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Thursday, April 28, 2011

Prayers Needed For Tornado Victims

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Hi all. I am just checking in with you.  Judd and I, as well as our families, are fine; however, so many in our state are not.  As you have probably heard by now, powerful storms rolled across Alabama yesterday.

We are so fortunate to have been spared from the storm’s wrath.  We did find debris in our backyard.  We think it was from the city of Tuscaloosa.  What we found was mostly housing insulation and chipped wood.  The same system that swept through Tuscaloosa wreaking havoc also came through Birmingham.  It was just a few miles north of where we live.

So many people in our state and throughout the southeast are hurting today.  Please keep them in your prayers.  The death toll continues to rise.  It is horrific.  The university where I work (UAB) is the only level I trauma center in the state.  The UAB hospital took 134 patients during the night.  As I sit here at my desk today I hear ambulance sirens every few minutes.  We know so many who were affected.  Please, please, please pray for the citizens of Alabama.

We are so thankful to our friends and family who continuously checked on us throughout the evening and who provided us with updated news.  We love you and appreciate your thoughtfulness and concern.

I have attached a news article from NPR on the devastation here in Birmingham.  Click here to read it.

Also attached is a video from CBS news of the devastation at first light this morning.  Click here for the video.

Currently the death toll for the city of Tuscaloosa alone is 36 dead.  600 others were injured.

The death toll for the entire state is so much worse and continues to rise.

Click here to see a list of ways you can help the tornado victims.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Rest

How did you spend your weekend celebrating the resurrection? 

We spent ours in Judd’s hometown—Brewton, AL.  It is such a lovely place.  I’ve posted about it many times.  It is a small town where no one ever seems to be in a hurry (which is such a nice reprieve from my everyday life).  Maybe in actuality the locals do feel the same stresses that I feel at home.  But one thing is certain, I am not a native Brewtonian, so when I am there I leave my work, course load, professional and scholastic pressures, and every day stressors at home.

I don’t have any pictures to share for this post because I did not pick up my camera one time while we were there.  Instead, we rested.  It. Was. Nice.

We spent good quality time with Judd’s parents, brother, sister-in-law, and grandmother.  We went to the farm two days in a row.  We all worked on a few tasks; however, it was pleasurable work.  We worked with our hands to make a place that we love and share even better.  We played a little too.  Our time at the farm consisted of boat rides, fishing, sunbathing, watching the dog swim, alligator spotting, rattlesnake spotting and killing, porch swinging, four-wheeler riding, and work that involved firing up the old blue Ford tractor.

On Sunday morning Judd and I attended Easter worship service with his parents at their church.  It is a quaint rural church.  There were eleven people in the choir.  The simplicity of it all was refreshing to my soul.  The congregation does not have the same “amenities” that are found in our Birmingham church. 

They don’t have a state-of the-art sound system, or special lighting, or an orchestra, or a large screen and projector to display the scripture and the words to hymns.  Instead, they have a passionate pastor and a God-fearing congregation.  They sing from actual hymnals while Judd’s mother plays the piano and they read scripture by holding His Word in their own hands.  It’s a no frills way to worship and I LIKED it.  After all, worship, praise, and learning the Gospel are all we are supposed to be there for anyway.

On our drive home to Birmingham I reflected on our weekend and on our worship experience there.  It was a back to the basics time for us.  It was so refreshing to to really hear the sermon without audiovisual distractions, without having to worry about filling out the sermon outline, without having to listen to the pastor’s voice via lapel mic., and without having to squint to see the pastor from a balcony view.  Instead, it was an up close and personal experience.  I was hanging on every word.

I’m not knocking the high-tech outlets that larger churches use to reach their members.  Like I said, our home church has all of those things too.  It was just nice to have a reminder of what is really required to worship:  You and God.

Coincidently, this morning my cousin sent  me today’s Girlfriends in God e-newsletter sponsored by crosswalk.com.  It contained the following prayer.  I felt it was so appropriate for me.  Maybe it will be fitting for you as well.

“Father, forgive me for the arrogance that keeps me on the run, trying to prove my worth. Teach me how to rest in You, Lord. Help me learn how to say “no” to those things that keep me from sitting at Your feet. Give me a hunger and thirst for You that can only be satisfied by time alone with You. I love You, Lord.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.”

Thursday, April 14, 2011

How To: Make A Burlap Bulletin Board

As you may know from some other posts, my husband, Judd, is a landscape architect. Recently, he expressed interest in having a few bulletin boards to put in his studio. And, since I love a project, I volunteered to make them for him. I wanted to use something with a natural feel given his profession. I thought burlap would give just the right amount of texture and earthiness.

The bulletin board project was really easy. However, make sure to iron your fabric before you get started. I forgot and had already stapled a good bit before I thought about it.

Other than an iron, here are a few things you will need to get started.

  • cork board (I used an old one Judd’s mom sent with him to college)
  • fabric (in this case, burlap)
  • scissors
  • staple gun
  • staples
  • tape measure

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To measure your fabric, lay it out so that it covers a few inches past each side of the board. Make sure you will have enough fabric to pull around to the back side and staple. Then cut where needed. If you want to be really exact or particular use your measuring tape to make sure you have the same amount on each side.

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In an attempt to “keep it real” here at TLP I’ve included the picture below. Things are not always as pretty as they appear in blogland. As you can see here, I work best when sitting on the floor, between our dog and my husband, in our living room. We were watching a movie in our less than spotless house. My apologies for the shadow in the pictures. Cole’s dog fanny was casting a shadow on my project. You would think that the sound of a staple gun in use would be enough to wake him. Nope.6

The next step is to staple the fabric to the back side of the wood frame starting in the middle of each side. Make sure to pull the fabric taut. Save the corners for last.

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Fold each corner to ensure that it is sharp and flat. Play with the fabric until you get each corner just the way you want it. You can think of wrapping a present when folding the corners. It is kind of the same concept.13

When all staples are in place, trim the excess fabric from around the corners and along each side.15

It should look a little neater when you are finished. 12

Flip the board over to make sure it is smooth.

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Now you have a few options on how to dress up the board a bit. You can keep it plain, just the way it is, if you like a more simplistic look.

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Or you can use a piece of the fabric that you trimmed off of the back to make a burlap bow. I attached the bow with a flat push pin.20

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Or you can use the same piece of trim to add a stripe down your board. Although I thought the bow was cute, I’m pretty sure that was not the look Judd was after. :) Below is what I decided on for his pin up board. There were four flat push pins left in the board from when Judd had it in college. I decided to re-use them as nail heads running down the strip of fabric. I stapled each end of fabric on the back of the board and evenly distributed the “nail heads” on the front.22

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He can use this little detail to wedge in photographs, notes, etc without having to poke a hole in them. I hope he likes his board. What do you think?

Friday, April 1, 2011

Round ‘em Up, Move ‘em Out, Raw Hide

 

You may remember that back at the beginning of time (just kidding, it seems like forever since I’ve mentioned any of this) we started our own DIY printable invitation/card business.  Guess what it’s called…The Langham Project.  Ha.  No surprise there.  :)

Well, recently, Judd and I were contacted by this sweet lady.

Erin

She is from Judd’s hometown and just happens to be one of our sister-in-law’s besties.  Her name is Erin. (We are also designing Erin’s wedding invitation; however, that deserves a post of its own. (That’s just a little hint of what is to come.)

Erin commissioned us to make celebration circles for this little man’s cowboy themed fifth birthday.

Herrington

Isn’t he precious?!?!?  His name is Herrington.

What are celebration circles you ask.  Well, in this case they were to be used as cupcake toppers.  But, you could use them in many ways for any party.  Judd thoughtfully designed each one to help customize Herrington’s party.  The circles ranged from a personalized sheriff's badge to cowboy silhouettes. 

All of our products arrive to our customers via email as a high resolution one-page pdf.  Then our customers, in this case, Erin, can print as many pages of their personalized order as they want on cardstock.  There is no minimum or maximum order because our customers print their products on their own. 

For the celebration circles, Judd designed the center circle to say a personalized message or to show an image that was in keeping with the party theme.  He added a background color and/or pattern just outside of the circle.  Using a 2’’ circle craft punch, Erin was able to easily cut out each celebration circle with some of the background showing just around the rim of each cutout.  We recommend this craft punch because it allows you to see and easily align what you are cutting.  The celebration circles come with 12 circles to a page. One page of celebration circles is $15.

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Erin thoughtfully sent us some pictures from Herrington’s party.  Below are some examples of the celebration circles. alltoppers 

  Topper3 topper4

Topper2

 topper5

topper1

At this point in time, we are only able to accept orders via email.  We are still developing an Etsy shop.  Eventually we will be able to accommodate orders placed online. 

If you are interested feel free to email us (langhjm@gmail.com) or leave us a comment with your contact information.  We can create customized celebration circles for any type or theme of party.