Me? A Conference Speaker?!

Yep, that's what is going to happen this week...Friday, in fact!  Not only am I going to attend a ladies' retreat, I am also presenting the craft (remember these cute little boxes?) AND I am one of the two 'conferencistas', or speakers.  Oh, and I will be giving the final reflection at the end of the retreat.  It has been a really, really neat experience to work together with the ladies on the leadership team in the planning of this event...it has been a great cultural experience.  

Have I mentioned that I have never been a speaker at a conference or women's retreat?  This is a first for me, but I'm not really surprised because a few months ago, I sensed God calling me to be ready for this...just didn't think it would happen so soon!  I've only been in Puebla for a month!  

Did I mention that this retreat is for Spanish speaking women?  Yeah, so not only is this my first time speaking at an event like this, I will be doing it in my second language.  Granted, there will be some ladies there who speak English and who can help me if I get stuck, but I a perfectionist and I tend to have the attitude of doing it right or not at all.  That's probably pride, though, so if I mess up, I will be humble enough to ask for help.  And if I mess up royally, well, I will just chalk it up to experience and learn from it!  I'm really hoping that won't happen, though...

The other reason I am feeling a bit nervous is that I am planning to be open and transparent...and that makes me feel vulnerable.  And a bit insecure, I think...what will they think about what I have to share?  Will I be accepted or rejected?  My hope is that my example of taking off a mask and opening up will encourage others to do so as well, but that doesn't always happen.  But then I think of how long it took me to be able to take off the masks and I know that God will use what I have to share for something, in some way, whether I see evidence of that in my lifetime or not.  

Homeschooling has taken up a lot of my time lately, so I am very thankful to Miguel today for taking over the teacher role in order to allow me some (almost) quiet time upstairs to finish writing my notes...apparently Mom is still the 'go-to' person for questions when Dad is subbing!  I finally just locked the door and that worked a bit better...now the house is quiet since he took the kids out to run some errands.  

Anyway, so that's what I'm up to this week...I'll be giving the first speaking session of three on Friday afternoon, followed by the craft.  Ironically, I found out I have a few things in common with the other speaker who will be giving the other two sessions...we're both named Becky, we're both MKs, we're both married to Latin men and we're both missionaries in Mexico.  Can't wait to meet her!  

Picture Fun

Remember those boxes I like to make? You can check them out here and find out how to make them here...anyway, somebody gave me an idea of a new way to use them. So I tried it out today! At this point, I have placed them unimaginatively in straight lines down the hallway (which Miguel recently painted a lovely shade of green!). I will probably rearrange them if I can figure out some other creative way to place them...they also look a bit crooked, which will bother me, too! lol

Old family pictures from when there were
just four of us...wow, those kids were cute! :)
Funny to see me with that long hair!

Aw! My sweetie and me...

Creative Fun

I have finally started my own collection of stamping/scrap booking materials...I made this card (it's a flat card, doesn't open) to hang on the wall beside her bed. There wasn't really any specific reason, a "just because I love you" kind of card. She loved it! It's fun how creative you can be with pretty paper and a few stamps. :)

Fourteen Years

January 3rd was our Fourteenth Wedding Anniversary! It's hard to believe that we met 17 years ago and have been married for 14...here's a picture of us when we were dating...


Someone asked me the other day how we met and wow, did that bring up a lot of memories! It's good to go over those memories sometimes, though, and remember what it was like to be madly in love and wondering what the future would hold for us. I'll have to write about it all someday, it really is quite the story!

We made a trip to El Paso between Christmas and New Years and it was exciting to hit Hobby Lobby and pick up some stamping/scrapbooking supplies (1/2 off!)...I have dabbled in card-making here and there (and hope to get better with practice!), but hadn't really built up my own crafting supplies, so it was fun to collect a few things. Here's the card I made Miguel...the book excerpts are a romantic portion from The Prisoner of Zenda...Miguel liked it and I could tell because he has it displayed on top of the bookshelf!

The Brickyard-La Ladrillera

A couple of weeks ago, I went out to the Brickyard, or the Ladrillera, with Allyson and Denesia, two of the missionary ladies that work out there. The Brickyard is a community of workers, mostly Tarahumara Indians, that make and sell bricks that are used in construction all over the city. It is back-breaking work and the families barely scrape a living out of making bricks. There are several missionaries from at least two different organizations that work with the folks at the Brickyard with community development projects as well as teaching the Bible. This was my first time visiting the Brickyard as Allyson had invited me to go out and teach some of the ladies how to make the little craft boxes. Many of the ladies at the Brickyard make jewelry, baskets, and other items to sell. I don't have any pictures of the box-making project, but found a few other pictures...

The finished product...

Loading up the bricks...

Girls in traditional Tarahumara dress...

Harsh living conditions and yet the children
still smile like children everywhere...

How to Make a Box out of Paper

Watch this video to get a good idea

of how to make the basic paper box...

then check out my photos below for
further instructions on how to make it better!

Notice how these boxes have the
half-lid? Follow the instructions below to learn how!

First of all, fold and cut the paper as if you were
making a regular box.
Notice that I've placed dots in four places
around the middle squares that will form the base of the lid.

Now, fold each corner of the paper over to
the point opposite, like this...

...and this...

After making the folds on all sides, remove a triangular
piece from each side of the larger triangular sides.
Notice the half-fold along all the sides of what
will be the base of the lid.
Your paper should now look like this:

Then, begin forming the sides as you would
for a regular box, except notice that the sides are shorter and
the points will end up all the way over to the other side of the lid
instead of in the middle as for the base.

Continue forming the sides...

Here is the finished lid...

You can even put two lids together to
make a very flat box!
Notice how the top of this lid has no center creases?
Read on to learn how!

Here's how to make the crease-less boxes and lids.
I will use a lid as an example...
First of all, fold a paper just as if you were going to make
a box. Then, perforate the paper in the spots where you
would place the corners of the paper for each fold.
Place this paper over the square that you will use
for the lid (you would have just five holes for the base).
With a pencil, make a mark on the paper underneath
where each hole is.

When you remove the pattern piece, your
paper will look like this:

Pick a corner and fold it over to the center dot, like this...

Repeat on all four sides (sorry, blurry, I know...)

Then, begin making the rest of the folds using
the other dots as a guide...

Notice the paper does not have the two diagonal center folds.

Make the final folds and cuts...

The two types of lids side-by-side.

These boxes can be made in any size
and for any occasion!
Here is a cute Christmas box...
it would look quite dazzling with a ribbon tied around it!

Here's a box made from pages from a magazine
with stiff pages...

It looks good with or without the lid!

Here are a couple of cuties that are about
an inch square! This size would look
really nice with a ribbon or bow and placed
on a Christmas tree, a Christmas mobile,
or used for really small gifts...

If you want to make the boxes without the creases
in the lids, you will need to make a pattern for
each size of box. Here are the 1" boxes
with their patterns. The 1" boxes are made with
papers that are 3" by 3" in size.
Always remember to make the base a bit
smaller than the lid!

Now that my creative juices are flowing, I'm thinking about other materials that could be used to make boxes! I think that pages out of old books, especially colorful children's books, would look really cute! Especially with matching ribbons. And how about newspaper/comic page boxes covered with glue decoupage-style to make them stronger? Or even lightly spray painted? The sky is the limit! Be sure to post pictures if you make any boxes! We'd love to see them!

And please, let me know if you have any questions...this is a super long post and was a bit complicated to put together (I know, a video would have been easier, but it runs down the batteries on my camera...).

Off to Ladies Retreat

At some point, I will be back to finish posting about our Family Fun Day...but I've been busy and now I'm heading off to a ladies retreat for our church. I will be back tomorrow. So I thought I'd leave you with a glimpse of the craft I will be teaching tonight...for a video on how to make these cute boxes, click here. These boxes are super-versatile and can be used for decorations or gifts or storage...not to mention fun to make!

Snowstorm

Thanks to a link over at Simple Mom, I have been introduced to a new winter craft called a snowstorm! The instructions call for using round labels and dental floss, but I cut out circles and glued them together over fishing line. I also used two different sizes of circles to stagger it a bit. It was a lot of work, I think it took me about an hour? to make these. I am thinking I might make them to go over my kitchen window! It doesn't have a curtain and it's not like I'd have to take them down after Christmas...now the wheels are turning about how to vary this idea for different seasons and/or occasions!

The flash didn't go off when I took this picture,

but it turned out kind of cool!

I think I got them a little too long...