stand up for truth.

Have a look at Al Mohler's blog and see what he has to say about Joel Osteen's recent comments on the Mormon faith. 


So thankful that God has graciously brought me to a place where sound doctrine is sought after and stood up for. 


You can find Mohler's thoughts here.




Happy Thursday!

making banana pancakes.

Well actually we made smoothies, but there is not a song about making banana smoothies with your best friend. At least not one that I know of. So thank you Jack Johnson for the theme song to our pancake, I mean smoothie-making.

We love smoothie mustaches.

And I have just made Irish potato bread, or "farls" as they are called. They have earned Jonny's stamp of approval. 

we like maps and the frazier museum.

 This afternoon we took a tour of the Frazier History Museum. We spent so much time on the first level we had to quickly go through the second in order to spend adequate time in the book store. Now when I say we, I really mean Jonny because he reads EVERYTHING at museums.

My favorite part of the museum were the many maps. I just love them! Particularly old ones, they have so much character. Jonny likes maps too but he likes the clean, precise ones.

Ya, anyways...the first thing you do at the Frazier History Museum is put your mark on their map. I proudly placed Pulaskifield and Jonny did the same for Bangor.

 If this map is correct, he is the first visitor from Northern Ireland.

 Polska!

 more map love.

 This guy, well, really I can't tell you anything about this guy. I just actually loved his facial expression.

Oh and I loved this guy too. Wait, I actually love him...Jonny got dressed in the garb of the American Civil War.

 He makes me smile. Real big. 

Happy Saturday!

simple crafting.

I like twine. It's cute, it's useful and it's rustic all at the same time. So I wrapped it around a delicious-macintosh-apple smelling candle and tucked some leaves into it. 

Simple.

I'm loving the way it glows red and orange and the light just dances around the room. 

Oh and Louisville is the place to be to experience the beauty of fall, seriously, the colors are spectacular and it's only mid-October.

tea time.

This evening Jonny is working and I am cooking/cleaning/crafting... just trying to stay productive while the bed looks so comfy. 

Anyways, I couldn't decide on what to have for dinner until I passed by our kettle and the homemade bread and well, that was it, decision made.

Tea and toast.

I sat down at our table to eat it and found myself laughing. 

This is completely the influence of my British husband.

Conveniently enough Tetley™
 even gives you step-by-step instructions on how to brew the best British tea. It's an actual science. See for yourself.

Soccer+Cinnamon Rolls.

Yesterday morning we had the great joy of watching two of our favorite boys play soccer, I mean football, as they call it. Jack and Sam tore it up (even though they don't keep score, they both actually did score!)

Time-out. "Um daddy, could you please tie my shoe?"

Afterwards, the teams were awarded a snack. 

A "celebratory cake," we called it.

.................................................................................

And recently I baked up some cinnamon rolls. I tried a new recipe and they turned out fairly well...But I'll use any excuse to use a rolling pin!

I didn't think there was a lot of the filling mixture, but I was surprised to take them out of the oven with the filling gushing out the top and sides.

the camera phone post.

We are currently sitting at a coffee shop, Jonny is working hard on Hebrew and I am about to share with you some funny pictures that have been hiding in my phone from previous weeks. Enjoy! 

A Jeff Abramovitz initialed apple pie, or Julie Abramovitz, or Jonny Atkinson, or Janaye Atkinson...or whatever floats your boat really, but Jeff made it! Yumm.

Jonny asleep in the car on the drive to Missouri weekend before last.

The oh-so-famous sun tea made its debut in my workplace.

feeling festive.

This week I was, as the title says, feeling festive and decided it was time to decorate for fall in our apartment. So during last week's visit to the pumpkin patch we picked this one and thanks to my trusty Sharpie it is now our fall 'welcome' sign.

 Now there are millions of other ideas floating around in my brain, some which would end up costing too much and some my husband would just simply not appreciate. 

Him and I, we have different tastes you could say...

I like old. 

He likes new. 

I like eclectic.

He likes normal.

I like re-purposing things.

He likes using things for their intended purpose.

Do you get what I'm sayin'?

Well what happens is, normally I come up with what I think is a great idea, that he just does not understand and that is completely opposite of his decorative taste.

It's okay, we grow and learn in these experiences!

[Like the time I went outside searching for the perfect tree limb to hang my necklaces on. I found a beautiful one, hauled it upstairs and into our bedroom and stuck it in the corner behind two antique trunks, thoughtfully placed my necklaces on the branches, and sat back on the bed admiring it and dreaming of spray painting it a wonderful color.]

He came home not long after and as he walked into the bedroom I heard him say, "What have you done?"

The tree branch was gone later that evening.]

I have to admit a lot of my crafty projects have similar stories attached to them. But there are some he does appreciate! 

Well, in feeling festive I created a table runner out of old doilies that were passed down to me from my great-Grandmothers. I've seen cute pictures of this idea before on the web and I've been wanting to try it for a while. These same doilies were also featured in our wedding! The best part about this decoration, Jonny kinda likes it!

And I think they go well with the mini white pumpkins I've made a centerpiece out of. . . 2 for a $1 at Kroger people, and so cute!

The mirrored tray also belonged to my great-Grandma, Meme

The mini pumpkins are all around our apartment, I just love them. I almost got a big white pumpkin, which wouldv'e been a wrong move entirely. The little ones are adorable, and a much better deal!

Now these dishes are for goodies,(ya know, candies, nuts, mints etc.) but since my husband has a sweet tooth and more often than not can be found at this coffee table with books surrounding him, there will only be goodies there when we have company. The center green tray I got at Target for $1 and the two white ones are Belleek trays from Meme, again. Noticing a pattern here? I love hand me downs!

The lamp below also belonged to "Meems" as I liked to call her.

Another great place for a pumpkin? I think so!

Now I think I've saved the best for last, over at Madigan Made, she made a beautiful brass thumbtack wreath. I thought the idea was really cool, and supposed to be cheap but I'm awful at math and got jipped on some thumbtacks so my wreath wasn't as cheap as I intended it to be. 

Jonny has made me promise to use it until we have grey hairs.

But, he does like it! Hooray!

Now obviously, I didn't cover the whole wreath with thumbtacks like Madigan's, but I think the end result is still pretty neat. I spent a good two and a half hours strategically placing those thumbtacks! I ran out exactly when half of the wreath was covered and decided to use ribbon for the bottom half instead. 

I was really just so eager to have our first wreath and couldn't be bothered getting MORE thumbtacks.

Happy Fall from us Atkinsons!