest of the week!! :)

♥kelli

Forever Reign

First of all, sorry I haven't posted in a while!! Homework suddenly got a whole lot worse, but I'm caught up now so I have time to post :)

Last night at youth group, we sang some new songs I hadn't heard before, and I really want to share the lrics with you :) It's a good song. You should look it up on YouTube. :)

Forever Reign <3 bu  Hillsong

You are good You are good

When there's nothing good in me

You are love You are love

On display for all to see

You are light You are light

When the darkness closes in

You are hope You are hope

You have covered all my sin

You are peace You are peace

When my fear is crippling

You are true You are true

Even in my wandering

You are joy You are joy

You're the reason that I sing

You are life You are life

Even death has lost its sting

Oh, I'm running to your arms

I'm running to your arms,

The riches of your love

Will always be enough

Nothing compares to your embrace

Light of the world, forever reign

You are more You are more

Than my words could ever say

You are Lord You are Lord

All creation will proclaim

You are here You are here

In your presence I'm made whole

You are God You are God

Of all else I'm letting go

Oh, I'm running to your arms

I'm running to your arms,

The riches of your love

Will always be enough

Nothing compares to your embrace

Light of the world, forever reign

Hallelujah, forever,

All the glory, forever

All the praise to You

My heart will sing

No other name

Jesus, Jesus

Oh, I'm running to your arms

I'm running to your arms,

The riches of your love

Will always be enough

Nothing compares to your embrace

Light of the world, forever reign

Good song. The end.

♥kelli

3 things.

1. Alliance Youth Conference, part 2
It was amazing!! Workshops, human videos, concert, great teaching, and oh so many memories :) If anyone's interested, there will be another AYC in San Diego on November 11 and 12. Register @ OneGenerationUnderGod.com for only $19 presale :) I encourage you to go and grow in your walk with God!! :)

2. 9/11
Wow. With all the news and documentaries and articles, it was hard NOT to see this tragic day coming. To all those who lost loved ones, I am truly sorry. Know that half of America has you in their prayers and I can't even imagine the pain you must feel. Every year I am humbled by the memories of the brave people that risked their lives in an attempt to save anyone they could. We are truly indebted to your service. Thank you.

3. Just for fun
I am in Graphic Design this year at school, and we're working in Photoshop this semester, and I LOVE it!! I actually want to be a graphic designer when I grow up, so I'm really enjoying the class. Anyway, just for fun, I made this :)

Pretty cool, right? I think so. It was fun to make, anyway.

Hope your week is great!

♥kelli

Alliance Youth Conference, Part 1

I just had an amazing night at the Alliance Youth Conference!! I had the privilege of hearing Mike Wilson speak and an amazing rap group called Go Project who I definitely encourage you to look up - they have a great message and very upbeat, dance-able music :) I'm going back tomorrow so I'll post more details then!

♥kelli

My Head is in the Clouds...

Clouds.

What makes them so amazing? I think it's because of God. Really. I mean, how often do you look up at the clouds and say "Wow. God is amazing" ? I actually do that a lot. With many things, but lately mostly with clouds.

For some reason, it's been kinda rainy where I live and so naturally, there's a lot of clouds. Which then makes the sunsets gorgeous. Which then makes me wish I had one of those huge, expensive cameras to get a picture of it with. But that's beside the point.

Looking at the clouds, I feel small. They expand outside of my peripheral vision, going as far as I can see and then some. What kind of natural phenomenon could this be!? I believe beauty can't occur by itself. You don't just wake up with your hair perfect and make up on and everything (side note - I don't think make up is what makes you beautiful! God made you perfect, and he didn't make you with make up. In a weird way, wearing make up is just changing the way God made you! But I'll talk about that more later.)... you have to MAKE it that way. Same with clouds, for example. They didn't just POOF! -appear one day. God spent a whole day perfecting them, along with the Heavens and the Earth. Shouldn't you appreciate them just thinking about that?!

Anyway, that's been on my mind lately and I guess this blog is my spot to share my random thoughts. :)

♥kelli

Owl City Music Mondays!

Hey guys! Guess what I found! Owl City has been making little websites for his Music Mondays "project" out of all his new songs on All Things Bright and Beautiful!! I'll post all the old links here and post new links on Mondays when they come out :) Enjoy!

Deer In The Headlights - smilebecauseyourethedeerintheheadlights.com
Galaxies - kisstheplanetgoodbye.com
The Real World - realityisalovelyplace.com
Dreams Don't Turn To Dust - maybeimjustadreamer.com
Honey and the Bee - backyardofbutterflies.com
Hospital Flowers: happinessreturnedtome.com

Seriously! Don't be click-shy!! Go click on them cause they're amazing :)

Bye for now!
♥kelli

Psalm 139:9-10

"If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast."

Think about that for a second. No matter where you go, God is there to help you and love you. How GREAT is our God?!

Just thought I'd share that with you :) I'm going to try and do that more often now, wish me luck! :D

♥kelli

Wow, long time no see!

...Seriously!! I haven't posted in a while, sorry :(

Anyway, school has started for most everyone, and I hope it's going well! Just remember, the rest of the year is just as important as the first couple weeks, so keep up the great work :)

Oh! I found a new blog that I love!! Project Inspired is a blog-type website for girls on natural beauty, relationships, and just being a girl! It's awesome and I encourage you to check it out!!

Also, I've been really struck by this, so I want to share. I think I have before, but that's okay... Count your blessings!! Whether you realize it or not, you are incredibly blessed! Think about it for a second. As Americans, we get full access to clean water, clean facilities, good food, good education, and options in just about everything. Let me put it this way: you probably have a cell phone. Well, people in some parts of Africa may never have even heard of a cell phone, much less dream of having one! You're blessed! Just don't take advantage of it... God has blessed you for a reason, it's just your job to find that reason and live it out for HIM!!

One last thing... get a mentor. Or a youth group leader you've gotten to know. Or someone not related to you that's older than you to look up to and ask for advice. I am lucky enough to have a few mentors, but right now my youth leader Landi is really helping me through some weird, awkward, teenage moods and it just brings so much relief to know someone's praying for me and stuff. Yesterday morning, she texted me a verse that really helped me get through my day with a lot less stress. Just a tip, but I think it's a necessity. But that's just me. :)

That's all for now... Hopefully I'll post sooner next time? Haha but seriously bye.
♥kelli

Happy Last Day of Summer!

. . . well, if you live in my area, it is. I hope everyone's summer was fun, relaxing, and will leave you with lots of memories!!

Now time to switch gears . . . School means no sleeping in or staying up late, no spaghetti straps or short shorts, no swimming all day or partying all night, and most of all, lots and LOTS of homework.

Hope your school year goes well! :)
♥kelli

iTunes

I ♥ iTunes 69₵ songs!! I found so many old favorites...

• 1, 2, 3, 4 - Plain White T's
• Hey There Delilah - Plain White T's
• A Thousand Miles - Vanessa Carlton
• U Can't Touch This - MC Hammer
• Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice
• White - LIGHTS
• Hot N Cold - Katy Perry
• Hungry Like The Wolf - Duran Duran
• Invisible - Disciple
• The Last Night - Skillet
• In My Arms - Plumb
• Absolutely/Story of a Girl - Nine Days
• Walking on Sunshine - Katrina & The Waves
• Meant to Live - Switchfoot

Okay, so some of these are weird songs - U Can't Touch This, Ice Ice Baby - buuuuut they're for workout songs. Hehe. Speaking of which, the name of my playlist for workout songs is "Muscle Making Music" - pretty clever, right?

On the subject of playlist titles, I try to get creative ones! My iPod is named the Jabbewocky because it's awesome and mean too. So, my main playlist is called "Jabberwocky's Tunes". Some of my other playlists are called "Other...?" for random music, and "Praisee." for all my Christian music. I want to know what some of your creative playlist titles are! :)

That's all for now! :)

♥kelli

Winnie the Pooh!

I know I already posted today, but I just found this and it's ADORABLE!! You have GOT to take this!!

http://www.facebook.com/WinniethePoohTigger?sk=app_224295200929819

It's a personality quiz that tells you which character from Winnie the Pooh you are. It's cute and takes 20 seconds! Comment and tell me who you are! ;)

I got Tigger!! He's always been my favorite ♥ See??  

This is me and my sisters when we were little. I was Tigger, and the other two were Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. What's funny is those are still our favorite characters today!







Enjoy!
♥kelli

Laziness, Sckool, & Summer Music poll

Well hi there! I bet you're wondering where I went! Do you really want to know? Yes? Well I'll tell you... I went.... Drumroll please... NOWHERE!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!! Haha, just kidding. I don't expect you to be excited. However, I am, because going nowhere means I have had a more or less lazy summer! Which never happens to me, thus I'm excited.

How many of you are going back to school soon? I am! I'm so excited! I'm not going to be a freshie anymore!! Yay! I personally love going back to school. It's fun to see who did what over the summer, who changed, who got fake or real tans, and of course, getting your schedule and comparing it with your friends and seeing what classes you have together. And then there's all the back to school shopping - notebooks, pens, backpacks, and of course the fun part - clothes! Anyway, a lot of people don't like it, but I do. (Of course, once the year gets going... not so much. Haha.)
Speaking of school... I saw a really funny event on Facebook the other day... "First Day of Sckool!" And the only thing I could think of was, "Wow. If you spell school like that, maybe you DO need go back to school." Just a random thought that made me laugh.

And today I'm kind of bored, so I'm going to create a random poll! So here it is:
What is your favorite song/artist to listen to during the summer, whether you're chilling, visiting someone, playing sports, or going to an amusement park? Comment and let me know!!

Have a great remainder of the summer! :)
♥kelli

Fam Camp!

Hey guys. I'm at our church's family camp. It's actually a lot of fun! We're staying in our pop-up trailer (like a tent on wheels)... Well, my whole family except me and my friend Taylor, who are staying in a huge tent due to the lack of room in the trailer. ANYWAY, the theme is "Boomtown" so there's Western stuff everywhere! Last night was "Western night" so everyone dressed up in plaid shirts and cowboy boots and learned to line dance, only stopping for an ultimate s'mores contest!! (My s'more was amazing. I'll come add a picture soon.) Oh yeah, did I mention yesterday was my birthday? :) I'm now 15 and loving it :)

Gotta go, the pool is opening soon and it's HOT HOT HOT so that's really the only way to cool off ;)

Tchaio! ;)

♥kelli

Mexico! :)

The reason I haven't posted in a while is because I was having one of the best weeks of my life - down in MEXICO!! :) I went through my church and a ministry called "Caravan Ministries." It was a great experience - we built houses for the poorer, like years past, but this group focused heavily on teaching about world missions and the importance of them to God. Here's a few main notes I got from the trip:

• We are blessed. I don't care if you're the poorest kid in your school, you. are. BLESSED! At least you can go to school, with a family that (hopefully) loves you and you have a decent house. Go down and just look at the houses in Tijuana.
• God's heart breaks for the unreached people of the world. Jesus's last command before dying on the cross was to "go and gather his scattered peoples." As (I forgot who) said, "Go, Send, or Disobey," meaning GO onto the missions field yourself, SEND money and prayers and love to those on the mission field, or DISOBEY God's orders by doing neither of those.
• A short-term missions trip has one purpose: get used to the idea of missions. You can't change anyone's life in a week or two. You have to spend YEARS with them, learning the language, understanding the culture, and building a relationship with the people. Only THEN can you even BEGIN to share the name and good news of Jesus.

That's three of about a billion bullet points I could write, but I'm out of time.

♥kelli

My team, in all their weirdness.

I'm sick, and thus can't do much. So I'm really bored. Sooo... I'm going share a couple random pictures to demonstrate my team's... different-ness.

My friends Britney (front) and Helena (back) at our team beach day. They're so weird. :D

 Most of the team at our beach day J It was so much fun!

The La Jolla Rough Water Swim swimmers... This meal was an interesting one. I'm taking bbq sauce-flavored Dr. Pepper and pepper-covered fudge. Both of which got eaten.
Ps. The LJRWS is a half-, one-, or three-mile swim in the ocean... it was sooo much fun! J

 Some of the guys and one girl (L-R: Brandon, Nick, James, Rachelle) underwater. Brandon and Nick found these tights that look like jeans and decided to wear them, at least for the picture. Yeah...

Vivian, taking pictures while doing somersaults. It looks pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.








♥kelli

Singing horses... What?

Never gets old... Thanks Owl City Blog for this. ;)



♥kelli

SOS please, someone help me!

So, I'm getting a Letterman Jacket (yay!!) and I CANNOT for the LIFE of me decide on a verse. So, being the organizational freak that I am at times, I made a numbered list. 1 being my most favorite, 10 being one I love, but maybe not for my jacket. Comment and help me out :)

1.   “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” –Colossians 3:17

2.   “Day and night they never stop saying: Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” –Revelation 4:8

3.   “Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” –Joshua 1:9

4.   “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” –1 Timothy 4:12

5.   “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” –Revelation 3:20

6.   “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life – in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.” –Philippians 2:14-16

7.   “If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” –Psalm 139:9-10

8.   “This is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us and send his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” –1 John 4:10

9.   “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not life up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God his Savior.” –Psalm 24:4-5

10.                     “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.” –Revelation 21:4

Thanks guys!

♥kelli

Welcome to the Show!

However you stumbled upon my blog, whether you searched something on Google and came here, or I told you about it, or whatever, WELCOME!! :)

This blog is still hot off the grill, so if you don't like it, give it a while to cool off and then it'll be fuller of my silly little posts.

So... yeah. For now, go on over to my other tabs and check them out! I'll be updating this as much as I can, so check back fairly often :)

♥kelli